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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/7927.txt b/7927.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..da9f477 --- /dev/null +++ b/7927.txt @@ -0,0 +1,20890 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Celibates, by Honore de Balzac + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Celibates + Includes: Pierrette, The Vicar of Tours, and The Two Brothers + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Katharine Prescott Wormeley + +Release Date: August 9, 2005 [EBook #7927] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CELIBATES *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers; and Dagny + + + + + + THE CELIBATES + + BY + + HONORE DE BALZAC + + + + + INTRODUCTION + +_Les Celibataires_, the longest number of the original _Comedie +Humaine_ under a single title, next to _Illusions perdues_, is not, +like that book, connected by any unity of story. Indeed, the general +bond of union is pretty weak; and though it is quite true that +bachelors and old maids are the heroes and heroines of all three, it +would be rather hard to establish any other bond of connection, and it +is rather unlikely that any one unprompted would fix on this as a +sufficient ground of partnership. + +Two at least of the component parts, however, are of very high +excellence. I do not myself think that _Pierrette_, which opens the +series, is quite the equal of its companions. Written, as it was, for +Countess Anna de Hanska, Balzac's step-daughter of the future, while +she was still very young, it partakes necessarily of the rather +elaborate artificiality of all attempts to suit the young person, of +French attempts in particular, and it may perhaps be said of Balzac's +attempts most of all. It belongs, in a way, to the Arcis series--the +series which also includes the fine _Tenebreuse Affaire_ and the +unfinished _Depute d'Arcis_--but is not very closely connected +therewith. The picture of the actual _Celibataires_, the brother and +sister Rogron, with which it opens, is one of Balzac's best styles, +and is executed with all his usual mastery both of the minute and of +the at least partially repulsive, showing also that strange knowledge +of the _bourgeois de Paris_ which, somehow or other, he seems to have +attained by dint of unknown foregatherings in his ten years of +apprenticeship. But when we come to _Pierrette_ herself, the story is, +I think, rather less satisfying. Her persecutions and her end, and the +devotion of the faithful Brigaut and the rest, are pathetic no doubt, +but tend (I hope it is not heartless to say it) just a very little +towards _sensiblerie_. The fact is that the thing is not quite in +Balzac's line. + +_Le Cure de Tours_, is certainly on a higher level, and has attracted +the most magnificent eulogies from some of the novelist's admirers. I +think both Mr. Henry James and Mr. Wedmore have singled out this +little piece for detailed and elaborate praise, and there is no doubt +that it is a happy example of a kind in which the author excelled. The +opening, with its evident but not obtruded remembrance of the old and +well-founded superstition--derived from the universal belief in some +form of Nemesis--that an extraordinary sense of happiness, good luck, +or anything of the kind, is a precursor of misfortune, and calls for +some instant act of sacrifice or humiliation, is very striking; and +the working out of the vengeance of the goddess by the very +ungoddess-like though feminine hand of Mademoiselle Gamard has much +that is commendable. Nothing in its well exampled kind is better +touched off than the Listomere coterie, from the shrewdness of Monsieur +de Bourbonne to the selfishness of Madame de Listomere. I do not know +that the old maid herself--cat, and far worst than cat as she is--is at +all exaggerated, and the sketch of the coveted _appartement_ and its +ill-fated _mobilier_ is about as good as it can be. And the battle +between Madame de Listomere and the Abbe Troubert, which has served as +a model for many similar things, has, if it has often been equaled, +not often been surpassed. + +I cannot, however, help thinking that there is more than a little +exaggeration in more than one point of the story. The Abbe Birotteau +is surely a little too much of a fool; the Abbe Troubert an Iago a +little too much wanting in verisimilitude; and the central incident of +the clause about the furniture too manifestly improbable. Taking the +first and the last points together, is it likely that any one not +quite an idiot should, in the first place, remain so entirely ignorant +of the value of his property; should, in the second, though, ignorant +or not, he attached the greatest possible _pretium affectionis_ to it, +contract to resign it for such a ridiculous consideration; and should, +in the third, take the fatal step without so much as remembering the +condition attached thereto? If it be answered that Birotteau _was_ +idiot enough to do such a thing, then it must be observed further that +one's sympathy is frozen by the fact. Such a man deserved such +treatment. And, again, even if French justice was, and perhaps is, as +much influenced by secret considerations as Balzac loves to represent +it, we must agree with that member of the Listomere society who +pointed out that no tribunal could possibly uphold such an obviously +iniquitous bargain. As for Troubert, the idea of the Jesuitical +ecclesiastic (though Balzac was not personally hostile to the Jesuits) +was a common one at the time, and no doubt popular, but the actual +personage seems to me nearer to Eugene Sue's Rodin in some ways than I +could have desired. + +These things, however, are very much a case of "As You Like It" or "As +It Strikes You," and I have said that _Le Cure de Tours_ strikes some +good judges as of exceptional merit, while no one can refuse it merit +in a high degree. I should not, except for the opening, place it in +the very highest class of the _Comedie_, but it is high beyond all +doubt in the second. + +The third part (The Two Brothers/A Bachelor's Establishment) of _Les +Celibataires_ takes very high rank among its companions. As in most of +his best books, Balzac has set at work divers favorite springs of +action, and has introduced personages of whom he has elsewhere given, +not exactly replicas--he never did that--but companion portraits. And +he has once more justified the proceeding amply. Whether he has not +also justified the reproach, such as it is, of those who say that to +see the most congenial expression of his fullest genius, you must go +to his bad characters and not to his good, readers shall determine for +themselves after reading the book. + +It was the product of the year 1842, when the author was at the ripest +of his powers, and after which, with the exception of _Les Parents +Pauvres_, he produced not much of his very best save in continuations +and rehandlings of earlier efforts. He changed his title a good deal, +and in that MS. correction of a copy of the _Comedie_ which has been +taken, perhaps without absolutely decisive authority, as the basis of +the _Edition Definitive_, he adopted _La Rabouilleuse_ as his latest +favorite. This, besides its quaintness, has undoubted merit as fixing +the attention on one at least of the chief figures of the book, while +_Un Menage de garcon_ only obliquely indicates the real purport of the +novel. Jean-Jacques Rouget is a most unfortunate creature, who +anticipates Baron Hulot as an example of absolute dependence on things +of the flesh, _plus_ a kind of cretinism, which Hulot, to do him +justice, does not exhibit even in his worst degradation. But his +"bachelor establishment," though undoubtedly useful for the purposes +of the story, might have been changed for something else, and his +personality have been considerably altered, without very much +affecting the general drift of the fiction. + +Flore Brazier, on the other hand, the _Rabouilleuse_ herself, is +essential, and with Maxence Gilet and Philippe Bridau forms the centre +of the action and the passion of the book. She ranks, indeed, with +those few feminine types, Valerie Marneffe, La Cousine Bette, Eugenie +Grandet, Beatrix, Madame de Maufrigneuse, and perhaps Esther Gobseck, +whom Balzac has tried to draw at full length. It is to be observed +that though quite without morals of any kind, she is not _ab initio_ +or intrinsically a she-fiend like Valerie or Lisbeth. She does not do +harm for harm's sake, nor even directly to gratify spite, greed, or +other purely unsocial and detestable passions. She is a type of +feminine sensuality of the less ambitious and restless sort. Given a +decent education, a fair fortune, a good-looking and vigorous husband +to whom she had taken a fancy, and no special temptation, and she +might have been a blameless, merry, "sonsy" _commere_, and have died +in an odor of very reasonable sanctity. Poverty, ignorance, the +Rougets (father and son), Maxence Gilet, and Philippe Bridau came in +her way, and she lived and died as Balzac has shown her. He has done +nothing more "inevitable;" a few things more complete and +satisfactory. + +Maxence Gilet is a not much less remarkable sketch, though it is not +easy to say that he is on the same level. Gilet is the man of distinct +gifts, of some virtues, or caricatures of virtues, who goes to the +devil through idleness, fulness of bread, and lack of any worthy +occupation. He is extraordinarily unconventional for a French figure +in fiction, even for a figure drawn by such a French genius as Balzac. +But he is also hardly to be called a great type, and I do not quite +see why he should have succumbed before Philippe as he did. + +Philippe himself is more complicated, and, perhaps, more questionable. +He is certainly one of Balzac's _fleurs du mal_; he is studied and +personally conducted from beginning to end with an extraordinary and +loving care; but is he quite "of a piece"? That he should have +succeeded in defeating the combination against which his virtuous +mother and brother failed is not an undue instance of the irony of +life. The defeat of such adversaries as Flore and Max has, of course, +the merit of poetical justice and the interest of "diamond cut +diamond." But is not the terrible Philippe Bridau, the "Mephistopheles +_a cheval_" of the latter part of the book, rather inconsistent with +the common-place ne'er-to-well of the earlier? Not only does it +require no unusual genius to waste money, when you have it, in the +channels of the drinking-shop, the gaming table, and elsewhere, to +sponge for more on your mother and brother, to embezzle when they are +squeezed dry, and to take to downright robbery when nothing else is +left; but a person who, in the various circumstances and opportunities +of Bridau, finds nothing better to do than these ordinary things, can +hardly be a person of exceptional intellectual resource. There is here +surely that sudden and unaccounted-for change of character which the +second-rate novelist and dramatists may permit himself, but from which +the first-rate should abstain. + +This, however, may be an academic objection, and certainly the book is +of first-class interest. The minor characters, the mother and brother, +the luckless aunt with her combination at last turning up when the +rascal Philippe has stolen her stake-money, the satellites and +abettors of Max in the club of "La Desoeuvrance," the slightly +theatrical Spaniard, and all the rest of them, are excellent. The book +is an eminently characteristic one--more so, indeed, than more than +one of those in which people are often invited to make acquaintance +with Balzac. + +_Pierrette_, which was earlier called _Pierrette Lorrain_, was issued +in 1840, first in the _Siecle_, and then in volume form, published by +Souverain. In both issues it had nine chapter or book divisions with +headings. With the other _Celibataires_ it entered the _Comedie_ as a +_Scene de la Vie de Province_ in 1843. + +_Le Cure de Tours_ (which Balzac had at one time intended to call by +the name of the Cure's enemy, and which at first was simply called by +the general title _Les Celibataires_) is much older than its +companions, and appeared in 1832 in the _Scenes de la Vie Privee_. It +was soon properly shifted to the _Vie de Province_, and as such in due +time joined the _Comedie_ bearing its present title. + +The third story of _Les Celibataires_ has a rather more varied +bibliographical history than the others. The first part, that dealing +with the early misconduct of Philippe Bridau, was published +separately, as _Les Deux Freres_, in the _Presse_ during the spring of +1841, and a year or so later in volumes. It had nine chapters with +headings. The volume form also included under the same title the +second part, which, as _Un Menage de garcon en Province_, had been +published in the same newspaper in the autumn of 1842. This had +sixteen chapters in both issues, and in the volumes two part-headings +--one identical with the newspaper title, and the other "A qui la +Succession?" The whole book then took rank in the _Comedie_ under the +second title, _Un Menage de garcon_, and retained this during Balzac's +life and long afterwards. In the _Edition Definitive_, as observed +above, he had marked it as _La Rabouilleuse_, after having also +thought of _Le Bonhomme Rouget_. For English use, the better known, +though not last or best title, is clearly preferable, as it can be +translated, while _La Rabouilleuse_ cannot. + + George Saintsbury + + + + + I + + + + + PIERRETTE + + BY + + HONORE DE BALZAC + + + + Translated by + + Katharine Prescott Wormeley + + + + + DEDICATION + + To Mademoiselle Anna Hanska: + + Dear Child,--You, the joy of the household, you, whose pink or + white pelerine flutters in summer among the groves of + Wierzschovnia like a will-o'-the-wisp, followed by the tender eyes + of your father and your mother,--how can I dedicate to _you_ a + story full of melancholy? And yet, ought not sorrows to be spoken + of to a young girl idolized as you are, since the day may come + when your sweet hands will be called to minister to them? It is so + difficult, Anna, to find in the history of our manners and morals + a subject that is worthy of your eyes, that no choice has been + left me; but perhaps you will be made to feel how fortunate your + fate is when you read the story sent to you by + Your old friend, + De Balzac. + + + + + PIERRETTE + + + + I + + THE LORRAINS + +At the dawn of an October day in 1827 a young fellow about sixteen +years of age, whose clothing proclaimed what modern phraseology so +insolently calls a proletary, was standing in a small square of Lower +Provins. At that early hour he could examine without being observed +the various houses surrounding the open space, which was oblong in +form. The mills along the river were already working; the whirr of +their wheels, repeated by the echoes of the Upper Town in the keen air +and sparkling clearness of the early morning, only intensified the +general silence so that the wheels of a diligence could be heard a +league away along the highroad. The two longest sides of the square, +separated by an avenue of lindens, were built in the simple style +which expresses so well the peaceful and matter-of-fact life of the +bourgeoisie. No signs of commerce were to be seen; on the other hand, +the luxurious porte-cocheres of the rich were few, and those few +turned seldom on their hinges, excepting that of Monsieur Martener, a +physician, whose profession obliged him to keep a cabriolet, and to +use it. A few of the house-fronts were covered by grape vines, others +by roses climbing to the second-story windows, through which they +wafted the fragrance of their scattered bunches. One end of the square +enters the main street of the Lower Town, the gardens of which reach +to the bank of one of the two rivers which water the valley of +Provins. The other end of the square enters a street which runs +parallel to the main street. + +At the latter, which was also the quietest end of the square, the +young workman recognized the house of which he was in search, which +showed a front of white stone grooved in lines to represent courses, +windows with closed gray blinds, and slender iron balconies decorated +with rosettes painted yellow. Above the ground floor and the first +floor were three dormer windows projecting from a slate roof; on the +peak of the central one was a new weather-vane. This modern innovation +represented a hunter in the attitude of shooting a hare. The front +door was reached by three stone steps. On one side of this door a +leaden pipe discharged the sink-water into a small street-gutter, +showing the whereabouts of the kitchen. On the other side were two +windows, carefully closed by gray shutters in which were heart-shaped +openings cut to admit the light; these windows seemed to be those of +the dining-room. In the elevation gained by the three steps were +vent-holes to the cellar, closed by painted iron shutters fantastically +cut in open-work. Everything was new. In this repaired and restored +house, the fresh-colored look of which contrasted with the time-worn +exteriors of all the other houses, an observer would instantly +perceive the paltry taste and perfect self-satisfaction of the retired +petty shopkeeper. + +The young man looked at these details with an expression of pleasure +that seemed to have something rather sad in it; his eyes roved from +the kitchen to the roof, with a motion that showed a deliberate +purpose. The rosy glow of the rising sun fell on a calico curtain at +one of the garret windows, the others being without that luxury. As he +caught sight of it the young fellow's face brightened gaily. He +stepped back a little way, leaned against a linden, and sang, in the +drawling tone peculiar to the west of France, the following Breton +ditty, published by Bruguiere, a composer to whom we are indebted for +many charming melodies. In Brittany, the young villagers sing this +song to all newly-married couples on their wedding-day:-- + + "We've come to wish you happiness in marriage, + To m'sieur your husband + As well as to you: + + "You have just been bound, madam' la mariee, + With bonds of gold + That only death unbinds: + + "You will go no more to balls or gay assemblies; + You must stay at home + While we shall go. + + "Have you thought well how you are pledged to be + True to your spouse, + And love him like yourself? + + "Receive these flowers our hands do now present you; + Alas! your fleeting honors + Will fade as they." + +This native air (as sweet as that adapted by Chateaubriand to _Ma +soeur, te souvient-il encore_), sung in this little town of the Brie +district, must have been to the ears of a Breton maiden the touchstone +of imperious memories, so faithfully does it picture the manners and +customs, the surroundings and the heartiness of her noble old land, +where a sort of melancholy reigns, hardly to be defined; caused, +perhaps, by the aspect of life in Brittany, which is deeply touching. +This power of awakening a world of grave and sweet and tender memories +by a familiar and sometimes lively ditty, is the privilege of those +popular songs which are the superstitions of music,--if we may use the +word "superstition" as signifying all that remains after the ruin of a +people, all that survives their revolutions. + +As he finished the first couple, the singer, who never took his eyes +from the attic curtain, saw no signs of life. While he sang the +second, the curtain stirred. When the words "Receive these flowers" +were sung, a youthful face appeared; a white hand cautiously opened +the casement, and a girl made a sign with her head to the singer as he +ended with the melancholy thought of the simple verses,--"Alas! your +fleeting honors will fade as they." + +To her the young workman suddenly showed, drawing it from within his +jacket, a yellow flower, very common in Brittany, and sometimes to be +found in La Brie (where, however, it is rare),--the furze, or broom. + +"Is it really you, Brigaut?" said the girl, in a low voice. + +"Yes, Pierrette, yes. I am in Paris. I have started to make my way; +but I'm ready to settle here, near you." + +Just then the fastening of a window creaked in a room on the first +floor, directly below Pierrette's attic. The girl showed the utmost +terror, and said to Brigaut, quickly:-- + +"Run away!" + +The lad jumped like a frightened frog to a bend in the street caused +by the projection of a mill just where the square opens into the main +thoroughfare; but in spite of his agility his hob-nailed shoes echoed +on the stones with a sound easily distinguished from the music of the +mill, and no doubt heard by the person who opened the window. + +That person was a woman. No man would have torn himself from the +comfort of a morning nap to listen to a minstrel in a jacket; none but +a maid awakes to songs of love. Not only was this woman a maid, but +she was an old maid. When she had opened her blinds with the furtive +motion of the bat, she looked in all directions, but saw nothing, and +only heard, faintly, the flying footfalls of the lad. Can there be +anything more dreadful than the matutinal apparition of an ugly old +maid at her window? Of all the grotesque sights which amuse the eyes +of travellers in country towns, that is the most unpleasant. It is too +repulsive to laugh at. This particular old maid, whose ear was so +keen, was denuded of all the adventitious aids, of whatever kind, +which she employed as embellishments; her false front and her +collarette were lacking; she wore that horrible little bag of black +silk on which old women insist on covering their skulls, and it was +now revealed beneath the night-cap which had been pushed aside in +sleep. This rumpled condition gave a menacing expression to the head, +such as painters bestow on witches. The temples, ears, and nape of the +neck, were disclosed in all their withered horror,--the wrinkles being +marked in scarlet lines that contrasted with the would-be white of the +bed-gown which was tied round her neck by a narrow tape. The gaping of +this garment revealed a breast to be likened only to that of an old +peasant woman who cares nothing about her personal ugliness. The +fleshless arm was like a stick on which a bit of stuff was hung. Seen +at her window, this spinster seemed tall from the length and +angularity of her face, which recalled the exaggerated proportions of +certain Swiss heads. The character of their countenance--the features +being marked by a total want of harmony--was that of hardness in the +lines, sharpness in the tones; while an unfeeling spirit, pervading +all, would have filled a physiognomist with disgust. These +characteristics, fully visible at this moment, were usually modified +in public by a sort of commercial smile,--a bourgeois smirk which +mimicked good-humor; so that persons meeting with this old maid might +very well take her for a kindly woman. She owned the house on shares +with her brother. The brother, by-the-bye, was sleeping so tranquilly +in his own chamber that the orchestra of the Opera-house could not +have awakened him, wonderful as its diapason is said to be. + +The old maid stretched her neck out of the window, twisted it, and +raised her cold, pale-blue little eyes, with their short lashes set in +lids that were always rather swollen, to the attic window, endeavoring +to see Pierrette. Perceiving the uselessness of that attempt, she +retreated into her room with a movement like that of a tortoise which +draws in its head after protruding it from its carapace. The blinds +were then closed, and the silence of the street was unbroken except by +peasants coming in from the country, or very early persons moving +about. + +When there is an old maid in a house, watch-dogs are unnecessary; not +the slightest event can occur that she does not see and comment upon +and pursue to its utmost consequences. The foregoing trifling +circumstance was therefore destined to give rise to grave +suppositions, and to open the way for one of those obscure dramas +which take place in families, and are none the less terrible because +they are secret,--if, indeed, we may apply the word "drama" to such +domestic occurrences. + +Pierrette did not go back to bed. To her, Brigaut's arrival was an +immense event. During the night--that Eden of the wretched--she +escaped the vexations and fault-findings she bore during the day. Like +the hero of a ballad, German or Russian, I forget which, her sleep +seemed to her the happy life; her waking hours a bad dream. She had +just had her only pleasurable waking in three years. The memories of +her childhood had sung their melodious ditties in her soul. The first +couplet was heard in a dream; the second made her spring out of bed; +at the third, she doubted her ears,--the sorrowful are all disciples +of Saint Thomas; but when the fourth was sung, standing in her +night-gown with bare feet by the window, she recognized Brigaut, the +companion of her childhood. Ah, yes! it was truly the well-known +square jacket with the bobtails, the pockets of which stuck out at the +hips,--the jacket of blue cloth which is classic in Brittany; there, +too, were the waistcoat of printed cotton, the linen shirt fastened by +a gold heart, the large rolling collar, the earrings, the stout shoes, +the trousers of blue-gray drilling unevenly colored by the various +lengths of the warp,--in short, all those humble, strong, and durable +things which make the apparel of the Breton peasantry. The big buttons +of white horn which fastened the jacket made the girl's heart beat. +When she saw the bunch of broom her eyes filled with tears; then a +dreadful fear drove back into her heart the happy memories that were +budding there. She thought her cousin sleeping in the room beneath her +might have heard the noise she made in jumping out of bed and running +to the window. The fear was just; the old maid was coming, and she +made Brigaut the terrified sign which the lad obeyed without the least +understanding it. Such instinctive submission to a girl's bidding +shows one of those innocent and absolute affections which appear from +century to century on this earth, where they blossom, like the aloes +of Isola Bella, twice or thrice in a hundred years. Whoever had seen +the lad as he ran away would have loved the ingenuous chivalry of his +most ingenuous feeling. + +Jacques Brigaut was worthy of Pierrette Lorrain, who was just fifteen. +Two children! Pierrette could not keep from crying as she watched his +flight in the terror her gesture had conveyed to him. Then she sat +down in a shabby armchair placed before a little table above which +hung a mirror. She rested her elbows on the table, put her head in her +hands, and sat thinking for an hour, calling to memory the Marais, the +village of Pen-Hoel, the perilous voyages on a pond in a boat untied +for her from an old willow by little Jacques; then the old faces of +her grandfather and grandmother, the sufferings of her mother, and the +handsome face of Major Brigaut,--in short, the whole of her careless +childhood. It was all a dream, a luminous joy on the gloomy background +of the present. + +Her beautiful chestnut hair escaped in disorder from her cap, rumpled +in sleep,--a cambric cap with ruffles, which she had made herself. On +each side of her forehead were little ringlets escaping from gray +curl-papers. From the back of her head hung a heavy braid of hair that +was half unplaited. The excessive whiteness of her face betrayed that +terrible malady of girlhood which goes by the name of chlorosis, +deprives the body of its natural colors, destroys the appetite, and +shows a disordered state of the organism. The waxy tones were in all +the visible parts of her flesh. The neck and shoulders explained by +their blanched paleness the wasted arms, flung forward and crossed +upon the table. Her feet seemed enervated, shrunken from illness. Her +night-gown came only to her knees and showed the flaccid muscles, the +blue veins, the impoverished flesh of the legs. The cold, to which she +paid no heed, turned her lips violet, and a sad smile, drawing up the +corners of a sensitive mouth, showed teeth that were white as ivory +and quite small,--pretty, transparent teeth, in keeping with the +delicate ears, the rather sharp but dainty nose, and the general +outline of her face, which, in spite of its roundness, was lovely. All +the animation of this charming face was in the eyes, the iris of +which, brown like Spanish tobacco and flecked with black, shone with +golden reflections round pupils that were brilliant and intense. +Pierrette was made to be gay, but she was sad. Her lost gaiety was +still to be seen in the vivacious forms of the eye, in the ingenuous +grace of her brow, in the smooth curve of her chin. The long eyelashes +lay upon the cheek-bones, made prominent by suffering. The paleness of +her face, which was unnaturally white, made the lines and all the +details infinitely pure. The ear alone was a little masterpiece of +modelling,--in marble, you might say. Pierrette suffered in many ways. +Perhaps you would like to know her history, and this is it. + +Pierrette's mother was a Demoiselle Auffray of Provins, half-sister by +the father's side of Madame Rogron, mother of the present owners of +the house. + +Monsieur Auffray, her husband, had married at the age of eighteen; his +second marriage took place when he was nearly sixty-nine. By the +first, he had an only daughter, very plain, who was married at sixteen +to an innkeeper of Provins named Rogron. + +By his second marriage the worthy Auffray had another daughter; but +this one was charming. There was, of course, an enormous difference in +the ages of these daughters; the one by the first marriage was fifty +years old when the second child was born. By this time the eldest, +Madame Rogron, had two grown-up children. + +The youngest daughter of the old man was married at eighteen to a man +of her choice, a Breton officer named Lorrain, captain in the Imperial +Guard. Love often makes a man ambitious. The captain, anxious to rise +to a colonelcy, exchanged into a line regiment. While he, then a +major, and his wife enjoyed themselves in Paris on the allowance made +to them by Monsieur and Madame Auffray, or scoured Germany at the beck +and call of the Emperor's battles and truces, old Auffray himself +(formerly a grocer) died, at the age of eighty-eight, without having +found time to make a will. His property was administered by his +daughter, Madame Rogron, and her husband so completely in their own +interests that nothing remained for the old man's widow beyond the +house she lived in on the little square, and a few acres of land. This +widow, the mother of Madame Lorrain, was only thirty-eight at the time +of her husband's death. Like many widows, she came to the unwise +decision of remarrying. She sold the house and land to her +step-daughter, Madame Rogron, and married a young physician named +Neraud, who wasted her whole fortune. She died of grief and misery two +years later. + +Thus the share of her father's property which ought to have come to +Madame Lorrain disappeared almost entirely, being reduced to the small +sum of eight thousand francs. Major Lorrain was killed at the battle +of Montereau, leaving his wife, then twenty-one years of age, with a +little daughter of fourteen months, and no other means than the +pension to which she was entitled and an eventual inheritance from her +late husband's parents, Monsieur and Madame Lorrain, retail +shopkeepers at Pen-Hoel, a village in the Vendee, situated in that +part of it which is called the Marais. These Lorrains, grandfather and +grandmother of Pierrette Lorrain, sold wood for building purposes, +slates, tiles, pantiles, pipes, etc. Their business, either from their +own incapacity or through ill-luck, did badly, and gave them scarcely +enough to live on. The failure of the well-known firm of Collinet at +Nantes, caused by the events of 1814 which led to a sudden fall in +colonial products, deprived them of twenty-four thousand francs which +they had just deposited with that house. + +The arrival of their daughter-in-law was therefore welcome to them. +Her pension of eight hundred francs was a handsome income at Pen-Hoel. +The eight thousand francs which the widow's half-brother and sister +Rogron sent to her from her father's estate (after a multitude of +legal formalities) were placed by her in the Lorrains' business, they +giving her a mortgage on a little house which they owned at Nantes, +let for three hundred francs, and barely worth ten thousand. + +Madame Lorrain the younger, Pierrette's mother, died in 1819. The +child of old Auffray and his young wife was small, delicate, and +weakly; the damp climate of the Marais did not agree with her. But her +husband's family persuaded her, in order to keep her with them, that +in no other quarter of the world could she find a more healthy region. +She was so petted and tenderly cared for that her death, when it came, +brought nothing but honor to the old Lorrains. + +Some persons declared that Brigaut, an old Vendeen, one of those men +of iron who served under Charette, under Mercier, under the Marquis de +Montauran, and the Baron du Guenic, in the wars against the Republic, +counted for a good deal in the willingness of the younger Madame +Lorrain to remain in the Marais. If it were so, his soul must have +been a truly loving and devoted one. All Pen-Hoel saw him--he was +called respectfully Major Brigaut, the grade he had held in the +Catholic army--spending his days and his evenings in the Lorrains' +parlor, beside the window of the imperial major. Toward the last, the +curate of Pen-Hoel made certain representations to old Madame Lorrain, +begging her to persuade her daughter-in-law to marry Brigaut, and +promising to have the major appointed justice of peace for the canton +of Pen-Hoel, through the influence of the Vicomte de Kergarouet. The +death of the poor young woman put an end to the matter. + +Pierrette was left in charge of her grandparents who owed her four +hundred francs a year, interest on the little property placed in their +hands. This small sum was now applied to her maintenance. The old +people, who were growing less and less fit for business, soon found +themselves confronted by an active and capable competitor, against +whom they said hard things, all the while doing nothing to defeat him. +Major Brigaut, their friend and adviser, died six months after his +friend, the younger Madame Lorrain,--perhaps of grief, perhaps of his +wounds, of which he had received twenty-seven. + +Like a sound merchant, the competitor set about ruining his +adversaries in order to get rid of all rivalry. With his connivance, +the Lorrains borrowed money on notes, which they were unable to meet, +and which drove them in their old days into bankruptcy. Pierrette's +claim upon the house in Nantes was superseded by the legal rights of +her grandmother, who enforced them to secure the daily bread of her +poor husband. The house was sold for nine thousand five hundred +francs, of which one thousand five hundred went for costs. The +remaining eight thousand came to Madame Lorain, who lived upon the +income of them in a sort of almshouse at Nantes, like that of +Sainte-Perine in Paris, called Saint-Jacques, where the two old people +had bed and board for a humble payment. + +As it was impossible to keep Pierrette, their ruined little +granddaughter, with them, the old Lorrains bethought themselves of her +uncle and aunt Rogron, in Provins, to whom they wrote. These Rogrons +were dead. The letter might, therefore, have easily been lost; but if +anything here below can take the place of Providence, it is the post. +Postal spirit, incomparably above public spirit, exceeds in brilliancy +of resource and invention the ablest romance-writers. When the post +gets hold of a letter, worth, to it, from three to ten sous, and does +not immediately know where to find the person to whom that letter is +addressed, it displays a financial anxiety only to be met with in very +pertinacious creditors. The post goes and comes and ferrets through +all the eighty-six departments. Difficulties only arouse the genius of +the clerks, who may really be called men-of-letters, and who set about +to search for that unknown human being with as much ardor as the +mathematicians of the Bureau give to longitudes. They literally +ransack the whole kingdom. At the first ray of hope all the +post-offices in Paris are alert. Sometimes the receiver of a missing +letter is amazed at the network of scrawled directions which covers both +back and front of the missive,--glorious vouchers for the administrative +persistency with which the post has been at work. If a man undertook +what the post accomplishes, he would lose ten thousand francs in +travel, time, and money, to recover ten sous. The letter of the old +Lorrains, addressed to Monsieur Rogron of Provins (who had then been +dead a year) was conveyed by the post in due time to Monsieur Rogron, +son of the deceased, a mercer in the rue Saint-Denis in Paris. And +this is where the postal spirit obtains its greatest triumph. An heir +is always more or less anxious to know if he has picked up every scrap +of his inheritance, if he has not overlooked a credit, or a trunk of +old clothes. The Treasury knows that. A letter addressed to the late +Rogron at Provins was certain to pique the curiosity of Rogron, Jr., +or Mademoiselle Rogron, the heirs in Paris. Out of that human interest +the Treasury was able to earn sixty centimes. + +These Rogrons, toward whom the old Lorrains, though dreading to part +with their dear little granddaughter, stretched their supplicating +hands, became, in this way, and most unexpectedly, the masters of +Pierrette's destiny. It is therefore indispensable to explain both +their antecedents and their character. + + + + II + + THE ROGRONS + +Pere Rogron, that innkeeper of Provins to whom old Auffray had married +his daughter by his first wife, was an individual with an inflamed +face, a veiny nose, and cheeks on which Bacchus had drawn his scarlet +and bulbous vine-marks. Though short, fat, and pot-bellied, with stout +legs and thick hands, he was gifted with the shrewdness of the Swiss +innkeepers, whom he resembled. Certainly he was not handsome, and his +wife looked like him. Never was a couple better matched. Rogron liked +good living and to be waited upon by pretty girls. He belonged to the +class of egoists whose behavior is brutal; he gave way to his vices +and did their will openly in the face of Israel. Grasping, selfish, +without decency, and always gratifying his own fancies, he devoured +his earnings until the day when his teeth failed him. Selfishness +stayed by him. In his old days he sold his inn, collected (as we have +seen) all he could of his late father-in-law's property, and went to +live in the little house in the square of Provins, bought for a trifle +from the widow of old Auffray, Pierrette's grandmother. + +Rogron and his wife had about two thousand francs a year from +twenty-seven lots of land in the neighborhood of Provins, and from the +sale of their inn for twenty thousand. Old Auffray's house, though out +of repair, was inhabited just as it was by the Rogrons,--old rats like +wrack and ruin. Rogron himself took to horticulture and spent his +savings in enlarging the garden; he carried it to the river's edge +between two walls and built a sort of stone embankment across the end, +where aquatic nature, left to herself, displayed the charms of her +flora. + +In the early years of their marriage the Rogrons had a son and a +daughter, both hideous; for such human beings degenerate. Put out to +nurse at a low price, these luckless children came home in due time, +after the worst of village training,--allowed to cry for hours after +their wet-nurse, who worked in the fields, leaving them shut up to +scream for her in one of those damp, dark, low rooms which serve as +homes for the French peasantry. Treated thus, the features of the +children coarsened; their voices grew harsh; they mortified their +mother's vanity, and that made her strive to correct their bad habits +by a sternness which the severity of their father converted through +comparison to kindness. As a general thing, they were left to run +loose about the stables and courtyards of the inn, or the streets of +the town; sometimes they were whipped; sometimes they were sent, to +get rid of them, to their grandfather Auffray, who did not like them. +The injustice the Rogrons declared the old man did to their children, +justified them to their own minds in taking the greater part of "the +old scoundrel's" property. However, Rogron did send his son to school, +and did buy him a man, one of his own cartmen, to save him from the +conscription. As soon as his daughter, Sylvie, was thirteen, he sent +her to Paris, to make her way as apprentice in a shop. Two years later +he despatched his son, Jerome-Denis, to the same career. When his +friends the carriers and those who frequented the inn, asked him what +he meant to do with his children, Pere Rogron explained his system +with a conciseness which, in view of that of most fathers, had the +merit of frankness. + +"When they are old enough to understand me I shall give 'em a kick and +say: 'Go and make your own way in the world!'" he replied, emptying +his glass and wiping his lips with the back of his hand. Then he +winked at his questioner with a knowing look. "Hey! hey! they are no +greater fools than I was," he added. "My father gave me three kicks; I +shall only give them one; he put one louis into my hand; I shall put +ten in theirs, therefore they'll be better off than I was. That's the +way to do. After I'm gone, what's left will be theirs. The notaries +can find them and give it to them. What nonsense to bother one's self +about children. Mine owe me their life. I've fed them, and I don't ask +anything from them,--I call that quits, hey, neighbor? I began as a +cartman, but that didn't prevent me marrying the daughter of that old +scoundrel Auffray." + +Sylvie Rogron was sent (with six hundred francs for her board) as +apprentice to certain shopkeepers originally from Provins and now +settled in Paris in the rue Saint-Denis. Two years later she was "at +par," as they say; she earned her own living; at any rate her parents +paid nothing for her. That is what is called being "at par" in the rue +Saint-Denis. Sylvie had a salary of four hundred francs. At nineteen +years of age she was independent. At twenty, she was the second +demoiselle in the Maison Julliard, wholesale silk dealers at the +"Chinese Worm" rue Saint-Denis. The history of the sister was that of +the brother. Young Jerome-Denis Rogron entered the establishment of +one of the largest wholesale mercers in the same street, the Maison +Guepin, at the "Three Distaffs." When Sylvie Rogron, aged twenty-one, +had risen to be forewoman at a thousand francs a year Jerome-Denis, +with even better luck, was head-clerk at eighteen, with a salary of +twelve hundred francs. + +Brother and sister met on Sundays and fete-days, which they passed +in economical amusements; they dined out of Paris, and went to +Saint-Cloud, Meudon, Belleville, or Vincennes. Towards the close of the +year 1815 they clubbed their savings, amounting to about twenty thousand +francs, earned by the sweat of their brows, and bought of Madame +Guenee the property and good-will of her celebrated shop, the "Family +Sister," one of the largest retail establishments in the quarter. +Sylvie kept the books and did the writing. Jerome-Denis was master and +head-clerk both. In 1821, after five years' experience, competition +became so fierce that it was all the brother and sister could do to +carry on the business and maintain its reputation. + +Though Sylvie was at this time scarcely forty, her natural ugliness, +combined with hard work and a certain crabbed look (caused as much by +the conformation of her features as by her cares), made her seem like +a woman of fifty. At thirty-eight Jerome Rogron presented to the eyes +of his customers the silliest face that ever looked over a counter. +His retreating forehead, flattened by fatigue, was marked by three +long wrinkles. His grizzled hair, cut close, expressed in some +indefinable way the stupidity of a cold-blooded animal. The glance of +his bluish eyes had neither flame nor thought in it. His round, flat +face excited no sympathy, nor even a laugh on the lips of those who +might be examining the varieties of the Parisian species; on the +contrary, it saddened them. He was, like his father, short and fat, +but his figure lacked the latter's brutal obesity, and showed, +instead, an almost ridiculous debility. His father's high color was +changed in him to the livid flabbiness peculiar to persons who live in +close back-shops, or in those railed cages called counting-rooms, +forever tying up bundles, receiving and making change, snarling at the +clerks, and repeating the same old speeches to customers. + +The small amount of brains possessed by the brother and sister had +been wholly absorbed in maintaining their business, in getting and +keeping money, and in learning the special laws and usages of the +Parisian market. Thread, needles, ribbons, pins, buttons, tailors' +furnishings, in short, the enormous quantity of things which go to +make up a mercer's stock, had taken all their capacity. Outside of +their business they knew absolutely nothing; they were even ignorant +of Paris. To them the great city was merely a region spreading around +the Rue Saint-Denis. Their narrow natures could see no field except +the shop. They were clever enough in nagging their clerks and their +young women and in proving them to blame. Their happiness lay in +seeing all hands busy at the counters, exhibiting the merchandise, and +folding it up again. When they heard the six or eight voices of the +young men and women glibly gabbling the consecrated phrases by which +clerks reply to the remarks of customers, the day was fine to them, +the weather beautiful! But on the really fine days, when the blue of +the heavens brightened all Paris, and the Parisians walked about to +enjoy themselves and cared for no "goods" but those they carried on +their back, the day was overcast to the Rogrons. "Bad weather for +sales," said that pair of imbeciles. + +The skill with which Rogron could tie up a parcel made him an object +of admiration to all his apprentices. He could fold and tie and see +all that happened in the street and in the farthest recesses of the +shop by the time he handed the parcel to his customer with a "Here it +is, madame; _nothing else_ to-day?" But the poor fool would have been +ruined without his sister. Sylvie had common-sense and a genius for +trade. She advised her brother in their purchases and would pitilessly +send him to remote parts of France to save a trifle of cost. The +shrewdness which all women more or less possess, not being employed in +the service of her heart, had drifted into that of speculation. A +business to pay for,--that thought was the mainspring which kept the +machine going and gave it an infernal activity. + +Rogron was really only head-clerk; he understood nothing of his +business as a whole; self-interest, that great motor of the mind, had +failed in his case to instruct him. He was often aghast when his +sister ordered some article to be sold below cost, foreseeing the end +of its fashion; later he admired her idiotically for her cleverness. +He reasoned neither ill nor well; he was simply incapable of reasoning +at all; but he had the sense to subordinate himself to his sister, and +he did so from a consideration that was outside of the business. "She +is my elder," he said. Perhaps an existence like his, always solitary, +reduced to the satisfaction of mere needs, deprived of money and all +pleasures in youth, may explain to physiologists and thinkers the +clownish expression of the face, the feebleness of mind, the vacant +silliness of the man. His sister had steadily prevented him from +marrying, afraid perhaps to lose her power over him, and seeing only a +source of expense and injury in some woman who would certainly be +younger and undoubtedly less ugly than herself. + +Silliness has two ways of comporting itself; it talks, or is silent. +Silent silliness can be borne; but Rogron's silliness was loquacious. +The man had a habit of chattering to his clerks, explaining the +minutiae of the business, and ornamenting his talk with those flat +jokes which may be called the "chaff" of shopkeeping. Rogron, listened +to, of course, by his subordinates and perfectly satisfied with +himself, had come at last into possession of a phraseology of his own. +This chatterer believed himself an orator. The necessity of explaining +to customers what they want, of guessing at their desires, and giving +them desires for what they do not want, exercises the tongue of all +retail shopkeepers. The petty dealer acquires the faculty of uttering +words and sentences in which there is absolutely no meaning, but which +have a marked success. He explains to his customers matters of +manufacture that they know nothing of; that alone gives him a passing +superiority over them; but take him away from his thousand and one +explanations about his thousand and one articles, and he is, +relatively to thought, like a fish out of water in the sun. + +Rogron and Sylvie, two mechanisms baptized by mistake, did not +possess, latent or active, the feelings which give life to the heart. +Their natures were shrivelled and harsh, hardened by toil, by +privation, by the remembrance of their sufferings during a long and +cruel apprenticeship to life. Neither of them complained of their +trials. They were not so much implacable as impracticable in their +dealings with others in misfortune. To them, virtue, honor, loyalty, +all human sentiments consisted solely in the payment of their bills. +Irritable and irritating, without feelings, and sordid in their +economy, the brother and sister bore a dreadful reputation among the +other merchants of the rue Saint-Denis. Had it not been for their +connection with Provins, where they went three or four times a year, +when they could close the shop for a day or two, they would have had +no clerks or young women. But old Rogron, their father, sent them all +the unfortunate young people of his neighborhood, whose parents wished +to start them in business in Paris. He obtained these apprentices by +boasting, out of vanity, of his son's success. Parents, attracted by +the prospect of their children being well-trained and closely watched, +and also, by the hope of their succeeding, eventually, to the +business, sent whichever child was most in the way at home to the care +of the brother and sister. But no sooner had the clerks or the young +women found a way of escape from that dreadful establishment than they +fled, with rejoicings that increased the already bad name of the +Rogrons. New victims were supplied yearly by the indefatigable old +father. + +From the time she was fifteen, Sylvie Rogron, trained to the simpering +of a saleswoman, had two faces,--the amiable face of the seller, the +natural face of a sour spinster. Her acquired countenance was a +marvellous bit of mimicry. She was all smiles. Her voice, soft and +wheedling, gave a commercial charm to business. Her real face was that +we have already seen projecting from the half-opened blinds; the mere +sight of her would have put to flight the most resolute Cossack of +1815, much as that horde were said to like all kinds of Frenchwomen. + +When the letter from the Lorrains reached the brother and sister, they +were in mourning for their father, from whom they inherited the house +which had been as good as stolen from Pierrette's grandmother, also +certain lands bought by their father, and certain moneys acquired by +usurious loans and mortgages to the peasantry, whose bits of ground +the old drunkard expected to possess. The yearly taking of stock was +just over. The price of the "Family Sister" had, at last, been paid in +full. The Rogrons owned about sixty thousand francs' worth of +merchandise, forty thousand in a bank or in their cash-box, and the +value of their business. Sitting on a bench covered with striped-green +Utrecht velvet placed in a square recess just behind their private +counter (the counter of their forewoman being similar and directly +opposite) the brother and sister consulted as to what they should do. +All retail shopkeepers aspire to become members of the bourgeoisie. By +selling the good-will of their business, the pair would have over a +hundred and fifty thousand francs, not counting the inheritance from +their father. By placing their present available property in the +public Funds, they would each obtain about four thousand francs a +year, and by taking the proceeds of their business, when sold, they +could repair and improve the house they inherited from their father, +which would thus be a good investment. They could then go and live in +a house of their own in Provins. Their forewoman was the daughter of a +rich farmer at Donnemarie, burdened with nine children, to whom he had +endeavored to give a good start in life, being aware that at his death +his property, divided into nine parts, would be but little for any one +of them. In five years, however, the man had lost seven children,--a +fact which made the forewoman so interesting that Rogron had tried, +unsuccessfully, to get her to marry him; but she showed an aversion +for her master which baffled his manoeuvres. Besides, Mademoiselle +Sylvie was not in favor of the match; in fact, she steadily opposed +her brother's marriage, and sought, instead, to make the shrewd young +woman their successor. + +No passing observer can form the least idea of the cryptogramic +existence of a certain class of shopkeepers; he looks at them and asks +himself, "On what, and why, do they live? whence have they come? where +do they go?" He is lost in such questions, but finds no answer to +them. To discover the false seed of poesy which lies in those heads +and fructifies in those lives, it is necessary to dig into them; and +when we do that we soon come to a thin subsoil beneath the surface. +The Parisian shopkeeper nurtures his soul on some hope or other, more +or less attainable, without which he would doubtless perish. One +dreams of building or managing a theatre; another longs for the honors +of mayoralty; this one desires a country-house, ten miles from Paris +with a so-called "park," which he will adorn with statues of tinted +plaster and fountains which squirt mere threads of water, but on which +he will spend a mint of money; others, again, dream of distinction and +a high grade in the National Guard. Provins, that terrestrial +paradise, filled the brother and sister with the fanatical longings +which all the lovely towns of France inspire in their inhabitants. Let +us say it to the glory of La Champagne, this love is warranted. +Provins, one of the most charming towns in all France, rivals +Frangistan and the valley of Cashmere; not only does it contain the +poesy of Saadi, the Persian Homer, but it offers many pharmaceutical +treasures to medical science. The crusades brought roses from Jericho +to this enchanting valley, where by chance they gained new charms +while losing none of their colors. The Provins roses are known the +world over. But Provins is not only the French Persia, it is also +Baden, Aix, Cheltenham,--for it has medicinal springs. This was the +spot which appeared from time to time before the eyes of the two +shopkeepers in the muddy regions of Saint-Denis. + +After crossing the gray plains which lie between La Ferte-Gaucher and +Provins, a desert and yet productive, a desert of wheat, you reach a +hill. Suddenly you behold at your feet a town watered by two rivers; +at the feet of the rock on which you stand stretches a verdant valley, +full of enchanting lines and fugitive horizons. If you come from Paris +you will pass through the whole length of Provins on the everlasting +highroad of France, which here skirts the hillside and is encumbered +with beggars and blind men, who will follow you with their pitiful +voices while you try to examine the unexpected picturesqueness of the +region. If you come from Troyes you will approach the town on the +valley side. The chateau, the old town, and its former ramparts are +terraced on the hillside, the new town is below. They go by the names +of Upper and Lower Provins. The upper is an airy town with steep +streets commanding fine views, surrounded by sunken road-ways and +ravines filled with chestnut trees which gash the sides of the hill +with their deep gulleys. The upper town is silent, clean, solemn, +surmounted by the imposing ruins of the old chateau. The lower is a +town of mills, watered by the Voulzie and the Durtain, two rivers of +Brie, narrow, sluggish, and deep; a town of inns, shops, retired +merchants; filled with diligences, travelling-carriages, and waggons. +The two towns, or rather this town with its historical memories, its +melancholy ruins, the gaiety of its valley, the romantic charm of its +ravines filled with tangled shrubbery and wildflowers, its rivers +banked with gardens, excites the love of all its children, who do as +the Auvergnats, the Savoyards, in fact, all French folks do, namely, +leave Provins to make their fortunes, and always return. "Die in one's +form," the proverb made for hares and faithful souls, seems also the +motto of a Provins native. + +Thus the two Rogrons thought constantly of their dear Provins. While +Jerome sold his thread he saw the Upper town; as he piled up the cards +on which were buttons he contemplated the valley; when he rolled and +unrolled his ribbons he followed the shining rivers. Looking up at his +shelves he saw the ravines where he had often escaped his father's +anger and gone a-nutting or gathering blackberries. But the little +square in the Lower town was the chief object of his thoughts; he +imagined how he could improve his house: he dreamed of a new front, +new bedrooms, a salon, a billiard-room, a dining-room, and the kitchen +garden out of which he would make an English pleasure-ground, with +lawns, grottos, fountains, and statuary. The bedrooms at present +occupied by the brother and sister, on the second floor of a house +with three windows front and six storeys high in the rue Saint-Denis, +were furnished with the merest necessaries, yet no one in Paris had +finer furniture than they--in fancy. When Jerome walked the streets he +stopped short, struck with admiration at the handsome things in the +upholsterers' windows, and at the draperies he coveted for his house. +When he came home he would say to his sister: "I found in such a shop, +such and such a piece of furniture that will just do for the salon." +The next day he would buy another piece, and another, and so on. He +rejected, the following month, the articles of the months before. The +Budget itself, could not have paid for his architectural schemes. He +wanted everything he saw, but abandoned each thing for the last thing. +When he saw the balconies of new houses, when he studied external +ornamentation, he thought all such things, mouldings, carvings, etc., +out of place in Paris. "Ah!" he would say, "those fine things would +look much better at Provins." When he stood on his doorstep leaning +against the lintel, digesting his morning meal, with a vacant eye, the +mercer was gazing at the house of his fancy gilded by the sun of his +dream; he walked in his garden; he heard the jet from his fountain +falling in pearly drops upon a slab of limestone; he played on his own +billiard-table; he gathered his own flowers. + +Sylvie, on the other hand, was thinking so deeply, pen in hand, that +she forgot to scold the clerks; she was receiving the bourgeoisie of +Provins, she was looking at herself in the mirrors of her salon, and +admiring the beauties of a marvellous cap. The brother and sister +began to think the atmosphere of the rue Saint-Denis unhealthy, and +the smell of the mud in the markets made them long for the fragrance +of the Provins roses. They were the victims of a genuine nostalgia, +and also of a monomania, frustrated at present by the necessity of +selling their tapes and bobbins before they could leave Paris. The +promised land of the valley of Provins attracted these Hebrews all the +more because they had really suffered, and for a long time, as they +crossed breathlessly the sandy wastes of a mercer's business. + +The Lorrains' letter reached them in the midst of meditations inspired +by this glorious future. They knew scarcely anything about their +cousin, Pierrette Lorrain. Their father got possession of the Auffray +property after they left home, and the old man said little to any one +of his business affairs. They hardly remembered their aunt Lorrain. It +took an hour of genealogical discussion before they made her out to be +the younger sister of their own mother by the second marriage of their +grandfather Auffray. It immediately struck them that this second +marriage had been fatally injurious to their interests by dividing the +Auffray property between two daughters. In times past they had heard +their father, who was given to sneering, complain of it. + +The brother and sister considered the application of the Lorrains from +the point of view of such reminiscences, which were not at all +favorable for Pierrette. To take charge of an orphan, a girl, a +cousin, who might become their legal heir in case neither of them +married,--this was a matter that needed discussion. The question was +considered and debated under all its aspects. In the first place, they +had never seen Pierrette. Then, what a trouble it would be to have a +young girl to look after. Wouldn't it commit them to some obligations +towards her? Could they send the girl away if they did not like her? +Besides, wouldn't they have to marry her? and if Jerome found a +yoke-mate among the heiresses of Provins they ought to keep all their +property for his children. A yokemate for Jerome, according to Sylvie, +meant a stupid, rich and ugly girl who would let herself be governed. +They decided to refuse the Lorrain request. Sylvie agreed to write the +answer. Business being rather urgent just then she delayed writing, +and the forewoman coming forward with an offer for the stock and +good-will of the "Family Sister," which the brother and sister +accepted, the matter went entirely out of the old maid's mind. + +Sylvie Rogron and her brother departed for Provins four years before +the time when the coming of Brigaut threw such excitement into +Pierrette's life. But the doings of the pair after their arrival at +Provins are as necessary to relate as their life in Paris; for Provins +was destined to be not less fatal to Pierrette than the commercial +antecedents of her cousins! + + + + III + + PATHOLOGY OF RETIRED MERCERS + +When the petty shopkeeper who has come to Paris from the provinces +returns to the provinces from Paris he brings with him a few ideas; +then he loses them in the habits and ways of provincial life into +which he plunges, and his reforming notions leave him. From this there +do result, however, certain trifling, slow, successive changes by +which Paris scratches the surface of the provincial towns. This +process marks the transition of the ex-shopkeeper into the substantial +bourgeois, but it acts like an illness upon him. No retail shopkeeper +can pass with impunity from his perpetual chatter into dead silence, +from his Parisian activity to the stillness of provincial life. When +these worthy persons have laid by property they spend a portion of it +on some desire over which they have long brooded and into which they +now turn their remaining impulses, no longer restrained by force of +will. Those who have not been nursing a fixed idea either travel or +rush into the political interests of their municipality. Others take +to hunting or fishing and torment their farmers or tenants; others +again become usurers or stock-jobbers. As for the scheme of the +Rogrons, brother and sister, we know what that was; they had to +satisfy an imperious desire to handle the trowel and remodel their old +house into a charming new one. + +This fixed idea produced upon the square of Lower Provins the front of +the building which Brigaut had been examining; also the interior +arrangements of the house and its handsome furniture. The contractor +did not drive a nail without consulting the owners, without requiring +them to sign the plans and specifications, without explaining to them +at full length and in every detail the nature of each article under +discussion, where it was manufactured, and what were its various +prices. As to the choicer things, each, they were told, had been used +by Monsieur Tiphaine, or Madame Julliard, or Monsieur the mayor, the +notables of the place. The idea of having things done as the rich +bourgeois of Provins did them carried the day for the contractor. + +"Oh, if Monsieur Garceland has it in his house, put it in," said +Mademoiselle Rogron. "It must be all right; his taste is good." + +"Sylvie, see, he wants us to have ovolos in the cornice of the +corridor." + +"Do you call those ovolos?" + +"Yes, mademoiselle." + +"What an odd name! I never heard it before." + +"But you have seen the thing?" + +"Yes." + +"Do you understand Latin?" + +"No." + +"Well, it means eggs--from the Latin _ovum_." + +"What queer fellows you are, you architects!" cried Rogron. "It is +stepping on egg-shells to deal with you." + +"Shall we paint the corridor?" asked the builder. + +"Good heavens, no!" cried Sylvie. "That would be five hundred francs +more!" + +"Oh, but the salon and the staircase are too pretty not to have the +corridor decorated too," said the man. "That little Madame Lesourd had +hers painted last year." + +"And now, her husband, as king's attorney, is obliged to leave +Provins." + +"Ah, he'll be chief justice some of these days," said the builder. + +"How about Monsieur Tiphaine?" + +"Monsieur Tiphaine? he's got a pretty wife and is sure to get on. +He'll go to Paris. Shall we paint the corridor?" + +"Yes, yes," said Rogron. "The Lesourds must be made to see that we are +as good as they." + +The first year after the Rogrons returned to Provins was entirely +taken up by such discussions, by the pleasure of watching the workmen, +by the surprise occasioned to the townspeople and the replies to +questions of all kinds which resulted therefrom, and also by the +attempts made by Sylvie and her brother to be socially intimate with +the principal families of Provins. + +The Rogrons had never gone into any society; they had never left their +shop, knowing absolutely no one in Paris, and now they were athirst +for the pleasures of social life. On their arrival in Provins they +found their former masters in Paris (long since returned to the +provinces), Monsieur and Madame Julliard, lately of the "Chinese +Worm," their children and grandchildren; the Guepin family, or rather +the Guepin clan, the youngest scion of which now kept the "Three +Distaffs"; and thirdly, Madame Guenee from whom they had purchased the +"Family Sister," and whose three daughters were married and settled in +Provins. These three races, Julliard, Guepin, and Guenee, had spread +through the town like dog-grass through a lawn. The mayor, Monsieur +Garceland, was the son-in-law of Monsieur Guepin; the curate, Abbe +Peroux, was own brother to Madame Julliard; the judge, Monsieur +Tiphaine junior, was brother to Madame Guenee, who signed herself +"_nee_ Tiphaine." + +The queen of the town was the beautiful Madame Tiphaine junior, only +daughter of Madame Roguin, the rich wife of a former notary in Paris, +whose name was never mentioned. Clever, delicate, and pretty, married +in the provinces to please her mother, who for special reasons did not +want her with her, and took her from a convent only a few days before +the wedding, Melanie Tiphaine considered herself an exile in Provins, +where she behaved to admiration. Handsomely dowered, she still had +hopes. As for Monsieur Tiphaine, his old father had made to his eldest +daughter Madame Guenee such advances on her inheritance that an estate +worth eight thousand francs a year, situated within fifteen miles of +Provins, was to come wholly to him. Consequently the Tiphaines would +possess, sooner or later, some forty thousand francs a year, and were +not "badly off," as they say. The one overwhelming desire of the +beautiful Madame Tiphaine was to get Monsieur Tiphaine elected deputy. +As deputy he would become a judge in Paris; and she was firmly +resolved to push him up into the Royal courts. For these reasons she +tickled all vanities and strove to please all parties; and--what is +far more difficult--she succeeded. Twice a week she received the +bourgeoisie of Provins at her house in the Upper town. This +intelligent young woman of twenty had not as yet made a single blunder +or misstep on the slippery path she had taken. She gratified +everybody's self-love, and petted their hobbies; serious with the +serious, a girl with girls, instinctively a mother with mothers, gay +with young wives and disposed to help them, gracious to all,--in +short, a pearl, a treasure, the pride of Provins. She had never yet +said a word of her intentions and wishes, but all the electors of +Provins were awaiting the time when their dear Monsieur Tiphaine had +reached the required age for nomination. Every man in the place, +certain of his own talents, regarded the future deputy as his +particular friend, his protector. Of course, Monsieur Tiphaine would +attain to honors; he would be Keeper of the Seals, and then, what +wouldn't he do for Provins! + +Such were the pleasant means by which Madame Tiphaine had come to rule +over the little town. Madame Guenee, Monsieur Tiphaine's sister, after +having married her eldest daughter to Monsieur Lesourd, prosecuting +attorney, her second to Monsieur Martener, the doctor, and the third +to Monsieur Auffray, the notary, had herself married Monsieur +Galardon, the collector. Mother and daughters all considered Monsieur +Tiphaine as the richest and ablest man in the family. The prosecuting +attorney had the strongest interest in sending his uncle to Paris, +expecting to step into his shoes as judge of the local court of +Provins. The four ladies formed a sort of court round Madame Tiphaine, +whose ideas and advice they followed on all occasions. Monsieur +Julliard, the eldest son of the old merchant, who had married the only +daughter of a rich farmer, set up a sudden, secret, and disinterested +passion for Madame Tiphaine, that angel descended from the Parisian +skies. The clever Melanie, too clever to involve herself with +Julliard, but quite capable of keeping him in the condition of Amadis +and making the most of his folly, advised him to start a journal, +intending herself to play the part of Egeria. For the last two years, +therefore, Julliard, possessed by his romantic passion, had published +the said newspaper, called the "Bee-hive," which contained articles +literary, archaeological, and medical, written in the family. The +advertisements paid expenses. The subscriptions, two hundred in all, +made the profits. Every now and then melancholy verses, totally +incomprehensible in La Brie, appeared, addressed, "TO HER!!!" with +three exclamation marks. The clan Julliard was thus united to the +other clans, and the salon of Madame Tiphaine became, naturally, the +first in the town. The few aristocrats who lived in Provins were, of +course, apart, and formed a single salon in the Upper town, at the +house of the old Comtesse de Breautey. + +During the first six months of their transplantation, the Rogrons, +favored by their former acquaintance with several of these people, +were received, first by Madame Julliard the elder, and by the former +Madame Guenee, now Madame Galardon (from whom they had bought their +business), and next, after a good deal of difficulty, by Madame +Tiphaine. All parties wished to study the Rogrons before admitting +them. It was difficult, of course, to keep out merchants of the rue +Saint-Denis, originally from Provins, who had returned to the town to +spend their fortunes. Still, the object of all society is to +amalgamate persons of equal wealth, education, manners, customs, +accomplishments, and character. Now the Guepins, Guenees, and +Julliards had a better position among the bourgeoisie than the +Rogrons, whose father had been held in contempt on account of his +private life, and his conduct in the matter of the Auffray property, +--the facts of which were known to the notary Auffray, Madame +Galardon's son-in-law. + +In the social life of these people, to which Madame Tiphaine had given +a certain tone of elegance, all was homogeneous; the component parts +understood each other, knew each other's characters, and behaved and +conversed in a manner that was agreeable to all. The Rogrons flattered +themselves that being received by Monsieur Garceland, the mayor, they +would soon be on good terms with all the best families in the town. +Sylvie applied herself to learn boston. Rogron, incapable of playing a +game, twirled his thumbs and had nothing to say except to discourse on +his new house. Words seemed to choke him; he would get up, try to +speak, become frightened, and sit down again, with comical distortion +of the lips. Sylvie naively betrayed her natural self at cards. Sharp, +irritable, whining when she lost, insolent when she won, nagging and +quarrelsome, she annoyed her partners as much as her adversaries, and +became the scourge of society. And yet, possessed by a silly, +unconcealed ambition, Rogron and his sister were bent on playing a +part in the society of a little town already in possession of a close +corporation of twelve allied families. Allowing that the restoration +of their house had cost them thirty thousand francs, the brother and +sister possessed between them at least ten thousand francs a year. +This they considered wealth, and with it they endeavored to impress +society, which immediately took the measure of their vulgarity, crass +ignorance, and foolish envy. On the evening when they were presented +to the beautiful Madame Tiphaine, who had already eyed them at Madame +Garceland's and at Madame Julliard the elder's, the queen of the town +remarked to Julliard junior, who stayed a few moments after the rest +of the company to talk with her and her husband:-- + +"You all seem to be taken with those Rogrons." + +"No, no," said Amadis, "they bore my mother and annoy my wife. When +Mademoiselle Sylvie was apprenticed, thirty years ago, to my father, +none of them could endure her." + +"I have a great mind," said Madame Tiphaine, putting her pretty foot +on the bar of the fender, "to make it understood that my salon is not +an inn." + +Julliard raised his eyes to the ceiling, as if to say, "Good heavens? +what wit, what intellect!" + +"I wish my society to be select; and it certainly will not be if I +admit those Rogrons." + +"They have neither heart, nor mind, nor manners"; said Monsieur +Tiphaine. "If, after selling thread for twenty years, as my sister did +for example--" + +"Your sister, my dear," said his wife in a parenthesis, "cannot be out +of place in any salon." + +"--if," he continued, "people are stupid enough not to throw off the +shop and polish their manners, if they don't know any better than to +mistake the Counts of Champagne for the _accounts_ of a wine-shop, as +Rogron did this evening, they had better, in my opinion, stay at +home." + +"They are simply impudent," said Julliard. "To hear them talk you +would suppose there was no other handsome house in Provins but theirs. +They want to crush us; and after all, they have hardly enough to live +on." + +"If it was only the brother," said Madame Tiphaine, "one might put up +with him; he is not so aggressive. Give him a Chinese puzzle and he +will stay in a corner quietly enough; it would take him a whole winter +to find it out. But Mademoiselle Sylvie, with that voice like a hoarse +hyena and those lobster-claws of hands! Don't repeat all this, +Julliard." + +When Julliard had departed the little woman said to her husband:-- + +"I have aborigines enough whom I am forced to receive; these two will +fairly kill me. With your permission, I shall deprive myself of their +society." + +"You are mistress in your own house," replied he; "but that will make +enemies. The Rogrons will fling themselves into the opposition, which +hitherto has had no real strength in Provins. That Rogron is already +intimate with Baron Gouraud and the lawyer Vinet." + +"Then," said Melanie, laughing, "they will do you some service. Where +there are no opponents, there is no triumph. A liberal conspiracy, an +illegal cabal, a struggle of any kind, will bring you into the +foreground." + +The justice looked at his young wife with a sort of alarmed +admiration. + +The next day it was whispered about that the Rogrons had not +altogether succeeded in Madame Tiphaine's salon. That lady's speech +about an inn was immensely admired. It was a whole month before she +returned Mademoiselle Sylvie's visit. Insolence of this kind is very +much noticed in the provinces. + +During the evening which Sylvie had spent at Madame Tiphaine's a +disagreeable scene occurred between herself and old Madame Julliard +while playing boston, apropos of a trick which Sylvie declared the old +lady had made her lose on purpose; for the old maid, who liked to trip +others, could never endure the same game on herself. The next time she +was invited out the mistress took care to make up the card-tables +before she arrived; so that Sylvie was reduced to wandering from table +to table as an onlooker, the players glancing at her with scornful +eyes. At Madame Julliard senior's house, they played whist, a game +Sylvie did not know. + +The old maid at last understood that she was under a ban; but she had +no conception of the reason of it. She fancied herself an object of +jealousy to all these persons. After a time she and her brother +received no invitations, but they still persisted in paying evening +visits. Satirical persons made fun of them,--not spitefully, but +amusingly; inveigling them to talk absurdly about the eggs in their +cornice, and their wonderful cellar of wine, the like of which was not +in Provins. + +Before long the Rogron house was completely finished, and the brother +and sister then resolved to give several sumptuous dinners, as much to +return the civilities they had received as to exhibit their luxury. +The invited guests accepted from curiosity only. The first dinner was +given to the leading personages of the town; to Monsieur and Madame +Tiphaine, with whom, however the Rogrons had never dined; to Monsieur +and Madame Julliard, senior and junior; to Monsieur Lesourd, Monsieur +le cure, and Monsieur and Madame Galardon. It was one of those +interminable provincial dinners, where you sit at table from five to +nine o'clock. Madame Tiphaine had introduced into Provins the Parisian +custom of taking leave as soon as coffee had been served. On this +occasion she had company at home and was anxious to get away. The +Rogrons accompanied her husband and herself to the street door, and +when they returned to the salon, disconcerted at not being able to +keep their chief guests, the rest of the party were preparing to +imitate Madame Tiphaine's fashion with cruel provincial promptness. + +"They won't see our salon lighted up," said Sylvie, "and that's the +show of the house." + +The Rogrons had counted on surprising their guests. It was the first +time any one had been admitted to the now celebrated house, and the +company assembled at Madame Tiphaine's was eagerly awaiting her +opinion of the marvels of the "Rogron palace." + +"Well!" cried little Madame Martener, "you've seen the Louvre; tell us +all about it." + +"All? Well, it would be like the dinner,--not much." + +"But do describe it." + +"Well, to begin with, that front door, the gilded grating of which we +have all admired," said Madame Tiphaine, "opens upon a long corridor +which divides the house unequally; on the right side there is one +window, on the other, two. At the garden end, the corridor opens with +a glass door upon a portico with steps to the lawn, where there's a +sun dial and a plaster statue of Spartacus, painted to imitate bronze. +Behind the kitchen, the builder has put the staircase, and a sort of +larder which we are spared the sight of. The staircase, painted to +imitate black marble with yellow veins, turns upon itself like those +you see in cafes leading from the ground-floor to the entresol. The +balustrade, of walnut with brass ornaments and dangerously slight, was +pointed out to us as one of the seven wonders of the world. The cellar +stairs run under it. On the other side of the corridor is the +dining-room, which communicates by folding-doors with a salon of equal +size, the windows of which look on the garden." + +"Dear me, is there no ante-chamber?" asked Madame Auffray. + +"The corridor, full of draughts, answers for an ante-chamber," replied +Madame Tiphaine. "Our friends have had, they assured us, the eminently +national, liberal, constitutional, and patriotic feeling to use none +but French woods in the house; so the floor in the dining-room is +chestnut, the sideboards, tables, and chairs, of the same. White +calico window-curtains, with red borders, are held back by vulgar red +straps; these magnificent draperies run on wooden curtain rods ending +in brass lion's-paws. Above one of the sideboards hangs a dial +suspended by a sort of napkin in gilded bronze,--an idea that seemed +to please the Rogrons hugely. They tried to make me admire the +invention; all I could manage to say was that if it was ever proper to +wrap a napkin round a dial it was certainly in a dining-room. On the +sideboard were two huge lamps like those on the counter of a +restaurant. Above the other sideboard hung a barometer, excessively +ornate, which seems to play a great part in their existence; Rogron +gazed at it as he might at his future wife. Between the two windows is +a white porcelain stove in a niche overloaded with ornament. The walls +glow with a magnificent paper, crimson and gold, such as you see in +the same restaurants, where, no doubt, the Rogrons chose it. Dinner +was served on white and gold china, with a dessert service of light +blue with green flowers, but they showed us another service in +earthenware for everyday use. Opposite to each sideboard was a large +cupboard containing linen. All was clean, new, and horribly sharp in +tone. However, I admit the dining-room; it has some character, though +disagreeable; it represents that of the masters of the house. But +there is no enduring the five engravings that hang on the walls; the +Minister of the Interior ought really to frame a law against them. One +was Poniatowski jumping into the Elster; the others, Napoleon pointing +a cannon, the defence at Clichy, and the two Mazepas, all in gilt +frames of the vulgarest description,--fit to carry off the prize of +disgust. Oh! how much I prefer Madame Julliard's pastels of fruit, +those excellent Louis XV. pastels, which are in keeping with the old +dining-room and its gray panels,--defaced by age, it is true, but they +possess the true provincial characteristics that go well with old +family silver, precious china, and our simple habits. The provinces +are provinces; they are only ridiculous when they mimic Paris. I +prefer this old salon of my husband's forefathers, with its heavy +curtains of green and white damask, the Louis XV. mantelpiece, the +twisted pier-glasses, the old mirrors with their beaded mouldings, and +the venerable card tables. Yes, I prefer my old Sevres vases in royal +blue, mounted on copper, my clock with those impossible flowers, that +rococco chandelier, and the tapestried furniture, to all the finery of +the Rogron salon." + +"What is the salon like?" said Monsieur Martener, delighted with the +praise the handsome Parisian bestowed so adroitly on the provinces. + +"As for the salon, it is all red,--the red Mademoiselle Sylvie turns +when she loses at cards." + +"Sylvan-red," said Monsieur Tiphaine, whose sparkling saying long +remained in the vocabulary of Provins. + +"Window-curtains, red; furniture, red; mantelpiece, red, veined +yellow, candelabra and clock ditto mounted on bronze, common and heavy +in design,--Roman standards with Greek foliage! Above the clock is +that inevitable good-natured lion which looks at you with a simper, +the lion of ornamentation, with a big ball under his feet, symbol of +the decorative lion, who passes his life holding a black ball, +--exactly like a deputy of the Left. Perhaps it is meant as a +constitutional myth. The face of the clock is curious. The glass over +the chimney is framed in that new fashion of applied mouldings which +is so trumpery and vulgar. From the ceiling hangs a chandelier +carefully wrapped in green muslin, and rightly too, for it is in the +worst taste, the sharpest tint of bronze with hideous ornaments. The +walls are covered with a red flock paper to imitate velvet enclosed in +panels, each panel decorated with a chromo-lithograph in one of those +frames festooned with stucco flowers to represent wood-carving. The +furniture, in cashmere and elm-wood, consists, with classic +uniformity, of two sofas, two easy-chairs, two armchairs, and six +common chairs. A vase in alabaster, called a la Medicis, kept under +glass stands on a table between the windows; before the windows, which +are draped with magnificent red silk curtains and lace curtains under +them, are card-tables. The carpet is Aubusson, and you may be sure the +Rogrons did not fail to lay hands on that most vulgar of patterns, +large flowers on a red ground. The room looks as if no one ever lived +there; there are no books, no engravings, none of those little +knick-knacks we all have lying about," added Madame Tiphaine, glancing +at her own table covered with fashionable trifles, albums, and little +presents given to her by friends; "and there are no flowers,--it is +all cold and barren, like Mademoiselle Sylvie herself. Buffon says the +style is the man, and certainly salons have styles of their own." + +From this sketch everybody can see the sort of house the brother and +sister lived in, though they can never imagine the absurdities into +which a clever builder dragged the ignorant pair,--new inventions, +fantastic ornaments, a system for preventing smoky chimneys, another +for preventing damp walls; painted marquetry panels on the staircase, +colored glass, superfine locks,--in short, all those vulgarities which +make a house expensive and gratify the bourgeois taste. + +No one chose to visit the Rogrons, whose social plans thus came to +nothing. Their invitations were refused under various excuses,--the +evenings were already engaged to Madame Garceland and the other ladies +of the Provins world. The Rogrons had supposed that all that was +required to gain a position in society was to give a few dinners. But +no one any longer accepted them, except a few young men who went to +make fun of their host and hostess, and certain diners-out who went +everywhere. + +Frightened at the loss of forty thousand francs swallowed up without +profit in what she called her "dear house," Sylvie now set to work to +recover it by economy. She gave no more dinners, which had cost her +forty or fifty francs without the wines, and did not fulfil her social +hopes, hopes that are as hard to realize in the provinces as in Paris. +She sent away her cook, took a country-girl to do the menial work, and +did her own cooking, as she said, "for pleasure." + +Fourteen months after their return to Provins, the brother and sister +had fallen into a solitary and wholly unoccupied condition. Their +banishment from society roused in Sylvie's heart a dreadful hatred +against the Tiphaines, Julliards and all the other members of the +social world of Provins, which she called "the clique," and with whom +her personal relations became extremely cold. She would gladly have +set up a rival clique, but the lesser bourgeoisie was made up of +either small shopkeepers who were only free on Sundays and fete-days, +or smirched individuals like the lawyer Vinet and Doctor Neraud, and +wholly inadmissible Bonapartists like Baron Gouraud, with whom, +however, Rogron thoughtlessly allied himself, though the upper +bourgeoisie had warned him against them. + +The brother and sister were, therefore, forced to sit by the fire of +the stove in the dining-room, talking over their former business, +trying to recall the faces of their customers and other matters they +had intended to forget. By the end of the second winter ennui weighed +heavily on them. They did not know how to get through each day; +sometimes as they went to bed the words escaped them, "There's another +over!" They dragged out the morning by staying in bed, and dressing +slowly. Rogron shaved himself every day, examined his face, consulted +his sister on any changes he thought he saw there, argued with the +servant about the temperature of his hot water, wandered into the +garden, looked to see if the shrubs were budding, sat at the edge of +the water where he had built himself a kiosk, examined the joinery of +his house,--had it sprung? had the walls settled, the panels cracked? +or he would come in fretting about a sick hen, and complaining to his +sister, who was nagging the servant as she set the table, of the +dampness which was coming out in spots upon the plaster. The barometer +was Rogron's most useful bit of property. He consulted it at all +hours, tapped it familiarly like a friend, saying: "Vile weather!" to +which his sister would reply, "Pooh! it is only seasonable." If any +one called to see him the excellence of that instrument was his chief +topic of conversation. + +Breakfast took up some little time; with what deliberation those two +human beings masticated their food! Their digestions were perfect; +cancer of the stomach was not to be dreaded by them. They managed to +get along till twelve o'clock by reading the "Bee-hive" and the +"Constitutionnel." The cost of subscribing to the Parisian paper was +shared by Vinet the lawyer, and Baron Gouraud. Rogron himself carried +the paper to Gouraud, who had been a colonel and lived on the square, +and whose long yarns were Rogron's delight; the latter sometimes +puzzled over the warnings he had received, and asked himself how such +a lively companion could be dangerous. He was fool enough to tell the +colonel he had been warned against him, and to repeat all the "clique" +had said. God knows how the colonel, who feared no one, and was +equally to be dreaded with pistols or a sword, gave tongue about +Madame Tiphaine and her Amadis, and the ministerialists of the Upper +town, persons capable of any villany to get places, and who counted +the votes at elections to suit themselves, etc. + +About two o'clock Rogron started for a little walk. He was quite happy +if some shopkeeper standing on the threshold of his door would stop +him and say, "Well, pere Rogron, how goes it with _you_?" Then he +would talk, and ask for news, and gather all the gossip of the town. +He usually went as far as the Upper town, sometimes to the ravines, +according to the weather. Occasionally he would meet old men taking +their walks abroad like himself. Such meetings were joyful events to +him. There happened to be in Provins a few men weary of Parisian life, +quiet scholars who lived with their books. Fancy the bewilderment of +the ignorant Rogron when he heard a deputy-judge named Desfondrilles, +more of an archaeologist than a magistrate, saying to old Monsieur +Martener, a really learned man, as he pointed to the valley:-- + +"Explain to me why the idlers of Europe go to Spa instead of coming to +Provins, when the springs here have a superior curative value +recognized by the French faculty,--a potential worthy of the medicinal +properties of our roses." + +"That is one of the caprices of caprice," said the old gentleman. +"Bordeaux wine was unknown a hundred years ago. Marechal de Richelieu, +one of the noted men of the last century, the French Alcibiades, was +appointed governor of Guyenne. His lungs were diseased, and, heaven +knows why! the wine of the country did him good and he recovered. +Bordeaux instantly made a hundred millions; the marshal widened its +territory to Angouleme, to Cahors,--in short, to over a hundred miles +of circumference! it is hard to tell where the Bordeaux vineyards end. +And yet they haven't erected an equestrian statue to the marshal in +Bordeaux!" + +"Ah! if anything of that kind happens to Provins," said Monsieur +Desfondrilles, "let us hope that somewhere in the Upper or Lower town +they will set up a bas-relief of the head of Monsieur Opoix, the +re-discoverer of the mineral waters of Provins." + +"My dear friend, the revival of Provins is impossible," replied +Monsieur Martener; "the town was made bankrupt long ago." + +"What!" cried Rogron, opening his eyes very wide. + +"It was once a capital, holding its own against Paris in the twelfth +century, when the Comtes de Champagne held their court here, just as +King Rene held his in Provence," replied the man of learning; "for in +those days civilization, gaiety, poesy, elegance, and women, in short +all social splendors, were not found exclusively in Paris. It is as +difficult for towns and cities as it is for commercial houses to +recover from ruin. Nothing is left to us of the old Provins but the +fragrance of our historical glory and that of our roses,--and a +sub-prefecture!" + +"Ah! what mightn't France be if she had only preserved her feudal +capitals!" said Desfondrilles. "Can sub-prefects replace the poetic, +gallant, warlike race of the Thibaults who made Provins what Ferrara +was to Italy, Weimar to Germany,--what Munich is trying to be to-day." + +"Was Provins ever a capital?" asked Rogron. + +"Why! where do you come from?" exclaimed the archaeologist. "Don't you +know," he added, striking the ground of the Upper town where they +stood with his cane, "don't you know that the whole of this part of +Provins is built on catacombs?" + +"Catacombs?" + +"Yes, catacombs, the extent and height of which are yet undiscovered. +They are like the naves of cathedrals, and there are pillars in them." + +"Monsieur is writing a great archaeological work to explain these +strange constructions," interposed Monsieur Martener, seeing that the +deputy-judge was about to mount his hobby. + +Rogron came home much comforted to know that his house was in the +valley. The crypts of Provins kept him occupied for a week in +explorations, and gave a topic of conversation to the unhappy +celibates for many evenings. + +In the course of these ramblings Rogron picked up various bits of +information about Provins, its inhabitants, their marriages, together +with stale political news; all of which he narrated to his sister. +Scores of times in his walks he would stop and say,--often to the same +person on the same day,--"Well, what's the news?" When he reached home +he would fling himself on the sofa like a man exhausted with labor, +whereas he was only worn out with the burden of his own dulness. +Dinner came at last, after he had gone twenty times to the kitchen and +back, compared the clocks, and opened and shut all the doors of the +house. So long as the brother and sister could spend their evenings in +paying visits they managed to get along till bedtime; but after they +were compelled to stay at home those evenings became like a parching +desert. Sometimes persons passing through the quiet little square +would hear unearthly noises as though the brother were throttling the +sister; a moment's listening would show that they were only yawning. +These two human mechanisms, having nothing to grind between their +rusty wheels, were creaking and grating at each other. The brother +talked of marrying, but only in despair. He felt old and weary; the +thought of a woman frightened him. Sylvie, who began to see the +necessity of having a third person in the home, suddenly remembered +the little cousin, about whom no one in Provins had yet inquired, the +friends of Madame Lorrain probably supposing that mother and child +were both dead. + +Sylvie Rogron never lost anything; she was too thoroughly an old maid +even to mislay the smallest article; but she pretended to have +suddenly found the Lorrains' letter, so as to mention Pierrette +naturally to her brother, who was greatly pleased at the possibility +of having a little girl in the house. Sylvie replied to Madame +Lorrain's letter half affectionately, half commercially, as one may +say, explaining the delay by their change of abode and the settlement +of their affairs. She seemed desirous of receiving her little cousin, +and hinted that Pierrette would perhaps inherit twelve thousand francs +a year if her brother Jerome did not marry. + +Perhaps it is necessary to have been, like Nebuchadnezzar, something +of a wild beast, and shut up in a cage at the Jardin des Plantes +without other prey than the butcher's meat doled out by the keeper, or +a retired merchant deprived of the joys of tormenting his clerks, to +understand the impatience with which the brother and sister awaited +the arrival of their cousin Lorrain. Three days after the letter had +gone, the pair were already asking themselves when she would get +there. + +Sylvie perceived in her spurious benevolence towards her poor cousin a +means of recovering her position in the social world of Provins. She +accordingly went to call on Madame Tiphaine, of whose reprobation she +was conscious, in order to impart the fact of Pierrette's approaching +arrival,--deploring the girl's unfortunate position, and posing +herself as being only too happy to succor her and give her a position +as daughter and future heiress. + +"You have been rather long in discovering her," said Madame Tiphaine, +with a touch of sarcasm. + +A few words said in a low voice by Madame Garceland, while the cards +were being dealt, recalled to the minds of those who heard her the +shameful conduct of old Rogron about the Auffray property; the notary +explained the iniquity. + +"Where is the little girl now?" asked Monsieur Tiphaine, politely. + +"In Brittany," said Rogron. + +"Brittany is a large place," remarked Monsieur Lesourd. + +"Her grandfather and grandmother Lorrain wrote to us--when was that, +my dear?" said Rogron addressing his sister. + +Sylvie, who was just then asking Madame Garceland where she had bought +the stuff for her gown, answered hastily, without thinking of the +effect of her words:-- + +"Before we sold the business." + +"And have you only just answered the letter, mademoiselle?" asked the +notary. + +Sylvie turned as red as a live coal. + +"We wrote to the Institution of Saint-Jacques," remarked Rogron. + +"That is a sort of hospital or almshouse for old people," said +Monsieur Desfondrilles, who knew Nantes. "She can't be there; they +receive no one under sixty." + +"She is there, with her grandmother Lorrain," said Rogron. + +"Her mother had a little fortune, the eight thousand francs which your +father--no, I mean of course your grandfather--left to her," said the +notary, making the blunder intentionally. + +"Ah!" said Rogron, stupidly, not understanding the notary's sarcasm. + +"Then you know nothing about your cousin's position or means?" asked +Monsieur Tiphaine. + +"If Monsieur Rogron had known it," said the deputy-judge, "he would +never have left her all this time in an establishment of that kind. I +remember now that a house in Nantes belonging to Monsieur and Madame +Lorrain was sold under an order of the court, and that Mademoiselle +Lorrain's claim was swallowed up. I know this, for I was commissioner +at the time." + +The notary spoke of Colonel Lorrain, who, had he lived, would have +been much amazed to know that his daughter was in such an institution. +The Rogrons beat a retreat, saying to each other that the world was +very malicious. Sylvie perceived that the news of her benevolence had +missed its effect,--in fact, she had lost ground in all minds; and she +felt that henceforth she was forbidden to attempt an intimacy with the +upper class of Provins. After this evening the Rogrons no longer +concealed their hatred of that class and all its adherents. The +brother told the sister the scandals that Colonel Gouraud and the +lawyer Vinet had put into his head about the Tiphaines, the Guenees, +the Garcelands, the Julliards, and others:-- + +"I declare, Sylvie, I don't see why Madame Tiphaine should turn up her +nose at shopkeeping in the rue Saint-Denis; it is more honest than +what she comes from. Madame Roguin, her mother, is cousin to those +Guillaumes of the 'Cat-playing-ball' who gave up the business to +Joseph Lebas, their son-in-law. Her father is that Roguin who failed +in 1819, and ruined the house of Cesar Birotteau. Madame Tiphaine's +fortune was stolen,--for what else are you to call it when a notary's +wife who is very rich lets her husband make a fraudulent bankruptcy? +Fine doings! and she marries her daughter in Provins to get her out of +the way,--all on account of her own relations with du Tillet. And such +people set up to be proud! Well, well, that's the world!" + +On the day when Jerome Rogron and his sister began to declaim against +"the clique" they were, without being aware of it, on the road to +having a society of their own; their house was to become a rendezvous +for other interests seeking a centre,--those of the hitherto floating +elements of the liberal party in Provins. And this is how it came +about: The launch of the Rogrons in society had been watched with +great curiosity by Colonel Gouraud and the lawyer Vinet, two men drawn +together, first by their ostracism, next by their opinions. They both +professed patriotism and for the same reason,--they wished to become +of consequence. The Liberals in Provins were, so far, confined to one +old soldier who kept a cafe, an innkeeper, Monsieur Cournant a notary, +Doctor Neraud, and a few stray persons, mostly farmers or those who +had bought lands of the public domain. + +The colonel and the lawyer, delighted to lay hands on a fool whose +money would be useful to their schemes, and who might himself, in +certain cases, be made to bell the cat, while his house would serve as +a meeting-ground for the scattered elements of the party, made the +most of the Rogrons' ill-will against the upper classes of the place. +The three had already a slight tie in their united subscription to the +"Constitutionnel"; it would certainly not be difficult for the colonel +to make a Liberal of the ex-mercer, though Rogron knew so little of +politics that he was capable of regarding the exploits of Sergeant +Mercier as those of a brother shopkeeper. + +The expected arrival of Pierrette brought to sudden fruition the +selfish ideas of the two men, inspired as they were by the folly and +ignorance of the celibates. Seeing that Sylvie had lost all chance of +establishing herself in the good society of the place, an afterthought +came to the colonel. Old soldiers have seen so many horrors in all +lands, so many grinning corpses on battle-fields, that no +physiognomies repel them; and Gouraud began to cast his eyes on the +old maid's fortune. This imperial colonel, a short, fat man, wore +enormous rings in ears that were bushy with tufts of hair. His sparse +and grizzled whiskers were called in 1799 "fins." His jolly red face +was rather discolored, like those of all who had lived to tell of the +Beresina. The lower half of his big, pointed stomach marked the +straight line which characterizes a cavalry officer. Gouraud had +commanded the Second Hussars. His gray moustache hid a huge blustering +mouth,--if we may use a term which alone describes that gulf. He did +not eat his food, he engulfed it. A sabre cut had slit his nose, by +which his speech was made thick and very nasal, like that attributed +to Capuchins. His hands, which were short and broad, were of the kind +that make women say: "You have the hands of a rascal." His legs seemed +slender for his torso. In that fat and active body an absolutely +lawless spirit disported itself, and a thorough experience of the +things of life, together with a profound contempt for social +convention, lay hidden beneath the apparent indifference of a soldier. +Colonel Gouraud wore the cross of an officer of the Legion of honor, +and his emoluments from that, together with his salary as a retired +officer, gave him in all about three thousand francs a year. + +The lawyer, tall and thin, had liberal opinions in place of talent, +and his only revenue was the meagre profits of his office. In Provins +lawyers plead their own cases. The court was unfavorable to Vinet on +account of his opinions; consequently, even the farmers who were +Liberals, when it came to lawsuits preferred to employ some lawyer who +was more congenial to the judges. Vinet was regarded with disfavor in +other ways. He was said to have seduced a rich girl in the +neighborhood of Coulommiers, and thus have forced her parents to marry +her to him. Madame Vinet was a Chargeboeuf, an old and noble family of +La Brie, whose name comes from the exploit of a squire during the +expedition of Saint Louis to Egypt. She incurred the displeasure of +her father and mother, who arranged, unknown to Vinet, to leave their +entire fortune to their son, doubtless charging him privately, to pay +over a portion of it to his sister's children. + +Thus the first bold effort of the ambitious man was a failure. Pursued +by poverty, and ashamed not to give his wife the means of making a +suitable appearance, he had made desperate efforts to enter public +life, but the Chargeboeuf family refused him their influence. These +Royalists disapproved, on moral grounds, of his forced marriage; +besides, he was named Vinet, and how could they be expected to protect +a plebian? Thus he was driven from branch to branch when he tried to +get some good out of his marriage. Repulsed by every one, filled with +hatred for the family of his wife, for the government which denied him +a place, for the social world of Provins, which refused to admit him, +Vinet submitted to his fate; but his gall increased. He became a +Liberal in the belief that his fortune might yet be made by the +triumph of the opposition, and he lived in a miserable little house in +the Upper town from which his wife seldom issued. Madame Vinet had +found no one to defend her since her marriage except an old Madame de +Chargeboeuf, a widow with one daughter, who lived at Troyes. The +unfortunate young woman, destined for better things, was absolutely +alone in her home with a single child. + +There are some kinds of poverty which may be nobly accepted and gaily +borne; but Vinet, devoured by ambition, and feeling himself guilty +towards his wife, was full of darkling rage; his conscience grew +elastic; and he finally came to think any means of success +permissible. His young face changed. Persons about the courts were +sometimes frightened as they looked at his viperish, flat head, his +slit mouth, his eyes gleaming through glasses, and heard his sharp, +persistent voice which rasped their nerves. His muddy skin, with its +sickly tones of green and yellow, expressed the jaundice of his balked +ambition, his perpetual disappointments and his hidden wretchedness. +He could talk and argue; he was well-informed and shrewd, and was not +without smartness and metaphor. Accustomed to look at everything from +the standpoint of his own success, he was well fitted for a +politician. A man who shrinks from nothing so long as it is legal, is +strong; and Vinet's strength lay there. + +This future athlete of parliamentary debate, who was destined to share +in proclaiming the dynasty of the house of Orleans had a terrible +influence on Pierrette's fate. At the present moment he was bent on +making for himself a weapon by founding a newspaper at Provins. After +studying the Rogrons at a distance (the colonel aiding him) he had +come to the conclusion that the brother might be made useful. This +time he was not mistaken; his days of poverty were over, after seven +wretched years, when even his daily bread was sometimes lacking. The +day when Gouraud told him in the little square that the Rogrons had +finally quarrelled with the bourgeois aristocracy of the Upper town, +he nudged the colonel in the ribs significantly, and said, with a +knowing look:-- + +"One woman or another--handsome or ugly--_you_ don't care; marry +Mademoiselle Rogron and we can organize something at once." + +"I have been thinking of it," replied Gouraud, "but the fact is they +have sent for the daughter of Colonel Lorrain, and she's their next of +kin." + +"You can get them to make a will in your favor. Ha! you would get a +very comfortable house." + +"As for the little girl--well, well, let's see her," said the colonel, +with a leering and thoroughly wicked look, which proved to a man of +Vinet's quality how little respect the old trooper could feel for any +girl. + + + + IV + + PIERRETTE + +After her grandfather and grandmother entered the sort of hospital in +which they sadly expected to end their days, Pierrette, being young +and proud, suffered so terribly at living there on charity that she +was thankful when she heard she had rich relations. When Brigaut, the +son of her mother's friend the major, and the companion of her +childhood, who was learning his trade as a cabinet-maker at Nantes, +heard of her departure he offered her the money to pay her way to +Paris in the diligence,--sixty francs, the total of his _pour-boires_ +as an apprentice, slowly amassed, and accepted by Pierrette with the +sublime indifference of true affection, showing that in a like case +she herself would be affronted by thanks. + +Brigaut was in the habit of going every Sunday to Saint-Jacques to +play with Pierrette and try to console her. The vigorous young workman +knew the dear delight of bestowing a complete and devoted protection +on an object involuntarily chosen by his heart. More than once he and +Pierrette, sitting on Sundays in a corner of the garden, had +embroidered the veil of the future with their youthful projects; the +apprentice, armed with his plane, scoured the world to make their +fortune, while Pierrette waited. + +In October, 1824, when the child had completed her eleventh year, she +was entrusted by the two old people and by Brigaut, all three +sorrowfully sad, to the conductor of the diligence from Nantes to +Paris, with an entreaty to put her safely on the diligence from Paris +to Provins and to take good care of her. Poor Brigaut! he ran like a +dog after the coach looking at his dear Pierrette as long as he was +able. In spite of her signs he ran over three miles, and when at last +he was exhausted his eyes, wet with tears, still followed her. She, +too, was crying when she saw him no longer running by her, and putting +her head out of the window she watched him, standing stock-still and +looking after her, as the lumbering vehicle disappeared. + +The Lorrains and Brigaut knew so little of life that the girl had not +a penny when she arrived in Paris. The conductor, to whom she had +mentioned her rich friends, paid her expenses at the hotel, and made +the conductor of the Provins diligence pay him, telling him to take +good care of the girl and to see that the charges were paid by the +family, exactly as though she were a case of goods. Four days after +her departure from Nantes, about nine o'clock of a Monday night, a +kind old conductor of the Messageries-royales, took Pierrette by the +hand, and while the porters were discharging in the Grand'Rue the +packages and passengers for Provins, he led the little girl, whose +only baggage was a bundle containing two dresses, two chemises, and +two pairs of stockings, to Mademoiselle Rogron's house, which was +pointed out to him by the director at the coach office. + +"Good-evening, mademoiselle and the rest of the company. I've brought +you a cousin, and here she is; and a nice little girl too, upon my +word. You have forty-seven francs to pay me, and sign my book." + +Mademoiselle Sylvie and her brother were dumb with pleasure and +amazement. + +"Excuse me," said the conductor, "the coach is waiting. Sign my book +and pay me forty-seven francs, sixty centimes, and whatever you please +for myself and the conductor from Nantes; we've taken care of the +little girl as if she were our own; and paid for her beds and her +food, also her fare to Provins, and other little things." + +"Forty-seven francs, twelve sous!" said Sylvie. + +"You are not going to dispute it?" cried the man. + +"Where's the bill?" said Rogron. + +"Bill! look at the book." + +"Stop talking, and pay him," said Sylvie, "You see there's nothing +else to be done." + +Rogron went to get the money, and gave the man forty-seven francs, +twelve sous. + +"And nothing for my comrade and me?" said the conductor. + +Sylvie took two francs from the depths of the old velvet bag which +held her keys. + +"Thank you, no," said the man; "keep 'em yourself. We would rather +care for the little one for her own sake." He picked up his book and +departed, saying to the servant-girl: "What a pair! it seems there are +crocodiles out of Egypt!" + +"Such men are always brutal," said Sylvie, who overhead the words. + +"They took good care of the little girl, anyhow," said Adele with her +hands on her hips. + +"We don't have to live with him," remarked Rogron. + +"Where's the little one to sleep?" asked Adele. + +Such was the arrival of Pierrette Lorrain in the home of her cousins, +who gazed at her with stolid eyes; she was tossed to them like a +package, with no intermediate state between the wretched chamber at +Saint-Jacques and the dining-room of her cousins, which seemed to her +a palace. She was shy and speechless. To all other eyes than those of +the Rogrons the little Breton girl would have seemed enchanting as she +stood there in her petticoat of coarse blue flannel, with a pink +cambric apron, thick shoes, blue stockings, and a white kerchief, her +hands being covered by red worsted mittens edged with white, bought +for her by the conductor. Her dainty Breton cap (which had been washed +in Paris, for the journey from Nantes had rumpled it) was like a halo +round her happy little face. This national cap, of the finest lawn, +trimmed with stiffened lace pleated in flat folds, deserves +description, it was so dainty and simple. The light coming through the +texture and the lace produced a partial shadow, the soft shadow of a +light upon the skin, which gave her the virginal grace that all +painters seek and Leopold Robert found for the Raffaelesque face of +the woman who holds a child in his picture of "The Gleaners." Beneath +this fluted frame of light sparkled a white and rosy and artless face, +glowing with vigorous health. The warmth of the room brought the blood +to the cheeks, to the tips of the pretty ears, to the lips and the end +of the delicate nose, making the natural white of the complexion +whiter still. + +"Well, are you not going to say anything? I am your cousin Sylvie, and +that is your cousin Rogron." + +"Do you want something to eat?" asked Rogron. + +"When did you leave Nantes?" asked Sylvie. + +"Is she dumb?" said Rogron. + +"Poor little dear, she has hardly any clothes," cried Adele, who had +opened the child's bundle, tied up in a handkerchief of the old +Lorrains. + +"Kiss your cousin," said Sylvie. + +Pierrette kissed Rogron. + +"Kiss your cousin," said Rogron. + +Pierrette kissed Sylvie. + +"She is tired out with her journey, poor little thing; she wants to go +to sleep," said Adele. + +Pierrette was overcome with a sudden and invincible aversion for her +two relatives,--a feeling that no one had ever before excited in her. +Sylvie and the maid took her up to bed in the room where Brigaut +afterwards noticed the white cotton curtain. In it was a little bed +with a pole painted blue, from which hung a calico curtain; a walnut +bureau without a marble top, a small table, a looking-glass, a very +common night-table without a door, and three chairs completed the +furniture of the room. The walls, which sloped in front, were hung +with a shabby paper, blue with black flowers. The tiled floor, stained +red and polished, was icy to the feet. There was no carpet except for +a strip at the bedside. The mantelpiece of common marble was adorned +by a mirror, two candelabra in copper-gilt, and a vulgar alabaster cup +in which two pigeons, forming handles, were drinking. + +"You will be comfortable here, my little girl?" said Sylvie. + +"Oh, it's beautiful!" said the child, in her silvery voice. + +"She's not difficult to please," muttered the stout servant. "Sha'n't +I warm her bed?" she asked. + +"Yes," said Sylvie, "the sheets may be damp." + +Adele brought one of her own night-caps when she returned with the +warming-pan, and Pierrette, who had never slept in anything but the +coarsest linen sheets, was amazed at the fineness and softness of the +cotton ones. When she was fairly in bed and tucked up, Adele, going +downstairs with Sylvie, could not refrain from saying, "All she has +isn't worth three francs, mademoiselle." + +Ever since her economical regime began, Sylvie had compelled the maid +to sit in the dining-room so that one fire and one lamp could do for +all; except when Colonel Gouraud and Vinet came, on which occasions +Adele was sent to the kitchen. + +Pierrette's arrival enlivened the rest of the evening. + +"We must get her some clothes to-morrow," said Sylvie; "she has +absolutely nothing." + +"No shoes but those she had on, which weigh a pound," said Adele. + +"That's always so, in their part of the country," remarked Rogron. + +"How she looked at her room! though it really isn't handsome enough +for a cousin of yours, mademoiselle." + +"It is good enough; hold your tongue," said Sylvie. + +"Gracious, what chemises! coarse enough to scratch her skin off; not a +thing can she use here," said Adele, emptying the bundle. + +Master, mistress, and servant were busy till past ten o'clock, +deciding what cambric they should buy for the new chemises, how many +pairs of stockings, how many under-petticoats, and what material, and +in reckoning up the whole cost of Pierrette's outfit. + +"You won't get off under three hundred francs," said Rogron, who +could remember the different prices, and add them up from his former +shop-keeping habit. + +"Three hundred francs!" cried Sylvie. + +"Yes, three hundred. Add it up." + +The brother and sister went over the calculation once more, and found +the cost would be fully three hundred francs, not counting the making. + +"Three hundred francs at one stroke!" said Sylvie to herself as she +got into bed. + + * * * * * + +Pierrette was one of those children of love whom love endows with its +tenderness, its vivacity, its gaiety, its nobility, its devotion. +Nothing had so far disturbed or wounded a heart that was delicate as +that of a fawn, but which was now painfully repressed by the cold +greeting of her cousins. If Brittany had been full of outward misery, +at least it was full of love. The old Lorrains were the most incapable +of merchants, but they were also the most loving, frank, caressing, of +friends, like all who are incautious and free from calculation. Their +little granddaughter had received no other education at Pen-Hoel than +that of nature. Pierrette went where she liked, in a boat on the pond, +or roaming the village and the fields with Jacques Brigaut, her +comrade, exactly as Paul and Virginia might have done. Petted by +everybody, free as air, they gaily chased the joys of childhood. In +summer they ran to watch the fishing, they caught the many-colored +insects, they gathered flowers, they gardened; in winter they made +slides, they built snow-men or huts, or pelted each other with +snowballs. Welcomed by all, they met with smiles wherever they went. + +When the time came to begin their education, disasters came, too. +Jacques, left without means at the death of his father, was +apprenticed by his relatives to a cabinet-maker, and fed by charity, +as Pierrette was soon to be at Saint-Jacques. Until the little girl +was taken with her grandparents to that asylum, she had known nothing +but fond caresses and protection from every one. Accustomed to confide +in so much love, the little darling missed in these rich relatives, so +eagerly desired, the kindly looks and ways which all the world, even +strangers and the conductors of the coaches, had bestowed upon her. +Her bewilderment, already great, was increased by the moral atmosphere +she had entered. The heart turns suddenly cold or hot like the body. +The poor child wanted to cry, without knowing why; but being very +tired she went to sleep. + +The next morning, Pierrette being, like all country children, +accustomed to get up early, was awake two hours before the cook. She +dressed herself, stepping on tiptoe about her room, looked out at the +little square, started to go downstairs and was struck with amazement +by the beauties of the staircase. She stopped to examine all its +details: the painted walls, the brasses, the various ornamentations, +the window fixtures. Then she went down to the garden-door, but was +unable to open it, and returned to her room to wait until Adele should +be stirring. As soon as the woman went to the kitchen Pierrette flew +to the garden and took possession of it, ran to the river, was amazed +at the kiosk, and sat down in it; truly, she had enough to see and to +wonder at until her cousins were up. At breakfast Sylvie said to +her:-- + +"Was it you, little one, who was trotting over my head by daybreak, +and making that racket on the stairs? You woke me so that I couldn't +go to sleep again. You must be very good and quiet, and amuse yourself +without noise. Your cousin doesn't like noise." + +"And you must wipe your feet," said Rogron. "You went into the kiosk +with your dirty shoes, and they've tracked all over the floor. Your +cousin likes cleanliness. A great girl like you ought to be clean. +Weren't you clean in Brittany? But I recollect when I went down there +to buy thread it was pitiable to see the folks,--they were like +savages. At any rate she has a good appetite," added Rogron, looking +at his sister; "one would think she hadn't eaten anything for days." + +Thus, from the very start Pierrette was hurt by the remarks of her two +cousins,--hurt, she knew not why. Her straightforward, open nature, +hitherto left to itself, was not given to reflection. Incapable of +thinking that her cousins were hard, she was fated to find it out +slowly through suffering. After breakfast the brother and sister, +pleased with Pierrette's astonishment at the house and anxious to +enjoy it, took her to the salon to show her its splendors and teach +her not to touch them. Many celibates, driven by loneliness and the +moral necessity of caring for something, substitute factitious +affections for natural ones; they love dogs, cats, canaries, servants, +or their confessor. Rogron and Sylvie had come to the pass of loving +immoderately their house and furniture, which had cost them so dear. +Sylvie began by helping Adele in the mornings to dust and arrange the +furniture, under pretence that she did not know how to keep it looking +as good as new. This dusting was soon a desired occupation to her, and +the furniture, instead of losing its value in her eyes, became ever +more precious. To use things without hurting them or soiling them or +scratching the woodwork or clouding the varnish, that was the problem +which soon became the mania of the old maid's life. Sylvie had a +closet full of bits of wool, wax, varnish, and brushes, which she had +learned to use with the dexterity of a cabinet-maker; she had her +feather dusters and her dusting-cloths; and she rubbed away without +fear of hurting herself,--she was so strong. The glance of her cold +blue eyes, hard as steel, was forever roving over the furniture and +under it, and you could as soon have found a tender spot in her heart +as a bit of fluff under the sofa. + +After the remarks made at Madame Tiphaine's, Sylvie dared not flinch +from the three hundred francs for Pierrette's clothes. During the +first week her time was wholly taken up, and Pierrette's too, by +frocks to order and try on, chemises and petticoats to cut out and +have made by a seamstress who went out by the day. Pierrette did not +know how to sew. + +"That's pretty bringing up!" said Rogron. "Don't you know how to do +anything, little girl?" + +Pierrette, who knew nothing but how to love, made a pretty, childish +gesture. + +"What did you do in Brittany?" asked Rogron. + +"I played," she answered, naively. "Everybody played with me. +Grandmamma and grandpapa they told me stories. Ah! they all loved me!" + +"Hey!" said Rogron; "didn't you take it easy!" + +Pierrette opened her eyes wide, not comprehending. + +"She is as stupid as an owl," said Sylvie to Mademoiselle Borain, the +best seamstress in Provins. + +"She's so young," said the workwoman, looking kindly at Pierrette, +whose delicate little muzzle was turned up to her with a coaxing look. + +Pierrette preferred the sewing-women to her relations. She was +endearing in her ways with them, she watched their work, and made them +those pretty speeches that seem like the flowers of childhood, and +which her cousin had already silenced, for that gaunt woman loved to +impress those under her with salutary awe. The sewing-women were +delighted with Pierrette. Their work, however, was not carried on +without many and loud grumblings. + +"That child will make us pay through the nose!" cried Sylvie to her +brother. + +"Stand still, my dear, and don't plague us; it is all for you and not +for me," she would say to Pierrette when the child was being measured. +Sometimes it was, when Pierrette would ask the seamstress some +question, "Let Mademoiselle Borain do her work, and don't talk to her; +it is not you who are paying for her time." + +"Mademoiselle," said Mademoiselle Borain, "am I to back-stitch this?" + +"Yes, do it firmly; I don't want to be making such an outfit as this +every day." + +Sylvie put the same spirit of emulation into Pierrette's outfit that +she had formerly put into the house. She was determined that her +cousin should be as well dressed as Madame Garceland's little girl. +She bought the child fashionable boots of bronzed kid like those the +little Tiphaines wore, very fine cotton stockings, a corset by the +best maker, a dress of blue reps, a pretty cape lined with white silk, +--all this that she, Sylvie, might hold her own against the children +of the women who had rejected her. The underclothes were quite in +keeping with the visible articles of dress, for Sylvie feared the +examining eyes of the various mothers. Pierrette's chemises were of +fine Madapolam calico. Mademoiselle Borain had mentioned that the +sub-prefect's little girls wore cambric drawers, embroidered and +trimmed in the latest style. Pierrette had the same. Sylvie ordered +for her a charming little drawn bonnet of blue velvet lined with white +satin, precisely like the one worn by Dr. Martener's little daughter. + +Thus attired, Pierrette was the most enchanting little girl in all +Provins. On Sunday, after church, all the ladies kissed her; Mesdames +Tiphaine, Garceland, Galardon, Julliard, and the rest fell in love +with the sweet little Breton girl. This enthusiasm was deeply +flattering to old Sylvie's self-love; she regarded it as less due to +Pierrette than to her own benevolence. She ended, however, in being +affronted by her cousin's success. Pierrette was constantly invited +out, and Sylvie allowed her to go, always for the purpose of +triumphing over "those ladies." Pierrette was much in demand for games +or little parties and dinners with their own little girls. She had +succeeded where the Rogrons had failed; and Mademoiselle Sylvie soon +grew indignant that Pierrette was asked to other children's houses +when those children never came to hers. The artless little thing did +not conceal the pleasure she found in her visits to these ladies, +whose affectionate manners contrasted strangely with the harshness of +her two cousins. A mother would have rejoiced in the happiness of her +little one, but the Rogrons had taken Pierrette for their own sakes, +not for hers; their feelings, far from being parental, were dyed in +selfishness and a sort of commercial calculation. + +The handsome outfit, the fine Sunday dresses, and the every-day frocks +were the beginning of Pierrette's troubles. Like all children free to +amuse themselves, who are accustomed to follow the dictates of their +own lively fancies, she was very hard on her clothes, her shoes, and +above all on those embroidered drawers. A mother when she reproves her +child thinks only of the child; her voice is gentle; she does not +raise it unless driven to extremities, or when the child is much in +fault. But here, in this great matter of Pierrette's clothes, the +cousins' money was the first consideration; their interests were to be +thought of, not the child's. Children have the perceptions of the +canine race for the sentiments of those who rule them; they know +instinctively whether they are loved or only tolerated. Pure and +innocent hearts are more distressed by shades of difference than by +contrasts; a child does not understand evil, but it knows when the +instinct of the good and the beautiful which nature has implanted in +it is shocked. The lectures which Pierrette now drew upon herself on +propriety of behavior, modesty, and economy were merely the corollary +of the one theme, "Pierrette will ruin us." + +These perpetual fault-findings, which were destined to have a fatal +result for the poor child, brought the two celibates back to the old +beaten track of their shop-keeping habits, from which their removal to +Provins had parted them, and in which their natures were now to expand +and flourish. Accustomed in the old days to rule and to make +inquisitions, to order about and reprove their clerks sharply, Rogron +and his sister had actually suffered for want of victims. Little minds +need to practise despotism to relieve their nerves, just as great +souls thirst for equality in friendship to exercise their hearts. +Narrow natures expand by persecuting as much as others through +beneficence; they prove their power over their fellows by cruel +tyranny as others do by loving kindness; they simply go the way their +temperaments drive them. Add to this the propulsion of self-interest +and you may read the enigma of most social matters. + +Thenceforth Pierrette became a necessity to the lives of her cousins. +From the day of her coming their minds were occupied,--first, with her +outfit, and then with the novelty of a third presence. But every new +thing, a sentiment and even a tyranny, is moulded as time goes on into +fresh shapes. Sylvie began by calling Pierrette "my dear," or "little +one." Then she abandoned the gentler terms for "Pierrette" only. Her +reprimands, at first only cross, became sharp and angry; and no sooner +were their feet on the path of fault-finding than the brother and +sister made rapid strides. They were no longer bored to death! It was +not their deliberate intention to be wicked and cruel; it was simply +the blind instinct of an imbecile tyranny. The pair believed they were +doing Pierrette a service, just as they had thought their harshness a +benefit to their apprentices. + +Pierrette, whose true and noble and extreme sensibility was the +antipodes of the Rogrons' hardness, had a dread of being scolded; it +wounded her so sharply that the tears would instantly start in her +beautiful, pure eyes. She had a great struggle with herself before she +could repress the enchanting sprightliness which made her so great a +favorite elsewhere. After a time she displayed it only in the homes of +her little friends. By the end of the first month she had learned to +be passive in her cousins' house,--so much so that Rogron one day +asked her if she was ill. At that sudden question, she ran to the end +of the garden, and stood crying beside the river, into which her tears +may have fallen as she herself was about to fall into the social +torrent. + +One day, in spite of all her care, she tore her best reps frock at +Madame Tiphaine's, where she was spending a happy day. The poor child +burst into tears, foreseeing the cruel things which would be said to +her at home. Questioned by her friends, she let fall a few words about +her terrible cousin. Madame Tiphaine happened to have some reps +exactly like that of the frock, and she put in a new breadth herself. +Mademoiselle Rogron found out the trick, as she expressed it, which +the little devil had played her. From that day forth she refused to +let Pierrette go to any of "those women's" houses. + +The life the poor girl led in Provins was divided into three distinct +phases. The first, already shown, in which she had some joy mingled +with the cold kindness of her cousins and their sharp reproaches, +lasted three months. Sylvie's refusal to let her go to her little +friends, backed by the necessity of beginning her education, ended the +first phase of her life at Provins, the only period when that life was +bearable to her. + +These events, produced at the Rogrons by Pierrette's presence, were +studied by Vinet and the colonel with the caution of foxes preparing +to enter a poultry-yard and disturbed by seeing a strange fowl. They +both called from time to time,--but seldom, so as not to alarm the old +maid; they talked with Rogron under various pretexts, and made +themselves masters of his mind with an affectation of reserve and +modesty which the great Tartuffe himself would have respected. The +colonel and the lawyer were spending the evening with Rogron on the +very day when Sylvie had refused in bitter language to let Pierrette +go again to Madame Tiphaine's, or elsewhere. Being told of this +refusal the colonel and the lawyer looked at each other with an air +which seemed to say that they at least knew Provins well. + +"Madame Tiphaine intended to insult you," said the lawyer. "We have +long been warning Rogron of what would happen. There's no good to be +got from those people." + +"What can you expect from the anti-national party!" cried the colonel, +twirling his moustache and interrupting the lawyer. "But, +mademoiselle, if we had tried to warn you from those people you might +have supposed we had some malicious motive in what we said. If you +like a game of cards in the evening, why don't you have it at home; +why not play your boston here, in your own house? Is it impossible to +fill the places of those idiots, the Julliards and all the rest of +them? Vinet and I know how to play boston, and we can easily find a +fourth. Vinet might present his wife to you; she is charming, and, +what is more, a Chargeboeuf. You will not be so exacting as those apes +of the Upper town; _you_ won't require a good little housewife, who is +compelled by the meanness of her family to do her own work, to dress +like a duchess. Poor woman, she has the courage of a lion and the +meekness of a lamb." + +Sylvie Rogron showed her long yellow teeth as she smiled on the +colonel, who bore the sight heroically and assumed a flattered air. + +"If we are only four we can't play boston every night," said Sylvie. + +"Why not? What do you suppose an old soldier of the Empire like me +does with himself? And as for Vinet, his evenings are always free. +Besides, you'll have plenty of other visitors; I warrant you that," he +added, with a rather mysterious air. + +"What you ought to do," said Vinet, "is to take an open stand against +the ministerialists of Provins and form an opposition to them. You +would soon see how popular that would make you; you would have a +society about you at once. The Tiphaines would be furious at an +opposition salon. Well, well, why not laugh at others, if others laugh +at you?--and they do; the clique doesn't mince matters in talking +about you." + +"How's that?" demanded Sylvie. + +In the provinces there is always a valve or a faucet through which +gossip leaks from one social set to another. Vinet knew all the slurs +cast upon the Rogrons in the salons from which they were now excluded. +The deputy-judge and archaeologist Desfondrilles belonged to neither +party. With other independents like him, he repeated what he heard on +both sides and Vinet made the most of it. The lawyer's spiteful tongue +put venom into Madame Tiphaine's speeches, and by showing Rogron and +Sylvie the ridicule they had brought upon themselves he roused an +undying spirit of hatred in those bitter natures, which needed an +object for their petty passions. + +A few days later Vinet brought his wife, a well-bred woman, neither +pretty nor plain, timid, very gentle, and deeply conscious of her +false position. Madame Vinet was fair-complexioned, faded by the cares +of her poor household, and very simply dressed. No woman could have +pleased Sylvie more. Madame Vinet endured her airs, and bent before +them like one accustomed to subjection. On the poor woman's rounded +brow and delicately timid cheek and in her slow and gentle glance, +were the traces of deep reflection, of those perceptive thoughts which +women who are accustomed to suffer bury in total silence. + +The influence of the colonel (who now displayed to Sylvie the graces +of a courtier, in marked contradiction to his usual military +brusqueness), together with that of the astute Vinet, was soon to harm +the Breton child. Shut up in the house, no longer allowed to go out +except in company with her old cousin, Pierrette, that pretty little +squirrel, was at the mercy of the incessant cry, "Don't touch that, +child, let that alone!" She was perpetually being lectured on her +carriage and behavior; if she stooped or rounded her shoulders her +cousin would call to her to be as erect as herself (Sylvie was rigid +as a soldier presenting arms to his colonel); sometimes indeed the +ill-natured old maid enforced the order by slaps on the back to make +the girl straighten up. + +Thus the free and joyous little child of the Marais learned by degrees +to repress all liveliness and to make herself, as best she could, an +automaton. + + + + V + + HISTORY OF POOR COUSINS IN THE HOME OF RICH ONES + +One evening, which marked the beginning of Pierrette's second phase of +life in her cousin's house, the child, whom the three guests had not +seen during the evening, came into the room to kiss her relatives and +say good-night to the company. Sylvie turned her cheek coldly to the +pretty creature, as if to avoid kissing her. The motion was so cruelly +significant that the tears sprang to Pierrette's eyes. + +"Did you prick yourself, little girl?" said the atrocious Vinet. + +"What is the matter?" asked Sylvie, severely. + +"Nothing," said the poor child, going up to Rogron. + +"Nothing?" said Sylvie, "that's nonsense; nobody cries for nothing." + +"What is it, my little darling?" said Madame Vinet. + +"My rich cousin isn't as kind to me as my poor grandmother was," +sobbed Pierrette. + +"Your grandmother took your money," said Sylvie, "and your cousin will +leave you hers." + +The colonel and the lawyer glanced at each other. + +"I would rather be robbed and loved," said Pierrette. + +"Then you shall be sent back whence you came." + +"But what has the dear little thing done?" asked Madame Vinet. + +Vinet gave his wife the terrible, fixed, cold look with which men +enforce their absolute dominion. The hapless helot, punished +incessantly for not having the one thing that was wanted of her, a +fortune, took up her cards. + +"What has she done?" said Sylvie, throwing up her head with such +violence that the yellow wall-flowers in her cap nodded. "She is +always looking about to annoy us. She opened my watch to see the +inside, and meddled with the wheel and broke the mainspring. +Mademoiselle pays no heed to what is said to her. I am all day long +telling her to take care of things, and I might just as well talk to +that lamp." + +Pierrette, ashamed at being reproved before strangers, crept softly +out of the room. + +"I am thinking all the time how to subdue that child," said Rogron. + +"Isn't she old enough to go to school?" asked Madame Vinet. + +Again she was silenced by a look from her husband, who had been +careful to tell her nothing of his own or the colonel's schemes. + +"This is what comes of taking charge of other people's children!" +cried the colonel. "You may still have some of your own, you or your +brother. Why don't you both marry?" + +Sylvie smiled agreeably on the colonel. For the first time in her life +she met a man to whom the idea that she could marry did not seem +absurd. + +"Madame Vinet is right," cried Rogron; "perhaps teaching would keep +Pierrette quiet. A master wouldn't cost much." + +The colonel's remark so preoccupied Sylvie that she made no answer to +her brother. + +"If you are willing to be security for that opposition journal I was +talking to you about," said Vinet, "you will find an excellent master +for the little cousin in the managing editor; we intend to engage that +poor schoolmaster who lost his employment through the encroachments of +the clergy. My wife is right; Pierrette is a rough diamond that wants +polishing." + +"I thought you were a baron," said Sylvie to the colonel, while the +cards were being dealt, and after a long pause in which they had all +been rather thoughtful. + +"Yes; but when I was made baron, in 1814, after the battle of Nangis, +where my regiment performed miracles, I had money and influence enough +to secure the rank. But now my barony is like the grade of general +which I held in 1815,--it needs a revolution to give it back to me." + +"If you will secure my endorsement by a mortgage," said Rogron, +answering Vinet after long consideration, "I will give it." + +"That can easily be arranged," said Vinet. "The new paper will soon +restore the colonel's rights, and make your salon more powerful in +Provins than those of Tiphaine and company." + +"How so?" asked Sylvie. + +While his wife was dealing and Vinet himself explaining the importance +they would all gain by the publication of an independent newspaper, +Pierrette was dissolved in tears; her heart and her mind were one in +this matter; she felt and knew that her cousin was more to blame than +she was. The little country girl instinctively understood that charity +and benevolence ought to be a complete offering. She hated her +handsome frocks and all the things that were made for her; she was +forced to pay too dearly for such benefits. She wept with vexation at +having given cause for complaint against her, and resolved to behave +in future in such a way as to compel her cousins to find no further +fault with her. The thought then came into her mind how grand Brigaut +had been in giving her all his savings without a word. Poor child! she +fancied her troubles were now at their worst; she little knew that +other misfortunes were even now being planned for her in the salon. + +A few days later Pierrette had a writing-master. She was taught to +read, write, and cipher. Enormous injury was thus supposed to be done +to the Rogrons' house. Ink-spots were found on the tables, on the +furniture, on Pierrette's clothes; copy-books and pens were left +about; sand was scattered everywhere, books were torn and dog's-eared +as the result of these lessons. She was told in harsh terms that she +would have to earn her own living, and not be a burden to others. As +she listened to these cruel remarks Pierrette's throat contracted +violently with acute pain, her heart throbbed. She was forced to +restrain her tears, or she was scolded for weeping and told it was an +insult to the kindness of her magnanimous cousins. Rogron had found +the life that suited him. He scolded Pierrette as he used to scold his +clerks; he would call her when at play, and compel her to study; he +made her repeat her lessons, and became himself the almost savage +master of the poor child. Sylvie, on her side, considered it a duty to +teach Pierrette the little that she knew herself about women's work. +Neither Rogron nor his sister had the slightest softness in their +natures. Their narrow minds, which found real pleasure in worrying the +poor child, passed insensibly from outward kindness to extreme +severity. This severity was necessitated, they believed, by what they +called the self-will of the child, which had not been broken when +young and was very obstinate. Her masters were ignorant how to give to +their instructions a form suited to the intelligence of the pupil,--a +thing, by the bye, which marks the difference between public and +private education. The fault was far less with Pierrette than with her +cousins. It took her an infinite length of time to learn the +rudiments. She was called stupid and dull, clumsy and awkward for mere +nothings. Incessantly abused in words, the child suffered still more +from the harsh looks of her cousins. She acquired the doltish ways of +a sheep; she dared not do anything of her own impulse, for all she did +was misinterpreted, misjudged, and ill-received. In all things she +awaited silently the good pleasure and the orders of her cousins, +keeping her thoughts within her own mind and sheltering herself behind +a passive obedience. Her brilliant colors began to fade. Sometimes she +complained of feeling ill. When her cousin asked, "Where?" the poor +little thing, who had pains all over her, answered, "Everywhere." + +"Nonsense! who ever heard of any one suffering everywhere?" cried +Sylvie. "If you suffered everywhere you'd be dead." + +"People suffer in their chests," said Rogron, who liked to hear +himself harangue, "or they have toothache, headache, pains in their +feet or stomach, but no one has pains everywhere. What do you mean by +everywhere? I can tell you; 'everywhere' means _nowhere_. Don't you +know what you are doing?--you are complaining for complaining's sake." + +Pierrette ended by total silence, seeing how all her girlish remarks, +the flowers of her dawning intelligence, were replied to with ignorant +commonplaces which her natural good sense told her were ridiculous. + +"You complain," said Rogron, "but you've got the appetite of a monk." + +The only person who did not bruise the delicate little flower was the +fat servant woman, Adele. Adele would go up and warm her bed,--doing +it on the sly after a certain evening when Sylvie had scolded her for +giving that comfort to the child. + +"Children should be hardened, to give them strong constitutions. Am I +and my brother the worse for it?" said Sylvie. "You'll make Pierrette +a _peakling_"; this was a word in the Rogron vocabulary which meant a +puny and suffering little being. + +The naturally endearing ways of the angelic child were treated as +dissimulation. The fresh, pure blossoms of affection which bloomed +instinctively in that young soul were pitilessly crushed. Pierrette +suffered many a cruel blow on the tender flesh of her heart. If she +tried to soften those ferocious natures by innocent, coaxing wiles +they accused her of doing it with an object. "Tell me at once what you +want?" Rogron would say, brutally; "you are not coaxing me for +nothing." + +Neither brother nor sister believed in affection, and Pierrette's +whole being was affection. Colonel Gouraud, anxious to please +Mademoiselle Rogron, approved of all she did about Pierrette. Vinet +also encouraged them in what they said against her. He attributed all +her so-called misdeeds to the obstinacy of the Breton character, and +declared that no power, no will, could ever conquer it. Rogron and his +sister were so shrewdly flattered by the two manoeuvrers that the +former agreed to go security for the "Courrier de Provins," and the +latter invested five thousand francs in the enterprise. + +On this, the colonel and lawyer took the field. They got a hundred +shares, of five hundred francs each, taken among the farmers and +others called independents, and also among those who had bought lands +of the national domains,--whose fears they worked upon. They even +extended their operations throughout the department and along its +borders. Each shareholder of course subscribed to the paper. The +judicial advertisements were divided between the "Bee-hive" and the +"Courrier." The first issue of the latter contained a pompous eulogy +on Rogron. He was presented to the community as the Laffitte of +Provins. The public mind having thus received an impetus in this new +direction, it was manifest, of course, that the coming elections would +be contested. Madame Tiphaine, whose highest hope was to take her +husband to Paris as deputy, was in despair. After reading an article +in the new paper aimed at her and at Julliard junior, she remarked: +"Unfortunately for me, I forgot that there is always a scoundrel close +to a dupe, and that fools are magnets to clever men of the fox breed." + +As soon as the "Courrier" was fairly launched on a radius of fifty +miles, Vinet bought a new coat and decent boots, waistcoats, and +trousers. He set up the gray slouch hat sacred to liberals, and showed +his linen. His wife took a servant, and appeared in public dressed as +the wife of a prominent man should be; her caps were pretty. Vinet +proved grateful--out of policy. He and his friend Cournant, the +liberal notary and the rival of the ministerial notary Auffray, became +the close advisers of the Rogrons, to whom they were able to do a +couple of signal services. The leases granted by old Rogron to their +father in 1815, when matters were at a low ebb, were about to expire. +Horticulture and vegetable gardening had developed enormously in the +neighborhood of Provins. The lawyer and notary set to work to enable +the Rogrons to increase their rentals. Vinet won two lawsuits against +two districts on a question of planting trees, which involved five +hundred poplars. The proceeds of the poplars, added to the savings of +the brother and sister, who for the last three years had laid by six +thousand a year at high interest, was wisely invested in the purchase +of improved lands. Vinet also undertook and carried out the ejectment +of certain peasants to whom the elder Rogron had lent money on their +farms, and who had strained every nerve to pay off the debt, but in +vain. The cost of the Rogrons' fine house was thus in a measure +recouped. Their landed property, lying around Provins and chosen by +their father with the sagacious eye of an innkeeper, was divided into +small holdings, the largest of which did not exceed five acres, and +rented to safe tenants, men who owned other parcels of land, that were +ample security for their leases. These investments brought in, by +1826, five thousand francs a year. Taxes were charged to the tenants, +and there were no buildings needing insurance or repairs. + +By the end of the second period of Pierrette's stay in Provins life +had become so hard for her, the cold indifference of all who came to +the house, the silly fault-finding, and the total absence of affection +on the part of her cousins grew so bitter, she was conscious of a +chill dampness like that of a grave creeping round her, that the bold +idea of escaping, on foot and without money, to Brittany and to her +grandparents took possession of her mind. Two events hindered her from +attempting it. Old Lorrain died, and Rogron was appointed guardian of +his little cousin. If the grandmother had died first, we may believe +that Rogron, advised by Vinet, would have claimed Pierrette's eight +thousand francs and reduced the old man to penury. + +"You may, perhaps, inherit from Pierrette," said Vinet, with a horrid +smile. "Who knows who may live and who may die?" + +Enlightened by that remark, Rogron gave old Madame Lorrain no peace +until she had secured to Pierrette the reversion of the eight thousand +francs at her death. + +Pierrette was deeply shocked by these events. She was on the point of +making her first communion,--another reason for resigning the hope of +escape from Provins. This ceremony, simple and customary as it was, +led to great changes in the Rogron household. Sylvie learned that +Monsieur le cure Peroux was instructing the little Julliards, +Lesourds, Garcelands, and the rest. She therefore made it a point of +honor that Pierrette should be instructed by the vicar himself, +Monsieur Habert, a priest who was thought to belong to the +_Congregation_, very zealous for the interests of the Church, and much +feared in Provins,--a man who hid a vast ambition beneath the +austerity of stern principles. The sister of this priest, an unmarried +woman about thirty years of age, kept a school for young ladies. +Brother and sister looked alike; both were thin, yellow, black-haired, +and bilious. + +Like a true Breton girl, cradled in the practices and poetry of +Catholicism, Pierrette opened her heart and ears to the words of this +imposing priest. Sufferings predispose the mind to devotion, and +nearly all young girls, impelled by instinctive tenderness, are +inclined to mysticism, the deepest aspect of religion. The priest +found good soil in which to sow the seed of the Gospel and the dogmas +of the Church. He completely changed the current of the girl's +thoughts. Pierrette loved Jesus Christ in the light in which he is +presented to young girls at the time of their first communion, as a +celestial bridegroom; her physical and moral sufferings gained a +meaning for her; she saw the finger of God in all things. Her soul, so +cruelly hurt although she could not accuse her cousins of actual +wrong, took refuge in that sphere to which all sufferers fly on the +wings of the cardinal virtues,--Faith, Hope, Charity. She abandoned +her thoughts of escape. Sylvie, surprised by the transformation +Monsieur Habert had effected in Pierrette, was curious to know how it +had been done. And it thus came about that the austere priest, while +preparing Pierrette for her first communion, also won to God the +hitherto erring soul of Mademoiselle Sylvie. Sylvie became pious. +Jerome Rogron, on whom the so-called Jesuit could get no grip (for +just then the influence of His Majesty the late _Constitutionnel_ the +First was more powerful over weaklings than the influence of the +Church), Jerome Rogron remained faithful to Colonel Gouraud, Vinet, +and Liberalism. + +Mademoiselle Rogron naturally made the acquaintance of Mademoiselle +Habert, with whom she sympathized deeply. The two spinsters loved each +other as sisters. Mademoiselle Habert offered to take Pierrette into +her school to spare Sylvie the annoyance of her education; but the +brother and sister both declared that Pierrette's absence would make +the house too lonely; their attachment to their little cousin seemed +excessive. + +When Gouraud and Vinet became aware of the advent of Mademoiselle +Habert on the scene they concluded that the ambitious priest her +brother had the same matrimonial plan for his sister that the colonel +was forming for himself and Sylvie. + +"Your sister wants to get you married," said Vinet to Rogron. + +"With whom?" asked Rogron. + +"With that old sorceress of a schoolmistress," cried the colonel, +twirling his moustache. + +"She hasn't said anything to me about it," said Rogron, naively. + +So thorough an old maid as Sylvie was certain to make good progress in +the way of salvation. The influence of the priest would as certainly +increase, and in the end affect Rogron, over whom Sylvie had great +power. The two Liberals, who were naturally alarmed, saw plainly that +if the priest were resolved to marry his sister to Rogron (a far more +suitable marriage than that of Sylvie to the colonel) he could then +drive Sylvie in extreme devotion to the Church, and put Pierrette in a +convent. They might therefore lose eighteen months' labor in flattery +and meannesses of all sorts. Their minds were suddenly filled with a +bitter, silent hatred to the priest and his sister, though they felt +the necessity of living on good terms with them in order to track +their manoeuvres. Monsieur and Mademoiselle Habert, who could play +both whist and boston, now came every evening to the Rogrons. The +assiduity of the one pair induced the assiduity of the other. The +colonel and lawyer felt that they were pitted against adversaries who +were fully as strong as they,--a presentiment that was shared by the +priest and his sister. The situation soon became that of a +battle-field. Precisely as the colonel was enabling Sylvie to taste +the unhoped-for joys of being sought in marriage, so Mademoiselle +Habert was enveloping the timid Rogron in the cotton-wool of her +attentions, words, and glances. Neither side could utter that grand +word of statesmanship, "Let us divide!" for each wanted the whole prey. + +The two clever foxes of the Opposition made the mistake of pulling the +first trigger. Vinet, under the spur of self-interest, bethought +himself of his wife's only friends, and looked up Mademoiselle de +Chargeboeuf and her mother. The two women were living in poverty at +Troyes on two thousand francs a year. Mademoiselle Bathilde de +Chargeboeuf was one of those fine creatures who believe in marriage +for love up to their twenty-fifth year, and change their opinion when +they find themselves still unmarried. Vinet managed to persuade Madame +de Chargeboeuf to join her means to his and live with his family in +Provins, where Bathilde, he assured her, could marry a fool named +Rogron, and, clever as she was, take her place in the best society of +the place. + +The arrival of Madame and Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf in the lawyer's +household was a great reinforcement for the liberal party; and it +created consternation among the aristocrats of Provins and also in the +Tiphaine clique. Madame de Breautey, horrified to see two women of +rank so misled, begged them to come to her. She was shocked that the +royalists of Troyes had so neglected the mother and daughter, whose +situation she now learned for the first time. + +"How is it that no old country gentleman has married that dear girl, +who is cut out for a lady of the manor?" she said. "They have let her +run to seed, and now she is to be flung at the head of a Rogron!" + +She ransacked the whole department but did not succeed in finding any +gentleman willing to marry a girl whose mother had only two thousand +francs a year. The "clique" and the subprefect also looked about them +with the same object, but they were all too late. Madame de Breautey +made terrible charges against the selfishness which degraded France, +--the consequence, she said, of materialism, and of the importance +now given by the laws to money: nobility was no longer of value! nor +beauty either! Such creatures as the Rogrons, the Vinets, could stand +up and fight with the King of France! + +Bathilde de Chargeboeuf had not only the incontestable superiority of +beauty over her rival, but that of dress as well. She was dazzlingly +fair. At twenty-five her shoulders were fully developed, and the +curves of her beautiful figure were exquisite. The roundness of her +throat, the purity of its lines, the wealth of her golden hair, the +charming grace of her smile, the distinguished carriage of her head, +the character of her features, the fine eyes finely placed beneath a +well-formed brow, her every motion, noble and high-bred, and her light +and graceful figure,--all were in harmony. Her hands were beautiful, +and her feet slender. Health gave her, perhaps, too much the look of a +handsome barmaid. "But that can't be a defect in the eyes of a +Rogron," sighed Madame Tiphaine. Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf's dress +when she made her first appearance in Provins at the Rogrons' house +was very simple. Her brown merino gown edged with green embroidery was +worn low-necked; but a tulle fichu, carefully drawn down by hidden +strings, covered her neck and shoulders, though it opened a little in +front, where its folds were caught together with a _sevigne_. Beneath +this delicate fabric Bathilde's beauties seemed all the more enticing +and coquettish. She took off her velvet bonnet and her shawl on +arriving, and showed her pretty ears adorned with what were then +called "ear-drops" in gold. She wore a little _jeannette_--a black +velvet ribbon with a heart attached--round her throat, where it shone +like the jet ring which fantastic nature had fastened round the tail +of a white angora cat. She knew all the little tricks of a girl who +seeks to marry; her fingers arranged her curls which were not in the +least out of order; she entreated Rogron to fasten a cuff-button, thus +showing him her wrist, a request which that dazzled fool rudely +refused, hiding his emotions under the mask of indifference. The +timidity of the only love he was ever to feel in the whole course of +his life took an external appearance of dislike. Sylvie and her friend +Celeste Habert were deceived by it; not so Vinet, the wise head of +this doltish circle, among whom no one really coped with him but the +priest,--the colonel being for a long time his ally. + +On the other hand the colonel was behaving to Sylvie very much as +Bathilde behaved to Rogron. He put on a clean shirt every evening and +wore velvet stocks, which set off his martial features and the +spotless white of his collar. He adopted the fashion of white pique +waistcoats, and caused to be made for him a new surtout of blue cloth, +on which his red rosette glowed finely; all this under pretext of +doing honor to the new guests Madame and Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf. +He even refrained from smoking for two hours previous to his +appearance in the Rogrons' salon. His grizzled hair was brushed in a +waving line across a cranium which was ochre in tone. He assumed the +air and manner of a party leader, of a man who was preparing to drive +out the enemies of France, the Bourbons, on short, to beat of drum. + +The satanic lawyer and the wily colonel played the priest and his +sister a more cruel trick than even the importation of the beautiful +Madame de Chargeboeuf, who was considered by all the Liberal party and +by Madame de Breautey and her aristocratic circle to be far handsomer +than Madame Tiphaine. These two great statesmen of the little +provincial town made everybody believe that the priest was in sympathy +with their ideas; so that before long Provins began to talk of him as +a liberal ecclesiastic. As soon as this news reached the bishop +Monsieur Habert was sent for and admonished to cease his visits to the +Rogrons; but his sister continued to go there. Thus the salon Rogron +became a fixed fact and a constituted power. + +Before the year was out political intrigues were not less lively than +the matrimonial schemes of the Rogron salon. While the selfish +interests hidden in these hearts were struggling in deadly combat the +events which resulted from them had a fatal celebrity. Everybody knows +that the Villele ministry was overthrown by the elections of 1826. +Vinet, the Liberal candidate at Provins, who had borrowed money of his +notary to buy a domain which made him eligible for election, came very +near defeating Monsieur Tiphaine, who saved his election by only two +votes. The headquarters of the Liberals was the Rogron salon; among +the _habitues_ were the notary Cournant and his wife, and Doctor +Neraud, whose youth was said to have been stormy, but who now took a +serious view of life; he gave himself up to study and was, according +to all Liberals, a far more capable man than Monsieur Martener, the +aristocratic physician. As for the Rogrons, they no more understood +their present triumph than they had formerly understood their +ostracism. + +The beautiful Bathilde, to whom Vinet had explained Pierrette as an +enemy, was extremely disdainful to the girl. It seemed as though +everybody's selfish schemes demanded the humiliation of that poor +victim. Madame Vinet could do nothing for her, ground as she herself +was beneath those implacable self-interests which the lawyer's wife +had come at last to see and comprehend. Her husband's imperious will +had alone taken her to the Rogron's house, where she had suffered much +at the harsh treatment of the pretty little creature, who would often +press up against her as if divining her secret thoughts, sometimes +asking the poor lady to show her a stitch in knitting or to teach her +a bit of embroidery. The child proved in return that if she were +treated gently she would understand what was taught her, and succeed +in what she tried to do quite marvellously. But Madame Vinet was soon +no longer necessary to her husband's plans, and after the arrival of +Madame and Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf she ceased to visit the +Rogrons. + +Sylvie, who now indulged in the idea of marrying, began to consider +Pierrette as an obstacle. The girl was nearly fourteen; the pallid +whiteness of her skin, a symptom of illness entirely overlooked by the +ignorant old maid, made her exquisitely lovely. Sylvie took it into +her head to balance the cost which Pierrette had been to them by +making a servant of her. All the _habitues_ of the house to whom she +spoke of the matter advised that she should send away Adele. Why +shouldn't Pierrette take care of the house and cook? If there was too +much work at any time Mademoiselle Rogron could easily employ the +colonel's woman-of-all-work, an excellent cook and a most respectable +person. Pierrette ought to learn how to cook, and rub floors, and +sweep, said the lawyer; every girl should be taught to keep house +properly and go to market and know the price of things. The poor +little soul, whose self-devotion was equal to her generosity, offered +herself willingly, pleased to think that she could earn the bitter +bread which she ate in that house. Adele was sent away, and Pierrette +thus lost the only person who might have protected her. + +In spite of the poor child's strength of heart she was henceforth +crushed down physically as well as mentally. Her cousins had less +consideration for her than for a servant; she belonged to them! She +was scolded for mere nothings, for an atom of dust left on a glass +globe or a marble mantelpiece. The handsome ornaments she had once +admired now became odious to her. No matter how she strove to do +right, her inexorable cousins always found something to reprove in +whatever she did. In the course of two years Pierrette never received +the slightest praise, or heard a kindly word. Happiness for her lay in +not being scolded. She bore with angelic patience the morose ill-humor +of the two celibates, to whom all tender feelings were absolutely +unknown, and who daily made her feel her dependence on them. + +Such a life for a young girl, pressed as it were between the two chops +of a vise, increased her illness. She began to feel violent internal +distresses, secret pangs so sudden in their attacks that her strength +was undermined and her natural development arrested. By slow degrees +and through dreadful, though hidden sufferings, the poor child came to +the state in which the companion of her childhood found her when he +sang to her his Breton ditty at the dawn of the October day. + + + + VI + + AN OLD MAID'S JEALOUSY + +Before we relate the domestic drama which the coming of Jacques +Brigaut was destined to bring about in the Rogron family it is best to +explain how the lad came to be in Provins; for he is, as it were, a +somewhat mute personage on the scene. + +When he ran from the house Brigaut was not only frightened by +Pierrette's gesture, he was horrified by the change he saw in his +little friend. He could scarcely recognize the voice, the eyes, the +gestures that were once so lively, gay, and withal so tender. When he +had gained some distance from the house his legs began to tremble +under him; hot flushes ran down his back. He had seen the shadow of +Pierrette, but not Pierrette herself! The lad climbed to the Upper +town till he found a spot from which he could see the square and the +house where Pierrette lived. He gazed at it mournfully, lost in many +thoughts, as though he were entering some grief of which he could not +see the end. Pierrette was ill; she was not happy; she pined for +Brittany--what was the matter with her? All these questions passed and +repassed through his heart and rent it, revealing to his own soul the +extent of his love for his little adopted sister. + +It is extremely rare to find a passion existing between two children +of opposite sexes. The charming story of Paul and Virginia does not, +any more than this of Pierrette and Brigaut, answer the question put +by that strange moral fact. Modern history offers only the illustrious +instance of the Marchesa di Pescara and her husband. Destined to marry +by their parents from their earliest years, they adored each other and +were married, and their union gave to the sixteenth century the noble +spectacle of a perfect conjugal love without a flaw. When the marchesa +became a widow at the age of thirty-four, beautiful, intellectually +brilliant, universally adored, she refused to marry sovereigns and +buried herself in a convent, seeing and knowing thenceforth only nuns. +Such was the perfect love that suddenly developed itself in the heart +of the Breton workman. Pierrette and he had often protected each +other; with what bliss had he given her the money for her journey; he +had almost killed himself by running after the diligence when she left +him. Pierrette had known nothing of all that; but for him the +recollection had warmed and comforted the cold, hard life he had led +for the last three years. For Pierrette's sake he had struggled to +improve himself; he had learned his trade for Pierrette; he had come +to Paris for Pierrette, intending to make his fortune for _her_. After +spending a fortnight in the city, he had not been able to hold out +against the desire to see her, and he had walked from Saturday night +to Monday morning. He intended to return to Paris; but the moving +sight of his little friend nailed him to Provins. A wonderful +magnetism (still denied in spite of many proofs) acted upon him +without his knowledge. Tears rolled from his eyes when they rose in +hers. If to her he was Brittany and her happy childhood, to him she +was life itself. + +At sixteen years of age Brigaut did not yet know how to draw or to +model a cornice; he was ignorant of much, but he had earned, by +piece-work done in the leisure of his apprenticeship, some four or five +francs a day. On this he could live in Provins and be near Pierrette; +he would choose the best cabinet-maker in the town, and learn the rest +of his trade in working for him, and thus keep watch over his darling. + +Brigaut's mind was made up as he sat there thinking. He went back to +Paris and fetched his certificate, tools, and baggage, and three days +later he was a journeyman in the establishment of Monsieur Frappier, +the best cabinet-maker in Provins. Active, steady workmen, not given +to junketing and taverns, are so rare that masters hold to young men +like Brigaut when they find them. To end Brigaut's history on this +point, we will say here that by the end of the month he was made +foreman, and was fed and lodged by Frappier, who taught him arithmetic +and line drawing. The house and shop were in the Grand'Rue, not a +hundred feet from the little square where Pierrette lived. + +Brigaut buried his love in his heart and committed no imprudence. He +made Madame Frappier tell him all she knew about the Rogrons. Among +other things, she related to him the way in which their father had +laid hands on the property of old Auffray, Pierrette's grandfather. +Brigaut obtained other information as to the character of the brother +and sister. He met Pierrette sometimes in the market with her cousin, +and shuddered to see the heavy basket she was carrying on her arm. On +Sundays he went to church to look for her, dressed in her best +clothes. There, for the first time, he became aware that Pierrette was +Mademoiselle Lorrain. Pierrette saw him and made him a hasty sign to +keep out of sight. To him, there was a world of things in that little +gesture, as there had been, a fortnight earlier, in the sign by which +she told him from her window to run away. Ah! what a fortune he must +make in the coming ten years in order to marry his little friend, to +whom, he was told, the Rogrons were to leave their house, a hundred +acres of land, and twelve thousand francs a year, not counting their +savings! + +The persevering Breton was determined to be thoroughly educated for +his trade, and he set about acquiring all the knowledge that he +lacked. As long as only the principles of his work were concerned he +could learn those in Provins as well as in Paris, and thus remain near +Pierrette, to whom he now became anxious to explain his projects and +the sort of protection she could rely on from him. He was determined +to know the reason of her pallor, and of the debility which was +beginning to appear in the organ which is always the last to show the +signs of failing life, namely the eyes; he would know, too, the cause +of the sufferings which gave her that look as though death were near +and she might drop at any moment beneath its scythe. The two signs, +the two gestures--not denying their friendship but imploring caution +--alarmed the young Breton. Evidently Pierrette wished him to wait and +not attempt to see her; otherwise there was danger, there was peril +for her. As she left the church she was able to give him one look, and +Brigaut saw that her eyes were full of tears. But he could have sooner +squared the circle than have guessed what had happened in the Rogrons' +house during the fortnight which had elapsed since his arrival. + +It was not without keen apprehension that Pierrette came downstairs on +the morning after Brigaut had invaded her morning dreams like another +dream. She was certain that her cousin Sylvie must have heard the +song, or she would not have risen and opened her window; but Pierrette +was ignorant of the powerful reasons that made the old maid so alert. +For the last eight days, strange events and bitter feelings agitated +the minds of the chief personages who frequented the Rogron salon. +These hidden matters, carefully concealed by all concerned, were +destined to fall in their results like an avalanche on Pierrette. Such +mysterious things, which we ought perhaps to call the putrescence of +the human heart, lie at the base of the greatest revolutions, +political, social or domestic; but in telling of them it is desirable +to explain that their subtle significance cannot be given in a +matter-of-fact narrative. These secret schemes and calculations do not +show themselves as brutally and undisguisedly while taking place as +they must when the history of them is related. To set down in writing +the circumlocutions, oratorical precautions, protracted conversations, +and honeyed words glossed over the venom of intentions, would make as +long a book as that magnificent poem called "Clarissa Harlowe." + +Mademoiselle Habert and Mademoiselle Sylvie were equally desirous of +marrying, but one was ten years older than the other, and the +probabilities of life allowed Celeste Habert to expect that her +children would inherit all the Rogron property. Sylvie was forty-two, +an age at which marriage is beset by perils. In confiding to each +other their ideas, Celeste, instigated by her vindictive brother the +priest, enlightened Sylvie as to the dangers she would incur. Sylvie +trembled; she was terribly afraid of death, an idea which shakes all +celibates to their centre. But just at this time the Martignac +ministry came into power,--a Liberal victory which overthrew the +Villele administration. The Vinet party now carried their heads high +in Provins. Vinet himself became a personage. The Liberals prophesied +his advancement; he would certainly be deputy and attorney-general. As +for the colonel, he would be made mayor of Provins. Ah, to reign as +Madame Garceland, the wife of the present mayor, now reigned! Sylvie +could not hold out against that hope; she determined to consult a +doctor, though the proceeding would only cover her with ridicule. To +consult Monsieur Neraud, the Liberal physician and the rival of +Monsieur Martener, would be a blunder. Celeste Habert offered to hide +Sylvie in her dressing-room while she herself consulted Monsieur +Martener, the physician of her establishment, on this difficult +matter. Whether Martener was, or was not, Celeste's accomplice need +not be discovered; at any rate, he told his client that even at thirty +the danger, though slight, did exist. "But," he added, "with your +constitution, you need fear nothing." + +"But how about a woman over forty?" asked Mademoiselle Celeste. + +"A married woman who has had children has nothing to fear." + +"But I mean an unmarried woman, like Mademoiselle Rogron, for +instance?" + +"Oh, that's another thing," said Monsieur Martener. "Successful +childbirth is then one of those miracles which God sometimes allows +himself, but rarely." + +"Why?" asked Celeste. + +The doctor answered with a terrifying pathological description; he +explained that the elasticity given by nature to youthful muscles and +bones did not exist at a later age, especially in women whose lives +were sedentary. + +"So you think that an unmarried woman ought not to marry after forty?" + +"Not unless she waits some years," replied the doctor. "But then, of +course, it is not marriage, it is only an association of interests." + +The result of the interview, clearly, seriously, scientifically and +sensibly stated, was that an unmarried woman would make a great +mistake in marrying after forty. When the doctor had departed +Mademoiselle Celeste found Sylvie in a frightful state, green and +yellow, and with the pupils of her eyes dilated. + +"Then you really love the colonel?" asked Celeste. + +"I still hoped," replied Sylvie. + +"Well, then, wait!" cried Mademoiselle Habert, Jesuitically, aware +that time would rid her of the colonel. + +Sylvie's new devotion to the church warned her that the morality of +such a marriage might be doubtful. She accordingly sounded her +conscience in the confessional. The stern priest explained the +opinions of the Church, which sees in marriage only the propagation of +humanity, and rebukes second marriages and all passions but those with +a social purpose. Sylvie's perplexities were great. These internal +struggles gave extraordinary force to her passion, investing it with +that inexplicable attraction which, from the days of Eve, the thing +forbidden possesses for women. Mademoiselle Rogron's perturbation did +not escape the lynx-eyed lawyer. + +One evening, after the game had ended, Vinet approached his dear +friend Sylvie, took her hand, and led her to a sofa. + +"Something troubles you," he said. + +She nodded sadly. The lawyer let the others depart; Rogron walked home +with the Chargeboeufs, and when Vinet was alone with the old maid he +wormed the truth out of her. + +"Cleverly played, abbe!" thought he. "But you've played into my +hands." + +The foxy lawyer was more decided in his opinion than even the doctor. +He advised marriage in ten years. Inwardly he was vowing that the +whole Rogron fortune should go to Bathilde. He rubbed his hands, his +pinched lips closed more tightly as he hurried home. The influence +exercised by Monsieur Habert, physician of the soul, and by Vinet, +doctor of the purse, balanced each other perfectly. Rogron had no +piety in him; so the churchman and the man of law, the black-robed +pair, were fairly matched. + +On discovering the victory obtained by Celeste, in her anxiety to +marry Rogron herself, over Sylvie, torn between the fear of death and +the joy of being baronness and mayoress, the lawyer saw his chance of +driving the colonel from the battlefield. He knew Rogron well enough +to be certain he could marry him to Bathilde; Jerome had already +succumbed inwardly to her charms, and Vinet knew that the first time +the pair were alone together the marriage would be settled. Rogron had +reached the point of keeping his eyes fixed on Celeste, so much did he +fear to look at Bathilde. Vinet had now possessed himself of Sylvie's +secrets, and saw the force with which she loved the colonel. He fully +understood the struggle of such a passion in the heart of an old maid +who was also in the grasp of religious emotion, and he saw his way to +rid himself of Pierrette and the colonel both by making each the cause +of the other's overthrow. + +The next day, after the court had risen, Vinet met the colonel and +Rogron talking a walk together, according to their daily custom. + +Whenever the three men were seen in company the whole town talked of +it. This triumvirate, held in horror by the sub-prefect, the +magistracy, and the Tiphaine clique, was, on the other hand, a source +of pride and vanity to the Liberals of Provins. Vinet was sole editor +of the "Courrier" and the head of the party; the colonel, the working +manager, was its arm; Rogron, by means of his purse, its nerves. The +Tiphaines declared that the three men were always plotting evil to the +government; the Liberals admired them as the defenders of the people. +When Rogron turned to go home, recalled by a sense of his dinner-hour, +Vinet stopped the colonel from following him by taking Gouraud's arm. + +"Well, colonel," he said, "I am going to take a fearful load off your +shoulders; you can do better than marry Sylvie; if you play your cards +properly you can marry that little Pierrette in two years' time." + +He thereupon related the Jesuit's manoeuvre and its effect on Sylvie. + +"What a skulking trick!" cried the colonel; "and spreading over years, +too!" + +"Colonel," said Vinet, gravely, "Pierrette is a charming creature; +with her you can be happy for the rest of your life; your health is so +sound that the difference in your ages won't seem disproportionate. +But, all the same, you mustn't think it an easy thing to change a +dreadful fate to a pleasant one. To turn a woman who loves you into a +friend and confidant is as perilous a business as crossing a river +under fire of the enemy. Cavalry colonel as you are, and daring too, +you must study the position and manoeuvre your forces with the same +wisdom you have displayed hitherto, and which has won us our present +position. If I get to be attorney-general you shall command the +department. Oh! if you had been an elector we should be further +advanced than we are now; I should have bought the votes of those two +clerks by threatening them with the loss of their places, and we +should have had a majority." + +The colonel had long been thinking about Pierrette, but he concealed +his thoughts with the utmost dissimulation. His roughness to the child +was only a mask; but she could not understand why the man who claimed +to be her father's old comrade should usually treat her so ill, when +sometimes, if he met her alone, he would chuck her under the chin and +give her a friendly kiss. But after the conversation with Vinet +relating to Sylvie's fears of marriage Gouraud began to seek +opportunities to find Pierrette alone; the rough colonel made himself +as soft as a cat; he told her how brave her father was and what a +misfortune it had been for her that she lost him. + +A few days before Brigaut's arrival Sylvie had come suddenly upon +Gouraud and Pierrette talking together. Instantly, jealousy rushed +into her heart with monastic violence. Jealousy, eminently credulous +and suspicious, is the passion in which fancy has most freedom, but +for all that it does not give a person intelligence; on the contrary, +it hinders them from having any; and in Sylvie's case jealousy only +filled her with fantastic ideas. When (a few mornings later) she heard +Brigaut's ditty, she jumped to the conclusion that the man who had +used the words "Madam' le mariee," addressing them to Pierrette, must +be the colonel. She was certain she was right, for she had noticed for +a week past a change in his manners. He was the only man who, in her +solitary life, had ever paid her any attention. Consequently she +watched him with all her eyes, all her mind; and by giving herself up +to hopes that were sometimes flourishing, sometimes blighted, she had +brought the matter to such enormous proportions that she saw all +things in a mental mirage. To use a common but excellent expression, +by dint of looking intently she saw nothing. Alternately she repelled, +admitted, and conquered the supposition of this rivalry. She compared +herself with Pierrette; she was forty-two years old, with gray hair; +Pierrette was delicately fair, with eyes soft enough to warm a +withered heart. She had heard it said that men of fifty were apt to +love young girls of just that kind. Before the colonel had come +regularly to the house Sylvie had heard in the Tiphaines' salon +strange stories of his life and morals. Old maids preserve in their +love-affairs the exaggerated Platonic sentiments which young girls of +twenty are wont to profess; they hold to these fixed doctrines like +all who have little experience of life and no personal knowledge of +how great social forces modify, impair, and bring to nought such grand +and noble ideas. The mere thought of being jilted by the colonel was +torture to Sylvie's brain. She lay in her bed going over and over her +own desires, Pierrette's conduct, and the song which had awakened her +with the word "marriage." Like the fool she was, instead of looking +through the blinds to see the lover, she opened her window without +reflecting that Pierrette would hear her. If she had had the common +instinct of a spy she would have seen Brigaut, and the fatal drama +then begun would never have taken place. + +It was Pierrette's duty, weak as she was, to take down the bars that +closed the wooden shutters of the kitchen, which she opened and +fastened back; then she opened in like manner the glass door leading +from the corridor to the garden. She took the various brooms that were +used for sweeping the carpets, the dining-room, the passages and +stairs, together with the other utensils, with a care and +particularity which no servant, not even a Dutchwoman, gives to her +work. She hated reproof. Happiness for her was in seeing the cold blue +pallid eyes of her cousin, not satisfied (that they never were), but +calm, after glancing about her with the look of an owner,--that +wonderful glance which sees what escapes even the most vigilant eyes +of others. Pierrette's skin was moist with her labor when she returned +to the kitchen to put it in order, and light the stove that she might +carry up hot water to her two cousins (a luxury she never had for +herself) and the means of lighting fires in their rooms. After this +she laid the table for breakfast and lit the stove in the dining-room. +For all these various fires she had to fetch wood and kindling from +the cellar, leaving the warm rooms for a damp and chilly atmosphere. +Such sudden transitions, made with the quickness of youth, often to +escape a harsh word or obey an order, aggravated the condition of her +health. She did not know she was ill, and yet she suffered. She began +to have strange cravings; she liked raw vegetables and salads, and ate +them secretly. The innocent child was quite unaware that her condition +was that of serious illness which needed the utmost care. If Neraud, +the Rogrons' doctor, had told this to Pierrette before Brigaut's +arrival she would only have smiled; life was so bitter she could smile +at death. But now her feelings changed; the child, to whose physical +sufferings was added the anguish of Breton homesickness (a moral +malady so well-known that colonels in the army allow for it among +their men), was suddenly content to be in Provins. The sight of that +yellow flower, the song, the presence of her friend, revived her as a +plant long without water revives under rain. Unconsciously she wanted +to live, and even thought she did not suffer. + +Pierrette slipped timidly into her cousin's bedroom, made the fire, +left the hot water, said a few words, and went to wake Rogron and do +the same offices for him. Then she went down to take in the milk, the +bread, and the other provisions left by the dealers. She stood some +time on the sill of the door hoping that Brigaut would have the sense +to come to her; but by that time he was already on his way to Paris. + +She had finished the arrangement of the dining-room and was busy in +the kitchen when she heard her cousin Sylvie coming down. Mademoiselle +Rogron appeared in a brown silk dressing-gown and a cap with bows; her +false front was awry, her night-gown showed above the silk wrapper, +her slippers were down at heel. She gave an eye to everything and then +came straight to Pierrette, who was awaiting her orders to know what +to prepare for breakfast. + +"Ha! here you are, lovesick young lady!" said Sylvie, in a mocking +tone. + +"What is it, cousin?" + +"You came into my room like a sly cat, and you crept out the same way, +though you knew very well I had something to say to you." + +"To me?" + +"You had a serenade this morning, as if you were a princess." + +"A serenade!" exclaimed Pierrette. + +"A serenade!" said Sylvie, mimicking her; "and you've a lover, too." + +"What is a lover, cousin?" + +Sylvie avoided answering, and said:-- + +"Do you dare to tell me, mademoiselle, that a man did not come under +your window and talk to you of marriage?" + +Persecution had taught Pierrette the wariness of slaves; so she +answered bravely:-- + +"I don't know what you mean,--" + +"Who means?--your dog?" said Sylvie, sharply. + +"I should have said 'cousin,'" replied the girl, humbly. + +"And didn't you get up and go in your bare feet to the window?--which +will give you an illness; and serve you right, too. And perhaps you +didn't talk to your lover, either?" + +"No, cousin." + +"I know you have many faults, but I did not think you told lies. You +had better think this over, mademoiselle; you will have to explain +this affair to your cousin and to me, or your cousin will be obliged +to take severe measures." + +The old maid, exasperated by jealousy and curiosity, meant to frighten +the girl. Pierrette, like all those who suffer more than they have +strength to bear, kept silence. Silence is the only weapon by which +such victims can conquer; it baffles the Cossack charges of envy, the +savage skirmishings of suspicion; it does at times give victory, +crushing and complete,--for what is more complete than silence? it is +absolute; it is one of the attributes of infinity. Sylvie watched +Pierrette narrowly. The girl colored; but the color, instead of rising +evenly, came out in patches on her cheekbones, in burning and +significant spots. A mother, seeing that symptom of illness, would +have changed her tone at once; she would have taken the child on her +lap and questioned her; in fact, she would long ago have tenderly +understood the signs of Pierrette's pure and perfect innocence; she +would have seen her weakness and known that the disturbance of the +digestive organs and the other functions of the body was about to +affect the lungs. Those eloquent patches would have warned her of an +imminent danger. But an old maid, one in whom the family instincts +have never been awakened, to whom the needs of childhood and the +precautions required for adolescence were unknown, had neither the +indulgence nor the compassionate intelligence of a mother; such +sufferings as those of Pierrette, instead of softening her heart only +made it more callous. + +"She blushes, she is guilty!" thought Sylvie. + +Pierrette's silence was thus interpreted to her injury. + +"Pierrette," continued Sylvie, "before your cousin comes down we must +have some talk together. Come," she said, in a rather softer tone, +"shut the street door; if any one comes they will rung and we shall +hear them." + +In spite of the damp mist which was rising from the river, Sylvie took +Pierrette along the winding gravel path which led across the lawn to +the edge of the rock terrace,--a picturesque little quay, covered with +iris and aquatic plants. She now changed her tactics, thinking she +might catch Pierrette tripping by softness; the hyena became a cat. + +"Pierrette," she said, "you are no longer a child; you are nearly +fifteen, and it is not at all surprising that you should have a +lover." + +"But, cousin," said Pierrette, raising her eyes with angelic sweetness +to the cold, sour face of her cousin, "What is a lover?" + +It would have been impossible for Sylvie to define a lover with truth +and decency to the girl's mind. Instead of seeing in that question the +proof of adorable innocence, she considered it a piece of insincerity. + +"A lover, Pierrette, is a man who loves us and wishes to marry us." + +"Ah," said Pierrette, "when that happens in Brittany we call the young +man a suitor." + +"Well, remember that in owning your feelings for a man you do no +wrong, my dear. The wrong is in hiding them. Have you pleased some of +the men who visit here?" + +"I don't think so, cousin." + +"Do you love any of them?" + +"No." + +"Certain?" + +"Quite certain." + +"Look at me, Pierrette." + +Pierrette looked at Sylvie. + +"A man called to you this morning in the square." + +Pierrette lowered her eyes. + +"You went to your window, you opened it, and you spoke to him." + +"No cousin, I went to look out and I saw a peasant." + +"Pierrette, you have much improved since you made your first +communion; you have become pious and obedient, you love God and your +relations; I am satisfied with you. I don't say this to puff you up +with pride." + +The horrible creature had mistaken despondency, submission, the +silence of wretchedness, for virtues! + +The sweetest of all consolations to suffering souls, to martyrs, to +artists, in the worst of that divine agony which hatred and envy force +upon them, is to meet with praise where they have hitherto found +censure and injustice. Pierrette raised her grateful eyes to her +cousin, feeling that she could almost forgive her for the sufferings +she had caused. + +"But if it is all hypocrisy, if I find you a serpent that I have +warmed in my bosom, you will be a wicked girl, an infamous creature!" + +"I think I have nothing to reproach myself with," said Pierrette, with +a painful revulsion of her heart at the sudden change from unexpected +praise to the tones of the hyena. + +"You know that to lie is a mortal sin?" + +"Yes, cousin." + +"Well, you are now under the eye of God," said the old maid, with a +solemn gesture towards the sky; "swear to me that you did not know +that peasant." + +"I will not swear," said Pierrette. + +"Ha! he was no peasant, you little viper." + +Pierrette rushed away like a frightened fawn terrified at her tone. +Sylvie called her in a dreadful voice. + +"The bell is ringing," she answered. + +"Artful wretch!" thought Sylvie. "She is depraved in mind; and now I +am certain the little adder has wound herself round the colonel. She +has heard us say he was a baron. To be a baroness! little fool! Ah! +I'll get rid of her, I'll apprentice her out, and soon too!" + +Sylvie was so lost in thought that she did not notice her brother +coming down the path and bemoaning the injury the frost had done to +his dahlias. + +"Sylvie! what are you thinking about? I thought you were looking at +the fish; sometimes they jump out of the water." + +"No," said Sylvie. + +"How did you sleep?" and he began to tell her about his own dreams. +"Don't you think my skin is getting _tabid_?"--a word in the Rogron +vocabulary. + +Ever since Rogron had been in love,--but let us not profane the word, +--ever since he had desired to marry Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf, he +was very uneasy about himself and his health. At this moment Pierrette +came down the garden steps and called to them from a distance that +breakfast was ready. At sight of her cousin, Sylvie's skin turned +green and yellow, her bile was in commotion. She looked at the floor +of the corridor and declared that Pierrette ought to rub it. + +"I will rub it now if you wish," said the little angel, not aware of +the injury such work may do to a young girl. + +The dining-room was irreproachably in order. Sylvie sat down and +pretended all through breakfast to want this, that, and the other +thing which she would never have thought of in a quieter moment, and +which she now asked for only to make Pierrette rise again and again +just as the child was beginning to eat her food. But such mere teasing +was not enough; she wanted a subject on which to find fault, and was +angry with herself for not finding one. She scarcely answered her +brother's silly remarks, yet she looked at him only; her eyes avoided +Pierrette. Pierrette was deeply conscious of all this. She brought the +milk mixed with cream for each cousin in a large silver goblet, after +heating it carefully in the _bain-marie_. The brother and sister +poured in the coffee made by Sylvie herself on the table. When Sylvie +had carefully prepared hers, she saw an atom of coffee-grounds +floating on the surface. On this the storm broke forth. + +"What is the matter?" asked Rogron. + +"The matter is that mademoiselle has put dust in my milk. Do you +suppose I am going to drink coffee with ashes in it? Well, I am not +surprised; no one can do two things at once. She wasn't thinking of +the milk! a blackbird might have flown through the kitchen to-day and +she wouldn't have seen it! how should she see the dust flying! and +then it was my coffee, ha! that didn't signify!" + +As she spoke she was laying on the side of her plate the +coffee-grounds that had run through the filter. + +"But, cousin, that is coffee," said Pierrette. + +"Oh! then it is I who tell lies, is it?" cried Sylvie, looking at +Pierrette and blasting her with a fearful flash of anger from her +eyes. + +Organizations which have not been exhausted by powerful emotions often +have a vast amount of the vital fluid at their service. This +phenomenon of the extreme clearness of the eye in moments of anger was +the more marked in Mademoiselle Rogron because she had often exercised +the power of her eyes in her shop by opening them to their full extent +for the purpose of inspiring her dependents with salutary fear. + +"You had better dare to give me the lie!" continued Sylvie; "you +deserve to be sent from the table to go and eat by yourself in the +kitchen." + +"What's the matter with you two?" cried Rogron, "you are as cross as +bears this morning." + +"Mademoiselle knows what I have against her," said Sylvie. "I leave +her to make up her mind before speaking to you; for I mean to show her +more kindness than she deserves." + +Pierrette was looking out of the window to avoid her cousin's eyes, +which frightened her. + +"Look at her! she pays no more attention to what I am saying than if I +were that sugar-basin! And yet mademoiselle has a sharp ear; she can +hear and answer from the top of the house when some one talks to her +from below. She is perversity itself,--perversity, I say; and you +needn't expect any good of her; do you hear me, Jerome?" + +"What has she done wrong?" asked Rogron. + +"At her age, too! to begin so young!" screamed the angry old maid. + +Pierrette rose to clear the table and give herself something to do, +for she could hardly bear the scene any longer. Though such language +was not new to her, she had never been able to get used to it. Her +cousin's rage seemed to accuse her of some crime. She imagined what +her fury would be if she came to know about Brigaut. Perhaps her +cousin would have him sent away, and she should lose him! All the many +thoughts, the deep and rapid thoughts of a slave came to her, and she +resolved to keep absolute silence about a circumstance in which her +conscience told her there was nothing wrong. But the cruel, bitter +words she had been made to hear and the wounding suspicion so shocked +her that as she reached the kitchen she was taken with a convulsion of +the stomach and turned deadly sick. She dared not complain; she was +not sure that any one would help her. When she returned to the +dining-room she was white as a sheet, and, saying she was not well, she +started to go to bed, dragging herself up step by step by the baluster +and thinking that she was going to die. "Poor Brigaut!" she thought. + +"The girl is ill," said Rogron. + +"She ill! That's only _shamming_," replied Sylvie, in a loud voice +that Pierrette might hear. "She was well enough this morning, I can +tell you." + +This last blow struck Pierrette to the earth; she went to bed weeping +and praying to God to take her out of this world. + + + + VII + + DOMESTIC TYRANNY + +For a month past Rogron had ceased to carry the "Constitutionnel" to +Gouraud; the colonel came obsequiously to fetch his paper, gossip a +little, and take Rogron off to walk if the weather was fine. Sure of +seeing the colonel and being able to question him, Sylvie dressed +herself as coquettishly as she knew how. The old maid thought she was +attractive in a green gown, a yellow shawl with a red border, and a +white bonnet with straggling gray feathers. About the hour when the +colonel usually came Sylvie stationed herself in the salon with her +brother, whom she had compelled to stay in the house in his +dressing-gown and slippers. + +"It is a fine day, colonel," said Rogron, when Gouraud with his heavy +step entered the room. "But I'm not dressed; my sister wanted to go +out, and I was going to keep the house. Wait for me; I'll be ready +soon." + +So saying, Rogron left Sylvie alone with the colonel. + +"Where were you going? you are dressed divinely," said Gouraud, who +noticed a certain solemnity on the pock-marked face of the old maid. + +"I wanted very much to go out, but my little cousin is ill, and I +cannot leave her." + +"What is the matter with her?" + +"I don't know; she had to go to bed." + +Gouraud's caution, not to say his distrust, was constantly excited by +the results of his alliance with Vinet. It certainly appeared that the +lawyer had got the lion's share in their enterprise. Vinet controlled +the paper, he reigned as sole master over it, he took the revenues; +whereas the colonel, the responsible editor, earned little. Vinet and +Cournant had done the Rogrons great services; whereas Gouraud, a +colonel on half-pay, could do nothing. Who was to be deputy? Vinet. +Who was the chief authority in the party? Vinet. Whom did the liberals +all consult? Vinet. Moreover, the colonel knew fully as well as Vinet +himself the extent and depth of the passion suddenly aroused in Rogron +by the beautiful Bathilde de Chargeboeuf. This passion had now become +intense, like all the last passions of men. Bathilde's voice made him +tremble. Absorbed in his desires Rogron hid them; he dared not hope +for such a marriage. To sound him, the colonel mentioned that he was +thinking himself of asking for Bathilde's hand. Rogron turned pale at +the thought of such a formidable rival, and had since then shown +coldness and even hatred to Gouraud. + +Thus Vinet reigned supreme in the Rogron household while he, the +colonel, had no hold there except by the extremely hypothetical tie of +his mendacious affection for Sylvie, which it was not yet clear that +Sylvie reciprocated. When the lawyer told him of the priest's +manoeuvre, and advised him to break with Sylvie and marry Pierrette, +he certainly flattered Gouraud's foible; but after analyzing the inner +purpose of that advice and examining the ground all about him, the +colonel thought he perceived in his ally the intention of separating +him from Sylvie, and profiting by her fears to throw the whole Rogron +property into the hands of Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf. + +Therefore, when the colonel was left alone with Sylvie his +perspicacity possessed itself immediately of certain signs which +betrayed her uneasiness. He saw at once that she was under arms and +had made this plan for seeing him alone. As he already suspected Vinet +of playing him some trick, he attributed the conference to the +instigation of the lawyer, and was instantly on his guard, as he would +have been in an enemy's country,--with an eye all about him, an ear to +the faintest sound, his mind on the qui vive, and his hand on a +weapon. The colonel had the defect of never believing a single word +said to him by a woman; so that when the old maid brought Pierrette on +the scene, and told him she had gone to bed before midday, he +concluded that Sylvie had locked her up by way of punishment and out +of jealousy. + +"She is getting to be quite pretty, that little thing," he said with +an easy air. + +"She will be pretty," replied Mademoiselle Rogron. + +"You ought to send her to Paris and put her in a shop," continued the +colonel. "She would make her fortune. The milliners all want pretty +girls." + +"Is that really your advice?" asked Sylvie, in a troubled voice. + +"Good!" thought the colonel, "I was right. Vinet advised me to marry +Pierrette just to spoil my chance with the old harridan. But," he said +aloud, "what else can you do with her? There's that beautiful girl +Bathilde de Chargeboeuf, noble and well-connected, reduced to +single-blessedness,--nobody will have her. Pierrette has nothing, and +she'll never marry. As for beauty, what is it? To me, for example, +youth and beauty are nothing; for haven't I been a captain of cavalry +in the imperial guard, and carried my spurs into all the capitals of +Europe, and known all the handsomest women of these capitals? Don't +talk to me; I tell you youth and beauty are devilishly common and +silly. At forty-eight," he went on, adding a few years to his age, to +match Sylvie's, "after surviving the retreat from Moscow and going +through that terrible campaign of France, a man is broken down; I'm +nothing but an old fellow now. A woman like you would pet me and care +for me, and her money, joined to my poor pension, would give me ease +in my old days; of course I should prefer such a woman to a little +minx who would worry the life out of me, and be thirty years old, with +passions, when I should be sixty, with rheumatism. At my age, a man +considers and calculates. To tell you the truth between ourselves, I +should not wish to have children." + +Sylvie's face was an open book to the colonel during this tirade, and +her next question proved to him Vinet's perfidy. + +"Then you don't love Pierrette?" she said. + +"Heavens! are you out of your mind, my dear Sylvie?" he cried. "Can +those who have no teeth crack nuts? Thank God I've got some +common-sense and know what I'm about." + +Sylvie thus reassured resolved not to show her own hand, and thought +herself very shrewd in putting her own ideas into her brother's mouth. + +"Jerome," she said, "thought of the match." + +"How could your brother take up such an incongruous idea? Why, it is +only a few days ago that, in order to find out his secrets, I told him +I loved Bathilde. He turned as white as your collar." + +"My brother! does he love Bathilde?" asked Sylvie. + +"Madly,--and yet Bathilde is only after his money." ("One for you, +Vinet!" thought the colonel.) "I can't understand why he should have +told you that about Pierrette. No, Sylvie," he said, taking her hand +and pressing it in a certain way, "since you have opened this matter" +(he drew nearer to her), "well" (he kissed her hand; as a cavalry +captain he had already proved his courage), "let me tell you that I +desire no wife but you. Though such a marriage may look like one of +convenience, I feel, on my side, a sincere affection for you." + +"But if I _wish_ you to marry Pierrette? if I leave her my fortune +--eh, colonel?" + +"But I don't want to be miserable in my home, and in less than ten +years see a popinjay like Julliard hovering round my wife and +addressing verses to her in the newspapers. I'm too much of a man to +stand that. No, I will never make a marriage that is disproportionate +in age." + +"Well, colonel, we will talk seriously of this another time," said +Sylvie, casting a glance upon him which she supposed to be full of +love, though, in point of fact, it was a good deal like that of an +ogress. Her cold, blue lips of a violet tinge drew back from the +yellow teeth, and she thought she smiled. + +"I'm ready," said Rogron, coming in and carrying off the colonel, who +bowed in a lover-like way to the old maid. + +Gouraud determined to press on his marriage with Sylvie, and make +himself master of the house; resolving to rid himself, through his +influence over Sylvie during the honeymoon, of Bathilde and Celeste +Habert. So, during their walk, he told Rogron he had been joking the +other day; that he had no real intention of aspiring to Bathilde; that +he was not rich enough to marry a woman without fortune; and then he +confided to him his real wishes, declaring that he had long chosen +Sylvie for her good qualities,--in short, he aspired to the honor of +being Rogron's brother-in-law. + +"Ah, colonel, my dear baron! if nothing is wanting but my consent you +have it with no further delay than the law requires," cried Rogron, +delighted to be rid of his formidable rival. + +Sylvie spent the morning in her own room considering how the new +household could be arranged. She determined to build a second storey +for her brother and to furnish the rest for herself and her husband; +but she also resolved, in the true old-maidish spirit, to subject the +colonel to certain proofs by which to judge of his heart and his +morals before she finally committed herself. She was still suspicious, +and wanted to make sure that Pierrette had no private intercourse with +the colonel. + +Pierrette came down before the dinner-hour to lay the table. Sylvie +had been forced to cook the dinner, and had sworn at that "cursed +Pierrette" for a spot she had made on her gown,--wasn't it plain that +if Pierrette had done her own work Sylvie wouldn't have got that +grease-spot on her silk dress? + +"Oh, here you are, _peakling_? You are like the dog of the marshal who +woke up as soon as the saucepans rattled. Ha! you want us to think you +are ill, you little liar!" + +That idea: "You did not tell the truth about what happened in the +square this morning, therefore you lie in everything," was a hammer +with which Sylvie battered the head and also the heart of the poor +girl incessantly. + +To Pierrette's great astonishment Sylvie sent her to dress in her best +clothes after dinner. The liveliest imagination is never up to the +level of the activity which suspicion excites in the mind of an old +maid. In this particular case, this particular old maid carried the +day against politicians, lawyers, notaries, and all other +self-interests. Sylvie determined to consult Vinet, after examining +herself into all the suspicious circumstances. She kept Pierrette +close to her, so as to find out from the girl's face whether the +colonel had told her the truth. + +On this particular evening the Chargeboeuf ladies were the first to +arrive. Bathilde, by Vinet's advice, had become more elaborate in her +dress. She now wore a charming gown of blue velveteen, with the same +transparent fichu, garnet pendants in her ears, her hair in ringlets, +the wily _jeannette_ round her throat, black satin slippers, gray silk +stockings, and _gants de Suede_; add to these things the manners of a +queen and the coquetry of a young girl determined to capture Rogron. +Her mother, calm and dignified, retained, as did her daughter, a +certain aristocratic insolence, with which the two women hedged +themselves and preserved the spirit of their caste. Bathilde was a +woman of intelligence, a fact which Vinet alone had discovered during +the two months' stay the ladies had made at his house. When he had +fully fathomed the mind of the girl, wounded and disappointed as it +was by the fruitlessness of her beauty and her youth, and enlightened +by the contempt she felt for the men of a period in which money was +the only idol, Vinet, himself surprised, exclaimed,-- + +"If I could only have married you, Bathilde, I should to-day be Keeper +of the Seals. I should call myself Vinet de Chargeboeuf, and take my +seat as deputy of the Right." + +Bathilde had no vulgar idea in her marriage intentions. She did not +marry to be a mother, nor to possess a husband; she married for +freedom, to gain a responsible position, to be called "madame," and to +act as men act. Rogron was nothing but a name to her; she expected to +make something of the fool,--a voting deputy, for instance, whose +instigator she would be; moreover, she longed to avenge herself on her +family, who had taken no notice of a girl without money. Vinet had +much enlarged and strengthened her ideas by admiring and approving +them. + +"My dear Bathilde," he said, while explaining to her the influence of +women, and showing her the sphere of action in which she ought to +work, "do you suppose that Tiphaine, a man of the most ordinary +capacity, could ever get to be a judge of the Royal court in Paris by +himself? No, it is Madame Tiphaine who has got him elected deputy, and +it is she who will push him when they get to Paris. Her mother, Madame +Roguin, is a shrewd woman, who does what she likes with the famous +banker du Tillet, a crony of Nucingen, and both of them allies of the +Kellers. The administration is on the best of terms with those lynxes +of the bank. There is no reason why Tiphaine should not be judge, +through his wife, of a Royal court. Marry Rogron; we'll have him +elected deputy from Provins as soon as I gain another precinct in the +Seine-et-Marne. You can then get him a place as receiver-general, +where he'll have nothing to do but sign his name. We shall belong to +the opposition _if_ the Liberals triumph, but if the Bourbons remain +--ah! then we shall lean gently, gently towards the centre. Besides, +you must remember Rogron can't live forever, and then you can marry a +titled man. In short, put yourself in a good position, and the +Chargeboeufs will be ready enough to serve us. Your poverty has no +doubt taught you, as mine did me, to know what men are worth. We must +make use of them as we do of post-horses. A man, or a woman, will take +us along to such or such a distance." + +Vinet ended by making Bathilde a small edition of Catherine de +Medicis. He left his wife at home, rejoiced to be alone with her two +children, while he went every night to the Rogrons' with Madame and +Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf. He arrived there in all the glory of +better circumstances. His spectacles were of gold, his waistcoat silk; +a white cravat, black trousers, thin boots, a black coat made in +Paris, and a gold watch and chain, made up his apparel. In place of +the former Vinet, pale and thin, snarling and gloomy, the present +Vinet bore himself with the air and manner of a man of importance; he +marched boldly forward, certain of success, with that peculiar show of +security which belongs to lawyers who know the hidden places of the +law. His sly little head was well-brushed, his chin well-shaved, which +gave him a mincing though frigid look, that made him seem agreeable +in the style of Robespierre. Certainly he would make a fine +attorney-general, endowed with elastic, mischievous, and even murderous +eloquence, or an orator of the shrewd type of Benjamin Constant. The +bitterness and the hatred which formerly actuated him had now turned +into soft-spoken perfidy; the poison was transformed into anodyne. + +"Good-evening, my dear; how are you?" said Madame de Chargeboeuf, +greeting Sylvie. + +Bathilde went straight to the fireplace, took off her bonnet, looked +at herself in the glass, and placed her pretty foot on the fender that +Rogron might admire it. + +"What is the matter with you?" she said to him, looking directly in +his face. "You have not bowed to me. Pray why should we put on our +best velvet gowns to please you?" + +She pushed past Pierrette to lay down her hat, which the latter took +from her hand, and which she let her take exactly as though she were a +servant. Men are supposed to be ferocious, and tigers too; but neither +tigers, vipers, diplomatists, lawyers, executioners or kings ever +approach, in their greatest atrocities, the gentle cruelty, the +poisoned sweetness, the savage disdain of one young woman for another, +when she thinks herself superior in birth, or fortune, or grace, and +some question of marriage, or precedence, or any of the feminine +rivalries, is raised. The "Thank you, mademoiselle," which Bathilde +said to Pierrette was a poem in many strophes. She was named Bathilde, +and the other Pierrette. She was a Chargeboeuf, the other a Lorrain. +Pierrette was small and weak, Bathilde was tall and full of life. +Pierrette was living on charity, Bathilde and her mother lived on +their means. Pierrette wore a stuff gown with a chemisette, Bathilde +made the velvet of hers undulate. Bathilde had the finest shoulders in +the department, and the arm of a queen; Pierrette's shoulder-blades +were skin and bone. Pierrette was Cinderella, Bathilde was the fairy. +Bathilde was about to marry, Pierrette was to die a maid. Bathilde was +adored, Pierrette was loved by none. Bathilde's hair was ravishingly +dressed, she had so much taste; Pierrette's was hidden beneath her +Breton cap, and she knew nothing of the fashions. Moral, Bathilde was +everything, Pierrette nothing. The proud little Breton girl understood +this tragic poem. + +"Good-evening, little girl," said Madame de Chargeboeuf, from the +height of her condescending grandeur, and in the tone of voice which +her pinched nose gave her. + +Vinet put the last touch to this sort of insult by looking fixedly at +Pierrette and saying, in three keys, "Oh! oh! oh! how fine we are +to-night, Pierrette!" + +"Fine!" said the poor child; "you should say that to Mademoiselle de +Chargeboeuf, not to me." + +"Oh! she is always beautifully dressed," replied the lawyer. "Isn't +she, Rogron?" he added, turning to the master of the house, and +grasping his hand. + +"Yes," said Rogron. + +"Why do you force him to say what he does not think?" said Bathilde; +"nothing about me pleases him. Isn't that true?" she added, going up +to Rogron and standing before him. "Look at me, and say if it isn't +true." + +Rogron looked at her from head to foot, and gently closed his eyes +like a cat whose head is being scratched. + +"You are too beautiful," he said; "too dangerous." + +"Why?" + +Rogron looked at the fire and was silent. Just then Mademoiselle +Habert entered the room, followed by the colonel. + +Celeste Habert, who had now become the common enemy, could only reckon +Sylvie on her side; nevertheless, everybody present showed her the +more civility and amiable attention because each was undermining her. +Her brother, though no longer able to be on the scene of action, was +well aware of what was going on, and as soon as he perceived that his +sister's hopes were killed he became an implacable and terrible +antagonist to the Rogrons. + +Every one will immediately picture to themselves Mademoiselle Habert +when they know that if she had not kept an institution for young +ladies she would still have had the air of a school-mistress. +School-mistresses have a way of their own in putting on their caps. +Just as old Englishwomen have acquired a monopoly in turbans, +school-mistresses have a monopoly of these caps. Flowers nod above +the frame-work, flowers that are more than artificial; lying by in +closets for years the cap is both new and old, even on the day it is +first worn. These spinsters make it a point of honor to resemble the +lay figures of a painter; they sit on their hips, never on their +chairs. When any one speaks to them they turn their whole busts +instead of simply turning their heads; and when their gowns creak one +is tempted to believe that the mechanism of these beings is out of +order. Mademoiselle Habert, an ideal of her species, had a stern eye, +a grim mouth, and beneath her wrinkled chin the strings of her cap, +always limp and faded, floated as she moved. Two moles, rather large +and brown, adorned that chin, and from them sprouted hairs which she +allowed to grow rampant like clematis. And finally, to complete her +portrait, she took snuff, and took it ungracefully. + +The company went to work at their boston. Mademoiselle Habert sat +opposite to Sylvie, with the colonel at her side opposite to Madame de +Chargeboeuf. Bathilde was near her mother and Rogron. Sylvie placed +Pierrette between herself and the colonel; Rogron had set out a second +card-table, in case other company arrived. Two lamps were on the +chimney-piece between the candelabra and the clock, and the tables +were lighted by candles at forty sous a pound, paid for by the price +of the cards. + +"Come, Pierrette, take your work, my dear," said Sylvie, with +treacherous softness, noticing that the girl was watching the +colonel's game. + +She usually affected to treat Pierrette well before company. This +deception irritated the honest Breton girl, and made her despise her +cousin. She took her embroidery, but as she drew her stitches she +still watched Gouraud's play. Gouraud behaved as if he did not know +the girl was near him. Sylvie noticed this apparent indifference and +thought it extremely suspicious. Presently she undertook a _grande +misere_ in hearts, the pool being full of counters, besides containing +twenty-seven sous. The rest of the company had now arrived; among them +the deputy-judge Desfondrilles, who for the last two months had +abandoned the Tiphaine party and connected himself more or less with +the Vinets. He was standing before the chimney-piece, with his back to +the fire and the tails of his coat over his arms, looking round the +fine salon of which Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf was the shining +ornament; for it really seemed as if all the reds of its decoration +had been made expressly to enhance her style of beauty. Silence +reigned; Pierrette was watching the game, Sylvie's attention was +distracted from her by the interest of the _grande misere_. + +"Play that," said Pierrette to the colonel, pointing to a heart in his +hand. + +The colonel began a sequence in hearts; the hearts all lay between +himself and Sylvie; the colonel won her ace, though it was protected +by five small hearts. + +"That's not fair!" she cried. "Pierrette saw my hand, and the colonel +took her advice." + +"But, mademoiselle," said Celeste, "it was the colonel's game to play +hearts after you began them." + +The scene made Monsieur Desfondrilles smile; his was a keen mind, +which found much amusement in watching the play of all the +self-interests in Provins. + +"Yes, it was certainly the colonel's game," said Cournant the notary, +not knowing what the question was. + +Sylvie threw a look at Mademoiselle Habert,--one of those glances +which pass from old maid to old maid, feline and cruel. + +"Pierrette, you did see my hand," said Sylvie fixing her eyes on the +girl. + +"No, cousin." + +"I was looking at you all," said the deputy-judge, "and I can swear +that Pierrette saw no one's hand but the colonel's." + +"Pooh!" said Gouraud, alarmed, "little girls know how to slide their +eyes into everything." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Sylvie. + +"Yes," continued Gouraud. "I dare say she looked into your hand to +play you a trick. Didn't you, little one?" + +"No," said the truthful Breton, "I wouldn't do such a thing; if I had, +it would have been in my cousin's interests." + +"You know you are a story-teller and a little fool," cried Sylvie. +"After what happened this morning do you suppose I can believe a word +you say? You are a--" + +Pierrette did not wait for Sylvie to finish her sentence; foreseeing a +torrent of insults, she rushed away without a light and ran to her +room. Sylvie turned white with anger and muttered between her teeth, +"She shall pay for this!" + +"Shall you pay for the _misere_?" said Madame de Chargeboeuf. + +As she spoke Pierrette struck her head against the door of the passage +which some one had left open. + +"Good! I'm glad of it," cried Sylvie, as they heard the blow. + +"She must be hurt," said Desfondrilles. + +"She deserves it," replied Sylvie. + +"It was a bad blow," said Mademoiselle Habert. + +Sylvie thought she might escape paying her _misere_ if she went to see +after Pierrette, but Madame de Chargeboeuf stopped her. + +"Pay us first," she said, laughing; "you will forget it when you come +back." + +The remark, based on the old maid's trickery and her bad faith in +paying her debts at cards was approved by the others. Sylvie sat down +and thought no more of Pierrette,--an indifference which surprised no +one. When the game was over, about half past nine o'clock, she flung +herself into an easy chair at the corner of the fireplace and did not +even rise as her guests departed. The colonel was torturing her; she +did not know what to think of him. + +"Men are so false!" she cried, as she went to bed. + +Pierrette had given herself a frightful blow on the head, just above +the ear, at the spot where young girls part their hair when they put +their "front hair" in curlpapers. The next day there was a large +swelling. + +"God has punished you," said Sylvie at the breakfast table. "You +disobeyed me; you treated me with disrespect in leaving the room +before I had finished my sentence; you got what you deserved." + +"Nevertheless," said Rogron, "she ought to put on a compress of salt +and water." + +"Oh, it is nothing at all, cousin," said Pierrette. + +The poor child had reached a point where even such a remark seemed to +her a proof of kindness. + + + + VIII + + THE LOVES OF JACQUES AND PIERRETTE + +The week ended as it had begun, in continual torture. Sylvie grew +ingenious, and found refinements of tyranny with almost savage +cruelty; the red Indians might have taken a lesson from her. Pierrette +dared not complain of her vague sufferings, nor of the actual pains +she now felt in her head. The origin of her cousin's present anger was +the non-revelation of Brigaut's arrival. With Breton obstinacy +Pierrette was determined to keep silence,--a resolution that is +perfectly explicable. It is easy to see how her thoughts turned to +Brigaut, fearing some danger for him if he were discovered, yet +instinctively longing to have him near her, and happy in knowing he +was in Provins. What joy to have seen him! That single glimpse was +like the look an exile casts upon his country, or the martyr lifts to +heaven, where his eyes, gifted with second-sight, can enter while +flames consume his body. + +Pierrette's glance had been so thoroughly understood by the major's +son that, as he planed his planks or took his measures or joined his +wood, he was working his brains to find out some way of communicating +with her. He ended by choosing the simplest of all schemes. At a +certain hour of the night Pierrette must lower a letter by a string +from her window. In the midst of the girl's own sufferings, she too +was sustained by the hope of being able to communicate with Brigaut. +The same desire was in both hearts; parted, they understood each +other! At every shock to her heart, every throb of pain in her head, +Pierrette said to herself, "Brigaut is here!" and that thought enabled +her to live without complaint. + +One morning in the market, Brigaut, lying in wait, was able to get +near her. Though he saw her tremble and turn pale, like an autumn leaf +about to flutter down, he did not lose his head, but quietly bought +fruit of the market-woman with whom Sylvie was bargaining. He found +his chance of slipping a note to Pierrette, all the while joking the +woman with the ease of a man accustomed to such manoeuvres; so cool +was he in action, though the blood hummed in his ears and rushed +boiling through his veins and arteries. He had the firmness of a +galley-slave without, and the shrinkings of innocence within him, +--like certain mothers in their moments of mortal trial, when held +between two dangers, two catastrophes. + +Pierrette's inward commotion was like Brigaut's. She slipped the note +into the pocket of her apron. The hectic spots upon her cheekbones +turned to a cherry-scarlet. These two children went through, all +unknown to themselves, many more emotions than go to the make-up of a +dozen ordinary loves. This moment in the market-place left in their +souls a well-spring of passionate feeling. Sylvie, who did not +recognize the Breton accent, took no notice of Brigaut, and Pierrette +went home safely with her treasure. + +The letters of these two poor children were fated to serve as +documents in a terrible judicial inquiry; otherwise, without the fatal +circumstances that occasioned that inquiry, they would never have been +heard of. Here is the one which Pierrette read that night in her +chamber:-- + + My dear Pierrette,--At midnight, when everybody is asleep but me, + who am watching you, I will come every night under your window. + Let down a string long enough to reach me; it will not make any + noise; you must fasten to the end of it whatever you write to me. + I will tie my letter in the same way. I hear _they_ have taught + you to read and write,--those wicked relations who were to do you + good, and have done you so much harm. You, Pierrette, the daughter + of a colonel who died for France, reduced by those monsters to be + their servant! That is where all your pretty color and health have + gone. My Pierrette, what has become of her? what have they done + with her. I see plainly you are not the same, not happy. Oh! + Pierrette, let us go back to Brittany. I can earn enough now to + give you what you need; for you yourself can earn three francs a + day and I can earn four or five; and thirty sous is all I want to + live on. Ah! Pierrette, how I have prayed the good God for you + ever since I came here! I have asked him to give me all your + sufferings, and you all pleasures. Why do you stay with them? why + do they keep you? Your grandmother is more to you than they. They + are vipers; they have taken your gaiety away from you. You do not + even walk as you once did in Brittany. Let us go back. I am here + to serve you, to do your will; tell me what you wish. If you need + money I have a hundred and fifty francs; I can send them up by the + string, though I would like to kiss your dear hands and lay the + money in them. Ah, dear Pierrette, it is a long time now that the + blue sky has been overcast for me. I have not had two hours' + happiness since I put you into that diligence of evil. And when I + saw you the other morning, looking like a shadow, I could not + reach you; that hag of a cousin came between us. But at least we + can have the consolation of praying to God together every Sunday + in church; perhaps he will hear us all the more when we pray + together. + + Not good-by, my dear, Pierrette, but _to-night_. + +This letter so affected Pierrette that she sat for more than an hour +reading and re-reading and gazing at it. Then she remembered with +anguish that she had nothing to write with. She summoned courage to +make the difficult journey from her garret to the dining-room, where +she obtained pen, paper, and ink, and returned safely without waking +her terrible cousin. A few minutes before midnight she had finished +the following letter:-- + + My Friend,--Oh! yes, my friend; for there is no one but you, + Jacques, and my grandmother to love me. God forgive me, but you + are the only two persons whom I love, both alike, neither more nor + less. I was too little to know my dear mamma; but you, Jacques, + and my grandmother, and my grandfather,--God grant him heaven, for + he suffered much from his ruin, which was mine,--but you two who + are left, I love you both, unhappy as I am. Indeed, to know how + much I love you, you will have to know how much I suffer; but I + don't wish that, it would grieve you too much. _They_ speak to me + as we would not speak to a dog; _they_ treat me like the worst of + girls; and yet I do examine myself before God, and I cannot find + that I do wrong by them. Before you sang to me the marriage song I + saw the mercy of God in my sufferings; for I had prayed to him to + take me from the world, and I felt so ill I said to myself, "God + hears me!" But, Jacques, now you are here, I want to live and go + back to Brittany, to my grandmamma who loves me, though _they_ say + she stole eight thousand francs of mine. Jacques, is that so? If + they are mine could you get them! But it is not true, for if my + grandmother had eight thousand francs she would not live at + Saint-Jacques. + + I don't want to trouble her last days, my kind, good grandmamma, + with the knowledge of my troubles; she might die of it. Ah! if she + knew they made her grandchild scrub the pots and pans,--she who + used to say to me, when I wanted to help her after her troubles, + "Don't touch that, my darling; leave it--leave it--you will spoil + your pretty fingers." Ah! my hands are never clean now. Sometimes + I can hardly carry the basket home from market, it cuts my arm. + Still I don't think my cousins mean to be cruel; but it is their + way always to scold, and it seems that I have no right to leave + them. My cousin Rogron is my guardian. One day when I wanted to + run away because I could not bear it, and told them so, my cousin + Sylvie said the gendarmes would go after me, for the law was my + master. Oh! I know now that cousins cannot take the place of + father or mother, any more than the saints can take the place of + God. + + My poor Jacques, what do you suppose I could do with your money? + Keep it for our journey. Oh! how I think of you and Pen-Hoel, and + the big pong,--that's where we had our only happy days. I shall + have no more, for I feel I am going from bad to worse. I am very + ill, Jacques. I have dreadful pains in my head, and in my bones, + and back, which kill me, and I have no appetite except for horrid + things,--roots and leaves and such things. Sometimes I cry, when I + am all alone, for they won't let me do anything I like if they + know it, not even cry. I have to hide to offer my tears to Him to + whom we owe the mercies which we call afflictions. It must have + been He who gave you the blessed thought to come and sing the + marriage song beneath my window. Ah! Jacques, my cousin heard you, + and she said I had a lover. If you wish to be my lover, love me + well. I promise to love you always, as I did in the past, and to + be + Your faithful servant, + Pierrette Lorrain. + + You will love me always, won't you? + + +She had brought a crust of bread from the kitchen, in which she now +made a hole for the letter, and fastened it like a weight to her +string. At midnight, having opened her window with extreme caution, +she lowered the letter with the crust, which made no noise against +either the wall of the house or the blinds. Presently she felt the +string pulled by Brigaut, who broke it and then crept softly away. +When he reached the middle of the square she could see him +indistinctly by the starlight; but he saw her quite clearly in the +zone of light thrown by the candle. The two children stood thus for +over an hour, Pierrette making him signs to go, he starting, she +remaining, he coming back to his post, and Pierrette again signing +that he must leave her. This was repeated till the child closed her +window, went to bed, and blew out the candle. Once in bed she fell +asleep, happy in heart though suffering in body,--she had Brigaut's +letter under her pillow. She slept as the persecuted sleep,--a slumber +bright with angels; that slumber full of heavenly arabesques, in +atmospheres of gold and lapis-lazuli, perceived and given to us by +Raffaelle. + +The moral nature had such empire over that frail physical nature that +on the morrow Pierrette rose light and joyous as a lark, as radiant +and as gay. Such a change could not escape the vigilant eye of her +cousin Sylvie, who, this time, instead of scolding her, set about +watching her with the scrutiny of a magpie. "What reason is there for +such happiness?" was a thought of jealousy, not of tyranny. If the +colonel had not been in Sylvie's mind she would have said to Pierrette +as formerly, "Pierrette, you are very noise, and very regardless of +what you have often been told." But now the old maid resolved to spy +upon her as only old maids can spy. The day was still and gloomy, like +the weather that precedes a storm. + +"You don't appear to be ill now, mademoiselle," said Sylvie at dinner. +"Didn't I tell you she put it all on to annoy us?" she cried, +addressing her brother, and not waiting for Pierrette's answer. + +"On the contrary, cousin, I have a sort of fever--" + +"Fever! what fever? You are as gay as a lark. Perhaps you have seen +some one again?" + +Pierrette trembled and dropped her eyes on her plate. + +"Tartufe!" cried Sylvie; "and only fourteen years old! what a nature! +Do you mean to come to a bad end?" + +"I don't know what you mean," said Pierrette, raising her sweet and +luminous brown eyes to her cousin. + +"This evening," said Sylvie, "you are to stay in the dining-room with +a candle, and do your sewing. You are not wanted in the salon; I +sha'n't have you looking into my hand to help your favorites." + +Pierrette made no sign. + +"Artful creature!" cried Sylvie, leaving the room. + +Rogron, who did not understand his sister's anger, said to Pierrette: +"What is all this about? Try to please your cousin, Pierrette; she is +very indulgent to you, very gentle, and if you put her out of temper +the fault is certainly yours. Why do you squabble so? For my part I +like to live in peace. Look at Mademoiselle Bathilde and take pattern +by her." + +Pierrette felt able to bear everything. Brigaut would come at midnight +and bring her an answer, and that hope was the viaticum of her day. +But she was using up her last strength. She did not go to bed, and +stood waiting for the hour to strike. At last midnight sounded; softly +she opened the window; this time she used a string made by tying bits +of twine together. She heard Brigaut's step, and on drawing up the +cord she found the following letter, which filled her with joy:-- + + My dear Pierrette,--As you are so ill you must not tire yourself + by waiting for me. You will hear me if I cry like an owl. Happily + my father taught me to imitate their note. So when you hear the + cry three times you will know I am there, and then you must let + down the cord. But I shall not come again for some days. I hope + then to bring you good news. + + Oh! Pierrette, don't talk of dying! Pierrette, don't think such + things! All my heart shook, I felt as though I were dead myself at + the mere idea. No, my Pierrette, you must not die; you will live + happy, and soon you shall be delivered from your persecutors. If I + do not succeed in what I am undertaking for your rescue, I shall + appeal to the law, and I shall speak out before heaven and earth + and tell how your wicked relations are treating you. I am certain + that you have not many more days to suffer; have patience, my + Pierrette! Jacques is watching over you as in the old days when we + slid on the pond and I pulled you out of the hole in which we were + nearly drowned together. + + Adieu, my dear Pierrette; in a few days, if God wills, we shall be + happy. Alas, I dare not tell you the only thing that may hinder + our meeting. But God loves us! In a few days I shall see my dear + Pierrette at liberty, without troubles, without any one to hinder + my looking at you--for, ah! Pierrette, I hunger to see you + --Pierrette, Pierrette, who deigns to love me and to tell me so. + Yes, Pierrette, I will be your lover when I have earned the + fortune you deserve; till then I will be to you only a devoted + servant whose life is yours to do what you please with it. Adieu. + + Jacques Brigaut. + + +Here is a letter of which the major's son said nothing to Pierrette. +He wrote it to Madame Lorrain at Nantes:-- + + Madame Lorrain,--Your granddaughter will die, worn-out with + ill-treatment, if you do not come to fetch her. I could scarcely + recognize her; and to show you the state of things I enclose a + letter I have received from Pierrette. You are thought here to + have taken the money of your granddaughter, and you ought to + justify yourself. If you can, come at once. We may still be happy; + but if delay Pierrette will be dead. + + I am, with respect, your devoted servant, + Jacques Brigaut. + + At Monsieur Frappier's, Cabinet-maker, Grand'Rue, Provins. + + +Brigaut's fear was that the grandmother was dead. + +Though this letter of the youth whom in her innocence she called her +lover was almost enigmatical to Pierrette, she believed in it with all +her virgin faith. Her heart was filled with that sensation which +travellers in the desert feel when they see from afar the palm-trees +round a well. In a few days her misery would end--Jacques said so. She +relied on this promise of her childhood's friend; and yet, as she laid +the letter beside the other, a dreadful thought came to her in +foreboding words. + +"Poor Jacques," she said to herself, "he does not know the hole into +which I have now fallen!" + +Sylvie had heard Pierrette, and she had also heard Brigaut under her +window. She jumped out of bed and rushed to the window to look through +the blinds into the square and there she saw, in the moonlight, a man +hurrying in the direction of the colonel's house, in front of which +Brigaut happened to stop. The old maid gently opened her door, went +upstairs, was amazed to find a light in Pierrette's room, looked +through the keyhole, and could see nothing. + +"Pierrette," she said, "are you ill?" + +"No, cousin," said Pierrette, surprised. + +"Why is your candle burning at this time of night? Open the door; I +must know what this means." + +Pierrette went to the door bare-footed, and as soon as Sylvie entered +the room she saw the cord, which Pierrette had forgotten to put away, +not dreaming of a surprise. Sylvie jumped upon it. + +"What is that for?" she asked. + +"Nothing, cousin." + +"Nothing!" she cried. "Always lying; you'll never get to heaven that +way. Go to bed; you'll take cold." + +She asked no more questions and went away, leaving Pierrette terrified +by her unusual clemency. Instead of exploding with rage, Sylvie had +suddenly determined to surprise Pierrette and the colonel together, to +seize their letters and confound the two lovers who were deceiving +her. Pierrette, inspired by a sense of danger, sewed the letters into +her corset and covered them with calico. + +Here end the loves of Pierrette and Brigaut. + +Pierrette rejoiced in the thought that Jacques had determined to hold +no communication with her for some days, because her cousin's +suspicions would be quieted by finding nothing to feed them. Sylvie +did in fact spend the next three nights on her legs, and each evening +in watching the innocent colonel, without discovering either in him or +in Pierrette, or in the house or out of it, anything that betrayed +their understanding. She sent Pierrette to confession, and seized that +moment to search the child's room, with the method and penetration of +a spy or a custom-house officer. She found nothing. Her fury reached +the apogee of human sentiments. If Pierrette had been there she would +certainly have struck her remorselessly. To a woman of her temper, +jealousy was less a sentiment than an occupation; she existed in it, +it made her heart beat, she felt emotions hitherto completely unknown +to her; the slightest sound or movement kept her on the qui vive; she +watched Pierrette with gloomy intentness. + +"That miserable little wretch will kill me," she said. + +Sylvie's severity to her cousin reached the point of refined cruelty, +and made the deplorable condition of the poor girl worse daily. She +had fever regularly, and the pains in her head became intolerable. By +the end of the week even the visitors at the house noticed her +suffering face, which would have touched to pity all selfishness less +cruel than theirs. It happened that Doctor Neraud, possibly by Vinet's +advice, did not come to the house during that week. The colonel, +knowing himself suspected by Sylvie, was afraid to risk his marriage +by showing any solicitude for Pierrette. Bathilde explained the +visible change in the girl by her natural growth. But at last, one +Sunday evening, when Pierrette was in the salon, her sufferings +overcame her and she fainted away. The colonel, who first saw her +going, caught her in his arms and carried her to a sofa. + +"She did it on purpose," said Sylvie, looking at Mademoiselle Habert +and the rest who were playing boston with her. + +"I assure you that your cousin is very ill," said the colonel. + +"She seemed well enough in your arms," Sylvie said to him in a low +voice, with a savage smile. + +"The colonel is right," said Madame de Chargeboeuf. "You ought to send +for a doctor. This morning at church every one was speaking, as they +came out, of Mademoiselle Lorrain's appearance." + +"I am dying," said Pierrette. + +Desfondrilles called to Sylvie and told her to unfasten her cousin's +gown. Sylvie went up to the girl, saying, "It is only a tantrum." + +She unfastened the gown and was about to touch the corset, when +Pierrette, roused by the danger, sat up with superhuman strength, +exclaiming, "No, no, I will go to bed." + +Sylvie had, however, touched the corset and felt the papers. She let +Pierrette go, saying to the company: + +"What do you think now of her illness? I tell you it is all a +pretence. You have no idea of the perversity of that child." + +After the card-playing was over she kept Vinet from following the +other guests; she was furious and wanted vengeance, and was grossly +rude to the colonel when he bade her good-night. Gouraud threw a look +at the lawyer which threatened him to the depths of his being and +seemed to put a ball in his entrails. Sylvie told Vinet to remain. +When they were alone, she said,-- + +"Never in my life, never in my born days, will I marry the colonel." + +"Now that you have come to that decision I may speak," said the +lawyer. "The colonel is my friend, but I am more yours than his. +Rogron has done me services which I can never forget. I am as strong a +friend as I am an enemy. Once in the Chamber I shall rise to power, +and I will make your brother a receiver-general. Now swear to me, +before I say more, that you will never repeat what I tell you." +(Sylvie made an affirmative sign.) "In the first place, the brave +colonel is a gambler--" + +"Ah!" exclaimed Sylvie. + +"If it had not been for the embarrassments this vice has brought upon +him, he might have been a marshal of France," continued Vinet. "He is +capable of running through your property; but he is very astute; you +cannot be sure of not having children, and you told me yourself the +risks you feared. No, if you want to marry, wait till I am in the +Chamber and then take that old Desfondrilles, who shall be made chief +justice. If you want revenge on the colonel make your brother marry +Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf,--I can get her consent; she has two +thousand francs a year, and you will be connected with the de +Chargeboeufs as I am. Recollect what I tell you, the Chargeboeufs will +be glad to claim us for cousins some day." + +"Gouraud loves Pierrette," was Sylvie's only answer. + +"He is quite capable of it," said Vinet, "and capable of marrying her +after your death." + +"A fine calculation!" she said. + +"I tell you that man has the shrewdness of the devil. Marry your +brother and announce that you mean to remain unmarried and will leave +your property to your nephews and nieces. That will strike a blow at +Gouraud and Pierrette both! and you'll see the faces they'll make." + +"Ah! that's true," cried the old maid, "I can serve them both right. +She shall go to a shop, and get nothing from me. She hasn't a sou; let +her do as we did,--work." + +Vinet departed, having put his plan into Sylvie's head, her dogged +obstinacy being well-known to him. The old maid, he was certain, would +think the scheme her own, and carry it out. + +The lawyer found the colonel in the square, smoking a cigar while he +waited for him. + +"Halt!" said Gouraud; "you have pulled me down, but stones enough came +with me to bury you--" + +"Colonel!--" + +"Colonel or not, I shall give you your deserts. In the first place, +you shall not be deputy--" + +"Colonel!--" + +"I control ten votes and the election depends on--" + +"Colonel, listen to me. Is there no one to marry but that old Sylvie? +I have just been defending you to her; you are accused and convicted +of writing to Pierrette; she saw you leave your house at midnight and +come to the girl's window--" + +"Stuff and nonsense!" + +"She means to marry her brother to Bathilde and leave her fortune to +their children." + +"Rogron won't have any." + +"Yes he will," replied Vinet. "But I promise to find you some young +and agreeable woman with a hundred and fifty thousand francs? Don't be +a fool; how can you and I afford to quarrel? Things have gone against +you in spite of all my care; but you don't understand me." + +"Then we must understand each other," said the colonel. "Get me a wife +with a hundred and fifty thousand francs before the elections; if not +--look out for yourself! I don't like unpleasant bed-fellows, and +you've pulled the blankets all over to your side. Good-evening." + +"You shall see," said Vinet, grasping the colonel's hand +affectionately. + + * * * * * + +About one o'clock that night three clear, sharp cries of an owl, +wonderfully well imitated, echoed through the square. Pierrette heard +them in her feverish sleep; she jumped up, moist with perspiration, +opened her window, saw Brigaut, and flung down a ball of silk, to +which he fastened a letter. Sylvie, agitated by the events of the day +and her own indecision of mind, was not asleep; she heard the owl. + +"Ah, bird of ill-omen!" she thought. "Why, Pierrette is getting up! +What is she after?" + +Hearing the attic window open softly, Sylvie rushed to her own window +and heard the rustle of paper against her blinds. She fastened the +strings of her bed-gown and went quickly upstairs to Pierrette's room, +where she found the poor girl unwinding the silk and freeing the +letter. + +"Ha! I've caught you!" cried the old woman, rushing to the window, +from which she saw Jacques running at full speed. "Give me that +letter." + +"No, cousin," said Pierrette, who, by one of those strong inspirations +of youth sustained by her own soul, rose to a grandeur of resistance +such as we admire in the history of certain peoples reduced to +despair. + +"Ha! you will not?" cried Sylvie, advancing upon the girl with a face +full of hatred and fury. + +Pierrette fell back to get time to put her letter in her hand, which +she clenched with unnatural force. Seeing this manoeuvre Sylvie +grasped the delicate white hand of the girl in her lobster claws and +tried to open it. It was a frightful struggle, an infamous struggle; +it was more than a physical struggle; it assailed the mind, the sole +treasure of the human being, the thought, which God has placed beyond +all earthly power and guards as the secret way between the sufferer +and Himself. The two women, one dying, the other in the vigor of +health, looked at each other fixedly. Pierrette's eyes darted on her +executioner the look the famous Templar on the rack cast upon Philippe +le Bel, who could not bear it and fled thunderstricken. Sylvie, a +woman and a jealous woman, answered that magnetic look with malignant +flashes. A dreadful silence reigned. The clenched hand of the Breton +girl resisted her cousin's efforts like a block of steel. Sylvie +twisted Pierrette's arm, she tried to force the fingers open; unable +to do so she stuck her nails into the flesh. At last, in her madness, +she set her teeth into the wrist, trying to conquer the girl by pain. +Pierrette defied her still, with that same terrible glance of +innocence. The anger of the old maid grew to such a pitch that it +became blind fury. She seized Pierrette's arm and struck the closed +fist upon the window-sill, and then upon the marble of the +mantelpiece, as we crack a nut to get the kernel. + +"Help! help!" cried Pierrette, "they are murdering me!" + +"Ha! you may well scream, when I catch you with a lover in the dead of +night." + +And she beat the hand pitilessly. + +"Help! help!" cried Pierrette, the blood flowing. + +At that instant, loud knocks were heard at the front door. Exhausted, +the two women paused a moment. + +Rogron, awakened and uneasy, not knowing what was happening, had got +up, gone to his sister's room, and not finding her was frightened. +Hearing the knocks he went down, unfastened the front door, and was +nearly knocked over by Brigaut, followed by a sort of phantom. + +At this moment Sylvie's eyes chanced to fall on Pierrette's corset, +and she remembered the papers. Releasing the girl's wrist she sprang +upon the corset like a tiger on its prey, and showed it to Pierrette +with a smile,--the smile of an Iroquois over his victim before he +scalps him. + +"I am dying," said Pierrette, falling on her knees, "oh, who will save +me?" + +"I!" said a woman with white hair and an aged parchment face, in which +two gray eyes glittered. + +"Ah! grandmother, you have come too late," cried the poor child, +bursting into tears. + +Pierrette fell upon her bed, her strength all gone, half-dead with the +exhaustion which, in her feeble state, followed so violent a struggle. +The tall gray woman took her in her arms, as a nurse lifts a child, +and went out, followed by Brigaut, without a word to Sylvie, on whom +she cast one glance of majestic accusation. + +The apparition of that august old woman, in her Breton costume, +shrouded in her coif (a sort of hooded mantle of black cloth), +accompanied by Brigaut, appalled Sylvie; she fancied she saw death. +She slowly went down the stairs, listened to the front door closing +behind them, and came face to face with her brother, who exclaimed: +"Then they haven't killed you?" + +"Go to bed," said Sylvie. "To-morrow we will see what we must do." + +She went back to her own bed, ripped open the corset, and read +Brigaut's two letters, which confounded her. She went to sleep in the +greatest perplexity,--not imagining the terrible results to which her +conduct was to lead. + + * * * * * + +The letters sent by Brigaut to old Madame Lorrain reached her in a +moment of ineffable joy, which the perusal of them troubled. The poor +old woman had grieved deeply in living without her Pierrette beside +her, but she had consoled her loneliness with the thought that the +sacrifice of herself was in the interests of her grandchild. She was +blessed with one of those ever-young hearts which are upheld and +invigorated by the idea of sacrifice. Her old husband, whose only joy +was his little granddaughter, had grieved for Pierrette; every day he +had seemed to look for her. It was an old man's grief,--on which such +old men live, of which they die. + +Every one can now imagine the happiness which this poor old woman, +living in a sort of almshouse, felt when she learned of a generous +action, rare indeed but not impossible in France. The head of the +house of Collinet, whose failure in 1814 had caused the Lorrains a +loss of twenty-four thousand francs, had gone to America with his +children after his disasters. He had too high a courage to remain a +ruined man. After eleven years of untold effort crowned by success he +returned to Nantes to recover his position, leaving his eldest son in +charge of his transatlantic house. He found Madame Lorrain of Pen-Hoel +in the institution of Saint-Jacques, and was witness of the +resignation with which this most unfortunate of his creditors bore her +misery. + +"God forgive you!" said the old woman, "since you give me on the +borders of my grave the means of securing the happiness of my dear +granddaughter; but alas! it will not clear the debts of my poor +husband!" + +Monsieur Collinet made over to the widow both the capital and the +accrued interest, amounting to about forty-two thousand francs. His +other creditors, prosperous, rich, and intelligent merchants, had +easily born their losses, whereas the misfortunes of the Lorrains +seemed so irremediable to old Monsieur Collinet that he promised the +widow to pay off her husband's debts, to the amount of forty thousand +francs more. When the Bourse of Nantes heard of this generous +reparation they wished to receive Collinet to their board before his +certificates were granted by the Royal court at Rennes; but the +merchant refused the honor, preferring to submit to the ordinary +commercial rule. + +Madame Lorrain had received the money only the day before the post +brought her Brigaut's letter, enclosing that of Pierrette. Her first +thought had been, as she signed the receipt: "Now I can live with my +Pierrette and marry her to that good Brigaut, who will make a fortune +with my money." + +Therefore the moment she had read the fatal letters she made instant +preparations to start for Provins. She left Nantes that night by the +mail; for some one had explained to her its celerity. In Paris she +took the diligence for Troyes, which passes through Provins, and by +half-past eleven at night she reached Frappier's, where Brigaut, +shocked at her despairing looks, told her of Pierrette's state and +promised to bring the poor girl to her instantly. His words so +terrified the grandmother that she could not control her impatience +and followed him to the square. When Pierrette screamed, the horror of +that cry went to her heart as sharply as it did to Brigaut's. Together +they would have roused the neighborhood if Rogron, in his terror, had +not opened the door. The scream of the young girl at bay gave her +grandmother the sudden strength of anger with which she carried her +dear Pierrette in her arms to Frappier's house, where Madame Frappier +hastily arranged Brigaut's own room for the old woman and her +treasure. In that poor room, on a bed half-made, the sufferer was +deposited; and there she fainted away, holding her hand still +clenched, wounded, bleeding, with the nails deep bedded in the flesh. +Brigaut, Frappier, his wife, and the old woman stood looking at +Pierrette in silence, all four of them in a state of indescribable +amazement. + +"Why is her hand bloody?" said the grandmother at last. + +Pierrette, overcome by the sleep which follows all abnormal displays +of strength, and dimly conscious that she was safe from violence, +gradually unbent her fingers. Brigaut's letter fell from them like an +answer. + +"They tried to take my letter from her," said Brigaut, falling on his +knees and picking up the lines in which he had told his little friend +to come instantly and softly away from the house. He kissed with pious +love the martyr's hand. + +It was a sight that made those present tremble when they saw the old +gray woman, a sublime spectre, standing beside her grandchild's +pillow. Terror and vengeance wrote their fierce expressions in the +wrinkles that lined her skin of yellow ivory; her forehead, half +hidden by the straggling meshes of her gray hair, expressed a solemn +anger. She read, with a power of intuition given to the aged when near +their grave, Pierrette's whole life, on which her mind had dwelt +throughout her journey. She divined the illness of her darling, and +knew that she was threatened with death. Two big tears painfully rose +in her wan gray eyes, from which her troubles had worn both lashes and +eyebrows, two pearls of anguish, forming within them and giving them a +dreadful brightness; then each tear swelled and rolled down the +withered cheek, but did not wet it. + +"They have killed her!" she said at last, clasping her hands. + +She fell on her knees which struck sharp blows on the brick-laid +floor, making a vow no doubt to Saint Anne d'Auray, the most powerful +of the madonnas of Brittany. + +"A doctor from Paris," she said to Brigaut. "Go and fetch one, +Brigaut, go!" + +She took him by the shoulder and gave him a despotic push to send him +from the room. + +"I was coming, my lad, when you wrote me; I am rich,--here, take +this," she cried, recalling him, and unfastening as she spoke the +strings that tied her short-gown. Then she drew a paper from her bosom +in which were forty-two bank-bills, saying, "Take what is necessary, +and bring back the greatest doctor in Paris." + +"Keep those," said Frappier; "he can't change thousand franc notes +now. I have money, and the diligence will be passing presently; he can +certainly find a place on it. But before he goes we had better consult +Doctor Martener; he will tell us the best physician in Paris. The +diligence won't pass for over an hour,--we have time enough." + +Brigaut woke up Monsieur Martener, and brought him at once. The doctor +was not a little surprised to find Mademoiselle Lorrain at Frappier's. +Brigaut told him of the scene that had just taken place at the +Rogrons'; but even so the doctor did not at first suspect the horror +of it, nor the extent of the injury done. Martener gave the address of +the celebrated Horace Bianchon, and Brigaut started for Paris by the +diligence. Monsieur Martener then sat down and examined first the +bruised and bloody hand which lay outside the bed. + +"She could not have given these wounds herself," he said. + +"No; the horrible woman to whom I had the misfortune to trust her was +murdering her," said the grandmother. "My poor Pierrette was screaming +'Help! help! I'm dying,'--enough to touch the heart of an +executioner." + +"But why was it?" said the doctor, feeling Pierrette's pulse. "She is +very ill," he added, examining her with a light. "She must have +suffered terribly; I don't understand why she has not been properly +cared for." + +"I shall complain to the authorities," said the grandmother. "Those +Rogrons asked me for my child in a letter, saying they had twelve +thousand francs a year and would take care of her; had they the right +to make her their servant and force her to do work for which she had +not the strength?" + +"They did not choose to see the most visible of all maladies to which +young girls are liable. She needed the utmost care," cried Monsieur +Martener. + +Pierrette was awakened by the light which Madame Frappier was holding +near her face, and by the horrible sufferings in her head caused by +the reaction of her struggle. + +"Ah! Monsieur Martener, I am very ill," she said in her pretty voice. + +"Where is the pain, my little friend?" asked the doctor. + +"Here," she said, touching her head above the left ear. + +"There's an abscess," said the doctor, after feeling the head for a +long time and questioning Pierrette on her sufferings. "You must tell +us all, my child, so that we may know how to cure you. Why is your +hand like this? You could not have given yourself that wound." + +Pierrette related the struggle between herself and her cousin Sylvie. + +"Make her talk," said the doctor to the grandmother, "and find out the +whole truth. I will await the arrival of the doctor from Paris; and we +will send for the surgeon in charge of the hospital here, and have a +consultation. The case seems to me a very serious one. Meantime I will +send you a quieting draught so that mademoiselle may sleep; she needs +sleep." + +Left alone with her granddaughter the old Breton woman exerted her +influence over the child and made her tell all; she let her know that +she had money enough now for all three, and promised that Brigaut +should live with them. The poor girl admitted her martyrdom, not +imagining the events to which her admissions would give rise. The +monstrosity of two beings without affection and without conception of +family life opened to the old woman a world of woe as far from her +knowledge as the morals of savages may have seemed to the first +discoverers who set foot in America. + +The arrival of her grandmother, the certainty of living with her in +comfort soothed Pierrette's mind as the sleeping draught soothed her +body. The old woman watched her darling, kissing her forehead, hair, +and hands, as the holy women of old kissed the hands of Jesus when +they laid him in the tomb. + + + + IX + + THE FAMILY COUNCIL + +At nine o'clock that morning Monsieur Martener went to see Monsieur +Tiphaine, and related to him the scene between Pierrette and Sylvie, +and the tortures of all kinds, moral and physical, to which the +Rogrons had subjected their cousin, and the two alarming forms of +illness which their cruelty had developed. Monsieur Tiphaine sent for +Auffray the notary, one of Pierrette's own relations on the maternal +side. + +At this particular time the war between the Vinet party and the +Tiphaine party was at its height. The scandals which the Rogrons and +their adherents were disseminating through the town about the liaison +of Madame Tiphaine's mother with the banker du Tillet, and the +bankruptcy of her father (a forger, they said), were all the more +exasperating to the Tiphaines because these things were malicious +truths, not libels. Such wounds cut deep; they go to the quick of +feelings and of interests. These speeches, repeated to the partisans +of the Tiphaines by the same mouths which told the Rogrons of the +sneers of "those women" of the Tiphaine clique, fed the hatreds of +both sides, now increased by the political element. The animosities +caused at this time in France by the spirit of party, the violences of +which were excessive, were everywhere mixed up, as in Provins, with +selfish schemes and wounded or vindictive individual interests. Each +party eagerly seized on whatever might injure the rival party. +Personal hatreds and self-love mingled as much as political animosity +in even the smallest matters, and were carried to hitherto unheard-of +lengths. A whole town would be roused to excitement over some private +struggle, until it took the character of a political debate. + +Monsieur Tiphaine at once perceived in the case of Pierrette against +the Rogrons a means of humbling, mortifying, and dishonoring the +masters of that salon where plans against the monarchy were made and +an opposition journal born. The public prosecutor was called in; and +together with Monsieur Auffray the notary, Pierrette's relation, and +Monsieur Martener, a cautious consultation was held in the utmost +secrecy as to the proper course to follow. Monsieur Martener agreed to +advise Pierrette's grandmother to apply to the courts to have Auffray +appointed guardian to his young relation. The guardian could then +convene a "Family Council," and, backed by the testimony of three +doctors, demand the girl's release from the authority of the Rogrons. +The affair thus managed would have to go before the courts, and the +public prosecutor, Monsieur Lesourd, would see that it was taken to a +criminal court by demanding an inquiry. + +Towards midday all Provins was roused by the strange news of what had +happened during the night at the Rogrons'. Pierrette's cries had been +faintly heard, though they were soon over. No one had risen to inquire +what they meant, but every one said the next day, "Did you hear those +screams about one in the morning?" Gossip and comments soon magnified +the horrible drama, and a crowd collected in front of Frappier's shop, +asking the worthy cabinet-maker for information, and hearing from him +how Pierrette was brought to his house with her fingers broken and the +hand bloody. + +Towards one in the afternoon the post-chaise of Doctor Bianchon, who +was accompanied by Brigaut, stopped before the house, and Madame +Frappier went at once to summon Monsieur Martener and the surgeon in +charge of the hospital. Thus the gossip of the town received +confirmation. The Rogrons were declared to have ill-used their cousin +deliberately, and to have come near killing her. Vinet heard the news +while attending to his business in the law courts; he left everything +and hurried to the Rogrons. Rogron and his sister had just finished +breakfast. Sylvie was reluctant to tell her brother of her +discomfiture of the night before; but he pressed her with questions, +to which she would make no answer than, "That's not your business." +She went and came from the kitchen to the dining-room on pretence of +preparing the breakfast, but chiefly to avoid discussion. She was +alone when Vinet entered. + +"You know what's happened?" said the lawyer. + +"No," said Sylvie. + +"You will be arrested on a criminal charge," replied Vinet, "from the +way things are now going about Pierrette." + +"A criminal charge!" cried Rogron, who had come into the room. "Why? +What for?" + +"First of all," said the lawyer, looking at Sylvie, "explain to me +without concealment and as if you stood before God, what happened in +this house last night--they talk of amputating Pierrette's hand." + +Sylvie turned livid and shuddered. + +"Then there is some truth in it?" said Vinet. + +Mademoiselle Rogron related the scene, trying to excuse herself; but, +prodded with questions, she acknowledged the facts of the horrible +struggle. + +"If you have only injured her fingers you will be taken before the +police court for a misdemeanor; but if they cut off her hand you may +be tried at the Assizes for a worse offence. The Tiphaines will do +their best to get you there." + +Sylvie, more dead than alive, confessed her jealousy, and, what was +harder to do, confessed also that her suspicions were unfounded. + +"Heavens, what a case this will make!" cried the lawyer. "You and your +brother may be ruined by it; you will be abandoned by most people +whether you win or lose. If you lose, you will have to leave Provins." + +"Oh, my dear Monsieur Vinet, you who are such a great lawyer," said +Rogron, terrified, "advise us! save us!" + +The crafty Vinet worked the terror of the two imbeciles to its utmost, +declaring that Madame and Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf might be +unwilling to enter their house again. To be abandoned by women of +their rank would be a terrible condemnation. At length, after an hour +of adroit manoeuvring, it was agreed that Vinet must have some +powerful motive in taking the case, that would impress the minds of +all Provins and explain his efforts on behalf of the Rogrons. This +motive they determined should be Rogron's marriage to Mademoiselle de +Chargeboeuf; it should be announced that very day and the banns +published on Sunday. The contract could be drawn immediately. +Mademoiselle Rogron agreed, in consideration of the marriage, to +appear in the contract as settling her capital on her brother, +retaining only the income of it. Vinet made Rogron and his sister +comprehend the necessity of antedating the document by two or three +days, so as to commit the mother and daughter in the eyes of the +public and give them a reason for continuing their visits. + +"Sign that contract and I'll take upon myself to get you safely out of +this affair," said the lawyer. "There will be a terrible fight; but I +will put my whole soul into it--you'll have to make me a votive +offering." + +"Oh, yes, yes," said Rogron. + +By half-past eleven the lawyer had plenary powers to draw the contract +and conduct the defence of the Rogrons. At twelve o'clock application +was made to Monsieur Tiphaine, as a judge sitting in chambers, against +Brigaut and the widow Lorrain for having abducted Pierrette Lorrain, a +minor, from the house of her legal guardian. In this way the bold +lawyer became the aggressor and made Rogron the injured party. He +spoke of the matter from this point of view in the court-house. + +The judge postponed the hearing till four o'clock. Needless to +describe the excitement in the town. Monsieur Tiphaine knew that by +three o'clock the consultation of doctors would be over and their +report drawn up; he wished Auffray, as surrogate-guardian, to be at +the hearing armed with that report. + +The announcement of Rogron's marriage and the sacrifices made to it by +Sylvie in the contract alienated two important supporters from the +brother and sister, namely,--Mademoiselle Habert and the colonel, +whose hopes were thus annihilated. They remained, however, ostensibly +on the Rogron side for the purpose of injuring it. Consequently, as +soon as Monsieur Martener mentioned the alarming condition of +Pierrette's head, Celeste and the colonel told of the blow she had +given herself during the evening when Sylvie had forced her to leave +the salon; and they related the old maid's barbarous and unfeeling +comments, with other statements proving her cruelty to her suffering +cousin. Vinet had foreseen this storm; but he had secured the entire +fortune of the Rogrons for Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf, and he +promised himself that in a few weeks she should be mistress of the +Rogron house, and reign with him over Provins, and even bring about a +fusion with the Breauteys and the aristocrats in the interests of his +ambition. + +From midday to four o'clock all the ladies of the Tiphaine clique sent +to inquire after Mademoiselle Lorrain. She, poor girl, was wholly +ignorant of the commotion she was causing in the little town. In the +midst of her sufferings she was ineffably happy in recovering her +grandmother and Brigaut, the two objects of her affection. Brigaut's +eyes were constantly full of tears. The old grandmother sat by the bed +and caressed her darling. To the three doctors she told every detail +she had obtained from Pierrette as to her life in the Rogron house. +Horace Bianchon expressed his indignation in vehement language. +Shocked at such barbarity he insisted on all the physicians in the +town being called in to see the case; the consequence was that Dr. +Neraud, the friend of the Rogrons, was present. The report was +unanimously signed. It is useless to give a text of it here. If +Moliere's medical terms were barbarous, those of modern science have +the advantage of being so clear that the explanation of Pierrette's +malady, though natural and unfortunately common, horrified all ears. + +At four o'clock, after the usual rising of the court, president +Tiphaine again took his seat, when Madame Lorrain, accompanied by +Monsieur Auffray and Brigaut and a crowd of interested persons, +entered the court-room. Vinet was alone. This contrast struck the +minds of those present. The lawyer, who still wore his robe, turned +his cold face to the judge, settled his spectacles on his pallid green +eyes, and then in a shrill, persistent voice he stated that two +strangers had forced themselves at night into the Rogron domicile and +had abducted therefrom the minor Lorrain. The legal rights were with +the guardian, who now demanded the restoration of his ward. + +Monsieur Auffray rose, as surrogate-guardian, and requested to be +heard. + +"If the judge," he said, "will admit the report, which I hold in my +hand, signed by one of the most famous physicians in Paris, and by all +the physicians in Provins, he will understand not only that the demand +of the Sieur Rogron is senseless, but also that the grandmother of the +minor had grave cause to instantly remove her from her persecutors. +Here are the facts. The report of these physicians attribute the +almost dying condition of the said minor to the ill-treatment she has +received from the Sieur Rogron and his sister. We shall, as the law +directs, convoke a Family Council with the least possible delay, and +discuss the question as to whether or not the guardian should be +deposed. And we now ask that the minor be not returned to the domicile +of the said guardian but that she be confided to some member of her +family who shall be designated by the judge." + +Vinet replied, declaring that the physicians' report ought to have +been submitted to him in order that he might have disproved it. + +"Not submitted to your side," said the judge, severely, "but possibly +to the _procureur du roi_. The case is heard." + +The judge then wrote at the bottom of the petition the following +order:-- + + "Whereas it appears, from a deliberate and unanimous report of all + the physicians of this town, together with Doctor Bianchon of the + medical faculty of Paris, that the minor Lorrain, claimed by + Jerome-Denis Rogron, her guardian, is extremely ill in consequence + of ill-treatment and personal assault in the house of the said + guardian and his sister: + + "We, president of the court of Provins, passing upon the said + petition, order that until the Family Council is held the minor + Lorrain is not to be returned to the household of her said + guardian, but shall be kept in that of her surrogate-guardian. + + "And further, considering the state in which the said minor now + is, and the traces of violence which, according to the report of + the physicians, are now upon her person, we commission the + attending physician and the surgeon in charge of the hospital of + Provins to visit her, and in case the injuries from the said + assault become alarming, the matter will be held to await the + action of the criminal courts; and this without prejudice to the + civil suit undertaken by Auffray the surrogate-guardian." + +This severe judgment was read out by President Tiphaine in a loud and +distinct voice. + +"Why not send them to the galleys at once?" said Vinet. "And all this +fuss about a girl who was carrying on an intrigue with an apprentice +to a cabinet-maker! If the case goes on in this way," he cried, +insolently, "we shall demand other judges on the ground of legitimate +suspicion." + +Vinet left the court-room, and went among the chief men of his party +to explain Rogron's position, declaring that he had never so much as +given a flip to his cousin, and that the judge had viewed him much +less as Pierrette's guardian than as a leading elector in Provins. + +To hear Vinet, people might have supposed that the Tiphaines were +making a great fuss about nothing; the mounting was bringing forth a +mouse. Sylvie, an eminently virtuous and pious woman, had discovered +an intrigue between her brother's ward and a workman, a Breton named +Brigaut. The scoundrel knew very well that the girl would have her +grandmother's money, and he wished to seduce her (Vinet to talk of +that!). Mademoiselle Rogron, who had discovered letters proving the +depravity of the girl, was not as much to blame as the Tiphaines were +trying to make out. If she did use some violence to get possession of +those letters (which was no wonder, when we consider what Breton +obstinacy is), how could Rogron be considered responsible for all +that? + +The lawyer went on to make the matter a partisan affair, and to give +it a political color. + +"They who listen to only one bell hear only one sound," said the wise +men. "Have you heard what Vinet says? Vinet explains things clearly." + +Frappier's house being thought injurious to Pierrette, owing to the +noise in the street which increased the sufferings in her head, she +was taken to that of her surrogate guardian, the change being as +necessary medically as it was judicially. The removal was made with +the utmost caution, and was calculated to produce a great public +effect. Pierrette was laid on a mattress and carried on a stretcher by +two men; a Gray Sister walked beside her with a bottle of sal volatile +in her hand, while the grandmother, Brigaut, Madame Auffray, and her +maid followed. People were at their windows and doors to see the +procession pass. Certainly the state in which they saw Pierrette, pale +as death, gave immense advantage to the party against the Rogrons. The +Auffrays were determined to prove to the whole town that the judge was +right in the decision he had given. Pierrette and her grandmother were +installed on the second floor of Monsieur Auffray's house. The notary +and his wife gave her every care with the greatest hospitality, which +was not without a little ostentation in it. Pierrette had her +grandmother to nurse her; and Monsieur Martener and the head-surgeon +of the hospital attended her. + +On the evening of this day exaggerations began on both sides. The +Rogron salon was crowded. Vinet had stirred up the whole Liberal party +on the subject. The Chargeboeuf ladies dined with the Rogrons, for the +contract was to be signed that evening. Vinet had had the banns posted +at the mayor's office in the afternoon. He made light of the Pierrette +affair. If the Provins court was prejudiced, the Royal courts would +appreciate the facts, he said, and the Auffrays would think twice +before they flung themselves into such a suit. The alliance of the +Rogrons with the Chargeboeufs was an immense consideration in the +minds of a certain class of people. To them it made the Rogrons as +white as snow and Pierrette an evilly disposed little girl, a serpent +warmed in their bosom. + +In Madame Tiphaine's salon vengeance was had for all the mischievous +scandals that the Vinet party had disseminated for the past two years. +The Rogrons were monsters, and the guardian should undergo a criminal +trial. In the Lower town, Pierrette was quite well; in the Upper town +she was dying; at the Rogrons' she scratched her wrist; at Madame +Tiphaine's her fingers were fractured and one was to be cut off. The +next day the "Courrier de Provins," had a plausible article, extremely +well-written, a masterpiece of insinuations mixed with legal points, +which showed that there was no case whatever against Rogron. The +"Bee-hive," which did not appear till two days later, could not answer +without becoming defamatory; it replied, however, that in an affair +like this it was best to wait until the law took its course. + +The Family Council was selected by the _juge de paix_ of the canton of +Provins, and consisted of Rogron and the two Messieurs Auffray, the +nearest relatives, and Monsieur Ciprey, nephew of Pierrette's maternal +grandmother. To these were joined Monsieur Habert, Pierrette's +confessor, and Colonel Gouraud, who had always professed himself a +comrade and friend of her father, Colonel Lorrain. The impartiality of +the judge in these selections was much applauded,--Monsieur Habert and +Colonel Gouraud being considered the firm friends of the Rogrons. + +The serious situation in which Rogron found himself made him ask for +the assistance of a lawyer (and he named Vinet) at the Family Council. +By this manoeuvre, evidently advised by Vinet himself, Rogron +succeeded in postponing the meeting of the council till the end of +December. At that time Monsieur Tiphaine and his wife would be settled +in Paris for the opening of the Chambers; and the ministerial party +would be left without its head. Vinet had already worked upon +Desfondrilles, the deputy-judge, in case the matter should go, after +the hearing before the council, to the criminal courts. + +Vinet spoke for three hours before the Family Council; he proved the +existence of an intrigue between Pierrette and Brigaut, which +justified all Mademoiselle Rogron's severity. He showed how natural it +was that the guardian should have left the management of his ward to a +woman; he dwelt on the fact that Rogron had not interfered with +Pierrette's education as planned by his sister Sylvie. But in spite of +Vinet's efforts the Council were unanimous in removing Rogron from the +guardianship. Monsieur Auffray was appointed in his place, and +Monsieur Ciprey was made surrogate. The Council summoned before it and +examined Adele, the servant-woman, who testified against her late +masters; also Mademoiselle Habert, who related the cruel remarks made +by Mademoiselle Rogron on the evening when Pierrette had given herself +a frightful blow, heard by all the company, and the speech of Madame +de Chargeboeuf about the girl's health. Brigaut produced the letter he +had received from Pierrette, which proved their innocence and stated +her ill-treatment. Proof was given that the condition of the minor was +the result of neglect on the part of the guardian, who was responsible +for all that concerned his ward. Pierrette's illness had been apparent +to every one, even to persons in the town who were strangers to the +family, yet the guardian had done nothing for her. The charge of +ill-treatment was therefore sustained against Rogron; and the case +would now go before the public. + +Rogron, advised by Vinet, opposed the acceptance of the report of the +Council by the court. The authorities then intervened in consequence +of Pierrette's state, which was daily growing worse. The trial of the +case, though placed at once upon the docket, was postponed until the +month of March, 1828, to wait events. + + + + X + + VERDICTS--LEGAL AND OTHER + +Meantime Rogron's marriage with Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf took +place. Sylvie moved to the second floor of the house, which she shared +with Madame de Chargeboeuf, for the first floor was entirely taken up +by the new wife. The beautiful Madame Rogron succeeded to the social +place of the beautiful Madame Tiphaine. The influence of the marriage +was immense. No one now came to visit Sylvie, but Madame Rogron's +salon was always full. + +Sustained by the influence of his mother-in-law and the bankers du +Tillet and Nucingen, Monsieur Tiphaine was fortunate enough to do some +service to the administration; he became one of its chief orators, was +made judge in the civil courts, and obtained the appointment of his +nephew Lesourd to his own vacant place as president of the court of +Provins. This appointment greatly annoyed Desfondrilles. The Keeper of +the Seals sent down one of his own proteges to fill Lesourd's place. +The promotion of Monsieur Tiphaine and his translation to Paris were +therefore of no benefit at all to the Vinet party; but Vinet +nevertheless made a clever use of the result. He had always told the +Provins people that they were being used as a stepping-stone to raise +the crafty Madame Tiphaine into grandeur; Tiphaine himself had tricked +them; Madame Tiphaine despised both Provins and its people in her +heart, and would never return there again. Just at this crisis +Monsieur Tiphaine's father died; his son inherited a fine estate and +sold his house in Provins to Monsieur Julliard. The sale proved to the +minds of all how little the Tiphaines thought of Provins. Vinet was +right; Vinet had been a true prophet. These things had great influence +on the question of Pierrette's guardianship. + +Thus the dreadful martyrdom brutally inflicted on the poor child by +two imbecile tyrants (which led, through its consequences, to the +terrible operation of trepanning, performed by Monsieur Martener under +the advice of Doctor Bianchon),--all this horrible drama reduced to +judicial form was left to float in the vile mess called in legal +parlance the calendar. The case was made to drag through the delays +and the interminable labyrinths of the law, by the shufflings of an +unprincipled lawyer; and during all this time the calumniated girl +languished in the agony of the worst pain known to science. + +Monsieur Martener, together with the Auffray family, were soon charmed +by the beauty of Pierrette's nature and the character of her old +grandmother, whose feelings, ideas, and ways bore the stamp of Roman +antiquity,--this matron of the Marais was like a woman in Plutarch. + +Doctor Martener struggled bravely with death, which already grasped +its prey. From the first, Bianchon and the hospital surgeon had +considered Pierrette doomed; and there now took place between the +doctor and the disease, the former relying on Pierrette's youth, one +of those struggles which physicians alone comprehend,--the reward of +which, in case of success, is never found in the venal pay nor in the +patients themselves, but in the gentle satisfaction of conscience, in +the invisible ideal palm gathered by true artists from the contentment +which fills their soul after accomplishing a noble work. The physician +strains towards good as an artist towards beauty, each impelled by +that grand sentiment which we call virtue. This daily contest wiped +out of Doctor Martener's mind the petty irritations of that other +contest of the Tiphaines and the Vinets,--as always happens to men +when they find themselves face to face with a great and real misery to +conquer. + +Monsieur Martener had begun his career in Paris; but the cruel +activity of the city and its insensibility to its masses of suffering +had shocked his gentle soul, fitted only for the quiet life of the +provinces. Moreover, he was under the yoke of his beautiful native +land. He returned to Provins, where he married and settled, and cared +almost lovingly for the people, who were to him like a large family. +During the whole of Pierrette's illness he was careful not to speak of +her. His reluctance to answer the questions of those who asked about +her was so evident that persons soon ceased to put them. Pierrette was +to him, what indeed she truly was, a poem, mysterious, profound, vast +in suffering, such as doctors find at times in their terrible +experience. He felt an admiration for this delicate young creature +which he would not share with any one. + +This feeling of the physician for his patient was, however, +unconsciously communicated (like all true feelings) to Monsieur and +Madame Auffray, whose house became, so long as Pierrette was in it, +quiet and silent. The children, who had formerly played so joyously +with her, agreed among themselves with the loving grace of childhood +to be neither noisy nor troublesome. They made it a point of honor to +be good because Pierrette was ill. Monsieur Auffray's house was in the +Upper town, beneath the ruins of the Chateau, and it was built upon a +sort of terrace formed by the overthrow of the old ramparts. The +occupants could have a view of the valley from the little fruit-garden +enclosed by walls which overlooked the town. The roofs of the other +houses came to about the level of the lower wall of this garden. Along +the terrace ran a path, by which Monsieur Auffray's study could be +entered through a glass door; at the other end of the path was an +arbor of grape vines and a fig-tree, beneath which stood a round +table, a bench and some chairs, painted green. Pierrette's bedroom was +above the study of her new guardian. Madame Lorrain slept in a cot +beside her grandchild. From her window Pierrette could see the whole +of the glorious valley of Provins, which she hardly knew, so seldom +had she left that dreadful house of the Rogrons. When the weather was +fine she loved to drag herself, resting on her grandmother's arm, to +the vine-clad arbor. Brigaut, unable to work, came three times a day +to see his little friend; he was gnawed by a grief which made him +indifferent to life. He lay in wait like a dog for Monsieur Martener, +and followed him when he left the house. The old grandmother, drunk +with grief, had the courage to conceal her despair; she showed her +darling the smiling face she formerly wore at Pen-Hoel. In her desire +to produce that illusion in the girl's mind, she made her a little +Breton cap like the one Pierrette had worn on her first arrival in +Provins; it made the darling seem more like her childlike self; in it +she was delightful to look upon, her sweet face circled with a halo of +cambric and fluted lace. Her skin, white with the whiteness of +unglazed porcelain, her forehead, where suffering had printed the +semblance of deep thought, the purity of the lines refined by illness, +the slowness of the glances, and the occasional fixity of the eyes, +made Pierrette an almost perfect embodiment of melancholy. She was +served by all with a sort of fanaticism; she was felt to be so gentle, +so tender, so loving. Madame Martener sent her piano to her sister +Madame Auffray, thinking to amuse Pierrette who was passionately fond +of music. It was a poem to watch her listening to a theme of Weber, or +Beethoven, or Herold,--her eyes raised, her lips silent, regretting no +doubt the life escaping her. The cure Peroux and Monsieur Habert, her +two religious comforters, admired her saintly resignation. Surely the +seraphic perfection of young girls and young men marked with the +hectic of death, is a wonderful fact worthy of the attention alike of +philosophers and of heedless minds. He who has ever seen one of these +sublime departures from this life can never remain, or become, an +unbeliever. Such beings exhale, as it were, a celestial fragrance; +their glances speak of God; the voices are eloquent in the simplest +words; often they ring like some seraphic instrument revealing the +secrets of the future. When Monsieur Martener praised her for having +faithfully followed a harsh prescription the little angel replied, and +with what a glance!-- + +"I want to live, dear Monsieur Martener; but less for myself than for +my grandmother, for my Brigaut, for all of you who will grieve at my +death." + +The first time she went into the garden on a beautiful sunny day in +November attended by all the household, Madame Auffray asked her if +she was tired. + +"No, now that I have no sufferings but those God sends I can bear +all," she said. "The joy of being loved gives me strength to suffer." + +That was the only time (and then vaguely) that she ever alluded to her +horrible martyrdom at the Rogrons, whom she never mentioned, and of +whom no one reminded her, knowing well how painful the memory must be. + +"Dear Madame Auffray," she said one day at noon on the terrace, as she +gazed at the valley, warmed by a glorious sun and colored with the +glowing tints of autumn, "my death in your house gives me more +happiness than I have had since I left Brittany." + +Madame Auffray whispered in her sister Martener's ear:-- + +"How she would have loved!" + +In truth, her tones, her looks gave to her words a priceless value. + +Monsieur Martener corresponded with Doctor Bianchon, and did nothing +of importance without his advice. He hoped in the first place to +regular the functions of nature and to draw away the abscess in the +head through the ear. The more Pierrette suffered, the more he hoped. +He gained some slight success at times, and that was a great triumph. +For several days Pierrette's appetite returned and enabled her to take +nourishing food for which her illness had given her a repugnance; the +color of her skin changed; but the condition of her head was terrible. +Monsieur Martener entreated the great physician his adviser to come +down. Bianchon came, stayed two days, and resolved to undertake an +operation. To spare the feelings of poor Martener he went to Paris and +brought back with him the celebrated Desplein. Thus the operation was +performed by the greatest surgeon of ancient or modern times; but that +terrible diviner said to Martener as he departed with Bianchon, his +best-loved pupil:-- + +"Nothing but a miracle can save her. As Horace told you, caries of the +bone has begun. At her age the bones are so tender." + +The operation was performed at the beginning of March, 1828. During +all that month, distressed by Pierrette's horrible sufferings, +Monsieur Martener made several journeys to Paris; there he consulted +Desplein and Bianchon, and even went so far as to propose to them an +operation of the nature of lithotrity, which consists in passing into +the head a hollow instrument by the help of which an heroic remedy can +be applied to the diseased bone, to arrest the progress of the caries. +Even the bold Desplein dared not attempt that high-handed surgical +measure, which despair alone had suggested to Martener. When he +returned home from Paris he seemed to his friends morose and gloomy. +He was forced to announce on that fatal evening to the Auffrays and +Madame Lorrain and to the two priests and Brigaut that science could +do no more for Pierrette, whose recovery was now in God's hands only. +The consternation among them was terrible. The grandmother made a vow, +and requested the priests to say a mass every morning at daybreak +before Pierrette rose,--a mass at which she and Brigaut might be +present. + +The trial came on. While the victim lay dying, Vinet was calumniating +her in court. The judge approved and accepted the report of the Family +Council, and Vinet instantly appealed. The newly appointed _procureur +du roi_ made a requisition which necessitated fresh evidence. Rogron +and his sister were forced to give bail to avoid going to prison. The +order for fresh evidence included that of Pierrette herself. When +Monsieur Desfondrilles came to the Auffrays' to receive it, Pierrette +was dying, her confessor was at her bedside about to administer +extreme unction. At that moment she entreated all present to forgive +her cousins as she herself forgave them, saying with her simple good +sense that the judgment of these things belonged to God alone. + +"Grandmother," she said, "leave all you have to Brigaut" (Brigaut +burst into tears); "and," continued Pierrette, "give a thousand francs +to that kind Adele who warmed my bed. If Adele had remained with my +cousins I should not now be dying." + +It was at three o'clock on the Tuesday of Easter week, on a beautiful, +bright day, that the angel ceased to suffer. Her heroic grandmother +wished to watch all that night with the priests, and to sew with her +stiff old fingers her darling's shroud. Towards evening Brigaut left +the Auffray's house and went to Frappier's. + +"I need not ask you, my poor boy, for news," said the cabinet-maker. + +"Pere Frappier, yes, it is ended for her--but not for me." + +He cast a look upon the different woods piled up around the shop,--a +look of painful meaning. + +"I understand you, Brigaut," said his worthy master. "Take all you +want." And he showed him the oaken planks of two-inch thickness. + +"Don't help me, Monsieur Frappier," said the Breton, "I wish to do it +alone." + +He passed the night in planing and fitting Pierrette's coffin, and +more than once his plane took off at a single pass a ribbon of wood +which was wet with tears. The good man Frappier smoked his pipe and +watched him silently, saying only, when the four pieces were joined +together,-- + +"Make the cover to slide; her poor grandmother will not hear the +nails." + +At daybreak Brigaut went out to fetch the lead to line the coffin. By +a strange chance, the sheets of lead cost just the sum he had given +Pierrette for her journey from Nantes to Provins. The brave Breton, +who was able to resist the awful pain of himself making the coffin of +his dear one and lining with his memories those burial planks, could +not bear up against this strange reminder. His strength gave way; he +was not able to lift the lead, and the plumber, seeing this, came with +him, and offered to accompany him to the house and solder the last +sheet when the body had been laid in the coffin. + +The Breton burned the plane and all the tools he had used. Then he +settled his accounts with Frappier and bade him farewell. The heroism +with which the poor lad personally performed, like the grandmother, +the last offices for Pierrette made him a sharer in the awful scene +which crowned the tyranny of the Rogrons. + +Brigaut and the plumber reached the house of Monsieur Auffray just in +time to decide by their own main force an infamous and shocking +judicial question. The room where the dead girl lay was full of +people, and presented to the eyes of the two men a singular sight. The +Rogron emissaries were standing beside the body of their victim, to +torture her even after death. The corpse of the child, solemn in its +beauty, lay on the cot-bed of her grandmother. Pierrette's eyes were +closed, the brown hair smoothed upon her brow, the body swathed in a +coarse cotton sheet. + +Before the bed, on her knees, her hair in disorder, her hands +stretched out, her face on fire, the old Lorrain was crying out, "No, +no, it shall not be done!" + +At the foot of the bed stood Monsieur Auffray and the two priests. The +tapers were still burning. + +Opposite to the grandmother was the surgeon of the hospital, with an +assistant, and near him stood Doctor Neraud and Vinet. The surgeon +wore his dissecting apron; the assistant had opened a case of +instruments and was handing him a knife. + +This scene was interrupted by the noise of the coffin which Brigaut +and the plumber set down upon the floor. Then Brigaut, advancing, was +horrified at the sight of Madame Lorrain, who was now weeping. + +"What is the matter?" he asked, standing beside her and grasping the +chisel convulsively in his hand. + +"This," said the old woman, "_this_, Brigaut: they want to open the +body of my child and cut into her head, and stab her heart after her +death as they did when she was living." + +"Who?" said Brigaut, in a voice that might have deafened the men of +law. + +"The Rogrons." + +"In the sacred name of God!--" + +"Stop, Brigaut," said Monsieur Auffray, seeing the lad brandish his +chisel. + +"Monsieur Auffray," said Brigaut, as white as his dead companion, "I +hear you because you are Monsieur Auffray, but at this moment I will +not listen to--" + +"The law!" said Auffray. + +"Is there law? is there justice?" cried the Breton. "Justice, this is +it!" and he advanced to the lawyer and the doctors, threatening them +with his chisel. + +"My friend," said the curate, "the law has been invoked by the lawyer +of Monsieur Rogron, who is under the weight of a serious accusation; +and it is impossible for us to refuse him the means of justification. +The lawyer of Monsieur Rogron claims that if the poor child died of an +abscess in her head her former guardian cannot be blamed, for it is +proved that Pierrette concealed the effects of the blow which she gave +to herself--" + +"Enough!" said Brigaut. + +"My client--" began Vinet. + +"Your client," cried the Breton, "shall go to hell and I to the +scaffold; for if one of you dares to touch her whom your client has +killed, I will kill him if my weapon does its duty." + +"This is interference with the law," said Vinet. "I shall instantly +inform the court." + +The five men left the room. + +"Oh, my son!" cried the old woman, rising from her knees and falling +on Brigaut's neck, "let us bury her quick,--they will come back." + +"If we solder the lead," said the plumber, "they may not dare to open +it." + +Monsieur Auffray hastened to his brother-in-law, Monsieur Lesourd, to +try and settle the matter. Vinet was not unwilling. Pierrette being +dead the suit about the guardianship fell, of course, to the ground. +All the astute lawyer wanted was the effect produced by his request. + +At midday Monsieur Desfondrilles made his report on the case, and the +court rendered a decision that there was no ground for further action. + +Rogron dared not go to Pierrette's funeral, at which the whole town +was present. Vinet wished to force him there, but the miserable man +was afraid of exciting universal horror. + +Brigaut left Provins after watching the filling up of the grave where +Pierrette lay, and went on foot to Paris. He wrote a petition to the +Dauphiness asking, in the name of his father, that he might enter the +Royal guard, to which he was at once admitted. When the expedition to +Algiers was undertaken he wrote to her again, to obtain employment in +it. He was then a sergeant; Marshal Bourmont gave him an appointment +as sub-lieutenant in a line regiment. The major's son behaved like a +man who wished to die. Death has, however, respected Jacques Brigaut +up to the present time; although he has distinguished himself in all +the recent expeditions he has never yet been wounded. He is now major +in a regiment of infantry. No officer is more taciturn or more +trustworthy. Outside of his duty he is almost mute; he walks alone and +lives mechanically. Every one divines and respects a hidden sorrow. He +possesses forty-six thousand francs, which old Madame Lorrain, who +died in Paris in 1829, bequeathed to him. + +At the elections of 1830 Vinet was made a deputy. The services he +rendered the new government have now earned him the position of +_procureur-general_. His influence is such that he will always remain +a deputy. Rogron is receiver-general in the same town where Vinet +fulfils his legal functions; and by one of those curious tricks of +chance which do so often occur, Monsieur Tiphaine is president of the +Royal court in the same town,--for the worthy man gave in his adhesion +to the dynasty of July without the slightest hesitation. The +ex-beautiful Madame Tiphaine lives on excellent terms with the +beautiful Madame Rogron. Vinet is hand in glove with Madame Tiphaine. + +As to the imbecile Rogron, he makes such remarks as, "Louis-Philippe +will never be really king till he is able to make nobles." + +The speech is evidently not his own. His health is failing, which +allows Madame Rogron to hope she may soon marry the General Marquis de +Montriveau, peer of France, who commands the department, and is paying +her attentions. Vinet is in his element, seeking victims; he never +believes in the innocence of an accused person. This thoroughbred +prosecutor is held to be one of the most amiable men on the circuit; +and he is no less liked in Paris and in the Chamber; at court he is a +charming courtier. + +According to a certain promise made by Vinet, General Baron Gouraud, +that noble relic of our glorious armies, married a Mademoiselle +Matifat, twenty-five years old, daughter of a druggist in the rue des +Lombards, whose dowry was a hundred thousand francs. He commands (as +Vinet prophesied) a department in the neighborhood of Paris. He was +named peer of France for his conduct in the riots which occurred +during the ministry of Casimir Perier. Baron Gouraud was one of the +generals who took the church of Saint-Merry, delighted to rap those +rascally civilians who had vexed him for years over the knuckles; for +which service he was rewarded with the grand cordon of the Legion of +honor. + +None of the personages connected with Pierrette's death ever felt the +slightest remorse about it. Monsieur Desfondrilles is still +archaeological, but, in order to compass his own election, the +_procureur general_ Vinet took pains to have him appointed president +of the Provins court. Sylvie has a little circle, and manages her +brother's property; she lends her own money at high interest, and does +not spend more than twelve hundred francs a year. + +From time to time, when some former son or daughter of Provins returns +from Paris to settle down, you may hear them ask, as they leave +Mademoiselle Rogron's house, "Wasn't there a painful story against the +Rogrons,--something about a ward?" + +"Mere prejudice," replies Monsieur Desfondrilles. "Certain persons +tried to make us believe falsehoods. Out of kindness of heart the +Rogrons took in a girl named Pierrette, quite pretty but with no +money. Just as she was growing up she had an intrigue with a young +man, and stood at her window barefooted talking to him. The lovers +passed notes to each other by a string. She took cold in this way and +died, having no constitution. The Rogrons behaved admirably. They made +no claim on certain property which was to come to her,--they gave it +all up to the grandmother. The moral of it was, my good friend, that +the devil punishes those who try to benefit others." + +"Ah! that is quite another story from the one old Frappier told me." + +"Frappier consults his wine-cellar more than he does his memory," +remarked another of Mademoiselle Rogron's visitors. + +"But that old priest, Monsieur Habert says--" + +"Oh, he! don't you know why?" + +"No." + +"He wanted to marry his sister to Monsieur Rogron, the +receiver-general." + + * * * * * + +Two men think of Pierrette daily: Doctor Martener and Major Brigaut; +they alone know the hideous truth. + +To give that truth its true proportions we must transport the scene to +the Rome of the middle ages, where a sublime young girl, Beatrice +Cenci, was brought to the scaffold by motives and intrigues that were +almost identical with those which laid our Pierrette in her grave. +Beatrice Cenci had but one defender,--an artist, a painter. In our day +history, and living men, on the faith of Guido Reni's portrait, +condemn the Pope, and know that Beatrice was a most tender victim of +infamous passions and base feuds. + +We must all agree that legality would be a fine thing for social +scoundrelism IF THERE WERE NO GOD. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Bianchon, Horace + Father Goriot + The Atheist's Mass + Cesar Birotteau + The Commission in Lunacy + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Secrets of a Princess + The Government Clerks + A Study of Woman + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + The Seamy Side of History + The Magic Skin + A Second Home + A Prince of Bohemia + Letters of Two Brides + The Muse of the Department + The Imaginary Mistress + The Middle Classes + Cousin Betty + The Country Parson +In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following: + Another Study of Woman + La Grande Breteche + +Brigaut, Major + The Chouans + +Desplein + The Atheist's Mass + Cousin Pons + Lost Illusions + The Thirteen + The Government Clerks + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Seamy Side of History + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + +Gouraud, General, Baron + Cousin Pons + +Keller, Adolphe + The Middle Classes + Cesar Birotteau + +Matifat, Mademoiselle + Cesar Birotteau + The Firm of Nucingen + +Montriveau, General Marquis Armand de + The Thirteen + Father Goriot + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Another Study of Woman + The Member for Arcis + +Nucingen, Baron Frederic de + The Firm of Nucingen + Father Goriot + Cesar Birotteau + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Another Study of Woman + The Secrets of a Princess + A Man of Business + Cousin Betty + The Muse of the Department + The Unconscious Humorists + +Roguin + Cesar Birotteau + Eugenie Grandet + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Vendetta + +Roguin, Madame + Cesar Birotteau + At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + A Second Home + A Daughter of Eve + +Tillet, Ferdinand du + Cesar Birotteau + The Firm of Nucingen + The Middle Classes + A Bachelor's Establishment + Melmoth Reconciled + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Secrets of a Princess + A Daughter of Eve + The Member for Arcis + Cousin Betty + The Unconscious Humorists + +Tiphaine, Madame + The Vendetta + +Vinet + The Member for Arcis + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons + + + + + THE VICAR OF TOURS + + BY + + HONORE DE BALZAC + + + + Translated by + + Katharine Prescott Wormeley + + + + + DEDICATION + + To David, Sculptor: + +The permanence of the work on which I inscribe your name +--twice made illustrious in this century--is very problematical; +whereas you have graven mine in bronze which survives nations +--if only in their coins. The day may come when numismatists, +discovering amid the ashes of Paris existences perpetuated by +you, will wonder at the number of heads crowned in your +atelier and endeavour to find in them new dynasties. + +To you, this divine privilege; to me, gratitude. + + De Balzac. + + + + + THE VICAR OF TOURS + + + + I + +Early in the autumn of 1826 the Abbe Birotteau, the principal +personage of this history, was overtaken by a shower of rain as he +returned home from a friend's house, where he had been passing the +evening. He therefore crossed, as quickly as his corpulence would +allow, the deserted little square called "The Cloister," which lies +directly behind the chancel of the cathedral of Saint-Gatien at Tours. + +The Abbe Birotteau, a short little man, apoplectic in constitution and +about sixty years old, had already gone through several attacks of +gout. Now, among the petty miseries of human life the one for which +the worthy priest felt the deepest aversion was the sudden sprinkling +of his shoes, adorned with silver buckles, and the wetting of their +soles. Notwithstanding the woollen socks in which at all seasons he +enveloped his feet with the extreme care that ecclesiastics take of +themselves, he was apt at such times to get them a little damp, and +the next day gout was sure to give him certain infallible proofs of +constancy. Nevertheless, as the pavement of the Cloister was likely to +be dry, and as the abbe had won three francs ten sous in his rubber +with Madame de Listomere, he bore the rain resignedly from the middle +of the place de l'Archeveche, where it began to come down in earnest. +Besides, he was fondling his chimera,--a desire already twelve years +old, the desire of a priest, a desire formed anew every evening and +now, apparently, very near accomplishment; in short, he had wrapped +himself so completely in the fur cape of a canon that he did not feel +the inclemency of the weather. During the evening several of the +company who habitually gathered at Madame de Listomere's had almost +guaranteed to him his nomination to the office of canon (then vacant +in the metropolitan Chapter of Saint-Gatien), assuring him that no one +deserved such promotion as he, whose rights, long overlooked, were +indisputable. + +If he had lost the rubber, if he had heard that his rival, the Abbe +Poirel, was named canon, the worthy man would have thought the rain +extremely chilling; he might even have thought ill of life. But it so +chanced that he was in one of those rare moments when happy inward +sensations make a man oblivious of discomfort. In hastening his steps +he obeyed a more mechanical impulse, and truth (so essential in a +history of manners and morals) compels us to say that he was thinking +of neither rain nor gout. + +In former days there was in the Cloister, on the side towards the +Grand'Rue, a cluster of houses forming a Close and belonging to the +cathedral, where several of the dignitaries of the Chapter lived. +After the confiscation of ecclesiastical property the town had turned +the passage through this close into a narrow street, called the Rue de +la Psalette, by which pedestrians passed from the Cloister to the +Grand'Rue. The name of this street, proves clearly enough that the +precentor and his pupils and those connected with the choir formerly +lived there. The other side, the left side, of the street is occupied +by a single house, the walls of which are overshadowed by the +buttresses of Saint-Gatien, which have their base in the narrow little +garden of the house, leaving it doubtful whether the cathedral was +built before or after this venerable dwelling. An archaeologist +examining the arabesques, the shape of the windows, the arch of the +door, the whole exterior of the house, now mellow with age, would see +at once that it had always been a part of the magnificent edifice with +which it is blended. + +An antiquary (had there been one at Tours,--one of the least literary +towns in all France) would even discover, where the narrow street +enters the Cloister, several vestiges of an old arcade, which formerly +made a portico to these ecclesiastical dwellings, and was, no doubt, +harmonious in style with the general character of the architecture. + +The house of which we speak, standing on the north side of the +cathedral, was always in the shadow thrown by that vast edifice, on +which time had cast its dingy mantle, marked its furrows, and shed its +chill humidity, its lichen, mosses, and rank herbs. The darkened +dwelling was wrapped in silence, broken only by the bells, by the +chanting of the offices heard through the windows of the church, by +the call of the jackdaws nesting in the belfries. The region is a +desert of stones, a solitude with a character of its own, an arid +spot, which could only be inhabited by beings who had either attained +to absolute nullity, or were gifted with some abnormal strength of +soul. The house in question had always been occupied by abbes, and it +belonged to an old maid named Mademoiselle Gamard. Though the property +had been bought from the national domain under the Reign of Terror by +the father of Mademoiselle Gamard, no one objected under the +Restoration to the old maid's retaining it, because she took priests +to board and was very devout; it may be that religious persons gave +her credit for the intention of leaving the property to the Chapter. + +The Abbe Birotteau was making his way to this house, where he had +lived for the last two years. His apartment had been (as was now the +canonry) an object of envy and his "hoc erat in votis" for a dozen +years. To be Mademoiselle Gamard's boarder and to become a canon were +the two great desires of his life; in fact they do present accurately +the ambition of a priest, who, considering himself on the highroad to +eternity, can wish for nothing in this world but good lodging, good +food, clean garments, shoes with silver buckles, a sufficiency of +things for the needs of the animal, and a canonry to satisfy +self-love, that inexpressible sentiment which follows us, they say, +into the presence of God,--for there are grades among the saints. But +the covetous desire for the apartment which the Abbe Birotteau was now +inhabiting (a very harmless desire in the eyes of worldly people) had +been to the abbe nothing less than a passion, a passion full of +obstacles, and, like more guilty passions, full of hopes, pleasures, +and remorse. + +The interior arrangements of the house did not allow Mademoiselle +Gamard to take more than two lodgers. Now, for about twelve years +before the day when Birotteau went to live with her she had undertaken +to keep in health and contentment two priests; namely, Monsieur l'Abbe +Troubert and Monsieur l'Abbe Chapeloud. The Abbe Troubert still lived. +The Abbe Chapeloud was dead; and Birotteau had stepped into his place. + +The late Abbe Chapeloud, in life a canon of Saint-Gatien, had been an +intimate friend of the Abbe Birotteau. Every time that the latter paid +a visit to the canon he had constantly admired the apartment, the +furniture and the library. Out of this admiration grew the desire to +possess these beautiful things. It had been impossible for the Abbe +Birotteau to stifle this desire; though it often made him suffer +terribly when he reflected that the death of his best friend could +alone satisfy his secret covetousness, which increased as time went +on. The Abbe Chapeloud and his friend Birotteau were not rich. Both +were sons of peasants; and their slender savings had been spent in the +mere costs of living during the disastrous years of the Revolution. +When Napoleon restored the Catholic worship the Abbe Chapeloud was +appointed canon of the cathedral and Birotteau was made vicar of it. +Chapeloud then went to board with Mademoiselle Gamard. When Birotteau +first came to visit his friend, he thought the arrangement of the +rooms excellent, but he noticed nothing more. The outset of this +concupiscence of chattels was very like that of a true passion, which +often begins, in a young man, with cold admiration for a woman whom he +ends in loving forever. + +The apartment, reached by a stone staircase, was on the side of the +house that faced south. The Abbe Troubert occupied the ground-floor, +and Mademoiselle Gamard the first floor of the main building, looking +on the street. When Chapeloud took possession of his rooms they were +bare of furniture, and the ceilings were blackened with smoke. The +stone mantelpieces, which were very badly cut, had never been painted. +At first, the only furniture the poor canon could put in was a bed, a +table, a few chairs, and the books he possessed. The apartment was +like a beautiful woman in rags. But two or three years later, an old +lady having left the Abbe Chapeloud two thousand francs, he spent that +sum on the purchase of an oak bookcase, the relic of a chateau pulled +down by the Bande Noire, the carving of which deserved the admiration +of all artists. The abbe made the purchase less because it was very +cheap than because the dimensions of the bookcase exactly fitted the +space it was to fill in his gallery. His savings enabled him to +renovate the whole gallery, which up to this time had been neglected +and shabby. The floor was carefully waxed, the ceiling whitened, the +wood-work painted to resemble the grain and knots of oak. A long table +in ebony and two cabinets by Boulle completed the decoration, and gave +to this gallery a certain air that was full of character. In the +course of two years the liberality of devout persons, and legacies, +though small ones, from pious penitents, filled the shelves of the +bookcase, till then half empty. Moreover, Chapeloud's uncle, an old +Oratorian, had left him his collection in folio of the Fathers of the +Church, and several other important works that were precious to a +priest. + +Birotteau, more and more surprised by the successive improvements of +the gallery, once so bare, came by degrees to a condition of +involuntary envy. He wished he could possess that apartment, so +thoroughly in keeping with the gravity of ecclestiastical life. The +passion increased from day to day. Working, sometimes for days +together, in this retreat, the vicar could appreciate the silence and +the peace that reigned there. During the following year the Abbe +Chapeloud turned a small room into an oratory, which his pious friends +took pleasure in beautifying. Still later, another lady gave the canon +a set of furniture for his bedroom, the covering of which she had +embroidered under the eyes of the worthy man without his ever +suspecting its destination. The bedroom then had the same effect upon +the vicar that the gallery had long had; it dazzled him. Lastly, about +three years before the Abbe Chapeloud's death, he completed the +comfort of his apartment by decorating the salon. Though the furniture +was plainly covered in red Utrecht velvet, it fascinated Birotteau. +From the day when the canon's friend first laid eyes on the red damask +curtains, the mahogany furniture, the Aubusson carpet which adorned +the vast room, then lately painted, his envy of Chapeloud's apartment +became a monomania hidden within his breast. To live there, to sleep +in that bed with the silk curtains where the canon slept, to have all +Chapeloud's comforts about him, would be, Birotteau felt, complete +happiness; he saw nothing beyond it. All the envy, all the ambition +which the things of this world give birth to in the hearts of other +men concentrated themelves for Birotteau in the deep and secret +longing he felt for an apartment like that which the Abbe Chapeloud +had created for himself. When his friend fell ill he went to him out +of true affection; but all the same, when he first heard of his +illness, and when he sat by his bed to keep him company, there arose +in the depths of his consciousness, in spite of himself, a crowd of +thoughts the simple formula of which was always, "If Chapeloud dies I +can have this apartment." And yet--Birotteau having an excellent +heart, contracted ideas, and a limited mind--he did not go so far as +to think of means by which to make his friend bequeath to him the +library and the furniture. + +The Abbe Chapeloud, an amiable, indulgent egoist, fathomed his +friend's desires--not a difficult thing to do--and forgave them; which +may seem less easy to a priest; but it must be remembered that the +vicar, whose friendship was faithful, did not fail to take a daily +walk with his friend along their usual path in the Mail de Tours, +never once depriving him of an instant of the time devoted for over +twenty years to that exercise. Birotteau, who regarded his secret +wishes as crimes, would have been capable, out of contrition, of the +utmost devotion to his friend. The latter paid his debt of gratitude +for a friendship so ingenuously sincere by saying, a few days before +his death, as the vicar sat by him reading the "Quotidienne" aloud: +"This time you will certainly get the apartment. I feel it is all over +with me now." + +Accordingly, it was found that the Abbe Chapeloud had left his library +and all his furniture to his friend Birotteau. The possession of these +things, so keenly desired, and the prospect of being taken to board by +Mademoiselle Gamard, certainly did allay the grief which Birotteau +felt at the death of his friend the canon. He might not have been +willing to resuscitate him; but he mourned him. For several days he +was like Gargantus, who, when his wife died in giving birth to +Pantagruel, did not know whether to rejoice at the birth of a son or +grieve at having buried his good Babette, and therefore cheated +himself by rejoicing at the death of his wife, and deploring the +advent of Pantagruel. + +The Abbe Birotteau spent the first days of his mourning in verifying +the books in _his_ library, in making use of _his_ furniture, in +examining the whole of his inheritance, saying in a tone which, +unfortunately, was not noted at the time, "Poor Chapeloud!" His joy +and his grief so completely absorbed him that he felt no pain when he +found that the office of canon, in which the late Chapeloud had hoped +his friend Birotteau might succeed him, was given to another. +Mademoiselle Gamard having cheerfully agreed to take the vicar to +board, the latter was thenceforth a participator in all those +felicities of material comfort of which the deceased canon had been +wont to boast. + +Incalculable they were! According to the Abbe Chapeloud none of the +priests who inhabited the city of Tours, not even the archbishop, had +ever been the object of such minute and delicate attentions as those +bestowed by Mademoiselle Gamard on her two lodgers. The first words +the canon said to his friend when they met for their walk on the Mail +referred usually to the succulent dinner he had just eaten; and it was +a very rare thing if during the walks of each week he did not say at +least fourteen times, "That excellent spinster certainly has a +vocation for serving ecclesiastics." + +"Just think," the canon would say to Birotteau, "that for twelve +consecutive years nothing has ever been amiss,--linen in perfect +order, bands, albs, surplices; I find everything in its place, always +in sufficient quantity, and smelling of orris-root. My furniture is +rubbed and kept so bright that I don't know when I have seen any dust +--did you ever see a speck of it in my rooms? Then the firewood is so +well selected. The least little things are excellent. In fact, +Mademoiselle Gamard keeps an incessant watch over my wants. I can't +remember having rung twice for anything--no matter what--in ten years. +That's what I call living! I never have to look for a single thing, +not even my slippers. Always a good fire, always a good dinner. Once +the bellows annoyed me, the nozzle was choked up; but I only mentioned +it once, and the next day Mademoiselle gave me a very pretty pair, +also those nice tongs you see me mend the fire with." + +For all answer Birotteau would say, "Smelling of orris-root!" That +"smelling of orris-root" always affected him. The canon's remarks +revealed ideal joys to the poor vicar, whose bands and albs were the +plague of his life, for he was totally devoid of method and often +forgot to order his dinner. Therefore, if he saw Mademoiselle Gamard +at Saint-Gatien while saying mass or taking round the plate, he never +failed to give her a kindly and benevolent look,--such a look as Saint +Teresa might have cast to heaven. + +Though the comforts which all creatures desire, and for which he had +so often longed, thus fell to his share, the Abbe Birotteau, like the +rest of the world, found it difficult, even for a priest, to live +without something to hanker for. Consequently, for the last eighteen +months he had replaced his two satisfied passions by an ardent longing +for a canonry. The title of Canon had become to him very much what a +peerage is to a plebeian minister. The prospect of an appointment, +hopes of which had just been held out to him at Madame de Listomere's, +so completely turned his head that he did not observe until he reached +his own door that he had left his umbrella behind him. Perhaps, even +then, if the rain were not falling in torrents he might not have +missed it, so absorbed was he in the pleasure of going over and over +in his mind what had been said to him on the subject of his promotion +by the company at Madame de Listomere's,--an old lady with whom he +spent every Wednesday evening. + +The vicar rang loudly, as if to let the servant know she was not to +keep him waiting. Then he stood close to the door to avoid, if he +could, getting showered; but the drip from the roof fell precisely on +the toes of his shoes, and the wind blew gusts of rain into his face +that were much like a shower-bath. Having calculated the time necesary +for the woman to leave the kitchen and pull the string of the outer +door, he rang again, this time in a manner that resulted in a very +significant peal of the bell. + +"They can't be out," he said to himself, not hearing any movement on +the premises. + +Again he rang, producing a sound that echoed sharply through the house +and was taken up and repeated by all the echoes of the cathedral, so +that no one could avoid waking up at the remonstrating racket. +Accordingly, in a few moments, he heard, not without some pleasure in +his wrath, the wooden shoes of the servant-woman clacking along the +paved path which led to the outer door. But even then the discomforts +of the gouty old gentleman were not so quickly over as he hoped. +Instead of pulling the string, Marianne was obliged to turn the lock +of the door with its heavy key, and pull back all the bolts. + +"Why did you let me ring three times in such weather?" said the vicar. + +"But, monsieur, don't you see the door was locked? We have all been in +bed ever so long; it struck a quarter to eleven some time ago. +Mademoiselle must have thought you were in." + +"You saw me go out, yourself. Besides, Mademoiselle knows very well I +always go to Madame de Listomere's on Wednesday evening." + +"I only did as Mademoiselle told me, monsieur." + +These words struck the vicar a blow, which he felt the more because +his late revery had made him completely happy. He said nothing and +followed Marianne towards the kitchen to get his candlestick, which he +supposed had been left there as usual. But instead of entering the +kitchen Marianne went on to his own apartments, and there the vicar +beheld his candlestick on a table close to the door of the red salon, +in a sort of antechamber formed by the landing of the staircase, which +the late canon had inclosed with a glass partition. Mute with +amazement, he entered his bedroom hastily, found no fire, and called +to Marianne, who had not had time to get downstairs. + +"You have not lighted the fire!" he said. + +"Beg pardon, Monsieur l'abbe, I did," she said; "it must have gone +out." + +Birotteau looked again at the hearth, and felt convinced that the fire +had been out since morning. + +"I must dry my feet," he said. "Make the fire." + +Marianne obeyed with the haste of a person who wants to get back to +her night's rest. While looking about him for his slippers, which were +not in the middle of his bedside carpet as usual, the abbe took mental +notes of the state of Marianne's dress, which convinced him that she +had not got out of bed to open the door as she said she had. He then +recollected that for the last two weeks he had been deprived of +various little attentions which for eighteen months had made life +sweet to him. Now, as the nature of narrow minds induces them to study +trifles, Birotteau plunged suddenly into deep meditation on these four +circumstances, imperceptible in their meaning to others, but to him +indicative of four catastrophes. The total loss of his happiness was +evidently foreshadowed in the neglect to place his slipppers, in +Marianne's falsehood about the fire, in the unusual removal of his +candlestick to the table of the antechamber, and in the evident +intention to keep him waiting in the rain. + +When the fire was burning on the hearth, and the lamp was lighted, and +Marianne had departed without saying, as usual, "Does Monsieur want +anything more?" the Abbe Birotteau let himself fall gently into the +wide and handsome easy-chair of his late friend; but there was +something mournful in the movement with which he dropped upon it. The +good soul was crushed by a presentiment of coming calamity. His eyes +roved successively to the handsome tall clock, the bureau, curtains, +chairs, carpets, to the stately bed, the basin of holy-water, the +crucifix, to a Virgin by Valentin, a Christ by Lebrun,--in short, to +all the accessories of this cherished room, while his face expressed +the anguish of the tenderest farewell that a lover ever took of his +first mistress, or an old man of his lately planted trees. The vicar +had just perceived, somewhat late it is true, the signs of a dumb +persecution instituted against him for the last three months by +Mademoiselle Gamard, whose evil intentions would doubtless have been +fathomed much sooner by a more intelligent man. Old maids have a +special talent for accentuating the words and actions which their +dislikes suggest to them. They scratch like cats. They not only wound +but they take pleasure in wounding, and in making their victim see +that he is wounded. A man of the world would never have allowed +himself to be scratched twice; the good abbe, on the contrary, had +taken several blows from those sharp claws before he could be brought +to believe in any evil intention. + +But when he did perceive it, he set to work, with the inquisitorial +sagacity which priests acquire by directing consciences and burrowing +into the nothings of the confessional, to establish, as though it were +a matter of religious controversy, the following proposition: +"Admitting that Mademoiselle Gamard did not remember it was Madame de +Listomere's evening, and that Marianne did think I was home, and did +really forget to make my fire, it is impossible, inasmuch as I myself +took down my candlestick this morning, that Mademoiselle Gamard, +seeing it in her salon, could have supposed I had gone to bed. Ergo, +Mademoiselle Gamard intended that I should stand out in the rain, and, +by carrying my candlestick upstairs, she meant to make me understand +it. What does it all mean?" he said aloud, roused by the gravity of +these circumstances, and rising as he spoke to take off his damp +clothes, get into his dressing-gown, and do up his head for the night. +Then he returned from the bed to the fireplace, gesticulating, and +launching forth in various tones the following sentences, all of which +ended in a high falsetto key, like notes of interjection: + +"What the deuce have I done to her? Why is she angry with me? Marianne +did _not_ forget my fire! Mademoiselle told her not to light it! I must +be a child if I can't see, from the tone and manner she has been +taking to me, that I've done something to displease her. Nothing like +it ever happened to Chapeloud! I can't live in the midst of such +torments as--At my age--" + +He went to bed hoping that the morrow might enlighten him on the +causes of the dislike which threatened to destroy forever the +happiness he had now enjoyed two years after wishing for it so long. +Alas! the secret reasons for the inimical feelings Mademoiselle Gamard +bore to the luckless abbe were fated to remain eternally unknown to +him,--not that they were difficult to fathom, but simply because he +lacked the good faith and candor by which great souls and scoundrels +look within and judge themselves. A man of genius or a trickster says +to himself, "I did wrong." Self-interest and native talent are the +only infallible and lucid guides. Now the Abbe Birotteau, whose +goodness amounted to stupidity, whose knowledge was only, as it were, +plastered on him by dint of study, who had no experience whatever of +the world and its ways, who lived between the mass and the +confessional, chiefly occupied in dealing the most trivial matters of +conscience in his capacity of confessor to all the schools in town and +to a few noble souls who rightly appreciated him,--the Abbe Birotteau +must be regarded as a great child, to whom most of the practices of +social life were utterly unknown. And yet, the natural selfishness of +all human beings, reinforced by the selfishness peculiar to the +priesthood and that of the narrow life of the provinces had +insensibly, and unknown to himself, developed within him. If any one +had felt enough interest in the good man to probe his spirit and prove +to him that in the numerous petty details of his life and in the +minute duties of his daily existence he was essentially lacking in the +self-sacrifice he professed, he would have punished and mortified +himself in good faith. But those whom we offend by such unconscious +selfishness pay little heed to our real innocence; what they want is +vengeance, and they take it. Thus it happened that Birotteau, weak +brother that he was, was made to undergo the decrees of that great +distributive Justice which goes about compelling the world to execute +its judgments,--called by ninnies "the misfortunes of life." + +There was this difference between the late Chapeloud and the vicar, +--one was a shrewd and clever egoist, the other a simple-minded and +clumsy one. When the canon went to board with Mademoiselle Gamard he +knew exactly how to judge of his landlady's character. The +confessional had taught him to understand the bitterness that the +sense of being kept outside the social pale puts into the heart of an +old maid; he therefore calculated his own treatment of Mademoiselle +Gamard very wisely. She was then about thirty-eight years old, and +still retained a few pretensions, which, in well-behaved persons of +her condition, change, rather later, into strong personal self-esteem. +The canon saw plainly that to live comfortably with his landlady he +must pay her invariably the same attentions and be more infallible +than the pope himself. To compass this result, he allowed no points of +contact between himself and her except those that politeness demanded, +and those which necessarily exist between two persons living under the +same roof. Thus, though he and the Abbe Troubert took their regular +three meals a day, he avoided the family breakfast by inducing +Mademoiselle Gamard to send his coffee to his own room. He also +avoided the annoyance of supper by taking tea in the houses of friends +with whom he spent his evenings. In this way he seldom saw his +landlady except at dinner; but he always came down to that meal a few +minutes in advance of the hour. During this visit of courtesy, as it +may be called, he talked to her, for the twelve years he had lived +under her roof, on nearly the same topics, receiving from her the same +answers. How she had slept, her breakfast, the trivial domestic +events, her looks, her health, the weather, the time the church +services had lasted, the incidents of the mass, the health of such or +such a priest,--these were the subjects of their daily conversation. +During dinner he invariably paid her certain indirect compliments; the +fish had an excellent flavor; the seasoning of a sauce was delicious; +Mademoiselle Gamard's capacities and virtues as mistress of a +household were great. He was sure of flattering the old maid's vanity +by praising the skill with which she made or prepared her preserves +and pickles and pates and other gastronomical inventions. To cap all, +the wily canon never left his landlady's yellow salon after dinner +without remarking that there was no house in Tours where he could get +such good coffee as that he had just imbibed. + +Thanks to this thorough understanding of Mademoiselle Gamard's +character, and to the science of existence which he had put in +practice for the last twelve years, no matter of discussion on the +internal arrangements of the household had ever come up between them. +The Abbe Chapeloud had taken note of the spinster's angles, +asperities, and crabbedness, and had so arranged his avoidance of her +that he obtained without the least difficulty all the concessions that +were necessary to the happiness and tranquility of his life. The +result was that Mademoiselle Gamard frequently remarked to her friends +and acquaintances that the Abbe Chapeloud was a very amiable man, +extremely easy to live with, and a fine mind. + +As to her other lodger, the Abbe Troubert, she said absolutely nothing +about him. Completely involved in the round of her life, like a +satellite in the orbit of a planet, Troubert was to her a sort of +intermediary creature between the individuals of the human species and +those of the canine species; he was classed in her heart next, but +directly before, the place intended for friends but now occupied by a +fat and wheezy pug which she tenderly loved. She ruled Troubert +completely, and the intermingling of their interests was so obvious +that many persons of her social sphere believed that the Abbe Troubert +had designs on the old maid's property, and was binding her to him +unawares with infinite patience, and really directing her while he +seemed to be obeying without ever letting her percieve in him the +slightest wish on his part to govern her. + +When the Abbe Chapeloud died, the old maid, who desired a lodger with +quiet ways, naturally thought of the vicar. Before the canon's will +was made known she had meditated offering his rooms to the Abbe +Troubert, who was not very comfortable on the ground-floor. But when +the Abbe Birotteau, on receiving his legacy, came to settle in writing +the terms of his board she saw he was so in love with the apartment, +for which he might now admit his long cherished desires, that she +dared not propose the exchange, and accordingly sacrificed her +sentiments of friendship to the demands of self-interest. But in order +to console her beloved canon, Mademoiselle took up the large white +Chateau-Renaud bricks that made the floors of his apartment and +replaced them by wooden floors laid in "point de Hongrie." She also +rebuilt a smoky chimney. + +For twelve years the Abbe Birotteau had seen his friend Chapeloud in +that house without ever giving a thought to the motive of the canon's +extreme circumspection in his relations to Mademoiselle Gamard. When +he came himself to live with that saintly woman he was in the +condition of a lover on the point of being made happy. Even if he had +not been by nature purblind of intellect, his eyes were too dazzled by +his new happiness to allow him to judge of the landlady, or to reflect +on the limits which he ought to impose on their daily intercourse. +Mademoiselle Gamard, seen from afar and through the prism of those +material felicities which the vicar dreamed of enjoying in her house, +seemed to him a perfect being, a faultless Christian, essentially +charitable, the woman of the Gospel, the wise virgin, adorned by all +those humble and modest virtues which shed celestial fragrance upon +life. + +So, with the enthusiasm of one who attains an object long desired, +with the candor of a child, and the blundering foolishness of an old +man utterly without worldly experience, he fell into the life of +Mademoiselle Gamard precisely as a fly is caught in a spider's web. +The first day that he went to dine and sleep at the house he was +detained in the salon after dinner, partly to make his landlady's +acquaintance, but chiefly by that inexplicable embarrassment which +often assails timid people and makes them fear to seem impolite by +breaking off a conversation in order to take leave. Consequently he +remained there the whole evening. Then a friend of his, a certain +Mademoiselle Salomon de Villenoix, came to see him, and this gave +Mademoiselle Gamard the happiness of forming a card-table; so that +when the vicar went to bed he felt that he had passed a very agreeable +evening. Knowing Mademoiselle Gamard and the Abbe Troubert but +slightly, he saw only the superficial aspects of their characters; few +persons bare their defects at once, they generally take on a becoming +veneer. + +The worthy abbe was thus led to suggest to himself the charming plan +of devoting all his evenings to Mademoiselle Gamard, instead of +spending them, as Chapeloud had done, elsewhere. The old maid had for +years been possessed by a desire which grew stronger day by day. This +desire, often formed by old persons and even by pretty women, had +become in Mademoiselle Gamard's soul as ardent a longing as that of +Birotteau for Chapeloud's apartment; and it was strengthened by all +those feelings of pride, egotism, envy, and vanity which pre-exist in +the breasts of worldly people. + +This history is of all time; it suffices to widen slightly the narrow +circle in which these personages are about to act to find the +coefficient reasons of events which take place in the very highest +spheres of social life. + +Mademoiselle Gamard spent her evenings by rotation in six or eight +different houses. Whether it was that she disliked being obliged to go +out to seek society, and considered that at her age she had a right to +expect some return; or that her pride was wounded at receiving no +company in her house; or that her self-love craved the compliments she +saw her various hostesses receive,--certain it is that her whole +ambition was to make her salon a centre towards which a given number +of persons should nightly make their way with pleasure. One morning as +she left Saint-Gatien, after Birotteau and his friend Mademoiselle +Salomon had spent a few evenings with her and with the faithful and +patient Troubert, she said to certain of her good friends whom she met +at the church door, and whose slave she had hitherto considered +herself, that those who wished to see her could certainly come once a +week to her house, where she had friends enough to make a card-table; +she could not leave the Abbe Birotteau; Mademoiselle Salomon had not +missed a single evening that week; she was devoted to friends; and--et +cetera, et cetera. Her speech was all the more humbly haughty and +softly persuasive because Mademoiselle Salomon de Villenoix belonged +to the most aristocatic society in Tours. For though Mademoiselle +Salomon came to Mademoiselle Gamard's house solely out of friendship +for the vicar, the old maid triumphed in receiving her, and saw that, +thanks to Birotteau, she was on the point of succeeding in her great +desire to form a circle as numerous and as agreeable as those of +Madame de Listomere, Mademoiselle Merlin de la Blottiere, and other +devout ladies who were in the habit of receiving the pious and +ecclesiastical society of Tours. + +But alas! the abbe Birotteau himself caused this cherished hope to +miscarry. Now if those persons who in the course of their lives have +attained to the enjoyment of a long desired happiness and have +therefore comprehended the joy of the vicar when he stepped into +Chapeloud's vacant place, they will also have gained some faint idea +of Mademoiselle Gamard's distress at the overthrow of her favorite +plan. + +After accepting his happiness in the old maid's salon for six months +with tolerable patience, Birotteau deserted the house of an evening, +carrying with him Mademoiselle Salomon. In spite of her utmost efforts +the ambitious Gamard had recruited barely six visitors, whose faithful +attendance was more than problematical; and boston could not be played +night after night unless at least four persons were present. The +defection of her two principal guests obliged her therefore to make +suitable apologies and return to her evening visiting among former +friends; for old maids find their own company so distasteful that they +prefer to seek the doubtful pleasures of society. + +The cause of this desertion is plain enough. Although the vicar was +one of those to whom heaven is hereafter to belong in virtue of the +decree "Blessed are the poor in spirit," he could not, like some +fools, endure the annoyance that other fools caused him. Persons +without minds are like weeds that delight in good earth; they want to +be amused by others, all the more because they are dull within. The +incarnation of ennui to which they are victims, joined to the need +they feel of getting a divorce from themselves, produces that passion +for moving about, for being somewhere else than where they are, which +distinguishes their species,--and also that of all beings devoid of +sensitiveness, and those who have missed their destiny, or who suffer +by their own fault. + +Without really fathoming the vacuity and emptiness of Mademoiselle +Gamard's mind, or stating to himself the pettiness of her ideas, the +poor abbe perceived, unfortunately too late, the defects which she +shared with all old maids, and those which were peculiar to herself. +The bad points of others show out so strongly against the good that +they usually strike our eyes before they wound us. This moral +phenomenon might, at a pinch, be made to excuse the tendency we all +have, more or less, to gossip. It is so natural, socially speaking, to +laugh at the failings of others that we ought to forgive the ridicule +our own absurdities excite, and be annoyed only by calumny. But in +this instance the eyes of the good vicar never reached the optical +range which enables men of the world to see and evade their +neighbours' rough points. Before he could be brought to perceive the +faults of his landlady he was forced to undergo the warning which +Nature gives to all her creatures--pain. + +Old maids who have never yielded in their habits of life or in their +characters to other lives and other characters, as the fate of woman +exacts, have, as a general thing, a mania for making others give way +to them. In Mademoiselle Gamard this sentiment had degenerated into +despotism, but a despotism that could only exercise itself on little +things. For instance (among a hundred other examples), the basket of +counters placed on the card-table for the Abbe Birotteau was to stand +exactly where she placed it; and the abbe annoyed her terribly by +moving it, which he did nearly every evening. How is this +sensitiveness stupidly spent on nothings to be accounted for? what is +the object of it? No one could have told in this case; Mademoiselle +Gamard herself knew no reason for it. The vicar, though a sheep by +nature, did not like, any more than other sheep, to feel the crook too +often, especially when it bristled with spikes. Not seeking to explain +to himself the patience of the Abbe Troubert, Birotteau simply +withdrew from the happiness which Mademoiselle Gamard believed that +she seasoned to his liking,--for she regarded happiness as a thing to +be made, like her preserves. But the luckless abbe made the break in a +clumsy way, the natural way of his own naive character, and it was not +carried out without much nagging and sharp-shooting, which the Abbe +Birotteau endeavored to bear as if he did not feel them. + +By the end of the first year of his sojourn under Mademoiselle +Gamard's roof the vicar had resumed his former habits; spending two +evenings a week with Madame de Listomere, three with Mademoiselle +Salomon, and the other two with Mademoiselle Merlin de la Blottiere. +These ladies belonged to the aristocratic circles of Tourainean +society, to which Mademoiselle Gamard was not admitted. Therefore the +abbe's abandonment was the more insulting, because it made her feel +her want of social value; all choice implies contempt for the thing +rejected. + +"Monsieur Birotteau does not find us agreeable enough," said the Abbe +Troubert to Mademoiselle Gamard's friends when she was forced to tell +them that her "evenings" must be given up. "He is a man of the world, +and a good liver! He wants fashion, luxury, witty conversation, and +the scandals of the town." + +These words of course obliged Mademoiselle Gamard to defend herself at +Birotteau's expense. + +"He is not much a man of the world," she said. "If it had not been for +the Abbe Chapeloud he would never have been received at Madame de +Listomere's. Oh, what didn't I lose in losing the Abbe Chapeloud! Such +an amiable man, and so easy to live with! In twelve whole years I +never had the slightest difficulty or disagreement with him." + +Presented thus, the innocent abbe was considered by this bourgeois +society, which secretly hated the aristocratic society, as a man +essentially exacting and hard to get along with. For a week +Mademoiselle Gamard enjoyed the pleasure of being pitied by friends +who, without really thinking one word of what they said, kept +repeating to her: "How _could_ he have turned against you?--so kind and +gentle as you are!" or, "Console yourself, dear Mademoiselle Gamard, +you are so well known that--" et cetera. + +Nevertheless, these friends, enchanted to escape one evening a week in +the Cloister, the darkest, dreariest, and most out of the way corner +in Tours, blessed the poor vicar in their hearts. + +Between persons who are perpetually in each other's company dislike or +love increases daily; every moment brings reasons to love or hate each +other more and more. The Abbe Birotteau soon became intolerable to +Mademoiselle Gamard. Eighteen months after she had taken him to board, +and at the moment when the worthy man was mistaking the silence of +hatred for the peacefulness of content, and applauding himself for +having, as he said, "managed matters so well with the old maid," he +was really the object of an underhand persecution and a vengeance +deliberately planned. The four marked circumstances of the locked +door, the forgotten slippers, the lack of fire, and the removal of the +candlestick, were the first signs that revealed to him a terrible +enmity, the final consequences of which were destined not to strike +him until the time came when they were irreparable. + +As he went to bed the worthy vicar worked his brains--quite uselessly, +for he was soon at the end of them--to explain to himself the +extraordinarily discourteous conduct of Mademoiselle Gamard. The fact +was that, having all along acted logically in obeying the natural laws +of his own egotism, it was impossible that he should now perceive his +own faults towards his landlady. + +Though the great things of life are simple to understand and easy to +express, the littlenesses require a vast number of details to explain +them. The foregoing events, which may be called a sort of prologue to +this bourgeois drama, in which we shall find passions as violent as +those excited by great interests, required this long introduction; and +it would have been difficult for any faithful historian to shorten the +account of these minute developments. + + + II + +The next morning, on awaking, Birotteau thought so much of his +prospective canonry that he forgot the four circumstances in which he +had seen, the night before, such threatening prognostics of a future +full of misery. The vicar was not a man to get up without a fire. He +rang to let Marianne know that he was awake and that she must come to +him; then he remained, as his habit was, absorbed in somnolent +musings. The servant's custom was to make the fire and gently draw him +from his half sleep by the murmured sound of her movements,--a sort of +music which he loved. Twenty minutes passed and Marianne had not +appeared. The vicar, now half a canon, was about to ring again, when +he let go the bell-pull, hearing a man's step on the staircase. In a +minute more the Abbe Troubert, after discreetly knocking at the door, +obeyed Birotteau's invitation and entered the room. This visit, which +the two abbe's usually paid each other once a month, was no surprise +to the vicar. The canon at once exclaimed when he saw that Marianne +had not made the fire of his quasi-colleague. He opened the window and +called to her harshly, telling her to come at once to the abbe; then, +turning round to his ecclesiastical brother, he said, "If Mademoiselle +knew that you had no fire she would scold Marianne." + +After this speech he inquired about Birotteau's health, and asked in a +gentle voice if he had had any recent news that gave him hopes of his +canonry. The vicar explained the steps he had taken, and told, +naively, the names of the persons with whom Madam de Listomere was +using her influence, quite unaware that Troubert had never forgiven +that lady for not admitting him--the Abbe Troubert, twice proposed by +the bishop as vicar-general!--to her house. + +It would be impossible to find two figures which presented so many +contrasts to each other as those of the two abbes. Troubert, tall and +lean, was yellow and bilious, while the vicar was what we call, +familiarly, plump. Birotteau's face, round and ruddy, proclaimed a +kindly nature barren of ideas, while that of the Abbe Troubert, long +and ploughed by many wrinkles, took on at times an expression of +sarcasm, or else of contempt; but it was necessary to watch him very +closely before those sentiments could be detected. The canon's +habitual condition was perfect calmness, and his eyelids were usually +lowered over his orange-colored eyes, which could, however, give clear +and piercing glances when he liked. Reddish hair added to the gloomy +effect of this countenance, which was always obscured by the veil +which deep meditation drew across its features. Many persons at first +sight thought him absorbed in high and earnest ambitions; but those +who claimed to know him better denied that impression, insisting that +he was only stupidly dull under Mademoiselle Gamard's despotism, or +else worn out by too much fasting. He seldom spoke, and never laughed. +When it did so happen that he felt agreeably moved, a feeble smile +would flicker on his lips and lose itself in the wrinkles of his face. + +Birotteau, on the other hand, was all expansion, all frankness; he +loved good things and was amused by trifles with the simplicity of a +man who knew no spite or malice. The Abbe Troubert roused, at first +sight, an involuntary feeling of fear, while the vicar's presence +brought a kindly smile to the lips of all who looked at him. When the +tall canon marched with solemn step through the naves and cloisters of +Saint-Gatien, his head bowed, his eye stern, respect followed him; +that bent face was in harmony with the yellowing arches of the +cathedral; the folds of his cassock fell in monumental lines that were +worthy of statuary. The good vicar, on the contrary, perambulated +about with no gravity at all. He trotted and ambled and seemed at +times to roll himself along. But with all this there was one point of +resemblance between the two men. For, precisely as Troubert's +ambitious air, which made him feared, had contributed probably to keep +him down to the insignificant position of a mere canon, so the +character and ways of Birotteau marked him out as perpetually the +vicar of the cathedral and nothing higher. + +Yet the Abbe Troubert, now fifty years of age, had entirely removed, +partly by the circumspection of his conduct and the apparent lack of +all ambitions, and partly by his saintly life, the fears which his +suspected ability and his powerful presence had roused in the minds of +his superiors. His health having seriously failed him during the last +year, it seemed probable that he would soon be raised to the office of +vicar-general of the archbishopric. His competitors themselves desired +the appointment, so that their own plans might have time to mature +during the few remaining days which a malady, now become chronic, +might allow him. Far from offering the same hopes to rivals, +Birotteau's triple chin showed to all who wanted his coveted canonry +an evidence of the soundest health; even his gout seemed to them, in +accordance with the proverb, an assurance of longevity. + +The Abbe Chapeloud, a man of great good sense, whose amiability had +made the leaders of the diocese and the members of the best society in +Tours seek his company, had steadily opposed, though secretly and with +much judgment, the elevation of the Abbe Troubert. He had even +adroitly managed to prevent his access to the salons of the best +society. Nevertheless, during Chapeloud's lifetime Troubert treated +him invariably with great respect, and showed him on all occasions the +utmost deference. This constant submission did not, however, change +the opinion of the late canon, who said to Birotteau during the last +walk they took together: "Distrust that lean stick of a Troubert, +--Sixtus the Fifth reduced to the limits of a bishopric!" + +Such was the friend, the abiding guest of Mademoiselle Gamard, who now +came, the morning after the old maid had, as it were, declared war +against the poor vicar, to pay his brother a visit and show him marks +of friendship. + +"You must excuse Marianne," said the canon, as the woman entered. "I +suppose she went first to my rooms. They are very damp, and I coughed +all night. You are most healthily situated here," he added, looking up +at the cornice. + +"Yes; I am lodged like a canon," replied Birotteau. + +"And I like a vicar," said the other, humbly. + +"But you will soon be settled in the archbishop's palace," said the +kindly vicar, who wanted everybody to be happy. + +"Yes, or in the cemetery, but God's will be done!" and Troubert raised +his eyes to heaven resignedly. "I came," he said, "to ask you to lend +me the 'Register of Bishops.' You are the only man in Tours I know who +has a copy." + +"Take it out of my library," replied Birotteau, reminded by the +canon's words of the greatest happiness of his life. + +The canon passed into the library and stayed there while the vicar +dressed. Presently the breakfast bell rang, and the gouty vicar +reflected that if it had not been for Troubert's visit he would have +had no fire to dress by. "He's a kind man," thought he. + +The two priests went downstairs together, each armed with a huge folio +which they laid on one of the side tables in the dining-room. + +"What's all that?" asked Mademoiselle Gamard, in a sharp voice, +addressing Birotteau. "I hope you are not going to litter up my +dining-room with your old books!" + +"They are books I wanted," replied the Abbe Troubert. "Monsieur +Birotteau has been kind enough to lend them to me." + +"I might have guessed it," she said, with a contemptuous smile. +"Monsieur Birotteau doesn't often read books of that size." + +"How are you, mademoiselle?" said the vicar, in a mellifluous voice. + +"Not very well," she replied, shortly. "You woke me up last night out +of my first sleep, and I was wakeful for the rest of the night." Then, +sitting down, she added, "Gentlemen, the milk is getting cold." + +Stupefied at being so ill-naturedly received by his landlady, from +whom he half expected an apology, and yet alarmed, like all timid +people at the prospect of a discussion, especially if it relates to +themselves, the poor vicar took his seat in silence. Then, observing +in Mademoiselle Gamard's face the visible signs of ill-humour, he was +goaded into a struggle between his reason, which told him that he +ought not to submit to such discourtesy from a landlady, and his +natural character, which prompted him to avoid a quarrel. + +Torn by this inward misery, Birotteau fell to examining attentively +the broad green lines painted on the oilcloth which, from custom +immemorial, Mademoiselle Gamard left on the table at breakfast-time, +without regard to the ragged edges or the various scars displayed on +its surface. The priests sat opposite to each other in cane-seated +arm-chairs on either side of the square table, the head of which was +taken by the landlady, who seemed to dominate the whole from a high +chair raised on casters, filled with cushions, and standing very near +to the dining-room stove. This room and the salon were on the +ground-floor beneath the salon and bedroom of the Abbe Birotteau. + +When the vicar had received his cup of coffee, duly sugared, from +Mademoiselle Gamard, he felt chilled to the bone at the grim silence +in which he was forced to proceed with the usually gay function of +breakfast. He dared not look at Troubert's dried-up features, nor at +the threatening visage of the old maid; and he therefore turned, to +keep himself in countenance, to the plethoric pug which was lying on a +cushion near the stove,--a position that victim of obesity seldom +quitted, having a little plate of dainties always at his left side, +and a bowl of fresh water at his right. + +"Well, my pretty," said the vicar, "are you waiting for your coffee?" + +The personage thus addressed, one of the most important in the +household, though the least troublesome inasmuch as he had ceased to +bark and left the talking to his mistress, turned his little eyes, +sunk in rolls of fat, upon Birotteau. Then he closed them peevishly. +To explain the misery of the poor vicar it should be said that being +endowed by nature with an empty and sonorous loquacity, like the +resounding of a football, he was in the habit of asserting, without +any medical reason to back him, that speech favored digestion. +Mademoiselle Gamard, who believed in this hygienic doctrine, had not +as yet refrained, in spite of their coolness, from talking at meals; +though, for the last few mornings, the vicar had been forced to strain +his mind to find beguiling topics on which to loosen her tongue. If +the narrow limits of this history permitted us to report even one of +the conversations which often brought a bitter and sarcastic smile to +the lips of the Abbe Troubert, it would offer a finished picture of +the Boeotian life of the provinces. The singular revelations of the +Abbe Birotteau and Mademoiselle Gamard relating to their personal +opinions on politics, religion, and literature would delight observing +minds. It would be highly entertaining to transcribe the reasons on +which they mutually doubted the death of Napoleon in 1820, or the +conjectures by which they mutually believed that the Dauphin was +living,--rescued from the Temple in the hollow of a huge log of wood. +Who could have helped laughing to hear them assert and prove, by +reasons evidently their own, that the King of France alone imposed the +taxes, that the Chambers were convoked to destroy the clergy, that +thirteen hundred thousand persons had perished on the scaffold during +the Revolution? They frequently discussed the press, without either of +them having the faintest idea of what that modern engine really was. +Monsieur Birotteau listened with acceptance to Mademoiselle Gamard +when she told him that a man who ate an egg every morning would die in +a year, and that facts proved it; that a roll of light bread eaten +without drinking for several days together would cure sciatica; that +all the workmen who assisted in pulling down the Abbey Saint-Martin +had died in six months; that a certain prefect, under orders from +Bonaparte, had done his best to damage the towers of Saint-Gatien, +--with a hundred other absurd tales. + +But on this occasion poor Birotteau felt he was tongue-tied, and he +resigned himself to eat a meal without engaging in conversation. After +a while, however, the thought crossed his mind that silence was +dangerous for his digestion, and he boldly remarked, "This coffee is +excellent." + +That act of courage was completely wasted. Then, after looking at the +scrap of sky visible above the garden between the two buttresses of +Saint-Gatien, the vicar again summoned nerve to say, "It will be finer +weather to-day than it was yesterday." + +At that remark Mademoiselle Gamard cast her most gracious look on the +Abbe Troubert, and immediately turned her eyes with terrible severity +on Birotteau, who fortunately by that time was looking on his plate. + +No creature of the feminine gender was ever more capable of presenting +to the mind the elegaic nature of an old maid than Mademoiselle Sophie +Gamard. In order to describe a being whose character gives a momentous +interest to the petty events of the present drama and to the anterior +lives of the actors in it, it may be useful to give a summary of the +ideas which find expression in the being of an Old Maid,--remembering +always that the habits of life form the soul, and the soul forms the +physical presence. + +Though all things in society as well as in the universe are said to +have a purpose, there do exist here below certain beings whose purpose +and utility seem inexplicable. Moral philosophy and political economy +both condemn the individual who consumes without producing; who fills +a place on the earth but does not shed upon it either good or evil, +--for evil is sometimes good the meaning of which is not at once made +manifest. It is seldom that old maids of their own motion enter the +ranks of these unproductive beings. Now, if the consciousness of work +done gives to the workers a sense of satisfaction which helps them to +support life, the certainty of being a useless burden must, one would +think, produce a contrary effect, and fill the minds of such fruitless +beings with the same contempt for themselves which they inspire in +others. This harsh social reprobation is one of the causes which +contribute to fill the souls of old maids with the distress that +appears in their faces. Prejudice, in which there is truth, does cast, +throughout the world but especially in France, a great stigma on the +woman with whom no man has been willing to share the blessings or +endure the ills of life. Now, there comes to all unmarried women a +period when the world, be it right or wrong, condemns them on the fact +of this contempt, this rejection. If they are ugly, the goodness of +their characters ought to have compensated for their natural +imperfections; if, on the contrary, they are handsome, that fact +argues that their misfortune has some serious cause. It is impossible +to say which of the two classes is most deserving of rejection. If, on +the other hand, their celibacy is deliberate, if it proceeds from a +desire for independence, neither men nor mothers will forgive their +disloyalty to womanly devotion, evidenced in their refusal to feed +those passions which render their sex so affecting. To renounce the +pangs of womanhood is to abjure its poetry and cease to merit the +consolations to which mothers have inalienable rights. + +Moreover, the generous sentiments, the exquisite qualities of a woman +will not develop unless by constant exercise. By remaining unmarried, +a creature of the female sex becomes void of meaning; selfish and +cold, she creates repulsion. This implacable judgment of the world is +unfortunately too just to leave old maids in ignorance of its causes. +Such ideas shoot up in their hearts as naturally as the effects of +their saddened lives appear upon their features. Consequently they +wither, because the constant expression of happiness which blooms on +the faces of other women and gives so soft a grace to their movements +has never existed for them. They grow sharp and peevish because all +human beings who miss their vocation are unhappy; they suffer, and +suffering gives birth to the bitterness of ill-will. In fact, before +an old maid blames herself for her isolation she blames others, and +there is but one step between reproach and the desire for revenge. + +But more than this, the ill grace and want of charm noticeable in +these women are the necessary result of their lives. Never having felt +a desire to please, elegance and the refinements of good taste are +foreign to them. They see only themselves in themselves. This instinct +brings them, unconsciously, to choose the things that are most +convenient to themselves, at the sacrifice of those which might be +more agreeable to others. Without rendering account to their own minds +of the difference between themselves and other women, they end by +feeling that difference and suffering under it. Jealousy is an +indelible sentiment in the female breast. An old maid's soul is +jealous and yet void; for she knows but one side--the miserable side +--of the only passion men will allow (because it flatters them) to +women. Thus thwarted in all their hopes, forced to deny themselves the +natural development of their natures, old maids endure an inward +torment to which they never grow accustomed. It is hard at any age, +above all for a woman, to see a feeling of repulsion on the faces of +others, when her true destiny is to move all hearts about her to +emotions of grace and love. One result of this inward trouble is that +an old maid's glance is always oblique, less from modesty than from +fear and shame. Such beings never forgive society for their false +position because they never forgive themselves for it. + +Now it is impossible for a woman who is perpetually at war with +herself and living in contradiction to her true life, to leave others +in peace or refrain from envying their happines. The whole range of +these sad truths could be read in the dulled gray eyes of Mademoiselle +Gamard; the dark circles that surrounded those eyes told of the inward +conflicts of her solitary life. All the wrinkles on her face were in +straight lines. The structure of her forehead and cheeks was rigid and +prominent. She allowed, with apparent indifference, certain scattered +hairs, once brown, to grow upon her chin. Her thin lips scarcely +covered teeth that were too long, though still quite white. Her +complexion was dark, and her hair, originally black, had turned gray +from frightful headaches,--a misfortune which obliged her to wear a +false front. Not knowing how to put it on so as to conceal the +junction between the real and the false, there were often little gaps +between the border of her cap and the black string with which this +semi-wig (always badly curled) was fastened to her head. Her gown, +silk in summer, merino in winter, and always brown in color, was +invariably rather tight for her angular figure and thin arms. Her +collar, limp and bent, exposed too much the red skin of a neck which +was ribbed like an oak-leaf in winter seen in the light. Her origin +explains to some extent the defects of her conformation. She was the +daughter of a wood-merchant, a peasant, who had risen from the ranks. +She might have been plump at eighteen, but no trace remained of the +fair complexion and pretty color of which she was wont to boast. The +tones of her flesh had taken the pallid tints so often seen in +"devotes." Her aquiline nose was the feature that chiefly proclaimed +the despotism of her nature, and the flat shape of her forehead the +narrowness of her mind. Her movements had an odd abruptness which +precluded all grace; the mere motion with which she twitched her +handkerchief from her bag and blew her nose with a loud noise would +have shown her character and habits to a keen observer. Being rather +tall, she held herself very erect, and justified the remark of a +naturalist who once explained the peculiar gait of old maids by +declaring that their joints were consolidating. When she walked her +movements were not equally distributed over her whole person, as they +are in other women, producing those graceful undulations which are so +attractive. She moved, so to speak, in a single block, seeming to +advance at each step like the statue of the Commendatore. When she +felt in good humour she was apt, like other old maids, to tell of the +chances she had had to marry, and of her fortunate discovery in time +of the want of means of her lovers,--proving, unconsciously, that her +worldly judgment was better than her heart. + +This typical figure of the genus Old Maid was well framed by the +grotesque designs, representing Turkish landscapes, on a varnished +paper which decorated the walls of the dining-room. Mademoiselle +Gamard usually sat in this room, which boasted of two pier tables and +a barometer. Before the chair of each abbe was a little cushion +covered with worsted work, the colors of which were faded. The salon +in which she received company was worthy of its mistress. It will be +visible to the eye at once when we state that it went by the name of +the "yellow salon." The curtains were yellow, the furniture and walls +yellow; on the mantelpiece, surmounted by a mirror in a gilt frame, +the candlesticks and a clock all of crystal struck the eye with sharp +brilliancy. As to the private apartment of Mademoiselle Gamard, no one +had ever been permitted to look into it. Conjecture alone suggested +that it was full of odds and ends, worn-out furniture, and bits of +stuff and pieces dear to the hearts of all old maids. + +Such was the woman destined to exert a vast influence on the last +years of the Abbe Birotteau. + +For want of exercising in nature's own way the activity bestowed upon +women, and yet impelled to spend it in some way or other, Mademoiselle +Gamard had acquired the habit of using it in petty intrigues, +provincial cabals, and those self-seeking schemes which occupy, sooner +or later, the lives of all old maids. Birotteau, unhappily, had +developed in Sophie Gamard the only sentiments which it was possible +for that poor creature to feel,--those of hatred; a passion hitherto +latent under the calmness and monotony of provincial life, but which +was now to become the more intense because it was spent on petty +things and in the midst of a narrow sphere. Birotteau was one of those +beings who are predestined to suffer because, being unable to see +things, they cannot avoid them; to them the worst happens. + +"Yes, it will be a fine day," replied the canon, after a pause, +apparently issuing from a revery and wishing to conform to the rules +of politeness. + +Birotteau, frightened at the length of time which had elapsed between +the question and the answer,--for he had, for the first time in his +life, taken his coffee without uttering a word,--now left the +dining-room where his heart was squeezed as if in a vise. Feeling that +the coffee lay heavy on his stomach, he went to walk in a sad mood +among the narrow, box-edged garden paths which outlined a star in the +little garden. As he turned after making the first round, he saw +Mademoiselle Gamard and the Abbe Troubert standing stock-still and +silent on the threshold of the door,--he with his arms folded and +motionless like a statue on a tomb; she leaning against the blind door. +Both seemed to be gazing at him and counting his steps. Nothing is so +embarrassing to a creature naturally timid as to feel itself the object +of a close examination, and if that is made by the eyes of hatred, the +sort of suffering it causes is changed into intolerable martyrdom. + +Presently Birotteau fancied he was preventing Mademoiselle Gamard and +the abbe from walking in the narrow path. That idea, inspired equally +by fear and kindness, became so strong that he left the garden and +went to the church, thinking no longer of his canonry, so absorbed was +he by the disheartening tyranny of the old maid. Luckily for him he +happened to find much to do at Saint-Gatien,--several funerals, a +marriage, and two baptisms. Thus employed he forgot his griefs. When +his stomach told him that dinner was ready he drew out his watch and +saw, not without alarm, that it was some minutes after four. Being +well aware of Mademoiselle Gamard's punctuality, he hurried back to +the house. + +He saw at once on passing the kitchen door that the first course had +been removed. When he reached the dining-room the old maid said, with +a tone of voice in which were mingled sour rebuke and joy at being +able to blame him:-- + +"It is half-past four, Monsieur Birotteau. You know we are not to wait +for you." + +The vicar looked at the clock in the dining-room, and saw at once, by +the way the gauze which protected it from dust had been moved, that +his landlady had opened the face of the dial and set the hands in +advance of the clock of the cathedral. He could make no remark. Had he +uttered his suspicion it would only have caused and apparently +justified one of those fierce and eloquent expositions to which +Mademoiselle Gamard, like other women of her class, knew very well how +to give vent in particular cases. The thousand and one annoyances +which a servant will sometimes make her master bear, or a woman her +husband, were instinctively divined by Mademoiselle Gamard and used +upon Birotteau. The way in which she delighted in plotting against the +poor vicar's domestic comfort bore all the marks of what we must call +a profoundly malignant genius. Yet she so managed that she was never, +so far as eye could see, in the wrong. + + + III + +Eight days after the date on which this history began, the new +arrangements of the household and the relations which grew up between +the Abbe Birotteau and Mademoiselle Gamard revealed to the former the +existence of a plot which had been hatching for the last six months. + +As long as the old maid exercised her vengeance in an underhand way, +and the vicar was able to shut his eyes to it and refuse to believe in +her malevolent intentions, the moral effect upon him was slight. But +since the affair of the candlestick and the altered clock, Birotteau +would doubt no longer that he was under an eye of hatred turned fully +upon him. From that moment he fell into despair, seeing everywhere the +skinny, clawlike fingers of Mademoiselle Gamard ready to hook into his +heart. The old maid, happy in a sentiment as fruitful of emotions as +that of vengeance, enjoyed circling and swooping above the vicar as a +bird of prey hovers and swoops above a field-mouse before pouncing +down upon it and devouring it. She had long since laid a plan which +the poor dumbfounded priest was quite incapable of imagining, and +which she now proceeded to unfold with that genius for little things +often shown by solitary persons, whose souls, incapable of feeling the +grandeur of true piety, fling themselves into the details of outward +devotion. + +The petty nature of his troubles prevented Birotteau, always effusive +and liking to be pitied and consoled, from enjoying the soothing +pleasure of taking his friends into his confidence,--a last but cruel +aggravation of his misery. The little amount of tact which he derived +from his timidity made him fear to seem ridiculous in concerning +himself with such pettiness. And yet those petty things made up the +sum of his existence,--that cherished existence, full of busyness +about nothings, and of nothingness in its business; a colorless barren +life in which strong feelings were misfortunes, and the absence of +emotion happiness. The poor priest's paradise was changed, in a +moment, into hell. His sufferings became intolerable. The terror he +felt at the prospect of a discussion with Mademoiselle Gamard +increased day by day; the secret distress which blighted his life +began to injure his health. One morning, as he put on his mottled blue +stockings, he noticed a marked dimunition in the circumference of his +calves. Horrified by so cruel and undeniable a symptom, he resolved to +make an effort and appeal to the Abbe Troubert, requesting him to +intervene, officially, between Mademoiselle Gamard and himself. + +When he found himself in presence of the imposing canon, who, in order +to receive his visitor in a bare and cheerless room, had hastily +quitted a study full of papers, where he worked incessantly, and where +no one was ever admitted, the vicar felt half ashamed at speaking of +Mademoiselle Gamard's provocations to a man who appeared to be so +gravely occupied. But after going through the agony of the mental +deliberations which all humble, undecided, and feeble persons endure +about things of even no importance, he decided, not without much +swelling and beating of the heart, to explain his position to the Abbe +Troubert. + +The canon listened in a cold, grave manner, trying, but in vain, to +repress an occasional smile which to more intelligent eyes than those +of the vicar might have betrayed the emotions of a secret +satisfaction. A flame seemed to dart from his eyelids when Birotteau +pictured with the eloquence of genuine feeling the constant bitterness +he was made to swallow; but Troubert laid his hand above those lids +with a gesture very common to thinkers, maintaining the dignified +demeanor which was usual with him. When the vicar had ceased to speak +he would indeed have been puzzled had he sought on Troubert's face, +marbled with yellow blotches even more yellow than his usually bilious +skin, for any trace of the feelings he must have excited in that +mysterious priest. + +After a moment's silence the canon made one of those answers which +required long study before their meaning could be thoroughly +perceived, though later they proved to reflecting persons the +astonishing depths of his spirit and the power of his mind. He simply +crushed Birotteau by telling him that "these things amazed him all the +more because he should never have suspected their existence were it +not for his brother's confession. He attributed such stupidity on his +part to the gravity of his occupations, his labors, the absorption in +which his mind was held by certain elevated thoughts which prevented +his taking due notice of the petty details of life." He made the vicar +observe, but without appearing to censure the conduct of a man whose +age and connections deserved all respect, that "in former days, +recluses thought little about their food and lodging in the solitude +of their retreats, where they were lost in holy contemplations," and +that "in our days, priests could make a retreat for themselves in the +solitude of their own hearts." Then, reverting to Birotteau's affairs, +he added that "such disagreements were a novelty to him. For twelve +years nothing of the kind had occurred between Mademoiselle Gamard and +the venerable Abbe Chapeloud. As for himself, he might, no doubt, be +an arbitrator between the vicar and their landlady, because his +friendship for that person had never gone beyond the limits imposed by +the Church on her faithful servants; but if so, justice demanded that +he should hear both sides. He certainly saw no change in Mademoiselle +Gamard, who seemed to him the same as ever; he had always submitted to +a few of her caprices, knowing that the excellent woman was kindness +and gentleness itself; the slight fluctuations of her temper should be +attributed, he thought, to sufferings caused by a pulmonary affection, +of which she said little, resigning herself to bear them in a truly +Christian spirit." He ended by assuring the vicar that "if he stayed a +few years longer in Mademoiselle Gamard's house he would learn to +understand her better and acknowledge the real value of her excellent +nature." + +Birotteau left the room confounded. In the direful necessity of +consulting no one, he now judged Mademoiselle Gamard as he would +himself, and the poor man fancied that if he left her house for a few +days he might extinguish, for want of fuel, the dislike the old maid +felt for him. He accordingly resolved to spend, as he formerly did, a +week or so at a country-house where Madame de Listomere passed her +autumns, a season when the sky is usually pure and tender in Touraine. +Poor man! in so doing he did the thing that was most desired by his +terrible enemy, whose plans could only have been brought to nought by +the resistant patience of a monk. But the vicar, unable to divine +them, not understanding even his own affairs, was doomed to fall, like +a lamb, at the butcher's first blow. + +Madame de Listomere's country-place, situated on the embankment which +lies between Tours and the heights of Saint-Georges, with a southern +exposure and surrounded by rocks, combined the charms of the country +with the pleasures of the town. It took but ten minutes from the +bridge of Tours to reach the house, which was called the "Alouette," +--a great advantage in a region where no one will put himself out for +anything whatsoever, not even to seek a pleasure. + +The Abbe Birotteau had been about ten days at the Alouette, when, one +morning while he was breakfasting, the porter came to say that +Monsieur Caron desired to speak with him. Monsieur Caron was +Mademoiselle Gamard's laywer, and had charge of her affairs. +Birotteau, not remembering this, and unable to think of any matter of +litigation between himself and others, left the table to see the +lawyer in a stage of great agitation. He found him modestly seated on +the balustrade of a terrace. + +"Your intention of ceasing to reside in Mademoiselle Gamard's house +being made evident--" began the man of business. + +"Eh! monsieur," cried the Abbe Birotteau, interrupting him, "I have +not the slightest intention of leaving it." + +"Nevertheless, monsieur," replied the lawyer, "you must have had some +agreement in the matter with Mademoiselle, for she has sent me to ask +how long you intend to remain in the country. The event of a long +absence was not foreseen in the agreement, and may lead to a contest. +Now, Mademoiselle Gamard understanding that your board--" + +"Monsieur," said Birotteau, amazed, and again interrupting the lawyer, +"I did not suppose it necessary to employ, as it were, legal means +to--" + +"Mademoiselle Gamard, who is anxious to avoid all dispute," said +Monsieur Caron, "has sent me to come to an understanding with you." + +"Well, if you will have the goodness to return to-morrow," said the +abbe, "I shall then have taken advice in the matter." + +The quill-driver withdrew. The poor vicar, frightened at the +persistence with which Mademoiselle Gamard pursued him, returned to +the dining-room with his face so convulsed that everybody cried out +when they saw him: "What _is_ the matter, Monsieur Birotteau?" + +The abbe, in despair, sat down without a word, so crushed was he by +the vague presence of approaching disaster. But after breakfast, when +his friends gathered round him before a comfortable fire, Birotteau +naively related the history of his troubles. His hearers, who were +beginning to weary of the monotony of a country-house, were keenly +interested in a plot so thoroughly in keeping with the life of the +provinces. They all took sides with the abbe against the old maid. + +"Don't you see, my dear friend," said Madame de Listomere, "that the +Abbe Troubert wants your apartment?" + +Here the historian ought to sketch this lady; but it occurs to him +that even those who are ignorant of Sterne's system of "cognomology," +cannot pronounce the three words "Madame de Listomere" without +picturing her to themselves as noble and dignified, softening the +sternness of rigid devotion by the gracious elegance and the courteous +manners of the old monarchical regime; kind, but a little stiff; +slightly nasal in voice; allowing herself the perusal of "La Nouvelle +Heloise"; and still wearing her own hair. + +"The Abbe Birotteau must not yield to that old vixen," cried Monsieur +de Listomere, a lieutenant in the navy who was spending a furlough +with his aunt. "If the vicar has pluck and will follow my suggestions +he will soon recover his tranquillity." + +All present began to analyze the conduct of Mademoiselle Gamard with +the keen perceptions which characterize provincials, to whom no one +can deny the talent of knowing how to lay bare the most secret motives +of human actions. + +"You don't see the whole thing yet," said an old landowner who knew +the region well. "There is something serious behind all this which I +can't yet make out. The Abbe Troubert is too deep to be fathomed at +once. Our dear Birotteau is at the beginning of his troubles. Besides, +would he be left in peace and comfort even if he did give up his +lodging to Troubert? I doubt it. If Caron came here to tell you that +you intended to leave Mademoiselle Gamard," he added, turning to the +bewildered priest, "no doubt Mademoiselle Gamard's intention is to +turn you out. Therefore you will have to go, whether you like it or +not. Her sort of people play a sure game, they risk nothing." + +This old gentleman, Monsieur de Bourbonne, could sum up and estimate +provincial ideas as correctly as Voltaire summarized the spirit of his +times. He was thin and tall, and chose to exhibit in the matter of +clothes the quiet indifference of a landowner whose territorial value +is quoted in the department. His face, tanned by the Touraine sun, was +less intellectual than shrewd. Accustomed to weigh his words and +measure his actions, he concealed a profound vigilance behind a +misleading appearance of simplicity. A very slight observation of him +sufficed to show that, like a Norman peasant, he invariably held the +upper hand in business matters. He was an authority on wine-making, +the leading science of Touraine. He had managed to extend the meadow +lands of his domain by taking in a part of the alluvial soil of the +Loire without getting into difficulties with the State. This clever +proceeding gave him the reputation of a man of talent. If Monsieur de +Bourbonne's conversation pleased you and you were to ask who he was of +a Tourainean, "Ho! a sly old fox!" would be the answer of those who +were envious of him--and they were many. In Touraine, as in many of +the provinces, jealousy is the root of language. + +Monsieur de Bourbonne's remark occasioned a momentary silence, during +which the persons who composed the little party seemed to be +reflecting. Meanwhile Mademoiselle Salomon de Villenoix was announced. +She came from Tours in the hope of being useful to the poor abbe, and +the news she brought completely changed the aspect of the affair. As +she entered, every one except Monsieur de Bourbonne was urging +Birotteau to hold his own against Troubert and Gamard, under the +auspices of the aristocractic society of the place, which would +certainly stand by him. + +"The vicar-general, to whom the appointments to office are entrusted, +is very ill," said Mademoiselle Salomon, "and the archbishop has +delegated his powers to the Abbe Troubert provisionally. The canonry +will, of course, depend wholly upon him. Now last evening, at +Mademoiselle de la Blottiere's the Abbe Poirel talked about the +annoyances which the Abbe Birotteau had inflicted on Mademoiselle +Gamard, as though he were trying to cast all the blame on our good +abbe. 'The Abbe Birotteau,' he said, 'is a man to whom the Abbe +Chapeloud was absolutely necessary, and since the death of that +venerable man, he has shown'--and then came suggestions, calumnies! +you understand?" + +"Troubert will be made vicar-general," said Monsieur de Bourbonne, +sententiously. + +"Come!" cried Madame de Listomere, turning to Birotteau, "which do you +prefer, to be made a canon, or continue to live with Mademoiselle +Gamard?" + +"To be a canon!" cried the whole company. + +"Well, then," resumed Madame de Listomere, "you must let the Abbe +Troubert and Mademoiselle Gamard have things their own way. By sending +Caron here they mean to let you know indirectly that if you consent to +leave the house you shall be made canon,--one good turn deserves +another." + +Every one present applauded Madame de Listomere's sagacity, except her +nephew the Baron de Listomere, who remarked in a comic tone to +Monsieur de Bourbonne, "I would like to have seen a fight between the +Gamard and the Birotteau." + +But, unhappily for the vicar, forces were not equal between these +persons of the best society and the old maid supported by the Abbe +Troubert. The time soon came when the struggle developed openly, went +on increasing, and finally assumed immense proportions. By the advice +of Madame de Listomere and most of her friends, who were now eagerly +enlisted in a matter which threw such excitement into their vapid +provincial lives, a servant was sent to bring back Monsieur Caron. The +lawyer returned with surprising celerity, which alarmed no one but +Monsieur de Bourbonne. + +"Let us postpone all decision until we are better informed," was the +advice of that Fabius in a dressing-gown, whose prudent reflections +revealed to him the meaning of these moves on the Tourainean +chess-board. He tried to enlighten Birotteau on the dangers of his +position; but the wisdom of the old "sly-boots" did not serve the +passions of the moment, and he obtained but little attention. + +The conference between the lawyer and Birotteau was short. The vicar +came back quite terrified. + +"He wants me to sign a paper stating my relinquishment of domicile." + +"That's formidable language!" said the naval lieutenant. + +"What does it mean?" asked Madame de Listomere. + +"Merely that the abbe must declare in writing his intention of leaving +Mademoiselle Gamard's house," said Monsieur de Bourbonne, taking a +pinch of snuff. + +"Is that all?" said Madame de Listomere. "Then sign it at once," she +added, turning to Birotteau. "If you positively decide to leave her +house, there can be no harm in declaring that such is your will." + +Birotteau's will! + +"That is true," said Monsieur de Bourbonne, closing his snuff-box with +a gesture the significance of which it is impossible to render, for it +was a language in itself. "But writing is always dangerous," he added, +putting his snuff-box on the mantelpiece with an air and manner that +alarmed the vicar. + +Birotteau was so bewildered by the upsetting of all his ideas, by the +rapidity of events which found him defenceless, by the ease with which +his friends were settling the most cherished matters of his solitary +life, that he remained silent and motionless as if moonstruck, +thinking of nothing, though listening and striving to understand the +meaning of the rapid sentences the assembled company addressed to him. +He took the paper Monsieur Caron had given him and read it, as if he +were giving his mind to the lawyer's document, but the act was merely +mechanical. He signed the paper, by which he declared that he left +Mademoiselle Gamard's house of his own wish and will, and that he had +been fed and lodged while there according to the terms originally +agreed upon. When the vicar had signed the document, Monsieur Caron +took it and asked where his client was to send the things left by the +abbe in her house and belonging to him. Birotteau replied that they +could be sent to Madame de Listomere's,--that lady making him a sign +that she would receive him, never doubting that he would soon be a +canon. Monsieur de Bourbonne asked to see the paper, the deed of +relinquishment, which the abbe had just signed. Monsieur Caron gave it +to him. + +"How is this?" he said to the vicar after reading it. "It appears that +written documents already exist between you and Mademoiselle Gamard. +Where are they? and what do they stipulate?" + +"The deed is in my library," replied Birotteau. + +"Do you know the tenor of it?" said Monsieur de Bourbonne to the +lawyer. + +"No, monsieur," said Caron, stretching out his hand to regain the +fatal document. + +"Ha!" thought the old man; "you know, my good friend, what that deed +contains, but you are not paid to tell us," and he returned the paper +to the lawyer. + +"Where can I put my things?" cried Birotteau; "my books, my beautiful +book-shelves, and pictures, my red furniture, and all my treasures?" + +The helpless despair of the poor man thus torn up as it were by the +roots was so artless, it showed so plainly the purity of his ways and +his ignorance of the things of life, that Madame de Listomere and +Mademoiselle de Salomon talked to him and consoled him in the tone +which mothers take when they promise a plaything to their children. + +"Don't fret about such trifles," they said. "We will find you some +place less cold and dismal than Mademoiselle Gamard's gloomy house. If +we can't find anything you like, one or other of us will take you to +live with us. Come, let's play a game of backgammon. To-morrow you can +go and see the Abbe Troubert and ask him to push your claims to the +canonry, and you'll see how cordially he will receive you." + +Feeble folk are as easily reassured as they are frightened. So the +poor abbe, dazzled at the prospect of living with Madame de Listomere, +forgot the destruction, now completed, of the happiness he had so long +desired, and so delightfully enjoyed. But at night before going to +sleep, the distress of a man to whom the fuss of moving and the +breaking up of all his habits was like the end of the world, came upon +him, and he racked his brains to imagine how he could ever find such a +good place for his book-case as the gallery in the old maid's house. +Fancying he saw his books scattered about, his furniture defaced, his +regular life turned topsy-turvy, he asked himself for the thousandth +time why the first year spent in Mademoiselle Gamard's house had been +so sweet, the second so cruel. His troubles were a pit in which his +reason floundered. The canonry seemed to him small compensation for so +much misery, and he compared his life to a stocking in which a single +dropped stitch resulted in destroying the whole fabric. Mademoiselle +Salomon remained to him. But, alas, in losing his old illusions the +poor priest dared not trust in any later friendship. + +In the "citta dolente" of spinsterhood we often meet, especially in +France, with women whose lives are a sacrifice nobly and daily offered +to noble sentiments. Some remain proudly faithful to a heart which +death tore from them; martyrs of love, they learn the secrets of +womanhood only though their souls. Others obey some family pride +(which in our days, and to our shame, decreases steadily); these +devote themselves to the welfare of a brother, or to orphan nephews; +they are mothers while remaining virgins. Such old maids attain to the +highest heroism of their sex by consecrating all feminine feelings to +the help of sorrow. They idealize womanhood by renouncing the rewards +of woman's destiny, accepting its pains. They live surrounded by the +splendour of their devotion, and men respectfully bow the head before +their faded features. Mademoiselle de Sombreuil was neither wife nor +maid; she was and ever will be a living poem. Mademoiselle Salomon de +Villenoix belonged to the race of these heroic beings. Her devotion +was religiously sublime, inasmuch as it won her no glory after being, +for years, a daily agony. Beautiful and young, she loved and was +beloved; her lover lost his reason. For five years she gave herself, +with love's devotion, to the mere mechanical well-being of that +unhappy man, whose madness she so penetrated that she never believed +him mad. She was simple in manner, frank in speech, and her pallid +face was not lacking in strength and character, though its features +were regular. She never spoke of the events of her life. But at times +a sudden quiver passed over her as she listened to the story of some +sad or dreadful incident, thus betraying the emotions that great +sufferings had developed within her. She had come to live at Tours +after losing the companion of her life; but she was not appreciated +there at her true value and was thought to be merely an amiable woman. +She did much good, and attached herself, by preference, to feeble +beings. For that reason the poor vicar had naturally inspired her with +a deep interest. + +Mademoiselle de Villenoix, who returned to Tours the next morning, +took Birotteau with her and set him down on the quay of the cathedral +leaving him to make his own way to the Cloister, where he was bent on +going, to save at least the canonry and to superintend the removal of +his furniture. He rang, not without violent palpitations of the heart, +at the door of the house whither, for fourteen years, he had come +daily, and where he had lived blissfully, and from which he was now +exiled forever, after dreaming that he should die there in peace like +his friend Chapeloud. Marianne was surprised at the vicar's visit. He +told her that he had come to see the Abbe Troubert, and turned towards +the ground-floor apartment where the canon lived; but Marianne called +to him:-- + +"Not there, monsieur le vicaire; the Abbe Troubert is in your old +apartment." + +These words gave the vicar a frightful shock. He was forced to +comprehend both Troubert's character and the depths of the revenge so +slowly brought about when he found the canon settled in Chapeloud's +library, seated in Chapeloud's handsome armchair, sleeping, no doubt, +in Chapeloud's bed, and disinheriting at last the friend of Chapeloud, +the man who, for so many years, had confined him to Mademoiselle +Gamard's house, by preventing his advancement in the church, and +closing the best salons in Tours against him. By what magic wand had +the present transformation taken place? Surely these things belonged +to Birotteau? And yet, observing the sardonic air with which Troubert +glanced at that bookcase, the poor abbe knew that the future +vicar-general felt certain of possessing the spoils of those he had so +bitterly hated,--Chapeloud as an enemy, and Birotteau, in and through +whom Chapeloud still thwarted him. Ideas rose in the heart of the poor +man at the sight, and plunged him into a sort of vision. He stood +motionless, as though fascinated by Troubert's eyes which fixed +themselves upon him. + +"I do not suppose, monsieur," said Birotteau at last, "that you intend +to deprive me of the things that belong to me. Mademoiselle may have +been impatient to give you better lodgings, but she ought to have been +sufficiently just to give me time to pack my books and remove my +furniture." + +"Monsieur," said the Abbe Troubert, coldly, not permitting any sign of +emotion to appear on his face, "Mademoiselle Gamard told me yesterday +of your departure, the cause of which is still unknown to me. If she +installed me here at once, it was from necessity. The Abbe Poirel has +taken my apartment. I do not know if the furniture and things that are +in these rooms belong to you or to Mademoiselle; but if they are +yours, you know her scrupulous honesty; the sanctity of her life is +the guarantee of her rectitude. As for me, you are well aware of my +simple modes of living. I have slept for fifteen years in a bare room +without complaining of the dampness,--which, eventually will have +caused my death. Nevertheless, if you wish to return to this apartment +I will cede it to you willingly." + +After hearing these terrible words, Birotteau forgot the canonry and +ran downstairs as quickly as a young man to find Mademoiselle Gamard. +He met her at the foot of the staircase, on the broad, tiled landing +which united the two wings of the house. + +"Mademoiselle," he said, bowing to her without paying any attention to +the bitter and derisive smile that was on her lips, nor to the +extraordinary flame in her eyes which made them lucent as a tiger's, +"I cannot understand how it is that you have not waited until I +removed my furniture before--" + +"What!" she said, interrupting him, "is it possible that your things +have not been left at Madame de Listomere's?" + +"But my furniture?" + +"Haven't you read your deed?" said the old maid, in a tone which would +have to be rendered in music before the shades of meaning that hatred +is able to put into the accent of every word could be fully shown. + +Mademoiselle Gamard seemed to rise in stature, her eyes shone, her +face expanded, her whole person quivered with pleasure. The Abbe +Troubert opened a window to get a better light on the folio volume he +was reading. Birotteau stood as if a thunderbolt had stricken him. +Mademoiselle Gamard made his ears hum when she enunciated in a voice +as clear as a cornet the following sentence:-- + +"Was it not agreed that if you left my house your furniture should +belong to me, to indemnify me for the difference in the price of board +paid by you and that paid by the late venerable Abbe Chapeloud? Now, +as the Abbe Poirel has just been appointed canon--" + +Hearing the last words Birotteau made a feeble bow as if to take leave +of the old maid, and left the house precipitately. He was afraid if he +stayed longer that he should break down utterly, and give too great a +triumph to his implacable enemies. Walking like a dunken man he at +last reached Madame de Listomere's house, where he found in one of the +lower rooms his linen, his clothing, and all his papers packed in a +trunk. When he eyes fell on these few remnants of his possessions the +unhappy priest sat down and hid his face in his hands to conceal his +tears from the sight of others. The Abbe Poirel was canon! He, +Birotteau, had neither home, nor means, nor furniture! + +Fortunately Mademoiselle Salomon happened to drive past the house, and +the porter, who saw and comprehended the despair of the poor abbe, +made a sign to the coachman. After exchanging a few words with +Mademoiselle Salomon the porter persuaded the vicar to let himself be +placed, half dead as he was, in the carriage of his faithful friend, +to whom he was unable to speak connectedly. Mademoiselle Salomon, +alarmed at the momentary derangement of a head that was always feeble, +took him back at once to the Alouette, believing that this beginning +of mental alienation was an effect produced by the sudden news of Abbe +Poirel's nomination. She knew nothing, of course, of the fatal +agreement made by the abbe with Mademoiselle Gamard, for the excellent +reason that he did not know of it himself; and because it is in the +nature of things that the comical is often mingled with the pathetic, +the singular replies of the poor abbe made her smile. + +"Chapeloud was right," he said; "he is a monster!" + +"Who?" she asked. + +"Chapeloud. He has taken all." + +"You mean Poirel?" + +"No, Troubert." + +At last they reached the Alouette, where the priest's friends gave him +such tender care that towards evening he grew calmer and was able to +give them an account of what had happened during the morning. + +The phlegmatic old fox asked to see the deed which, on thinking the +matter over, seemed to him to contain the solution of the enigma. +Birotteau drew the fatal stamped paper from his pocket and gave it to +Monsieur de Bourbonne, who read it rapidly and soon came upon the +following clause:-- + +"Whereas a difference exists of eight hundred francs yearly between +the price of board paid by the late Abbe Chapeloud and that at which +the said Sophie Gamard agrees to take into her house, on the +above-named stipulated condition, the said Francois Birotteau; and +whereas it is understood that the undersigned Francois Birotteau is +not able for some years to pay the full price charged to the other +boarders of Mademoiselle Gamard, more especially the Abbe Troubert; +the said Birotteau does hereby engage, in consideration of certain +sums of money advanced by the undersigned Sophie Gamard, to leave her, +as indemnity, all the household property of which he may die possessed, +or to transfer the same to her should he, for any reason whatever or +at any time, voluntarily give up the apartment now leased to him, and +thus derive no further profit from the above-named engagements made by +Mademoiselle Gamard for his benefit--" + +"Confound her! what an agreement!" cried the old gentleman. "The said +Sophie Gamard is armed with claws." + +Poor Birotteau never imagined in his childish brain that anything +could ever separate him from that house where he expected to live and +die with Mademoiselle Gamard. He had no remembrance whatever of that +clause, the terms of which he had not discussed, for they had seemed +quite just to him at a time when, in his great anxiety to enter the +old maid's house, he would readily have signed any and all legal +documents she had offered him. His simplicity was so guileless and +Mademoiselle Gamard's conduct so atrocious, the fate of the poor old +man seemed so deplorable, and his natural helplessness made him so +touching, that in the first glow of her indignation Madame de +Listomere exclaimed: "I made you put your signature to that document +which has ruined you; I am bound to give you back the happiness of +which I have deprived you." + +"But," remarked Monsieur de Bourbonne, "that deed constitutes a fraud; +there may be ground for a lawsuit." + +"Then Birotteau shall go to the law. If he loses at Tours he may win +at Orleans; if he loses at Orleans, he'll win in Paris," cried the +Baron de Listomere. + +"But if he does go to law," continued Monsieur de Bourbonne, coldly, +"I should advise him to resign his vicariat." + +"We will consult lawyers," said Madame de Listomere, "and go to law if +law is best. But this affair is so disgraceful for Mademoiselle +Gamard, and is likely to be so injurious to the Abbe Troubert, that I +think we can compromise." + +After mature deliberation all present promised their assistance to the +Abbe Birotteau in the struggle which was now inevitable between the +poor priest and his antagonists and all their adherents. A true +presentiment, an infallible provincial instinct, led them to couple +the names of Gamard and Troubert. But none of the persons assembled on +this occasion in Madame de Listomere's salon, except the old fox, had +any real idea of the nature and importance of such a struggle. +Monsieur de Bourbonne took the poor abbe aside into a corner of the +room. + +"Of the fourteen persons now present," he said, in a low voice, "not +one will stand by you a fortnight hence. If the time comes when you +need some one to support you you may find that I am the only person in +Tours bold enough to take up your defence; for I know the provinces +and men and things, and, better still, I know self-interests. But +these friends of yours, though full of the best intentions, are +leading you astray into a bad path, from which you won't be able to +extricate yourself. Take my advice; if you want to live in peace, +resign the vicariat of Saint-Gatien and leave Tours. Don't say where +you are going, but find some distant parish where Troubert cannot get +hold of you." + +"Leave Tours!" exclaimed the vicar, with indescribable terror. + +To him it was a kind of death; the tearing up of all the roots by +which he held to life. Celibates substitute habits for feelings; and +when to that moral system, which makes them pass through life instead +of really living it, is added a feeble character, external things +assume an extraordinary power over them. Birotteau was like certain +vegetables; transplant them, and you stop their ripening. Just as a +tree needs daily the same sustenance, and must always send its roots +into the same soil, so Birotteau needed to trot about Saint-Gatien, +and amble along the Mail where he took his daily walk, and saunter +through the streets, and visit the three salons where, night after +night, he played his whist or his backgammon. + +"Ah! I did not think of it!" replied Monsieur de Bourbonne, gazing at +the priest with a sort of pity. + +All Tours was soon aware that Madame la Baronne de Listomere, widow of +a lieutenant-general, had invited the Abbe Birotteau, vicar of +Saint-Gatien, to stay at her house. That act, which many persons +questioned, presented the matter sharply and divided the town into +parties, especially after Mademoiselle Salomon spoke openly of a fraud +and a lawsuit. With the subtle vanity which is common to old maids, and +the fanatic self-love which characterizes them, Mademoiselle Gamard was +deeply wounded by the course taken by Madame de Listomere. The +baroness was a woman of high rank, elegant in her habits and ways, +whose good taste, courteous manners, and true piety could not be +gainsaid. By receivng Birotteau as her guest she gave a formal denial +to all Mademoiselle Gamard's assertions, and indirectly censured her +conduct by maintaining the vicar's cause against his former landlady. + +It is necessary for the full understanding of this history to explain +how the natural discernment and spirit of analysis which old women +bring to bear on the actions of others gave power to Mademoiselle +Gamard, and what were the resources on her side. Accompanied by the +taciturn Abbe Troubert she made a round of evening visits to five or +six houses, at each of which she met a circle of a dozen or more +persons, united by kindred tastes and the same general situation in +life. Among them were one or two men who were influenced by the gossip +and prejudices of their servants; five or six old maids who spent +their time in sifting the words and scrutinizing the actions of their +neighbours and others in the class below them; besides these, there +were several old women who busied themselves in retailing scandal, +keeping an exact account of each person's fortune, striving to control +or influence the actions of others, prognosticating marriages, and +blaming the conduct of friends as sharply as that of enemies. These +persons, spread about the town like the capillary fibres of a plant, +sucked in, with the thirst of a leaf for the dew, the news and the +secrets of each household, and transmitted them mechanically to the +Abbe Troubert, as the leaves convey to the branch the moisture they +absorb. + +Accordingly, during every evening of the week, these good devotees, +excited by that need of emotion which exists in all of us, rendered an +exact account of the current condition of the town with a sagacity +worthy of the Council of Ten, and were, in fact, a species of police, +armed with the unerring gift of spying bestowed by passions. When they +had divined the secret meaning of some event their vanity led them to +appropriate to themselves the wisdom of their sanhedrim, and set the +tone to the gossip of their respective spheres. This idle but ever +busy fraternity, invisible, yet seeing all things, dumb, but +perpetually talking, possessed an influence which its nonentity seemed +to render harmless, though it was in fact terrible in its effects when +it concerned itself with serious interests. For a long time nothing +had entered the sphere of these existences so serious and so momentous +to each one of them as the struggle of Birotteau, supported by Madame +de Listomere, against Mademoiselle Gamard and the Abbe Troubert. The +three salons of Madame de Listomere and the Demoiselles Merlin de la +Blottiere and de Villenoix being considered as enemies by all the +salons which Mademoiselle Gamard frequented, there was at the bottom +of the quarrel a class sentiment with all its jealousies. It was the +old Roman struggle of people and senate in a molehill, a tempest in a +teacup, as Montesquieu remarked when speaking of the Republic of San +Marino, whose public offices are filled by the day only,--despotic +power being easily seized by any citizen. + +But this tempest, petty as it seems, did develop in the souls of these +persons as many passions as would have been called forth by the +highest social interests. It is a mistake to think that none but souls +concerned in mighty projects, which stir their lives and set them +foaming, find time too fleeting. The hours of the Abbe Troubert fled +by as eagerly, laden with thoughts as anxious, harassed by despairs +and hopes as deep as the cruellest hours of the gambler, the lover, or +the statesman. God alone is in the secret of the energy we expend upon +our occult triumphs over man, over things, over ourselves. Though we +know not always whither we are going we know well what the journey +costs us. If it be permissible for the historian to turn aside for a +moment from the drama he is narrating and ask his readers to cast a +glance upon the lives of these old maids and abbes, and seek the cause +of the evil which vitiates them at their source, we may find it +demonstrated that man must experience certain passions before he can +develop within him those virtues which give grandeur to life by +widening his sphere and checking the selfishness which is inherent in +every created being. + +Madame de Listomere returned to town without being aware that for the +previous week her friends had felt obliged to refute a rumour (at +which she would have laughed had she known if it) that her affection +for her nephew had an almost criminal motive. She took Birotteau to +her lawyer, who did not regard the case as an easy one. The vicar's +friends, inspired by the belief that justice was certain in so good a +cause, or inclined to procrastinate in a matter which did not concern +them personally, had put off bringing the suit until they returned to +Tours. Consequently the friends of Mademoiselle Gamard had taken the +initiative, and told the affair wherever they could to the injury of +Birotteau. The lawyer, whose practice was exclusively among the most +devout church people, amazed Madame de Listomere by advising her not +to embark on such a suit; he ended the consultation by saying that "he +himself would not be able to undertake it, for, according to the terms +of the deed, Mademoiselle Gamard had the law on her side, and in +equity, that is to say outside of strict legal justice, the Abbe +Birotteau would undoubtedly seem to the judges as well as to all +respectable laymen to have derogated from the peaceable, conciliatory, +and mild character hitherto attributed to him; that Mademoiselle +Gamard, known to be a kindly woman and easy to live with, had put +Birotteau under obligations to her by lending him the money he needed +to pay the legacy duties on Chapeloud's bequest without taking from +him a receipt; that Birotteau was not of an age or character to sign a +deed without knowing what it contained or understanding the importance +of it; that in leaving Mademoiselle Gamard's house at the end of two +years, when his friend Chapeloud had lived there twelve and Troubert +fifteen, he must have had some purpose known to himself only; and that +the lawsuit, if undertaken, would strike the public as an act of +ingratitude;" and so forth. Letting Birotteau go before them to the +staircase, the lawyer detained Madame de Listomere a moment to entreat +her, if she valued her own peace of mind, not to involve herself in +the matter. + +But that evening the poor vicar, suffering the torments of a man under +sentence of death who awaits in the condemned cell at Bicetre the +result of his appeal for mercy, could not refrain from telling his +assembled friends the result of his visit to the lawyer. + +"I don't know a single pettifogger in Tours," said Monsieur de +Bourbonne, "except that Radical lawyer, who would be willing to take +the case,--unless for the purpose of losing it; I don't advise you to +undertake it." + +"Then it is infamous!" cried the navel lieutenant. "I myself will take +the abbe to the Radical--" + +"Go at night," said Monsieur de Bourbonne, interrupting him. + +"Why?" + +"I have just learned that the Abbe Troubert is appointed vicar-general +in place of the other man, who died yesterday." + +"I don't care a fig for the Abbe Troubert." + +Unfortunately the Baron de Listomere (a man thirty-six years of age) +did not see the sign Monsieur de Bourbonne made him to be cautious in +what he said, motioning as he did so to a friend of Troubert, a +councillor of the Prefecture, who was present. The lieutenant +therefore continued:-- + +"If the Abbe Troubert is a scoundrel--" + +"Oh," said Monsieur de Bourbonne, cutting him short, "why bring +Monsieur Troubert into a matter which doesn't concern him?" + +"Not concern him?" cried the baron; "isn't he enjoying the use of the +Abbe Birotteau's household property? I remember that when I called on +the Abbe Chapeloud I noticed two valuable pictures. Say that they are +worth ten thousand francs; do you suppose that Monsieur Birotteau +meant to give ten thousand francs for living two years with that +Gamard woman,--not to speak of the library and furniture, which are +worth as much more?" + +The Abbe Birotteau opened his eyes at hearing he had once possessed so +enormous a fortune. + +The baron, getting warmer than ever, went on to say: "By Jove! there's +that Monsieur Salmon, formerly an expert at the Museum in Paris; he is +down here on a visit to his mother-in-law. I'll go and see him this +very evening with the Abbe Birotteau and ask him to look at those +pictures and estimate their value. From there I'll take the abbe to +the lawyer." + +Two days after this conversation the suit was begun. This employment +of the Liberal laywer did harm to the vicar's cause. Those who were +opposed to the government, and all who were known to dislike the +priests, or religion (two things quite distinct which many persons +confound), got hold of the affair and the whole town talked of it. The +Museum expert estimated the Virgin of Valentin and the Christ of +Lebrun, two paintings of great beauty, at eleven thousand francs. As +to the bookshelves and the gothic furniture, the taste for such things +was increasing so rapidly in Paris that their immediate value was at +least twelve thousand. In short, the appraisal of the whole property +by the expert reached the sum of over thirty-six thousand francs. Now +it was very evident that Birotteau never intended to give Mademoiselle +Gamard such an enormous sum of money for the small amount he might owe +her under the terms of the deed; therefore he had, legally speaking, +equitable grounds on which to demand an amendment of the agreement; if +this were denied, Mademoiselle Gamard was plainly guilty of +intentional fraud. The Radical lawyer accordingly began the affair by +serving a writ on Mademoiselle Gamard. Though very harsh in language, +this document, strengthened by citations of precedents and supported +by certain clauses in the Code, was a masterpiece of legal argument, +and so evidently just in its condemnation of the old maid that thirty +or forty copies were made and maliciously distributed through the +town. + + + IV + +A few days after this commencement of hostilities between Birotteau +and the old maid, the Baron de Listomere, who expected to be included +as captain of a corvette in a coming promotion lately announced by the +minister of the Navy, received a letter from one of his friends +warning him that there was some intention of putting him on the +retired list. Greatly astonished by this information he started for +Paris immediately, and went at once to the minister, who seemed to be +amazed himself, and even laughed at the baron's fears. The next day, +however, in spite of the minister's assurance, Monsieur de Listomere +made inquiries in the different offices. By an indiscretion (often +practised by heads of departments in favor of their friends) one of +the secretaries showed him a document confirming the fatal news, which +was only waiting the signature of the director, who was ill, to be +submitted to the minister. + +The Baron de Listomere went immediately to an uncle of his, a deputy, +who could see the minister of the Navy at the chamber without loss of +time, and begged him to find out the real intentions of his Excellency +in a matter which threatened the loss of his whole future. He waited +in his uncle's carriage with the utmost anxiety for the end of the +session. His uncle came out before the Chamber rose, and said to him +at once as they drove away: "Why the devil have you meddled in a +priest's quarrel? The minister began by telling me you had put +yourself at the head of the Radicals in Tours; that your political +opinions were objectionable; you were not following in the lines of +the government,--with other remarks as much involved as if he were +addressing the Chamber. On that I said to him, 'Nonsense; let us come +to the point.' The end was that his Excellency told me frankly you +were in bad odor with the diocese. In short, I made a few inquiries +among my colleagues, and I find that you have been talking slightingly +of a certan Abbe Troubert, the vicar-general, but a very important +personage in the province, where he represents the Jesuits. I have +made myself responsible to the minister for your future conduct. My +good nephew, if you want to make your way be careful not to excite +ecclesiastical enmities. Go at once to Tours and try to make your +peace with that devil of a vicar-general; remember that such priests +are men with whom we absolutely _must_ live in harmony. Good heavens! +when we are all striving and working to re-establish religion it is +actually stupid, in a lieutenant who wants to be made a captain, to +affront the priests. If you don't make up matters with that Abbe +Troubert you needn't count on me; I shall abandon you. The minister of +ecclesiastical affairs told me just now that Troubert was certain to +be made bishop before long; if he takes a dislike to our family he +could hinder me from being included in the next batch of peers. Don't +you understand?" + +These words explained to the naval officer the nature of Troubert's +secret occupations, about which Birotteau often remarked in his silly +way: "I can't think what he does with himself,--sitting up all night." + +The canon's position in the midst of his female senate, converted so +adroitly into provincial detectives, and his personal capacity, had +induced the Congregation of Jesus to select him out of all the +ecclesiastics in the town, as the secret proconsul of Touraine. +Archbishop, general, prefect, all men, great and small, were under his +occult dominion. The Baron de Listomere decided at once on his course. + +"I shall take care," he said to his uncle, "not to get another round +shot below my water-line." + +Three days after this diplomatic conference between the uncle and +nephew, the latter, returning hurriedly in a post-chaise, informed his +aunt, the very night of his arrival, of the dangers the family were +running if they peristed in supporting that "fool of a Birotteau." The +baron had detained Monsieur de Bourbonne as the old gentleman was +taking his hat and cane after the usual rubber of whist. The +clear-sightedness of that sly old fox seemed indispensable for an +understanding of the reefs among which the Listomere family suddenly +found themselves; and perhaps the action of taking his hat and cane +was only a ruse to have it whispered in his ear: "Stay after the +others; we want to talk to you." + +The baron's sudden return, his apparent satisfaction, which was quite +out of keeping with a harrassed look that occasionally crossed his +face, informed Monsieur de Bourbonne vaguely that the lieutenant had +met with some check in his crusade against Gamard and Troubert. He +showed no surprise when the baron revealed the secret power of the +Jesuit vicar-general. + +"I knew that," he said. + +"Then why," cried the baroness, "did you not warn us?" + +"Madame," he said, sharply, "forget that I was aware of the invisible +influence of that priest, and I will forget that you knew it equally +well. If we do not keep this secret now we shall be thought his +accomplices, and shall be more feared and hated than we are. Do as I +do; pretend to be duped; but look carefully where you set your feet. I +did warn you sufficiently, but you would not understand me, and I did +not choose to compromise myself." + +"What must we do now?" said the baron. + +The abandonment of Birotteau was not even made a question; it was a +first condition tactily accepted by the three deliberators. + +"To beat a retreat with the honors of war has always been the triumph +of the ablest generals," replied Monsieur de Bourbonne. "Bow to +Troubert, and if his hatred is less strong than his vanity you will +make him your ally; but if you bow too low he will walk over you +rough-shod; make believe that you intend to leave the service, and +you'll escape him, Monsieur le baron. Send away Birotteau, madame, and +you will set things right with Mademoiselle Gamard. Ask the Abbe +Troubert, when you meet him at the archbishop's, if he can play whist. +He will say yes. Then invite him to your salon, where he wants to be +received; he'll be sure to come. You are a woman, and you can +certainly win a priest to your interests. When the baron is promoted, +his uncle peer of France, and Troubert a bishop, you can make +Birotteau a canon if you choose. Meantime yield,--but yield +gracefully, all the while with a slight menace. Your family can give +Troubert quite as much support as he can give you. You'll understand +each other perfectly on that score. As for you, sailor, carry your +deep-sea line about you." + +"Poor Birotteau?" said the baroness. + +"Oh, get rid of him at once," replied the old man, as he rose to take +leave. "If some clever Radical lays hold of that empty head of his, he +may cause you much trouble. After all, the court would certainly give +a verdict in his favour, and Troubert must fear that. He may forgive +you for beginning the struggle, but if they were defeated he would be +implacable. I have said my say." + +He snapped his snuff-box, put on his overshoes, and departed. + +The next day after breakfast the baroness took the vicar aside and +said to him, not without visible embarrassment:-- + +"My dear Monsieur Birotteau, you will think what I am about to ask of +you very unjust and very inconsistent; but it is necessary, both for +you and for us, that your lawsuit with Mademoiselle Gamard be +withdrawn by resigning your claims, and also that you should leave my +house." + +As he heard these words the poor abbe turned pale. + +"I am," she continued, "the innocent cause of your misfortunes, and, +moreover, if it had not been for my nephew you would never have begun +this lawsuit, which has now turned to your injury and to ours. But +listen to me." + +She told him succinctly the immense ramifications of the affair, and +explained the serious nature of its consequences. Her own meditations +during the night had told her something of the probable antecedents of +Troubert's life; she was able, without misleading Birotteau, to show +him the net so ably woven round him by revenge, and to make him see +the power and great capacity of his enemy, whose hatred to Chapeloud, +under whom he had been forced to crouch for a dozen years, now found +vent in seizing Chapeloud's property and in persecuting Chapeloud in +the person of his friend. The harmless Birotteau clasped his hands as +if to pray, and wept with distress at the sight of human horrors that +his own pure soul was incapable of suspecting. As frightened as though +he had suddenly found himself at the edge of a precipice, he listened, +with fixed, moist eyes in which there was no expression, to the +revelations of his friend, who ended by saying: "I know the wrong I do +in abandoning your cause; but, my dear abbe, family duties must be +considered before those of friendship. Yield, as I do, to this storm, +and I will prove to you my gratitude. I am not talking of your worldly +interests, for those I take charge of. You shall be made free of all +such anxieties for the rest of your life. By means of Monsieur de +Bourbonne, who will know how to save appearances, I shall arrange +matters so that you shall lack nothing. My friend, grant me the right +to abandon you. I shall ever be your friend, though forced to conform +to the axioms of the world. You must decide." + +The poor, bewildered abbe cried aloud: "Chapeloud was right when he +said that if Troubert could drag him by the feet out of his grave he +would do it! He sleeps in Chapeloud's bed!" + +"There is no use in lamenting," said Madame de Listomere, "and we have +little time now left to us. How will you decide?" + +Birotteau was too good and kind not to obey in a great crisis the +unreflecting impulse of the moment. Besides, his life was already in +the agony of what to him was death. He said, with a despairing look at +his protectress which cut her to the heart, "I trust myself to you--I +am but the stubble of the streets." + +He used the Tourainean word "bourrier" which has no other meaning than +a "bit of straw." But there are pretty little straws, yellow, +polished, and shining, the delight of children, whereas the bourrier +is straw discolored, muddy, sodden in the puddles, whirled by the +tempest, crushed under feet of men. + +"But, madame, I cannot let the Abbe Troubert keep Chapeloud's +portrait. It was painted for me, it belongs to me; obtain that for me, +and I will give up all the rest." + +"Well," said Madame de Listomere. "I will go myself to Mademoiselle +Gamard." The words were said in a tone which plainly showed the +immense effort the Baronne de Listomere was making in lowering herself +to flatter the pride of the old maid. "I will see what can be done," +she said; "I hardly dare hope anything. Go and consult Monsieur de +Bourbonne; ask him to put your renunciation into proper form, and +bring me the paper. I will see the archbishop, and with his help we +may be able to stop the matter here." + +Birotteau left the house dismayed. Troubert assumed in his eyes the +dimensions of an Egyptian pyramid. The hands of that man were in +Paris, his elbows in the Cloister of Saint-Gatien. + +"He!" said the victim to himself, "_He_ to prevent the Baron de +Listomere from becoming peer of France!--and, perhaps, 'by the help of +the archbishop we may be able to stop the matter here'!" + +In presence of such great interests Birotteau felt he was a mere worm; +he judged himself harshly. + +The news of Birotteau's removal from Madame de Listomere's house +seemed all the more amazing because the reason of it was wholly +impenetrable. Madame de Listomere said that her nephew was intending +to marry and leave the navy, and she wanted the vicar's apartment to +enlarge her own. Birotteau's relinquishment was still unknown. The +advice of Monsieur de Bourbonne was followed. Whenever the two facts +reached the ears of the vicar-general his self-love was certain to be +gratified by the assurance they gave that even if the Listomere family +did not capitulate they would at least remain neutral and tacitly +recognize the occult power of the Congregation,--to reconize it was, +in fact, to submit to it. But the lawsuit was still sub judice; his +opponents yielded and threatened at the same time. + +The Listomeres had thus taken precisely the same attitude as the +vicar-general himself; they held themselves aloof, and yet were able +to direct others. But just at this crisis an event occurred which +complicated the plans laid by Monsieur de Bourbonne and the Listomeres +to quiet the Gamard and Troubert party, and made them more difficult +to carry out. + +Mademoiselle Gamard took cold one evening in coming out of the +cathedral; the next day she was confined to her bed, and soon after +became dangerously ill. The whole town rang with pity and false +commiseration: "Mademoiselle Gamard's sensitive nature has not been +able to bear the scandal of this lawsuit. In spite of the justice of +her cause she was likely to die of grief. Birotteau has killed his +benefactress." Such were the speeches poured through the capillary +tubes of the great female conclave, and taken up and repeated by the +whole town of Tours. + +Madame de Listomere went the day after Mademoiselle Gamard took cold +to pay the promised visit, and she had the mortification of that act +without obtaining any benefit from it, for the old maid was too ill to +see her. She then asked politely to speak to the vicar-general. + +Gratified, no doubt, to receive in Chapeloud's library, at the corner +of the fireplace above which hung the two contested pictures, the +woman who had hitheto ignored him, Troubert kept the baroness waiting +a moment before he consented to admit her. No courtier and no +diplomatist ever put into a discussion of their personal interests or +into the management of some great national negotiation more +shrewdness, dissimulation, and ability than the baroness and the +priest displayed when they met face to face for the struggle. + +Like the seconds or sponsors who in the Middle Age armed the champion, +and strengthened his valor by useful counsel until he entered the +lists, so the sly old fox had said to the baroness at the last moment: +"Don't forget your cue. You are a mediator, and not an interested +party. Troubert also is a mediator. Weigh your words; study the +inflection of the man's voice. If he strokes his chin you have got +him." + +Some sketchers are fond of caricaturing the contrast often observable +between "what is said" and "what is thought" by the speaker. To catch +the full meaning of the duel of words which now took place between the +priest and the lady, it is necessary to unveil the thoughts that each +hid from the other under spoken sentences of apparent insignificance. +Madame de Listomere began by expressing the regret she had felt at +Birotteau's lawsuit; and then went on to speak of her desire to settle +the matter to the satisfaction of both parties. + +"The harm is done, madame," said the priest, in a grave voice. "The +pious and excellent Mademoiselle Gamard is dying." ("I don't care a +fig for the old thing," thought he, "but I mean to put her death on +your shoulders and harass your conscience if you are such a fool as to +listen to it.") + +"On hearing of her illness," replied the baroness, "I entreated +Monsieur Birotteau to relinquish his claims; I have brought the +document, intending to give it to that excellent woman." ("I see what +you mean, you wily scoundrel," thought she, "but we are safe now from +your calumnies. If you take this document you'll cut your own fingers +by admitting you are an accomplice.") + +There was silence for a moment. + +"Mademoiselle Gamard's temporal affairs do not concern me," said the +priest at last, lowering the large lids over his eagle eyes to veil +his emotions. ("Ho! ho!" thought he, "you can't compromise me. Thank +God, those damned lawyers won't dare to plead any cause that could +smirch me. What do these Listomeres expect to get by crouching in this +way?") + +"Monsieur," replied the baroness, "Monsieur Birotteau's affairs are no +more mine than those of Mademoiselle Gamard are yours; but, +unfortunately, religion is injured by such a quarrel, and I come to +you as a mediator--just as I myself am seeking to make peace." ("We +are not decieving each other, Monsieur Troubert," thought she. "Don't +you feel the sarcasm of that answer?") + +"Injury to religion, madame!" exclaimed the vicar-general. "Religion +is too lofty for the actions of men to injure." ("My religion is I," +thought he.) "God makes no mistake in His judgments, madame; I +recognize no tribunal but His." + +"Then, monsieur," she replied, "let us endeavor to bring the judgments +of men into harmony with the judgments of God." ("Yes, indeed, your +religion is you.") + +The Abbe Troubert suddenly changed his tone. + +"Your nephew has been to Paris, I believe." ("You found out about me +there," thought he; "you know now that I can crush you, you who dared +to slight me, and you have come to capitulate.") + +"Yes, monsieur; thank you for the interest you take in him. He returns +to-night; the minister, who is very considerate of us, sent for him; +he does not want Monsieur de Listomere to leave the service." +("Jesuit, you can't crush us," thought she. "I understand your +civility.") + +A moment's silence. + +"I did not think my nephew's conduct in this affair quite the thing," +she added; "but naval men must be excused; they know nothing of law." +("Come, we had better make peace," thought she; "we sha'n't gain +anything by battling in this way.") + +A slight smile wandered over the priests face and was lost in its +wrinkles. + +"He has done us the service of getting a proper estimate on the value +of those paintings," he said, looking up at the pictures. "They will +be a noble ornament to the chapel of the Virgin." ("You shot a sarcasm +at me," thought he, "and there's another in return; we are quits, +madame.") + +"If you intend to give them to Saint-Gatien, allow me to offer frames +that will be more suitable and worthy of the place, and of the works +themselves." ("I wish I could force you to betray that you have taken +Birotteau's things for your own," thought she.) + +"They do not belong to me," said the priest, on his guard. + +"Here is the deed of relinquishment," said Madame de Listomere; "it +ends all discussion, and makes them over to Mademoiselle Gamard." She +laid the document on the table. ("See the confidence I place in you," +thought she.) "It is worthy of you, monsieur," she added, "worthy of +your noble character, to reconcile two Christians,--though at present +I am not especially concerned for Monsieur Birotteau--" + +"He is living in your house," said Troubert, interrupting her. + +"No, monsieur, he is no longer there." ("That peerage and my nephew's +promotion force me to do base things," thought she.) + +The priest remained impassible, but his calm exterior was an +indication of violent emotion. Monsieur Bourbonne alone had fathomed +the secret of that apparent tranquillity. The priest had triumphed! + +"Why did you take upon yourself to bring that relinquishment," he +asked, with a feeling analogous to that which impels a woman to fish +for compliments. + +"I could not avoid a feeling of compassion. Birotteau, whose feeble +nature must be well known to you, entreated me to see Madaemoiselle +Gamard and to obtain as the price of his renunciation--" + +The priest frowned. + +"of rights upheld by distinguished lawyers, the portrait of--" + +Troubert looked fixedly at Madame de Listomere. + +"the portrait of Chapeloud," she said, continuing: "I leave you to +judge of his claim." ("You will be certain to lose your case if we go +to law, and you know it," thought she.) + +The tone of her voice as she said the words "distinguished lawyers" +showed the priest that she knew very well both the strength and +weakness of the enemy. She made her talent so plain to this +connoisseur emeritus in the course of a conversation which lasted a +long time in the tone here given, that Troubert finally went down to +Mademoiselle Gamard to obtain her answer to Birotteau's request for +the portrait. + +He soon returned. + +"Madame," he said, "I bring you the words of a dying woman. 'The Abbe +Chapeloud was so true a friend to me,' she said, 'that I cannot +consent to part with his picture.' As for me," added Troubert, "if it +were mine I would not yield it. My feelings to my late friend were so +faithful that I should feel my right to his portrait was above that of +others." + +"Well, there's no need to quarrel over a bad picture." ("I care as +little about it as you do," thought she.) "Keep it, and I will have a +copy made of it. I take some credit to myself for having averted this +deplorable lawsuit; and I have gained, personally, the pleasure of +your acquaintance. I hear you have a great talent for whist. You will +forgive a woman for curiosity," she said, smiling. "If you will come +and play at my house sometimes you cannot doubt your welcome." + +Troubert stroked his chin. ("Caught! Bourbonne was right!" thought +she; "he has his quantum of vanity!") + +It was true. The vicar-general was feeling the delightful sensation +which Mirabeau was unable to subdue when in the days of his power he +found gates opening to his carriage which were barred to him in +earlier days. + +"Madame," he replied, "my avocations prevent my going much into +society; but for you, what will not a man do?" ("The old maid is going +to die; I'll get a footing at the Listomere's, and serve them if they +serve me," thought he. "It is better to have them for friends than +enemies.") + +Madame de Listomere went home, hoping that the archbishop would +complete the work of peace so auspiciously begun. But Birotteau was +fated to gain nothing by his relinquishment. Mademoiselle Gamard died +the next day. No one felt surprised when her will was opened to find +that she had left everything to the Abbe Troubert. Her fortune was +appraised at three hundred thousand francs. The vicar-general sent to +Madame de Listomere two notes of invitation for the services and for +the funeral procession of his friend; one for herself and one for her +nephew. + +"We must go," she said. + +"It can't be helped," said Monsieur de Bourbonne. "It is a test to +which Troubert puts you. Baron, you must go to the cemetery," he +added, turning to the lieutenant, who, unluckily for him, had not left +Tours. + +The services took place, and were performed with unusual +ecclesiastical magnificence. Only one person wept, and that was +Birotteau, who, kneeling in a side chapel and seen by none, believed +himself guilty of the death and prayed sincerely for the soul of the +deceased, bitterly deploring that he was not able to obtain her +forgiveness before she died. + +The Abbe Troubert followed the body of his friend to the grave; at the +verge of which he delivered a discourse in which, thanks to his +eloquence, the narrow life the old maid had lived was enlarged to +monumental proportions. Those present took particular note of the +following words in the peroration:-- + +"This life of days devoted to God and to His religion, a life adorned +with noble actions silently performed, and with modest and hidden +virtues, was crushed by a sorrow which we might call undeserved if we +could forget, here at the verge of this grave, that our afflictions +are sent by God. The numerous friends of this saintly woman, knowing +the innocence and nobility of her soul, foresaw that she would issue +safely from her trials in spite of the accusations which blasted her +life. It may be that Providence has called her to the bosom of God to +withdraw her from those trials. Happy they who can rest here below in +the peace of their own hearts as Sophie now is resting in her robe of +innocence among the blest." + +"When he had ended his pompous discourse," said Monsieur de Bourbonne, +after relating the incidents of the internment to Madame de Listomere +when whist was over, the doors shut, and they were alone with the +baron, "this Louis XI. in a cassock--imagine him if you can!--gave a +last flourish to the sprinkler and aspersed the coffin with holy +water." Monsieur de Bourbonne picked up the tongs and imitated the +priest's gesture so satirically that the baron and his aunt could not +help laughing. "Not until then," continued the old gentleman, "did he +contradict himself. Up to that time his behavior had been perfect; but +it was no doubt impossible for him to put the old maid, whom he +despised so heartily and hated almost as much as he hated Chapeloud, +out of sight forever without allowing his joy to appear in that last +gesture." + +The next day Mademoiselle Salomon came to breakfast with Madame de +Listomere, chiefly to say, with deep emotion: "Our poor Abbe Birotteau +has just received a frightful blow, which shows the most determined +hatred. He is appointed curate of Saint-Symphorien." + +Saint-Symphorien is a suburb of Tours lying beyond the bridge. That +bridge, one of the finest monuments of French architecture, is +nineteen hundred feet long, and the two open squares which surround +each end are precisely alike. + +"Don't you see the misery of it?" she said, after a pause, amazed at +the coldness with which Madame de Listomere received the news. "It is +just as if the abbe were a hundred miles from Tours, from his friends, +from everything! It is a frightful exile, and all the more cruel +because he is kept within sight of the town where he can hardly ever +come. Since his troubles he walks very feebly, yet he will have to +walk three miles to see his old friends. He has taken to his bed, just +now, with fever. The parsonage at Saint-Symphorien is very cold and +damp, and the parish is too poor to repair it. The poor old man will +be buried in a living tomb. Oh, it is an infamous plot!" + +To end this history it will suffice to relate a few events in a simple +way, and to give one last picture of its chief personages. + +Five months later the vicar-general was made Bishop of Troyes; and +Madame de Listomere was dead, leaving an annuity of fifteen hundred +francs to the Abbe Birotteau. The day on which the dispositions in her +will were made known Monseigneur Hyacinthe, Bishop of Troyes, was on +the point of leaving Tours to reside in his diocese, but he delayed +his departure on receiving the news. Furious at being foiled by a +woman to whom he had lately given his countenance while she had been +secretly holding the hand of a man whom he regarded as his enemy, +Troubert again threatened the baron's future career, and put in +jeopardy the peerage of his uncle. He made in the salon of the +archbishop, and before an assembled party, one of those priestly +speeches which are big with vengeance and soft with honied mildness. +The Baron de Listomere went the next day to see this implacable enemy, +who must have imposed sundry hard conditions on him, for the baron's +subsequent conduct showed the most entire submission to the will of +the terrible Jesuit. + +The new bishop made over Mademoiselle Gamard's house by deed of gift +to the Chapter of the cathedral; he gave Chapeloud's books and +bookcases to the seminary; he presented the two disputed pictures to +the Chapel of the Virgin; but he kept Chapeloud's portrait. No one +knew how to explain this almost total renunciation of Mademoiselle +Gamard's bequest. Monsieur de Bourbonne supposed that the bishop had +secretly kept moneys that were invested, so as to support his rank +with dignity in Paris, where of course he would take his seat on the +Bishops' bench in the Upper Chamber. It was not until the night before +Monseigneur Troubert's departure from Tours that the sly old fox +unearthed the hidden reason of this strange action, the deathblow +given by the most persistent vengeance to the feeblest of victims. +Madame de Listomere's legacy to Birotteau was contested by the Baron +de Listomere under a pretence of undue influence! + +A few days after the case was brought the baron was promoted to the +rank of captain. As a measure of ecclesiastical discipline, the curate +of Saint-Symphorien was suspended. His superiors judged him guilty. +The murderer of Sophie Gamard was also a swindler. If Monseigneur +Troubert had kept Mademoiselle Gamard's property he would have found +it difficult to make the ecclestiastical authorities censure +Birotteau. + +At the moment when Monseigneur Hyacinthe, Bishop of Troyes, drove +along the quay Saint-Symphorien in a post-chaise on his way to Paris +poor Birotteau had been placed in an armchair in the sun on a terrace +above the road. The unhappy priest, smitten by the archbishop, was +pale and haggard. Grief, stamped on every feature, distorted the face +that was once so mildly gay. Illness had dimmed his eyes, formerly +brightened by the pleasures of good living and devoid of serious +ideas, with a veil which simulated thought. It was but the skeleton of +the old Birotteau who had rolled only one year earlier so vacuous but +so content along the Cloister. The bishop cast one look of pity and +contempt upon his victim; then he consented to forget him, and went +his way. + +There is no doubt that Troubert would have been in other times a +Hildebrand or an Alexander the Sixth. In these days the Church is no +longer a political power, and does not absorb the whole strength of +her solitaries. Celibacy, however, presents the inherent vice of +concentating the faculties of man upon a single passion, egotism, +which renders celibates either useless or mischievous. We live at a +period when the defect of governments is to make Man for Society +rather than Society for Man. There is a perpetual struggle going on +between the Individual and the Social system which insists on using +him, while he is endeavoring to use it to his own profit; whereas, in +former days, man, really more free, was also more loyal to the public +weal. The round in which men struggle in these days has been +insensibly widened; the soul which can grasp it as a whole will ever +be a magnificent exception; for, as a general thing, in morals as in +physics, impulsion loses in intensity what it gains in extension. +Society can not be based on exceptions. Man in the first instance was +purely and simply, father; his heart beat warmly, concentrated in the +one ray of Family. Later, he lived for a clan, or a small community; +hence the great historical devotions of Greece and Rome. After that he +was a man of caste or of a religion, to maintain the greatness of +which he often proved himself sublime; but by that time the field of +his interests became enlarged by many intellectual regions. In our +day, his life is attached to that of a vast country; sooner or later +his family will be, it is predicted, the entire universe. + +Will this moral cosmopolitanism, the hope of Christian Rome, prove to +be only a sublime error? It is so natural to believe in the +realization of a noble vision, in the Brotherhood of Man. But, alas! +the human machine does not have such divine proportions. Souls that +are vast enough to grasp a range of feelings bestowed on great men +only will never belong to either fathers of families or simple +citizens. Some physiologists have thought that as the brain enlarges +the heart narrows; but they are mistaken. The apparent egotism of men +who bear a science, a nation, a code of laws in their bosom is the +noblest of passions; it is, as one may say, the maternity of the +masses; to give birth to new peoples, to produce new ideas they must +unite within their mighty brains the breasts of woman and the force of +God. The history of such men as Innocent the Third and Peter the +Great, and all great leaders of their age and nation will show, if +need be, in the highest spheres the same vast thought of which +Troubert was made the representative in the quiet depths of the +Cloister of Saint-Gatien. + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Birotteau, Abbe Francois + The Lily of the Valley + Cesar Birotteau + +Bourbonne, De + Madame Firmiani + +Listomere, Baronne de + Cesar Birotteau + The Muse of the Department + +Troubert, Abbe Hyacinthe + The Member for Arcis + +Villenoix, Pauline Salomon de + Louis Lambert + A Seaside Tragedy + + + + + THE TWO BROTHERS + + BY + + HONORE DE BALZAC + + + + Translated by + + Katharine Prescott Wormeley + + + + DEDICATION + +To Monsieur Charles Nodier, member of the French Academy, etc. + +Here, my dear Nodier, is a book filled with deeds that are +screened from the action of the laws by the closed doors of +domestic life; but as to which the finger of God, often called +chance, supplies the place of human justice, and in which the +moral is none the less striking and instructive because it is +pointed by a scoffer. + +To my mind, such deeds contain great lessons for the Family +and for Maternity. We shall some day realize, perhaps too +late, the effects produced by the diminution of paternal +authority. That authority, which formerly ceased only at the +death of the father, was the sole human tribunal before which +domestic crimes could be arraigned; kings themselves, on +special occasions, took part in executing its judgments. +However good and tender a mother may be, she cannot fulfil the +function of the patriarchal royalty any more than a woman can +take the place of a king upon the throne. Perhaps I have never +drawn a picture that shows more plainly how essential to +European society is the indissoluble marriage bond, how fatal +the results of feminine weakness, how great the dangers +arising from selfish interests when indulged without +restraint. May a society which is based solely on the power of +wealth shudder as it sees the impotence of the law in dealing +with the workings of a system which deifies success, and +pardons every means of attaining it. May it return to the +Catholic religion, for the purification of its masses through +the inspiration of religious feeling, and by means of an +education other than that of a lay university. + +In the "Scenes from Military Life" so many fine natures, so +many high and noble self-devotions will be set forth, that I +may here be allowed to point out the depraving effect of the +necessities of war upon certain minds who venture to act in +domestic life as if upon the field of battle. + +You have cast a sagacious glance over the events of our own +time; its philosophy shines, in more than one bitter +reflection, through your elegant pages; you have appreciated, +more clearly than other men, the havoc wrought in the mind of +our country by the existence of four distinct political +systems. I cannot, therefore, place this history under the +protection of a more competent authority. Your name may, +perhaps, defend my work against the criticisms that are +certain to follow it,--for where is the patient who keeps +silence when the surgeon lifts the dressing from his wound? + +To the pleasure of dedicating this Scene to you, is joined the +pride I feel in thus making known your friendship for one who +here subscribes himself + + Your sincere admirer, + + De Balzac + Paris, November, 1842. + + + + + + THE TWO BROTHERS + + + + CHAPTER I + +In 1792 the townspeople of Issoudun enjoyed the services of a +physician named Rouget, whom they held to be a man of consummate +malignity. Were we to believe certain bold tongues, he made his wife +extremely unhappy, although she was the most beautiful woman of the +neighborhood. Perhaps, indeed, she was rather silly. But the prying of +friends, the slander of enemies, and the gossip of acquaintances, had +never succeeded in laying bare the interior of that household. Doctor +Rouget was a man of whom we say in common parlance, "He is not +pleasant to deal with." Consequently, during his lifetime, his +townsmen kept silence about him and treated him civilly. His wife, a +demoiselle Descoings, feeble in health during her girlhood (which was +said to be a reason why the doctor married her), gave birth to a son, +and also to a daughter who arrived, unexpectedly, ten years after her +brother, and whose birth took the husband, doctor though he were, by +surprise. This late-comer was named Agathe. + +These little facts are so simple, so commonplace, that a writer seems +scarcely justified in placing them in the fore-front of his history; +yet if they are not known, a man of Doctor Rouget's stamp would be +thought a monster, an unnatural father, when, in point of fact, he was +only following out the evil tendencies which many people shelter under +the terrible axiom that "men should have strength of character,"--a +masculine phrase that has caused many a woman's misery. + +The Descoings, father-in-law and mother-in-law of the doctor, were +commission merchants in the wool-trade, and did a double business by +selling for the producers and buying for the manufacturers of the +golden fleeces of Berry; thus pocketing a commission on both sides. In +this way they grew rich and miserly--the outcome of many such lives. +Descoings the son, younger brother of Madame Rouget, did not like +Issoudun. He went to seek his fortune in Paris, where he set up as a +grocer in the rue Saint-Honore. That step led to his ruin. But nothing +could have hindered it: a grocer is drawn to his business by an +attracting force quite equal to the repelling force which drives +artists away from it. We do not sufficiently study the social +potentialities which make up the various vocations of life. It would +be interesting to know what determines one man to be a stationer +rather than a baker; since, in our day, sons are not compelled to +follow the calling of their fathers, as they were among the Egyptians. +In this instance, love decided the vocation of Descoings. He said to +himself, "I, too, will be a grocer!" and in the same breath he said +(also to himself) some other things regarding his employer,--a +beautiful creature, with whom he had fallen desperately in love. +Without other help than patience and the trifling sum of money his +father and mother sent him, he married the widow of his predecessor, +Monsieur Bixiou. + +In 1792 Descoings was thought to be doing an excellent business. At +that time, the old Descoings were still living. They had retired from +the wool-trade, and were employing their capital in buying up the +forfeited estates,--another golden fleece! Their son-in-law Doctor +Rouget, who, about this time, felt pretty sure that he should soon +have to mourn for the death of his wife, sent his daughter to Paris to +the care of his brother-in-law, partly to let her see the capital, but +still more to carry out an artful scheme of his own. Descoings had no +children. Madame Descoings, twelve years older than her husband, was +in good health, but as fat as a thrush after harvest; and the canny +Rouget knew enough professionally to be certain that Monsieur and +Madame Descoings, contrary to the moral of fairy tales, would live +happy ever after without having any children. The pair might therefore +become attached to Agathe. + +That young girl, the handsomest maiden in Issoudun, did not resemble +either father or mother. Her birth had caused a lasting breach between +Doctor Rouget and his intimate friend Monsieur Lousteau, a former +sub-delegate who had lately removed from the town. When a family +expatriates itself, the natives of a place as attractive as Issoudun +have a right to inquire into the reasons of so surprising a step. It +was said by certain sharp tongues that Doctor Rouget, a vindictive +man, had been heard to exclaim that Monsieur Lousteau should die by +his hand. Uttered by a physician, this declaration had the force of a +cannon-ball. When the National Assembly suppressed the sub-delegates, +Lousteau and his family left Issoudun, and never returned there. After +their departure Madame Rouget spent most of her time with the sister +of the late sub-delegate, Madame Hochon, who was the godmother of her +daughter, and the only person to whom she confided her griefs. The +little that the good town of Issoudun ever really knew of the +beautiful Madame Rouget was told by Madame Hochon,--though not until +after the doctor's death. + +The first words of Madame Rouget, when informed by her husband that he +meant to send Agathe to Paris, were: "I shall never see my daughter +again." + +"And she was right," said the worthy Madame Hochon. + +After this, the poor mother grew as yellow as a quince, and her +appearance did not contradict the tongues of those who declared that +Doctor Rouget was killing her by inches. The behavior of her booby of +a son must have added to the misery of the poor woman so unjustly +accused. Not restrained, possibly encouraged by his father, the young +fellow, who was in every way stupid, paid her neither the attentions +nor the respect which a son owes to a mother. Jean-Jacques Rouget was +like his father, especially on the latter's worst side; and the doctor +at his best was far from satisfactory, either morally or physically. + +The arrival of the charming Agathe Rouget did not bring happiness to +her uncle Descoings; for in the same week (or rather, we should say +decade, for the Republic had then been proclaimed) he was imprisoned +on a hint from Robespierre given to Fouquier-Tinville. Descoings, who +was imprudent enough to think the famine fictitious, had the +additional folly, under the impression that opinions were free, to +express that opinion to several of his male and female customers as he +served them in the grocery. The citoyenne Duplay, wife of a +cabinet-maker with whom Robespierre lodged, and who looked after the +affairs of that eminent citizen, patronized, unfortunately, the +Descoings establishment. She considered the opinions of the grocer +insulting to Maximilian the First. Already displeased with the manners +of Descoings, this illustrious "tricoteuse" of the Jacobin club regarded +the beauty of his wife as a kind of aristocracy. She infused a venom +of her own into the grocer's remarks when she repeated them to her +good and gentle master, and the poor man was speedily arrested on the +well-worn charge of "accaparation." + +No sooner was he put in prison, than his wife set to work to obtain +his release. But the steps she took were so ill-judged that any one +hearing her talk to the arbiters of his fate might have thought that +she was in reality seeking to get rid of him. Madame Descoings knew +Bridau, one of the secretaries of Roland, then minister of the +interior,--the right-hand man of all the ministers who succeeded each +other in that office. She put Bridau on the war-path to save her +grocer. That incorruptible official--one of the virtuous dupes who are +always admirably disinterested--was careful not to corrupt the men on +whom the fate of the poor grocer depended; on the contrary, he +endeavored to enlighten them. Enlighten people in those days! As well +might he have begged them to bring back the Bourbons. The Girondist +minister, who was then contending against Robespierre, said to his +secretary, "Why do you meddle in the matter?" and all others to whom +the worthy Bridau appealed made the same atrocious reply: "Why do you +meddle?" Bridau then sagely advised Madame Descoings to keep quiet and +await events. But instead of conciliating Robespierre's housekeeper, +she fretted and fumed against that informer, and even complained to a +member of the Convention, who, trembling for himself, replied hastily, +"I will speak of it to Robespierre." The handsome petitioner put faith +in this promise, which the other carefully forgot. A few loaves of +sugar, or a bottle or two of good liqueur, given to the citoyenne +Duplay would have saved Descoings. + +This little mishap proves that in revolutionary times it is quite as +dangerous to employ honest men as scoundrels; we should rely on +ourselves alone. Descoings perished; but he had the glory of going to +the scaffold with Andre Chenier. There, no doubt, grocery and poetry +embraced for the first time in the flesh; although they have, and ever +have had, intimate secret relations. The death of Descoings produced +far more sensation than that of Andre Chenier. It has taken thirty +years to prove to France that she lost more by the death of Chenier +than by that of Descoings. + +This act of Robespierre led to one good result: the terrified grocers +let politics alone until 1830. Descoings's shop was not a hundred +yards from Robespierre's lodging. His successor was scarcely more +fortunate than himself. Cesar Birotteau, the celebrated perfumer of +the "Queen of Roses," bought the premises; but, as if the scaffold had +left some inexplicable contagion behind it, the inventor of the "Paste +of Sultans" and the "Carminative Balm" came to his ruin in that very +shop. The solution of the problem here suggested belongs to the realm +of occult science. + +During the visits which Roland's secretary paid to the unfortunate +Madame Descoings, he was struck with the cold, calm, innocent beauty +of Agathe Rouget. While consoling the widow, who, however, was too +inconsolable to carry on the business of her second deceased husband, +he married the charming girl, with the consent of her father, who +hastened to give his approval to the match. Doctor Rouget, delighted +to hear that matters were going beyond his expectations,--for his +wife, on the death of her brother, had become sole heiress of the +Descoings,--rushed to Paris, not so much to be present at the wedding +as to see that the marriage contract was drawn to suit him. The ardent +and disinterested love of citizen Bridau gave carte blanche to the +perfidious doctor, who made the most of his son-in-law's blindness, as +the following history will show. + +Madame Rouget, or, to speak more correctly, the doctor, inherited all +the property, landed and personal, of Monsieur and Madame Descoings +the elder, who died within two years of each other; and soon after +that, Rouget got the better, as we may say, of his wife, for she died +at the beginning of the year 1799. So he had vineyards and he bought +farms, he owned iron-works and he sold fleeces. His well-beloved son +was stupidly incapable of doing anything; but the father destined him +for the state in life of a land proprietor and allowed him to grow up +in wealth and silliness, certain that the lad would know as much as +the wisest if he simply let himself live and die. After 1799, the +cipherers of Issoudun put, at the very least, thirty thousand francs' +income to the doctor's credit. From the time of his wife's death he +led a debauched life, though he regulated it, so to speak, and kept it +within the closed doors of his own house. This man, endowed with "strength +of character," died in 1805, and God only knows what the townspeople +of Issoudun said about him then, and how many anecdotes they related +of his horrible private life. Jean-Jacques Rouget, whom his father, +recognizing his stupidity, had latterly treated with severity, +remained a bachelor for certain reasons, the explanation of which will +form an important part of this history. His celibacy was partly his +father's fault, as we shall see later. + +Meantime, it is well to inquire into the results of the secret +vengeance the doctor took on a daughter whom he did not recognize as +his own, but who, you must understand at once, was legitimately his. +Not a person in Issoudun had noticed one of those capricious facts +that make the whole subject of generation a vast abyss in which +science flounders. Agathe bore a strong likeness to the mother of +Doctor Rouget. Just as gout is said to skip a generation and pass from +grandfather to grandson, resemblances not uncommonly follow the same +course. + +In like manner, the eldest of Agathe's children, who physically +resembled his mother, had the moral qualities of his grandfather, +Doctor Rouget. We will leave the solution of this problem to the +twentieth century, with a fine collection of microscopic animalculae; +our descendants may perhaps write as much nonsense as the scientific +schools of the nineteenth century have uttered on this mysterious and +perplexing question. + +Agathe Rouget attracted the admiration of everyone by a face destined, +like that of Mary, the mother of our Lord, to continue ever virgin, +even after marriage. Her portrait, still to be seen in the atelier of +Bridau, shows a perfect oval and a clear whiteness of complexion, +without the faintest tinge of color, in spite of her golden hair. More +than one artist, looking at the pure brow, the discreet, composed +mouth, the delicate nose, the small ears, the long lashes, and the +dark-blue eyes filled with tenderness,--in short, at the whole +countenance expressive of placidity,--has asked the great artist, "Is +that a copy of a Raphael?" No man ever acted under a truer inspiration +than the minister's secretary when he married this young girl. Agathe +was an embodiment of the ideal housekeeper brought up in the provinces +and never parted from her mother. Pious, though far from +sanctimonious, she had no other education than that given to women by +the Church. Judged, by ordinary standards, she was an accomplished +wife, yet her ignorance of life paved the way for great misfortunes. +The epitaph on the Roman matron, "She did needlework and kept the +house," gives a faithful picture of her simple, pure, and tranquil +existence. + +Under the Consulate, Bridau attached himself fanatically to Napoleon, +who placed him at the head of a department in the ministry of the +interior in 1804, a year before the death of Doctor Rouget. With a +salary of twelve thousand francs and very handsome emoluments, Bridau +was quite indifferent to the scandalous settlement of the property at +Issoudun, by which Agathe was deprived of her rightful inheritance. +Six months before Doctor Rouget's death he had sold one-half of his +property to his son, to whom the other half was bequeathed as a gift, +and also in accordance with his rights as heir. An advance of fifty +thousand francs on her inheritance, made to Agathe at the time of her +marriage, represented her share of the property of her father and +mother. + +Bridau idolized the Emperor, and served him with the devotion of a +Mohammedan for his prophet; striving to carry out the vast conceptions +of the modern demi-god, who, finding the whole fabric of France +destroyed, went to work to reconstruct everything. The new official +never showed fatigue, never cried "Enough." Projects, reports, notes, +studies, he accepted all, even the hardest labors, happy in the +consciousness of aiding his Emperor. He loved him as a man, he adored +him as a sovereign, and he would never allow the least criticism of +his acts or his purposes. + +From 1804 to 1808, the Bridaus lived in a handsome suite of rooms on +the Quai Voltaire, a few steps from the ministry of the interior and +close to the Tuileries. A cook and footman were the only servants of +the household during this period of Madame Bridau's grandeur. Agathe, +early afoot, went to market with her cook. While the latter did the +rooms, she prepared the breakfast. Bridau never went to the ministry +before eleven o'clock. As long as their union lasted, his wife took +the same unwearying pleasure in preparing for him an exquisite +breakfast, the only meal he really enjoyed. At all seasons and in all +weathers, Agathe watched her husband from the window as he walked +toward his office, and never drew in her head until she had seen him +turn the corner of the rue du Bac. Then she cleared the +breakfast-table herself, gave an eye to the arrangement of the rooms, +dressed for the day, played with her children and took them to walk, +or received the visits of friends; all the while waiting in spirit for +Bridau's return. If her husband brought him important business that +had to be attended to, she would station herself close to the +writing-table in his study, silent as a statue, knitting while he +wrote, sitting up as late as he did, and going to bed only a few +moments before him. Occasionally, the pair went to some theatre, +occupying one of the ministerial boxes. On those days, they dined at a +restaurant, and the gay scenes of that establishment never ceased to +give Madame Bridau the same lively pleasure they afford to provincials +who are new to Paris. Agathe, who was obliged to accept the formal +dinners sometimes given to the head of a department in a ministry, paid +due attention to the luxurious requirements of the then mode of dress, +but she took off the rich apparel with delight when she returned home, +and resumed the simple garb of a provincial. One day in the week, +Thursday, Bridau received his friends, and he also gave a grand ball, +annually, on Shrove Tuesday. + +These few words contain the whole history of their conjugal life, +which had but three events; the births of two children, born three +years apart, and the death of Bridau, who died in 1808, killed by +overwork at the very moment when the Emperor was about to appoint him +director-general, count, and councillor of state. At this period of +his reign, Napoleon was particularly absorbed in the affairs of the +interior; he overwhelmed Bridau with work, and finally wrecked the +health of that dauntless bureaucrat. The Emperor, of whom Bridau had +never asked a favor, made inquiries into his habits and fortune. +Finding that this devoted servant literally had nothing but his +situation, Napoleon recognized him as one of the incorruptible natures +which raised the character of his government and gave moral weight to +it, and he wished to surprise him by the gift of some distinguished +reward. But the effort to complete a certain work, involving immense +labor, before the departure of the Emperor for Spain caused the death +of the devoted servant, who was seized with an inflammatory fever. +When the Emperor, who remained in Paris for a few days after his +return to prepare for the campaign of 1809, was told of Bridau's +death he said: "There are men who can never be replaced." Struck by +the spectacle of a devotion which could receive none of the brilliant +recognitions that reward a soldier, the Emperor resolved to create an +order to requite civil services, just as he had already created the +Legion of honor to reward the military. The impression he received +from the death of Bridau led him to plan the order of the Reunion. He +had not time, however, to mature this aristocratic scheme, the +recollection of which is now so completely effaced that many of my +readers may ask what were its insignia: the order was worn with a blue +ribbon. The Emperor called it the Reunion, under the idea of uniting +the order of the Golden Fleece of Spain with the order of the Golden +Fleece of Austria. "Providence," said a Prussian diplomatist, "took +care to frustrate the profanation." + +After Bridau's death the Emperor inquired into the circumstances of +his widow. Her two sons each received a scholarship in the Imperial +Lyceum, and the Emperor paid the whole costs of their education from +his privy purse. He gave Madame Bridau a pension of four thousand +francs, intending, no doubt, to advance the fortune of her sons in +future years. + +From the time of her marriage to the death of her husband, Agathe had +held no communication with Issoudun. She lost her mother just as she +was on the point of giving birth to her youngest son, and when her +father, who, as she well knew, loved her little, died, the coronation +of the Emperor was at hand, and that event gave Bridau so much +additional work that she was unwilling to leave him. Her brother, +Jean-Jacques Rouget, had not written to her since she left Issoudun. +Though grieved by the tacit repudiation of her family, Agathe had come +to think seldom of those who never thought of her. Once a year she +received a letter from her godmother, Madame Hochon, to whom she +replied with commonplaces, paying no heed to the advice which that +pious and excellent woman gave to her, disguised in cautious words. + +Some time before the death of Doctor Rouget, Madame Hochon had written +to her goddaughter warning her that she would get nothing from her +father's estate unless she gave a power of attorney to Monsieur +Hochon. Agathe was very reluctant to harass her brother. Whether it +were that Bridau thought the spoliation of his wife in accordance with +the laws and customs of Berry, or that, high-minded as he was, he +shared the magnanimity of his wife, certain it is that he would not +listen to Roguin, his notary, who advised him to take advantage of his +ministerial position to contest the deeds by which the father had +deprived the daughter of her legitimate inheritance. Husband and wife +thus tacitly sanctioned what was done at Issoudun. Nevertheless, +Roguin had forced Bridau to reflect upon the future interests of his +wife which were thus compromised. He saw that if he died before her, +Agathe would be left without property, and this led him to look into +his own affairs. He found that between 1793 and 1805 his wife and he +had been obliged to use nearly thirty thousand of the fifty thousand +francs in cash which old Rouget had given to his daughter at the time +of her marriage. He at once invested the remaining twenty thousand in +the public funds, then quoted at forty, and from this source Agathe +received about two thousand francs a year. As a widow, Madame Bridau +could live suitably on an income of six thousand francs. With +provincial good sense, she thought of changing her residence, +dismissing the footman, and keeping no servant except a cook; but her +intimate friend, Madame Descoings, who insisted on being considered +her aunt, sold her own establishment and came to live with Agathe, +turning the study of the late Bridau into her bedroom. + +The two widows clubbed their revenues, and so were in possession of a +joint income of twelve thousand francs a year. This seems a very +simple and natural proceeding. But nothing in life is more deserving +of attention than the things that are called natural; we are on our +guard against the unnatural and extraordinary. For this reason, you +will find men of experience--lawyers, judges, doctors, and priests +--attaching immense importance to simple matters; and they are often +thought over-scrupulous. But the serpent amid flowers is one of the +finest myths that antiquity has bequeathed for the guidance of our +lives. How often we hear fools, trying to excuse themselves in their +own eyes or in the eyes of others, exclaiming, "It was all so natural +that any one would have been taken in." + +In 1809, Madame Descoings, who never told her age, was sixty-five. In +her heyday she had been popularly called a beauty, and was now one of +those rare women whom time respects. She owed to her excellent +constitution the privilege of preserving her good looks, which, +however, would not bear close examination. She was of medium height, +plump, and fresh, with fine shoulders and a rather rosy complexion. +Her blond hair, bordering on chestnut, showed, in spite of her +husband's catastrophe, not a tinge of gray. She loved good cheer, and +liked to concoct nice little made dishes; yet, fond as she was of +eating, she also adored the theatre and cherished a vice which she +wrapped in impenetrable mystery--she bought into lotteries. Can that +be the abyss of which mythology warns us under the fable of the +Danaides and their cask? Madame Descoings, like other women who are +lucky enough to keep young for many years, spend rather too much upon +her dress; but aside from these trifling defects she was the +pleasantest of women to live with. Of every one's opinion, never +opposing anybody, her kindly and communicative gayety gave pleasure to +all. She had, moreover, a Parisian quality which charmed the retired +clerks and elderly merchants of her circle,--she could take and give a +jest. If she did not marry a third time it was no doubt the fault of +the times. During the wars of the Empire, marrying men found rich and +handsome girls too easily to trouble themselves about women of sixty. + +Madame Descoings, always anxious to cheer Madame Bridau, often took +the latter to the theatre, or to drive; prepared excellent little +dinners for her delectation, and even tried to marry her to her own +son by her first husband, Bixiou. Alas! to do this, she was forced to +reveal a terrible secret, carefully kept by her, by her late husband, +and by her notary. The young and beautiful Madame Descoings, who +passed for thirty-six years old, had a son who was thirty-five, named +Bixiou, already a widower, a major in the Twenty-Fourth Infantry, who +subsequently perished at Lutzen, leaving behind him an only son. +Madame Descoings, who only saw her grandson secretly, gave out that he +was the son of the first wife of her first husband. The revelation was +partly a prudential act; for this grandson was being educated with +Madame Bridau's sons at the Imperial Lyceum, where he had a +half-scholarship. The lad, who was clever and shrewd at school, soon +after made himself a great reputation as draughtsman and designer, and +also as a wit. + +Agathe, who lived only for her children, declined to re-marry, as much +from good sense as from fidelity to her husband. But it is easier for +a woman to be a good wife than to be a good mother. A widow has two +tasks before her, whose duties clash: she is a mother, and yet she +must exercise parental authority. Few women are firm enough to +understand and practise this double duty. Thus it happened that +Agathe, notwithstanding her many virtues, was the innocent cause of +great unhappiness. In the first place, through her lack of +intelligence and the blind confidence to which such noble natures are +prone, Agathe fell a victim to Madame Descoings, who brought a +terrible misfortune on the family. That worthy soul was nursing up a +combination of three numbers called a "trey" in a lottery, and +lotteries give no credit to their customers. As manager of the joint +household, she was able to pay up her stakes with the money intended +for their current expenses, and she went deeper and deeper into debt, +with the hope of ultimately enriching her grandson Bixiou, her dear +Agathe, and the little Bridaus. When the debts amounted to ten +thousand francs, she increased her stakes, trusting that her favorite +trey, which had not turned up in nine years, would come at last, and +fill to overflowing the abysmal deficit. + +From that moment the debt rolled up rapidly. When it reached twenty +thousand francs, Madame Descoings lost her head, still failing to win +the trey. She tried to mortgage her own property to pay her niece, but +Roguin, who was her notary, showed her the impossibility of carrying +out that honorable intention. The late Doctor Rouget had laid hold of +the property of the brother-in-law after the grocer's execution, and +had, as it were, disinherited Madame Descoings by securing to her a +life-interest on the property of his own son, Jean-Jacques Rouget. No +money-lender would think of advancing twenty thousand francs to a +woman sixty-six years of age, on an annuity of about four thousand, at +a period when ten per cent could easily be got for an investment. So +one morning Madame Descoings fell at the feet of her niece, and with +sobs confessed the state of things. Madame Bridau did not reproach +her; she sent away the footman and cook, sold all but the bare +necessities of her furniture, sold also three-fourths of her +government funds, paid off the debts, and bade farewell to her +_appartement_. + + + + CHAPTER II + +One of the worst corners in all Paris is undoubtedly that part of the +rue Mazarin which lies between the rue Guenegard and its junction with +the rue de Seine, behind the palace of the Institute. The high gray +walls of the college and of the library which Cardinal Mazarin +presented to the city of Paris, and which the French Academy was in +after days to inhabit, cast chill shadows over this angle of the +street, where the sun seldom shines, and the north wind blows. The +poor ruined widow came to live on the third floor of a house standing +at this damp, dark, cold corner. Opposite, rose the Institute +buildings, in which were the dens of ferocious animals known to the +bourgeoisie under the name of artists,--under that of tyro, or rapin, +in the studios. Into these dens they enter rapins, but they may come +forth prix de Rome. The transformation does not take place without +extraordinary uproar and disturbance at the time of year when the +examinations are going on, and the competitors are shut up in their +cells. To win a prize, they were obliged, within a given time, to +make, if a sculptor, a clay model; if a painter, a picture such as may +be seen at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts; if a musician, a cantata; if an +architect, the plans for a public building. At the time when we are +penning the words, this menagerie has already been removed from these +cold and cheerless buildings, and taken to the elegant Palais des +Beaux-Arts, which stands near by. + +From the windows of Madame Bridau's new abode, a glance could +penetrate the depths of those melancholy barred cages. To the north, +the view was shut in by the dome of the Institute; looking up the +street, the only distraction to the eye was a file of hackney-coaches, +which stood at the upper end of the rue Mazarin. After a while, the +widow put boxes of earth in front of her windows, and cultivated those +aerial gardens that police regulations forbid, though their vegetable +products purify the atmosphere. The house, which backed up against +another fronting on the rue de Seine, was necessarily shallow, and the +staircase wound round upon itself. The third floor was the last. Three +windows to three rooms, namely, a dining-room, a small salon, and a +chamber on one side of the landing; on the other, a little kitchen, +and two single rooms; above, an immense garret without partitions. +Madame Bridau chose this lodging for three reasons: economy, for it +cost only four hundred francs a year, so that she took a lease of it +for nine years; proximity to her sons' school, the Imperial Lyceum +being at a short distance; thirdly, because it was in the quarter to +which she was used. + +The inside of the _appartement_ was in keeping with the general look of +the house. The dining-room, hung with a yellow paper covered with +little green flowers, and floored with tiles that were not glazed, +contained nothing that was not strictly necessary,--namely, a table, +two sideboards, and six chairs, brought from the other _appartement_. +The salon was adorned with an Aubusson carpet given to Bridau when the +ministry of the interior was refurnished. To the furniture of this +room the widow added one of those commonplace mahogany sofas with the +Egyptian heads that Jacob Desmalter manufactured by the gross in 1806, +covering them with a silken green stuff bearing a design of white +geometric circles. Above this piece of furniture hung a portrait of +Bridau, done in pastel by the hand of an amateur, which at once +attracted the eye. Though art might have something to say against it, +no one could fail to recognize the firmness of the noble and obscure +citizen upon that brow. The serenity of the eyes, gentle, yet proud, +was well given; the sagacious mind, to which the prudent lips bore +testimony, the frank smile, the atmosphere of the man of whom the +Emperor had said, "Justum et tenacem," had all been caught, if not +with talent, at least with fidelity. Studying that face, an observer +could see that the man had done his duty. His countenance bore signs +of the incorruptibility which we attribute to several men who served +the Republic. On the opposite wall, over a card-table, flashed a +picture of the Emperor in brilliant colors, done by Vernet; Napoleon +was riding rapidly, attended by his escort. + +Agathe had bestowed upon herself two large birdcages; one filled with +canaries, the other with Java sparrows. She had given herself up to +this juvenile fancy since the loss of her husband, irreparable to her, +as, in fact, it was to many others. By the end of three months, her +widowed chamber had become what it was destined to remain until the +appointed day when she left it forever,--a litter of confusion which +words are powerless to describe. Cats were domiciled on the sofa. The +canaries, occasionally let loose, left their commas on the furniture. +The poor dear woman scattered little heaps of millet and bits of +chickweed about the room, and put tidbits for the cats in broken +saucers. Garments lay everywhere. The room breathed of the provinces +and of constancy. Everything that once belonged to Bridau was +scrupulously preserved. Even the implements in his desk received the +care which the widow of a paladin might have bestowed upon her +husband's armor. One slight detail here will serve to bring the tender +devotion of this woman before the reader's mind. She had wrapped up a +pen and sealed the package, on which she wrote these words, "Last pen +used by my dear husband." The cup from which he drank his last draught +was on the fireplace; caps and false hair were tossed, at a later +period, over the glass globes which covered these precious relics. +After Bridau's death not a trace of coquetry, not even a woman's +ordinary care of her person, was left in the young widow of +thirty-five. Parted from the only man she had ever known, esteemed, and +loved, from one who had never caused her the slightest unhappiness, +she was no longer conscious of her womanhood; all things were as +nothing to her; she no longer even thought of her dress. Nothing was +ever more simply done or more complete than this laying down of +conjugal happiness and personal charm. Some human beings obtain +through love the power of transferring their self--their I--to the +being of another; and when death takes that other, no life of their +own is possible for them. + +Agathe, who now lived only for her children, was infinitely sad at the +thought of the privations this financial ruin would bring upon them. +From the time of her removal to the rue Mazarin a shade of melancholy +came upon her face, which made it very touching. She hoped a little in +the Emperor; but the Emperor at that time could do no more than he was +already doing; he was giving three hundred francs a year to each child +from his privy purse, besides the scholarships. + +As for the brilliant Descoings, she occupied an _appartement_ on the +second floor similar to that of her niece above her. She had made +Madame Bridau an assignment of three thousand francs out of her +annuity. Roguin, the notary, attended to this in Madame Bridau's +interest; but it would take seven years of such slow repayment to make +good the loss. The Descoings, thus reduced to an income of twelve +hundred francs, lived with her niece in a small way. These excellent +but timid creatures employed a woman-of-all-work for the morning hours +only. Madame Descoings, who liked to cook, prepared the dinner. In the +evenings a few old friends, persons employed at the ministry who owed +their places to Bridau, came for a game of cards with the two widows. +Madame Descoings still cherished her trey, which she declared was +obstinate about turning up. She expected, by one grand stroke, to +repay the enforced loan she had made upon her niece. She was fonder of +the little Bridaus than she was of her grandson Bixiou,--partly from a +sense of the wrong she had done them, partly because she felt the +kindness of her niece, who, under her worst deprivations, never +uttered a word of reproach. So Philippe and Joseph were cossetted, and +the old gambler in the Imperial Lottery of France (like others who +have a vice or a weakness to atone for) cooked them nice little +dinners with plenty of sweets. Later on, Philippe and Joseph could +extract from her pocket, with the utmost facility, small sums of +money, which the younger used for pencils, paper, charcoal and prints, +the elder to buy tennis-shoes, marbles, twine, and pocket-knives. +Madame Descoings's passion forced her to be content with fifty francs +a month for her domestic expenses, so as to gamble with the rest. + +On the other hand, Madame Bridau, motherly love, kept her expenses +down to the same sum. By way of penance for her former over-confidence, +she heroically cut off her own little enjoyments. As with +other timid souls of limited intelligence, one shock to her feelings +rousing her distrust led her to exaggerate a defect in her character +until it assumed the consistency of a virtue. The Emperor, she said to +herself, might forget them; he might die in battle; her pension, at +any rate, ceased with her life. She shuddered at the risk her children +ran of being left alone in the world without means. Quite incapable of +understanding Roguin when he explained to her that in seven years +Madame Descoings's assignment would replace the money she had sold out +of the Funds, she persisted in trusting neither the notary nor her +aunt, nor even the government; she believed in nothing but herself and +the privations she was practising. By laying aside three thousand +francs every year from her pension, she would have thirty thousand +francs at the end of ten years; which would give fifteen hundred a +year to her children. At thirty-six, she might expect to live twenty +years longer; and if she kept to the same system of economy she might +leave to each child enough for the bare necessaries of life. + +Thus the two widows passed from hollow opulence to voluntary poverty, +--one under the pressure of a vice, the other through the promptings +of the purest virtue. None of these petty details are useless in +teaching the lesson which ought to be learned from this present +history, drawn as it is from the most commonplace interests of life, +but whose bearings are, it may be, only the more widespread. The view +from the windows into the student dens; the tumult of the rapins +below; the necessity of looking up at the sky to escape the miserable +sights of the damp angle of the street; the presence of that portrait, +full of soul and grandeur despite the workmanship of an amateur +painter; the sight of the rich colors, now old and harmonious, in that +calm and placid home; the preference of the mother for her eldest +child; her opposition to the tastes of the younger; in short, the +whole body of facts and circumstances which make the preamble of this +history are perhaps the generating causes to which we owe Joseph +Bridau, one of the greatest painters of the modern French school of +art. + +Philippe, the elder of the two sons, was strikingly like his mother. +Though a blond lad, with blue eyes, he had the daring look which is +readily taken for intrepidity and courage. Old Claparon, who entered +the ministry of the interior at the same time as Bridau, and was one +of the faithful friends who played whist every night with the two +widows, used to say of Philippe two or three times a month, giving him +a tap on the cheek, "Here's a young rascal who'll stand to his guns!" +The boy, thus stimulated, naturally and out of bravado, assumed a +resolute manner. That turn once given to his character, he became very +adroit at all bodily exercises; his fights at the Lyceum taught him +the endurance and contempt for pain which lays the foundation of +military valor. He also acquired, very naturally, a distaste for +study; public education being unable to solve the difficult problem of +developing "pari passu" the body and the mind. + +Agathe believed that the purely physical resemblance which Philippe +bore to her carried with it a moral likeness; and she confidently +expected him to show at a future day her own delicacy of feeling, +heightened by the vigor of manhood. Philippe was fifteen years old +when his mother moved into the melancholy _appartement_ in the rue +Mazarin; and the winning ways of a lad of that age went far to confirm +the maternal beliefs. Joseph, three years younger, was like his +father, but only on the defective side. In the first place, his thick +black hair was always in disorder, no matter what pains were taken +with it; while Philippe's, notwithstanding his vivacity, was +invariably neat. Then, by some mysterious fatality, Joseph could not +keep his clothes clean; dress him in new clothes, and he immediately +made them look like old ones. The elder, on the other hand, took care +of his things out of mere vanity. Unconsciously, the mother acquired a +habit of scolding Joseph and holding up his brother as an example to +him. Agathe did not treat the two children alike; when she went to +fetch them from school, the thought in her mind as to Joseph always +was, "What sort of state shall I find him in?" These trifles drove her +heart into the gulf of maternal preference. + +No one among the very ordinary persons who made the society of the two +widows--neither old Du Bruel nor old Claparon, nor Desroches the +father, nor even the Abbe Loraux, Agathe's confessor--noticed Joseph's +faculty for observation. Absorbed in the line of his own tastes, the +future colorist paid no attention to anything that concerned himself. +During his childhood this disposition was so like torpor that his +father grew uneasy about him. The remarkable size of the head and the +width of the brow roused a fear that the child might be liable to +water on the brain. His distressful face, whose originality was +thought ugliness by those who had no eye for the moral value of a +countenance, wore rather a sullen expression during his childhood. The +features, which developed later in life, were pinched, and the close +attention the child paid to what went on about him still further +contracted them. Philippe flattered his mother's vanity, but Joseph +won no compliments. Philippe sparkled with the clever sayings and +lively answers that lead parents to believe their boys will turn out +remarkable men; Joseph was taciturn, and a dreamer. The mother hoped +great things of Philippe, and expected nothing of Joseph. + +Joseph's predilection for art was developed by a very commonplace +incident. During the Easter holidays of 1812, as he was coming home +from a walk in the Tuileries with his brother and Madame Descoings, he +saw a pupil drawing a caricature of some professor on the wall of the +Institute, and stopped short with admiration at the charcoal sketch, +which was full of satire. The next day the child stood at the window +watching the pupils as they entered the building by the door on the +rue Mazarin; then he ran downstairs and slipped furtively into the +long courtyard of the Institute, full of statues, busts, half-finished +marbles, plasters, and baked clays; at all of which he gazed +feverishly, for his instinct was awakened, and his vocation stirred +within him. He entered a room on the ground-floor, the door of which +was half open; and there he saw a dozen young men drawing from a +statue, who at once began to make fun of him. + +"Hi! little one," cried the first to see him, taking the crumbs of his +bread and scattering them at the child. + +"Whose child is he?" + +"Goodness, how ugly!" + +For a quarter of an hour Joseph stood still and bore the brunt of much +teasing in the atelier of the great sculptor, Chaudet. But after +laughing at him for a time, the pupils were struck with his +persistency and with the expression of his face. They asked him what +he wanted. Joseph answered that he wished to know how to draw; +thereupon they all encouraged him. Won by such friendliness, the child +told them he was Madame Bridau's son. + +"Oh! if you are Madame Bridau's son," they cried, from all parts of +the room, "you will certainly be a great man. Long live the son of +Madame Bridau! Is your mother pretty? If you are a sample of her, she +must be stylish!" + +"Ha! you want to be an artist?" said the eldest pupil, coming up to +Joseph, "but don't you know that that requires pluck; you'll have to +bear all sorts of trials,--yes, trials,--enough to break your legs and +arms and soul and body. All the fellows you see here have gone through +regular ordeals. That one, for instance, he went seven days without +eating! Let me see, now, if you can be an artist." + +He took one of the child's arms and stretched it straight up in the +air; then he placed the other arm as if Joseph were in the act of +delivering a blow with his fist. + +"Now that's what we call the telegraph trial," said the pupil. "If you +can stand like that, without lowering or changing the position of your +arms for a quarter of an hour, then you'll have proved yourself a +plucky one." + +"Courage, little one, courage!" cried all the rest. "You must suffer +if you want to be an artist." + +Joseph, with the good faith of his thirteen years, stood motionless +for five minutes, all the pupils gazing solemnly at him. + +"There! you are moving," cried one. + +"Steady, steady, confound you!" cried another. + +"The Emperor Napoleon stood a whole month as you see him there," said +a third, pointing to the fine statue by Chaudet, which was in the +room. + +That statue, which represents the Emperor standing with the Imperial +sceptre in his hand, was torn down in 1814 from the column it +surmounted so well. + +At the end of ten minutes the sweat stood in drops on Joseph's +forehead. At that moment a bald-headed little man, pale and sickly in +appearance, entered the atelier, where respectful silence reigned at +once. + +"What you are about, you urchins?" he exclaimed, as he looked at the +youthful martyr. + +"That is a good little fellow, who is posing," said the tall pupil who +had placed Joseph. + +"Are you not ashamed to torture a poor child in that way?" said +Chaudet, lowering Joseph's arms. "How long have you been standing +there?" he asked the boy, giving him a friendly little pat on the +cheek. + +"A quarter of an hour." + +"What brought you here?" + +"I want to be an artist." + +"Where do you belong? where do you come from?" + +"From mamma's house." + +"Oh! mamma!" cried the pupils. + +"Silence at the easels!" cried Chaudet. "Who is your mamma?" + +"She is Madame Bridau. My papa, who is dead, was a friend of the +Emperor; and if you will teach me to draw, the Emperor will pay all +you ask for it." + +"His father was head of a department at the ministry of the Interior," +exclaimed Chaudet, struck by a recollection. "So you want to be an +artist, at your age?" + +"Yes, monsieur." + +"Well, come here just as much as you like; we'll amuse you. Give him a +board, and paper, and chalks, and let him alone. You are to know, you +young scamps, that his father did me a service. Here, Corde-a-puits, +go and get some cakes and sugar-plums," he said to the pupil who had +tortured Joseph, giving him some small change. "We'll see if you are +to be artist by the way you gobble up the dainties," added the +sculptor, chucking Joseph under the chin. + +Then he went round examining the pupils' works, followed by the child, +who looked and listened, and tried to understand him. The sweets were +brought, Chaudet, himself, the child, and the whole studio all had +their teeth in them; and Joseph was petted quite as much as he had +been teased. The whole scene, in which the rough play and real heart +of artists were revealed, and which the boy instinctively understood, +made a great impression on his mind. The apparition of the sculptor, +--for whom the Emperor's protection opened a way to future glory, +closed soon after by his premature death,--was like a vision to little +Joseph. The child said nothing to his mother about this adventure, but +he spent two hours every Sunday and every Thursday in Chaudet's +atelier. From that time forth, Madame Descoings, who humored the +fancies of the two cherubim, kept Joseph supplied with pencils and red +chalks, prints and drawing-paper. At school, the future colorist +sketched his masters, drew his comrades, charcoaled the dormitories, +and showed surprising assiduity in the drawing-class. Lemire, the +drawing-master, struck not only with the lad's inclination but also +with his actual progress, came to tell Madame Bridau of her son's +faculty. Agathe, like a true provincial, who knows as little of art as +she knows much of housekeeping, was terrified. When Lemire left her, +she burst into tears. + +"Ah!" she cried, when Madame Descoings went to ask what was the +matter. "What is to become of me! Joseph, whom I meant to make a +government clerk, whose career was all marked out for him at the +ministry of the interior, where, protected by his father's memory, he +might have risen to be chief of a division before he was twenty-five, +he, my boy, he wants to be a painter,--a vagabond! I always knew that +child would give me nothing but trouble." + +Madame Descoings confessed that for several months past she had +encouraged Joseph's passion, aiding and abetting his Sunday and +Thursday visits to the Institute. At the Salon, to which she had taken +him, the little fellow had shown an interest in the pictures, which +was, she declared, nothing short of miraculous. + +"If he understands painting at thirteen, my dear," she said, "your +Joseph will be a man of genius." + +"Yes; and see what genius did for his father,--killed him with +overwork at forty!" + +At the close of autumn, just as Joseph was entering his fourteenth +year, Agathe, contrary to Madame Descoings's entreaties, went to see +Chaudet, and requested that he would cease to debauch her son. She +found the sculptor in a blue smock, modelling his last statue; he +received the widow of the man who formerly had served him at a +critical moment, rather roughly; but, already at death's door, he was +struggling with passionate ardor to do in a few hours work he could +hardly have accomplished in several months. As Madame Bridau entered, +he had just found an effect long sought for, and was handling his +tools and clay with spasmodic jerks and movements that seemed to the +ignorant Agathe like those of a maniac. At any other time Chaudet +would have laughed; but now, as he heard the mother bewailing the +destiny he had opened to her child, abusing art, and insisting that +Joseph should no longer be allowed to enter the atelier, he burst into +a holy wrath. + +"I was under obligations to your deceased husband, I wished to help +his son, to watch his first steps in the noblest of all careers," he +cried. "Yes, madame, learn, if you do not know it, that a great artist +is a king, and more than a king; he is happier, he is independent, he +lives as he likes, he reigns in the world of fancy. Your son has a +glorious future before him. Faculties like his are rare; they are only +disclosed at his age in such beings as the Giottos, Raphaels, Titians, +Rubens, Murillos,--for, in my opinion, he will make a better painter +than sculptor. God of heaven! if I had such a son, I should be as +happy as the Emperor is to have given himself the King of Rome. Well, +you are mistress of your child's fate. Go your own way, madame; make +him a fool, a miserable quill-driver, tie him to a desk, and you've +murdered him! But I hope, in spite if all your efforts, that he will +stay an artist. A true vocation is stronger than all the obstacles +that can be opposed to it. Vocation! why the very word means a call; +ay, the election of God himself! You will make your child unhappy, +that's all." He flung the clay he no longer needed violently into a +tub, and said to his model, "That will do for to-day." + +Agathe raised her eyes and saw, in a corner of the atelier where her +glance had not before penetrated, a nude woman sitting on a stool, the +sight of whom drove her away horrified. + +"You are not to have the little Bridau here any more," said Chaudet to +his pupils, "it annoys his mother." + +"Eugh!" they all cried, as Agathe closed the door. + +No sooner did the students of sculpture and painting find out that +Madame Bridau did not wish her son to be an artist, than their whole +happiness centred on getting Joseph among them. In spite of a promise +not to go to the Institute which his mother exacted from him, the +child often slipped into Regnauld the painter's studio, where he was +encouraged to daub canvas. When the widow complained that the bargain +was not kept, Chaudet's pupils assured her that Regnauld was not +Chaudet, and they hadn't the bringing up of her son, with other +impertinences; and the atrocious young scamps composed a song with a +hundred and thirty-seven couplets on Madame Bridau. + +On the evening of that sad day Agathe refused to play at cards, and +sat on her sofa plunged in such grief that the tears stood in her +handsome eyes. + +"What is the matter, Madame Bridau?" asked old Claparon. + +"She thinks her boy will have to beg his bread because he has got the +bump of painting," said Madame Descoings; "but, for my part, I am not +the least uneasy about the future of my step-son, little Bixiou, who +has a passion for drawing. Men are born to get on." + +"You are right," said the hard and severe Desroches, who, in spite of +his talents, had never himself got on in the position of assistant-head +of a department. "Happily I have only one son; otherwise, with my +eighteen hundred francs a year, and a wife who makes barely twelve +hundred out of her stamped-paper office, I don't know what would +become of me. I have just placed my boy as under-clerk to a lawyer; he +gets twenty-five francs a month and his breakfast. I give him as much +more, and he dines and sleeps at home. That's all he gets; he must +manage for himself, but he'll make his way. I keep the fellow harder +at work than if he were at school, and some day he will be a +barrister. When I give him money to go to the theatre, he is as happy +as a king and kisses me. Oh, I keep a tight hand on him, and he +renders me an account of all he spends. You are too good to your +children, Madame Bridau; if your son wants to go through hardships and +privations, let him; they'll make a man of him." + +"As for my boy," said Du Bruel, a former chief of a division, who had +just retired on a pension, "he is only sixteen; his mother dotes on +him; but I shouldn't listen to his choosing a profession at his age, +--a mere fancy, a notion that may pass off. In my opinion, boys should +be guided and controlled." + +"Ah, monsieur! you are rich, you are a man, and you have but one son," +said Agathe. + +"Faith!" said Claparon, "children do tyrannize over us--over our +hearts, I mean. Mine makes me furious; he has nearly ruined me, and +now I won't have anything to do with him--it's a sort of independence. +Well, he is the happier for it, and so am I. That fellow was partly +the cause of his mother's death. He chose to be a commercial +traveller; and the trade just suited him, for he was no sooner in the +house than he wanted to be out of it; he couldn't keep in one place, +and he wouldn't learn anything. All I ask of God is that I may die +before he dishonors my name. Those who have no children lose many +pleasures, but they escape great sufferings." + +"And these men are fathers!" thought Agathe, weeping anew. + +"What I am trying to show you, my dear Madame Bridau, is that you had +better let your boy be a painter; if not, you will only waste your +time." + +"If you were able to coerce him," said the sour Desroches, "I should +advise you to oppose his tastes; but weak as I see you are, you had +better let him daub if he likes." + +"Console yourself, Agathe," said Madame Descoings, "Joseph will turn +out a great man." + +After this discussion, which was like all discussions, the widow's +friends united in giving her one and the same advice; which advice did +not in the least relieve her anxieties. They advised her to let Joseph +follow his bent. + +"If he doesn't turn out a genius," said Du Bruel, who always tried to +please Agathe, "you can then get him into some government office." + +When Madame Descoings accompanied the old clerks to the door she +assured them, at the head of the stairs, that they were "Grecian +sages." + +"Madame Bridau ought to be glad her son is willing to do anything," +said Claparon. + +"Besides," said Desroches, "if God preserves the Emperor, Joseph will +always be looked after. Why should she worry?" + +"She is timid about everything that concerns her children," answered +Madame Descoings. "Well, my good girl," she said, returning to Agathe, +"you see they are unanimous; why are you still crying?" + +"If it was Philippe, I should have no anxiety. But you don't know what +goes on in that atelier; they have naked women!" + +"I hope they keep good fires," said Madame Descoings. + +A few days after this, the disasters of the retreat from Moscow became +known. Napoleon returned to Paris to organize fresh troops, and to ask +further sacrifices from the country. The poor mother was then plunged +into very different anxieties. Philippe, who was tired of school, +wanted to serve under the Emperor; he saw a review at the Tuileries, +--the last Napoleon ever held,--and he became infatuated with the idea +of a soldier's life. In those days military splendor, the show of +uniforms, the authority of epaulets, offered irresistible seductions +to a certain style of youth. Philippe thought he had the same vocation +for the army that his brother Joseph showed for art. Without his +mother's knowledge, he wrote a petition to the Emperor, which read as +follows:-- + + Sire,--I am the son of your Bridau; eighteen years of age, five + feet six inches; I have good legs, a good constitution, and wish + to be one of your soldiers. I ask you to let me enter the army, + etc. + +Within twenty-four hours, the Emperor had sent Philippe to the +Imperial Lyceum at Saint-Cyr, and six months later, in November, 1813, +he appointed him sub-lieutenant in a regiment of cavalry. Philippe +spent the greater part of that winter in cantonments, but as soon as +he knew how to ride a horse he was dispatched to the front, and went +eagerly. During the campaign in France he was made a lieutenant, after +an affair at the outposts where his bravery had saved his colonel's +life. The Emperor named him captain at the battle of La +Fere-Champenoise, and took him on his staff. Inspired by such +promotion, Philippe won the cross at Montereau. He witnessed Napoleon's +farewell at Fontainebleau, raved at the sight, and refused to serve the +Bourbons. When he returned to his mother, in July, 1814, he found her +ruined. + +Joseph's scholarship was withdrawn after the holidays, and Madame +Bridau, whose pension came from the Emperor's privy purse, vainly +entreated that it might be inscribed on the rolls of the ministry of +the interior. Joseph, more of a painter than ever, was delighted with +the turn of events, and entreated his mother to let him go to Monsieur +Regnauld, promising to earn his own living. He declared he was quite +sufficiently advanced in the second class to get on without rhetoric. +Philippe, a captain at nineteen and decorated, who had, moreover, +served the Emperor as an aide-de-camp in two battles, flattered the +mother's vanity immensely. Coarse, blustering, and without real merit +beyond the vulgar bravery of a cavalry officer, he was to her mind a +man of genius; whereas Joseph, puny and sickly, with unkempt hair and +absent mind, seeking peace, loving quiet, and dreaming of an artist's +glory, would only bring her, she thought, worries and anxieties. + +The winter of 1814-1815 was a lucky one for Joseph. Secretly +encouraged by Madame Descoings and Bixiou, a pupil of Gros, he went to +work in the celebrated atelier of that painter, whence a vast variety +of talent issued in its day, and there he formed the closest intimacy +with Schinner. The return from Elba came; Captain Bridau joined the +Emperor at Lyons, accompanied him to the Tuileries, and was appointed +to the command of a squadron in the dragoons of the Guard. After the +battle of Waterloo--in which he was slightly wounded, and where he won +the cross of an officer of the Legion of honor--he happened to be near +Marshal Davoust at Saint-Denis, and was not with the army of the +Loire. In consequence of this, and through Davoust's intercession, his +cross and his rank were secured to him, but he was placed on half-pay. + +Joseph, anxious about his future, studied all through this period with +an ardor which several times made him ill in the midst of these +tumultuous events. + +"It is the smell of the paints," Agathe said to Madame Descoings. "He +ought to give up a business so injurious to his health." + +However, all Agathe's anxieties were at this time for her son the +lieutenant-colonel. When she saw him again in 1816, reduced from the +salary of nine thousand francs (paid to a commander in the dragoons of +the Imperial Guard) to a half-pay of three hundred francs a month, she +fitted up her attic rooms for him, and spent her savings in doing so. +Philippe was one of the faithful Bonapartes of the cafe Lemblin, that +constitutional Boeotia; he acquired the habits, manners, style, and +life of a half-pay officer; indeed, like any other young man of +twenty-one, he exaggerated them, vowed in good earnest a mortal enmity +to the Bourbons, never reported himself at the War department, and +even refused opportunities which were offered to him for employment in +the infantry with his rank of lieutenant-colonel. In his mother's +eyes, Philippe seemed in all this to be displaying a noble character. + +"The father himself could have done no more," she said. + +Philippe's half-pay sufficed him; he cost nothing at home, whereas all +Joseph's expenses were paid by the two widows. From that moment, +Agathe's preference for Philippe was openly shown. Up to that time it +had been secret; but the persecution of this faithful servant of the +Emperor, the recollection of the wound received by her cherished son, +his courage in adversity, which, voluntary though it were, seemed to +her a glorious adversity, drew forth all Agathe's tenderness. The one +sentence, "He is unfortunate," explained and justified everything. +Joseph himself,--with the innate simplicity which superabounds in the +artist-soul in its opening years, and who was, moreover, brought up to +admire his big brother,--so far from being hurt by the preference of +their mother, encouraged it by sharing her worship of the hero who had +carried Napoleon's orders on two battlefields, and was wounded at +Waterloo. How could he doubt the superiority of the grand brother, +whom he had beheld in the green and gold uniform of the dragoons of +the Guard, commanding his squadron on the Champ de Mars? + +Agathe, notwithstanding this preference, was an excellent mother. She +loved Joseph, though not blindly; she simply was unable to understand +him. Joseph adored his mother; Philippe let his mother adore him. +Towards her, the dragoon softened his military brutality; but he never +concealed the contempt he felt for Joseph,--expressing it, however, in +a friendly way. When he looked at his brother, weak and sickly as he +was at seventeen years of age, shrunken with determined toil, and +over-weighted with his powerful head, he nicknamed him "Cub." +Philippe's patronizing manners would have wounded any one less +carelessly indifferent than the artist, who had, moreover, a firm +belief in the goodness of heart which soldiers hid, he thought, +beneath a brutal exterior. Joseph did not yet know, poor boy, that +soldiers of genius are as gentle and courteous in manner as other +superior men in any walk of life. All genius is alike, wherever found. + +"Poor boy!" said Philippe to his mother, "we mustn't plague him; let +him do as he likes." + +To his mother's eyes the colonel's contempt was a mark of fraternal +affection. + +"Philippe will always love and protect his brother," she thought to +herself. + + + + CHAPTER III + +In 1816, Joseph obtained his mother's permission to convert the garret +which adjoined his attic room into an atelier, and Madame Descoings +gave him a little money for the indispensable requirements of the +painter's trade;--in the minds of the two widows, the art of painting +was nothing but a trade. With the feeling and ardor of his vocation, +the lad himself arranged his humble atelier. Madame Descoings +persuaded the owner of the house to put a skylight in the roof. The +garret was turned into a vast hall painted in chocolate-color by +Joseph himself. On the walls he hung a few sketches. Agathe +contributed, not without reluctance, an iron stove; so that her son +might be able to work at home, without, however, abandoning the studio +of Gros, nor that of Schinner. + +The constitutional party, supported chiefly by officers on half-pay +and the Bonapartists, were at this time inciting "emeutes" around the +Chamber of Deputies, on behalf of the Charter, though no one actually +wanted it. Several conspiracies were brewing. Philippe, who dabbled in +them, was arrested, and then released for want of proof; but the +minister of war cut short his half-pay by putting him on the active +list,--a step which might be called a form of discipline. France was +no longer safe; Philippe was liable to fall into some trap laid for +him by spies,--provocative agents, as they were called, being much +talked of in those days. + +While Philippe played billiards in disaffected cafes, losing his time +and acquiring the habit of wetting his whistle with "little glasses" +of all sorts of liquors. Agathe lived in mortal terror for the safety +of the great man of the family. The Grecian sages were too much +accustomed to wend their nightly way up Madame Bridau's staircase, +finding the two widows ready and waiting, and hearing from them all +the news of their day, ever to break up the habit of coming to the +green salon for their game of cards. The ministry of the interior, +though purged of its former _employes_ in 1816, had retained Claparon, +one of those cautious men, who whisper the news of the "Moniteur," +adding invariably, "Don't quote me." Desroches, who had retired from +active service some time after old Du Bruel, was still battling for +his pension. The three friends, who were witnesses of Agathe's +distress, advised her to send the colonel to travel in foreign +countries. + +"They talk about conspiracies, and your son, with his disposition, +will be certain to fall a victim in some of them; there is plenty of +treachery in these days." + +"Philippe is cut from the wood the Emperor made into marshals," said +Du Bruel, in a low voice, looking cautiously about him; "and he +mustn't give up his profession. Let him serve in the East, in India--" + +"Think of his health," said Agathe. + +"Why doesn't he get some place, or business?" said old Desroches; +"there are plenty of private offices to be had. I am going as head of +a bureau in an insurance company, as soon as I have got my pension." + +"Philippe is a soldier; he would not like to be any thing else," said +the warlike Agathe. + +"Then he ought to have the sense to ask for employment--" + +"And serve _these others_!" cried the widow. "Oh! I will never give +him that advice." + +"You are wrong," said Du Bruel. "My son has just got an appointment +through the Duc de Navarreins. The Bourbons are very good to those who +are sincere in rallying to them. Your son could be appointed +lieutenant-colonel to a regiment." + +"They only appoint nobles in the cavalry. Philippe would never rise to +be a colonel," said Madame Descoings. + +Agathe, much alarmed, entreated Philippe to travel abroad, and put +himself at the service of some foreign power who, she thought, would +gladly welcome a staff officer of the Emperor. + +"Serve a foreign nation!" cried Philippe, with horror. + +Agathe kissed her son with enthusiasm. + +"His father all over!" she exclaimed. + +"He is right," said Joseph. "France is too proud of her heroes to let +them be heroic elsewhere. Napoleon may return once more." + +However, to satisfy his mother, Philippe took up the dazzling idea of +joining General Lallemand in the United States, and helping him to +found what was called the Champ d'Asile, one of the most disastrous +swindles that ever appeared under the name of national subscription. +Agathe gave ten thousand francs to start her son, and she went to +Havre to see him off. By the end of 1817, she had accustomed herself +to live on the six hundred francs a year which remained to her from +her property in the Funds; then, by a lucky chance, she made a good +investment of the ten thousand francs she still kept of her savings, +from which she obtained an interest of seven per cent. Joseph wished +to emulate his mother's devotion. He dressed like a bailiff; wore the +commonest shoes and blue stockings; denied himself gloves, and burned +charcoal; he lived on bread and milk and Brie cheese. The poor lad got +no sympathy, except from Madame Descoings, and from Bixiou, his +student-friend and comrade, who was then making those admirable +caricatures of his, and filling a small office in the ministry. + +"With what joy I welcomed the summer of 1818!" said Joseph Bridau in +after-years, relating his troubles; "the sun saved me the cost of +charcoal." + +As good a colorist by this time as Gros himself, Joseph now went to +his master for consultation only. He was already meditating a tilt +against classical traditions, and Grecian conventionalities, in short, +against the leading-strings which held down an art to which Nature _as +she is_ belongs, in the omnipotence of her creations and her imagery. +Joseph made ready for a struggle which, from the day when he first +exhibited in the Salon, has never ceased. It was a terrible year. +Roguin, the notary of Madame Descoings and Madame Bridau, absconded +with the moneys held back for seven years from Madame Descoings's +annuity, which by that time were producing two thousand francs a year. +Three days after this disaster, a bill of exchange for a thousand +francs, drawn by Philippe upon his mother, arrived from New York. The +poor fellow, misled like so many others, had lost his all in the Champ +d'Asile. A letter, which accompanied the bill, drove Agathe, Joseph, +and the Descoings to tears, and told of debts contracted in New York, +where his comrades in misfortunes had indorsed for him. + +"It was I who made him go!" cried the poor mother, eager to divert the +blame from Philippe. + +"I advise you not to send him on many such journeys," said the old +Descoings to her niece. + +Madame Descoings was heroic. She continued to give the three thousand +francs a year to Madame Bridau, but she still paid the dues on her +trey which had never turned up since the year 1799. About this time, +she began to doubt the honesty of the government, and declared it was +capable of keeping the three numbers in the urn, so as to excite the +shareholders to put in enormous stakes. After a rapid survey of all +their resources, it seemed to the two women impossible to raise the +thousand francs without selling out the little that remained in the +Funds. They talked of pawning their silver and part of the linen, and +even the needless pieces of furniture. Joseph, alarmed at these +suggestions, went to see Gerard and told him their circumstances. The +great painter obtained an order from the household of the king for two +copies of a portrait of Louis XVIII., at five hundred francs each. +Though not naturally generous, Gros took his pupil to an +artist-furnishing house and fitted him out with the necessary materials. +But the thousand francs could not be had till the copies were delivered, +so Joseph painted four panels in ten days, sold them to the dealers +and brought his mother the thousand francs with which to meet the bill +of exchange when it fell due. Eight days later, came a letter from the +colonel, informing his mother that he was about to return to France on +board a packet from New York, whose captain had trusted him for the +passage-money. Philippe announced that he should need at least a +thousand francs on his arrival at Havre. + +"Good," said Joseph to his mother, "I shall have finished my copies by +that time, and you can carry him the money." + +"Dear Joseph!" cried Agathe in tears, kissing her son, "God will bless +you. You do love him, then, poor persecuted fellow? He is indeed our +glory and our hope for the future. So young, so brave, so unfortunate! +everything is against him; we three must always stand by him." + +"You see now that painting is good for something," cried Joseph, +overjoyed to have won his mother's permission to be a great artist. + +Madame Bridau rushed to meet her beloved son, Colonel Philippe, at +Havre. Once there, she walked every day beyond the round tower built +by Francois I., to look out for the American packet, enduring the +keenest anxieties. Mothers alone know how such sufferings quicken +maternal love. The vessel arrived on a fine morning in October, 1819, +without delay, and having met with no mishap. The sight of a mother +and the air of one's native land produces a certain affect on the +coarsest nature, especially after the miseries of a sea-voyage. +Philippe gave way to a rush of feeling, which made Agathe think to +herself, "Ah! how he loves me!" Alas, the hero loved but one person in +the world, and that person was Colonel Philippe. His misfortunes in +Texas, his stay in New York,--a place where speculation and +individualism are carried to the highest pitch, where the brutality of +self-interest attains to cynicism, where man, essentially isolated, is +compelled to push his way for himself and by himself, where politeness +does not exist,--in fact, even the minor events of Philippe's journey +had developed in him the worst traits of an old campaigner: he had +grown brutal, selfish, rude; he drank and smoked to excess; physical +hardships and poverty had depraved him. Moreover, he considered +himself persecuted; and the effect of that idea is to make persons who +are unintelligent persecutors and bigots themselves. To Philippe's +conception of life, the universe began at his head and ended at his +feet, and the sun shone for him alone. The things he had seen in New +York, interpreted by his practical nature, carried away his last +scruples on the score of morality. For such beings, there are but two +ways of existence. Either they believe, or they do not believe; they +have the virtues of honest men, or they give themselves up to the +demands of necessity; in which case they proceed to turn their +slightest interests and each passing impulse of their passions into +necessities. + +Such a system of life carries a man a long way. It was only in +appearance that Colonel Philippe retained the frankness, +plain-dealing, and easy-going freedom of a soldier. This made him, +in reality, very dangerous; he seemed as guileless as a child, but, +thinking only of himself, he never did anything without reflecting +what he had better do,--like a wily lawyer planning some trick "a la +Maitre Gonin"; words cost him nothing, and he said as many as he could +to get people to believe. If, unfortunately, some one refused to +accept the explanations with which he justified the contradictions +between his conduct and his professions, the colonel, who was a good +shot and could defy the most adroit fencing-master, and possessed the +coolness of one to whom life is indifferent, was quite ready to demand +satisfaction for the first sharp word; and when a man shows himself +prepared for violence there is little more to be said. His imposing +stature had taken on a certain rotundity, his face was bronzed from +exposure in Texas, he was still succinct in speech, and had acquired +the decisive tone of a man obliged to make himself feared among the +populations of a new world. Thus developed, plainly dressed, his body +trained to endurance by his recent hardships, Philippe in the eyes of +his mother was a hero; in point of fact, he had simply become what +people (not to mince matters) call a blackguard. + +Shocked at the destitution of her cherished son, Madame Bridau bought +him a complete outfit of clothes at Havre. After listening to the tale +of his woes, she had not the heart to stop his drinking and eating and +amusing himself as a man just returned from the Champ d'Asile was +likely to eat and drink and divert himself. It was certainly a fine +conception,--that of conquering Texas with the remains of the imperial +army. The failure was less in the idea than in the men who conceived +it; for Texas is to-day a republic, with a future full of promise. +This scheme of Liberalism under the Restoration distinctly proves that +the interests of the party were purely selfish and not national, +seeking power and nothing else. Neither men, nor occasion, nor cause, +nor devotion were lacking; only the money and the support of the +hypocritical party at home who dispensed enormous sums, but gave +nothing when it came to recovering empire. Household managers like +Agathe have a plain common-sense which enables them to perceive such +political chicane: the poor woman saw the truth through the lines of +her son's tale; for she had read, in the exile's interests, all the +pompous editorials of the constitutional journals, and watched the +management of the famous subscription, which produced barely one +hundred and fifty thousand francs when it ought to have yielded five +or six millions. The Liberal leaders soon found out that they were +playing into the hands of Louis XVIII. by exporting the glorious +remnants of our grand army, and they promptly abandoned to their fate +the most devoted, the most ardent, the most enthusiastic of its +heroes,--those, in short, who had gone in the advance. Agathe was +never able, however, to make her son see that he was more duped than +persecuted. With blind belief in her idol, she supposed herself +ignorant, and deplored, as Philippe did, the evil times which had done +him such wrong. Up to this time he was, to her mind, throughout his +misfortunes, less faulty than victimized by his noble nature, his +energy, the fall of the Emperor, the duplicity of the Liberals, and +the rancor of the Bourbons against the Bonapartists. During the week +at Havre, a week which was horribly costly, she dared not ask him to +make terms with the royal government and apply to the minister of war. +She had hard work to get him away from Havre, where living is very +expensive, and to bring him back to Paris before her money gave out. +Madame Descoings and Joseph, who were awaiting their arrival in the +courtyard of the coach-office of the Messageries Royales, were struck +with the change in Agathe's face. + +"Your mother has aged ten years in two months," whispered the +Descoings to Joseph, as they all embraced, and the two trunks were +being handed down. + +"How do you do, mere Descoings?" was the cool greeting the colonel +bestowed on the old woman whom Joseph was in the habit of calling +"maman Descoings." + +"I have no money to pay for a hackney-coach," said Agathe, in a sad +voice. + +"I have," replied the young painter. "What a splendid color Philippe +has turned!" he cried, looking at his brother. + +"Yes, I've browned like a pipe," said Philippe. "But as for you, +you're not a bit changed, little man." + +Joseph, who was now twenty-one, and much thought of by the friends who +had stood by him in his days of trial, felt his own strength and was +aware of his talent; he represented the art of painting in a circle of +young men whose lives were devoted to science, letters, politics, and +philosophy. Consequently, he was wounded by his brother's contempt, +which Philippe still further emphasized with a gesture, pulling his +ears as if he were still a child. Agathe noticed the coolness which +succeeded the first glow of tenderness on the part of Joseph and +Madame Descoings; but she hastened to tell them of Philippe's +sufferings in exile, and so lessened it. Madame Descoings, wishing to +make a festival of the return of the prodigal, as she called him under +her breath, had prepared one of her good dinners, to which old +Claparon and the elder Desroches were invited. All the family friends +were to come, and did come, in the evening. Joseph had invited Leon +Giraud, d'Arthez, Michel Chrestien, Fulgence Ridal, and Horace +Bianchon, his friends of the fraternity. Madame Descoings had promised +Bixiou, her so-called step-son, that the young people should play at +ecarte. Desroches the younger, who had now taken, under his father's +stern rule, his degree at law, was also of the party. Du Bruel, +Claparon, Desroches, and the Abbe Loraux carefully observed the +returned exile, whose manners and coarse features, and voice roughened +by the abuse of liquors, together with his vulgar glance and +phraseology, alarmed them not a little. While Joseph was placing the +card-tables, the more intimate of the family friends surrounded Agathe +and asked,-- + +"What do you intend to make of Philippe?" + +"I don't know," she answered, "but he is determined not to serve the +Bourbons." + +"Then it will be very difficult for you to find him a place in France. +If he won't re-enter the army, he can't be readily got into government +employ," said old Du Bruel. "And you have only to listen to him to see +he could never, like my son, make his fortune by writing plays." + +The motion of Agathe's eyes, with which alone she replied to this +speech, showed how anxious Philippe's future made her; they all kept +silence. The exile himself, Bixiou, and the younger Desroches were +playing at ecarte, a game which was then the rage. + +"Maman Descoings, my brother has no money to play with," whispered +Joseph in the good woman's ear. + +The devotee of the Royal Lottery fetched twenty francs and gave them +to the artist, who slipped them secretly into his brother's hand. All +the company were now assembled. There were two tables of boston; and +the party grew lively. Philippe proved a bad player: after winning for +awhile, he began to lose; and by eleven o'clock he owed fifty francs +to young Desroches and to Bixiou. The racket and the disputes at the +ecarte table resounded more than once in the ears of the more peaceful +boston players, who were watching Philippe surreptitiously. The exile +showed such signs of bad temper that in his final dispute with the +younger Desroches, who was none too amiable himself, the elder +Desroches joined in, and though his son was decidedly in the right, he +declared he was in the wrong, and forbade him to play any more. Madame +Descoings did the same with her grandson, who was beginning to let fly +certain witticisms; and although Philippe, so far, had not understood +him, there was always a chance that one of the barbed arrows might +piece the colonel's thick skull and put the sharp jester in peril. + +"You must be tired," whispered Agathe in Philippe's ear; "come to +bed." + +"Travel educates youth," said Bixiou, grinning, when Madame Bridau and +the colonel had disappeared. + +Joseph, who got up at dawn and went to bed early, did not see the end +of the party. The next morning Agathe and Madame Descoings, while +preparing breakfast, could not help remarking that soires would be +terribly expensive if Philippe were to go on playing that sort of +game, as the Descoings phrased it. The worthy old woman, then +seventy-six years of age, proposed to sell her furniture, give up her +_appartement_ on the second floor (which the owner was only too glad to +occupy), and take Agathe's parlor for her chamber, making the other +room a sitting-room and dining-room for the family. In this way they +could save seven hundred francs a year; which would enable them to +give Philippe fifty francs a month until he could find something to +do. Agathe accepted the sacrifice. When the colonel came down and his +mother had asked how he liked his little bedroom, the two widows +explained to him the situation of the family. Madame Descoings and +Agathe possessed, by putting all their resources together, an income +of five thousand three hundred francs, four thousand of which belonged +to Madame Descoings and were merely a life annuity. The Descoings made +an allowance of six hundred a year to Bixiou, whom she had +acknowledged as her grandson during the last few months, also six +hundred to Joseph; the rest of her income, together with that of +Agathe, was spent for the household wants. All their savings were by +this time eaten up. + +"Make yourselves easy," said the lieutenant-colonel. "I'll find a +situation and put you to no expense; all I need for the present is +board and lodging." + +Agathe kissed her son, and Madame Descoings slipped a hundred francs +into his hand to pay for his losses of the night before. In ten days +the furniture was sold, the _appartement_ given up, and the change in +Agathe's domestic arrangements accomplished with a celerity seldom +seen outside of Paris. During those ten days, Philippe regularly +decamped after breakfast, came back for dinner, was off again for the +evening, and only got home about midnight to go to bed. He contracted +certain habits half mechanically, and they soon became rooted in him; +he got his boots blacked on the Pont Neuf for the two sous it would +have cost him to go by the Pont des Arts to the Palais-Royal, where he +consumed regularly two glasses of brandy while reading the newspapers, +--an occupation which employed him till midday; after that he +sauntered along the rue Vivienne to the cafe Minerve, where the +Liberals congregated, and where he played at billiards with a number +of old comrades. While winning and losing, Philippe swallowed four or +five more glasses of divers liquors, and smoked ten or a dozen cigars +in going and coming, and idling along the streets. In the evening, +after consuming a few pipes at the Hollandais smoking-rooms, he would +go to some gambling-place towards ten o'clock at night. The waiter +handed him a card and a pin; he always inquired of certain +well-seasoned players about the chances of the red or the black, and +staked ten francs when the lucky moment seemed to come; never playing +more than three times, win or lose. If he won, which usually happened, +he drank a tumbler of punch and went home to his garret; but by that +time he talked of smashing the ultras and the Bourbon body-guard, and +trolled out, as he mounted the staircase, "We watch to save the +Empire!" His poor mother, hearing him, used to think "How gay Philippe +is to-night!" and then she would creep up and kiss him, without +complaining of the fetid odors of the punch, and the brandy, and the +pipes. + +"You ought to be satisfied with me, my dear mother," he said, towards +the end of January; "I lead the most regular of lives." + +The colonel had dined five times at a restaurant with some of his army +comrades. These old soldiers were quite frank with each other on the +state of their own affairs, all the while talking of certain hopes +which they based on the building of a submarine vessel, expected to +bring about the deliverance of the Emperor. Among these former +comrades, Philippe particularly liked an old captain of the dragoons +of the Guard, named Giroudeau, in whose company he had seen his first +service. This friendship with the late dragoon led Philippe into +completing what Rabelais called "the devil's equipage"; and he added +to his drams, and his tobacco, and his play, a "fourth wheel." + +One evening at the beginning of February, Giroudeau took Philippe +after dinner to the Gaite, occupying a free box sent to a theatrical +journal belonging to his nephew Finot, in whose office Giroudeau was +cashier and secretary. Both were dressed after the fashion of the +Bonapartist officers who now belonged to the Constitutional +Opposition; they wore ample overcoats with square collars, buttoned to +the chin and coming down to their heels, and decorated with the +rosette of the Legion of honor; and they carried malacca canes with +loaded knobs, which they held by strings of braided leather. The late +troopers had just (to use one of their own expressions) "made a bout +of it," and were mutually unbosoming their hearts as they entered the +box. Through the fumes of a certain number of bottles and various +glasses of various liquors, Giroudeau pointed out to Philippe a plump +and agile little ballet-girl whom he called Florentine, whose good +graces and affection, together with the box, belonged to him as the +representative of an all-powerful journal. + +"But," said Philippe, "I should like to know how far her good graces +go for such an iron-gray old trooper as you." + +"Thank God," replied Giroudeau, "I've stuck to the traditions of our +glorious uniform. I have never wasted a farthing upon a woman in my +life." + +"What's that?" said Philippe, putting a finger on his left eye. + +"That is so," answered Giroudeau. "But, between ourselves, the +newspaper counts for a good deal. To-morrow, in a couple of lines, we +shall advise the managers to let Mademoiselle Florentine dance a +particular step, and so forth. Faith, my dear boy, I'm uncommonly +lucky!" + +"Well!" thought Philippe; "if this worthy Giroudeau, with a skull as +polished as my knee, forty-eight years, a big stomach, a face like a +ploughman, and a nose like a potato, can get a ballet-girl, I ought to +be the lover of the first actress in Paris. Where does one find such +luck?" he said aloud. + +"I'll show you Florentine's place to-night. My Dulcinea only earns +fifty francs a month at the theatre," added Giroudeau, "but she is +very prettily set up, thanks to an old silk dealer named Cardot, who +gives her five hundred francs a month." + +"Well, but--?" exclaimed the jealous Philippe. + +"Bah!" said Giroudeau; "true love is blind." + +When the play was over Giroudeau took Philippe to Mademoiselle +Florentine's _appartement_, which was close to the theatre, in the rue +de Crussol. + +"We must behave ourselves," said Giroudeau. "Florentine's mother is +here. You see, I haven't the means to pay for one, so the worthy woman +is really her own mother. She used to be a concierge, but she's not +without intelligence. Call her Madame; she makes a point of it." + +Florentine happened that night to have a friend with her,--a certain +Marie Godeschal, beautiful as an angel, cold as a danseuse, and a +pupil of Vestris, who foretold for her a great choregraphic destiny. +Mademoiselle Godeschal, anxious to make her first appearance at the +Panorama-Dramatique under the name of Mariette, based her hopes on the +protection and influence of a first gentleman of the bedchamber, to +whom Vestris had promised to introduce her. Vestris, still green +himself at this period, did not think his pupil sufficiently trained +to risk the introduction. The ambitious girl did, in the end, make her +pseudonym of Mariette famous; and the motive of her ambition, it must +be said, was praiseworthy. She had a brother, a clerk in Derville's +law office. Left orphans and very poor, and devoted to each other, the +brother and sister had seen life such as it is in Paris. The one +wished to be a lawyer that he might support his sister, and he lived +on ten sous a day; the other had coldly resolved to be a dancer, and +to profit by her beauty as much as by her legs that she might buy a +practice for her brother. Outside of their feeling for each other, and +of their mutual life and interests, everything was to them, as it once +was to the Romans and the Hebrews, barbaric, outlandish, and hostile. +This generous affection, which nothing ever lessened, explained +Mariette to those who knew her intimately. + +The brother and sister were living at this time on the eighth floor of +a house in the Vieille rue du Temple. Mariette had begun her studies +when she was ten years old; she was now just sixteen. Alas! for want +of becoming clothes, her beauty, hidden under a coarse shawl, dressed +in calico, and ill-kept, could only be guessed by those Parisians who +devote themselves to hunting grisettes and the quest of beauty in +misfortune, as she trotted past them with mincing step, mounted on +iron pattens. Philippe fell in love with Mariette. To Mariette, +Philippe was commander of the dragoons of the Guard, a staff-officer +of the Emperor, a young man of twenty-seven, and above all, the means +of proving herself superior to Florentine by the evident superiority +of Philippe over Giroudeau. Florentine and Giroudeau, the one to +promote his comrade's happiness, the other to get a protector for her +friend, pushed Philippe and Mariette into a "mariage en detrempe,"--a +Parisian term which is equivalent to "morganatic marriage," as applied +to royal personages. Philippe when they left the house revealed his +poverty to Giroudeau, but the old roue reassured him. + +"I'll speak to my nephew Finot," he said. "You see, Philippe, the +reign of phrases and quill-drivers is upon us; we may as well submit. +To-day, scribblers are paramount. Ink has ousted gunpowder, and talk +takes the place of shot. After all, these little toads of editors are +pretty good fellows, and very clever. Come and see me to-morrow at the +newspaper office; by that time I shall have said a word for you to my +nephew. Before long you'll have a place on some journal or other. +Mariette, who is taking you at this moment (don't deceive yourself) +because she literally has nothing, no engagement, no chance of +appearing on the stage, and I have told her that you are going on a +newspaper like myself,--Mariette will try to make you believe she is +loving you for yourself; and you will believe her! Do as I do,--keep +her as long as you can. I was so much in love with Florentine that I +begged Finot to write her up and help her to a debut; but my nephew +replied, 'You say she has talent; well, the day after her first +appearance she will turn her back on you.' Oh, that's Finot all over! +You'll find him a knowing one." + +The next day, about four o'clock, Philippe went to the rue de Sentier, +where he found Giroudeau in the entresol,--caged like a wild beast in +a sort of hen-coop with a sliding panel; in which was a little stove, +a little table, two little chairs, and some little logs of wood. This +establishment bore the magic words, SUBSCRIPTION OFFICE, painted on +the door in black letters, and the word "Cashier," written by hand and +fastened to the grating of the cage. Along the wall that lay opposite +to the cage, was a bench, where, at this moment, a one-armed man was +breakfasting, who was called Coloquinte by Giroudeau, doubtless from +the Egyptian colors of his skin. + +"A pretty hole!" exclaimed Philippe, looking round the room. "In the +name of thunder! what are you doing here, you who charged with poor +Colonel Chabert at Eylau? You--a gallant officer!" + +"Well, yes! broum! broum!--a gallant officer keeping the accounts of a +little newspaper," said Giroudeau, settling his black silk skull-cap. +"Moreover, I'm the working editor of all that rubbish," he added, +pointing to the newspaper itself. + +"And I, who went to Egypt, I'm obliged to stamp it," said the +one-armed man. + +"Hold your tongue, Coloquinte," said Giroudeau. "You are in presence +of a hero who carried the Emperor's orders at the battle of +Montereau." + +Coloquinte saluted. "That's were I lost my missing arm!" he said. + +"Coloquinte, look after the den. I'm going up to see my nephew." + +The two soldiers mounted to the fourth floor, where, in an attic room +at the end of a passage, they found a young man with a cold light eye, +lying on a dirty sofa. The representative of the press did not stir, +though he offered cigars to his uncle and his uncle's friend. + +"My good fellow," said Giroudeau in a soothing and humble tone, "this +is the gallant cavalry officer of the Imperial Guard of whom I spoke +to you." + +"Eh! well?" said Finot, eyeing Philippe, who, like Giroudeau, lost all +his assurance before the diplomatist of the press. + +"My dear boy," said Giroudeau, trying to pose as an uncle, "the +colonel has just returned from Texas." + +"Ah! you were taken in by that affair of the Champ d'Asile, were you? +Seems to me you were rather young to turn into a Soldier-laborer." + +The bitterness of this jest will only be understood by those who +remember the deluge of engravings, screens, clocks, bronzes, and +plaster-casts produced by the idea of the Soldier-laborer, a splendid +image of Napoleon and his heroes, which afterwards made its appearance +on the stage in vaudevilles. That idea, however, obtained a national +subscription; and we still find, in the depths of the provinces, old +wall-papers which bear the effigy of the Soldier-laborer. If this +young man had not been Giroudeau's nephew, Philippe would have boxed +his ears. + +"Yes, I was taken in by it; I lost my time, and twelve thousand francs +to boot," answered Philippe, trying to force a grin. + +"You are still fond of the Emperor?" asked Finot. + +"He is my god," answered Philippe Bridau. + +"You are a Liberal?" + +"I shall always belong to the Constitutional Opposition. Oh Foy! oh +Manuel! oh Laffitte! what men they are! They'll rid us of these +others,--these wretches, who came back to France at the heels of the +enemy." + +"Well," said Finot coldly, "you ought to make something out of your +misfortunes; for you are the victim of the Liberals, my good fellow. +Stay a Liberal, if you really value your opinions, but threaten the +party with the follies in Texas which you are ready to show up. You +never got a farthing of the national subscription, did you? Well, then +you hold a fine position: demand an account of that subscription. I'll +tell you how you can do it. A new Opposition journal is just starting, +under the auspices of the deputies of the Left; you shall be the +cashier, with a salary of three thousand francs. A permanent place. +All you want is some one to go security for you in twenty thousand +francs; find that, and you shall be installed within a week. I'll +advise the Liberals to silence you by giving you the place. Meantime, +talk, threaten,--threaten loudly." + +Giroudeau let Philippe, who was profuse in his thanks, go down a few +steps before him, and then he turned back to say to his nephew, "Well, +you are a queer fellow! you keep me here on twelve hundred francs--" + +"That journal won't live a year," said Finot. "I've got something +better for you." + +"Thunder!" cried Philippe to Giroudeau. "He's no fool, that nephew of +yours. I never once thought of making something, as he calls it, out +of my position." + +That night at the cafe Lemblin and the cafe Minerve Colonel Philippe +fulminated against the Liberal party, which had raised subscriptions, +sent heroes to Texas, talked hypocritically of Soldier-laborers, and +left them to starve, after taking the money they had put into it, and +keeping them in exile for two years. + +"I am going to demand an account of the moneys collected by the +subscription for the Champ d'Asile," he said to one of the frequenters +of the cafe, who repeated it to the journalists of the Left. + +Philippe did not go back to the rue Mazarin; he went to Mariette and +told her of his forthcoming appointment on a newspaper with ten +thousand subscribers, in which her choregraphic claims should be +warmly advanced. + +Agathe and Madame Descoings waited up for Philippe in fear and +trembling, for the Duc de Berry had just been assassinated. The +colonel came home a few minutes after breakfast; and when his mother +showed her uneasiness at his absence, he grew angry and asked if he +were not of age. + +"In the name of thunder, what's all this! here have I brought you some +good news, and you both look like tombstones. The Duc de Berry is +dead, is he?--well, so much the better! that's one the less, at any +rate. As for me, I am to be cashier of a newspaper, with a salary of +three thousand francs, and there you are, out of all your anxieties on +my account." + +"Is it possible?" cried Agathe. + +"Yes; provided you can go security for me in twenty thousand francs; +you need only deposit your shares in the Funds, you will draw the +interest all the same." + +The two widows, who for nearly two months had been desperately anxious +to find out what Philippe was about, and how he could be provided for, +were so overjoyed at this prospect that they gave no thought to their +other catastrophes. That evening, the Grecian sages, old Du Bruel, +Claparon, whose health was failing, and the inflexible Desroches were +unanimous; they all advised Madame Bridau to go security for her son. +The new journal, which fortunately was started before the +assassination of the Duc de Berry, just escaped the blow which +Monsieur Decazes then launched at the press. Madame Bridau's shares in +the Funds, representing thirteen hundred francs' interest, were +transferred as security for Philippe, who was then appointed cashier. +That good son at once promised to pay one hundred francs every month +to the two widows, for his board and lodging, and was declared by both +to be the best of sons. Those who had thought ill of him now +congratulated Agathe. + +"We were unjust to him," they said. + +Poor Joseph, not to be behind his brother in generosity, resolved to +pay for his own support, and succeeded. + + + + CHAPTER IV + +Three months later, the colonel, who ate and drank enough for four +men, finding fault with the food and compelling the poor widows, on +the score of his payments, to spend much money on their table, had not +yet paid down a single penny. His mother and Madame Descoings were +unwilling, out of delicacy, to remind him of his promise. The year +went by without one of those coins which Leon Gozlan so vigorously +called "tigers with five claws" finding its way from Philippe's pocket +to the household purse. It is true that the colonel quieted his +conscience on this score by seldom dining at home. + +"Well, he is happy," said his mother; "he is easy in mind; he has a +place." + +Through the influence of a feuilleton, edited by Vernou, a friend of +Bixiou, Finot, and Giroudeau, Mariette made her appearance, not at the +Panorama-Dramatique but at the Porte-Saint-Martin, where she triumphed +beside the famous Begrand. Among the directors of the theatre was a +rich and luxurious general officer, in love with an actress, for whose +sake he had made himself an impresario. In Paris, we frequently meet +with men so fascinated with actresses, singers, or ballet-dancers, +that they are willing to become directors of a theatre out of love. +This officer knew Philippe and Giroudeau. Mariette's first appearance, +heralded already by Finot's journal and also by Philippe's, was +promptly arranged by the three officers; for there seems to be +solidarity among the passions in a matter of folly. + +The mischievous Bixiou was not long in revealing to his grandmother +and the devoted Agathe that Philippe, the cashier, the hero of heroes, +was in love with Mariette, the celebrated ballet-dancer at the +Porte-Saint-Martin. The news was a thunder-clap to the two widows; +Agathe's religious principles taught her to think that all women on +the stage were brands in the burning; moreover, she thought, and so +did Madame Descoings, that women of that kind dined off gold, drank +pearls, and wasted fortunes. + +"Now do you suppose," said Joseph to his mother, "that my brother is +such a fool as to spend his money on Mariette? Such women only ruin +rich men." + +"They talk of engaging Mariette at the Opera," said Bixiou. "Don't +be worried, Madame Bridau; the diplomatic body often comes to the +Porte-Saint-Martin, and that handsome girl won't stay long with your +son. I did hear that an ambassador was madly in love with her. By the +bye, another piece of news! Old Claparon is dead, and his son, who +has become a banker, has ordered the cheapest kind of funeral for him. +That fellow has no education; they wouldn't behave like that in +China." + +Philippe, prompted by mercenary motives, proposed to Mariette that she +should marry him; but she, knowing herself on the eve of an engagement +at the Grand Opera, refused the offer, either because she guessed the +colonel's motive, or because she saw how important her independence +would be to her future fortune. For the remainder of this year, +Philippe never came more than twice a month to see his mother. Where +was he? Either at his office, or the theatre, or with Mariette. No +light whatever as to his conduct reached the household of the rue +Mazarin. Giroudeau, Finot, Bixiou, Vernou, Lousteau, saw him leading a +life of pleasure. Philippe shared the gay amusements of Tullia, a +leading singer at the Opera, of Florentine, who took Mariette's place +at the Porte-Saint-Martin, of Florine and Matifat, Coralie and +Camusot. After four o'clock, when he left his office, until midnight, +he amused himself; some party of pleasure had usually been arranged +the night before,--a good dinner, a card-party, a supper by some one +or other of the set. Philippe was in his element. + +This carnival, which lasted eighteen months, was not altogether +without its troubles. The beautiful Mariette no sooner appeared at the +Opera, in January, 1821, than she captured one of the most +distinguished dukes of the court of Louis XVIII. Philippe tried to +make head against the peer, and by the month of April he was compelled +by his passion, notwithstanding some luck at cards, to dip into the +funds of which he was cashier. By May he had taken eleven hundred +francs. In that fatal month Mariette started for London, to see what +could be done with the lords while the temporary opera house in the +Hotel Choiseul, rue Lepelletier, was being prepared. The luckless +Philippe had ended, as often happens, in loving Mariette +notwithstanding her flagrant infidelities; she herself had never +thought him anything but a dull-minded, brutal soldier, the first rung +of a ladder on which she had never intended to remain long. So, +foreseeing the time when Philippe would have spent all his money, she +captured other journalistic support which released her from the +necessity of depending on him; nevertheless, she did feel the peculiar +gratitude that class of women acknowledge towards the first man who +smooths their way, as it were, among the difficulties and horrors of a +theatrical career. + +Forced to let his terrible mistress go to London without him, Philippe +went into winter quarters, as he called it,--that is, he returned to +his attic room in his mother's _appartement_. He made some gloomy +reflections as he went to bed that night, and when he got up again. He +was conscious within himself of the inability to live otherwise than +as he had been living the last year. The luxury that surrounded +Mariette, the dinners, the suppers, the evenings in the side-scenes, +the animation of wits and journalists, the sort of racket that went on +around him, the delights that tickled both his senses and his vanity, +--such a life, found only in Paris, and offering daily the charm of +some new thing, was now more than habit,--it had become to Philippe as +much a necessity as his tobacco or his brandy. He saw plainly that he +could not live without these continual enjoyments. The idea of suicide +came into his head; not on account of the deficit which must soon be +discovered in his accounts, but because he could no longer live with +Mariette in the atmosphere of pleasure in which he had disported +himself for over a year. Full of these gloomy thoughts, he entered for +the first time his brother's painting-room, where he found the painter +in a blue blouse, copying a picture for a dealer. + +"So that's how pictures are made," said Philippe, by way of opening +the conversation. + +"No," said Joseph, "that is how they are copied." + +"How much do they pay you for that?" + +"Eh! never enough; two hundred and fifty francs. But I study the +manner of the masters and learn a great deal; I found out the secrets +of their method. There's one of my own pictures," he added, pointing +with the end of his brush to a sketch with the colors still moist. + +"How much do you pocket in a year?" + +"Unfortunately, I am known only to painters. Schinner backs me; and he +has got me some work at the Chateau de Presles, where I am going in +October to do some arabesques, panels, and other decorations, for +which the Comte de Serizy, no doubt, will pay well. With such trifles +and with orders from the dealers, I may manage to earn eighteen +hundred to two thousand francs a year over and above the working +expenses. I shall send that picture to the next exhibition; if it hits +the public taste, my fortune is made. My friends think well of it." + +"I don't know anything about such things," said Philippe, in a subdued +voice which caused Joseph to turn and look at him. + +"What is the matter?" said the artist, seeing that his brother was +very pale. + +"I should like to know how long it would take you to paint my +portrait?" + +"If I worked steadily, and the weather were clear, I could finish it +in three or four days." + +"That's too long; I have only one day to give you. My poor mother +loves me so much that I wished to leave her my likeness. We will say +no more about it." + +"Why! are you going away again?" + +"I am going never to return," replied Philippe with an air of forced +gayety. + +"Look here, Philippe, what is the matter? If it is anything serious, I +am a man and not a ninny. I am accustomed to hard struggles, and if +discretion is needed, I have it." + +"Are you sure?" + +"On my honor." + +"You will tell no one, no matter who?" + +"No one." + +"Well, I am going to blow my brains out." + +"You!--are you going to fight a duel?" + +"I am going to kill myself." + +"Why?" + +"I have taken eleven hundred francs from the funds in my hands; I have +got to send in my accounts to-morrow morning. Half my security is +lost; our poor mother will be reduced to six hundred francs a year. +That would be nothing! I could make a fortune for her later; but I am +dishonored! I cannot live under dishonor--" + +"You will not be dishonored if it is paid back. To be sure, you will +lose your place, and you will only have the five hundred francs a year +from your cross; but you can live on five hundred francs." + +"Farewell!" said Philippe, running rapidly downstairs, and not waiting +to hear another word. + +Joseph left his studio and went down to breakfast with his mother; but +Philippe's confession had taken away his appetite. He took Madame +Descoings aside and told her the terrible news. The old woman made a +frightened exclamation, let fall the saucepan of milk she had in her +hand, and flung herself into a chair. Agathe rushed in; from one +exclamation to another the mother gathered the fatal truth. + +"He! to fail in honor! the son of Bridau to take the money that was +trusted to him!" + +The widow trembled in every limb; her eyes dilated and then grew +fixed; she sat down and burst into tears. + +"Where is he?" she cried amid the sobs. "Perhaps he has flung himself +into the Seine." + +"You must not give up all hope," said Madame Descoings, "because a +poor lad has met with a bad woman who has led him to do wrong. Dear +me! we see that every day. Philippe has had such misfortunes! he has +had so little chance to be happy and loved that we ought not to be +surprised at his passion for that creature. All passions lead to +excess. My own life is not without reproach of that kind, and yet I +call myself an honest woman. A single fault is not vice; and after +all, it is only those who do nothing that are never deceived." + +Agathe's despair overcame her so much that Joseph and the Descoings +were obliged to lessen Philippe's wrong-doings by assuring her that +such things happened in all families. + +"But he is twenty-eight years old," cried Agathe, "he is no longer a +child." + +Terrible revelation of the inward thought of the poor woman on the +conduct of her son. + +"Mother, I assure you he thought only of your sufferings and of the +wrong he had done you," said Joseph. + +"Oh, my God! let him come back to me, let him live, and I will forgive +all," cried the poor mother, to whose mind a horrible vision of +Philippe dragged dead out of the river presented itself. + +Gloomy silence reigned for a short time. The day went by with cruel +alternations of hope and fear; all three ran to the window at the +least sound, and gave way to every sort of conjecture. While the +family were thus grieving, Philippe was quietly getting matters in +order at his office. He had the audacity to give in his accounts with +a statement that, fearing some accident, he had retained eleven +hundred francs at his own house for safe keeping. The scoundrel left +the office at five o'clock, taking five hundred francs more from the +desk, and coolly went to a gambling-house, which he had not entered +since his connection with the paper, for he knew very well that a +cashier must not be seen to frequent such a place. The fellow was not +wanting in acumen. His past conduct proved that he derived more from +his grandfather Rouget than from his virtuous sire, Bridau. Perhaps he +might have made a good general; but in private life, he was one of +those utter scoundrels who shelter their schemes and their evil +actions behind a screen of strict legality, and the privacy of the +family roof. + +At this conjuncture Philippe maintained his coolness. He won at first, +and gained as much as six thousand francs; but he let himself be +dazzled by the idea of getting out of his difficulties at one stroke. +He left the trente-et-quarante, hearing that the black had come up +sixteen times at the roulette table, and was about to put five +thousand francs on the red, when the black came up for the seventeenth +time. The colonel then put a thousand francs on the black and won. In +spite of this remarkable piece of luck, his head grew weary; he felt +it, though he continued to play. But that divining sense which leads a +gambler, and which comes in flashes, was already failing him. +Intermittent perceptions, so fatal to all gamblers, set in. Lucidity +of mind, like the rays of the sun, can have no effect except by the +continuity of a direct line; it can divine only on condition of not +breaking that line; the curvettings of chance bemuddle it. Philippe +lost all. After such a strain, the careless mind as well as the +bravest weakens. When Philippe went home that night he was not +thinking of suicide, for he had never really meant to kill himself; he +no longer thought of his lost place, nor of the sacrificed security, +nor of his mother, nor of Mariette, the cause of his ruin; he walked +along mechanically. When he got home, his mother in tears, Madame +Descoings, and Joseph, all fell on his neck and kissed him and brought +him joyfully to a seat by the fire. + +"Bless me!" thought he, "the threat has worked." + +The brute at once assumed an air suitable to the occasion; all the +more easily, because his ill-luck at cards had deeply depressed him. +Seeing her atrocious Benjamin so pale and woe-begone, the poor mother +knelt beside him, kissed his hands, pressed them to her heart, and +gazed at him for a long time with eyes swimming in tears. + +"Philippe," she said, in a choking voice, "promise not to kill +yourself, and all shall be forgotten." + +Philippe looked at his sorrowing brother and at Madame Descoings, +whose eyes were full of tears, and thought to himself, "They are good +creatures." Then he took his mother in his arms, raised her and put +her on his knee, pressed her to his heart and whispered as he kissed +her, "For the second time, you give me life." + +The Descoings managed to serve an excellent dinner, and to add two +bottles of old wine with a little "liqueur des iles," a treasure left +over from her former business. + +"Agathe," she said at dessert, "we must let him smoke his cigars," and +she offered some to Philippe. + +These two poor creatures fancied that if they let the fellow take his +ease, he would like his home and stay in it; both, therefore, tried to +endure his tobacco-smoke, though each loathed it. That sacrifice was +not so much as noticed by Philippe. + +On the morrow, Agathe looked ten years older. Her terrors calmed, +reflection came back to her, and the poor woman had not closed an eye +throughout that horrible night. She was now reduced to six hundred +francs a year. Madame Descoings, like all fat women fond of good +eating, was growing heavy; her step on the staircase sounded like the +chopping of logs; she might die at any moment; with her life, four +thousand francs would disappear. What folly to rely on that resource! +What should she do? What would become of them? With her mind made up +to become a sick-nurse rather than be supported by her children, +Agathe did not think of herself. But Philippe? what would he do if +reduced to live on the five hundred francs of an officer of the Legion +of honor? During the past eleven years, Madame Descoings, by giving up +three thousand francs a year, had paid her debt twice over, but she +still continued to sacrifice her grandson's interests to those of the +Bridau family. Though all Agathe's honorable and upright feelings were +shocked by this terrible disaster, she said to herself: "Poor boy! is +it his fault? He is faithful to his oath. I have done wrong not to +marry him. If I had found him a wife, he would not have got entangled +with this danseuse. He has such a vigorous constitution--" + +Madame Descoings had likewise reflected during the night as to the +best way of saving the honor of the family. At daybreak, she got out +of bed and went to her friend's room. + +"Neither you nor Philippe should manage this delicate matter," she +urged. "Our two old friends Du Bruel and Claparon are dead, but we +still have Desroches, who is very sagacious. I'll go and see him this +morning. He can tell the newspaper people that Philippe trusted a +friend and has been made a victim; that his weakness in such respects +makes him unfit to be a cashier; what has now happened may happen +again, and that Philippe prefers to resign. That will prevent his +being turned off." + +Agathe, seeing that this business lie would save the honor of her son, +at any rate in the eyes of strangers, kissed Madame Descoings, who +went out early to make an end of the dreadful affair. + +Philippe, meanwhile, had slept the sleep of the just. "She is sly, +that old woman," he remarked, when his mother explained to him why +breakfast was late. + +Old Desroches, the last remaining friend of these two poor women, who, +in spite of his harsh nature, never forgot that Bridau had obtained +for him his place, fulfilled like an accomplished diplomat the +delicate mission Madame Descoings had confided to him. He came to dine +that evening with the family, and notified Agathe that she must go the +next day to the Treasury, rue Vivienne, sign the transfer of the funds +involved, and obtain a coupon for the six hundred francs a year which +still remained to her. The old clerk did not leave the afflicted +household that night without obliging Philippe to sign a petition to +the minister of war, asking for his reinstatement in the active army. +Desroches promised the two women to follow up the petition at the war +office, and to profit by the triumph of a certain duke over Philippe +in the matter of the danseuse, and so obtain that nobleman's +influence. + +"Philippe will be lieutenant-colonel in the Duc de Maufrigneuse's +regiment within three months," he declared, "and you will be rid of +him." + +Desroches went away, smothered with blessings from the two poor widows +and Joseph. As to the newspaper, it ceased to exist at the end of two +months, just as Finot had predicted. Philippe's crime had, therefore, +so far as the world knew, no consequences. But Agathe's motherhood had +received a deadly wound. Her belief in her son once shaken, she lived +in perpetual fear, mingled with some satisfactions, as she saw her +worst apprehensions unrealized. + +When men like Philippe, who are endowed with physical courage, and yet +are cowardly and ignoble in their moral being, see matters and things +resuming their accustomed course about them after some catastrophe in +which their honor and decency is well-nigh lost, such family kindness, +or any show of friendliness towards them is a premium of +encouragement. They count on impunity; their minds distorted, their +passions gratified, only prompt them to study how it happened that +they succeeded in getting round all social laws; the result is they +become alarmingly adroit. + +A fortnight later, Philippe, once more a man of leisure, lazy and +bored, renewed his fatal cafe life,--his drams, his long games of +billiards embellished with punch, his nightly resort to the +gambling-table, where he risked some trifling stake and won enough to +pay for his dissipations. Apparently very economical, the better to +deceive his mother and Madame Descoings, he wore a hat that was greasy, +with the nap rubbed off at the edges, patched boots, a shabby overcoat, +on which the red ribbon scarcely showed so discolored and dirty was it +by long service at the buttonhole and by the spatterings of coffee and +liquors. His buckskin gloves, of a greenish tinge, lasted him a long +while; and he only gave up his satin neckcloth when it was ragged +enough to look like wadding. Mariette was the sole object of the +fellow's love, and her treachery had greatly hardened his heart. When +he happened to win more than usual, or if he supped with his old +comrade, Giroudeau, he followed some Venus of the slums, with brutal +contempt for the whole sex. Otherwise regular in his habits, he +breakfasted and dined at home and came in every night about one +o'clock. Three months of this horrible life restored Agathe to some +degree of confidence. + +As for Joseph, who was working at the splendid picture to which he +afterwards owed his reputation, he lived in his atelier. On the +prediction of her grandson Bixiou, Madame Descoings believed in +Joseph's future glory, and she showed him every sort of motherly +kindness; she took his breakfast to him, she did his errands, she +blacked his boots. The painter was never seen till dinner-time, and +his evenings were spent at the Cenacle among his friends. He read a +great deal, and gave himself that deep and serious education which +only comes through the mind itself, and which all men of talent strive +after between the ages of twenty and thirty. Agathe, seeing very +little of Joseph, and feeling no uneasiness about him, lived only for +Philippe, who gave her the alternations of fears excited and terrors +allayed, which seem the life, as it were, of sentiment, and to be as +necessary to maternity as to love. Desroches, who came once a week to +see the widow of his patron and friend, gave her hopes. The Duc de +Maufrigneuse had asked to have Philippe in his regiment; the minister +of war had ordered an inquiry; and as the name of Bridau did not +appear on any police list, nor an any record at the Palais de Justice, +Philippe would be reinstated in the army early in the coming year. + +To arrive at this result, Desroches set all the powers that he could +influence in motion. At the prefecture of police he learned that +Philippe spent his evenings in the gambling-house; and he thought it +best to tell this fact privately to Madame Descoings, exhorting her +keep an eye on the lieutenant-colonel, for one outbreak would imperil +all; as it was, the minister of war was not likely to inquire whether +Philippe gambled. Once restored to his rank under the flag of his +country, he would perhaps abandon a vice only taken up from idleness. +Agathe, who no longer received her friends in the evening, sat in the +chimney-corner reading her prayers, while Madame Descoings consulted +the cards, interpreted her dreams, and applied the rules of the +"cabala" to her lottery ventures. This jovial fanatic never missed a +single drawing; she still pursued her trey,--which never turned up. It +was nearly twenty-one years old, just approaching its majority; on +this ridiculous idea the old woman now pinned her faith. One of its +three numbers had stayed at the bottom of all the wheels ever since +the institution of the lottery. Accordingly, Madame Descoings laid +heavy stakes on that particular number, as well as on all the +combinations of the three numbers. The last mattress remaining to her +bed was the place where she stored her savings; she unsewed the +ticking, put in from time to time the bit of gold saved from her +needs, wrapped carefully in wool, and then sewed the mattress up +again. She intended, at the last drawing, to risk all her savings on +the different combinations of her treasured trey. + +This passion, so universally condemned, has never been fairly studied. +No one has understood this opium of poverty. The lottery, all-powerful +fairy of the poor, bestowed the gift of magic hopes. The turn of the +wheel which opens to the gambler a vista of gold and happiness, lasts +no longer than a flash of lightning, but the lottery gave five days' +existence to that magnificent flash. What social power can to-day, for +the sum of five sous, give us five days' happiness and launch us +ideally into all the joys of civilization? Tobacco, a craving far more +immoral than play, destroys the body, attacks the mind, and stupefies +a nation; while the lottery did nothing of the kind. This passion, +moreover, was forced to keep within limits by the long periods that +occurred between the drawings, and by the choice of wheels which each +investor individually clung to. Madame Descoings never staked on any +but the "wheel of Paris." Full of confidence that the trey cherished +for twenty-one years was about to triumph, she now imposed upon +herself enormous privations, that she might stake a large amount of +savings upon the last drawing of the year. When she dreamed her +cabalistic visions (for all dreams did not correspond with the numbers +of the lottery), she went and told them to Joseph, who was the sole +being who would listen, and not only not scold her, but give her the +kindly words with which an artist knows how to soothe the follies of +the mind. All great talents respect and understand a real passion; +they explain it to themselves by finding the roots of it in their own +hearts or minds. Joseph's ideas was, that his brother loved tobacco +and liquors, Maman Descoings loved her trey, his mother loved God, +Desroches the younger loved lawsuits, Desroches the elder loved +angling,--in short, all the world, he said, loved something. He +himself loved the "beau ideal" in all things; he loved the poetry of +Lord Byron, the painting of Gericault, the music of Rossini, the +novels of Walter Scott. "Every one to his taste, maman," he would say; +"but your trey does hang fire terribly." + +"It will turn up, and you will be rich, and my little Bixiou as well." + +"Give it all to your grandson," cried Joseph; "at any rate, do what +you like best with it." + +"Hey! when it turns up I shall have enough for everybody. In the first +place, you shall have a fine atelier; you sha'n't deprive yourself of +going to the opera so as to pay for your models and your colors. Do +you know, my dear boy, you make me play a pretty shabby part in that +picture of yours?" + +By way of economy, Joseph had made the Descoings pose for his +magnificent painting of a young courtesan taken by an old woman to a +Doge of Venice. This picture, one of the masterpieces of modern +painting, was mistaken by Gros himself for a Titian, and it paved the +way for the recognition which the younger artists gave to Joseph's +talent in the Salon of 1823. + +"Those who know you know very well what you are," he answered gayly. +"Why need you trouble yourself about those who don't know you?" + +For the last ten years Madame Descoings had taken on the ripe tints of +a russet apple at Easter. Wrinkles had formed in her superabundant +flesh, now grown pallid and flabby. Her eyes, full of life, were +bright with thoughts that were still young and vivacious, and might be +considered grasping; for there is always something of that spirit in a +gambler. Her fat face bore traces of dissimulation and of the mental +reservations hidden in the depths of her heart. Her vice necessitated +secrecy. There were also indications of gluttony in the motion of her +lips. And thus, although she was, as we have seen, an excellent and +upright woman, the eye might be misled by her appearance. She was an +admirable model for the old woman Joseph wished to paint. Coralie, a +young actress of exquisite beauty who died in the flower of her youth, +the mistress of Lucien de Rubempre, one of Joseph's friends, had given +him the idea of the picture. This noble painting has been called a +plagiarism of other pictures, while in fact it was a splendid +arrangement of three portraits. Michel Chrestien, one of his +companions at the Cenacle, lent his republican head for the senator, +to which Joseph added a few mature tints, just as he exaggerated the +expression of Madame Descoings's features. This fine picture, which +was destined to make a great noise and bring the artist much hatred, +jealousy, and admiration, was just sketched out; but, compelled as he +was to work for a living, he laid it aside to make copies of the old +masters for the dealers; thus he penetrated the secrets of their +processes, and his brush is therefore one of the best trained of the +modern school. The shrewd sense of an artist led him to conceal the +profits he was beginning to lay by from his mother and Madame +Descoings, aware that each had her road to ruin,--the one in Philippe, +the other in the lottery. This astuteness is seldom wanting among +painters; busy for days together in the solitude of their studios, +engaged in work which, up to a certain point, leaves the mind free, +they are in some respects like women,--their thoughts turn about the +little events of life, and they contrive to get at their hidden +meaning. + +Joseph had bought one of those magnificent chests or coffers of a past +age, then ignored by fashion, with which he decorated a corner of his +studio, where the light danced upon the bas-reliefs and gave full +lustre to a masterpiece of the sixteenth century artisans. He saw the +necessity for a hiding-place, and in this coffer he had begun to +accumulate a little store of money. With an artist's carelessness, he +was in the habit of putting the sum he allowed for his monthly +expenses in a skull, which stood on one of the compartments of the +coffer. Since his brother had returned to live at home, he found a +constant discrepancy between the amount he spent and the sum in this +receptacle. The hundred francs a month disappeared with incredible +celerity. Finding nothing one day, when he had only spent forty or +fifty francs, he remarked for the first time: "My money must have got +wings." The next month he paid more attention to his accounts; but add +as he might, like Robert Macaire, sixteen and five are twenty-three, +he could make nothing of them. When, for the third time, he found a +still more important discrepancy, he communicated the painful fact to +Madame Descoings, who loved him, he knew, with that maternal, tender, +confiding, credulous, enthusiastic love that he had never had from his +own mother, good as she was,--a love as necessary to the early life of +an artist as the care of the hen is to her unfledged chickens. To her +alone could he confide his horrible suspicions. He was as sure of his +friends as he was of himself; and the Descoings, he knew, would take +nothing to put in her lottery. At the idea which then suggested itself +the poor woman wrung her hands. Philippe alone could have committed +this domestic theft. + +"Why didn't he ask me, if he wanted it?" cried Joseph, taking a dab of +color on his palette and stirring it into the other colors without +seeing what he did. "Is it likely I should refuse him?" + +"It is robbing a child!" cried the Descoings, her face expressing the +deepest disgust. + +"No," replied Joseph, "he is my brother; my purse is his: but he ought +to have asked me." + +"Put in a special sum, in silver, this morning, and don't take +anything out," said Madame Descoings. "I shall know who goes into the +studio; and if he is the only one, you will be certain it is he." + +The next day Joseph had proof of his brother's forced loans upon him. +Philippe came to the studio when his brother was out and took the +little sum he wanted. The artist trembled for his savings. + +"I'll catch him at it, the scamp!" he said, laughing, to Madame +Descoings. + +"And you'll do right: we ought to break him of it. I, too, I have +missed little sums out of my purse. Poor boy! he wants tobacco; he's +accustomed to it." + +"Poor boy! poor boy!" cried the artist. "I'm rather of Fulgence and +Bixiou's opinion: Philippe is a dead-weight on us. He runs his head +into riots and has to be shipped to America, and that costs the mother +twelve thousand francs; he can't find anything to do in the forests of +the New World, and so he comes back again, and that costs twelve +thousand more. Under pretence of having carried two words of Napoleon +to a general, he thinks himself a great soldier and makes faces at the +Bourbons; meantime, what does he do? amuse himself, travel about, see +foreign countries! As for me, I'm not duped by his misfortunes; he +doesn't look like a man who fails to get the best of things! Somebody +finds him a good place, and there he is, leading the life of a +Sardanapalus with a ballet-girl, and guzzling the funds of his +journal; that costs the mother another twelve thousand francs! I don't +care two straws for myself, but Philippe will bring that poor woman to +beggary. He thinks I'm of no account because I was never in the +dragoons of the Guard; but perhaps I shall be the one to support that +poor dear mother in her old age, while he, if he goes on as he does, +will end I don't know how. Bixiou often says to me, 'He is a downright +rogue, that brother of yours.' Your grandson is right. Philippe will +be up to some mischief that will compromise the honor of the family, +and then we shall have to scrape up another ten or twelve thousand +francs! He gambles every night; when he comes home, drunk as a +templar, he drops on the staircase the pricked cards on which he marks +the turns of the red and black. Old Desroches is trying to get him +back into the army, and, on my word on honor, I believe he would hate +to serve again. Would you ever have believed that a boy with such +heavenly blue eyes and the look of Bayard could turn out such a +scoundrel?" + + + + CHAPTER V + +In spite of the coolness and discretion with which Philippe played his +trifling game every night, it happened every now and then that he was +what gamblers call "cleaned out." Driven by the irresistible necessity +of having his evening stake of ten francs, he plundered the household, +and laid hands on his brother's money and on all that Madame Descoings +or Agathe left about. Already the poor mother had had a dreadful +vision in her first sleep: Philippe entered the room and took from the +pockets of her gown all the money he could find. Agathe pretended to +sleep, but she passed the rest of the night in tears. She saw the +truth only too clearly. "One wrong act is not a vice," Madame +Descoings had declared; but after so many repetitions, vice was +unmistakable. Agathe could doubt no longer; her best-beloved son had +neither delicacy nor honor. + +On the morrow of that frightful vision, before Philippe left the house +after breakfast, she drew him into her chamber and begged him, in a +tone of entreaty, to ask her for what money he needed. After that, the +applications were so numerous that in two weeks Agathe was drained of +all her savings. She was literally without a penny, and began to think +of finding work. The means of earning money had been discussed in the +evenings between herself and Madame Descoings, and she had already +taken patterns of worsted work to fill in, from a shop called the +"Pere de Famille,"--an employment which pays about twenty sous a day. +Notwithstanding Agathe's silence on the subject, Madame Descoings had +guessed the motive of this desire to earn money by women's-work. The +change in her appearance was eloquent: her fresh face had withered, +the skin clung to the temples and the cheek-bones, and the forehead +showed deep lines; her eyes lost their clearness; an inward fire was +evidently consuming her; she wept the greater part of the night. A +chief cause of these outward ravages was the necessity of hiding her +anguish, her sufferings, her apprehensions. She never went to sleep +until Philippe came in; she listened for his step, she had learned the +inflections of his voice, the variations of his walk, the very +language of his cane as it touched the pavement. Nothing escaped her. +She knew the degree of drunkenness he had reached, she trembled as she +heard him stumble on the stairs; one night she picked up some pieces +of gold at the spot where he had fallen. When he had drunk and won, +his voice was gruff and his cane dragged; but when he had lost, his +step had something sharp, short and angry about it; he hummed in a +clear voice, and carried his cane in the air as if presenting arms. At +breakfast, if he had won, his behavior was gay and even affectionate; +he joked roughly, but still he joked, with Madame Descoings, with +Joseph, and with his mother; gloomy, on the contrary, when he had +lost, his brusque, rough speech, his hard glance, and his depression, +frightened them. A life of debauch and the abuse of liquors debased, +day by day, a countenance that was once so handsome. The veins of the +face were swollen with blood, the features became coarse, the eyes +lost their lashes and grew hard and dry. No longer careful of his +person, Philippe exhaled the miasmas of a tavern and the smell of +muddy boots, which, to an observer, stamped him with debauchery. + +"You ought," said Madame Descoings to Philippe during the last days of +December, "you ought to get yourself new-clothed from head to foot." + +"And who is to pay for it?" he answered sharply. "My poor mother +hasn't a sou; and I have five hundred francs a year. It would take my +whole year's pension to pay for the clothes; besides I have mortgaged +it for three years--" + +"What for?" asked Joseph. + +"A debt of honor. Giroudeau borrowed a thousand francs from Florentine +to lend me. I am not gorgeous, that's a fact; but when one thinks that +Napoleon is at Saint Helena, and has sold his plate for the means of +living, his faithful soldiers can manage to walk on their bare feet," +he said, showing his boots without heels, as he marched away. + +"He is not bad," said Agathe, "he has good feelings." + +"You can love the Emperor and yet dress yourself properly," said +Joseph. "If he would take any care of himself and his clothes, he +wouldn't look so like a vagabond." + +"Joseph! you ought to have some indulgence for your brother," cried +Agathe. "You do the things you like, while he is certainly not in his +right place." + +"What did he leave it for?" demanded Joseph. "What can it matter to +him whether Louis the Eighteenth's bugs or Napoleon's cuckoos are on +the flag, if it is the flag of his country? France is France! For my +part, I'd paint for the devil. A soldier ought to fight, if he is a +soldier, for the love of his art. If he had stayed quietly in the +army, he would have been a general by this time." + +"You are unjust to him," said Agathe, "your father, who adored the +Emperor, would have approved of his conduct. However, he has consented +to re-enter the army. God knows the grief it has caused your brother +to do a thing he considers treachery." + +Joseph rose to return to his studio, but his mother took his hand and +said:-- + +"Be good to your brother; he is so unfortunate." + +When the artist got back to his painting-room, followed by Madame +Descoings, who begged him to humor his mother's feelings, and pointed +out to him how changed she was, and what inward suffering the change +revealed, they found Philippe there, to their great amazement. + +"Joseph, my boy," he said, in an off-hand way, "I want some money. +Confound it! I owe thirty francs for cigars at my tobacconist's, and I +dare not pass the cursed shop till I've paid it. I've promised to pay +it a dozen times." + +"Well, I like your present way best," said Joseph; "take what you want +out of the skull." + +"I took all there was last night, after dinner." + +"There was forty-five francs." + +"Yes, that's what I made it," replied Philippe. "I took them; is there +any objection?" + +"No, my friend, no," said Joseph. "If you were rich, I should do the +same by you; only, before taking what I wanted, I should ask you if it +were convenient." + +"It is very humiliating to ask," remarked Philippe; "I would rather +see you taking as I do, without a word; it shows more confidence. In +the army, if a comrade dies, and has a good pair of boots, and you +have a bad pair, you change, that's all." + +"Yes, but you don't take them while he is living." + +"Oh, what meanness!" said Philippe, shrugging his shoulders. "Well, so +you haven't got any money?" + +"No," said Joseph, who was determined not to show his hiding-place. + +"In a few days we shall be rich," said Madame Descoings. + +"Yes, you; you think your trey is going to turn up on the 25th at the +Paris drawing. You must have put in a fine stake if you think you can +make us all rich." + +"A paid-up trey of two hundred francs will give three millions, +without counting the couplets and the singles." + +"At fifteen thousand times the stake--yes, you are right; it is just +two hundred you must pay up!" cried Philippe. + +Madame Descoings bit her lips; she knew she had spoken imprudently. In +fact, Philippe was asking himself as he went downstairs:-- + +"That old witch! where does she keep her money? It is as good as lost; +I can make a better use of it. With four pools at fifty francs each, I +could win two hundred thousand francs, and that's much surer than the +turning up of a trey." + +He tried to think where the old woman was likely to have hid the +money. On the days preceding festivals, Agathe went to church and +stayed there a long time; no doubt she confessed and prepared for the +communion. It was now the day before Christmas; Madame Descoings would +certainly go out to buy some dainties for the "reveillon," the +midnight meal; and she might also take occasion to pay up her stake. +The lottery was drawn every five days in different localities, at +Bordeaux, Lyons, Lille, Strasburg, and Paris. The Paris lottery was +drawn on the twenty-fifth of each month, and the lists closed on the +twenty-fourth, at midnight. Philippe studied all these points and set +himself to watch. He came home at midday; the Descoings had gone out, +and had taken the key of the _appartement_. But that was no difficulty. +Philippe pretended to have forgotten something, and asked the +concierge to go herself and get a locksmith, who lived close by, and +who came at once and opened the door. The villain's first thought was +the bed; he uncovered it, passed his hands over the mattress before he +examined the bedstead, and at the lower end felt the pieces wrapped up +in paper. He at once ripped the ticking, picked out twenty napoleons, +and then, without taking time to sew up the mattress, re-made the bed +neatly enough, so that Madame Descoings could suspect nothing. + +The gambler stole off with a light foot, resolving to play at three +different times, three hours apart, and each time for only ten +minutes. Thorough-going players, ever since 1786, the time at which +public gaming-houses were established,--the true players whom the +government dreaded, and who ate up, to use a gambling term, the money +of the bank,--never played in any other way. But before attaining this +measure of experience they lost fortunes. The whole science of +gambling-houses and their gains rests upon three things: the +impassibility of the bank; the even results called "drawn games," when +half the money goes to the bank; and the notorious bad faith +authorized by the government, in refusing to hold or pay the player's +stakes except optionally. In a word, the gambling-house, which refuses +the game of a rich and cool player, devours the fortune of the foolish +and obstinate one, who is carried away by the rapid movement of the +machinery of the game. The croupiers at "trente et quarante" move +nearly as fast as the ball. + +Philippe had ended by acquiring the sang-froid of a commanding +general, which enables him to keep his eye clear and his mind prompt +in the midst of tumult. He had reached that statesmanship of gambling +which in Paris, let us say in passing, is the livelihood of thousands +who are strong enough to look every night into an abyss without +getting a vertigo. With his four hundred francs, Philippe resolved to +make his fortune that day. He put aside, in his boots, two hundred +francs, and kept the other two hundred in his pocket. At three o'clock +he went to the gambling-house (which is now turned into the theatre of +the Palais-Royal), where the bank accepted the largest sums. He came +out half an hour later with seven thousand francs in his pocket. Then +he went to see Florentine, paid the five hundred francs which he owed +to her, and proposed a supper at the Rocher de Cancale after the +theatre. Returning to his game, along the rue de Sentier, he stopped +at Giroudeau's newspaper-office to notify him of the gala. By six +o'clock Philippe had won twenty-five thousand francs, and stopped +playing at the end of ten minutes as he had promised himself to do. +That night, by ten o'clock, he had won seventy-five thousand francs. +After the supper, which was magnificent, Philippe, by that time drunk +and confident, went back to his play at midnight. In defiance of the +rule he had imposed upon himself, he played for an hour and doubled +his fortune. The bankers, from whom, by his system of playing, he had +extracted one hundred and fifty thousand francs, looked at him with +curiosity. + +"Will he go away now, or will he stay?" they said to each other by a +glance. "If he stays he is lost." + +Philippe thought he had struck a vein of luck, and stayed. Towards +three in the morning, the hundred and fifty thousand francs had gone +back to the bank. The colonel, who had imbibed a considerable quantity +of grog while playing, left the place in a drunken state, which the +cold of the outer air only increased. A waiter from the gambling-house +followed him, picked him up, and took him to one of those horrible +houses at the door of which, on a hanging lamp, are the words: +"Lodgings for the night." The waiter paid for the ruined gambler, who +was put to bed, where he remained till Christmas night. The managers +of gambling-houses have some consideration for their customers, +especially for high players. Philippe awoke about seven o'clock in the +evening, his mouth parched, his face swollen, and he himself in the +grip of a nervous fever. The strength of his constitution enabled him +to get home on foot, where meanwhile he had, without willing it, +brought mourning, desolation, poverty, and death. + +The evening before, when dinner was ready, Madame Descoings and Agathe +expected Philippe. They waited dinner till seven o'clock. Agathe +always went to bed at ten; but as, on this occasion, she wished to be +present at the midnight mass, she went to lie down as soon as dinner +was over. Madame Descoings and Joseph remained alone by the fire in +the little salon, which served for all, and the old woman asked the +painter to add up the amount of her great stake, her monstrous stake, +on the famous trey, which she was to pay that evening at the Lottery +office. She wished to put in for the doubles and singles as well, so +as to seize all chances. After feasting on the poetry of her hopes, +and pouring the two horns of plenty at the feet of her adopted son, +and relating to him her dreams which demonstrated the certainty of +success, she felt no other uneasiness than the difficulty of bearing +such joy, and waiting from mid-night until ten o'clock of the morrow, +when the winning numbers were declared. Joseph, who saw nothing of the +four hundred francs necessary to pay up the stakes, asked about them. +The old woman smiled, and led him into the former salon, which was now +her bed-chamber. + +"You shall see," she said. + +Madame Descoings hastily unmade the bed, and searched for her scissors +to rip the mattress; she put on her spectacles, looked at the ticking, +saw the hole, and let fall the mattress. Hearing a sigh from the +depths of the old woman's breast, as though she were strangled by a +rush of blood to the heart, Joseph instinctively held out his arms to +catch the poor creature, and placed her fainting in a chair, calling +to his mother to come to them. Agathe rose, slipped on her +dressing-gown, and ran in. By the light of a candle, she applied the +ordinary remedies,--eau-de-cologne to the temples, cold water to the +forehead, a burnt feather under the nose,--and presently her aunt +revived. + +"They were there is morning; HE has taken them, the monster!" she +said. + +"Taken what?" asked Joseph. + +"I had twenty louis in my mattress; my savings for two years; no one +but Philippe could have taken them." + +"But when?" cried the poor mother, overwhelmed, "he has not been in +since breakfast." + +"I wish I might be mistaken," said the old woman. "But this morning in +Joseph's studio, when I spoke before Philippe of my stakes, I had a +presentiment. I did wrong not to go down and take my little all and +pay for my stakes at once. I meant to, and I don't know what prevented +me. Oh, yes!--my God! I went out to buy him some cigars." + +"But," said Joseph, "you left the door locked. Besides, it is so +infamous. I can't believe it. Philippe couldn't have watched you, cut +open the mattress, done it deliberately,--no, no!" + +"I felt them this morning, when I made my bed after breakfast," +repeated Madame Descoings. + +Agathe, horrified, went down stairs and asked if Philippe had come in +during the day. The concierge related the tale of his return and the +locksmith. The mother, heart-stricken, went back a changed woman. +White as the linen of her chemise, she walked as we might fancy a +spectre walks, slowly, noiselessly, moved by some superhuman power, +and yet mechanically. She held a candle in her hand, whose light fell +full upon her face and showed her eyes, fixed with horror. +Unconsciously, her hands by a desperate movement had dishevelled the +hair about her brow; and this made her so beautiful with anguish that +Joseph stood rooted in awe at the apparition of that remorse, the +vision of that statue of terror and despair. + +"My aunt," she said, "take my silver forks and spoons. I have enough +to make up the sum; I took your money for Philippe's sake; I thought I +could put it back before you missed it. Oh! I have suffered much." + +She sat down. Her dry, fixed eyes wandered a little. + +"It was he who did it," whispered the old woman to Joseph. + +"No, no," cried Agathe; "take my silver plate, sell it; it is useless +to me; we can eat with yours." + +She went to her room, took the box which contained the plate, felt its +light weight, opened it, and saw a pawnbroker's ticket. The poor +mother uttered a dreadful cry. Joseph and the Descoings ran to her, +saw the empty box, and her noble falsehood was of no avail. All three +were silent, and avoided looking at each other; but the next moment, +by an almost frantic gesture, Agathe laid her finger on her lips as if +to entreat a secrecy no one desired to break. They returned to the +salon, and sat beside the fire. + +"Ah! my children," cried Madame Descoings, "I am stabbed to the heart: +my trey will turn up, I am certain of it. I am not thinking of myself, +but of you two. Philippe is a monster," she continued, addressing her +niece; "he does not love you after all that you have done for him. If +you do not protect yourself against him he will bring you to beggary. +Promise me to sell out your Funds and buy a life-annuity. Joseph has a +good profession and he can live. If you will do this, dear Agathe, you +will never be an expense to Joseph. Monsieur Desroches has just +started his son as a notary; he would take your twelve thousand francs +and pay you an annuity." + +Joseph seized his mother's candlestick, rushed up to his studio, and +came down with three hundred francs. + +"Here, Madame Descoings!" he cried, giving her his little store, "it +is no business of ours what you do with your money; we owe you what +you have lost, and here it is, almost in full." + +"Take your poor little all?--the fruit of those privations that have +made me so unhappy! are you mad, Joseph?" cried the old woman, visibly +torn between her dogged faith in the coming trey, and the sacrilege of +accepting such a sacrifice. + +"Oh! take it if you like," said Agathe, who was moved to tears by this +action of her true son. + +Madame Descoings took Joseph by the head, and kissed him on the +forehead:-- + +"My child," she said, "don't tempt me. I might only lose it. The +lottery, you see, is all folly." + +No more heroic words were ever uttered in the hidden dramas of +domestic life. It was, indeed, affection triumphant over inveterate +vice. At this instant, the clocks struck midnight. + +"It is too late now," said Madame Descoings. + +"Oh!" cried Joseph, "here are your cabalistic numbers." + +The artist sprang at the paper, and rushed headlong down the staircase +to pay the stakes. When he was no longer present, Agathe and Madame +Descoings burst into tears. + +"He has gone, the dear love," cried the old gambler; "but it shall all +be his; he pays his own money." + +Unhappily, Joseph did not know the way to any of the lottery-offices, +which in those days were as well known to most people as the +cigarshops to a smoker in ours. The painter ran along, reading the +street names upon the lamps. When he asked the passers-by to show him +a lottery-office, he was told they were all closed, except the one +under the portico of the Palais-Royal which was sometimes kept open a +little later. He flew to the Palais-Royal: the office was shut. + +"Two minutes earlier, and you might have paid your stake," said one of +the vendors of tickets, whose beat was under the portico, where he +vociferated this singular cry: "Twelve hundred francs for forty sous," +and offered tickets all paid up. + +By the glimmer of the street lamp and the lights of the cafe de la +Rotonde, Joseph examined these tickets to see if, by chance, any of +them bore the Descoings's numbers. He found none, and returned home +grieved at having done his best in vain for the old woman, to whom he +related his ill-luck. Agathe and her aunt went together to the +midnight mass at Saint-Germain-des-Pres. Joseph went to bed. The +collation did not take place. Madame Descoings had lost her head; and +in Agathe's heart was eternal mourning. + +The two rose late on Christmas morning. Ten o'clock had struck before +Madame Descoings began to bestir herself about the breakfast, which +was only ready at half-past eleven. At that hour, the oblong frames +containing the winning numbers are hung over the doors of the +lottery-offices. If Madame Descoings had paid her stake and held her +ticket, she would have gone by half-past nine o'clock to learn her fate +at a building close to the ministry of Finance, in the rue +Neuve-des-Petits Champs, a situation now occupied by the Theatre +Ventadour in the place of the same name. On the days when the drawings +took place, an observer might watch with curiosity the crowd of old +women, cooks, and old men assembled about the door of this building; +a sight as remarkable as the cue of people about the Treasury on the +days when the dividends are paid. + +"Well, here you are, rolling in wealth!" said old Desroches, coming +into the room just as the Descoings was swallowing her last drop of +coffee. + +"What do you mean?" cried poor Agathe. + +"Her trey has turned up," he said, producing the list of numbers +written on a bit of paper, such as the officials of the lottery put by +hundreds into little wooden bowls on their counters. + +Joseph read the list. Agathe read the list. The Descoings read +nothing; she was struck down as by a thunderbolt. At the change in her +face, at the cry she gave, old Desroches and Joseph carried her to her +bed. Agathe went for a doctor. The poor woman was seized with +apoplexy, and she only recovered consciousness at four in the +afternoon; old Haudry, her doctor, then said that, in spite of this +improvement, she ought to settle her worldly affairs and think of her +salvation. She herself only uttered two words:-- + +"Three millions!" + +Old Desroches, informed by Joseph, with due reservations, of the state +of things, related many instances where lottery-players had seen a +fortune escape them on the very day when, by some fatality, they had +forgotten to pay their stakes; but he thoroughly understood that such +a blow might be fatal when it came after twenty years' perseverance. +About five o'clock, as a deep silence reigned in the little +_appartement_, and the sick woman, watched by Joseph and his mother, the +one sitting at the foot, the other at the head of her bed, was +expecting her grandson Bixiou, whom Desroches had gone to fetch, the +sound of Philippe's step and cane resounded on the staircase. + +"There he is! there he is!" cried the Descoings, sitting up in bed and +suddenly able to use her paralyzed tongue. + +Agathe and Joseph were deeply impressed by this powerful effect of the +horror which violently agitated the old woman. Their painful suspense +was soon ended by the sight of Philippe's convulsed and purple face, +his staggering walk, and the horrible state of his eyes, which were +deeply sunken, dull, and yet haggard; he had a strong chill upon him, +and his teeth chattered. + +"Starvation in Prussia!" he cried, looking about him. "Nothing to eat +or drink?--and my throat on fire! Well, what's the matter? The devil +is always meddling in our affairs. There's my old Descoings in bed, +looking at me with her eyes as big as saucers." + +"Be silent, monsieur!" said Agathe, rising. "At least, respect the +sorrows you have caused." + +"_Monsieur_, indeed!" he cried, looking at his mother. "My dear little +mother, that won't do. Have you ceased to love your son?" + +"Are you worthy of love? Have you forgotten what you did yesterday? Go +and find yourself another home; you cannot live with us any longer, +--that is, after to-morrow," she added; "for in the state you are in +now it is difficult--" + +"To turn me out,--is that it?" he interrupted. "Ha! are you going to +play the melodrama of 'The Banished Son'? Well done! is that how you +take things? You are all a pretty set! What harm have I done? I've +cleaned out the old woman's mattress. What the devil is the good of +money kept in wool? Do you call that a crime? Didn't she take twenty +thousand francs from you? We are her creditors, and I've paid myself +as much as I could get,--that's all." + +"My God! my God!" cried the dying woman, clasping her hands and +praying. + +"Be silent!" exclaimed Joseph, springing at his brother and putting +his hand before his mouth. + +"To the right about, march! brat of a painter!" retorted Philippe, +laying his strong hand on Joseph's head, and twirling him round, as he +flung him on a sofa. "Don't dare to touch the moustache of a commander +of a squadron of the dragoons of the Guard!" + +"She has paid me back all that she owed me," cried Agathe, rising and +turning an angry face to her son; "and besides, that is my affair. You +have killed her. Go away, my son," she added, with a gesture that took +all her remaining strength, "and never let me see you again. You are a +monster." + +"I kill her?" + +"Her trey has turned up," cried Joseph, "and you stole the money for +her stake." + +"Well, if she is dying of a lost trey, it isn't I who have killed +her," said the drunkard. + +"Go, go!" said Agathe. "You fill me with horror; you have every vice. +My God! is this my son?" + +A hollow rattle sounded in Madame Descoings's throat, increasing +Agathe's anger. + +"I love you still, my mother,--you who are the cause of all my +misfortunes," said Philippe. "You turn me out of doors on +Christmas-day. What did you do to grandpa Rouget, to your father, +that he should drive you away and disinherit you? If you had not +displeased him, we should all be rich now, and I should not be +reduced to misery. What did you do to your father,--you who are a +good woman? You see by your own self, I may be a good fellow and +yet be turned out of house and home,--I, the glory of the family--" + +"The disgrace of it!" cried the Descoings. + +"You shall leave this room, or you shall kill me!" cried Joseph, +springing on his brother with the fury of a lion. + +"My God! my God!" cried Agathe, trying to separate the brothers. + +At this moment Bixiou and Haudry the doctor entered. Joseph had just +knocked his brother over and stretched him on the ground. + +"He is a regular wild beast," he cried. "Don't speak another word, or +I'll--" + +"I'll pay you for this!" roared Philippe. + +"A family explanation," remarked Bixiou. + +"Lift him up," said the doctor, looking at him. "He is as ill as +Madame Descoings; undress him and put him to bed; get off his boots." + +"That's easy to say," cried Bixiou, "but they must be cut off; his +legs are swollen." + +Agathe took a pair of scissors. When she had cut down the boots, which +in those days were worn outside the clinging trousers, ten pieces of +gold rolled on the floor. + +"There it is,--her money," murmured Philippe. "Cursed fool that I was, +I forgot it. I too have missed a fortune." + +He was seized with a horrible delirium of fever, and began to rave. +Joseph, assisted by old Desroches, who had come back, and by Bixiou, +carried him to his room. Doctor Haudry was obliged to write a line to +the Hopital de la Charite and borrow a strait-waistcoat; for the +delirium ran so high as to make him fear that Philippe might kill +himself,--he was raving. At nine o'clock calm was restored. The Abbe +Loraux and Desroches endeavored to comfort Agathe, who never ceased to +weep at her aunt's bedside. She listened to them in silence, and +obstinately shook her head; Joseph and the Descoings alone knew the +extent and depth of her inward wound. + +"He will learn to do better, mother," said Joseph, when Desroches and +Bixiou had left. + +"Oh!" cried the widow, "Philippe is right,--my father cursed me: I +have no right to-- Here, here is your money," she said to Madame +Descoings, adding Joseph's three hundred francs to the two hundred +found on Philippe. "Go and see if your brother does not need +something," she said to Joseph. + +"Will you keep a promise made to a dying woman?" asked Madame +Descoings, who felt that her mind was failing her. + +"Yes, aunt." + +"Then swear to me to give your property to young Desroches for a life +annuity. My income ceases at my death; and from what you have just +said, I know you will let that wretch wring the last farthing out of +you." + +"I swear it, aunt." + +The old woman died on the 31st of December, five days after the +terrible blow which old Desroches had so innocently given her. The +five hundred francs--the only money in the household--were barely +enough to pay for her funeral. She left a small amount of silver and +some furniture, the value of which Madame Bixiou paid over to her +grandson Bixiou. Reduced to eight hundred francs' annuity paid to her +by young Desroches, who had bought a business without clients, and +himself took the capital of twelve thousand francs, Agathe gave up her +_appartement_ on the third floor, and sold all her superfluous +furniture. When, at the end of a month, Philippe seemed to be +convalescent, his mother coldly explained to him that the costs of his +illness had taken all her ready money, that she should be obliged in +future to work for her living, and she urged him, with the utmost +kindness, to re-enter the army and support himself. + +"You might have spared me that sermon," said Philippe, looking at his +mother with an eye that was cold from utter indifference. "I have seen +all along that neither you nor my brother love me. I am alone in the +world; I like it best!" + +"Make yourself worthy of our affection," answered the poor mother, +struck to the very heart, "and we will give it back to you--" + +"Nonsense!" he cried, interrupting her. + +He took his old hat, rubbed white at the edges, stuck it over one ear, +and went downstairs, whistling. + +"Philippe! where are you going without any money?" cried his mother, +who could not repress her tears. "Here, take this--" + +She held out to him a hundred francs in gold, wrapped up in paper. +Philippe came up the stairs he had just descended, and took the money. + +"Well; won't you kiss me?" she said, bursting into tears. + +He pressed his mother in his arms, but without the warmth of feeling +which was all that could give value to the embrace. + +"Where shall you go?" asked Agathe. + +"To Florentine, Girodeau's mistress. Ah! they are real friends!" he +answered brutally. + +He went away. Agathe turned back with trembling limbs, and failing +eyes, and aching heart. She fell upon her knees, prayed God to take +her unnatural child into His own keeping, and abdicated her woeful +motherhood. + + + + CHAPTER VI + +By February, 1822, Madame Bridau had settled into the attic room +recently occupied by Philippe, which was over the kitchen of her +former _appartement_. The painter's studio and bedroom was opposite, on +the other side of the staircase. When Joseph saw his mother thus +reduced, he was determined to make her as comfortable as possible. +After his brother's departure he assisted in the re-arrangement of the +garret room, to which he gave an artist's touch. He added a rug; the +bed, simple in character but exquisite in taste, had something +monastic about it; the walls, hung with a cheap glazed cotton selected +with taste, of a color which harmonized with the furniture and was +newly covered, gave the room an air of elegance and nicety. In the +hallway he added a double door, with a "portiere" to the inner one. +The window was shaded by a blind which gave soft tones to the light. +If the poor mother's life was reduced to the plainest circumstances +that the life of any woman could have in Paris, Agathe was at least +better off than all others in a like case, thanks to her son. + +To save his mother from the cruel cares of such reduced housekeeping, +Joseph took her every day to dine at a table-d'hote in the rue de +Beaune, frequented by well-bred women, deputies, and titled people, +where each person's dinner cost ninety francs a month. Having nothing +but the breakfast to provide, Agathe took up for her son the old +habits she had formerly had with the father. But in spite of Joseph's +pious lies, she discovered the fact that her dinner was costing him +nearly a hundred francs a month. Alarmed at such enormous expense, and +not imaging that her son could earn much money by painting naked +women, she obtained, thanks to her confessor, the Abbe Loraux, a place +worth seven hundred francs a year in a lottery-office belonging to the +Comtesse de Bauvan, the widow of a Chouan leader. The lottery-offices +of the government, the lot, as one might say, of privileged widows, +ordinarily sufficed for the support of the family of each person who +managed them. But after the Restoration the difficulty of rewarding, +within the limits of constitutional government, all the services +rendered to the cause, led to the custom of giving to reduced women of +title not only one but two lottery-offices, worth, usually, from six +to ten thousand a year. In such cases, the widow of a general or +nobleman thus "protected" did not keep the lottery-office herself; she +employed a paid manager. When these managers were young men they were +obliged to employ an assistant; for, according to law, the offices had +to be kept open till midnight; moreover, the reports required by the +minister of finance involved considerable writing. The Comtesse de +Bauvan, to whom the Abbe Loraux explained the circumstances of the +widow Bridau, promised, in case her manager should leave, to give the +place to Agathe; meantime she stipulated that the widow should be +taken as assistant, and receive a salary of six hundred francs. Poor +Agathe, who was obliged to be at the office by ten in the morning, had +scarcely time to get her dinner. She returned to her work at seven in +the evening, remaining there till midnight. Joseph never, for two +years, failed to fetch his mother at night, and bring her back to the +rue Mazarin; and often he went to take her to dinner; his friends +frequently saw him leave the opera or some brilliant salon to be +punctually at midnight at the office in the rue Vivienne. + +Agathe soon acquired the monotonous regularity of life which becomes a +stay and a support to those who have endured the shock of violent +sorrows. In the morning, after doing up her room, in which there were +no longer cats and little birds, she prepared the breakfast at her own +fire and carried it into the studio, where she ate it with her son. +She then arranged Joseph's bedroom, put out the fire in her own +chamber, and brought her sewing to the studio, where she sat by the +little iron stove, leaving the room if a comrade or a model entered +it. Though she understood nothing whatever of art, the silence of the +studio suited her. In the matter of art she made not the slightest +progress; she attempted no hypocrisy; she was utterly amazed at the +importance they all attached to color, composition, drawing. When the +Cenacle friends or some brother-painter, like Schinner, Pierre +Grassou, Leon de Lora,--a very youthful "rapin" who was called at that +time Mistigris,--discussed a picture, she would come back afterwards, +examine it attentively, and discover nothing to justify their fine +words and their hot disputes. She made her son's shirts, she mended +his stockings, she even cleaned his palette, supplied him with rags to +wipe his brushes, and kept things in order in the studio. Seeing how +much thought his mother gave to these little details, Joseph heaped +attentions upon her in return. If mother and son had no sympathies in +the matter of art, they were at least bound together by signs of +tenderness. The mother had a purpose. One morning as she was petting +Joseph while he was sketching a large picture (finished in after years +and never understood), she said, as it were, casually and aloud,-- + +"My God! what is he doing?" + +"Doing? who?" + +"Philippe." + +"Oh, ah! he's sowing his wild oats; that fellow will make something of +himself by and by." + +"But he has gone through the lesson of poverty; perhaps it was poverty +which changed him to what he is. If he were prosperous he would be +good--" + +"You think, my dear mother, that he suffered during that journey of +his. You are mistaken; he kept carnival in New York just as he does +here--" + +"But if he is suffering at this moment, near to us, would it not be +horrible?" + +"Yes," replied Joseph. "For my part, I will gladly give him some +money; but I don't want to see him; he killed our poor Descoings." + +"So," resumed Agathe, "you would not be willing to paint his +portrait?" + +"For you, dear mother, I'd suffer martyrdom. I can make myself +remember nothing except that he is my brother." + +"His portrait as a captain of dragoons on horseback?" + +"Yes, I've a copy of a fine horse by Gros and I haven't any use for +it." + +"Well, then, go and see that friend of his and find out what has +become of him." + +"I'll go!" + +Agathe rose; her scissors and work fell at her feet; she went and +kissed Joseph's head, and dropped two tears on his hair. + +"He is your passion, that fellow," said the painter. "We all have our +hopeless passions." + +That afternoon, about four o'clock, Joseph went to the rue du Sentier +and found his brother, who had taken Giroudeau's place. The old +dragoon had been promoted to be cashier of a weekly journal +established by his nephew. Although Finot was still proprietor of the +other newspaper, which he had divided into shares, holding all the +shares himself, the proprietor and editor "de visu" was one of his +friends, named Lousteau, the son of that very sub-delegate of Issoudun +on whom the Bridaus' grandfather, Doctor Rouget, had vowed vengeance; +consequently he was the nephew of Madame Hochon. To make himself +agreeable to his uncle, Finot gave Philippe the place Giroudeau was +quitting; cutting off, however, half the salary. Moreover, daily, at +five o'clock, Giroudeau audited the accounts and carried away the +receipts. Coloquinte, the old veteran, who was the office boy and did +errands, also kept an eye on the slippery Philippe; who was, however, +behaving properly. A salary of six hundred francs, and the five +hundred of his cross sufficed him to live, all the more because, +living in a warm office all day and at the theatre on a free pass +every evening, he had only to provide himself with food and a place to +sleep in. Coloquinte was departing with the stamped papers on his +head, and Philippe was brushing his false sleeves of green linen, when +Joseph entered. + +"Bless me, here's the cub!" cried Philippe. "Well, we'll go and dine +together. You shall go to the opera; Florine and Florentine have got a +box. I'm going with Giroudeau; you shall be of the party, and I'll +introduce you to Nathan." + +He took his leaded cane, and moistened a cigar. + +"I can't accept your invitation; I am to take our mother to dine at a +table d'hote." + +"Ah! how is she, the poor, dear woman?" + +"She is pretty well," answered the painter, "I have just repainted our +father's portrait, and aunt Descoings's. I have also painted my own, +and I should like to give our mother yours, in the uniform of the +dragoons of the Imperial Guard." + +"Very good." + +"You will have to come and sit." + +"I'm obliged to be in this hen-coop from nine o'clock till five." + +"Two Sundays will be enough." + +"So be it, little man," said Napoleon's staff officer, lighting his +cigar at the porter's lamp. + +When Joseph related Philippe's position to his mother, on their way to +dinner in the rue de Beaune, he felt her arm tremble in his, and joy +lighted up her worn face; the poor soul breathed like one relieved of +a heavy weight. The next day, inspired by joy and gratitude, she paid +Joseph a number of little attentions; she decorated his studio with +flowers, and bought him two stands of plants. On the first Sunday when +Philippe was to sit, Agathe arranged a charming breakfast in the +studio. She laid it all out on the table; not forgetting a flask of +brandy, which, however, was only half full. She herself stayed behind +a screen, in which she made a little hole. The ex-dragoon sent his +uniform the night before, and she had not refrained from kissing it. +When Philippe was placed, in full dress, on one of those straw horses, +all saddled, which Joseph had hired for the occasion, Agathe, fearing +to betray her presence, mingled the soft sound of her tears with the +conversation of the two brothers. Philippe posed for two hours before +and two hours after breakfast. At three o'clock in the afternoon, he +put on his ordinary clothes and, as he lighted a cigar, he proposed to +his brother to go and dine together in the Palais-Royal, jingling gold +in his pocket as he spoke. + +"No," said Joseph, "it frightens me to see gold about you." + +"Ah! you'll always have a bad opinion of me in this house," cried the +colonel in a thundering voice. "Can't I save my money, too?" + +"Yes, yes!" cried Agathe, coming out of her hiding-place, and kissing +her son. "Let us go and dine with him, Joseph!" + +Joseph dared not scold his mother. He went and dressed himself; and +Philippe took them to the Rocher de Cancale, where he gave them a +splendid dinner, the bill for which amounted to a hundred francs. + +"The devil!" muttered Joseph uneasily; "with an income of eleven +hundred francs you manage, like Ponchard in the 'Dame Blance,' to save +enough to buy estates." + +"Bah, I'm on a run of luck," answered the dragoon, who had drunk +enormously. + +Hearing this speech just as they were on the steps of the cafe, and +before they got into the carriage to go to the theatre,--for Philippe +was to take his mother to the Cirque-Olympique (the only theatre her +confessor allowed her to visit),--Joseph pinched his mother's arm. She +at once pretended to feel unwell, and refused to go the theatre; +Philippe accordingly took them back to the rue Mazarin, where, as soon +as she was alone with Joseph in her garret, Agathe fell into a gloomy +silence. + +The following Sunday Philippe came again. This time his mother was +visibly present at the sitting. She served the breakfast, and put +several questions to the dragoon. She then learned that the nephew of +old Madame Hochon, the friend of her mother, played a considerable +part in literature. Philippe and his friend Giroudeau lived among a +circle of journalists, actresses, and booksellers, where they were +regarded in the light of cashiers. Philippe, who had been drinking +kirsch before posing, was loquacious. He boasted that he was about to +become a great man. But when Joseph asked a question as to his +pecuniary resources he was dumb. It so happened that there was no +newspaper on the following day, it being a fete, and to finish the +picture Philippe proposed to sit again on the morrow. Joseph told him +that the Salon was close at hand, and as he did not have the money to +buy two frames for the pictures he wished to exhibit, he was forced to +procure it by finishing a copy of a Rubens which had been ordered by +Elie Magus, the picture-dealer. The original belonged to a wealthy +Swiss banker, who had only lent it for ten days, and the next day was +the last; the sitting must therefore be put off till the following +Sunday. + +"Is that it?" asked Philippe, pointing to a picture by Rubens on an +easel. + +"Yes," replied Joseph; "it is worth twenty thousand francs. That's +what genius can do. It will take me all to-morrow to get the tones of +the original and make the copy look so old it can't be distinguished +from it." + +"Adieu, mother," said Philippe, kissing Agathe. "Next Sunday, then." + +The next day Elie Magus was to come for his copy. Joseph's friend, +Pierre Grassou, who was working for the same dealer, wanted to see it +when finished. To play him a trick, Joseph, when he heard his knock, +put the copy, which was varnished with a special glaze of his own, in +place of the original, and put the original on his easel. Pierre +Grassou was completely taken in; and then amazed and delighted at +Joseph's success. + +"Do you think it will deceive old Magus?" he said to Joseph. + +"We shall see," answered the latter. + +The dealer did not come as he had promised. It was getting late; +Agathe dined that day with Madame Desroches, who had lately lost her +husband, and Joseph proposed to Pierre Grassou to dine at his table +d'hote. As he went out he left the key of his studio with the +concierge. + +An hour later Philippe appeared and said to the concierge,-- + +"I am to sit this evening; Joseph will be in soon, and I will wait for +him in the studio." + +The woman gave him the key; Philippe went upstairs, took the copy, +thinking it was the original, and went down again; returned the key to +the concierge with the excuse that he had forgotten something, and +hurried off to sell his Rubens for three thousand francs. He had taken +the precaution to convey a message from his brother to Elie Magus, +asking him not to call till the following day. + +That evening when Joseph returned, bringing his mother from Madame +Desroches's, the concierge told him of Philippe's freak,--how he had +called intending to wait, and gone away again immediately. + +"I am ruined--unless he has had the delicacy to take the copy," cried +the painter, instantly suspecting the theft. He ran rapidly up the +three flights and rushed into his studio. "God be praised!" he +ejaculated. "He is, what he always has been, a vile scoundrel." + +Agathe, who had followed Joseph, did not understand what he was +saying; but when her son explained what had happened, she stood still, +with the tears in her eyes. + +"Have I but one son?" she said in a broken voice. + +"We have never yet degraded him to the eyes of strangers," said +Joseph; "but we must now warn the concierge. In future we shall have +to keep the keys ourselves. I'll finish his blackguard face from +memory; there's not much to do to it." + +"Leave it as it is; it will pain me too much ever to look at it," +answered the mother, heart-stricken and stupefied at such wickedness. + +Philippe had been told how the money for this copy was to be expended; +moreover he knew the abyss into which he would plunge his brother +through the loss of the Rubens; but nothing restrained him. After this +last crime Agathe never mentioned him; her face acquired an expression +of cold and concentrated and bitter despair; one thought took +possession of her mind. + +"Some day," she said to herself, "we shall hear of a Bridau in the +police courts." + +Two months later, as Agathe was about to start for her office, an old +officer, who announced himself as a friend of Philippe on urgent +business, called on Madame Bridau, who happened to be in Joseph's +studio. + +When Giroudeau gave his name, mother and son trembled, and none the +less because the ex-dragoon had the face of a tough old sailor of the +worst type. His fishy gray eyes, his piebald moustache, the remains of +his shaggy hair fringing a skull that was the color of fresh butter, +all gave an indescribably debauched and libidinous expression to his +appearance. He wore an old iron-gray overcoat decorated with the red +ribbon of an officer of the Legion of honor, which met with difficulty +over a gastronomic stomach in keeping with a mouth that stretched from +ear to ear, and a pair of powerful shoulders. The torso was supported +by a spindling pair of legs, while the rubicund tints on the +cheek-bones bore testimony to a rollicking life. The lower part of the +cheeks, which were deeply wrinkled, overhung a coat-collar of velvet +the worse for wear. Among other adornments, the ex-dragoon wore +enormous gold rings in his ears. + +"What a 'noceur'!" thought Joseph, using a popular expression, meaning +a "loose fish," which had lately passed into the ateliers. + +"Madame," said Finot's uncle and cashier, "your son is in so +unfortunate a position that his friends find it absolutely necessary +to ask you to share the somewhat heavy expense which he is to them. He +can no longer do his work at the office; and Mademoiselle Florentine, +of the Porte-Saint-Martin, has taken him to lodge with her, in a +miserable attic in the rue de Vendome. Philippe is dying; and if you +and his brother are not able to pay for the doctor and medicines, we +shall be obliged, for the sake of curing him, to have him taken to the +hospital of the Capuchins. For three hundred francs we would keep him +where he is. But he must have a nurse; for at night, when Mademoiselle +Florentine is at the theatre, he persists in going out, and takes +things that are irritating and injurious to his malady and its +treatment. As we are fond of him, this makes us really very unhappy. +The poor fellow has pledged the pension of his cross for the next +three years; he is temporarily displaced from his office, and he has +literally nothing. He will kill himself, madame, unless we can put him +into the private asylum of Doctor Dubois. It is a decent hospital, +where they will take him for ten francs a day. Florentine and I will +pay half, if you will pay the rest; it won't be for more than two +months." + +"Monsieur, it is difficult for a mother not to be eternally grateful +to you for your kindness to her son," replied Agathe; "but this son is +banished from my heart, and as for money, I have none. Not to be a +burden on my son whom you see here, who works day and night and +deserves all the love his mother can give him, I am the assistant in a +lottery-office--at my age!" + +"And you, young man," said the old dragoon to Joseph; "can't you do as +much for your brother as a poor dancer at the Porte-Saint-Martin and +an old soldier?" + +"Look here!" said Joseph, out of patience; "do you want me to tell you +in artist language what I think of your visit? Well, you have come to +swindle us on false pretences." + +"To-morrow your brother shall go to the hospital." + +"And he will do very well there," answered Joseph. "If I were in like +case, I should go there too." + +Giroudeau withdrew, much disappointed, and also really mortified at +being obliged to send to a hospital a man who had carried the +Emperor's orders at the battle of Montereau. Three months later, at +the end of July, as Agathe one morning was crossing the Pont Neuf to +avoid paying a sou at the Pont des Arts, she saw, coming along by the +shops of the Quai de l'Ecole, a man bearing all the signs of +second-class poverty, who, she thought, resembled Philippe. In Paris, +there are three distinct classes of poverty. First, the poverty of the +man who preserves appearances, and to whom a future still belongs; this +is the poverty of young men, artists, men of the world, momentarily +unfortunate. The outward signs of their distress are not visible, +except under the microscope of a close observer. These persons are the +equestrian order of poverty; they continue to drive about in +cabriolets. In the second order we find old men who have become +indifferent to everything, and, in June, put the cross of the Legion +of honor on alpaca overcoats; that is the poverty of small incomes, +--of old clerks, who live at Sainte-Perine and care no longer about +their outward man. Then comes, in the third place, poverty in rags, +the poverty of the people, the poverty that is poetic; which Callot, +Hogarth, Murillo, Charlet, Raffet, Gavarni, Meissonier, Art itself +adores and cultivates, especially during the carnival. The man in whom +poor Agathe thought she recognized her son was astride the last two +classes of poverty. She saw the ragged neck-cloth, the scurfy hat, the +broken and patched boots, the threadbare coat, whose buttons had shed +their mould, leaving the empty shrivelled pod dangling in congruity +with the torn pockets and the dirty collar. Scraps of flue were in the +creases of the coat, which showed plainly the dust that filled it. The +man drew from the pockets of his seam-rent iron-gray trousers a pair +of hands as black as those of a mechanic. A knitted woollen waistcoat, +discolored by use, showed below the sleeves of his coat, and above the +trousers, and no doubt served instead of a shirt. Philippe wore a +green silk shade with a wire edge over his eyes; his head, which was +nearly bald, the tints of his skin, and his sunken face too plainly +revealed that he was just leaving the terrible Hopital du Midi. His +blue overcoat, whitened at the seams, was still decorated with the +ribbon of his cross; and the passers-by looked at the hero, doubtless +some victim of the government, with curiosity and commiseration; the +rosette attracted notice, and the fiercest "ultra" was jealous for the +honor of the Legion. In those days, however much the government +endeavored to bring the Order into disrepute by bestowing its cross +right and left, there were not fifty-three thousand persons decorated. + +Agathe trembled through her whole being. If it were impossible to love +this son any longer, she could still suffer for him. Quivering with +this last expression of motherhood, she wept as she saw the brilliant +staff officer of the Emperor turn to enter tobacconist's and pause on +the threshold; he had felt in his pocket and found nothing. Agathe +left the bridge, crossed the quai rapidly, took out her purse, thrust +it into Philippe's hand, and fled away as if she had committed a +crime. After that, she ate nothing for two days; before her was the +horrible vision of her son dying of hunger in the streets of Paris. + +"When he has spent all the money in my purse, who will give him any?" +she thought. "Giroudeau did not deceive us; Philippe is just out of +that hospital." + +She no longer saw the assassin of her poor aunt, the scourge of the +family, the domestic thief, the gambler, the drunkard, the low liver +of a bad life; she saw only the man recovering from illness, yet +doomed to die of starvation, the smoker deprived of his tobacco. At +forty-seven years of age she grew to look like a woman of seventy. Her +eyes were dimmed with tears and prayers. Yet it was not the last grief +this son was to bring upon her; her worst apprehensions were destined +to be realized. A conspiracy of officers was discovered at the heart +of the army, and articles from the "Moniteur" giving details of the +arrests were hawked about the streets. + +In the depths of her cage in the lottery-office of the rue Vivienne, +Agathe heard the name of Philippe Bridau. She fainted, and the +manager, understanding her trouble and the necessity of taking certain +steps, gave her leave of absence for two weeks. + +"Ah! my friend," she said to Joseph, as she went to bed that night, +"it is our severity which drove him to it." + +"I'll go and see Desroches," answered Joseph. + +While the artist was confiding his brother's affairs to the younger +Desroches,--who by this time had the reputation of being one of the +keenest and most astute lawyers in Paris, and who, moreover, did +sundry services for personages of distinction, among others for des +Lupeaulx, then secretary of a ministry,--Giroudeau called upon the +widow. This time, Agathe believed him. + +"Madame," he said, "if you can produce twelve thousand francs your son +will be set at liberty for want of proof. It is necessary to buy the +silence of two witnesses." + +"I will get the money," said the poor mother, without knowing how or +where. + +Inspired by this danger, she wrote to her godmother, old Madame +Hochon, begging her to ask Jean-Jacques Rouget to send her the twelve +thousand francs and save his nephew Philippe. If Rouget refused, she +entreated Madame Hochon to lend them to her, promising to return them +in two years. By return of courier, she received the following +letter:-- + + My dear girl: Though your brother has an income of not less than + forty thousand francs a year, without counting the sums he has + laid by for the last seventeen years, and which Monsieur Hochon + estimates at more than six hundred thousand francs, he will not + give one penny to nephews whom he has never seen. As for me, you + know I cannot dispose of a farthing while my husband lives. Hochon + is the greatest miser in Issoudun. I do not know what he does with + his money; he does not give twenty francs a year to his + grandchildren. As for borrowing the money, I should have to get + his signature, and he would refuse it. I have not even attempted + to speak to your brother, who lives with a concubine, to whom he + is a slave. It is pitiable to see how the poor man is treated in + his own home, when he might have a sister and nephews to take care + of him. + + I have hinted to you several times that your presence at Issoudun + might save your brother, and rescue a fortune of forty, perhaps + sixty, thousand francs a year from the claws of that slut; but you + either do not answer me, or you seem never to understand my + meaning. So to-day I am obliged to write without epistolary + circumlocution. I feel for the misfortune which has overtaken you, + but, my dearest, I can do no more than pity you. And this is why: + Hochon, at eighty-five years of age, takes four meals a day, eats + a salad with hard-boiled eggs every night, and frisks about like a + rabbit. I shall have spent my whole life--for he will live to + write my epitaph--without ever having had twenty francs in my + purse. If you will come to Issoudun and counteract the influence + of that concubine over your brother, you must stay with me, for + there are reasons why Rouget cannot receive you in his own house; + but even then, I shall have hard work to get my husband to let me + have you here. However, you can safely come; I can make him mind + me as to that. I know a way to get what I want out of him; I have + only to speak of making my will. It seems such a horrid thing to + do that I do not often have recourse to it; but for you, dear + Agathe, I will do the impossible. + + I hope your Philippe will get out of his trouble; and I beg you to + employ a good lawyer. In any case, come to Issoudun as soon as you + can. Remember that your imbecile of a brother at fifty-seven is an + older and weaker man than Monsieur Hochon. So it is a pressing + matter. People are talking already of a will that cuts off your + inheritance; but Monsieur Hochon says there is still time to get + it revoked. + + Adieu, my little Agathe; may God help you! Believe in the love of + your godmother, + + Maximilienne Hochon, nee Lousteau. + + P.S. Has my nephew, Etienne, who writes in the newspapers and is + intimate, they tell me, with your son Philippe, been to pay his + respects to you? But come at once to Issoudun, and we will talk + over things. + + +This letter made a great impression on Agathe, who showed it, of +course, to Joseph, to whom she had been forced to mention Giroudeau's +proposal. The artist, who grew wary when it concerned his brother, +pointed out to her that she ought to tell everything to Desroches. + +Conscious of the wisdom of that advice, Agathe went with her son the +next morning, at six o'clock, to find Desroches at his house in the +rue de Bussy. The lawyer, as cold and stern as his late father, with a +sharp voice, a rough skin, implacable eyes, and the visage of a fox as +he licks his lips of the blood of chickens, bounded like a tiger when +he heard of Giroudeau's visit and proposal. + +"And pray, mere Bridau," he cried, in his little cracked voice, "how +long are you going to be duped by your cursed brigand of a son? Don't +give him a farthing. Make yourself easy, I'll answer for Philippe. I +should like to see him brought before the Court of Peers; it might +save his future. You are afraid he will be condemned; but I say, may +it please God his lawyer lets him be convicted. Go to Issoudun, secure +the property for your children. If you don't succeed, if your brother +has made a will in favor of that woman, and you can't make him revoke +it,--well then, at least get all the evidence you can of undue +influence, and I'll institute proceedings for you. But you are too +honest a woman to know how to get at the bottom facts of such a +matter. I'll go myself to Issoudun in the holidays,--if I can." + +That "go myself" made Joseph tremble in his skin. Desroches winked at +him to let his mother go downstairs first, and then the lawyer +detained the young man for a single moment. + +"Your brother is a great scoundrel; he is the cause of the discovery +of this conspiracy,--intentionally or not, I can't say, for the rascal +is so sly no one can find out the exact truth as to that. Fool or +traitor,--take your choice. He will be put under the surveillance of +the police, nothing more. You needn't be uneasy; no one knows this +secret but myself. Go to Issoudun with your mother. You have good +sense; try to save the property." + +"Come, my poor mother, Desroches is right," said Joseph, rejoining +Agathe on the staircase. "I have sold my two pictures, let us start +for Berry; you have two weeks' leave of absence." + +After writing to her godmother to announce their arrival, Agathe and +Joseph started the next evening for their trip to Issoudun, leaving +Philippe to his fate. The diligence rolled through the rue d'Enfer +toward the Orleans highroad. When Agathe saw the Luxembourg, to which +Philippe had been transferred, she could not refrain from saying,-- + +"If it were not for the Allies he would never be there!" + +Many sons would have made an impatient gesture and smiled with pity; +but the artist, who was alone with his mother in the coupe, caught her +in his arms and pressed her to his heart, exclaiming:-- + +"Oh, mother! you are a mother just as Raphael was a painter. And you +will always be a fool of a mother!" + +Madame Bridau's mind, diverted before long from her griefs by the +distractions of the journey, began to dwell on the purpose of it. She +re-read the letter of Madame Hochon, which had so stirred up the +lawyer Desroches. Struck with the words "concubine" and "slut," which +the pen of a septuagenarian as pious as she was respectable had used +to designate the woman now in process of getting hold of Jean-Jacques +Rouget's property, struck also with the word "imbecile" applied to +Rouget himself, she began to ask herself how, by her presence at +Issoudun, she was to save the inheritance. Joseph, poor disinterested +artist that he was, knew little enough about the Code, and his +mother's last remark absorbed his mind. + +"Before our friend Desroches sent us off to protect our rights, he +ought to have explained to us the means of doing so," he exclaimed. + +"So far as my poor head, which whirls at the thought of Philippe in +prison,--without tobacco, perhaps, and about to appear before the +Court of Peers!--leaves me any distinct memory," returned Agathe, "I +think young Desroches said we were to get evidence of undue influence, +in case my brother has made a will in favor of that--that--woman." + +"He is good at that, Desroches is," cried the painter. "Bah! if we can +make nothing of it I'll get him to come himself." + +"Well, don't let us trouble our heads uselessly," said Agathe. "When +we get to Issoudun my godmother will tell us what to do." + +This conversation, which took place just after Madame Bridau and +Joseph changed coaches at Orleans and entered the Sologne, is +sufficient proof of the incapacity of the painter and his mother to +play the part the inexorable Desroches had assigned to them. + +In returning to Issoudun after thirty years' absence, Agathe was about +to find such changes in its manners and customs that it is necessary +to sketch, in a few words, a picture of that town. Without it, the +reader would scarcely understand the heroism displayed by Madame +Hochon in assisting her goddaughter, or the strange situation of +Jean-Jacques Rouget. Though Doctor Rouget had taught his son to +regard Agathe in the light of a stranger, it was certainly a somewhat +extraordinary thing that for thirty years a brother should have given +no signs of life to a sister. Such a silence was evidently caused by +peculiar circumstances, and any other sister and nephew than Agathe +and Joseph would long ago have inquired into them. There is, moreover, +a certain connection between the condition of the city of Issoudun and +the interests of the Bridau family, which can only be seen as the +story goes on. + + + + CHAPTER VII + +Issoudun, be it said without offence to Paris, is one of the oldest +cities in France. In spite of the historical assumption which makes +the emperor Probus the Noah of the Gauls, Caesar speaks of the +excellent wine of Champ-Fort ("de Campo Forti") still one of the best +vintages of Issoudun. Rigord writes of this city in language which +leaves no doubt as to its great population and its immense commerce. +But these testimonies both assign a much lesser age to the city than +its ancient antiquity demands. In fact, the excavations lately +undertaken by a learned archaeologist of the place, Monsieur Armand +Peremet, have brought to light, under the celebrated tower of +Issoudun, a basilica of the fifth century, probably the only one in +France. This church preserves, in its very materials, the sign-manual +of an anterior civilization; for its stones came from a Roman temple +which stood on the same site. + +Issoudun, therefore, according to the researches of this antiquary, +like other cities of France whose ancient or modern autonym ends in +"Dun" ("dunum") bears in its very name the certificate of an +autochthonous existence. The word "Dun," the appanage of all dignity +consecrated by Druidical worship, proves a religious and military +settlement of the Celts. Beneath the Dun of the Gauls must have lain +the Roman temple to Isis. From that comes, according to Chaumon, the +name of the city, Issous-Dun,--"Is" being the abbreviation of "Isis." +Richard Coeur-de-lion undoubtedly built the famous tower (in which he +coined money) above the basilica of the fifth century,--the third +monument of the third religion of this ancient town. He used the +church as a necessary foundation, or stay, for the raising of the +rampart; and he preserved it by covering it with feudal fortifications +as with a mantle. Issoudun was at that time the seat of the ephemeral +power of the Routiers and the Cottereaux, adventurers and free-lancers, +whom Henry II. sent against his son Richard, at the time of his +rebellion as Comte de Poitou. + +The history of Aquitaine, which was not written by the Benedictines, +will probably never be written, because there are no longer +Benedictines: thus we are not able to light up these archaeological +tenebrae in the history of our manners and customs on every occasion +of their appearance. There is another testimony to the ancient +importance of Issoudun in the conversion into a canal of the +Tournemine, a little stream raised several feet above the level of the +Theols which surrounds the town. This is undoubtedly the work of Roman +genius. Moreover, the suburb which extends from the castle in a +northerly direction is intersected by a street which for more than two +thousand years has borne the name of the rue de Rome; and the +inhabitants of this suburb, whose racial characteristics, blood, and +physiognomy have a special stamp of their own, call themselves +descendants of the Romans. They are nearly all vine-growers, and +display a remarkable inflexibility of manners and customs, due, +undoubtedly, to their origin,--perhaps also to their victory over the +Cottereaux and the Routiers, whom they exterminated on the plain of +Charost in the twelfth century. + +After the insurrection of 1830, France was too agitated to pay much +attention to the rising of the vine-growers of Issoudun; a terrible +affair, the facts of which have never been made public,--for good +reasons. In the first place, the bourgeois of Issoudun refused to +allow the military to enter the town. They followed the use and wont +of the bourgeoisie of the Middle Ages and declared themselves +responsible for their own city. The government was obliged to yield to +a sturdy people backed up by seven or eight thousand vine-growers, who +had burned all the archives, also the offices of "indirect taxation," +and had dragged through the streets a customs officer, crying out at +every street lantern, "Let us hang him here!" The poor man's life was +saved by the national guard, who took him to prison on pretext of +drawing up his indictment. The general in command only entered the +town by virtue of a compromise made with the vine-growers; and it +needed some courage to go among them. At the moment when he showed +himself at the hotel-de-ville, a man from the faubourg de Rome slung a +"volant" round his neck (the "volant" is a huge pruning-hook fastened +to a pole, with which they trim trees) crying out, "No more clerks, or +there's an end to compromise!" The fellow would have taken off that +honored head, left untouched by sixteen years of war, had it not been +for the hasty intervention of one of the leaders of the revolt, to +whom a promise had been made that _the chambers should be asked to +suppress the excisemen_. + +In the fourteenth century, Issoudun still had sixteen or seventeen +thousand inhabitants, remains of a population double that number in +the time of Rigord. Charles VII. possessed a mansion which still +exists, and was known, as late as the eighteenth century, as the +Maison du Roi. This town, then a centre of the woollen trade, supplied +that commodity to the greater part of Europe, and manufactured on a +large scale blankets, hats, and the excellent Chevreautin gloves. +Under Louis XIV., Issoudun, the birthplace of Baron and Bourdaloue, +was always cited as a city of elegance and good society, where the +language was correctly spoken. The curate Poupard, in his History of +Sancerre, mentions the inhabitants of Issoudun as remarkable among the +other Berrichons for subtlety and natural wit. To-day, the wit and the +splendor have alike disappeared. Issoudun, whose great extent of +ground bears witness to its ancient importance, has now barely twelve +thousand inhabitants, including the vine-dressers of four enormous +suburbs,--those of Saint-Paterne, Vilatte, Rome, and Alouette, which +are really small towns. The bourgeoisie, like that of Versailles, are +spread over the length and breadth of the streets. Issoudun still +holds the market for the fleeces of Berry; a commerce now threatened +by improvements in the stock which are being introduced everywhere +except in Berry. + +The vineyards of Issoudun produce a wine which is drunk throughout the +two departments, and which, if manufactured as Burgundy and Gascony +manufacture theirs, would be one of the best wines in France. Alas, +"to do as our fathers did," with no innovations, is the law of the +land. Accordingly, the vine-growers continue to leave the refuse of +the grape in the juice during its fermentation, which makes the wine +detestable, when it might be a source of ever-springing wealth, and an +industry for the community. Thanks to the bitterness which the refuse +infuses into the wine, and which, they say, lessens with age, a +vintage will keep a century. This reason, given by the vine-grower in +excuse for his obstinacy, is of sufficient importance to oenology to +be made public here; Guillaume le Breton has also proclaimed it in +some lines of his "Phillippide." + +The decline of Issoudun is explained by this spirit of sluggishness, +sunken to actual torpor, which a single fact will illustrate. When the +authorities were talking of a highroad between Paris and Toulouse, it +was natural to think of taking it from Vierzon to Chateauroux by way +of Issoudun. The distance was shorter than to make it, as the road now +is, through Vatan, but the leading people of the neighborhood and the +city council of Issoudun (whose discussion of the matter is said to be +recorded), demanded that it should go by Vatan, on the ground that if +the highroad went through their town, provisions would rise in price +and they might be forced to pay thirty sous for a chicken. The only +analogy to be found for this proceeding is in the wilder parts of +Sardinia, a land once so rich and populous, now so deserted. When +Charles Albert, with a praiseworthy intention of civilization, wished +to unite Sassari, the second capital of the island, with Cagliari by a +magnificent highway (the only one ever made in that wild waste by name +Sardinia), the direct line lay through Bornova, a district inhabited +by lawless people, all the more like our Arab tribes because they are +descended from the Moors. Seeing that they were about to fall into the +clutches of civilization, the savages of Bornova, without taking the +trouble to discuss the matter, declared their opposition to the road. +The government took no notice of it. The first engineer who came to +survey it, got a ball through his head, and died on his level. No +action was taken on this murder, but the road made a circuit which +lengthened it by eight miles! + +The continual lowering of the price of wines drunk in the +neighborhood, though it may satisfy the desire of the bourgeoisie of +Issoudun for cheap provisions, is leading the way to the ruin of the +vine-growers, who are more and more burdened with the costs of +cultivation and the taxes; just as the ruin of the woollen trade is +the result of the non-improvement in the breeding of sheep. +Country-folk have the deepest horror of change; even that which is +most conducive to their interests. In the country, a Parisian meets +a laborer who eats an enormous quantity of bread, cheese, and +vegetables; he proves to him that if he would substitute for that diet +a certain portion of meat, he would be better fed, at less cost; that +he could work more, and would not use up his capital of health and +strength so quickly. The Berrichon sees the correctness of the +calculation, but he answers, "Think of the gossip, monsieur." "Gossip, +what do you mean?" "Well, yes, what would people say of me?" "He would +be the talk of the neighborhood," said the owner of the property on +which this scene took place; "they would think him as rich as a +tradesman. He is afraid of public opinion, afraid of being pointed at, +afraid of seeming ill or feeble. That's how we all are in this +region." Many of the bourgeoisie utter this phrase with feelings of +inward pride. + +While ignorance and custom are invincible in the country regions, +where the peasants are left very much to themselves, the town of +Issoudun itself has reached a state of complete social stagnation. +Obliged to meet the decadence of fortunes by the practice of sordid +economy, each family lives to itself. Moreover, society is permanently +deprived of that distinction of classes which gives character to +manners and customs. There is no opposition of social forces, such as +that to which the cities of the Italian States in the Middle Ages owed +their vitality. There are no longer any nobles in Issoudun. The +Cottereaux, the Routiers, the Jacquerie, the religious wars and the +Revolution did away with the nobility. The town is proud of that +triumph. Issoudun has repeatedly refused to receive a garrison, always +on the plea of cheap provisions. She has thus lost a means of +intercourse with the age, and she has also lost the profits arising +from the presence of troops. Before 1756, Issoudun was one of the most +delightful of all the garrison towns. A judicial drama, which occupied +for a time the attention of France, the feud of a lieutenant-general +of the department with the Marquis de Chapt, whose son, an officer of +dragoons, was put to death,--justly perhaps, yet traitorously, for +some affair of gallantry,--deprived the town from that time forth of a +garrison. The sojourn of the forty-fourth demi-brigade, imposed upon +it during the civil war, was not of a nature to reconcile the +inhabitants to the race of warriors. + +Bourges, whose population is yearly decreasing, is a victim of the +same social malady. Vitality is leaving these communities. +Undoubtedly, the government is to blame. The duty of an administration +is to discover the wounds upon the body-politic, and remedy them by +sending men of energy to the diseased regions, with power to change +the state of things. Alas, so far from that, it approves and +encourages this ominous and fatal tranquillity. Besides, it may be +asked, how could the government send new administrators and able +magistrates? Who, of such men, is willing to bury himself in the +arrondissements, where the good to be done is without glory? If, by +chance, some ambitious stranger settles there, he soon falls into the +inertia of the region, and tunes himself to the dreadful key of +provincial life. Issoudun would have benumbed Napoleon. + +As a result of this particular characteristic, the arrondissement of +Issoudun was governed, in 1822, by men who all belonged to Berry. The +administration of power became either a nullity or a farce,--except in +certain cases, naturally very rare, which by their manifest importance +compelled the authorities to act. The procureur du roi, Monsieur +Mouilleron, was cousin to the entire community, and his substitute +belonged to one of the families of the town. The judge of the court, +before attaining that dignity, was made famous by one of those +provincial sayings which put a cap and bells on a man's head for the +rest of his life. As he ended his summing-up of all the facts of an +indictment, he looked at the accused and said: "My poor Pierre! the +thing is as plain as day; your head will be cut off. Let this be a +lesson to you." The commissary of police, holding office since the +Restoration, had relations throughout the arrondissement. Moreover, +not only was the influence of religion null, but the curate himself +was held in no esteem. + +It was this bourgeoisie, radical, ignorant, and loving to annoy +others, which now related tales, more or less comic, about the +relations of Jean-Jacques Rouget with his servant-woman. The children +of these people went none the less to Sunday-school, and were as +scrupulously prepared for their communion: the schools were kept up +all the same; mass was said; the taxes were paid (the sole thing that +Paris extracts of the provinces), and the mayor passed resolutions. +But all these acts of social existence were done as mere routine, and +thus the laxity of the local government suited admirably with the +moral and intellectual condition of the governed. The events of the +following history will show the effects of this state of things, which +is not as unusual in the provinces as might be supposed. Many towns in +France, more particularly in the South, are like Issoudun. The +condition to which the ascendency of the bourgeoisie has reduced that +local capital is one which will spread over all France, and even to +Paris, if the bourgeois continues to rule the exterior and interior +policy of our country. + +Now, one word of topography. Issoudun stretches north and south, along +a hillside which rounds towards the highroad to Chateauroux. At the +foot of the hill, a canal, now called the "Riviere forcee" whose +waters are taken from the Theols, was constructed in former times, +when the town was flourishing, for the use of manufactories or to +flood the moats of the rampart. The "Riviere forcee" forms an +artificial arm of a natural river, the Tournemine, which unites with +several other streams beyond the suburb of Rome. These little threads +of running water and the two rivers irrigate a tract of wide-spreading +meadow-land, enclosed on all sides by little yellowish or white +terraces dotted with black speckles; for such is the aspect of the +vineyards of Issoudun during seven months of the year. The +vine-growers cut the plants down yearly, leaving only an ugly stump, +without support, sheltered by a barrel. The traveller arriving from +Vierzon, Vatan, or Chateauroux, his eyes weary with monotonous plains, +is agreeably surprised by the meadows of Issoudun,--the oasis of this +part of Berry, which supplies the inhabitants with vegetables +throughout a region of thirty miles in circumference. Below the suburb +of Rome, lies a vast tract entirely covered with kitchen-gardens, and +divided into two sections, which bear the name of upper and lower +Baltan. A long avenue of poplars leads from the town across the +meadows to an ancient convent named Frapesle, whose English gardens, +quite unique in that arrondissement, have received the ambitious name +of Tivoli. Loving couples whisper their vows in its alleys of a +Sunday. + +Traces of the ancient grandeur of Issoudun of course reveal themselves +to the eyes of a careful observer; and the most suggestive are the +divisions of the town. The chateau, formerly almost a town itself with +its walls and moats, is a distinct quarter which can only be entered, +even at the present day, through its ancient gateways,--by means of +three bridges thrown across the arms of the two rivers,--and has all +the appearance of an ancient city. The ramparts show, in places, the +formidable strata of their foundations, on which houses have now +sprung up. Above the chateau, is the famous tower of Issoudun, once +the citadel. The conqueror of the city, which lay around these two +fortified points, had still to gain possession of the tower and the +castle; and possession of the castle did not insure that of the tower, +or citadel. + +The suburb of Saint-Paterne, which lies in the shape of a palette +beyond the tower, encroaching on the meadow-lands, is so considerable +that in the very earliest ages it must have been part of the city +itself. This opinion derived, in 1822, a sort of certainty from the +then existence of the charming church of Saint-Paterne, recently +pulled down by the heir of the individual who bought it of the nation. +This church, one of the finest specimens of the Romanesque that France +possessed, actually perished without a single drawing being made of +the portal, which was in perfect preservation. The only voice raised +to save this monument of a past art found no echo, either in the town +itself or in the department. Though the castle of Issoudun has the +appearance of an old town, with its narrow streets and its ancient +mansions, the city itself, properly so called, which was captured and +burned at different epochs, notably during the Fronde, when it was +laid in ashes, has a modern air. Streets that are spacious in +comparison with those of other towns, and well-built houses form a +striking contrast to the aspect of the citadel,--a contrast that has +won for Issoudun, in certain geographies, the epithet of "pretty." + +In a town thus constituted, without the least activity, even business +activity, without a taste for art, or for learned occupations, and +where everybody stayed in the little round of his or her own home, it +was likely to happen, and did happen under the Restoration in 1816 +when the war was over, that many of the young men of the place had no +career before them, and knew not where to turn for occupation until +they could marry or inherit the property of their fathers. Bored in +their own homes, these young fellows found little or no distraction +elsewhere in the city; and as, in the language of that region, "youth +must shed its cuticle" they sowed their wild oats at the expense of +the town itself. It was difficult to carry on such operations in open +day, lest the perpetrators should be recognized; for the cup of their +misdemeanors once filled, they were liable to be arraigned at their +next peccadillo before the police courts; and they therefore +judiciously selected the night time for the performance of their +mischievous pranks. Thus it was that among the traces of divers lost +civilizations, a vestige of the spirit of drollery that characterized +the manners of antiquity burst into a final flame. + +The young men amused themselves very much as Charles IX. amused +himself with his courtiers, or Henry V. of England and his companions, +or as in former times young men were wont to amuse themselves in the +provinces. Having once banded together for purposes of mutual help, to +defend each other and invent amusing tricks, there presently developed +among them, through the clash of ideas, that spirit of malicious +mischief which belongs to the period of youth and may even be observed +among animals. The confederation, in itself, gave them the mimic +delights of the mystery of an organized conspiracy. They called +themselves the "Knights of Idleness." During the day these young +scamps were youthful saints; they all pretended to extreme quietness; +and, in fact, they habitually slept late after the nights on which +they had been playing their malicious pranks. The "Knights" began with +mere commonplace tricks, such as unhooking and changing signs, ringing +bells, flinging casks left before one house into the cellar of the +next with a crash, rousing the occupants of the house by a noise that +seemed to their frightened ears like the explosion of a mine. In +Issoudun, as in many country towns, the cellar is entered by an +opening near the door of the house, covered with a wooden scuttle, +secured by strong iron hinges and a padlock. + +In 1816, these modern Bad Boys had not altogether given up such tricks +as these, perpetrated in the provinces by all young lads and gamins. +But in 1817 the Order of Idleness acquired a Grand Master, and +distinguished itself by mischief which, up to 1823, spread something +like terror in Issoudun, or at least kept the artisans and the +bourgeoisie perpetually uneasy. + +This leader was a certain Maxence Gilet, commonly called Max, whose +antecedents, no less than his youth and his vigor, predestined him for +such a part. Maxence Gilet was supposed by all Issoudun to be the +natural son of the sub-delegate Lousteau, that brother of Madame +Hochon whose gallantries had left memories behind them, and who, as we +have seen, drew down upon himself the hatred of old Doctor Rouget +about the time of Agathe's birth. But the friendship which bound the +two men together before their quarrel was so close that, to use an +expression of that region and that period, "they willingly walked the +same road." Some people said that Maxence was as likely to be the son +of the doctor as of the sub-delegate; but in fact he belonged to +neither the one nor the other,--his father being a charming dragoon +officer in garrison at Bourges. Nevertheless, as a result of their +enmity, and very fortunately for the child, Rouget and Lousteau never +ceased to claim his paternity. + +Max's mother, the wife of a poor sabot-maker in the Rome suburb, was +possessed, for the perdition of her soul, of a surprising beauty, a +Trasteverine beauty, the only property which she transmitted to her +son. Madame Gilet, pregnant with Maxence in 1788, had long desired +that blessing, which the town attributed to the gallantries of the two +friends,--probably in the hope of setting them against each other. +Gilet, an old drunkard with a triple throat, treated his wife's +misconduct with a collusion that is not uncommon among the lower +classes. To make sure of protectors for her son, Madame Gilet was +careful not to enlighten his reputed fathers as to his parentage. In +Paris, she would have turned out a millionaire; at Issoudun she lived +sometimes at her ease, more often miserably, and, in the long run, +despised. Madame Hochon, Lousteau's sister, paid sixty francs a year +for the lad's schooling. This liberality, which Madame Hochon was +quite unable to practise on her own account because of her husband's +stinginess, was naturally attributed to her brother, then living at +Sancerre. + +When Doctor Rouget, who certainly was not lucky in sons, observed +Max's beauty, he paid the board of the "young rogue," as he called +him, at the seminary, up to the year 1805. As Lousteau died in 1800, +and the doctor apparently obeyed a feeling of vanity in paying the +lad's board until 1805, the question of the paternity was left forever +undecided. Maxence Gilet, the butt of many jests, was soon forgotten, +--and for this reason: In 1806, a year after Doctor Rouget's death, +the lad, who seemed to have been created for a venturesome life, and +was moreover gifted with remarkable vigor and agility, got into a +series of scrapes which more or less threatened his safety. He plotted +with the grandsons of Monsieur Hochon to worry the grocers of the +city; he gathered fruit before the owners could pick it, and made +nothing of scaling walls. He had no equal at bodily exercises, he +played base to perfection, and could have outrun a hare. With a keen +eye worthy of Leather-stocking, he loved hunting passionately. His +time was passed in firing at a mark, instead of studying; and he spent +the money extracted from the old doctor in buying powder and ball for +a wretched pistol that old Gilet, the sabot-maker, had given him. +During the autumn of 1806, Maxence, then seventeen, committed an +involuntary murder, by frightening in the dusk a young woman who was +pregnant, and who came upon him suddenly while stealing fruit in her +garden. Threatened with the guillotine by Gilet, who doubtless wanted +to get rid of him, Max fled to Bourges, met a regiment then on its way +to Egypt, and enlisted. Nothing came of the death of the young woman. + +A young fellow of Max's character was sure to distinguish himself, and +in the course of three campaigns he did distinguish himself so highly +that he rose to be a captain, his lack of education helping him +strenuously. In Portugal, in 1809, he was left for dead in an English +battery, into which his company had penetrated without being able to +hold it. Max, taken prisoner by the English, was sent to the Spanish +hulks at the island of Cabrera, the most horrible of all stations for +prisoners of war. His friends begged that he might receive the cross +of the Legion of honor and the rank of major; but the Emperor was then +in Austria, and he reserved his favors for those who did brilliant +deeds under his own eye: he did not like officers or men who allowed +themselves to be taken prisoner, and he was, moreover, much +dissatisfied with events in Portugal. Max was held at Cabrera from +1810 to 1814.[1] During those years he became utterly demoralized, for +the hulks were like galleys, minus crime and infamy. At the outset, to +maintain his personal free will, and protect himself against the +corruption which made that horrible prison unworthy of a civilized +people, the handsome young captain killed in a duel (for duels were +fought on those hulks in a space scarcely six feet square) seven +bullies among his fellow-prisoners, thus ridding the island of their +tyranny to the great joy of the other victims. After this, Max reigned +supreme in his hulk, thanks to the wonderful ease and address with +which he handled weapons, to his bodily strength, and also to his +extreme cleverness. + + + [1] The cruelty of the Spaniards to the French prisoners at Cabrera + was very great. In the spring of 1811, H.M. brig "Minorca," + Captain Wormeley, was sent by Admiral Sir Charles Cotton, then + commanding the Mediterranean fleet, to make a report of their + condition. As she neared the island, the wretched prisoners swam + out to meet her. They were reduced to skin and bone; many of them + were naked; and their miserable condition so moved the seamen of + the "Minorca" that they came aft to the quarter-deck, and asked + permission to subscribe three days' rations for the relief of the + sufferers. Captain Wormeley carried away some of the prisoners, + and his report to Sir Charles Cotton, being sent to the Admiralty, + was made the basis of a remonstrance on the part of the British + government with Spain on the subject of its cruelties. Sir Charles + Cotton despatched Captain Wormeley a second time to Cabrera with a + good many head of live cattle and a large supply of other + provisions.--Tr. + + +But he, in turn, committed arbitrary acts; there were those who +curried favor with him, and worked his will, and became his minions. +In that school of misery, where bitter minds dreamed only of +vengeance, where the sophistries hatched in such brains were laying +up, inevitably, a store of evil thoughts, Max became utterly +demoralized. He listened to the opinions of those who longed for +fortune at any price, and did not shrink from the results of criminal +actions, provided they were done without discovery. When peace was +proclaimed, in April, 1814, he left the island, depraved though still +innocent. On his return to Issoudun he found his father and mother +dead. Like others who give way to their passions and make life, as +they call it, short and sweet, the Gilets had died in the almshouse in +the utmost poverty. Immediately after his return, the news of +Napoleon's landing at Cannes spread through France; Max could do no +better than go to Paris and ask for his rank as major and for his +cross. The marshal who was at that time minister of war remembered the +brave conduct of Captain Gilet in Portugal. He put him in the Guard as +captain, which gave him the grade of major in the infantry; but he +could not get him the cross. "The Emperor says that you will know how +to win it at the first chance," said the marshal. In fact, the Emperor +did put the brave captain on his list for decoration the evening after +the fight at Fleurus, where Gilet distinguished himself. + +After the battle of Waterloo Max retreated to the Loire. At the time +of the disbandment, Marshal Feltre refused to recognize Max's grade as +major, or his claim to the cross. The soldier of Napoleon returned to +Issoudun in a state of exasperation that may well be conceived; he +declared that he would not serve without either rank or cross. The +war-office considered these conditions presumptuous in a young man of +twenty-five without a name, who might, if they were granted, become a +colonel at thirty. Max accordingly sent in his resignation. The major +--for among themselves Bonapartists recognized the grades obtained in +1815--thus lost the pittance called half-pay which was allowed to the +officers of the army of the Loire. But all Issoudun was roused at the +sight of the brave young fellow left with only twenty napoleons in his +possession; and the mayor gave him a place in his office with a salary +of six hundred francs. Max kept it a few months, then gave it up of +his own accord, and was replaced by a captain named Carpentier, who, +like himself, had remained faithful to Napoleon. + +By this time Gilet had become grand master of the Knights of Idleness, +and was leading a life which lost him the good-will of the chief +people of the town; who, however, did not openly make the fact known +to him, for he was violent and much feared by all, even by the +officers of the old army who, like himself, had refused to serve under +the Bourbons, and had come home to plant their cabbages in Berry. The +little affection felt for the Bourbons among the natives of Issoudun +is not surprising when we recall the history which we have just given. +In fact, considering its size and lack of importance, the little place +contained more Bonapartists than any other town in France. These men +became, as is well known, nearly all Liberals. + +In Issoudun and its neighborhood there were a dozen officers in Max's +position. These men admired him and made him their leader,--with the +exception, however, of Carpentier, his successor, and a certain +Monsieur Mignonnet, ex-captain in the artillery of the Guard. +Carpentier, a cavalry officer risen from the ranks, had married into +one of the best families in the town,--the Borniche-Herau. Mignonnet, +brought up at the Ecole Polytechnique, had served in a corps which +held itself superior to all others. In the Imperial armies there were +two shades of distinction among the soldiers themselves. A majority of +them felt a contempt for the bourgeois, the "civilian," fully equal to +the contempt of nobles for their serfs, or conquerors for the +conquered. Such men did not always observe the laws of honor in their +dealings with civilians; nor did they much blame those who rode +rough-shod over the bourgeoisie. The others, and particularly the +artillery, perhaps because of its republicanism, never adopted the +doctrine of a military France and a civil France, the tendency of which +was nothing less than to make two nations. So, although Major Potel and +Captain Renard, two officers living in the Rome suburb, were friends to +Maxence Gilet "through thick and thin," Major Mignonnet and Captain +Carpentier took sides with the bourgeoisie, and thought his conduct +unworthy of a man of honor. + +Major Mignonnet, a lean little man, full of dignity, busied himself +with the problems which the steam-engine requires us to solve, and +lived in a modest way, taking his social intercourse with Monsieur and +Madame Carpentier. His gentle manners and ways, and his scientific +occupations won him the respect of the whole town; and it was +frequently said of him and of Captain Carpentier that they were "quite +another thing" from Major Potel and Captain Renard, Maxence, and other +frequenters of the cafe Militaire, who retained the soldierly manners +and the defective morals of the Empire. + +At the time when Madame Bridau returned to Issoudun, Max was excluded +from the society of the place. He showed, moreover, proper +self-respect in never presenting himself at the club, and in never +complaining of the severe reprobation that was shown him; although he +was the handsomest, the most elegant, and the best dressed man in the +place, spent a great deal of money, and kept a horse,--a thing as +amazing at Issoudun as the horse of Lord Byron at Venice. We are now +to see how it was that Maxence, poor and without apparent means, was +able to become the dandy of the town. The shameful conduct which +earned him the contempt of all scrupulous or religious persons was +connected with the interests which brought Agathe and Joseph to +Issoudun. + +Judging by the audacity of his bearing, and the expression of his +face, Max cared little for public opinion; he expected, no doubt, to +take his revenge some day, and to lord it over those who now condemned +him. Moreover, if the bourgeoisie of Issoudun thought ill of him, the +admiration he excited among the common people counterbalanced their +opinion; his courage, his dashing appearance, his decision of +character, could not fail to please the masses, to whom his +degradations were, for the most part, unknown, and indeed the +bourgeoisie themselves scarcely suspected its extent. Max played a +role at Issoudun which was something like that of the blacksmith in +the "Fair Maid of Perth"; he was the champion of Bonapartism and the +Opposition; they counted upon him as the burghers of Perth counted +upon Smith on great occasions. A single incident will put this hero +and victim of the Hundred-Days into clear relief. + +In 1819, a battalion commanded by royalist officers, young men just +out of the Maison Rouge, passed through Issoudun on its way to go into +garrison at Bourges. Not knowing what to do with themselves in so +constitutional a place as Issoudun, these young gentlemen went to +while away the time at the cafe Militaire. In every provincial town +there is a military cafe. That of Issoudun, built on the place d'Armes +at an angle of the rampart, and kept by the widow of an officer, was +naturally the rendezvous of the Bonapartists, chiefly officers on +half-pay, and others who shared Max's opinions, to whom the politics +of the town allowed free expression of their idolatry for the Emperor. +Every year, dating from 1816, a banquet was given in Issoudun to +commemorate the anniversary of his coronation. The three royalists who +first entered asked for the newspapers, among others, for the +"Quotidienne" and the "Drapeau Blanc." The politics of Issoudun, +especially those of the cafe Militaire, did not allow of such royalist +journals. The establishment had none but the "Commerce,"--a name which +the "Constitutionel" was compelled to adopt for several years after it +was suppressed by the government. But as, in its first issue under the +new name, the leading article began with these words, "Commerce is +essentially constitutional," people continued to call it the +"Constitutionel," the subscribers all understanding the sly play of +words which begged them to pay no attention to the label, as the wine +would be the same. + +The fat landlady replied from her seat at the desk that she did not +take those papers. "What papers do you take then?" asked one of the +officers, a captain. The waiter, a little fellow in a blue cloth +jacket, with an apron of coarse linen tied over it, brought the +"Commerce." + +"Is that your paper? Have you no other?" + +"No," said the waiter, "that's the only one." + +The captain tore it up, flung the pieces on the floor, and spat upon +them, calling out,-- + +"Bring dominos!" + +In ten minutes the news of the insult offered to the Constitution +Opposition and the Liberal party, in the supersacred person of its +revered journal, which attacked priests with courage and the wit we +all remember, spread throughout the town and into the houses like +light itself; it was told and repeated from place to place. One phrase +was on everybody's lips,-- + +"Let us tell Max!" + +Max soon heard of it. The royalist officers were still at their game +of dominos when that hero entered the cafe, accompanied by Major Potel +and Captain Renard, and followed by at least thirty young men, curious +to see the end of the affair, most of whom remained outside in the +street. The room was soon full. + +"Waiter, _my_ newspaper," said Max, in a quiet voice. + +Then a little comedy was played. The fat hostess, with a timid and +conciliatory air, said, "Captain, I have lent it!" + +"Send for it," cried one of Max's friends. + +"Can't you do without it?" said the waiter; "we have not got it." + +The young royalists were laughing and casting sidelong glances at the +new-comers. + +"They have torn it up!" cried a youth of the town, looking at the feet +of the young royalist captain. + +"Who has dared to destroy that paper?" demanded Max, in a thundering +voice, his eyes flashing as he rose with his arms crossed. + +"And we spat upon it," replied the three young officers, also rising, +and looking at Max. + +"You have insulted the whole town!" said Max, turning livid. + +"Well, what of that?" asked the youngest officer. + +With a dexterity, quickness, and audacity which the young men did not +foresee, Max slapped the face of the officer nearest to him, saying,-- + +"Do you understand French?" + +They fought near by, in the allee de Frapesle, three against three; +for Potel and Renard would not allow Max to deal with the officers +alone. Max killed his man. Major Potel wounded his so severely, that +the unfortunate young man, the son of a good family, died in the +hospital the next day. As for the third, he got off with a sword cut, +after wounding his adversary, Captain Renard. The battalion left for +Bourges that night. This affair, which was noised throughout Berry, +set Max up definitely as a hero. + +The Knights of Idleness, who were all young, the eldest not more than +twenty-five years old, admired Maxence. Some among them, far from +sharing the prudery and strict notions of their families concerning +his conduct, envied his present position and thought him fortunate. +Under such a leader, the Order did great things. After the month of +May, 1817, never a week passed that the town was not thrown into an +uproar by some new piece of mischief. Max, as a matter of honor, +imposed certain conditions upon the Knights. Statutes were drawn up. +These young demons grew as vigilant as the pupils of Amoros,--bold as +hawks, agile at all exercises, clever and strong as criminals. They +trained themselves in climbing roofs, scaling houses, jumping and +walking noiselessly, mixing mortar, and walling up doors. They +collected an arsenal of ropes, ladders, tools, and disguises. After a +time the Knights of Idleness attained to the beau-ideal of malicious +mischief, not only as to the accomplishment but, still more, in the +invention of their pranks. They came at last to possess the genius for +evil that Panurge so much delighted in; which provokes laughter, and +covers its victims with such ridicule that they dare not complain. +Naturally, these sons of good families of Issoudun possessed and +obtained information in their households, which gave them the ways and +means for the perpetration of their outrages. + +Sometimes the young devils incarnate lay in ambush along the Grand'rue +or the Basse rue, two streets which are, as it were, the arteries of +the town, into which many little side streets open. Crouching, with +their heads to the wind, in the angles of the wall and at the corners +of the streets, at the hour when all the households were hushed in +their first sleep, they called to each other in tones of terror from +ambush to ambush along the whole length of the town: "What's the +matter?" "What is it?" till the repeated cries woke up the citizens, +who appeared in their shirts and cotton night-caps, with lights in +their hands, asking questions of one another, holding the strangest +colloquies, and exhibiting the queerest faces. + +A certain poor bookbinder, who was very old, believed in hobgoblins. +Like most provincial artisans, he worked in a small basement shop. The +Knights, disguised as devils, invaded the place in the middle of the +night, put him into his own cutting-press, and left him shrieking to +himself like the souls in hell. The poor man roused the neighbors, to +whom he related the apparitions of Lucifer; and as they had no means +of undeceiving him, he was driven nearly insane. + +In the middle of a severe winter, the Knights took down the chimney of +the collector of taxes, and built it up again in one night apparently +as it was before, without making the slightest noise, or leaving the +least trace of their work. But they so arranged the inside of the +chimney as to send all the smoke into the house. The collector +suffered for two months before he found out why his chimney, which had +always drawn so well, and of which he had often boasted, played him +such tricks; he was then obliged to build a new one. + +At another time, they put three trusses of hay dusted with brimstone, +and a quantity of oiled paper down the chimney of a pious old woman +who was a friend of Madame Hochon. In the morning, when she came to +light her fire, the poor creature, who was very gentle and kindly, +imagined she had started a volcano. The fire-engines came, the whole +population rushed to her assistance. Several Knights were among the +firemen, and they deluged the old woman's house, till they had +frightened her with a flood, as much as they had terrified her with +the fire. She was made ill with fear. + +When they wished to make some one spend the night under arms and in +mortal terror, they wrote an anonymous letter telling him that he was +about to be robbed; then they stole softly, one by one, round the +walls of his house, or under his windows, whistling as if to call each +other. + +One of their famous performances, which long amused the town, where in +fact it is still related, was to write a letter to all the heirs of a +miserly old lady who was likely to leave a large property, announcing +her death, and requesting them to be promptly on hand when the seals +were affixed. Eighty persons arrived from Vatan, Saint-Florent, +Vierzon and the neighboring country, all in deep mourning,--widows +with sons, children with their fathers, some in carrioles, some in +wicker gigs, others in dilapidated carts. Imagine the scene between +the old woman's servants and the first arrivals! and the consultations +among the notaries! It created a sort of riot in Issoudun. + +At last, one day the sub-prefect woke up to a sense that this state of +things was all the more intolerable because it seemed impossible to +find out who was at the bottom of it. Suspicion fell on several young +men; but as the National Guard was a mere name in Issoudun, and there +was no garrison, and the lieutenant of police had only eight gendarmes +under him, so that there were no patrols, it was impossible to get any +proof against them. The sub-prefect was immediately posted in the +"order of the night," and considered thenceforth fair game. This +functionary made a practice of breakfasting on two fresh eggs. He kept +chickens in his yard, and added to his mania for eating fresh eggs +that of boiling them himself. Neither his wife nor his servant, in +fact no one, according to him, knew how to boil an egg properly; he +did it watch in hand, and boasted that he carried off the palm of +egg-boiling from all the world. For two years he had boiled his eggs +with a success which earned him many witticisms. But now, every night for +a whole month, the eggs were taken from his hen-house, and hard-boiled +eggs substituted. The sub-prefect was at his wits' end, and lost his +reputation as the "sous-prefet a l'oeuf." Finally he was forced to +breakfast on other things. Yet he never suspected the Knights of +Idleness, whose trick had been cautiously played. After this, Max +managed to grease the sub-prefect's stoves every night with an oil +which sent forth so fetid a smell that it was impossible for any one +to stay in the house. Even that was not enough; his wife, going to +mass one morning, found her shawl glued together on the inside with +some tenacious substance, so that she was obliged to go without it. +The sub-prefect finally asked for another appointment. The cowardly +submissiveness of this officer had much to do with firmly establishing +the weird and comic authority of the Knights of Idleness. + +Beyond the rue des Minimes and the place Misere, a section of a +quarter was at that time enclosed between an arm of the "Riviere +forcee" on the lower side and the ramparts on the other, beginning at +the place d'Armes and going as far as the pottery market. This +irregular square is filled with poor-looking houses crowded one +against the other, and divided here and there by streets so narrow +that two persons cannot walk abreast. This section of the town, a sort +of cour des Miracles, was occupied by poor people or persons working +at trades that were little remunerative,--a population living in +hovels, and buildings called picturesquely by the familiar term of +"blind houses." From the earliest ages this has no doubt been an +accursed quarter, the haunt of evil-doers; in fact one thoroughfare is +named "the street of the Executioner." For more than five centuries it +has been customary for the executioner to have a red door at the +entrance of his house. The assistant of the executioner of Chateauroux +still lives there,--if we are to believe public rumor, for the +townspeople never see him: the vine-dressers alone maintain an +intercourse with this mysterious being, who inherits from his +predecessors the gift of curing wounds and fractures. In the days when +Issoudun assumed the airs of a capital city the women of the town made +this section of it the scene of their wanderings. Here came the +second-hand sellers of things that look as if they never could find a +purchaser, old-clothes dealers whose wares infected the air; in short, +it was the rendezvous of that apocryphal population which is to be +found in nearly all such portions of a city, where two or three Jews +have gained an ascendency. + +At the corner of one of these gloomy streets in the livelier half of +the quarter, there existed from 1815 to 1823, and perhaps later, a +public-house kept by a woman commonly called Mere Cognette. The house +itself was tolerably well built, in courses of white stone, with the +intermediary spaces filled in with ashlar and cement, one storey high +with an attic above. Over the door was an enormous branch of pine, +looking as though it were cast in Florentine bronze. As if this symbol +were not explanatory enough, the eye was arrested by the blue of a +poster which was pasted over the doorway, and on which appeared, above +the words "Good Beer of Mars," the picture of a soldier pouring out, +in the direction of a very decolletee woman, a jet of foam which +spurted in an arched line from the pitcher to the glass which she was +holding towards him; the whole of a color to make Delacroix swoon. + +The ground-floor was occupied by an immense hall serving both as +kitchen and dining-room, from the beams of which hung, suspended by +huge nails, the provisions needed for the custom of such a house. +Behind this hall a winding staircase led to the upper storey; at the +foot of the staircase a door led into a low, long room lighted from +one of those little provincial courts, so narrow, dark, and sunken +between tall houses, as to seem like the flue of a chimney. Hidden by +a shed, and concealed from all eyes by walls, this low room was the +place where the Bad Boys of Issoudun held their plenary court. +Ostensibly, Pere Cognet boarded and lodged the country-people on +market-days; secretly, he was landlord to the Knights of Idleness. +This man, who was formerly a groom in a rich household, had ended by +marrying La Cognette, a cook in a good family. The suburb of Rome +still continues, like Italy and Poland, to follow the Latin custom of +putting a feminine termination to the husband's name and giving it to +the wife. + +By uniting their savings Pere Cognet and his spouse had managed to buy +their present house. La Cognette, a woman of forty, tall and plump, +with the nose of a Roxelane, a swarthy skin, jet-black hair, brown +eyes that were round and lively, and a general air of mirth and +intelligence, was selected by Maxence Gilet, on account of her +character and her talent for cookery, as the Leonarde of the Order. +Pere Cognet might be about fifty-six years old; he was thick-set, very +much under his wife's rule, and, according to a witticism which she +was fond of repeating, he only saw things with a good eye--for he was +blind of the other. In the course of seven years, that is, from 1816 +to 1823, neither wife nor husband had betrayed what went on nightly at +their house, or who they were that shared in the plot; they felt the +liveliest regard for the Knights; their devotion was absolute. But +this may seem less creditable if we remember that self-interest was +the security of their affection and their silence. No matter at what +hour of the night the Knights dropped in upon the tavern, the moment +they knocked in a certain way Pere Cognet, recognizing the signal, got +up, lit the fire and the candles, opened the door, and went to the +cellar for a particular wine that was laid in expressly for the Order; +while La Cognette cooked an excellent supper, eaten either before or +after the expeditions, which were usually planned the previous evening +or in the course of the preceding day. + + + + CHAPTER VIII + +While Joseph and Madame Bridau were journeying from Orleans to +Issoudun, the Knights of Idleness perpetrated one of their best +tricks. An old Spaniard, a former prisoner of war, who after the peace +had remained in the neighborhood, where he did a small business in +grain, came early one morning to market, leaving his empty cart at the +foot of the tower of Issoudun. Maxence, who arrived at a rendezvous of +the Knights, appointed on that occasion at the foot of the tower, was +soon assailed with the whispered question, "What are we to do +to-night?" + +"Here's Pere Fario's cart," he answered. "I nearly cracked my shins +over it. Let us get it up on the embankment of the tower in the first +place, and we'll make up our minds afterwards." + +When Richard Coeur-de-Lion built the tower of Issoudun he raised it, +as we have said, on the ruins of the basilica, which itself stood +above the Roman temple and the Celtic Dun. These ruins, each of which +represents a period of several centuries, form a mound big with the +monuments of three distinct ages. The tower is, therefore, the apex of +a cone, from which the descent is equally steep on all sides, and +which is only approached by a series of steps. To give in a few words +an idea of the height of this tower, we may compare it to the obelisk +of Luxor on its pedestal. The pedestal of the tower of Issoudun, which +hid within its breast such archaeological treasures, was eighty feet +high on the side towards the town. In an hour the cart was taken off +its wheels and hoisted, piece by piece, to the top of the embankment +at the foot of the tower itself,--a work that was somewhat like that +of the soldiers who carried the artillery over the pass of the Grand +Saint-Bernard. The cart was then remounted on its wheels, and the +Knights, by this time hungry and thirsty, returned to Mere Cognette's, +where they were soon seated round the table in the low room, laughing +at the grimaces Fario would make when he came after his barrow in the +morning. + +The Knights, naturally, did not play such capers every night. The +genius of Sganarelle, Mascarille, and Scapin combined would not have +sufficed to invent three hundred and sixty-five pieces of mischief a +year. In the first place, circumstances were not always propitious: +sometimes the moon shone clear, or the last prank had greatly +irritated their betters; then one or another of their number refused +to share in some proposed outrage because a relation was involved. But +if the scamps were not at Mere Cognette's every night, they always met +during the day, enjoying together the legitimate pleasures of hunting, +or the autumn vintages and the winter skating. Among this assemblage +of twenty youths, all of them at war with the social somnolence of the +place, there are some who were more closely allied than others to Max, +and who made him their idol. A character like his often fascinates +other youths. The two grandsons of Madame Hochon--Francois Hochon and +Baruch Borniche--were his henchmen. These young fellows, accepting the +general opinion of the left-handed parentage of Lousteau, looked upon +Max as their cousin. Max, moreover, was liberal in lending them money +for their pleasures, which their grandfather Hochon refused; he took +them hunting, let them see life, and exercised a much greater +influence over them than their own family. They were both orphans, and +were kept, although each had attained his majority, under the +guardianship of Monsieur Hochon, for reasons which will be explained +when Monsieur Hochon himself comes upon the scene. + +At this particular moment Francois and Baruch (we will call them by +their Christian names for the sake of clearness) were sitting, one on +each side of Max, at the middle of a table that was rather ill lighted +by the fuliginous gleams of four tallow candles of eight to the pound. +A dozen to fifteen bottles of various wines had just been drunk, for +only eleven of the Knights were present. Baruch--whose name indicates +pretty clearly that Calvinism still kept some hold on Issoudun--said +to Max, as the wine was beginning to unloose all tongues,-- + +"You are threatened in your stronghold." + +"What do you mean by that?" asked Max. + +"Why, my grandmother has had a letter from Madame Bridau, who is her +goddaughter, saying that she and her son are coming here. My +grandmother has been getting two rooms ready for them." + +"What's that to me?" said Max, taking up his glass and swallowing the +contents at a gulp with a comic gesture. + +Max was then thirty-four years old. A candle standing near him threw a +gleam upon his soldierly face, lit up his brow, and brought out +admirably his clear skin, his ardent eyes, his black and slightly +curling hair, which had the brilliancy of jet. The hair grew +vigorously upward from the forehead and temples, sharply defining +those five black tongues which our ancestors used to call the "five +points." Notwithstanding this abrupt contrast of black and white, +Max's face was very sweet, owing its charm to an outline like that +which Raphael gave to the faces of his Madonnas, and to a well-cut +mouth whose lips smiled graciously, giving an expression of +countenance which Max had made distinctively his own. The rich +coloring which blooms on a Berrichon cheek added still further to his +look of kindly good-humor. When he laughed heartily, he showed +thirty-two teeth worthy of the mouth of a pretty woman. In height +about five feet six inches, the young man was admirably +well-proportioned,--neither too stout nor yet too thin. His hands, +carefully kept, were white and rather handsome; but his feet recalled +the suburb and the foot-soldier of the Empire. Max would certainly +have made a good general of division; he had shoulders that were +worth a fortune to a marshal of France, and a breast broad enough to +wear all the orders of Europe. Every movement betrayed intelligence; +born with grace and charm, like nearly all the children of love, the +noble blood of his real father came out in him. + +"Don't you know, Max," cried the son of a former surgeon-major named +Goddet--now the best doctor in the town--from the other end of the +table, "that Madame Hochon's goddaughter is the sister of Rouget? If +she is coming here with her son, no doubt she means to make sure of +getting the property when he dies, and then--good-by to your harvest!" + +Max frowned. Then, with a look which ran from one face to another all +round the table, he watched the effect of this announcement on the +minds of those present, and again replied,-- + +"What's that to me?" + +"But," said Francois, "I should think that if old Rouget revoked his +will,--in case he has made one in favor of the Rabouilleuse--" + +Here Max cut short his henchman's speech. "I've stopped the mouths of +people who have dared to meddle with you, my dear Francois," he said; +"and this is the way you pay your debts? You use a contemptuous +nickname in speaking of a woman to whom I am known to be attached." + +Max had never before said as much as this about his relations with the +person to whom Francois had just applied a name under which she was +known at Issoudun. The late prisoner at Cabrera--the major of the +grenadiers of the Guard--knew enough of what honor was to judge +rightly as to the causes of the disesteem in which society held him. +He had therefore never allowed any one, no matter who, to speak to him +on the subject of Mademoiselle Flore Brazier, the servant-mistress of +Jean-Jacques Rouget, so energetically termed a "slut" by the +respectable Madame Hochon. Everybody knew it was too ticklish a +subject with Max, ever to speak of it unless he began it; and hitherto +he had never begun it. To risk his anger or irritate him was +altogether too dangerous; so that even his best friends had never +joked him about the Rabouilleuse. When they talked of his liaison with +the girl before Major Potel and Captain Renard, with whom he lived on +intimate terms, Potel would reply,-- + +"If he is the natural brother of Jean-Jacques Rouget where else would +you have him live?" + +"Besides, after all," added Captain Renard, "the girl is a worthless +piece, and if Max does live with her where's the harm?" + +After this merited snub, Francois could not at once catch up the +thread of his ideas; but he was still less able to do so when Max said +to him, gently,-- + +"Go on." + +"Faith, no!" cried Francois. + +"You needn't get angry, Max," said young Goddet; "didn't we agree to +talk freely to each other at Mere Cognette's? Shouldn't we all be +mortal enemies if we remembered outside what is said, or thought, or +done here? All the town calls Flore Brazier the Rabouilleuse; and if +Francois did happen to let the nickname slip out, is that a crime +against the Order of Idleness?" + +"No," said Max, "but against our personal friendship. However, I +thought better of it; I recollected we were in session, and that was +why I said, 'Go on.'" + +A deep silence followed. The pause became so embarrassing for the +whole company that Max broke it by exclaiming:-- + +"I'll go on for him," [sensation] "--for all of you," [amazement] +"--and tell you what you are thinking" [profound sensation]. "You +think that Flore, the Rabouilleuse, La Brazier, the housekeeper of +Pere Rouget,--for they call him so, that old bachelor, who can never +have any children!--you think, I say, that that woman supplies all my +wants ever since I came back to Issoudun. If I am able to throw three +hundred francs a month to the dogs, and treat you to suppers,--as I do +to-night,--and lend money to all of you, you think I get the gold out +of Mademoiselle Flore Brazier's purse? Well, yes" [profound +sensation]. "Yes, ten thousand times yes! Yes, Mademoiselle Brazier is +aiming straight for the old man's property." + +"She gets it from father to son," observed Goddet, in his corner. + +"You think," continued Max, smiling at Goddet's speech, "that I intend +to marry Flore when Pere Rouget dies, and so this sister and her son, +of whom I hear to-night for the first time, will endanger my future?" + +"That's just it," cried Francois. + +"That is what every one thinks who is sitting round this table," said +Baruch. + +"Well, don't be uneasy, friends," answered Max. "Forewarned is +forearmed! Now then, I address the Knights of Idleness. If, to get rid +of these Parisians I need the help of the Order, will you lend me a +hand? Oh! within the limits we have marked out for our fooleries," he +added hastily, perceiving a general hesitation. "Do you suppose I want +to kill them,--poison them? Thank God I'm not an idiot. Besides, if +the Bridaus succeed, and Flore has nothing but what she stands in, I +should be satisfied; do you understand that? I love her enough to +prefer her to Mademoiselle Fichet,--if Mademoiselle Fichet would have +me." + +Mademoiselle Fichet was the richest heiress in Issoudun, and the hand +of the daughter counted for much in the reported passion of the +younger Goddet for the mother. Frankness of speech is a pearl of such +price that all the Knights rose to their feet as one man. + +"You are a fine fellow, Max!" + +"Well said, Max; we'll stand by you!" + +"A fig for the Bridaus!" + +"We'll bridle them!" + +"After all, it is only three swains to a shepherdess." + +"The deuce! Pere Lousteau loved Madame Rouget; isn't it better to love +a housekeeper who is not yoked?" + +"If the defunct Rouget was Max's father, the affair is in the family." + +"Liberty of opinion now-a-days!" + +"Hurrah for Max!" + +"Down with all hypocrites!" + +"Here's a health to the beautiful Flore!" + +Such were the eleven responses, acclamations, and toasts shouted forth +by the Knights of Idleness, and characteristic, we may remark, of +their excessively relaxed morality. It is now easy to see what +interest Max had in becoming their grand master. By leading the young +men of the best families in their follies and amusements, and by doing +them services, he meant to create a support for himself when the day +for recovering his position came. He rose gracefully and waved his +glass of claret, while all the others waited eagerly for the coming +allocution. + +"As a mark of the ill-will I bear you, I wish you all a mistress who +is equal to the beautiful Flore! As to this irruption of relations, I +don't feel any present uneasiness; and as to the future, we'll see +what comes--" + +"Don't let us forget Fario's cart!" + +"Hang it! that's safe enough!" said Goddet. + +"Oh! I'll engage to settle that business," cried Max. "Be in the +market-place early, all of you, and let me know when the old fellow +goes for his cart." + +It was striking half-past three in the morning as the Knights slipped +out in silence to go to their homes; gliding close to the walls of the +houses without making the least noise, shod as they were in list +shoes. Max slowly returned to the place Saint-Jean, situated in the +upper part of the town, between the port Saint-Jean and the port +Vilatte, the quarter of the rich bourgeoisie. Maxence Gilet had +concealed his fears, but the news had struck home. His experience on +the hulks at Cabrera had taught him a dissimulation as deep and +thorough as his corruption. First, and above all else, the forty +thousand francs a year from landed property which old Rouget owned +was, let it be clearly understood, the constituent element of Max's +passion for Flore Brazier. By his present bearing it is easy to see +how much confidence the woman had given him in the financial future +she expected to obtain through the infatuation of the old bachelor. +Nevertheless, the news of the arrival of the legitimate heirs was of a +nature to shake Max's faith in Flore's influence. Rouget's savings, +accumulating during the last seventeen years, still stood in his own +name; and even if the will, which Flore declared had long been made in +her favor, were revoked, these savings at least might be secured by +putting them in the name of Mademoiselle Brazier. + +"That fool of a girl never told me, in all these seven years, a word +about the sister and nephews!" cried Max, turning from the rue de la +Marmouse into the rue l'Avenier. "Seven hundred and fifty thousand +francs placed with different notaries at Bourges, and Vierzon, and +Chateauroux, can't be turned into money and put into the Funds in a +week, without everybody knowing it in this gossiping place! The most +important thing is to get rid of these relations; as soon as they are +driven away we ought to make haste to secure the property. I must +think it over." + +Max was tired. By the help of a pass-key, he let himself into Pere +Rouget's house, and went to bed without making any noise, saying to +himself,-- + +"To-morrow, my thoughts will be clear." + +It is now necessary to relate where the sultana of the place +Saint-Jean picked up the nickname of "Rabouilleuse," and how she came +to be the quasi-mistress of Jean-Jacques Rouget's home. + +As old Doctor Rouget, the father of Jean-Jacques and Madame Bridau, +advanced in years, he began to perceive the nonentity of his son; he +then treated him harshly, trying to break him into a routine that +might serve in place of intelligence. He thus, though unconsciously, +prepared him to submit to the yoke of the first tyranny that threw its +halter over his head. + +Coming home one day from his professional round, the malignant and +vicious old man came across a bewitching little girl at the edge of +some fields that lay along the avenue de Tivoli. Hearing the horse, +the child sprang up from the bottom of one of the many brooks which +are to be seen from the heights of Issoudun, threading the meadows +like ribbons of silver on a green robe. Naiad-like, she rose suddenly +on the doctor's vision, showing the loveliest virgin head that +painters ever dreamed of. Old Rouget, who knew the whole country-side, +did not know this miracle of beauty. The child, who was half naked, +wore a forlorn little petticoat of coarse woollen stuff, woven in +alternate strips of brown and white, full of holes and very ragged. A +sheet of rough writing paper, tied on by a shred of osier, served her +for a hat. Beneath this paper--covered with pot-hooks and round O's, +from which it derived the name of "schoolpaper"--the loveliest mass of +blonde hair that ever a daughter of Eve could have desired, was +twisted up, and held in place by a species of comb made to comb out +the tails of horses. Her pretty tanned bosom, and her neck, scarcely +covered by a ragged fichu which was once a Madres handkerchief, showed +edges of the white skin below the exposed and sun-burned parts. One +end of her petticoat was drawn between the legs and fastened with a +huge pin in front, giving that garment the look of a pair of bathing +drawers. The feet and the legs, which could be seen through the clear +water in which she stood, attracted the eye by a delicacy which was +worthy of a sculptor of the middle ages. The charming limbs exposed to +the sun had a ruddy tone that was not without beauty of its own. The +neck and bosom were worthy of being wrapped in silks and cashmeres; +and the nymph had blue eyes fringed with long lashes, whose glance +might have made a painter or a poet fall upon his knees. The doctor, +enough of an anatomist to trace the exquisite figure, recognized the +loss it would be to art if the lines of such a model were destroyed by +the hard toil of the fields. + +"Where do you come from, little girl? I have never seen you before," +said the old doctor, then sixty-two years of age. This scene took +place in the month of September, 1799. + +"I belong in Vatan," she answered. + +Hearing Rouget's voice, an ill-looking man, standing at some distance +in the deeper waters of the brook, raised his head. "What are you +about, Flore?" he said, "While you are talking instead of catching, +the creatures will get away." + +"Why have you come here from Vatan?" continued the doctor, paying no +heed to the interruption. + +"I am catching crabs for my uncle Brazier here." + +"Rabouiller" is a Berrichon word which admirably describes the thing +it is intended to express; namely, the action of troubling the water +of a brook, making it boil and bubble with a branch whose end-shoots +spread out like a racket. The crabs, frightened by this operation, +which they do not understand, come hastily to the surface, and in +their flurry rush into the net the fisher has laid for them at a +little distance. Flore Brazier held her "rabouilloir" in her hand with +the natural grace of childlike innocence. + +"Has your uncle got permission to hunt crabs?" + +"Hey! are not we all under a Republic that is one and indivisible?" +cried the uncle from his station. + +"We are under a Directory," said the doctor, "and I know of no law +which allows a man to come from Vatan and fish in the territory of +Issoudun"; then he said to Flore, "Have you got a mother, little one!" + +"No, monsieur; and my father is in the asylum at Bourges. He went mad +from a sun-stroke he got in the fields." + +"How much do you earn?" + +"Five sous a day while the season lasts; I catch 'em as far as the +Braisne. In harvest time, I glean; in winter, I spin." + +"You are about twelve years old?" + +"Yes, monsieur." + +"Do you want to come with me? You shall be well fed and well dressed, +and have some pretty shoes." + +"No, my niece will stay with me; I am responsible to God and man for +her," said Uncle Brazier who had come up to them. "I am her guardian, +d'ye see?" + +The doctor kept his countenance and checked a smile which might have +escaped most people at the aspect of the man. The guardian wore a +peasant's hat, rotted by sun and rain, eaten like the leaves of a +cabbage that has harbored several caterpillars, and mended, here and +there, with white thread. Beneath the hat was a dark and sunken face, +in which the mouth, nose, and eyes, seemed four black spots. His +forlorn jacket was a bit of patchwork, and his trousers were of crash +towelling. + +"I am Doctor Rouget," said that individual; "and as you are the +guardian of the child, bring her to my house, in the place Saint-Jean. +It will not be a bad day's work for you; nor for her, either." + +Without waiting for an answer, and sure that Uncle Brazier would soon +appear with his pretty "rabouilleuse," Doctor Rouget set spurs to his +horse and returned to Issoudun. He had hardly sat down to dinner, +before his cook announced the arrival of the citoyen and citoyenne +Brazier. + +"Sit down," said the doctor to the uncle and niece. + +Flore and her guardian, still barefooted, looked round the doctor's +dining-room with wondering eyes; never having seen its like before. + +The house, which Rouget inherited from the Descoings estate, stands in +the middle of the place Saint-Jean, a so-called square, very long and +very narrow, planted with a few sickly lindens. The houses in this +part of town are better built than elsewhere, and that of the +Descoings's was one of the finest. It stands opposite to the house of +Monsieur Hochon, and has three windows in front on the first storey, +and a porte-cochere on the ground-floor which gives entrance to a +courtyard, beyond which lies the garden. Under the archway of the +porte-cochere is the door of a large hall lighted by two windows on +the street. The kitchen is behind this hall, part of the space being +used for a staircase which leads to the upper floor and to the attic +above that. Beyond the kitchen is a wood-shed and wash-house, a stable +for two horses and a coach-house, over which are some little lofts for +the storage of oats, hay, and straw, where, at that time, the doctor's +servant slept. + +The hall which the little peasant and her uncle admired with such +wonder is decorated with wooden carvings of the time of Louis XV., +painted gray, and a handsome marble chimney-piece, over which Flore +beheld herself in a large mirror without any upper division and with a +carved and gilded frame. On the panelled walls of the room, from space +to space, hung several pictures, the spoil of various religious +houses, such as the abbeys of Deols, Issoudun, Saint-Gildas, La Pree, +Chezal-Beniot, Saint-Sulpice, and the convents of Bourges and +Issoudun, which the liberality of our kings had enriched with the +precious gifts of the glorious works called forth by the Renaissance. +Among the pictures obtained by the Descoings and inherited by Rouget, +was a Holy Family by Albano, a Saint-Jerome of Demenichino, a Head of +Christ by Gian Bellini, a Virgin of Leonardo, a Bearing of the Cross +by Titian, which formerly belonged to the Marquis de Belabre (the one +who sustained a siege and had his head cut off under Louis XIII.); a +Lazarus of Paul Veronese, a Marriage of the Virgin by the priest +Genois, two church paintings by Rubens, and a replica of a picture by +Perugino, done either by Perugino himself or by Raphael; and finally, +two Correggios and one Andrea del Sarto. + +The Descoings had culled these treasures from three hundred church +pictures, without knowing their value, and selecting them only for +their good preservation. Many were not only in magnificent frames, but +some were still under glass. Perhaps it was the beauty of the frames +and the value of the glass that led the Descoings to retain the +pictures. The furniture of the room was not wanting in the sort of +luxury we prize in these days, though at that time it had no value in +Issoudun. The clock, standing on the mantle-shelf between two superb +silver candlesticks with six branches, had an ecclesiastical splendor +which revealed the hand of Boulle. The armchairs of carved oak, +covered with tapestry-work due to the devoted industry of women of +high rank, would be treasured in these days, for each was surmounted +with a crown and coat-of-arms. Between the windows stood a rich +console, brought from some castle, on whose marble slab stood an +immense China jar, in which the doctor kept his tobacco. But neither +Rouget, nor his son, nor the cook, took the slightest care of all +these treasures. They spat upon a hearth of exquisite delicacy, whose +gilded mouldings were now green with verdigris. A handsome chandelier, +partly of semi-transparent porcelain, was peppered, like the ceiling +from which it hung, with black speckles, bearing witness to the +immunity enjoyed by the flies. The Descoings had draped the windows +with brocatelle curtains torn from the bed of some monastic prior. To +the left of the entrance-door, stood a chest or coffer, worth many +thousand francs, which the doctor now used for a sideboard. + +"Here, Fanchette," cried Rouget to his cook, "bring two glasses; and +give us some of the old wine." + +Fanchette, a big Berrichon countrywoman, who was considered a better +cook than even La Cognette, ran in to receive the order with a +celerity which said much for the doctor's despotism, and something +also for her own curiosity. + +"What is an acre of vineyard worth in your parts?" asked the doctor, +pouring out a glass of wine for Brazier. + +"Three hundred francs in silver." + +"Well, then! leave your niece here as my servant; she shall have three +hundred francs in wages, and, as you are her guardian, you can take +them." + +"Every year?" exclaimed Brazier, with his eyes as wide as saucers. + +"I leave that to your conscience," said the doctor. "She is an orphan; +up to eighteen, she has no right to what she earns." + +"Twelve to eighteen--that's six acres of vineyard!" said the uncle. +"Ay, she's a pretty one, gentle as a lamb, well made and active, and +obedient as a kitten. She were the light o' my poor brother's eyes--" + +"I will pay a year in advance," observed the doctor. + +"Bless me! say two years, and I'll leave her with you, for she'll be +better off with you than with us; my wife beats her, she can't abide +her. There's none but I to stand up for her, and the little saint of a +creature is as innocent as a new-born babe." + +When he heard the last part of this speech, the doctor, struck by the +word "innocent," made a sign to the uncle and took him out into the +courtyard and from thence to the garden; leaving the Rabouilleuse at +the table with Fanchette and Jean-Jacques, who immediately questioned +her, and to whom she naively related her meeting with the doctor. + +"There now, my little darling, good-by," said Uncle Brazier, coming +back and kissing Flore on the forehead; "you can well say I've made +your happiness by leaving you with this kind and worthy father of the +poor; you must obey him as you would me. Be a good girl, and behave +nicely, and do everything he tells you." + +"Get the room over mine ready," said the doctor to Fanchette. "Little +Flore--I am sure she is worthy of the name--will sleep there in +future. To-morrow, we'll send for a shoemaker and a dressmaker. Put +another plate on the table; she shall keep us company." + +That evening, all Issoudun could talk of nothing else than the sudden +appearance of the little "rabouilleuse" in Doctor Rouget's house. In +that region of satire the nickname stuck to Mademoiselle Brazier +before, during, and after the period of her good fortune. + +The doctor no doubt intended to do with Flore Brazier, in a small way, +what Louis XV. did in a large one with Mademoiselle de Romans; but he +was too late about it; Louis XV. was still young, whereas the doctor +was in the flower of old age. From twelve to fourteen, the charming +little Rabouilleuse lived a life of unmixed happiness. Always +well-dressed, and often much better tricked out than the richest girls +in Issoudun, she sported a gold watch and jewels, given by the doctor to +encourage her studies, and she had a master who taught her to read, +write, and cipher. But the almost animal life of the true peasant had +instilled into Flore such deep repugnance to the bitter cup of +knowledge, that the doctor stopped her education at that point. His +intentions with regard to the child, whom he cleansed and clothed, and +taught, and formed with a care which was all the more remarkable +because he was thought to be utterly devoid of tenderness, were +interpreted in a variety of ways by the cackling society of the town, +whose gossip often gave rise to fatal blunders, like those relating to +the birth of Agathe and that of Max. It is not easy for the community +of a country town to disentangle the truth from the mass of conjecture +and contradictory reports to which a single fact gives rise. The +provinces insist--as in former days the politicians of the little +Provence at the Tuileries insisted--on full explanations, and they +usually end by knowing everything. But each person clings to the +version of the event which he, or she, likes best; proclaims it, +argues it, and considers it the only true one. In spite of the strong +light cast upon people's lives by the constant spying of a little +town, truth is thus often obscured; and to be recognized, it needs the +impartiality which historians or superior minds acquire by looking at +the subject from a higher point of view. + +"What do you suppose that old gorilla wants at his age with a little +girl only fifteen years old?" society was still saying two years after +the arrival of the Rabouilleuse. + +"Ah! that's true," they answered, "his days of merry-making are long +past." + +"My dear fellow, the doctor is disgusted at the stupidity of his son, +and he persists in hating his daughter Agathe; it may be that he has +been living a decent life for the last two years, intending to marry +little Flore; suppose she were to give him a fine, active, strapping +boy, full of life like Max?" said one of the wise heads of the town. + +"Bah! don't talk nonsense! After such a life as Rouget and Lousteau +led from 1770 to 1787, is it likely that either of them would have +children at sixty-five years of age? The old villain has read the +Scriptures, if only as a doctor, and he is doing as David did in his +old age; that's all." + +"They say that Brazier, when he is drunk, boasts in Vatan that he +cheated him," cried one of those who always believed the worst of +people. + +"Good heavens! neighbor; what won't they say at Issoudun?" + +From 1800 to 1805, that is, for five years, the doctor enjoyed all the +pleasures of educating Flore without the annoyances which the +ambitions and pretensions of Mademoiselle de Romans inflicted, it is +said, on Louis le Bien-Aime. The little Rabouilleuse was so satisfied +when she compared the life she led at the doctor's with that she would +have led at her uncle Brazier's, that she yielded no doubt to the +exactions of her master as if she had been an Eastern slave. With due +deference to the makers of idylls and to philanthropists, the +inhabitants of the provinces have very little idea of certain virtues; +and their scruples are of a kind that is roused by self-interest, and +not by any sentiment of the right or the becoming. Raised from infancy +with no prospect before them but poverty and ceaseless labor, they are +led to consider anything that saves them from the hell of hunger and +eternal toil as permissible, particularly if it is not contrary to any +law. Exceptions to this rule are rare. Virtue, socially speaking, is +the companion of a comfortable life, and comes only with education. + +Thus the Rabouilleuse was an object of envy to all the young +peasant-girls within a circuit of ten miles, although her conduct, from +a religious point of view, was supremely reprehensible. Flore, born in +1787, grew up in the midst of the saturnalias of 1793 and 1798, whose +lurid gleams penetrated these country regions, then deprived of +priests and faith and altars and religious ceremonies; where marriage +was nothing more than legal coupling, and revolutionary maxims left a +deep impression. This was markedly the case at Issoudun, a land where, +as we have seen, revolt of all kinds is traditional. In 1802, Catholic +worship was scarcely re-established. The Emperor found it a difficult +matter to obtain priests. In 1806, many parishes all over France were +still widowed; so slowly were the clergy, decimated by the scaffold, +gathered together again after their violent dispersion. + +In 1802, therefore, nothing was likely to reproach Flore Brazier, +unless it might be her conscience; and conscience was sure to be +weaker than self-interest in the ward of Uncle Brazier. If, as +everybody chose to suppose, the cynical doctor was compelled by his +age to respect a child of fifteen, the Rabouilleuse was none the less +considered very "wide awake," a term much used in that region. Still, +some persons thought she could claim a certificate of innocence from +the cessation of the doctor's cares and attentions in the last two +years of his life, during which time he showed her something more than +coldness. + +Old Rouget had killed too many people not to know when his own end was +nigh; and his notary, finding him on his death-bed, draped as it were, +in the mantle of encyclopaedic philosophy, pressed him to make a +provision in favor of the young girl, then seventeen years old. + +"So I do," he said, cynically; "my death sets her at liberty." + +This speech paints the nature of the old man. Covering his evil doings +with witty sayings, he obtained indulgence for them, in a land where +wit is always applauded,--especially when addressed to obvious +self-interest. In those words the notary read the concentrated hatred +of a man whose calculations had been balked by Nature herself, and who +revenged himself upon the innocent object of an impotent love. This +opinion was confirmed to some extent by the obstinate resolution of +the doctor to leave nothing to the Rabouilleuse, saying with a bitter +smile, when the notary again urged the subject upon him,-- + +"Her beauty will make her rich enough!" + + + + CHAPTER IX + +Jean-Jacques Rouget did not mourn his father, though Flore Brazier +did. The old doctor had made his son extremely unhappy, especially +since he came of age, which happened in 1791; but he had given the +little peasant-girl the material pleasures which are the ideal of +happiness to country-folk. When Fanchette asked Flore, after the +funeral, "Well, what is to become of you, now that monsieur is dead?" +Jean-Jacques's eyes lighted up, and for the first time in his life his +dull face grew animated, showed feeling, and seemed to brighten under +the rays of a thought. + +"Leave the room," he said to Fanchette, who was clearing the table. + +At seventeen, Flore retained that delicacy of feature and form, that +distinction of beauty which attracted the doctor, and which women of +the world know how to preserve, though it fades among the +peasant-girls like the flowers of the field. Nevertheless, the +tendency to embonpoint, which handsome countrywomen develop when they +no longer live a life of toil and hardship in the fields and in the +sunshine, was already noticeable about her. Her bust had developed. +The plump white shoulders were modelled on rich lines that +harmoniously blended with those of the throat, already showing a few +folds of flesh. But the outline of the face was still faultless, and +the chin delicate. + +"Flore," said Jean-Jacques, in a trembling voice, "you feel at home in +this house?" + +"Yes, Monsieur Jean." + +As the heir was about to make his declaration, he felt his tongue +stiffen at the recollection of the dead man, just put away in his +grave, and a doubt seized him as to what lengths his father's +benevolence might have gone. Flore, who was quite unable even to +suspect his simplicity of mind, looked at her future master and waited +for a time, expecting Jean-Jacques to go on with what he was saying; +but she finally left him without knowing what to think of such +obstinate silence. Whatever teaching the Rabouilleuse may have +received from the doctor, it was many a long day before she finally +understood the character of Jean-Jacques, whose history we now present +in a few words. + +At the death of his father, Jacques, then thirty-seven, was as timid +and submissive to paternal discipline as a child of twelve years old. +That timidity ought to explain his childhood, youth, and after-life to +those who are reluctant to admit the existence of such characters, or +such facts as this history relates,--though proofs of them are, alas, +common everywhere, even among princes; for Sophie Dawes was taken by +the last of the Condes under worse circumstances than the +Rabouilleuse. There are two species of timidity,--the timidity of the +mind, and the timidity of the nerves; a physical timidity, and a moral +timidity. The one is independent of the other. The body may fear and +tremble, while the mind is calm and courageous, or vice versa. This is +the key to many moral eccentricities. When the two are united in one +man, that man will be a cipher all his life; such double-sided +timidity makes him what we call "an imbecile." Often fine suppressed +qualities are hidden within that imbecile. To this double infirmity we +may, perhaps, owe the lives of certain monks who lived in ecstasy; for +this unfortunate moral and physical disposition is produced quite as +much by the perfection of the soul and of the organs, as by defects +which are still unstudied. + +The timidity of Jean-Jacques came from a certain torpor of his +faculties, which a great teacher or a great surgeon, like Despleins, +would have roused. In him, as in the cretins, the sense of love had +inherited a strength and vigor which were lacking to his mental +qualities, though he had mind enough to guide him in ordinary affairs. +The violence of passion, stripped of the ideal in which most young men +expend it, only increased his timidity. He had never brought himself +to court, as the saying is, any woman in Issoudun. Certainly no young +girl or matron would make advances to a young man of mean stature, +awkward and shame-faced in attitude; whose vulgar face, with its +flattened features and pallid skin, making him look old before his +time, was rendered still more hideous by a pair of large and prominent +light-green eyes. The presence of a woman stultified the poor fellow, +who was driven by passion on the one hand as violently as the lack of +ideas, resulting from his education, held him back on the other. +Paralyzed between these opposing forces, he had not a word to say, and +feared to be spoken to, so much did he dread the obligation of +replying. Desire, which usually sets free the tongue, only petrified +his powers of speech. Thus it happened that Jean-Jacques Rouget was +solitary and sought solitude because there alone he was at his ease. + +The doctor had seen, too late for remedy, the havoc wrought in his +son's life by a temperament and a character of this kind. He would +have been glad to get him married; but to do that, he must deliver him +over to an influence that was certain to become tyrannical, and the +doctor hesitated. Was it not practically giving the whole management +of the property into the hands of a stranger, some unknown girl? The +doctor knew how difficult it was to gain true indications of the moral +character of a woman from any study of a young girl. So, while he +continued to search for a daughter-in-law whose sentiments and +education offered some guarantees for the future, he endeavored to +push his son into the ways of avarice; meaning to give the poor fool a +sort of instinct that might eventually take the place of intelligence. + +He trained him, in the first place, to mechanical habits of life; and +instilled into him fixed ideas as to the investment of his revenues: +and he spared him the chief difficulties of the management of a +fortune, by leaving his estates all in good order, and leased for long +periods. Nevertheless, a fact which was destined to be of paramount +importance in the life of the poor creature escaped the notice of the +wily old doctor. Timidity is a good deal like dissimulation, and is +equally secretive. Jean-Jacques was passionately in love with the +Rabouilleuse. Nothing, of course, could be more natural. Flore was the +only woman who lived in the bachelor's presence, the only one he could +see at his ease; and at all hours he secretly contemplated her and +watched her. To him, she was the light of his paternal home; she gave +him, unknown to herself, the only pleasures that brightened his youth. +Far from being jealous of his father, he rejoiced in the education the +old man was giving to Flore: would it not make her all he wanted, a +woman easy to win, and to whom, therefore, he need pay no court? The +passion, observe, which is able to reflect, gives even to ninnies, +fools, and imbeciles a species of intelligence, especially in youth. +In the lowest human creature we find an animal instinct whose +persistency resembles thought. + +The next day, Flore, who had been reflecting on her master's silence, +waited in expectation of some momentous communication; but although he +kept near her, and looked at her on the sly with passionate glances, +Jean-Jacques still found nothing to say. At last, when the dessert was +on the table, he recommenced the scene of the night before. + +"You like your life here?" he said to Flore. + +"Yes, Monsieur Jean." + +"Well, stay here then." + +"Thank you, Monsieur Jean." + +This strange situation lasted three weeks. One night, when no sound +broke the stillness of the house, Flore, who chanced to wake up, heard +the regular breathing of human lungs outside her door, and was +frightened to discover Jean-Jacques, crouched like a dog on the +landing. + +"He loves me," she thought; "but he will get the rheumatism if he +keeps up that sort of thing." + +The next day Flore looked at her master with a certain expression. +This mute almost instinctive love had touched her; she no longer +thought the poor ninny so ugly, though his forehead was crowned with +pimples resembling ulcers, the signs of a vitiated blood. + +"You don't want to go back and live in the fields, do you?" said +Jean-Jacques when they were alone. + +"Why do you ask me that?" she said, looking at him. + +"To know--" replied Rouget, turning the color of a boiled lobster. + +"Do you wish to send me back?" she asked. + +"No, mademoiselle." + +"Well, what is it you want to know? You have some reason--" + +"Yes, I want to know--" + +"What?" said Flore. + +"You won't tell me?" exclaimed Rouget. + +"Yes I will, on my honor--" + +"Ah! that's it," returned Rouget, with a frightened air. "Are you an +honest girl?" + +"I'll take my oath--" + +"Are you, truly?" + +"Don't you hear me tell you so?" + +"Come; are you the same as you were when your uncle brought you here +barefooted?" + +"A fine question, faith!" cried Flore, blushing. + +The heir lowered his head and did not raise it again. Flore, amazed at +such an encouraging sign from a man who had been overcome by a fear of +that nature, left the room. + +Three days later, at the same hour (for both seemed to regard the +dessert as a field of battle), Flore spoke first, and said to her +master,-- + +"Have you anything against me?" + +"No, mademoiselle," he answered, "No--" [a pause] "On the contrary." + +"You seemed annoyed the other day to hear I was an honest girl." + +"No, I only wished to know--" [a pause] "But you would not tell me--" + +"On my word!" she said, "I will tell you the whole truth." + +"The whole truth about--my father?" he asked in a strangled voice. + +"Your father," she said, looking full into her master's eye, "was a +worthy man--he liked a joke--What of that?--there was nothing in it. +But, poor dear man, it wasn't the will that was wanting. The truth is, +he had some spite against you, I don't know what, and he meant--oh! he +meant you harm. Sometimes he made me laugh; but there! what of that?" + +"Well, Flore," said the heir, taking her hand, "as my father was +nothing to you--" + +"What did you suppose he was to me?" she cried, as if offended by some +unworthy suspicion. + +"Well, but just listen--" + +"He was my benefactor, that was all. Ah! he would have liked to make +me his wife, but--" + +"But," said Rouget, taking the hand which Flore had snatched away from +him, "if he was nothing to you you can stay here with me, can't you?" + +"If you wish it," she said, dropping her eyes. + +"No, no! if you wish it, you!" exclaimed Rouget. "Yes, you shall be +--mistress here. All that is here shall be yours; you shall take care +of my property, it is almost yours now--for I love you; I have always +loved you since the day you came and stood there--there!--with bare +feet." + +Flore made no answer. When the silence became embarrassing, +Jean-Jacques had recourse to a terrible argument. + +"Come," he said, with visible warmth, "wouldn't it be better than +returning to the fields?" + +"As you will, Monsieur Jean," she answered. + +Nevertheless, in spite of her "as you will," Jean-Jacques got no +further. Men of his nature want certainty. The effort that they make +in avowing their love is so great, and costs them so much, that they +feel unable to go on with it. This accounts for their attachment to +the first woman who accepts them. We can only guess at circumstances +by results. Ten months after the death of his father, Jean-Jacques +changed completely; his leaden face cleared, and his whole countenance +breathed happiness. Flore exacted that he should take minute care of +his person, and her own vanity was gratified in seeing him +well-dressed; she always stood on the sill of the door, and watched +him starting for a walk, until she could see him no longer. The whole +town noticed these changes, which had made a new man of the bachelor. + +"Have you heard the news?" people said to each other in Issoudun. + +"What is it?" + +"Jean-Jacques inherits everything from his father, even the +Rabouilleuse." + +"Don't you suppose the old doctor was wicked enough to provide a ruler +for his son?" + +"Rouget has got a treasure, that's certain," said everybody. + +"She's a sly one! She is very handsome, and she will make him marry +her." + +"What luck that girl has had, to be sure!" + +"The luck that only comes to pretty girls." + +"Ah, bah! do you believe that? look at my uncle Borniche-Herau. You +have heard of Mademoiselle Ganivet? she was as ugly as seven capital +sins, but for all that, she got three thousand francs a year out of +him." + +"Yes, but that was in 1778." + +"Still, Rouget is making a mistake. His father left him a good forty +thousand francs' income, and he ought to marry Mademoiselle Herau." + +"The doctor tried to arrange it, but she would not consent; +Jean-Jacques is so stupid--" + +"Stupid! why women are very happy with that style of man." + +"Is your wife happy?" + +Such was the sort of tattle that ran through Issoudun. If people, +following the use and wont of the provinces, began by laughing at this +quasi-marriage, they ended by praising Flore for devoting herself to +the poor fellow. We now see how it was that Flore Brazier obtained the +management of the Rouget household,--from father to son, as young +Goddet had said. It is desirable to sketch the history of that +management for the edification of old bachelors. + +Fanchette, the cook, was the only person in Issoudun who thought it +wrong that Flore Brazier should be queen over Jean-Jacques Rouget and +his home. She protested against the immorality of the connection, and +took a tone of injured virtue; the fact being that she was humiliated +by having, at her age, a crab-girl for a mistress,--a child who had +been brought barefoot into the house. Fanchette owned three hundred +francs a year in the Funds, for the doctor made her invest her savings +in that way, and he had left her as much more in an annuity; she could +therefore live at her ease without the necessity of working, and she +quitted the house nine months after the funeral of her old master, +April 15, 1806. That date may indicate, to a perspicacious observer, +the epoch at which Flore Brazier ceased to be an honest girl. + +The Rabouilleuse, clever enough to foresee Fanchette's probable +defection,--there is nothing like the exercise of power for teaching +policy,--was already resolved to do without a servant. For six months +she had studied, without seeming to do so, the culinary operations +that made Fanchette a cordon-bleu worthy of cooking for a doctor. In +the matter of choice living, doctors are on a par with bishops. The +doctor had brought Fanchette's talents to perfection. In the provinces +the lack of occupation and the monotony of existence turn all activity +of mind towards the kitchen. People do not dine as luxuriously in the +country as they do in Paris, but they dine better; the dishes are +meditated upon and studied. In rural regions we often find some Careme +in petticoats, some unrecognized genius able to serve a simple dish of +haricot-beans worthy of the nod with which Rossini welcomed a +perfectly-rendered measure. + +When studying for his degree in Paris, the doctor had followed a +course of chemistry under Rouelle, and had gathered some ideas which +he afterwards put to use in the chemistry of cooking. His memory is +famous in Issoudun for certain improvements little known outside of +Berry. It was he who discovered that an omelette is far more delicate +when the whites and the yolks are not beaten together with the +violence which cooks usually put into the operation. He considered +that the whites should be beaten to a froth and the yolks gently added +by degrees; moreover a frying-pan should never be used, but a +"cagnard" of porcelain or earthenware. The "cagnard" is a species of +thick dish standing on four feet, so that when it is placed on the +stove the air circulates underneath and prevents the fire from +cracking it. In Touraine the "cagnard" is called a "cauquemarre." +Rabelais, I think, speaks of a "cauquemarre" for cooking cockatrice +eggs, thus proving the antiquity of the utensil. The doctor had also +found a way to prevent the tartness of browned butter; but his secret, +which unluckily he kept to his own kitchen, has been lost. + +Flore, a born fryer and roaster, two qualities that can never be +acquired by observation nor yet by labor, soon surpassed Fanchette. In +making herself a cordon-bleu she was thinking of Jean-Jacques's +comfort; though she was, it must be owned, tolerably dainty. +Incapable, like all persons without education, of doing anything with +her brains, she spent her activity upon household matters. She rubbed +up the furniture till it shone, and kept everything about the house in +a state of cleanliness worthy of Holland. She managed the avalanches +of soiled linen and the floods of water that go by the name of "the +wash," which was done, according to provincial usage, three times a +year. She kept a housewifely eye to the linen, and mended it +carefully. Then, desirous of learning little by little the secret of +the family property, she acquired the very limited business knowledge +which Rouget possessed, and increased it by conversations with the +notary of the late doctor, Monsieur Heron. Thus instructed, she gave +excellent advice to her little Jean-Jacques. Sure of being always +mistress, she was as eager and solicitous about the old bachelor's +interests as if they had been her own. She was not obliged to guard +against the exactions of her uncle, for two months before the doctor's +death Brazier died of a fall as he was leaving a wine-shop, where, +since his rise in fortune, he spent most of his time. Flore had also +lost her father; thus she served her master with all the affection +which an orphan, thankful to make herself a home and a settlement in +life, would naturally feel. + +This period of his life was paradise to poor Jean-Jacques, who now +acquired the gentle habits of an animal, trained into a sort of +monastic regularity. He slept late. Flore, who was up at daybreak +attending to her housekeeping, woke him so that he should find his +breakfast ready as soon as he had finished dressing. After breakfast, +about eleven o'clock, Jean-Jacques went to walk; talked with the +people he met, and came home at three in the afternoon to read the +papers,--those of the department, and a journal from Paris which he +received three days after publication, well greased by the thirty +hands through which it came, browned by the snuffy noses that had +pored over it, and soiled by the various tables on which it had lain. +The old bachelor thus got through the day until it was time for +dinner; over that meal he spent as much time as it was possible to +give to it. Flore told him the news of the town, repeating the cackle +that was current, which she had carefully picked up. Towards eight +o'clock the lights were put out. Going to bed early is a saving of +fire and candles very commonly practised in the provinces, which +contributes no doubt to the empty-mindedness of the inhabitants. Too +much sleep dulls and weakens the brain. + +Such was the life of these two persons during a period of nine years, +the great events of which were a few journeys to Bourges, Vierzon, +Chateauroux, or somewhat further, if the notaries of those towns and +Monsieur Heron had no investments ready for acceptance. Rouget lent +his money at five per cent on a first mortgage, with release of the +wife's rights in case the owner was married. He never lent more than a +third of the value of the property, and required notes payable to his +order for an additional interest of two and a half per cent spread +over the whole duration of the loan. Such were the rules his father +had told him to follow. Usury, that clog upon the ambition of the +peasantry, is the destroyer of country regions. This levy of seven and +a half per cent seemed, therefore, so reasonable to the borrowers that +Jean-Jacques Rouget had his choice of investments; and the notaries of +the different towns, who got a fine commission for themselves from +clients for whom they obtained money on such good terms, gave due +notice to the old bachelor. + +During these nine years Flore obtained in the long run, insensibly and +without aiming for it, an absolute control over her master. From the +first, she treated him very familiarly; then, without failing him in +proper respect, she so far surpassed him in superiority of mind and +force of character that he became in fact the servant of his servant. +Elderly child that he was, he met this mastery half-way by letting +Flore take such care of him that she treated him more as a mother +would a son; and he himself ended by clinging to her with the feeling +of a child dependent on a mother's protection. But there were other +ties between them not less tightly knotted. In the first place, Flore +kept the house and managed all its business. Jean-Jacques left +everything to the crab-girl so completely that life without her would +have seemed to him not only difficult, but impossible. In every way, +this woman had become the one need of his existence; she indulged all +his fancies, for she knew them well. He loved to see her bright face +always smiling at him,--the only face that had ever smiled upon him, +the only one to which he could look for a smile. This happiness, a +purely material happiness, expressed in the homely words which come +readiest to the tongue in a Berrichon household, and visible on the +fine countenance of the young woman, was like a reflection of his own +inward content. The state into which Jean-Jacques was thrown when +Flore's brightness was clouded over by some passing annoyance revealed +to the girl her power over him, and, to make sure of it, she sometimes +liked to use it. Using such power means, with women of her class, +abusing it. The Rabouilleuse, no doubt, made her master play some of +those scenes buried in the mysteries of private life, of which Otway +gives a specimen in the tragedy of "Venice Preserved," where the scene +between the senator and Aquilina is the realization of the +magnificently horrible. Flore felt so secure of her power that, +unfortunately for her, and for the bachelor himself, it did not occur +to her to make him marry her. + +Towards the close of 1815, Flore, who was then twenty-seven, had +reached the perfect development of her beauty. Plump and fresh, and +white as a Norman countrywoman, she was the ideal of what our +ancestors used to call "a buxom housewife." Her beauty, always that of +a handsome barmaid, though higher in type and better kept, gave her a +likeness to Mademoiselle George in her palmy days, setting aside the +latter's imperial dignity. Flore had the dazzling white round arms, +the ample modelling, the satiny textures of the skin, the alluring +though less rigidly correct outlines of the great actress. Her +expression was one of sweetness and tenderness; but her glance +commanded less respect than that of the noblest Agrippina that ever +trod the French stage since the days of Racine: on the contrary, it +evoked a vulgar joy. In 1816 the Rabouilleuse saw Maxence Gilet, and +fell in love with him at first sight. Her heart was cleft by the +mythological arrow,--admirable description of an effect of nature +which the Greeks, unable to conceive the chivalric, ideal, and +melancholy love begotten of Christianity, could represent in no other +way. Flore was too handsome to be disdained, and Max accepted his +conquest. + +Thus, at twenty-eight years of age, the Rabouilleuse felt for the +first time a true love, an idolatrous love, the love which includes +all ways of loving,--that of Gulnare and that of Medora. As soon as +the penniless officer found out the respective situations of Flore and +Jean-Jacques Rouget, he saw something more desirable than an +"amourette" in an intimacy with the Rabouilleuse. He asked nothing +better for his future prosperity than to take up his abode at the +Rouget's, recognizing perfectly the feeble nature of the old bachelor. +Flore's passion necessarily affected the life and household affairs of +her master. For a month the old man, now grown excessively timid, saw +the laughing and kindly face of his mistress change to something +terrible and gloomy and sullen. He was made to endure flashes of angry +temper purposely displayed, precisely like a married man whose wife is +meditating an infidelity. When, after some cruel rebuff, he nerved +himself to ask Flore the reason of the change, her eyes were so full +of hatred, and her voice so aggressive and contemptuous, that the poor +creature quailed under them. + +"Good heavens!" she cried; "you have neither heart nor soul! Here's +sixteen years that I have spent my youth in this house, and I have +only just found out that you have got a stone there (striking her +breast). For two months you have seen before your eyes that brave +captain, a victim of the Bourbons, who was cut out for a general, and +is down in the depths of poverty, hunted into a hole of a place where +there's no way to make a penny of money! He's forced to sit on a stool +all day in the mayor's office to earn--what? Six hundred miserable +francs,--a fine thing, indeed! And here are you, with six hundred and +fifty-nine thousand well invested, and sixty thousand francs' income, +--thanks to me, who never spend more than three thousand a year, +everything included, even my own clothes, yes, everything!--and you +never think of offering him a home here, though there's the second +floor empty! You'd rather the rats and mice ran riot in it than put a +human being there,--and he a lad your father always allowed to be his +own son! Do you want to know what you are? I'll tell you,--a +fratricide! And I know why, too. You see I take an interest in him, +and that provokes you. Stupid as you seem, you have got more spite in +you than the spitefullest of men. Well, yes! I do take an interest in +him, and a keen one--" + +"But, Flore--" + +"'_But, Flore_', indeed! What's that got to do with it? You may go and +find another Flore (if you can!), for I hope this glass of wine may +poison me if I don't get away from your dungeon of a house. I haven't, +God be thanked! cost you one penny during the twelve years I've been +with you, and you have had the pleasure of my company into the +bargain. I could have earned my own living anywhere with the work that +I've done here,--washing, ironing, looking after the linen, going to +market, cooking, taking care of your interests before everything, +slaving myself to death from morning till night,--and this is my +reward!" + +"But, Flore--" + +"Oh, yes, '_Flore_'! find another Flore, if you can, at your time of +life, fifty-one years old, and getting feeble,--for the way your +health is failing is frightful, I know that! and besides, you are none +too amusing--" + +"But, Flore--" + +"Let me alone!" + +She went out, slamming the door with a violence that echoed through +the house, and seemed to shake it to its foundations. Jean-Jacques +softly opened the door and went, still more softly, into the kitchen +where she was muttering to herself. + +"But, Flore," said the poor sheep, "this is the first time I have +heard of this wish of yours; how do you know whether I will agree to +it or not?" + +"In the first place," she said, "there ought to be a man in the house. +Everybody knows you have ten, fifteen, twenty thousand francs here; if +they came to rob you we should both be murdered. For my part, I don't +care to wake up some fine morning chopped in quarters, as happened to +that poor servant-girl who was silly enough to defend her master. +Well! if the robbers knew there was a man in the house as brave as +Caesar and who wasn't born yesterday,--for Max could swallow three +burglars as quick as a flash,--well, then I should sleep easy. People +may tell you a lot of stuff,--that I love him, that I adore him,--and +some say this and some say that! Do you know what you ought to say? +You ought to answer that you know it; that your father told you on his +deathbed to take care of his poor Max. That will stop people's +tongues; for every stone in Issoudun can tell you he paid Max's +schooling--and so! Here's nine years that I have eaten your bread--" + +"Flore,--Flore!" + +"--and many a one in this town has paid court to me, I can tell you! +Gold chains here, and watches there,--what don't they offer me? 'My +little Flore,' they say, 'why won't you leave that old fool of a +Rouget,'--for that's what they call you. 'I leave him!' I always +answer, 'a poor innocent like that? I think I see myself! what would +become of him? No, no, where the kid is tethered, let her browse--'" + +"Yes, Flore; I've none but you in this world, and you make me happy. +If it will give you pleasure, my dear, well, we will have Maxence +Gilet here; he can eat with us--" + +"Heavens! I should hope so!" + +"There, there! don't get angry--" + +"Enough for one is enough for two," she answered laughing. "I'll tell +you what you can do, my lamb, if you really mean to be kind; you must +go and walk up and down near the Mayor's office at four o'clock, and +manage to meet Monsieur Gilet and invite him to dinner. If he makes +excuses, tell him it will give me pleasure; he is too polite to +refuse. And after dinner, at dessert, if he tells you about his +misfortunes, and the hulks and so forth--for you can easily get him to +talk about all that--then you can make him the offer to come and live +here. If he makes any objection, never mind, I shall know how to +settle it." + +Walking slowly along the boulevard Baron, the old celibate reflected, +as much as he had the mind to reflect, over this incident. If he were +to part from Flore (the mere thought confused him) where could he find +another woman? Should he marry? At his age he should be married for +his money, and a legitimate wife would use him far more cruelly than +Flore. Besides, the thought of being deprived of her tenderness, even +if it were a mere pretence, caused him horrible anguish. He was +therefore as polite to Captain Gilet as he knew how to be. The +invitation was given, as Flore had requested, before witnesses, to +guard the hero's honor from all suspicion. + +A reconciliation took place between Flore and her master; but from +that day forth Jean-Jacques noticed many a trifle that betokened a +total change in his mistress's affections. For two or three weeks +Flore Brazier complained to the tradespeople in the markets, and to +the women with whom she gossiped, about Monsieur Rouget's tyranny, +--how he had taken it into his head to invite his self-styled natural +brother to live with him. No one, however, was taken in by this +comedy; and Flore was looked upon as a wonderfully clever and artful +creature. Old Rouget really found himself very comfortable after Max +became the master of his house; for he thus gained a companion who +paid him many attentions, without, however, showing any servility. +Gilet talked, discussed politics, and sometimes went to walk with +Rouget. After Max was fairly installed, Flore did not choose to do the +cooking; she said it spoiled her hands. At the request of the grand +master of the Order of the Knights of Idleness, Mere Cognette produced +one of her relatives, an old maid whose master, a curate, had lately +died without leaving her anything,--an excellent cook, withal,--who +declared she would devote herself for life or death to Max and Flore. +In the name of the two powers, Mere Cognette promised her an annuity +of three hundred francs a year at the end of ten years, if she served +them loyally, honestly, and discreetly. The Vedie, as she was called, +was noticeable for a face deeply pitted by the small-pox, and +correspondingly ugly. + +After the new cook had entered upon her duties, the Rabouilleuse took +the title of Madame Brazier. She wore corsets; she had silk, or +handsome woollen and cotton dresses, according to the season, +expensive neckerchiefs, embroidered caps and collars, lace ruffles at +her throat, boots instead of shoes, and, altogether, adopted a +richness and elegance of apparel which renewed the youthfulness of her +appearance. She was like a rough diamond, that needed cutting and +mounting by a jeweller to bring out its full value. Her desire was to +do honor to Max. At the end of the first year, in 1817, she brought a +horse, styled English, from Bourges, for the poor cavalry captain, who +was weary of going afoot. Max had picked up in the purlieus of +Issoudun an old lancer of the Imperial Guard, a Pole named Kouski, now +very poor, who asked nothing better than to quarter himself in +Monsieur Rouget's house as the captain's servant. Max was Kouski's +idol, especially after the duel with the three royalists. So, from +1817, the household of the old bachelor was made up of five persons, +three of whom were masters, and the expenses advanced to about eight +thousand francs a year. + + + + CHAPTER X + +At the time when Madame Bridau returned to Issoudun to save--as Maitre +Desroches expressed it--an inheritance that was seriously threatened, +Jean-Jacques Rouget had reached by degrees a condition that was +semi-vegetative. In the first place, after Max's instalment, Flore put +the table on an episcopal footing. Rouget, thrown in the way of good +living, ate more and still more, enticed by the Vedie's excellent +dishes. He grew no fatter, however, in spite of this abundant and +luxurious nourishment. From day to day he weakened like a worn-out +man,--fatigued, perhaps, with the effort of digestion,--and his eyes +had dark circles around them. Still, when his friends and neighbors +met him in his walks and questioned him about his health, he always +answered that he was never better in his life. As he had always been +thought extremely deficient in mind, people did not notice the +constant lowering of his faculties. His love for Flore was the one +thing that kept him alive; in fact, he existed only for her, and his +weakness in her presence was unbounded; he obeyed the creature's mere +look, and watched her movements as a dog watches every gesture of his +master. In short, as Madame Hochon remarked, at fifty-seven years of +age he seemed older than Monsieur Hochon, an octogenarian. + +Every one will suppose, and with reason, that Max's _appartement_ was +worthy of so charming a fellow. In fact, in the course of six years +our captain had by degrees perfected the comfort of his abode and +adorned every detail of it, as much for his own pleasure as for +Flore's. But it was, after all, only the comfort and luxury of +Issoudun,--colored tiles, rather elegant wallpapers, mahogany +furniture, mirrors in gilt frames, muslin curtains with red borders, a +bed with a canopy, and draperies arranged as the provincial +upholsterers arrange them for a rich bride; which in the eyes of +Issoudun seemed the height of luxury, but are so common in vulgar +fashion-plates that even the petty shopkeepers in Paris have discarded +them at their weddings. One very unusual thing appeared, which caused +much talk in Issoudun, namely, a rush-matting on the stairs, no doubt +to muffle the sound of feet. In fact, though Max was in the habit of +coming in at daybreak, he never woke any one, and Rouget was far from +suspecting that his guest was an accomplice in the nocturnal +performances of the Knights of Idleness. + +About eight o'clock the next morning, Flore, wearing a dressing-gown +of some pretty cotton stuff with narrow pink stripes, a lace cap on +her head, and her feet in furred slippers, softly opened the door of +Max's chamber; seeing that he slept, she remained standing beside the +bed. + +"He came in so late!" she said to herself. "It was half-past three. He +must have a good constitution to stand such amusements. Isn't he +strong, the dear love! I wonder what they did last night." + +"Oh, there you are, my little Flore!" said Max, waking like a soldier +trained by the necessities of war to have his wits and his +self-possession about him the instant that he waked, however suddenly +it might happen. + +"You are sleepy; I'll go away." + +"No, stay; there's something serious going on." + +"Were you up to some mischief last night?" + +"Ah, bah! It concerns you and me and that old fool. You never told me +he had a family! Well, his family are coming,--coming here,--no doubt +to turn us out, neck and crop." + +"Ah! I'll shake him well," said Flore. + +"Mademoiselle Brazier," said Max gravely, "things are too serious for +giddiness. Send me my coffee; I'll take it in bed, where I'll think +over what we had better do. Come back at nine o'clock, and we'll talk +about it. Meanwhile, behave as if you had heard nothing." + +Frightened at the news, Flore left Max and went to make his coffee; +but a quarter of an hour later, Baruch burst into Max's bedroom, +crying out to the grand master,-- + +"Fario is hunting for his barrow!" + +In five minutes Max was dressed and in the street, and though he +sauntered along with apparent indifference, he soon reached the foot +of the tower embankment, where he found quite a collection of people. + +"What is it?" asked Max, making his way through the crowd and reaching +the Spaniard. + +Fario was a withered little man, as ugly as though he were a +blue-blooded grandee. His fiery eyes, placed very close to his nose +and piercing as a gimlet, would have won him the name of a sorcerer in +Naples. He seemed gentle because he was calm, quiet, and slow in his +movements; and for this reason people commonly called him "goodman +Fario." But his skin--the color of gingerbread--and his softness of +manner only hid from stupid eyes, and disclosed to observing ones, the +half-Moorish nature of a peasant of Granada, which nothing had as yet +roused from its phlegmatic indolence. + +"Are you sure," Max said to him, after listening to his grievance, +"that you brought your cart to this place? for, thank God, there are +no thieves in Issoudun." + +"I left it just there--" + +"If the horse was harnessed to it, hasn't he drawn it somewhere." + +"Here's the horse," said Fario, pointing to the animal, which stood +harnessed thirty feet away. + +Max went gravely up to the place where the horse stood, because from +there the bottom of the tower at the top of the embankment could be +seen,--the crowd being at the foot of the mound. Everybody followed +Max, and that was what the scoundrel wanted. + +"Has anybody thoughtlessly put a cart in his pocket?" cried Francois. + +"Turn out your pockets, all of you!" said Baruch. + +Shouts of laughter resounded on all sides. Fario swore. Oaths, with a +Spaniard, denote the highest pitch of anger. + +"Was your cart light?" asked Max. + +"Light!" cried Fario. "If those who laugh at me had it on their feet, +their corns would never hurt them again." + +"Well, it must be devilishly light," answered Max, "for look there!" +pointing to the foot of the tower; "it has flown up the embankment." + +At these words all eyes were lifted to the spot, and for a moment +there was a perfect uproar in the market-place. Each man pointed at +the barrow bewitched, and all their tongues wagged. + +"The devil makes common cause with the inn-keepers," said Goddet to +the astonished Spaniard. "He means to teach you not to leave your cart +about in the streets, but to put it in the tavern stables." + +At this speech the crowd hooted, for Fario was thought to be a miser. + +"Come, my good fellow," said Max, "don't lose heart. We'll go up to +the tower and see how your barrow got there. Thunder and cannon! we'll +lend you a hand! Come along, Baruch." + +"As for you," he whispered to Francois, "get the people to stand back, +and make sure there is nobody at the foot of the embankment when you +see us at the top." + +Fario, Max, Baruch, and three other knights climbed to the foot of the +tower. During the rather perilous ascent Max and Fario noticed that no +damage to the embankment, nor even trace of the passage of the barrow, +could be seen. Fario began to imagine witchcraft, and lost his head. +When they reached the top and examined into the matter, it really +seemed a thing impossible that the cart had got there. + +"How shall I ever get it down?" said the Spaniard, whose little eyes +began for the first time to show fear; while his swarthy yellow face, +which seemed as it if could never change color, whitened. + +"How?" said Max. "Why, that's not difficult." + +And taking advantage of the Spaniard's stupefaction, he raised the +barrow by the shafts with his robust arms and prepared to fling it +down, calling in thundering tones as it left his grasp, "Look out +there, below!" + +No accident happened, for the crowd, persuaded by Francois and eaten +up with curiosity, had retired to a distance from which they could see +more clearly what went on at the top of the embankment. The cart was +dashed to an infinite number of pieces in a very picturesque manner. + +"There! you have got it down," said Baruch. + +"Ah, brigands! ah, scoundrels!" cried Fario; "perhaps it was you who +brought it up here!" + +Max, Baruch, and their three comrades began to laugh at the Spaniard's +rage. + +"I wanted to do you a service," said Max coolly, "and in handling the +damned thing I came very near flinging myself after it; and this is +how you thank me, is it? What country do you come from?" + +"I come from a country where they never forgive," replied Fario, +trembling with rage. "My cart will be the cab in which you shall drive +to the devil!--unless," he said, suddenly becoming as meek as a lamb, +"you will give me a new one." + +"We will talk about that," said Max, beginning to descend. + +When they reached the bottom and met the first hilarious group, Max +took Fario by the button of his jacket and said to him,-- + +"Yes, my good Fario, I'll give you a magnificent cart, if you will +give me two hundred and fifty francs; but I won't warrant it to go, +like this one, up a tower." + +At this last jest Fario became as cool as though he were making a +bargain. + +"Damn it!" he said, "give me the wherewithal to replace my barrow, and +it will be the best use you ever made of old Rouget's money." + +Max turned livid; he raised his formidable fist to strike Fario; but +Baruch, who knew that the blow would descend on others besides the +Spaniard, plucked the latter away like a feather and whispered to +Max,-- + +"Don't commit such a folly!" + +The grand master, thus called to order, began to laugh and said to +Fario,-- + +"If I, by accident, broke your barrow, and you in return try to +slander me, we are quits." + +"Not yet," muttered Fario. "But I am glad to know what my barrow was +worth." + +"Ah, Max, you've found your match!" said a spectator of the scene, who +did not belong to the Order of Idleness. + +"Adieu, Monsieur Gilet. I haven't thanked you yet for lending me a +hand," cried the Spaniard, as he kicked the sides of his horse and +disappeared amid loud hurrahs. + +"We will keep the tires of the wheels for you," shouted a wheelwright, +who had come to inspect the damage done to the cart. + +One of the shafts was sticking upright in the ground, as straight as a +tree. Max stood by, pale and thoughtful, and deeply annoyed by Fario's +speech. For five days after this, nothing was talked of in Issoudun +but the tale of the Spaniard's barrow; it was even fated to travel +abroad, as Goddet remarked,--for it went the round of Berry, where the +speeches of Fario and Max were repeated, and at the end of a week the +affair, greatly to the Spaniard's satisfaction, was still the talk of +the three departments and the subject of endless gossip. In +consequence of the vindictive Spaniard's terrible speech, Max and the +Rabouilleuse became the object of certain comments which were merely +whispered in Issoudun, though they were spoken aloud in Bourges, +Vatan, Vierzon, and Chateauroux. Maxence Gilet knew enough of that +region of the country to guess how envenomed such comments would +become. + +"We can't stop their tongues," he said at last. "Ah! I did a foolish +thing!" + +"Max!" said Francois, taking his arm. "They are coming to-night." + +"They! Who!" + +"The Bridaus. My grandmother has just had a letter from her +goddaughter." + +"Listen, my boy," said Max in a low voice. "I have been thinking +deeply of this matter. Neither Flore nor I ought to seem opposed to +the Bridaus. If these heirs are to be got rid of, it is for you +Hochons to drive them out of Issoudun. Find out what sort of people +they are. To-morrow at Mere Cognette's, after I've taken their +measure, we can decide what is to be done, and how we can set your +grandfather against them." + +"The Spaniard found the flaw in Max's armor," said Baruch to his +cousin Francois, as they turned into Monsieur Hochon's house and +watched their comrade entering his own door. + +While Max was thus employed, Flore, in spite of her friend's advice, +was unable to restrain her wrath; and without knowing whether she +would help or hinder Max's plans, she burst forth upon the poor +bachelor. When Jean-Jacques incurred the anger of his mistress, the +little attentions and vulgar fondlings which were all his joy were +suddenly suppressed. Flore sent her master, as the children say, into +disgrace. No more tender glances, no more of the caressing little +words in various tones with which she decked her conversation,--"my +kitten," "my old darling," "my bibi," "my rat," etc. A "you," cold and +sharp and ironically respectful, cut like the blade of a knife through +the heart of the miserable old bachelor. The "you" was a declaration +of war. Instead of helping the poor man with his toilet, handing him +what he wanted, forestalling his wishes, looking at him with the sort +of admiration which all women know how to express, and which, in some +cases, the coarser it is the better it pleases,--saying, for instance, +"You look as fresh as a rose!" or, "What health you have!" "How +handsome you are, my old Jean!"--in short, instead of entertaining him +with the lively chatter and broad jokes in which he delighted, Flore +left him to dress alone. If he called her, she answered from the foot +of the staircase, "I can't do everything at once; how can I look after +your breakfast and wait upon you up there? Are not you big enough to +dress your own self?" + +"Oh, dear! what have I done to displease her?" the old man asked +himself that morning, as he got one of these rebuffs after calling for +his shaving-water. + +"Vedie, take up the hot water," cried Flore. + +"Vedie!" exclaimed the poor man, stupefied with fear of the anger that +was crushing him. "Vedie, what is the matter with Madame this +morning?" + +Flore Brazier required her master and Vedie and Kouski and Max to call +her Madame. + +"She seems to have heard something about you which isn't to your +credit," answered Vedie, assuming an air of deep concern. "You are +doing wrong, monsieur. I'm only a poor servant-woman, and you may say +I have no right to poke my nose into your affairs; but I do say you +may search through all the women in the world, like that king in holy +Scripture, and you won't find the equal of Madame. You ought to kiss +the ground she steps on. Goodness! if you make her unhappy, you'll +only spoil your own life. There she is, poor thing, with her eyes full +of tears." + +Vedie left the poor man utterly cast down; he dropped into an armchair +and gazed into vacancy like the melancholy imbecile that he was, and +forgot to shave. These alternations of tenderness and severity worked +upon this feeble creature whose only life was through his amorous +fibre, the same morbid effect which great changes from tropical heat +to arctic cold produce upon the human body. It was a moral pleurisy, +which wore him out like a physical disease. Flore alone could thus +affect him; for to her, and to her alone, he was as good as he was +foolish. + +"Well, haven't you shaved yet?" she said, appearing at his door. + +Her sudden presence made the old man start violently; and from being +pale and cast down he grew red for an instant, without, however, +daring to complain of her treatment. + +"Your breakfast is waiting," she added. "You can come down as you are, +in dressing-gown and slippers; for you'll breakfast alone, I can tell +you." + +Without waiting for an answer, she disappeared. To make him breakfast +alone was the punishment he dreaded most; he loved to talk to her as +he ate his meals. When he got to the foot of the staircase he was +taken with a fit of coughing; for emotion excited his catarrh. + +"Cough away!" said Flore in the kitchen, without caring whether he +heard her or not. "Confound the old wretch! he is able enough to get +over it without bothering others. If he coughs up his soul, it will +only be after--" + +Such were the amenities the Rabouilleuse addressed to Rouget when she +was angry. The poor man sat down in deep distress at a corner of the +table in the middle of the room, and looked at his old furniture and +the old pictures with a disconsolate air. + +"You might at least have put on a cravat," said Flore. "Do you think +it is pleasant for people to see such a neck as yours, which is redder +and more wrinkled than a turkey's?" + +"But what have I done?" he asked, lifting his big light-green eyes, +full of tears, to his tormentor, and trying to face her hard +countenance. + +"What have you done?" she exclaimed. "As if you didn't know? Oh, what +a hypocrite! Your sister Agathe--who is as much your sister as I am +sister of the tower of Issoudun, if one's to believe your father, and +who has no claim at all upon you--is coming here from Paris with her +son, a miserable two-penny painter, to see you." + +"My sister and my nephews coming to Issoudun!" he said, bewildered. + +"Oh, yes! play the surprised, do; try to make me believe you didn't +send for them! sewing your lies with white bread, indeed! Don't fash +yourself; we won't trouble your Parisians--before they set their feet +in this house, we shall have shaken the dust of it off ours. Max and I +will be gone, never to return. As for your will, I'll tear it in +quarters under your nose, and to your very beard--do you hear? Leave +your property to your family, if you don't think we are your family; +and then see if you'll be loved for yourself by a lot of people who +have not seen you for thirty years,--who in fact have never seen you! +Is it that sort of sister who can take my place? A pinchbeck saint!" + +"If that's all, my little Flore," said the old man, "I won't receive +my sister, or my nephews. I swear to you this is the first word I have +heard of their coming. It is all got up by that Madame Hochon--a +sanctimonious old--" + +Max, who had overheard old Rouget's words, entered suddenly, and said +in a masterful tone,-- + +"What's all this?" + +"My good Max," said the old man, glad to get the protection of the +soldier who, by agreement with Flore, always took his side in a +dispute, "I swear by all that is most sacred, that I now hear this +news for the first time. I have never written to my sister; my father +made me promise not to leave her any of my property; to leave it to +the Church sooner than to her. Well, I won't receive my sister Agathe +to this house, or her sons--" + +"Your father was wrong, my dear Jean-Jacques, and Madame Brazier is +still more wrong," answered Max. "Your father no doubt had his +reasons, but he is dead, and his hatred should die with him. Your +sister is your sister, and your nephews are your nephews. You owe it +to yourself to welcome them, and you owe it to us as well. What would +people say in Issoudun? Thunder! I've got enough upon my shoulders as +it is, without hearing people say that we shut you up and don't allow +you a will of your own, or that we influence you against your +relations and are trying to get hold of your property. The devil take +me if I don't pull up stakes and be off, if that sort of calumny is to +be flung at me! the other is bad enough! Let's eat our breakfast." + +Flore, who was now as mild as a weasel, helped Vedie to set the table. +Old Rouget, full of admiration for Max, took him by both hands and led +him into the recess of a window, saying in a low voice:-- + +"Ah! Max, if I had a son, I couldn't love him better than I love you. +Flore is right: you two are my real family. You are a man of honor, +Max, and what you have just said is true." + +"You ought to receive and entertain your sister and her son, but not +change the arrangements you have made about your property," said Max. +"In that way you will do what is right in the eyes of the world, and +yet keep your promise to your father." + +"Well! my dear loves!" cried Flore, gayly, "the salmi is getting cold. +Come, my old rat, here's a wing for you," she said, smiling on +Jean-Jacques. + +At the words, the long-drawn face of the poor creature lost its +cadaverous tints, the smile of a Theriaki flickered on his pendent +lips; but he was seized with another fit of coughing; for the joy of +being taken back to favor excited as violent an emotion as the +punishment itself. Flore rose, pulled a little cashmere shawl from her +own shoulders, and tied it round the old man's throat, exclaiming: +"How silly to put yourself in such a way about nothing. There, you old +goose, that will do you good; it has been next my heart--" + +"What a good creature!" said Rouget to Max, while Flore went to fetch +a black velvet cap to cover the nearly bald head of the old bachelor. + +"As good as she is beautiful"; answered Max, "but she is quick- +tempered, like all people who carry their hearts in their hands." + +The baldness of this sketch may displease some, who will think the +flashes of Flore's character belong to the sort of realism which a +painter ought to leave in shadow. Well! this scene, played again and +again with shocking variations, is, in its coarse way and its horrible +veracity, the type of such scenes played by women on whatever rung of +the social ladder they are perched, when any interest, no matter what, +draws them from their own line of obedience and induces them to grasp +at power. In their eyes, as in those of politicians, all means to an +end are justifiable. Between Flore Brazier and a duchess, between a +duchess and the richest bourgeoise, between a bourgeoise and the most +luxuriously kept mistress, there are no differences except those of +the education they have received, and the surroundings in which they +live. The pouting of a fine lady is the same thing as the violence of +a Rabouilleuse. At all levels, bitter sayings, ironical jests, cold +contempt, hypocritical complaints, false quarrels, win as much success +as the low outbursts of this Madame Everard of Issoudun. + +Max began to relate, with much humor, the tale of Fario and his +barrow, which made the old man laugh. Vedie and Kouski, who came to +listen, exploded in the kitchen, and as to Flore, she laughed +convulsively. After breakfast, while Jean-Jacques read the newspapers +(for they subscribed to the "Constitutionel" and the "Pandore"), Max +carried Flore to his own quarters. + +"Are you quite sure he has not made any other will since the one in +which he left the property to you?" + +"He hasn't anything to write with," she answered. + +"He might have dictated it to some notary," said Max; "we must look +out for that. Therefore it is well to be cordial to the Bridaus, and +at the same time endeavor to turn those mortgages into money. The +notaries will be only too glad to make the transfers; it is grist to +their mill. The Funds are going up; we shall conquer Spain, and +deliver Ferdinand VII. and the Cortez, and then they will be above +par. You and I could make a good thing out of it by putting the old +fellow's seven hundred and fifty thousand francs into the Funds at +eighty-nine. Only you must try to get it done in your name; it will be +so much secured anyhow." + +"A capital idea!" said Flore. + +"And as there will be an income of fifty thousand francs from eight +hundred and ninety thousand, we must make him borrow one hundred and +forty thousand francs for two years, to be paid back in two +instalments. In two years, we shall get one hundred thousand francs +_in_ Paris, and ninety thousand here, and risk nothing." + +"If it were not for you, my handsome Max, what would become of me +now?" she said. + +"Oh! to-morrow night at Mere Cognette's, after I have seen the +Parisians, I shall find a way to make the Hochons themselves get rid +of them." + +"Ah! what a head you've got, my angel! You are a love of a man." + +The place Saint-Jean is at the centre of a long street called at the +upper end the rue Grand Narette, and at the lower the rue Petite +Narette. The word "Narette" is used in Berry to express the same lay +of the land as the Genoese word "salita" indicates,--that is to say, a +steep street. The Grand Narette rises rapidly from the place +Saint-Jean to the port Vilatte. The house of old Monsieur Hochon is +exactly opposite that of Jean-Jacques Rouget. From the windows of the +room where Madame Hochon usually sat, it was easy to see what went on +at the Rouget household, and vice versa, when the curtains were drawn +back or the doors were left open. The Hochon house was like the Rouget +house, and the two were doubtless built by the same architect. +Monsieur Hochon, formerly tax-collector at Selles in Berry, born, +however, at Issoudun, had returned to his native place and married the +sister of the sub-delegate, the gay Lousteau, exchanging his office at +Selles for another of the same kind at Issoudun. Having retired before +1787, he escaped the dangers of the Revolution, to whose principles, +however, he firmly adhered, like all other "honest men" who howl with +the winners. Monsieur Hochon came honestly by the reputation of miser. +but it would be mere repetition to sketch him here. A single specimen +of the avarice which made him famous will suffice to make you see +Monsieur Hochon as he was. + +At the wedding of his daughter, now dead, who married a Borniche, it +was necessary to give a dinner to the Borniche family. The bridegroom, +who was heir to a large fortune, had suffered great mortification from +having mismanaged his property, and still more because his father and +mother refused to help him out. The old people, who were living at the +time of the marriage, were delighted to see Monsieur Hochon step in as +guardian,--for the purpose, of course, of making his daughter's dowry +secure. On the day of the dinner, which was given to celebrate the +signing of the marriage contract, the chief relations of the two +families were assembled in the salon, the Hochons on one side, the +Borniches on the other,--all in their best clothes. While the contract +was being solemnly read aloud by young Heron, the notary, the cook +came into the room and asked Monsieur Hochon for some twine to truss +up the turkey,--an essential feature of the repast. The old man dove +into the pocket of his surtout, pulled out an end of string which had +evidently already served to tie up a parcel, and gave it to her; but +before she could leave the room he called out, "Gritte, mind you give +it back to me!" (Gritte is the abbreviation used in Berry for +Marguerite.) + +From year to year old Hochon grew more petty in his meanness, and more +penurious; and at this time he was eighty-five years old. He belonged +to the class of men who stop short in the street, in the middle of a +lively dialogue, and stoop to pick up a pin, remarking, as they stick +it in the sleeve of their coat, "There's the wife's stipend." He +complained bitterly of the poor quality of the cloth manufactured +now-a-days, and called attention to the fact that his coat had lasted +only ten years. Tall, gaunt, thin, and sallow; saying little, reading +little, and doing nothing to fatigue himself; as observant of forms as +an oriental,--he enforced in his own house a discipline of strict +abstemiousness, weighing and measuring out the food and drink of the +family, which, indeed, was rather numerous, and consisted of his wife, +nee Lousteau, his grandson Borniche with a sister Adolphine, the heirs +of old Borniche, and lastly, his other grandson, Francois Hochon. + +Hochon's eldest son was taken by the draft of 1813, which drew in the +sons of well-to-do families who had escaped the regular conscription, +and were now formed into a corps styled the "guards of honor." This +heir-presumptive, who was killed at Hanau, had married early in life a +rich woman, intending thereby to escape all conscriptions; but after +he was enrolled, he wasted his substance, under a presentiment of his +end. His wife, who followed the army at a distance, died at Strasburg +in 1814, leaving debts which her father-in-law Hochon refused to pay, +--answering the creditors with an axiom of ancient law, "Women are +minors." + +The house, though large, was scantily furnished; on the second floor, +however, there were two rooms suitable for Madame Bridau and Joseph. +Old Hochon now repented that he had kept them furnished with two beds, +each bed accompanied by an old armchair of natural wood covered with +needlework, and a walnut table, on which figured a water-pitcher of +the wide-mouthed kind called "gueulard," standing in a basin with a +blue border. The old man kept his winter store of apples and pears, +medlars and quinces on heaps of straw in these rooms, where the rats +and mice ran riot, so that they exhaled a mingled odor of fruit and +vermin. Madame Hochon now directed that everything should be cleaned; +the wall-paper, which had peeled off in places, was fastened up again +with wafers; and she decorated the windows with little curtains which +she pieced together from old hoards of her own. Her husband having +refused to let her buy a strip of drugget, she laid down her own +bedside carpet for her little Agathe,--"Poor little thing!" as she +called the mother, who was now over forty-seven years old. Madame +Hochon borrowed two night-tables from a neighbor, and boldly hired two +chests of drawers with brass handles from a dealer in second-hand +furniture who lived next to Mere Cognette. She herself had preserved +two pairs of candlesticks, carved in choice woods by her own father, +who had the "turning" mania. From 1770 to 1780 it was the fashion +among rich people to learn a trade, and Monsieur Lousteau, the father, +was a turner, just as Louis XVI. was a locksmith. These candlesticks +were ornamented with circlets made of the roots of rose, peach, and +apricot trees. Madame Hochon actually risked the use of her precious +relics! These preparations and this sacrifice increased old Hochon's +anxiety; up to this time he had not believed in the arrival of the +Bridaus. + +The morning of the day that was celebrated by the trick on Fario, +Madame Hochon said to her husband after breakfast:-- + +"I hope, Hochon, that you will receive my goddaughter, Madame Bridau, +properly." Then, after making sure that her grandchildren were out of +hearing, she added: "I am mistress of my own property; don't oblige me +to make up to Agathe in my will for any incivility on your part." + +"Do you think, madame," answered Hochon, in a mild voice, "that, at my +age, I don't know the forms of decent civility?" + +"You know very well what I mean, you crafty old thing! Be friendly to +our guests, and remember that I love Agathe." + +"And you love Maxence Gilet also, who is getting the property away +from your dear Agathe! Ah! you've warmed a viper in your bosom there; +but after all, the Rouget money is bound to go to a Lousteau." + +After making this allusion to the supposed parentage and both Max and +Agathe, Hochon turned to leave the room; but old Madame Hochon, a +woman still erect and spare, wearing a round cap with ribbon knots and +her hair powdered, a taffet petticoat of changeable colors like a +pigeon's breast, tight sleeves, and her feet in high-heeled slippers, +deposited her snuff-box on a little table, and said:-- + +"Really, Monsieur Hochon, how can a man of your sense repeat +absurdities which, unhappily, cost my poor friend her peace of mind, +and Agathe the property which she ought to have had from her father. +Max Gilet is not the son of my brother, whom I often advised to save +the money he paid for him. You know as well as I do that Madame Rouget +was virtue itself--" + +"And the daughter takes after her; for she strikes me as uncommonly +stupid. After losing all her fortune, she brings her sons up so well +that here is one in prison and likely to be brought up on a criminal +indictment before the Court of Peers for a conspiracy worthy of +Berton. As for the other, he is worse off; he's a painter. If your +proteges are to stay here till they have extricated that fool of a +Rouget from the claws of Gilet and the Rabouilleuse, we shall eat a +good deal more than half a measure of salt with them." + +"That's enough, Monsieur Hochon; you had better wish they may not have +two strings to their bow." + +Monsieur Hochon took his hat, and his cane with an ivory knob, and +went away petrified by that terrible speech; for he had no idea that +his wife could show such resolution. Madame Hochon took her +prayer-book to read the service, for her advanced age prevented her +from going daily to church; it was only with difficulty that she got +there on Sundays and holidays. Since receiving her goddaughter's letter +she had added a petition to her usual prayers, supplicating God to open +the eyes of Jean-Jacques Rouget, and to bless Agathe and prosper the +expedition into which she herself had drawn her. Concealing the fact +from her grandchildren, whom she accused of being "parpaillots," she +had asked the curate to say a mass for Agathe's success during a +neuvaine which was being held by her granddaughter, Adolphine +Borniche, who thus made her prayers in church by proxy. + +Adolphine, then eighteen,--who for the last seven years had sewed at +the side of her grandmother in that cold household of monotonous and +methodical customs,--had undertaken her neuvaine all the more +willingly because she hoped to inspire some feeling in Joseph Bridau, +in whom she took the deepest interest because of the monstrosities +which her grandfather attributed in her hearing to the young Parisian. + +All the old people and sensible people of the town, and the fathers of +families approved of Madame Hochon's conduct in receiving her +goddaughter; and their good wishes for the latter's success were in +proportion to the secret contempt with which the conduct of Maxence +Gilet had long inspired them. Thus the news of the arrival of Rouget's +sister and nephew raised two parties in Issoudun,--that of the higher +and older bourgeoisie, who contented themselves with offering good +wishes and in watching events without assisting them, and that of the +Knights of Idleness and the partisans of Max, who, unfortunately, were +capable of committing many high-handed outrages against the Parisians. + + + + CHAPTER XI + +Agathe and Joseph arrived at the coach-office of the +Messageries-Royales in the place Misere at three o'clock. Though tired +with the journey, Madame Bridau felt her youth revive at sight of her +native land, where at every step she came upon memories and impressions +of her girlish days. In the then condition of public opinion in +Issoudun, the arrival of the Parisians was known all over the town in +ten minutes. Madame Hochon came out upon her doorstep to welcome her +godchild, and kissed her as though she were really a daughter. After +seventy-two years of a barren and monotonous existence, exhibiting in +their retrospect the graves of her three children, all unhappy in +their lives, and all dead, she had come to feel a sort of fictitious +motherhood for the young girl whom she had, as she expressed it, +carried in her pouch for sixteen years. Through the gloom of +provincial life the old woman had cherished this early friendship, +this girlish memory, as closely as if Agathe had remained near her, +and she had also taken the deepest interest in Bridau. Agathe was led +in triumph to the salon where Monsieur Hochon was stationed, chilling +as a tepid oven. + +"Here is Monsieur Hochon; how does he seem to you?" asked his wife. + +"Precisely the same as when I last saw him," said the Parisian woman. + +"Ah! it is easy to see you come from Paris; you are so complimentary," +remarked the old man. + +The presentations took place: first, young Baruch Borniche, a tall +youth of twenty-two; then Francois Hochon, twenty-four; and lastly +little Adolphine, who blushed and did not know what to do with her +arms; she was anxious not to seem to be looking at Joseph Bridau, who +in his turn was narrowly observed, though from different points of +view, by the two young men and by old Hochon. The miser was saying to +himself, "He is just out of the hospital; he will be as hungry as a +convalescent." The young men were saying, "What a head! what a +brigand! we shall have our hands full!" + +"This is my son, the painter; my good Joseph," said Agathe at last, +presenting the artist. + +There was an effort in the accent that she put upon the word "good," +which revealed the mother's heart, whose thoughts were really in the +prison of the Luxembourg. + +"He looks ill," said Madame Hochon; "he is not at all like you." + +"No, madame," said Joseph, with the brusque candor of an artist; "I am +like my father, and very ugly at that." + +Madame Hochon pressed Agathe's hand which she was holding, and glanced +at her as much as to say, "Ah! my child; I understand now why you +prefer your good-for-nothing Philippe." + +"I never saw your father, my dear boy," she said aloud; "it is enough +to make me love you that you are your mother's son. Besides, you have +talent, so the late Madame Descoings used to write to me; she was the +only one of late years who told me much about you." + +"Talent!" exclaimed the artist, "not as yet; but with time and +patience I may win fame and fortune." + +"By painting?" said Monsieur Hochon ironically. + +"Come, Adolphine," said Madame Hochon, "go and see about dinner." + +"Mother," said Joseph, "I will attend to the trunks which they are +bringing in." + +"Hochon," said the grandmother to Francois, "show the rooms to +Monsieur Bridau." + +As the dinner was to be served at four o'clock and it was now only +half past three, Baruch rushed into the town to tell the news of the +Bridau arrival, describe Agathe's dress, and more particularly to +picture Joseph, whose haggard, unhealthy, and determined face was not +unlike the ideal of a brigand. That evening Joseph was the topic of +conversation in all the households of Issoudun. + +"That sister of Rouget must have seen a monkey before her son was +born," said one; "he is the image of a baboon." + +"He has the face of a brigand and the eyes of a basilisk." + +"All artists are like that." + +"They are as wicked as the red ass, and as spiteful as monkeys." + +"It is part of their business." + +"I have just seen Monsieur Beaussier, and he says he would not like to +meet him in a dark wood; he saw him in the diligence." + +"He has got hollows over the eyes like a horse, and he laughs like a +maniac." + +"The fellow looks as though he were capable of anything; perhaps it's +his fault that his brother, a fine handsome man they tell me, has gone +to the bad. Poor Madame Bridau doesn't seem as if she were very happy +with him." + +"Suppose we take advantage of his being here, and have our portraits +painted?" + +The result of all these observations, scattered through the town was, +naturally, to excite curiosity. All those who had the right to visit +the Hochons resolved to call that very night and examine the +Parisians. The arrival of these two persons in the stagnant town was +like the falling of a beam into a community of frogs. + +After stowing his mother's things and his own into the two attic +chambers, which he examined as he did so, Joseph took note of the +silent house, where the walls, the stair-case, the wood-work, were +devoid of decoration and humid with frost, and where there was +literally nothing beyond the merest necessaries. He felt the brusque +transition from his poetic Paris to the dumb and arid province; and +when, coming downstairs, he chanced to see Monsieur Hochon cutting +slices of bread for each person, he understood, for the first time in +his life, Moliere's Harpagon. + +"We should have done better to go to an inn," he said to himself. + +The aspect of the dinner confirmed his apprehensions. After a soup +whose watery clearness showed that quantity was more considered than +quality, the bouilli was served, ceremoniously garnished with parsley; +the vegetables, in a dish by themselves, being counted into the items +of the repast. The bouilli held the place of honor in the middle of +the table, accompanied with three other dishes: hard-boiled eggs on +sorrel opposite to the vegetables; then a salad dressed with nut-oil +to face little cups of custard, whose flavoring of burnt oats did +service as vanilla, which it resembles much as coffee made of chiccory +resembles mocha. Butter and radishes, in two plates, were at each end +of the table; pickled gherkins and horse-radish completed the spread, +which won Madam Hochon's approbation. The good old woman gave a +contented little nod when she saw that her husband had done things +properly, for the first day at least. The old man answered with a +glance and a shrug of his shoulders, which it was easy to translate +into-- + +"See the extravagances you force me to commit!" + +As soon as Monsieur Hochon had, as it were, slivered the bouilli into +slices, about as thick as the sole of a dancing-shoe, that dish was +replaced by another, containing three pigeons. The wine was of the +country, vintage 1811. On a hint from her grandmother, Adolphine had +decorated each end of the table with a bunch of flowers. + +"At Rome as the Romans do," thought the artist, looking at the table, +and beginning to eat,--like a man who had breakfasted at Vierzon, at +six o'clock in the morning, on an execrable cup of coffee. When Joseph +had eaten up all his bread and asked for more, Monsieur Hochon rose, +slowly searched in the pocket of his surtout for a key, unlocked a +cupboard behind him, broke off a section of a twelve-pound loaf, +carefully cut a round of it, then divided the round in two, laid the +pieces on a plate, and passed the plate across the table to the young +painter, with the silence and coolness of an old soldier who says to +himself on the eve of battle, "Well, I can meet death." Joseph took +the half-slice, and fully understood that he was not to ask for any +more. No member of the family was the least surprised at this +extraordinary performance. The conversation went on. Agathe learned +that the house in which she was born, her father's house before he +inherited that of the old Descoings, had been bought by the Borniches; +she expressed a wish to see it once more. + +"No doubt," said her godmother, "the Borniches will be here this +evening; we shall have half the town--who want to examine you," she +added, turning to Joseph, "and they will all invite you to their +houses." + +Gritte, who in spite of her sixty years, was the only servant of the +house, brought in for dessert the famous ripe cheese of Touraine and +Berry, made of goat's milk, whose mouldy discolorations so distinctly +reproduce the pattern of the vine-leaves on which it is served, that +Touraine ought to have invented the art of engraving. On either side +of these little cheeses Gritte, with a company air, placed nuts and +some time-honored biscuits. + +"Well, Gritte, the fruit?" said Madame Hochon. + +"But, madame, there is none rotten," answered Gritte. + +Joseph went off into roars of laughter, as though he were among his +comrades in the atelier; for he suddenly perceived that the parsimony +of eating only the fruits which were beginning to rot had degenerated +into a settled habit. + +"Bah! we can eat them all the same," he exclaimed, with the heedless +gayety of a man who will have his say. + +"Monsieur Hochon, pray get some," said the old lady. + +Monsieur Hochon, much incensed at the artist's speech, fetched some +peaches, pears, and Saint Catherine plums. + +"Adolphine, go and gather some grapes," said Madame Hochon to her +granddaughter. + +Joseph looked at the two young men as much as to say: "Is it to such +high living as this that you owe your healthy faces?" + +Baruch understood the keen glance and smiled; for he and his cousin +Hochon were behaving with much discretion. The home-life was of less +importance to youths who supped three times the week at Mere +Cognette's. Moreover, just before dinner, Baruch had received notice +that the grand master convoked the whole Order at midnight for a +magnificent supper, in the course of which a great enterprise would be +arranged. The feast of welcome given by old Hochon to his guests +explains how necessary were the nocturnal repasts at the Cognette's to +two young fellows blessed with good appetites, who, we may add, never +missed any of them. + +"We will take the liqueur in the salon," said Madame Hochon, rising +and motioning to Joseph to give her his arm. As they went out before +the others, she whispered to the painter:-- + +"Eh! my poor boy; this dinner won't give you an indigestion; but I had +hard work to get it for you. It is always Lent here; you will get +enough just to keep life in you, and no more. So you must bear it +patiently." + +The kind-heartedness of the old woman, who thus drew her own +predicament, pleased the artist. + +"I have lived fifty years with that man, without ever hearing +half-a-dozen gold pieces chink in my purse," she went on. "Oh! if I +did not hope that you might save your property, I would never have +brought you and your mother into my prison." + +"But how can you survive it?" cried Joseph naively, with the gayety +which a French artist never loses. + +"Ah, you may well ask!" she said. "I pray." + +Joseph quivered as he heard the words, which raised the old woman so +much in his estimation that he stepped back a little way to look into +her face; it was radiant with so tender a serenity that he said to +her,-- + +"Let me paint your portrait." + +"No, no," she answered, "I am too weary of life to wish to remain here +on canvas." + +Gayly uttering the sad words, she opened a closet, and brought out a +flask containing ratafia, a domestic manufacture of her own, the +receipt for which she obtained from the far-famed nuns to whom is also +due the celebrated cake of Issoudun,--one of the great creations of +French confectionery; which no chef, cook, pastry-cook, or +confectioner has ever been able to reproduce. Monsieur de Riviere, +ambassador at Constantinople, ordered enormous quantities every year +for the Seraglio. + +Adolphine held a lacquer tray on which were a number of little old +glasses with engraved sides and gilt edges; and as her mother filled +each of them, she carried it to the company. + +"It seems as though my father's turn were coming round!" exclaimed +Agathe, to whom this immutable provincial custom recalled the scenes +of her youth. + +"Hochon will go to his club presently to read the papers, and we shall +have a little time to ourselves," said the old lady in a low voice. + +In fact, ten minutes later, the three women and Joseph were alone in +the salon, where the floor was never waxed, only swept, and the +worsted-work designs in oaken frames with grooved mouldings, and all +the other plain and rather dismal furniture seemed to Madame Bridau to +be in exactly the same state as when she had left Issoudun. Monarchy, +Revolution, Empire, and Restoration, which respected little, had +certainly respected this room where their glories and their disasters +had left not the slightest trace. + +"Ah! my godmother, in comparison with your life, mine has been cruelly +tried," exclaimed Madame Bridau, surprised to find even a canary which +she had known when alive, stuffed, and standing on the mantleshelf +between the old clock, the old brass brackets, and the silver +candlesticks. + +"My child," said the old lady, "trials are in the heart. The greater +and more necessary the resignation, the harder the struggle with our +own selves. But don't speak of me, let us talk of your affairs. You +are directly in front of the enemy," she added, pointing to the +windows of the Rouget house. + +"They are sitting down to dinner," said Adolphine. + +The young girl, destined for a cloister, was constantly looking out of +the window, in hopes of getting some light upon the enormities imputed +to Maxence Gilet, the Rabouilleuse, and Jean-Jacques, of which a few +words reached her ears whenever she was sent out of the room that +others might talk about them. The old lady now told her granddaughter +to leave her alone with Madame Bridau and Joseph until the arrival of +visitors. + +"For," she said, turning to the Parisians, "I know my Issoudun by +heart; we shall have ten or twelve batches of inquisitive folk here +to-night." + +In fact Madame Hochon had hardly related the events and the details +concerning the astounding influence obtained by Maxence Gilet and the +Rabouilleuse over Jean-Jacques Rouget (without, of course, following +the synthetical method with which they have been presented here), +adding the many comments, descriptions, and hypotheses with which the +good and evil tongues of the town embroidered them, before Adolphine +announced the approach of the Borniche, Beaussier, Lousteau-Prangin, +Fichet, Goddet-Herau families; in all, fourteen persons looming in the +distance. + +"You now see, my dear child," said the old lady, concluding her tale, +"that it will not be an easy matter to get this property out of the +jaws of the wolf--" + +"It seems to me so difficult--with a scoundrel such as you represent +him, and a daring woman like that crab-girl--as to be actually +impossible," remarked Joseph. "We should have to stay a year in +Issoudun to counteract their influence and overthrow their dominion +over my uncle. Money isn't worth such a struggle,--not to speak of the +meannesses to which we should have to condescend. My mother has only +two weeks' leave of absence; her place is a permanent one, and she +must not risk it. As for me, in the month of October I have an +important work, which Schinner has just obtained for me from a peer of +France; so you see, madame, my future fortune is in my brushes." + +This speech was received by Madame Hochon with much amazement. Though +relatively superior to the town she lived in, the old lady did not +believe in painting. She glanced at her goddaughter, and again pressed +her hand. + +"This Maxence is the second volume of Philippe," whispered Joseph in +his mother's ear, "--only cleverer and better behaved. Well, madame," +he said, aloud, we won't trouble Monsieur Hochon by staying very +long." + +"Ah! you are young; you know nothing of the world," said the old lady. +"A couple of weeks, if you are judicious, may produce great results; +listen to my advice, and act accordingly." + +"Oh! willingly," said Joseph, "I know I have a perfectly amazing +incapacity for domestic statesmanship: for example, I am sure I don't +know what Desroches himself would tell us to do if my uncle declines +to see us." + +Mesdames Borniche, Goddet-Herau, Beaussier, Lousteau-Prangin and +Fichet, decorated with their husbands, here entered the room. + +When the fourteen persons were seated, and the usual compliments were +over, Madame Hochon presented her goddaughter Agathe and Joseph. +Joseph sat in his armchair all the evening, engaged in slyly studying +the sixty faces which, from five o'clock until half past nine, posed +for him gratis, as he afterwards told his mother. Such behavior before +the aristocracy of Issoudun did not tend to change the opinion of the +little town concerning him: every one went home ruffled by his +sarcastic glances, uneasy under his smiles, and even frightened at his +face, which seemed sinister to a class of people unable to recognize +the singularities of genius. + +After ten o'clock, when the household was in bed, Madame Hochon kept +her goddaughter in her chamber until midnight. Secure from +interruption, the two women told each other the sorrows of their +lives, and exchanged their sufferings. As Agathe listened to the last +echoes of a soul that had missed its destiny, and felt the sufferings +of a heart, essentially generous and charitable, whose charity and +generosity could never be exercised, she realized the immensity of the +desert in which the powers of this noble, unrecognized soul had been +wasted, and knew that she herself, with the little joys and interests +of her city life relieving the bitter trials sent from God, was not +the most unhappy of the two. + +"You who are so pious," she said, "explain to me my shortcomings; tell +me what it is that God is punishing in me." + +"He is preparing us, my child," answered the old woman, "for the +striking of the last hour." + +At midnight the Knights of Idleness were collecting, one by one like +shadows, under the trees of the boulevard Baron, and speaking together +in whispers. + +"What are we going to do?" was the first question of each as he +arrived. + +"I think," said Francois, "that Max means merely to give us a supper." + +"No; matters are very serious for him, and for the Rabouilleuse: no +doubt, he has concocted some scheme against the Parisians." + +"It would be a good joke to drive them away." + +"My grandfather," said Baruch, "is terribly alarmed at having two +extra mouths to feed, and he'd seize on any pretext--" + +"Well, comrades!" cried Max softly, now appearing on the scene, "why +are you star-gazing? the planets don't distil kirschwasser. Come, let +us go to Mere Cognette's!" + +"To Mere Cognette's! To Mere Cognette's!" they all cried. + +The cry, uttered as with one voice, produced a clamor which rang +through the town like the hurrah of troops rushing to an assault; +total silence followed. The next day, more than one inhabitant must +have said to his neighbor: "Did you hear those frightful cries last +night, about one o'clock? I thought there was surely a fire +somewhere." + +A supper worthy of La Cognette brightened the faces of the twenty-two +guests; for the whole Order was present. At two in the morning, as +they were beginning to "siroter" (a word in the vocabulary of the +Knights which admirably expresses the act of sipping and tasting the +wine in small quantities), Max rose to speak:-- + +"My dear fellows! the honor of your grand master was grossly attacked +this morning, after our memorable joke with Fario's cart,--attacked by +a vile pedler, and what is more, a Spaniard (oh, Cabrera!); and I have +resolved to make the scoundrel feel the weight of my vengeance; +always, of course, within the limits we have laid down for our fun. +After reflecting about it all day, I have found a trick which is worth +putting into execution,--a famous trick, that will drive him crazy. +While avenging the insult offered to the Order in my person, we shall +be feeding the sacred animals of the Egyptians,--little beasts which +are, after all, the creatures of God, and which man unjustly +persecutes. Thus we see that good is the child of evil, and evil is +the offspring of good; such is the paramount law of the universe! I +now order you all, on pain of displeasing your very humble grand +master, to procure clandestinely, each one of you, twenty rats, male +or female as heaven pleases. Collect your contingent within three +days. If you can get more, the surplus will be welcome. Keep the +interesting rodents without food; for it is essential that the +delightful little beasts be ravenous with hunger. Please observe that +I will accept both house-mice and field-mice as rats. If we multiply +twenty-two by twenty, we shall have four hundred; four hundred +accomplices let loose in the old church of the Capuchins, where Fario +has stored all his grain, will consume a not insignificant quantity! +But be lively about it! There's no time to lose. Fario is to deliver +most of the grain to his customers in a week or so; and I am +determined that that Spaniard shall find a terrible deficit. +Gentlemen, I have not the merit of this invention," continued Max, +observing the signs of general admiration. "Render to Caesar that +which is Caesar's, and to God that which is God's. My scheme is only a +reproduction of Samson's foxes, as related in the Bible. But Samson +was an incendiary, and therefore no philanthropist; while we, like the +Brahmins, are the protectors of a persecuted race. Mademoiselle Flore +Brazier has already set all her mouse-traps, and Kouski, my right-arm, +is hunting field-mice. I have spoken." + +"I know," said Goddet, "where to find an animal that's worth forty +rats, himself alone." + +"What's that?" + +"A squirrel." + +"I offer a little monkey," said one of the younger members, "he'll +make himself drunk on wheat." + +"Bad, very bad!" exclaimed Max, "it would show who put the beasts +there." + +"But we might each catch a pigeon some night," said young Beaussier, +"taking them from different farms; if we put them through a hole in +the roof, they'll attract thousands of others." + +"So, then, for the next week, Fario's storehouse is the order of the +night," cried Max, smiling at Beaussier. "Recollect; people get up +early in Saint-Paterne. Mind, too, that none of you go there without +turning the soles of your list shoes backward. Knight Beaussier, the +inventor of pigeons, is made director. As for me, I shall take care to +leave my imprint on the sacks of wheat. Gentlemen, you are, all of +you, appointed to the commissariat of the Army of Rats. If you find a +watchman sleeping in the church, you must manage to make him drunk, +--and do it cleverly,--so as to get him far away from the scene of the +Rodents' Orgy." + +"You don't say anything about the Parisians?" questioned Goddet. + +"Oh!" exclaimed Max, "I want time to study them. Meantime, I offer my +best shotgun--the one the Emperor gave me, a treasure from the +manufactory at Versailles--to whoever finds a way to play the Bridaus +a trick which shall get them into difficulties with Madame and +Monsieur Hochon, so that those worthy old people shall send them off, +or they shall be forced to go of their own accord,--without, +understand me, injuring the venerable ancestors of my two friends here +present, Baruch and Francois." + +"All right! I'll think of it," said Goddet, who coveted the gun. + +"If the inventor of the trick doesn't care for the gun, he shall have +my horse," added Max. + +After this night twenty brains were tortured to lay a plot against +Agathe and her son, on the basis of Max's programme. But the devil +alone, or chance, could really help them to success; for the +conditions given made the thing well-nigh impossible. + +The next morning Agathe and Joseph came downstairs just before the +second breakfast, which took place at ten o'clock. In Monsieur +Hochon's household the name of first breakfast was given to a cup of +milk and slice of bread and butter which was taken in bed, or when +rising. While waiting for Madame Hochon, who notwithstanding her age +went minutely through the ceremonies with which the duchesses of Louis +XV.'s time performed their toilette, Joseph noticed Jean-Jacques +Rouget planted squarely on his feet at the door of his house across +the street. He naturally pointed him out to his mother, who was unable +to recognize her brother, so little did he look like what he was when +she left him. + +"That is your brother," said Adolphine, who entered, giving an arm to +her grandmother. + +"What an idiot he looks like!" exclaimed Joseph. + +Agathe clasped her hands, and raised her eyes to heaven. + +"What a state they have driven him to! Good God! can that be a man +only fifty-seven years old?" + +She looked attentively at her brother, and saw Flore Brazier standing +directly behind him, with her hair dressed, a pair of snowy shoulders +and a dazzling bosom showing through a gauze neckerchief, which was +trimmed with lace; she was wearing a dress with a tight-fitting waist, +made of grenadine (a silk material then much in fashion), with +leg-of-mutton sleeves so-called, fastened at the wrists by handsome +bracelets. A gold chain rippled over the crab-girl's bosom as she +leaned forward to give Jean-Jacques his black silk cap lest he should +take cold. The scene was evidently studied. + +"Hey!" cried Joseph, "there's a fine woman, and a rare one! She is +made, as they say, to paint. What flesh-tints! Oh, the lovely tones! +what surface! what curves! Ah, those shoulders! She's a magnificent +caryatide. What a model she would have been for one of Titians' +Venuses!" + +Adolphine and Madame Hochon thought he was talking Greek; but Agathe +signed to them behind his back, as if to say that she was accustomed +to such jargon. + +"So you think a creature who is depriving you of your property +handsome?" said Madame Hochon. + +"That doesn't prevent her from being a splendid model!--just plump +enough not to spoil the hips and the general contour--" + +"My son, you are not in your studio," said Agathe. "Adolphine is +here." + +"Ah, true! I did wrong. But you must remember that ever since leaving +Paris I have seen nothing but ugly women--" + +"My dear godmother," said Agathe hastily, "how shall I be able to meet +my brother, if that creature is always with him?" + +"Bah!" said Joseph. "I'll go and see him myself. I don't think him +such an idiot, now I find he has the sense to rejoice his eyes with a +Titian's Venus." + +"If he were not an idiot," said Monsieur Hochon, who had come in, "he +would have married long ago and had children; and then you would have +no chance at the property. It is an ill wind that blows no good." + +"Your son's idea is very good," said Madame Hochon; "he ought to pay +the first visit. He can make his uncle understand that if you call +there he must be alone." + +"That will affront Mademoiselle Brazier," said old Hochon. "No, no, +madame; swallow the pill. If you can't get the whole property, secure +a small legacy." + +The Hochons were not clever enough to match Max. In the middle of +breakfast Kouski brought over a letter from Monsieur Rouget, addressed +to his sister, Madame Bridau. Madame Hochon made her husband read it +aloud, as follows:-- + + My dear Sister,--I learn from strangers of your arrival in + Issoudun. I can guess the reason which made you prefer the house + of Monsieur and Madame Hochon to mine; but if you will come to see + me you shall be received as you ought to be. I should certainly + pay you the first visit if my health did not compel me just now to + keep the house; for which I offer my affectionate regrets. I shall + be delighted to see my nephew, whom I invite to dine with me + to-morrow,--young men are less sensitive than women about the + company. It will give me pleasure if Messrs. Baruch Borniche and + Francois Hochon will accompany him. + + Your affectionate brother, + + J.-J. Rouget. + + +"Say that we are at breakfast, but that Madame Bridau will send an +answer presently, and the invitations are all accepted," said Monsieur +Hochon to the servant. + +The old man laid a finger on his lips, to require silence from +everybody. When the street-door was shut, Monsieur Hochon, little +suspecting the intimacy between his grandsons and Max, threw one of +his slyest looks at his wife and Agathe, remarking,-- + +"He is just as capable of writing that note as I am of giving away +twenty-five louis; it is the soldier who is corresponding with us!" + +"What does that portend?" asked Madame Hochon. "Well, never mind; we +will answer him. As for you, monsieur," she added, turning to Joseph, +"you must dine there; but if--" + +The old lady was stopped short by a look from her husband. Knowing how +warm a friendship she felt for Agathe, old Hochon was in dread lest +she should leave some legacy to her goddaughter in case the latter +lost the Rouget property. Though fifteen years older than his wife, +the miser hoped to inherit her fortune, and to become eventually the +sole master of their whole property. That hope was a fixed idea with +him. Madame Hochon knew that the best means of obtaining a few +concessions from her husband was to threaten him with her will. +Monsieur Hochon now took sides with his guests. An enormous fortune +was at stake; with a sense of social justice, he wished it to go to +the natural heirs, instead of being pillaged by unworthy outsiders. +Moreover, the sooner the matter was decided, the sooner he should get +rid of his guests. Now that the struggle between the interlopers and +the heirs, hitherto existing only in his wife's mind, had become an +actual fact, Monsieur Hochon's keen intelligence, lulled to sleep by +the monotony of provincial life, was fully roused. Madame Hochon had +been agreeably surprised that morning to perceive, from a few +affectionate words which the old man had said to her about Agathe, +that so able and subtle an auxiliary was on the Bridau side. + +Towards midday the brains of Monsieur and Madame Hochon, of Agathe, +and Joseph (the latter much amazed at the scrupulous care of the old +people in the choice of words), were delivered of the following +answer, concocted solely for the benefit of Max and Flore:-- + + My dear Brother,--If I have stayed away from Issoudun, and kept up + no intercourse with any one, not even with you, the fault lies not + merely with the strange and false ideas my father conceived about + me, but with the joys and sorrows of my life in Paris; for if God + made me a happy wife, he has also deeply afflicted me as a mother. + You are aware that my son, your nephew Philippe, lies under + accusation of a capital offence in consequence of his devotion to + the Emperor. Therefore you can hardly be surprised if a widow, + compelled to take a humble situation in a lottery-office for a + living, should come to seek consolation from those among whom she + was born. + + The profession adopted by the son who accompanies me is one that + requires great talent, many sacrifices, and prolonged studies + before any results can be obtained. Glory for an artist precedes + fortune; is not that to say that Joseph, though he may bring honor + to the family, will still be poor? Your sister, my dear + Jean-Jacques, would have borne in silence the penalties of paternal + injustice, but you will pardon a mother for reminding you that you + have two nephews; one of whom carried the Emperor's orders at the + battle of Montereau and served in the Guard at Waterloo, and is + now in prison for his devotion to Napoleon; the other, from his + thirteenth year, has been impelled by natural gifts to enter a + difficult though glorious career. + + I thank you for your letter, my dear brother, with heart-felt + warmth, for my own sake, and also for Joseph's, who will certainly + accept your invitation. Illness excuses everything, my dear + Jean-Jacques, and I shall therefore go to see you in your own house. + A sister is always at home with a brother, no matter what may be the + life he has adopted. + + I embrace you tenderly. + + Agathe Rouget + + +"There's the matter started. Now, when you see him," said Monsieur +Hochon to Agathe, "you must speak plainly to him about his nephews." + +The letter was carried over by Gritte, who returned ten minutes later +to render an account to her masters of all that she had seen and +heard, according to a settled provincial custom. + +"Since yesterday Madame has had the whole house cleaned up, which she +left--" + +"Whom do you mean by Madame?" asked old Hochon. + +"That's what they call the Rabouilleuse over there," answered Gritte. +"She left the salon and all Monsieur Rouget's part of the house in a +pitiable state; but since yesterday the rooms have been made to look +like what they were before Monsieur Maxence went to live there. You +can see your face on the floors. La Vedie told me that Kouski went off +on horseback at five o'clock this morning, and came back at nine, +bringing provisions. It is going to be a grand dinner!--a dinner fit +for the archbishop of Bourges! There's a fine bustle in the kitchen, +and they are as busy as bees. The old man says, 'I want to do honor to +my nephew,' and he pokes his nose into everything. It appears _the +Rougets_ are highly flattered by the letter. Madame came and told me +so. Oh! she had on such a dress! I never saw anything so handsome in +my life. Two diamonds in her ears!--two diamonds that cost, Vedie told +me, three thousand francs apiece; and such lace! rings on her fingers, +and bracelets! you'd think she was a shrine; and a silk dress as fine +as an altar-cloth. So then she said to me, 'Monsieur is delighted to +find his sister so amiable, and I hope she will permit us to pay her +all the attention she deserves. We shall count on her good opinion +after the welcome we mean to give her son. Monsieur is very impatient +to see his nephew.' Madame had little black satin slippers; and her +stockings! my! they were marvels,--flowers in silk and openwork, just +like lace, and you could see her rosy little feet through them. Oh! +she's in high feather, and she had a lovely little apron in front of +her which, Vedie says, cost more than two years of our wages put +together." + +"Well done! We shall have to dress up," said the artist laughing. + +"What do you think of all this, Monsieur Hochon?" said the old lady +when Gritte had departed. + +Madame Hochon made Agathe observe her husband, who was sitting with +his head in his hands, his elbows on the arms of his chair, plunged in +thought. + +"You have to do with a Maitre Bonin!" said the old man at last. "With +your ideas, young man," he added, looking at Joseph, "you haven't +force enough to struggle with a practised scoundrel like Maxence +Gilet. No matter what I say to you, you will commit some folly. But, +at any rate, tell me everything you see, and hear, and do to-night. +Go, and God be with you! Try to get alone with your uncle. If, in +spite of all your genius, you can't manage it, that in itself will +throw some light upon their scheme. But if you do get a moment alone +with him, out of ear-shot, damn it, you must pull the wool from his +eyes as to the situation those two have put him in, and plead your +mother's cause." + + + + CHAPTER XII + +At four o'clock, Joseph crossed the open space which separated the +Rouget house from the Hochon house,--a sort of avenue of weakly +lindens, two hundred feet long and of the same width as the rue Grande +Narette. When the nephew arrived, Kouski, in polished boots, black +cloth trousers, white waistcoat, and black coat, announced him. The +table was set in the large hall, and Joseph, who easily distinguished +his uncle, went up to him, kissed him, and bowed to Flore and Max. + +"We have not seen each other since I came into the world, my dear +uncle," said the painter gayly; "but better late than never." + +"You are very welcome, my friend," said the old man, looking at his +nephew in a dull way. + +"Madame," Joseph said to Flore with an artist's vivacity, "this +morning I was envying my uncle the pleasure he enjoys in being able to +admire you every day." + +"Isn't she beautiful?" said the old man, whose dim eyes began to +shine. + +"Beautiful enough to be the model of a great painter." + +"Nephew," said Rouget, whose elbow Flore was nudging, "this is +Monsieur Maxence Gilet; a man who served the Emperor, like your +brother, in the Imperial Guard." + +Joseph rose, and bowed. + +"Your brother was in the dragoons, I believe," said Maxence. "I was +only a dust-trotter." + +"On foot or on horseback," said Flore, "you both of you risked your +skins." + +Joseph took note of Max quite as much as Max took note of Joseph. Max, +who got his clothes from Paris, was dressed as the young dandies of +that day dressed themselves. A pair of light-blue cloth trousers, made +with very full plaits, covered his feet so that only the toes and the +spurs of his boots were seen. His waist was pinched in by a white +waistcoat with chased gold buttons, which was laced behind to serve as +a belt. The waistcoat, buttoned to the throat, showed off his broad +chest, and a black satin stock obliged him to hold his head high, in +soldierly fashion. A handsome gold chain hung from a waistcoat pocket, +in which the outline of a flat watch was barely seen. He was twisting +a watch-key of the kind called a "criquet," which Breguet had lately +invented. + +"The fellow is fine-looking," thought Joseph, admiring with a +painter's eye the eager face, the air of strength, and the +intellectual gray eyes which Max had inherited from his father, the +noble. "My uncle must be a fearful bore, and that handsome girl takes +her compensations. It is a triangular household; I see that." + +At this instant, Baruch and Francois entered. + +"Have you been to see the tower of Issoudun?" Flore asked Joseph. "No? +then if you would like to take a little walk before dinner, which will +not be served for an hour, we will show you the great curiosity of the +town." + +"Gladly," said the artist, quite incapable of seeing the slightest +impropriety in so doing. + +While Flore went to put on her bonnet, gloves, and cashmere shawl, +Joseph suddenly jumped up, as if an enchanter had touched him with his +wand, to look at the pictures. + +"Ah! you have pictures, indeed, uncle!" he said, examining the one +that had caught his eye. + +"Yes," answered the old man. "They came to us from the Descoings, who +bought them during the Revolution, when the convents and churches in +Berry were dismantled." + +Joseph was not listening; he was lost in admiration of the pictures. + +"Magnificent!" he cried. "Oh! what painting! that fellow didn't spoil +his canvas. Dear, dear! better and better, as it is at Nicolet's--" + +"There are seven or eight very large ones up in the garret, which were +kept on account of the frames," said Gilet. + +"Let me see them!" cried the artist; and Max took him upstairs. + +Joseph came down wildly enthusiastic. Max whispered a word to the +Rabouilleuse, who took the old man into the embrasure of a window, +where Joseph heard her say in a low voice, but still so that he could +hear the words:-- + +"Your nephew is a painter; you don't care for those pictures; be kind, +and give them to him." + +"It seems," said Jean-Jacques, leaning on Flore's arm to reach the +place were Joseph was standing in ecstasy before an Albano, "--it seems +that you are a painter--" + +"Only a 'rapin,'" said Joseph. + +"What may that be?" asked Flore. + +"A beginner," replied Joseph. + +"Well," continued Jean-Jacques, "if these pictures can be of any use +to you in your business, I give them to you,--but without the frames. +Oh! the frames are gilt, and besides, they are very funny; I will +put--" + +"Well done, uncle!" cried Joseph, enchanted; "I'll make you copies of +the same dimensions, which you can put into the frames." + +"But that will take your time, and you will want canvas and colors," +said Flore. "You will have to spend money. Come, Pere Rouget, offer +your nephew a hundred francs for each copy; here are twenty-seven +pictures, and I think there are eleven very big ones in the garret +which ought to cost double,--call the whole four thousand francs. Oh, +yes," she went on, turning to Joseph, "your uncle can well afford to +pay you four thousand francs for making the copies, since he keeps the +frames--but bless me! you'll want frames; and they say frames cost +more than pictures; there's more gold on them. Answer, monsieur," she +continued, shaking the old man's arm. "Hein? it isn't dear; your +nephew will take four thousand francs for new pictures in the place of +the old ones. It is," she whispered in his ear, "a very good way to +give him four thousand francs; he doesn't look to me very flush--" + +"Well, nephew, I will pay you four thousand francs for the copies--" + +"No, no!" said the honest Joseph; "four thousand francs and the +pictures, that's too much; the pictures, don't you see, are +valuable--" + +"Accept, simpleton!" said Flore; "he is your uncle, you know." + +"Very good, I accept," said Joseph, bewildered by the luck that had +befallen him; for he had recognized a Perugino. + +The result was that the artist beamed with satisfaction as he went out +of the house with the Rabouilleuse on his arm, all of which helped +Maxence's plans immensely. Neither Flore, nor Rouget, nor Max, nor +indeed any one in Issoudun knew the value of the pictures, and the +crafty Max thought he had bought Flore's triumph for a song, as she +paraded triumphantly before the eyes of the astonished town, leaning +on the arm of her master's nephew, and evidently on the best of terms +with him. People flocked to their doors to see the crab-girl's triumph +over the family. This astounding event made the sensation on which Max +counted; so that when they all returned at five o'clock, nothing was +talked of in every household but the cordial understanding between Max +and Flore and the nephew of old Rouget. The incident of the pictures +and the four thousand francs circulated already. The dinner, at which +Lousteau, one of the court judges, and the Mayor of Issoudun were +present, was splendid. It was one of those provincial dinners lasting +five hours. The most exquisite wines enlivened the conversation. By +nine o'clock, at dessert, the painter, seated opposite to his uncle, +and between Flore and Max, had fraternized with the soldier, and +thought him the best fellow on earth. Joseph returned home at eleven +o'clock somewhat tipsy. As to old Rouget, Kouski had carried him to +his bed dead-drunk; he had eaten as though he were an actor from +foreign parts, and had soaked up the wine like the sands of the +desert. + +"Well," said Max when he was alone with Flore, "isn't this better than +making faces at them? The Bridaus are well received, they get small +presents, and are smothered with attentions, and the end of it is they +will sing our praises; they will go away satisfied and leave us in +peace. To-morrow morning you and I and Kouski will take down all those +pictures and send them over to the painter, so that he shall see them +when he wakes up. We will put the frames in the garret, and cover the +walls with one of those varnished papers which represent scenes from +Telemachus, such as I have seen at Monsieur Mouilleron's." + +"Oh, that will be much prettier!" said Flore. + +On the morrow, Joseph did not wake up till midday. From his bed he saw +the pictures, which had been brought in while he was asleep, leaning +one against another on the opposite wall. While he examined them anew, +recognizing each masterpiece, studying the manner of each painter, and +searching for the signature, his mother had gone to see and thank her +brother, urged thereto by old Hochon, who, having heard of the follies +the painter had committed the night before, almost despaired of the +Bridau cause. + +"Your adversaries have the cunning of foxes," he said to Agathe. "In +all my days I never saw a man carry things with such a high hand as +that soldier; they say war educates young men! Joseph has let himself +be fooled. They have shut his mouth with wine, and those miserable +pictures, and four thousand francs! Your artist hasn't cost Maxence +much!" + +The long-headed old man instructed Madame Bridau carefully as to the +line of conduct she ought to pursue,--advising her to enter into +Maxence's ideas and cajole Flore, so as to set up a sort of intimacy +with her, and thus obtain a few moments' interview with Jean-Jacques +alone. Madame Bridau was very warmly received by her brother, to whom +Flore had taught his lesson. The old man was in bed, quite ill from +the excesses of the night before. As Agathe, under the circumstances, +could scarcely begin at once to speak of family matters, Max thought +it proper and magnanimous to leave the brother and sister alone +together. The calculation was a good one. Poor Agathe found her +brother so ill that she would not deprive him of Madame Brazier's +care. + +"Besides," she said to the old bachelor, "I wish to know a person to +whom I am grateful for the happiness of my brother." + +These words gave evident pleasure to the old man, who rang for Madame +Flore. Flore, as we may well believe, was not far off. The female +antagonists bowed to each other. The Rabouilleuse showed the most +servile attentions and the utmost tenderness to her master; fancied +his head was too low, beat up the pillows, and took care of him like a +bride of yesterday. The poor creature received it with a rush of +feeling. + +"We owe you much gratitude, mademoiselle," said Agathe, "for the +proofs of attachment you have so long given to my brother, and for the +way in which you watch over his happiness." + +"That is true, my dear Agathe," said the old man; "she has taught me +what happiness is; she is a woman of excellent qualities." + +"And therefore, my dear brother, you ought to have recompensed +Mademoiselle by making her your wife. Yes! I am too sincere in my +religion not to wish to see you obey the precepts of the church. You +would each be more tranquil in mind if you were not at variance with +morality and the laws. I have come here, dear brother, to ask for help +in my affliction; but do not suppose that we wish to make any +remonstrance as to the manner in which you may dispose of your +property--" + +"Madame," said Flore, "we know how unjust your father was to you. +Monsieur, here, can tell you," she went on, looking fixedly at her +victim, "that the only quarrels we have ever had were about you. I +have always told him that he owes you part of the fortune he received +from his father, and your father, my benefactor,--for he was my +benefactor," she added in a tearful voice; "I shall ever remember him! +But your brother, madame, has listened to reason--" + +"Yes," said the old man, "when I make my will you shall not be +forgotten." + +"Don't talk of these things, my dear brother; you do not yet know my +nature." + +After such a beginning, it is easy to imagine how the visit went on. +Rouget invited his sister to dinner on the next day but one. + +We may here mention that during these three days the Knights of +Idleness captured an immense quantity of rats and mice, which were +kept half-famished until they were let loose in the grain one fine +night, to the number of four hundred and thirty-six, of which some +were breeding mothers. Not content with providing Fario's store-house +with these boarders, the Knights made holes in the roof of the old +church and put in a dozen pigeons, taken from as many different farms. +These four-footed and feathered creatures held high revels,--all the +more securely because the watchman was enticed away by a fellow who +kept him drunk from morning till night, so that he took no care of his +master's property. + +Madame Bridau believed, contrary to the opinion of old Hochon, that +her brother has as yet made no will; she intended asking him what were +his intentions respecting Mademoiselle Brazier, as soon as she could +take a walk with him alone,--a hope which Flore and Maxence were +always holding out to her, and, of course, always disappointing. + +Meantime the Knights were searching for a way to put the Parisians to +flight, and finding none that were not impracticable follies. + +At the end of a week--half the time the Parisians were to stay in +Issoudun--the Bridaus were no farther advanced in their object than +when they came. + +"Your lawyer does not understand the provinces," said old Hochon to +Madame Bridau. "What you have come to do can't be done in two weeks, +nor in two years; you ought never to leave your brother, but live here +and try to give him some ideas of religion. You cannot countermine the +fortifications of Flore and Maxence without getting a priest to sap +them. That is my advice, and it is high time to set about it." + +"You certainly have very singular ideas about the clergy," said Madame +Hochon to her husband. + +"Bah!" exclaimed the old man, "that's just like you pious women." + +"God would never bless an enterprise undertaken in a sacrilegious +spirit," said Madame Bridau. "Use religion for such a purpose! Why, we +should be more criminal than Flore." + +This conversation took place at breakfast,--Francois and Baruch +listening with all their ears. + +"Sacrilege!" exclaimed old Hochon. "If some good abbe, keen as I have +known many of them to be, knew what a dilemma you are in, he would not +think it sacrilege to bring your brother's lost soul back to God, and +call him to repentance for his sins, by forcing him to send away the +woman who causes the scandal (with a proper provision, of course), and +showing him how to set his conscience at rest by giving a few thousand +francs a year to the seminary of the archbishop and leaving his +property to the rightful heirs." + +The passive obedience which the old miser had always exacted from his +children, and now from his grandchildren (who were under his +guardianship and for whom he was amassing a small fortune, doing for +them, he said, just as he would for himself), prevented Baruch and +Francois from showing signs of surprise or disapproval; but they +exchanged significant glances expressing how dangerous and fatal such +a scheme would be to Max's interest. + +"The fact is, madame," said Baruch, "that if you want to secure your +brother's property, the only sure and true way will be to stay in +Issoudun for the necessary length of time--" + +"Mother," said Joseph hastily, "you had better write to Desroches +about all this. As for me, I ask nothing more than what my uncle has +already given me." + +After fully recognizing the great value of his thirty-nine pictures, +Joseph had carefully unnailed the canvases and fastened paper over +them, gumming it at the edges with ordinary glue; he then laid them +one above another in an enormous wooden box, which he sent to +Desroches by the carrier's waggon, proposing to write him a letter +about it by post. The precious freight had been sent off the night +before. + +"You are satisfied with a pretty poor bargain," said Monsieur Hochon. + +"I can easily get a hundred and fifty thousand francs for those +pictures," replied Joseph. + +"Painter's nonsense!" exclaimed old Hochon, giving Joseph a peculiar +look. + +"Mother," said Joseph, "I am going to write to Desroches and explain +to him the state of things here. If he advises you to remain, you had +better do so. As for your situation, we can always find you another +like it." + +"My dear Joseph," said Madame Hochon, following him as he left the +table, "I don't know anything about your uncle's pictures, but they +ought to be good, judging by the places from which they came. If they +are worth only forty thousand francs,--a thousand francs apiece,--tell +no one. Though my grandsons are discreet and well-behaved, they might, +without intending harm, speak of this windfall; it would be known all +over Issoudun; and it is very important that our adversaries should +not suspect it. You behave like a child!" + +In fact, before evening many persons in Issoudun, including Max, were +informed of this estimate, which had the immediate effect of causing a +search for all the old paintings which no one had ever cared for, and +the appearance of many execrable daubs. Max repented having driven the +old man into giving away the pictures, and the rage he felt against +the heirs after hearing from Baruch old Hochon's ecclesiastical +scheme, was increased by what he termed his own stupidity. The +influence of religion upon such a feeble creature as Rouget was the +one thing to fear. The news brought by his two comrades decided +Maxence Gilet to turn all Rouget's investments into money, and to +borrow upon his landed property, so as to buy into the Funds as soon +as possible; but he considered it even more important to get rid of +the Parisians at once. The genius of the Mascarilles and Scapins out +together would hardly have solved the latter problem easily. + +Flore, acting by Max's advice, pretended that Monsieur was too feeble +to take walks, and that he ought, at his age, to have a carriage. This +pretext grew out of the necessity of not exciting inquiry when they +went to Bourges, Vierzon, Chateauroux, Vatan, and all the other places +where the project of withdrawing investments obliged Max and Flore to +betake themselves with Rouget. At the close of the week, all Issoudun +was amazed to learn that the old man had gone to Bourges to buy a +carriage,--a step which the Knights of Idleness regarded as favorable +to the Rabouilleuse. Flore and Max selected a hideous "berlingot," +with cracked leather curtains and windows without glass, aged +twenty-two years and nine campaigns, sold on the decease of a colonel, +the friend of grand-marshal Bertrand, who, during the absence of that +faithful companion of the Emperor, was left in charge of the affairs +of Berry. This "berlingot," painted bright green, was somewhat like a +caleche, though shafts had taken the place of a pole, so that it could +be driven with one horse. It belonged to a class of carriages brought +into vogue by diminished fortunes, which at that time bore the candid +name of "demi-fortune"; at its first introduction it was called a +"seringue." The cloth lining of this demi-fortune, sold under the name +of caleche, was moth-eaten; its gimps looked like the chevrons of an +old Invalide; its rusty joints squeaked,--but it only cost four +hundred and fifty francs; and Max bought a good stout mare, trained to +harness, from an officer of a regiment then stationed at Bourges. He +had the carriage repainted a dark brown, and bought a tolerable +harness at a bargain. The whole town of Issoudun was shaken to its +centre in expectation of Pere Rouget's equipage; and on the occasion +of its first appearance, every household was on its door-step and +curious faces were at all the windows. + +The second time the old bachelor went out he drove to Bourges, where, +to escape the trouble of attending personally to the business, or, if +you prefer it, being ordered to do so by Flore, he went before a +notary and signed a power of attorney in favor of Maxence Gilet, +enabling him to make all the transfers enumerated in the document. +Flore reserved to herself the business of making Monsieur sell out the +investments in Issoudun and its immediate neighborhood. The principal +notary in Bourges was requested by Rouget to get him a loan of one +hundred and forty thousand francs on his landed estate. Nothing was +known at Issoudun of these proceedings, which were secretly and +cleverly carried out. Maxence, who was a good rider, went with his own +horse to Bourges and back between five in the morning and five in the +afternoon. Flore never left the old bachelor. Rouget consented without +objection to the action Flore dictated to him; but he insisted that +the investment in the Funds, producing fifty thousand francs a year, +should stand in Flore's name as holding a life-interest only, and in +his as owner of the principal. The tenacity the old man displayed in +the domestic disputes which this idea created caused Max a good deal +of anxiety; he thought he could see the result of reflections inspired +by the sight of the natural heirs. + +Amid all these movements, which Max concealed from the knowledge of +everyone, he forgot the Spaniard and his granary. Fario came back to +Issoudun to deliver his corn, after various trips and business +manoeuvres undertaken to raise the price of cereals. The morning after +his arrival he noticed that the roof the church of the Capuchins was +black with pigeons. He cursed himself for having neglected to examine +its condition, and hurried over to look into his storehouse, where he +found half his grain devoured. Thousands of mice-marks and rat-marks +scattered about showed a second cause of ruin. The church was a +Noah's-ark. But anger turned the Spaniard white as a bit of cambric +when, trying to estimate the extent of the destruction and his +consequence losses, he noticed that the grain at the bottom of the +heap, near the floor, was sprouting from the effects of water, which +Max had managed to introduce by means of tin tubes into the very +centre of the pile of wheat. The pigeons and the rats could be +explained by animal instinct; but the hand of man was plainly visible +in this last sign of malignity. + +Fario sat down on the steps of a chapel altar, holding his head +between his hands. After half an hour of Spanish reflections, he spied +the squirrel, which Goddet could not refrain from giving him as a +guest, playing with its tail upon a cross-beam, on the middle of which +rested one of the uprights that supported the roof. The Spaniard rose +and turned to his watchman with a face that was as calm and cold as an +Arab's. He made no complaint, but went home, hired laborers to gather +into sacks what remained of the sound grain, and to spread in the sun +all that was moist, so as to save as much as possible; then, after +estimating that his losses amounted to about three fifths, he attended +to filling his orders. But his previous manipulations of the market +had raised the price of cereals, and he lost on the three fifths he +was obliged to buy to fill his orders; so that his losses amounted +really to more than half. The Spaniard, who had no enemies, at once +attributed this revenge to Gilet. He was convinced that Maxence and +some others were the authors of all the nocturnal mischief, and had in +all probability carried his cart up the embankment of the tower, and +now intended to amuse themselves by ruining him. It was a matter to +him of over three thousand francs,--very nearly the whole capital he +had scraped together since the peace. Driven by the desire for +vengeance, the man now displayed the cunning and stealthy persistence +of a detective to whom a large reward is offered. Hiding at night in +different parts of Issoudun, he soon acquired proof of the proceedings +of the Knights of Idleness; he saw them all, counted them, watched +their rendezvous, and knew of their suppers at Mere Cognette's; after +that he lay in wait to witness one of their deeds, and thus became +well informed as to their nocturnal habits. + +In spite of Max's journeys and pre-occupations, he had no intention of +neglecting his nightly employments,--first, because he did not wish +his comrades to suspect the secret of his operations with Pere +Rouget's property; and secondly, to keep the Knights well in hand. +They were therefore convened for the preparation of a prank which +might deserve to be talked of for years to come. Poisoned meat was to +be thrown on a given night to every watch-dog in the town and in the +environs. Fario overheard them congratulating each other, as they came +out from a supper at the Cognettes', on the probable success of the +performance, and laughing over the general mourning that would follow +this novel massacre of the innocents,--revelling, moreover, in the +apprehensions it would excite as to the sinister object of depriving +all the households of their guardian watch-dogs. + +"It will make people forget Fario's cart," said Goddet. + +Fario did not need that speech to confirm his suspicions; besides, his +mind was already made up. + +After three weeks' stay in Issoudun, Agathe was convinced, and so was +Madame Hochon, of the truth of the old miser's observation, that it +would take years to destroy the influence which Max and the +Rabouilleuse had acquired over her brother. She had made no progress +in Jean-Jacques's confidence, and she was never left alone with him. +On the other hand, Mademoiselle Brazier triumphed openly over the +heirs by taking Agathe to drive in the caleche, sitting beside her on +the back seat, while Monsieur Rouget and his nephew occupied the +front. Mother and son impatiently awaited an answer to the +confidential letter they had written to Desroches. The day before the +night on which the dogs were to be poisoned, Joseph, who was nearly +bored to death in Issoudun, received two letters: the first from the +great painter Schinner,--whose age allowed him a closer intimacy than +Joseph could have with Gros, their master,--and the second from +Desroches. + +Here is the first, postmarked Beaumont-sur-Oise:-- + + My dear Joseph,--I have just finished the principal + panel-paintings at the chateau de Presles for the Comte de Serizy. + I have left all the mouldings and the decorative painting; and I + have recommended you so strongly to the count, and also to Gridot + the architect, that you have nothing to do but pick up your + brushes and come at once. Prices are arranged to please you. I am + off to Italy with my wife; so you can have Mistigris to help you + along. The young scamp has talent, and I put him at your disposal. + He is twittering like a sparrow at the very idea of amusing + himself at the chateau de Presles. + + Adieu, my dear Joseph; if I am still absent, and should send + nothing to next year's Salon, you must take my place. Yes, dear + Jojo, I know your picture is a masterpiece, but a masterpiece + which will rouse a hue and cry about romanticism; you are doomed + to lead the life of a devil in holy water. Adieu. + + Thy friend, + + Schinner + + +Here follows the letter of Desroches:-- + + My dear Joseph,--Your Monsieur Hochon strikes me as an old man + full of common-sense, and you give me a high idea of his methods; + he is perfectly right. My advice, since you ask it, is that your + mother should remain at Issoudun with Madame Hochon, paying a + small board,--say four hundred francs a year,--to reimburse her + hosts for what she eats. Madame Bridau ought, in my opinion, to + follow Monsieur Hochon's advice in everything; for your excellent + mother will have many scruples in dealing with persons who have no + scruple at all, and whose behavior to her is a master-stroke of + policy. That Maxence, you are right enough, is dangerous. He is + another Philippe, but of a different calibre. The scoundrel makes + his vices serve his fortunes, and gets his amusement gratis; + whereas your brother's follies are never useful to him. All that + you say alarms me, but I could do no good by going to Issoudun. + Monsieur Hochon, acting behind your mother, will be more useful to + you than I. As for you, you had better come back here; you are + good for nothing in a matter which requires continual attention, + careful observation, servile civilities, discretion in speech, and + a dissimulation of manner and gesture which is wholly against the + grain of artists. + + If they have told you no will has been made, you may be quite sure + they have possessed one for a long time. But wills can be revoked, + and as long as your fool of an uncle lives he is no doubt + susceptible of being worked upon by remorse and religion. Your + inheritance will be the result of a combat between the Church and + the Rabouilleuse. There will inevitably come a time when that + woman will lose her grip on the old man, and religion will be + all-powerful. So long as your uncle makes no gift of the property + during his lifetime, and does not change the nature of his estate, + all may come right whenever religion gets the upper hand. For this + reason, you must beg Monsieur Hochon to keep an eye, as well as he + can, on the condition of your uncle's property. It is necessary to + know if the real estate is mortgaged, and if so, where and in + whose name the proceeds are invested. It is so easy to terrify an + old man with fears about his life, in case you find him despoiling + his own property for the sake of these interlopers, that almost + any heir with a little adroitness could stop the spoliation at its + outset. But how should your mother, with her ignorance of the + world, her disinterestedness, and her religious ideas, know how to + manage such an affair? However, I am not able to throw any light + on the matter. All that you have done so far has probably given + the alarm, and your adversaries may already have secured + themselves-- + +"That is what I call an opinion in good shape," exclaimed Monsieur +Hochon, proud of being himself appreciated by a Parisian lawyer. + +"Oh! Desroches is a famous fellow," answered Joseph. + +"It would be well to read that letter to the two women," said the old +man. + +"There it is," said Joseph, giving it to him; "as to me, I want to be +off to-morrow; and I am now going to say good-by to my uncle." + +"Ah!" said Monsieur Hochon, "I see that Monsieur Desroches tells you +in a postscript to burn the letter." + +"You can burn it after showing it to my mother," said the painter. + +Joseph dressed, crossed the little square, and called on his uncle, +who was just finishing breakfast. Max and Flore were at table. + +"Don't disturb yourself, my dear uncle; I have only come to say +good-by." + +"You are going?" said Max, exchanging glances with Flore. + +"Yes; I have some work to do at the chateau of Monsieur de Serizy, and +I am all the more glad of it because his arm is long enough to do a +service to my poor brother in the Chamber of Peers." + +"Well, well, go and work"; said old Rouget, with a silly air. Joseph +thought him extraordinarily changed within a few days. "Men must work +--I am sorry you are going." + +"Oh! my mother will be here some time longer," remarked Joseph. + +Max made a movement with his lips which the Rabouilleuse observed, and +which signified: "They are going to try the plan Baruch warned me of." + +"I am very glad I came," said Joseph, "for I have had the pleasure of +making your acquaintance and you have enriched my studio--" + +"Yes," said Flore, "instead of enlightening your uncle on the value of +his pictures, which is now estimated at over one hundred thousand +francs, you have packed them off in a hurry to Paris. Poor dear man! +he is no better than a baby! We have just been told of a little +treasure at Bourges,--what did they call it? a Poussin,--which was in +the choir of the cathedral before the Revolution and is now worth, all +by itself, thirty thousand francs." + +"That was not right of you, my nephew," said Jean-Jacques, at a sign +from Max, which Joseph could not see. + +"Come now, frankly," said the soldier, laughing, "on your honor, what +should you say those pictures were worth? You've made an easy haul out +of your uncle! and right enough, too,--uncles are made to be pillaged. +Nature deprived me of uncles, but damn it, if I'd had any I should +have shown them no mercy." + +"Did you know, monsieur," said Flore to Rouget, "what _your_ pictures +were worth? How much did you say, Monsieur Joseph?" + +"Well," answered the painter, who had grown as red as a beetroot, +--"the pictures are certainly worth something." + +"They say you estimated them to Monsieur Hochon at one hundred and +fifty thousand francs," said Flore; "is that true?" + +"Yes," said the painter, with childlike honesty. + +"And did you intend," said Flore to the old man, "to give a hundred +and fifty thousand francs to your nephew?" + +"Never, never!" cried Jean-Jacques, on whom Flore had fixed her eye. + +"There is one way to settle all this," said the painter, "and that is +to return them to you, uncle." + +"No, no, keep them," said the old man. + +"I shall send them back to you," said Joseph, wounded by the offensive +silence of Max and Flore. "There is something in my brushes which will +make my fortune, without owing anything to any one, even an uncle. My +respects to you, mademoiselle; good-day, monsieur--" + +And Joseph crossed the square in a state of irritation which artists +can imagine. The entire Hochon family were in the salon. When they saw +Joseph gesticulating and talking to himself, they asked him what was +the matter. The painter, who was as open as the day, related before +Baruch and Francois the scene that had just taken place; and which, +two hours later, thanks to the two young men, was the talk of the +whole town, embroidered with various circumstances that were more or +less ridiculous. Some persons insisted that the painter was maltreated +by Max; others that he had misbehaved to Flore, and that Max had +turned him out of doors. + +"What a child your son is!" said Hochon to Madame Bridau; "the booby +is the dupe of a scene which they have been keeping back for the last +day of his visit. Max and the Rabouilleuse have known the value of +those pictures for the last two weeks,--ever since he had the folly to +tell it before my grandsons, who never rested till they had blurted it +out to all the world. Your artist had better have taken himself off +without taking leave." + +"My son has done right to return the pictures if they are really so +valuable," said Agathe. + +"If they are worth, as he says, two hundred thousand francs," said old +Hochon, "it was folly to put himself in the way of being obliged to +return them. You might have had that, at least, out of the property; +whereas, as things are going now, you won't get anything. And this +scene with Joseph is almost a reason why your brother should refuse to +see you again." + + + + CHAPTER XIII + +Between midnight and one o'clock, the Knights of Idleness began their +gratuitous distribution of comestibles to the dogs of the town. This +memorable expedition was not over till three in the morning, the hour +at which these reprobates went to sup at Cognette's. At half-past +four, in the early dawn, they crept home. Just as Max turned the +corner of the rue l'Avenier into the Grande rue, Fario, who stood +ambushed in a recess, struck a knife at his heart, drew out the blade, +and escaped by the moat towards Vilatte, wiping the blade of his knife +on his handkerchief. The Spaniard washed the handkerchief in the +Riviere forcee, and returned quietly to his lodgings at Saint-Paterne, +where he got in by a window he had left open, and went to bed: later, +he was awakened by his new watchman, who found him fast asleep. + +As he fell, Max uttered a fearful cry which no one could mistake. +Lousteau-Prangin, son of a judge, a distant relation to the family of +the sub-delegate, and young Goddet, who lived at the lower end of the +Grande rue, ran at full speed up the street, calling to each other,-- + +"They are killing Max! Help! help!" + +But not a dog barked; and all the town, accustomed to the false alarms +of these nightly prowlers, stayed quietly in their beds. When his two +comrades reached him, Max had fainted. It was necessary to rouse +Monsieur Goddet, the surgeon. Max had recognized Fario; but when he +came to his senses, with several persons about him, and felt that his +wound was not mortal, it suddenly occurred to him to make capital out +of the attack, and he said, in a faint voice,-- + +"I think I recognized that cursed painter!" + +Thereupon Lousteau-Prangin ran off to his father, the judge. Max was +carried home by Cognette, young Goddet, and two other persons. Mere +Cognette and Monsieur Goddet walked beside the stretcher. Those who +carried the wounded man naturally looked across at Monsieur Hochon's +door while waiting for Kouski to let them in, and saw Monsieur +Hochon's servant sweeping the steps. At the old miser's, as everywhere +else in the provinces, the household was early astir. The few words +uttered by Max had roused the suspicions of Monsieur Goddet, and he +called to the woman,-- + +"Gritte, is Monsieur Joseph Bridau in bed?" + +"Bless me!" she said, "he went out at half-past four. I don't know +what ailed him; he walked up and down his room all night." + +This simple answer drew forth such exclamations of horror that the +woman came over, curious to know what they were carrying to old +Rouget's house. + +"A precious fellow he is, that painter of yours!" they said to her. +And the procession entered the house, leaving Gritte open-mouthed with +amazement at the sight of Max in his bloody shirt, stretched +half-fainting on a mattress. + +Artists will readily guess what ailed Joseph, and kept him restless +all night. He imagined the tale the bourgeoisie of Issoudun would tell +of him. They would say he had fleeced his uncle; that he was +everything but what he had tried to be,--a loyal fellow and an honest +artist! Ah! he would have given his great picture to have flown like a +swallow to Paris, and thrown his uncle's paintings at Max's nose. To +be the one robbed, and to be thought the robber!--what irony! So at +the earliest dawn, he had started for the poplar avenue which led to +Tivoli, to give free course to his agitation. + +While the innocent fellow was vowing, by way of consolation, never to +return to Issoudun, Max was preparing a horrible outrage for his +sensitive spirit. When Monsieur Goddet had probed the wound and +discovered that the knife, turned aside by a little pocket-book, had +happily spared Max's life (though making a serious wound), he did as +all doctors, and particularly country surgeons, do; he paved the way +for his own credit by "not answering for the patient's life"; and +then, after dressing the soldier's wound, and stating the verdict of +science to the Rabouilleuse, Jean-Jacques Rouget, Kouski, and the +Vedie, he left the house. The Rabouilleuse came in tears to her dear +Max, while Kouski and the Vedie told the assembled crowd that the +captain was in a fair way to die. The news brought nearly two hundred +persons in groups about the place Saint-Jean and the two Narettes. + +"I sha'n't be a month in bed; and I know who struck the blow," +whispered Max to Flore. "But we'll profit by it to get rid of the +Parisians. I have said I thought I recognized the painter; so pretend +that I am expected to die, and try to have Joseph Bridau arrested. Let +him taste a prison for a couple of days, and I know well enough the +mother will be off in a jiffy for Paris when she gets him out. And +then we needn't fear the priests they talk of setting on the old +fool." + +When Flore Brazier came downstairs, she found the assembled crowd +quite prepared to take the impression she meant to give them. She went +out with tears in her eyes, and related, sobbing, how the painter, +"who had just the face for that sort of thing," had been angry with +Max the night before about some pictures he had "wormed out" of Pere +Rouget. + +"That brigand--for you've only got to look at him to see what he is +--thinks that if Max were dead, his uncle would leave him his fortune; +as if," she cried, "a brother were not more to him than a nephew! Max +is Doctor Rouget's son. The old one told me so before he died!" + +"Ah! he meant to do the deed just before he left Issoudun; he chose +his time, for he was going away to-day," said one of the Knights of +Idleness. + +"Max hasn't an enemy in Issoudun," said another. + +"Besides, Max recognized the painter," said the Rabouilleuse. + +"Where's that cursed Parisian? Let us find him!" they all cried. + +"Find him?" was the answer, "why, he left Monsieur Hochon's at +daybreak." + +A Knight of Idleness ran off at once to Monsieur Mouilleron. The crowd +increased; and the tumult became threatening. Excited groups filled up +the whole of the Grande-Narette. Others stationed themselves before +the church of Saint-Jean. An assemblage gathered at the porte Vilatte, +which is at the farther end of the Petite-Narette. Monsieur +Lousteau-Prangin and Monsieur Mouilleron, the commissary of police, +the lieutenant of gendarmes, and two of his men, had some difficulty +in reaching the place Saint-Jean through two hedges of people, whose +cries and exclamations could and did prejudice them against the +Parisian; who was, it is needless to say, unjustly accused, although, +it is true, circumstances told against him. + +After a conference between Max and the magistrates, Monsieur +Mouilleron sent the commissary of police and a sergeant with one +gendarme to examine what, in the language of the ministry of the +interior, is called "the theatre of the crime." Then Messieurs +Mouilleron and Lousteau-Prangin, accompanied by the lieutenant of +gendarmes crossed over to the Hochon house, which was now guarded by +two gendarmes in the garden and two at the front door. The crowd was +still increasing. The whole town was surging in the Grande rue. + +Gritte had rushed terrified to her master, crying out: "Monsieur, we +shall be pillaged! the town is in revolt; Monsieur Maxence Gilet has +been assassinated; he is dying! and they say it is Monsieur Joseph who +has done it!" + +Monsieur Hochon dressed quickly, and came downstairs; but seeing the +angry populace, he hastily retreated within the house, and bolted the +door. On questioning Gritte, he learned that his guest had left the +house at daybreak, after walking the floor all night in great +agitation, and had not yet come in. Much alarmed, he went to find +Madame Hochon, who was already awakened by the noise, and to whom he +told the frightful news which, true or false, was causing almost a +riot in Issoudun. + +"He is innocent, of course," said Madame Hochon. + +"Before his innocence can be proved, the crowd may get in here and +pillage us," said Monsieur Hochon, livid with fear, for he had gold in +his cellar. + +"Where is Agathe?" + +"Sound asleep." + +"Ah! so much the better," said Madame Hochon. "I wish she may sleep on +till the matter is cleared up. Such a shock might kill the poor +child." + +But Agathe woke up and came down half-dressed; for the evasive answers +of Gritte, whom she questioned, had disturbed both her head and heart. +She found Madame Hochon, looking very pale, with her eyes full of +tears, at one of the windows of the salon beside her husband. + +"Courage, my child. God sends us our afflictions," said the old lady. +"Joseph is accused--" + +"Of what?" + +"Of a bad action which he could never have committed," answered Madame +Hochon. + +Hearing the words, and seeing the lieutenant of gendarmes, who at this +moment entered the room accompanied by the two gentlemen, Agathe +fainted away. + +"There now!" said Monsieur Hochon to his wife and Gritte, "carry off +Madame Bridau; women are only in the way at these times. Take her to +her room and stay there, both of you. Sit down, gentlemen," continued +the old man. "The mistake to which we owe your visit will soon, I +hope, be cleared up." + +"Even if it should be a mistake," said Monsieur Mouilleron, "the +excitement of the crowd is so great, and their minds are so +exasperated, that I fear for the safety of the accused. I should like +to get him arrested, and that might satisfy these people." + +"Who would ever have believed that Monsieur Maxence Gilet had inspired +so much affection in this town?" asked Lousteau-Prangin. + +"One of my men says there's a crowd of twelve hundred more just coming +in from the faubourg de Rome," said the lieutenant of gendarmes, "and +they are threatening death to the assassin." + +"Where is your guest?" said Monsieur Mouilleron to Monsieur Hochon. + +"He has gone to walk in the country, I believe." + +"Call Gritte," said the judge gravely. "I was in hopes he had not left +the house. You are aware that the crime was committed not far from +here, at daybreak." + +While Monsieur Hochon went to find Gritte, the three functionaries +looked at each other significantly. + +"I never liked that painter's face," said the lieutenant to Monsieur +Mouilleron. + +"My good woman," said the judge to Gritte, when she appeared, "they +say you saw Monsieur Joseph Bridau leave the house this morning?" + +"Yes, monsieur," she answered, trembling like a leaf. + +"At what hour?" + +"Just as I was getting up: he walked about his room all night, and was +dressed when I came downstairs." + +"Was it daylight?" + +"Barely." + +"Did he seem excited?" + +"Yes, he was all of a twitter." + +"Send one of your men for my clerk," said Lousteau-Prangin to the +lieutenant, "and tell him to bring warrants with him--" + +"Good God! don't be in such a hurry," cried Monsieur Hochon. "The +young man's agitation may have been caused by something besides the +premeditation of this crime. He meant to return to Paris to-day, to +attend to a matter in which Gilet and Mademoiselle Brazier had doubted +his honor." + +"Yes, the affair of the pictures," said Monsieur Mouilleron. "Those +pictures caused a very hot quarrel between them yesterday, and it is a +word and a blow with artists, they tell me." + +"Who is there in Issoudun who had any object in killing Gilet?" said +Lousteau. "No one,--neither a jealous husband nor anybody else; for +the fellow has never harmed a soul." + +"But what was Monsieur Gilet doing in the streets at four in the +morning?" remarked Monsieur Hochon. + +"Now, Monsieur Hochon, you must allow us to manage this affair in our +own way," answered Mouilleron; "you don't know all: Gilet recognized +your painter." + +At this instant a clamor was heard from the other end of the town, +growing louder and louder, like the roll of thunder, as it followed +the course of the Grande-Narette. + +"Here he is! here he is!--he's arrested!" + +These words rose distinctly on the ear above the hoarse roar of the +populace. Poor Joseph, returning quietly past the mill at Landrole +intending to get home in time for breakfast, was spied by the various +groups of people, as soon as he reached the place Misere. Happily for +him, a couple of gendarmes arrived on a run in time to snatch him from +the inhabitants of the faubourg de Rome, who had already pinioned him +by the arms and were threatening him with death. + +"Give way! give way!" cried the gendarmes, calling to some of their +comrades to help them, and putting themselves one before and the other +behind Bridau. + +"You see, monsieur," said the one who held the painter, "it concerns +our skin as well as yours at this moment. Innocent or guilty, we must +protect you against the tumult raised by the murder of Captain Gilet. +And the crowd is not satisfied with suspecting you; they declare, hard +as iron, that you are the murderer. Monsieur Gilet is adored by all +the people, who--look at them!--want to take justice into their own +hands. Ah! didn't we see them, in 1830, dusting the jackets of the +tax-gatherers? whose life isn't a bed of roses, anyway!" + +Joseph Bridau grew pale as death, and collected all his strength to +walk onward. + +"After all," he said, "I am innocent. Go on!" + +Poor artist! he was forced to bear his cross. Amid the hooting and +insults and threats from the mob, he made the dreadful transit from +the place Misere to the place Saint-Jean. The gendarmes were obliged +to draw their sabres on the furious mob, which pelted them with +stones. One of the officers was wounded, and Joseph received several +of the missiles on his legs, and shoulders, and hat. + +"Here we are!" said one of the gendarmes, as they entered Monsieur +Hochon's hall, "and not without difficulty, lieutenant." + +"We must now manage to disperse the crowd; and I see but one way, +gentlemen," said the lieutenant to the magistrates. "We must take +Monsieur Bridau to the Palais accompanied by all of you; I and my +gendarmes will make a circle round you. One can't answer for anything +in presence of a furious crowd of six thousand--" + +"You are right," said Monsieur Hochon, who was trembling all the while +for his gold. + +"If that's your only way to protect innocence in Issoudun," said +Joseph, "I congratulate you. I came near being stoned--" + +"Do you wish your friend's house to be taken by assault and pillaged?" +asked the lieutenant. "Could we beat back with our sabres a crowd of +people who are pushed from behind by an angry populace that knows +nothing of the forms of justice?" + +"That will do, gentlemen, let us go; we can come to explanations +later," said Joseph, who had recovered his self-possession. + +"Give way, friends!" said the lieutenant to the crowd; "_He_ is +arrested, and we are taking him to the Palais." + +"Respect the law, friends!" said Monsieur Mouilleron. + +"Wouldn't you prefer to see him guillotined?" said one of the +gendarmes to an angry group. + +"Yes, yes, they shall guillotine him!" shouted one madman. + +"They are going to guillotine him!" cried the women. + +By the time they reached the end of the Grande-Narette the crowd were +shouting: "They are taking him to the guillotine!" "They found the +knife upon him!" "That's what Parisians are!" "He carries crime on his +face!" + +Though all Joseph's blood had flown to his head, he walked the +distance from the place Saint-Jean to the Palais with remarkable +calmness and self-possession. Nevertheless, he was very glad to find +himself in the private office of Monsieur Lousteau-Prangin. + +"I need hardly tell you, gentlemen, that I am innocent," said Joseph, +addressing Monsieur Mouilleron, Monsieur Lousteau-Prangin, and the +clerk. "I can only beg you to assist me in proving my innocence. I +know nothing of this affair." + +When the judge had stated all the suspicious facts which were against +him, ending with Max's declaration, Joseph was astounded. + +"But," said he, "it was past five o'clock when I left the house. I +went up the Grande rue, and at half-past five I was standing looking +up at the facade of the parish church of Saint-Cyr. I talked there +with the sexton, who came to ring the angelus, and asked him for +information about the building, which seems to me fantastic and +incomplete. Then I passed through the vegetable-market, where some +women had already assembled. From there, crossing the place Misere, I +went as far as the mill of Landrole by the Pont aux Anes, where I +watched the ducks for five or six minutes, and the miller's men must +have noticed me. I saw the women going to wash; they are probably +still there. They made a little fun of me, and declared that I was not +handsome; I told them it was not all gold that glittered. From there, +I followed the long avenue to Tivoli, where I talked with the +gardener. Pray have these facts verified; and do not even arrest me, +for I give you my word of honor that I will stay quietly in this +office till you are convinced of my innocence." + +These sensible words, said without the least hesitation, and with the +ease of a man who is perfectly sure of his facts, made some impression +on the magistrates. + +"Yes, we must find all these persons and summon them," said Monsieur +Mouilleron; "but it is more than the affair of a day. Make up your +mind, therefore, in your own interests, to be imprisoned in the +Palais." + +"Provided I can write to my mother, so as to reassure her, poor woman +--oh! you can read the letter," he added. + +This request was too just not to be granted, and Joseph wrote the +following letter:-- + + "Do not be uneasy, dear mother; the mistake of which I am a victim + can easily be rectified; I have already given them the means of + doing so. To-morrow, or perhaps this evening, I shall be at + liberty. I kiss you, and beg you to say to Monsieur and Madame + Hochon how grieved I am at this affair; in which, however, I have + had no hand,--it is the result of some chance which, as yet, I do + not understand." + +When the note reached Madame Bridau, she was suffering from a nervous +attack, and the potions which Monsieur Goddet was trying to make her +swallow were powerless to soothe her. The reading of the letter acted +like balm; after a few quiverings, Agathe subsided into the depression +which always follows such attacks. Later, when Monsieur Goddet +returned to his patient he found her regretting that she had ever +quitted Paris. + +"Well," said Madame Hochon to Monsieur Goddet, "how is Monsieur +Gilet?" + +"His wound, though serious, is not mortal," replied the doctor. "With +a month's nursing he will be all right. I left him writing to Monsieur +Mouilleron to request him to set your son at liberty, madame," he +added, turning to Agathe. "Oh! Max is a fine fellow. I told him what a +state you were in, and he then remembered a circumstance which goes to +prove that the assassin was not your son; the man wore list shoes, +whereas it is certain that Monsieur Joseph left the house in his +boots--" + +"Ah! God forgive him the harm he has done me--" + +The fact was, a man had left a note for Max, after dark, written in +type-letters, which ran as follows:-- + + "Captain Gilet ought not to let an innocent man suffer. He who + struck the blow promises not to strike again if Monsieur Gilet + will have Monsieur Joseph Bridau set at liberty, without naming + the man who did it." + +After reading this letter and burning it, Max wrote to Monsieur +Mouilleron stating the circumstance of the list shoes, as reported by +Monsieur Goddet, begging him to set Joseph at liberty, and to come and +see him that he might explain the matter more at length. + +By the time this letter was received, Monsieur Lousteau-Prangin had +verified, by the testimony of the bell-ringer, the market-women and +washerwomen, and the miller's men, the truth of Joseph's explanation. +Max's letter made his innocence only the more certain, and Monsieur +Mouilleron himself escorted him back to the Hochons'. Joseph was +greeted with such overflowing tenderness by his mother that the poor +misunderstood son gave thanks to ill-luck--like the husband to the +thief, in La Fontaine's fable--for a mishap which brought him such +proofs of affection. + +"Oh," said Monsieur Mouilleron, with a self-satisfied air, "I knew at +once by the way you looked at the angry crowd that you were innocent; +but whatever I may have thought, any one who knows Issoudun must also +know that the only way to protect you was to make the arrest as we +did. Ah! you carried your head high." + +"I was thinking of something else," said the artist simply. "An +officer in the army told me that he was once stopped in Dalmatia under +similar circumstances by an excited populace, in the early morning as +he was returning from a walk. This recollection came into my mind, and +I looked at all those heads with the idea of painting a revolt of the +year 1793. Besides, I kept saying to myself: Blackguard that I am! I +have only got my deserts for coming here to look after an inheritance, +instead of painting in my studio." + +"If you will allow me to offer you a piece of advice," said the +procureur du roi, "you will take a carriage to-night, which the +postmaster will lend you, and return to Paris by the diligence from +Bourges." + +"That is my advice also," said Monsieur Hochon, who was burning with a +desire for the departure of his guests. + +"My most earnest wish is to get away from Issoudun, though I leave my +only friend here," said Agathe, kissing Madame Hochon's hand. "When +shall I see you again?" + +"Ah! my dear, never until we meet above. We have suffered enough here +below," she added in a low voice, "for God to take pity upon us." + +Shortly after, while Monsieur Mouilleron had gone across the way to +talk with Max, Gritte greatly astonished Monsieur and Madame Hochon, +Agathe, Joseph, and Adolphine by announcing the visit of Monsieur +Rouget. Jean-Jacques came to bid his sister good-by, and to offer her +his caleche for the drive to Bourges. + +"Ah! your pictures have been a great evil to us," said Agathe. + +"Keep them, my sister," said the old man, who did not even now believe +in their value. + +"Neighbor," remarked Monsieur Hochon, "our best friends, our surest +defenders, are our own relations; above all, when they are such as +your sister Agathe, and your nephew Joseph." + +"Perhaps so," said old Rouget in his dull way. + +"We ought all to think of ending our days in a Christian manner," said +Madame Hochon. + +"Ah! Jean-Jacques," said Agathe, "what a day this has been!" + +"Will you accept my carriage?" asked Rouget. + +"No, brother," answered Madame Bridau, "I thank you, and wish you +health and comfort." + +Rouget let his sister and nephew kiss him, and then he went away +without manifesting any feeling himself. Baruch, at a hint from his +grandfather, had been to see the postmaster. At eleven o'clock that +night, the two Parisians, ensconced in a wicker cabriolet drawn by one +horse and ridden by a postilion, quitted Issoudun. Adolphine and +Madame Hochon parted from them with tears in their eyes; they alone +regretted Joseph and Agathe. + +"They are gone!" said Francois Hochon, going, with the Rabouilleuse, +into Max's bedroom. + +"Well done! the trick succeeded," answered Max, who was now tired and +feverish. + +"But what did you say to old Mouilleron?" asked Francois. + +"I told him that I had given my assassin some cause to waylay me; that +he was a dangerous man and likely, if I followed up the affair, to +kill me like a dog before he could be captured. Consequently, I begged +Mouilleron and Prangin to make the most active search ostensibly, but +really to let the assassin go in peace, unless they wished to see me a +dead man." + +"I do hope, Max," said Flore, "that you will be quiet at night for +some time to come." + +"At any rate, we are delivered from the Parisians!" cried Max. "The +fellow who stabbed me had no idea what a service he was doing us." + +The next day, the departure of the Parisians was celebrated as a +victory of the provinces over Paris by every one in Issoudun, except +the more sober and staid inhabitants, who shared the opinions of +Monsieur and Madame Hochon. A few of Max's friends spoke very harshly +of the Bridaus. + +"Do those Parisians fancy we are all idiots," cried one, "and think +they have only got to hold their hats and catch legacies?" + +"They came to fleece, but they have got shorn themselves," said +another; "the nephew is not to the uncle's taste." + +"And, if you please, they actually consulted a lawyer in Paris--" + +"Ah! had they really a plan?" + +"Why, of course,--a plan to get possession of old Rouget. But the +Parisians were not clever enough; that lawyer can't crow over us +Berrichons!" + +"How abominable!" + +"That's Paris for you!" + +"The Rabouilleuse knew they came to attack her, and she defended +herself." + +"She did gloriously right!" + +To the townspeople at large the Bridaus were Parisians and foreigners; +they preferred Max and Flore. + +We can imagine the satisfaction with which, after this campaign, +Joseph and Agathe re-entered their little lodging in the rue Mazarin. +On the journey, the artist recovered his spirits, which had, not +unnaturally, been put to flight by his arrest and twenty-four hours' +confinement; but he could not cheer up his mother. The Court of Peers +was about to begin the trial of the military conspirators, and that +was sufficient to keep Agathe from recovering her peace of mind. +Philippe's conduct, in spite of the clever defender whom Desroches +recommended to him, roused suspicions that were unfavorable to his +character. In view of this, Joseph, as soon as he had put Desroches in +possession of all that was going on at Issoudun, started with +Mistigris for the chateau of the Comte de Serizy, to escape hearing +about the trial of the conspirators, which lasted for twenty days. + +It is useless to record facts that may be found in contemporaneous +histories. Whether it were that he played a part previously agreed +upon, or that he was really an informer, Philippe was condemned to +five years' surveillance by the police department, and ordered to +leave Paris the same day for Autun, the town which the +director-general of police selected as the place of his exile for five +years. This punishment resembled the detention of prisoners on parole +who have a town for a prison. Learning that the Comte de Serizy, one of +the peers appointed by the Chamber on the court-martial, was employing +Joseph to decorate his chateau at Presles, Desroches begged the +minister to grant him an audience, and found Monsieur de Serizy most +amiably disposed toward Joseph, with whom he had happened to make +personal acquaintance. Desroches explained the financial condition of +the two brothers, recalling the services of the father, and the +neglect shown to them under the Restoration. + +"Such injustice, monseigneur," said the lawyer, "is a lasting cause of +irritation and discontent. You knew the father; give the sons a +chance, at least, of making a fortune--" + +And he drew a succinct picture of the situation of the family affairs +at Issoudun, begging the all-powerful vice-president of the Council of +State to take steps to induce the director-general of police to change +Philippe's place of residence from Autun to Issoudun. He also spoke of +Philippe's extreme poverty, and asked a dole of sixty francs a month, +which the minister of war ought, he said, for mere shame's sake, to +grant to a former lieutenant-colonel. + +"I will obtain all you ask of me, for I think it just," replied the +count. + +Three days later, Desroches, furnished with the necessary authority, +fetched Philippe from the prison of the Court of Peers, and took him +to his own house, rue de Bethizy. Once there, the young barrister read +the miserable vagabond one of those unanswerable lectures in which +lawyers rate things at their actual value; using plain terms to +qualify the conduct, and to analyze and reduce to their simplest +meaning the sentiments and ideas of clients toward whom they feel +enough interest to speak plainly. After humbling the Emperor's +staff-officer by reproaching him with his reckless dissipations, his +mother's misfortunes, and the death of Madame Descoings, he went on to +tell him the state of things at Issoudun, explaining it according to +his lights, and probing both the scheme and the character of Maxence +Gilet and the Rabouilleuse to their depths. Philippe, who was gifted +with a keen comprehension in such directions, listened with much more +interest to this part of Desroches's lecture than to what had gone +before. + +"Under these circumstances," continued the lawyer, "you can repair the +injury you have done to your estimable family,--so far at least as it +is reparable; for you cannot restore life to the poor mother you have +all but killed. But you alone can--" + +"What can I do?" asked Philippe. + +"I have obtained a change of residence for you from Autun to +Issoudun.--" + +Philippe's sunken face, which had grown almost sinister in expression +and was furrowed with sufferings and privation, instantly lighted up +with a flash of joy. + +"And, as I was saying, you alone can recover the inheritance of old +Rouget's property; half of which may by this time be in the jaws of +the wolf named Gilet," replied Desroches. "You now know all the +particulars, and it is for you to act accordingly. I suggest no plan; +I have no ideas at all as to that; besides, everything will depend on +local circumstances. You have to deal with a strong force; that fellow +is very astute. The way he attempted to get back the pictures your +uncle had given to Joseph, the audacity with which he laid a crime on +your poor brother's shoulders, all go to prove that the adversary is +capable of everything. Therefore, be prudent; and try to behave +properly out of policy, if you can't do so out of decency. Without +telling Joseph, whose artist's pride would be up in arms, I have sent +the pictures to Monsieur Hochon, telling him to give them up to no one +but you. By the way, Maxence Gilet is a brave man." + +"So much the better," said Philippe; "I count on his courage for +success; a coward would leave Issoudun." + +"Well,--think of your mother who has been so devoted to you, and of +your brother, whom you made your milch cow." + +"Ah! did he tell you that nonsense?" cried Philippe. + +"Am I not the friend of the family, and don't I know much more about +you than they do?" asked Desroches. + +"What do you know?" said Philippe. + +"That you betrayed your comrades." + +"I!" exclaimed Philippe. "I! a staff-officer of the Emperor! Absurd! +Why, we fooled the Chamber of Peers, the lawyers, the government, and +the whole of the damned concern. The king's people were completely +hood-winked." + +"That's all very well, if it was so," answered the lawyer. "But, don't +you see, the Bourbons can't be overthrown; all Europe is backing them; +and you ought to try to make your peace with the war department,--you +could do that readily enough if you were rich. To get rich, you and +your brother, you must lay hold of your uncle. If you will take the +trouble to manage an affair which needs great cleverness, patience, +and caution, you have enough work before you to occupy your five +years." + +"No, no," cried Philippe, "I must take the bull by the horns at once. +This Maxence may alter the investment of the property and put it in +that woman's name; and then all would be lost." + +"Monsieur Hochon is a good adviser, and sees clearly; consult him. You +have your orders from the police; I have taken your place in the +Orleans diligence for half-past seven o'clock this evening. I suppose +your trunk is ready; so, now come and dine." + +"I own nothing but what I have got on my back," said Philippe, opening +his horrible blue overcoat; "but I only need three things, which you +must tell Giroudeau, the uncle of Finot, to send me,--my sabre, my +sword, and my pistols." + +"You need more than that," said the lawyer, shuddering as he looked at +his client. "You will receive a quarterly stipend which will clothe +you decently." + +"Bless me! are you here, Godeschal?" cried Philippe, recognizing in +Desroches's head-clerk, as they passed out, the brother of Mariette. + +"Yes, I have been with Monsieur Desroches for the last two months." + +"And he will stay with me, I hope, till he gets a business of his +own," said Desroches. + +"How is Mariette?" asked Philippe, moved at his recollections. + +"She is getting ready for the opening of the new theatre." + +"It would cost her little trouble to get my sentence remitted," said +Philippe. "However, as she chooses!" + +After a meagre dinner, given by Desroches who boarded his head-clerk, +the two lawyers put the political convict in the diligence, and wished +him good luck. + + + + CHAPTER XIV + +On the second of November, All-Souls' day, Philippe Bridau appeared +before the commissary of police at Issoudun, to have the date of his +arrival recorded on his papers; and by that functionary's advice he +went to lodge in the rue l'Avenier. The news of the arrival of an +officer, banished on account of the late military conspiracy, spread +rapidly through the town, and caused all the more excitement when it +was known that this officer was a brother of the painter who had been +falsely accused. Maxence Gilet, by this time entirely recovered from +his wound, had completed the difficult operation of turning all Pere +Rouget's mortgages into money, and putting the proceeds in one sum, on +the "grand-livre." The loan of one hundred and forty thousand francs +obtained by the old man on his landed property had caused a great +sensation,--for everything is known in the provinces. Monsieur Hochon, +in the Bridau interest, was much put about by this disaster, and +questioned old Monsieur Heron, the notary at Bourges, as to the object +of it. + +"The heirs of old Rouget, if old Rouget changes his mind, ought to +make me a votive offering," cried Monsieur Heron. "If it had not been +for me, the old fellow would have allowed the fifty thousand francs' +income to stand in the name of Maxence Gilet. I told Mademoiselle +Brazier that she ought to look to the will only, and not run the risk +of a suit for spoliation, seeing what numerous proofs these transfers +in every direction would give against them. To gain time, I advised +Maxence and his mistress to keep quiet, and let this sudden change in +the usual business habits of the old man be forgotten." + +"Protect the Bridaus, for they have nothing," said Monsieur Hochon, +who in addition to all other reasons, could not forgive Gilet the +terrors he had endured when fearing the pillage of his house. + +Maxence Gilet and Flore Brazier, now secure against all attack, were +very merry over the arrival of another of old Rouget's nephews. They +knew they were able, at the first signal of danger, to make the old +man sign a power of attorney under which the money in the Funds could +be transferred either to Max or Flore. If the will leaving Flore the +principal, should be revoked, an income of fifty thousand francs was a +very tolerable crumb of comfort,--more particularly after squeezing +from the real estate that mortgage of a hundred and forty thousand. + +The day after his arrival, Philippe called upon his uncle about ten +o'clock in the morning, anxious to present himself in his dilapidated +clothing. When the convalescent of the Hopital du Midi, the prisoner +of the Luxembourg, entered the room, Flore Brazier felt a shiver pass +over her at the repulsive sight. Gilet himself was conscious of that +particular disturbance both of mind and body, by which Nature +sometimes warns us of a latent enmity, or a coming danger. If there +was something indescribably sinister in Philippe's countenance, due to +his recent misfortunes, the effect was heightened by his clothes. His +forlorn blue great-coat was buttoned in military fashion to the +throat, for painful reasons; and yet it showed much that it pretended +to conceal. The bottom edges of the trousers, ragged like those of an +almshouse beggar, were the sign of abject poverty. The boots left wet +splashes on the floor, as the mud oozed from fissures in the soles. +The gray hat, which the colonel held in his hand, was horribly greasy +round the rim. The malacca cane, from which the polish had long +disappeared, must have stood in all the corners of all the cafes in +Paris, and poked its worn-out end into many a corruption. Above the +velvet collar, rubbed and worn till the frame showed through it, rose +a head like that which Frederick Lemaitre makes up for the last act in +"The Life of a Gambler,"--where the exhaustion of a man still in the +prime of life is betrayed by the metallic, brassy skin, discolored as +if with verdigris. Such tints are seen on the faces of debauched +gamblers who spend their nights in play: the eyes are sunken in a +dusky circle, the lids are reddened rather than red, the brow is +menacing from the wreck and ruin it reveals. Philippe's cheeks, which +were sunken and wrinkled, showed signs of the illness from which he +had scarcely recovered. His head was bald, except for a fringe of hair +at the back which ended at the ears. The pure blue of his brilliant +eyes had acquired the cold tones of polished steel. + +"Good-morning, uncle," he said, in a hoarse voice. "I am your nephew, +Philippe Bridau,--a specimen of how the Bourbons treat a +lieutenant-colonel, an old soldier of the old army, one who carried the +Emperor's orders at the battle of Montereau. If my coat were to open, I +should be put to shame in presence of Mademoiselle. Well, it is the +rule of the game! We hoped to begin it again; we tried it, and we have +failed! I am to reside in your city by the order of the police, with a +full pay of sixty francs a month. So the inhabitants needn't fear that +I shall raise the price of provisions! I see you are in good and lovely +company." + +"Ah! you are my nephew," said Jean-Jacques. + +"Invite monsieur le colonel to breakfast with us," said Flore. + +"No, I thank you, madame," answered Philippe, "I have breakfasted. +Besides, I would cut off my hand sooner than ask a bit of bread or a +farthing from my uncle, after the treatment my mother and brother +received in this town. It did not seem proper, however, that I should +settle here, in Issoudun, without paying my respects to him from time +to time. You can do what you like," he added, offering the old man his +hand, into which Rouget put his own, which Philippe shook, "--whatever +you like. I shall have nothing to say against it; provided the honor +of the Bridaus is untouched." + +Gilet could look at the lieutenant-colonel as much as he pleased, for +Philippe pointedly avoided casting his eyes in his direction. Max, +though the blood boiled in his veins, was too well aware of the +importance of behaving with political prudence--which occasionally +resembles cowardice--to take fire like a young man; he remained, +therefore, perfectly calm and cold. + +"It wouldn't be right, monsieur," said Flore, "to live on sixty francs +a month under the nose of an uncle who has forty thousand francs a +year, and who has already behaved so kindly to Captain Gilet, his +natural relation, here present--" + +"Yes, Philippe," cried the old man, "you must see that!" + +On Flore's presentation, Philippe made a half-timid bow to Max. + +"Uncle, I have some pictures to return to you; they are now at +Monsieur Hochon's. Will you be kind enough to come over some day and +identify them." + +Saying these last words in a curt tone, lieutenant-colonel Philippe +Bridau departed. The tone of his visit made, if possible, a deeper +impression on Flore's mind, and also on that of Max, than the shock +they had felt at the first sight of that horrible campaigner. As soon +as Philippe had slammed the door, with the violence of a disinherited +heir, Max and Flore hid behind the window-curtains to watch him as he +crossed the road, to the Hochons'. + +"What a vagabond!" exclaimed Flore, questioning Max with a glance of +her eye. + +"Yes; unfortunately there were men like him in the armies of the +Emperor; I sent seven to the shades at Cabrera," answered Gilet. + +"I do hope, Max, that you won't pick a quarrel with that fellow," said +Mademoiselle Brazier. + +"He smelt so of tobacco," complained the old man. + +"He was smelling after your money-bags," said Flore, in a peremptory +tone. "My advice is that you don't let him into the house again." + +"I'd prefer not to," replied Rouget. + +"Monsieur," said Gritte, entering the room where the Hochon family +were all assembled after breakfast, "here is the Monsieur Bridau you +were talking about." + +Philippe made his entrance politely, in the midst of a dead silence +caused by general curiosity. Madame Hochon shuddered from head to foot +as she beheld the author of all Agathe's woes and the murderer of good +old Madame Descoings. Adolphine also felt a shock of fear. Baruch and +Francois looked at each other in surprise. Old Hochon kept his +self-possession, and offered a seat to the son of Madame Bridau. + +"I have come, monsieur," said Philippe, "to introduce myself to you; I +am forced to consider how I can manage to live here, for five years, +on sixty francs a month." + +"It can be done," said the octogenarian. + +Philippe talked about things in general, with perfect propriety. He +mentioned the journalist Lousteau, nephew of the old lady, as a "rara +avis," and won her good graces from the moment she heard him say that +the name of Lousteau would become celebrated. He did not hesitate to +admit his faults of conduct. To a friendly admonition which Madame +Hochon addressed to him in a low voice, he replied that he had +reflected deeply while in prison, and could promise that in future he +would live another life. + +On a hint from Philippe, Monsieur Hochon went out with him when he +took his leave. When the miser and the soldier reached the boulevard +Baron, a place where no one could overhear them, the colonel turned to +the old man,-- + +"Monsieur," he said, "if you will be guided by me, we will never speak +together of matters and things, or people either, unless we are +walking in the open country, or in places where we cannot be heard. +Maitre Desroches has fully explained to me the influence of the gossip +of a little town. Therefore I don't wish you to be suspected of +advising me; though Desroches has told me to ask for your advice, and +I beg you not to be chary of giving it. We have a powerful enemy in +our front, and it won't do to neglect any precaution which may help to +defeat him. In the first place, therefore, excuse me if I do not call +upon you again. A little coldness between us will clear you of all +suspicion of influencing my conduct. When I want to consult you, I +will pass along the square at half-past nine, just as you are coming +out after breakfast. If you see me carry my cane on my shoulder, that +will mean that we must meet--accidentally--in some open space which +you will point out to me." + +"I see you are a prudent man, bent on success," said old Hochon. + +"I shall succeed, monsieur. First of all, give me the names of the +officers of the old army now living in Issoudun, who have not taken +sides with Maxence Gilet; I wish to make their acquaintance." + +"Well, there's a captain of the artillery of the Guard, Monsieur +Mignonnet, a man about forty years of age, who was brought up at the +Ecole Polytechnique, and lives in a quiet way. He is a very honorable +man, and openly disapproves of Max, whose conduct he considers +unworthy of a true soldier." + +"Good!" remarked the lieutenant-colonel. + +"There are not many soldiers here of that stripe," resumed Monsieur +Hochon; "the only other that I know is an old cavalry captain." + +"That is my arm," said Philippe. "Was he in the Guard?" + +"Yes," replied Monsieur Hochon. "Carpentier was, in 1810, +sergeant-major in the dragoons; then he rose to be sub-lieutenant in +the line, and subsequently captain of cavalry." + +"Giroudeau may know him," thought Philippe. + +"This Monsieur Carpentier took the place in the mayor's office which +Gilet threw up; he is a friend of Monsieur Mignonnet." + +"How can I earn my living here?" + +"They are going, I think, to establish a mutual insurance agency in +Issoudun, for the department of the Cher; you might get a place in it, +but the pay won't be more than fifty francs a month at the outside." + +"That will be enough." + +At the end of a week Philippe had a new suit of clothes,--coat, +waistcoat, and trousers,--of good blue Elbeuf cloth, bought on credit, +to be paid for at so much a month; also new boots, buckskin gloves, +and a hat. Giroudeau sent him some linen, with his weapons and a +letter for Carpentier, who had formerly served under Giroudeau. The +letter secured him Carpentier's good-will, and the latter presented +him to his friend Mignonnet as a man of great merit and the highest +character. Philippe won the admiration of these worthy officers by +confiding to them a few facts about the late conspiracy, which was, as +everybody knows, the last attempt of the old army against the +Bourbons; for the affair of the sergeants at La Rochelle belongs to +another order of ideas. + +Warned by the fate of the conspiracy of the 19th of August, 1820, and +of those of Berton and Caron, the soldiers of the old army resigned +themselves, after their failure in 1822, to await events. This last +conspiracy, which grew out of that of the 19th of August, was really a +continuation of the latter, carried on by a better element. Like its +predecessor, it was absolutely unknown to the royal government. +Betrayed once more, the conspirators had the wit to reduce their vast +enterprise to the puny proportions of a barrack plot. This conspiracy, +in which several regiments of cavalry, infantry, and artillery were +concerned, had its centre in the north of France. The strong places +along the frontier were to be captured at a blow. If success had +followed, the treaties of 1815 would have been broken by a federation +with Belgium, which, by a military compact made among the soldiers, +was to withdraw from the Holy Alliance. Two thrones would have been +plunged in a moment into the vortex of this sudden cyclone. Instead of +this formidable scheme--concerted by strong minds and supported by +personages of high rank--being carried out, one small part of it, and +that only, was discovered and brought before the Court of Peers. +Philippe Bridau consented to screen the leaders, who retired the +moment the plot was discovered (either by treachery or accident), and +from their seats in both Chambers lent their co-operation to the +inquiry only to work for the ultimate success of their purpose at the +heart of the government. + +To recount this scheme, which, since 1830, the Liberals have openly +confessed in all its ramifications, would trench upon the domain of +history and involve too long a digression. This glimpse of it is +enough to show the double part which Philippe Bridau undertook to +play. The former staff-officer of the Emperor was to lead a movement +in Paris solely for the purpose of masking the real conspiracy and +occupying the mind of the government at its centre, while the great +struggle should burst forth at the north. When the latter miscarried +before discovery, Philippe was ordered to break all links connecting +the two plots, and to allow the secrets of the secondary plot only to +become known. For this purpose, his abject misery, to which his state +of health and his clothing bore witness, was amply sufficient to +undervalue the character of the conspiracy and reduce its proportions +in the eyes of the authorities. The role was well suited to the +precarious position of the unprincipled gambler. Feeling himself +astride of both parties, the crafty Philippe played the saint to the +royal government, all the while retaining the good opinion of the men +in high places who were of the other party,--determined to cast in his +lot at a later day with whichever side he might then find most to his +advantage. + +These revelations as to the vast bearings of the real conspiracy made +Philippe a man of great distinction in the eyes of Carpentier and +Mignonnet, to whom his self-devotion seemed a state-craft worthy of +the palmy days of the Convention. In a short time the tricky +Bonapartist was seen to be on friendly terms with the two officers, +and the consideration they enjoyed in the town was, of course, shared +by him. He soon obtained, through their recommendation, the situation +in the insurance office that old Hochon had suggested, which required +only three hours of his day. Mignonnet and Carpentier put him up at +their club, where his good manners and bearing, in keeping with the +high opinion which the two officers expressed about him, won him a +respect often given to external appearances that are only deceitful. + +Philippe, whose conduct was carefully considered and planned, had +indeed made many reflections while in prison as to the inconveniences +of leading a debauched life. He did not need Desroches's lecture to +understand the necessity of conciliating the people at Issoudun by +decent, sober, and respectable conduct. Delighted to attract Max's +ridicule by behaving with the propriety of a Mignonnet, he went +further, and endeavored to lull Gilet's suspicions by deceiving him as +to his real character. He was bent on being taken for a fool by +appearing generous and disinterested; all the while drawing a net +around his adversary, and keeping his eye on his uncle's property. His +mother and brother, on the contrary, who were really disinterested, +generous, and lofty, had been accused of greed because they had acted +with straightforward simplicity. Philippe's covetousness was fully +roused by Monsieur Hochon, who gave him all the details of his uncle's +property. In the first secret conversation which he held with the +octogenarian, they agreed that Philippe must not awaken Max's +suspicions; for the game would be lost if Flore and Max were to carry +off their victim, though no further than Bourges. + +Once a week the colonel dined with Mignonnet; another day with +Carpentier; and every Thursday with Monsieur Hochon. At the end of +three weeks he received other invitations for the remaining days, so +that he had little more than his breakfast to provide. He never spoke +of his uncle, nor of the Rabouilleuse, nor of Gilet, unless it were in +connection with his mother and his brother's stay in Issoudun. The +three officers--the only soldiers in the town who were decorated, and +among whom Philippe had the advantage of the rosette, which in the +eyes of all provincials gave him a marked superiority--took a habit of +walking together every day before dinner, keeping, as the saying is, +to themselves. This reserve and tranquillity of demeanor had an +excellent effect on Issoudun. All Max's adherents thought Philippe a +"sabreur,"--an expression applied by soldiers to the commonest sort of +courage in their superior officers, while denying that they possess +the requisite qualities of a commander. + +"He is a very honorable man," said Goddet the surgeon, to Max. + +"Bah!" replied Gilet, "his behavior before the Court of Peers proves +him to have been either a dupe or a spy; he is, as you say, ninny +enough to have been duped by the great players." + +After obtaining his situation, Philippe, who was well informed as to +the gossip of the town, wished to conceal certain circumstances of his +present life as much as possible from the knowledge of the +inhabitants; he therefore went to live in a house at the farther end +of the faubourg Saint-Paterne, to which was attached a large garden. +Here he was able in the utmost secrecy to fence with Carpentier, who +had been a fencing-master in the infantry before entering the cavalry. +Philippe soon recovered his early dexterity, and learned other and new +secrets from Carpentier, which convinced him that he need not fear the +prowess of any adversary. This done, he began openly to practise with +pistols, with Mignonnet and Carpentier, declaring it was for +amusement, but really intending to make Max believe that, in case of a +duel, he should rely on that weapon. Whenever Philippe met Gilet he +waited for him to bow first, and answered the salutation by touching +the brim of his hat cavalierly, as an officer acknowledges the salute +of a private. Maxence Gilet gave no sign of impatience or displeasure; +he never uttered a single word about Bridau at the Cognettes' where he +still gave suppers; although, since Fario's attack, the pranks of the +Order of Idleness were temporarily suspended. + +After a while, however, the contempt shown by Lieutenant-colonel +Bridau for the former cavalry captain, Gilet, was a settled fact, +which certain Knights of Idleness, who were less bound to Max than +Francois, Baruch, and three or four others, discussed among +themselves. They were much surprised to see the violent and fiery Max +behave with such discretion. No one in Issoudun, not even Potel or +Renard, dared broach so delicate a subject with him. Potel, somewhat +disturbed by this open misunderstanding between two heroes of the +Imperial Guard, suggested that Max might be laying a net for the +colonel; he asserted that some new scheme might be looked for from the +man who had got rid of the mother and one brother by making use of +Fario's attack upon him, the particulars of which were now no longer a +mystery. Monsieur Hochon had taken care to reveal the truth of Max's +atrocious accusation to the best people of the town. Thus it happened +that in talking over the situation of the lieutenant-colonel in +relation to Max, and in trying to guess what might spring from their +antagonism, the whole town regarded the two men, from the start, as +adversaries. + +Philippe, who had carefully investigated all the circumstances of his +brother's arrest and the antecedents of Gilet and the Rabouilleuse, +was finally brought into rather close relations with Fario, who lived +near him. After studying the Spaniard, Philippe thought he might trust +a man of that quality. The two found their hatred so firm a bond of +union, that Fario put himself at Philippe's disposal, and related all +that he knew about the Knights of Idleness. Philippe promised, in case +he succeeded in obtaining over his uncle the power now exercised by +Gilet, to indemnify Fario for his losses; this bait made the Spaniard +his henchman. Maxence was now face to face with a dangerous foe; he +had, as they say in those parts, some one to handle. Roused by much +gossip and various rumors, the town of Issoudun expected a mortal +combat between the two men, who, we must remark, mutually despised +each other. + +One morning, toward the end of November, Philippe met Monsieur Hochon +about twelve o'clock, in the long avenue of Frapesle, and said to +him:-- + +"I have discovered that your grandsons Baruch and Francois are the +intimate friends of Maxence Gilet. The rascals are mixed up in all the +pranks that are played about this town at night. It was through them +that Maxence knew what was said in your house when my mother and +brother were staying there." + +"How did you get proof of such a monstrous thing?" + +"I overheard their conversation one night as they were leaving a +drinking-shop. Your grandsons both owe Max more than three thousand +francs. The scoundrel told the lads to try and find out our +intentions; he reminded them that you had once thought of getting +round my uncle by priestcraft, and declared that nobody but you could +guide me; for he thinks, fortunately, that I am nothing more than a +'sabreur.'" + +"My grandsons! is it possible?" + +"Watch them," said Philippe. "You will see them coming home along the +place Saint-Jean, at two or three o'clock in the morning, as tipsy as +champagne-corks, and in company with Gilet--" + +"That's why the scamps keep so sober at home!" cried Monsieur Hochon. + +"Fario has told me all about their nocturnal proceedings," resumed +Philippe; "without him, I should never have suspected them. My uncle +is held down under an absolute thraldom, if I may judge by certain +things which the Spaniard has heard Max say to your boys. I suspect +Max and the Rabouilleuse of a scheme to make sure of the fifty +thousand francs' income from the Funds, and then, after pulling that +feather from their pigeon's wing, to run away, I don't know where, and +get married. It is high time to know what is going on under my uncle's +roof, but I don't see how to set about it." + +"I will think of it," said the old man. + +They separated, for several persons were now approaching. + +Never, at any time in his life, did Jean-Jacques suffer as he had done +since the first visit of his nephew Philippe. Flore was terrified by +the presentiment of some evil that threatened Max. Weary of her +master, and fearing that he might live to be very old, since he was +able to bear up under their criminal practices, she formed the very +simple plan of leaving Issoudun and being married to Maxence in Paris, +after obtaining from Jean-Jacques the transfer of the income in the +Funds. The old bachelor, guided, not by any justice to his family, nor +by personal avarice, but solely by his passion, steadily refused to +make the transfer, on the ground that Flore was to be his sole heir. +The unhappy creature knew to what extent Flore loved Max, and he +believed he would be abandoned the moment she was made rich enough to +marry. When Flore, after employing the tenderest cajoleries, was +unable to succeed, she tried rigor; she no longer spoke to her master; +Vedie was sent to wait upon him, and found him in the morning with his +eyes swollen and red with weeping. For a week or more, poor Rouget had +breakfasted alone, and Heaven knows on what food! + +The day after Philippe's conversation with Monsieur Hochon, he +determined to pay a second visit to his uncle, whom he found much +changed. Flore stayed beside the old man, speaking tenderly and +looking at him with much affection; she played the comedy so well that +Philippe guessed some immediate danger, merely from the solicitude +thus displayed in his presence. Gilet, whose policy it was to avoid +all collision with Philippe, did not appear. After watching his uncle +and Flore for a time with a discerning eye, the colonel judged that +the time had come to strike his grand blow. + +"Adieu, my dear uncle," he said, rising as if to leave the house. + +"Oh! don't go yet," cried the old man, who was comforted by Flore's +false tenderness. "Dine with us, Philippe." + +"Yes, if you will come and take a walk with me." + +"Monsieur is very feeble," interposed Mademoiselle Brazier; "just now +he was unwilling even to go out in the carriage," she added, turning +upon the old man the fixed look with which keepers quell a maniac. + +Philippe took Flore by the arm, compelling her to look at him, and +looking at her in return as fixedly as she had just looked at her +victim. + +"Tell me, mademoiselle," he said, "is it a fact that my uncle is not +free to take a walk with me?" + +"Why, yes he is, monsieur," replied Flore, who was unable to make any +other answer. + +"Very well. Come, uncle. Mademoiselle, give him his hat and cane." + +"But--he never goes out without me. Do you, monsieur?" + +"Yes, Philippe, yes; I always want her--" + +"It would be better to take the carriage," said Flore. + +"Yes, let us take the carriage," cried the old man, in his anxiety to +make his two tyrants agree. + +"Uncle, you will come with me, alone, and on foot, or I shall never +return here; I shall know that the town of Issoudun tells the truth, +when it declares you are under the dominion of Mademoiselle Flore +Brazier. That my uncle should love you, is all very well," he resumed, +holding Flore with a fixed eye; "that you should not love my uncle is +also on the cards; but when it comes to your making him unhappy--halt! +If people want to get hold of an inheritance, they must earn it. Are +you coming, uncle?" + +Philippe saw the eyes of the poor imbecile roving from himself to +Flore, in painful hesitation. + +"Ha! that's how it is, is it?" resumed the lieutenant-colonel. "Well, +adieu, uncle. Mademoiselle, I kiss your hands." + +He turned quickly when he reached the door, and caught Flore in the +act of making a menacing gesture at his uncle. + +"Uncle," he said, "if you wish to go with me, I will meet you at your +door in ten minutes: I am now going to see Monsieur Hochon. If you and +I do not take that walk, I shall take upon myself to make some others +walk." + +So saying, he went away, and crossed the place Saint-Jean to the +Hochons. + +Every one can imagine the scenes which the revelations made by +Philippe to Monsieur Hochon had brought about within that family. At +nine o'clock, old Monsieur Heron, the notary, presented himself with a +bundle of papers, and found a fire in the hall which the old miser, +contrary to all his habits, had ordered to be lighted. Madame Hochon, +already dressed at this unusual hour, was sitting in her armchair at +the corner of the fireplace. The two grandsons, warned the night +before by Adolphine that a storm was gathering about their heads, had +been ordered to stay in the house. Summoned now by Gritte, they were +alarmed at the formal preparations of their grandparents, whose +coldness and anger they had been made to feel in the air for the last +twenty-four hours. + +"Don't rise for them," said their grandfather to Monsieur Heron; "you +see before you two miscreants, unworthy of pardon." + +"Oh, grandpapa!" said Francois. + +"Be silent!" said the old man sternly. "I know of your nocturnal life +and your intimacy with Monsieur Maxence Gilet. But you will meet him +no more at Mere Cognette's at one in the morning; for you will not +leave this house, either of you, until you go to your respective +destinations. Ha! it was you who ruined Fario, was it? you, who have +narrowly escaped the police-courts-- Hold your tongue!" he said, +seeing that Baruch was about to speak. "You both owe money to Monsieur +Maxence Gilet; who, for six years, has paid for your debauchery. +Listen, both of you, to my guardianship accounts; after that, I shall +have more to say. You will see, after these papers are read, whether +you can still trifle with me,--still trifle with family laws by +betraying the secrets of this house, and reporting to a Monsieur +Maxence Gilet what is said and what is done here. For three thousand +francs, you became spies; for ten thousand, you would, no doubt, +become assassins. You did almost kill Madame Bridau; for Monsieur +Gilet knew very well it was Fario who stabbed him when he threw the +crime upon my guest, Monsieur Joseph Bridau. If that jail-bird did so +wicked an act, it was because you told him what Madame Bridau meant to +do. You, my grandsons, the spies of such a man! You, house-breakers +and marauders! Don't you know that your worthy leader killed a poor +young woman, in 1806? I will not have assassins and thieves in my +family. Pack your things; you shall go hang elsewhere!" + +The two young men turned white and stiff as plaster casts. + +"Read on, Monsieur Heron," said Hochon. + +The old notary read the guardianship accounts; from which it appeared +that the net fortune of the two Borniche children amounted to seventy +thousand francs, a sum derived from the dowry of their mother: but +Monsieur Hochon had lent his daughter various large sums, and was now, +as creditor, the owner of a part of the property of his Borniche +grandchildren. The portion coming to Baruch amounted to only twenty +thousand francs. + +"Now you are rich," said the old man, "take your money, and go. I +remain master of my own property and that of Madame Hochon, who in +this matter shares all my intentions, and I shall give it to whom I +choose; namely, our dear Adolphine. Yes, we can marry her if we please +to the son of a peer of France, for she will be an heiress." + +"A noble fortune!" said Monsieur Heron. + +"Monsieur Maxence Gilet will make up this loss to you," said Madame +Hochon. + +"Let my hard-saved money go to a scapegrace like you? no, indeed!" +cried Monsieur Hochon. + +"Forgive me!" stammered Baruch. + +"'Forgive, and I won't do it again,'" sneered the old man, imitating a +child's voice. "If I were to forgive you, and let you out of this +house, you would go and tell Monsieur Maxence what has happened, and +warn him to be on his guard. No, no, my little men. I shall keep my +eye on you, and I have means of knowing what you do. As you behave, so +shall I behave to you. It will be by a long course of good conduct, +not that of a day or a month, but of years, that I shall judge you. I +am strong on my legs, my eyes are good, my health is sound; I hope to +live long enough to see what road you take. Your first move will be to +Paris, where you will study banking under Messieurs Mongenod and Sons. +Ill-luck to you if you don't walk straight; you will be watched. Your +property is in the hand of Messieurs Mongenod; here is a cheque for +the amount. Now then, release me as guardian, and sign the accounts, +and also this receipt," he added, taking the papers from Monsieur +Heron and handing them to Baruch. + +"As for you, Francois Hochon, you owe me money instead of having any +to receive," said the old man, looking at his other grandson. +"Monsieur Heron, read his account; it is all clear--perfectly clear." + +The reading was done in the midst of perfect stillness. + +"You will have six hundred francs a year, and with that you will go to +Poitiers and study law," said the grandfather, when the notary had +finished. "I had a fine life in prospect for you; but now, you must +earn your living as a lawyer. Ah! my young rascals, you have deceived +me for six years; you now know it has taken me but one hour to get +even with you: I have seven-leagued boots." + +Just as old Monsieur Heron was preparing to leave with the signed +papers, Gritte announced Colonel Bridau. Madame Hochon left the room, +taking her grandsons with her, that she might, as old Hochon said, +confess them privately and find out what effect this scene had +produced upon them. + +Philippe and the old man stood in the embrasure of a window and spoke +in low tones. + +"I have been reflecting on the state of your affairs over there," said +Monsieur Hochon pointing to the Rouget house. "I have just had a talk +with Monsieur Heron. The security for the fifty thousand francs a year +from the property in the Funds cannot be sold unless by the owner +himself or some one with a power of attorney from him. Now, since your +arrival here, your uncle has not signed any such power before any +notary; and, as he has not left Issoudun, he can't have signed one +elsewhere. If he attempts to give a power of attorney here, we shall +know it instantly; if he goes away to give one, we shall also know it, +for it will have to be registered, and that excellent Heron has means +of finding it out. Therefore, if Rouget leaves Issoudun, have him +followed, learn where he goes, and we will find a way to discover what +he does." + +"The power of attorney has not been given," said Philippe; "they are +trying to get it; but--they--will--not--suc--ceed--" added the +vagabond, whose eye just then caught sight of his uncle on the steps +of the opposite house: he pointed him out to Monsieur Hochon, and +related succinctly the particulars, at once so petty and so important, +of his visit. + +"Maxence is afraid of me, but he can't evade me. Mignonnet says that +all the officers of the old army who are in Issoudun give a yearly +banquet on the anniversary of the Emperor's coronation; so Maxence +Gilet and I are sure to meet in a few days." + +"If he gets a power of attorney by the morning of the first of +December," said Hochon, "he might take the mail-post for Paris, and +give up the banquet." + +"Very good. The first thing is, then, to get possession of my uncle; +I've an eye that cows a fool," said Philippe, giving Monsieur Hochon +an atrocious glance that made the old man tremble. + +"If they let him walk with you, Maxence must believe he has found some +means to win the game," remarked the old miser. + +"Oh! Fario is on the watch," said Philippe, "and he is not alone. That +Spaniard has discovered one of my old soldiers in the neighborhood of +Vatan, a man I once did some service to. Without any one's suspecting +it, Benjamin Bourdet is under Fario's orders, who has lent him a horse +to get about with." + +"If you kill that monster who has corrupted my grandsons, I shall say +you have done a good deed." + +"Thanks to me, the town of Issoudun now knows what Monsieur Maxence +Gilet has been doing at night for the last six years," replied +Philippe; "and the cackle, as you call it here, is now started on him. +Morally his day is over." + +The moment Philippe left his uncle's house Flore went to Max's room to +tell him every particular of the nephew's bold visit. + +"What's to be done?" she asked. + +"Before trying the last means,--which will be to fight that big +reprobate," replied Maxence, "--we must play double or quits, and try +our grand stroke. Let the old idiot go with his nephew." + +"But that big brute won't mince matters," remonstrated Flore; "he'll +call things by their right names." + +"Listen to me," said Maxence in a harsh voice. "Do you think I've not +kept my ears open, and reflected about how we stand? Send to Pere +Cognette for a horse and a char-a-banc, and say we want them +instantly: they must be here in five minutes. Pack all your +belongings, take Vedie, and go to Vatan. Settle yourself there as if +you mean to stay; carry off the twenty thousand francs in gold which +the old fellow has got in his drawer. If I bring him to you in Vatan, +you are to refuse to come back here unless he signs the power of +attorney. As soon as we get it I'll slip off to Paris, while you're +returning to Issoudun. When Jean-Jacques gets back from his walk and +finds you gone, he'll go beside himself, and want to follow you. Well! +when he does, I'll give him a talking to." + + + + CHAPTER XV + +While the foregoing plot was progressing, Philippe was walking arm in +arm with his uncle along the boulevard Baron. + +"The two great tacticians are coming to close quarters at last," +thought Monsieur Hochon as he watched the colonel marching off with +his uncle; "I am curious to see the end of the game, and what becomes +of the stake of ninety thousand francs a year." + +"My dear uncle," said Philippe, whose phraseology had a flavor of his +affinities in Paris, "you love this girl, and you are devilishly +right. She is damnably handsome! Instead of billing and cooing she +makes you trot like a valet; well, that's all simple enough; but she +wants to see you six feet underground, so that she may marry Max, whom +she adores." + +"I know that, Philippe, but I love her all the same." + +"Well, I have sworn by the soul of my mother, who is your own sister," +continued Philippe, "to make your Rabouilleuse as supple as my glove, +and the same as she was before that scoundrel, who is unworthy to have +served in the Imperial Guard, ever came to quarter himself in your +house." + +"Ah! if you could do that!--" said the old man. + +"It is very easy," answered Philippe, cutting his uncle short. "I'll +kill Max as I would a dog; but--on one condition," added the old +campaigner. + +"What is that?" said Rouget, looking at his nephew in a stupid way. + +"Don't sign that power of attorney which they want of you before the +third of December; put them off till then. Your torturers only want it +to enable them to sell the fifty thousand a year you have in the +Funds, so that they may run off to Paris and pay for their wedding +festivities out of your millions." + +"I am afraid so," replied Rouget. + +"Well, whatever they may say or do to you, put off giving that power +of attorney until next week." + +"Yes; but when Flore talks to me she stirs my very soul, till I don't +know what I do. I give you my word, when she looks at me in a certain +way, her blue eyes seem like paradise, and I am no longer master of +myself,--especially when for some days she had been harsh to me." + +"Well, whether she is sweet or sour, don't do more than promise to +sign the paper, and let me know the night before you are going to do +it. That will answer. Maxence shall not be your proxy unless he first +kills me. If I kill him, you must agree to take me in his place, and +I'll undertake to break in that handsome girl and keep her at your +beck and call. Yes, Flore shall love you, and if she doesn't satisfy +you--thunder! I'll thrash her." + +"Oh! I never could allow that. A blow struck at Flore would break my +heart." + +"But it is the only way to govern women and horses. A man makes +himself feared, or loved, or respected. Now that is what I wanted to +whisper in your ear--Good-morning, gentlemen," he said to Mignonnet +and Carpentier, who came up at the moment; "I am taking my uncle for a +walk, as you see, and trying to improve him; for we are in an age when +children are obliged to educate their grandparents." + +They all bowed to each other. + +"You behold in my dear uncle the effects of an unhappy passion. Those +two want to strip him of his fortune and leave him in the lurch--you +know to whom I refer? He sees the plot; but he hasn't the courage to +give up his SUGAR-PLUM for a few days so as to baffle it." + +Philippe briefly explained his uncle's position. + +"Gentlemen," he remarked, in conclusion, "you see there are no two +ways of saving him: either Colonel Bridau must kill Captain Gilet, or +Captain Gilet must kill Colonel Bridau. We celebrate the Emperor's +coronation on the day after to-morrow; I rely upon you to arrange the +seats at the banquet so that I shall sit opposite to Gilet. You will +do me the honor, I hope, of being my seconds." + +"We will appoint you to preside, and sit ourselves on either side of +you. Max, as vice-president, will of course sit opposite," said +Mignonnet. + +"Oh! the scoundrel will have Potel and Renard with him," said +Carpentier. "In spite of all that Issoudun now knows and says of his +midnight maraudings, those two worthy officers, who have already been +his seconds, remain faithful to him." + +"You see how it all maps out, uncle," said Philippe. "Therefore, sign +no paper before the third of December; the next day you shall be free, +happy, and beloved by Flore, without having to coax for it." + +"You don't know him, Philippe," said the terrified old man. "Maxence +has killed nine men in duels." + +"Yes; but ninety thousand francs a year didn't depend on it," answered +Philippe. + +"A bad conscience shakes the hand," remarked Mignonnet sententiously. + +"In a few days from now," resumed Philippe, "you and the Rabouilleuse +will be living together as sweet as honey,--that is, after she gets +through mourning. At first she'll twist like a worm, and yelp, and +weep; but never mind, let the water run!" + +The two soldiers approved of Philippe's arguments, and tried to +hearten up old Rouget, with whom they walked about for nearly two +hours. At last Philippe took his uncle home, saying as they parted:-- + +"Don't take any steps without me. I know women. I have paid for one, +who cost me far more than Flore can ever cost you. But she taught me +how to behave to the fair sex for the rest of my days. Women are bad +children; they are inferior animals to men; we must make them fear us; +the worst condition in the world is to be governed by such brutes." + +It was about half-past two in the afternoon when the old man got home. +Kouski opened the door in tears,--that is, by Max's orders, he gave +signs of weeping. + +"Oh! Monsieur, Madame has gone away, and taken Vedie with her!" + +"Gone--a--way!" said the old man in a strangled voice. + +The blow was so violent that Rouget sat down on the stairs, unable to +stand. A moment after, he rose, looked about the hall, into the +kitchen, went up to his own room, searched all the chambers, and +returned to the salon, where he threw himself into a chair, and burst +into tears. + +"Where is she?" he sobbed. "Oh! where is she? where is Max?" + +"I don't know," answered Kouski. "The captain went out without telling +me." + +Gilet thought it politic to be seen sauntering about the town. By +leaving the old man alone with his despair, he knew he should make him +feel his desertion the more keenly, and reduce him to docility. To +keep Philippe from assisting his uncle at this crisis, he had given +Kouski strict orders not to open the door to any one. Flore away, the +miserable old man grew frantic, and the situation of things approached +a crisis. During his walk through the town, Maxence Gilet was avoided +by many persons who a day or two earlier would have hastened to shake +hands with him. A general reaction had set in against him. The deeds +of the Knights of Idleness were ringing on every tongue. The tale of +Joseph Bridau's arrest, now cleared up, disgraced Max in the eyes of +all; and his life and conduct received in one day their just award. +Gilet met Captain Potel, who was looking for him, and seemed almost +beside himself. + +"What's the matter with you, Potel?" + +"My dear fellow, the Imperial Guard is being black-guarded all over +the town! These civilians are crying you down! and it goes to the +bottom of my heart." + +"What are they complaining of?" asked Max. + +"Of what you do at night." + +"As if we couldn't amuse ourselves a little!" + +"But that isn't all," said Potel. + +Potel belonged to the same class as the officer who replied to the +burgomasters: "Eh! your town will be paid for, if we do burn it!" So +he was very little troubled about the deeds of the Order of Idleness. + +"What more?" inquired Gilet. + +"The Guard is against the Guard. It is that that breaks my heart. +Bridau has set all these bourgeois on you. The Guard against the +Guard! no, it ought not to be! You can't back down, Max; you must meet +Bridau. I had a great mind to pick a quarrel with the low scoundrel +myself and send him to the shades; I wish I had, and then the +bourgeois wouldn't have seen the spectacle of the Guard against the +Guard. In war times, I don't say anything against it. Two heroes of +the Guard may quarrel, and fight,--but at least there are no civilians +to look on and sneer. No, I say that big villain never served in the +Guard. A guardsman would never behave as he does to another guardsman, +under the very eyes of the bourgeois; impossible! Ah! it's all wrong; +the Guard is disgraced--and here, at Issoudun! where it was once so +honored." + +"Come, Potel, don't worry yourself," answered Max; "even if you do not +see me at the banquet--" + +"What! do you mean that you won't be there the day after to-morrow?" +cried Potel, interrupting his friend. "Do you wish to be called a +coward? and have it said you are running away from Bridau? No, no! The +unmounted grenadiers of the Guard can not draw back before the +dragoons of the Guard. Arrange your business in some other way and be +there!" + +"One more to send to the shades!" said Max. "Well, I think I can +manage my business so as to get there--For," he thought to himself, +"that power of attorney ought not to be in my name; as old Heron says, +it would look too much like theft." + +This lion, tangled in the meshes Philippe Bridau was weaving for him, +muttered between his teeth as he went along; he avoided the looks of +those he met and returned home by the boulevard Vilatte, still talking +to himself. + +"I will have that money before I fight," he said. "If I die, it shall +not go to Philippe. I must put it in Flore's name. She will follow my +instructions, and go straight to Paris. Once there, she can marry, if +she chooses, the son of some marshal of France who has been sent to +the right-about. I'll have that power of attorney made in Baruch's +name, and he'll transfer the property by my order." + +Max, to do him justice, was never more cool and calm in appearance +than when his blood and his ideas were boiling. No man ever united in +a higher degree the qualities which make a great general. If his +career had not been cut short by his captivity at Cabrera, the Emperor +would certainly have found him one of those men who are necessary to +the success of vast enterprises. When he entered the room where the +hapless victim of all these comic and tragic scenes was still weeping, +Max asked the meaning of such distress; seemed surprised, pretended +that he knew nothing, and heard, with well-acted amazement, of Flore's +departure. He questioned Kouski, to obtain some light on the object of +this inexplicable journey. + +"Madame said like this," Kouski replied, "--that I was to tell +monsieur she had taken twenty thousand francs in gold from his drawer, +thinking that monsieur wouldn't refuse her that amount as wages for +the last twenty-two years." + +"Wages?" exclaimed Rouget. + +"Yes," replied Kouski. "Ah! I shall never come back," she said to +Vedie as she drove away. "Poor Vedie, who is so attached to monsieur, +remonstrated with madame. 'No, no,' she answered, 'he has no affection +for me; he lets his nephew treat me like the lowest of the low'; and +she wept--oh! bitterly." + +"Eh! what do I care for Philippe?" cried the old man, whom Max was +watching. "Where is Flore? how can we find out where she is?" + +"Philippe, whose advice you follow, will help you," said Max coldly. + +"Philippe?" said the old man, "what has he to do with the poor child? +There is no one but you, my good Max, who can find Flore. She will +follow you--you could bring her back to me--" + +"I don't wish to oppose Monsieur Bridau," observed Max. + +"As for that," cried Rouget, "if that hinders you, he told me he meant +to kill you." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Gilet, laughing, "we will see about it!" + +"My friend," said the old man, "find Flore, and I will do all she +wants of me." + +"Some one must have seen her as she passed through the town," said +Maxence to Kouski. "Serve dinner; put everything on the table, and +then go and make inquiries from place to place. Let us know, by +dessert, which road Mademoiselle Brazier has taken." + +This order quieted for a time the poor creature, who was moaning like +a child that has lost its nurse. At this moment Rouget, who hated Max, +thought his tormentor an angel. A passion like that of this miserable +old man for Flore is astonishingly like the emotions of childhood. At +six o'clock, the Pole, who had merely taken a walk, returned to +announce that Flore had driven towards Vatan. + +"Madame is going back to her own people, that's plain," said Kouski. + +"Would you like to go to Vatan to-night?" said Max. "The road is bad, +but Kouski knows how to drive, and you'll make your peace better +to-night than to-morrow morning." + +"Let us go!" cried Rouget. + +"Put the horse in quietly," said Max to Kouski; "manage, if you can, +that the town shall not know of this nonsense, for Monsieur Rouget's +sake. Saddle my horse," he added in a whisper. "I will ride on ahead +of you." + +Monsieur Hochon had already notified Philippe of Flore's departure; +and the colonel rose from Monsieur Mignonnet's dinner-table to rush to +the place Saint-Jean; for he at once guessed the meaning of this +clever strategy. When Philippe presented himself at his uncle's house, +Kouski answered through a window that Monsieur Rouget was unable to +see any one. + +"Fario," said Philippe to the Spaniard, who was stationed in the +Grande-Narette, "go and tell Benjamin to mount his horse; it is +all-important that I shall know what Gilet does with my uncle." + +"They are now putting the horse into the caleche," said Fario, who had +been watching the Rouget stable. + +"If they go towards Vatan," answered Philippe, "get me another horse, +and come yourself with Benjamin to Monsieur Mignonnet's." + +"What do you mean to do?" asked Monsieur Hochon, who had come out of +his own house when he saw Philippe and Fario standing together. + +"The genius of a general, my dear Monsieur Hochon," said Philippe, +"consists not only in carefully observing the enemy's movements, but +also in guessing his intentions from those movements, and in modifying +his own plan whenever the enemy interferes with it by some unexpected +action. Now, if my uncle and Max drive out together, they are going to +Vatan; Maxence will have promised to reconcile him with Flore, who +'fugit ad salices,'--the manoeuvre is General Virgil's. If that's the +line they take, I don't yet know what I shall do; I shall have some +hours to think it over, for my uncle can't sign a power of attorney at +ten o'clock at night; the notaries will all be in bed. If, as I rather +fancy, Max goes on in advance of my uncle to teach Flore her lesson, +--which seems necessary and probable,--the rogue is lost! you will see +the sort of revenge we old soldiers take in a game of this kind. Now, +as I need a helper for this last stroke, I must go back to Mignonnet's +and make an arrangement with my friend Carpentier." + +Shaking hands with Monsieur Hochon, Philippe went off down the +Petite-Narette to Mignonnet's house. Ten minutes later, Monsieur Hochon +saw Max ride off at a quick trot; and the old miser's curiosity was so +powerfully excited that he remained standing at his window, eagerly +expecting to hear the wheels of the old demi-fortune, which was not +long in coming. Jean-Jacques's impatience made him follow Max within +twenty minutes. Kouski, no doubt under orders from his master, walked +the horse through the town. + +"If they get to Paris, all is lost," thought Monsieur Hochon. + +At this moment, a lad from the faubourg de Rome came to the Hochon +house with a letter for Baruch. The two grandsons, much subdued by the +events of the morning, had kept their rooms of their own accord during +the day. Thinking over their prospects, they saw plainly that they had +better be cautious with their grandparents. Baruch knew very well the +influence which his grandfather Hochon exerted over his grandfather +and grandmother Borniche: Monsieur Hochon would not hesitate to get +their property for Adolphine if his conduct were such as to make them +pin their hopes on the grand marriage with which his grandfather had +threatened him that morning. Being richer than Francois, Baruch had +the most to lose; he therefore counselled an absolute surrender, with +no other condition than the payment of their debt to Max. As for +Francois, his future was entirely in the hands of his grandfather; he +had no expectations except from him, and by the guardianship account, +he was now his debtor. The two young men accordingly gave solemn +promises of amendment, prompted by their imperilled interests, and by +the hope Madame Hochon held out, that the debt to Max should be paid. + +"You have done very wrong," she said to them; "repair it by future +good conduct, and Monsieur Hochon will forget it." + +So, when Francois had read the letter which had been brought for +Baruch, over the latter's shoulder, he whispered in his ear, "Ask +grandpapa's advice." + +"Read this," said Baruch, taking the letter to old Hochon. + +"Read it to me yourself; I haven't my spectacles." + + My dear Friend,--I hope you will not hesitate, under the serious + circumstances in which I find myself, to do me the service of + receiving a power of attorney from Monsieur Rouget. Be at Vatan + to-morrow morning at nine o'clock. I shall probably send you to + Paris, but don't be uneasy; I will furnish you with money for the + journey, and join you there immediately. I am almost sure I shall + be obliged to leave Issoudun, December third. + + Adieu. I count on your friendship; rely on that of your friend, + + Maxence + + +"God be praised!" exclaimed Monsieur Hochon; "the property of that old +idiot is saved from the claws of the devil." + +"It will be if you say so," said Madame Hochon; "and I thank God,--who +has no doubt heard my prayers. The prosperity of the wicked is always +fleeting." + +"You must go to Vatan, and accept the power of attorney from Monsieur +Rouget," said the old man to Baruch. "Their object is to get fifty +thousand francs a year transferred to Mademoiselle Brazier. They will +send you to Paris, and you must seem to go; but you are to stop at +Orleans, and wait there till you hear from me. Let no one--not a soul +--know where you lodge; go to the first inn you come to in the +faubourg Bannier, no matter if it is only a post-house--" + +"Look here!" cried Francois, who had rushed to the window at the +sudden noise of wheels in the Grande-Narette. "Here's something new! +--Pere Rouget and Colonel Bridau coming back together in the caleche, +Benjamin and Captain Carpentier following on horseback!" + +"I'll go over," cried Monsieur Hochon, whose curiosity carried the day +over every other feeling. + +Monsieur Hochon found old Rouget in his bedroom, writing the following +letter at his nephew's dictation: + + Mademoiselle,--If you do not start to return here the moment you + receive this letter, your conduct will show such ingratitude for + all my goodness that I shall revoke the will I have made in your + favor, and give my property to my nephew Philippe. You will + understand that Monsieur Gilet can no longer be my guest after + staying with you at Vatan. I send this letter by Captain + Carpentier, who will put it into your own hands. I hope you will + listen to his advice; he will speak to you with authority from me. + Your affectionate + + J.-J. Rouget. + + +"Captain Carpentier and I MET my uncle, who was so foolish as to +follow Mademoiselle Brazier and Monsieur Gilet to Vatan," said +Philippe, with sarcastic emphasis, to Monsieur Hochon. "I have made my +uncle see that he was running his head into a noose; for that girl +will abandon him the moment she gets him to sign a power of attorney, +by which they mean to obtain the income of his money in the Funds. +That letter will bring her back under his roof, the handsome runaway! +this very night, or I'm mistaken. I promise to make her as pliable as +a bit of whalebone for the rest of her days, if my uncle allows me to +take Maxence Gilet's place; which, in my opinion, he ought never to +have had in the first place. Am I not right?--and yet here's my uncle +bemoaning himself!" + +"Neighbor," said Monsieur Hochon, "you have taken the best means to +get peace in your household. Destroy your will, and Flore will be once +more what she used to be in the early days." + +"No, she will never forgive me for what I have made her suffer," +whimpered the old man; "she will no longer love me." + +"She shall love you, and closely too; I'll take care of that," said +Philippe. + +"Come, open your eyes!" exclaimed Monsieur Hochon. "They mean to rob +you and abandon you." + +"Oh! I was sure of it!" cried the poor imbecile. + +"See, here is a letter Maxence has written to my grandson Borniche," +said old Hochon. "Read it." + +"What infamy!" exclaimed Carpentier, as he listened to the letter, +which Rouget read aloud, weeping. + +"Is that plain enough, uncle?" demanded Philippe. "Hold that hussy by +her interests and she'll adore you as you deserve." + +"She loves Maxence too well; she will leave me," cried the frightened +old man. + +"But, uncle, Maxence or I,--one or the other of us--won't leave our +footsteps in the dust of Issoudun three days hence." + +"Well then go, Monsieur Carpentier," said Rouget; "if you promise me +to bring her back, go! You are a good man; say to her in my name all +you think you ought to say." + +"Captain Carpentier will whisper in her ear that I have sent to Paris +for a woman whose youth and beauty are captivating; that will bring +the jade back in a hurry!" + +The captain departed, driving himself in the old caleche; Benjamin +accompanied him on horseback, for Kouski was nowhere to be found. +Though threatened by the officers with arrest and the loss of his +situation, the Pole had gone to Vatan on a hired horse, to warn Max +and Flore of the adversary's move. After fulfilling his mission, +Carpentier, who did not wish to drive back with Flore, was to change +places with Benjamin, and take the latter's horse. + +When Philippe was told of Kouski's flight he said to Benjamin, "You +will take the Pole's place, from this time on. It is all mapping out, +papa Hochon!" cried the lieutenant-colonel. "That banquet will be +jovial!" + +"You will come and live here, of course," said the old miser. + +"I have told Fario to send me all my things," answered Philippe. "I +shall sleep in the room adjoining Gilet's apartment,--if my uncle +consents." + +"What will come of all this?" cried the terrified old man. + +"Mademoiselle Flore Brazier is coming, gentle as a paschal lamb," +replied Monsieur Hochon. + +"God grant it!" exclaimed Rouget, wiping his eyes. + +"It is now seven o'clock," said Philippe; "the sovereign of your heart +will be here at half-past eleven: you'll never see Gilet again, and +you will be as happy ever after as a pope.--If you want me to +succeed," he whispered to Monsieur Hochon, "stay here till the hussy +comes; you can help me in keeping the old man up to his resolution; +and, together, we'll make that crab-girl see on which side her bread +is buttered." + +Monsieur Hochon felt the reasonableness of the request and stayed: but +they had their hands full, for old Rouget gave way to childish +lamentations, which were only quieted by Philippe's repeating over and +over a dozen times:-- + +"Uncle, you will see that I am right when Flore returns to you as +tender as ever. You shall be petted; you will save your property: be +guided by my advice, and you'll live in paradise for the rest of your +days." + +When, about half-past eleven, wheels were heard in the Grande-Narette, +the question was, whether the carriage were returning full or empty. +Rouget's face wore an expression of agony, which changed to the +prostration of excessive joy when he saw the two women, as the +carriage turned to enter the courtyard. + +"Kouski," said Philippe, giving a hand to Flore to help her down. "You +are no longer in Monsieur Rouget's service. You will not sleep here +to-night; get your things together, and go. Benjamin takes your +place." + +"Are you the master here?" said Flore sarcastically. + +"With your permission," replied Philippe, squeezing her hand as if in +a vice. "Come! we must have an understanding, you and I"; and he led +the bewildered woman out into the place Saint-Jean. + +"My fine lady," began the old campaigner, stretching out his right +hand, "three days hence, Maxence Gilet will be sent to the shades by +that arm, or his will have taken me off guard. If I die, you will be +the mistress of my poor imbecile uncle; 'bene sit.' If I remain on my +pins, you'll have to walk straight, and keep him supplied with +first-class happiness. If you don't, I know girls in Paris who are, +with all due respect, much prettier than you; for they are only +seventeen years old: they would make my uncle excessively happy, and +they are in my interests. Begin your attentions this very evening; if +the old man is not as gay as a lark to-morrow morning, I have only a +word to say to you; it is this, pay attention to it,--there is but one +way to kill a man without the interference of the law, and that is to +fight a duel with him; but I know three ways to get rid of a woman: +mind that, my beauty!" + +During this address, Flore shook like a person with the ague. + +"Kill Max--?" she said, gazing at Philippe in the moonlight. + +"Come, here's my uncle." + +Old Rouget, turning a deaf ear to Monsieur Hochon's remonstrances, now +came out into the street, and took Flore by the hand, as a miser might +have grasped his treasure; he drew her back to the house and into his +own room and shut the door. + +"This is Saint-Lambert's day, and he who deserts his place, loses it," +remarked Benjamin to the Pole. + +"My master will shut your mouth for you," answered Kouski, departing +to join Max who established himself at the hotel de la Poste. + +On the morrow, between nine and eleven o'clock, all the women talked +to each other from door to door throughout the town. The story of the +wonderful change in the Rouget household spread everywhere. The upshot +of the conversations was the same on all sides,-- + +"What will happen at the banquet between Max and Colonel Bridau?" + +Philippe said but few words to the Vedie,--"Six hundred francs' +annuity, or dismissal." They were enough, however, to keep her +neutral, for a time, between the two great powers, Philippe and Flore. + +Knowing Max's life to be in danger, Flore became more affectionate to +Rouget than in the first days of their alliance. Alas! in love, a +self-interested devotion is sometimes more agreeable than a truthful +one; and that is why many men pay so much for clever deceivers. The +Rabouilleuse did not appear till the next morning, when she came down +to breakfast with Rouget on her arm. Tears filled her eyes as she +beheld, sitting in Max's place, the terrible adversary, with his +sombre blue eyes, and the cold, sinister expression on his face. + +"What is the matter, mademoiselle?" he said, after wishing his uncle +good-morning. + +"She can't endure the idea of your fighting Maxence," said old Rouget. + +"I have not the slightest desire to kill Gilet," answered Philippe. +"He need only take himself off from Issoudun and go to America on a +venture. I should be the first to advise you to give him an outfit, +and to wish him a safe voyage. He would soon make a fortune there, and +that is far more honorable than turning Issoudun topsy-turvy at night, +and playing the devil in your household." + +"Well, that's fair enough," said Rouget, glancing at Flore. + +"A-mer-i-ca!" she ejaculated, sobbing. + +"It is better to kick his legs about in a free country than have them +rot in a pine box in France. However, perhaps you think he is a good +shot, and can kill me; it's on the cards," observed the colonel. + +"Will you let me speak to him?" said Flore, imploring Philippe in a +humble and submissive tone. + +"Certainly; he can come here and pack up his things. I will stay with +my uncle during that time; for I shall not leave the old man again," +replied Philippe. + +"Vedie," cried Flore, "run to the hotel, and tell Monsieur Gilet that +I beg him--" + +"--to come and get his belongings," said Philippe, interrupting +Flore's message. + +"Yes, yes, Vedie; that will be a good pretext to see me; I must speak +to him." + +Terror controlled her hatred; and the shock which her whole being +experienced when she first encountered this strong and pitiless nature +was now so overwhelming that she bowed before Philippe just as Rouget +had been in the habit of bending before her. She anxiously awaited +Vedie's return. The woman brought a formal refusal from Max, who +requested Mademoiselle Brazier to send his things to the hotel de la +Poste. + +"Will you allow me to take them to him?" she said to Jean-Jacques +Rouget. + +"Yes, but will you come back?" said the old man. + +"If Mademoiselle is not back by midday, you will give me a power of +attorney to attend to your property," said Philippe, looking at Flore. +"Take Vedie with you, to save appearances, mademoiselle. In future you +are to think of my uncle's honor." + +Flore could get nothing out of Max. Desperate at having allowed +himself, before the eyes of the whole town, to be routed out of his +shameless position, Gilet was too proud to run away from Philippe. The +Rabouilleuse combated this objection, and proposed that they should +fly together to America; but Max, who did not want Flore without her +money, and yet did not wish the girl to see the bottom of his heart, +insisted on his intention of killing Philippe. + +"We have committed a monstrous folly," he said. "We ought all three to +have gone to Paris and spent the winter there; but how could one +guess, from the mere sight of that fellow's big carcass, that things +would turn out as they have? The turn of events is enough to make one +giddy! I took the colonel for one of those fire-eaters who haven't two +ideas in their head; that was the blunder I made. As I didn't have the +sense to double like a hare in the beginning, I'll not be such a +coward as to back down before him. He has lowered me in the estimation +of this town, and I cannot get back what I have lost unless I kill +him." + +"Go to America with forty thousand francs. I'll find a way to get rid +of that scoundrel, and join you. It would be much wiser." + +"What would people say of me?" he exclaimed. "No; I have buried nine +already. The fellow doesn't seem as if he knew much; he went from +school to the army, and there he was always fighting till 1815; then +he went to America, and I doubt if the brute ever set foot in a +fencing-alley; while I have no match with the sabre. The sabre is his +arm; I shall seem very generous in offering it to him,--for I mean, if +possible, to let him insult me,--and I can easily run him through. +Unquestionably, it is my wisest course. Don't be uneasy; we shall be +masters of the field in a couple of days." + +That it was that a stupid point of honor had more influence over Max +than sound policy. When Flore got home she shut herself up to cry at +ease. During the whole of that day gossip ran wild in Issoudun, and +the duel between Philippe and Maxence was considered inevitable. + +"Ah! Monsieur Hochon," said Mignonnet, who, accompanied by Carpentier, +met the old man on the boulevard Baron, "we are very uneasy; for Gilet +is clever with all weapons." + +"Never mind," said the old provincial diplomatist; "Philippe has +managed this thing well from the beginning. I should never have +thought that big, easy-going fellow would have succeeded as he has. +The two have rolled together like a couple of thunder-clouds." + +"Oh!" said Carpentier, "Philippe is a remarkable man. His conduct +before the Court of Peers was a masterpiece of diplomacy." + +"Well, Captain Renard," said one of the townsfolk to Max's friend. +"They say wolves don't devour each other, but it seems that Max is +going to set his teeth in Colonel Bridau. That's pretty serious among +you gentlemen of the Old Guard." + +"You make fun of it, do you? Because the poor fellow amused himself a +little at night, you are all against him," said Potel. "But Gilet is a +man who couldn't stay in a hole like Issoudun without finding +something to do." + +"Well, gentlemen," remarked another, "Max and the colonel must play +out their game. Bridau had to avenge his brother. Don't you remember +Max's treachery to the poor lad?" + +"Bah! nothing but an artist," said Renard. + +"But the real question is about the old man's property," said a third. +"They say Monsieur Gilet was laying hands on fifty thousand francs a +year, when the colonel turned him out of his uncle's house." + +"Gilet rob a man! Come, don't say that to any one but me, Monsieur +Canivet," cried Potel. "If you do, I'll make you swallow your tongue, +--and without any sauce." + +Every household in town offered prayers for the honorable Colonel +Bridau. + + + + CHAPTER XVI + +Towards four o'clock the following day, the officers of the old army +who were at Issoudun or its environs, were sauntering about the place +du Marche, in front of an eating-house kept by a man named Lacroix, +and waiting the arrival of Colonel Philippe Bridau. The banquet in +honor of the coronation was to take place with military punctuality at +five o'clock. Various groups of persons were talking of Max's +discomfiture, and his dismissal from old Rouget's house; for not only +were the officers to dine at Lacroix's, but the common soldiers had +determined on a meeting at a neighboring wine-shop. Among the +officers, Potel and Renard were the only ones who attempted to defend +Max. + +"Is it any of our business what takes place among the old man's +heirs?" said Renard. + +"Max is weak with women," remarked the cynical Potel. + +"There'll be sabres unsheathed before long," said an old +sub-lieutenant, who cultivated a kitchen-garden in the upper Baltan. +"If Monsieur Maxence Gilet committed the folly of going to live under +old Rouget's roof, he would he a coward if he allowed himself to be +turned off like a valet without asking why." + +"Of course," said Mignonnet dryly. "A folly that doesn't succeed +becomes a crime." + +At this moment Max joined the old soldiers of Napoleon, and was +received in significant silence. Potel and Renard each took an arm of +their friend, and walked about with him, conversing. Presently +Philippe was seen approaching in full dress; he trailed his cane after +him with an imperturbable air which contrasted with the forced +attention Max was paying to the remarks of his two supporters. +Bridau's hand was grasped by Mignonnet, Carpentier, and several +others. This welcome, so different from that accorded to Max, +dispelled the last feeling of cowardice, or, if you prefer it, wisdom, +which Flore's entreaties, and above all, her tendernesses, had +awakened in the latter's mind. + +"We shall fight," he said to Renard, "and to the death. Therefore +don't talk to me any more; let me play my part well." + +After these words, spoken in a feverish tone, the three Bonapartists +returned to the group of officers and mixed among them. Max bowed +first to Bridau, who returned his bow, and the two exchanged a frigid +glance. + +"Come, gentlemen, let us take our seats," said Potel. + +"And drink to the health of the Little Corporal, who is now in the +paradise of heroes," cried Renard. + +The company poured into the long, low dining-hall of the restaurant +Lacroix, the windows of which opened on the market-place. Each guest +took his seat at the table, where, in compliance with Philippe's +request, the two adversaries were placed directly opposite to each +other. Some young men of the town, among them several Knights of +Idleness, anxious to know what might happen at the banquet, were +walking about the street and discussing the critical position into +which Philippe had contrived to force Max. They all deplored the +crisis, though each considered the duel to be inevitable. + +Everything went off well until the dessert, though the two antagonists +displayed, in spite of the apparent joviality of the dinner, a certain +vigilance that resembled disquietude. While waiting for the quarrel +that both were planning, Philippe showed admirable coolness, and Max a +distracting gayety; but to an observer, each was playing a part. + +When the desert was served Philippe rose and said: "Fill your glasses, +my friends! I ask permission to propose the first toast." + +"He said _my friends_, don't fill your glass," whispered Renard to Max. + +Max poured out some wine. + +"To the Grand Army!" cried Philippe, with genuine enthusiasm. + +"To the Grand Army!" was repeated with acclamation by every voice. + +At this moment eleven private soldiers, among whom were Benjamin and +Kouski, appeared at the door of the room and repeated the toast,-- + +"To the Grand Army!" + +"Come in, my sons; we are going to drink His health." + +The old soldiers came in and stood behind the officers. + +"You see He is not dead!" said Kouski to an old sergeant, who had +perhaps been grieving that the Emperor's agony was over. + +"I claim the second toast," said Mignonnet, as he rose. "Let us drink +to those who attempted to restore his son!" + +Every one present, except Maxence Gilet, bowed to Philippe Bridau, and +stretched their glasses towards him. + +"One word," said Max, rising. + +"It is Max! it is Max!" cried voices outside; and then a deep silence +reigned in the room and in the street, for Gilet's known character +made every one expect a taunt. + +"May we _all_ meet again at this time next year," said Max, bowing +ironically to Philippe. + +"It's coming!" whispered Kouski to his neighbor. + +"The Paris police would never allow a banquet of this kind," said +Potel to Philippe. + +"Why do the devil to you mention the police to Colonel Bridau?" said +Maxence insolently. + +"Captain Potel--_he_--meant no insult," said Philippe, smiling coldly. +The stillness was so profound that the buzzing of a fly could have +been heard if there had been one. + +"The police were sufficiently afraid of me," resumed Philippe, "to +send me to Issoudun,--a place where I have had the pleasure of meeting +old comrades, but where, it must be owned, there is a dearth of +amusement. For a man who doesn't despise folly, I'm rather restricted. +However, it is certainly economical, for I am not one of those to whom +feather-beds give incomes; Mariette of the Grand Opera cost me +fabulous sums." + +"Is that remark meant for me, my dear colonel?" asked Max, sending a +glance at Philippe which was like a current of electricity. + +"Take it as you please," answered Bridau. + +"Colonel, my two friends here, Renard and Potel, will call to-morrow +on--" + +"--on Mignonnet and Carpentier," answered Philippe, cutting short +Max's sentence, and motioning towards his two neighbors. + +"Now," said Max, "let us go on with the toasts." + +The two adversaries had not raised their voices above the tone of +ordinary conversation; there was nothing solemn in the affair except +the dead silence in which it took place. + +"Look here, you others!" cried Philippe, addressing the soldiers who +stood behind the officers; "remember that our affairs don't concern +the bourgeoisie--not a word, therefore, on what goes on here. It is +for the Old Guard only." + +"They'll obey orders, colonel," said Renard. "I'll answer for them." + +"Long live His little one! May he reign over France!" cried Potel. + +"Death to Englishmen!" cried Carpentier. + +That toast was received with prodigious applause. + +"Shame on Hudson Lowe," said Captain Renard. + +The dessert passed off well; the libations were plentiful. The +antagonists and their four seconds made it a point of honor that a +duel, involving so large a fortune, and the reputation of two men +noted for their courage, should not appear the result of an ordinary +squabble. No two gentlemen could have behaved better than Philippe and +Max; in this respect the anxious waiting of the young men and +townspeople grouped about the market-place was balked. All the guests, +like true soldiers, kept silence as to the episode which took place at +dessert. At ten o'clock that night the two adversaries were informed +that the sabre was the weapon agreed upon by the seconds; the place +chosen for the rendezvous was behind the chancel of the church of the +Capuchins at eight o'clock the next morning. Goddet, who was at the +banquet in his quality of former army surgeon, was requested to be +present at the meeting. The seconds agreed that, no matter what might +happen, the combat should last only ten minutes. + +At eleven o'clock that night, to Colonel Bridau's amazement, Monsieur +Hochon appeared at his rooms just as he was going to bed, escorting +Madame Hochon. + +"We know what has happened," said the old lady, with her eyes full of +tears, "and I have come to entreat you not to leave the house +to-morrow morning without saying your prayers. Lift your soul to God!" + +"Yes, madame," said Philippe, to whom old Hochon made a sign from +behind his wife's back. + +"That is not all," said Agathe's godmother. "I stand in the place of +your poor mother, and I divest myself, for you, of a thing which I +hold most precious,--here," she went on, holding towards Philippe a +tooth, fastened upon a piece of black velvet embroidered in gold, to +which she had sewn a pair of green strings. Having shown it to him, +she replaced it in a little bag. "It is a relic of Sainte Solange, the +patron saint of Berry," she said, "I saved it during the Revolution; +wear it on your breast to-morrow." + +"Will it protect me from a sabre-thrust?" asked Philippe. + +"Yes," replied the old lady. + +"Then I have no right to wear that accoutrement any more than if it +were a cuirass," cried Agathe's son. + +"What does he mean?" said Madame Hochon. + +"He says it is not playing fair," answered Hochon. + +"Then we will say no more about it," said the old lady, "I shall pray +for you." + +"Well, madame, prayer--and a good point--can do no harm," said +Philippe, making a thrust as if to pierce Monsieur Hochon's heart. + +The old lady kissed the colonel on his forehead. As she left the +house, she gave thirty francs--all the money she possessed--to +Benjamin, requesting him to sew the relic into the pocket of his +master's trousers. Benjamin did so,--not that he believed in the +virtue of the tooth, for he said his master had a much better talisman +than that against Gilet, but because his conscience constrained him to +fulfil a commission for which he had been so liberally paid. Madame +Hochon went home full of confidence in Saint Solange. + +At eight o'clock the next morning, December third, the weather being +cloudy, Max, accompanied by his seconds and the Pole, arrived on the +little meadow which then surrounded the apse of the church of the +Capuchins. There he found Philippe and his seconds, with Benjamin, +waiting for him. Potel and Mignonnet paced off twenty-four feet; at +each extremity, the two attendants drew a line on the earth with a +spade: the combatants were not allowed to retreat beyond that line, on +pain of being thought cowardly. Each was to stand at his own line, and +advance as he pleased when the seconds gave the word. + +"Do we take off our coats?" said Philippe to his adversary coldly. + +"Of course," answered Maxence, with the assumption of a bully. + +They did so; the rosy tints of their skin appearing through the +cambric of their shirts. Each, armed with a cavalry sabre selected of +equal weight, about three pounds, and equal length, three feet, placed +himself at his own line, the point of his weapon on the ground, +awaiting the signal. Both were so calm that, in spite of the cold, +their muscles quivered no more than if they had been made of iron. +Goddet, the four seconds, and the two soldiers felt an involuntary +admiration. + +"They are a proud pair!" + +The exclamation came from Potel. + +Just as the signal was given, Max caught sight of Fario's sinister +face looking at them through the hole which the Knights of Idleness +had made for the pigeons in the roof of the church. Those eyes, which +sent forth streams of fire, hatred, and revenge, dazzled Max for a +moment. The colonel went straight to his adversary, and put himself on +guard in a way that gained him an advantage. Experts in the art of +killing, know that, of two antagonists, the ablest takes the "inside +of the pavement,"--to use an expression which gives the reader a +tangible idea of the effect of a good guard. That pose, which is in +some degree observant, marks so plainly a duellist of the first rank +that a feeling of inferiority came into Max's soul, and produced the +same disarray of powers which demoralizes a gambler when, in presence +of a master or a lucky hand, he loses his self-possession and plays +less well than usual. + +"Ah! the lascar!" thought Max, "he's an expert; I'm lost!" + +He attempted a "moulinet," and twirled his sabre with the dexterity of +a single-stick. He wanted to bewilder Philippe, and strike his weapon +so as to disarm him; but at the first encounter he felt that the +colonel's wrist was iron, with the flexibility of a steel string. +Maxence was then forced, unfortunate fellow, to think of another move, +while Philippe, whose eyes were darting gleams that were sharper than +the flash of their blades, parried every attack with the coolness of a +fencing-master wearing his plastron in an armory. + +Between two men of the calibre of these combatants, there occurs a +phenomenon very like that which takes place among the lower classes, +during the terrible tussle called "the savante," which is fought with +the feet, as the name implies. Victory depends on a false movement, on +some error of the calculation, rapid as lightning, which must be made +and followed almost instinctively. During a period of time as short to +the spectators as it seems long to the combatants, the contest lies in +observation, so keen as to absorb the powers of mind and body, and yet +concealed by preparatory feints whose slowness and apparent prudence +seem to show that the antagonists are not intending to fight. This +moment, which is followed by a rapid and decisive struggle, is +terrible to a connoisseur. At a bad parry from Max the colonel sent +the sabre spinning from his hand. + +"Pick it up," he said, pausing; "I am not the man to kill a disarmed +enemy." + +There was something atrocious in the grandeur of these words; they +seemed to show such consciousness of superiority that the onlookers +took them for a shrewd calculation. In fact, when Max replaced himself +in position, he had lost his coolness, and was once more confronted +with his adversary's raised guard which defended the colonel's whole +person while it menaced his. He resolved to redeem his shameful defeat +by a bold stroke. He no longer guarded himself, but took his sabre in +both hands and rushed furiously on his antagonist, resolved to kill +him, if he had to lose his own life. Philippe received a sabre-cut +which slashed open his forehead and a part of his face, but he cleft +Max's head obliquely by the terrible sweep of a "moulinet," made to +break the force of the annihilating stroke Max aimed at him. These two +savage blows ended the combat, at the ninth minute. Fario came down to +gloat over the sight of his enemy in the convulsions of death; for the +muscles of a man of Maxence Gilet's vigor quiver horribly. Philippe +was carried back to his uncle's house. + +Thus perished a man destined to do great deeds had he lived his life +amid environments which were suited to him; a man treated by Nature as +a favorite child, for she gave him courage, self-possession, and the +political sagacity of a Cesar Borgia. But education had not bestowed +upon him that nobility of conduct and ideas without which nothing +great is possible in any walk of life. He was not regretted, because +of the perfidy with which his adversary, who was a worse man than he, +had contrived to bring him into disrepute. His death put an end to the +exploits of the Order of Idleness, to the great satisfaction of the +town of Issoudun. Philippe therefore had nothing to fear in +consequence of the duel, which seemed almost the result of divine +vengeance: its circumstances were related throughout that whole region +of country, with unanimous praise for the bravery of the two +combatants. + +"But they had better both have been killed," remarked Monsieur +Mouilleron; "it would have been a good riddance for the Government." + +The situation of Flore Brazier would have been very embarrassing were +it not for the condition into which she was thrown by Max's death. A +brain-fever set in, combined with a dangerous inflammation resulting +from her escapade to Vatan. If she had had her usual health, she might +have fled the house where, in the room above her, Max's room, and in +Max's bed, lay and suffered Max's murderer. She hovered between life +and death for three months, attended by Monsieur Goddet, who was also +attending Philippe. + +As soon as Philippe was able to hold a pen, he wrote the following +letters:-- + + To Monsieur Desroches: + + I have already killed the most venomous of the two reptiles; not + however without getting my own head split open by a sabre; but the + rascal struck with a dying hand. The other viper is here, and I + must come to an understanding with her, for my uncle clings to her + like the apple of his eye. I have been half afraid the girl, who + is devilishly handsome, might run away, and then my uncle would + have followed her; but an illness which seized her suddenly has + kept her in bed. If God desired to protect me, he would call her + soul to himself, now, while she is repenting of her sins. + Meantime, on my side I have, thanks to that old trump, Hochon, the + doctor of Issoudun, one named Goddet, a worthy soul who conceives + that the property of uncles ought to go to nephews rather than to + sluts. + + Monsieur Hochon has some influence on a certain papa Fichet, who + is rich, and whose daughter Goddet wants as a wife for his son: so + the thousand francs they have promised him if he mends up my pate + is not the chief cause of his devotion. Moreover, this Goddet, who + was formerly head-surgeon to the 3rd regiment of the line, has + been privately advised by my staunch friends, Mignonnet and + Carpentier; so he is now playing the hypocrite with his other + patient. He says to Mademoiselle Brazier, as he feels her pulse, + "You see, my child, that there's a God after all. You have been + the cause of a great misfortune, and you must now repair it. The + finger of God is in all this [it is inconceivable what they don't + say the finger of God is in!]. Religion is religion: submit, + resign yourself, and that will quiet you better than my drugs. + Above all, resolve to stay here and take care of your master: + forget and forgive,--that's Christianity." + + Goddet has promised to keep the Rabouilleuse three months in her + bed. By degrees the girl will get accustomed to living under the + same roof with me. I have bought over the cook. That abominable + old woman tells her mistress Max would have led her a hard life; + and declares she overheard him say that if, after the old man's + death, he was obliged to marry Flore, he didn't mean to have his + prospects ruined by it, and he should find a way to get rid of + her. + + Thus, all goes well, so far. My uncle, by old Hochon's advice, has + destroyed his will. + +To Monsieur Giroudeau, care of Mademoiselle Florentine. Rue de +Vendome, Marais: + + My dear old Fellow,--Find out if the little rat Cesarine has any + engagement, and if not, try to arrange that she can come to + Issoudun in case I send for her; if I do, she must come at once. + It is a matter this time of decent behavior; no theatre morals. + She must present herself as the daughter of a brave soldier, + killed on the battle-field. Therefore, mind,--sober manners, + schoolgirl's clothes, virtue of the best quality; that's the + watchword. If I need Cesarine, and if she answers my purpose, I + will give her fifty thousand francs on my uncle's death. If + Cesarine has other engagements, explain what I want to Florentine; + and between you, find me some ballet-girl capable of playing the + part. + + I have had my skull cracked in a duel with the fellow who was + filching my inheritance, and is now feeding the worms. I'll tell + you all about it some day. Ah! old fellow, the good times are + coming back for you and me; we'll amuse ourselves once more, or we + are not the pair we really are. If you can send me five hundred + more cartridges I'll bite them. + + Adieu, my old fire-eater. Light your pipe with this letter. Mind, + the daughter of the officer is to come from Chateauroux, and must + seem to be in need of assistance. I hope however that I shall not + be driven to such dangerous expedients. Remember me to Mariette + and all our friends. + +Agathe, informed by Madame Hochon of what had happened, rushed to +Issoudun, and was received by her brother, who gave her Philippe's +former room. The poor mother's tenderness for the worthless son +revived in all its maternal strength; a few happy days were hers at +last, as she listened to the praises which the whole town bestowed +upon her hero. + +"After all, my child," said Madame Hochon on the day of her arrival, +"youth must have its fling. The dissipations of a soldier under the +Empire must, of course, be greater than those of young men who are +looked after by their fathers. Oh! if you only knew what went on here +at night under that wretched Max! Thanks to your son, Issoudun now +breathes and sleeps in peace. Philippe has come to his senses rather +late; he told us frankly that those three months in the Luxembourg +sobered him. Monsieur Hochon is delighted with his conduct here; every +one thinks highly of it. If he can be kept away from the temptations +of Paris, he will end by being a comfort to you." + +Hearing these consolatory words Agathe's eyes filled with tears. + +Philippe played the saint to his mother, for he had need of her. That +wily politician did not wish to have recourse to Cesarine unless he +continued to be an object of horror to Mademoiselle Brazier. He saw +that Flore had been thoroughly broken to harness by Max; he knew she +was an essential part of his uncle's life, and he greatly preferred to +use her rather than send for the ballet-girl, who might take it into +her head to marry the old man. Fouche advised Louis XVIII. to sleep in +Napoleon's sheets instead of granting the charter; and Philippe would +have liked to remain in Gilet's sheets; but he was reluctant to risk +the good reputation he had made for himself in Berry. To take Max's +place with the Rabouilleuse would be as odious on his part as on hers. +He could, without discredit and by the laws of nepotism, live in his +uncle's house and at his uncle's expense; but he could not have Flore +unless her character were whitewashed. Hampered by this difficulty, +and stimulated by the hope of finally getting hold of the property, +the idea came into his head of making his uncle marry the +Rabouilleuse. With this in view he requested his mother to go and see +the girl and treat her in a sisterly manner. + +"I must confess, my dear mother," he said, in a canting tone, looking +at Monsieur and Madame Hochon who accompanied her, "that my uncle's +way of life is not becoming; he could, however, make Mademoiselle +Brazier respected by the community if he chose. Wouldn't it be far +better for her to be Madame Rouget than the servant-mistress of an old +bachelor? She had better obtain a definite right to his property by a +marriage contract then threaten a whole family with disinheritance. If +you, or Monsieur Hochon, or some good priest would speak of the matter +to both parties, you might put a stop to the scandal which offends +decent people. Mademoiselle Brazier would be only too happy if you +were to welcome her as a sister, and I as an aunt." + +On the morrow Agathe and Madame Hochon appeared at Flore's bedside, +and repeated to the sick girl and to Rouget, the excellent sentiments +expressed by Philippe. Throughout Issoudun the colonel was talked of +as a man of noble character, especially because of his conduct towards +Flore. For a month, the Rabouilleuse heard Goddet, her doctor, the +individual who has paramount influence over a sick person, the +respectable Madame Hochon, moved by religious principle, and Agathe, +so gentle and pious, all representing to her the advantages of a +marriage with Rouget. And when, attracted by the idea of becoming +Madame Rouget, a dignified and virtuous bourgeoisie, she grew eager to +recover, so that the marriage might speedily be celebrated, it was not +difficult to make her understand that she would not be allowed to +enter the family of the Rougets if she intended to turn Philippe from +its doors. + +"Besides," remarked the doctor, "you really owe him this good fortune. +Max would never have allowed you to marry old Rouget. And," he added +in her ear, "if you have children, you can revenge Max, for that will +disinherit the Bridaus." + +Two months after the fatal duel in February, 1823, the sick woman, +urged by those about her, and implored by Rouget, consented to receive +Philippe, the sight of whose scars made her weep, but whose softened +and affectionate manner calmed her. By Philippe's wish they were left +alone together. + +"My dear child," said the soldier. "It is I, who, from the start, have +advised your marriage with my uncle; if you consent, it will take +place as soon as you are quite recovered." + +"So they tell me," she replied. + +"Circumstances have compelled me to give you pain, it is natural +therefore that I should wish to do you all the good I can. Wealth, +respect, and a family position are worth more than what you have lost. +You wouldn't have been that fellow's wife long after my uncle's death, +for I happen to know, through friends of his, that he intended to get +rid of you. Come, my dear, let us understand each other, and live +happily. You shall be my aunt, and nothing more than my aunt. You will +take care that my uncle does not forget me in his will; on my side, +you shall see how well I will have you treated in the marriage +contract. Keep calm, think it over, and we will talk of it later. All +sensible people, indeed the whole town, urge you to put an end to your +illegal position; no one will blame you for receiving me. It is well +understood in the world that interests go before feelings. By the day +of your marriage you will be handsomer than ever. The pallor of +illness has given you an air of distinction, and on my honor, if my +uncle did not love you so madly, you should be the wife of Colonel +Bridau." + +Philippe left the room, having dropped this hint into Flore's mind to +waken a vague idea of vengeance which might please the girl, who did, +in fact, feel a sort of happiness as she saw this dreadful being at +her feet. In this scene Philippe repeated, in miniature, that of +Richard III. with the queen he had widowed. The meaning of it is that +personal calculation, hidden under sentiment, has a powerful influence +on the heart, and is able to dissipate even genuine grief. This is +how, in individual life, Nature does that which in works of genius is +thought to be consummate art: she works by self-interest,--the genius +of money. + +At the beginning of April, 1823, the hall of Jean-Jacques Rouget's +house was the scene of a splendid dinner, given to celebrate the +signing of the marriage contract between Mademoiselle Flore Brazier +and the old bachelor. The guests were Monsieur Heron, the four +witnesses, Messieurs Mignonnet, Carpentier, Hochon, and Goddet, the +mayor and the curate, Agathe Bridau, Madame Hochon, and her friend +Madame Borniche, the two old ladies who laid down the law to the +society of Issoudun. The bride was much impressed by this concession, +obtained by Philippe, and intended by the two ladies as a mark of +protection to a repentant woman. Flore was in dazzling beauty. The +curate, who for the last fortnight had been instructing the ignorant +crab-girl, was to allow her, on the following day, to make her first +communion. The marriage was the text of the following pious article in +the "Journal du Cher," published at Bourges, and in the "Journal de +l'Indre," published at Chateauroux: + + Issoudun.--The revival of religion is progressing in Berry. + Friends of the Church and all respectable persons in this town + were yesterday witnesses of a marriage ceremony by which a leading + man of property put an end to a scandalous connection, which began + at the time when the authority of religion was overthrown in this + region. This event, due to the enlightened zeal of the clergy of + Issoudun will, we trust, have imitators, and put a stop to + marriages, so-called, which have never been solemnized, and were + only contracted during the disastrous epoch of revolutionary rule. + + One remarkable feature of the event to which we allude, is the + fact that it was brought about at the entreaty of a colonel + belonging to the old army, sent to our town by a sentence of the + Court of Peers, who may, in consequence, lose the inheritance of + his uncle's property. Such disinterestedness is so rare in these + days that it deserves public mention. + +By the marriage contract Rouget secured to Flore a dower of one +hundred thousand francs, and a life annuity of thirty thousand more. + +After the wedding, which was sumptuous, Agathe returned to Paris the +happiest of mothers, and told Joseph and Desroches what she called the +good news. + +"Your son Philippe is too wily a man not to keep his paw on that +inheritance," said the lawyer, when he had heard Madame Bridau to the +end. "You and your poor Joseph will never get one penny of your +brother's property." + +"You, and Joseph too, will always be unjust to that poor boy," said +the mother. "His conduct before the Court of Peers was worthy of a +statesman; he succeeded in saving many heads. Philippe's errors came +from his great faculties being unemployed. He now sees how faults of +conduct injure the prospects of a man who has his way to make. He is +ambitious; that I am sure of; and I am not the only one to predict his +future. Monsieur Hochon firmly believes that Philippe has a noble +destiny before him." + +"Oh! if he chooses to apply his perverted powers to making his +fortune, I have no doubt he will succeed: he is capable of everything; +and such fellows go fast and far," said Desroches. + +"Why do you suppose that he will not succeed by honest means?" +demanded Madame Bridau. + +"You will see!" exclaimed Desroches. "Fortunate or unfortunate, +Philippe will remain the man of the rue Mazarin, the murderer of +Madame Descoings, the domestic thief. But don't worry yourself; he +will manage to appear honest to the world." + +After breakfast, on the morning succeeding the marriage, Philippe took +Madame Rouget by the arm when his uncle rose from table and went +upstairs to dress,--for the pair had come down, the one in her +morning-robe, and the other in his dressing-gown. + +"My dear aunt," said the colonel, leading her into the recess of a +window, "you now belong to the family. Thanks to me, the law has tied +the knot. Now, no nonsense. I intend that you and I should play above +board. I know the tricks you will try against me; and I shall watch +you like a duenna. You will never go out of this house except on my +arm; and you will never leave me. As to what passes within the house, +damn it, you'll find me like a spider in the middle of his web. Here +is something," he continued, showing the bewildered woman a letter, +"which will prove to you that I could, while you were lying ill +upstairs, unable to move hand or foot, have turned you out of doors +without a penny. Read it." + +He gave her the letter. + + My dear Fellow,--Florentine, who has just made her debut at the + new Opera House in a "pas de trois" with Mariette and Tullia, is + thinking steadily about your affair, and so is Florine,--who has + finally given up Lousteau and taken Nathan. That shrewd pair have + found you a most delicious little creature,--only seventeen, + beautiful as an English woman, demure as a "lady," up to all + mischief, sly as Desroches, faithful as Godeschal. Mariette is + forming her, so as to give you a fair chance. No woman could hold + her own against this little angel, who is a devil under her skin; + she can play any part you please; get complete possession of your + uncle, or drive him crazy with love. She has that celestial look + poor Coralie used to have; she can weep,--the tones of her voice + will draw a thousand-franc note from a granite heart; and the + young mischief soaks up champagne better than any of us. It is a + precious discovery; she is under obligations to Mariette, and + wants to pay them off. After squandering the fortunes of two + Englishmen, a Russian, and an Italian prince, Mademoiselle Esther + is now in poverty; give her ten thousand francs, that will satisfy + her. She has just remarked, laughing, that she has never yet + fricasseed a bourgeois, and it will get her hand in. Esther is + well known to Finot, Bixiou, and des Lupeaulx, in fact to all our + set. Ah! if there were any real fortunes left in France, she would + be the greatest courtesan of modern times. + + All the editorial staff, Nathan, Finot, Bixiou, etc., are now + joking the aforesaid Esther in a magnificent _appartement_ just + arranged for Florine by old Lord Dudley (the real father of de + Marsay); the lively actress captured him by the dress of her new + role. Tullia is with the Duc de Rhetore, Mariette is still with + the Duc de Maufrigneuse; between them, they will get your sentence + remitted in time for the King's fete. Bury your uncle under the + roses before the Saint-Louis, bring away the property, and spend a + little of it with Esther and your old friends, who sign this + epistle in a body, to remind you of them. + + Nathan, Florine, Bixiou, Finot, Mariette, + + Florentine, Giroudeau, Tullia + + +The letter shook in the trembling hands of Madame Rouget, and betrayed +the terror of her mind and body. The aunt dared not look at the +nephew, who fixed his eyes upon her with terrible meaning. + +"I trust you," he said, "as you see; but I expect some return. I have +made you my aunt intending to marry you some day. You are worth more +to me than Esther in managing my uncle. In a year from now, we must be +in Paris; the only place where beauty really lives. You will amuse +yourself much better there than here; it is a perpetual carnival. I +shall return to the army, and become a general, and you will be a +great lady. There's our future; now work for it. But I must have a +pledge to bind this agreement. You are to give me, within a month from +now, a power of attorney from my uncle, which you must obtain under +pretence of relieving him of the fatigues of business. Also, a month +later, I must have a special power of attorney to transfer the income +in the Funds. When that stands in my name, you and I have an equal +interest in marrying each other. There it all is, my beautiful aunt, +as plain as day. Between you and me there must be no ambiguity. I can +marry my aunt at the end of a year's widowhood; but I could not marry +a disgraced girl." + +He left the room without waiting for an answer. When Vedie came in, +fifteen minutes later, to clear the table, she found her mistress pale +and moist with perspiration, in spite of the season. Flore felt like a +woman who had fallen to the bottom of a precipice; the future loomed +black before her; and on its blackness, in the far distance, were +shapes of monstrous things, indistinctly perceptible, and terrifying. +She felt the damp chill of vaults, instinctive fear of the man crushed +her; and yet a voice cried in her ear that she deserved to have him +for her master. She was helpless against her fate. Flore Brazier had +had a room of her own in Rouget's house; but Madame Rouget belonged to +her husband, and was now deprived of the free-will of a +servant-mistress. In the horrible situation in which she now found +herself, the hope of having a child came into her mind; but she soon +recognized its impossibility. The marriage was to Jean-Jacques what +the second marriage of Louis XII. was to that king. The incessant +watchfulness of a man like Philippe, who had nothing to do and never +quitted his post of observation, made any form of vengeance impossible. +Benjamin was his innocent and devoted spy. The Vedie trembled before +him. Flore felt herself deserted and utterly helpless. She began to +fear death. Without knowing how Philippe might manage to kill her, she +felt certain that whenever he suspected her of pregnancy her doom would +be sealed. The sound of that voice, the veiled glitter of that +gambler's eye, the slightest movement of the soldier, who treated her +with a brutality that was still polite, made her shudder. As to the +power of attorney demanded by the ferocious colonel, who in the eyes of +all Issoudun was a hero, he had it as soon as he wanted it; for Flore +fell under the man's dominion as France had fallen under that of +Napoleon. + +Like a butterfly whose feet are caught in the incandescent wax of a +taper, Rouget rapidly dissipated his remaining strength. In presence +of that decay, the nephew remained as cold and impassible as the +diplomatists of 1814 during the convulsions of imperial France. + +Philippe, who did not believe in Napoleon II., now wrote the following +letter to the minister of war, which Mariette made the Duc de +Maufrigneuse convey to that functionary:-- + + Monseigneur,--Napoleon is no more. I desired to remain faithful to + him according to my oath; now I am free to offer my services to + His Majesty. If your Excellency deigns to explain my conduct to + His Majesty, the King will see that it is in keeping with the laws + of honor, if not with those of his government. The King, who + thought it proper that his aide-de-camp, General Rapp, should + mourn his former master, will no doubt feel indulgently for me. + Napoleon was my benefactor. + + I therefore entreat your Excellency to take into consideration the + request I make for employment in my proper rank; and I beg to + assure you of my entire submission. The King will find in me a + faithful subject. + + Deign to accept the assurance of respect with which I have the + honor to be, + Your Excellency's very submissive and + + Very humble servant, + + Philippe Bridau + + Formerly chief of squadron in the dragoons of the Guard; officer + of the Legion of honor; now under police surveillance at Issoudun. + + +To this letter was joined a request for permission to go to Paris on +urgent family business; and Monsieur Mouilleron annexed letters from +the mayor, the sub-prefect, and the commissary of police at Issoudun, +all bestowing many praises on Philippe's conduct, and dwelling upon +the newspaper article relating to his uncle's marriage. + +Two weeks later, Philippe received the desired permission, and a +letter, in which the minister of war informed him that, by order of +the King, he was, as a preliminary favor, reinstated +lieutenant-colonel in the royal army. + + + + CHAPTER XVII + +Lieutenant-Colonel Bridau returned to Paris, taking with him his aunt +and the helpless Rouget, whom he escorted, three days after their +arrival, to the Treasury, where Jean-Jacques signed the transfer of +the income, which henceforth became Philippe's. The exhausted old man +and the Rabouilleuse were now plunged by their nephew into the +excessive dissipations of the dangerous and restless society of +actresses, journalists, artists, and the equivocal women among whom +Philippe had already wasted his youth; where old Rouget found +excitements that soon after killed him. Instigated by Giroudeau, +Lolotte, one of the handsomest of the Opera ballet-girls, was the +amiable assassin of the old man. Rouget died after a splendid supper +at Florentine's, and Lolotte threw the blame of his death upon a slice +of pate de foie gras; as the Strasburg masterpiece could make no +defence, it was considered settled that the old man died of +indigestion. + +Madame Rouget was in her element in the midst of this excessively +decollete society; but Philippe gave her in charge of Mariette, and +that monitress did not allow the widow--whose mourning was diversified +with a few amusements--to commit any actual follies. + +In October, 1823, Philippe returned to Issoudun, furnished with a +power of attorney from his aunt, to liquidate the estate of his uncle; +a business that was soon over, for he returned to Paris in March, +1824, with sixteen hundred thousand francs,--the net proceeds of old +Rouget's property, not counting the precious pictures, which had never +left Monsieur Hochon's hands. Philippe put the whole property into the +hands of Mongenod and Sons, where young Baruch Borniche was employed, +and on whose solvency and business probity old Hochon had given him +satisfactory assurances. This house took his sixteen hundred thousand +francs at six per cent per annum, on condition of three months' notice +in case of the withdrawal of the money. + +One fine day, Philippe went to see his mother, and invited her to be +present at his marriage, which was witnessed by Giroudeau, Finot, +Nathan, and Bixiou. By the terms of the marriage contract, the widow +Rouget, whose portion of her late husband's property amounted to a +million of francs, secured to her future husband her whole fortune in +case she died without children. No invitations to the wedding were +sent out, nor any "billets de faire part"; Philippe had his designs. +He lodged his wife in an _appartement_ in the rue Saint-Georges, which +he bought ready-furnished from Lolotte. Madame Bridau the younger +thought it delightful, and her husband rarely set foot in it. Without +her knowledge, Philippe purchased in the rue de Clichy, at a time when +no one suspected the value which property in that quarter would one +day acquire, a magnificent hotel for two hundred and fifty thousand +francs; of which he paid one hundred and fifty thousand down, taking +two years to pay the remainder. He spent large sums in altering the +interior and furnishing it; in fact, he put his income for two years +into this outlay. The pictures, now restored, and estimated at three +hundred thousand francs, appeared in such surroundings in all their +beauty. + +The accession of Charles X. had brought into still greater court favor +the family of the Duc de Chaulieu, whose eldest son, the Duc de +Rhetore, was in the habit of seeing Philippe at Tullia's. Under +Charles X., the elder branch of the Bourbons, believing itself +permanently seated on the throne, followed the advice previously given +by Marshal Gouvion-Saint-Cyr to encourage the adherence of the +soldiers of the Empire. Philippe, who had no doubt made invaluable +revelations as to the conspiracies of 1820 and 1822, was appointed +lieutenant-colonel in the regiment of the Duc de Maufrigneuse. That +fascinating nobleman thought himself bound to protect the man from +whom he had taken Mariette. The corps-de-ballet went for something, +therefore, in the appointment. Moreover, it was decided in the private +councils of Charles X., to give a faint tinge of liberalism to the +surroundings of Monseigneur the Dauphin. Philippe, now a sort of +equerry to the Duc de Maufrigneuse, was presented not only to the +Dauphin, but also to the Dauphine, who was not averse to brusque and +soldierly characters who had become noted for a past fidelity. +Philippe thoroughly understood the part the Dauphin had to play; and +he turned the first exhibition of that spurious liberalism to his own +profit, by getting himself appointed aide-de-camp to a marshal who +stood well at court. + +In January, 1827, Philippe, who was now promoted to the Royal Guard as +lieutenant-colonel in a regiment then commanded by the Duc de +Maufrigneuse, solicited the honor of being ennobled. Under the +Restoration, nobility became a sort of perquisite to the "roturiers" +who served in the Guard. Colonel Bridau had lately bought the estate +of Brambourg, and he now asked to be allowed to entail it under the +title of count. This favor was accorded through the influence of his +many intimacies in the highest rank of society, where he now appeared +in all the luxury of horses, carriages, and liveries; in short, with +the surroundings of a great lord. As soon as he saw himself gazetted +in the Almanack under the title of Comte de Brambourg, he began to +frequent the house of a lieutenant-general of artillery, the Comte de +Soulanges. + +Insatiable in his wants, and backed by the mistresses of influential +men, Philippe now solicited the honor of being one of the Dauphin's +aides-de-camp. He had the audacity to say to the Dauphin that "an old +soldier, wounded on many a battle-field and who knew real warfare, +might, on occasion, be serviceable to Monseigneur." Philippe, who +could take the tone of all varieties of sycophancy, became in the +regions of the highest social life exactly what the position required +him to be; just as at Issoudun, he had copied the respectability of +Mignonnet. He had, moreover, a fine establishment and gave fetes and +dinners; admitting none of his old friends to his house if he thought +their position in life likely to compromise his future. He was +pitiless to the companions of his former debauches, and curtly refused +Bixiou when that lively satirist asked him to say a word in favor of +Giroudeau, who wanted to re-enter the army after the desertion of +Florentine. + +"The man has neither manners nor morals," said Philippe. + +"Ha! did he say that of me?" cried Giroudeau, "of me, who helped him +to get rid of his uncle!" + +"We'll pay him off yet," said Bixiou. + +Philippe intended to marry Mademoiselle Amelie de Soulanges, and +become a general, in command of a regiment of the Royal Guard. He +asked so many favors that, to keep him quiet, they made him a +Commander of the Legion of honor, and also Commander of the order of +Saint Louis. One rainy evening, as Agathe and Joseph were returning +home along the muddy streets, they met Philippe in full uniform, +bedizened with orders, leaning back in a corner of a handsome coupe +lined with yellow silk, whose armorial bearings were surmounted with a +count's coronet. He was on his way to a fete at the Elysee-Bourbon; +the wheels splashed his mother and brother as he waved them a +patronizing greeting. + +"He's going it, that fellow!" said Joseph to his mother. +"Nevertheless, he might send us something better than mud in our +faces." + +"He has such a fine position, in such high society, that we ought not +to blame him for forgetting us," said Madame Bridau. "When a man rises +to so great a height, he has many obligations to repay, many +sacrifices to make; it is natural he should not come to see us, though +he may think of us all the same." + +"My dear fellow," said the Duc de Maufrigneuse one evening, to the new +Comte de Brambourg, "I am sure that your addresses will be favorably +received; but in order to marry Amelie de Soulanges, you must be free +to do so. What have you done with your wife?" + +"My wife?" said Philippe, with a gesture, look, and accent which +Frederick Lemaitre was inspired to use in one of his most terrible +parts. "Alas! I have the melancholy certainty of losing her. She has +not a week to live. My dear duke, you don't know what it is to marry +beneath you. A woman who was a cook, and has the tastes of a cook! who +dishonors me--ah! I am much to be pitied. I have had the honor to +explain my position to Madame la Dauphine. At the time of the +marriage, it was a question of saving to the family a million of +francs which my uncle had left by will to that person. Happily, my +wife took to drinking; at her death, I come into possession of that +million, which is now in the hands of Mongenod and Sons. I have thirty +thousand francs a year in the five per cents, and my landed property, +which is entailed, brings me in forty thousand more. If, as I am led +to suppose, Monsieur de Soulanges gets a marshal's baton, I am on the +high-road with my title of Comte de Brambourg, to becoming general and +peer of France. That will be the proper end of an aide-de-camp of the +Dauphin." + +After the Salon of 1823, one of the leading painters of the day, a +most excellent man, obtained the management of a lottery-office near +the Markets, for the mother of Joseph Bridau. Agathe was fortunately +able, soon after, to exchange it on equal terms with the incumbent of +another office, situated in the rue de Seine, in a house where Joseph +was able to have his atelier. The widow now hired an agent herself, +and was no longer an expense to her son. And yet, as late as 1828, +though she was the directress of an excellent office which she owed +entirely to Joseph's fame, Madame Bridau still had no belief in that +fame, which was hotly contested, as all true glory ever will be. The +great painter, struggling with his genius, had enormous wants; he did +not earn enough to pay for the luxuries which his relations to +society, and his distinguished position in the young School of Art +demanded. Though powerfully sustained by his friends of the Cenacle +and by Mademoiselle des Touches, he did not please the Bourgeois. That +being, from whom comes the money of these days, never unties its +purse-strings for genius that is called in question; unfortunately, +Joseph had the classics and the Institute, and the critics who cry up +those two powers, against him. The brave artist, though backed by Gros +and Gerard, by whose influence he was decorated after the Salon of +1827, obtained few orders. If the ministry of the interior and the +King's household were with difficulty induced to buy some of his +greatest pictures, the shopkeepers and the rich foreigners noticed +them still less. Moreover, Joseph gave way rather too much, as we must +all acknowledge, to imaginative fancies, and that produced a certain +inequality in his work which his enemies made use of to deny his +talent. + +"High art is at a low ebb," said his friend Pierre Grassou, who made +daubs to suit the taste of the bourgeoisie, in whose _appartements_ fine +paintings were at a discount. + +"You ought to have a whole cathedral to decorate; that's what you +want," declared Schinner; "then you would silence criticism with a +master-stroke." + +Such speeches, which alarmed the good Agathe, only corroborated the +judgment she had long since formed upon Philippe and Joseph. Facts +sustained that judgment in the mind of a woman who had never ceased to +be a provincial. Philippe, her favorite child, was he not the great +man of the family at last? in his early errors she saw only the +ebullitions of youth. Joseph, to the merit of whose productions she +was insensible, for she saw them too long in process of gestation to +admire them when finished, seemed to her no more advanced in 1828 than +he was in 1816. Poor Joseph owed money, and was bowed down by the +burden of debt; he had chosen, she felt, a worthless career that made +him no return. She could not conceive why they had given him the cross +of the Legion of honor. Philippe, on the other hand, rich enough to +cease gambling, a guest at the fetes of _Madame_, the brilliant colonel +who at all reviews and in all processions appeared before her eyes in +splendid uniforms, with his two crosses on his breast, realized all +her maternal dreams. One such day of public ceremony effaced from +Agathe's mind the horrible sight of Philippe's misery on the Quai de +l'Ecole; on that day he passed his mother at the self-same spot, in +attendance on the Dauphin, with plumes in his shako, and his pelisse +gorgeous with gold and fur. Agathe, who to her artist son was now a +sort of devoted gray sister, felt herself the mother of none but the +dashing aide-de-camp to his Royal Highness, the Dauphin of France. +Proud of Philippe, she felt he made the ease and happiness of her +life,--forgetting that the lottery-office, by which she was enabled to +live at all, came through Joseph. + +One day Agathe noticed that her poor artist was more worried than +usual by the bill of his color-man, and she determined, though cursing +his profession in her heart, to free him from his debts. The poor +woman kept the house with the proceeds of her office, and took care +never to ask Joseph for a farthing. Consequently she had no money of +her own; but she relied on Philippe's good heart and well-filled +purse. For three years she had waited in expectation of his coming to +see her; she now imagined that if she made an appeal to him he would +bring some enormous sum; and her thoughts dwelt on the happiness she +should feel in giving it to Joseph, whose judgment of his brother, +like that of Madame Descoings, was so unfair. + +Saying nothing to Joseph, she wrote the following letter to +Philippe:-- + + To Monsieur le comte de Brambourg: + + My dear Philippe,--You have not given the least little word of + remembrance to your mother for five years. That is not right. You + should remember the past, if only for the sake of your excellent + brother. Joseph is now in need of money, and you are floating in + wealth; he works, while you are flying from fete to fete. You now + possess, all to yourself, the property of my brother. Little + Borniche tells me you cannot have less than two hundred thousand + francs a year. Well, then, come and see Joseph. During your visit, + slip into the skull a few thousand-franc notes. Philippe, you owe + them to us; nevertheless, your brother will feel grateful to you, + not to speak of the happiness you will give + + Your mother, + + Agathe Bridau, nee Rouget + + +Two days later the concierge brought to the atelier, where poor Agathe +was breakfasting with Joseph, the following terrible letter:-- + + My dear Mother,--A man does not marry a Mademoiselle Amelie de + Soulanges without the purse of Fortunatus, if under the name of + Comte de Brambourg he hides that of + + Your son, + + Philippe Bridau + + +As Agathe fell half-fainting on the sofa, the letter dropped to the +floor. The slight noise made by the paper, and the smothered but +dreadful exclamation which escaped Agathe startled Joseph, who had +forgotten his mother for a moment and was vehemently rubbing in a +sketch; he leaned his head round the edge of his canvas to see what +had happened. The sight of his mother stretched out on the floor made +him drop palette and brushes, and rush to lift what seemed a lifeless +body. He took Agathe in his arms and carried her to her own bed, and +sent the servant for his friend Horace Bianchon. As soon as he could +question his mother she told him of her letter to Philippe, and of the +answer she had received from him. The artist went to his atelier and +picked up the letter, whose concise brutality had broken the tender +heart of the poor mother, and shattered the edifice of trust her +maternal preference had erected. When Joseph returned to her bedside +he had the good feeling to be silent. He did not speak of his brother +in the three weeks during which--we will not say the illness, but--the +death agony of the poor woman lasted. Bianchon, who came every day and +watched his patient with the devotion of a true friend, told Joseph +the truth on the first day of her seizure. + +"At her age," he said, "and under the circumstances which have +happened to her, all we can hope to do is to make her death as little +painful as possible." + +She herself felt so surely called of God that she asked the next day +for the religious help of old Abbe Loraux, who had been her confessor +for more than twenty-two years. As soon as she was alone with him, and +had poured her griefs into his heart, she said--as she had said to +Madame Hochon, and had repeated to herself again and again throughout +her life:-- + +"What have I done to displease God? Have I not loved Him with all my +soul? Have I wandered from the path of grace? What is my sin? Can I be +guilty of wrong when I know not what it is? Have I the time to repair +it?" + +"No," said the old man, in a gentle voice. "Alas! your life seems to +have been pure and your soul spotless; but the eye of God, poor +afflicted creature, is keener than that of his ministers. I see the +truth too late; for you have misled even me." + +Hearing these words from lips that had never spoken other than +peaceful and pleasant words to her, Agathe rose suddenly in her bed +and opened her eyes wide, with terror and distress. + +"Tell me! tell me!" she cried. + +"Be comforted," said the priest. "Your punishment is a proof that you +will receive pardon. God chastens his elect. Woe to those whose +misdeeds meet with fortunate success; they will be kneaded again in +humanity until they in their turn are sorely punished for simple +errors, and are brought to the maturity of celestial fruits. Your +life, my daughter, has been one long error. You have fallen into the +pit which you dug for yourself; we fail ever on the side we have +ourselves weakened. You gave your heart to an unnatural son, in whom +you made your glory, and you have misunderstood the child who is your +true glory. You have been so deeply unjust that you never even saw the +striking contrast between the brothers. You owe the comfort of your +life to Joseph, while your other son has pillaged you repeatedly. The +poor son, who loves you with no return of equal tenderness, gives you +all the comfort that your life has had; the rich son, who never thinks +of you, despises you and desires your death--" + +"Oh! no," she cried. + +"Yes," resumed the priest, "your humble position stands in the way of +his proud hopes. Mother, these are your sins! Woman, your sorrows and +your anguish foretell that you shall know the peace of God. Your son +Joseph is so noble that his tenderness has never been lessened by the +injustice your maternal preferences have done him. Love him now; give +him all your heart during your remaining days; pray for him, as I +shall pray for you." + +The eyes of the mother, opened by so firm a hand, took in with one +retrospective glance the whole course of her life. Illumined by this +flash of light, she saw her involuntary wrong-doing and burst into +tears. The old priest was so deeply moved at the repentance of a being +who had sinned solely through ignorance, that he left the room hastily +lest she should see his pity. + +Joseph returned to his mother's room about two hours after her +confessor had left her. He had been to a friend to borrow the +necessary money to pay his most pressing debts, and he came in on +tiptoe, thinking that his mother was asleep. He sat down in an +armchair without her seeing him; but he sprang up with a cold chill +running through him as he heard her say, in a voice broken with +sobs,-- + +"Will he forgive me?" + +"What is it, mother?" he exclaimed, shocked at the stricken face of +the poor woman, and thinking the words must mean the delirium that +precedes death. + +"Ah, Joseph! can you pardon me, my child?" she cried. + +"For what?" he said. + +"I have never loved you as you deserved to be loved." + +"Oh, what an accusation!" he cried. "Not loved me? For seven years +have we not lived alone together? All these seven years have you not +taken care of me and done everything for me? Do I not see you every +day,--hear your voice? Are you not the gentle and indulgent companion +of my miserable life? You don't understand painting?--Ah! but that's a +gift not always given. I was saying to Grassou only yesterday: 'What +comforts me in the midst of my trials is that I have such a good +mother. She is all that an artist's wife should be; she sees to +everything; she takes care of my material wants without ever troubling +or worrying me.'" + +"No, Joseph, no; you have loved me, but I have not returned you love +for love. Ah! would that I could live a little longer-- Give me your +hand." + +Agathe took her son's hand, kissed it, held it on her heart, and +looked in his face a long time,--letting him see the azure of her eyes +resplendent with a tenderness she had hitherto bestowed on Philippe +only. The painter, well fitted to judge of expression, was so struck +by the change, and saw so plainly how the heart of his mother had +opened to him, that he took her in his arms, and held her for some +moments to his heart, crying out like one beside himself,--"My mother! +oh, my mother!" + +"Ah! I feel that I am forgiven!" she said. "God will confirm the +child's pardon of its mother." + +"You must be calm: don't torment yourself; hear me. I feel myself +loved enough in this one moment for all the past," he said, as he laid +her back upon the pillows. + +During the two weeks' struggle between life and death, there glowed +such love in every look and gesture and impulse of the soul of the +pious creature, that each effusion of her feelings seemed like the +expression of a lifetime. The mother thought only of her son; she +herself counted for nothing; sustained by love, she was unaware of her +sufferings. D'Arthez, Michel Chrestien, Fulgence Ridal, Pierre +Grassou, and Bianchon often kept Joseph company, and she heard them +talking art in a low voice in a corner of her room. + +"Oh, how I wish I knew what color is!" she exclaimed one evening as +she heard them discussing one of Joseph's pictures. + +Joseph, on his side, was sublimely devoted to his mother. He never +left her chamber; answered tenderness by tenderness, cherishing her +upon his heart. The spectacle was never afterwards forgotten by his +friends; and they themselves, a band of brothers in talent and +nobility of nature, were to Joseph and his mother all that they should +have been,--friends who prayed, and truly wept; not saying prayers and +shedding tears, but one with their friend in thought and action. +Joseph, inspired as much by feeling as by genius, divined in the +occasional expression of his mother's face a desire that was deep +hidden in her heart, and he said one day to d'Arthez,-- + +"She has loved that brigand Philippe too well not to want to see him +before she dies." + +Joseph begged Bixiou, who frequented the Bohemian regions where +Philippe was still occasionally to be found, to persuade that +shameless son to play, if only out of pity, a little comedy of +tenderness which might wrap the mother's heart in a winding-sheet of +illusive happiness. Bixiou, in his capacity as an observing and +misanthropical scoffer, desired nothing better than to undertake such +a mission. When he had made known Madame Bridau's condition to the +Comte de Brambourg, who received him in a bedroom hung with yellow +damask, the colonel laughed. + +"What the devil do you want me to do there?" he cried. "The only +service the poor woman can render me is to die as soon as she can; she +would be rather a sorry figure at my marriage with Mademoiselle de +Soulanges. The less my family is seen, the better my position. You can +easily understand that I should like to bury the name of Bridau under +all the monuments in Pere-Lachaise. My brother irritates me by +bringing the name into publicity. You are too knowing not to see the +situation as I do. Look at it as if it were your own: if you were a +deputy, with a tongue like yours, you would be as much feared as +Chauvelin; you would be made Comte Bixiou, and director of the +Beaux-Arts. Once there, how should you like it if your grandmother +Descoings were to turn up? Would you want that worthy woman, who looked +like a Madame Saint-Leon, to be hanging on to you? Would you give her +an arm in the Tuileries, and present her to the noble family you were +trying to enter? Damn it, you'd wish her six feet under ground, in a +leaden night-gown. Come, breakfast with me, and let us talk of something +else. I am a parvenu, my dear fellow, and I know it. I don't choose +that my swaddling-clothes shall be seen. My son will be more fortunate +than I; he will be a great lord. The scamp will wish me dead; I expect +it,--or he won't be my son." + +He rang the bell, and ordered the servant to serve breakfast. + +"The fashionable world wouldn't see you in your mother's bedroom," +said Bixiou. "What would it cost you to seem to love that poor woman +for a few hours?" + +"Whew!" cried Philippe, winking. "So you come from them, do you? I'm +an old camel, who knows all about genuflections. My mother makes the +excuse of her last illness to get something out of me for Joseph. No, +thank you!" + +When Bixiou related this scene to Joseph, the poor painter was chilled +to the very soul. + +"Does Philippe know I am ill?" asked Agathe in a piteous tone, the day +after Bixiou had rendered an account of his fruitless errand. + +Joseph left the room, suffocating with emotion. The Abbe Loraux, who +was sitting by the bedside of his penitent, took her hand and pressed +it, and then he answered, "Alas! my child, you have never had but one +son." + +The words, which Agathe understood but too well, conveyed a shock +which was the beginning of the end. She died twenty hours later. + +In the delirium which preceded death, the words, "Whom does Philippe +take after?" escaped her. + +Joseph followed his mother to the grave alone. Philippe had gone, on +business it was said, to Orleans; in reality, he was driven from Paris +by the following letter, which Joseph wrote to him a moment after +their mother had breathed her last sigh:-- + + Monster! my poor mother has died of the shock your letter caused + her. Wear mourning, but pretend illness; I will not suffer her + assassin to stand at my side before her coffin. + + Joseph B. + + +The painter, who no longer had the heart to paint, though his bitter +grief sorely needed the mechanical distraction which labor is wont to +give, was surrounded by friends who agreed with one another never to +leave him entirely alone. Thus it happened that Bixiou, who loved +Joseph as much as a satirist can love any one, was sitting in the +atelier with a group of other friends about two weeks after Agathe's +funeral. The servant entered with a letter, brought by an old woman, +she said, who was waiting below for the answer. + + Monsieur,--To you, whom I scarcely dare to call my brother, I am + forced to address myself, if only on account of the name I bear.-- + +Joseph turned the page and read the signature. The name "Comtesse +Flore de Brambourg" made him shudder. He foresaw some new atrocity on +the part of his brother. + +"That brigand," he cried, "is the devil's own. And he calls himself a +man of honor! And he wears a lot of crosses on his breast! And he +struts about at court instead of being bastinadoed! And the scoundrel +is called Monsieur le Comte!" + +"There are many like him," said Bixiou. + +"After all," said Joseph, "the Rabouilleuse deserves her fate, +whatever it is. She is not worth pitying; she'd have had my neck wrung +like a chicken's without so much as saying, 'He's innocent.'" + +Joseph flung away the letter, but Bixiou caught it in the air, and +read it aloud, as follows:-- + + Is it decent that the Comtesse Bridau de Brambourg should die in a + hospital, no matter what may have been her faults? If such is to + be my fate, if such is your determination and that of monsieur le + comte, so be it; but if so, will you, who are the friend of Doctor + Bianchon, ask him for a permit to let me enter a hospital? + + The person who carries this letter has been eleven consecutive + days to the hotel de Brambourg, rue de Clichy, without getting any + help from my husband. The poverty in which I now am prevents my + employing a lawyer to make a legal demand for what is due to me, + that I may die with decency. Nothing can save me, I know that. In + case you are unwilling to see your unhappy sister-in-law, send me, + at least, the money to end my days. Your brother desires my death; + he has always desired it. He warned me that he knew three ways of + killing a woman, but I had not the sense to foresee the one he has + employed. + + In case you will consent to relieve me, and judge for yourself the + misery in which I now am, I live in the rue du Houssay, at the + corner of the rue Chantereine, on the fifth floor. If I cannot pay + my rent to-morrow I shall be put out--and then, where can I go? + May I call myself, + + Your sister-in-law, + + Comtesse Flore de Brambourg. + + +"What a pit of infamy!" cried Joseph; "there is something under it +all." + +"Let us send for the woman who brought the letter; we may get the +preface of the story," said Bixiou. + +The woman presently appeared, looking, as Bixiou observed, like +perambulating rags. She was, in fact, a mass of old gowns, one on top +of another, fringed with mud on account of the weather, the whole +mounted on two thick legs with heavy feet which were ill-covered by +ragged stockings and shoes from whose cracks the water oozed upon the +floor. Above the mound of rags rose a head like those that Charlet has +given to his scavenger-women, caparisoned with a filthy bandanna +handkerchief slit in the folds. + +"What is your name?" said Joseph, while Bixiou sketched her, leaning +on an umbrella belonging to the year II. of the Republic. + +"Madame Gruget, at your service. I've seen better days, my young +gentleman," she said to Bixiou, whose laugh affronted her. "If my poor +girl hadn't had the ill-luck to love some one too much, you wouldn't +see me what I am. She drowned herself in the river, my poor Ida, +--saving your presence! I've had the folly to nurse up a quaterne, and +that's why, at seventy-seven years of age, I'm obliged to take care of +sick folks for ten sous a day, and go--" + +"--without clothes?" said Bixiou. "My grandmother nursed up a trey, +but she dressed herself properly." + +"Out of my ten sous I have to pay for a lodging--" + +"What's the matter with the lady you are nursing?" + +"In the first place, she hasn't got any money; and then she has a +disease that scares the doctors. She owes me for sixty days' nursing; +that's why I keep on nursing her. The husband, who is a count,--she is +really a countess,--will no doubt pay me when she is dead; and so I've +lent her all I had. And now I haven't anything; all I did have has +gone to the pawn-brokers. She owes me forty-seven francs and twelve +sous, beside thirty francs for the nursing. She wants to kill herself +with charcoal. I tell her it ain't right; and, indeed, I've had to get +the concierge to look after her while I'm gone, or she's likely to +jump out of the window." + +"But what's the matter with her?" said Joseph. + +"Ah! monsieur, the doctor from the Sisters' hospital came; but as to +the disease," said Madame Gruget, assuming a modest air, "he told me +she must go to the hospital. The case is hopeless." + +"Let us go and see her," said Bixiou. + +"Here," said Joseph to the woman, "take these ten francs." + +Plunging his hand into the skull and taking out all his remaining +money, the painter called a coach from the rue Mazarin and went to +find Bianchon, who was fortunately at home. Meantime Bixiou went off +at full speed to the rue de Bussy, after Desroches. The four friends +reached Flore's retreat in the rue du Houssay an hour later. + +"That Mephistopheles on horseback, named Philippe Bridau," said +Bixiou, as they mounted the staircase, "has sailed his boat cleverly +to get rid of his wife. You know our old friend Lousteau? well, +Philippe paid him a thousand francs a month to keep Madame Bridau in +the society of Florine, Mariette, Tullia, and the Val-Noble. When +Philippe saw his crab-girl so used to pleasure and dress that she +couldn't do without them, he stopped paying the money, and left her to +get it as she could--it is easy to know how. By the end of eighteen +months, the brute had forced his wife, stage by stage, lower and +lower; till at last, by the help of a young officer, he gave her a +taste for drinking. As he went up in the world, his wife went down; +and the countess is now in the mud. The girl, bred in the country, has +a strong constitution. I don't know what means Philippe has lately +taken to get rid of her. I am anxious to study this precious little +drama, for I am determined to avenge Joseph here. Alas, friends," he +added, in a tone which left his three companions in doubt whether he +was jesting or speaking seriously, "give a man over to a vice and +you'll get rid of him. Didn't Hugo say: 'She loved a ball, and died of +it'? So it is. My grandmother loved the lottery. Old Rouget loved a +loose life, and Lolotte killed him. Madame Bridau, poor woman, loved +Philippe, and perished of it. Vice! vice! my dear friends, do you want +to know what vice is? It is the Bonneau of death." + +"Then you'll die of a joke," said Desroches, laughing. + +Above the fourth floor, the young men were forced to climb one of the +steep, straight stairways that are almost ladders, by which the attics +of Parisian houses are often reached. Though Joseph, who remembered +Flore in all her beauty, expected to see some frightful change, he was +not prepared for the hideous spectacle which now smote his artist's +eye. In a room with bare, unpapered walls, under the sharp pitch of an +attic roof, on a cot whose scanty mattress was filled, perhaps, with +refuse cotton, a woman lay, green as a body that has been drowned two +days, thin as a consumptive an hour before death. This putrid skeleton +had a miserable checked handkerchief bound about her head, which had +lost its hair. The circle round the hollow eyes was red, and the +eyelids were like the pellicle of an egg. Nothing remained of the +body, once so captivating, but an ignoble, bony structure. As Flore +caught sight of the visitors, she drew across her breast a bit of +muslin which might have been a fragment of a window-curtain, for it +was edged with rust as from a rod. The young men saw two chairs, a +broken bureau on which was a tallow-candle stuck into a potato, a few +dishes on the floor, and an earthen fire-pot in a corner of the +chimney, in which there was no fire; this was all the furniture of the +room. Bixiou noticed the remaining sheets of writing-paper, brought +from some neighboring grocery for the letter which the two women had +doubtless concocted together. The word "disgusting" is a positive to +which no superlative exists, and we must therefore use it to convey +the impression caused by this sight. When the dying woman saw Joseph +approaching her, two great tears rolled down her cheeks. + +"She can still weep!" whispered Bixiou. "A strange sight,--tears from +dominos! It is like the miracle of Moses." + +"How burnt up!" cried Joseph. + +"In the fires of repentance," said Flore. "I cannot get a priest; I +have nothing, not even a crucifix, to help me see God. Ah, monsieur!" +she cried, raising her arms, that were like two pieces of carved wood, +"I am a guilty woman; but God never punished any one as he has +punished me! Philippe killed Max, who advised me to do dreadful +things, and now he has killed me. God uses him as a scourge!" + +"Leave me alone with her," said Bianchon, "and let me find out if the +disease is curable." + +"If you cure her, Philippe Bridau will die of rage," said Desroches. +"I am going to draw up a statement of the condition in which we have +found his wife. He has not brought her before the courts as an +adulteress, and therefore her rights as a wife are intact: he shall +have the shame of a suit. But first, we must remove the Comtesse de +Brambourg to the private hospital of Doctor Dubois, in the rue du +Faubourg-Saint-Denis. She will be well cared for there. Then I will +summon the count for the restoration of the conjugal home." + +"Bravo, Desroches!" cried Bixiou. "What a pleasure to do so much good +that will make some people feel so badly!" + +Ten minutes later, Bianchon came down and joined them. + +"I am going straight to Despleins," he said. "He can save the woman by +an operation. Ah! he will take good care of the case, for her abuse of +liquor has developed a magnificent disease which was thought to be +lost." + +"Wag of a mangler! Isn't there but one disease in life?" cried Bixiou. + +But Bianchon was already out of sight, so great was his haste to tell +Despleins the wonderful news. Two hours later, Joseph's miserable +sister-in-law was removed to the decent hospital established by Doctor +Dubois, which was afterward bought of him by the city of Paris. Three +weeks later, the "Hospital Gazette" published an account of one of the +boldest operations of modern surgery, on a case designated by the +initials "F. B." The patient died,--more from the exhaustion produced +by misery and starvation than from the effects of the treatment. + +No sooner did this occur, than the Comte de Brambourg went, in deep +mourning, to call on the Comte de Soulanges, and inform him of the sad +loss he had just sustained. Soon after, it was whispered about in the +fashionable world that the Comte de Soulanges would shortly marry his +daughter to a parvenu of great merit, who was about to be appointed +brigadier-general and receive command of a regiment of the Royal +Guard. De Marsay told this news to Eugene de Rastignac, as they were +supping together at the Rocher de Cancale, where Bixiou happened to +be. + +"It shall not take place!" said the witty artist to himself. + +Among the many old friends whom Philippe now refused to recognize, +there were some, like Giroudeau, who were unable to revenge +themselves; but it happened that he had wounded Bixiou, who, thanks to +his brilliant qualities, was everywhere received, and who never +forgave an insult. One day at the Rocher de Cancale, before a number +of well-bred persons who were supping there, Philippe had replied to +Bixiou, who spoke of visiting him at the hotel de Brambourg: "You can +come and see me when you are made a minister." + +"Am I to turn Protestant before I can visit you?" said Bixiou, +pretending to misunderstand the speech; but he said to himself, "You +may be Goliath, but I have got my sling, and plenty of stones." + +The next day he went to an actor, who was one of his friends, and +metamorphosed himself, by the all-powerful aid of dress, into a +secularized priest with green spectacles; then he took a carriage and +drove to the hotel de Soulanges. Received by the count, on sending in +a message that he wanted to speak with him on a matter of serious +importance, he related in a feigned voice the whole story of the dead +countess, the secret particulars of whose horrible death had been +confided to him by Bianchon; the history of Agathe's death; the +history of old Rouget's death, of which the Comte de Brambourg had +openly boasted; the history of Madame Descoings's death; the history +of the theft from the newspaper; and the history of Philippe's private +morals during his early days. + +"Monsieur le comte, don't give him your daughter until you have made +every inquiry; interrogate his former comrades,--Bixiou, Giroudeau, +and others." + +Three months later, the Comte de Brambourg gave a supper to du Tillet, +Nucingen, Eugene de Rastignac, Maxime de Trailles, and Henri de +Marsay. The amphitryon accepted with much nonchalance the +half-consolatory condolences they made to him as to his rupture with +the house of Soulanges. + +"You can do better," said Maxime de Trailles. + +"How much money must a man have to marry a demoiselle de Grandlieu?" +asked Philippe of de Marsay. + +"You? They wouldn't give you the ugliest of the six for less than ten +millions," answered de Marsay insolently. + +"Bah!" said Rastignac. "With an income of two hundred thousand francs +you can have Mademoiselle de Langeais, the daughter of the marquis; +she is thirty years old, and ugly, and she hasn't a sou; that ought to +suit you." + +"I shall have ten millions two years from now," said Philippe Bridau. + +"It is now the 16th of January, 1829," cried du Tillet, laughing. "I +have been hard at work for ten years and I have not made as much as +that yet." + +"We'll take counsel of each other," said Bridau; "you shall see how +well I understand finance." + +"How much do you really own?" asked Nucingen. + +"Three millions, excluding my house and my estate, which I shall not +sell; in fact, I cannot, for the property is now entailed and goes +with the title." + +Nucingen and du Tillet looked at each other; after that sly glance du +Tillet said to Philippe, "My dear count, I shall be delighted to do +business with you." + +De Marsay intercepted the look du Tillet had exchanged with Nucingen, +and which meant, "We will have those millions." The two bank magnates +were at the centre of political affairs, and could, at a given time, +manipulate matters at the Bourse, so as to play a sure game against +Philippe, when the probabilities might all seem for him and yet be +secretly against him. + +The occasion came. In July, 1830, du Tillet and Nucingen had helped +the Comte de Brambourg to make fifteen hundred thousand francs; he +could therefore feel no distrust of those who had given him such good +advice. Philippe, who owed his rise to the Restoration, was misled by +his profound contempt for "civilians"; he believed in the triumph of +the Ordonnances, and was bent on playing for a rise; du Tillet and +Nucingen, who were sure of a revolution, played against him for a +fall. The crafty pair confirmed the judgment of the Comte de Brambourg +and seemed to share his convictions; they encouraged his hopes of +doubling his millions, and apparently took steps to help him. Philippe +fought like a man who had four millions depending on the issue of the +struggle. His devotion was so noticeable, that he received orders to +go to Saint-Cloud with the Duc de Maufrigneuse and attend a council. +This mark of favor probably saved Philippe's life; for when the order +came, on the 25th of July, he was intending to make a charge and sweep +the boulevards, when he would undoubtedly have been shot down by his +friend Giroudeau, who commanded a division of the assailants. + +A month later, nothing was left of Colonel Bridau's immense fortune +but his house and furniture, his estates, and the pictures which had +come from Issoudun. He committed the still further folly, as he said +himself, of believing in the restoration of the elder branch, to which +he remained faithful until 1834. The not imcomprehensible jealousy +Philippe felt on seeing Giroudeau a colonel drove him to re-enter the +service. Unluckily for himself, he obtained, in 1835, the command of a +regiment in Algiers, where he remained three years in a post of +danger, always hoping for the epaulets of a general. But some +malignant influence--that, in fact, of General Giroudeau,--continually +balked him. Grown hard and brutal, Philippe exceeded the ordinary +severity of the service, and was hated, in spite of his bravery a la +Murat. + +At the beginning of the fatal year 1839, while making a sudden dash +upon the Arabs during a retreat before superior forces, he flung +himself against the enemy, followed by only a single company, and fell +in, unfortunately, with the main body of the enemy. The battle was +bloody and terrible, man to man, and only a few horsemen escaped +alive. Seeing that their colonel was surrounded, these men, who were +at some distance, were unwilling to perish uselessly in attempting to +rescue him. They heard his cry: "Your colonel! to me! a colonel of the +Empire!" but they rejoined the regiment. Philippe met with a horrible +death, for the Arabs, after hacking him to pieces with their +scimitars, cut off his head. + +Joseph, who was married about this time, through the good offices of +the Comte de Serizy, to the daughter of a millionaire farmer, +inherited his brother's house in Paris and the estate of Brambourg, in +consequence of the entail, which Philippe, had he foreseen this +result, would certainly have broken. The chief pleasure the painter +derived from his inheritance was in the fine collection of paintings +from Issoudun. He now possesses an income of sixty thousand francs, +and his father-in-law, the farmer, continues to pile up the five-franc +pieces. Though Joseph Bridau paints magnificent pictures, and renders +important services to artists, he is not yet a member of the +Institute. As the result of a clause in the deed of entail, he is now +Comte de Brambourg, a fact which often makes him roar with laughter +among his friends in the atelier. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Note: The Two Brothers is also known as A Bachelor's Establishment and +The Black Sheep. In other Addendum appearances it is referred to as A +Bachelor's Establishment. + +Bianchon, Horace + Father Goriot + The Atheist's Mass + Cesar Birotteau + The Commission in Lunacy + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Secrets of a Princess + The Government Clerks + Pierrette + A Study of Woman + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + The Seamy Side of History + The Magic Skin + A Second Home + A Prince of Bohemia + Letters of Two Brides + The Muse of the Department + The Imaginary Mistress + The Middle Classes + Cousin Betty + The Country Parson +In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following: + Another Study of Woman + La Grande Breteche + +Birotteau, Cesar + Cesar Birotteau + At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + +Bixiou, Jean-Jacques + The Purse + The Government Clerks + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Firm of Nucingen + The Muse of the Department + Cousin Betty + The Member for Arcis + Beatrix + A Man of Business + Gaudissart II. + The Unconscious Humorists + Cousin Pons + +Brambourg, Comte de (Title of Philippe Bridau, later Joseph) + The Unconscious Humorists + +Bridau, Philippe + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + +Bridau, Joseph + The Purse + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Start in Life + Modeste Mignon + Another Study of Woman + Pierre Grassou + Letters of Two Brides + Cousin Betty + The Member for Arcis + +Bruel, Jean Francois du + The Government Clerks + A Start in Life + A Prince of Bohemia + The Middle Classes + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Daughter of Eve + +Bruel, Claudine Chaffaroux, Madame du + A Prince of Bohemia + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Letters of Two Brides + The Middle Classes + +Cabirolle, Madame + A Start in Life + +Cabirolle, Agathe-Florentine + A Start in Life + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + +Camusot + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Cousin Pons + The Muse of the Department + Cesar Birotteau + At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + +Cardot, Jean-Jerome-Severin + A Start in Life + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + Cesar Birotteau + +Chaulieu, Henri, Duc de + Letters of Two Brides + Modest Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Thirteen + +Chrestien, Michel + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Secrets of a Princess + +Claparon, Charles + Cesar Birotteau + Melmoth Reconciled + The Firm of Nucingen + A Man of Business + The Middle Classes + +Coloquinte + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + +Coralie, Mademoiselle + A Start in Life + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + +Desplein + The Atheist's Mass + Cousin Pons + Lost Illusions + The Thirteen + The Government Clerks + Pierrette + The Seamy Side of History + Modest Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + +Desroches (son) + Colonel Chabert + A Start in Life + A Woman of Thirty + The Commission in Lunacy + The Government Clerks + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Firm of Nucingen + A Man of Business + The Middle Classes + +Finot, Andoche + Cesar Birotteau + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Government Clerks + A Start in Life + Gaudissart the Great + The Firm of Nucingen + +Gaillard, Madame Theodore + Jealousies of a Country Town + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Beatrix + The Unconscious Humorists + +Gerard, Francois-Pascal-Simon, Baron + Beatrix + +Giraud, Leon + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Secrets of a Princess + The Unconscious Humorists + +Giroudeau + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Start in Life + +Gobseck, Esther Van + Gobseck + The Firm of Nucingen + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + +Godeschal, Francois-Claude-Marie + Colonel Chabert + A Start in Life + The Commission in Lunacy + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons + +Godeschal, Marie + A Start in Life + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Cousin Pons + +Grandlieu, Duc Ferdinand de + The Gondreville Mystery + The Thirteen + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + +Grandlieu, Mademoiselle de + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + +Grassou, Pierre + Pierre Grassou + Cousin Betty + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons + +Gruget, Madame Etienne + The Thirteen + The Government Clerks + +Haudry (doctor) + Cesar Birotteau + The Thirteen + The Seamy Side of History + Cousin Pons + +Lora, Leon de + The Unconscious Humorists + A Start in Life + Pierre Grassou + Honorine + Cousin Betty + Beatrix + +Loraux, Abbe + A Start in Life + Cesar Birotteau + Honorine + +Lousteau, Etienne + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + A Daughter of Eve + Beatrix + The Muse of the Department + Cousin Betty + A Prince of Bohemia + A Man of Business + The Middle Classes + The Unconscious Humorists + +Lupeaulx, Clement Chardin des + The Muse of the Department + Eugenie Grandet + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Government Clerks + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Ursule Mirouet + +Magus, Elie + The Vendetta + A Marriage Settlement + Pierre Grassou + Cousin Pons + +Matifat (wealthy druggist) + Cesar Birotteau + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Firm of Nucingen + Cousin Pons + +Maufrigneuse, Duc de + The Secrets of a Princess + A Start in Life + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + +Nathan, Madame Raoul + The Muse of the Department + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Government Clerks + Ursule Mirouet + Eugenie Grandet + The Imaginary Mistress + A Prince of Bohemia + A Daughter of Eve + The Unconscious Humorists + +Navarreins, Duc de + Colonel Chabert + The Muse of the Department + The Thirteen + Jealousies of a Country Town + The Peasantry + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Country Parson + The Magic Skin + The Gondreville Mystery + The Secrets of a Princess + Cousin Betty + +Rhetore, Duc Alphonse de + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Letters of Two Brides + Albert Savarus + The Member for Arcis + +Ridal, Fulgence + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Unconscious Humorists + +Roguin + Cesar Birotteau + Eugenie Grandet + Pierrette + The Vendetta + +Rouget, Jean-Jacques + The Muse of the Department + +Schinner, Hippolyte + The Purse + Pierre Grassou + A Start in Life + Albert Savarus + The Government Clerks + Modeste Mignon + The Imaginary Mistress + The Unconscious Humorists + +Serizy, Comte Hugret de + A Start in Life + Honorine + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + +Tillet, Ferdinand du + Cesar Birotteau + The Firm of Nucingen + The Middle Classes + Pierrette + Melmoth Reconciled + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Secrets of a Princess + A Daughter of Eve + The Member for Arcis + Cousin Betty + The Unconscious Humorists + +Touches, Mademoiselle Felicite des + Beatrix + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Another Study of Woman + A Daughter of Eve + Honorine + Beatrix + The Muse of the Department + +Vernou, Felicien + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + A Daughter of Eve + Cousin Betty + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Celibates, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CELIBATES *** + +***** This file should be named 7927.txt or 7927.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/7/9/2/7927/ + +Produced by John Bickers; and Dagny + 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Celibates + Includes: Pierrette, The Vicar of Tours, and The Two Brothers + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7927] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on June 1, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CELIBATES *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny + + + + + + THE CELIBATES + + BY + + HONORE DE BALZAC + + + + INTRODUCTION + +/Les Celibataires/, the longest number of the original /Comedie +Humaine/ under a single title, next to /Illusions perdues/, is not, +like that book, connected by any unity of story. Indeed, the general +bond of union is pretty weak; and though it is quite true that +bachelors and old maids are the heroes and heroines of all three, it +would be rather hard to establish any other bond of connection, and it +is rather unlikely that any one unprompted would fix on this as a +sufficient ground of partnership. + +Two at least of the component parts, however, are of very high +excellence. I do not myself think that /Pierrette/, which opens the +series, is quite the equal of its companions. Written, as it was, for +Countess Anna de Hanska, Balzac's step-daughter of the future, while +she was still very young, it partakes necessarily of the rather +elaborate artificiality of all attempts to suit the young person, of +French attempts in particular, and it may perhaps be said of Balzac's +attempts most of all. It belongs, in a way, to the Arcis series--the +series which also includes the fine /Tenebreuse Affaire/ and the +unfinished /Depute d'Arcis/--but is not very closely connected +therewith. The picture of the actual /Celibataires/, the brother and +sister Rogron, with which it opens, is one of Balzac's best styles, +and is executed with all his usual mastery both of the minute and of +the at least partially repulsive, showing also that strange knowledge +of the /bourgeois de Paris/ which, somehow or other, he seems to have +attained by dint of unknown foregatherings in his ten years of +apprenticeship. But when we come to /Pierrette/ herself, the story is, +I think, rather less satisfying. Her persecutions and her end, and the +devotion of the faithful Brigaut and the rest, are pathetic no doubt, +but tend (I hope it is not heartless to say it) just a very little +towards /sensiblerie/. The fact is that the thing is not quite in +Balzac's line. + +/Le Cure de Tours/, is certainly on a higher level, and has attracted +the most magnificent eulogies from some of the novelist's admirers. I +think both Mr. Henry James and Mr. Wedmore have singled out this +little piece for detailed and elaborate praise, and there is no doubt +that it is a happy example of a kind in which the author excelled. The +opening, with its evident but not obtruded remembrance of the old and +well-founded superstition--derived from the universal belief in some +form of Nemesis--that an extraordinary sense of happiness, good luck, +or anything of the kind, is a precursor of misfortune, and calls for +some instant act of sacrifice or humiliation, is very striking; and +the working out of the vengeance of the goddess by the very ungoddess- +like though feminine hand of Mademoiselle Gamard has much that is +commendable. Nothing in its well exampled kind is better touched off +than the Listomere coterie, from the shrewdness of Monsieur de +Bourbonne to the selfishness of Madame de Listomere. I do not know +that the old maid herself--cat, and far worst than cat as she is--is +at all exaggerated, and the sketch of the coveted /appartement/ and +its ill-fated /mobilier/ is about as good as it can be. And the battle +between Madame de Listomere and the Abbe Troubert, which has served as +a model for many similar things, has, if it has often been equaled, +not often been surpassed. + +I cannot, however, help thinking that there is more than a little +exaggeration in more than one point of the story. The Abbe Birotteau +is surely a little too much of a fool; the Abbe Troubert an Iago a +little too much wanting in verisimilitude; and the central incident of +the clause about the furniture too manifestly improbable. Taking the +first and the last points together, is it likely that any one not +quite an idiot should, in the first place, remain so entirely ignorant +of the value of his property; should, in the second, though, ignorant +or not, he attached the greatest possible /pretium affectionis/ to it, +contract to resign it for such a ridiculous consideration; and should, +in the third, take the fatal step without so much as remembering the +condition attached thereto? If it be answered that Birotteau /was/ +idiot enough to do such a thing, then it must be observed further that +one's sympathy is frozen by the fact. Such a man deserved such +treatment. And, again, even if French justice was, and perhaps is, as +much influenced by secret considerations as Balzac loves to represent +it, we must agree with that member of the Listomere society who +pointed out that no tribunal could possibly uphold such an obviously +iniquitous bargain. As for Troubert, the idea of the Jesuitical +ecclesiastic (though Balzac was not personally hostile to the Jesuits) +was a common one at the time, and no doubt popular, but the actual +personage seems to me nearer to Eugene Sue's Rodin in some ways than I +could have desired. + +These things, however, are very much a case of "As You Like It" or "As +It Strikes You," and I have said that /Le Cure de Tours/ strikes some +good judges as of exceptional merit, while no one can refuse it merit +in a high degree. I should not, except for the opening, place it in +the very highest class of the /Comedie/, but it is high beyond all +doubt in the second. + +The third part (The Two Brothers/A Bachelor's Establishment) of /Les +Celibataires/ takes very high rank among its companions. As in most of +his best books, Balzac has set at work divers favorite springs of +action, and has introduced personages of whom he has elsewhere given, +not exactly replicas--he never did that--but companion portraits. And +he has once more justified the proceeding amply. Whether he has not +also justified the reproach, such as it is, of those who say that to +see the most congenial expression of his fullest genius, you must go +to his bad characters and not to his good, readers shall determine for +themselves after reading the book. + +It was the product of the year 1842, when the author was at the ripest +of his powers, and after which, with the exception of /Les Parents +Pauvres/, he produced not much of his very best save in continuations +and rehandlings of earlier efforts. He changed his title a good deal, +and in that MS. correction of a copy of the /Comedie/ which has been +taken, perhaps without absolutely decisive authority, as the basis of +the /Edition Definitive/, he adopted /La Rabouilleuse/ as his latest +favorite. This, besides its quaintness, has undoubted merit as fixing +the attention on one at least of the chief figures of the book, while +/Un Menage de garcon/ only obliquely indicates the real purport of the +novel. Jean-Jacques Rouget is a most unfortunate creature, who +anticipates Baron Hulot as an example of absolute dependence on things +of the flesh, /plus/ a kind of cretinism, which Hulot, to do him +justice, does not exhibit even in his worst degradation. But his +"bachelor establishment," though undoubtedly useful for the purposes +of the story, might have been changed for something else, and his +personality have been considerably altered, without very much +affecting the general drift of the fiction. + +Flore Brazier, on the other hand, the /Rabouilleuse/ herself, is +essential, and with Maxence Gilet and Philippe Bridau forms the centre +of the action and the passion of the book. She ranks, indeed, with +those few feminine types, Valerie Marneffe, La Cousine Bette, Eugenie +Grandet, Beatrix, Madame de Maufrigneuse, and perhaps Esther Gobseck, +whom Balzac has tried to draw at full length. It is to be observed +that though quite without morals of any kind, she is not /ab initio/ +or intrinsically a she-fiend like Valerie or Lisbeth. She does not do +harm for harm's sake, nor even directly to gratify spite, greed, or +other purely unsocial and detestable passions. She is a type of +feminine sensuality of the less ambitious and restless sort. Given a +decent education, a fair fortune, a good-looking and vigorous husband +to whom she had taken a fancy, and no special temptation, and she +might have been a blameless, merry, "sonsy" /commere/, and have died +in an odor of very reasonable sanctity. Poverty, ignorance, the +Rougets (father and son), Maxence Gilet, and Philippe Bridau came in +her way, and she lived and died as Balzac has shown her. He has done +nothing more "inevitable;" a few things more complete and +satisfactory. + +Maxence Gilet is a not much less remarkable sketch, though it is not +easy to say that he is on the same level. Gilet is the man of distinct +gifts, of some virtues, or caricatures of virtues, who goes to the +devil through idleness, fulness of bread, and lack of any worthy +occupation. He is extraordinarily unconventional for a French figure +in fiction, even for a figure drawn by such a French genius as Balzac. +But he is also hardly to be called a great type, and I do not quite +see why he should have succumbed before Philippe as he did. + +Philippe himself is more complicated, and, perhaps, more questionable. +He is certainly one of Balzac's /fleurs du mal/; he is studied and +personally conducted from beginning to end with an extraordinary and +loving care; but is he quite "of a piece"? That he should have +succeeded in defeating the combination against which his virtuous +mother and brother failed is not an undue instance of the irony of +life. The defeat of such adversaries as Flore and Max has, of course, +the merit of poetical justice and the interest of "diamond cut +diamond." But is not the terrible Philippe Bridau, the "Mephistopheles +/a cheval/" of the latter part of the book, rather inconsistent with +the common-place ne'er-to-well of the earlier? Not only does it +require no unusual genius to waste money, when you have it, in the +channels of the drinking-shop, the gaming table, and elsewhere, to +sponge for more on your mother and brother, to embezzle when they are +squeezed dry, and to take to downright robbery when nothing else is +left; but a person who, in the various circumstances and opportunities +of Bridau, finds nothing better to do than these ordinary things, can +hardly be a person of exceptional intellectual resource. There is here +surely that sudden and unaccounted-for change of character which the +second-rate novelist and dramatists may permit himself, but from which +the first-rate should abstain. + +This, however, may be an academic objection, and certainly the book is +of first-class interest. The minor characters, the mother and brother, +the luckless aunt with her combination at last turning up when the +rascal Philippe has stolen her stake-money, the satellites and +abettors of Max in the club of "La Desoeuvrance," the slightly +theatrical Spaniard, and all the rest of them, are excellent. The book +is an eminently characteristic one--more so, indeed, than more than +one of those in which people are often invited to make acquaintance +with Balzac. + +/Pierrette/, which was earlier called /Pierrette Lorrain/, was issued +in 1840, first in the /Siecle/, and then in volume form, published by +Souverain. In both issues it had nine chapter or book divisions with +headings. With the other /Celibataires/ it entered the /Comedie/ as a +/Scene de la Vie de Province/ in 1843. + +/Le Cure de Tours/ (which Balzac had at one time intended to call by +the name of the Cure's enemy, and which at first was simply called by +the general title /Les Celibataires/) is much older than its +companions, and appeared in 1832 in the /Scenes de la Vie Privee/. It +was soon properly shifted to the /Vie de Province/, and as such in due +time joined the /Comedie/ bearing its present title. + +The third story of /Les Celibataires/ has a rather more varied +bibliographical history than the others. The first part, that dealing +with the early misconduct of Philippe Bridau, was published +separately, as /Les Deux Freres/, in the /Presse/ during the spring of +1841, and a year or so later in volumes. It had nine chapters with +headings. The volume form also included under the same title the +second part, which, as /Un Menage de garcon en Province/, had been +published in the same newspaper in the autumn of 1842. This had +sixteen chapters in both issues, and in the volumes two part-headings +--one identical with the newspaper title, and the other "A qui la +Succession?" The whole book then took rank in the /Comedie/ under the +second title, /Un Menage de garcon/, and retained this during Balzac's +life and long afterwards. In the /Edition Definitive/, as observed +above, he had marked it as /La Rabouilleuse/, after having also +thought of /Le Bonhomme Rouget/. For English use, the better known, +though not last or best title, is clearly preferable, as it can be +translated, while /La Rabouilleuse/ cannot. + + George Saintsbury + + + + + + I + + + + + PIERRETTE + + By HONORE DE BALZAC + + + Translated by + Katharine Prescott Wormeley + + + + DEDICATION + + To Mademoiselle Anna Hanska: + + Dear Child,--You, the joy of the household, you, whose pink or + white pelerine flutters in summer among the groves of + Wierzschovnia like a will-o'-the-wisp, followed by the tender eyes + of your father and your mother,--how can I dedicate to /you/ a + story full of melancholy? And yet, ought not sorrows to be spoken + of to a young girl idolized as you are, since the day may come + when your sweet hands will be called to minister to them? It is so + difficult, Anna, to find in the history of our manners and morals + a subject that is worthy of your eyes, that no choice has been + left me; but perhaps you will be made to feel how fortunate your + fate is when you read the story sent to you by + Your old friend, + De Balzac. + + + + PIERRETTE + + + + I + + THE LORRAINS + +At the dawn of an October day in 1827 a young fellow about sixteen +years of age, whose clothing proclaimed what modern phraseology so +insolently calls a proletary, was standing in a small square of Lower +Provins. At that early hour he could examine without being observed +the various houses surrounding the open space, which was oblong in +form. The mills along the river were already working; the whirr of +their wheels, repeated by the echoes of the Upper Town in the keen air +and sparkling clearness of the early morning, only intensified the +general silence so that the wheels of a diligence could be heard a +league away along the highroad. The two longest sides of the square, +separated by an avenue of lindens, were built in the simple style +which expresses so well the peaceful and matter-of-fact life of the +bourgeoisie. No signs of commerce were to be seen; on the other hand, +the luxurious porte-cocheres of the rich were few, and those few +turned seldom on their hinges, excepting that of Monsieur Martener, a +physician, whose profession obliged him to keep a cabriolet, and to +use it. A few of the house-fronts were covered by grape vines, others +by roses climbing to the second-story windows, through which they +wafted the fragrance of their scattered bunches. One end of the square +enters the main street of the Lower Town, the gardens of which reach +to the bank of one of the two rivers which water the valley of +Provins. The other end of the square enters a street which runs +parallel to the main street. + +At the latter, which was also the quietest end of the square, the +young workman recognized the house of which he was in search, which +showed a front of white stone grooved in lines to represent courses, +windows with closed gray blinds, and slender iron balconies decorated +with rosettes painted yellow. Above the ground floor and the first +floor were three dormer windows projecting from a slate roof; on the +peak of the central one was a new weather-vane. This modern innovation +represented a hunter in the attitude of shooting a hare. The front +door was reached by three stone steps. On one side of this door a +leaden pipe discharged the sink-water into a small street-gutter, +showing the whereabouts of the kitchen. On the other side were two +windows, carefully closed by gray shutters in which were heart-shaped +openings cut to admit the light; these windows seemed to be those of +the dining-room. In the elevation gained by the three steps were vent- +holes to the cellar, closed by painted iron shutters fantastically cut +in open-work. Everything was new. In this repaired and restored house, +the fresh-colored look of which contrasted with the time-worn +exteriors of all the other houses, an observer would instantly +perceive the paltry taste and perfect self-satisfaction of the retired +petty shopkeeper. + +The young man looked at these details with an expression of pleasure +that seemed to have something rather sad in it; his eyes roved from +the kitchen to the roof, with a motion that showed a deliberate +purpose. The rosy glow of the rising sun fell on a calico curtain at +one of the garret windows, the others being without that luxury. As he +caught sight of it the young fellow's face brightened gaily. He +stepped back a little way, leaned against a linden, and sang, in the +drawling tone peculiar to the west of France, the following Breton +ditty, published by Bruguiere, a composer to whom we are indebted for +many charming melodies. In Brittany, the young villagers sing this +song to all newly-married couples on their wedding-day:-- + + "We've come to wish you happiness in marriage, + To m'sieur your husband + As well as to you: + + "You have just been bound, madam' la mariee, + With bonds of gold + That only death unbinds: + + "You will go no more to balls or gay assemblies; + You must stay at home + While we shall go. + + "Have you thought well how you are pledged to be + True to your spouse, + And love him like yourself? + + "Receive these flowers our hands do now present you; + Alas! your fleeting honors + Will fade as they." + +This native air (as sweet as that adapted by Chateaubriand to /Ma +soeur, te souvient-il encore/), sung in this little town of the Brie +district, must have been to the ears of a Breton maiden the touchstone +of imperious memories, so faithfully does it picture the manners and +customs, the surroundings and the heartiness of her noble old land, +where a sort of melancholy reigns, hardly to be defined; caused, +perhaps, by the aspect of life in Brittany, which is deeply touching. +This power of awakening a world of grave and sweet and tender memories +by a familiar and sometimes lively ditty, is the privilege of those +popular songs which are the superstitions of music,--if we may use the +word "superstition" as signifying all that remains after the ruin of a +people, all that survives their revolutions. + +As he finished the first couple, the singer, who never took his eyes +from the attic curtain, saw no signs of life. While he sang the +second, the curtain stirred. When the words "Receive these flowers" +were sung, a youthful face appeared; a white hand cautiously opened +the casement, and a girl made a sign with her head to the singer as he +ended with the melancholy thought of the simple verses,--"Alas! your +fleeting honors will fade as they." + +To her the young workman suddenly showed, drawing it from within his +jacket, a yellow flower, very common in Brittany, and sometimes to be +found in La Brie (where, however, it is rare),--the furze, or broom. + +"Is it really you, Brigaut?" said the girl, in a low voice. + +"Yes, Pierrette, yes. I am in Paris. I have started to make my way; +but I'm ready to settle here, near you." + +Just then the fastening of a window creaked in a room on the first +floor, directly below Pierrette's attic. The girl showed the utmost +terror, and said to Brigaut, quickly:-- + +"Run away!" + +The lad jumped like a frightened frog to a bend in the street caused +by the projection of a mill just where the square opens into the main +thoroughfare; but in spite of his agility his hob-nailed shoes echoed +on the stones with a sound easily distinguished from the music of the +mill, and no doubt heard by the person who opened the window. + +That person was a woman. No man would have torn himself from the +comfort of a morning nap to listen to a minstrel in a jacket; none but +a maid awakes to songs of love. Not only was this woman a maid, but +she was an old maid. When she had opened her blinds with the furtive +motion of the bat, she looked in all directions, but saw nothing, and +only heard, faintly, the flying footfalls of the lad. Can there be +anything more dreadful than the matutinal apparition of an ugly old +maid at her window? Of all the grotesque sights which amuse the eyes +of travellers in country towns, that is the most unpleasant. It is too +repulsive to laugh at. This particular old maid, whose ear was so +keen, was denuded of all the adventitious aids, of whatever kind, +which she employed as embellishments; her false front and her +collarette were lacking; she wore that horrible little bag of black +silk on which old women insist on covering their skulls, and it was +now revealed beneath the night-cap which had been pushed aside in +sleep. This rumpled condition gave a menacing expression to the head, +such as painters bestow on witches. The temples, ears, and nape of the +neck, were disclosed in all their withered horror,--the wrinkles being +marked in scarlet lines that contrasted with the would-be white of the +bed-gown which was tied round her neck by a narrow tape. The gaping of +this garment revealed a breast to be likened only to that of an old +peasant woman who cares nothing about her personal ugliness. The +fleshless arm was like a stick on which a bit of stuff was hung. Seen +at her window, this spinster seemed tall from the length and +angularity of her face, which recalled the exaggerated proportions of +certain Swiss heads. The character of their countenance--the features +being marked by a total want of harmony--was that of hardness in the +lines, sharpness in the tones; while an unfeeling spirit, pervading +all, would have filled a physiognomist with disgust. These +characteristics, fully visible at this moment, were usually modified +in public by a sort of commercial smile,--a bourgeois smirk which +mimicked good-humor; so that persons meeting with this old maid might +very well take her for a kindly woman. She owned the house on shares +with her brother. The brother, by-the-bye, was sleeping so tranquilly +in his own chamber that the orchestra of the Opera-house could not +have awakened him, wonderful as its diapason is said to be. + +The old maid stretched her neck out of the window, twisted it, and +raised her cold, pale-blue little eyes, with their short lashes set in +lids that were always rather swollen, to the attic window, endeavoring +to see Pierrette. Perceiving the uselessness of that attempt, she +retreated into her room with a movement like that of a tortoise which +draws in its head after protruding it from its carapace. The blinds +were then closed, and the silence of the street was unbroken except by +peasants coming in from the country, or very early persons moving +about. + +When there is an old maid in a house, watch-dogs are unnecessary; not +the slightest event can occur that she does not see and comment upon +and pursue to its utmost consequences. The foregoing trifling +circumstance was therefore destined to give rise to grave +suppositions, and to open the way for one of those obscure dramas +which take place in families, and are none the less terrible because +they are secret,--if, indeed, we may apply the word "drama" to such +domestic occurrences. + +Pierrette did not go back to bed. To her, Brigaut's arrival was an +immense event. During the night--that Eden of the wretched--she +escaped the vexations and fault-findings she bore during the day. Like +the hero of a ballad, German or Russian, I forget which, her sleep +seemed to her the happy life; her waking hours a bad dream. She had +just had her only pleasurable waking in three years. The memories of +her childhood had sung their melodious ditties in her soul. The first +couplet was heard in a dream; the second made her spring out of bed; +at the third, she doubted her ears,--the sorrowful are all disciples +of Saint Thomas; but when the fourth was sung, standing in her night- +gown with bare feet by the window, she recognized Brigaut, the +companion of her childhood. Ah, yes! it was truly the well-known +square jacket with the bobtails, the pockets of which stuck out at the +hips,--the jacket of blue cloth which is classic in Brittany; there, +too, were the waistcoat of printed cotton, the linen shirt fastened by +a gold heart, the large rolling collar, the earrings, the stout shoes, +the trousers of blue-gray drilling unevenly colored by the various +lengths of the warp,--in short, all those humble, strong, and durable +things which make the apparel of the Breton peasantry. The big buttons +of white horn which fastened the jacket made the girl's heart beat. +When she saw the bunch of broom her eyes filled with tears; then a +dreadful fear drove back into her heart the happy memories that were +budding there. She thought her cousin sleeping in the room beneath her +might have heard the noise she made in jumping out of bed and running +to the window. The fear was just; the old maid was coming, and she +made Brigaut the terrified sign which the lad obeyed without the least +understanding it. Such instinctive submission to a girl's bidding +shows one of those innocent and absolute affections which appear from +century to century on this earth, where they blossom, like the aloes +of Isola Bella, twice or thrice in a hundred years. Whoever had seen +the lad as he ran away would have loved the ingenuous chivalry of his +most ingenuous feeling. + +Jacques Brigaut was worthy of Pierrette Lorrain, who was just fifteen. +Two children! Pierrette could not keep from crying as she watched his +flight in the terror her gesture had conveyed to him. Then she sat +down in a shabby armchair placed before a little table above which +hung a mirror. She rested her elbows on the table, put her head in her +hands, and sat thinking for an hour, calling to memory the Marais, the +village of Pen-Hoel, the perilous voyages on a pond in a boat untied +for her from an old willow by little Jacques; then the old faces of +her grandfather and grandmother, the sufferings of her mother, and the +handsome face of Major Brigaut,--in short, the whole of her careless +childhood. It was all a dream, a luminous joy on the gloomy background +of the present. + +Her beautiful chestnut hair escaped in disorder from her cap, rumpled +in sleep,--a cambric cap with ruffles, which she had made herself. On +each side of her forehead were little ringlets escaping from gray +curl-papers. From the back of her head hung a heavy braid of hair that +was half unplaited. The excessive whiteness of her face betrayed that +terrible malady of girlhood which goes by the name of chlorosis, +deprives the body of its natural colors, destroys the appetite, and +shows a disordered state of the organism. The waxy tones were in all +the visible parts of her flesh. The neck and shoulders explained by +their blanched paleness the wasted arms, flung forward and crossed +upon the table. Her feet seemed enervated, shrunken from illness. Her +night-gown came only to her knees and showed the flaccid muscles, the +blue veins, the impoverished flesh of the legs. The cold, to which she +paid no heed, turned her lips violet, and a sad smile, drawing up the +corners of a sensitive mouth, showed teeth that were white as ivory +and quite small,--pretty, transparent teeth, in keeping with the +delicate ears, the rather sharp but dainty nose, and the general +outline of her face, which, in spite of its roundness, was lovely. All +the animation of this charming face was in the eyes, the iris of +which, brown like Spanish tobacco and flecked with black, shone with +golden reflections round pupils that were brilliant and intense. +Pierrette was made to be gay, but she was sad. Her lost gaiety was +still to be seen in the vivacious forms of the eye, in the ingenuous +grace of her brow, in the smooth curve of her chin. The long eyelashes +lay upon the cheek-bones, made prominent by suffering. The paleness of +her face, which was unnaturally white, made the lines and all the +details infinitely pure. The ear alone was a little masterpiece of +modelling,--in marble, you might say. Pierrette suffered in many ways. +Perhaps you would like to know her history, and this is it. + +Pierrette's mother was a Demoiselle Auffray of Provins, half-sister by +the father's side of Madame Rogron, mother of the present owners of +the house. + +Monsieur Auffray, her husband, had married at the age of eighteen; his +second marriage took place when he was nearly sixty-nine. By the +first, he had an only daughter, very plain, who was married at sixteen +to an innkeeper of Provins named Rogron. + +By his second marriage the worthy Auffray had another daughter; but +this one was charming. There was, of course, an enormous difference in +the ages of these daughters; the one by the first marriage was fifty +years old when the second child was born. By this time the eldest, +Madame Rogron, had two grown-up children. + +The youngest daughter of the old man was married at eighteen to a man +of her choice, a Breton officer named Lorrain, captain in the Imperial +Guard. Love often makes a man ambitious. The captain, anxious to rise +to a colonelcy, exchanged into a line regiment. While he, then a +major, and his wife enjoyed themselves in Paris on the allowance made +to them by Monsieur and Madame Auffray, or scoured Germany at the beck +and call of the Emperor's battles and truces, old Auffray himself +(formerly a grocer) died, at the age of eighty-eight, without having +found time to make a will. His property was administered by his +daughter, Madame Rogron, and her husband so completely in their own +interests that nothing remained for the old man's widow beyond the +house she lived in on the little square, and a few acres of land. This +widow, the mother of Madame Lorrain, was only thirty-eight at the time +of her husband's death. Like many widows, she came to the unwise +decision of remarrying. She sold the house and land to her step- +daughter, Madame Rogron, and married a young physician named Neraud, +who wasted her whole fortune. She died of grief and misery two years +later. + +Thus the share of her father's property which ought to have come to +Madame Lorrain disappeared almost entirely, being reduced to the small +sum of eight thousand francs. Major Lorrain was killed at the battle +of Montereau, leaving his wife, then twenty-one years of age, with a +little daughter of fourteen months, and no other means than the +pension to which she was entitled and an eventual inheritance from her +late husband's parents, Monsieur and Madame Lorrain, retail +shopkeepers at Pen-Hoel, a village in the Vendee, situated in that +part of it which is called the Marais. These Lorrains, grandfather and +grandmother of Pierrette Lorrain, sold wood for building purposes, +slates, tiles, pantiles, pipes, etc. Their business, either from their +own incapacity or through ill-luck, did badly, and gave them scarcely +enough to live on. The failure of the well-known firm of Collinet at +Nantes, caused by the events of 1814 which led to a sudden fall in +colonial products, deprived them of twenty-four thousand francs which +they had just deposited with that house. + +The arrival of their daughter-in-law was therefore welcome to them. +Her pension of eight hundred francs was a handsome income at Pen-Hoel. +The eight thousand francs which the widow's half-brother and sister +Rogron sent to her from her father's estate (after a multitude of +legal formalities) were placed by her in the Lorrains' business, they +giving her a mortgage on a little house which they owned at Nantes, +let for three hundred francs, and barely worth ten thousand. + +Madame Lorrain the younger, Pierrette's mother, died in 1819. The +child of old Auffray and his young wife was small, delicate, and +weakly; the damp climate of the Marais did not agree with her. But her +husband's family persuaded her, in order to keep her with them, that +in no other quarter of the world could she find a more healthy region. +She was so petted and tenderly cared for that her death, when it came, +brought nothing but honor to the old Lorrains. + +Some persons declared that Brigaut, an old Vendeen, one of those men +of iron who served under Charette, under Mercier, under the Marquis de +Montauran, and the Baron du Guenic, in the wars against the Republic, +counted for a good deal in the willingness of the younger Madame +Lorrain to remain in the Marais. If it were so, his soul must have +been a truly loving and devoted one. All Pen-Hoel saw him--he was +called respectfully Major Brigaut, the grade he had held in the +Catholic army--spending his days and his evenings in the Lorrains' +parlor, beside the window of the imperial major. Toward the last, the +curate of Pen-Hoel made certain representations to old Madame Lorrain, +begging her to persuade her daughter-in-law to marry Brigaut, and +promising to have the major appointed justice of peace for the canton +of Pen-Hoel, through the influence of the Vicomte de Kergarouet. The +death of the poor young woman put an end to the matter. + +Pierrette was left in charge of her grandparents who owed her four +hundred francs a year, interest on the little property placed in their +hands. This small sum was now applied to her maintenance. The old +people, who were growing less and less fit for business, soon found +themselves confronted by an active and capable competitor, against +whom they said hard things, all the while doing nothing to defeat him. +Major Brigaut, their friend and adviser, died six months after his +friend, the younger Madame Lorrain,--perhaps of grief, perhaps of his +wounds, of which he had received twenty-seven. + +Like a sound merchant, the competitor set about ruining his +adversaries in order to get rid of all rivalry. With his connivance, +the Lorrains borrowed money on notes, which they were unable to meet, +and which drove them in their old days into bankruptcy. Pierrette's +claim upon the house in Nantes was superseded by the legal rights of +her grandmother, who enforced them to secure the daily bread of her +poor husband. The house was sold for nine thousand five hundred +francs, of which one thousand five hundred went for costs. The +remaining eight thousand came to Madame Lorain, who lived upon the +income of them in a sort of almshouse at Nantes, like that of Sainte- +Perine in Paris, called Saint-Jacques, where the two old people had +bed and board for a humble payment. + +As it was impossible to keep Pierrette, their ruined little +granddaughter, with them, the old Lorrains bethought themselves of her +uncle and aunt Rogron, in Provins, to whom they wrote. These Rogrons +were dead. The letter might, therefore, have easily been lost; but if +anything here below can take the place of Providence, it is the post. +Postal spirit, incomparably above public spirit, exceeds in brilliancy +of resource and invention the ablest romance-writers. When the post +gets hold of a letter, worth, to it, from three to ten sous, and does +not immediately know where to find the person to whom that letter is +addressed, it displays a financial anxiety only to be met with in very +pertinacious creditors. The post goes and comes and ferrets through +all the eighty-six departments. Difficulties only arouse the genius of +the clerks, who may really be called men-of-letters, and who set about +to search for that unknown human being with as much ardor as the +mathematicians of the Bureau give to longitudes. They literally +ransack the whole kingdom. At the first ray of hope all the post- +offices in Paris are alert. Sometimes the receiver of a missing letter +is amazed at the network of scrawled directions which covers both back +and front of the missive,--glorious vouchers for the administrative +persistency with which the post has been at work. If a man undertook +what the post accomplishes, he would lose ten thousand francs in +travel, time, and money, to recover ten sous. The letter of the old +Lorrains, addressed to Monsieur Rogron of Provins (who had then been +dead a year) was conveyed by the post in due time to Monsieur Rogron, +son of the deceased, a mercer in the rue Saint-Denis in Paris. And +this is where the postal spirit obtains its greatest triumph. An heir +is always more or less anxious to know if he has picked up every scrap +of his inheritance, if he has not overlooked a credit, or a trunk of +old clothes. The Treasury knows that. A letter addressed to the late +Rogron at Provins was certain to pique the curiosity of Rogron, Jr., +or Mademoiselle Rogron, the heirs in Paris. Out of that human interest +the Treasury was able to earn sixty centimes. + +These Rogrons, toward whom the old Lorrains, though dreading to part +with their dear little granddaughter, stretched their supplicating +hands, became, in this way, and most unexpectedly, the masters of +Pierrette's destiny. It is therefore indispensable to explain both +their antecedents and their character. + + + + II + + THE ROGRONS + +Pere Rogron, that innkeeper of Provins to whom old Auffray had married +his daughter by his first wife, was an individual with an inflamed +face, a veiny nose, and cheeks on which Bacchus had drawn his scarlet +and bulbous vine-marks. Though short, fat, and pot-bellied, with stout +legs and thick hands, he was gifted with the shrewdness of the Swiss +innkeepers, whom he resembled. Certainly he was not handsome, and his +wife looked like him. Never was a couple better matched. Rogron liked +good living and to be waited upon by pretty girls. He belonged to the +class of egoists whose behavior is brutal; he gave way to his vices +and did their will openly in the face of Israel. Grasping, selfish, +without decency, and always gratifying his own fancies, he devoured +his earnings until the day when his teeth failed him. Selfishness +stayed by him. In his old days he sold his inn, collected (as we have +seen) all he could of his late father-in-law's property, and went to +live in the little house in the square of Provins, bought for a trifle +from the widow of old Auffray, Pierrette's grandmother. + +Rogron and his wife had about two thousand francs a year from twenty- +seven lots of land in the neighborhood of Provins, and from the sale +of their inn for twenty thousand. Old Auffray's house, though out of +repair, was inhabited just as it was by the Rogrons,--old rats like +wrack and ruin. Rogron himself took to horticulture and spent his +savings in enlarging the garden; he carried it to the river's edge +between two walls and built a sort of stone embankment across the end, +where aquatic nature, left to herself, displayed the charms of her +flora. + +In the early years of their marriage the Rogrons had a son and a +daughter, both hideous; for such human beings degenerate. Put out to +nurse at a low price, these luckless children came home in due time, +after the worst of village training,--allowed to cry for hours after +their wet-nurse, who worked in the fields, leaving them shut up to +scream for her in one of those damp, dark, low rooms which serve as +homes for the French peasantry. Treated thus, the features of the +children coarsened; their voices grew harsh; they mortified their +mother's vanity, and that made her strive to correct their bad habits +by a sternness which the severity of their father converted through +comparison to kindness. As a general thing, they were left to run +loose about the stables and courtyards of the inn, or the streets of +the town; sometimes they were whipped; sometimes they were sent, to +get rid of them, to their grandfather Auffray, who did not like them. +The injustice the Rogrons declared the old man did to their children, +justified them to their own minds in taking the greater part of "the +old scoundrel's" property. However, Rogron did send his son to school, +and did buy him a man, one of his own cartmen, to save him from the +conscription. As soon as his daughter, Sylvie, was thirteen, he sent +her to Paris, to make her way as apprentice in a shop. Two years later +he despatched his son, Jerome-Denis, to the same career. When his +friends the carriers and those who frequented the inn, asked him what +he meant to do with his children, Pere Rogron explained his system +with a conciseness which, in view of that of most fathers, had the +merit of frankness. + +"When they are old enough to understand me I shall give 'em a kick and +say: 'Go and make your own way in the world!'" he replied, emptying +his glass and wiping his lips with the back of his hand. Then he +winked at his questioner with a knowing look. "Hey! hey! they are no +greater fools than I was," he added. "My father gave me three kicks; I +shall only give them one; he put one louis into my hand; I shall put +ten in theirs, therefore they'll be better off than I was. That's the +way to do. After I'm gone, what's left will be theirs. The notaries +can find them and give it to them. What nonsense to bother one's self +about children. Mine owe me their life. I've fed them, and I don't ask +anything from them,--I call that quits, hey, neighbor? I began as a +cartman, but that didn't prevent me marrying the daughter of that old +scoundrel Auffray." + +Sylvie Rogron was sent (with six hundred francs for her board) as +apprentice to certain shopkeepers originally from Provins and now +settled in Paris in the rue Saint-Denis. Two years later she was "at +par," as they say; she earned her own living; at any rate her parents +paid nothing for her. That is what is called being "at par" in the rue +Saint-Denis. Sylvie had a salary of four hundred francs. At nineteen +years of age she was independent. At twenty, she was the second +demoiselle in the Maison Julliard, wholesale silk dealers at the +"Chinese Worm" rue Saint-Denis. The history of the sister was that of +the brother. Young Jerome-Denis Rogron entered the establishment of +one of the largest wholesale mercers in the same street, the Maison +Guepin, at the "Three Distaffs." When Sylvie Rogron, aged twenty-one, +had risen to be forewoman at a thousand francs a year Jerome-Denis, +with even better luck, was head-clerk at eighteen, with a salary of +twelve hundred francs. + +Brother and sister met on Sundays and fete-days, which they passed in +economical amusements; they dined out of Paris, and went to Saint- +Cloud, Meudon, Belleville, or Vincennes. Towards the close of the year +1815 they clubbed their savings, amounting to about twenty thousand +francs, earned by the sweat of their brows, and bought of Madame +Guenee the property and good-will of her celebrated shop, the "Family +Sister," one of the largest retail establishments in the quarter. +Sylvie kept the books and did the writing. Jerome-Denis was master and +head-clerk both. In 1821, after five years' experience, competition +became so fierce that it was all the brother and sister could do to +carry on the business and maintain its reputation. + +Though Sylvie was at this time scarcely forty, her natural ugliness, +combined with hard work and a certain crabbed look (caused as much by +the conformation of her features as by her cares), made her seem like +a woman of fifty. At thirty-eight Jerome Rogron presented to the eyes +of his customers the silliest face that ever looked over a counter. +His retreating forehead, flattened by fatigue, was marked by three +long wrinkles. His grizzled hair, cut close, expressed in some +indefinable way the stupidity of a cold-blooded animal. The glance of +his bluish eyes had neither flame nor thought in it. His round, flat +face excited no sympathy, nor even a laugh on the lips of those who +might be examining the varieties of the Parisian species; on the +contrary, it saddened them. He was, like his father, short and fat, +but his figure lacked the latter's brutal obesity, and showed, +instead, an almost ridiculous debility. His father's high color was +changed in him to the livid flabbiness peculiar to persons who live in +close back-shops, or in those railed cages called counting-rooms, +forever tying up bundles, receiving and making change, snarling at the +clerks, and repeating the same old speeches to customers. + +The small amount of brains possessed by the brother and sister had +been wholly absorbed in maintaining their business, in getting and +keeping money, and in learning the special laws and usages of the +Parisian market. Thread, needles, ribbons, pins, buttons, tailors' +furnishings, in short, the enormous quantity of things which go to +make up a mercer's stock, had taken all their capacity. Outside of +their business they knew absolutely nothing; they were even ignorant +of Paris. To them the great city was merely a region spreading around +the Rue Saint-Denis. Their narrow natures could see no field except +the shop. They were clever enough in nagging their clerks and their +young women and in proving them to blame. Their happiness lay in +seeing all hands busy at the counters, exhibiting the merchandise, and +folding it up again. When they heard the six or eight voices of the +young men and women glibly gabbling the consecrated phrases by which +clerks reply to the remarks of customers, the day was fine to them, +the weather beautiful! But on the really fine days, when the blue of +the heavens brightened all Paris, and the Parisians walked about to +enjoy themselves and cared for no "goods" but those they carried on +their back, the day was overcast to the Rogrons. "Bad weather for +sales," said that pair of imbeciles. + +The skill with which Rogron could tie up a parcel made him an object +of admiration to all his apprentices. He could fold and tie and see +all that happened in the street and in the farthest recesses of the +shop by the time he handed the parcel to his customer with a "Here it +is, madame; /nothing else/ to-day?" But the poor fool would have been +ruined without his sister. Sylvie had common-sense and a genius for +trade. She advised her brother in their purchases and would pitilessly +send him to remote parts of France to save a trifle of cost. The +shrewdness which all women more or less possess, not being employed in +the service of her heart, had drifted into that of speculation. A +business to pay for,--that thought was the mainspring which kept the +machine going and gave it an infernal activity. + +Rogron was really only head-clerk; he understood nothing of his +business as a whole; self-interest, that great motor of the mind, had +failed in his case to instruct him. He was often aghast when his +sister ordered some article to be sold below cost, foreseeing the end +of its fashion; later he admired her idiotically for her cleverness. +He reasoned neither ill nor well; he was simply incapable of reasoning +at all; but he had the sense to subordinate himself to his sister, and +he did so from a consideration that was outside of the business. "She +is my elder," he said. Perhaps an existence like his, always solitary, +reduced to the satisfaction of mere needs, deprived of money and all +pleasures in youth, may explain to physiologists and thinkers the +clownish expression of the face, the feebleness of mind, the vacant +silliness of the man. His sister had steadily prevented him from +marrying, afraid perhaps to lose her power over him, and seeing only a +source of expense and injury in some woman who would certainly be +younger and undoubtedly less ugly than herself. + +Silliness has two ways of comporting itself; it talks, or is silent. +Silent silliness can be borne; but Rogron's silliness was loquacious. +The man had a habit of chattering to his clerks, explaining the +minutiae of the business, and ornamenting his talk with those flat +jokes which may be called the "chaff" of shopkeeping. Rogron, listened +to, of course, by his subordinates and perfectly satisfied with +himself, had come at last into possession of a phraseology of his own. +This chatterer believed himself an orator. The necessity of explaining +to customers what they want, of guessing at their desires, and giving +them desires for what they do not want, exercises the tongue of all +retail shopkeepers. The petty dealer acquires the faculty of uttering +words and sentences in which there is absolutely no meaning, but which +have a marked success. He explains to his customers matters of +manufacture that they know nothing of; that alone gives him a passing +superiority over them; but take him away from his thousand and one +explanations about his thousand and one articles, and he is, +relatively to thought, like a fish out of water in the sun. + +Rogron and Sylvie, two mechanisms baptized by mistake, did not +possess, latent or active, the feelings which give life to the heart. +Their natures were shrivelled and harsh, hardened by toil, by +privation, by the remembrance of their sufferings during a long and +cruel apprenticeship to life. Neither of them complained of their +trials. They were not so much implacable as impracticable in their +dealings with others in misfortune. To them, virtue, honor, loyalty, +all human sentiments consisted solely in the payment of their bills. +Irritable and irritating, without feelings, and sordid in their +economy, the brother and sister bore a dreadful reputation among the +other merchants of the rue Saint-Denis. Had it not been for their +connection with Provins, where they went three or four times a year, +when they could close the shop for a day or two, they would have had +no clerks or young women. But old Rogron, their father, sent them all +the unfortunate young people of his neighborhood, whose parents wished +to start them in business in Paris. He obtained these apprentices by +boasting, out of vanity, of his son's success. Parents, attracted by +the prospect of their children being well-trained and closely watched, +and also, by the hope of their succeeding, eventually, to the +business, sent whichever child was most in the way at home to the care +of the brother and sister. But no sooner had the clerks or the young +women found a way of escape from that dreadful establishment than they +fled, with rejoicings that increased the already bad name of the +Rogrons. New victims were supplied yearly by the indefatigable old +father. + +From the time she was fifteen, Sylvie Rogron, trained to the simpering +of a saleswoman, had two faces,--the amiable face of the seller, the +natural face of a sour spinster. Her acquired countenance was a +marvellous bit of mimicry. She was all smiles. Her voice, soft and +wheedling, gave a commercial charm to business. Her real face was that +we have already seen projecting from the half-opened blinds; the mere +sight of her would have put to flight the most resolute Cossack of +1815, much as that horde were said to like all kinds of Frenchwomen. + +When the letter from the Lorrains reached the brother and sister, they +were in mourning for their father, from whom they inherited the house +which had been as good as stolen from Pierrette's grandmother, also +certain lands bought by their father, and certain moneys acquired by +usurious loans and mortgages to the peasantry, whose bits of ground +the old drunkard expected to possess. The yearly taking of stock was +just over. The price of the "Family Sister" had, at last, been paid in +full. The Rogrons owned about sixty thousand francs' worth of +merchandise, forty thousand in a bank or in their cash-box, and the +value of their business. Sitting on a bench covered with striped-green +Utrecht velvet placed in a square recess just behind their private +counter (the counter of their forewoman being similar and directly +opposite) the brother and sister consulted as to what they should do. +All retail shopkeepers aspire to become members of the bourgeoisie. By +selling the good-will of their business, the pair would have over a +hundred and fifty thousand francs, not counting the inheritance from +their father. By placing their present available property in the +public Funds, they would each obtain about four thousand francs a +year, and by taking the proceeds of their business, when sold, they +could repair and improve the house they inherited from their father, +which would thus be a good investment. They could then go and live in +a house of their own in Provins. Their forewoman was the daughter of a +rich farmer at Donnemarie, burdened with nine children, to whom he had +endeavored to give a good start in life, being aware that at his death +his property, divided into nine parts, would be but little for any one +of them. In five years, however, the man had lost seven children,--a +fact which made the forewoman so interesting that Rogron had tried, +unsuccessfully, to get her to marry him; but she showed an aversion +for her master which baffled his manoeuvres. Besides, Mademoiselle +Sylvie was not in favor of the match; in fact, she steadily opposed +her brother's marriage, and sought, instead, to make the shrewd young +woman their successor. + +No passing observer can form the least idea of the cryptogramic +existence of a certain class of shopkeepers; he looks at them and asks +himself, "On what, and why, do they live? whence have they come? where +do they go?" He is lost in such questions, but finds no answer to +them. To discover the false seed of poesy which lies in those heads +and fructifies in those lives, it is necessary to dig into them; and +when we do that we soon come to a thin subsoil beneath the surface. +The Parisian shopkeeper nurtures his soul on some hope or other, more +or less attainable, without which he would doubtless perish. One +dreams of building or managing a theatre; another longs for the honors +of mayoralty; this one desires a country-house, ten miles from Paris +with a so-called "park," which he will adorn with statues of tinted +plaster and fountains which squirt mere threads of water, but on which +he will spend a mint of money; others, again, dream of distinction and +a high grade in the National Guard. Provins, that terrestrial +paradise, filled the brother and sister with the fanatical longings +which all the lovely towns of France inspire in their inhabitants. Let +us say it to the glory of La Champagne, this love is warranted. +Provins, one of the most charming towns in all France, rivals +Frangistan and the valley of Cashmere; not only does it contain the +poesy of Saadi, the Persian Homer, but it offers many pharmaceutical +treasures to medical science. The crusades brought roses from Jericho +to this enchanting valley, where by chance they gained new charms +while losing none of their colors. The Provins roses are known the +world over. But Provins is not only the French Persia, it is also +Baden, Aix, Cheltenham,--for it has medicinal springs. This was the +spot which appeared from time to time before the eyes of the two +shopkeepers in the muddy regions of Saint-Denis. + +After crossing the gray plains which lie between La Ferte-Gaucher and +Provins, a desert and yet productive, a desert of wheat, you reach a +hill. Suddenly you behold at your feet a town watered by two rivers; +at the feet of the rock on which you stand stretches a verdant valley, +full of enchanting lines and fugitive horizons. If you come from Paris +you will pass through the whole length of Provins on the everlasting +highroad of France, which here skirts the hillside and is encumbered +with beggars and blind men, who will follow you with their pitiful +voices while you try to examine the unexpected picturesqueness of the +region. If you come from Troyes you will approach the town on the +valley side. The chateau, the old town, and its former ramparts are +terraced on the hillside, the new town is below. They go by the names +of Upper and Lower Provins. The upper is an airy town with steep +streets commanding fine views, surrounded by sunken road-ways and +ravines filled with chestnut trees which gash the sides of the hill +with their deep gulleys. The upper town is silent, clean, solemn, +surmounted by the imposing ruins of the old chateau. The lower is a +town of mills, watered by the Voulzie and the Durtain, two rivers of +Brie, narrow, sluggish, and deep; a town of inns, shops, retired +merchants; filled with diligences, travelling-carriages, and waggons. +The two towns, or rather this town with its historical memories, its +melancholy ruins, the gaiety of its valley, the romantic charm of its +ravines filled with tangled shrubbery and wildflowers, its rivers +banked with gardens, excites the love of all its children, who do as +the Auvergnats, the Savoyards, in fact, all French folks do, namely, +leave Provins to make their fortunes, and always return. "Die in one's +form," the proverb made for hares and faithful souls, seems also the +motto of a Provins native. + +Thus the two Rogrons thought constantly of their dear Provins. While +Jerome sold his thread he saw the Upper town; as he piled up the cards +on which were buttons he contemplated the valley; when he rolled and +unrolled his ribbons he followed the shining rivers. Looking up at his +shelves he saw the ravines where he had often escaped his father's +anger and gone a-nutting or gathering blackberries. But the little +square in the Lower town was the chief object of his thoughts; he +imagined how he could improve his house: he dreamed of a new front, +new bedrooms, a salon, a billiard-room, a dining-room, and the kitchen +garden out of which he would make an English pleasure-ground, with +lawns, grottos, fountains, and statuary. The bedrooms at present +occupied by the brother and sister, on the second floor of a house +with three windows front and six storeys high in the rue Saint-Denis, +were furnished with the merest necessaries, yet no one in Paris had +finer furniture than they--in fancy. When Jerome walked the streets he +stopped short, struck with admiration at the handsome things in the +upholsterers' windows, and at the draperies he coveted for his house. +When he came home he would say to his sister: "I found in such a shop, +such and such a piece of furniture that will just do for the salon." +The next day he would buy another piece, and another, and so on. He +rejected, the following month, the articles of the months before. The +Budget itself, could not have paid for his architectural schemes. He +wanted everything he saw, but abandoned each thing for the last thing. +When he saw the balconies of new houses, when he studied external +ornamentation, he thought all such things, mouldings, carvings, etc., +out of place in Paris. "Ah!" he would say, "those fine things would +look much better at Provins." When he stood on his doorstep leaning +against the lintel, digesting his morning meal, with a vacant eye, the +mercer was gazing at the house of his fancy gilded by the sun of his +dream; he walked in his garden; he heard the jet from his fountain +falling in pearly drops upon a slab of limestone; he played on his own +billiard-table; he gathered his own flowers. + +Sylvie, on the other hand, was thinking so deeply, pen in hand, that +she forgot to scold the clerks; she was receiving the bourgeoisie of +Provins, she was looking at herself in the mirrors of her salon, and +admiring the beauties of a marvellous cap. The brother and sister +began to think the atmosphere of the rue Saint-Denis unhealthy, and +the smell of the mud in the markets made them long for the fragrance +of the Provins roses. They were the victims of a genuine nostalgia, +and also of a monomania, frustrated at present by the necessity of +selling their tapes and bobbins before they could leave Paris. The +promised land of the valley of Provins attracted these Hebrews all the +more because they had really suffered, and for a long time, as they +crossed breathlessly the sandy wastes of a mercer's business. + +The Lorrains' letter reached them in the midst of meditations inspired +by this glorious future. They knew scarcely anything about their +cousin, Pierrette Lorrain. Their father got possession of the Auffray +property after they left home, and the old man said little to any one +of his business affairs. They hardly remembered their aunt Lorrain. It +took an hour of genealogical discussion before they made her out to be +the younger sister of their own mother by the second marriage of their +grandfather Auffray. It immediately struck them that this second +marriage had been fatally injurious to their interests by dividing the +Auffray property between two daughters. In times past they had heard +their father, who was given to sneering, complain of it. + +The brother and sister considered the application of the Lorrains from +the point of view of such reminiscences, which were not at all +favorable for Pierrette. To take charge of an orphan, a girl, a +cousin, who might become their legal heir in case neither of them +married,--this was a matter that needed discussion. The question was +considered and debated under all its aspects. In the first place, they +had never seen Pierrette. Then, what a trouble it would be to have a +young girl to look after. Wouldn't it commit them to some obligations +towards her? Could they send the girl away if they did not like her? +Besides, wouldn't they have to marry her? and if Jerome found a yoke- +mate among the heiresses of Provins they ought to keep all their +property for his children. A yokemate for Jerome, according to Sylvie, +meant a stupid, rich and ugly girl who would let herself be governed. +They decided to refuse the Lorrain request. Sylvie agreed to write the +answer. Business being rather urgent just then she delayed writing, +and the forewoman coming forward with an offer for the stock and good- +will of the "Family Sister," which the brother and sister accepted, +the matter went entirely out of the old maid's mind. + +Sylvie Rogron and her brother departed for Provins four years before +the time when the coming of Brigaut threw such excitement into +Pierrette's life. But the doings of the pair after their arrival at +Provins are as necessary to relate as their life in Paris; for Provins +was destined to be not less fatal to Pierrette than the commercial +antecedents of her cousins! + + + + III + + PATHOLOGY OF RETIRED MERCERS + +When the petty shopkeeper who has come to Paris from the provinces +returns to the provinces from Paris he brings with him a few ideas; +then he loses them in the habits and ways of provincial life into +which he plunges, and his reforming notions leave him. From this there +do result, however, certain trifling, slow, successive changes by +which Paris scratches the surface of the provincial towns. This +process marks the transition of the ex-shopkeeper into the substantial +bourgeois, but it acts like an illness upon him. No retail shopkeeper +can pass with impunity from his perpetual chatter into dead silence, +from his Parisian activity to the stillness of provincial life. When +these worthy persons have laid by property they spend a portion of it +on some desire over which they have long brooded and into which they +now turn their remaining impulses, no longer restrained by force of +will. Those who have not been nursing a fixed idea either travel or +rush into the political interests of their municipality. Others take +to hunting or fishing and torment their farmers or tenants; others +again become usurers or stock-jobbers. As for the scheme of the +Rogrons, brother and sister, we know what that was; they had to +satisfy an imperious desire to handle the trowel and remodel their old +house into a charming new one. + +This fixed idea produced upon the square of Lower Provins the front of +the building which Brigaut had been examining; also the interior +arrangements of the house and its handsome furniture. The contractor +did not drive a nail without consulting the owners, without requiring +them to sign the plans and specifications, without explaining to them +at full length and in every detail the nature of each article under +discussion, where it was manufactured, and what were its various +prices. As to the choicer things, each, they were told, had been used +by Monsieur Tiphaine, or Madame Julliard, or Monsieur the mayor, the +notables of the place. The idea of having things done as the rich +bourgeois of Provins did them carried the day for the contractor. + +"Oh, if Monsieur Garceland has it in his house, put it in," said +Mademoiselle Rogron. "It must be all right; his taste is good." + +"Sylvie, see, he wants us to have ovolos in the cornice of the +corridor." + +"Do you call those ovolos?" + +"Yes, mademoiselle." + +"What an odd name! I never heard it before." + +"But you have seen the thing?" + +"Yes." + +"Do you understand Latin?" + +"No." + +"Well, it means eggs--from the Latin /ovum/." + +"What queer fellows you are, you architects!" cried Rogron. "It is +stepping on egg-shells to deal with you." + +"Shall we paint the corridor?" asked the builder. + +"Good heavens, no!" cried Sylvie. "That would be five hundred francs +more!" + +"Oh, but the salon and the staircase are too pretty not to have the +corridor decorated too," said the man. "That little Madame Lesourd had +hers painted last year." + +"And now, her husband, as king's attorney, is obliged to leave +Provins." + +"Ah, he'll be chief justice some of these days," said the builder. + +"How about Monsieur Tiphaine?" + +"Monsieur Tiphaine? he's got a pretty wife and is sure to get on. +He'll go to Paris. Shall we paint the corridor?" + +"Yes, yes," said Rogron. "The Lesourds must be made to see that we are +as good as they." + +The first year after the Rogrons returned to Provins was entirely +taken up by such discussions, by the pleasure of watching the workmen, +by the surprise occasioned to the townspeople and the replies to +questions of all kinds which resulted therefrom, and also by the +attempts made by Sylvie and her brother to be socially intimate with +the principal families of Provins. + +The Rogrons had never gone into any society; they had never left their +shop, knowing absolutely no one in Paris, and now they were athirst +for the pleasures of social life. On their arrival in Provins they +found their former masters in Paris (long since returned to the +provinces), Monsieur and Madame Julliard, lately of the "Chinese +Worm," their children and grandchildren; the Guepin family, or rather +the Guepin clan, the youngest scion of which now kept the "Three +Distaffs"; and thirdly, Madame Guenee from whom they had purchased the +"Family Sister," and whose three daughters were married and settled in +Provins. These three races, Julliard, Guepin, and Guenee, had spread +through the town like dog-grass through a lawn. The mayor, Monsieur +Garceland, was the son-in-law of Monsieur Guepin; the curate, Abbe +Peroux, was own brother to Madame Julliard; the judge, Monsieur +Tiphaine junior, was brother to Madame Guenee, who signed herself +"/nee/ Tiphaine." + +The queen of the town was the beautiful Madame Tiphaine junior, only +daughter of Madame Roguin, the rich wife of a former notary in Paris, +whose name was never mentioned. Clever, delicate, and pretty, married +in the provinces to please her mother, who for special reasons did not +want her with her, and took her from a convent only a few days before +the wedding, Melanie Tiphaine considered herself an exile in Provins, +where she behaved to admiration. Handsomely dowered, she still had +hopes. As for Monsieur Tiphaine, his old father had made to his eldest +daughter Madame Guenee such advances on her inheritance that an estate +worth eight thousand francs a year, situated within fifteen miles of +Provins, was to come wholly to him. Consequently the Tiphaines would +possess, sooner or later, some forty thousand francs a year, and were +not "badly off," as they say. The one overwhelming desire of the +beautiful Madame Tiphaine was to get Monsieur Tiphaine elected deputy. +As deputy he would become a judge in Paris; and she was firmly +resolved to push him up into the Royal courts. For these reasons she +tickled all vanities and strove to please all parties; and--what is +far more difficult--she succeeded. Twice a week she received the +bourgeoisie of Provins at her house in the Upper town. This +intelligent young woman of twenty had not as yet made a single blunder +or misstep on the slippery path she had taken. She gratified +everybody's self-love, and petted their hobbies; serious with the +serious, a girl with girls, instinctively a mother with mothers, gay +with young wives and disposed to help them, gracious to all,--in +short, a pearl, a treasure, the pride of Provins. She had never yet +said a word of her intentions and wishes, but all the electors of +Provins were awaiting the time when their dear Monsieur Tiphaine had +reached the required age for nomination. Every man in the place, +certain of his own talents, regarded the future deputy as his +particular friend, his protector. Of course, Monsieur Tiphaine would +attain to honors; he would be Keeper of the Seals, and then, what +wouldn't he do for Provins! + +Such were the pleasant means by which Madame Tiphaine had come to rule +over the little town. Madame Guenee, Monsieur Tiphaine's sister, after +having married her eldest daughter to Monsieur Lesourd, prosecuting +attorney, her second to Monsieur Martener, the doctor, and the third +to Monsieur Auffray, the notary, had herself married Monsieur +Galardon, the collector. Mother and daughters all considered Monsieur +Tiphaine as the richest and ablest man in the family. The prosecuting +attorney had the strongest interest in sending his uncle to Paris, +expecting to step into his shoes as judge of the local court of +Provins. The four ladies formed a sort of court round Madame Tiphaine, +whose ideas and advice they followed on all occasions. Monsieur +Julliard, the eldest son of the old merchant, who had married the only +daughter of a rich farmer, set up a sudden, secret, and disinterested +passion for Madame Tiphaine, that angel descended from the Parisian +skies. The clever Melanie, too clever to involve herself with +Julliard, but quite capable of keeping him in the condition of Amadis +and making the most of his folly, advised him to start a journal, +intending herself to play the part of Egeria. For the last two years, +therefore, Julliard, possessed by his romantic passion, had published +the said newspaper, called the "Bee-hive," which contained articles +literary, archaeological, and medical, written in the family. The +advertisements paid expenses. The subscriptions, two hundred in all, +made the profits. Every now and then melancholy verses, totally +incomprehensible in La Brie, appeared, addressed, "TO HER!!!" with +three exclamation marks. The clan Julliard was thus united to the +other clans, and the salon of Madame Tiphaine became, naturally, the +first in the town. The few aristocrats who lived in Provins were, of +course, apart, and formed a single salon in the Upper town, at the +house of the old Comtesse de Breautey. + +During the first six months of their transplantation, the Rogrons, +favored by their former acquaintance with several of these people, +were received, first by Madame Julliard the elder, and by the former +Madame Guenee, now Madame Galardon (from whom they had bought their +business), and next, after a good deal of difficulty, by Madame +Tiphaine. All parties wished to study the Rogrons before admitting +them. It was difficult, of course, to keep out merchants of the rue +Saint-Denis, originally from Provins, who had returned to the town to +spend their fortunes. Still, the object of all society is to +amalgamate persons of equal wealth, education, manners, customs, +accomplishments, and character. Now the Guepins, Guenees, and +Julliards had a better position among the bourgeoisie than the +Rogrons, whose father had been held in contempt on account of his +private life, and his conduct in the matter of the Auffray property,-- +the facts of which were known to the notary Auffray, Madame Galardon's +son-in-law. + +In the social life of these people, to which Madame Tiphaine had given +a certain tone of elegance, all was homogeneous; the component parts +understood each other, knew each other's characters, and behaved and +conversed in a manner that was agreeable to all. The Rogrons flattered +themselves that being received by Monsieur Garceland, the mayor, they +would soon be on good terms with all the best families in the town. +Sylvie applied herself to learn boston. Rogron, incapable of playing a +game, twirled his thumbs and had nothing to say except to discourse on +his new house. Words seemed to choke him; he would get up, try to +speak, become frightened, and sit down again, with comical distortion +of the lips. Sylvie naively betrayed her natural self at cards. Sharp, +irritable, whining when she lost, insolent when she won, nagging and +quarrelsome, she annoyed her partners as much as her adversaries, and +became the scourge of society. And yet, possessed by a silly, +unconcealed ambition, Rogron and his sister were bent on playing a +part in the society of a little town already in possession of a close +corporation of twelve allied families. Allowing that the restoration +of their house had cost them thirty thousand francs, the brother and +sister possessed between them at least ten thousand francs a year. +This they considered wealth, and with it they endeavored to impress +society, which immediately took the measure of their vulgarity, crass +ignorance, and foolish envy. On the evening when they were presented +to the beautiful Madame Tiphaine, who had already eyed them at Madame +Garceland's and at Madame Julliard the elder's, the queen of the town +remarked to Julliard junior, who stayed a few moments after the rest +of the company to talk with her and her husband:-- + +"You all seem to be taken with those Rogrons." + +"No, no," said Amadis, "they bore my mother and annoy my wife. When +Mademoiselle Sylvie was apprenticed, thirty years ago, to my father, +none of them could endure her." + +"I have a great mind," said Madame Tiphaine, putting her pretty foot +on the bar of the fender, "to make it understood that my salon is not +an inn." + +Julliard raised his eyes to the ceiling, as if to say, "Good heavens? +what wit, what intellect!" + +"I wish my society to be select; and it certainly will not be if I +admit those Rogrons." + +"They have neither heart, nor mind, nor manners"; said Monsieur +Tiphaine. "If, after selling thread for twenty years, as my sister did +for example--" + +"Your sister, my dear," said his wife in a parenthesis, "cannot be out +of place in any salon." + +"--if," he continued, "people are stupid enough not to throw off the +shop and polish their manners, if they don't know any better than to +mistake the Counts of Champagne for the /accounts/ of a wine-shop, as +Rogron did this evening, they had better, in my opinion, stay at +home." + +"They are simply impudent," said Julliard. "To hear them talk you +would suppose there was no other handsome house in Provins but theirs. +They want to crush us; and after all, they have hardly enough to live +on." + +"If it was only the brother," said Madame Tiphaine, "one might put up +with him; he is not so aggressive. Give him a Chinese puzzle and he +will stay in a corner quietly enough; it would take him a whole winter +to find it out. But Mademoiselle Sylvie, with that voice like a hoarse +hyena and those lobster-claws of hands! Don't repeat all this, +Julliard." + +When Julliard had departed the little woman said to her husband:-- + +"I have aborigines enough whom I am forced to receive; these two will +fairly kill me. With your permission, I shall deprive myself of their +society." + +"You are mistress in your own house," replied he; "but that will make +enemies. The Rogrons will fling themselves into the opposition, which +hitherto has had no real strength in Provins. That Rogron is already +intimate with Baron Gouraud and the lawyer Vinet." + +"Then," said Melanie, laughing, "they will do you some service. Where +there are no opponents, there is no triumph. A liberal conspiracy, an +illegal cabal, a struggle of any kind, will bring you into the +foreground." + +The justice looked at his young wife with a sort of alarmed +admiration. + +The next day it was whispered about that the Rogrons had not +altogether succeeded in Madame Tiphaine's salon. That lady's speech +about an inn was immensely admired. It was a whole month before she +returned Mademoiselle Sylvie's visit. Insolence of this kind is very +much noticed in the provinces. + +During the evening which Sylvie had spent at Madame Tiphaine's a +disagreeable scene occurred between herself and old Madame Julliard +while playing boston, apropos of a trick which Sylvie declared the old +lady had made her lose on purpose; for the old maid, who liked to trip +others, could never endure the same game on herself. The next time she +was invited out the mistress took care to make up the card-tables +before she arrived; so that Sylvie was reduced to wandering from table +to table as an onlooker, the players glancing at her with scornful +eyes. At Madame Julliard senior's house, they played whist, a game +Sylvie did not know. + +The old maid at last understood that she was under a ban; but she had +no conception of the reason of it. She fancied herself an object of +jealousy to all these persons. After a time she and her brother +received no invitations, but they still persisted in paying evening +visits. Satirical persons made fun of them,--not spitefully, but +amusingly; inveigling them to talk absurdly about the eggs in their +cornice, and their wonderful cellar of wine, the like of which was not +in Provins. + +Before long the Rogron house was completely finished, and the brother +and sister then resolved to give several sumptuous dinners, as much to +return the civilities they had received as to exhibit their luxury. +The invited guests accepted from curiosity only. The first dinner was +given to the leading personages of the town; to Monsieur and Madame +Tiphaine, with whom, however the Rogrons had never dined; to Monsieur +and Madame Julliard, senior and junior; to Monsieur Lesourd, Monsieur +le cure, and Monsieur and Madame Galardon. It was one of those +interminable provincial dinners, where you sit at table from five to +nine o'clock. Madame Tiphaine had introduced into Provins the Parisian +custom of taking leave as soon as coffee had been served. On this +occasion she had company at home and was anxious to get away. The +Rogrons accompanied her husband and herself to the street door, and +when they returned to the salon, disconcerted at not being able to +keep their chief guests, the rest of the party were preparing to +imitate Madame Tiphaine's fashion with cruel provincial promptness. + +"They won't see our salon lighted up," said Sylvie, "and that's the +show of the house." + +The Rogrons had counted on surprising their guests. It was the first +time any one had been admitted to the now celebrated house, and the +company assembled at Madame Tiphaine's was eagerly awaiting her +opinion of the marvels of the "Rogron palace." + +"Well!" cried little Madame Martener, "you've seen the Louvre; tell us +all about it." + +"All? Well, it would be like the dinner,--not much." + +"But do describe it." + +"Well, to begin with, that front door, the gilded grating of which we +have all admired," said Madame Tiphaine, "opens upon a long corridor +which divides the house unequally; on the right side there is one +window, on the other, two. At the garden end, the corridor opens with +a glass door upon a portico with steps to the lawn, where there's a +sun dial and a plaster statue of Spartacus, painted to imitate bronze. +Behind the kitchen, the builder has put the staircase, and a sort of +larder which we are spared the sight of. The staircase, painted to +imitate black marble with yellow veins, turns upon itself like those +you see in cafes leading from the ground-floor to the entresol. The +balustrade, of walnut with brass ornaments and dangerously slight, was +pointed out to us as one of the seven wonders of the world. The cellar +stairs run under it. On the other side of the corridor is the dining- +room, which communicates by folding-doors with a salon of equal size, +the windows of which look on the garden." + +"Dear me, is there no ante-chamber?" asked Madame Auffray. + +"The corridor, full of draughts, answers for an ante-chamber," replied +Madame Tiphaine. "Our friends have had, they assured us, the eminently +national, liberal, constitutional, and patriotic feeling to use none +but French woods in the house; so the floor in the dining-room is +chestnut, the sideboards, tables, and chairs, of the same. White +calico window-curtains, with red borders, are held back by vulgar red +straps; these magnificent draperies run on wooden curtain rods ending +in brass lion's-paws. Above one of the sideboards hangs a dial +suspended by a sort of napkin in gilded bronze,--an idea that seemed +to please the Rogrons hugely. They tried to make me admire the +invention; all I could manage to say was that if it was ever proper to +wrap a napkin round a dial it was certainly in a dining-room. On the +sideboard were two huge lamps like those on the counter of a +restaurant. Above the other sideboard hung a barometer, excessively +ornate, which seems to play a great part in their existence; Rogron +gazed at it as he might at his future wife. Between the two windows is +a white porcelain stove in a niche overloaded with ornament. The walls +glow with a magnificent paper, crimson and gold, such as you see in +the same restaurants, where, no doubt, the Rogrons chose it. Dinner +was served on white and gold china, with a dessert service of light +blue with green flowers, but they showed us another service in +earthenware for everyday use. Opposite to each sideboard was a large +cupboard containing linen. All was clean, new, and horribly sharp in +tone. However, I admit the dining-room; it has some character, though +disagreeable; it represents that of the masters of the house. But +there is no enduring the five engravings that hang on the walls; the +Minister of the Interior ought really to frame a law against them. One +was Poniatowski jumping into the Elster; the others, Napoleon pointing +a cannon, the defence at Clichy, and the two Mazepas, all in gilt +frames of the vulgarest description,--fit to carry off the prize of +disgust. Oh! how much I prefer Madame Julliard's pastels of fruit, +those excellent Louis XV. pastels, which are in keeping with the old +dining-room and its gray panels,--defaced by age, it is true, but they +possess the true provincial characteristics that go well with old +family silver, precious china, and our simple habits. The provinces +are provinces; they are only ridiculous when they mimic Paris. I +prefer this old salon of my husband's forefathers, with its heavy +curtains of green and white damask, the Louis XV. mantelpiece, the +twisted pier-glasses, the old mirrors with their beaded mouldings, and +the venerable card tables. Yes, I prefer my old Sevres vases in royal +blue, mounted on copper, my clock with those impossible flowers, that +rococco chandelier, and the tapestried furniture, to all the finery of +the Rogron salon." + +"What is the salon like?" said Monsieur Martener, delighted with the +praise the handsome Parisian bestowed so adroitly on the provinces. + +"As for the salon, it is all red,--the red Mademoiselle Sylvie turns +when she loses at cards." + +"Sylvan-red," said Monsieur Tiphaine, whose sparkling saying long +remained in the vocabulary of Provins. + +"Window-curtains, red; furniture, red; mantelpiece, red, veined +yellow, candelabra and clock ditto mounted on bronze, common and heavy +in design,--Roman standards with Greek foliage! Above the clock is +that inevitable good-natured lion which looks at you with a simper, +the lion of ornamentation, with a big ball under his feet, symbol of +the decorative lion, who passes his life holding a black ball,-- +exactly like a deputy of the Left. Perhaps it is meant as a +constitutional myth. The face of the clock is curious. The glass over +the chimney is framed in that new fashion of applied mouldings which +is so trumpery and vulgar. From the ceiling hangs a chandelier +carefully wrapped in green muslin, and rightly too, for it is in the +worst taste, the sharpest tint of bronze with hideous ornaments. The +walls are covered with a red flock paper to imitate velvet enclosed in +panels, each panel decorated with a chromo-lithograph in one of those +frames festooned with stucco flowers to represent wood-carving. The +furniture, in cashmere and elm-wood, consists, with classic +uniformity, of two sofas, two easy-chairs, two armchairs, and six +common chairs. A vase in alabaster, called a la Medicis, kept under +glass stands on a table between the windows; before the windows, which +are draped with magnificent red silk curtains and lace curtains under +them, are card-tables. The carpet is Aubusson, and you may be sure the +Rogrons did not fail to lay hands on that most vulgar of patterns, +large flowers on a red ground. The room looks as if no one ever lived +there; there are no books, no engravings, none of those little knick- +knacks we all have lying about," added Madame Tiphaine, glancing at +her own table covered with fashionable trifles, albums, and little +presents given to her by friends; "and there are no flowers,--it is +all cold and barren, like Mademoiselle Sylvie herself. Buffon says the +style is the man, and certainly salons have styles of their own." + +From this sketch everybody can see the sort of house the brother and +sister lived in, though they can never imagine the absurdities into +which a clever builder dragged the ignorant pair,--new inventions, +fantastic ornaments, a system for preventing smoky chimneys, another +for preventing damp walls; painted marquetry panels on the staircase, +colored glass, superfine locks,--in short, all those vulgarities which +make a house expensive and gratify the bourgeois taste. + +No one chose to visit the Rogrons, whose social plans thus came to +nothing. Their invitations were refused under various excuses,--the +evenings were already engaged to Madame Garceland and the other ladies +of the Provins world. The Rogrons had supposed that all that was +required to gain a position in society was to give a few dinners. But +no one any longer accepted them, except a few young men who went to +make fun of their host and hostess, and certain diners-out who went +everywhere. + +Frightened at the loss of forty thousand francs swallowed up without +profit in what she called her "dear house," Sylvie now set to work to +recover it by economy. She gave no more dinners, which had cost her +forty or fifty francs without the wines, and did not fulfil her social +hopes, hopes that are as hard to realize in the provinces as in Paris. +She sent away her cook, took a country-girl to do the menial work, and +did her own cooking, as she said, "for pleasure." + +Fourteen months after their return to Provins, the brother and sister +had fallen into a solitary and wholly unoccupied condition. Their +banishment from society roused in Sylvie's heart a dreadful hatred +against the Tiphaines, Julliards and all the other members of the +social world of Provins, which she called "the clique," and with whom +her personal relations became extremely cold. She would gladly have +set up a rival clique, but the lesser bourgeoisie was made up of +either small shopkeepers who were only free on Sundays and fete-days, +or smirched individuals like the lawyer Vinet and Doctor Neraud, and +wholly inadmissible Bonapartists like Baron Gouraud, with whom, +however, Rogron thoughtlessly allied himself, though the upper +bourgeoisie had warned him against them. + +The brother and sister were, therefore, forced to sit by the fire of +the stove in the dining-room, talking over their former business, +trying to recall the faces of their customers and other matters they +had intended to forget. By the end of the second winter ennui weighed +heavily on them. They did not know how to get through each day; +sometimes as they went to bed the words escaped them, "There's another +over!" They dragged out the morning by staying in bed, and dressing +slowly. Rogron shaved himself every day, examined his face, consulted +his sister on any changes he thought he saw there, argued with the +servant about the temperature of his hot water, wandered into the +garden, looked to see if the shrubs were budding, sat at the edge of +the water where he had built himself a kiosk, examined the joinery of +his house,--had it sprung? had the walls settled, the panels cracked? +or he would come in fretting about a sick hen, and complaining to his +sister, who was nagging the servant as she set the table, of the +dampness which was coming out in spots upon the plaster. The barometer +was Rogron's most useful bit of property. He consulted it at all +hours, tapped it familiarly like a friend, saying: "Vile weather!" to +which his sister would reply, "Pooh! it is only seasonable." If any +one called to see him the excellence of that instrument was his chief +topic of conversation. + +Breakfast took up some little time; with what deliberation those two +human beings masticated their food! Their digestions were perfect; +cancer of the stomach was not to be dreaded by them. They managed to +get along till twelve o'clock by reading the "Bee-hive" and the +"Constitutionnel." The cost of subscribing to the Parisian paper was +shared by Vinet the lawyer, and Baron Gouraud. Rogron himself carried +the paper to Gouraud, who had been a colonel and lived on the square, +and whose long yarns were Rogron's delight; the latter sometimes +puzzled over the warnings he had received, and asked himself how such +a lively companion could be dangerous. He was fool enough to tell the +colonel he had been warned against him, and to repeat all the "clique" +had said. God knows how the colonel, who feared no one, and was +equally to be dreaded with pistols or a sword, gave tongue about +Madame Tiphaine and her Amadis, and the ministerialists of the Upper +town, persons capable of any villany to get places, and who counted +the votes at elections to suit themselves, etc. + +About two o'clock Rogron started for a little walk. He was quite happy +if some shopkeeper standing on the threshold of his door would stop +him and say, "Well, pere Rogron, how goes it with /you/?" Then he +would talk, and ask for news, and gather all the gossip of the town. +He usually went as far as the Upper town, sometimes to the ravines, +according to the weather. Occasionally he would meet old men taking +their walks abroad like himself. Such meetings were joyful events to +him. There happened to be in Provins a few men weary of Parisian life, +quiet scholars who lived with their books. Fancy the bewilderment of +the ignorant Rogron when he heard a deputy-judge named Desfondrilles, +more of an archaeologist than a magistrate, saying to old Monsieur +Martener, a really learned man, as he pointed to the valley:-- + +"Explain to me why the idlers of Europe go to Spa instead of coming to +Provins, when the springs here have a superior curative value +recognized by the French faculty,--a potential worthy of the medicinal +properties of our roses." + +"That is one of the caprices of caprice," said the old gentleman. +"Bordeaux wine was unknown a hundred years ago. Marechal de Richelieu, +one of the noted men of the last century, the French Alcibiades, was +appointed governor of Guyenne. His lungs were diseased, and, heaven +knows why! the wine of the country did him good and he recovered. +Bordeaux instantly made a hundred millions; the marshal widened its +territory to Angouleme, to Cahors,--in short, to over a hundred miles +of circumference! it is hard to tell where the Bordeaux vineyards end. +And yet they haven't erected an equestrian statue to the marshal in +Bordeaux!" + +"Ah! if anything of that kind happens to Provins," said Monsieur +Desfondrilles, "let us hope that somewhere in the Upper or Lower town +they will set up a bas-relief of the head of Monsieur Opoix, the +re-discoverer of the mineral waters of Provins." + +"My dear friend, the revival of Provins is impossible," replied +Monsieur Martener; "the town was made bankrupt long ago." + +"What!" cried Rogron, opening his eyes very wide. + +"It was once a capital, holding its own against Paris in the twelfth +century, when the Comtes de Champagne held their court here, just as +King Rene held his in Provence," replied the man of learning; "for in +those days civilization, gaiety, poesy, elegance, and women, in short +all social splendors, were not found exclusively in Paris. It is as +difficult for towns and cities as it is for commercial houses to +recover from ruin. Nothing is left to us of the old Provins but the +fragrance of our historical glory and that of our roses,--and a sub- +prefecture!" + +"Ah! what mightn't France be if she had only preserved her feudal +capitals!" said Desfondrilles. "Can sub-prefects replace the poetic, +gallant, warlike race of the Thibaults who made Provins what Ferrara +was to Italy, Weimar to Germany,--what Munich is trying to be to-day." + +"Was Provins ever a capital?" asked Rogron. + +"Why! where do you come from?" exclaimed the archaeologist. "Don't you +know," he added, striking the ground of the Upper town where they +stood with his cane, "don't you know that the whole of this part of +Provins is built on catacombs?" + +"Catacombs?" + +"Yes, catacombs, the extent and height of which are yet undiscovered. +They are like the naves of cathedrals, and there are pillars in them." + +"Monsieur is writing a great archaeological work to explain these +strange constructions," interposed Monsieur Martener, seeing that the +deputy-judge was about to mount his hobby. + +Rogron came home much comforted to know that his house was in the +valley. The crypts of Provins kept him occupied for a week in +explorations, and gave a topic of conversation to the unhappy +celibates for many evenings. + +In the course of these ramblings Rogron picked up various bits of +information about Provins, its inhabitants, their marriages, together +with stale political news; all of which he narrated to his sister. +Scores of times in his walks he would stop and say,--often to the same +person on the same day,--"Well, what's the news?" When he reached home +he would fling himself on the sofa like a man exhausted with labor, +whereas he was only worn out with the burden of his own dulness. +Dinner came at last, after he had gone twenty times to the kitchen and +back, compared the clocks, and opened and shut all the doors of the +house. So long as the brother and sister could spend their evenings in +paying visits they managed to get along till bedtime; but after they +were compelled to stay at home those evenings became like a parching +desert. Sometimes persons passing through the quiet little square +would hear unearthly noises as though the brother were throttling the +sister; a moment's listening would show that they were only yawning. +These two human mechanisms, having nothing to grind between their +rusty wheels, were creaking and grating at each other. The brother +talked of marrying, but only in despair. He felt old and weary; the +thought of a woman frightened him. Sylvie, who began to see the +necessity of having a third person in the home, suddenly remembered +the little cousin, about whom no one in Provins had yet inquired, the +friends of Madame Lorrain probably supposing that mother and child +were both dead. + +Sylvie Rogron never lost anything; she was too thoroughly an old maid +even to mislay the smallest article; but she pretended to have +suddenly found the Lorrains' letter, so as to mention Pierrette +naturally to her brother, who was greatly pleased at the possibility +of having a little girl in the house. Sylvie replied to Madame +Lorrain's letter half affectionately, half commercially, as one may +say, explaining the delay by their change of abode and the settlement +of their affairs. She seemed desirous of receiving her little cousin, +and hinted that Pierrette would perhaps inherit twelve thousand francs +a year if her brother Jerome did not marry. + +Perhaps it is necessary to have been, like Nebuchadnezzar, something +of a wild beast, and shut up in a cage at the Jardin des Plantes +without other prey than the butcher's meat doled out by the keeper, or +a retired merchant deprived of the joys of tormenting his clerks, to +understand the impatience with which the brother and sister awaited +the arrival of their cousin Lorrain. Three days after the letter had +gone, the pair were already asking themselves when she would get +there. + +Sylvie perceived in her spurious benevolence towards her poor cousin a +means of recovering her position in the social world of Provins. She +accordingly went to call on Madame Tiphaine, of whose reprobation she +was conscious, in order to impart the fact of Pierrette's approaching +arrival,--deploring the girl's unfortunate position, and posing +herself as being only too happy to succor her and give her a position +as daughter and future heiress. + +"You have been rather long in discovering her," said Madame Tiphaine, +with a touch of sarcasm. + +A few words said in a low voice by Madame Garceland, while the cards +were being dealt, recalled to the minds of those who heard her the +shameful conduct of old Rogron about the Auffray property; the notary +explained the iniquity. + +"Where is the little girl now?" asked Monsieur Tiphaine, politely. + +"In Brittany," said Rogron. + +"Brittany is a large place," remarked Monsieur Lesourd. + +"Her grandfather and grandmother Lorrain wrote to us--when was that, +my dear?" said Rogron addressing his sister. + +Sylvie, who was just then asking Madame Garceland where she had bought +the stuff for her gown, answered hastily, without thinking of the +effect of her words:-- + +"Before we sold the business." + +"And have you only just answered the letter, mademoiselle?" asked the +notary. + +Sylvie turned as red as a live coal. + +"We wrote to the Institution of Saint-Jacques," remarked Rogron. + +"That is a sort of hospital or almshouse for old people," said +Monsieur Desfondrilles, who knew Nantes. "She can't be there; they +receive no one under sixty." + +"She is there, with her grandmother Lorrain," said Rogron. + +"Her mother had a little fortune, the eight thousand francs which your +father--no, I mean of course your grandfather--left to her," said the +notary, making the blunder intentionally. + +"Ah!" said Rogron, stupidly, not understanding the notary's sarcasm. + +"Then you know nothing about your cousin's position or means?" asked +Monsieur Tiphaine. + +"If Monsieur Rogron had known it," said the deputy-judge, "he would +never have left her all this time in an establishment of that kind. I +remember now that a house in Nantes belonging to Monsieur and Madame +Lorrain was sold under an order of the court, and that Mademoiselle +Lorrain's claim was swallowed up. I know this, for I was commissioner +at the time." + +The notary spoke of Colonel Lorrain, who, had he lived, would have +been much amazed to know that his daughter was in such an institution. +The Rogrons beat a retreat, saying to each other that the world was +very malicious. Sylvie perceived that the news of her benevolence had +missed its effect,--in fact, she had lost ground in all minds; and she +felt that henceforth she was forbidden to attempt an intimacy with the +upper class of Provins. After this evening the Rogrons no longer +concealed their hatred of that class and all its adherents. The +brother told the sister the scandals that Colonel Gouraud and the +lawyer Vinet had put into his head about the Tiphaines, the Guenees, +the Garcelands, the Julliards, and others:-- + +"I declare, Sylvie, I don't see why Madame Tiphaine should turn up her +nose at shopkeeping in the rue Saint-Denis; it is more honest than +what she comes from. Madame Roguin, her mother, is cousin to those +Guillaumes of the 'Cat-playing-ball' who gave up the business to +Joseph Lebas, their son-in-law. Her father is that Roguin who failed +in 1819, and ruined the house of Cesar Birotteau. Madame Tiphaine's +fortune was stolen,--for what else are you to call it when a notary's +wife who is very rich lets her husband make a fraudulent bankruptcy? +Fine doings! and she marries her daughter in Provins to get her out of +the way,--all on account of her own relations with du Tillet. And such +people set up to be proud! Well, well, that's the world!" + +On the day when Jerome Rogron and his sister began to declaim against +"the clique" they were, without being aware of it, on the road to +having a society of their own; their house was to become a rendezvous +for other interests seeking a centre,--those of the hitherto floating +elements of the liberal party in Provins. And this is how it came +about: The launch of the Rogrons in society had been watched with +great curiosity by Colonel Gouraud and the lawyer Vinet, two men drawn +together, first by their ostracism, next by their opinions. They both +professed patriotism and for the same reason,--they wished to become +of consequence. The Liberals in Provins were, so far, confined to one +old soldier who kept a cafe, an innkeeper, Monsieur Cournant a notary, +Doctor Neraud, and a few stray persons, mostly farmers or those who +had bought lands of the public domain. + +The colonel and the lawyer, delighted to lay hands on a fool whose +money would be useful to their schemes, and who might himself, in +certain cases, be made to bell the cat, while his house would serve as +a meeting-ground for the scattered elements of the party, made the +most of the Rogrons' ill-will against the upper classes of the place. +The three had already a slight tie in their united subscription to the +"Constitutionnel"; it would certainly not be difficult for the colonel +to make a Liberal of the ex-mercer, though Rogron knew so little of +politics that he was capable of regarding the exploits of Sergeant +Mercier as those of a brother shopkeeper. + +The expected arrival of Pierrette brought to sudden fruition the +selfish ideas of the two men, inspired as they were by the folly and +ignorance of the celibates. Seeing that Sylvie had lost all chance of +establishing herself in the good society of the place, an afterthought +came to the colonel. Old soldiers have seen so many horrors in all +lands, so many grinning corpses on battle-fields, that no +physiognomies repel them; and Gouraud began to cast his eyes on the +old maid's fortune. This imperial colonel, a short, fat man, wore +enormous rings in ears that were bushy with tufts of hair. His sparse +and grizzled whiskers were called in 1799 "fins." His jolly red face +was rather discolored, like those of all who had lived to tell of the +Beresina. The lower half of his big, pointed stomach marked the +straight line which characterizes a cavalry officer. Gouraud had +commanded the Second Hussars. His gray moustache hid a huge blustering +mouth,--if we may use a term which alone describes that gulf. He did +not eat his food, he engulfed it. A sabre cut had slit his nose, by +which his speech was made thick and very nasal, like that attributed +to Capuchins. His hands, which were short and broad, were of the kind +that make women say: "You have the hands of a rascal." His legs seemed +slender for his torso. In that fat and active body an absolutely +lawless spirit disported itself, and a thorough experience of the +things of life, together with a profound contempt for social +convention, lay hidden beneath the apparent indifference of a soldier. +Colonel Gouraud wore the cross of an officer of the Legion of honor, +and his emoluments from that, together with his salary as a retired +officer, gave him in all about three thousand francs a year. + +The lawyer, tall and thin, had liberal opinions in place of talent, +and his only revenue was the meagre profits of his office. In Provins +lawyers plead their own cases. The court was unfavorable to Vinet on +account of his opinions; consequently, even the farmers who were +Liberals, when it came to lawsuits preferred to employ some lawyer who +was more congenial to the judges. Vinet was regarded with disfavor in +other ways. He was said to have seduced a rich girl in the +neighborhood of Coulommiers, and thus have forced her parents to marry +her to him. Madame Vinet was a Chargeboeuf, an old and noble family of +La Brie, whose name comes from the exploit of a squire during the +expedition of Saint Louis to Egypt. She incurred the displeasure of +her father and mother, who arranged, unknown to Vinet, to leave their +entire fortune to their son, doubtless charging him privately, to pay +over a portion of it to his sister's children. + +Thus the first bold effort of the ambitious man was a failure. Pursued +by poverty, and ashamed not to give his wife the means of making a +suitable appearance, he had made desperate efforts to enter public +life, but the Chargeboeuf family refused him their influence. These +Royalists disapproved, on moral grounds, of his forced marriage; +besides, he was named Vinet, and how could they be expected to protect +a plebian? Thus he was driven from branch to branch when he tried to +get some good out of his marriage. Repulsed by every one, filled with +hatred for the family of his wife, for the government which denied him +a place, for the social world of Provins, which refused to admit him, +Vinet submitted to his fate; but his gall increased. He became a +Liberal in the belief that his fortune might yet be made by the +triumph of the opposition, and he lived in a miserable little house in +the Upper town from which his wife seldom issued. Madame Vinet had +found no one to defend her since her marriage except an old Madame de +Chargeboeuf, a widow with one daughter, who lived at Troyes. The +unfortunate young woman, destined for better things, was absolutely +alone in her home with a single child. + +There are some kinds of poverty which may be nobly accepted and gaily +borne; but Vinet, devoured by ambition, and feeling himself guilty +towards his wife, was full of darkling rage; his conscience grew +elastic; and he finally came to think any means of success +permissible. His young face changed. Persons about the courts were +sometimes frightened as they looked at his viperish, flat head, his +slit mouth, his eyes gleaming through glasses, and heard his sharp, +persistent voice which rasped their nerves. His muddy skin, with its +sickly tones of green and yellow, expressed the jaundice of his balked +ambition, his perpetual disappointments and his hidden wretchedness. +He could talk and argue; he was well-informed and shrewd, and was not +without smartness and metaphor. Accustomed to look at everything from +the standpoint of his own success, he was well fitted for a +politician. A man who shrinks from nothing so long as it is legal, is +strong; and Vinet's strength lay there. + +This future athlete of parliamentary debate, who was destined to share +in proclaiming the dynasty of the house of Orleans had a terrible +influence on Pierrette's fate. At the present moment he was bent on +making for himself a weapon by founding a newspaper at Provins. After +studying the Rogrons at a distance (the colonel aiding him) he had +come to the conclusion that the brother might be made useful. This +time he was not mistaken; his days of poverty were over, after seven +wretched years, when even his daily bread was sometimes lacking. The +day when Gouraud told him in the little square that the Rogrons had +finally quarrelled with the bourgeois aristocracy of the Upper town, +he nudged the colonel in the ribs significantly, and said, with a +knowing look:-- + +"One woman or another--handsome or ugly--/you/ don't care; marry +Mademoiselle Rogron and we can organize something at once." + +"I have been thinking of it," replied Gouraud, "but the fact is they +have sent for the daughter of Colonel Lorrain, and she's their next of +kin." + +"You can get them to make a will in your favor. Ha! you would get a +very comfortable house." + +"As for the little girl--well, well, let's see her," said the colonel, +with a leering and thoroughly wicked look, which proved to a man of +Vinet's quality how little respect the old trooper could feel for any +girl. + + + + IV + + PIERRETTE + +After her grandfather and grandmother entered the sort of hospital in +which they sadly expected to end their days, Pierrette, being young +and proud, suffered so terribly at living there on charity that she +was thankful when she heard she had rich relations. When Brigaut, the +son of her mother's friend the major, and the companion of her +childhood, who was learning his trade as a cabinet-maker at Nantes, +heard of her departure he offered her the money to pay her way to +Paris in the diligence,--sixty francs, the total of his /pour-boires/ +as an apprentice, slowly amassed, and accepted by Pierrette with the +sublime indifference of true affection, showing that in a like case +she herself would be affronted by thanks. + +Brigaut was in the habit of going every Sunday to Saint-Jacques to +play with Pierrette and try to console her. The vigorous young workman +knew the dear delight of bestowing a complete and devoted protection +on an object involuntarily chosen by his heart. More than once he and +Pierrette, sitting on Sundays in a corner of the garden, had +embroidered the veil of the future with their youthful projects; the +apprentice, armed with his plane, scoured the world to make their +fortune, while Pierrette waited. + +In October, 1824, when the child had completed her eleventh year, she +was entrusted by the two old people and by Brigaut, all three +sorrowfully sad, to the conductor of the diligence from Nantes to +Paris, with an entreaty to put her safely on the diligence from Paris +to Provins and to take good care of her. Poor Brigaut! he ran like a +dog after the coach looking at his dear Pierrette as long as he was +able. In spite of her signs he ran over three miles, and when at last +he was exhausted his eyes, wet with tears, still followed her. She, +too, was crying when she saw him no longer running by her, and putting +her head out of the window she watched him, standing stock-still and +looking after her, as the lumbering vehicle disappeared. + +The Lorrains and Brigaut knew so little of life that the girl had not +a penny when she arrived in Paris. The conductor, to whom she had +mentioned her rich friends, paid her expenses at the hotel, and made +the conductor of the Provins diligence pay him, telling him to take +good care of the girl and to see that the charges were paid by the +family, exactly as though she were a case of goods. Four days after +her departure from Nantes, about nine o'clock of a Monday night, a +kind old conductor of the Messageries-royales, took Pierrette by the +hand, and while the porters were discharging in the Grand'Rue the +packages and passengers for Provins, he led the little girl, whose +only baggage was a bundle containing two dresses, two chemises, and +two pairs of stockings, to Mademoiselle Rogron's house, which was +pointed out to him by the director at the coach office. + +"Good-evening, mademoiselle and the rest of the company. I've brought +you a cousin, and here she is; and a nice little girl too, upon my +word. You have forty-seven francs to pay me, and sign my book." + +Mademoiselle Sylvie and her brother were dumb with pleasure and +amazement. + +"Excuse me," said the conductor, "the coach is waiting. Sign my book +and pay me forty-seven francs, sixty centimes, and whatever you please +for myself and the conductor from Nantes; we've taken care of the +little girl as if she were our own; and paid for her beds and her +food, also her fare to Provins, and other little things." + +"Forty-seven francs, twelve sous!" said Sylvie. + +"You are not going to dispute it?" cried the man. + +"Where's the bill?" said Rogron. + +"Bill! look at the book." + +"Stop talking, and pay him," said Sylvie, "You see there's nothing +else to be done." + +Rogron went to get the money, and gave the man forty-seven francs, +twelve sous. + +"And nothing for my comrade and me?" said the conductor. + +Sylvie took two francs from the depths of the old velvet bag which +held her keys. + +"Thank you, no," said the man; "keep 'em yourself. We would rather +care for the little one for her own sake." He picked up his book and +departed, saying to the servant-girl: "What a pair! it seems there are +crocodiles out of Egypt!" + +"Such men are always brutal," said Sylvie, who overhead the words. + +"They took good care of the little girl, anyhow," said Adele with her +hands on her hips. + +"We don't have to live with him," remarked Rogron. + +"Where's the little one to sleep?" asked Adele. + +Such was the arrival of Pierrette Lorrain in the home of her cousins, +who gazed at her with stolid eyes; she was tossed to them like a +package, with no intermediate state between the wretched chamber at +Saint-Jacques and the dining-room of her cousins, which seemed to her +a palace. She was shy and speechless. To all other eyes than those of +the Rogrons the little Breton girl would have seemed enchanting as she +stood there in her petticoat of coarse blue flannel, with a pink +cambric apron, thick shoes, blue stockings, and a white kerchief, her +hands being covered by red worsted mittens edged with white, bought +for her by the conductor. Her dainty Breton cap (which had been washed +in Paris, for the journey from Nantes had rumpled it) was like a halo +round her happy little face. This national cap, of the finest lawn, +trimmed with stiffened lace pleated in flat folds, deserves +description, it was so dainty and simple. The light coming through the +texture and the lace produced a partial shadow, the soft shadow of a +light upon the skin, which gave her the virginal grace that all +painters seek and Leopold Robert found for the Raffaelesque face of +the woman who holds a child in his picture of "The Gleaners." Beneath +this fluted frame of light sparkled a white and rosy and artless face, +glowing with vigorous health. The warmth of the room brought the blood +to the cheeks, to the tips of the pretty ears, to the lips and the end +of the delicate nose, making the natural white of the complexion +whiter still. + +"Well, are you not going to say anything? I am your cousin Sylvie, and +that is your cousin Rogron." + +"Do you want something to eat?" asked Rogron. + +"When did you leave Nantes?" asked Sylvie. + +"Is she dumb?" said Rogron. + +"Poor little dear, she has hardly any clothes," cried Adele, who had +opened the child's bundle, tied up in a handkerchief of the old +Lorrains. + +"Kiss your cousin," said Sylvie. + +Pierrette kissed Rogron. + +"Kiss your cousin," said Rogron. + +Pierrette kissed Sylvie. + +"She is tired out with her journey, poor little thing; she wants to go +to sleep," said Adele. + +Pierrette was overcome with a sudden and invincible aversion for her +two relatives,--a feeling that no one had ever before excited in her. +Sylvie and the maid took her up to bed in the room where Brigaut +afterwards noticed the white cotton curtain. In it was a little bed +with a pole painted blue, from which hung a calico curtain; a walnut +bureau without a marble top, a small table, a looking-glass, a very +common night-table without a door, and three chairs completed the +furniture of the room. The walls, which sloped in front, were hung +with a shabby paper, blue with black flowers. The tiled floor, stained +red and polished, was icy to the feet. There was no carpet except for +a strip at the bedside. The mantelpiece of common marble was adorned +by a mirror, two candelabra in copper-gilt, and a vulgar alabaster cup +in which two pigeons, forming handles, were drinking. + +"You will be comfortable here, my little girl?" said Sylvie. + +"Oh, it's beautiful!" said the child, in her silvery voice. + +"She's not difficult to please," muttered the stout servant. "Sha'n't +I warm her bed?" she asked. + +"Yes," said Sylvie, "the sheets may be damp." + +Adele brought one of her own night-caps when she returned with the +warming-pan, and Pierrette, who had never slept in anything but the +coarsest linen sheets, was amazed at the fineness and softness of the +cotton ones. When she was fairly in bed and tucked up, Adele, going +downstairs with Sylvie, could not refrain from saying, "All she has +isn't worth three francs, mademoiselle." + +Ever since her economical regime began, Sylvie had compelled the maid +to sit in the dining-room so that one fire and one lamp could do for +all; except when Colonel Gouraud and Vinet came, on which occasions +Adele was sent to the kitchen. + +Pierrette's arrival enlivened the rest of the evening. + +"We must get her some clothes to-morrow," said Sylvie; "she has +absolutely nothing." + +"No shoes but those she had on, which weigh a pound," said Adele. + +"That's always so, in their part of the country," remarked Rogron. + +"How she looked at her room! though it really isn't handsome enough +for a cousin of yours, mademoiselle." + +"It is good enough; hold your tongue," said Sylvie. + +"Gracious, what chemises! coarse enough to scratch her skin off; not a +thing can she use here," said Adele, emptying the bundle. + +Master, mistress, and servant were busy till past ten o'clock, +deciding what cambric they should buy for the new chemises, how many +pairs of stockings, how many under-petticoats, and what material, and +in reckoning up the whole cost of Pierrette's outfit. + +"You won't get off under three hundred francs," said Rogron, who could +remember the different prices, and add them up from his former shop- +keeping habit. + +"Three hundred francs!" cried Sylvie. + +"Yes, three hundred. Add it up." + +The brother and sister went over the calculation once more, and found +the cost would be fully three hundred francs, not counting the making. + +"Three hundred francs at one stroke!" said Sylvie to herself as she +got into bed. + +***** + +Pierrette was one of those children of love whom love endows with its +tenderness, its vivacity, its gaiety, its nobility, its devotion. +Nothing had so far disturbed or wounded a heart that was delicate as +that of a fawn, but which was now painfully repressed by the cold +greeting of her cousins. If Brittany had been full of outward misery, +at least it was full of love. The old Lorrains were the most incapable +of merchants, but they were also the most loving, frank, caressing, of +friends, like all who are incautious and free from calculation. Their +little granddaughter had received no other education at Pen-Hoel than +that of nature. Pierrette went where she liked, in a boat on the pond, +or roaming the village and the fields with Jacques Brigaut, her +comrade, exactly as Paul and Virginia might have done. Petted by +everybody, free as air, they gaily chased the joys of childhood. In +summer they ran to watch the fishing, they caught the many-colored +insects, they gathered flowers, they gardened; in winter they made +slides, they built snow-men or huts, or pelted each other with +snowballs. Welcomed by all, they met with smiles wherever they went. + +When the time came to begin their education, disasters came, too. +Jacques, left without means at the death of his father, was +apprenticed by his relatives to a cabinet-maker, and fed by charity, +as Pierrette was soon to be at Saint-Jacques. Until the little girl +was taken with her grandparents to that asylum, she had known nothing +but fond caresses and protection from every one. Accustomed to confide +in so much love, the little darling missed in these rich relatives, so +eagerly desired, the kindly looks and ways which all the world, even +strangers and the conductors of the coaches, had bestowed upon her. +Her bewilderment, already great, was increased by the moral atmosphere +she had entered. The heart turns suddenly cold or hot like the body. +The poor child wanted to cry, without knowing why; but being very +tired she went to sleep. + +The next morning, Pierrette being, like all country children, +accustomed to get up early, was awake two hours before the cook. She +dressed herself, stepping on tiptoe about her room, looked out at the +little square, started to go downstairs and was struck with amazement +by the beauties of the staircase. She stopped to examine all its +details: the painted walls, the brasses, the various ornamentations, +the window fixtures. Then she went down to the garden-door, but was +unable to open it, and returned to her room to wait until Adele should +be stirring. As soon as the woman went to the kitchen Pierrette flew +to the garden and took possession of it, ran to the river, was amazed +at the kiosk, and sat down in it; truly, she had enough to see and to +wonder at until her cousins were up. At breakfast Sylvie said to +her:-- + +"Was it you, little one, who was trotting over my head by daybreak, +and making that racket on the stairs? You woke me so that I couldn't +go to sleep again. You must be very good and quiet, and amuse yourself +without noise. Your cousin doesn't like noise." + +"And you must wipe your feet," said Rogron. "You went into the kiosk +with your dirty shoes, and they've tracked all over the floor. Your +cousin likes cleanliness. A great girl like you ought to be clean. +Weren't you clean in Brittany? But I recollect when I went down there +to buy thread it was pitiable to see the folks,--they were like +savages. At any rate she has a good appetite," added Rogron, looking +at his sister; "one would think she hadn't eaten anything for days." + +Thus, from the very start Pierrette was hurt by the remarks of her two +cousins,--hurt, she knew not why. Her straightforward, open nature, +hitherto left to itself, was not given to reflection. Incapable of +thinking that her cousins were hard, she was fated to find it out +slowly through suffering. After breakfast the brother and sister, +pleased with Pierrette's astonishment at the house and anxious to +enjoy it, took her to the salon to show her its splendors and teach +her not to touch them. Many celibates, driven by loneliness and the +moral necessity of caring for something, substitute factitious +affections for natural ones; they love dogs, cats, canaries, servants, +or their confessor. Rogron and Sylvie had come to the pass of loving +immoderately their house and furniture, which had cost them so dear. +Sylvie began by helping Adele in the mornings to dust and arrange the +furniture, under pretence that she did not know how to keep it looking +as good as new. This dusting was soon a desired occupation to her, and +the furniture, instead of losing its value in her eyes, became ever +more precious. To use things without hurting them or soiling them or +scratching the woodwork or clouding the varnish, that was the problem +which soon became the mania of the old maid's life. Sylvie had a +closet full of bits of wool, wax, varnish, and brushes, which she had +learned to use with the dexterity of a cabinet-maker; she had her +feather dusters and her dusting-cloths; and she rubbed away without +fear of hurting herself,--she was so strong. The glance of her cold +blue eyes, hard as steel, was forever roving over the furniture and +under it, and you could as soon have found a tender spot in her heart +as a bit of fluff under the sofa. + +After the remarks made at Madame Tiphaine's, Sylvie dared not flinch +from the three hundred francs for Pierrette's clothes. During the +first week her time was wholly taken up, and Pierrette's too, by +frocks to order and try on, chemises and petticoats to cut out and +have made by a seamstress who went out by the day. Pierrette did not +know how to sew. + +"That's pretty bringing up!" said Rogron. "Don't you know how to do +anything, little girl?" + +Pierrette, who knew nothing but how to love, made a pretty, childish +gesture. + +"What did you do in Brittany?" asked Rogron. + +"I played," she answered, naively. "Everybody played with me. +Grandmamma and grandpapa they told me stories. Ah! they all loved me!" + +"Hey!" said Rogron; "didn't you take it easy!" + +Pierrette opened her eyes wide, not comprehending. + +"She is as stupid as an owl," said Sylvie to Mademoiselle Borain, the +best seamstress in Provins. + +"She's so young," said the workwoman, looking kindly at Pierrette, +whose delicate little muzzle was turned up to her with a coaxing look. + +Pierrette preferred the sewing-women to her relations. She was +endearing in her ways with them, she watched their work, and made them +those pretty speeches that seem like the flowers of childhood, and +which her cousin had already silenced, for that gaunt woman loved to +impress those under her with salutary awe. The sewing-women were +delighted with Pierrette. Their work, however, was not carried on +without many and loud grumblings. + +"That child will make us pay through the nose!" cried Sylvie to her +brother. + +"Stand still, my dear, and don't plague us; it is all for you and not +for me," she would say to Pierrette when the child was being measured. +Sometimes it was, when Pierrette would ask the seamstress some +question, "Let Mademoiselle Borain do her work, and don't talk to her; +it is not you who are paying for her time." + +"Mademoiselle," said Mademoiselle Borain, "am I to back-stitch this?" + +"Yes, do it firmly; I don't want to be making such an outfit as this +every day." + +Sylvie put the same spirit of emulation into Pierrette's outfit that +she had formerly put into the house. She was determined that her +cousin should be as well dressed as Madame Garceland's little girl. +She bought the child fashionable boots of bronzed kid like those the +little Tiphaines wore, very fine cotton stockings, a corset by the +best maker, a dress of blue reps, a pretty cape lined with white silk, +--all this that she, Sylvie, might hold her own against the children +of the women who had rejected her. The underclothes were quite in +keeping with the visible articles of dress, for Sylvie feared the +examining eyes of the various mothers. Pierrette's chemises were of +fine Madapolam calico. Mademoiselle Borain had mentioned that the sub- +prefect's little girls wore cambric drawers, embroidered and trimmed +in the latest style. Pierrette had the same. Sylvie ordered for her a +charming little drawn bonnet of blue velvet lined with white satin, +precisely like the one worn by Dr. Martener's little daughter. + +Thus attired, Pierrette was the most enchanting little girl in all +Provins. On Sunday, after church, all the ladies kissed her; Mesdames +Tiphaine, Garceland, Galardon, Julliard, and the rest fell in love +with the sweet little Breton girl. This enthusiasm was deeply +flattering to old Sylvie's self-love; she regarded it as less due to +Pierrette than to her own benevolence. She ended, however, in being +affronted by her cousin's success. Pierrette was constantly invited +out, and Sylvie allowed her to go, always for the purpose of +triumphing over "those ladies." Pierrette was much in demand for games +or little parties and dinners with their own little girls. She had +succeeded where the Rogrons had failed; and Mademoiselle Sylvie soon +grew indignant that Pierrette was asked to other children's houses +when those children never came to hers. The artless little thing did +not conceal the pleasure she found in her visits to these ladies, +whose affectionate manners contrasted strangely with the harshness of +her two cousins. A mother would have rejoiced in the happiness of her +little one, but the Rogrons had taken Pierrette for their own sakes, +not for hers; their feelings, far from being parental, were dyed in +selfishness and a sort of commercial calculation. + +The handsome outfit, the fine Sunday dresses, and the every-day frocks +were the beginning of Pierrette's troubles. Like all children free to +amuse themselves, who are accustomed to follow the dictates of their +own lively fancies, she was very hard on her clothes, her shoes, and +above all on those embroidered drawers. A mother when she reproves her +child thinks only of the child; her voice is gentle; she does not +raise it unless driven to extremities, or when the child is much in +fault. But here, in this great matter of Pierrette's clothes, the +cousins' money was the first consideration; their interests were to be +thought of, not the child's. Children have the perceptions of the +canine race for the sentiments of those who rule them; they know +instinctively whether they are loved or only tolerated. Pure and +innocent hearts are more distressed by shades of difference than by +contrasts; a child does not understand evil, but it knows when the +instinct of the good and the beautiful which nature has implanted in +it is shocked. The lectures which Pierrette now drew upon herself on +propriety of behavior, modesty, and economy were merely the corollary +of the one theme, "Pierrette will ruin us." + +These perpetual fault-findings, which were destined to have a fatal +result for the poor child, brought the two celibates back to the old +beaten track of their shop-keeping habits, from which their removal to +Provins had parted them, and in which their natures were now to expand +and flourish. Accustomed in the old days to rule and to make +inquisitions, to order about and reprove their clerks sharply, Rogron +and his sister had actually suffered for want of victims. Little minds +need to practise despotism to relieve their nerves, just as great +souls thirst for equality in friendship to exercise their hearts. +Narrow natures expand by persecuting as much as others through +beneficence; they prove their power over their fellows by cruel +tyranny as others do by loving kindness; they simply go the way their +temperaments drive them. Add to this the propulsion of self-interest +and you may read the enigma of most social matters. + +Thenceforth Pierrette became a necessity to the lives of her cousins. +From the day of her coming their minds were occupied,--first, with her +outfit, and then with the novelty of a third presence. But every new +thing, a sentiment and even a tyranny, is moulded as time goes on into +fresh shapes. Sylvie began by calling Pierrette "my dear," or "little +one." Then she abandoned the gentler terms for "Pierrette" only. Her +reprimands, at first only cross, became sharp and angry; and no sooner +were their feet on the path of fault-finding than the brother and +sister made rapid strides. They were no longer bored to death! It was +not their deliberate intention to be wicked and cruel; it was simply +the blind instinct of an imbecile tyranny. The pair believed they were +doing Pierrette a service, just as they had thought their harshness a +benefit to their apprentices. + +Pierrette, whose true and noble and extreme sensibility was the +antipodes of the Rogrons' hardness, had a dread of being scolded; it +wounded her so sharply that the tears would instantly start in her +beautiful, pure eyes. She had a great struggle with herself before she +could repress the enchanting sprightliness which made her so great a +favorite elsewhere. After a time she displayed it only in the homes of +her little friends. By the end of the first month she had learned to +be passive in her cousins' house,--so much so that Rogron one day +asked her if she was ill. At that sudden question, she ran to the end +of the garden, and stood crying beside the river, into which her tears +may have fallen as she herself was about to fall into the social +torrent. + +One day, in spite of all her care, she tore her best reps frock at +Madame Tiphaine's, where she was spending a happy day. The poor child +burst into tears, foreseeing the cruel things which would be said to +her at home. Questioned by her friends, she let fall a few words about +her terrible cousin. Madame Tiphaine happened to have some reps +exactly like that of the frock, and she put in a new breadth herself. +Mademoiselle Rogron found out the trick, as she expressed it, which +the little devil had played her. From that day forth she refused to +let Pierrette go to any of "those women's" houses. + +The life the poor girl led in Provins was divided into three distinct +phases. The first, already shown, in which she had some joy mingled +with the cold kindness of her cousins and their sharp reproaches, +lasted three months. Sylvie's refusal to let her go to her little +friends, backed by the necessity of beginning her education, ended the +first phase of her life at Provins, the only period when that life was +bearable to her. + +These events, produced at the Rogrons by Pierrette's presence, were +studied by Vinet and the colonel with the caution of foxes preparing +to enter a poultry-yard and disturbed by seeing a strange fowl. They +both called from time to time,--but seldom, so as not to alarm the old +maid; they talked with Rogron under various pretexts, and made +themselves masters of his mind with an affectation of reserve and +modesty which the great Tartuffe himself would have respected. The +colonel and the lawyer were spending the evening with Rogron on the +very day when Sylvie had refused in bitter language to let Pierrette +go again to Madame Tiphaine's, or elsewhere. Being told of this +refusal the colonel and the lawyer looked at each other with an air +which seemed to say that they at least knew Provins well. + +"Madame Tiphaine intended to insult you," said the lawyer. "We have +long been warning Rogron of what would happen. There's no good to be +got from those people." + +"What can you expect from the anti-national party!" cried the colonel, +twirling his moustache and interrupting the lawyer. "But, +mademoiselle, if we had tried to warn you from those people you might +have supposed we had some malicious motive in what we said. If you +like a game of cards in the evening, why don't you have it at home; +why not play your boston here, in your own house? Is it impossible to +fill the places of those idiots, the Julliards and all the rest of +them? Vinet and I know how to play boston, and we can easily find a +fourth. Vinet might present his wife to you; she is charming, and, +what is more, a Chargeboeuf. You will not be so exacting as those apes +of the Upper town; /you/ won't require a good little housewife, who is +compelled by the meanness of her family to do her own work, to dress +like a duchess. Poor woman, she has the courage of a lion and the +meekness of a lamb." + +Sylvie Rogron showed her long yellow teeth as she smiled on the +colonel, who bore the sight heroically and assumed a flattered air. + +"If we are only four we can't play boston every night," said Sylvie. + +"Why not? What do you suppose an old soldier of the Empire like me +does with himself? And as for Vinet, his evenings are always free. +Besides, you'll have plenty of other visitors; I warrant you that," he +added, with a rather mysterious air. + +"What you ought to do," said Vinet, "is to take an open stand against +the ministerialists of Provins and form an opposition to them. You +would soon see how popular that would make you; you would have a +society about you at once. The Tiphaines would be furious at an +opposition salon. Well, well, why not laugh at others, if others laugh +at you?--and they do; the clique doesn't mince matters in talking +about you." + +"How's that?" demanded Sylvie. + +In the provinces there is always a valve or a faucet through which +gossip leaks from one social set to another. Vinet knew all the slurs +cast upon the Rogrons in the salons from which they were now excluded. +The deputy-judge and archaeologist Desfondrilles belonged to neither +party. With other independents like him, he repeated what he heard on +both sides and Vinet made the most of it. The lawyer's spiteful tongue +put venom into Madame Tiphaine's speeches, and by showing Rogron and +Sylvie the ridicule they had brought upon themselves he roused an +undying spirit of hatred in those bitter natures, which needed an +object for their petty passions. + +A few days later Vinet brought his wife, a well-bred woman, neither +pretty nor plain, timid, very gentle, and deeply conscious of her +false position. Madame Vinet was fair-complexioned, faded by the cares +of her poor household, and very simply dressed. No woman could have +pleased Sylvie more. Madame Vinet endured her airs, and bent before +them like one accustomed to subjection. On the poor woman's rounded +brow and delicately timid cheek and in her slow and gentle glance, +were the traces of deep reflection, of those perceptive thoughts which +women who are accustomed to suffer bury in total silence. + +The influence of the colonel (who now displayed to Sylvie the graces +of a courtier, in marked contradiction to his usual military +brusqueness), together with that of the astute Vinet, was soon to harm +the Breton child. Shut up in the house, no longer allowed to go out +except in company with her old cousin, Pierrette, that pretty little +squirrel, was at the mercy of the incessant cry, "Don't touch that, +child, let that alone!" She was perpetually being lectured on her +carriage and behavior; if she stooped or rounded her shoulders her +cousin would call to her to be as erect as herself (Sylvie was rigid +as a soldier presenting arms to his colonel); sometimes indeed the +ill-natured old maid enforced the order by slaps on the back to make +the girl straighten up. + +Thus the free and joyous little child of the Marais learned by degrees +to repress all liveliness and to make herself, as best she could, an +automaton. + + + + V + + HISTORY OF POOR COUSINS IN THE HOME OF RICH ONES + +One evening, which marked the beginning of Pierrette's second phase of +life in her cousin's house, the child, whom the three guests had not +seen during the evening, came into the room to kiss her relatives and +say good-night to the company. Sylvie turned her cheek coldly to the +pretty creature, as if to avoid kissing her. The motion was so cruelly +significant that the tears sprang to Pierrette's eyes. + +"Did you prick yourself, little girl?" said the atrocious Vinet. + +"What is the matter?" asked Sylvie, severely. + +"Nothing," said the poor child, going up to Rogron. + +"Nothing?" said Sylvie, "that's nonsense; nobody cries for nothing." + +"What is it, my little darling?" said Madame Vinet. + +"My rich cousin isn't as kind to me as my poor grandmother was," +sobbed Pierrette. + +"Your grandmother took your money," said Sylvie, "and your cousin will +leave you hers." + +The colonel and the lawyer glanced at each other. + +"I would rather be robbed and loved," said Pierrette. + +"Then you shall be sent back whence you came." + +"But what has the dear little thing done?" asked Madame Vinet. + +Vinet gave his wife the terrible, fixed, cold look with which men +enforce their absolute dominion. The hapless helot, punished +incessantly for not having the one thing that was wanted of her, a +fortune, took up her cards. + +"What has she done?" said Sylvie, throwing up her head with such +violence that the yellow wall-flowers in her cap nodded. "She is +always looking about to annoy us. She opened my watch to see the +inside, and meddled with the wheel and broke the mainspring. +Mademoiselle pays no heed to what is said to her. I am all day long +telling her to take care of things, and I might just as well talk to +that lamp." + +Pierrette, ashamed at being reproved before strangers, crept softly +out of the room. + +"I am thinking all the time how to subdue that child," said Rogron. + +"Isn't she old enough to go to school?" asked Madame Vinet. + +Again she was silenced by a look from her husband, who had been +careful to tell her nothing of his own or the colonel's schemes. + +"This is what comes of taking charge of other people's children!" +cried the colonel. "You may still have some of your own, you or your +brother. Why don't you both marry?" + +Sylvie smiled agreeably on the colonel. For the first time in her life +she met a man to whom the idea that she could marry did not seem +absurd. + +"Madame Vinet is right," cried Rogron; "perhaps teaching would keep +Pierrette quiet. A master wouldn't cost much." + +The colonel's remark so preoccupied Sylvie that she made no answer to +her brother. + +"If you are willing to be security for that opposition journal I was +talking to you about," said Vinet, "you will find an excellent master +for the little cousin in the managing editor; we intend to engage that +poor schoolmaster who lost his employment through the encroachments of +the clergy. My wife is right; Pierrette is a rough diamond that wants +polishing." + +"I thought you were a baron," said Sylvie to the colonel, while the +cards were being dealt, and after a long pause in which they had all +been rather thoughtful. + +"Yes; but when I was made baron, in 1814, after the battle of Nangis, +where my regiment performed miracles, I had money and influence enough +to secure the rank. But now my barony is like the grade of general +which I held in 1815,--it needs a revolution to give it back to me." + +"If you will secure my endorsement by a mortgage," said Rogron, +answering Vinet after long consideration, "I will give it." + +"That can easily be arranged," said Vinet. "The new paper will soon +restore the colonel's rights, and make your salon more powerful in +Provins than those of Tiphaine and company." + +"How so?" asked Sylvie. + +While his wife was dealing and Vinet himself explaining the importance +they would all gain by the publication of an independent newspaper, +Pierrette was dissolved in tears; her heart and her mind were one in +this matter; she felt and knew that her cousin was more to blame than +she was. The little country girl instinctively understood that charity +and benevolence ought to be a complete offering. She hated her +handsome frocks and all the things that were made for her; she was +forced to pay too dearly for such benefits. She wept with vexation at +having given cause for complaint against her, and resolved to behave +in future in such a way as to compel her cousins to find no further +fault with her. The thought then came into her mind how grand Brigaut +had been in giving her all his savings without a word. Poor child! she +fancied her troubles were now at their worst; she little knew that +other misfortunes were even now being planned for her in the salon. + +A few days later Pierrette had a writing-master. She was taught to +read, write, and cipher. Enormous injury was thus supposed to be done +to the Rogrons' house. Ink-spots were found on the tables, on the +furniture, on Pierrette's clothes; copy-books and pens were left +about; sand was scattered everywhere, books were torn and dog's-eared +as the result of these lessons. She was told in harsh terms that she +would have to earn her own living, and not be a burden to others. As +she listened to these cruel remarks Pierrette's throat contracted +violently with acute pain, her heart throbbed. She was forced to +restrain her tears, or she was scolded for weeping and told it was an +insult to the kindness of her magnanimous cousins. Rogron had found +the life that suited him. He scolded Pierrette as he used to scold his +clerks; he would call her when at play, and compel her to study; he +made her repeat her lessons, and became himself the almost savage +master of the poor child. Sylvie, on her side, considered it a duty to +teach Pierrette the little that she knew herself about women's work. +Neither Rogron nor his sister had the slightest softness in their +natures. Their narrow minds, which found real pleasure in worrying the +poor child, passed insensibly from outward kindness to extreme +severity. This severity was necessitated, they believed, by what they +called the self-will of the child, which had not been broken when +young and was very obstinate. Her masters were ignorant how to give to +their instructions a form suited to the intelligence of the pupil,--a +thing, by the bye, which marks the difference between public and +private education. The fault was far less with Pierrette than with her +cousins. It took her an infinite length of time to learn the +rudiments. She was called stupid and dull, clumsy and awkward for mere +nothings. Incessantly abused in words, the child suffered still more +from the harsh looks of her cousins. She acquired the doltish ways of +a sheep; she dared not do anything of her own impulse, for all she did +was misinterpreted, misjudged, and ill-received. In all things she +awaited silently the good pleasure and the orders of her cousins, +keeping her thoughts within her own mind and sheltering herself behind +a passive obedience. Her brilliant colors began to fade. Sometimes she +complained of feeling ill. When her cousin asked, "Where?" the poor +little thing, who had pains all over her, answered, "Everywhere." + +"Nonsense! who ever heard of any one suffering everywhere?" cried +Sylvie. "If you suffered everywhere you'd be dead." + +"People suffer in their chests," said Rogron, who liked to hear +himself harangue, "or they have toothache, headache, pains in their +feet or stomach, but no one has pains everywhere. What do you mean by +everywhere? I can tell you; 'everywhere' means /nowhere/. Don't you +know what you are doing?--you are complaining for complaining's sake." + +Pierrette ended by total silence, seeing how all her girlish remarks, +the flowers of her dawning intelligence, were replied to with ignorant +commonplaces which her natural good sense told her were ridiculous. + +"You complain," said Rogron, "but you've got the appetite of a monk." + +The only person who did not bruise the delicate little flower was the +fat servant woman, Adele. Adele would go up and warm her bed,--doing +it on the sly after a certain evening when Sylvie had scolded her for +giving that comfort to the child. + +"Children should be hardened, to give them strong constitutions. Am I +and my brother the worse for it?" said Sylvie. "You'll make Pierrette +a /peakling/"; this was a word in the Rogron vocabulary which meant a +puny and suffering little being. + +The naturally endearing ways of the angelic child were treated as +dissimulation. The fresh, pure blossoms of affection which bloomed +instinctively in that young soul were pitilessly crushed. Pierrette +suffered many a cruel blow on the tender flesh of her heart. If she +tried to soften those ferocious natures by innocent, coaxing wiles +they accused her of doing it with an object. "Tell me at once what you +want?" Rogron would say, brutally; "you are not coaxing me for +nothing." + +Neither brother nor sister believed in affection, and Pierrette's +whole being was affection. Colonel Gouraud, anxious to please +Mademoiselle Rogron, approved of all she did about Pierrette. Vinet +also encouraged them in what they said against her. He attributed all +her so-called misdeeds to the obstinacy of the Breton character, and +declared that no power, no will, could ever conquer it. Rogron and his +sister were so shrewdly flattered by the two manoeuvrers that the +former agreed to go security for the "Courrier de Provins," and the +latter invested five thousand francs in the enterprise. + +On this, the colonel and lawyer took the field. They got a hundred +shares, of five hundred francs each, taken among the farmers and +others called independents, and also among those who had bought lands +of the national domains,--whose fears they worked upon. They even +extended their operations throughout the department and along its +borders. Each shareholder of course subscribed to the paper. The +judicial advertisements were divided between the "Bee-hive" and the +"Courrier." The first issue of the latter contained a pompous eulogy +on Rogron. He was presented to the community as the Laffitte of +Provins. The public mind having thus received an impetus in this new +direction, it was manifest, of course, that the coming elections would +be contested. Madame Tiphaine, whose highest hope was to take her +husband to Paris as deputy, was in despair. After reading an article +in the new paper aimed at her and at Julliard junior, she remarked: +"Unfortunately for me, I forgot that there is always a scoundrel close +to a dupe, and that fools are magnets to clever men of the fox breed." + +As soon as the "Courrier" was fairly launched on a radius of fifty +miles, Vinet bought a new coat and decent boots, waistcoats, and +trousers. He set up the gray slouch hat sacred to liberals, and showed +his linen. His wife took a servant, and appeared in public dressed as +the wife of a prominent man should be; her caps were pretty. Vinet +proved grateful--out of policy. He and his friend Cournant, the +liberal notary and the rival of the ministerial notary Auffray, became +the close advisers of the Rogrons, to whom they were able to do a +couple of signal services. The leases granted by old Rogron to their +father in 1815, when matters were at a low ebb, were about to expire. +Horticulture and vegetable gardening had developed enormously in the +neighborhood of Provins. The lawyer and notary set to work to enable +the Rogrons to increase their rentals. Vinet won two lawsuits against +two districts on a question of planting trees, which involved five +hundred poplars. The proceeds of the poplars, added to the savings of +the brother and sister, who for the last three years had laid by six +thousand a year at high interest, was wisely invested in the purchase +of improved lands. Vinet also undertook and carried out the ejectment +of certain peasants to whom the elder Rogron had lent money on their +farms, and who had strained every nerve to pay off the debt, but in +vain. The cost of the Rogrons' fine house was thus in a measure +recouped. Their landed property, lying around Provins and chosen by +their father with the sagacious eye of an innkeeper, was divided into +small holdings, the largest of which did not exceed five acres, and +rented to safe tenants, men who owned other parcels of land, that were +ample security for their leases. These investments brought in, by +1826, five thousand francs a year. Taxes were charged to the tenants, +and there were no buildings needing insurance or repairs. + +By the end of the second period of Pierrette's stay in Provins life +had become so hard for her, the cold indifference of all who came to +the house, the silly fault-finding, and the total absence of affection +on the part of her cousins grew so bitter, she was conscious of a +chill dampness like that of a grave creeping round her, that the bold +idea of escaping, on foot and without money, to Brittany and to her +grandparents took possession of her mind. Two events hindered her from +attempting it. Old Lorrain died, and Rogron was appointed guardian of +his little cousin. If the grandmother had died first, we may believe +that Rogron, advised by Vinet, would have claimed Pierrette's eight +thousand francs and reduced the old man to penury. + +"You may, perhaps, inherit from Pierrette," said Vinet, with a horrid +smile. "Who knows who may live and who may die?" + +Enlightened by that remark, Rogron gave old Madame Lorrain no peace +until she had secured to Pierrette the reversion of the eight thousand +francs at her death. + +Pierrette was deeply shocked by these events. She was on the point of +making her first communion,--another reason for resigning the hope of +escape from Provins. This ceremony, simple and customary as it was, +led to great changes in the Rogron household. Sylvie learned that +Monsieur le cure Peroux was instructing the little Julliards, +Lesourds, Garcelands, and the rest. She therefore made it a point of +honor that Pierrette should be instructed by the vicar himself, +Monsieur Habert, a priest who was thought to belong to the +/Congregation/, very zealous for the interests of the Church, and much +feared in Provins,--a man who hid a vast ambition beneath the +austerity of stern principles. The sister of this priest, an unmarried +woman about thirty years of age, kept a school for young ladies. +Brother and sister looked alike; both were thin, yellow, black-haired, +and bilious. + +Like a true Breton girl, cradled in the practices and poetry of +Catholicism, Pierrette opened her heart and ears to the words of this +imposing priest. Sufferings predispose the mind to devotion, and +nearly all young girls, impelled by instinctive tenderness, are +inclined to mysticism, the deepest aspect of religion. The priest +found good soil in which to sow the seed of the Gospel and the dogmas +of the Church. He completely changed the current of the girl's +thoughts. Pierrette loved Jesus Christ in the light in which he is +presented to young girls at the time of their first communion, as a +celestial bridegroom; her physical and moral sufferings gained a +meaning for her; she saw the finger of God in all things. Her soul, so +cruelly hurt although she could not accuse her cousins of actual +wrong, took refuge in that sphere to which all sufferers fly on the +wings of the cardinal virtues,--Faith, Hope, Charity. She abandoned +her thoughts of escape. Sylvie, surprised by the transformation +Monsieur Habert had effected in Pierrette, was curious to know how it +had been done. And it thus came about that the austere priest, while +preparing Pierrette for her first communion, also won to God the +hitherto erring soul of Mademoiselle Sylvie. Sylvie became pious. +Jerome Rogron, on whom the so-called Jesuit could get no grip (for +just then the influence of His Majesty the late /Constitutionnel/ the +First was more powerful over weaklings than the influence of the +Church), Jerome Rogron remained faithful to Colonel Gouraud, Vinet, +and Liberalism. + +Mademoiselle Rogron naturally made the acquaintance of Mademoiselle +Habert, with whom she sympathized deeply. The two spinsters loved each +other as sisters. Mademoiselle Habert offered to take Pierrette into +her school to spare Sylvie the annoyance of her education; but the +brother and sister both declared that Pierrette's absence would make +the house too lonely; their attachment to their little cousin seemed +excessive. + +When Gouraud and Vinet became aware of the advent of Mademoiselle +Habert on the scene they concluded that the ambitious priest her +brother had the same matrimonial plan for his sister that the colonel +was forming for himself and Sylvie. + +"Your sister wants to get you married," said Vinet to Rogron. + +"With whom?" asked Rogron. + +"With that old sorceress of a schoolmistress," cried the colonel, +twirling his moustache. + +"She hasn't said anything to me about it," said Rogron, naively. + +So thorough an old maid as Sylvie was certain to make good progress in +the way of salvation. The influence of the priest would as certainly +increase, and in the end affect Rogron, over whom Sylvie had great +power. The two Liberals, who were naturally alarmed, saw plainly that +if the priest were resolved to marry his sister to Rogron (a far more +suitable marriage than that of Sylvie to the colonel) he could then +drive Sylvie in extreme devotion to the Church, and put Pierrette in a +convent. They might therefore lose eighteen months' labor in flattery +and meannesses of all sorts. Their minds were suddenly filled with a +bitter, silent hatred to the priest and his sister, though they felt +the necessity of living on good terms with them in order to track +their manoeuvres. Monsieur and Mademoiselle Habert, who could play +both whist and boston, now came every evening to the Rogrons. The +assiduity of the one pair induced the assiduity of the other. The +colonel and lawyer felt that they were pitted against adversaries who +were fully as strong as they,--a presentiment that was shared by the +priest and his sister. The situation soon became that of a battle- +field. Precisely as the colonel was enabling Sylvie to taste the +unhoped-for joys of being sought in marriage, so Mademoiselle Habert +was enveloping the timid Rogron in the cotton-wool of her attentions, +words, and glances. Neither side could utter that grand word of +statesmanship, "Let us divide!" for each wanted the whole prey. + +The two clever foxes of the Opposition made the mistake of pulling the +first trigger. Vinet, under the spur of self-interest, bethought +himself of his wife's only friends, and looked up Mademoiselle de +Chargeboeuf and her mother. The two women were living in poverty at +Troyes on two thousand francs a year. Mademoiselle Bathilde de +Chargeboeuf was one of those fine creatures who believe in marriage +for love up to their twenty-fifth year, and change their opinion when +they find themselves still unmarried. Vinet managed to persuade Madame +de Chargeboeuf to join her means to his and live with his family in +Provins, where Bathilde, he assured her, could marry a fool named +Rogron, and, clever as she was, take her place in the best society of +the place. + +The arrival of Madame and Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf in the lawyer's +household was a great reinforcement for the liberal party; and it +created consternation among the aristocrats of Provins and also in the +Tiphaine clique. Madame de Breautey, horrified to see two women of +rank so misled, begged them to come to her. She was shocked that the +royalists of Troyes had so neglected the mother and daughter, whose +situation she now learned for the first time. + +"How is it that no old country gentleman has married that dear girl, +who is cut out for a lady of the manor?" she said. "They have let her +run to seed, and now she is to be flung at the head of a Rogron!" + +She ransacked the whole department but did not succeed in finding any +gentleman willing to marry a girl whose mother had only two thousand +francs a year. The "clique" and the subprefect also looked about them +with the same object, but they were all too late. Madame de Breautey +made terrible charges against the selfishness which degraded France,-- +the consequence, she said, of materialism, and of the importance now +given by the laws to money: nobility was no longer of value! nor +beauty either! Such creatures as the Rogrons, the Vinets, could stand +up and fight with the King of France! + +Bathilde de Chargeboeuf had not only the incontestable superiority of +beauty over her rival, but that of dress as well. She was dazzlingly +fair. At twenty-five her shoulders were fully developed, and the +curves of her beautiful figure were exquisite. The roundness of her +throat, the purity of its lines, the wealth of her golden hair, the +charming grace of her smile, the distinguished carriage of her head, +the character of her features, the fine eyes finely placed beneath a +well-formed brow, her every motion, noble and high-bred, and her light +and graceful figure,--all were in harmony. Her hands were beautiful, +and her feet slender. Health gave her, perhaps, too much the look of a +handsome barmaid. "But that can't be a defect in the eyes of a +Rogron," sighed Madame Tiphaine. Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf's dress +when she made her first appearance in Provins at the Rogrons' house +was very simple. Her brown merino gown edged with green embroidery was +worn low-necked; but a tulle fichu, carefully drawn down by hidden +strings, covered her neck and shoulders, though it opened a little in +front, where its folds were caught together with a /sevigne/. Beneath +this delicate fabric Bathilde's beauties seemed all the more enticing +and coquettish. She took off her velvet bonnet and her shawl on +arriving, and showed her pretty ears adorned with what were then +called "ear-drops" in gold. She wore a little /jeannette/--a black +velvet ribbon with a heart attached--round her throat, where it shone +like the jet ring which fantastic nature had fastened round the tail +of a white angora cat. She knew all the little tricks of a girl who +seeks to marry; her fingers arranged her curls which were not in the +least out of order; she entreated Rogron to fasten a cuff-button, thus +showing him her wrist, a request which that dazzled fool rudely +refused, hiding his emotions under the mask of indifference. The +timidity of the only love he was ever to feel in the whole course of +his life took an external appearance of dislike. Sylvie and her friend +Celeste Habert were deceived by it; not so Vinet, the wise head of +this doltish circle, among whom no one really coped with him but the +priest,--the colonel being for a long time his ally. + +On the other hand the colonel was behaving to Sylvie very much as +Bathilde behaved to Rogron. He put on a clean shirt every evening and +wore velvet stocks, which set off his martial features and the +spotless white of his collar. He adopted the fashion of white pique +waistcoats, and caused to be made for him a new surtout of blue cloth, +on which his red rosette glowed finely; all this under pretext of +doing honor to the new guests Madame and Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf. +He even refrained from smoking for two hours previous to his +appearance in the Rogrons' salon. His grizzled hair was brushed in a +waving line across a cranium which was ochre in tone. He assumed the +air and manner of a party leader, of a man who was preparing to drive +out the enemies of France, the Bourbons, on short, to beat of drum. + +The satanic lawyer and the wily colonel played the priest and his +sister a more cruel trick than even the importation of the beautiful +Madame de Chargeboeuf, who was considered by all the Liberal party and +by Madame de Breautey and her aristocratic circle to be far handsomer +than Madame Tiphaine. These two great statesmen of the little +provincial town made everybody believe that the priest was in sympathy +with their ideas; so that before long Provins began to talk of him as +a liberal ecclesiastic. As soon as this news reached the bishop +Monsieur Habert was sent for and admonished to cease his visits to the +Rogrons; but his sister continued to go there. Thus the salon Rogron +became a fixed fact and a constituted power. + +Before the year was out political intrigues were not less lively than +the matrimonial schemes of the Rogron salon. While the selfish +interests hidden in these hearts were struggling in deadly combat the +events which resulted from them had a fatal celebrity. Everybody knows +that the Villele ministry was overthrown by the elections of 1826. +Vinet, the Liberal candidate at Provins, who had borrowed money of his +notary to buy a domain which made him eligible for election, came very +near defeating Monsieur Tiphaine, who saved his election by only two +votes. The headquarters of the Liberals was the Rogron salon; among +the /habitues/ were the notary Cournant and his wife, and Doctor +Neraud, whose youth was said to have been stormy, but who now took a +serious view of life; he gave himself up to study and was, according +to all Liberals, a far more capable man than Monsieur Martener, the +aristocratic physician. As for the Rogrons, they no more understood +their present triumph than they had formerly understood their +ostracism. + +The beautiful Bathilde, to whom Vinet had explained Pierrette as an +enemy, was extremely disdainful to the girl. It seemed as though +everybody's selfish schemes demanded the humiliation of that poor +victim. Madame Vinet could do nothing for her, ground as she herself +was beneath those implacable self-interests which the lawyer's wife +had come at last to see and comprehend. Her husband's imperious will +had alone taken her to the Rogron's house, where she had suffered much +at the harsh treatment of the pretty little creature, who would often +press up against her as if divining her secret thoughts, sometimes +asking the poor lady to show her a stitch in knitting or to teach her +a bit of embroidery. The child proved in return that if she were +treated gently she would understand what was taught her, and succeed +in what she tried to do quite marvellously. But Madame Vinet was soon +no longer necessary to her husband's plans, and after the arrival of +Madame and Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf she ceased to visit the +Rogrons. + +Sylvie, who now indulged in the idea of marrying, began to consider +Pierrette as an obstacle. The girl was nearly fourteen; the pallid +whiteness of her skin, a symptom of illness entirely overlooked by the +ignorant old maid, made her exquisitely lovely. Sylvie took it into +her head to balance the cost which Pierrette had been to them by +making a servant of her. All the /habitues/ of the house to whom she +spoke of the matter advised that she should send away Adele. Why +shouldn't Pierrette take care of the house and cook? If there was too +much work at any time Mademoiselle Rogron could easily employ the +colonel's woman-of-all-work, an excellent cook and a most respectable +person. Pierrette ought to learn how to cook, and rub floors, and +sweep, said the lawyer; every girl should be taught to keep house +properly and go to market and know the price of things. The poor +little soul, whose self-devotion was equal to her generosity, offered +herself willingly, pleased to think that she could earn the bitter +bread which she ate in that house. Adele was sent away, and Pierrette +thus lost the only person who might have protected her. + +In spite of the poor child's strength of heart she was henceforth +crushed down physically as well as mentally. Her cousins had less +consideration for her than for a servant; she belonged to them! She +was scolded for mere nothings, for an atom of dust left on a glass +globe or a marble mantelpiece. The handsome ornaments she had once +admired now became odious to her. No matter how she strove to do +right, her inexorable cousins always found something to reprove in +whatever she did. In the course of two years Pierrette never received +the slightest praise, or heard a kindly word. Happiness for her lay in +not being scolded. She bore with angelic patience the morose ill-humor +of the two celibates, to whom all tender feelings were absolutely +unknown, and who daily made her feel her dependence on them. + +Such a life for a young girl, pressed as it were between the two chops +of a vise, increased her illness. She began to feel violent internal +distresses, secret pangs so sudden in their attacks that her strength +was undermined and her natural development arrested. By slow degrees +and through dreadful, though hidden sufferings, the poor child came to +the state in which the companion of her childhood found her when he +sang to her his Breton ditty at the dawn of the October day. + + + + VI + + AN OLD MAID'S JEALOUSY + +Before we relate the domestic drama which the coming of Jacques +Brigaut was destined to bring about in the Rogron family it is best to +explain how the lad came to be in Provins; for he is, as it were, a +somewhat mute personage on the scene. + +When he ran from the house Brigaut was not only frightened by +Pierrette's gesture, he was horrified by the change he saw in his +little friend. He could scarcely recognize the voice, the eyes, the +gestures that were once so lively, gay, and withal so tender. When he +had gained some distance from the house his legs began to tremble +under him; hot flushes ran down his back. He had seen the shadow of +Pierrette, but not Pierrette herself! The lad climbed to the Upper +town till he found a spot from which he could see the square and the +house where Pierrette lived. He gazed at it mournfully, lost in many +thoughts, as though he were entering some grief of which he could not +see the end. Pierrette was ill; she was not happy; she pined for +Brittany--what was the matter with her? All these questions passed and +repassed through his heart and rent it, revealing to his own soul the +extent of his love for his little adopted sister. + +It is extremely rare to find a passion existing between two children +of opposite sexes. The charming story of Paul and Virginia does not, +any more than this of Pierrette and Brigaut, answer the question put +by that strange moral fact. Modern history offers only the illustrious +instance of the Marchesa di Pescara and her husband. Destined to marry +by their parents from their earliest years, they adored each other and +were married, and their union gave to the sixteenth century the noble +spectacle of a perfect conjugal love without a flaw. When the marchesa +became a widow at the age of thirty-four, beautiful, intellectually +brilliant, universally adored, she refused to marry sovereigns and +buried herself in a convent, seeing and knowing thenceforth only nuns. +Such was the perfect love that suddenly developed itself in the heart +of the Breton workman. Pierrette and he had often protected each +other; with what bliss had he given her the money for her journey; he +had almost killed himself by running after the diligence when she left +him. Pierrette had known nothing of all that; but for him the +recollection had warmed and comforted the cold, hard life he had led +for the last three years. For Pierrette's sake he had struggled to +improve himself; he had learned his trade for Pierrette; he had come +to Paris for Pierrette, intending to make his fortune for /her/. After +spending a fortnight in the city, he had not been able to hold out +against the desire to see her, and he had walked from Saturday night +to Monday morning. He intended to return to Paris; but the moving +sight of his little friend nailed him to Provins. A wonderful +magnetism (still denied in spite of many proofs) acted upon him +without his knowledge. Tears rolled from his eyes when they rose in +hers. If to her he was Brittany and her happy childhood, to him she +was life itself. + +At sixteen years of age Brigaut did not yet know how to draw or to +model a cornice; he was ignorant of much, but he had earned, by piece- +work done in the leisure of his apprenticeship, some four or five +francs a day. On this he could live in Provins and be near Pierrette; +he would choose the best cabinet-maker in the town, and learn the rest +of his trade in working for him, and thus keep watch over his darling. + +Brigaut's mind was made up as he sat there thinking. He went back to +Paris and fetched his certificate, tools, and baggage, and three days +later he was a journeyman in the establishment of Monsieur Frappier, +the best cabinet-maker in Provins. Active, steady workmen, not given +to junketing and taverns, are so rare that masters hold to young men +like Brigaut when they find them. To end Brigaut's history on this +point, we will say here that by the end of the month he was made +foreman, and was fed and lodged by Frappier, who taught him arithmetic +and line drawing. The house and shop were in the Grand'Rue, not a +hundred feet from the little square where Pierrette lived. + +Brigaut buried his love in his heart and committed no imprudence. He +made Madame Frappier tell him all she knew about the Rogrons. Among +other things, she related to him the way in which their father had +laid hands on the property of old Auffray, Pierrette's grandfather. +Brigaut obtained other information as to the character of the brother +and sister. He met Pierrette sometimes in the market with her cousin, +and shuddered to see the heavy basket she was carrying on her arm. On +Sundays he went to church to look for her, dressed in her best +clothes. There, for the first time, he became aware that Pierrette was +Mademoiselle Lorrain. Pierrette saw him and made him a hasty sign to +keep out of sight. To him, there was a world of things in that little +gesture, as there had been, a fortnight earlier, in the sign by which +she told him from her window to run away. Ah! what a fortune he must +make in the coming ten years in order to marry his little friend, to +whom, he was told, the Rogrons were to leave their house, a hundred +acres of land, and twelve thousand francs a year, not counting their +savings! + +The persevering Breton was determined to be thoroughly educated for +his trade, and he set about acquiring all the knowledge that he +lacked. As long as only the principles of his work were concerned he +could learn those in Provins as well as in Paris, and thus remain near +Pierrette, to whom he now became anxious to explain his projects and +the sort of protection she could rely on from him. He was determined +to know the reason of her pallor, and of the debility which was +beginning to appear in the organ which is always the last to show the +signs of failing life, namely the eyes; he would know, too, the cause +of the sufferings which gave her that look as though death were near +and she might drop at any moment beneath its scythe. The two signs, +the two gestures--not denying their friendship but imploring caution-- +alarmed the young Breton. Evidently Pierrette wished him to wait and +not attempt to see her; otherwise there was danger, there was peril +for her. As she left the church she was able to give him one look, and +Brigaut saw that her eyes were full of tears. But he could have sooner +squared the circle than have guessed what had happened in the Rogrons' +house during the fortnight which had elapsed since his arrival. + +It was not without keen apprehension that Pierrette came downstairs on +the morning after Brigaut had invaded her morning dreams like another +dream. She was certain that her cousin Sylvie must have heard the +song, or she would not have risen and opened her window; but Pierrette +was ignorant of the powerful reasons that made the old maid so alert. +For the last eight days, strange events and bitter feelings agitated +the minds of the chief personages who frequented the Rogron salon. +These hidden matters, carefully concealed by all concerned, were +destined to fall in their results like an avalanche on Pierrette. Such +mysterious things, which we ought perhaps to call the putrescence of +the human heart, lie at the base of the greatest revolutions, +political, social or domestic; but in telling of them it is desirable +to explain that their subtle significance cannot be given in a matter- +of-fact narrative. These secret schemes and calculations do not show +themselves as brutally and undisguisedly while taking place as they +must when the history of them is related. To set down in writing the +circumlocutions, oratorical precautions, protracted conversations, and +honeyed words glossed over the venom of intentions, would make as long +a book as that magnificent poem called "Clarissa Harlowe." + +Mademoiselle Habert and Mademoiselle Sylvie were equally desirous of +marrying, but one was ten years older than the other, and the +probabilities of life allowed Celeste Habert to expect that her +children would inherit all the Rogron property. Sylvie was forty-two, +an age at which marriage is beset by perils. In confiding to each +other their ideas, Celeste, instigated by her vindictive brother the +priest, enlightened Sylvie as to the dangers she would incur. Sylvie +trembled; she was terribly afraid of death, an idea which shakes all +celibates to their centre. But just at this time the Martignac +ministry came into power,--a Liberal victory which overthrew the +Villele administration. The Vinet party now carried their heads high +in Provins. Vinet himself became a personage. The Liberals prophesied +his advancement; he would certainly be deputy and attorney-general. As +for the colonel, he would be made mayor of Provins. Ah, to reign as +Madame Garceland, the wife of the present mayor, now reigned! Sylvie +could not hold out against that hope; she determined to consult a +doctor, though the proceeding would only cover her with ridicule. To +consult Monsieur Neraud, the Liberal physician and the rival of +Monsieur Martener, would be a blunder. Celeste Habert offered to hide +Sylvie in her dressing-room while she herself consulted Monsieur +Martener, the physician of her establishment, on this difficult +matter. Whether Martener was, or was not, Celeste's accomplice need +not be discovered; at any rate, he told his client that even at thirty +the danger, though slight, did exist. "But," he added, "with your +constitution, you need fear nothing." + +"But how about a woman over forty?" asked Mademoiselle Celeste. + +"A married woman who has had children has nothing to fear." + +"But I mean an unmarried woman, like Mademoiselle Rogron, for +instance?" + +"Oh, that's another thing," said Monsieur Martener. "Successful +childbirth is then one of those miracles which God sometimes allows +himself, but rarely." + +"Why?" asked Celeste. + +The doctor answered with a terrifying pathological description; he +explained that the elasticity given by nature to youthful muscles and +bones did not exist at a later age, especially in women whose lives +were sedentary. + +"So you think that an unmarried woman ought not to marry after forty?" + +"Not unless she waits some years," replied the doctor. "But then, of +course, it is not marriage, it is only an association of interests." + +The result of the interview, clearly, seriously, scientifically and +sensibly stated, was that an unmarried woman would make a great +mistake in marrying after forty. When the doctor had departed +Mademoiselle Celeste found Sylvie in a frightful state, green and +yellow, and with the pupils of her eyes dilated. + +"Then you really love the colonel?" asked Celeste. + +"I still hoped," replied Sylvie. + +"Well, then, wait!" cried Mademoiselle Habert, Jesuitically, aware +that time would rid her of the colonel. + +Sylvie's new devotion to the church warned her that the morality of +such a marriage might be doubtful. She accordingly sounded her +conscience in the confessional. The stern priest explained the +opinions of the Church, which sees in marriage only the propagation of +humanity, and rebukes second marriages and all passions but those with +a social purpose. Sylvie's perplexities were great. These internal +struggles gave extraordinary force to her passion, investing it with +that inexplicable attraction which, from the days of Eve, the thing +forbidden possesses for women. Mademoiselle Rogron's perturbation did +not escape the lynx-eyed lawyer. + +One evening, after the game had ended, Vinet approached his dear +friend Sylvie, took her hand, and led her to a sofa. + +"Something troubles you," he said. + +She nodded sadly. The lawyer let the others depart; Rogron walked home +with the Chargeboeufs, and when Vinet was alone with the old maid he +wormed the truth out of her. + +"Cleverly played, abbe!" thought he. "But you've played into my +hands." + +The foxy lawyer was more decided in his opinion than even the doctor. +He advised marriage in ten years. Inwardly he was vowing that the +whole Rogron fortune should go to Bathilde. He rubbed his hands, his +pinched lips closed more tightly as he hurried home. The influence +exercised by Monsieur Habert, physician of the soul, and by Vinet, +doctor of the purse, balanced each other perfectly. Rogron had no +piety in him; so the churchman and the man of law, the black-robed +pair, were fairly matched. + +On discovering the victory obtained by Celeste, in her anxiety to +marry Rogron herself, over Sylvie, torn between the fear of death and +the joy of being baronness and mayoress, the lawyer saw his chance of +driving the colonel from the battlefield. He knew Rogron well enough +to be certain he could marry him to Bathilde; Jerome had already +succumbed inwardly to her charms, and Vinet knew that the first time +the pair were alone together the marriage would be settled. Rogron had +reached the point of keeping his eyes fixed on Celeste, so much did he +fear to look at Bathilde. Vinet had now possessed himself of Sylvie's +secrets, and saw the force with which she loved the colonel. He fully +understood the struggle of such a passion in the heart of an old maid +who was also in the grasp of religious emotion, and he saw his way to +rid himself of Pierrette and the colonel both by making each the cause +of the other's overthrow. + +The next day, after the court had risen, Vinet met the colonel and +Rogron talking a walk together, according to their daily custom. + +Whenever the three men were seen in company the whole town talked of +it. This triumvirate, held in horror by the sub-prefect, the +magistracy, and the Tiphaine clique, was, on the other hand, a source +of pride and vanity to the Liberals of Provins. Vinet was sole editor +of the "Courrier" and the head of the party; the colonel, the working +manager, was its arm; Rogron, by means of his purse, its nerves. The +Tiphaines declared that the three men were always plotting evil to the +government; the Liberals admired them as the defenders of the people. +When Rogron turned to go home, recalled by a sense of his dinner-hour, +Vinet stopped the colonel from following him by taking Gouraud's arm. + +"Well, colonel," he said, "I am going to take a fearful load off your +shoulders; you can do better than marry Sylvie; if you play your cards +properly you can marry that little Pierrette in two years' time." + +He thereupon related the Jesuit's manoeuvre and its effect on Sylvie. + +"What a skulking trick!" cried the colonel; "and spreading over years, +too!" + +"Colonel," said Vinet, gravely, "Pierrette is a charming creature; +with her you can be happy for the rest of your life; your health is so +sound that the difference in your ages won't seem disproportionate. +But, all the same, you mustn't think it an easy thing to change a +dreadful fate to a pleasant one. To turn a woman who loves you into a +friend and confidant is as perilous a business as crossing a river +under fire of the enemy. Cavalry colonel as you are, and daring too, +you must study the position and manoeuvre your forces with the same +wisdom you have displayed hitherto, and which has won us our present +position. If I get to be attorney-general you shall command the +department. Oh! if you had been an elector we should be further +advanced than we are now; I should have bought the votes of those two +clerks by threatening them with the loss of their places, and we +should have had a majority." + +The colonel had long been thinking about Pierrette, but he concealed +his thoughts with the utmost dissimulation. His roughness to the child +was only a mask; but she could not understand why the man who claimed +to be her father's old comrade should usually treat her so ill, when +sometimes, if he met her alone, he would chuck her under the chin and +give her a friendly kiss. But after the conversation with Vinet +relating to Sylvie's fears of marriage Gouraud began to seek +opportunities to find Pierrette alone; the rough colonel made himself +as soft as a cat; he told her how brave her father was and what a +misfortune it had been for her that she lost him. + +A few days before Brigaut's arrival Sylvie had come suddenly upon +Gouraud and Pierrette talking together. Instantly, jealousy rushed +into her heart with monastic violence. Jealousy, eminently credulous +and suspicious, is the passion in which fancy has most freedom, but +for all that it does not give a person intelligence; on the contrary, +it hinders them from having any; and in Sylvie's case jealousy only +filled her with fantastic ideas. When (a few mornings later) she heard +Brigaut's ditty, she jumped to the conclusion that the man who had +used the words "Madam' le mariee," addressing them to Pierrette, must +be the colonel. She was certain she was right, for she had noticed for +a week past a change in his manners. He was the only man who, in her +solitary life, had ever paid her any attention. Consequently she +watched him with all her eyes, all her mind; and by giving herself up +to hopes that were sometimes flourishing, sometimes blighted, she had +brought the matter to such enormous proportions that she saw all +things in a mental mirage. To use a common but excellent expression, +by dint of looking intently she saw nothing. Alternately she repelled, +admitted, and conquered the supposition of this rivalry. She compared +herself with Pierrette; she was forty-two years old, with gray hair; +Pierrette was delicately fair, with eyes soft enough to warm a +withered heart. She had heard it said that men of fifty were apt to +love young girls of just that kind. Before the colonel had come +regularly to the house Sylvie had heard in the Tiphaines' salon +strange stories of his life and morals. Old maids preserve in their +love-affairs the exaggerated Platonic sentiments which young girls of +twenty are wont to profess; they hold to these fixed doctrines like +all who have little experience of life and no personal knowledge of +how great social forces modify, impair, and bring to nought such grand +and noble ideas. The mere thought of being jilted by the colonel was +torture to Sylvie's brain. She lay in her bed going over and over her +own desires, Pierrette's conduct, and the song which had awakened her +with the word "marriage." Like the fool she was, instead of looking +through the blinds to see the lover, she opened her window without +reflecting that Pierrette would hear her. If she had had the common +instinct of a spy she would have seen Brigaut, and the fatal drama +then begun would never have taken place. + +It was Pierrette's duty, weak as she was, to take down the bars that +closed the wooden shutters of the kitchen, which she opened and +fastened back; then she opened in like manner the glass door leading +from the corridor to the garden. She took the various brooms that were +used for sweeping the carpets, the dining-room, the passages and +stairs, together with the other utensils, with a care and +particularity which no servant, not even a Dutchwoman, gives to her +work. She hated reproof. Happiness for her was in seeing the cold blue +pallid eyes of her cousin, not satisfied (that they never were), but +calm, after glancing about her with the look of an owner,--that +wonderful glance which sees what escapes even the most vigilant eyes +of others. Pierrette's skin was moist with her labor when she returned +to the kitchen to put it in order, and light the stove that she might +carry up hot water to her two cousins (a luxury she never had for +herself) and the means of lighting fires in their rooms. After this +she laid the table for breakfast and lit the stove in the dining-room. +For all these various fires she had to fetch wood and kindling from +the cellar, leaving the warm rooms for a damp and chilly atmosphere. +Such sudden transitions, made with the quickness of youth, often to +escape a harsh word or obey an order, aggravated the condition of her +health. She did not know she was ill, and yet she suffered. She began +to have strange cravings; she liked raw vegetables and salads, and ate +them secretly. The innocent child was quite unaware that her condition +was that of serious illness which needed the utmost care. If Neraud, +the Rogrons' doctor, had told this to Pierrette before Brigaut's +arrival she would only have smiled; life was so bitter she could smile +at death. But now her feelings changed; the child, to whose physical +sufferings was added the anguish of Breton homesickness (a moral +malady so well-known that colonels in the army allow for it among +their men), was suddenly content to be in Provins. The sight of that +yellow flower, the song, the presence of her friend, revived her as a +plant long without water revives under rain. Unconsciously she wanted +to live, and even thought she did not suffer. + +Pierrette slipped timidly into her cousin's bedroom, made the fire, +left the hot water, said a few words, and went to wake Rogron and do +the same offices for him. Then she went down to take in the milk, the +bread, and the other provisions left by the dealers. She stood some +time on the sill of the door hoping that Brigaut would have the sense +to come to her; but by that time he was already on his way to Paris. + +She had finished the arrangement of the dining-room and was busy in +the kitchen when she heard her cousin Sylvie coming down. Mademoiselle +Rogron appeared in a brown silk dressing-gown and a cap with bows; her +false front was awry, her night-gown showed above the silk wrapper, +her slippers were down at heel. She gave an eye to everything and then +came straight to Pierrette, who was awaiting her orders to know what +to prepare for breakfast. + +"Ha! here you are, lovesick young lady!" said Sylvie, in a mocking +tone. + +"What is it, cousin?" + +"You came into my room like a sly cat, and you crept out the same way, +though you knew very well I had something to say to you." + +"To me?" + +"You had a serenade this morning, as if you were a princess." + +"A serenade!" exclaimed Pierrette. + +"A serenade!" said Sylvie, mimicking her; "and you've a lover, too." + +"What is a lover, cousin?" + +Sylvie avoided answering, and said:-- + +"Do you dare to tell me, mademoiselle, that a man did not come under +your window and talk to you of marriage?" + +Persecution had taught Pierrette the wariness of slaves; so she +answered bravely:-- + +"I don't know what you mean,--" + +"Who means?--your dog?" said Sylvie, sharply. + +"I should have said 'cousin,'" replied the girl, humbly. + +"And didn't you get up and go in your bare feet to the window?--which +will give you an illness; and serve you right, too. And perhaps you +didn't talk to your lover, either?" + +"No, cousin." + +"I know you have many faults, but I did not think you told lies. You +had better think this over, mademoiselle; you will have to explain +this affair to your cousin and to me, or your cousin will be obliged +to take severe measures." + +The old maid, exasperated by jealousy and curiosity, meant to frighten +the girl. Pierrette, like all those who suffer more than they have +strength to bear, kept silence. Silence is the only weapon by which +such victims can conquer; it baffles the Cossack charges of envy, the +savage skirmishings of suspicion; it does at times give victory, +crushing and complete,--for what is more complete than silence? it is +absolute; it is one of the attributes of infinity. Sylvie watched +Pierrette narrowly. The girl colored; but the color, instead of rising +evenly, came out in patches on her cheekbones, in burning and +significant spots. A mother, seeing that symptom of illness, would +have changed her tone at once; she would have taken the child on her +lap and questioned her; in fact, she would long ago have tenderly +understood the signs of Pierrette's pure and perfect innocence; she +would have seen her weakness and known that the disturbance of the +digestive organs and the other functions of the body was about to +affect the lungs. Those eloquent patches would have warned her of an +imminent danger. But an old maid, one in whom the family instincts +have never been awakened, to whom the needs of childhood and the +precautions required for adolescence were unknown, had neither the +indulgence nor the compassionate intelligence of a mother; such +sufferings as those of Pierrette, instead of softening her heart only +made it more callous. + +"She blushes, she is guilty!" thought Sylvie. + +Pierrette's silence was thus interpreted to her injury. + +"Pierrette," continued Sylvie, "before your cousin comes down we must +have some talk together. Come," she said, in a rather softer tone, +"shut the street door; if any one comes they will rung and we shall +hear them." + +In spite of the damp mist which was rising from the river, Sylvie took +Pierrette along the winding gravel path which led across the lawn to +the edge of the rock terrace,--a picturesque little quay, covered with +iris and aquatic plants. She now changed her tactics, thinking she +might catch Pierrette tripping by softness; the hyena became a cat. + +"Pierrette," she said, "you are no longer a child; you are nearly +fifteen, and it is not at all surprising that you should have a +lover." + +"But, cousin," said Pierrette, raising her eyes with angelic sweetness +to the cold, sour face of her cousin, "What is a lover?" + +It would have been impossible for Sylvie to define a lover with truth +and decency to the girl's mind. Instead of seeing in that question the +proof of adorable innocence, she considered it a piece of insincerity. + +"A lover, Pierrette, is a man who loves us and wishes to marry us." + +"Ah," said Pierrette, "when that happens in Brittany we call the young +man a suitor." + +"Well, remember that in owning your feelings for a man you do no +wrong, my dear. The wrong is in hiding them. Have you pleased some of +the men who visit here?" + +"I don't think so, cousin." + +"Do you love any of them?" + +"No." + +"Certain?" + +"Quite certain." + +"Look at me, Pierrette." + +Pierrette looked at Sylvie. + +"A man called to you this morning in the square." + +Pierrette lowered her eyes. + +"You went to your window, you opened it, and you spoke to him." + +"No cousin, I went to look out and I saw a peasant." + +"Pierrette, you have much improved since you made your first +communion; you have become pious and obedient, you love God and your +relations; I am satisfied with you. I don't say this to puff you up +with pride." + +The horrible creature had mistaken despondency, submission, the +silence of wretchedness, for virtues! + +The sweetest of all consolations to suffering souls, to martyrs, to +artists, in the worst of that divine agony which hatred and envy force +upon them, is to meet with praise where they have hitherto found +censure and injustice. Pierrette raised her grateful eyes to her +cousin, feeling that she could almost forgive her for the sufferings +she had caused. + +"But if it is all hypocrisy, if I find you a serpent that I have +warmed in my bosom, you will be a wicked girl, an infamous creature!" + +"I think I have nothing to reproach myself with," said Pierrette, with +a painful revulsion of her heart at the sudden change from unexpected +praise to the tones of the hyena. + +"You know that to lie is a mortal sin?" + +"Yes, cousin." + +"Well, you are now under the eye of God," said the old maid, with a +solemn gesture towards the sky; "swear to me that you did not know +that peasant." + +"I will not swear," said Pierrette. + +"Ha! he was no peasant, you little viper." + +Pierrette rushed away like a frightened fawn terrified at her tone. +Sylvie called her in a dreadful voice. + +"The bell is ringing," she answered. + +"Artful wretch!" thought Sylvie. "She is depraved in mind; and now I +am certain the little adder has wound herself round the colonel. She +has heard us say he was a baron. To be a baroness! little fool! Ah! +I'll get rid of her, I'll apprentice her out, and soon too!" + +Sylvie was so lost in thought that she did not notice her brother +coming down the path and bemoaning the injury the frost had done to +his dahlias. + +"Sylvie! what are you thinking about? I thought you were looking at +the fish; sometimes they jump out of the water." + +"No," said Sylvie. + +"How did you sleep?" and he began to tell her about his own dreams. +"Don't you think my skin is getting /tabid/?"--a word in the Rogron +vocabulary. + +Ever since Rogron had been in love,--but let us not profane the word, +--ever since he had desired to marry Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf, he +was very uneasy about himself and his health. At this moment Pierrette +came down the garden steps and called to them from a distance that +breakfast was ready. At sight of her cousin, Sylvie's skin turned +green and yellow, her bile was in commotion. She looked at the floor +of the corridor and declared that Pierrette ought to rub it. + +"I will rub it now if you wish," said the little angel, not aware of +the injury such work may do to a young girl. + +The dining-room was irreproachably in order. Sylvie sat down and +pretended all through breakfast to want this, that, and the other +thing which she would never have thought of in a quieter moment, and +which she now asked for only to make Pierrette rise again and again +just as the child was beginning to eat her food. But such mere teasing +was not enough; she wanted a subject on which to find fault, and was +angry with herself for not finding one. She scarcely answered her +brother's silly remarks, yet she looked at him only; her eyes avoided +Pierrette. Pierrette was deeply conscious of all this. She brought the +milk mixed with cream for each cousin in a large silver goblet, after +heating it carefully in the /bain-marie/. The brother and sister +poured in the coffee made by Sylvie herself on the table. When Sylvie +had carefully prepared hers, she saw an atom of coffee-grounds +floating on the surface. On this the storm broke forth. + +"What is the matter?" asked Rogron. + +"The matter is that mademoiselle has put dust in my milk. Do you +suppose I am going to drink coffee with ashes in it? Well, I am not +surprised; no one can do two things at once. She wasn't thinking of +the milk! a blackbird might have flown through the kitchen to-day and +she wouldn't have seen it! how should she see the dust flying! and +then it was my coffee, ha! that didn't signify!" + +As she spoke she was laying on the side of her plate the coffee- +grounds that had run through the filter. + +"But, cousin, that is coffee," said Pierrette. + +"Oh! then it is I who tell lies, is it?" cried Sylvie, looking at +Pierrette and blasting her with a fearful flash of anger from her +eyes. + +Organizations which have not been exhausted by powerful emotions often +have a vast amount of the vital fluid at their service. This +phenomenon of the extreme clearness of the eye in moments of anger was +the more marked in Mademoiselle Rogron because she had often exercised +the power of her eyes in her shop by opening them to their full extent +for the purpose of inspiring her dependents with salutary fear. + +"You had better dare to give me the lie!" continued Sylvie; "you +deserve to be sent from the table to go and eat by yourself in the +kitchen." + +"What's the matter with you two?" cried Rogron, "you are as cross as +bears this morning." + +"Mademoiselle knows what I have against her," said Sylvie. "I leave +her to make up her mind before speaking to you; for I mean to show her +more kindness than she deserves." + +Pierrette was looking out of the window to avoid her cousin's eyes, +which frightened her. + +"Look at her! she pays no more attention to what I am saying than if I +were that sugar-basin! And yet mademoiselle has a sharp ear; she can +hear and answer from the top of the house when some one talks to her +from below. She is perversity itself,--perversity, I say; and you +needn't expect any good of her; do you hear me, Jerome?" + +"What has she done wrong?" asked Rogron. + +"At her age, too! to begin so young!" screamed the angry old maid. + +Pierrette rose to clear the table and give herself something to do, +for she could hardly bear the scene any longer. Though such language +was not new to her, she had never been able to get used to it. Her +cousin's rage seemed to accuse her of some crime. She imagined what +her fury would be if she came to know about Brigaut. Perhaps her +cousin would have him sent away, and she should lose him! All the many +thoughts, the deep and rapid thoughts of a slave came to her, and she +resolved to keep absolute silence about a circumstance in which her +conscience told her there was nothing wrong. But the cruel, bitter +words she had been made to hear and the wounding suspicion so shocked +her that as she reached the kitchen she was taken with a convulsion of +the stomach and turned deadly sick. She dared not complain; she was +not sure that any one would help her. When she returned to the dining- +room she was white as a sheet, and, saying she was not well, she +started to go to bed, dragging herself up step by step by the baluster +and thinking that she was going to die. "Poor Brigaut!" she thought. + +"The girl is ill," said Rogron. + +"She ill! That's only /shamming/," replied Sylvie, in a loud voice +that Pierrette might hear. "She was well enough this morning, I can +tell you." + +This last blow struck Pierrette to the earth; she went to bed weeping +and praying to God to take her out of this world. + + + + VII + + DOMESTIC TYRANNY + +For a month past Rogron had ceased to carry the "Constitutionnel" to +Gouraud; the colonel came obsequiously to fetch his paper, gossip a +little, and take Rogron off to walk if the weather was fine. Sure of +seeing the colonel and being able to question him, Sylvie dressed +herself as coquettishly as she knew how. The old maid thought she was +attractive in a green gown, a yellow shawl with a red border, and a +white bonnet with straggling gray feathers. About the hour when the +colonel usually came Sylvie stationed herself in the salon with her +brother, whom she had compelled to stay in the house in his dressing- +gown and slippers. + +"It is a fine day, colonel," said Rogron, when Gouraud with his heavy +step entered the room. "But I'm not dressed; my sister wanted to go +out, and I was going to keep the house. Wait for me; I'll be ready +soon." + +So saying, Rogron left Sylvie alone with the colonel. + +"Where were you going? you are dressed divinely," said Gouraud, who +noticed a certain solemnity on the pock-marked face of the old maid. + +"I wanted very much to go out, but my little cousin is ill, and I +cannot leave her." + +"What is the matter with her?" + +"I don't know; she had to go to bed." + +Gouraud's caution, not to say his distrust, was constantly excited by +the results of his alliance with Vinet. It certainly appeared that the +lawyer had got the lion's share in their enterprise. Vinet controlled +the paper, he reigned as sole master over it, he took the revenues; +whereas the colonel, the responsible editor, earned little. Vinet and +Cournant had done the Rogrons great services; whereas Gouraud, a +colonel on half-pay, could do nothing. Who was to be deputy? Vinet. +Who was the chief authority in the party? Vinet. Whom did the liberals +all consult? Vinet. Moreover, the colonel knew fully as well as Vinet +himself the extent and depth of the passion suddenly aroused in Rogron +by the beautiful Bathilde de Chargeboeuf. This passion had now become +intense, like all the last passions of men. Bathilde's voice made him +tremble. Absorbed in his desires Rogron hid them; he dared not hope +for such a marriage. To sound him, the colonel mentioned that he was +thinking himself of asking for Bathilde's hand. Rogron turned pale at +the thought of such a formidable rival, and had since then shown +coldness and even hatred to Gouraud. + +Thus Vinet reigned supreme in the Rogron household while he, the +colonel, had no hold there except by the extremely hypothetical tie of +his mendacious affection for Sylvie, which it was not yet clear that +Sylvie reciprocated. When the lawyer told him of the priest's +manoeuvre, and advised him to break with Sylvie and marry Pierrette, +he certainly flattered Gouraud's foible; but after analyzing the inner +purpose of that advice and examining the ground all about him, the +colonel thought he perceived in his ally the intention of separating +him from Sylvie, and profiting by her fears to throw the whole Rogron +property into the hands of Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf. + +Therefore, when the colonel was left alone with Sylvie his +perspicacity possessed itself immediately of certain signs which +betrayed her uneasiness. He saw at once that she was under arms and +had made this plan for seeing him alone. As he already suspected Vinet +of playing him some trick, he attributed the conference to the +instigation of the lawyer, and was instantly on his guard, as he would +have been in an enemy's country,--with an eye all about him, an ear to +the faintest sound, his mind on the qui vive, and his hand on a +weapon. The colonel had the defect of never believing a single word +said to him by a woman; so that when the old maid brought Pierrette on +the scene, and told him she had gone to bed before midday, he +concluded that Sylvie had locked her up by way of punishment and out +of jealousy. + +"She is getting to be quite pretty, that little thing," he said with +an easy air. + +"She will be pretty," replied Mademoiselle Rogron. + +"You ought to send her to Paris and put her in a shop," continued the +colonel. "She would make her fortune. The milliners all want pretty +girls." + +"Is that really your advice?" asked Sylvie, in a troubled voice. + +"Good!" thought the colonel, "I was right. Vinet advised me to marry +Pierrette just to spoil my chance with the old harridan. But," he said +aloud, "what else can you do with her? There's that beautiful girl +Bathilde de Chargeboeuf, noble and well-connected, reduced to single- +blessedness,--nobody will have her. Pierrette has nothing, and she'll +never marry. As for beauty, what is it? To me, for example, youth and +beauty are nothing; for haven't I been a captain of cavalry in the +imperial guard, and carried my spurs into all the capitals of Europe, +and known all the handsomest women of these capitals? Don't talk to +me; I tell you youth and beauty are devilishly common and silly. At +forty-eight," he went on, adding a few years to his age, to match +Sylvie's, "after surviving the retreat from Moscow and going through +that terrible campaign of France, a man is broken down; I'm nothing +but an old fellow now. A woman like you would pet me and care for me, +and her money, joined to my poor pension, would give me ease in my old +days; of course I should prefer such a woman to a little minx who +would worry the life out of me, and be thirty years old, with +passions, when I should be sixty, with rheumatism. At my age, a man +considers and calculates. To tell you the truth between ourselves, I +should not wish to have children." + +Sylvie's face was an open book to the colonel during this tirade, and +her next question proved to him Vinet's perfidy. + +"Then you don't love Pierrette?" she said. + +"Heavens! are you out of your mind, my dear Sylvie?" he cried. "Can +those who have no teeth crack nuts? Thank God I've got some common- +sense and know what I'm about." + +Sylvie thus reassured resolved not to show her own hand, and thought +herself very shrewd in putting her own ideas into her brother's mouth. + +"Jerome," she said, "thought of the match." + +"How could your brother take up such an incongruous idea? Why, it is +only a few days ago that, in order to find out his secrets, I told him +I loved Bathilde. He turned as white as your collar." + +"My brother! does he love Bathilde?" asked Sylvie. + +"Madly,--and yet Bathilde is only after his money." ("One for you, +Vinet!" thought the colonel.) "I can't understand why he should have +told you that about Pierrette. No, Sylvie," he said, taking her hand +and pressing it in a certain way, "since you have opened this matter" +(he drew nearer to her), "well" (he kissed her hand; as a cavalry +captain he had already proved his courage), "let me tell you that I +desire no wife but you. Though such a marriage may look like one of +convenience, I feel, on my side, a sincere affection for you." + +"But if I /wish/ you to marry Pierrette? if I leave her my fortune-- +eh, colonel?" + +"But I don't want to be miserable in my home, and in less than ten +years see a popinjay like Julliard hovering round my wife and +addressing verses to her in the newspapers. I'm too much of a man to +stand that. No, I will never make a marriage that is disproportionate +in age." + +"Well, colonel, we will talk seriously of this another time," said +Sylvie, casting a glance upon him which she supposed to be full of +love, though, in point of fact, it was a good deal like that of an +ogress. Her cold, blue lips of a violet tinge drew back from the +yellow teeth, and she thought she smiled. + +"I'm ready," said Rogron, coming in and carrying off the colonel, who +bowed in a lover-like way to the old maid. + +Gouraud determined to press on his marriage with Sylvie, and make +himself master of the house; resolving to rid himself, through his +influence over Sylvie during the honeymoon, of Bathilde and Celeste +Habert. So, during their walk, he told Rogron he had been joking the +other day; that he had no real intention of aspiring to Bathilde; that +he was not rich enough to marry a woman without fortune; and then he +confided to him his real wishes, declaring that he had long chosen +Sylvie for her good qualities,--in short, he aspired to the honor of +being Rogron's brother-in-law. + +"Ah, colonel, my dear baron! if nothing is wanting but my consent you +have it with no further delay than the law requires," cried Rogron, +delighted to be rid of his formidable rival. + +Sylvie spent the morning in her own room considering how the new +household could be arranged. She determined to build a second storey +for her brother and to furnish the rest for herself and her husband; +but she also resolved, in the true old-maidish spirit, to subject the +colonel to certain proofs by which to judge of his heart and his +morals before she finally committed herself. She was still suspicious, +and wanted to make sure that Pierrette had no private intercourse with +the colonel. + +Pierrette came down before the dinner-hour to lay the table. Sylvie +had been forced to cook the dinner, and had sworn at that "cursed +Pierrette" for a spot she had made on her gown,--wasn't it plain that +if Pierrette had done her own work Sylvie wouldn't have got that +grease-spot on her silk dress? + +"Oh, here you are, /peakling/? You are like the dog of the marshal who +woke up as soon as the saucepans rattled. Ha! you want us to think you +are ill, you little liar!" + +That idea: "You did not tell the truth about what happened in the +square this morning, therefore you lie in everything," was a hammer +with which Sylvie battered the head and also the heart of the poor +girl incessantly. + +To Pierrette's great astonishment Sylvie sent her to dress in her best +clothes after dinner. The liveliest imagination is never up to the +level of the activity which suspicion excites in the mind of an old +maid. In this particular case, this particular old maid carried the +day against politicians, lawyers, notaries, and all other self- +interests. Sylvie determined to consult Vinet, after examining herself +into all the suspicious circumstances. She kept Pierrette close to +her, so as to find out from the girl's face whether the colonel had +told her the truth. + +On this particular evening the Chargeboeuf ladies were the first to +arrive. Bathilde, by Vinet's advice, had become more elaborate in her +dress. She now wore a charming gown of blue velveteen, with the same +transparent fichu, garnet pendants in her ears, her hair in ringlets, +the wily /jeannette/ round her throat, black satin slippers, gray silk +stockings, and /gants de Suede/; add to these things the manners of a +queen and the coquetry of a young girl determined to capture Rogron. +Her mother, calm and dignified, retained, as did her daughter, a +certain aristocratic insolence, with which the two women hedged +themselves and preserved the spirit of their caste. Bathilde was a +woman of intelligence, a fact which Vinet alone had discovered during +the two months' stay the ladies had made at his house. When he had +fully fathomed the mind of the girl, wounded and disappointed as it +was by the fruitlessness of her beauty and her youth, and enlightened +by the contempt she felt for the men of a period in which money was +the only idol, Vinet, himself surprised, exclaimed,-- + +"If I could only have married you, Bathilde, I should to-day be Keeper +of the Seals. I should call myself Vinet de Chargeboeuf, and take my +seat as deputy of the Right." + +Bathilde had no vulgar idea in her marriage intentions. She did not +marry to be a mother, nor to possess a husband; she married for +freedom, to gain a responsible position, to be called "madame," and to +act as men act. Rogron was nothing but a name to her; she expected to +make something of the fool,--a voting deputy, for instance, whose +instigator she would be; moreover, she longed to avenge herself on her +family, who had taken no notice of a girl without money. Vinet had +much enlarged and strengthened her ideas by admiring and approving +them. + +"My dear Bathilde," he said, while explaining to her the influence of +women, and showing her the sphere of action in which she ought to +work, "do you suppose that Tiphaine, a man of the most ordinary +capacity, could ever get to be a judge of the Royal court in Paris by +himself? No, it is Madame Tiphaine who has got him elected deputy, and +it is she who will push him when they get to Paris. Her mother, Madame +Roguin, is a shrewd woman, who does what she likes with the famous +banker du Tillet, a crony of Nucingen, and both of them allies of the +Kellers. The administration is on the best of terms with those lynxes +of the bank. There is no reason why Tiphaine should not be judge, +through his wife, of a Royal court. Marry Rogron; we'll have him +elected deputy from Provins as soon as I gain another precinct in the +Seine-et-Marne. You can then get him a place as receiver-general, +where he'll have nothing to do but sign his name. We shall belong to +the opposition /if/ the Liberals triumph, but if the Bourbons remain-- +ah! then we shall lean gently, gently towards the centre. Besides, you +must remember Rogron can't live forever, and then you can marry a +titled man. In short, put yourself in a good position, and the +Chargeboeufs will be ready enough to serve us. Your poverty has no +doubt taught you, as mine did me, to know what men are worth. We must +make use of them as we do of post-horses. A man, or a woman, will take +us along to such or such a distance." + +Vinet ended by making Bathilde a small edition of Catherine de +Medicis. He left his wife at home, rejoiced to be alone with her two +children, while he went every night to the Rogrons' with Madame and +Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf. He arrived there in all the glory of +better circumstances. His spectacles were of gold, his waistcoat silk; +a white cravat, black trousers, thin boots, a black coat made in +Paris, and a gold watch and chain, made up his apparel. In place of +the former Vinet, pale and thin, snarling and gloomy, the present +Vinet bore himself with the air and manner of a man of importance; he +marched boldly forward, certain of success, with that peculiar show of +security which belongs to lawyers who know the hidden places of the +law. His sly little head was well-brushed, his chin well-shaved, which +gave him a mincing though frigid look, that made him seem agreeable in +the style of Robespierre. Certainly he would make a fine attorney- +general, endowed with elastic, mischievous, and even murderous +eloquence, or an orator of the shrewd type of Benjamin Constant. The +bitterness and the hatred which formerly actuated him had now turned +into soft-spoken perfidy; the poison was transformed into anodyne. + +"Good-evening, my dear; how are you?" said Madame de Chargeboeuf, +greeting Sylvie. + +Bathilde went straight to the fireplace, took off her bonnet, looked +at herself in the glass, and placed her pretty foot on the fender that +Rogron might admire it. + +"What is the matter with you?" she said to him, looking directly in +his face. "You have not bowed to me. Pray why should we put on our +best velvet gowns to please you?" + +She pushed past Pierrette to lay down her hat, which the latter took +from her hand, and which she let her take exactly as though she were a +servant. Men are supposed to be ferocious, and tigers too; but neither +tigers, vipers, diplomatists, lawyers, executioners or kings ever +approach, in their greatest atrocities, the gentle cruelty, the +poisoned sweetness, the savage disdain of one young woman for another, +when she thinks herself superior in birth, or fortune, or grace, and +some question of marriage, or precedence, or any of the feminine +rivalries, is raised. The "Thank you, mademoiselle," which Bathilde +said to Pierrette was a poem in many strophes. She was named Bathilde, +and the other Pierrette. She was a Chargeboeuf, the other a Lorrain. +Pierrette was small and weak, Bathilde was tall and full of life. +Pierrette was living on charity, Bathilde and her mother lived on +their means. Pierrette wore a stuff gown with a chemisette, Bathilde +made the velvet of hers undulate. Bathilde had the finest shoulders in +the department, and the arm of a queen; Pierrette's shoulder-blades +were skin and bone. Pierrette was Cinderella, Bathilde was the fairy. +Bathilde was about to marry, Pierrette was to die a maid. Bathilde was +adored, Pierrette was loved by none. Bathilde's hair was ravishingly +dressed, she had so much taste; Pierrette's was hidden beneath her +Breton cap, and she knew nothing of the fashions. Moral, Bathilde was +everything, Pierrette nothing. The proud little Breton girl understood +this tragic poem. + +"Good-evening, little girl," said Madame de Chargeboeuf, from the +height of her condescending grandeur, and in the tone of voice which +her pinched nose gave her. + +Vinet put the last touch to this sort of insult by looking fixedly at +Pierrette and saying, in three keys, "Oh! oh! oh! how fine we are +to-night, Pierrette!" + +"Fine!" said the poor child; "you should say that to Mademoiselle de +Chargeboeuf, not to me." + +"Oh! she is always beautifully dressed," replied the lawyer. "Isn't +she, Rogron?" he added, turning to the master of the house, and +grasping his hand. + +"Yes," said Rogron. + +"Why do you force him to say what he does not think?" said Bathilde; +"nothing about me pleases him. Isn't that true?" she added, going up +to Rogron and standing before him. "Look at me, and say if it isn't +true." + +Rogron looked at her from head to foot, and gently closed his eyes +like a cat whose head is being scratched. + +"You are too beautiful," he said; "too dangerous." + +"Why?" + +Rogron looked at the fire and was silent. Just then Mademoiselle +Habert entered the room, followed by the colonel. + +Celeste Habert, who had now become the common enemy, could only reckon +Sylvie on her side; nevertheless, everybody present showed her the +more civility and amiable attention because each was undermining her. +Her brother, though no longer able to be on the scene of action, was +well aware of what was going on, and as soon as he perceived that his +sister's hopes were killed he became an implacable and terrible +antagonist to the Rogrons. + +Every one will immediately picture to themselves Mademoiselle Habert +when they know that if she had not kept an institution for young +ladies she would still have had the air of a school-mistress. School- +mistresses have a way of their own in putting on their caps. Just as +old Englishwomen have acquired a monopoly in turbans, school- +mistresses have a monopoly of these caps. Flowers nod above the frame- +work, flowers that are more than artificial; lying by in closets for +years the cap is both new and old, even on the day it is first worn. +These spinsters make it a point of honor to resemble the lay figures +of a painter; they sit on their hips, never on their chairs. When any +one speaks to them they turn their whole busts instead of simply +turning their heads; and when their gowns creak one is tempted to +believe that the mechanism of these beings is out of order. +Mademoiselle Habert, an ideal of her species, had a stern eye, a grim +mouth, and beneath her wrinkled chin the strings of her cap, always +limp and faded, floated as she moved. Two moles, rather large and +brown, adorned that chin, and from them sprouted hairs which she +allowed to grow rampant like clematis. And finally, to complete her +portrait, she took snuff, and took it ungracefully. + +The company went to work at their boston. Mademoiselle Habert sat +opposite to Sylvie, with the colonel at her side opposite to Madame de +Chargeboeuf. Bathilde was near her mother and Rogron. Sylvie placed +Pierrette between herself and the colonel; Rogron had set out a second +card-table, in case other company arrived. Two lamps were on the +chimney-piece between the candelabra and the clock, and the tables +were lighted by candles at forty sous a pound, paid for by the price +of the cards. + +"Come, Pierrette, take your work, my dear," said Sylvie, with +treacherous softness, noticing that the girl was watching the +colonel's game. + +She usually affected to treat Pierrette well before company. This +deception irritated the honest Breton girl, and made her despise her +cousin. She took her embroidery, but as she drew her stitches she +still watched Gouraud's play. Gouraud behaved as if he did not know +the girl was near him. Sylvie noticed this apparent indifference and +thought it extremely suspicious. Presently she undertook a /grande +misere/ in hearts, the pool being full of counters, besides containing +twenty-seven sous. The rest of the company had now arrived; among them +the deputy-judge Desfondrilles, who for the last two months had +abandoned the Tiphaine party and connected himself more or less with +the Vinets. He was standing before the chimney-piece, with his back to +the fire and the tails of his coat over his arms, looking round the +fine salon of which Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf was the shining +ornament; for it really seemed as if all the reds of its decoration +had been made expressly to enhance her style of beauty. Silence +reigned; Pierrette was watching the game, Sylvie's attention was +distracted from her by the interest of the /grande misere/. + +"Play that," said Pierrette to the colonel, pointing to a heart in his +hand. + +The colonel began a sequence in hearts; the hearts all lay between +himself and Sylvie; the colonel won her ace, though it was protected +by five small hearts. + +"That's not fair!" she cried. "Pierrette saw my hand, and the colonel +took her advice." + +"But, mademoiselle," said Celeste, "it was the colonel's game to play +hearts after you began them." + +The scene made Monsieur Desfondrilles smile; his was a keen mind, +which found much amusement in watching the play of all the self- +interests in Provins. + +"Yes, it was certainly the colonel's game," said Cournant the notary, +not knowing what the question was. + +Sylvie threw a look at Mademoiselle Habert,--one of those glances +which pass from old maid to old maid, feline and cruel. + +"Pierrette, you did see my hand," said Sylvie fixing her eyes on the +girl. + +"No, cousin." + +"I was looking at you all," said the deputy-judge, "and I can swear +that Pierrette saw no one's hand but the colonel's." + +"Pooh!" said Gouraud, alarmed, "little girls know how to slide their +eyes into everything." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Sylvie. + +"Yes," continued Gouraud. "I dare say she looked into your hand to +play you a trick. Didn't you, little one?" + +"No," said the truthful Breton, "I wouldn't do such a thing; if I had, +it would have been in my cousin's interests." + +"You know you are a story-teller and a little fool," cried Sylvie. +"After what happened this morning do you suppose I can believe a word +you say? You are a--" + +Pierrette did not wait for Sylvie to finish her sentence; foreseeing a +torrent of insults, she rushed away without a light and ran to her +room. Sylvie turned white with anger and muttered between her teeth, +"She shall pay for this!" + +"Shall you pay for the /misere/?" said Madame de Chargeboeuf. + +As she spoke Pierrette struck her head against the door of the passage +which some one had left open. + +"Good! I'm glad of it," cried Sylvie, as they heard the blow. + +"She must be hurt," said Desfondrilles. + +"She deserves it," replied Sylvie. + +"It was a bad blow," said Mademoiselle Habert. + +Sylvie thought she might escape paying her /misere/ if she went to see +after Pierrette, but Madame de Chargeboeuf stopped her. + +"Pay us first," she said, laughing; "you will forget it when you come +back." + +The remark, based on the old maid's trickery and her bad faith in +paying her debts at cards was approved by the others. Sylvie sat down +and thought no more of Pierrette,--an indifference which surprised no +one. When the game was over, about half past nine o'clock, she flung +herself into an easy chair at the corner of the fireplace and did not +even rise as her guests departed. The colonel was torturing her; she +did not know what to think of him. + +"Men are so false!" she cried, as she went to bed. + +Pierrette had given herself a frightful blow on the head, just above +the ear, at the spot where young girls part their hair when they put +their "front hair" in curlpapers. The next day there was a large +swelling. + +"God has punished you," said Sylvie at the breakfast table. "You +disobeyed me; you treated me with disrespect in leaving the room +before I had finished my sentence; you got what you deserved." + +"Nevertheless," said Rogron, "she ought to put on a compress of salt +and water." + +"Oh, it is nothing at all, cousin," said Pierrette. + +The poor child had reached a point where even such a remark seemed to +her a proof of kindness. + + + + VIII + + THE LOVES OF JACQUES AND PIERRETTE + +The week ended as it had begun, in continual torture. Sylvie grew +ingenious, and found refinements of tyranny with almost savage +cruelty; the red Indians might have taken a lesson from her. Pierrette +dared not complain of her vague sufferings, nor of the actual pains +she now felt in her head. The origin of her cousin's present anger was +the non-revelation of Brigaut's arrival. With Breton obstinacy +Pierrette was determined to keep silence,--a resolution that is +perfectly explicable. It is easy to see how her thoughts turned to +Brigaut, fearing some danger for him if he were discovered, yet +instinctively longing to have him near her, and happy in knowing he +was in Provins. What joy to have seen him! That single glimpse was +like the look an exile casts upon his country, or the martyr lifts to +heaven, where his eyes, gifted with second-sight, can enter while +flames consume his body. + +Pierrette's glance had been so thoroughly understood by the major's +son that, as he planed his planks or took his measures or joined his +wood, he was working his brains to find out some way of communicating +with her. He ended by choosing the simplest of all schemes. At a +certain hour of the night Pierrette must lower a letter by a string +from her window. In the midst of the girl's own sufferings, she too +was sustained by the hope of being able to communicate with Brigaut. +The same desire was in both hearts; parted, they understood each +other! At every shock to her heart, every throb of pain in her head, +Pierrette said to herself, "Brigaut is here!" and that thought enabled +her to live without complaint. + +One morning in the market, Brigaut, lying in wait, was able to get +near her. Though he saw her tremble and turn pale, like an autumn leaf +about to flutter down, he did not lose his head, but quietly bought +fruit of the market-woman with whom Sylvie was bargaining. He found +his chance of slipping a note to Pierrette, all the while joking the +woman with the ease of a man accustomed to such manoeuvres; so cool +was he in action, though the blood hummed in his ears and rushed +boiling through his veins and arteries. He had the firmness of a +galley-slave without, and the shrinkings of innocence within him,-- +like certain mothers in their moments of mortal trial, when held +between two dangers, two catastrophes. + +Pierrette's inward commotion was like Brigaut's. She slipped the note +into the pocket of her apron. The hectic spots upon her cheekbones +turned to a cherry-scarlet. These two children went through, all +unknown to themselves, many more emotions than go to the make-up of a +dozen ordinary loves. This moment in the market-place left in their +souls a well-spring of passionate feeling. Sylvie, who did not +recognize the Breton accent, took no notice of Brigaut, and Pierrette +went home safely with her treasure. + +The letters of these two poor children were fated to serve as +documents in a terrible judicial inquiry; otherwise, without the fatal +circumstances that occasioned that inquiry, they would never have been +heard of. Here is the one which Pierrette read that night in her +chamber:-- + + My dear Pierrette,--At midnight, when everybody is asleep but me, + who am watching you, I will come every night under your window. + Let down a string long enough to reach me; it will not make any + noise; you must fasten to the end of it whatever you write to me. + I will tie my letter in the same way. I hear /they/ have taught + you to read and write,--those wicked relations who were to do you + good, and have done you so much harm. You, Pierrette, the daughter + of a colonel who died for France, reduced by those monsters to be + their servant! That is where all your pretty color and health have + gone. My Pierrette, what has become of her? what have they done + with her. I see plainly you are not the same, not happy. Oh! + Pierrette, let us go back to Brittany. I can earn enough now to + give you what you need; for you yourself can earn three francs a + day and I can earn four or five; and thirty sous is all I want to + live on. Ah! Pierrette, how I have prayed the good God for you + ever since I came here! I have asked him to give me all your + sufferings, and you all pleasures. Why do you stay with them? why + do they keep you? Your grandmother is more to you than they. They + are vipers; they have taken your gaiety away from you. You do not + even walk as you once did in Brittany. Let us go back. I am here + to serve you, to do your will; tell me what you wish. If you need + money I have a hundred and fifty francs; I can send them up by the + string, though I would like to kiss your dear hands and lay the + money in them. Ah, dear Pierrette, it is a long time now that the + blue sky has been overcast for me. I have not had two hours' + happiness since I put you into that diligence of evil. And when I + saw you the other morning, looking like a shadow, I could not + reach you; that hag of a cousin came between us. But at least we + can have the consolation of praying to God together every Sunday + in church; perhaps he will hear us all the more when we pray + together. + + Not good-by, my dear, Pierrette, but /to-night/. + +This letter so affected Pierrette that she sat for more than an hour +reading and re-reading and gazing at it. Then she remembered with +anguish that she had nothing to write with. She summoned courage to +make the difficult journey from her garret to the dining-room, where +she obtained pen, paper, and ink, and returned safely without waking +her terrible cousin. A few minutes before midnight she had finished +the following letter:-- + + My Friend,--Oh! yes, my friend; for there is no one but you, + Jacques, and my grandmother to love me. God forgive me, but you + are the only two persons whom I love, both alike, neither more nor + less. I was too little to know my dear mamma; but you, Jacques, + and my grandmother, and my grandfather,--God grant him heaven, for + he suffered much from his ruin, which was mine,--but you two who + are left, I love you both, unhappy as I am. Indeed, to know how + much I love you, you will have to know how much I suffer; but I + don't wish that, it would grieve you too much. /They/ speak to me + as we would not speak to a dog; /they/ treat me like the worst of + girls; and yet I do examine myself before God, and I cannot find + that I do wrong by them. Before you sang to me the marriage song I + saw the mercy of God in my sufferings; for I had prayed to him to + take me from the world, and I felt so ill I said to myself, "God + hears me!" But, Jacques, now you are here, I want to live and go + back to Brittany, to my grandmamma who loves me, though /they/ say + she stole eight thousand francs of mine. Jacques, is that so? If + they are mine could you get them! But it is not true, for if my + grandmother had eight thousand francs she would not live at Saint- + Jacques. + + I don't want to trouble her last days, my kind, good grandmamma, + with the knowledge of my troubles; she might die of it. Ah! if she + knew they made her grandchild scrub the pots and pans,--she who + used to say to me, when I wanted to help her after her troubles, + "Don't touch that, my darling; leave it--leave it--you will spoil + your pretty fingers." Ah! my hands are never clean now. Sometimes + I can hardly carry the basket home from market, it cuts my arm. + Still I don't think my cousins mean to be cruel; but it is their + way always to scold, and it seems that I have no right to leave + them. My cousin Rogron is my guardian. One day when I wanted to + run away because I could not bear it, and told them so, my cousin + Sylvie said the gendarmes would go after me, for the law was my + master. Oh! I know now that cousins cannot take the place of + father or mother, any more than the saints can take the place of + God. + + My poor Jacques, what do you suppose I could do with your money? + Keep it for our journey. Oh! how I think of you and Pen-Hoel, and + the big pong,--that's where we had our only happy days. I shall + have no more, for I feel I am going from bad to worse. I am very + ill, Jacques. I have dreadful pains in my head, and in my bones, + and back, which kill me, and I have no appetite except for horrid + things,--roots and leaves and such things. Sometimes I cry, when I + am all alone, for they won't let me do anything I like if they + know it, not even cry. I have to hide to offer my tears to Him to + whom we owe the mercies which we call afflictions. It must have + been He who gave you the blessed thought to come and sing the + marriage song beneath my window. Ah! Jacques, my cousin heard you, + and she said I had a lover. If you wish to be my lover, love me + well. I promise to love you always, as I did in the past, and to + be + Your faithful servant, + Pierrette Lorrain. + + You will love me always, won't you? + + +She had brought a crust of bread from the kitchen, in which she now +made a hole for the letter, and fastened it like a weight to her +string. At midnight, having opened her window with extreme caution, +she lowered the letter with the crust, which made no noise against +either the wall of the house or the blinds. Presently she felt the +string pulled by Brigaut, who broke it and then crept softly away. +When he reached the middle of the square she could see him +indistinctly by the starlight; but he saw her quite clearly in the +zone of light thrown by the candle. The two children stood thus for +over an hour, Pierrette making him signs to go, he starting, she +remaining, he coming back to his post, and Pierrette again signing +that he must leave her. This was repeated till the child closed her +window, went to bed, and blew out the candle. Once in bed she fell +asleep, happy in heart though suffering in body,--she had Brigaut's +letter under her pillow. She slept as the persecuted sleep,--a slumber +bright with angels; that slumber full of heavenly arabesques, in +atmospheres of gold and lapis-lazuli, perceived and given to us by +Raffaelle. + +The moral nature had such empire over that frail physical nature that +on the morrow Pierrette rose light and joyous as a lark, as radiant +and as gay. Such a change could not escape the vigilant eye of her +cousin Sylvie, who, this time, instead of scolding her, set about +watching her with the scrutiny of a magpie. "What reason is there for +such happiness?" was a thought of jealousy, not of tyranny. If the +colonel had not been in Sylvie's mind she would have said to Pierrette +as formerly, "Pierrette, you are very noise, and very regardless of +what you have often been told." But now the old maid resolved to spy +upon her as only old maids can spy. The day was still and gloomy, like +the weather that precedes a storm. + +"You don't appear to be ill now, mademoiselle," said Sylvie at dinner. +"Didn't I tell you she put it all on to annoy us?" she cried, +addressing her brother, and not waiting for Pierrette's answer. + +"On the contrary, cousin, I have a sort of fever--" + +"Fever! what fever? You are as gay as a lark. Perhaps you have seen +some one again?" + +Pierrette trembled and dropped her eyes on her plate. + +"Tartufe!" cried Sylvie; "and only fourteen years old! what a nature! +Do you mean to come to a bad end?" + +"I don't know what you mean," said Pierrette, raising her sweet and +luminous brown eyes to her cousin. + +"This evening," said Sylvie, "you are to stay in the dining-room with +a candle, and do your sewing. You are not wanted in the salon; I +sha'n't have you looking into my hand to help your favorites." + +Pierrette made no sign. + +"Artful creature!" cried Sylvie, leaving the room. + +Rogron, who did not understand his sister's anger, said to Pierrette: +"What is all this about? Try to please your cousin, Pierrette; she is +very indulgent to you, very gentle, and if you put her out of temper +the fault is certainly yours. Why do you squabble so? For my part I +like to live in peace. Look at Mademoiselle Bathilde and take pattern +by her." + +Pierrette felt able to bear everything. Brigaut would come at midnight +and bring her an answer, and that hope was the viaticum of her day. +But she was using up her last strength. She did not go to bed, and +stood waiting for the hour to strike. At last midnight sounded; softly +she opened the window; this time she used a string made by tying bits +of twine together. She heard Brigaut's step, and on drawing up the +cord she found the following letter, which filled her with joy:-- + + My dear Pierrette,--As you are so ill you must not tire yourself + by waiting for me. You will hear me if I cry like an owl. Happily + my father taught me to imitate their note. So when you hear the + cry three times you will know I am there, and then you must let + down the cord. But I shall not come again for some days. I hope + then to bring you good news. + + Oh! Pierrette, don't talk of dying! Pierrette, don't think such + things! All my heart shook, I felt as though I were dead myself at + the mere idea. No, my Pierrette, you must not die; you will live + happy, and soon you shall be delivered from your persecutors. If I + do not succeed in what I am undertaking for your rescue, I shall + appeal to the law, and I shall speak out before heaven and earth + and tell how your wicked relations are treating you. I am certain + that you have not many more days to suffer; have patience, my + Pierrette! Jacques is watching over you as in the old days when we + slid on the pond and I pulled you out of the hole in which we were + nearly drowned together. + + Adieu, my dear Pierrette; in a few days, if God wills, we shall be + happy. Alas, I dare not tell you the only thing that may hinder + our meeting. But God loves us! In a few days I shall see my dear + Pierrette at liberty, without troubles, without any one to hinder + my looking at you--for, ah! Pierrette, I hunger to see you-- + Pierrette, Pierrette, who deigns to love me and to tell me so. + Yes, Pierrette, I will be your lover when I have earned the + fortune you deserve; till then I will be to you only a devoted + servant whose life is yours to do what you please with it. Adieu. + + Jacques Brigaut. + + +Here is a letter of which the major's son said nothing to Pierrette. +He wrote it to Madame Lorrain at Nantes:-- + + Madame Lorrain,--Your granddaughter will die, worn-out with ill- + treatment, if you do not come to fetch her. I could scarcely + recognize her; and to show you the state of things I enclose a + letter I have received from Pierrette. You are thought here to + have taken the money of your granddaughter, and you ought to + justify yourself. If you can, come at once. We may still be happy; + but if delay Pierrette will be dead. + + I am, with respect, your devoted servant, + Jacques Brigaut. + + At Monsieur Frappier's, Cabinet-maker, Grand'Rue, Provins. + + +Brigaut's fear was that the grandmother was dead. + +Though this letter of the youth whom in her innocence she called her +lover was almost enigmatical to Pierrette, she believed in it with all +her virgin faith. Her heart was filled with that sensation which +travellers in the desert feel when they see from afar the palm-trees +round a well. In a few days her misery would end--Jacques said so. She +relied on this promise of her childhood's friend; and yet, as she laid +the letter beside the other, a dreadful thought came to her in +foreboding words. + +"Poor Jacques," she said to herself, "he does not know the hole into +which I have now fallen!" + +Sylvie had heard Pierrette, and she had also heard Brigaut under her +window. She jumped out of bed and rushed to the window to look through +the blinds into the square and there she saw, in the moonlight, a man +hurrying in the direction of the colonel's house, in front of which +Brigaut happened to stop. The old maid gently opened her door, went +upstairs, was amazed to find a light in Pierrette's room, looked +through the keyhole, and could see nothing. + +"Pierrette," she said, "are you ill?" + +"No, cousin," said Pierrette, surprised. + +"Why is your candle burning at this time of night? Open the door; I +must know what this means." + +Pierrette went to the door bare-footed, and as soon as Sylvie entered +the room she saw the cord, which Pierrette had forgotten to put away, +not dreaming of a surprise. Sylvie jumped upon it. + +"What is that for?" she asked. + +"Nothing, cousin." + +"Nothing!" she cried. "Always lying; you'll never get to heaven that +way. Go to bed; you'll take cold." + +She asked no more questions and went away, leaving Pierrette terrified +by her unusual clemency. Instead of exploding with rage, Sylvie had +suddenly determined to surprise Pierrette and the colonel together, to +seize their letters and confound the two lovers who were deceiving +her. Pierrette, inspired by a sense of danger, sewed the letters into +her corset and covered them with calico. + +Here end the loves of Pierrette and Brigaut. + +Pierrette rejoiced in the thought that Jacques had determined to hold +no communication with her for some days, because her cousin's +suspicions would be quieted by finding nothing to feed them. Sylvie +did in fact spend the next three nights on her legs, and each evening +in watching the innocent colonel, without discovering either in him or +in Pierrette, or in the house or out of it, anything that betrayed +their understanding. She sent Pierrette to confession, and seized that +moment to search the child's room, with the method and penetration of +a spy or a custom-house officer. She found nothing. Her fury reached +the apogee of human sentiments. If Pierrette had been there she would +certainly have struck her remorselessly. To a woman of her temper, +jealousy was less a sentiment than an occupation; she existed in it, +it made her heart beat, she felt emotions hitherto completely unknown +to her; the slightest sound or movement kept her on the qui vive; she +watched Pierrette with gloomy intentness. + +"That miserable little wretch will kill me," she said. + +Sylvie's severity to her cousin reached the point of refined cruelty, +and made the deplorable condition of the poor girl worse daily. She +had fever regularly, and the pains in her head became intolerable. By +the end of the week even the visitors at the house noticed her +suffering face, which would have touched to pity all selfishness less +cruel than theirs. It happened that Doctor Neraud, possibly by Vinet's +advice, did not come to the house during that week. The colonel, +knowing himself suspected by Sylvie, was afraid to risk his marriage +by showing any solicitude for Pierrette. Bathilde explained the +visible change in the girl by her natural growth. But at last, one +Sunday evening, when Pierrette was in the salon, her sufferings +overcame her and she fainted away. The colonel, who first saw her +going, caught her in his arms and carried her to a sofa. + +"She did it on purpose," said Sylvie, looking at Mademoiselle Habert +and the rest who were playing boston with her. + +"I assure you that your cousin is very ill," said the colonel. + +"She seemed well enough in your arms," Sylvie said to him in a low +voice, with a savage smile. + +"The colonel is right," said Madame de Chargeboeuf. "You ought to send +for a doctor. This morning at church every one was speaking, as they +came out, of Mademoiselle Lorrain's appearance." + +"I am dying," said Pierrette. + +Desfondrilles called to Sylvie and told her to unfasten her cousin's +gown. Sylvie went up to the girl, saying, "It is only a tantrum." + +She unfastened the gown and was about to touch the corset, when +Pierrette, roused by the danger, sat up with superhuman strength, +exclaiming, "No, no, I will go to bed." + +Sylvie had, however, touched the corset and felt the papers. She let +Pierrette go, saying to the company: + +"What do you think now of her illness? I tell you it is all a +pretence. You have no idea of the perversity of that child." + +After the card-playing was over she kept Vinet from following the +other guests; she was furious and wanted vengeance, and was grossly +rude to the colonel when he bade her good-night. Gouraud threw a look +at the lawyer which threatened him to the depths of his being and +seemed to put a ball in his entrails. Sylvie told Vinet to remain. +When they were alone, she said,-- + +"Never in my life, never in my born days, will I marry the colonel." + +"Now that you have come to that decision I may speak," said the +lawyer. "The colonel is my friend, but I am more yours than his. +Rogron has done me services which I can never forget. I am as strong a +friend as I am an enemy. Once in the Chamber I shall rise to power, +and I will make your brother a receiver-general. Now swear to me, +before I say more, that you will never repeat what I tell you." +(Sylvie made an affirmative sign.) "In the first place, the brave +colonel is a gambler--" + +"Ah!" exclaimed Sylvie. + +"If it had not been for the embarrassments this vice has brought upon +him, he might have been a marshal of France," continued Vinet. "He is +capable of running through your property; but he is very astute; you +cannot be sure of not having children, and you told me yourself the +risks you feared. No, if you want to marry, wait till I am in the +Chamber and then take that old Desfondrilles, who shall be made chief +justice. If you want revenge on the colonel make your brother marry +Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf,--I can get her consent; she has two +thousand francs a year, and you will be connected with the de +Chargeboeufs as I am. Recollect what I tell you, the Chargeboeufs will +be glad to claim us for cousins some day." + +"Gouraud loves Pierrette," was Sylvie's only answer. + +"He is quite capable of it," said Vinet, "and capable of marrying her +after your death." + +"A fine calculation!" she said. + +"I tell you that man has the shrewdness of the devil. Marry your +brother and announce that you mean to remain unmarried and will leave +your property to your nephews and nieces. That will strike a blow at +Gouraud and Pierrette both! and you'll see the faces they'll make." + +"Ah! that's true," cried the old maid, "I can serve them both right. +She shall go to a shop, and get nothing from me. She hasn't a sou; let +her do as we did,--work." + +Vinet departed, having put his plan into Sylvie's head, her dogged +obstinacy being well-known to him. The old maid, he was certain, would +think the scheme her own, and carry it out. + +The lawyer found the colonel in the square, smoking a cigar while he +waited for him. + +"Halt!" said Gouraud; "you have pulled me down, but stones enough came +with me to bury you--" + +"Colonel!--" + +"Colonel or not, I shall give you your deserts. In the first place, +you shall not be deputy--" + +"Colonel!--" + +"I control ten votes and the election depends on--" + +"Colonel, listen to me. Is there no one to marry but that old Sylvie? +I have just been defending you to her; you are accused and convicted +of writing to Pierrette; she saw you leave your house at midnight and +come to the girl's window--" + +"Stuff and nonsense!" + +"She means to marry her brother to Bathilde and leave her fortune to +their children." + +"Rogron won't have any." + +"Yes he will," replied Vinet. "But I promise to find you some young +and agreeable woman with a hundred and fifty thousand francs? Don't be +a fool; how can you and I afford to quarrel? Things have gone against +you in spite of all my care; but you don't understand me." + +"Then we must understand each other," said the colonel. "Get me a wife +with a hundred and fifty thousand francs before the elections; if not +--look out for yourself! I don't like unpleasant bed-fellows, and +you've pulled the blankets all over to your side. Good-evening." + +"You shall see," said Vinet, grasping the colonel's hand +affectionately. + +***** + +About one o'clock that night three clear, sharp cries of an owl, +wonderfully well imitated, echoed through the square. Pierrette heard +them in her feverish sleep; she jumped up, moist with perspiration, +opened her window, saw Brigaut, and flung down a ball of silk, to +which he fastened a letter. Sylvie, agitated by the events of the day +and her own indecision of mind, was not asleep; she heard the owl. + +"Ah, bird of ill-omen!" she thought. "Why, Pierrette is getting up! +What is she after?" + +Hearing the attic window open softly, Sylvie rushed to her own window +and heard the rustle of paper against her blinds. She fastened the +strings of her bed-gown and went quickly upstairs to Pierrette's room, +where she found the poor girl unwinding the silk and freeing the +letter. + +"Ha! I've caught you!" cried the old woman, rushing to the window, +from which she saw Jacques running at full speed. "Give me that +letter." + +"No, cousin," said Pierrette, who, by one of those strong inspirations +of youth sustained by her own soul, rose to a grandeur of resistance +such as we admire in the history of certain peoples reduced to +despair. + +"Ha! you will not?" cried Sylvie, advancing upon the girl with a face +full of hatred and fury. + +Pierrette fell back to get time to put her letter in her hand, which +she clenched with unnatural force. Seeing this manoeuvre Sylvie +grasped the delicate white hand of the girl in her lobster claws and +tried to open it. It was a frightful struggle, an infamous struggle; +it was more than a physical struggle; it assailed the mind, the sole +treasure of the human being, the thought, which God has placed beyond +all earthly power and guards as the secret way between the sufferer +and Himself. The two women, one dying, the other in the vigor of +health, looked at each other fixedly. Pierrette's eyes darted on her +executioner the look the famous Templar on the rack cast upon Philippe +le Bel, who could not bear it and fled thunderstricken. Sylvie, a +woman and a jealous woman, answered that magnetic look with malignant +flashes. A dreadful silence reigned. The clenched hand of the Breton +girl resisted her cousin's efforts like a block of steel. Sylvie +twisted Pierrette's arm, she tried to force the fingers open; unable +to do so she stuck her nails into the flesh. At last, in her madness, +she set her teeth into the wrist, trying to conquer the girl by pain. +Pierrette defied her still, with that same terrible glance of +innocence. The anger of the old maid grew to such a pitch that it +became blind fury. She seized Pierrette's arm and struck the closed +fist upon the window-sill, and then upon the marble of the +mantelpiece, as we crack a nut to get the kernel. + +"Help! help!" cried Pierrette, "they are murdering me!" + +"Ha! you may well scream, when I catch you with a lover in the dead of +night." + +And she beat the hand pitilessly. + +"Help! help!" cried Pierrette, the blood flowing. + +At that instant, loud knocks were heard at the front door. Exhausted, +the two women paused a moment. + +Rogron, awakened and uneasy, not knowing what was happening, had got +up, gone to his sister's room, and not finding her was frightened. +Hearing the knocks he went down, unfastened the front door, and was +nearly knocked over by Brigaut, followed by a sort of phantom. + +At this moment Sylvie's eyes chanced to fall on Pierrette's corset, +and she remembered the papers. Releasing the girl's wrist she sprang +upon the corset like a tiger on its prey, and showed it to Pierrette +with a smile,--the smile of an Iroquois over his victim before he +scalps him. + +"I am dying," said Pierrette, falling on her knees, "oh, who will save +me?" + +"I!" said a woman with white hair and an aged parchment face, in which +two gray eyes glittered. + +"Ah! grandmother, you have come too late," cried the poor child, +bursting into tears. + +Pierrette fell upon her bed, her strength all gone, half-dead with the +exhaustion which, in her feeble state, followed so violent a struggle. +The tall gray woman took her in her arms, as a nurse lifts a child, +and went out, followed by Brigaut, without a word to Sylvie, on whom +she cast one glance of majestic accusation. + +The apparition of that august old woman, in her Breton costume, +shrouded in her coif (a sort of hooded mantle of black cloth), +accompanied by Brigaut, appalled Sylvie; she fancied she saw death. +She slowly went down the stairs, listened to the front door closing +behind them, and came face to face with her brother, who exclaimed: +"Then they haven't killed you?" + +"Go to bed," said Sylvie. "To-morrow we will see what we must do." + +She went back to her own bed, ripped open the corset, and read +Brigaut's two letters, which confounded her. She went to sleep in the +greatest perplexity,--not imagining the terrible results to which her +conduct was to lead. + +***** + +The letters sent by Brigaut to old Madame Lorrain reached her in a +moment of ineffable joy, which the perusal of them troubled. The poor +old woman had grieved deeply in living without her Pierrette beside +her, but she had consoled her loneliness with the thought that the +sacrifice of herself was in the interests of her grandchild. She was +blessed with one of those ever-young hearts which are upheld and +invigorated by the idea of sacrifice. Her old husband, whose only joy +was his little granddaughter, had grieved for Pierrette; every day he +had seemed to look for her. It was an old man's grief,--on which such +old men live, of which they die. + +Every one can now imagine the happiness which this poor old woman, +living in a sort of almshouse, felt when she learned of a generous +action, rare indeed but not impossible in France. The head of the +house of Collinet, whose failure in 1814 had caused the Lorrains a +loss of twenty-four thousand francs, had gone to America with his +children after his disasters. He had too high a courage to remain a +ruined man. After eleven years of untold effort crowned by success he +returned to Nantes to recover his position, leaving his eldest son in +charge of his transatlantic house. He found Madame Lorrain of Pen-Hoel +in the institution of Saint-Jacques, and was witness of the +resignation with which this most unfortunate of his creditors bore her +misery. + +"God forgive you!" said the old woman, "since you give me on the +borders of my grave the means of securing the happiness of my dear +granddaughter; but alas! it will not clear the debts of my poor +husband!" + +Monsieur Collinet made over to the widow both the capital and the +accrued interest, amounting to about forty-two thousand francs. His +other creditors, prosperous, rich, and intelligent merchants, had +easily born their losses, whereas the misfortunes of the Lorrains +seemed so irremediable to old Monsieur Collinet that he promised the +widow to pay off her husband's debts, to the amount of forty thousand +francs more. When the Bourse of Nantes heard of this generous +reparation they wished to receive Collinet to their board before his +certificates were granted by the Royal court at Rennes; but the +merchant refused the honor, preferring to submit to the ordinary +commercial rule. + +Madame Lorrain had received the money only the day before the post +brought her Brigaut's letter, enclosing that of Pierrette. Her first +thought had been, as she signed the receipt: "Now I can live with my +Pierrette and marry her to that good Brigaut, who will make a fortune +with my money." + +Therefore the moment she had read the fatal letters she made instant +preparations to start for Provins. She left Nantes that night by the +mail; for some one had explained to her its celerity. In Paris she +took the diligence for Troyes, which passes through Provins, and by +half-past eleven at night she reached Frappier's, where Brigaut, +shocked at her despairing looks, told her of Pierrette's state and +promised to bring the poor girl to her instantly. His words so +terrified the grandmother that she could not control her impatience +and followed him to the square. When Pierrette screamed, the horror of +that cry went to her heart as sharply as it did to Brigaut's. Together +they would have roused the neighborhood if Rogron, in his terror, had +not opened the door. The scream of the young girl at bay gave her +grandmother the sudden strength of anger with which she carried her +dear Pierrette in her arms to Frappier's house, where Madame Frappier +hastily arranged Brigaut's own room for the old woman and her +treasure. In that poor room, on a bed half-made, the sufferer was +deposited; and there she fainted away, holding her hand still +clenched, wounded, bleeding, with the nails deep bedded in the flesh. +Brigaut, Frappier, his wife, and the old woman stood looking at +Pierrette in silence, all four of them in a state of indescribable +amazement. + +"Why is her hand bloody?" said the grandmother at last. + +Pierrette, overcome by the sleep which follows all abnormal displays +of strength, and dimly conscious that she was safe from violence, +gradually unbent her fingers. Brigaut's letter fell from them like an +answer. + +"They tried to take my letter from her," said Brigaut, falling on his +knees and picking up the lines in which he had told his little friend +to come instantly and softly away from the house. He kissed with pious +love the martyr's hand. + +It was a sight that made those present tremble when they saw the old +gray woman, a sublime spectre, standing beside her grandchild's +pillow. Terror and vengeance wrote their fierce expressions in the +wrinkles that lined her skin of yellow ivory; her forehead, half +hidden by the straggling meshes of her gray hair, expressed a solemn +anger. She read, with a power of intuition given to the aged when near +their grave, Pierrette's whole life, on which her mind had dwelt +throughout her journey. She divined the illness of her darling, and +knew that she was threatened with death. Two big tears painfully rose +in her wan gray eyes, from which her troubles had worn both lashes and +eyebrows, two pearls of anguish, forming within them and giving them a +dreadful brightness; then each tear swelled and rolled down the +withered cheek, but did not wet it. + +"They have killed her!" she said at last, clasping her hands. + +She fell on her knees which struck sharp blows on the brick-laid +floor, making a vow no doubt to Saint Anne d'Auray, the most powerful +of the madonnas of Brittany. + +"A doctor from Paris," she said to Brigaut. "Go and fetch one, +Brigaut, go!" + +She took him by the shoulder and gave him a despotic push to send him +from the room. + +"I was coming, my lad, when you wrote me; I am rich,--here, take +this," she cried, recalling him, and unfastening as she spoke the +strings that tied her short-gown. Then she drew a paper from her bosom +in which were forty-two bank-bills, saying, "Take what is necessary, +and bring back the greatest doctor in Paris." + +"Keep those," said Frappier; "he can't change thousand franc notes +now. I have money, and the diligence will be passing presently; he can +certainly find a place on it. But before he goes we had better consult +Doctor Martener; he will tell us the best physician in Paris. The +diligence won't pass for over an hour,--we have time enough." + +Brigaut woke up Monsieur Martener, and brought him at once. The doctor +was not a little surprised to find Mademoiselle Lorrain at Frappier's. +Brigaut told him of the scene that had just taken place at the +Rogrons'; but even so the doctor did not at first suspect the horror +of it, nor the extent of the injury done. Martener gave the address of +the celebrated Horace Bianchon, and Brigaut started for Paris by the +diligence. Monsieur Martener then sat down and examined first the +bruised and bloody hand which lay outside the bed. + +"She could not have given these wounds herself," he said. + +"No; the horrible woman to whom I had the misfortune to trust her was +murdering her," said the grandmother. "My poor Pierrette was screaming +'Help! help! I'm dying,'--enough to touch the heart of an +executioner." + +"But why was it?" said the doctor, feeling Pierrette's pulse. "She is +very ill," he added, examining her with a light. "She must have +suffered terribly; I don't understand why she has not been properly +cared for." + +"I shall complain to the authorities," said the grandmother. "Those +Rogrons asked me for my child in a letter, saying they had twelve +thousand francs a year and would take care of her; had they the right +to make her their servant and force her to do work for which she had +not the strength?" + +"They did not choose to see the most visible of all maladies to which +young girls are liable. She needed the utmost care," cried Monsieur +Martener. + +Pierrette was awakened by the light which Madame Frappier was holding +near her face, and by the horrible sufferings in her head caused by +the reaction of her struggle. + +"Ah! Monsieur Martener, I am very ill," she said in her pretty voice. + +"Where is the pain, my little friend?" asked the doctor. + +"Here," she said, touching her head above the left ear. + +"There's an abscess," said the doctor, after feeling the head for a +long time and questioning Pierrette on her sufferings. "You must tell +us all, my child, so that we may know how to cure you. Why is your +hand like this? You could not have given yourself that wound." + +Pierrette related the struggle between herself and her cousin Sylvie. + +"Make her talk," said the doctor to the grandmother, "and find out the +whole truth. I will await the arrival of the doctor from Paris; and we +will send for the surgeon in charge of the hospital here, and have a +consultation. The case seems to me a very serious one. Meantime I will +send you a quieting draught so that mademoiselle may sleep; she needs +sleep." + +Left alone with her granddaughter the old Breton woman exerted her +influence over the child and made her tell all; she let her know that +she had money enough now for all three, and promised that Brigaut +should live with them. The poor girl admitted her martyrdom, not +imagining the events to which her admissions would give rise. The +monstrosity of two beings without affection and without conception of +family life opened to the old woman a world of woe as far from her +knowledge as the morals of savages may have seemed to the first +discoverers who set foot in America. + +The arrival of her grandmother, the certainty of living with her in +comfort soothed Pierrette's mind as the sleeping draught soothed her +body. The old woman watched her darling, kissing her forehead, hair, +and hands, as the holy women of old kissed the hands of Jesus when +they laid him in the tomb. + + + + IX + + THE FAMILY COUNCIL + +At nine o'clock that morning Monsieur Martener went to see Monsieur +Tiphaine, and related to him the scene between Pierrette and Sylvie, +and the tortures of all kinds, moral and physical, to which the +Rogrons had subjected their cousin, and the two alarming forms of +illness which their cruelty had developed. Monsieur Tiphaine sent for +Auffray the notary, one of Pierrette's own relations on the maternal +side. + +At this particular time the war between the Vinet party and the +Tiphaine party was at its height. The scandals which the Rogrons and +their adherents were disseminating through the town about the liaison +of Madame Tiphaine's mother with the banker du Tillet, and the +bankruptcy of her father (a forger, they said), were all the more +exasperating to the Tiphaines because these things were malicious +truths, not libels. Such wounds cut deep; they go to the quick of +feelings and of interests. These speeches, repeated to the partisans +of the Tiphaines by the same mouths which told the Rogrons of the +sneers of "those women" of the Tiphaine clique, fed the hatreds of +both sides, now increased by the political element. The animosities +caused at this time in France by the spirit of party, the violences of +which were excessive, were everywhere mixed up, as in Provins, with +selfish schemes and wounded or vindictive individual interests. Each +party eagerly seized on whatever might injure the rival party. +Personal hatreds and self-love mingled as much as political animosity +in even the smallest matters, and were carried to hitherto unheard-of +lengths. A whole town would be roused to excitement over some private +struggle, until it took the character of a political debate. + +Monsieur Tiphaine at once perceived in the case of Pierrette against +the Rogrons a means of humbling, mortifying, and dishonoring the +masters of that salon where plans against the monarchy were made and +an opposition journal born. The public prosecutor was called in; and +together with Monsieur Auffray the notary, Pierrette's relation, and +Monsieur Martener, a cautious consultation was held in the utmost +secrecy as to the proper course to follow. Monsieur Martener agreed to +advise Pierrette's grandmother to apply to the courts to have Auffray +appointed guardian to his young relation. The guardian could then +convene a "Family Council," and, backed by the testimony of three +doctors, demand the girl's release from the authority of the Rogrons. +The affair thus managed would have to go before the courts, and the +public prosecutor, Monsieur Lesourd, would see that it was taken to a +criminal court by demanding an inquiry. + +Towards midday all Provins was roused by the strange news of what had +happened during the night at the Rogrons'. Pierrette's cries had been +faintly heard, though they were soon over. No one had risen to inquire +what they meant, but every one said the next day, "Did you hear those +screams about one in the morning?" Gossip and comments soon magnified +the horrible drama, and a crowd collected in front of Frappier's shop, +asking the worthy cabinet-maker for information, and hearing from him +how Pierrette was brought to his house with her fingers broken and the +hand bloody. + +Towards one in the afternoon the post-chaise of Doctor Bianchon, who +was accompanied by Brigaut, stopped before the house, and Madame +Frappier went at once to summon Monsieur Martener and the surgeon in +charge of the hospital. Thus the gossip of the town received +confirmation. The Rogrons were declared to have ill-used their cousin +deliberately, and to have come near killing her. Vinet heard the news +while attending to his business in the law courts; he left everything +and hurried to the Rogrons. Rogron and his sister had just finished +breakfast. Sylvie was reluctant to tell her brother of her +discomfiture of the night before; but he pressed her with questions, +to which she would make no answer than, "That's not your business." +She went and came from the kitchen to the dining-room on pretence of +preparing the breakfast, but chiefly to avoid discussion. She was +alone when Vinet entered. + +"You know what's happened?" said the lawyer. + +"No," said Sylvie. + +"You will be arrested on a criminal charge," replied Vinet, "from the +way things are now going about Pierrette." + +"A criminal charge!" cried Rogron, who had come into the room. "Why? +What for?" + +"First of all," said the lawyer, looking at Sylvie, "explain to me +without concealment and as if you stood before God, what happened in +this house last night--they talk of amputating Pierrette's hand." + +Sylvie turned livid and shuddered. + +"Then there is some truth in it?" said Vinet. + +Mademoiselle Rogron related the scene, trying to excuse herself; but, +prodded with questions, she acknowledged the facts of the horrible +struggle. + +"If you have only injured her fingers you will be taken before the +police court for a misdemeanor; but if they cut off her hand you may +be tried at the Assizes for a worse offence. The Tiphaines will do +their best to get you there." + +Sylvie, more dead than alive, confessed her jealousy, and, what was +harder to do, confessed also that her suspicions were unfounded. + +"Heavens, what a case this will make!" cried the lawyer. "You and your +brother may be ruined by it; you will be abandoned by most people +whether you win or lose. If you lose, you will have to leave Provins." + +"Oh, my dear Monsieur Vinet, you who are such a great lawyer," said +Rogron, terrified, "advise us! save us!" + +The crafty Vinet worked the terror of the two imbeciles to its utmost, +declaring that Madame and Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf might be +unwilling to enter their house again. To be abandoned by women of +their rank would be a terrible condemnation. At length, after an hour +of adroit manoeuvring, it was agreed that Vinet must have some +powerful motive in taking the case, that would impress the minds of +all Provins and explain his efforts on behalf of the Rogrons. This +motive they determined should be Rogron's marriage to Mademoiselle de +Chargeboeuf; it should be announced that very day and the banns +published on Sunday. The contract could be drawn immediately. +Mademoiselle Rogron agreed, in consideration of the marriage, to +appear in the contract as settling her capital on her brother, +retaining only the income of it. Vinet made Rogron and his sister +comprehend the necessity of antedating the document by two or three +days, so as to commit the mother and daughter in the eyes of the +public and give them a reason for continuing their visits. + +"Sign that contract and I'll take upon myself to get you safely out of +this affair," said the lawyer. "There will be a terrible fight; but I +will put my whole soul into it--you'll have to make me a votive +offering." + +"Oh, yes, yes," said Rogron. + +By half-past eleven the lawyer had plenary powers to draw the contract +and conduct the defence of the Rogrons. At twelve o'clock application +was made to Monsieur Tiphaine, as a judge sitting in chambers, against +Brigaut and the widow Lorrain for having abducted Pierrette Lorrain, a +minor, from the house of her legal guardian. In this way the bold +lawyer became the aggressor and made Rogron the injured party. He +spoke of the matter from this point of view in the court-house. + +The judge postponed the hearing till four o'clock. Needless to +describe the excitement in the town. Monsieur Tiphaine knew that by +three o'clock the consultation of doctors would be over and their +report drawn up; he wished Auffray, as surrogate-guardian, to be at +the hearing armed with that report. + +The announcement of Rogron's marriage and the sacrifices made to it by +Sylvie in the contract alienated two important supporters from the +brother and sister, namely,--Mademoiselle Habert and the colonel, +whose hopes were thus annihilated. They remained, however, ostensibly +on the Rogron side for the purpose of injuring it. Consequently, as +soon as Monsieur Martener mentioned the alarming condition of +Pierrette's head, Celeste and the colonel told of the blow she had +given herself during the evening when Sylvie had forced her to leave +the salon; and they related the old maid's barbarous and unfeeling +comments, with other statements proving her cruelty to her suffering +cousin. Vinet had foreseen this storm; but he had secured the entire +fortune of the Rogrons for Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf, and he +promised himself that in a few weeks she should be mistress of the +Rogron house, and reign with him over Provins, and even bring about a +fusion with the Breauteys and the aristocrats in the interests of his +ambition. + +From midday to four o'clock all the ladies of the Tiphaine clique sent +to inquire after Mademoiselle Lorrain. She, poor girl, was wholly +ignorant of the commotion she was causing in the little town. In the +midst of her sufferings she was ineffably happy in recovering her +grandmother and Brigaut, the two objects of her affection. Brigaut's +eyes were constantly full of tears. The old grandmother sat by the bed +and caressed her darling. To the three doctors she told every detail +she had obtained from Pierrette as to her life in the Rogron house. +Horace Bianchon expressed his indignation in vehement language. +Shocked at such barbarity he insisted on all the physicians in the +town being called in to see the case; the consequence was that Dr. +Neraud, the friend of the Rogrons, was present. The report was +unanimously signed. It is useless to give a text of it here. If +Moliere's medical terms were barbarous, those of modern science have +the advantage of being so clear that the explanation of Pierrette's +malady, though natural and unfortunately common, horrified all ears. + +At four o'clock, after the usual rising of the court, president +Tiphaine again took his seat, when Madame Lorrain, accompanied by +Monsieur Auffray and Brigaut and a crowd of interested persons, +entered the court-room. Vinet was alone. This contrast struck the +minds of those present. The lawyer, who still wore his robe, turned +his cold face to the judge, settled his spectacles on his pallid green +eyes, and then in a shrill, persistent voice he stated that two +strangers had forced themselves at night into the Rogron domicile and +had abducted therefrom the minor Lorrain. The legal rights were with +the guardian, who now demanded the restoration of his ward. + +Monsieur Auffray rose, as surrogate-guardian, and requested to be +heard. + +"If the judge," he said, "will admit the report, which I hold in my +hand, signed by one of the most famous physicians in Paris, and by all +the physicians in Provins, he will understand not only that the demand +of the Sieur Rogron is senseless, but also that the grandmother of the +minor had grave cause to instantly remove her from her persecutors. +Here are the facts. The report of these physicians attribute the +almost dying condition of the said minor to the ill-treatment she has +received from the Sieur Rogron and his sister. We shall, as the law +directs, convoke a Family Council with the least possible delay, and +discuss the question as to whether or not the guardian should be +deposed. And we now ask that the minor be not returned to the domicile +of the said guardian but that she be confided to some member of her +family who shall be designated by the judge." + +Vinet replied, declaring that the physicians' report ought to have +been submitted to him in order that he might have disproved it. + +"Not submitted to your side," said the judge, severely, "but possibly +to the /procureur du roi/. The case is heard." + +The judge then wrote at the bottom of the petition the following +order:-- + + "Whereas it appears, from a deliberate and unanimous report of all + the physicians of this town, together with Doctor Bianchon of the + medical faculty of Paris, that the minor Lorrain, claimed by + Jerome-Denis Rogron, her guardian, is extremely ill in consequence + of ill-treatment and personal assault in the house of the said + guardian and his sister: + + "We, president of the court of Provins, passing upon the said + petition, order that until the Family Council is held the minor + Lorrain is not to be returned to the household of her said + guardian, but shall be kept in that of her surrogate-guardian. + + "And further, considering the state in which the said minor now + is, and the traces of violence which, according to the report of + the physicians, are now upon her person, we commission the + attending physician and the surgeon in charge of the hospital of + Provins to visit her, and in case the injuries from the said + assault become alarming, the matter will be held to await the + action of the criminal courts; and this without prejudice to the + civil suit undertaken by Auffray the surrogate-guardian." + +This severe judgment was read out by President Tiphaine in a loud and +distinct voice. + +"Why not send them to the galleys at once?" said Vinet. "And all this +fuss about a girl who was carrying on an intrigue with an apprentice +to a cabinet-maker! If the case goes on in this way," he cried, +insolently, "we shall demand other judges on the ground of legitimate +suspicion." + +Vinet left the court-room, and went among the chief men of his party +to explain Rogron's position, declaring that he had never so much as +given a flip to his cousin, and that the judge had viewed him much +less as Pierrette's guardian than as a leading elector in Provins. + +To hear Vinet, people might have supposed that the Tiphaines were +making a great fuss about nothing; the mounting was bringing forth a +mouse. Sylvie, an eminently virtuous and pious woman, had discovered +an intrigue between her brother's ward and a workman, a Breton named +Brigaut. The scoundrel knew very well that the girl would have her +grandmother's money, and he wished to seduce her (Vinet to talk of +that!). Mademoiselle Rogron, who had discovered letters proving the +depravity of the girl, was not as much to blame as the Tiphaines were +trying to make out. If she did use some violence to get possession of +those letters (which was no wonder, when we consider what Breton +obstinacy is), how could Rogron be considered responsible for all +that? + +The lawyer went on to make the matter a partisan affair, and to give +it a political color. + +"They who listen to only one bell hear only one sound," said the wise +men. "Have you heard what Vinet says? Vinet explains things clearly." + +Frappier's house being thought injurious to Pierrette, owing to the +noise in the street which increased the sufferings in her head, she +was taken to that of her surrogate guardian, the change being as +necessary medically as it was judicially. The removal was made with +the utmost caution, and was calculated to produce a great public +effect. Pierrette was laid on a mattress and carried on a stretcher by +two men; a Gray Sister walked beside her with a bottle of sal volatile +in her hand, while the grandmother, Brigaut, Madame Auffray, and her +maid followed. People were at their windows and doors to see the +procession pass. Certainly the state in which they saw Pierrette, pale +as death, gave immense advantage to the party against the Rogrons. The +Auffrays were determined to prove to the whole town that the judge was +right in the decision he had given. Pierrette and her grandmother were +installed on the second floor of Monsieur Auffray's house. The notary +and his wife gave her every care with the greatest hospitality, which +was not without a little ostentation in it. Pierrette had her +grandmother to nurse her; and Monsieur Martener and the head-surgeon +of the hospital attended her. + +On the evening of this day exaggerations began on both sides. The +Rogron salon was crowded. Vinet had stirred up the whole Liberal party +on the subject. The Chargeboeuf ladies dined with the Rogrons, for the +contract was to be signed that evening. Vinet had had the banns posted +at the mayor's office in the afternoon. He made light of the Pierrette +affair. If the Provins court was prejudiced, the Royal courts would +appreciate the facts, he said, and the Auffrays would think twice +before they flung themselves into such a suit. The alliance of the +Rogrons with the Chargeboeufs was an immense consideration in the +minds of a certain class of people. To them it made the Rogrons as +white as snow and Pierrette an evilly disposed little girl, a serpent +warmed in their bosom. + +In Madame Tiphaine's salon vengeance was had for all the mischievous +scandals that the Vinet party had disseminated for the past two years. +The Rogrons were monsters, and the guardian should undergo a criminal +trial. In the Lower town, Pierrette was quite well; in the Upper town +she was dying; at the Rogrons' she scratched her wrist; at Madame +Tiphaine's her fingers were fractured and one was to be cut off. The +next day the "Courrier de Provins," had a plausible article, extremely +well-written, a masterpiece of insinuations mixed with legal points, +which showed that there was no case whatever against Rogron. The "Bee- +hive," which did not appear till two days later, could not answer +without becoming defamatory; it replied, however, that in an affair +like this it was best to wait until the law took its course. + +The Family Council was selected by the /juge de paix/ of the canton of +Provins, and consisted of Rogron and the two Messieurs Auffray, the +nearest relatives, and Monsieur Ciprey, nephew of Pierrette's maternal +grandmother. To these were joined Monsieur Habert, Pierrette's +confessor, and Colonel Gouraud, who had always professed himself a +comrade and friend of her father, Colonel Lorrain. The impartiality of +the judge in these selections was much applauded,--Monsieur Habert and +Colonel Gouraud being considered the firm friends of the Rogrons. + +The serious situation in which Rogron found himself made him ask for +the assistance of a lawyer (and he named Vinet) at the Family Council. +By this manoeuvre, evidently advised by Vinet himself, Rogron +succeeded in postponing the meeting of the council till the end of +December. At that time Monsieur Tiphaine and his wife would be settled +in Paris for the opening of the Chambers; and the ministerial party +would be left without its head. Vinet had already worked upon +Desfondrilles, the deputy-judge, in case the matter should go, after +the hearing before the council, to the criminal courts. + +Vinet spoke for three hours before the Family Council; he proved the +existence of an intrigue between Pierrette and Brigaut, which +justified all Mademoiselle Rogron's severity. He showed how natural it +was that the guardian should have left the management of his ward to a +woman; he dwelt on the fact that Rogron had not interfered with +Pierrette's education as planned by his sister Sylvie. But in spite of +Vinet's efforts the Council were unanimous in removing Rogron from the +guardianship. Monsieur Auffray was appointed in his place, and +Monsieur Ciprey was made surrogate. The Council summoned before it and +examined Adele, the servant-woman, who testified against her late +masters; also Mademoiselle Habert, who related the cruel remarks made +by Mademoiselle Rogron on the evening when Pierrette had given herself +a frightful blow, heard by all the company, and the speech of Madame +de Chargeboeuf about the girl's health. Brigaut produced the letter he +had received from Pierrette, which proved their innocence and stated +her ill-treatment. Proof was given that the condition of the minor was +the result of neglect on the part of the guardian, who was responsible +for all that concerned his ward. Pierrette's illness had been apparent +to every one, even to persons in the town who were strangers to the +family, yet the guardian had done nothing for her. The charge of ill- +treatment was therefore sustained against Rogron; and the case would +now go before the public. + +Rogron, advised by Vinet, opposed the acceptance of the report of the +Council by the court. The authorities then intervened in consequence +of Pierrette's state, which was daily growing worse. The trial of the +case, though placed at once upon the docket, was postponed until the +month of March, 1828, to wait events. + + + + X + + VERDICTS--LEGAL AND OTHER + +Meantime Rogron's marriage with Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf took +place. Sylvie moved to the second floor of the house, which she shared +with Madame de Chargeboeuf, for the first floor was entirely taken up +by the new wife. The beautiful Madame Rogron succeeded to the social +place of the beautiful Madame Tiphaine. The influence of the marriage +was immense. No one now came to visit Sylvie, but Madame Rogron's +salon was always full. + +Sustained by the influence of his mother-in-law and the bankers du +Tillet and Nucingen, Monsieur Tiphaine was fortunate enough to do some +service to the administration; he became one of its chief orators, was +made judge in the civil courts, and obtained the appointment of his +nephew Lesourd to his own vacant place as president of the court of +Provins. This appointment greatly annoyed Desfondrilles. The Keeper of +the Seals sent down one of his own proteges to fill Lesourd's place. +The promotion of Monsieur Tiphaine and his translation to Paris were +therefore of no benefit at all to the Vinet party; but Vinet +nevertheless made a clever use of the result. He had always told the +Provins people that they were being used as a stepping-stone to raise +the crafty Madame Tiphaine into grandeur; Tiphaine himself had tricked +them; Madame Tiphaine despised both Provins and its people in her +heart, and would never return there again. Just at this crisis +Monsieur Tiphaine's father died; his son inherited a fine estate and +sold his house in Provins to Monsieur Julliard. The sale proved to the +minds of all how little the Tiphaines thought of Provins. Vinet was +right; Vinet had been a true prophet. These things had great influence +on the question of Pierrette's guardianship. + +Thus the dreadful martyrdom brutally inflicted on the poor child by +two imbecile tyrants (which led, through its consequences, to the +terrible operation of trepanning, performed by Monsieur Martener under +the advice of Doctor Bianchon),--all this horrible drama reduced to +judicial form was left to float in the vile mess called in legal +parlance the calendar. The case was made to drag through the delays +and the interminable labyrinths of the law, by the shufflings of an +unprincipled lawyer; and during all this time the calumniated girl +languished in the agony of the worst pain known to science. + +Monsieur Martener, together with the Auffray family, were soon charmed +by the beauty of Pierrette's nature and the character of her old +grandmother, whose feelings, ideas, and ways bore the stamp of Roman +antiquity,--this matron of the Marais was like a woman in Plutarch. + +Doctor Martener struggled bravely with death, which already grasped +its prey. From the first, Bianchon and the hospital surgeon had +considered Pierrette doomed; and there now took place between the +doctor and the disease, the former relying on Pierrette's youth, one +of those struggles which physicians alone comprehend,--the reward of +which, in case of success, is never found in the venal pay nor in the +patients themselves, but in the gentle satisfaction of conscience, in +the invisible ideal palm gathered by true artists from the contentment +which fills their soul after accomplishing a noble work. The physician +strains towards good as an artist towards beauty, each impelled by +that grand sentiment which we call virtue. This daily contest wiped +out of Doctor Martener's mind the petty irritations of that other +contest of the Tiphaines and the Vinets,--as always happens to men +when they find themselves face to face with a great and real misery to +conquer. + +Monsieur Martener had begun his career in Paris; but the cruel +activity of the city and its insensibility to its masses of suffering +had shocked his gentle soul, fitted only for the quiet life of the +provinces. Moreover, he was under the yoke of his beautiful native +land. He returned to Provins, where he married and settled, and cared +almost lovingly for the people, who were to him like a large family. +During the whole of Pierrette's illness he was careful not to speak of +her. His reluctance to answer the questions of those who asked about +her was so evident that persons soon ceased to put them. Pierrette was +to him, what indeed she truly was, a poem, mysterious, profound, vast +in suffering, such as doctors find at times in their terrible +experience. He felt an admiration for this delicate young creature +which he would not share with any one. + +This feeling of the physician for his patient was, however, +unconsciously communicated (like all true feelings) to Monsieur and +Madame Auffray, whose house became, so long as Pierrette was in it, +quiet and silent. The children, who had formerly played so joyously +with her, agreed among themselves with the loving grace of childhood +to be neither noisy nor troublesome. They made it a point of honor to +be good because Pierrette was ill. Monsieur Auffray's house was in the +Upper town, beneath the ruins of the Chateau, and it was built upon a +sort of terrace formed by the overthrow of the old ramparts. The +occupants could have a view of the valley from the little fruit-garden +enclosed by walls which overlooked the town. The roofs of the other +houses came to about the level of the lower wall of this garden. Along +the terrace ran a path, by which Monsieur Auffray's study could be +entered through a glass door; at the other end of the path was an +arbor of grape vines and a fig-tree, beneath which stood a round +table, a bench and some chairs, painted green. Pierrette's bedroom was +above the study of her new guardian. Madame Lorrain slept in a cot +beside her grandchild. From her window Pierrette could see the whole +of the glorious valley of Provins, which she hardly knew, so seldom +had she left that dreadful house of the Rogrons. When the weather was +fine she loved to drag herself, resting on her grandmother's arm, to +the vine-clad arbor. Brigaut, unable to work, came three times a day +to see his little friend; he was gnawed by a grief which made him +indifferent to life. He lay in wait like a dog for Monsieur Martener, +and followed him when he left the house. The old grandmother, drunk +with grief, had the courage to conceal her despair; she showed her +darling the smiling face she formerly wore at Pen-Hoel. In her desire +to produce that illusion in the girl's mind, she made her a little +Breton cap like the one Pierrette had worn on her first arrival in +Provins; it made the darling seem more like her childlike self; in it +she was delightful to look upon, her sweet face circled with a halo of +cambric and fluted lace. Her skin, white with the whiteness of +unglazed porcelain, her forehead, where suffering had printed the +semblance of deep thought, the purity of the lines refined by illness, +the slowness of the glances, and the occasional fixity of the eyes, +made Pierrette an almost perfect embodiment of melancholy. She was +served by all with a sort of fanaticism; she was felt to be so gentle, +so tender, so loving. Madame Martener sent her piano to her sister +Madame Auffray, thinking to amuse Pierrette who was passionately fond +of music. It was a poem to watch her listening to a theme of Weber, or +Beethoven, or Herold,--her eyes raised, her lips silent, regretting no +doubt the life escaping her. The cure Peroux and Monsieur Habert, her +two religious comforters, admired her saintly resignation. Surely the +seraphic perfection of young girls and young men marked with the +hectic of death, is a wonderful fact worthy of the attention alike of +philosophers and of heedless minds. He who has ever seen one of these +sublime departures from this life can never remain, or become, an +unbeliever. Such beings exhale, as it were, a celestial fragrance; +their glances speak of God; the voices are eloquent in the simplest +words; often they ring like some seraphic instrument revealing the +secrets of the future. When Monsieur Martener praised her for having +faithfully followed a harsh prescription the little angel replied, and +with what a glance!-- + +"I want to live, dear Monsieur Martener; but less for myself than for +my grandmother, for my Brigaut, for all of you who will grieve at my +death." + +The first time she went into the garden on a beautiful sunny day in +November attended by all the household, Madame Auffray asked her if +she was tired. + +"No, now that I have no sufferings but those God sends I can bear +all," she said. "The joy of being loved gives me strength to suffer." + +That was the only time (and then vaguely) that she ever alluded to her +horrible martyrdom at the Rogrons, whom she never mentioned, and of +whom no one reminded her, knowing well how painful the memory must be. + +"Dear Madame Auffray," she said one day at noon on the terrace, as she +gazed at the valley, warmed by a glorious sun and colored with the +glowing tints of autumn, "my death in your house gives me more +happiness than I have had since I left Brittany." + +Madame Auffray whispered in her sister Martener's ear:-- + +"How she would have loved!" + +In truth, her tones, her looks gave to her words a priceless value. + +Monsieur Martener corresponded with Doctor Bianchon, and did nothing +of importance without his advice. He hoped in the first place to +regular the functions of nature and to draw away the abscess in the +head through the ear. The more Pierrette suffered, the more he hoped. +He gained some slight success at times, and that was a great triumph. +For several days Pierrette's appetite returned and enabled her to take +nourishing food for which her illness had given her a repugnance; the +color of her skin changed; but the condition of her head was terrible. +Monsieur Martener entreated the great physician his adviser to come +down. Bianchon came, stayed two days, and resolved to undertake an +operation. To spare the feelings of poor Martener he went to Paris and +brought back with him the celebrated Desplein. Thus the operation was +performed by the greatest surgeon of ancient or modern times; but that +terrible diviner said to Martener as he departed with Bianchon, his +best-loved pupil:-- + +"Nothing but a miracle can save her. As Horace told you, caries of the +bone has begun. At her age the bones are so tender." + +The operation was performed at the beginning of March, 1828. During +all that month, distressed by Pierrette's horrible sufferings, +Monsieur Martener made several journeys to Paris; there he consulted +Desplein and Bianchon, and even went so far as to propose to them an +operation of the nature of lithotrity, which consists in passing into +the head a hollow instrument by the help of which an heroic remedy can +be applied to the diseased bone, to arrest the progress of the caries. +Even the bold Desplein dared not attempt that high-handed surgical +measure, which despair alone had suggested to Martener. When he +returned home from Paris he seemed to his friends morose and gloomy. +He was forced to announce on that fatal evening to the Auffrays and +Madame Lorrain and to the two priests and Brigaut that science could +do no more for Pierrette, whose recovery was now in God's hands only. +The consternation among them was terrible. The grandmother made a vow, +and requested the priests to say a mass every morning at daybreak +before Pierrette rose,--a mass at which she and Brigaut might be +present. + +The trial came on. While the victim lay dying, Vinet was calumniating +her in court. The judge approved and accepted the report of the Family +Council, and Vinet instantly appealed. The newly appointed /procureur +du roi/ made a requisition which necessitated fresh evidence. Rogron +and his sister were forced to give bail to avoid going to prison. The +order for fresh evidence included that of Pierrette herself. When +Monsieur Desfondrilles came to the Auffrays' to receive it, Pierrette +was dying, her confessor was at her bedside about to administer +extreme unction. At that moment she entreated all present to forgive +her cousins as she herself forgave them, saying with her simple good +sense that the judgment of these things belonged to God alone. + +"Grandmother," she said, "leave all you have to Brigaut" (Brigaut +burst into tears); "and," continued Pierrette, "give a thousand francs +to that kind Adele who warmed my bed. If Adele had remained with my +cousins I should not now be dying." + +It was at three o'clock on the Tuesday of Easter week, on a beautiful, +bright day, that the angel ceased to suffer. Her heroic grandmother +wished to watch all that night with the priests, and to sew with her +stiff old fingers her darling's shroud. Towards evening Brigaut left +the Auffray's house and went to Frappier's. + +"I need not ask you, my poor boy, for news," said the cabinet-maker. + +"Pere Frappier, yes, it is ended for her--but not for me." + +He cast a look upon the different woods piled up around the shop,--a +look of painful meaning. + +"I understand you, Brigaut," said his worthy master. "Take all you +want." And he showed him the oaken planks of two-inch thickness. + +"Don't help me, Monsieur Frappier," said the Breton, "I wish to do it +alone." + +He passed the night in planing and fitting Pierrette's coffin, and +more than once his plane took off at a single pass a ribbon of wood +which was wet with tears. The good man Frappier smoked his pipe and +watched him silently, saying only, when the four pieces were joined +together,-- + +"Make the cover to slide; her poor grandmother will not hear the +nails." + +At daybreak Brigaut went out to fetch the lead to line the coffin. By +a strange chance, the sheets of lead cost just the sum he had given +Pierrette for her journey from Nantes to Provins. The brave Breton, +who was able to resist the awful pain of himself making the coffin of +his dear one and lining with his memories those burial planks, could +not bear up against this strange reminder. His strength gave way; he +was not able to lift the lead, and the plumber, seeing this, came with +him, and offered to accompany him to the house and solder the last +sheet when the body had been laid in the coffin. + +The Breton burned the plane and all the tools he had used. Then he +settled his accounts with Frappier and bade him farewell. The heroism +with which the poor lad personally performed, like the grandmother, +the last offices for Pierrette made him a sharer in the awful scene +which crowned the tyranny of the Rogrons. + +Brigaut and the plumber reached the house of Monsieur Auffray just in +time to decide by their own main force an infamous and shocking +judicial question. The room where the dead girl lay was full of +people, and presented to the eyes of the two men a singular sight. The +Rogron emissaries were standing beside the body of their victim, to +torture her even after death. The corpse of the child, solemn in its +beauty, lay on the cot-bed of her grandmother. Pierrette's eyes were +closed, the brown hair smoothed upon her brow, the body swathed in a +coarse cotton sheet. + +Before the bed, on her knees, her hair in disorder, her hands +stretched out, her face on fire, the old Lorrain was crying out, "No, +no, it shall not be done!" + +At the foot of the bed stood Monsieur Auffray and the two priests. The +tapers were still burning. + +Opposite to the grandmother was the surgeon of the hospital, with an +assistant, and near him stood Doctor Neraud and Vinet. The surgeon +wore his dissecting apron; the assistant had opened a case of +instruments and was handing him a knife. + +This scene was interrupted by the noise of the coffin which Brigaut +and the plumber set down upon the floor. Then Brigaut, advancing, was +horrified at the sight of Madame Lorrain, who was now weeping. + +"What is the matter?" he asked, standing beside her and grasping the +chisel convulsively in his hand. + +"This," said the old woman, "/this/, Brigaut: they want to open the +body of my child and cut into her head, and stab her heart after her +death as they did when she was living." + +"Who?" said Brigaut, in a voice that might have deafened the men of +law. + +"The Rogrons." + +"In the sacred name of God!--" + +"Stop, Brigaut," said Monsieur Auffray, seeing the lad brandish his +chisel. + +"Monsieur Auffray," said Brigaut, as white as his dead companion, "I +hear you because you are Monsieur Auffray, but at this moment I will +not listen to--" + +"The law!" said Auffray. + +"Is there law? is there justice?" cried the Breton. "Justice, this is +it!" and he advanced to the lawyer and the doctors, threatening them +with his chisel. + +"My friend," said the curate, "the law has been invoked by the lawyer +of Monsieur Rogron, who is under the weight of a serious accusation; +and it is impossible for us to refuse him the means of justification. +The lawyer of Monsieur Rogron claims that if the poor child died of an +abscess in her head her former guardian cannot be blamed, for it is +proved that Pierrette concealed the effects of the blow which she gave +to herself--" + +"Enough!" said Brigaut. + +"My client--" began Vinet. + +"Your client," cried the Breton, "shall go to hell and I to the +scaffold; for if one of you dares to touch her whom your client has +killed, I will kill him if my weapon does its duty." + +"This is interference with the law," said Vinet. "I shall instantly +inform the court." + +The five men left the room. + +"Oh, my son!" cried the old woman, rising from her knees and falling +on Brigaut's neck, "let us bury her quick,--they will come back." + +"If we solder the lead," said the plumber, "they may not dare to open +it." + +Monsieur Auffray hastened to his brother-in-law, Monsieur Lesourd, to +try and settle the matter. Vinet was not unwilling. Pierrette being +dead the suit about the guardianship fell, of course, to the ground. +All the astute lawyer wanted was the effect produced by his request. + +At midday Monsieur Desfondrilles made his report on the case, and the +court rendered a decision that there was no ground for further action. + +Rogron dared not go to Pierrette's funeral, at which the whole town +was present. Vinet wished to force him there, but the miserable man +was afraid of exciting universal horror. + +Brigaut left Provins after watching the filling up of the grave where +Pierrette lay, and went on foot to Paris. He wrote a petition to the +Dauphiness asking, in the name of his father, that he might enter the +Royal guard, to which he was at once admitted. When the expedition to +Algiers was undertaken he wrote to her again, to obtain employment in +it. He was then a sergeant; Marshal Bourmont gave him an appointment +as sub-lieutenant in a line regiment. The major's son behaved like a +man who wished to die. Death has, however, respected Jacques Brigaut +up to the present time; although he has distinguished himself in all +the recent expeditions he has never yet been wounded. He is now major +in a regiment of infantry. No officer is more taciturn or more +trustworthy. Outside of his duty he is almost mute; he walks alone and +lives mechanically. Every one divines and respects a hidden sorrow. He +possesses forty-six thousand francs, which old Madame Lorrain, who +died in Paris in 1829, bequeathed to him. + +At the elections of 1830 Vinet was made a deputy. The services he +rendered the new government have now earned him the position of +/procureur-general/. His influence is such that he will always remain +a deputy. Rogron is receiver-general in the same town where Vinet +fulfils his legal functions; and by one of those curious tricks of +chance which do so often occur, Monsieur Tiphaine is president of the +Royal court in the same town,--for the worthy man gave in his adhesion +to the dynasty of July without the slightest hesitation. The +ex-beautiful Madame Tiphaine lives on excellent terms with the +beautiful Madame Rogron. Vinet is hand in glove with Madame Tiphaine. + +As to the imbecile Rogron, he makes such remarks as, "Louis-Philippe +will never be really king till he is able to make nobles." + +The speech is evidently not his own. His health is failing, which +allows Madame Rogron to hope she may soon marry the General Marquis de +Montriveau, peer of France, who commands the department, and is paying +her attentions. Vinet is in his element, seeking victims; he never +believes in the innocence of an accused person. This thoroughbred +prosecutor is held to be one of the most amiable men on the circuit; +and he is no less liked in Paris and in the Chamber; at court he is a +charming courtier. + +According to a certain promise made by Vinet, General Baron Gouraud, +that noble relic of our glorious armies, married a Mademoiselle +Matifat, twenty-five years old, daughter of a druggist in the rue des +Lombards, whose dowry was a hundred thousand francs. He commands (as +Vinet prophesied) a department in the neighborhood of Paris. He was +named peer of France for his conduct in the riots which occurred +during the ministry of Casimir Perier. Baron Gouraud was one of the +generals who took the church of Saint-Merry, delighted to rap those +rascally civilians who had vexed him for years over the knuckles; for +which service he was rewarded with the grand cordon of the Legion of +honor. + +None of the personages connected with Pierrette's death ever felt the +slightest remorse about it. Monsieur Desfondrilles is still +archaeological, but, in order to compass his own election, the +/procureur general/ Vinet took pains to have him appointed president +of the Provins court. Sylvie has a little circle, and manages her +brother's property; she lends her own money at high interest, and does +not spend more than twelve hundred francs a year. + +From time to time, when some former son or daughter of Provins returns +from Paris to settle down, you may hear them ask, as they leave +Mademoiselle Rogron's house, "Wasn't there a painful story against the +Rogrons,--something about a ward?" + +"Mere prejudice," replies Monsieur Desfondrilles. "Certain persons +tried to make us believe falsehoods. Out of kindness of heart the +Rogrons took in a girl named Pierrette, quite pretty but with no +money. Just as she was growing up she had an intrigue with a young +man, and stood at her window barefooted talking to him. The lovers +passed notes to each other by a string. She took cold in this way and +died, having no constitution. The Rogrons behaved admirably. They made +no claim on certain property which was to come to her,--they gave it +all up to the grandmother. The moral of it was, my good friend, that +the devil punishes those who try to benefit others." + +"Ah! that is quite another story from the one old Frappier told me." + +"Frappier consults his wine-cellar more than he does his memory," +remarked another of Mademoiselle Rogron's visitors. + +"But that old priest, Monsieur Habert says--" + +"Oh, he! don't you know why?" + +"No." + +"He wanted to marry his sister to Monsieur Rogron, the receiver- +general." + +***** + +Two men think of Pierrette daily: Doctor Martener and Major Brigaut; +they alone know the hideous truth. + +To give that truth its true proportions we must transport the scene to +the Rome of the middle ages, where a sublime young girl, Beatrice +Cenci, was brought to the scaffold by motives and intrigues that were +almost identical with those which laid our Pierrette in her grave. +Beatrice Cenci had but one defender,--an artist, a painter. In our day +history, and living men, on the faith of Guido Reni's portrait, +condemn the Pope, and know that Beatrice was a most tender victim of +infamous passions and base feuds. + +We must all agree that legality would be a fine thing for social +scoundrelism IF THERE WERE NO GOD. + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Bianchon, Horace + Father Goriot + The Atheist's Mass + Cesar Birotteau + The Commission in Lunacy + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Secrets of a Princess + The Government Clerks + A Study of Woman + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + The Seamy Side of History + The Magic Skin + A Second Home + A Prince of Bohemia + Letters of Two Brides + The Muse of the Department + The Imaginary Mistress + The Middle Classes + Cousin Betty + The Country Parson +In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following: + Another Study of Woman + La Grande Breteche + +Brigaut, Major + The Chouans + +Desplein + The Atheist's Mass + Cousin Pons + Lost Illusions + The Thirteen + The Government Clerks + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Seamy Side of History + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + +Gouraud, General, Baron + Cousin Pons + +Keller, Adolphe + The Middle Classes + Cesar Birotteau + +Matifat, Mademoiselle + Cesar Birotteau + The Firm of Nucingen + +Montriveau, General Marquis Armand de + The Thirteen + Father Goriot + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Another Study of Woman + The Member for Arcis + +Nucingen, Baron Frederic de + The Firm of Nucingen + Father Goriot + Cesar Birotteau + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Another Study of Woman + The Secrets of a Princess + A Man of Business + Cousin Betty + The Muse of the Department + The Unconscious Humorists + +Roguin + Cesar Birotteau + Eugenie Grandet + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Vendetta + +Roguin, Madame + Cesar Birotteau + At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + A Second Home + A Daughter of Eve + +Tillet, Ferdinand du + Cesar Birotteau + The Firm of Nucingen + The Middle Classes + A Bachelor's Establishment + Melmoth Reconciled + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Secrets of a Princess + A Daughter of Eve + The Member for Arcis + Cousin Betty + The Unconscious Humorists + +Tiphaine, Madame + The Vendetta + +Vinet + The Member for Arcis + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons + + + + + + II + + + + + THE VICAR OF TOURS + + By HONORE DE BALZAC + + + Translated By + Katharine Prescott Wormeley + + + + DEDICATION + + To David, Sculptor: + + The permanence of the work on which I inscribe your name--twice + made illustrious in this century--is very problematical; whereas + you have graven mine in bronze which survives nations--if only in + their coins. The day may come when numismatists, discovering amid + the ashes of Paris existences perpetuated by you, will wonder at + the number of heads crowned in your atelier and endeavour to find + in them new dynasties. + + To you, this divine privilege; to me, gratitude. + + De Balzac. + + + + THE VICAR OF TOURS + + + + I + +Early in the autumn of 1826 the Abbe Birotteau, the principal +personage of this history, was overtaken by a shower of rain as he +returned home from a friend's house, where he had been passing the +evening. He therefore crossed, as quickly as his corpulence would +allow, the deserted little square called "The Cloister," which lies +directly behind the chancel of the cathedral of Saint-Gatien at Tours. + +The Abbe Birotteau, a short little man, apoplectic in constitution and +about sixty years old, had already gone through several attacks of +gout. Now, among the petty miseries of human life the one for which +the worthy priest felt the deepest aversion was the sudden sprinkling +of his shoes, adorned with silver buckles, and the wetting of their +soles. Notwithstanding the woollen socks in which at all seasons he +enveloped his feet with the extreme care that ecclesiastics take of +themselves, he was apt at such times to get them a little damp, and +the next day gout was sure to give him certain infallible proofs of +constancy. Nevertheless, as the pavement of the Cloister was likely to +be dry, and as the abbe had won three francs ten sous in his rubber +with Madame de Listomere, he bore the rain resignedly from the middle +of the place de l'Archeveche, where it began to come down in earnest. +Besides, he was fondling his chimera,--a desire already twelve years +old, the desire of a priest, a desire formed anew every evening and +now, apparently, very near accomplishment; in short, he had wrapped +himself so completely in the fur cape of a canon that he did not feel +the inclemency of the weather. During the evening several of the +company who habitually gathered at Madame de Listomere's had almost +guaranteed to him his nomination to the office of canon (then vacant +in the metropolitan Chapter of Saint-Gatien), assuring him that no one +deserved such promotion as he, whose rights, long overlooked, were +indisputable. + +If he had lost the rubber, if he had heard that his rival, the Abbe +Poirel, was named canon, the worthy man would have thought the rain +extremely chilling; he might even have thought ill of life. But it so +chanced that he was in one of those rare moments when happy inward +sensations make a man oblivious of discomfort. In hastening his steps +he obeyed a more mechanical impulse, and truth (so essential in a +history of manners and morals) compels us to say that he was thinking +of neither rain nor gout. + +In former days there was in the Cloister, on the side towards the +Grand'Rue, a cluster of houses forming a Close and belonging to the +cathedral, where several of the dignitaries of the Chapter lived. +After the confiscation of ecclesiastical property the town had turned +the passage through this close into a narrow street, called the Rue de +la Psalette, by which pedestrians passed from the Cloister to the +Grand'Rue. The name of this street, proves clearly enough that the +precentor and his pupils and those connected with the choir formerly +lived there. The other side, the left side, of the street is occupied +by a single house, the walls of which are overshadowed by the +buttresses of Saint-Gatien, which have their base in the narrow little +garden of the house, leaving it doubtful whether the cathedral was +built before or after this venerable dwelling. An archaeologist +examining the arabesques, the shape of the windows, the arch of the +door, the whole exterior of the house, now mellow with age, would see +at once that it had always been a part of the magnificent edifice with +which it is blended. + +An antiquary (had there been one at Tours,--one of the least literary +towns in all France) would even discover, where the narrow street +enters the Cloister, several vestiges of an old arcade, which formerly +made a portico to these ecclesiastical dwellings, and was, no doubt, +harmonious in style with the general character of the architecture. + +The house of which we speak, standing on the north side of the +cathedral, was always in the shadow thrown by that vast edifice, on +which time had cast its dingy mantle, marked its furrows, and shed its +chill humidity, its lichen, mosses, and rank herbs. The darkened +dwelling was wrapped in silence, broken only by the bells, by the +chanting of the offices heard through the windows of the church, by +the call of the jackdaws nesting in the belfries. The region is a +desert of stones, a solitude with a character of its own, an arid +spot, which could only be inhabited by beings who had either attained +to absolute nullity, or were gifted with some abnormal strength of +soul. The house in question had always been occupied by abbes, and it +belonged to an old maid named Mademoiselle Gamard. Though the property +had been bought from the national domain under the Reign of Terror by +the father of Mademoiselle Gamard, no one objected under the +Restoration to the old maid's retaining it, because she took priests +to board and was very devout; it may be that religious persons gave +her credit for the intention of leaving the property to the Chapter. + +The Abbe Birotteau was making his way to this house, where he had +lived for the last two years. His apartment had been (as was now the +canonry) an object of envy and his "hoc erat in votis" for a dozen +years. To be Mademoiselle Gamard's boarder and to become a canon were +the two great desires of his life; in fact they do present accurately +the ambition of a priest, who, considering himself on the highroad to +eternity, can wish for nothing in this world but good lodging, good +food, clean garments, shoes with silver buckles, a sufficiency of +things for the needs of the animal, and a canonry to satisfy self- +love, that inexpressible sentiment which follows us, they say, into +the presence of God,--for there are grades among the saints. But the +covetous desire for the apartment which the Abbe Birotteau was now +inhabiting (a very harmless desire in the eyes of worldly people) had +been to the abbe nothing less than a passion, a passion full of +obstacles, and, like more guilty passions, full of hopes, pleasures, +and remorse. + +The interior arrangements of the house did not allow Mademoiselle +Gamard to take more than two lodgers. Now, for about twelve years +before the day when Birotteau went to live with her she had undertaken +to keep in health and contentment two priests; namely, Monsieur l'Abbe +Troubert and Monsieur l'Abbe Chapeloud. The Abbe Troubert still lived. +The Abbe Chapeloud was dead; and Birotteau had stepped into his place. + +The late Abbe Chapeloud, in life a canon of Saint-Gatien, had been an +intimate friend of the Abbe Birotteau. Every time that the latter paid +a visit to the canon he had constantly admired the apartment, the +furniture and the library. Out of this admiration grew the desire to +possess these beautiful things. It had been impossible for the Abbe +Birotteau to stifle this desire; though it often made him suffer +terribly when he reflected that the death of his best friend could +alone satisfy his secret covetousness, which increased as time went +on. The Abbe Chapeloud and his friend Birotteau were not rich. Both +were sons of peasants; and their slender savings had been spent in the +mere costs of living during the disastrous years of the Revolution. +When Napoleon restored the Catholic worship the Abbe Chapeloud was +appointed canon of the cathedral and Birotteau was made vicar of it. +Chapeloud then went to board with Mademoiselle Gamard. When Birotteau +first came to visit his friend, he thought the arrangement of the +rooms excellent, but he noticed nothing more. The outset of this +concupiscence of chattels was very like that of a true passion, which +often begins, in a young man, with cold admiration for a woman whom he +ends in loving forever. + +The apartment, reached by a stone staircase, was on the side of the +house that faced south. The Abbe Troubert occupied the ground-floor, +and Mademoiselle Gamard the first floor of the main building, looking +on the street. When Chapeloud took possession of his rooms they were +bare of furniture, and the ceilings were blackened with smoke. The +stone mantelpieces, which were very badly cut, had never been painted. +At first, the only furniture the poor canon could put in was a bed, a +table, a few chairs, and the books he possessed. The apartment was +like a beautiful woman in rags. But two or three years later, an old +lady having left the Abbe Chapeloud two thousand francs, he spent that +sum on the purchase of an oak bookcase, the relic of a chateau pulled +down by the Bande Noire, the carving of which deserved the admiration +of all artists. The abbe made the purchase less because it was very +cheap than because the dimensions of the bookcase exactly fitted the +space it was to fill in his gallery. His savings enabled him to +renovate the whole gallery, which up to this time had been neglected +and shabby. The floor was carefully waxed, the ceiling whitened, the +wood-work painted to resemble the grain and knots of oak. A long table +in ebony and two cabinets by Boulle completed the decoration, and gave +to this gallery a certain air that was full of character. In the +course of two years the liberality of devout persons, and legacies, +though small ones, from pious penitents, filled the shelves of the +bookcase, till then half empty. Moreover, Chapeloud's uncle, an old +Oratorian, had left him his collection in folio of the Fathers of the +Church, and several other important works that were precious to a +priest. + +Birotteau, more and more surprised by the successive improvements of +the gallery, once so bare, came by degrees to a condition of +involuntary envy. He wished he could possess that apartment, so +thoroughly in keeping with the gravity of ecclestiastical life. The +passion increased from day to day. Working, sometimes for days +together, in this retreat, the vicar could appreciate the silence and +the peace that reigned there. During the following year the Abbe +Chapeloud turned a small room into an oratory, which his pious friends +took pleasure in beautifying. Still later, another lady gave the canon +a set of furniture for his bedroom, the covering of which she had +embroidered under the eyes of the worthy man without his ever +suspecting its destination. The bedroom then had the same effect upon +the vicar that the gallery had long had; it dazzled him. Lastly, about +three years before the Abbe Chapeloud's death, he completed the +comfort of his apartment by decorating the salon. Though the furniture +was plainly covered in red Utrecht velvet, it fascinated Birotteau. +From the day when the canon's friend first laid eyes on the red damask +curtains, the mahogany furniture, the Aubusson carpet which adorned +the vast room, then lately painted, his envy of Chapeloud's apartment +became a monomania hidden within his breast. To live there, to sleep +in that bed with the silk curtains where the canon slept, to have all +Chapeloud's comforts about him, would be, Birotteau felt, complete +happiness; he saw nothing beyond it. All the envy, all the ambition +which the things of this world give birth to in the hearts of other +men concentrated themelves for Birotteau in the deep and secret +longing he felt for an apartment like that which the Abbe Chapeloud +had created for himself. When his friend fell ill he went to him out +of true affection; but all the same, when he first heard of his +illness, and when he sat by his bed to keep him company, there arose +in the depths of his consciousness, in spite of himself, a crowd of +thoughts the simple formula of which was always, "If Chapeloud dies I +can have this apartment." And yet--Birotteau having an excellent +heart, contracted ideas, and a limited mind--he did not go so far as +to think of means by which to make his friend bequeath to him the +library and the furniture. + +The Abbe Chapeloud, an amiable, indulgent egoist, fathomed his +friend's desires--not a difficult thing to do--and forgave them; which +may seem less easy to a priest; but it must be remembered that the +vicar, whose friendship was faithful, did not fail to take a daily +walk with his friend along their usual path in the Mail de Tours, +never once depriving him of an instant of the time devoted for over +twenty years to that exercise. Birotteau, who regarded his secret +wishes as crimes, would have been capable, out of contrition, of the +utmost devotion to his friend. The latter paid his debt of gratitude +for a friendship so ingenuously sincere by saying, a few days before +his death, as the vicar sat by him reading the "Quotidienne" aloud: +"This time you will certainly get the apartment. I feel it is all over +with me now." + +Accordingly, it was found that the Abbe Chapeloud had left his library +and all his furniture to his friend Birotteau. The possession of these +things, so keenly desired, and the prospect of being taken to board by +Mademoiselle Gamard, certainly did allay the grief which Birotteau +felt at the death of his friend the canon. He might not have been +willing to resuscitate him; but he mourned him. For several days he +was like Gargantus, who, when his wife died in giving birth to +Pantagruel, did not know whether to rejoice at the birth of a son or +grieve at having buried his good Babette, and therefore cheated +himself by rejoicing at the death of his wife, and deploring the +advent of Pantagruel. + +The Abbe Birotteau spent the first days of his mourning in verifying +the books in HIS library, in making use of HIS furniture, in examining +the whole of his inheritance, saying in a tone which, unfortunately, +was not noted at the time, "Poor Chapeloud!" His joy and his grief so +completely absorbed him that he felt no pain when he found that the +office of canon, in which the late Chapeloud had hoped his friend +Birotteau might succeed him, was given to another. Mademoiselle Gamard +having cheerfully agreed to take the vicar to board, the latter was +thenceforth a participator in all those felicities of material comfort +of which the deceased canon had been wont to boast. + +Incalculable they were! According to the Abbe Chapeloud none of the +priests who inhabited the city of Tours, not even the archbishop, had +ever been the object of such minute and delicate attentions as those +bestowed by Mademoiselle Gamard on her two lodgers. The first words +the canon said to his friend when they met for their walk on the Mail +referred usually to the succulent dinner he had just eaten; and it was +a very rare thing if during the walks of each week he did not say at +least fourteen times, "That excellent spinster certainly has a +vocation for serving ecclesiastics." + +"Just think," the canon would say to Birotteau, "that for twelve +consecutive years nothing has ever been amiss,--linen in perfect +order, bands, albs, surplices; I find everything in its place, always +in sufficient quantity, and smelling of orris-root. My furniture is +rubbed and kept so bright that I don't know when I have seen any dust +--did you ever see a speck of it in my rooms? Then the firewood is so +well selected. The least little things are excellent. In fact, +Mademoiselle Gamard keeps an incessant watch over my wants. I can't +remember having rung twice for anything--no matter what--in ten years. +That's what I call living! I never have to look for a single thing, +not even my slippers. Always a good fire, always a good dinner. Once +the bellows annoyed me, the nozzle was choked up; but I only mentioned +it once, and the next day Mademoiselle gave me a very pretty pair, +also those nice tongs you see me mend the fire with." + +For all answer Birotteau would say, "Smelling of orris-root!" That +"smelling of orris-root" always affected him. The canon's remarks +revealed ideal joys to the poor vicar, whose bands and albs were the +plague of his life, for he was totally devoid of method and often +forgot to order his dinner. Therefore, if he saw Mademoiselle Gamard +at Saint-Gatien while saying mass or taking round the plate, he never +failed to give her a kindly and benevolent look,--such a look as Saint +Teresa might have cast to heaven. + +Though the comforts which all creatures desire, and for which he had +so often longed, thus fell to his share, the Abbe Birotteau, like the +rest of the world, found it difficult, even for a priest, to live +without something to hanker for. Consequently, for the last eighteen +months he had replaced his two satisfied passions by an ardent longing +for a canonry. The title of Canon had become to him very much what a +peerage is to a plebeian minister. The prospect of an appointment, +hopes of which had just been held out to him at Madame de Listomere's, +so completely turned his head that he did not observe until he reached +his own door that he had left his umbrella behind him. Perhaps, even +then, if the rain were not falling in torrents he might not have +missed it, so absorbed was he in the pleasure of going over and over +in his mind what had been said to him on the subject of his promotion +by the company at Madame de Listomere's,--an old lady with whom he +spent every Wednesday evening. + +The vicar rang loudly, as if to let the servant know she was not to +keep him waiting. Then he stood close to the door to avoid, if he +could, getting showered; but the drip from the roof fell precisely on +the toes of his shoes, and the wind blew gusts of rain into his face +that were much like a shower-bath. Having calculated the time necesary +for the woman to leave the kitchen and pull the string of the outer +door, he rang again, this time in a manner that resulted in a very +significant peal of the bell. + +"They can't be out," he said to himself, not hearing any movement on +the premises. + +Again he rang, producing a sound that echoed sharply through the house +and was taken up and repeated by all the echoes of the cathedral, so +that no one could avoid waking up at the remonstrating racket. +Accordingly, in a few moments, he heard, not without some pleasure in +his wrath, the wooden shoes of the servant-woman clacking along the +paved path which led to the outer door. But even then the discomforts +of the gouty old gentleman were not so quickly over as he hoped. +Instead of pulling the string, Marianne was obliged to turn the lock +of the door with its heavy key, and pull back all the bolts. + +"Why did you let me ring three times in such weather?" said the vicar. + +"But, monsieur, don't you see the door was locked? We have all been in +bed ever so long; it struck a quarter to eleven some time ago. +Mademoiselle must have thought you were in." + +"You saw me go out, yourself. Besides, Mademoiselle knows very well I +always go to Madame de Listomere's on Wednesday evening." + +"I only did as Mademoiselle told me, monsieur." + +These words struck the vicar a blow, which he felt the more because +his late revery had made him completely happy. He said nothing and +followed Marianne towards the kitchen to get his candlestick, which he +supposed had been left there as usual. But instead of entering the +kitchen Marianne went on to his own apartments, and there the vicar +beheld his candlestick on a table close to the door of the red salon, +in a sort of antechamber formed by the landing of the staircase, which +the late canon had inclosed with a glass partition. Mute with +amazement, he entered his bedroom hastily, found no fire, and called +to Marianne, who had not had time to get downstairs. + +"You have not lighted the fire!" he said. + +"Beg pardon, Monsieur l'abbe, I did," she said; "it must have gone +out." + +Birotteau looked again at the hearth, and felt convinced that the fire +had been out since morning. + +"I must dry my feet," he said. "Make the fire." + +Marianne obeyed with the haste of a person who wants to get back to +her night's rest. While looking about him for his slippers, which were +not in the middle of his bedside carpet as usual, the abbe took mental +notes of the state of Marianne's dress, which convinced him that she +had not got out of bed to open the door as she said she had. He then +recollected that for the last two weeks he had been deprived of +various little attentions which for eighteen months had made life +sweet to him. Now, as the nature of narrow minds induces them to study +trifles, Birotteau plunged suddenly into deep meditation on these four +circumstances, imperceptible in their meaning to others, but to him +indicative of four catastrophes. The total loss of his happiness was +evidently foreshadowed in the neglect to place his slipppers, in +Marianne's falsehood about the fire, in the unusual removal of his +candlestick to the table of the antechamber, and in the evident +intention to keep him waiting in the rain. + +When the fire was burning on the hearth, and the lamp was lighted, and +Marianne had departed without saying, as usual, "Does Monsieur want +anything more?" the Abbe Birotteau let himself fall gently into the +wide and handsome easy-chair of his late friend; but there was +something mournful in the movement with which he dropped upon it. The +good soul was crushed by a presentiment of coming calamity. His eyes +roved successively to the handsome tall clock, the bureau, curtains, +chairs, carpets, to the stately bed, the basin of holy-water, the +crucifix, to a Virgin by Valentin, a Christ by Lebrun,--in short, to +all the accessories of this cherished room, while his face expressed +the anguish of the tenderest farewell that a lover ever took of his +first mistress, or an old man of his lately planted trees. The vicar +had just perceived, somewhat late it is true, the signs of a dumb +persecution instituted against him for the last three months by +Mademoiselle Gamard, whose evil intentions would doubtless have been +fathomed much sooner by a more intelligent man. Old maids have a +special talent for accentuating the words and actions which their +dislikes suggest to them. They scratch like cats. They not only wound +but they take pleasure in wounding, and in making their victim see +that he is wounded. A man of the world would never have allowed +himself to be scratched twice; the good abbe, on the contrary, had +taken several blows from those sharp claws before he could be brought +to believe in any evil intention. + +But when he did perceive it, he set to work, with the inquisitorial +sagacity which priests acquire by directing consciences and burrowing +into the nothings of the confessional, to establish, as though it were +a matter of religious controversy, the following proposition: +"Admitting that Mademoiselle Gamard did not remember it was Madame de +Listomere's evening, and that Marianne did think I was home, and did +really forget to make my fire, it is impossible, inasmuch as I myself +took down my candlestick this morning, that Mademoiselle Gamard, +seeing it in her salon, could have supposed I had gone to bed. Ergo, +Mademoiselle Gamard intended that I should stand out in the rain, and, +by carrying my candlestick upstairs, she meant to make me understand +it. What does it all mean?" he said aloud, roused by the gravity of +these circumstances, and rising as he spoke to take off his damp +clothes, get into his dressing-gown, and do up his head for the night. +Then he returned from the bed to the fireplace, gesticulating, and +launching forth in various tones the following sentences, all of which +ended in a high falsetto key, like notes of interjection: + +"What the deuce have I done to her? Why is she angry with me? Marianne +did NOT forget my fire! Mademoiselle told her not to light it! I must +be a child if I can't see, from the tone and manner she has been +taking to me, that I've done something to displease her. Nothing like +it ever happened to Chapeloud! I can't live in the midst of such +torments as--At my age--" + +He went to bed hoping that the morrow might enlighten him on the +causes of the dislike which threatened to destroy forever the +happiness he had now enjoyed two years after wishing for it so long. +Alas! the secret reasons for the inimical feelings Mademoiselle Gamard +bore to the luckless abbe were fated to remain eternally unknown to +him,--not that they were difficult to fathom, but simply because he +lacked the good faith and candor by which great souls and scoundrels +look within and judge themselves. A man of genius or a trickster says +to himself, "I did wrong." Self-interest and native talent are the +only infallible and lucid guides. Now the Abbe Birotteau, whose +goodness amounted to stupidity, whose knowledge was only, as it were, +plastered on him by dint of study, who had no experience whatever of +the world and its ways, who lived between the mass and the +confessional, chiefly occupied in dealing the most trivial matters of +conscience in his capacity of confessor to all the schools in town and +to a few noble souls who rightly appreciated him,--the Abbe Birotteau +must be regarded as a great child, to whom most of the practices of +social life were utterly unknown. And yet, the natural selfishness of +all human beings, reinforced by the selfishness peculiar to the +priesthood and that of the narrow life of the provinces had +insensibly, and unknown to himself, developed within him. If any one +had felt enough interest in the good man to probe his spirit and prove +to him that in the numerous petty details of his life and in the +minute duties of his daily existence he was essentially lacking in the +self-sacrifice he professed, he would have punished and mortified +himself in good faith. But those whom we offend by such unconscious +selfishness pay little heed to our real innocence; what they want is +vengeance, and they take it. Thus it happened that Birotteau, weak +brother that he was, was made to undergo the decrees of that great +distributive Justice which goes about compelling the world to execute +its judgments,--called by ninnies "the misfortunes of life." + +There was this difference between the late Chapeloud and the vicar,-- +one was a shrewd and clever egoist, the other a simple-minded and +clumsy one. When the canon went to board with Mademoiselle Gamard he +knew exactly how to judge of his landlady's character. The +confessional had taught him to understand the bitterness that the +sense of being kept outside the social pale puts into the heart of an +old maid; he therefore calculated his own treatment of Mademoiselle +Gamard very wisely. She was then about thirty-eight years old, and +still retained a few pretensions, which, in well-behaved persons of +her condition, change, rather later, into strong personal self-esteem. +The canon saw plainly that to live comfortably with his landlady he +must pay her invariably the same attentions and be more infallible +than the pope himself. To compass this result, he allowed no points of +contact between himself and her except those that politeness demanded, +and those which necessarily exist between two persons living under the +same roof. Thus, though he and the Abbe Troubert took their regular +three meals a day, he avoided the family breakfast by inducing +Mademoiselle Gamard to send his coffee to his own room. He also +avoided the annoyance of supper by taking tea in the houses of friends +with whom he spent his evenings. In this way he seldom saw his +landlady except at dinner; but he always came down to that meal a few +minutes in advance of the hour. During this visit of courtesy, as it +may be called, he talked to her, for the twelve years he had lived +under her roof, on nearly the same topics, receiving from her the same +answers. How she had slept, her breakfast, the trivial domestic +events, her looks, her health, the weather, the time the church +services had lasted, the incidents of the mass, the health of such or +such a priest,--these were the subjects of their daily conversation. +During dinner he invariably paid her certain indirect compliments; the +fish had an excellent flavor; the seasoning of a sauce was delicious; +Mademoiselle Gamard's capacities and virtues as mistress of a +household were great. He was sure of flattering the old maid's vanity +by praising the skill with which she made or prepared her preserves +and pickles and pates and other gastronomical inventions. To cap all, +the wily canon never left his landlady's yellow salon after dinner +without remarking that there was no house in Tours where he could get +such good coffee as that he had just imbibed. + +Thanks to this thorough understanding of Mademoiselle Gamard's +character, and to the science of existence which he had put in +practice for the last twelve years, no matter of discussion on the +internal arrangements of the household had ever come up between them. +The Abbe Chapeloud had taken note of the spinster's angles, +asperities, and crabbedness, and had so arranged his avoidance of her +that he obtained without the least difficulty all the concessions that +were necessary to the happiness and tranquility of his life. The +result was that Mademoiselle Gamard frequently remarked to her friends +and acquaintances that the Abbe Chapeloud was a very amiable man, +extremely easy to live with, and a fine mind. + +As to her other lodger, the Abbe Troubert, she said absolutely nothing +about him. Completely involved in the round of her life, like a +satellite in the orbit of a planet, Troubert was to her a sort of +intermediary creature between the individuals of the human species and +those of the canine species; he was classed in her heart next, but +directly before, the place intended for friends but now occupied by a +fat and wheezy pug which she tenderly loved. She ruled Troubert +completely, and the intermingling of their interests was so obvious +that many persons of her social sphere believed that the Abbe Troubert +had designs on the old maid's property, and was binding her to him +unawares with infinite patience, and really directing her while he +seemed to be obeying without ever letting her percieve in him the +slightest wish on his part to govern her. + +When the Abbe Chapeloud died, the old maid, who desired a lodger with +quiet ways, naturally thought of the vicar. Before the canon's will +was made known she had meditated offering his rooms to the Abbe +Troubert, who was not very comfortable on the ground-floor. But when +the Abbe Birotteau, on receiving his legacy, came to settle in writing +the terms of his board she saw he was so in love with the apartment, +for which he might now admit his long cherished desires, that she +dared not propose the exchange, and accordingly sacrificed her +sentiments of friendship to the demands of self-interest. But in order +to console her beloved canon, Mademoiselle took up the large white +Chateau-Renaud bricks that made the floors of his apartment and +replaced them by wooden floors laid in "point de Hongrie." She also +rebuilt a smoky chimney. + +For twelve years the Abbe Birotteau had seen his friend Chapeloud in +that house without ever giving a thought to the motive of the canon's +extreme circumspection in his relations to Mademoiselle Gamard. When +he came himself to live with that saintly woman he was in the +condition of a lover on the point of being made happy. Even if he had +not been by nature purblind of intellect, his eyes were too dazzled by +his new happiness to allow him to judge of the landlady, or to reflect +on the limits which he ought to impose on their daily intercourse. +Mademoiselle Gamard, seen from afar and through the prism of those +material felicities which the vicar dreamed of enjoying in her house, +seemed to him a perfect being, a faultless Christian, essentially +charitable, the woman of the Gospel, the wise virgin, adorned by all +those humble and modest virtues which shed celestial fragrance upon +life. + +So, with the enthusiasm of one who attains an object long desired, +with the candor of a child, and the blundering foolishness of an old +man utterly without worldly experience, he fell into the life of +Mademoiselle Gamard precisely as a fly is caught in a spider's web. +The first day that he went to dine and sleep at the house he was +detained in the salon after dinner, partly to make his landlady's +acquaintance, but chiefly by that inexplicable embarrassment which +often assails timid people and makes them fear to seem impolite by +breaking off a conversation in order to take leave. Consequently he +remained there the whole evening. Then a friend of his, a certain +Mademoiselle Salomon de Villenoix, came to see him, and this gave +Mademoiselle Gamard the happiness of forming a card-table; so that +when the vicar went to bed he felt that he had passed a very agreeable +evening. Knowing Mademoiselle Gamard and the Abbe Troubert but +slightly, he saw only the superficial aspects of their characters; few +persons bare their defects at once, they generally take on a becoming +veneer. + +The worthy abbe was thus led to suggest to himself the charming plan +of devoting all his evenings to Mademoiselle Gamard, instead of +spending them, as Chapeloud had done, elsewhere. The old maid had for +years been possessed by a desire which grew stronger day by day. This +desire, often formed by old persons and even by pretty women, had +become in Mademoiselle Gamard's soul as ardent a longing as that of +Birotteau for Chapeloud's apartment; and it was strengthened by all +those feelings of pride, egotism, envy, and vanity which pre-exist in +the breasts of worldly people. + +This history is of all time; it suffices to widen slightly the narrow +circle in which these personages are about to act to find the +coefficient reasons of events which take place in the very highest +spheres of social life. + +Mademoiselle Gamard spent her evenings by rotation in six or eight +different houses. Whether it was that she disliked being obliged to go +out to seek society, and considered that at her age she had a right to +expect some return; or that her pride was wounded at receiving no +company in her house; or that her self-love craved the compliments she +saw her various hostesses receive,--certain it is that her whole +ambition was to make her salon a centre towards which a given number +of persons should nightly make their way with pleasure. One morning as +she left Saint-Gatien, after Birotteau and his friend Mademoiselle +Salomon had spent a few evenings with her and with the faithful and +patient Troubert, she said to certain of her good friends whom she met +at the church door, and whose slave she had hitherto considered +herself, that those who wished to see her could certainly come once a +week to her house, where she had friends enough to make a card-table; +she could not leave the Abbe Birotteau; Mademoiselle Salomon had not +missed a single evening that week; she was devoted to friends; and--et +cetera, et cetera. Her speech was all the more humbly haughty and +softly persuasive because Mademoiselle Salomon de Villenoix belonged +to the most aristocatic society in Tours. For though Mademoiselle +Salomon came to Mademoiselle Gamard's house solely out of friendship +for the vicar, the old maid triumphed in receiving her, and saw that, +thanks to Birotteau, she was on the point of succeeding in her great +desire to form a circle as numerous and as agreeable as those of +Madame de Listomere, Mademoiselle Merlin de la Blottiere, and other +devout ladies who were in the habit of receiving the pious and +ecclesiastical society of Tours. + +But alas! the abbe Birotteau himself caused this cherished hope to +miscarry. Now if those persons who in the course of their lives have +attained to the enjoyment of a long desired happiness and have +therefore comprehended the joy of the vicar when he stepped into +Chapeloud's vacant place, they will also have gained some faint idea +of Mademoiselle Gamard's distress at the overthrow of her favorite +plan. + +After accepting his happiness in the old maid's salon for six months +with tolerable patience, Birotteau deserted the house of an evening, +carrying with him Mademoiselle Salomon. In spite of her utmost efforts +the ambitious Gamard had recruited barely six visitors, whose faithful +attendance was more than problematical; and boston could not be played +night after night unless at least four persons were present. The +defection of her two principal guests obliged her therefore to make +suitable apologies and return to her evening visiting among former +friends; for old maids find their own company so distasteful that they +prefer to seek the doubtful pleasures of society. + +The cause of this desertion is plain enough. Although the vicar was +one of those to whom heaven is hereafter to belong in virtue of the +decree "Blessed are the poor in spirit," he could not, like some +fools, endure the annoyance that other fools caused him. Persons +without minds are like weeds that delight in good earth; they want to +be amused by others, all the more because they are dull within. The +incarnation of ennui to which they are victims, joined to the need +they feel of getting a divorce from themselves, produces that passion +for moving about, for being somewhere else than where they are, which +distinguishes their species,--and also that of all beings devoid of +sensitiveness, and those who have missed their destiny, or who suffer +by their own fault. + +Without really fathoming the vacuity and emptiness of Mademoiselle +Gamard's mind, or stating to himself the pettiness of her ideas, the +poor abbe perceived, unfortunately too late, the defects which she +shared with all old maids, and those which were peculiar to herself. +The bad points of others show out so strongly against the good that +they usually strike our eyes before they wound us. This moral +phenomenon might, at a pinch, be made to excuse the tendency we all +have, more or less, to gossip. It is so natural, socially speaking, to +laugh at the failings of others that we ought to forgive the ridicule +our own absurdities excite, and be annoyed only by calumny. But in +this instance the eyes of the good vicar never reached the optical +range which enables men of the world to see and evade their +neighbours' rough points. Before he could be brought to perceive the +faults of his landlady he was forced to undergo the warning which +Nature gives to all her creatures--pain. + +Old maids who have never yielded in their habits of life or in their +characters to other lives and other characters, as the fate of woman +exacts, have, as a general thing, a mania for making others give way +to them. In Mademoiselle Gamard this sentiment had degenerated into +despotism, but a despotism that could only exercise itself on little +things. For instance (among a hundred other examples), the basket of +counters placed on the card-table for the Abbe Birotteau was to stand +exactly where she placed it; and the abbe annoyed her terribly by +moving it, which he did nearly every evening. How is this +sensitiveness stupidly spent on nothings to be accounted for? what is +the object of it? No one could have told in this case; Mademoiselle +Gamard herself knew no reason for it. The vicar, though a sheep by +nature, did not like, any more than other sheep, to feel the crook too +often, especially when it bristled with spikes. Not seeking to explain +to himself the patience of the Abbe Troubert, Birotteau simply +withdrew from the happiness which Mademoiselle Gamard believed that +she seasoned to his liking,--for she regarded happiness as a thing to +be made, like her preserves. But the luckless abbe made the break in a +clumsy way, the natural way of his own naive character, and it was not +carried out without much nagging and sharp-shooting, which the Abbe +Birotteau endeavored to bear as if he did not feel them. + +By the end of the first year of his sojourn under Mademoiselle +Gamard's roof the vicar had resumed his former habits; spending two +evenings a week with Madame de Listomere, three with Mademoiselle +Salomon, and the other two with Mademoiselle Merlin de la Blottiere. +These ladies belonged to the aristocratic circles of Tourainean +society, to which Mademoiselle Gamard was not admitted. Therefore the +abbe's abandonment was the more insulting, because it made her feel +her want of social value; all choice implies contempt for the thing +rejected. + +"Monsieur Birotteau does not find us agreeable enough," said the Abbe +Troubert to Mademoiselle Gamard's friends when she was forced to tell +them that her "evenings" must be given up. "He is a man of the world, +and a good liver! He wants fashion, luxury, witty conversation, and +the scandals of the town." + +These words of course obliged Mademoiselle Gamard to defend herself at +Birotteau's expense. + +"He is not much a man of the world," she said. "If it had not been for +the Abbe Chapeloud he would never have been received at Madame de +Listomere's. Oh, what didn't I lose in losing the Abbe Chapeloud! Such +an amiable man, and so easy to live with! In twelve whole years I +never had the slightest difficulty or disagreement with him." + +Presented thus, the innocent abbe was considered by this bourgeois +society, which secretly hated the aristocratic society, as a man +essentially exacting and hard to get along with. For a week +Mademoiselle Gamard enjoyed the pleasure of being pitied by friends +who, without really thinking one word of what they said, kept +repeating to her: "How COULD he have turned against you?--so kind and +gentle as you are!" or, "Console yourself, dear Mademoiselle Gamard, +you are so well known that--" et cetera. + +Nevertheless, these friends, enchanted to escape one evening a week in +the Cloister, the darkest, dreariest, and most out of the way corner +in Tours, blessed the poor vicar in their hearts. + +Between persons who are perpetually in each other's company dislike or +love increases daily; every moment brings reasons to love or hate each +other more and more. The Abbe Birotteau soon became intolerable to +Mademoiselle Gamard. Eighteen months after she had taken him to board, +and at the moment when the worthy man was mistaking the silence of +hatred for the peacefulness of content, and applauding himself for +having, as he said, "managed matters so well with the old maid," he +was really the object of an underhand persecution and a vengeance +deliberately planned. The four marked circumstances of the locked +door, the forgotten slippers, the lack of fire, and the removal of the +candlestick, were the first signs that revealed to him a terrible +enmity, the final consequences of which were destined not to strike +him until the time came when they were irreparable. + +As he went to bed the worthy vicar worked his brains--quite uselessly, +for he was soon at the end of them--to explain to himself the +extraordinarily discourteous conduct of Mademoiselle Gamard. The fact +was that, having all along acted logically in obeying the natural laws +of his own egotism, it was impossible that he should now perceive his +own faults towards his landlady. + +Though the great things of life are simple to understand and easy to +express, the littlenesses require a vast number of details to explain +them. The foregoing events, which may be called a sort of prologue to +this bourgeois drama, in which we shall find passions as violent as +those excited by great interests, required this long introduction; and +it would have been difficult for any faithful historian to shorten the +account of these minute developments. + + + + II + +The next morning, on awaking, Birotteau thought so much of his +prospective canonry that he forgot the four circumstances in which he +had seen, the night before, such threatening prognostics of a future +full of misery. The vicar was not a man to get up without a fire. He +rang to let Marianne know that he was awake and that she must come to +him; then he remained, as his habit was, absorbed in somnolent +musings. The servant's custom was to make the fire and gently draw him +from his half sleep by the murmured sound of her movements,--a sort of +music which he loved. Twenty minutes passed and Marianne had not +appeared. The vicar, now half a canon, was about to ring again, when +he let go the bell-pull, hearing a man's step on the staircase. In a +minute more the Abbe Troubert, after discreetly knocking at the door, +obeyed Birotteau's invitation and entered the room. This visit, which +the two abbe's usually paid each other once a month, was no surprise +to the vicar. The canon at once exclaimed when he saw that Marianne +had not made the fire of his quasi-colleague. He opened the window and +called to her harshly, telling her to come at once to the abbe; then, +turning round to his ecclesiastical brother, he said, "If Mademoiselle +knew that you had no fire she would scold Marianne." + +After this speech he inquired about Birotteau's health, and asked in a +gentle voice if he had had any recent news that gave him hopes of his +canonry. The vicar explained the steps he had taken, and told, +naively, the names of the persons with whom Madam de Listomere was +using her influence, quite unaware that Troubert had never forgiven +that lady for not admitting him--the Abbe Troubert, twice proposed by +the bishop as vicar-general!--to her house. + +It would be impossible to find two figures which presented so many +contrasts to each other as those of the two abbes. Troubert, tall and +lean, was yellow and bilious, while the vicar was what we call, +familiarly, plump. Birotteau's face, round and ruddy, proclaimed a +kindly nature barren of ideas, while that of the Abbe Troubert, long +and ploughed by many wrinkles, took on at times an expression of +sarcasm, or else of contempt; but it was necessary to watch him very +closely before those sentiments could be detected. The canon's +habitual condition was perfect calmness, and his eyelids were usually +lowered over his orange-colored eyes, which could, however, give clear +and piercing glances when he liked. Reddish hair added to the gloomy +effect of this countenance, which was always obscured by the veil +which deep meditation drew across its features. Many persons at first +sight thought him absorbed in high and earnest ambitions; but those +who claimed to know him better denied that impression, insisting that +he was only stupidly dull under Mademoiselle Gamard's despotism, or +else worn out by too much fasting. He seldom spoke, and never laughed. +When it did so happen that he felt agreeably moved, a feeble smile +would flicker on his lips and lose itself in the wrinkles of his face. + +Birotteau, on the other hand, was all expansion, all frankness; he +loved good things and was amused by trifles with the simplicity of a +man who knew no spite or malice. The Abbe Troubert roused, at first +sight, an involuntary feeling of fear, while the vicar's presence +brought a kindly smile to the lips of all who looked at him. When the +tall canon marched with solemn step through the naves and cloisters of +Saint-Gatien, his head bowed, his eye stern, respect followed him; +that bent face was in harmony with the yellowing arches of the +cathedral; the folds of his cassock fell in monumental lines that were +worthy of statuary. The good vicar, on the contrary, perambulated +about with no gravity at all. He trotted and ambled and seemed at +times to roll himself along. But with all this there was one point of +resemblance between the two men. For, precisely as Troubert's +ambitious air, which made him feared, had contributed probably to keep +him down to the insignificant position of a mere canon, so the +character and ways of Birotteau marked him out as perpetually the +vicar of the cathedral and nothing higher. + +Yet the Abbe Troubert, now fifty years of age, had entirely removed, +partly by the circumspection of his conduct and the apparent lack of +all ambitions, and partly by his saintly life, the fears which his +suspected ability and his powerful presence had roused in the minds of +his superiors. His health having seriously failed him during the last +year, it seemed probable that he would soon be raised to the office of +vicar-general of the archbishopric. His competitors themselves desired +the appointment, so that their own plans might have time to mature +during the few remaining days which a malady, now become chronic, +might allow him. Far from offering the same hopes to rivals, +Birotteau's triple chin showed to all who wanted his coveted canonry +an evidence of the soundest health; even his gout seemed to them, in +accordance with the proverb, an assurance of longevity. + +The Abbe Chapeloud, a man of great good sense, whose amiability had +made the leaders of the diocese and the members of the best society in +Tours seek his company, had steadily opposed, though secretly and with +much judgment, the elevation of the Abbe Troubert. He had even +adroitly managed to prevent his access to the salons of the best +society. Nevertheless, during Chapeloud's lifetime Troubert treated +him invariably with great respect, and showed him on all occasions the +utmost deference. This constant submission did not, however, change +the opinion of the late canon, who said to Birotteau during the last +walk they took together: "Distrust that lean stick of a Troubert,-- +Sixtus the Fifth reduced to the limits of a bishopric!" + +Such was the friend, the abiding guest of Mademoiselle Gamard, who now +came, the morning after the old maid had, as it were, declared war +against the poor vicar, to pay his brother a visit and show him marks +of friendship. + +"You must excuse Marianne," said the canon, as the woman entered. "I +suppose she went first to my rooms. They are very damp, and I coughed +all night. You are most healthily situated here," he added, looking up +at the cornice. + +"Yes; I am lodged like a canon," replied Birotteau. + +"And I like a vicar," said the other, humbly. + +"But you will soon be settled in the archbishop's palace," said the +kindly vicar, who wanted everybody to be happy. + +"Yes, or in the cemetery, but God's will be done!" and Troubert raised +his eyes to heaven resignedly. "I came," he said, "to ask you to lend +me the 'Register of Bishops.' You are the only man in Tours I know who +has a copy." + +"Take it out of my library," replied Birotteau, reminded by the +canon's words of the greatest happiness of his life. + +The canon passed into the library and stayed there while the vicar +dressed. Presently the breakfast bell rang, and the gouty vicar +reflected that if it had not been for Troubert's visit he would have +had no fire to dress by. "He's a kind man," thought he. + +The two priests went downstairs together, each armed with a huge folio +which they laid on one of the side tables in the dining-room. + +"What's all that?" asked Mademoiselle Gamard, in a sharp voice, +addressing Birotteau. "I hope you are not going to litter up my +dining-room with your old books!" + +"They are books I wanted," replied the Abbe Troubert. "Monsieur +Birotteau has been kind enough to lend them to me." + +"I might have guessed it," she said, with a contemptuous smile. +"Monsieur Birotteau doesn't often read books of that size." + +"How are you, mademoiselle?" said the vicar, in a mellifluous voice. + +"Not very well," she replied, shortly. "You woke me up last night out +of my first sleep, and I was wakeful for the rest of the night." Then, +sitting down, she added, "Gentlemen, the milk is getting cold." + +Stupefied at being so ill-naturedly received by his landlady, from +whom he half expected an apology, and yet alarmed, like all timid +people at the prospect of a discussion, especially if it relates to +themselves, the poor vicar took his seat in silence. Then, observing +in Mademoiselle Gamard's face the visible signs of ill-humour, he was +goaded into a struggle between his reason, which told him that he +ought not to submit to such discourtesy from a landlady, and his +natural character, which prompted him to avoid a quarrel. + +Torn by this inward misery, Birotteau fell to examining attentively +the broad green lines painted on the oilcloth which, from custom +immemorial, Mademoiselle Gamard left on the table at breakfast-time, +without regard to the ragged edges or the various scars displayed on +its surface. The priests sat opposite to each other in cane-seated +arm-chairs on either side of the square table, the head of which was +taken by the landlady, who seemed to dominate the whole from a high +chair raised on casters, filled with cushions, and standing very near +to the dining-room stove. This room and the salon were on the ground- +floor beneath the salon and bedroom of the Abbe Birotteau. + +When the vicar had received his cup of coffee, duly sugared, from +Mademoiselle Gamard, he felt chilled to the bone at the grim silence +in which he was forced to proceed with the usually gay function of +breakfast. He dared not look at Troubert's dried-up features, nor at +the threatening visage of the old maid; and he therefore turned, to +keep himself in countenance, to the plethoric pug which was lying on a +cushion near the stove,--a position that victim of obesity seldom +quitted, having a little plate of dainties always at his left side, +and a bowl of fresh water at his right. + +"Well, my pretty," said the vicar, "are you waiting for your coffee?" + +The personage thus addressed, one of the most important in the +household, though the least troublesome inasmuch as he had ceased to +bark and left the talking to his mistress, turned his little eyes, +sunk in rolls of fat, upon Birotteau. Then he closed them peevishly. +To explain the misery of the poor vicar it should be said that being +endowed by nature with an empty and sonorous loquacity, like the +resounding of a football, he was in the habit of asserting, without +any medical reason to back him, that speech favored digestion. +Mademoiselle Gamard, who believed in this hygienic doctrine, had not +as yet refrained, in spite of their coolness, from talking at meals; +though, for the last few mornings, the vicar had been forced to strain +his mind to find beguiling topics on which to loosen her tongue. If +the narrow limits of this history permitted us to report even one of +the conversations which often brought a bitter and sarcastic smile to +the lips of the Abbe Troubert, it would offer a finished picture of +the Boeotian life of the provinces. The singular revelations of the +Abbe Birotteau and Mademoiselle Gamard relating to their personal +opinions on politics, religion, and literature would delight observing +minds. It would be highly entertaining to transcribe the reasons on +which they mutually doubted the death of Napoleon in 1820, or the +conjectures by which they mutually believed that the Dauphin was +living,--rescued from the Temple in the hollow of a huge log of wood. +Who could have helped laughing to hear them assert and prove, by +reasons evidently their own, that the King of France alone imposed the +taxes, that the Chambers were convoked to destroy the clergy, that +thirteen hundred thousand persons had perished on the scaffold during +the Revolution? They frequently discussed the press, without either of +them having the faintest idea of what that modern engine really was. +Monsieur Birotteau listened with acceptance to Mademoiselle Gamard +when she told him that a man who ate an egg every morning would die in +a year, and that facts proved it; that a roll of light bread eaten +without drinking for several days together would cure sciatica; that +all the workmen who assisted in pulling down the Abbey Saint-Martin +had died in six months; that a certain prefect, under orders from +Bonaparte, had done his best to damage the towers of Saint-Gatien,-- +with a hundred other absurd tales. + +But on this occasion poor Birotteau felt he was tongue-tied, and he +resigned himself to eat a meal without engaging in conversation. After +a while, however, the thought crossed his mind that silence was +dangerous for his digestion, and he boldly remarked, "This coffee is +excellent." + +That act of courage was completely wasted. Then, after looking at the +scrap of sky visible above the garden between the two buttresses of +Saint-Gatien, the vicar again summoned nerve to say, "It will be finer +weather to-day than it was yesterday." + +At that remark Mademoiselle Gamard cast her most gracious look on the +Abbe Troubert, and immediately turned her eyes with terrible severity +on Birotteau, who fortunately by that time was looking on his plate. + +No creature of the feminine gender was ever more capable of presenting +to the mind the elegaic nature of an old maid than Mademoiselle Sophie +Gamard. In order to describe a being whose character gives a momentous +interest to the petty events of the present drama and to the anterior +lives of the actors in it, it may be useful to give a summary of the +ideas which find expression in the being of an Old Maid,--remembering +always that the habits of life form the soul, and the soul forms the +physical presence. + +Though all things in society as well as in the universe are said to +have a purpose, there do exist here below certain beings whose purpose +and utility seem inexplicable. Moral philosophy and political economy +both condemn the individual who consumes without producing; who fills +a place on the earth but does not shed upon it either good or evil,-- +for evil is sometimes good the meaning of which is not at once made +manifest. It is seldom that old maids of their own motion enter the +ranks of these unproductive beings. Now, if the consciousness of work +done gives to the workers a sense of satisfaction which helps them to +support life, the certainty of being a useless burden must, one would +think, produce a contrary effect, and fill the minds of such fruitless +beings with the same contempt for themselves which they inspire in +others. This harsh social reprobation is one of the causes which +contribute to fill the souls of old maids with the distress that +appears in their faces. Prejudice, in which there is truth, does cast, +throughout the world but especially in France, a great stigma on the +woman with whom no man has been willing to share the blessings or +endure the ills of life. Now, there comes to all unmarried women a +period when the world, be it right or wrong, condemns them on the fact +of this contempt, this rejection. If they are ugly, the goodness of +their characters ought to have compensated for their natural +imperfections; if, on the contrary, they are handsome, that fact +argues that their misfortune has some serious cause. It is impossible +to say which of the two classes is most deserving of rejection. If, on +the other hand, their celibacy is deliberate, if it proceeds from a +desire for independence, neither men nor mothers will forgive their +disloyalty to womanly devotion, evidenced in their refusal to feed +those passions which render their sex so affecting. To renounce the +pangs of womanhood is to abjure its poetry and cease to merit the +consolations to which mothers have inalienable rights. + +Moreover, the generous sentiments, the exquisite qualities of a woman +will not develop unless by constant exercise. By remaining unmarried, +a creature of the female sex becomes void of meaning; selfish and +cold, she creates repulsion. This implacable judgment of the world is +unfortunately too just to leave old maids in ignorance of its causes. +Such ideas shoot up in their hearts as naturally as the effects of +their saddened lives appear upon their features. Consequently they +wither, because the constant expression of happiness which blooms on +the faces of other women and gives so soft a grace to their movements +has never existed for them. They grow sharp and peevish because all +human beings who miss their vocation are unhappy; they suffer, and +suffering gives birth to the bitterness of ill-will. In fact, before +an old maid blames herself for her isolation she blames others, and +there is but one step between reproach and the desire for revenge. + +But more than this, the ill grace and want of charm noticeable in +these women are the necessary result of their lives. Never having felt +a desire to please, elegance and the refinements of good taste are +foreign to them. They see only themselves in themselves. This instinct +brings them, unconsciously, to choose the things that are most +convenient to themselves, at the sacrifice of those which might be +more agreeable to others. Without rendering account to their own minds +of the difference between themselves and other women, they end by +feeling that difference and suffering under it. Jealousy is an +indelible sentiment in the female breast. An old maid's soul is +jealous and yet void; for she knows but one side--the miserable side-- +of the only passion men will allow (because it flatters them) to +women. Thus thwarted in all their hopes, forced to deny themselves the +natural development of their natures, old maids endure an inward +torment to which they never grow accustomed. It is hard at any age, +above all for a woman, to see a feeling of repulsion on the faces of +others, when her true destiny is to move all hearts about her to +emotions of grace and love. One result of this inward trouble is that +an old maid's glance is always oblique, less from modesty than from +fear and shame. Such beings never forgive society for their false +position because they never forgive themselves for it. + +Now it is impossible for a woman who is perpetually at war with +herself and living in contradiction to her true life, to leave others +in peace or refrain from envying their happines. The whole range of +these sad truths could be read in the dulled gray eyes of Mademoiselle +Gamard; the dark circles that surrounded those eyes told of the inward +conflicts of her solitary life. All the wrinkles on her face were in +straight lines. The structure of her forehead and cheeks was rigid and +prominent. She allowed, with apparent indifference, certain scattered +hairs, once brown, to grow upon her chin. Her thin lips scarcely +covered teeth that were too long, though still quite white. Her +complexion was dark, and her hair, originally black, had turned gray +from frightful headaches,--a misfortune which obliged her to wear a +false front. Not knowing how to put it on so as to conceal the +junction between the real and the false, there were often little gaps +between the border of her cap and the black string with which this +semi-wig (always badly curled) was fastened to her head. Her gown, +silk in summer, merino in winter, and always brown in color, was +invariably rather tight for her angular figure and thin arms. Her +collar, limp and bent, exposed too much the red skin of a neck which +was ribbed like an oak-leaf in winter seen in the light. Her origin +explains to some extent the defects of her conformation. She was the +daughter of a wood-merchant, a peasant, who had risen from the ranks. +She might have been plump at eighteen, but no trace remained of the +fair complexion and pretty color of which she was wont to boast. The +tones of her flesh had taken the pallid tints so often seen in +"devotes." Her aquiline nose was the feature that chiefly proclaimed +the despotism of her nature, and the flat shape of her forehead the +narrowness of her mind. Her movements had an odd abruptness which +precluded all grace; the mere motion with which she twitched her +handkerchief from her bag and blew her nose with a loud noise would +have shown her character and habits to a keen observer. Being rather +tall, she held herself very erect, and justified the remark of a +naturalist who once explained the peculiar gait of old maids by +declaring that their joints were consolidating. When she walked her +movements were not equally distributed over her whole person, as they +are in other women, producing those graceful undulations which are so +attractive. She moved, so to speak, in a single block, seeming to +advance at each step like the statue of the Commendatore. When she +felt in good humour she was apt, like other old maids, to tell of the +chances she had had to marry, and of her fortunate discovery in time +of the want of means of her lovers,--proving, unconsciously, that her +worldly judgment was better than her heart. + +This typical figure of the genus Old Maid was well framed by the +grotesque designs, representing Turkish landscapes, on a varnished +paper which decorated the walls of the dining-room. Mademoiselle +Gamard usually sat in this room, which boasted of two pier tables and +a barometer. Before the chair of each abbe was a little cushion +covered with worsted work, the colors of which were faded. The salon +in which she received company was worthy of its mistress. It will be +visible to the eye at once when we state that it went by the name of +the "yellow salon." The curtains were yellow, the furniture and walls +yellow; on the mantelpiece, surmounted by a mirror in a gilt frame, +the candlesticks and a clock all of crystal struck the eye with sharp +brilliancy. As to the private apartment of Mademoiselle Gamard, no one +had ever been permitted to look into it. Conjecture alone suggested +that it was full of odds and ends, worn-out furniture, and bits of +stuff and pieces dear to the hearts of all old maids. + +Such was the woman destined to exert a vast influence on the last +years of the Abbe Birotteau. + +For want of exercising in nature's own way the activity bestowed upon +women, and yet impelled to spend it in some way or other, Mademoiselle +Gamard had acquired the habit of using it in petty intrigues, +provincial cabals, and those self-seeking schemes which occupy, sooner +or later, the lives of all old maids. Birotteau, unhappily, had +developed in Sophie Gamard the only sentiments which it was possible +for that poor creature to feel,--those of hatred; a passion hitherto +latent under the calmness and monotony of provincial life, but which +was now to become the more intense because it was spent on petty +things and in the midst of a narrow sphere. Birotteau was one of those +beings who are predestined to suffer because, being unable to see +things, they cannot avoid them; to them the worst happens. + +"Yes, it will be a fine day," replied the canon, after a pause, +apparently issuing from a revery and wishing to conform to the rules +of politeness. + +Birotteau, frightened at the length of time which had elapsed between +the question and the answer,--for he had, for the first time in his +life, taken his coffee without uttering a word,--now left the dining- +room where his heart was squeezed as if in a vise. Feeling that the +coffee lay heavy on his stomach, he went to walk in a sad mood among +the narrow, box-edged garden paths which outlined a star in the little +garden. As he turned after making the first round, he saw Mademoiselle +Gamard and the Abbe Troubert standing stock-still and silent on the +threshold of the door,--he with his arms folded and motionless like a +statue on a tomb; she leaning against the blind door. Both seemed to +be gazing at him and counting his steps. Nothing is so embarrassing to +a creature naturally timid as to feel itself the object of a close +examination, and if that is made by the eyes of hatred, the sort of +suffering it causes is changed into intolerable martyrdom. + +Presently Birotteau fancied he was preventing Mademoiselle Gamard and +the abbe from walking in the narrow path. That idea, inspired equally +by fear and kindness, became so strong that he left the garden and +went to the church, thinking no longer of his canonry, so absorbed was +he by the disheartening tyranny of the old maid. Luckily for him he +happened to find much to do at Saint-Gatien,--several funerals, a +marriage, and two baptisms. Thus employed he forgot his griefs. When +his stomach told him that dinner was ready he drew out his watch and +saw, not without alarm, that it was some minutes after four. Being +well aware of Mademoiselle Gamard's punctuality, he hurried back to +the house. + +He saw at once on passing the kitchen door that the first course had +been removed. When he reached the dining-room the old maid said, with +a tone of voice in which were mingled sour rebuke and joy at being +able to blame him:-- + +"It is half-past four, Monsieur Birotteau. You know we are not to wait +for you." + +The vicar looked at the clock in the dining-room, and saw at once, by +the way the gauze which protected it from dust had been moved, that +his landlady had opened the face of the dial and set the hands in +advance of the clock of the cathedral. He could make no remark. Had he +uttered his suspicion it would only have caused and apparently +justified one of those fierce and eloquent expositions to which +Mademoiselle Gamard, like other women of her class, knew very well how +to give vent in particular cases. The thousand and one annoyances +which a servant will sometimes make her master bear, or a woman her +husband, were instinctively divined by Mademoiselle Gamard and used +upon Birotteau. The way in which she delighted in plotting against the +poor vicar's domestic comfort bore all the marks of what we must call +a profoundly malignant genius. Yet she so managed that she was never, +so far as eye could see, in the wrong. + + + + III + +Eight days after the date on which this history began, the new +arrangements of the household and the relations which grew up between +the Abbe Birotteau and Mademoiselle Gamard revealed to the former the +existence of a plot which had been hatching for the last six months. + +As long as the old maid exercised her vengeance in an underhand way, +and the vicar was able to shut his eyes to it and refuse to believe in +her malevolent intentions, the moral effect upon him was slight. But +since the affair of the candlestick and the altered clock, Birotteau +would doubt no longer that he was under an eye of hatred turned fully +upon him. From that moment he fell into despair, seeing everywhere the +skinny, clawlike fingers of Mademoiselle Gamard ready to hook into his +heart. The old maid, happy in a sentiment as fruitful of emotions as +that of vengeance, enjoyed circling and swooping above the vicar as a +bird of prey hovers and swoops above a field-mouse before pouncing +down upon it and devouring it. She had long since laid a plan which +the poor dumbfounded priest was quite incapable of imagining, and +which she now proceeded to unfold with that genius for little things +often shown by solitary persons, whose souls, incapable of feeling the +grandeur of true piety, fling themselves into the details of outward +devotion. + +The petty nature of his troubles prevented Birotteau, always effusive +and liking to be pitied and consoled, from enjoying the soothing +pleasure of taking his friends into his confidence,--a last but cruel +aggravation of his misery. The little amount of tact which he derived +from his timidity made him fear to seem ridiculous in concerning +himself with such pettiness. And yet those petty things made up the +sum of his existence,--that cherished existence, full of busyness +about nothings, and of nothingness in its business; a colorless barren +life in which strong feelings were misfortunes, and the absence of +emotion happiness. The poor priest's paradise was changed, in a +moment, into hell. His sufferings became intolerable. The terror he +felt at the prospect of a discussion with Mademoiselle Gamard +increased day by day; the secret distress which blighted his life +began to injure his health. One morning, as he put on his mottled blue +stockings, he noticed a marked dimunition in the circumference of his +calves. Horrified by so cruel and undeniable a symptom, he resolved to +make an effort and appeal to the Abbe Troubert, requesting him to +intervene, officially, between Mademoiselle Gamard and himself. + +When he found himself in presence of the imposing canon, who, in order +to receive his visitor in a bare and cheerless room, had hastily +quitted a study full of papers, where he worked incessantly, and where +no one was ever admitted, the vicar felt half ashamed at speaking of +Mademoiselle Gamard's provocations to a man who appeared to be so +gravely occupied. But after going through the agony of the mental +deliberations which all humble, undecided, and feeble persons endure +about things of even no importance, he decided, not without much +swelling and beating of the heart, to explain his position to the Abbe +Troubert. + +The canon listened in a cold, grave manner, trying, but in vain, to +repress an occasional smile which to more intelligent eyes than those +of the vicar might have betrayed the emotions of a secret +satisfaction. A flame seemed to dart from his eyelids when Birotteau +pictured with the eloquence of genuine feeling the constant bitterness +he was made to swallow; but Troubert laid his hand above those lids +with a gesture very common to thinkers, maintaining the dignified +demeanor which was usual with him. When the vicar had ceased to speak +he would indeed have been puzzled had he sought on Troubert's face, +marbled with yellow blotches even more yellow than his usually bilious +skin, for any trace of the feelings he must have excited in that +mysterious priest. + +After a moment's silence the canon made one of those answers which +required long study before their meaning could be thoroughly +perceived, though later they proved to reflecting persons the +astonishing depths of his spirit and the power of his mind. He simply +crushed Birotteau by telling him that "these things amazed him all the +more because he should never have suspected their existence were it +not for his brother's confession. He attributed such stupidity on his +part to the gravity of his occupations, his labors, the absorption in +which his mind was held by certain elevated thoughts which prevented +his taking due notice of the petty details of life." He made the vicar +observe, but without appearing to censure the conduct of a man whose +age and connections deserved all respect, that "in former days, +recluses thought little about their food and lodging in the solitude +of their retreats, where they were lost in holy contemplations," and +that "in our days, priests could make a retreat for themselves in the +solitude of their own hearts." Then, reverting to Birotteau's affairs, +he added that "such disagreements were a novelty to him. For twelve +years nothing of the kind had occurred between Mademoiselle Gamard and +the venerable Abbe Chapeloud. As for himself, he might, no doubt, be +an arbitrator between the vicar and their landlady, because his +friendship for that person had never gone beyond the limits imposed by +the Church on her faithful servants; but if so, justice demanded that +he should hear both sides. He certainly saw no change in Mademoiselle +Gamard, who seemed to him the same as ever; he had always submitted to +a few of her caprices, knowing that the excellent woman was kindness +and gentleness itself; the slight fluctuations of her temper should be +attributed, he thought, to sufferings caused by a pulmonary affection, +of which she said little, resigning herself to bear them in a truly +Christian spirit." He ended by assuring the vicar that "if he stayed a +few years longer in Mademoiselle Gamard's house he would learn to +understand her better and acknowledge the real value of her excellent +nature." + +Birotteau left the room confounded. In the direful necessity of +consulting no one, he now judged Mademoiselle Gamard as he would +himself, and the poor man fancied that if he left her house for a few +days he might extinguish, for want of fuel, the dislike the old maid +felt for him. He accordingly resolved to spend, as he formerly did, a +week or so at a country-house where Madame de Listomere passed her +autumns, a season when the sky is usually pure and tender in Touraine. +Poor man! in so doing he did the thing that was most desired by his +terrible enemy, whose plans could only have been brought to nought by +the resistant patience of a monk. But the vicar, unable to divine +them, not understanding even his own affairs, was doomed to fall, like +a lamb, at the butcher's first blow. + +Madame de Listomere's country-place, situated on the embankment which +lies between Tours and the heights of Saint-Georges, with a southern +exposure and surrounded by rocks, combined the charms of the country +with the pleasures of the town. It took but ten minutes from the +bridge of Tours to reach the house, which was called the "Alouette,"-- +a great advantage in a region where no one will put himself out for +anything whatsoever, not even to seek a pleasure. + +The Abbe Birotteau had been about ten days at the Alouette, when, one +morning while he was breakfasting, the porter came to say that +Monsieur Caron desired to speak with him. Monsieur Caron was +Mademoiselle Gamard's laywer, and had charge of her affairs. +Birotteau, not remembering this, and unable to think of any matter of +litigation between himself and others, left the table to see the +lawyer in a stage of great agitation. He found him modestly seated on +the balustrade of a terrace. + +"Your intention of ceasing to reside in Mademoiselle Gamard's house +being made evident--" began the man of business. + +"Eh! monsieur," cried the Abbe Birotteau, interrupting him, "I have +not the slightest intention of leaving it." + +"Nevertheless, monsieur," replied the lawyer, "you must have had some +agreement in the matter with Mademoiselle, for she has sent me to ask +how long you intend to remain in the country. The event of a long +absence was not foreseen in the agreement, and may lead to a contest. +Now, Mademoiselle Gamard understanding that your board--" + +"Monsieur," said Birotteau, amazed, and again interrupting the lawyer, +"I did not suppose it necessary to employ, as it were, legal means +to--" + +"Mademoiselle Gamard, who is anxious to avoid all dispute," said +Monsieur Caron, "has sent me to come to an understanding with you." + +"Well, if you will have the goodness to return to-morrow," said the +abbe, "I shall then have taken advice in the matter." + +The quill-driver withdrew. The poor vicar, frightened at the +persistence with which Mademoiselle Gamard pursued him, returned to +the dining-room with his face so convulsed that everybody cried out +when they saw him: "What IS the matter, Monsieur Birotteau?" + +The abbe, in despair, sat down without a word, so crushed was he by +the vague presence of approaching disaster. But after breakfast, when +his friends gathered round him before a comfortable fire, Birotteau +naively related the history of his troubles. His hearers, who were +beginning to weary of the monotony of a country-house, were keenly +interested in a plot so thoroughly in keeping with the life of the +provinces. They all took sides with the abbe against the old maid. + +"Don't you see, my dear friend," said Madame de Listomere, "that the +Abbe Troubert wants your apartment?" + +Here the historian ought to sketch this lady; but it occurs to him +that even those who are ignorant of Sterne's system of "cognomology," +cannot pronounce the three words "Madame de Listomere" without +picturing her to themselves as noble and dignified, softening the +sternness of rigid devotion by the gracious elegance and the courteous +manners of the old monarchical regime; kind, but a little stiff; +slightly nasal in voice; allowing herself the perusal of "La Nouvelle +Heloise"; and still wearing her own hair. + +"The Abbe Birotteau must not yield to that old vixen," cried Monsieur +de Listomere, a lieutenant in the navy who was spending a furlough +with his aunt. "If the vicar has pluck and will follow my suggestions +he will soon recover his tranquillity." + +All present began to analyze the conduct of Mademoiselle Gamard with +the keen perceptions which characterize provincials, to whom no one +can deny the talent of knowing how to lay bare the most secret motives +of human actions. + +"You don't see the whole thing yet," said an old landowner who knew +the region well. "There is something serious behind all this which I +can't yet make out. The Abbe Troubert is too deep to be fathomed at +once. Our dear Birotteau is at the beginning of his troubles. Besides, +would he be left in peace and comfort even if he did give up his +lodging to Troubert? I doubt it. If Caron came here to tell you that +you intended to leave Mademoiselle Gamard," he added, turning to the +bewildered priest, "no doubt Mademoiselle Gamard's intention is to +turn you out. Therefore you will have to go, whether you like it or +not. Her sort of people play a sure game, they risk nothing." + +This old gentleman, Monsieur de Bourbonne, could sum up and estimate +provincial ideas as correctly as Voltaire summarized the spirit of his +times. He was thin and tall, and chose to exhibit in the matter of +clothes the quiet indifference of a landowner whose territorial value +is quoted in the department. His face, tanned by the Touraine sun, was +less intellectual than shrewd. Accustomed to weigh his words and +measure his actions, he concealed a profound vigilance behind a +misleading appearance of simplicity. A very slight observation of him +sufficed to show that, like a Norman peasant, he invariably held the +upper hand in business matters. He was an authority on wine-making, +the leading science of Touraine. He had managed to extend the meadow +lands of his domain by taking in a part of the alluvial soil of the +Loire without getting into difficulties with the State. This clever +proceeding gave him the reputation of a man of talent. If Monsieur de +Bourbonne's conversation pleased you and you were to ask who he was of +a Tourainean, "Ho! a sly old fox!" would be the answer of those who +were envious of him--and they were many. In Touraine, as in many of +the provinces, jealousy is the root of language. + +Monsieur de Bourbonne's remark occasioned a momentary silence, during +which the persons who composed the little party seemed to be +reflecting. Meanwhile Mademoiselle Salomon de Villenoix was announced. +She came from Tours in the hope of being useful to the poor abbe, and +the news she brought completely changed the aspect of the affair. As +she entered, every one except Monsieur de Bourbonne was urging +Birotteau to hold his own against Troubert and Gamard, under the +auspices of the aristocractic society of the place, which would +certainly stand by him. + +"The vicar-general, to whom the appointments to office are entrusted, +is very ill," said Mademoiselle Salomon, "and the archbishop has +delegated his powers to the Abbe Troubert provisionally. The canonry +will, of course, depend wholly upon him. Now last evening, at +Mademoiselle de la Blottiere's the Abbe Poirel talked about the +annoyances which the Abbe Birotteau had inflicted on Mademoiselle +Gamard, as though he were trying to cast all the blame on our good +abbe. 'The Abbe Birotteau,' he said, 'is a man to whom the Abbe +Chapeloud was absolutely necessary, and since the death of that +venerable man, he has shown'--and then came suggestions, calumnies! +you understand?" + +"Troubert will be made vicar-general," said Monsieur de Bourbonne, +sententiously. + +"Come!" cried Madame de Listomere, turning to Birotteau, "which do you +prefer, to be made a canon, or continue to live with Mademoiselle +Gamard?" + +"To be a canon!" cried the whole company. + +"Well, then," resumed Madame de Listomere, "you must let the Abbe +Troubert and Mademoiselle Gamard have things their own way. By sending +Caron here they mean to let you know indirectly that if you consent to +leave the house you shall be made canon,--one good turn deserves +another." + +Every one present applauded Madame de Listomere's sagacity, except her +nephew the Baron de Listomere, who remarked in a comic tone to +Monsieur de Bourbonne, "I would like to have seen a fight between the +Gamard and the Birotteau." + +But, unhappily for the vicar, forces were not equal between these +persons of the best society and the old maid supported by the Abbe +Troubert. The time soon came when the struggle developed openly, went +on increasing, and finally assumed immense proportions. By the advice +of Madame de Listomere and most of her friends, who were now eagerly +enlisted in a matter which threw such excitement into their vapid +provincial lives, a servant was sent to bring back Monsieur Caron. The +lawyer returned with surprising celerity, which alarmed no one but +Monsieur de Bourbonne. + +"Let us postpone all decision until we are better informed," was the +advice of that Fabius in a dressing-gown, whose prudent reflections +revealed to him the meaning of these moves on the Tourainean chess- +board. He tried to enlighten Birotteau on the dangers of his position; +but the wisdom of the old "sly-boots" did not serve the passions of +the moment, and he obtained but little attention. + +The conference between the lawyer and Birotteau was short. The vicar +came back quite terrified. + +"He wants me to sign a paper stating my relinquishment of domicile." + +"That's formidable language!" said the naval lieutenant. + +"What does it mean?" asked Madame de Listomere. + +"Merely that the abbe must declare in writing his intention of leaving +Mademoiselle Gamard's house," said Monsieur de Bourbonne, taking a +pinch of snuff. + +"Is that all?" said Madame de Listomere. "Then sign it at once," she +added, turning to Birotteau. "If you positively decide to leave her +house, there can be no harm in declaring that such is your will." + +Birotteau's will! + +"That is true," said Monsieur de Bourbonne, closing his snuff-box with +a gesture the significance of which it is impossible to render, for it +was a language in itself. "But writing is always dangerous," he added, +putting his snuff-box on the mantelpiece with an air and manner that +alarmed the vicar. + +Birotteau was so bewildered by the upsetting of all his ideas, by the +rapidity of events which found him defenceless, by the ease with which +his friends were settling the most cherished matters of his solitary +life, that he remained silent and motionless as if moonstruck, +thinking of nothing, though listening and striving to understand the +meaning of the rapid sentences the assembled company addressed to him. +He took the paper Monsieur Caron had given him and read it, as if he +were giving his mind to the lawyer's document, but the act was merely +mechanical. He signed the paper, by which he declared that he left +Mademoiselle Gamard's house of his own wish and will, and that he had +been fed and lodged while there according to the terms originally +agreed upon. When the vicar had signed the document, Monsieur Caron +took it and asked where his client was to send the things left by the +abbe in her house and belonging to him. Birotteau replied that they +could be sent to Madame de Listomere's,--that lady making him a sign +that she would receive him, never doubting that he would soon be a +canon. Monsieur de Bourbonne asked to see the paper, the deed of +relinquishment, which the abbe had just signed. Monsieur Caron gave it +to him. + +"How is this?" he said to the vicar after reading it. "It appears that +written documents already exist between you and Mademoiselle Gamard. +Where are they? and what do they stipulate?" + +"The deed is in my library," replied Birotteau. + +"Do you know the tenor of it?" said Monsieur de Bourbonne to the +lawyer. + +"No, monsieur," said Caron, stretching out his hand to regain the +fatal document. + +"Ha!" thought the old man; "you know, my good friend, what that deed +contains, but you are not paid to tell us," and he returned the paper +to the lawyer. + +"Where can I put my things?" cried Birotteau; "my books, my beautiful +book-shelves, and pictures, my red furniture, and all my treasures?" + +The helpless despair of the poor man thus torn up as it were by the +roots was so artless, it showed so plainly the purity of his ways and +his ignorance of the things of life, that Madame de Listomere and +Mademoiselle de Salomon talked to him and consoled him in the tone +which mothers take when they promise a plaything to their children. + +"Don't fret about such trifles," they said. "We will find you some +place less cold and dismal than Mademoiselle Gamard's gloomy house. If +we can't find anything you like, one or other of us will take you to +live with us. Come, let's play a game of backgammon. To-morrow you can +go and see the Abbe Troubert and ask him to push your claims to the +canonry, and you'll see how cordially he will receive you." + +Feeble folk are as easily reassured as they are frightened. So the +poor abbe, dazzled at the prospect of living with Madame de Listomere, +forgot the destruction, now completed, of the happiness he had so long +desired, and so delightfully enjoyed. But at night before going to +sleep, the distress of a man to whom the fuss of moving and the +breaking up of all his habits was like the end of the world, came upon +him, and he racked his brains to imagine how he could ever find such a +good place for his book-case as the gallery in the old maid's house. +Fancying he saw his books scattered about, his furniture defaced, his +regular life turned topsy-turvy, he asked himself for the thousandth +time why the first year spent in Mademoiselle Gamard's house had been +so sweet, the second so cruel. His troubles were a pit in which his +reason floundered. The canonry seemed to him small compensation for so +much misery, and he compared his life to a stocking in which a single +dropped stitch resulted in destroying the whole fabric. Mademoiselle +Salomon remained to him. But, alas, in losing his old illusions the +poor priest dared not trust in any later friendship. + +In the "citta dolente" of spinsterhood we often meet, especially in +France, with women whose lives are a sacrifice nobly and daily offered +to noble sentiments. Some remain proudly faithful to a heart which +death tore from them; martyrs of love, they learn the secrets of +womanhood only though their souls. Others obey some family pride +(which in our days, and to our shame, decreases steadily); these +devote themselves to the welfare of a brother, or to orphan nephews; +they are mothers while remaining virgins. Such old maids attain to the +highest heroism of their sex by consecrating all feminine feelings to +the help of sorrow. They idealize womanhood by renouncing the rewards +of woman's destiny, accepting its pains. They live surrounded by the +splendour of their devotion, and men respectfully bow the head before +their faded features. Mademoiselle de Sombreuil was neither wife nor +maid; she was and ever will be a living poem. Mademoiselle Salomon de +Villenoix belonged to the race of these heroic beings. Her devotion +was religiously sublime, inasmuch as it won her no glory after being, +for years, a daily agony. Beautiful and young, she loved and was +beloved; her lover lost his reason. For five years she gave herself, +with love's devotion, to the mere mechanical well-being of that +unhappy man, whose madness she so penetrated that she never believed +him mad. She was simple in manner, frank in speech, and her pallid +face was not lacking in strength and character, though its features +were regular. She never spoke of the events of her life. But at times +a sudden quiver passed over her as she listened to the story of some +sad or dreadful incident, thus betraying the emotions that great +sufferings had developed within her. She had come to live at Tours +after losing the companion of her life; but she was not appreciated +there at her true value and was thought to be merely an amiable woman. +She did much good, and attached herself, by preference, to feeble +beings. For that reason the poor vicar had naturally inspired her with +a deep interest. + +Mademoiselle de Villenoix, who returned to Tours the next morning, +took Birotteau with her and set him down on the quay of the cathedral +leaving him to make his own way to the Cloister, where he was bent on +going, to save at least the canonry and to superintend the removal of +his furniture. He rang, not without violent palpitations of the heart, +at the door of the house whither, for fourteen years, he had come +daily, and where he had lived blissfully, and from which he was now +exiled forever, after dreaming that he should die there in peace like +his friend Chapeloud. Marianne was surprised at the vicar's visit. He +told her that he had come to see the Abbe Troubert, and turned towards +the ground-floor apartment where the canon lived; but Marianne called +to him:-- + +"Not there, monsieur le vicaire; the Abbe Troubert is in your old +apartment." + +These words gave the vicar a frightful shock. He was forced to +comprehend both Troubert's character and the depths of the revenge so +slowly brought about when he found the canon settled in Chapeloud's +library, seated in Chapeloud's handsome armchair, sleeping, no doubt, +in Chapeloud's bed, and disinheriting at last the friend of Chapeloud, +the man who, for so many years, had confined him to Mademoiselle +Gamard's house, by preventing his advancement in the church, and +closing the best salons in Tours against him. By what magic wand had +the present transformation taken place? Surely these things belonged +to Birotteau? And yet, observing the sardonic air with which Troubert +glanced at that bookcase, the poor abbe knew that the future vicar- +general felt certain of possessing the spoils of those he had so +bitterly hated,--Chapeloud as an enemy, and Birotteau, in and through +whom Chapeloud still thwarted him. Ideas rose in the heart of the poor +man at the sight, and plunged him into a sort of vision. He stood +motionless, as though fascinated by Troubert's eyes which fixed +themselves upon him. + +"I do not suppose, monsieur," said Birotteau at last, "that you intend +to deprive me of the things that belong to me. Mademoiselle may have +been impatient to give you better lodgings, but she ought to have been +sufficiently just to give me time to pack my books and remove my +furniture." + +"Monsieur," said the Abbe Troubert, coldly, not permitting any sign of +emotion to appear on his face, "Mademoiselle Gamard told me yesterday +of your departure, the cause of which is still unknown to me. If she +installed me here at once, it was from necessity. The Abbe Poirel has +taken my apartment. I do not know if the furniture and things that are +in these rooms belong to you or to Mademoiselle; but if they are +yours, you know her scrupulous honesty; the sanctity of her life is +the guarantee of her rectitude. As for me, you are well aware of my +simple modes of living. I have slept for fifteen years in a bare room +without complaining of the dampness,--which, eventually will have +caused my death. Nevertheless, if you wish to return to this apartment +I will cede it to you willingly." + +After hearing these terrible words, Birotteau forgot the canonry and +ran downstairs as quickly as a young man to find Mademoiselle Gamard. +He met her at the foot of the staircase, on the broad, tiled landing +which united the two wings of the house. + +"Mademoiselle," he said, bowing to her without paying any attention to +the bitter and derisive smile that was on her lips, nor to the +extraordinary flame in her eyes which made them lucent as a tiger's, +"I cannot understand how it is that you have not waited until I +removed my furniture before--" + +"What!" she said, interrupting him, "is it possible that your things +have not been left at Madame de Listomere's?" + +"But my furniture?" + +"Haven't you read your deed?" said the old maid, in a tone which would +have to be rendered in music before the shades of meaning that hatred +is able to put into the accent of every word could be fully shown. + +Mademoiselle Gamard seemed to rise in stature, her eyes shone, her +face expanded, her whole person quivered with pleasure. The Abbe +Troubert opened a window to get a better light on the folio volume he +was reading. Birotteau stood as if a thunderbolt had stricken him. +Mademoiselle Gamard made his ears hum when she enunciated in a voice +as clear as a cornet the following sentence:-- + +"Was it not agreed that if you left my house your furniture should +belong to me, to indemnify me for the difference in the price of board +paid by you and that paid by the late venerable Abbe Chapeloud? Now, +as the Abbe Poirel has just been appointed canon--" + +Hearing the last words Birotteau made a feeble bow as if to take leave +of the old maid, and left the house precipitately. He was afraid if he +stayed longer that he should break down utterly, and give too great a +triumph to his implacable enemies. Walking like a dunken man he at +last reached Madame de Listomere's house, where he found in one of the +lower rooms his linen, his clothing, and all his papers packed in a +trunk. When he eyes fell on these few remnants of his possessions the +unhappy priest sat down and hid his face in his hands to conceal his +tears from the sight of others. The Abbe Poirel was canon! He, +Birotteau, had neither home, nor means, nor furniture! + +Fortunately Mademoiselle Salomon happened to drive past the house, and +the porter, who saw and comprehended the despair of the poor abbe, +made a sign to the coachman. After exchanging a few words with +Mademoiselle Salomon the porter persuaded the vicar to let himself be +placed, half dead as he was, in the carriage of his faithful friend, +to whom he was unable to speak connectedly. Mademoiselle Salomon, +alarmed at the momentary derangement of a head that was always feeble, +took him back at once to the Alouette, believing that this beginning +of mental alienation was an effect produced by the sudden news of Abbe +Poirel's nomination. She knew nothing, of course, of the fatal +agreement made by the abbe with Mademoiselle Gamard, for the excellent +reason that he did not know of it himself; and because it is in the +nature of things that the comical is often mingled with the pathetic, +the singular replies of the poor abbe made her smile. + +"Chapeloud was right," he said; "he is a monster!" + +"Who?" she asked. + +"Chapeloud. He has taken all." + +"You mean Poirel?" + +"No, Troubert." + +At last they reached the Alouette, where the priest's friends gave him +such tender care that towards evening he grew calmer and was able to +give them an account of what had happened during the morning. + +The phlegmatic old fox asked to see the deed which, on thinking the +matter over, seemed to him to contain the solution of the enigma. +Birotteau drew the fatal stamped paper from his pocket and gave it to +Monsieur de Bourbonne, who read it rapidly and soon came upon the +following clause:-- + +"Whereas a difference exists of eight hundred francs yearly between +the price of board paid by the late Abbe Chapeloud and that at which +the said Sophie Gamard agrees to take into her house, on the above- +named stipulated condition, the said Francois Birotteau; and whereas +it is understood that the undersigned Francois Birotteau is not able +for some years to pay the full price charged to the other boarders of +Mademoiselle Gamard, more especially the Abbe Troubert; the said +Birotteau does hereby engage, in consideration of certain sums of +money advanced by the undersigned Sophie Gamard, to leave her, as +indemnity, all the household property of which he may die possessed, +or to transfer the same to her should he, for any reason whatever or +at any time, voluntarily give up the apartment now leased to him, and +thus derive no further profit from the above-named engagements made by +Mademoiselle Gamard for his benefit--" + +"Confound her! what an agreement!" cried the old gentleman. "The said +Sophie Gamard is armed with claws." + +Poor Birotteau never imagined in his childish brain that anything +could ever separate him from that house where he expected to live and +die with Mademoiselle Gamard. He had no remembrance whatever of that +clause, the terms of which he had not discussed, for they had seemed +quite just to him at a time when, in his great anxiety to enter the +old maid's house, he would readily have signed any and all legal +documents she had offered him. His simplicity was so guileless and +Mademoiselle Gamard's conduct so atrocious, the fate of the poor old +man seemed so deplorable, and his natural helplessness made him so +touching, that in the first glow of her indignation Madame de +Listomere exclaimed: "I made you put your signature to that document +which has ruined you; I am bound to give you back the happiness of +which I have deprived you." + +"But," remarked Monsieur de Bourbonne, "that deed constitutes a fraud; +there may be ground for a lawsuit." + +"Then Birotteau shall go to the law. If he loses at Tours he may win +at Orleans; if he loses at Orleans, he'll win in Paris," cried the +Baron de Listomere. + +"But if he does go to law," continued Monsieur de Bourbonne, coldly, +"I should advise him to resign his vicariat." + +"We will consult lawyers," said Madame de Listomere, "and go to law if +law is best. But this affair is so disgraceful for Mademoiselle +Gamard, and is likely to be so injurious to the Abbe Troubert, that I +think we can compromise." + +After mature deliberation all present promised their assistance to the +Abbe Birotteau in the struggle which was now inevitable between the +poor priest and his antagonists and all their adherents. A true +presentiment, an infallible provincial instinct, led them to couple +the names of Gamard and Troubert. But none of the persons assembled on +this occasion in Madame de Listomere's salon, except the old fox, had +any real idea of the nature and importance of such a struggle. +Monsieur de Bourbonne took the poor abbe aside into a corner of the +room. + +"Of the fourteen persons now present," he said, in a low voice, "not +one will stand by you a fortnight hence. If the time comes when you +need some one to support you you may find that I am the only person in +Tours bold enough to take up your defence; for I know the provinces +and men and things, and, better still, I know self-interests. But +these friends of yours, though full of the best intentions, are +leading you astray into a bad path, from which you won't be able to +extricate yourself. Take my advice; if you want to live in peace, +resign the vicariat of Saint-Gatien and leave Tours. Don't say where +you are going, but find some distant parish where Troubert cannot get +hold of you." + +"Leave Tours!" exclaimed the vicar, with indescribable terror. + +To him it was a kind of death; the tearing up of all the roots by +which he held to life. Celibates substitute habits for feelings; and +when to that moral system, which makes them pass through life instead +of really living it, is added a feeble character, external things +assume an extraordinary power over them. Birotteau was like certain +vegetables; transplant them, and you stop their ripening. Just as a +tree needs daily the same sustenance, and must always send its roots +into the same soil, so Birotteau needed to trot about Saint-Gatien, +and amble along the Mail where he took his daily walk, and saunter +through the streets, and visit the three salons where, night after +night, he played his whist or his backgammon. + +"Ah! I did not think of it!" replied Monsieur de Bourbonne, gazing at +the priest with a sort of pity. + +All Tours was soon aware that Madame la Baronne de Listomere, widow of +a lieutenant-general, had invited the Abbe Birotteau, vicar of Saint- +Gatien, to stay at her house. That act, which many persons questioned, +presented the matter sharply and divided the town into parties, +especially after Mademoiselle Salomon spoke openly of a fraud and a +lawsuit. With the subtle vanity which is common to old maids, and the +fanatic self-love which characterizes them, Mademoiselle Gamard was +deeply wounded by the course taken by Madame de Listomere. The +baroness was a woman of high rank, elegant in her habits and ways, +whose good taste, courteous manners, and true piety could not be +gainsaid. By receivng Birotteau as her guest she gave a formal denial +to all Mademoiselle Gamard's assertions, and indirectly censured her +conduct by maintaining the vicar's cause against his former landlady. + +It is necessary for the full understanding of this history to explain +how the natural discernment and spirit of analysis which old women +bring to bear on the actions of others gave power to Mademoiselle +Gamard, and what were the resources on her side. Accompanied by the +taciturn Abbe Troubert she made a round of evening visits to five or +six houses, at each of which she met a circle of a dozen or more +persons, united by kindred tastes and the same general situation in +life. Among them were one or two men who were influenced by the gossip +and prejudices of their servants; five or six old maids who spent +their time in sifting the words and scrutinizing the actions of their +neighbours and others in the class below them; besides these, there +were several old women who busied themselves in retailing scandal, +keeping an exact account of each person's fortune, striving to control +or influence the actions of others, prognosticating marriages, and +blaming the conduct of friends as sharply as that of enemies. These +persons, spread about the town like the capillary fibres of a plant, +sucked in, with the thirst of a leaf for the dew, the news and the +secrets of each household, and transmitted them mechanically to the +Abbe Troubert, as the leaves convey to the branch the moisture they +absorb. + +Accordingly, during every evening of the week, these good devotees, +excited by that need of emotion which exists in all of us, rendered an +exact account of the current condition of the town with a sagacity +worthy of the Council of Ten, and were, in fact, a species of police, +armed with the unerring gift of spying bestowed by passions. When they +had divined the secret meaning of some event their vanity led them to +appropriate to themselves the wisdom of their sanhedrim, and set the +tone to the gossip of their respective spheres. This idle but ever +busy fraternity, invisible, yet seeing all things, dumb, but +perpetually talking, possessed an influence which its nonentity seemed +to render harmless, though it was in fact terrible in its effects when +it concerned itself with serious interests. For a long time nothing +had entered the sphere of these existences so serious and so momentous +to each one of them as the struggle of Birotteau, supported by Madame +de Listomere, against Mademoiselle Gamard and the Abbe Troubert. The +three salons of Madame de Listomere and the Demoiselles Merlin de la +Blottiere and de Villenoix being considered as enemies by all the +salons which Mademoiselle Gamard frequented, there was at the bottom +of the quarrel a class sentiment with all its jealousies. It was the +old Roman struggle of people and senate in a molehill, a tempest in a +teacup, as Montesquieu remarked when speaking of the Republic of San +Marino, whose public offices are filled by the day only,--despotic +power being easily seized by any citizen. + +But this tempest, petty as it seems, did develop in the souls of these +persons as many passions as would have been called forth by the +highest social interests. It is a mistake to think that none but souls +concerned in mighty projects, which stir their lives and set them +foaming, find time too fleeting. The hours of the Abbe Troubert fled +by as eagerly, laden with thoughts as anxious, harassed by despairs +and hopes as deep as the cruellest hours of the gambler, the lover, or +the statesman. God alone is in the secret of the energy we expend upon +our occult triumphs over man, over things, over ourselves. Though we +know not always whither we are going we know well what the journey +costs us. If it be permissible for the historian to turn aside for a +moment from the drama he is narrating and ask his readers to cast a +glance upon the lives of these old maids and abbes, and seek the cause +of the evil which vitiates them at their source, we may find it +demonstrated that man must experience certain passions before he can +develop within him those virtues which give grandeur to life by +widening his sphere and checking the selfishness which is inherent in +every created being. + +Madame de Listomere returned to town without being aware that for the +previous week her friends had felt obliged to refute a rumour (at +which she would have laughed had she known if it) that her affection +for her nephew had an almost criminal motive. She took Birotteau to +her lawyer, who did not regard the case as an easy one. The vicar's +friends, inspired by the belief that justice was certain in so good a +cause, or inclined to procrastinate in a matter which did not concern +them personally, had put off bringing the suit until they returned to +Tours. Consequently the friends of Mademoiselle Gamard had taken the +initiative, and told the affair wherever they could to the injury of +Birotteau. The lawyer, whose practice was exclusively among the most +devout church people, amazed Madame de Listomere by advising her not +to embark on such a suit; he ended the consultation by saying that "he +himself would not be able to undertake it, for, according to the terms +of the deed, Mademoiselle Gamard had the law on her side, and in +equity, that is to say outside of strict legal justice, the Abbe +Birotteau would undoubtedly seem to the judges as well as to all +respectable laymen to have derogated from the peaceable, conciliatory, +and mild character hitherto attributed to him; that Mademoiselle +Gamard, known to be a kindly woman and easy to live with, had put +Birotteau under obligations to her by lending him the money he needed +to pay the legacy duties on Chapeloud's bequest without taking from +him a receipt; that Birotteau was not of an age or character to sign a +deed without knowing what it contained or understanding the importance +of it; that in leaving Mademoiselle Gamard's house at the end of two +years, when his friend Chapeloud had lived there twelve and Troubert +fifteen, he must have had some purpose known to himself only; and that +the lawsuit, if undertaken, would strike the public as an act of +ingratitude;" and so forth. Letting Birotteau go before them to the +staircase, the lawyer detained Madame de Listomere a moment to entreat +her, if she valued her own peace of mind, not to involve herself in +the matter. + +But that evening the poor vicar, suffering the torments of a man under +sentence of death who awaits in the condemned cell at Bicetre the +result of his appeal for mercy, could not refrain from telling his +assembled friends the result of his visit to the lawyer. + +"I don't know a single pettifogger in Tours," said Monsieur de +Bourbonne, "except that Radical lawyer, who would be willing to take +the case,--unless for the purpose of losing it; I don't advise you to +undertake it." + +"Then it is infamous!" cried the navel lieutenant. "I myself will take +the abbe to the Radical--" + +"Go at night," said Monsieur de Bourbonne, interrupting him. + +"Why?" + +"I have just learned that the Abbe Troubert is appointed vicar-general +in place of the other man, who died yesterday." + +"I don't care a fig for the Abbe Troubert." + +Unfortunately the Baron de Listomere (a man thirty-six years of age) +did not see the sign Monsieur de Bourbonne made him to be cautious in +what he said, motioning as he did so to a friend of Troubert, a +councillor of the Prefecture, who was present. The lieutenant +therefore continued:-- + +"If the Abbe Troubert is a scoundrel--" + +"Oh," said Monsieur de Bourbonne, cutting him short, "why bring +Monsieur Troubert into a matter which doesn't concern him?" + +"Not concern him?" cried the baron; "isn't he enjoying the use of the +Abbe Birotteau's household property? I remember that when I called on +the Abbe Chapeloud I noticed two valuable pictures. Say that they are +worth ten thousand francs; do you suppose that Monsieur Birotteau +meant to give ten thousand francs for living two years with that +Gamard woman,--not to speak of the library and furniture, which are +worth as much more?" + +The Abbe Birotteau opened his eyes at hearing he had once possessed so +enormous a fortune. + +The baron, getting warmer than ever, went on to say: "By Jove! there's +that Monsieur Salmon, formerly an expert at the Museum in Paris; he is +down here on a visit to his mother-in-law. I'll go and see him this +very evening with the Abbe Birotteau and ask him to look at those +pictures and estimate their value. From there I'll take the abbe to +the lawyer." + +Two days after this conversation the suit was begun. This employment +of the Liberal laywer did harm to the vicar's cause. Those who were +opposed to the government, and all who were known to dislike the +priests, or religion (two things quite distinct which many persons +confound), got hold of the affair and the whole town talked of it. The +Museum expert estimated the Virgin of Valentin and the Christ of +Lebrun, two paintings of great beauty, at eleven thousand francs. As +to the bookshelves and the gothic furniture, the taste for such things +was increasing so rapidly in Paris that their immediate value was at +least twelve thousand. In short, the appraisal of the whole property +by the expert reached the sum of over thirty-six thousand francs. Now +it was very evident that Birotteau never intended to give Mademoiselle +Gamard such an enormous sum of money for the small amount he might owe +her under the terms of the deed; therefore he had, legally speaking, +equitable grounds on which to demand an amendment of the agreement; if +this were denied, Mademoiselle Gamard was plainly guilty of +intentional fraud. The Radical lawyer accordingly began the affair by +serving a writ on Mademoiselle Gamard. Though very harsh in language, +this document, strengthened by citations of precedents and supported +by certain clauses in the Code, was a masterpiece of legal argument, +and so evidently just in its condemnation of the old maid that thirty +or forty copies were made and maliciously distributed through the +town. + + + + IV + +A few days after this commencement of hostilities between Birotteau +and the old maid, the Baron de Listomere, who expected to be included +as captain of a corvette in a coming promotion lately announced by the +minister of the Navy, received a letter from one of his friends +warning him that there was some intention of putting him on the +retired list. Greatly astonished by this information he started for +Paris immediately, and went at once to the minister, who seemed to be +amazed himself, and even laughed at the baron's fears. The next day, +however, in spite of the minister's assurance, Monsieur de Listomere +made inquiries in the different offices. By an indiscretion (often +practised by heads of departments in favor of their friends) one of +the secretaries showed him a document confirming the fatal news, which +was only waiting the signature of the director, who was ill, to be +submitted to the minister. + +The Baron de Listomere went immediately to an uncle of his, a deputy, +who could see the minister of the Navy at the chamber without loss of +time, and begged him to find out the real intentions of his Excellency +in a matter which threatened the loss of his whole future. He waited +in his uncle's carriage with the utmost anxiety for the end of the +session. His uncle came out before the Chamber rose, and said to him +at once as they drove away: "Why the devil have you meddled in a +priest's quarrel? The minister began by telling me you had put +yourself at the head of the Radicals in Tours; that your political +opinions were objectionable; you were not following in the lines of +the government,--with other remarks as much involved as if he were +addressing the Chamber. On that I said to him, 'Nonsense; let us come +to the point.' The end was that his Excellency told me frankly you +were in bad odor with the diocese. In short, I made a few inquiries +among my colleagues, and I find that you have been talking slightingly +of a certan Abbe Troubert, the vicar-general, but a very important +personage in the province, where he represents the Jesuits. I have +made myself responsible to the minister for your future conduct. My +good nephew, if you want to make your way be careful not to excite +ecclesiastical enmities. Go at once to Tours and try to make your +peace with that devil of a vicar-general; remember that such priests +are men with whom we absolutely MUST live in harmony. Good heavens! +when we are all striving and working to re-establish religion it is +actually stupid, in a lieutenant who wants to be made a captain, to +affront the priests. If you don't make up matters with that Abbe +Troubert you needn't count on me; I shall abandon you. The minister of +ecclesiastical affairs told me just now that Troubert was certain to +be made bishop before long; if he takes a dislike to our family he +could hinder me from being included in the next batch of peers. Don't +you understand?" + +These words explained to the naval officer the nature of Troubert's +secret occupations, about which Birotteau often remarked in his silly +way: "I can't think what he does with himself,--sitting up all night." + +The canon's position in the midst of his female senate, converted so +adroitly into provincial detectives, and his personal capacity, had +induced the Congregation of Jesus to select him out of all the +ecclesiastics in the town, as the secret proconsul of Touraine. +Archbishop, general, prefect, all men, great and small, were under his +occult dominion. The Baron de Listomere decided at once on his course. + +"I shall take care," he said to his uncle, "not to get another round +shot below my water-line." + +Three days after this diplomatic conference between the uncle and +nephew, the latter, returning hurriedly in a post-chaise, informed his +aunt, the very night of his arrival, of the dangers the family were +running if they peristed in supporting that "fool of a Birotteau." The +baron had detained Monsieur de Bourbonne as the old gentleman was +taking his hat and cane after the usual rubber of whist. The clear- +sightedness of that sly old fox seemed indispensable for an +understanding of the reefs among which the Listomere family suddenly +found themselves; and perhaps the action of taking his hat and cane +was only a ruse to have it whispered in his ear: "Stay after the +others; we want to talk to you." + +The baron's sudden return, his apparent satisfaction, which was quite +out of keeping with a harrassed look that occasionally crossed his +face, informed Monsieur de Bourbonne vaguely that the lieutenant had +met with some check in his crusade against Gamard and Troubert. He +showed no surprise when the baron revealed the secret power of the +Jesuit vicar-general. + +"I knew that," he said. + +"Then why," cried the baroness, "did you not warn us?" + +"Madame," he said, sharply, "forget that I was aware of the invisible +influence of that priest, and I will forget that you knew it equally +well. If we do not keep this secret now we shall be thought his +accomplices, and shall be more feared and hated than we are. Do as I +do; pretend to be duped; but look carefully where you set your feet. I +did warn you sufficiently, but you would not understand me, and I did +not choose to compromise myself." + +"What must we do now?" said the baron. + +The abandonment of Birotteau was not even made a question; it was a +first condition tactily accepted by the three deliberators. + +"To beat a retreat with the honors of war has always been the triumph +of the ablest generals," replied Monsieur de Bourbonne. "Bow to +Troubert, and if his hatred is less strong than his vanity you will +make him your ally; but if you bow too low he will walk over you +rough-shod; make believe that you intend to leave the service, and +you'll escape him, Monsieur le baron. Send away Birotteau, madame, and +you will set things right with Mademoiselle Gamard. Ask the Abbe +Troubert, when you meet him at the archbishop's, if he can play whist. +He will say yes. Then invite him to your salon, where he wants to be +received; he'll be sure to come. You are a woman, and you can +certainly win a priest to your interests. When the baron is promoted, +his uncle peer of France, and Troubert a bishop, you can make +Birotteau a canon if you choose. Meantime yield,--but yield +gracefully, all the while with a slight menace. Your family can give +Troubert quite as much support as he can give you. You'll understand +each other perfectly on that score. As for you, sailor, carry your +deep-sea line about you." + +"Poor Birotteau?" said the baroness. + +"Oh, get rid of him at once," replied the old man, as he rose to take +leave. "If some clever Radical lays hold of that empty head of his, he +may cause you much trouble. After all, the court would certainly give +a verdict in his favour, and Troubert must fear that. He may forgive +you for beginning the struggle, but if they were defeated he would be +implacable. I have said my say." + +He snapped his snuff-box, put on his overshoes, and departed. + +The next day after breakfast the baroness took the vicar aside and +said to him, not without visible embarrassment:-- + +"My dear Monsieur Birotteau, you will think what I am about to ask of +you very unjust and very inconsistent; but it is necessary, both for +you and for us, that your lawsuit with Mademoiselle Gamard be +withdrawn by resigning your claims, and also that you should leave my +house." + +As he heard these words the poor abbe turned pale. + +"I am," she continued, "the innocent cause of your misfortunes, and, +moreover, if it had not been for my nephew you would never have begun +this lawsuit, which has now turned to your injury and to ours. But +listen to me." + +She told him succinctly the immense ramifications of the affair, and +explained the serious nature of its consequences. Her own meditations +during the night had told her something of the probable antecedents of +Troubert's life; she was able, without misleading Birotteau, to show +him the net so ably woven round him by revenge, and to make him see +the power and great capacity of his enemy, whose hatred to Chapeloud, +under whom he had been forced to crouch for a dozen years, now found +vent in seizing Chapeloud's property and in persecuting Chapeloud in +the person of his friend. The harmless Birotteau clasped his hands as +if to pray, and wept with distress at the sight of human horrors that +his own pure soul was incapable of suspecting. As frightened as though +he had suddenly found himself at the edge of a precipice, he listened, +with fixed, moist eyes in which there was no expression, to the +revelations of his friend, who ended by saying: "I know the wrong I do +in abandoning your cause; but, my dear abbe, family duties must be +considered before those of friendship. Yield, as I do, to this storm, +and I will prove to you my gratitude. I am not talking of your worldly +interests, for those I take charge of. You shall be made free of all +such anxieties for the rest of your life. By means of Monsieur de +Bourbonne, who will know how to save appearances, I shall arrange +matters so that you shall lack nothing. My friend, grant me the right +to abandon you. I shall ever be your friend, though forced to conform +to the axioms of the world. You must decide." + +The poor, bewildered abbe cried aloud: "Chapeloud was right when he +said that if Troubert could drag him by the feet out of his grave he +would do it! He sleeps in Chapeloud's bed!" + +"There is no use in lamenting," said Madame de Listomere, "and we have +little time now left to us. How will you decide?" + +Birotteau was too good and kind not to obey in a great crisis the +unreflecting impulse of the moment. Besides, his life was already in +the agony of what to him was death. He said, with a despairing look at +his protectress which cut her to the heart, "I trust myself to you--I +am but the stubble of the streets." + +He used the Tourainean word "bourrier" which has no other meaning than +a "bit of straw." But there are pretty little straws, yellow, +polished, and shining, the delight of children, whereas the bourrier +is straw discolored, muddy, sodden in the puddles, whirled by the +tempest, crushed under feet of men. + +"But, madame, I cannot let the Abbe Troubert keep Chapeloud's +portrait. It was painted for me, it belongs to me; obtain that for me, +and I will give up all the rest." + +"Well," said Madame de Listomere. "I will go myself to Mademoiselle +Gamard." The words were said in a tone which plainly showed the +immense effort the Baronne de Listomere was making in lowering herself +to flatter the pride of the old maid. "I will see what can be done," +she said; "I hardly dare hope anything. Go and consult Monsieur de +Bourbonne; ask him to put your renunciation into proper form, and +bring me the paper. I will see the archbishop, and with his help we +may be able to stop the matter here." + +Birotteau left the house dismayed. Troubert assumed in his eyes the +dimensions of an Egyptian pyramid. The hands of that man were in +Paris, his elbows in the Cloister of Saint-Gatien. + +"He!" said the victim to himself, "HE to prevent the Baron de +Listomere from becoming peer of France!--and, perhaps, 'by the help of +the archbishop we may be able to stop the matter here'!" + +In presence of such great interests Birotteau felt he was a mere worm; +he judged himself harshly. + +The news of Birotteau's removal from Madame de Listomere's house +seemed all the more amazing because the reason of it was wholly +impenetrable. Madame de Listomere said that her nephew was intending +to marry and leave the navy, and she wanted the vicar's apartment to +enlarge her own. Birotteau's relinquishment was still unknown. The +advice of Monsieur de Bourbonne was followed. Whenever the two facts +reached the ears of the vicar-general his self-love was certain to be +gratified by the assurance they gave that even if the Listomere family +did not capitulate they would at least remain neutral and tacitly +recognize the occult power of the Congregation,--to reconize it was, +in fact, to submit to it. But the lawsuit was still sub judice; his +opponents yielded and threatened at the same time. + +The Listomeres had thus taken precisely the same attitude as the +vicar-general himself; they held themselves aloof, and yet were able +to direct others. But just at this crisis an event occurred which +complicated the plans laid by Monsieur de Bourbonne and the Listomeres +to quiet the Gamard and Troubert party, and made them more difficult +to carry out. + +Mademoiselle Gamard took cold one evening in coming out of the +cathedral; the next day she was confined to her bed, and soon after +became dangerously ill. The whole town rang with pity and false +commiseration: "Mademoiselle Gamard's sensitive nature has not been +able to bear the scandal of this lawsuit. In spite of the justice of +her cause she was likely to die of grief. Birotteau has killed his +benefactress." Such were the speeches poured through the capillary +tubes of the great female conclave, and taken up and repeated by the +whole town of Tours. + +Madame de Listomere went the day after Mademoiselle Gamard took cold +to pay the promised visit, and she had the mortification of that act +without obtaining any benefit from it, for the old maid was too ill to +see her. She then asked politely to speak to the vicar-general. + +Gratified, no doubt, to receive in Chapeloud's library, at the corner +of the fireplace above which hung the two contested pictures, the +woman who had hitheto ignored him, Troubert kept the baroness waiting +a moment before he consented to admit her. No courtier and no +diplomatist ever put into a discussion of their personal interests or +into the management of some great national negotiation more +shrewdness, dissimulation, and ability than the baroness and the +priest displayed when they met face to face for the struggle. + +Like the seconds or sponsors who in the Middle Age armed the champion, +and strengthened his valor by useful counsel until he entered the +lists, so the sly old fox had said to the baroness at the last moment: +"Don't forget your cue. You are a mediator, and not an interested +party. Troubert also is a mediator. Weigh your words; study the +inflection of the man's voice. If he strokes his chin you have got +him." + +Some sketchers are fond of caricaturing the contrast often observable +between "what is said" and "what is thought" by the speaker. To catch +the full meaning of the duel of words which now took place between the +priest and the lady, it is necessary to unveil the thoughts that each +hid from the other under spoken sentences of apparent insignificance. +Madame de Listomere began by expressing the regret she had felt at +Birotteau's lawsuit; and then went on to speak of her desire to settle +the matter to the satisfaction of both parties. + +"The harm is done, madame," said the priest, in a grave voice. "The +pious and excellent Mademoiselle Gamard is dying." ("I don't care a +fig for the old thing," thought he, "but I mean to put her death on +your shoulders and harass your conscience if you are such a fool as to +listen to it.") + +"On hearing of her illness," replied the baroness, "I entreated +Monsieur Birotteau to relinquish his claims; I have brought the +document, intending to give it to that excellent woman." ("I see what +you mean, you wily scoundrel," thought she, "but we are safe now from +your calumnies. If you take this document you'll cut your own fingers +by admitting you are an accomplice.") + +There was silence for a moment. + +"Mademoiselle Gamard's temporal affairs do not concern me," said the +priest at last, lowering the large lids over his eagle eyes to veil +his emotions. ("Ho! ho!" thought he, "you can't compromise me. Thank +God, those damned lawyers won't dare to plead any cause that could +smirch me. What do these Listomeres expect to get by crouching in this +way?") + +"Monsieur," replied the baroness, "Monsieur Birotteau's affairs are no +more mine than those of Mademoiselle Gamard are yours; but, +unfortunately, religion is injured by such a quarrel, and I come to +you as a mediator--just as I myself am seeking to make peace." ("We +are not decieving each other, Monsieur Troubert," thought she. "Don't +you feel the sarcasm of that answer?") + +"Injury to religion, madame!" exclaimed the vicar-general. "Religion +is too lofty for the actions of men to injure." ("My religion is I," +thought he.) "God makes no mistake in His judgments, madame; I +recognize no tribunal but His." + +"Then, monsieur," she replied, "let us endeavor to bring the judgments +of men into harmony with the judgments of God." ("Yes, indeed, your +religion is you.") + +The Abbe Troubert suddenly changed his tone. + +"Your nephew has been to Paris, I believe." ("You found out about me +there," thought he; "you know now that I can crush you, you who dared +to slight me, and you have come to capitulate.") + +"Yes, monsieur; thank you for the interest you take in him. He returns +to-night; the minister, who is very considerate of us, sent for him; +he does not want Monsieur de Listomere to leave the service." +("Jesuit, you can't crush us," thought she. "I understand your +civility.") + +A moment's silence. + +"I did not think my nephew's conduct in this affair quite the thing," +she added; "but naval men must be excused; they know nothing of law." +("Come, we had better make peace," thought she; "we sha'n't gain +anything by battling in this way.") + +A slight smile wandered over the priests face and was lost in its +wrinkles. + +"He has done us the service of getting a proper estimate on the value +of those paintings," he said, looking up at the pictures. "They will +be a noble ornament to the chapel of the Virgin." ("You shot a sarcasm +at me," thought he, "and there's another in return; we are quits, +madame.") + +"If you intend to give them to Saint-Gatien, allow me to offer frames +that will be more suitable and worthy of the place, and of the works +themselves." ("I wish I could force you to betray that you have taken +Birotteau's things for your own," thought she.) + +"They do not belong to me," said the priest, on his guard. + +"Here is the deed of relinquishment," said Madame de Listomere; "it +ends all discussion, and makes them over to Mademoiselle Gamard." She +laid the document on the table. ("See the confidence I place in you," +thought she.) "It is worthy of you, monsieur," she added, "worthy of +your noble character, to reconcile two Christians,--though at present +I am not especially concerned for Monsieur Birotteau--" + +"He is living in your house," said Troubert, interrupting her. + +"No, monsieur, he is no longer there." ("That peerage and my nephew's +promotion force me to do base things," thought she.) + +The priest remained impassible, but his calm exterior was an +indication of violent emotion. Monsieur Bourbonne alone had fathomed +the secret of that apparent tranquillity. The priest had triumphed! + +"Why did you take upon yourself to bring that relinquishment," he +asked, with a feeling analogous to that which impels a woman to fish +for compliments. + +"I could not avoid a feeling of compassion. Birotteau, whose feeble +nature must be well known to you, entreated me to see Madaemoiselle +Gamard and to obtain as the price of his renunciation--" + +The priest frowned. + +"of rights upheld by distinguished lawyers, the portrait of--" + +Troubert looked fixedly at Madame de Listomere. + +"the portrait of Chapeloud," she said, continuing: "I leave you to +judge of his claim." ("You will be certain to lose your case if we go +to law, and you know it," thought she.) + +The tone of her voice as she said the words "distinguished lawyers" +showed the priest that she knew very well both the strength and +weakness of the enemy. She made her talent so plain to this +connoisseur emeritus in the course of a conversation which lasted a +long time in the tone here given, that Troubert finally went down to +Mademoiselle Gamard to obtain her answer to Birotteau's request for +the portrait. + +He soon returned. + +"Madame," he said, "I bring you the words of a dying woman. 'The Abbe +Chapeloud was so true a friend to me,' she said, 'that I cannot +consent to part with his picture.' As for me," added Troubert, "if it +were mine I would not yield it. My feelings to my late friend were so +faithful that I should feel my right to his portrait was above that of +others." + +"Well, there's no need to quarrel over a bad picture." ("I care as +little about it as you do," thought she.) "Keep it, and I will have a +copy made of it. I take some credit to myself for having averted this +deplorable lawsuit; and I have gained, personally, the pleasure of +your acquaintance. I hear you have a great talent for whist. You will +forgive a woman for curiosity," she said, smiling. "If you will come +and play at my house sometimes you cannot doubt your welcome." + +Troubert stroked his chin. ("Caught! Bourbonne was right!" thought +she; "he has his quantum of vanity!") + +It was true. The vicar-general was feeling the delightful sensation +which Mirabeau was unable to subdue when in the days of his power he +found gates opening to his carriage which were barred to him in +earlier days. + +"Madame," he replied, "my avocations prevent my going much into +society; but for you, what will not a man do?" ("The old maid is going +to die; I'll get a footing at the Listomere's, and serve them if they +serve me," thought he. "It is better to have them for friends than +enemies.") + +Madame de Listomere went home, hoping that the archbishop would +complete the work of peace so auspiciously begun. But Birotteau was +fated to gain nothing by his relinquishment. Mademoiselle Gamard died +the next day. No one felt surprised when her will was opened to find +that she had left everything to the Abbe Troubert. Her fortune was +appraised at three hundred thousand francs. The vicar-general sent to +Madame de Listomere two notes of invitation for the services and for +the funeral procession of his friend; one for herself and one for her +nephew. + +"We must go," she said. + +"It can't be helped," said Monsieur de Bourbonne. "It is a test to +which Troubert puts you. Baron, you must go to the cemetery," he +added, turning to the lieutenant, who, unluckily for him, had not left +Tours. + +The services took place, and were performed with unusual +ecclesiastical magnificence. Only one person wept, and that was +Birotteau, who, kneeling in a side chapel and seen by none, believed +himself guilty of the death and prayed sincerely for the soul of the +deceased, bitterly deploring that he was not able to obtain her +forgiveness before she died. + +The Abbe Troubert followed the body of his friend to the grave; at the +verge of which he delivered a discourse in which, thanks to his +eloquence, the narrow life the old maid had lived was enlarged to +monumental proportions. Those present took particular note of the +following words in the peroration:-- + +"This life of days devoted to God and to His religion, a life adorned +with noble actions silently performed, and with modest and hidden +virtues, was crushed by a sorrow which we might call undeserved if we +could forget, here at the verge of this grave, that our afflictions +are sent by God. The numerous friends of this saintly woman, knowing +the innocence and nobility of her soul, foresaw that she would issue +safely from her trials in spite of the accusations which blasted her +life. It may be that Providence has called her to the bosom of God to +withdraw her from those trials. Happy they who can rest here below in +the peace of their own hearts as Sophie now is resting in her robe of +innocence among the blest." + +"When he had ended his pompous discourse," said Monsieur de Bourbonne, +after relating the incidents of the internment to Madame de Listomere +when whist was over, the doors shut, and they were alone with the +baron, "this Louis XI. in a cassock--imagine him if you can!--gave a +last flourish to the sprinkler and aspersed the coffin with holy +water." Monsieur de Bourbonne picked up the tongs and imitated the +priest's gesture so satirically that the baron and his aunt could not +help laughing. "Not until then," continued the old gentleman, "did he +contradict himself. Up to that time his behavior had been perfect; but +it was no doubt impossible for him to put the old maid, whom he +despised so heartily and hated almost as much as he hated Chapeloud, +out of sight forever without allowing his joy to appear in that last +gesture." + +The next day Mademoiselle Salomon came to breakfast with Madame de +Listomere, chiefly to say, with deep emotion: "Our poor Abbe Birotteau +has just received a frightful blow, which shows the most determined +hatred. He is appointed curate of Saint-Symphorien." + +Saint-Symphorien is a suburb of Tours lying beyond the bridge. That +bridge, one of the finest monuments of French architecture, is +nineteen hundred feet long, and the two open squares which surround +each end are precisely alike. + +"Don't you see the misery of it?" she said, after a pause, amazed at +the coldness with which Madame de Listomere received the news. "It is +just as if the abbe were a hundred miles from Tours, from his friends, +from everything! It is a frightful exile, and all the more cruel +because he is kept within sight of the town where he can hardly ever +come. Since his troubles he walks very feebly, yet he will have to +walk three miles to see his old friends. He has taken to his bed, just +now, with fever. The parsonage at Saint-Symphorien is very cold and +damp, and the parish is too poor to repair it. The poor old man will +be buried in a living tomb. Oh, it is an infamous plot!" + +To end this history it will suffice to relate a few events in a simple +way, and to give one last picture of its chief personages. + +Five months later the vicar-general was made Bishop of Troyes; and +Madame de Listomere was dead, leaving an annuity of fifteen hundred +francs to the Abbe Birotteau. The day on which the dispositions in her +will were made known Monseigneur Hyacinthe, Bishop of Troyes, was on +the point of leaving Tours to reside in his diocese, but he delayed +his departure on receiving the news. Furious at being foiled by a +woman to whom he had lately given his countenance while she had been +secretly holding the hand of a man whom he regarded as his enemy, +Troubert again threatened the baron's future career, and put in +jeopardy the peerage of his uncle. He made in the salon of the +archbishop, and before an assembled party, one of those priestly +speeches which are big with vengeance and soft with honied mildness. +The Baron de Listomere went the next day to see this implacable enemy, +who must have imposed sundry hard conditions on him, for the baron's +subsequent conduct showed the most entire submission to the will of +the terrible Jesuit. + +The new bishop made over Mademoiselle Gamard's house by deed of gift +to the Chapter of the cathedral; he gave Chapeloud's books and +bookcases to the seminary; he presented the two disputed pictures to +the Chapel of the Virgin; but he kept Chapeloud's portrait. No one +knew how to explain this almost total renunciation of Mademoiselle +Gamard's bequest. Monsieur de Bourbonne supposed that the bishop had +secretly kept moneys that were invested, so as to support his rank +with dignity in Paris, where of course he would take his seat on the +Bishops' bench in the Upper Chamber. It was not until the night before +Monseigneur Troubert's departure from Tours that the sly old fox +unearthed the hidden reason of this strange action, the deathblow +given by the most persistent vengeance to the feeblest of victims. +Madame de Listomere's legacy to Birotteau was contested by the Baron +de Listomere under a pretence of undue influence! + +A few days after the case was brought the baron was promoted to the +rank of captain. As a measure of ecclesiastical discipline, the curate +of Saint-Symphorien was suspended. His superiors judged him guilty. +The murderer of Sophie Gamard was also a swindler. If Monseigneur +Troubert had kept Mademoiselle Gamard's property he would have found +it difficult to make the ecclestiastical authorities censure +Birotteau. + +At the moment when Monseigneur Hyacinthe, Bishop of Troyes, drove +along the quay Saint-Symphorien in a post-chaise on his way to Paris +poor Birotteau had been placed in an armchair in the sun on a terrace +above the road. The unhappy priest, smitten by the archbishop, was +pale and haggard. Grief, stamped on every feature, distorted the face +that was once so mildly gay. Illness had dimmed his eyes, formerly +brightened by the pleasures of good living and devoid of serious +ideas, with a veil which simulated thought. It was but the skeleton of +the old Birotteau who had rolled only one year earlier so vacuous but +so content along the Cloister. The bishop cast one look of pity and +contempt upon his victim; then he consented to forget him, and went +his way. + +There is no doubt that Troubert would have been in other times a +Hildebrand or an Alexander the Sixth. In these days the Church is no +longer a political power, and does not absorb the whole strength of +her solitaries. Celibacy, however, presents the inherent vice of +concentating the faculties of man upon a single passion, egotism, +which renders celibates either useless or mischievous. We live at a +period when the defect of governments is to make Man for Society +rather than Society for Man. There is a perpetual struggle going on +between the Individual and the Social system which insists on using +him, while he is endeavoring to use it to his own profit; whereas, in +former days, man, really more free, was also more loyal to the public +weal. The round in which men struggle in these days has been +insensibly widened; the soul which can grasp it as a whole will ever +be a magnificent exception; for, as a general thing, in morals as in +physics, impulsion loses in intensity what it gains in extension. +Society can not be based on exceptions. Man in the first instance was +purely and simply, father; his heart beat warmly, concentrated in the +one ray of Family. Later, he lived for a clan, or a small community; +hence the great historical devotions of Greece and Rome. After that he +was a man of caste or of a religion, to maintain the greatness of +which he often proved himself sublime; but by that time the field of +his interests became enlarged by many intellectual regions. In our +day, his life is attached to that of a vast country; sooner or later +his family will be, it is predicted, the entire universe. + +Will this moral cosmopolitanism, the hope of Christian Rome, prove to +be only a sublime error? It is so natural to believe in the +realization of a noble vision, in the Brotherhood of Man. But, alas! +the human machine does not have such divine proportions. Souls that +are vast enough to grasp a range of feelings bestowed on great men +only will never belong to either fathers of families or simple +citizens. Some physiologists have thought that as the brain enlarges +the heart narrows; but they are mistaken. The apparent egotism of men +who bear a science, a nation, a code of laws in their bosom is the +noblest of passions; it is, as one may say, the maternity of the +masses; to give birth to new peoples, to produce new ideas they must +unite within their mighty brains the breasts of woman and the force of +God. The history of such men as Innocent the Third and Peter the +Great, and all great leaders of their age and nation will show, if +need be, in the highest spheres the same vast thought of which +Troubert was made the representative in the quiet depths of the +Cloister of Saint-Gatien. + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Birotteau, Abbe Francois + The Lily of the Valley + Cesar Birotteau + +Bourbonne, De + Madame Firmiani + +Listomere, Baronne de + Cesar Birotteau + The Muse of the Department + +Troubert, Abbe Hyacinthe + The Member for Arcis + +Villenoix, Pauline Salomon de + Louis Lambert + A Seaside Tragedy + + + + + + III + + + + + THE TWO BROTHERS + + By HONORE DE BALZAC + + + Translated By + Katharine Prescott Wormeley + + + + DEDICATION + + To Monsieur Charles Nodier, member of the French Academy, etc. + + Here, my dear Nodier, is a book filled with deeds that are + screened from the action of the laws by the closed doors of + domestic life; but as to which the finger of God, often called + chance, supplies the place of human justice, and in which the + moral is none the less striking and instructive because it is + pointed by a scoffer. + + To my mind, such deeds contain great lessons for the Family and + for Maternity. We shall some day realize, perhaps too late, the + effects produced by the diminution of paternal authority. That + authority, which formerly ceased only at the death of the father, + was the sole human tribunal before which domestic crimes could be + arraigned; kings themselves, on special occasions, took part in + executing its judgments. However good and tender a mother may be, + she cannot fulfil the function of the patriarchal royalty any more + than a woman can take the place of a king upon the throne. Perhaps + I have never drawn a picture that shows more plainly how essential + to European society is the indissoluble marriage bond, how fatal + the results of feminine weakness, how great the dangers arising + from selfish interests when indulged without restraint. May a + society which is based solely on the power of wealth shudder as it + sees the impotence of the law in dealing with the workings of a + system which deifies success, and pardons every means of attaining + it. May it return to the Catholic religion, for the purification + of its masses through the inspiration of religious feeling, and by + means of an education other than that of a lay university. + + In the "Scenes from Military Life" so many fine natures, so many + high and noble self-devotions will be set forth, that I may here + be allowed to point out the depraving effect of the necessities of + war upon certain minds who venture to act in domestic life as if + upon the field of battle. + + You have cast a sagacious glance over the events of our own time; + its philosophy shines, in more than one bitter reflection, through + your elegant pages; you have appreciated, more clearly than other + men, the havoc wrought in the mind of our country by the existence + of four distinct political systems. I cannot, therefore, place + this history under the protection of a more competent authority. + Your name may, perhaps, defend my work against the criticisms that + are certain to follow it,--for where is the patient who keeps + silence when the surgeon lifts the dressing from his wound? + + To the pleasure of dedicating this Scene to you, is joined the + pride I feel in thus making known your friendship for one who here + subscribes himself + + Your sincere admirer, + + De Balzac + Paris, November, 1842. + + + + THE TWO BROTHERS + + + + CHAPTER I + +In 1792 the townspeople of Issoudun enjoyed the services of a +physician named Rouget, whom they held to be a man of consummate +malignity. Were we to believe certain bold tongues, he made his wife +extremely unhappy, although she was the most beautiful woman of the +neighborhood. Perhaps, indeed, she was rather silly. But the prying of +friends, the slander of enemies, and the gossip of acquaintances, had +never succeeded in laying bare the interior of that household. Doctor +Rouget was a man of whom we say in common parlance, "He is not +pleasant to deal with." Consequently, during his lifetime, his +townsmen kept silence about him and treated him civilly. His wife, a +demoiselle Descoings, feeble in health during her girlhood (which was +said to be a reason why the doctor married her), gave birth to a son, +and also to a daughter who arrived, unexpectedly, ten years after her +brother, and whose birth took the husband, doctor though he were, by +surprise. This late-comer was named Agathe. + +These little facts are so simple, so commonplace, that a writer seems +scarcely justified in placing them in the fore-front of his history; +yet if they are not known, a man of Doctor Rouget's stamp would be +thought a monster, an unnatural father, when, in point of fact, he was +only following out the evil tendencies which many people shelter under +the terrible axiom that "men should have strength of character,"--a +masculine phrase that has caused many a woman's misery. + +The Descoings, father-in-law and mother-in-law of the doctor, were +commission merchants in the wool-trade, and did a double business by +selling for the producers and buying for the manufacturers of the +golden fleeces of Berry; thus pocketing a commission on both sides. In +this way they grew rich and miserly--the outcome of many such lives. +Descoings the son, younger brother of Madame Rouget, did not like +Issoudun. He went to seek his fortune in Paris, where he set up as a +grocer in the rue Saint-Honore. That step led to his ruin. But nothing +could have hindered it: a grocer is drawn to his business by an +attracting force quite equal to the repelling force which drives +artists away from it. We do not sufficiently study the social +potentialities which make up the various vocations of life. It would +be interesting to know what determines one man to be a stationer +rather than a baker; since, in our day, sons are not compelled to +follow the calling of their fathers, as they were among the Egyptians. +In this instance, love decided the vocation of Descoings. He said to +himself, "I, too, will be a grocer!" and in the same breath he said +(also to himself) some other things regarding his employer,--a +beautiful creature, with whom he had fallen desperately in love. +Without other help than patience and the trifling sum of money his +father and mother sent him, he married the widow of his predecessor, +Monsieur Bixiou. + +In 1792 Descoings was thought to be doing an excellent business. At +that time, the old Descoings were still living. They had retired from +the wool-trade, and were employing their capital in buying up the +forfeited estates,--another golden fleece! Their son-in-law Doctor +Rouget, who, about this time, felt pretty sure that he should soon +have to mourn for the death of his wife, sent his daughter to Paris to +the care of his brother-in-law, partly to let her see the capital, but +still more to carry out an artful scheme of his own. Descoings had no +children. Madame Descoings, twelve years older than her husband, was +in good health, but as fat as a thrush after harvest; and the canny +Rouget knew enough professionally to be certain that Monsieur and +Madame Descoings, contrary to the moral of fairy tales, would live +happy ever after without having any children. The pair might therefore +become attached to Agathe. + +That young girl, the handsomest maiden in Issoudun, did not resemble +either father or mother. Her birth had caused a lasting breach between +Doctor Rouget and his intimate friend Monsieur Lousteau, a former sub- +delegate who had lately removed from the town. When a family +expatriates itself, the natives of a place as attractive as Issoudun +have a right to inquire into the reasons of so surprising a step. It +was said by certain sharp tongues that Doctor Rouget, a vindictive +man, had been heard to exclaim that Monsieur Lousteau should die by +his hand. Uttered by a physician, this declaration had the force of a +cannon-ball. When the National Assembly suppressed the sub-delegates, +Lousteau and his family left Issoudun, and never returned there. After +their departure Madame Rouget spent most of her time with the sister +of the late sub-delegate, Madame Hochon, who was the godmother of her +daughter, and the only person to whom she confided her griefs. The +little that the good town of Issoudun ever really knew of the +beautiful Madame Rouget was told by Madame Hochon,--though not until +after the doctor's death. + +The first words of Madame Rouget, when informed by her husband that he +meant to send Agathe to Paris, were: "I shall never see my daughter +again." + +"And she was right," said the worthy Madame Hochon. + +After this, the poor mother grew as yellow as a quince, and her +appearance did not contradict the tongues of those who declared that +Doctor Rouget was killing her by inches. The behavior of her booby of +a son must have added to the misery of the poor woman so unjustly +accused. Not restrained, possibly encouraged by his father, the young +fellow, who was in every way stupid, paid her neither the attentions +nor the respect which a son owes to a mother. Jean-Jacques Rouget was +like his father, especially on the latter's worst side; and the doctor +at his best was far from satisfactory, either morally or physically. + +The arrival of the charming Agathe Rouget did not bring happiness to +her uncle Descoings; for in the same week (or rather, we should say +decade, for the Republic had then been proclaimed) he was imprisoned +on a hint from Robespierre given to Fouquier-Tinville. Descoings, who +was imprudent enough to think the famine fictitious, had the +additional folly, under the impression that opinions were free, to +express that opinion to several of his male and female customers as he +served them in the grocery. The citoyenne Duplay, wife of a cabinet- +maker with whom Robespierre lodged, and who looked after the affairs +of that eminent citizen, patronized, unfortunately, the Descoings +establishment. She considered the opinions of the grocer insulting to +Maximilian the First. Already displeased with the manners of +Descoings, this illustrious "tricoteuse" of the Jacobin club regarded +the beauty of his wife as a kind of aristocracy. She infused a venom +of her own into the grocer's remarks when she repeated them to her +good and gentle master, and the poor man was speedily arrested on the +well-worn charge of "accaparation." + +No sooner was he put in prison, than his wife set to work to obtain +his release. But the steps she took were so ill-judged that any one +hearing her talk to the arbiters of his fate might have thought that +she was in reality seeking to get rid of him. Madame Descoings knew +Bridau, one of the secretaries of Roland, then minister of the +interior,--the right-hand man of all the ministers who succeeded each +other in that office. She put Bridau on the war-path to save her +grocer. That incorruptible official--one of the virtuous dupes who are +always admirably disinterested--was careful not to corrupt the men on +whom the fate of the poor grocer depended; on the contrary, he +endeavored to enlighten them. Enlighten people in those days! As well +might he have begged them to bring back the Bourbons. The Girondist +minister, who was then contending against Robespierre, said to his +secretary, "Why do you meddle in the matter?" and all others to whom +the worthy Bridau appealed made the same atrocious reply: "Why do you +meddle?" Bridau then sagely advised Madame Descoings to keep quiet and +await events. But instead of conciliating Robespierre's housekeeper, +she fretted and fumed against that informer, and even complained to a +member of the Convention, who, trembling for himself, replied hastily, +"I will speak of it to Robespierre." The handsome petitioner put faith +in this promise, which the other carefully forgot. A few loaves of +sugar, or a bottle or two of good liqueur, given to the citoyenne +Duplay would have saved Descoings. + +This little mishap proves that in revolutionary times it is quite as +dangerous to employ honest men as scoundrels; we should rely on +ourselves alone. Descoings perished; but he had the glory of going to +the scaffold with Andre Chenier. There, no doubt, grocery and poetry +embraced for the first time in the flesh; although they have, and ever +have had, intimate secret relations. The death of Descoings produced +far more sensation than that of Andre Chenier. It has taken thirty +years to prove to France that she lost more by the death of Chenier +than by that of Descoings. + +This act of Robespierre led to one good result: the terrified grocers +let politics alone until 1830. Descoings's shop was not a hundred +yards from Robespierre's lodging. His successor was scarcely more +fortunate than himself. Cesar Birotteau, the celebrated perfumer of +the "Queen of Roses," bought the premises; but, as if the scaffold had +left some inexplicable contagion behind it, the inventor of the "Paste +of Sultans" and the "Carminative Balm" came to his ruin in that very +shop. The solution of the problem here suggested belongs to the realm +of occult science. + +During the visits which Roland's secretary paid to the unfortunate +Madame Descoings, he was struck with the cold, calm, innocent beauty +of Agathe Rouget. While consoling the widow, who, however, was too +inconsolable to carry on the business of her second deceased husband, +he married the charming girl, with the consent of her father, who +hastened to give his approval to the match. Doctor Rouget, delighted +to hear that matters were going beyond his expectations,--for his +wife, on the death of her brother, had become sole heiress of the +Descoings,--rushed to Paris, not so much to be present at the wedding +as to see that the marriage contract was drawn to suit him. The ardent +and disinterested love of citizen Bridau gave carte blanche to the +perfidious doctor, who made the most of his son-in-law's blindness, as +the following history will show. + +Madame Rouget, or, to speak more correctly, the doctor, inherited all +the property, landed and personal, of Monsieur and Madame Descoings +the elder, who died within two years of each other; and soon after +that, Rouget got the better, as we may say, of his wife, for she died +at the beginning of the year 1799. So he had vineyards and he bought +farms, he owned iron-works and he sold fleeces. His well-beloved son +was stupidly incapable of doing anything; but the father destined him +for the state in life of a land proprietor and allowed him to grow up +in wealth and silliness, certain that the lad would know as much as +the wisest if he simply let himself live and die. After 1799, the +cipherers of Issoudun put, at the very least, thirty thousand francs' +income to the doctor's credit. From the time of his wife's death he +led a debauched life, though he regulated it, so to speak, and kept it +within the closed doors of his own house. This man, endowed with +"strength of character," died in 1805, and God only knows what the +townspeople of Issoudun said about him then, and how many anecdotes +they related of his horrible private life. Jean-Jacques Rouget, whom +his father, recognizing his stupidity, had latterly treated with +severity, remained a bachelor for certain reasons, the explanation of +which will form an important part of this history. His celibacy was +partly his father's fault, as we shall see later. + +Meantime, it is well to inquire into the results of the secret +vengeance the doctor took on a daughter whom he did not recognize as +his own, but who, you must understand at once, was legitimately his. +Not a person in Issoudun had noticed one of those capricious facts +that make the whole subject of generation a vast abyss in which +science flounders. Agathe bore a strong likeness to the mother of +Doctor Rouget. Just as gout is said to skip a generation and pass from +grandfather to grandson, resemblances not uncommonly follow the same +course. + +In like manner, the eldest of Agathe's children, who physically +resembled his mother, had the moral qualities of his grandfather, +Doctor Rouget. We will leave the solution of this problem to the +twentieth century, with a fine collection of microscopic animalculae; +our descendants may perhaps write as much nonsense as the scientific +schools of the nineteenth century have uttered on this mysterious and +perplexing question. + +Agathe Rouget attracted the admiration of everyone by a face destined, +like that of Mary, the mother of our Lord, to continue ever virgin, +even after marriage. Her portrait, still to be seen in the atelier of +Bridau, shows a perfect oval and a clear whiteness of complexion, +without the faintest tinge of color, in spite of her golden hair. More +than one artist, looking at the pure brow, the discreet, composed +mouth, the delicate nose, the small ears, the long lashes, and the +dark-blue eyes filled with tenderness,--in short, at the whole +countenance expressive of placidity,--has asked the great artist, "Is +that a copy of a Raphael?" No man ever acted under a truer inspiration +than the minister's secretary when he married this young girl. Agathe +was an embodiment of the ideal housekeeper brought up in the provinces +and never parted from her mother. Pious, though far from +sanctimonious, she had no other education than that given to women by +the Church. Judged, by ordinary standards, she was an accomplished +wife, yet her ignorance of life paved the way for great misfortunes. +The epitaph on the Roman matron, "She did needlework and kept the +house," gives a faithful picture of her simple, pure, and tranquil +existence. + +Under the Consulate, Bridau attached himself fanatically to Napoleon, +who placed him at the head of a department in the ministry of the +interior in 1804, a year before the death of Doctor Rouget. With a +salary of twelve thousand francs and very handsome emoluments, Bridau +was quite indifferent to the scandalous settlement of the property at +Issoudun, by which Agathe was deprived of her rightful inheritance. +Six months before Doctor Rouget's death he had sold one-half of his +property to his son, to whom the other half was bequeathed as a gift, +and also in accordance with his rights as heir. An advance of fifty +thousand francs on her inheritance, made to Agathe at the time of her +marriage, represented her share of the property of her father and +mother. + +Bridau idolized the Emperor, and served him with the devotion of a +Mohammedan for his prophet; striving to carry out the vast conceptions +of the modern demi-god, who, finding the whole fabric of France +destroyed, went to work to reconstruct everything. The new official +never showed fatigue, never cried "Enough." Projects, reports, notes, +studies, he accepted all, even the hardest labors, happy in the +consciousness of aiding his Emperor. He loved him as a man, he adored +him as a sovereign, and he would never allow the least criticism of +his acts or his purposes. + +From 1804 to 1808, the Bridaus lived in a handsome suite of rooms on +the Quai Voltaire, a few steps from the ministry of the interior and +close to the Tuileries. A cook and footman were the only servants of +the household during this period of Madame Bridau's grandeur. Agathe, +early afoot, went to market with her cook. While the latter did the +rooms, she prepared the breakfast. Bridau never went to the ministry +before eleven o'clock. As long as their union lasted, his wife took +the same unwearying pleasure in preparing for him an exquisite +breakfast, the only meal he really enjoyed. At all seasons and in all +weathers, Agathe watched her husband from the window as he walked +toward his office, and never drew in her head until she had seen him +turn the corner of the rue du Bac. Then she cleared the breakfast- +table herself, gave an eye to the arrangement of the rooms, dressed +for the day, played with her children and took them to walk, or +received the visits of friends; all the while waiting in spirit for +Bridau's return. If her husband brought him important business that +had to be attended to, she would station herself close to the writing- +table in his study, silent as a statue, knitting while he wrote, +sitting up as late as he did, and going to bed only a few moments +before him. Occasionally, the pair went to some theatre, occupying one +of the ministerial boxes. On those days, they dined at a restaurant, +and the gay scenes of that establishment never ceased to give Madame +Bridau the same lively pleasure they afford to provincials who are new +to Paris. Agathe, who was obliged to accept the formal dinners +sometimes given to the head of a department in a ministry, paid due +attention to the luxurious requirements of the then mode of dress, but +she took off the rich apparel with delight when she returned home, and +resumed the simple garb of a provincial. One day in the week, +Thursday, Bridau received his friends, and he also gave a grand ball, +annually, on Shrove Tuesday. + +These few words contain the whole history of their conjugal life, +which had but three events; the births of two children, born three +years apart, and the death of Bridau, who died in 1808, killed by +overwork at the very moment when the Emperor was about to appoint him +director-general, count, and councillor of state. At this period of +his reign, Napoleon was particularly absorbed in the affairs of the +interior; he overwhelmed Bridau with work, and finally wrecked the +health of that dauntless bureaucrat. The Emperor, of whom Bridau had +never asked a favor, made inquiries into his habits and fortune. +Finding that this devoted servant literally had nothing but his +situation, Napoleon recognized him as one of the incorruptible natures +which raised the character of his government and gave moral weight to +it, and he wished to surprise him by the gift of some distinguished +reward. But the effort to complete a certain work, involving immense +labor, before the departure of the Emperor for Spain caused the death +of the devoted servant, who was seized with an inflammatory fever. +When the Emperor, who remained in Paris for a few days after his +return to prepare for the campaign of 1809, was told of Bridau's +death he said: "There are men who can never be replaced." Struck by +the spectacle of a devotion which could receive none of the brilliant +recognitions that reward a soldier, the Emperor resolved to create an +order to requite civil services, just as he had already created the +Legion of honor to reward the military. The impression he received +from the death of Bridau led him to plan the order of the Reunion. He +had not time, however, to mature this aristocratic scheme, the +recollection of which is now so completely effaced that many of my +readers may ask what were its insignia: the order was worn with a blue +ribbon. The Emperor called it the Reunion, under the idea of uniting +the order of the Golden Fleece of Spain with the order of the Golden +Fleece of Austria. "Providence," said a Prussian diplomatist, "took +care to frustrate the profanation." + +After Bridau's death the Emperor inquired into the circumstances of +his widow. Her two sons each received a scholarship in the Imperial +Lyceum, and the Emperor paid the whole costs of their education from +his privy purse. He gave Madame Bridau a pension of four thousand +francs, intending, no doubt, to advance the fortune of her sons in +future years. + +From the time of her marriage to the death of her husband, Agathe had +held no communication with Issoudun. She lost her mother just as she +was on the point of giving birth to her youngest son, and when her +father, who, as she well knew, loved her little, died, the coronation +of the Emperor was at hand, and that event gave Bridau so much +additional work that she was unwilling to leave him. Her brother, +Jean-Jacques Rouget, had not written to her since she left Issoudun. +Though grieved by the tacit repudiation of her family, Agathe had come +to think seldom of those who never thought of her. Once a year she +received a letter from her godmother, Madame Hochon, to whom she +replied with commonplaces, paying no heed to the advice which that +pious and excellent woman gave to her, disguised in cautious words. + +Some time before the death of Doctor Rouget, Madame Hochon had written +to her goddaughter warning her that she would get nothing from her +father's estate unless she gave a power of attorney to Monsieur +Hochon. Agathe was very reluctant to harass her brother. Whether it +were that Bridau thought the spoliation of his wife in accordance with +the laws and customs of Berry, or that, high-minded as he was, he +shared the magnanimity of his wife, certain it is that he would not +listen to Roguin, his notary, who advised him to take advantage of his +ministerial position to contest the deeds by which the father had +deprived the daughter of her legitimate inheritance. Husband and wife +thus tacitly sanctioned what was done at Issoudun. Nevertheless, +Roguin had forced Bridau to reflect upon the future interests of his +wife which were thus compromised. He saw that if he died before her, +Agathe would be left without property, and this led him to look into +his own affairs. He found that between 1793 and 1805 his wife and he +had been obliged to use nearly thirty thousand of the fifty thousand +francs in cash which old Rouget had given to his daughter at the time +of her marriage. He at once invested the remaining twenty thousand in +the public funds, then quoted at forty, and from this source Agathe +received about two thousand francs a year. As a widow, Madame Bridau +could live suitably on an income of six thousand francs. With +provincial good sense, she thought of changing her residence, +dismissing the footman, and keeping no servant except a cook; but her +intimate friend, Madame Descoings, who insisted on being considered +her aunt, sold her own establishment and came to live with Agathe, +turning the study of the late Bridau into her bedroom. + +The two widows clubbed their revenues, and so were in possession of a +joint income of twelve thousand francs a year. This seems a very +simple and natural proceeding. But nothing in life is more deserving +of attention than the things that are called natural; we are on our +guard against the unnatural and extraordinary. For this reason, you +will find men of experience--lawyers, judges, doctors, and priests-- +attaching immense importance to simple matters; and they are often +thought over-scrupulous. But the serpent amid flowers is one of the +finest myths that antiquity has bequeathed for the guidance of our +lives. How often we hear fools, trying to excuse themselves in their +own eyes or in the eyes of others, exclaiming, "It was all so natural +that any one would have been taken in." + +In 1809, Madame Descoings, who never told her age, was sixty-five. In +her heyday she had been popularly called a beauty, and was now one of +those rare women whom time respects. She owed to her excellent +constitution the privilege of preserving her good looks, which, +however, would not bear close examination. She was of medium height, +plump, and fresh, with fine shoulders and a rather rosy complexion. +Her blond hair, bordering on chestnut, showed, in spite of her +husband's catastrophe, not a tinge of gray. She loved good cheer, and +liked to concoct nice little made dishes; yet, fond as she was of +eating, she also adored the theatre and cherished a vice which she +wrapped in impenetrable mystery--she bought into lotteries. Can that +be the abyss of which mythology warns us under the fable of the +Danaides and their cask? Madame Descoings, like other women who are +lucky enough to keep young for many years, spend rather too much upon +her dress; but aside from these trifling defects she was the +pleasantest of women to live with. Of every one's opinion, never +opposing anybody, her kindly and communicative gayety gave pleasure to +all. She had, moreover, a Parisian quality which charmed the retired +clerks and elderly merchants of her circle,--she could take and give a +jest. If she did not marry a third time it was no doubt the fault of +the times. During the wars of the Empire, marrying men found rich and +handsome girls too easily to trouble themselves about women of sixty. + +Madame Descoings, always anxious to cheer Madame Bridau, often took +the latter to the theatre, or to drive; prepared excellent little +dinners for her delectation, and even tried to marry her to her own +son by her first husband, Bixiou. Alas! to do this, she was forced to +reveal a terrible secret, carefully kept by her, by her late husband, +and by her notary. The young and beautiful Madame Descoings, who +passed for thirty-six years old, had a son who was thirty-five, named +Bixiou, already a widower, a major in the Twenty-Fourth Infantry, who +subsequently perished at Lutzen, leaving behind him an only son. +Madame Descoings, who only saw her grandson secretly, gave out that he +was the son of the first wife of her first husband. The revelation was +partly a prudential act; for this grandson was being educated with +Madame Bridau's sons at the Imperial Lyceum, where he had a half- +scholarship. The lad, who was clever and shrewd at school, soon after +made himself a great reputation as draughtsman and designer, and also +as a wit. + +Agathe, who lived only for her children, declined to re-marry, as much +from good sense as from fidelity to her husband. But it is easier for +a woman to be a good wife than to be a good mother. A widow has two +tasks before her, whose duties clash: she is a mother, and yet she +must exercise parental authority. Few women are firm enough to +understand and practise this double duty. Thus it happened that +Agathe, notwithstanding her many virtues, was the innocent cause of +great unhappiness. In the first place, through her lack of +intelligence and the blind confidence to which such noble natures are +prone, Agathe fell a victim to Madame Descoings, who brought a +terrible misfortune on the family. That worthy soul was nursing up a +combination of three numbers called a "trey" in a lottery, and +lotteries give no credit to their customers. As manager of the joint +household, she was able to pay up her stakes with the money intended +for their current expenses, and she went deeper and deeper into debt, +with the hope of ultimately enriching her grandson Bixiou, her dear +Agathe, and the little Bridaus. When the debts amounted to ten +thousand francs, she increased her stakes, trusting that her favorite +trey, which had not turned up in nine years, would come at last, and +fill to overflowing the abysmal deficit. + +From that moment the debt rolled up rapidly. When it reached twenty +thousand francs, Madame Descoings lost her head, still failing to win +the trey. She tried to mortgage her own property to pay her niece, but +Roguin, who was her notary, showed her the impossibility of carrying +out that honorable intention. The late Doctor Rouget had laid hold of +the property of the brother-in-law after the grocer's execution, and +had, as it were, disinherited Madame Descoings by securing to her a +life-interest on the property of his own son, Jean-Jacques Rouget. No +money-lender would think of advancing twenty thousand francs to a +woman sixty-six years of age, on an annuity of about four thousand, at +a period when ten per cent could easily be got for an investment. So +one morning Madame Descoings fell at the feet of her niece, and with +sobs confessed the state of things. Madame Bridau did not reproach +her; she sent away the footman and cook, sold all but the bare +necessities of her furniture, sold also three-fourths of her +government funds, paid off the debts, and bade farewell to her +appartement. + + + + CHAPTER II + +One of the worst corners in all Paris is undoubtedly that part of the +rue Mazarin which lies between the rue Guenegard and its junction with +the rue de Seine, behind the palace of the Institute. The high gray +walls of the college and of the library which Cardinal Mazarin +presented to the city of Paris, and which the French Academy was in +after days to inhabit, cast chill shadows over this angle of the +street, where the sun seldom shines, and the north wind blows. The +poor ruined widow came to live on the third floor of a house standing +at this damp, dark, cold corner. Opposite, rose the Institute +buildings, in which were the dens of ferocious animals known to the +bourgeoisie under the name of artists,--under that of tyro, or rapin, +in the studios. Into these dens they enter rapins, but they may come +forth prix de Rome. The transformation does not take place without +extraordinary uproar and disturbance at the time of year when the +examinations are going on, and the competitors are shut up in their +cells. To win a prize, they were obliged, within a given time, to +make, if a sculptor, a clay model; if a painter, a picture such as may +be seen at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts; if a musician, a cantata; if an +architect, the plans for a public building. At the time when we are +penning the words, this menagerie has already been removed from these +cold and cheerless buildings, and taken to the elegant Palais des +Beaux-Arts, which stands near by. + +From the windows of Madame Bridau's new abode, a glance could +penetrate the depths of those melancholy barred cages. To the north, +the view was shut in by the dome of the Institute; looking up the +street, the only distraction to the eye was a file of hackney-coaches, +which stood at the upper end of the rue Mazarin. After a while, the +widow put boxes of earth in front of her windows, and cultivated those +aerial gardens that police regulations forbid, though their vegetable +products purify the atmosphere. The house, which backed up against +another fronting on the rue de Seine, was necessarily shallow, and the +staircase wound round upon itself. The third floor was the last. Three +windows to three rooms, namely, a dining-room, a small salon, and a +chamber on one side of the landing; on the other, a little kitchen, +and two single rooms; above, an immense garret without partitions. +Madame Bridau chose this lodging for three reasons: economy, for it +cost only four hundred francs a year, so that she took a lease of it +for nine years; proximity to her sons' school, the Imperial Lyceum +being at a short distance; thirdly, because it was in the quarter to +which she was used. + +The inside of the appartement was in keeping with the general look of +the house. The dining-room, hung with a yellow paper covered with +little green flowers, and floored with tiles that were not glazed, +contained nothing that was not strictly necessary,--namely, a table, +two sideboards, and six chairs, brought from the other appartement. +The salon was adorned with an Aubusson carpet given to Bridau when the +ministry of the interior was refurnished. To the furniture of this +room the widow added one of those commonplace mahogany sofas with the +Egyptian heads that Jacob Desmalter manufactured by the gross in 1806, +covering them with a silken green stuff bearing a design of white +geometric circles. Above this piece of furniture hung a portrait of +Bridau, done in pastel by the hand of an amateur, which at once +attracted the eye. Though art might have something to say against it, +no one could fail to recognize the firmness of the noble and obscure +citizen upon that brow. The serenity of the eyes, gentle, yet proud, +was well given; the sagacious mind, to which the prudent lips bore +testimony, the frank smile, the atmosphere of the man of whom the +Emperor had said, "Justum et tenacem," had all been caught, if not +with talent, at least with fidelity. Studying that face, an observer +could see that the man had done his duty. His countenance bore signs +of the incorruptibility which we attribute to several men who served +the Republic. On the opposite wall, over a card-table, flashed a +picture of the Emperor in brilliant colors, done by Vernet; Napoleon +was riding rapidly, attended by his escort. + +Agathe had bestowed upon herself two large birdcages; one filled with +canaries, the other with Java sparrows. She had given herself up to +this juvenile fancy since the loss of her husband, irreparable to her, +as, in fact, it was to many others. By the end of three months, her +widowed chamber had become what it was destined to remain until the +appointed day when she left it forever,--a litter of confusion which +words are powerless to describe. Cats were domiciled on the sofa. The +canaries, occasionally let loose, left their commas on the furniture. +The poor dear woman scattered little heaps of millet and bits of +chickweed about the room, and put tidbits for the cats in broken +saucers. Garments lay everywhere. The room breathed of the provinces +and of constancy. Everything that once belonged to Bridau was +scrupulously preserved. Even the implements in his desk received the +care which the widow of a paladin might have bestowed upon her +husband's armor. One slight detail here will serve to bring the tender +devotion of this woman before the reader's mind. She had wrapped up a +pen and sealed the package, on which she wrote these words, "Last pen +used by my dear husband." The cup from which he drank his last draught +was on the fireplace; caps and false hair were tossed, at a later +period, over the glass globes which covered these precious relics. +After Bridau's death not a trace of coquetry, not even a woman's +ordinary care of her person, was left in the young widow of thirty- +five. Parted from the only man she had ever known, esteemed, and +loved, from one who had never caused her the slightest unhappiness, +she was no longer conscious of her womanhood; all things were as +nothing to her; she no longer even thought of her dress. Nothing was +ever more simply done or more complete than this laying down of +conjugal happiness and personal charm. Some human beings obtain +through love the power of transferring their self--their I--to the +being of another; and when death takes that other, no life of their +own is possible for them. + +Agathe, who now lived only for her children, was infinitely sad at the +thought of the privations this financial ruin would bring upon them. +From the time of her removal to the rue Mazarin a shade of melancholy +came upon her face, which made it very touching. She hoped a little in +the Emperor; but the Emperor at that time could do no more than he was +already doing; he was giving three hundred francs a year to each child +from his privy purse, besides the scholarships. + +As for the brilliant Descoings, she occupied an appartement on the +second floor similar to that of her niece above her. She had made +Madame Bridau an assignment of three thousand francs out of her +annuity. Roguin, the notary, attended to this in Madame Bridau's +interest; but it would take seven years of such slow repayment to make +good the loss. The Descoings, thus reduced to an income of twelve +hundred francs, lived with her niece in a small way. These excellent +but timid creatures employed a woman-of-all-work for the morning hours +only. Madame Descoings, who liked to cook, prepared the dinner. In the +evenings a few old friends, persons employed at the ministry who owed +their places to Bridau, came for a game of cards with the two widows. +Madame Descoings still cherished her trey, which she declared was +obstinate about turning up. She expected, by one grand stroke, to +repay the enforced loan she had made upon her niece. She was fonder of +the little Bridaus than she was of her grandson Bixiou,--partly from a +sense of the wrong she had done them, partly because she felt the +kindness of her niece, who, under her worst deprivations, never +uttered a word of reproach. So Philippe and Joseph were cossetted, and +the old gambler in the Imperial Lottery of France (like others who +have a vice or a weakness to atone for) cooked them nice little +dinners with plenty of sweets. Later on, Philippe and Joseph could +extract from her pocket, with the utmost facility, small sums of +money, which the younger used for pencils, paper, charcoal and prints, +the elder to buy tennis-shoes, marbles, twine, and pocket-knives. +Madame Descoings's passion forced her to be content with fifty francs +a month for her domestic expenses, so as to gamble with the rest. + +On the other hand, Madame Bridau, motherly love, kept her expenses +down to the same sum. By way of penance for her former over- +confidence, she heroically cut off her own little enjoyments. As with +other timid souls of limited intelligence, one shock to her feelings +rousing her distrust led her to exaggerate a defect in her character +until it assumed the consistency of a virtue. The Emperor, she said to +herself, might forget them; he might die in battle; her pension, at +any rate, ceased with her life. She shuddered at the risk her children +ran of being left alone in the world without means. Quite incapable of +understanding Roguin when he explained to her that in seven years +Madame Descoings's assignment would replace the money she had sold out +of the Funds, she persisted in trusting neither the notary nor her +aunt, nor even the government; she believed in nothing but herself and +the privations she was practising. By laying aside three thousand +francs every year from her pension, she would have thirty thousand +francs at the end of ten years; which would give fifteen hundred a +year to her children. At thirty-six, she might expect to live twenty +years longer; and if she kept to the same system of economy she might +leave to each child enough for the bare necessaries of life. + +Thus the two widows passed from hollow opulence to voluntary poverty, +--one under the pressure of a vice, the other through the promptings +of the purest virtue. None of these petty details are useless in +teaching the lesson which ought to be learned from this present +history, drawn as it is from the most commonplace interests of life, +but whose bearings are, it may be, only the more widespread. The view +from the windows into the student dens; the tumult of the rapins +below; the necessity of looking up at the sky to escape the miserable +sights of the damp angle of the street; the presence of that portrait, +full of soul and grandeur despite the workmanship of an amateur +painter; the sight of the rich colors, now old and harmonious, in that +calm and placid home; the preference of the mother for her eldest +child; her opposition to the tastes of the younger; in short, the +whole body of facts and circumstances which make the preamble of this +history are perhaps the generating causes to which we owe Joseph +Bridau, one of the greatest painters of the modern French school of +art. + +Philippe, the elder of the two sons, was strikingly like his mother. +Though a blond lad, with blue eyes, he had the daring look which is +readily taken for intrepidity and courage. Old Claparon, who entered +the ministry of the interior at the same time as Bridau, and was one +of the faithful friends who played whist every night with the two +widows, used to say of Philippe two or three times a month, giving him +a tap on the cheek, "Here's a young rascal who'll stand to his guns!" +The boy, thus stimulated, naturally and out of bravado, assumed a +resolute manner. That turn once given to his character, he became very +adroit at all bodily exercises; his fights at the Lyceum taught him +the endurance and contempt for pain which lays the foundation of +military valor. He also acquired, very naturally, a distaste for +study; public education being unable to solve the difficult problem of +developing "pari passu" the body and the mind. + +Agathe believed that the purely physical resemblance which Philippe +bore to her carried with it a moral likeness; and she confidently +expected him to show at a future day her own delicacy of feeling, +heightened by the vigor of manhood. Philippe was fifteen years old +when his mother moved into the melancholy appartement in the rue +Mazarin; and the winning ways of a lad of that age went far to confirm +the maternal beliefs. Joseph, three years younger, was like his +father, but only on the defective side. In the first place, his thick +black hair was always in disorder, no matter what pains were taken +with it; while Philippe's, notwithstanding his vivacity, was +invariably neat. Then, by some mysterious fatality, Joseph could not +keep his clothes clean; dress him in new clothes, and he immediately +made them look like old ones. The elder, on the other hand, took care +of his things out of mere vanity. Unconsciously, the mother acquired a +habit of scolding Joseph and holding up his brother as an example to +him. Agathe did not treat the two children alike; when she went to +fetch them from school, the thought in her mind as to Joseph always +was, "What sort of state shall I find him in?" These trifles drove her +heart into the gulf of maternal preference. + +No one among the very ordinary persons who made the society of the two +widows--neither old Du Bruel nor old Claparon, nor Desroches the +father, nor even the Abbe Loraux, Agathe's confessor--noticed Joseph's +faculty for observation. Absorbed in the line of his own tastes, the +future colorist paid no attention to anything that concerned himself. +During his childhood this disposition was so like torpor that his +father grew uneasy about him. The remarkable size of the head and the +width of the brow roused a fear that the child might be liable to +water on the brain. His distressful face, whose originality was +thought ugliness by those who had no eye for the moral value of a +countenance, wore rather a sullen expression during his childhood. The +features, which developed later in life, were pinched, and the close +attention the child paid to what went on about him still further +contracted them. Philippe flattered his mother's vanity, but Joseph +won no compliments. Philippe sparkled with the clever sayings and +lively answers that lead parents to believe their boys will turn out +remarkable men; Joseph was taciturn, and a dreamer. The mother hoped +great things of Philippe, and expected nothing of Joseph. + +Joseph's predilection for art was developed by a very commonplace +incident. During the Easter holidays of 1812, as he was coming home +from a walk in the Tuileries with his brother and Madame Descoings, he +saw a pupil drawing a caricature of some professor on the wall of the +Institute, and stopped short with admiration at the charcoal sketch, +which was full of satire. The next day the child stood at the window +watching the pupils as they entered the building by the door on the +rue Mazarin; then he ran downstairs and slipped furtively into the +long courtyard of the Institute, full of statues, busts, half-finished +marbles, plasters, and baked clays; at all of which he gazed +feverishly, for his instinct was awakened, and his vocation stirred +within him. He entered a room on the ground-floor, the door of which +was half open; and there he saw a dozen young men drawing from a +statue, who at once began to make fun of him. + +"Hi! little one," cried the first to see him, taking the crumbs of his +bread and scattering them at the child. + +"Whose child is he?" + +"Goodness, how ugly!" + +For a quarter of an hour Joseph stood still and bore the brunt of much +teasing in the atelier of the great sculptor, Chaudet. But after +laughing at him for a time, the pupils were struck with his +persistency and with the expression of his face. They asked him what +he wanted. Joseph answered that he wished to know how to draw; +thereupon they all encouraged him. Won by such friendliness, the child +told them he was Madame Bridau's son. + +"Oh! if you are Madame Bridau's son," they cried, from all parts of +the room, "you will certainly be a great man. Long live the son of +Madame Bridau! Is your mother pretty? If you are a sample of her, she +must be stylish!" + +"Ha! you want to be an artist?" said the eldest pupil, coming up to +Joseph, "but don't you know that that requires pluck; you'll have to +bear all sorts of trials,--yes, trials,--enough to break your legs and +arms and soul and body. All the fellows you see here have gone through +regular ordeals. That one, for instance, he went seven days without +eating! Let me see, now, if you can be an artist." + +He took one of the child's arms and stretched it straight up in the +air; then he placed the other arm as if Joseph were in the act of +delivering a blow with his fist. + +"Now that's what we call the telegraph trial," said the pupil. "If you +can stand like that, without lowering or changing the position of your +arms for a quarter of an hour, then you'll have proved yourself a +plucky one." + +"Courage, little one, courage!" cried all the rest. "You must suffer +if you want to be an artist." + +Joseph, with the good faith of his thirteen years, stood motionless +for five minutes, all the pupils gazing solemnly at him. + +"There! you are moving," cried one. + +"Steady, steady, confound you!" cried another. + +"The Emperor Napoleon stood a whole month as you see him there," said +a third, pointing to the fine statue by Chaudet, which was in the +room. + +That statue, which represents the Emperor standing with the Imperial +sceptre in his hand, was torn down in 1814 from the column it +surmounted so well. + +At the end of ten minutes the sweat stood in drops on Joseph's +forehead. At that moment a bald-headed little man, pale and sickly in +appearance, entered the atelier, where respectful silence reigned at +once. + +"What you are about, you urchins?" he exclaimed, as he looked at the +youthful martyr. + +"That is a good little fellow, who is posing," said the tall pupil who +had placed Joseph. + +"Are you not ashamed to torture a poor child in that way?" said +Chaudet, lowering Joseph's arms. "How long have you been standing +there?" he asked the boy, giving him a friendly little pat on the +cheek. + +"A quarter of an hour." + +"What brought you here?" + +"I want to be an artist." + +"Where do you belong? where do you come from?" + +"From mamma's house." + +"Oh! mamma!" cried the pupils. + +"Silence at the easels!" cried Chaudet. "Who is your mamma?" + +"She is Madame Bridau. My papa, who is dead, was a friend of the +Emperor; and if you will teach me to draw, the Emperor will pay all +you ask for it." + +"His father was head of a department at the ministry of the Interior," +exclaimed Chaudet, struck by a recollection. "So you want to be an +artist, at your age?" + +"Yes, monsieur." + +"Well, come here just as much as you like; we'll amuse you. Give him a +board, and paper, and chalks, and let him alone. You are to know, you +young scamps, that his father did me a service. Here, Corde-a-puits, +go and get some cakes and sugar-plums," he said to the pupil who had +tortured Joseph, giving him some small change. "We'll see if you are +to be artist by the way you gobble up the dainties," added the +sculptor, chucking Joseph under the chin. + +Then he went round examining the pupils' works, followed by the child, +who looked and listened, and tried to understand him. The sweets were +brought, Chaudet, himself, the child, and the whole studio all had +their teeth in them; and Joseph was petted quite as much as he had +been teased. The whole scene, in which the rough play and real heart +of artists were revealed, and which the boy instinctively understood, +made a great impression on his mind. The apparition of the sculptor,-- +for whom the Emperor's protection opened a way to future glory, closed +soon after by his premature death,--was like a vision to little +Joseph. The child said nothing to his mother about this adventure, but +he spent two hours every Sunday and every Thursday in Chaudet's +atelier. From that time forth, Madame Descoings, who humored the +fancies of the two cherubim, kept Joseph supplied with pencils and red +chalks, prints and drawing-paper. At school, the future colorist +sketched his masters, drew his comrades, charcoaled the dormitories, +and showed surprising assiduity in the drawing-class. Lemire, the +drawing-master, struck not only with the lad's inclination but also +with his actual progress, came to tell Madame Bridau of her son's +faculty. Agathe, like a true provincial, who knows as little of art as +she knows much of housekeeping, was terrified. When Lemire left her, +she burst into tears. + +"Ah!" she cried, when Madame Descoings went to ask what was the +matter. "What is to become of me! Joseph, whom I meant to make a +government clerk, whose career was all marked out for him at the +ministry of the interior, where, protected by his father's memory, he +might have risen to be chief of a division before he was twenty-five, +he, my boy, he wants to be a painter,--a vagabond! I always knew that +child would give me nothing but trouble." + +Madame Descoings confessed that for several months past she had +encouraged Joseph's passion, aiding and abetting his Sunday and +Thursday visits to the Institute. At the Salon, to which she had taken +him, the little fellow had shown an interest in the pictures, which +was, she declared, nothing short of miraculous. + +"If he understands painting at thirteen, my dear," she said, "your +Joseph will be a man of genius." + +"Yes; and see what genius did for his father,--killed him with +overwork at forty!" + +At the close of autumn, just as Joseph was entering his fourteenth +year, Agathe, contrary to Madame Descoings's entreaties, went to see +Chaudet, and requested that he would cease to debauch her son. She +found the sculptor in a blue smock, modelling his last statue; he +received the widow of the man who formerly had served him at a +critical moment, rather roughly; but, already at death's door, he was +struggling with passionate ardor to do in a few hours work he could +hardly have accomplished in several months. As Madame Bridau entered, +he had just found an effect long sought for, and was handling his +tools and clay with spasmodic jerks and movements that seemed to the +ignorant Agathe like those of a maniac. At any other time Chaudet +would have laughed; but now, as he heard the mother bewailing the +destiny he had opened to her child, abusing art, and insisting that +Joseph should no longer be allowed to enter the atelier, he burst into +a holy wrath. + +"I was under obligations to your deceased husband, I wished to help +his son, to watch his first steps in the noblest of all careers," he +cried. "Yes, madame, learn, if you do not know it, that a great artist +is a king, and more than a king; he is happier, he is independent, he +lives as he likes, he reigns in the world of fancy. Your son has a +glorious future before him. Faculties like his are rare; they are only +disclosed at his age in such beings as the Giottos, Raphaels, Titians, +Rubens, Murillos,--for, in my opinion, he will make a better painter +than sculptor. God of heaven! if I had such a son, I should be as +happy as the Emperor is to have given himself the King of Rome. Well, +you are mistress of your child's fate. Go your own way, madame; make +him a fool, a miserable quill-driver, tie him to a desk, and you've +murdered him! But I hope, in spite if all your efforts, that he will +stay an artist. A true vocation is stronger than all the obstacles +that can be opposed to it. Vocation! why the very word means a call; +ay, the election of God himself! You will make your child unhappy, +that's all." He flung the clay he no longer needed violently into a +tub, and said to his model, "That will do for to-day." + +Agathe raised her eyes and saw, in a corner of the atelier where her +glance had not before penetrated, a nude woman sitting on a stool, the +sight of whom drove her away horrified. + +"You are not to have the little Bridau here any more," said Chaudet to +his pupils, "it annoys his mother." + +"Eugh!" they all cried, as Agathe closed the door. + +No sooner did the students of sculpture and painting find out that +Madame Bridau did not wish her son to be an artist, than their whole +happiness centred on getting Joseph among them. In spite of a promise +not to go to the Institute which his mother exacted from him, the +child often slipped into Regnauld the painter's studio, where he was +encouraged to daub canvas. When the widow complained that the bargain +was not kept, Chaudet's pupils assured her that Regnauld was not +Chaudet, and they hadn't the bringing up of her son, with other +impertinences; and the atrocious young scamps composed a song with a +hundred and thirty-seven couplets on Madame Bridau. + +On the evening of that sad day Agathe refused to play at cards, and +sat on her sofa plunged in such grief that the tears stood in her +handsome eyes. + +"What is the matter, Madame Bridau?" asked old Claparon. + +"She thinks her boy will have to beg his bread because he has got the +bump of painting," said Madame Descoings; "but, for my part, I am not +the least uneasy about the future of my step-son, little Bixiou, who +has a passion for drawing. Men are born to get on." + +"You are right," said the hard and severe Desroches, who, in spite of +his talents, had never himself got on in the position of assistant- +head of a department. "Happily I have only one son; otherwise, with my +eighteen hundred francs a year, and a wife who makes barely twelve +hundred out of her stamped-paper office, I don't know what would +become of me. I have just placed my boy as under-clerk to a lawyer; he +gets twenty-five francs a month and his breakfast. I give him as much +more, and he dines and sleeps at home. That's all he gets; he must +manage for himself, but he'll make his way. I keep the fellow harder +at work than if he were at school, and some day he will be a +barrister. When I give him money to go to the theatre, he is as happy +as a king and kisses me. Oh, I keep a tight hand on him, and he +renders me an account of all he spends. You are too good to your +children, Madame Bridau; if your son wants to go through hardships and +privations, let him; they'll make a man of him." + +"As for my boy," said Du Bruel, a former chief of a division, who had +just retired on a pension, "he is only sixteen; his mother dotes on +him; but I shouldn't listen to his choosing a profession at his age,-- +a mere fancy, a notion that may pass off. In my opinion, boys should +be guided and controlled." + +"Ah, monsieur! you are rich, you are a man, and you have but one son," +said Agathe. + +"Faith!" said Claparon, "children do tyrannize over us--over our +hearts, I mean. Mine makes me furious; he has nearly ruined me, and +now I won't have anything to do with him--it's a sort of independence. +Well, he is the happier for it, and so am I. That fellow was partly +the cause of his mother's death. He chose to be a commercial +traveller; and the trade just suited him, for he was no sooner in the +house than he wanted to be out of it; he couldn't keep in one place, +and he wouldn't learn anything. All I ask of God is that I may die +before he dishonors my name. Those who have no children lose many +pleasures, but they escape great sufferings." + +"And these men are fathers!" thought Agathe, weeping anew. + +"What I am trying to show you, my dear Madame Bridau, is that you had +better let your boy be a painter; if not, you will only waste your +time." + +"If you were able to coerce him," said the sour Desroches, "I should +advise you to oppose his tastes; but weak as I see you are, you had +better let him daub if he likes." + +"Console yourself, Agathe," said Madame Descoings, "Joseph will turn +out a great man." + +After this discussion, which was like all discussions, the widow's +friends united in giving her one and the same advice; which advice did +not in the least relieve her anxieties. They advised her to let Joseph +follow his bent. + +"If he doesn't turn out a genius," said Du Bruel, who always tried to +please Agathe, "you can then get him into some government office." + +When Madame Descoings accompanied the old clerks to the door she +assured them, at the head of the stairs, that they were "Grecian +sages." + +"Madame Bridau ought to be glad her son is willing to do anything," +said Claparon. + +"Besides," said Desroches, "if God preserves the Emperor, Joseph will +always be looked after. Why should she worry?" + +"She is timid about everything that concerns her children," answered +Madame Descoings. "Well, my good girl," she said, returning to Agathe, +"you see they are unanimous; why are you still crying?" + +"If it was Philippe, I should have no anxiety. But you don't know what +goes on in that atelier; they have naked women!" + +"I hope they keep good fires," said Madame Descoings. + +A few days after this, the disasters of the retreat from Moscow became +known. Napoleon returned to Paris to organize fresh troops, and to ask +further sacrifices from the country. The poor mother was then plunged +into very different anxieties. Philippe, who was tired of school, +wanted to serve under the Emperor; he saw a review at the Tuileries,-- +the last Napoleon ever held,--and he became infatuated with the idea +of a soldier's life. In those days military splendor, the show of +uniforms, the authority of epaulets, offered irresistible seductions +to a certain style of youth. Philippe thought he had the same vocation +for the army that his brother Joseph showed for art. Without his +mother's knowledge, he wrote a petition to the Emperor, which read as +follows:-- + + Sire,--I am the son of your Bridau; eighteen years of age, five + feet six inches; I have good legs, a good constitution, and wish + to be one of your soldiers. I ask you to let me enter the army, + etc. + +Within twenty-four hours, the Emperor had sent Philippe to the +Imperial Lyceum at Saint-Cyr, and six months later, in November, 1813, +he appointed him sub-lieutenant in a regiment of cavalry. Philippe +spent the greater part of that winter in cantonments, but as soon as +he knew how to ride a horse he was dispatched to the front, and went +eagerly. During the campaign in France he was made a lieutenant, after +an affair at the outposts where his bravery had saved his colonel's +life. The Emperor named him captain at the battle of La Fere- +Champenoise, and took him on his staff. Inspired by such promotion, +Philippe won the cross at Montereau. He witnessed Napoleon's farewell +at Fontainebleau, raved at the sight, and refused to serve the +Bourbons. When he returned to his mother, in July, 1814, he found her +ruined. + +Joseph's scholarship was withdrawn after the holidays, and Madame +Bridau, whose pension came from the Emperor's privy purse, vainly +entreated that it might be inscribed on the rolls of the ministry of +the interior. Joseph, more of a painter than ever, was delighted with +the turn of events, and entreated his mother to let him go to Monsieur +Regnauld, promising to earn his own living. He declared he was quite +sufficiently advanced in the second class to get on without rhetoric. +Philippe, a captain at nineteen and decorated, who had, moreover, +served the Emperor as an aide-de-camp in two battles, flattered the +mother's vanity immensely. Coarse, blustering, and without real merit +beyond the vulgar bravery of a cavalry officer, he was to her mind a +man of genius; whereas Joseph, puny and sickly, with unkempt hair and +absent mind, seeking peace, loving quiet, and dreaming of an artist's +glory, would only bring her, she thought, worries and anxieties. + +The winter of 1814-1815 was a lucky one for Joseph. Secretly +encouraged by Madame Descoings and Bixiou, a pupil of Gros, he went to +work in the celebrated atelier of that painter, whence a vast variety +of talent issued in its day, and there he formed the closest intimacy +with Schinner. The return from Elba came; Captain Bridau joined the +Emperor at Lyons, accompanied him to the Tuileries, and was appointed +to the command of a squadron in the dragoons of the Guard. After the +battle of Waterloo--in which he was slightly wounded, and where he won +the cross of an officer of the Legion of honor--he happened to be near +Marshal Davoust at Saint-Denis, and was not with the army of the +Loire. In consequence of this, and through Davoust's intercession, his +cross and his rank were secured to him, but he was placed on half-pay. + +Joseph, anxious about his future, studied all through this period with +an ardor which several times made him ill in the midst of these +tumultuous events. + +"It is the smell of the paints," Agathe said to Madame Descoings. "He +ought to give up a business so injurious to his health." + +However, all Agathe's anxieties were at this time for her son the +lieutenant-colonel. When she saw him again in 1816, reduced from the +salary of nine thousand francs (paid to a commander in the dragoons of +the Imperial Guard) to a half-pay of three hundred francs a month, she +fitted up her attic rooms for him, and spent her savings in doing so. +Philippe was one of the faithful Bonapartes of the cafe Lemblin, that +constitutional Boeotia; he acquired the habits, manners, style, and +life of a half-pay officer; indeed, like any other young man of +twenty-one, he exaggerated them, vowed in good earnest a mortal enmity +to the Bourbons, never reported himself at the War department, and +even refused opportunities which were offered to him for employment in +the infantry with his rank of lieutenant-colonel. In his mother's +eyes, Philippe seemed in all this to be displaying a noble character. + +"The father himself could have done no more," she said. + +Philippe's half-pay sufficed him; he cost nothing at home, whereas all +Joseph's expenses were paid by the two widows. From that moment, +Agathe's preference for Philippe was openly shown. Up to that time it +had been secret; but the persecution of this faithful servant of the +Emperor, the recollection of the wound received by her cherished son, +his courage in adversity, which, voluntary though it were, seemed to +her a glorious adversity, drew forth all Agathe's tenderness. The one +sentence, "He is unfortunate," explained and justified everything. +Joseph himself,--with the innate simplicity which superabounds in the +artist-soul in its opening years, and who was, moreover, brought up to +admire his big brother,--so far from being hurt by the preference of +their mother, encouraged it by sharing her worship of the hero who had +carried Napoleon's orders on two battlefields, and was wounded at +Waterloo. How could he doubt the superiority of the grand brother, +whom he had beheld in the green and gold uniform of the dragoons of +the Guard, commanding his squadron on the Champ de Mars? + +Agathe, notwithstanding this preference, was an excellent mother. She +loved Joseph, though not blindly; she simply was unable to understand +him. Joseph adored his mother; Philippe let his mother adore him. +Towards her, the dragoon softened his military brutality; but he never +concealed the contempt he felt for Joseph,--expressing it, however, in +a friendly way. When he looked at his brother, weak and sickly as he +was at seventeen years of age, shrunken with determined toil, and +over-weighted with his powerful head, he nicknamed him "Cub." +Philippe's patronizing manners would have wounded any one less +carelessly indifferent than the artist, who had, moreover, a firm +belief in the goodness of heart which soldiers hid, he thought, +beneath a brutal exterior. Joseph did not yet know, poor boy, that +soldiers of genius are as gentle and courteous in manner as other +superior men in any walk of life. All genius is alike, wherever found. + +"Poor boy!" said Philippe to his mother, "we mustn't plague him; let +him do as he likes." + +To his mother's eyes the colonel's contempt was a mark of fraternal +affection. + +"Philippe will always love and protect his brother," she thought to +herself. + + + + CHAPTER III + +In 1816, Joseph obtained his mother's permission to convert the garret +which adjoined his attic room into an atelier, and Madame Descoings +gave him a little money for the indispensable requirements of the +painter's trade;--in the minds of the two widows, the art of painting +was nothing but a trade. With the feeling and ardor of his vocation, +the lad himself arranged his humble atelier. Madame Descoings +persuaded the owner of the house to put a skylight in the roof. The +garret was turned into a vast hall painted in chocolate-color by +Joseph himself. On the walls he hung a few sketches. Agathe +contributed, not without reluctance, an iron stove; so that her son +might be able to work at home, without, however, abandoning the studio +of Gros, nor that of Schinner. + +The constitutional party, supported chiefly by officers on half-pay +and the Bonapartists, were at this time inciting "emeutes" around the +Chamber of Deputies, on behalf of the Charter, though no one actually +wanted it. Several conspiracies were brewing. Philippe, who dabbled in +them, was arrested, and then released for want of proof; but the +minister of war cut short his half-pay by putting him on the active +list,--a step which might be called a form of discipline. France was +no longer safe; Philippe was liable to fall into some trap laid for +him by spies,--provocative agents, as they were called, being much +talked of in those days. + +While Philippe played billiards in disaffected cafes, losing his time +and acquiring the habit of wetting his whistle with "little glasses" +of all sorts of liquors. Agathe lived in mortal terror for the safety +of the great man of the family. The Grecian sages were too much +accustomed to wend their nightly way up Madame Bridau's staircase, +finding the two widows ready and waiting, and hearing from them all +the news of their day, ever to break up the habit of coming to the +green salon for their game of cards. The ministry of the interior, +though purged of its former employes in 1816, had retained Claparon, +one of those cautious men, who whisper the news of the "Moniteur," +adding invariably, "Don't quote me." Desroches, who had retired from +active service some time after old Du Bruel, was still battling for +his pension. The three friends, who were witnesses of Agathe's +distress, advised her to send the colonel to travel in foreign +countries. + +"They talk about conspiracies, and your son, with his disposition, +will be certain to fall a victim in some of them; there is plenty of +treachery in these days." + +"Philippe is cut from the wood the Emperor made into marshals," said +Du Bruel, in a low voice, looking cautiously about him; "and he +mustn't give up his profession. Let him serve in the East, in India--" + +"Think of his health," said Agathe. + +"Why doesn't he get some place, or business?" said old Desroches; +"there are plenty of private offices to be had. I am going as head of +a bureau in an insurance company, as soon as I have got my pension." + +"Philippe is a soldier; he would not like to be any thing else," said +the warlike Agathe. + +"Then he ought to have the sense to ask for employment--" + +"And serve THESE OTHERS!" cried the widow. "Oh! I will never give him +that advice." + +"You are wrong," said Du Bruel. "My son has just got an appointment +through the Duc de Navarreins. The Bourbons are very good to those who +are sincere in rallying to them. Your son could be appointed +lieutenant-colonel to a regiment." + +"They only appoint nobles in the cavalry. Philippe would never rise to +be a colonel," said Madame Descoings. + +Agathe, much alarmed, entreated Philippe to travel abroad, and put +himself at the service of some foreign power who, she thought, would +gladly welcome a staff officer of the Emperor. + +"Serve a foreign nation!" cried Philippe, with horror. + +Agathe kissed her son with enthusiasm. + +"His father all over!" she exclaimed. + +"He is right," said Joseph. "France is too proud of her heroes to let +them be heroic elsewhere. Napoleon may return once more." + +However, to satisfy his mother, Philippe took up the dazzling idea of +joining General Lallemand in the United States, and helping him to +found what was called the Champ d'Asile, one of the most disastrous +swindles that ever appeared under the name of national subscription. +Agathe gave ten thousand francs to start her son, and she went to +Havre to see him off. By the end of 1817, she had accustomed herself +to live on the six hundred francs a year which remained to her from +her property in the Funds; then, by a lucky chance, she made a good +investment of the ten thousand francs she still kept of her savings, +from which she obtained an interest of seven per cent. Joseph wished +to emulate his mother's devotion. He dressed like a bailiff; wore the +commonest shoes and blue stockings; denied himself gloves, and burned +charcoal; he lived on bread and milk and Brie cheese. The poor lad got +no sympathy, except from Madame Descoings, and from Bixiou, his +student-friend and comrade, who was then making those admirable +caricatures of his, and filling a small office in the ministry. + +"With what joy I welcomed the summer of 1818!" said Joseph Bridau in +after-years, relating his troubles; "the sun saved me the cost of +charcoal." + +As good a colorist by this time as Gros himself, Joseph now went to +his master for consultation only. He was already meditating a tilt +against classical traditions, and Grecian conventionalities, in short, +against the leading-strings which held down an art to which Nature AS +SHE IS belongs, in the omnipotence of her creations and her imagery. +Joseph made ready for a struggle which, from the day when he first +exhibited in the Salon, has never ceased. It was a terrible year. +Roguin, the notary of Madame Descoings and Madame Bridau, absconded +with the moneys held back for seven years from Madame Descoings's +annuity, which by that time were producing two thousand francs a year. +Three days after this disaster, a bill of exchange for a thousand +francs, drawn by Philippe upon his mother, arrived from New York. The +poor fellow, misled like so many others, had lost his all in the Champ +d'Asile. A letter, which accompanied the bill, drove Agathe, Joseph, +and the Descoings to tears, and told of debts contracted in New York, +where his comrades in misfortunes had indorsed for him. + +"It was I who made him go!" cried the poor mother, eager to divert the +blame from Philippe. + +"I advise you not to send him on many such journeys," said the old +Descoings to her niece. + +Madame Descoings was heroic. She continued to give the three thousand +francs a year to Madame Bridau, but she still paid the dues on her +trey which had never turned up since the year 1799. About this time, +she began to doubt the honesty of the government, and declared it was +capable of keeping the three numbers in the urn, so as to excite the +shareholders to put in enormous stakes. After a rapid survey of all +their resources, it seemed to the two women impossible to raise the +thousand francs without selling out the little that remained in the +Funds. They talked of pawning their silver and part of the linen, and +even the needless pieces of furniture. Joseph, alarmed at these +suggestions, went to see Gerard and told him their circumstances. The +great painter obtained an order from the household of the king for two +copies of a portrait of Louis XVIII., at five hundred francs each. +Though not naturally generous, Gros took his pupil to an artist- +furnishing house and fitted him out with the necessary materials. But +the thousand francs could not be had till the copies were delivered, +so Joseph painted four panels in ten days, sold them to the dealers +and brought his mother the thousand francs with which to meet the bill +of exchange when it fell due. Eight days later, came a letter from the +colonel, informing his mother that he was about to return to France on +board a packet from New York, whose captain had trusted him for the +passage-money. Philippe announced that he should need at least a +thousand francs on his arrival at Havre. + +"Good," said Joseph to his mother, "I shall have finished my copies by +that time, and you can carry him the money." + +"Dear Joseph!" cried Agathe in tears, kissing her son, "God will bless +you. You do love him, then, poor persecuted fellow? He is indeed our +glory and our hope for the future. So young, so brave, so unfortunate! +everything is against him; we three must always stand by him." + +"You see now that painting is good for something," cried Joseph, +overjoyed to have won his mother's permission to be a great artist. + +Madame Bridau rushed to meet her beloved son, Colonel Philippe, at +Havre. Once there, she walked every day beyond the round tower built +by Francois I., to look out for the American packet, enduring the +keenest anxieties. Mothers alone know how such sufferings quicken +maternal love. The vessel arrived on a fine morning in October, 1819, +without delay, and having met with no mishap. The sight of a mother +and the air of one's native land produces a certain affect on the +coarsest nature, especially after the miseries of a sea-voyage. +Philippe gave way to a rush of feeling, which made Agathe think to +herself, "Ah! how he loves me!" Alas, the hero loved but one person in +the world, and that person was Colonel Philippe. His misfortunes in +Texas, his stay in New York,--a place where speculation and +individualism are carried to the highest pitch, where the brutality of +self-interest attains to cynicism, where man, essentially isolated, is +compelled to push his way for himself and by himself, where politeness +does not exist,--in fact, even the minor events of Philippe's journey +had developed in him the worst traits of an old campaigner: he had +grown brutal, selfish, rude; he drank and smoked to excess; physical +hardships and poverty had depraved him. Moreover, he considered +himself persecuted; and the effect of that idea is to make persons who +are unintelligent persecutors and bigots themselves. To Philippe's +conception of life, the universe began at his head and ended at his +feet, and the sun shone for him alone. The things he had seen in New +York, interpreted by his practical nature, carried away his last +scruples on the score of morality. For such beings, there are but two +ways of existence. Either they believe, or they do not believe; they +have the virtues of honest men, or they give themselves up to the +demands of necessity; in which case they proceed to turn their +slightest interests and each passing impulse of their passions into +necessities. + +Such a system of life carries a man a long way. It was only in +appearance that Colonel Philippe retained the frankness, plain- +dealing, and easy-going freedom of a soldier. This made him, in +reality, very dangerous; he seemed as guileless as a child, but, +thinking only of himself, he never did anything without reflecting +what he had better do,--like a wily lawyer planning some trick "a la +Maitre Gonin"; words cost him nothing, and he said as many as he could +to get people to believe. If, unfortunately, some one refused to +accept the explanations with which he justified the contradictions +between his conduct and his professions, the colonel, who was a good +shot and could defy the most adroit fencing-master, and possessed the +coolness of one to whom life is indifferent, was quite ready to demand +satisfaction for the first sharp word; and when a man shows himself +prepared for violence there is little more to be said. His imposing +stature had taken on a certain rotundity, his face was bronzed from +exposure in Texas, he was still succinct in speech, and had acquired +the decisive tone of a man obliged to make himself feared among the +populations of a new world. Thus developed, plainly dressed, his body +trained to endurance by his recent hardships, Philippe in the eyes of +his mother was a hero; in point of fact, he had simply become what +people (not to mince matters) call a blackguard. + +Shocked at the destitution of her cherished son, Madame Bridau bought +him a complete outfit of clothes at Havre. After listening to the tale +of his woes, she had not the heart to stop his drinking and eating and +amusing himself as a man just returned from the Champ d'Asile was +likely to eat and drink and divert himself. It was certainly a fine +conception,--that of conquering Texas with the remains of the imperial +army. The failure was less in the idea than in the men who conceived +it; for Texas is to-day a republic, with a future full of promise. +This scheme of Liberalism under the Restoration distinctly proves that +the interests of the party were purely selfish and not national, +seeking power and nothing else. Neither men, nor occasion, nor cause, +nor devotion were lacking; only the money and the support of the +hypocritical party at home who dispensed enormous sums, but gave +nothing when it came to recovering empire. Household managers like +Agathe have a plain common-sense which enables them to perceive such +political chicane: the poor woman saw the truth through the lines of +her son's tale; for she had read, in the exile's interests, all the +pompous editorials of the constitutional journals, and watched the +management of the famous subscription, which produced barely one +hundred and fifty thousand francs when it ought to have yielded five +or six millions. The Liberal leaders soon found out that they were +playing into the hands of Louis XVIII. by exporting the glorious +remnants of our grand army, and they promptly abandoned to their fate +the most devoted, the most ardent, the most enthusiastic of its +heroes,--those, in short, who had gone in the advance. Agathe was +never able, however, to make her son see that he was more duped than +persecuted. With blind belief in her idol, she supposed herself +ignorant, and deplored, as Philippe did, the evil times which had done +him such wrong. Up to this time he was, to her mind, throughout his +misfortunes, less faulty than victimized by his noble nature, his +energy, the fall of the Emperor, the duplicity of the Liberals, and +the rancor of the Bourbons against the Bonapartists. During the week +at Havre, a week which was horribly costly, she dared not ask him to +make terms with the royal government and apply to the minister of war. +She had hard work to get him away from Havre, where living is very +expensive, and to bring him back to Paris before her money gave out. +Madame Descoings and Joseph, who were awaiting their arrival in the +courtyard of the coach-office of the Messageries Royales, were struck +with the change in Agathe's face. + +"Your mother has aged ten years in two months," whispered the +Descoings to Joseph, as they all embraced, and the two trunks were +being handed down. + +"How do you do, mere Descoings?" was the cool greeting the colonel +bestowed on the old woman whom Joseph was in the habit of calling +"maman Descoings." + +"I have no money to pay for a hackney-coach," said Agathe, in a sad +voice. + +"I have," replied the young painter. "What a splendid color Philippe +has turned!" he cried, looking at his brother. + +"Yes, I've browned like a pipe," said Philippe. "But as for you, +you're not a bit changed, little man." + +Joseph, who was now twenty-one, and much thought of by the friends who +had stood by him in his days of trial, felt his own strength and was +aware of his talent; he represented the art of painting in a circle of +young men whose lives were devoted to science, letters, politics, and +philosophy. Consequently, he was wounded by his brother's contempt, +which Philippe still further emphasized with a gesture, pulling his +ears as if he were still a child. Agathe noticed the coolness which +succeeded the first glow of tenderness on the part of Joseph and +Madame Descoings; but she hastened to tell them of Philippe's +sufferings in exile, and so lessened it. Madame Descoings, wishing to +make a festival of the return of the prodigal, as she called him under +her breath, had prepared one of her good dinners, to which old +Claparon and the elder Desroches were invited. All the family friends +were to come, and did come, in the evening. Joseph had invited Leon +Giraud, d'Arthez, Michel Chrestien, Fulgence Ridal, and Horace +Bianchon, his friends of the fraternity. Madame Descoings had promised +Bixiou, her so-called step-son, that the young people should play at +ecarte. Desroches the younger, who had now taken, under his father's +stern rule, his degree at law, was also of the party. Du Bruel, +Claparon, Desroches, and the Abbe Loraux carefully observed the +returned exile, whose manners and coarse features, and voice roughened +by the abuse of liquors, together with his vulgar glance and +phraseology, alarmed them not a little. While Joseph was placing the +card-tables, the more intimate of the family friends surrounded Agathe +and asked,-- + +"What do you intend to make of Philippe?" + +"I don't know," she answered, "but he is determined not to serve the +Bourbons." + +"Then it will be very difficult for you to find him a place in France. +If he won't re-enter the army, he can't be readily got into government +employ," said old Du Bruel. "And you have only to listen to him to see +he could never, like my son, make his fortune by writing plays." + +The motion of Agathe's eyes, with which alone she replied to this +speech, showed how anxious Philippe's future made her; they all kept +silence. The exile himself, Bixiou, and the younger Desroches were +playing at ecarte, a game which was then the rage. + +"Maman Descoings, my brother has no money to play with," whispered +Joseph in the good woman's ear. + +The devotee of the Royal Lottery fetched twenty francs and gave them +to the artist, who slipped them secretly into his brother's hand. All +the company were now assembled. There were two tables of boston; and +the party grew lively. Philippe proved a bad player: after winning for +awhile, he began to lose; and by eleven o'clock he owed fifty francs +to young Desroches and to Bixiou. The racket and the disputes at the +ecarte table resounded more than once in the ears of the more peaceful +boston players, who were watching Philippe surreptitiously. The exile +showed such signs of bad temper that in his final dispute with the +younger Desroches, who was none too amiable himself, the elder +Desroches joined in, and though his son was decidedly in the right, he +declared he was in the wrong, and forbade him to play any more. Madame +Descoings did the same with her grandson, who was beginning to let fly +certain witticisms; and although Philippe, so far, had not understood +him, there was always a chance that one of the barbed arrows might +piece the colonel's thick skull and put the sharp jester in peril. + +"You must be tired," whispered Agathe in Philippe's ear; "come to +bed." + +"Travel educates youth," said Bixiou, grinning, when Madame Bridau and +the colonel had disappeared. + +Joseph, who got up at dawn and went to bed early, did not see the end +of the party. The next morning Agathe and Madame Descoings, while +preparing breakfast, could not help remarking that soires would be +terribly expensive if Philippe were to go on playing that sort of +game, as the Descoings phrased it. The worthy old woman, then seventy- +six years of age, proposed to sell her furniture, give up her +appartement on the second floor (which the owner was only too glad to +occupy), and take Agathe's parlor for her chamber, making the other +room a sitting-room and dining-room for the family. In this way they +could save seven hundred francs a year; which would enable them to +give Philippe fifty francs a month until he could find something to +do. Agathe accepted the sacrifice. When the colonel came down and his +mother had asked how he liked his little bedroom, the two widows +explained to him the situation of the family. Madame Descoings and +Agathe possessed, by putting all their resources together, an income +of five thousand three hundred francs, four thousand of which belonged +to Madame Descoings and were merely a life annuity. The Descoings made +an allowance of six hundred a year to Bixiou, whom she had +acknowledged as her grandson during the last few months, also six +hundred to Joseph; the rest of her income, together with that of +Agathe, was spent for the household wants. All their savings were by +this time eaten up. + +"Make yourselves easy," said the lieutenant-colonel. "I'll find a +situation and put you to no expense; all I need for the present is +board and lodging." + +Agathe kissed her son, and Madame Descoings slipped a hundred francs +into his hand to pay for his losses of the night before. In ten days +the furniture was sold, the appartement given up, and the change in +Agathe's domestic arrangements accomplished with a celerity seldom +seen outside of Paris. During those ten days, Philippe regularly +decamped after breakfast, came back for dinner, was off again for the +evening, and only got home about midnight to go to bed. He contracted +certain habits half mechanically, and they soon became rooted in him; +he got his boots blacked on the Pont Neuf for the two sous it would +have cost him to go by the Pont des Arts to the Palais-Royal, where he +consumed regularly two glasses of brandy while reading the newspapers, +--an occupation which employed him till midday; after that he +sauntered along the rue Vivienne to the cafe Minerve, where the +Liberals congregated, and where he played at billiards with a number +of old comrades. While winning and losing, Philippe swallowed four or +five more glasses of divers liquors, and smoked ten or a dozen cigars +in going and coming, and idling along the streets. In the evening, +after consuming a few pipes at the Hollandais smoking-rooms, he would +go to some gambling-place towards ten o'clock at night. The waiter +handed him a card and a pin; he always inquired of certain well- +seasoned players about the chances of the red or the black, and staked +ten francs when the lucky moment seemed to come; never playing more +than three times, win or lose. If he won, which usually happened, he +drank a tumbler of punch and went home to his garret; but by that time +he talked of smashing the ultras and the Bourbon body-guard, and +trolled out, as he mounted the staircase, "We watch to save the +Empire!" His poor mother, hearing him, used to think "How gay Philippe +is to-night!" and then she would creep up and kiss him, without +complaining of the fetid odors of the punch, and the brandy, and the +pipes. + +"You ought to be satisfied with me, my dear mother," he said, towards +the end of January; "I lead the most regular of lives." + +The colonel had dined five times at a restaurant with some of his army +comrades. These old soldiers were quite frank with each other on the +state of their own affairs, all the while talking of certain hopes +which they based on the building of a submarine vessel, expected to +bring about the deliverance of the Emperor. Among these former +comrades, Philippe particularly liked an old captain of the dragoons +of the Guard, named Giroudeau, in whose company he had seen his first +service. This friendship with the late dragoon led Philippe into +completing what Rabelais called "the devil's equipage"; and he added +to his drams, and his tobacco, and his play, a "fourth wheel." + +One evening at the beginning of February, Giroudeau took Philippe +after dinner to the Gaite, occupying a free box sent to a theatrical +journal belonging to his nephew Finot, in whose office Giroudeau was +cashier and secretary. Both were dressed after the fashion of the +Bonapartist officers who now belonged to the Constitutional +Opposition; they wore ample overcoats with square collars, buttoned to +the chin and coming down to their heels, and decorated with the +rosette of the Legion of honor; and they carried malacca canes with +loaded knobs, which they held by strings of braided leather. The late +troopers had just (to use one of their own expressions) "made a bout +of it," and were mutually unbosoming their hearts as they entered the +box. Through the fumes of a certain number of bottles and various +glasses of various liquors, Giroudeau pointed out to Philippe a plump +and agile little ballet-girl whom he called Florentine, whose good +graces and affection, together with the box, belonged to him as the +representative of an all-powerful journal. + +"But," said Philippe, "I should like to know how far her good graces +go for such an iron-gray old trooper as you." + +"Thank God," replied Giroudeau, "I've stuck to the traditions of our +glorious uniform. I have never wasted a farthing upon a woman in my +life." + +"What's that?" said Philippe, putting a finger on his left eye. + +"That is so," answered Giroudeau. "But, between ourselves, the +newspaper counts for a good deal. To-morrow, in a couple of lines, we +shall advise the managers to let Mademoiselle Florentine dance a +particular step, and so forth. Faith, my dear boy, I'm uncommonly +lucky!" + +"Well!" thought Philippe; "if this worthy Giroudeau, with a skull as +polished as my knee, forty-eight years, a big stomach, a face like a +ploughman, and a nose like a potato, can get a ballet-girl, I ought to +be the lover of the first actress in Paris. Where does one find such +luck?" he said aloud. + +"I'll show you Florentine's place to-night. My Dulcinea only earns +fifty francs a month at the theatre," added Giroudeau, "but she is +very prettily set up, thanks to an old silk dealer named Cardot, who +gives her five hundred francs a month." + +"Well, but--?" exclaimed the jealous Philippe. + +"Bah!" said Giroudeau; "true love is blind." + +When the play was over Giroudeau took Philippe to Mademoiselle +Florentine's appartement, which was close to the theatre, in the rue +de Crussol. + +"We must behave ourselves," said Giroudeau. "Florentine's mother is +here. You see, I haven't the means to pay for one, so the worthy woman +is really her own mother. She used to be a concierge, but she's not +without intelligence. Call her Madame; she makes a point of it." + +Florentine happened that night to have a friend with her,--a certain +Marie Godeschal, beautiful as an angel, cold as a danseuse, and a +pupil of Vestris, who foretold for her a great choregraphic destiny. +Mademoiselle Godeschal, anxious to make her first appearance at the +Panorama-Dramatique under the name of Mariette, based her hopes on the +protection and influence of a first gentleman of the bedchamber, to +whom Vestris had promised to introduce her. Vestris, still green +himself at this period, did not think his pupil sufficiently trained +to risk the introduction. The ambitious girl did, in the end, make her +pseudonym of Mariette famous; and the motive of her ambition, it must +be said, was praiseworthy. She had a brother, a clerk in Derville's +law office. Left orphans and very poor, and devoted to each other, the +brother and sister had seen life such as it is in Paris. The one +wished to be a lawyer that he might support his sister, and he lived +on ten sous a day; the other had coldly resolved to be a dancer, and +to profit by her beauty as much as by her legs that she might buy a +practice for her brother. Outside of their feeling for each other, and +of their mutual life and interests, everything was to them, as it once +was to the Romans and the Hebrews, barbaric, outlandish, and hostile. +This generous affection, which nothing ever lessened, explained +Mariette to those who knew her intimately. + +The brother and sister were living at this time on the eighth floor of +a house in the Vieille rue du Temple. Mariette had begun her studies +when she was ten years old; she was now just sixteen. Alas! for want +of becoming clothes, her beauty, hidden under a coarse shawl, dressed +in calico, and ill-kept, could only be guessed by those Parisians who +devote themselves to hunting grisettes and the quest of beauty in +misfortune, as she trotted past them with mincing step, mounted on +iron pattens. Philippe fell in love with Mariette. To Mariette, +Philippe was commander of the dragoons of the Guard, a staff-officer +of the Emperor, a young man of twenty-seven, and above all, the means +of proving herself superior to Florentine by the evident superiority +of Philippe over Giroudeau. Florentine and Giroudeau, the one to +promote his comrade's happiness, the other to get a protector for her +friend, pushed Philippe and Mariette into a "mariage en detrempe,"--a +Parisian term which is equivalent to "morganatic marriage," as applied +to royal personages. Philippe when they left the house revealed his +poverty to Giroudeau, but the old roue reassured him. + +"I'll speak to my nephew Finot," he said. "You see, Philippe, the +reign of phrases and quill-drivers is upon us; we may as well submit. +To-day, scribblers are paramount. Ink has ousted gunpowder, and talk +takes the place of shot. After all, these little toads of editors are +pretty good fellows, and very clever. Come and see me to-morrow at the +newspaper office; by that time I shall have said a word for you to my +nephew. Before long you'll have a place on some journal or other. +Mariette, who is taking you at this moment (don't deceive yourself) +because she literally has nothing, no engagement, no chance of +appearing on the stage, and I have told her that you are going on a +newspaper like myself,--Mariette will try to make you believe she is +loving you for yourself; and you will believe her! Do as I do,--keep +her as long as you can. I was so much in love with Florentine that I +begged Finot to write her up and help her to a debut; but my nephew +replied, 'You say she has talent; well, the day after her first +appearance she will turn her back on you.' Oh, that's Finot all over! +You'll find him a knowing one." + +The next day, about four o'clock, Philippe went to the rue de Sentier, +where he found Giroudeau in the entresol,--caged like a wild beast in +a sort of hen-coop with a sliding panel; in which was a little stove, +a little table, two little chairs, and some little logs of wood. This +establishment bore the magic words, SUBSCRIPTION OFFICE, painted on +the door in black letters, and the word "Cashier," written by hand and +fastened to the grating of the cage. Along the wall that lay opposite +to the cage, was a bench, where, at this moment, a one-armed man was +breakfasting, who was called Coloquinte by Giroudeau, doubtless from +the Egyptian colors of his skin. + +"A pretty hole!" exclaimed Philippe, looking round the room. "In the +name of thunder! what are you doing here, you who charged with poor +Colonel Chabert at Eylau? You--a gallant officer!" + +"Well, yes! broum! broum!--a gallant officer keeping the accounts of a +little newspaper," said Giroudeau, settling his black silk skull-cap. +"Moreover, I'm the working editor of all that rubbish," he added, +pointing to the newspaper itself. + +"And I, who went to Egypt, I'm obliged to stamp it," said the one- +armed man. + +"Hold your tongue, Coloquinte," said Giroudeau. "You are in presence +of a hero who carried the Emperor's orders at the battle of +Montereau." + +Coloquinte saluted. "That's were I lost my missing arm!" he said. + +"Coloquinte, look after the den. I'm going up to see my nephew." + +The two soldiers mounted to the fourth floor, where, in an attic room +at the end of a passage, they found a young man with a cold light eye, +lying on a dirty sofa. The representative of the press did not stir, +though he offered cigars to his uncle and his uncle's friend. + +"My good fellow," said Giroudeau in a soothing and humble tone, "this +is the gallant cavalry officer of the Imperial Guard of whom I spoke +to you." + +"Eh! well?" said Finot, eyeing Philippe, who, like Giroudeau, lost all +his assurance before the diplomatist of the press. + +"My dear boy," said Giroudeau, trying to pose as an uncle, "the +colonel has just returned from Texas." + +"Ah! you were taken in by that affair of the Champ d'Asile, were you? +Seems to me you were rather young to turn into a Soldier-laborer." + +The bitterness of this jest will only be understood by those who +remember the deluge of engravings, screens, clocks, bronzes, and +plaster-casts produced by the idea of the Soldier-laborer, a splendid +image of Napoleon and his heroes, which afterwards made its appearance +on the stage in vaudevilles. That idea, however, obtained a national +subscription; and we still find, in the depths of the provinces, old +wall-papers which bear the effigy of the Soldier-laborer. If this +young man had not been Giroudeau's nephew, Philippe would have boxed +his ears. + +"Yes, I was taken in by it; I lost my time, and twelve thousand francs +to boot," answered Philippe, trying to force a grin. + +"You are still fond of the Emperor?" asked Finot. + +"He is my god," answered Philippe Bridau. + +"You are a Liberal?" + +"I shall always belong to the Constitutional Opposition. Oh Foy! oh +Manuel! oh Laffitte! what men they are! They'll rid us of these +others,--these wretches, who came back to France at the heels of the +enemy." + +"Well," said Finot coldly, "you ought to make something out of your +misfortunes; for you are the victim of the Liberals, my good fellow. +Stay a Liberal, if you really value your opinions, but threaten the +party with the follies in Texas which you are ready to show up. You +never got a farthing of the national subscription, did you? Well, then +you hold a fine position: demand an account of that subscription. I'll +tell you how you can do it. A new Opposition journal is just starting, +under the auspices of the deputies of the Left; you shall be the +cashier, with a salary of three thousand francs. A permanent place. +All you want is some one to go security for you in twenty thousand +francs; find that, and you shall be installed within a week. I'll +advise the Liberals to silence you by giving you the place. Meantime, +talk, threaten,--threaten loudly." + +Giroudeau let Philippe, who was profuse in his thanks, go down a few +steps before him, and then he turned back to say to his nephew, "Well, +you are a queer fellow! you keep me here on twelve hundred francs--" + +"That journal won't live a year," said Finot. "I've got something +better for you." + +"Thunder!" cried Philippe to Giroudeau. "He's no fool, that nephew of +yours. I never once thought of making something, as he calls it, out +of my position." + +That night at the cafe Lemblin and the cafe Minerve Colonel Philippe +fulminated against the Liberal party, which had raised subscriptions, +sent heroes to Texas, talked hypocritically of Soldier-laborers, and +left them to starve, after taking the money they had put into it, and +keeping them in exile for two years. + +"I am going to demand an account of the moneys collected by the +subscription for the Champ d'Asile," he said to one of the frequenters +of the cafe, who repeated it to the journalists of the Left. + +Philippe did not go back to the rue Mazarin; he went to Mariette and +told her of his forthcoming appointment on a newspaper with ten +thousand subscribers, in which her choregraphic claims should be +warmly advanced. + +Agathe and Madame Descoings waited up for Philippe in fear and +trembling, for the Duc de Berry had just been assassinated. The +colonel came home a few minutes after breakfast; and when his mother +showed her uneasiness at his absence, he grew angry and asked if he +were not of age. + +"In the name of thunder, what's all this! here have I brought you some +good news, and you both look like tombstones. The Duc de Berry is +dead, is he?--well, so much the better! that's one the less, at any +rate. As for me, I am to be cashier of a newspaper, with a salary of +three thousand francs, and there you are, out of all your anxieties on +my account." + +"Is it possible?" cried Agathe. + +"Yes; provided you can go security for me in twenty thousand francs; +you need only deposit your shares in the Funds, you will draw the +interest all the same." + +The two widows, who for nearly two months had been desperately anxious +to find out what Philippe was about, and how he could be provided for, +were so overjoyed at this prospect that they gave no thought to their +other catastrophes. That evening, the Grecian sages, old Du Bruel, +Claparon, whose health was failing, and the inflexible Desroches were +unanimous; they all advised Madame Bridau to go security for her son. +The new journal, which fortunately was started before the +assassination of the Duc de Berry, just escaped the blow which +Monsieur Decazes then launched at the press. Madame Bridau's shares in +the Funds, representing thirteen hundred francs' interest, were +transferred as security for Philippe, who was then appointed cashier. +That good son at once promised to pay one hundred francs every month +to the two widows, for his board and lodging, and was declared by both +to be the best of sons. Those who had thought ill of him now +congratulated Agathe. + +"We were unjust to him," they said. + +Poor Joseph, not to be behind his brother in generosity, resolved to +pay for his own support, and succeeded. + + + + CHAPTER IV + +Three months later, the colonel, who ate and drank enough for four +men, finding fault with the food and compelling the poor widows, on +the score of his payments, to spend much money on their table, had not +yet paid down a single penny. His mother and Madame Descoings were +unwilling, out of delicacy, to remind him of his promise. The year +went by without one of those coins which Leon Gozlan so vigorously +called "tigers with five claws" finding its way from Philippe's pocket +to the household purse. It is true that the colonel quieted his +conscience on this score by seldom dining at home. + +"Well, he is happy," said his mother; "he is easy in mind; he has a +place." + +Through the influence of a feuilleton, edited by Vernou, a friend of +Bixiou, Finot, and Giroudeau, Mariette made her appearance, not at the +Panorama-Dramatique but at the Porte-Saint-Martin, where she triumphed +beside the famous Begrand. Among the directors of the theatre was a +rich and luxurious general officer, in love with an actress, for whose +sake he had made himself an impresario. In Paris, we frequently meet +with men so fascinated with actresses, singers, or ballet-dancers, +that they are willing to become directors of a theatre out of love. +This officer knew Philippe and Giroudeau. Mariette's first appearance, +heralded already by Finot's journal and also by Philippe's, was +promptly arranged by the three officers; for there seems to be +solidarity among the passions in a matter of folly. + +The mischievous Bixiou was not long in revealing to his grandmother +and the devoted Agathe that Philippe, the cashier, the hero of heroes, +was in love with Mariette, the celebrated ballet-dancer at the Porte- +Saint-Martin. The news was a thunder-clap to the two widows; Agathe's +religious principles taught her to think that all women on the stage +were brands in the burning; moreover, she thought, and so did Madame +Descoings, that women of that kind dined off gold, drank pearls, and +wasted fortunes. + +"Now do you suppose," said Joseph to his mother, "that my brother is +such a fool as to spend his money on Mariette? Such women only ruin +rich men." + +"They talk of engaging Mariette at the Opera," said Bixiou. "Don't be +worried, Madame Bridau; the diplomatic body often comes to the Porte- +Saint-Martin, and that handsome girl won't stay long with your son. I +did hear that an ambassador was madly in love with her. By the bye, +another piece of news! Old Claparon is dead, and his son, who has +become a banker, has ordered the cheapest kind of funeral for him. +That fellow has no education; they wouldn't behave like that in +China." + +Philippe, prompted by mercenary motives, proposed to Mariette that she +should marry him; but she, knowing herself on the eve of an engagement +at the Grand Opera, refused the offer, either because she guessed the +colonel's motive, or because she saw how important her independence +would be to her future fortune. For the remainder of this year, +Philippe never came more than twice a month to see his mother. Where +was he? Either at his office, or the theatre, or with Mariette. No +light whatever as to his conduct reached the household of the rue +Mazarin. Giroudeau, Finot, Bixiou, Vernou, Lousteau, saw him leading a +life of pleasure. Philippe shared the gay amusements of Tullia, a +leading singer at the Opera, of Florentine, who took Mariette's place +at the Porte-Saint-Martin, of Florine and Matifat, Coralie and +Camusot. After four o'clock, when he left his office, until midnight, +he amused himself; some party of pleasure had usually been arranged +the night before,--a good dinner, a card-party, a supper by some one +or other of the set. Philippe was in his element. + +This carnival, which lasted eighteen months, was not altogether +without its troubles. The beautiful Mariette no sooner appeared at the +Opera, in January, 1821, than she captured one of the most +distinguished dukes of the court of Louis XVIII. Philippe tried to +make head against the peer, and by the month of April he was compelled +by his passion, notwithstanding some luck at cards, to dip into the +funds of which he was cashier. By May he had taken eleven hundred +francs. In that fatal month Mariette started for London, to see what +could be done with the lords while the temporary opera house in the +Hotel Choiseul, rue Lepelletier, was being prepared. The luckless +Philippe had ended, as often happens, in loving Mariette +notwithstanding her flagrant infidelities; she herself had never +thought him anything but a dull-minded, brutal soldier, the first rung +of a ladder on which she had never intended to remain long. So, +foreseeing the time when Philippe would have spent all his money, she +captured other journalistic support which released her from the +necessity of depending on him; nevertheless, she did feel the peculiar +gratitude that class of women acknowledge towards the first man who +smooths their way, as it were, among the difficulties and horrors of a +theatrical career. + +Forced to let his terrible mistress go to London without him, Philippe +went into winter quarters, as he called it,--that is, he returned to +his attic room in his mother's appartement. He made some gloomy +reflections as he went to bed that night, and when he got up again. He +was conscious within himself of the inability to live otherwise than +as he had been living the last year. The luxury that surrounded +Mariette, the dinners, the suppers, the evenings in the side-scenes, +the animation of wits and journalists, the sort of racket that went on +around him, the delights that tickled both his senses and his vanity, +--such a life, found only in Paris, and offering daily the charm of +some new thing, was now more than habit,--it had become to Philippe as +much a necessity as his tobacco or his brandy. He saw plainly that he +could not live without these continual enjoyments. The idea of suicide +came into his head; not on account of the deficit which must soon be +discovered in his accounts, but because he could no longer live with +Mariette in the atmosphere of pleasure in which he had disported +himself for over a year. Full of these gloomy thoughts, he entered for +the first time his brother's painting-room, where he found the painter +in a blue blouse, copying a picture for a dealer. + +"So that's how pictures are made," said Philippe, by way of opening +the conversation. + +"No," said Joseph, "that is how they are copied." + +"How much do they pay you for that?" + +"Eh! never enough; two hundred and fifty francs. But I study the +manner of the masters and learn a great deal; I found out the secrets +of their method. There's one of my own pictures," he added, pointing +with the end of his brush to a sketch with the colors still moist. + +"How much do you pocket in a year?" + +"Unfortunately, I am known only to painters. Schinner backs me; and he +has got me some work at the Chateau de Presles, where I am going in +October to do some arabesques, panels, and other decorations, for +which the Comte de Serizy, no doubt, will pay well. With such trifles +and with orders from the dealers, I may manage to earn eighteen +hundred to two thousand francs a year over and above the working +expenses. I shall send that picture to the next exhibition; if it hits +the public taste, my fortune is made. My friends think well of it." + +"I don't know anything about such things," said Philippe, in a subdued +voice which caused Joseph to turn and look at him. + +"What is the matter?" said the artist, seeing that his brother was +very pale. + +"I should like to know how long it would take you to paint my +portrait?" + +"If I worked steadily, and the weather were clear, I could finish it +in three or four days." + +"That's too long; I have only one day to give you. My poor mother +loves me so much that I wished to leave her my likeness. We will say +no more about it." + +"Why! are you going away again?" + +"I am going never to return," replied Philippe with an air of forced +gayety. + +"Look here, Philippe, what is the matter? If it is anything serious, I +am a man and not a ninny. I am accustomed to hard struggles, and if +discretion is needed, I have it." + +"Are you sure?" + +"On my honor." + +"You will tell no one, no matter who?" + +"No one." + +"Well, I am going to blow my brains out." + +"You!--are you going to fight a duel?" + +"I am going to kill myself." + +"Why?" + +"I have taken eleven hundred francs from the funds in my hands; I have +got to send in my accounts to-morrow morning. Half my security is +lost; our poor mother will be reduced to six hundred francs a year. +That would be nothing! I could make a fortune for her later; but I am +dishonored! I cannot live under dishonor--" + +"You will not be dishonored if it is paid back. To be sure, you will +lose your place, and you will only have the five hundred francs a year +from your cross; but you can live on five hundred francs." + +"Farewell!" said Philippe, running rapidly downstairs, and not waiting +to hear another word. + +Joseph left his studio and went down to breakfast with his mother; but +Philippe's confession had taken away his appetite. He took Madame +Descoings aside and told her the terrible news. The old woman made a +frightened exclamation, let fall the saucepan of milk she had in her +hand, and flung herself into a chair. Agathe rushed in; from one +exclamation to another the mother gathered the fatal truth. + +"He! to fail in honor! the son of Bridau to take the money that was +trusted to him!" + +The widow trembled in every limb; her eyes dilated and then grew +fixed; she sat down and burst into tears. + +"Where is he?" she cried amid the sobs. "Perhaps he has flung himself +into the Seine." + +"You must not give up all hope," said Madame Descoings, "because a +poor lad has met with a bad woman who has led him to do wrong. Dear +me! we see that every day. Philippe has had such misfortunes! he has +had so little chance to be happy and loved that we ought not to be +surprised at his passion for that creature. All passions lead to +excess. My own life is not without reproach of that kind, and yet I +call myself an honest woman. A single fault is not vice; and after +all, it is only those who do nothing that are never deceived." + +Agathe's despair overcame her so much that Joseph and the Descoings +were obliged to lessen Philippe's wrong-doings by assuring her that +such things happened in all families. + +"But he is twenty-eight years old," cried Agathe, "he is no longer a +child." + +Terrible revelation of the inward thought of the poor woman on the +conduct of her son. + +"Mother, I assure you he thought only of your sufferings and of the +wrong he had done you," said Joseph. + +"Oh, my God! let him come back to me, let him live, and I will forgive +all," cried the poor mother, to whose mind a horrible vision of +Philippe dragged dead out of the river presented itself. + +Gloomy silence reigned for a short time. The day went by with cruel +alternations of hope and fear; all three ran to the window at the +least sound, and gave way to every sort of conjecture. While the +family were thus grieving, Philippe was quietly getting matters in +order at his office. He had the audacity to give in his accounts with +a statement that, fearing some accident, he had retained eleven +hundred francs at his own house for safe keeping. The scoundrel left +the office at five o'clock, taking five hundred francs more from the +desk, and coolly went to a gambling-house, which he had not entered +since his connection with the paper, for he knew very well that a +cashier must not be seen to frequent such a place. The fellow was not +wanting in acumen. His past conduct proved that he derived more from +his grandfather Rouget than from his virtuous sire, Bridau. Perhaps he +might have made a good general; but in private life, he was one of +those utter scoundrels who shelter their schemes and their evil +actions behind a screen of strict legality, and the privacy of the +family roof. + +At this conjuncture Philippe maintained his coolness. He won at first, +and gained as much as six thousand francs; but he let himself be +dazzled by the idea of getting out of his difficulties at one stroke. +He left the trente-et-quarante, hearing that the black had come up +sixteen times at the roulette table, and was about to put five +thousand francs on the red, when the black came up for the seventeenth +time. The colonel then put a thousand francs on the black and won. In +spite of this remarkable piece of luck, his head grew weary; he felt +it, though he continued to play. But that divining sense which leads a +gambler, and which comes in flashes, was already failing him. +Intermittent perceptions, so fatal to all gamblers, set in. Lucidity +of mind, like the rays of the sun, can have no effect except by the +continuity of a direct line; it can divine only on condition of not +breaking that line; the curvettings of chance bemuddle it. Philippe +lost all. After such a strain, the careless mind as well as the +bravest weakens. When Philippe went home that night he was not +thinking of suicide, for he had never really meant to kill himself; he +no longer thought of his lost place, nor of the sacrificed security, +nor of his mother, nor of Mariette, the cause of his ruin; he walked +along mechanically. When he got home, his mother in tears, Madame +Descoings, and Joseph, all fell on his neck and kissed him and brought +him joyfully to a seat by the fire. + +"Bless me!" thought he, "the threat has worked." + +The brute at once assumed an air suitable to the occasion; all the +more easily, because his ill-luck at cards had deeply depressed him. +Seeing her atrocious Benjamin so pale and woe-begone, the poor mother +knelt beside him, kissed his hands, pressed them to her heart, and +gazed at him for a long time with eyes swimming in tears. + +"Philippe," she said, in a choking voice, "promise not to kill +yourself, and all shall be forgotten." + +Philippe looked at his sorrowing brother and at Madame Descoings, +whose eyes were full of tears, and thought to himself, "They are good +creatures." Then he took his mother in his arms, raised her and put +her on his knee, pressed her to his heart and whispered as he kissed +her, "For the second time, you give me life." + +The Descoings managed to serve an excellent dinner, and to add two +bottles of old wine with a little "liqueur des iles," a treasure left +over from her former business. + +"Agathe," she said at dessert, "we must let him smoke his cigars," and +she offered some to Philippe. + +These two poor creatures fancied that if they let the fellow take his +ease, he would like his home and stay in it; both, therefore, tried to +endure his tobacco-smoke, though each loathed it. That sacrifice was +not so much as noticed by Philippe. + +On the morrow, Agathe looked ten years older. Her terrors calmed, +reflection came back to her, and the poor woman had not closed an eye +throughout that horrible night. She was now reduced to six hundred +francs a year. Madame Descoings, like all fat women fond of good +eating, was growing heavy; her step on the staircase sounded like the +chopping of logs; she might die at any moment; with her life, four +thousand francs would disappear. What folly to rely on that resource! +What should she do? What would become of them? With her mind made up +to become a sick-nurse rather than be supported by her children, +Agathe did not think of herself. But Philippe? what would he do if +reduced to live on the five hundred francs of an officer of the Legion +of honor? During the past eleven years, Madame Descoings, by giving up +three thousand francs a year, had paid her debt twice over, but she +still continued to sacrifice her grandson's interests to those of the +Bridau family. Though all Agathe's honorable and upright feelings were +shocked by this terrible disaster, she said to herself: "Poor boy! is +it his fault? He is faithful to his oath. I have done wrong not to +marry him. If I had found him a wife, he would not have got entangled +with this danseuse. He has such a vigorous constitution--" + +Madame Descoings had likewise reflected during the night as to the +best way of saving the honor of the family. At daybreak, she got out +of bed and went to her friend's room. + +"Neither you nor Philippe should manage this delicate matter," she +urged. "Our two old friends Du Bruel and Claparon are dead, but we +still have Desroches, who is very sagacious. I'll go and see him this +morning. He can tell the newspaper people that Philippe trusted a +friend and has been made a victim; that his weakness in such respects +makes him unfit to be a cashier; what has now happened may happen +again, and that Philippe prefers to resign. That will prevent his +being turned off." + +Agathe, seeing that this business lie would save the honor of her son, +at any rate in the eyes of strangers, kissed Madame Descoings, who +went out early to make an end of the dreadful affair. + +Philippe, meanwhile, had slept the sleep of the just. "She is sly, +that old woman," he remarked, when his mother explained to him why +breakfast was late. + +Old Desroches, the last remaining friend of these two poor women, who, +in spite of his harsh nature, never forgot that Bridau had obtained +for him his place, fulfilled like an accomplished diplomat the +delicate mission Madame Descoings had confided to him. He came to dine +that evening with the family, and notified Agathe that she must go the +next day to the Treasury, rue Vivienne, sign the transfer of the funds +involved, and obtain a coupon for the six hundred francs a year which +still remained to her. The old clerk did not leave the afflicted +household that night without obliging Philippe to sign a petition to +the minister of war, asking for his reinstatement in the active army. +Desroches promised the two women to follow up the petition at the war +office, and to profit by the triumph of a certain duke over Philippe +in the matter of the danseuse, and so obtain that nobleman's +influence. + +"Philippe will be lieutenant-colonel in the Duc de Maufrigneuse's +regiment within three months," he declared, "and you will be rid of +him." + +Desroches went away, smothered with blessings from the two poor widows +and Joseph. As to the newspaper, it ceased to exist at the end of two +months, just as Finot had predicted. Philippe's crime had, therefore, +so far as the world knew, no consequences. But Agathe's motherhood had +received a deadly wound. Her belief in her son once shaken, she lived +in perpetual fear, mingled with some satisfactions, as she saw her +worst apprehensions unrealized. + +When men like Philippe, who are endowed with physical courage, and yet +are cowardly and ignoble in their moral being, see matters and things +resuming their accustomed course about them after some catastrophe in +which their honor and decency is well-nigh lost, such family kindness, +or any show of friendliness towards them is a premium of +encouragement. They count on impunity; their minds distorted, their +passions gratified, only prompt them to study how it happened that +they succeeded in getting round all social laws; the result is they +become alarmingly adroit. + +A fortnight later, Philippe, once more a man of leisure, lazy and +bored, renewed his fatal cafe life,--his drams, his long games of +billiards embellished with punch, his nightly resort to the gambling- +table, where he risked some trifling stake and won enough to pay for +his dissipations. Apparently very economical, the better to deceive +his mother and Madame Descoings, he wore a hat that was greasy, with +the nap rubbed off at the edges, patched boots, a shabby overcoat, on +which the red ribbon scarcely showed so discolored and dirty was it by +long service at the buttonhole and by the spatterings of coffee and +liquors. His buckskin gloves, of a greenish tinge, lasted him a long +while; and he only gave up his satin neckcloth when it was ragged +enough to look like wadding. Mariette was the sole object of the +fellow's love, and her treachery had greatly hardened his heart. When +he happened to win more than usual, or if he supped with his old +comrade, Giroudeau, he followed some Venus of the slums, with brutal +contempt for the whole sex. Otherwise regular in his habits, he +breakfasted and dined at home and came in every night about one +o'clock. Three months of this horrible life restored Agathe to some +degree of confidence. + +As for Joseph, who was working at the splendid picture to which he +afterwards owed his reputation, he lived in his atelier. On the +prediction of her grandson Bixiou, Madame Descoings believed in +Joseph's future glory, and she showed him every sort of motherly +kindness; she took his breakfast to him, she did his errands, she +blacked his boots. The painter was never seen till dinner-time, and +his evenings were spent at the Cenacle among his friends. He read a +great deal, and gave himself that deep and serious education which +only comes through the mind itself, and which all men of talent strive +after between the ages of twenty and thirty. Agathe, seeing very +little of Joseph, and feeling no uneasiness about him, lived only for +Philippe, who gave her the alternations of fears excited and terrors +allayed, which seem the life, as it were, of sentiment, and to be as +necessary to maternity as to love. Desroches, who came once a week to +see the widow of his patron and friend, gave her hopes. The Duc de +Maufrigneuse had asked to have Philippe in his regiment; the minister +of war had ordered an inquiry; and as the name of Bridau did not +appear on any police list, nor an any record at the Palais de Justice, +Philippe would be reinstated in the army early in the coming year. + +To arrive at this result, Desroches set all the powers that he could +influence in motion. At the prefecture of police he learned that +Philippe spent his evenings in the gambling-house; and he thought it +best to tell this fact privately to Madame Descoings, exhorting her +keep an eye on the lieutenant-colonel, for one outbreak would imperil +all; as it was, the minister of war was not likely to inquire whether +Philippe gambled. Once restored to his rank under the flag of his +country, he would perhaps abandon a vice only taken up from idleness. +Agathe, who no longer received her friends in the evening, sat in the +chimney-corner reading her prayers, while Madame Descoings consulted +the cards, interpreted her dreams, and applied the rules of the +"cabala" to her lottery ventures. This jovial fanatic never missed a +single drawing; she still pursued her trey,--which never turned up. It +was nearly twenty-one years old, just approaching its majority; on +this ridiculous idea the old woman now pinned her faith. One of its +three numbers had stayed at the bottom of all the wheels ever since +the institution of the lottery. Accordingly, Madame Descoings laid +heavy stakes on that particular number, as well as on all the +combinations of the three numbers. The last mattress remaining to her +bed was the place where she stored her savings; she unsewed the +ticking, put in from time to time the bit of gold saved from her +needs, wrapped carefully in wool, and then sewed the mattress up +again. She intended, at the last drawing, to risk all her savings on +the different combinations of her treasured trey. + +This passion, so universally condemned, has never been fairly studied. +No one has understood this opium of poverty. The lottery, all-powerful +fairy of the poor, bestowed the gift of magic hopes. The turn of the +wheel which opens to the gambler a vista of gold and happiness, lasts +no longer than a flash of lightning, but the lottery gave five days' +existence to that magnificent flash. What social power can to-day, for +the sum of five sous, give us five days' happiness and launch us +ideally into all the joys of civilization? Tobacco, a craving far more +immoral than play, destroys the body, attacks the mind, and stupefies +a nation; while the lottery did nothing of the kind. This passion, +moreover, was forced to keep within limits by the long periods that +occurred between the drawings, and by the choice of wheels which each +investor individually clung to. Madame Descoings never staked on any +but the "wheel of Paris." Full of confidence that the trey cherished +for twenty-one years was about to triumph, she now imposed upon +herself enormous privations, that she might stake a large amount of +savings upon the last drawing of the year. When she dreamed her +cabalistic visions (for all dreams did not correspond with the numbers +of the lottery), she went and told them to Joseph, who was the sole +being who would listen, and not only not scold her, but give her the +kindly words with which an artist knows how to soothe the follies of +the mind. All great talents respect and understand a real passion; +they explain it to themselves by finding the roots of it in their own +hearts or minds. Joseph's ideas was, that his brother loved tobacco +and liquors, Maman Descoings loved her trey, his mother loved God, +Desroches the younger loved lawsuits, Desroches the elder loved +angling,--in short, all the world, he said, loved something. He +himself loved the "beau ideal" in all things; he loved the poetry of +Lord Byron, the painting of Gericault, the music of Rossini, the +novels of Walter Scott. "Every one to his taste, maman," he would say; +"but your trey does hang fire terribly." + +"It will turn up, and you will be rich, and my little Bixiou as well." + +"Give it all to your grandson," cried Joseph; "at any rate, do what +you like best with it." + +"Hey! when it turns up I shall have enough for everybody. In the first +place, you shall have a fine atelier; you sha'n't deprive yourself of +going to the opera so as to pay for your models and your colors. Do +you know, my dear boy, you make me play a pretty shabby part in that +picture of yours?" + +By way of economy, Joseph had made the Descoings pose for his +magnificent painting of a young courtesan taken by an old woman to a +Doge of Venice. This picture, one of the masterpieces of modern +painting, was mistaken by Gros himself for a Titian, and it paved the +way for the recognition which the younger artists gave to Joseph's +talent in the Salon of 1823. + +"Those who know you know very well what you are," he answered gayly. +"Why need you trouble yourself about those who don't know you?" + +For the last ten years Madame Descoings had taken on the ripe tints of +a russet apple at Easter. Wrinkles had formed in her superabundant +flesh, now grown pallid and flabby. Her eyes, full of life, were +bright with thoughts that were still young and vivacious, and might be +considered grasping; for there is always something of that spirit in a +gambler. Her fat face bore traces of dissimulation and of the mental +reservations hidden in the depths of her heart. Her vice necessitated +secrecy. There were also indications of gluttony in the motion of her +lips. And thus, although she was, as we have seen, an excellent and +upright woman, the eye might be misled by her appearance. She was an +admirable model for the old woman Joseph wished to paint. Coralie, a +young actress of exquisite beauty who died in the flower of her youth, +the mistress of Lucien de Rubempre, one of Joseph's friends, had given +him the idea of the picture. This noble painting has been called a +plagiarism of other pictures, while in fact it was a splendid +arrangement of three portraits. Michel Chrestien, one of his +companions at the Cenacle, lent his republican head for the senator, +to which Joseph added a few mature tints, just as he exaggerated the +expression of Madame Descoings's features. This fine picture, which +was destined to make a great noise and bring the artist much hatred, +jealousy, and admiration, was just sketched out; but, compelled as he +was to work for a living, he laid it aside to make copies of the old +masters for the dealers; thus he penetrated the secrets of their +processes, and his brush is therefore one of the best trained of the +modern school. The shrewd sense of an artist led him to conceal the +profits he was beginning to lay by from his mother and Madame +Descoings, aware that each had her road to ruin,--the one in Philippe, +the other in the lottery. This astuteness is seldom wanting among +painters; busy for days together in the solitude of their studios, +engaged in work which, up to a certain point, leaves the mind free, +they are in some respects like women,--their thoughts turn about the +little events of life, and they contrive to get at their hidden +meaning. + +Joseph had bought one of those magnificent chests or coffers of a past +age, then ignored by fashion, with which he decorated a corner of his +studio, where the light danced upon the bas-reliefs and gave full +lustre to a masterpiece of the sixteenth century artisans. He saw the +necessity for a hiding-place, and in this coffer he had begun to +accumulate a little store of money. With an artist's carelessness, he +was in the habit of putting the sum he allowed for his monthly +expenses in a skull, which stood on one of the compartments of the +coffer. Since his brother had returned to live at home, he found a +constant discrepancy between the amount he spent and the sum in this +receptacle. The hundred francs a month disappeared with incredible +celerity. Finding nothing one day, when he had only spent forty or +fifty francs, he remarked for the first time: "My money must have got +wings." The next month he paid more attention to his accounts; but add +as he might, like Robert Macaire, sixteen and five are twenty-three, +he could make nothing of them. When, for the third time, he found a +still more important discrepancy, he communicated the painful fact to +Madame Descoings, who loved him, he knew, with that maternal, tender, +confiding, credulous, enthusiastic love that he had never had from his +own mother, good as she was,--a love as necessary to the early life of +an artist as the care of the hen is to her unfledged chickens. To her +alone could he confide his horrible suspicions. He was as sure of his +friends as he was of himself; and the Descoings, he knew, would take +nothing to put in her lottery. At the idea which then suggested itself +the poor woman wrung her hands. Philippe alone could have committed +this domestic theft. + +"Why didn't he ask me, if he wanted it?" cried Joseph, taking a dab of +color on his palette and stirring it into the other colors without +seeing what he did. "Is it likely I should refuse him?" + +"It is robbing a child!" cried the Descoings, her face expressing the +deepest disgust. + +"No," replied Joseph, "he is my brother; my purse is his: but he ought +to have asked me." + +"Put in a special sum, in silver, this morning, and don't take +anything out," said Madame Descoings. "I shall know who goes into the +studio; and if he is the only one, you will be certain it is he." + +The next day Joseph had proof of his brother's forced loans upon him. +Philippe came to the studio when his brother was out and took the +little sum he wanted. The artist trembled for his savings. + +"I'll catch him at it, the scamp!" he said, laughing, to Madame +Descoings. + +"And you'll do right: we ought to break him of it. I, too, I have +missed little sums out of my purse. Poor boy! he wants tobacco; he's +accustomed to it." + +"Poor boy! poor boy!" cried the artist. "I'm rather of Fulgence and +Bixiou's opinion: Philippe is a dead-weight on us. He runs his head +into riots and has to be shipped to America, and that costs the mother +twelve thousand francs; he can't find anything to do in the forests of +the New World, and so he comes back again, and that costs twelve +thousand more. Under pretence of having carried two words of Napoleon +to a general, he thinks himself a great soldier and makes faces at the +Bourbons; meantime, what does he do? amuse himself, travel about, see +foreign countries! As for me, I'm not duped by his misfortunes; he +doesn't look like a man who fails to get the best of things! Somebody +finds him a good place, and there he is, leading the life of a +Sardanapalus with a ballet-girl, and guzzling the funds of his +journal; that costs the mother another twelve thousand francs! I don't +care two straws for myself, but Philippe will bring that poor woman to +beggary. He thinks I'm of no account because I was never in the +dragoons of the Guard; but perhaps I shall be the one to support that +poor dear mother in her old age, while he, if he goes on as he does, +will end I don't know how. Bixiou often says to me, 'He is a downright +rogue, that brother of yours.' Your grandson is right. Philippe will +be up to some mischief that will compromise the honor of the family, +and then we shall have to scrape up another ten or twelve thousand +francs! He gambles every night; when he comes home, drunk as a +templar, he drops on the staircase the pricked cards on which he marks +the turns of the red and black. Old Desroches is trying to get him +back into the army, and, on my word on honor, I believe he would hate +to serve again. Would you ever have believed that a boy with such +heavenly blue eyes and the look of Bayard could turn out such a +scoundrel?" + + + + CHAPTER V + +In spite of the coolness and discretion with which Philippe played his +trifling game every night, it happened every now and then that he was +what gamblers call "cleaned out." Driven by the irresistible necessity +of having his evening stake of ten francs, he plundered the household, +and laid hands on his brother's money and on all that Madame Descoings +or Agathe left about. Already the poor mother had had a dreadful +vision in her first sleep: Philippe entered the room and took from the +pockets of her gown all the money he could find. Agathe pretended to +sleep, but she passed the rest of the night in tears. She saw the +truth only too clearly. "One wrong act is not a vice," Madame +Descoings had declared; but after so many repetitions, vice was +unmistakable. Agathe could doubt no longer; her best-beloved son had +neither delicacy nor honor. + +On the morrow of that frightful vision, before Philippe left the house +after breakfast, she drew him into her chamber and begged him, in a +tone of entreaty, to ask her for what money he needed. After that, the +applications were so numerous that in two weeks Agathe was drained of +all her savings. She was literally without a penny, and began to think +of finding work. The means of earning money had been discussed in the +evenings between herself and Madame Descoings, and she had already +taken patterns of worsted work to fill in, from a shop called the +"Pere de Famille,"--an employment which pays about twenty sous a day. +Notwithstanding Agathe's silence on the subject, Madame Descoings had +guessed the motive of this desire to earn money by women's-work. The +change in her appearance was eloquent: her fresh face had withered, +the skin clung to the temples and the cheek-bones, and the forehead +showed deep lines; her eyes lost their clearness; an inward fire was +evidently consuming her; she wept the greater part of the night. A +chief cause of these outward ravages was the necessity of hiding her +anguish, her sufferings, her apprehensions. She never went to sleep +until Philippe came in; she listened for his step, she had learned the +inflections of his voice, the variations of his walk, the very +language of his cane as it touched the pavement. Nothing escaped her. +She knew the degree of drunkenness he had reached, she trembled as she +heard him stumble on the stairs; one night she picked up some pieces +of gold at the spot where he had fallen. When he had drunk and won, +his voice was gruff and his cane dragged; but when he had lost, his +step had something sharp, short and angry about it; he hummed in a +clear voice, and carried his cane in the air as if presenting arms. At +breakfast, if he had won, his behavior was gay and even affectionate; +he joked roughly, but still he joked, with Madame Descoings, with +Joseph, and with his mother; gloomy, on the contrary, when he had +lost, his brusque, rough speech, his hard glance, and his depression, +frightened them. A life of debauch and the abuse of liquors debased, +day by day, a countenance that was once so handsome. The veins of the +face were swollen with blood, the features became coarse, the eyes +lost their lashes and grew hard and dry. No longer careful of his +person, Philippe exhaled the miasmas of a tavern and the smell of +muddy boots, which, to an observer, stamped him with debauchery. + +"You ought," said Madame Descoings to Philippe during the last days of +December, "you ought to get yourself new-clothed from head to foot." + +"And who is to pay for it?" he answered sharply. "My poor mother +hasn't a sou; and I have five hundred francs a year. It would take my +whole year's pension to pay for the clothes; besides I have mortgaged +it for three years--" + +"What for?" asked Joseph. + +"A debt of honor. Giroudeau borrowed a thousand francs from Florentine +to lend me. I am not gorgeous, that's a fact; but when one thinks that +Napoleon is at Saint Helena, and has sold his plate for the means of +living, his faithful soldiers can manage to walk on their bare feet," +he said, showing his boots without heels, as he marched away. + +"He is not bad," said Agathe, "he has good feelings." + +"You can love the Emperor and yet dress yourself properly," said +Joseph. "If he would take any care of himself and his clothes, he +wouldn't look so like a vagabond." + +"Joseph! you ought to have some indulgence for your brother," cried +Agathe. "You do the things you like, while he is certainly not in his +right place." + +"What did he leave it for?" demanded Joseph. "What can it matter to +him whether Louis the Eighteenth's bugs or Napoleon's cuckoos are on +the flag, if it is the flag of his country? France is France! For my +part, I'd paint for the devil. A soldier ought to fight, if he is a +soldier, for the love of his art. If he had stayed quietly in the +army, he would have been a general by this time." + +"You are unjust to him," said Agathe, "your father, who adored the +Emperor, would have approved of his conduct. However, he has consented +to re-enter the army. God knows the grief it has caused your brother +to do a thing he considers treachery." + +Joseph rose to return to his studio, but his mother took his hand and +said:-- + +"Be good to your brother; he is so unfortunate." + +When the artist got back to his painting-room, followed by Madame +Descoings, who begged him to humor his mother's feelings, and pointed +out to him how changed she was, and what inward suffering the change +revealed, they found Philippe there, to their great amazement. + +"Joseph, my boy," he said, in an off-hand way, "I want some money. +Confound it! I owe thirty francs for cigars at my tobacconist's, and I +dare not pass the cursed shop till I've paid it. I've promised to pay +it a dozen times." + +"Well, I like your present way best," said Joseph; "take what you want +out of the skull." + +"I took all there was last night, after dinner." + +"There was forty-five francs." + +"Yes, that's what I made it," replied Philippe. "I took them; is there +any objection?" + +"No, my friend, no," said Joseph. "If you were rich, I should do the +same by you; only, before taking what I wanted, I should ask you if it +were convenient." + +"It is very humiliating to ask," remarked Philippe; "I would rather +see you taking as I do, without a word; it shows more confidence. In +the army, if a comrade dies, and has a good pair of boots, and you +have a bad pair, you change, that's all." + +"Yes, but you don't take them while he is living." + +"Oh, what meanness!" said Philippe, shrugging his shoulders. "Well, so +you haven't got any money?" + +"No," said Joseph, who was determined not to show his hiding-place. + +"In a few days we shall be rich," said Madame Descoings. + +"Yes, you; you think your trey is going to turn up on the 25th at the +Paris drawing. You must have put in a fine stake if you think you can +make us all rich." + +"A paid-up trey of two hundred francs will give three millions, +without counting the couplets and the singles." + +"At fifteen thousand times the stake--yes, you are right; it is just +two hundred you must pay up!" cried Philippe. + +Madame Descoings bit her lips; she knew she had spoken imprudently. In +fact, Philippe was asking himself as he went downstairs:-- + +"That old witch! where does she keep her money? It is as good as lost; +I can make a better use of it. With four pools at fifty francs each, I +could win two hundred thousand francs, and that's much surer than the +turning up of a trey." + +He tried to think where the old woman was likely to have hid the +money. On the days preceding festivals, Agathe went to church and +stayed there a long time; no doubt she confessed and prepared for the +communion. It was now the day before Christmas; Madame Descoings would +certainly go out to buy some dainties for the "reveillon," the +midnight meal; and she might also take occasion to pay up her stake. +The lottery was drawn every five days in different localities, at +Bordeaux, Lyons, Lille, Strasburg, and Paris. The Paris lottery was +drawn on the twenty-fifth of each month, and the lists closed on the +twenty-fourth, at midnight. Philippe studied all these points and set +himself to watch. He came home at midday; the Descoings had gone out, +and had taken the key of the appartement. But that was no difficulty. +Philippe pretended to have forgotten something, and asked the +concierge to go herself and get a locksmith, who lived close by, and +who came at once and opened the door. The villain's first thought was +the bed; he uncovered it, passed his hands over the mattress before he +examined the bedstead, and at the lower end felt the pieces wrapped up +in paper. He at once ripped the ticking, picked out twenty napoleons, +and then, without taking time to sew up the mattress, re-made the bed +neatly enough, so that Madame Descoings could suspect nothing. + +The gambler stole off with a light foot, resolving to play at three +different times, three hours apart, and each time for only ten +minutes. Thorough-going players, ever since 1786, the time at which +public gaming-houses were established,--the true players whom the +government dreaded, and who ate up, to use a gambling term, the money +of the bank,--never played in any other way. But before attaining this +measure of experience they lost fortunes. The whole science of +gambling-houses and their gains rests upon three things: the +impassibility of the bank; the even results called "drawn games," when +half the money goes to the bank; and the notorious bad faith +authorized by the government, in refusing to hold or pay the player's +stakes except optionally. In a word, the gambling-house, which refuses +the game of a rich and cool player, devours the fortune of the foolish +and obstinate one, who is carried away by the rapid movement of the +machinery of the game. The croupiers at "trente et quarante" move +nearly as fast as the ball. + +Philippe had ended by acquiring the sang-froid of a commanding +general, which enables him to keep his eye clear and his mind prompt +in the midst of tumult. He had reached that statesmanship of gambling +which in Paris, let us say in passing, is the livelihood of thousands +who are strong enough to look every night into an abyss without +getting a vertigo. With his four hundred francs, Philippe resolved to +make his fortune that day. He put aside, in his boots, two hundred +francs, and kept the other two hundred in his pocket. At three o'clock +he went to the gambling-house (which is now turned into the theatre of +the Palais-Royal), where the bank accepted the largest sums. He came +out half an hour later with seven thousand francs in his pocket. Then +he went to see Florentine, paid the five hundred francs which he owed +to her, and proposed a supper at the Rocher de Cancale after the +theatre. Returning to his game, along the rue de Sentier, he stopped +at Giroudeau's newspaper-office to notify him of the gala. By six +o'clock Philippe had won twenty-five thousand francs, and stopped +playing at the end of ten minutes as he had promised himself to do. +That night, by ten o'clock, he had won seventy-five thousand francs. +After the supper, which was magnificent, Philippe, by that time drunk +and confident, went back to his play at midnight. In defiance of the +rule he had imposed upon himself, he played for an hour and doubled +his fortune. The bankers, from whom, by his system of playing, he had +extracted one hundred and fifty thousand francs, looked at him with +curiosity. + +"Will he go away now, or will he stay?" they said to each other by a +glance. "If he stays he is lost." + +Philippe thought he had struck a vein of luck, and stayed. Towards +three in the morning, the hundred and fifty thousand francs had gone +back to the bank. The colonel, who had imbibed a considerable quantity +of grog while playing, left the place in a drunken state, which the +cold of the outer air only increased. A waiter from the gambling-house +followed him, picked him up, and took him to one of those horrible +houses at the door of which, on a hanging lamp, are the words: +"Lodgings for the night." The waiter paid for the ruined gambler, who +was put to bed, where he remained till Christmas night. The managers +of gambling-houses have some consideration for their customers, +especially for high players. Philippe awoke about seven o'clock in the +evening, his mouth parched, his face swollen, and he himself in the +grip of a nervous fever. The strength of his constitution enabled him +to get home on foot, where meanwhile he had, without willing it, +brought mourning, desolation, poverty, and death. + +The evening before, when dinner was ready, Madame Descoings and Agathe +expected Philippe. They waited dinner till seven o'clock. Agathe +always went to bed at ten; but as, on this occasion, she wished to be +present at the midnight mass, she went to lie down as soon as dinner +was over. Madame Descoings and Joseph remained alone by the fire in +the little salon, which served for all, and the old woman asked the +painter to add up the amount of her great stake, her monstrous stake, +on the famous trey, which she was to pay that evening at the Lottery +office. She wished to put in for the doubles and singles as well, so +as to seize all chances. After feasting on the poetry of her hopes, +and pouring the two horns of plenty at the feet of her adopted son, +and relating to him her dreams which demonstrated the certainty of +success, she felt no other uneasiness than the difficulty of bearing +such joy, and waiting from mid-night until ten o'clock of the morrow, +when the winning numbers were declared. Joseph, who saw nothing of the +four hundred francs necessary to pay up the stakes, asked about them. +The old woman smiled, and led him into the former salon, which was now +her bed-chamber. + +"You shall see," she said. + +Madame Descoings hastily unmade the bed, and searched for her scissors +to rip the mattress; she put on her spectacles, looked at the ticking, +saw the hole, and let fall the mattress. Hearing a sigh from the +depths of the old woman's breast, as though she were strangled by a +rush of blood to the heart, Joseph instinctively held out his arms to +catch the poor creature, and placed her fainting in a chair, calling +to his mother to come to them. Agathe rose, slipped on her dressing- +gown, and ran in. By the light of a candle, she applied the ordinary +remedies,--eau-de-cologne to the temples, cold water to the forehead, +a burnt feather under the nose,--and presently her aunt revived. + +"They were there is morning; HE has taken them, the monster!" she +said. + +"Taken what?" asked Joseph. + +"I had twenty louis in my mattress; my savings for two years; no one +but Philippe could have taken them." + +"But when?" cried the poor mother, overwhelmed, "he has not been in +since breakfast." + +"I wish I might be mistaken," said the old woman. "But this morning in +Joseph's studio, when I spoke before Philippe of my stakes, I had a +presentiment. I did wrong not to go down and take my little all and +pay for my stakes at once. I meant to, and I don't know what prevented +me. Oh, yes!--my God! I went out to buy him some cigars." + +"But," said Joseph, "you left the door locked. Besides, it is so +infamous. I can't believe it. Philippe couldn't have watched you, cut +open the mattress, done it deliberately,--no, no!" + +"I felt them this morning, when I made my bed after breakfast," +repeated Madame Descoings. + +Agathe, horrified, went down stairs and asked if Philippe had come in +during the day. The concierge related the tale of his return and the +locksmith. The mother, heart-stricken, went back a changed woman. +White as the linen of her chemise, she walked as we might fancy a +spectre walks, slowly, noiselessly, moved by some superhuman power, +and yet mechanically. She held a candle in her hand, whose light fell +full upon her face and showed her eyes, fixed with horror. +Unconsciously, her hands by a desperate movement had dishevelled the +hair about her brow; and this made her so beautiful with anguish that +Joseph stood rooted in awe at the apparition of that remorse, the +vision of that statue of terror and despair. + +"My aunt," she said, "take my silver forks and spoons. I have enough +to make up the sum; I took your money for Philippe's sake; I thought I +could put it back before you missed it. Oh! I have suffered much." + +She sat down. Her dry, fixed eyes wandered a little. + +"It was he who did it," whispered the old woman to Joseph. + +"No, no," cried Agathe; "take my silver plate, sell it; it is useless +to me; we can eat with yours." + +She went to her room, took the box which contained the plate, felt its +light weight, opened it, and saw a pawnbroker's ticket. The poor +mother uttered a dreadful cry. Joseph and the Descoings ran to her, +saw the empty box, and her noble falsehood was of no avail. All three +were silent, and avoided looking at each other; but the next moment, +by an almost frantic gesture, Agathe laid her finger on her lips as if +to entreat a secrecy no one desired to break. They returned to the +salon, and sat beside the fire. + +"Ah! my children," cried Madame Descoings, "I am stabbed to the heart: +my trey will turn up, I am certain of it. I am not thinking of myself, +but of you two. Philippe is a monster," she continued, addressing her +niece; "he does not love you after all that you have done for him. If +you do not protect yourself against him he will bring you to beggary. +Promise me to sell out your Funds and buy a life-annuity. Joseph has a +good profession and he can live. If you will do this, dear Agathe, you +will never be an expense to Joseph. Monsieur Desroches has just +started his son as a notary; he would take your twelve thousand francs +and pay you an annuity." + +Joseph seized his mother's candlestick, rushed up to his studio, and +came down with three hundred francs. + +"Here, Madame Descoings!" he cried, giving her his little store, "it +is no business of ours what you do with your money; we owe you what +you have lost, and here it is, almost in full." + +"Take your poor little all?--the fruit of those privations that have +made me so unhappy! are you mad, Joseph?" cried the old woman, visibly +torn between her dogged faith in the coming trey, and the sacrilege of +accepting such a sacrifice. + +"Oh! take it if you like," said Agathe, who was moved to tears by this +action of her true son. + +Madame Descoings took Joseph by the head, and kissed him on the +forehead:-- + +"My child," she said, "don't tempt me. I might only lose it. The +lottery, you see, is all folly." + +No more heroic words were ever uttered in the hidden dramas of +domestic life. It was, indeed, affection triumphant over inveterate +vice. At this instant, the clocks struck midnight. + +"It is too late now," said Madame Descoings. + +"Oh!" cried Joseph, "here are your cabalistic numbers." + +The artist sprang at the paper, and rushed headlong down the staircase +to pay the stakes. When he was no longer present, Agathe and Madame +Descoings burst into tears. + +"He has gone, the dear love," cried the old gambler; "but it shall all +be his; he pays his own money." + +Unhappily, Joseph did not know the way to any of the lottery-offices, +which in those days were as well known to most people as the +cigarshops to a smoker in ours. The painter ran along, reading the +street names upon the lamps. When he asked the passers-by to show him +a lottery-office, he was told they were all closed, except the one +under the portico of the Palais-Royal which was sometimes kept open a +little later. He flew to the Palais-Royal: the office was shut. + +"Two minutes earlier, and you might have paid your stake," said one of +the vendors of tickets, whose beat was under the portico, where he +vociferated this singular cry: "Twelve hundred francs for forty sous," +and offered tickets all paid up. + +By the glimmer of the street lamp and the lights of the cafe de la +Rotonde, Joseph examined these tickets to see if, by chance, any of +them bore the Descoings's numbers. He found none, and returned home +grieved at having done his best in vain for the old woman, to whom he +related his ill-luck. Agathe and her aunt went together to the +midnight mass at Saint-Germain-des-Pres. Joseph went to bed. The +collation did not take place. Madame Descoings had lost her head; and +in Agathe's heart was eternal mourning. + +The two rose late on Christmas morning. Ten o'clock had struck before +Madame Descoings began to bestir herself about the breakfast, which +was only ready at half-past eleven. At that hour, the oblong frames +containing the winning numbers are hung over the doors of the lottery- +offices. If Madame Descoings had paid her stake and held her ticket, +she would have gone by half-past nine o'clock to learn her fate at a +building close to the ministry of Finance, in the rue Neuve-des-Petits +Champs, a situation now occupied by the Theatre Ventadour in the place +of the same name. On the days when the drawings took place, an +observer might watch with curiosity the crowd of old women, cooks, and +old men assembled about the door of this building; a sight as +remarkable as the cue of people about the Treasury on the days when +the dividends are paid. + +"Well, here you are, rolling in wealth!" said old Desroches, coming +into the room just as the Descoings was swallowing her last drop of +coffee. + +"What do you mean?" cried poor Agathe. + +"Her trey has turned up," he said, producing the list of numbers +written on a bit of paper, such as the officials of the lottery put by +hundreds into little wooden bowls on their counters. + +Joseph read the list. Agathe read the list. The Descoings read +nothing; she was struck down as by a thunderbolt. At the change in her +face, at the cry she gave, old Desroches and Joseph carried her to her +bed. Agathe went for a doctor. The poor woman was seized with +apoplexy, and she only recovered consciousness at four in the +afternoon; old Haudry, her doctor, then said that, in spite of this +improvement, she ought to settle her worldly affairs and think of her +salvation. She herself only uttered two words:-- + +"Three millions!" + +Old Desroches, informed by Joseph, with due reservations, of the state +of things, related many instances where lottery-players had seen a +fortune escape them on the very day when, by some fatality, they had +forgotten to pay their stakes; but he thoroughly understood that such +a blow might be fatal when it came after twenty years' perseverance. +About five o'clock, as a deep silence reigned in the little +appartement, and the sick woman, watched by Joseph and his mother, the +one sitting at the foot, the other at the head of her bed, was +expecting her grandson Bixiou, whom Desroches had gone to fetch, the +sound of Philippe's step and cane resounded on the staircase. + +"There he is! there he is!" cried the Descoings, sitting up in bed and +suddenly able to use her paralyzed tongue. + +Agathe and Joseph were deeply impressed by this powerful effect of the +horror which violently agitated the old woman. Their painful suspense +was soon ended by the sight of Philippe's convulsed and purple face, +his staggering walk, and the horrible state of his eyes, which were +deeply sunken, dull, and yet haggard; he had a strong chill upon him, +and his teeth chattered. + +"Starvation in Prussia!" he cried, looking about him. "Nothing to eat +or drink?--and my throat on fire! Well, what's the matter? The devil +is always meddling in our affairs. There's my old Descoings in bed, +looking at me with her eyes as big as saucers." + +"Be silent, monsieur!" said Agathe, rising. "At least, respect the +sorrows you have caused." + +"MONSIEUR, indeed!" he cried, looking at his mother. "My dear little +mother, that won't do. Have you ceased to love your son?" + +"Are you worthy of love? Have you forgotten what you did yesterday? Go +and find yourself another home; you cannot live with us any longer,-- +that is, after to-morrow," she added; "for in the state you are in now +it is difficult--" + +"To turn me out,--is that it?" he interrupted. "Ha! are you going to +play the melodrama of 'The Banished Son'? Well done! is that how you +take things? You are all a pretty set! What harm have I done? I've +cleaned out the old woman's mattress. What the devil is the good of +money kept in wool? Do you call that a crime? Didn't she take twenty +thousand francs from you? We are her creditors, and I've paid myself +as much as I could get,--that's all." + +"My God! my God!" cried the dying woman, clasping her hands and +praying. + +"Be silent!" exclaimed Joseph, springing at his brother and putting +his hand before his mouth. + +"To the right about, march! brat of a painter!" retorted Philippe, +laying his strong hand on Joseph's head, and twirling him round, as he +flung him on a sofa. "Don't dare to touch the moustache of a commander +of a squadron of the dragoons of the Guard!" + +"She has paid me back all that she owed me," cried Agathe, rising and +turning an angry face to her son; "and besides, that is my affair. You +have killed her. Go away, my son," she added, with a gesture that took +all her remaining strength, "and never let me see you again. You are a +monster." + +"I kill her?" + +"Her trey has turned up," cried Joseph, "and you stole the money for +her stake." + +"Well, if she is dying of a lost trey, it isn't I who have killed +her," said the drunkard. + +"Go, go!" said Agathe. "You fill me with horror; you have every vice. +My God! is this my son?" + +A hollow rattle sounded in Madame Descoings's throat, increasing +Agathe's anger. + +"I love you still, my mother,--you who are the cause of all my +misfortunes," said Philippe. "You turn me out of doors on Christmas- +day. What did you do to grandpa Rouget, to your father, that he should +drive you away and disinherit you? If you had not displeased him, we +should all be rich now, and I should not be reduced to misery. What +did you do to your father,--you who are a good woman? You see by your +own self, I may be a good fellow and yet be turned out of house and +home,--I, the glory of the family--" + +"The disgrace of it!" cried the Descoings. + +"You shall leave this room, or you shall kill me!" cried Joseph, +springing on his brother with the fury of a lion. + +"My God! my God!" cried Agathe, trying to separate the brothers. + +At this moment Bixiou and Haudry the doctor entered. Joseph had just +knocked his brother over and stretched him on the ground. + +"He is a regular wild beast," he cried. "Don't speak another word, or +I'll--" + +"I'll pay you for this!" roared Philippe. + +"A family explanation," remarked Bixiou. + +"Lift him up," said the doctor, looking at him. "He is as ill as +Madame Descoings; undress him and put him to bed; get off his boots." + +"That's easy to say," cried Bixiou, "but they must be cut off; his +legs are swollen." + +Agathe took a pair of scissors. When she had cut down the boots, which +in those days were worn outside the clinging trousers, ten pieces of +gold rolled on the floor. + +"There it is,--her money," murmured Philippe. "Cursed fool that I was, +I forgot it. I too have missed a fortune." + +He was seized with a horrible delirium of fever, and began to rave. +Joseph, assisted by old Desroches, who had come back, and by Bixiou, +carried him to his room. Doctor Haudry was obliged to write a line to +the Hopital de la Charite and borrow a strait-waistcoat; for the +delirium ran so high as to make him fear that Philippe might kill +himself,--he was raving. At nine o'clock calm was restored. The Abbe +Loraux and Desroches endeavored to comfort Agathe, who never ceased to +weep at her aunt's bedside. She listened to them in silence, and +obstinately shook her head; Joseph and the Descoings alone knew the +extent and depth of her inward wound. + +"He will learn to do better, mother," said Joseph, when Desroches and +Bixiou had left. + +"Oh!" cried the widow, "Philippe is right,--my father cursed me: I +have no right to-- Here, here is your money," she said to Madame +Descoings, adding Joseph's three hundred francs to the two hundred +found on Philippe. "Go and see if your brother does not need +something," she said to Joseph. + +"Will you keep a promise made to a dying woman?" asked Madame +Descoings, who felt that her mind was failing her. + +"Yes, aunt." + +"Then swear to me to give your property to young Desroches for a life +annuity. My income ceases at my death; and from what you have just +said, I know you will let that wretch wring the last farthing out of +you." + +"I swear it, aunt." + +The old woman died on the 31st of December, five days after the +terrible blow which old Desroches had so innocently given her. The +five hundred francs--the only money in the household--were barely +enough to pay for her funeral. She left a small amount of silver and +some furniture, the value of which Madame Bixiou paid over to her +grandson Bixiou. Reduced to eight hundred francs' annuity paid to her +by young Desroches, who had bought a business without clients, and +himself took the capital of twelve thousand francs, Agathe gave up her +appartement on the third floor, and sold all her superfluous +furniture. When, at the end of a month, Philippe seemed to be +convalescent, his mother coldly explained to him that the costs of his +illness had taken all her ready money, that she should be obliged in +future to work for her living, and she urged him, with the utmost +kindness, to re-enter the army and support himself. + +"You might have spared me that sermon," said Philippe, looking at his +mother with an eye that was cold from utter indifference. "I have seen +all along that neither you nor my brother love me. I am alone in the +world; I like it best!" + +"Make yourself worthy of our affection," answered the poor mother, +struck to the very heart, "and we will give it back to you--" + +"Nonsense!" he cried, interrupting her. + +He took his old hat, rubbed white at the edges, stuck it over one ear, +and went downstairs, whistling. + +"Philippe! where are you going without any money?" cried his mother, +who could not repress her tears. "Here, take this--" + +She held out to him a hundred francs in gold, wrapped up in paper. +Philippe came up the stairs he had just descended, and took the money. + +"Well; won't you kiss me?" she said, bursting into tears. + +He pressed his mother in his arms, but without the warmth of feeling +which was all that could give value to the embrace. + +"Where shall you go?" asked Agathe. + +"To Florentine, Girodeau's mistress. Ah! they are real friends!" he +answered brutally. + +He went away. Agathe turned back with trembling limbs, and failing +eyes, and aching heart. She fell upon her knees, prayed God to take +her unnatural child into His own keeping, and abdicated her woeful +motherhood. + + + + CHAPTER VI + +By February, 1822, Madame Bridau had settled into the attic room +recently occupied by Philippe, which was over the kitchen of her +former appartement. The painter's studio and bedroom was opposite, on +the other side of the staircase. When Joseph saw his mother thus +reduced, he was determined to make her as comfortable as possible. +After his brother's departure he assisted in the re-arrangement of the +garret room, to which he gave an artist's touch. He added a rug; the +bed, simple in character but exquisite in taste, had something +monastic about it; the walls, hung with a cheap glazed cotton selected +with taste, of a color which harmonized with the furniture and was +newly covered, gave the room an air of elegance and nicety. In the +hallway he added a double door, with a "portiere" to the inner one. +The window was shaded by a blind which gave soft tones to the light. +If the poor mother's life was reduced to the plainest circumstances +that the life of any woman could have in Paris, Agathe was at least +better off than all others in a like case, thanks to her son. + +To save his mother from the cruel cares of such reduced housekeeping, +Joseph took her every day to dine at a table-d'hote in the rue de +Beaune, frequented by well-bred women, deputies, and titled people, +where each person's dinner cost ninety francs a month. Having nothing +but the breakfast to provide, Agathe took up for her son the old +habits she had formerly had with the father. But in spite of Joseph's +pious lies, she discovered the fact that her dinner was costing him +nearly a hundred francs a month. Alarmed at such enormous expense, and +not imaging that her son could earn much money by painting naked +women, she obtained, thanks to her confessor, the Abbe Loraux, a place +worth seven hundred francs a year in a lottery-office belonging to the +Comtesse de Bauvan, the widow of a Chouan leader. The lottery-offices +of the government, the lot, as one might say, of privileged widows, +ordinarily sufficed for the support of the family of each person who +managed them. But after the Restoration the difficulty of rewarding, +within the limits of constitutional government, all the services +rendered to the cause, led to the custom of giving to reduced women of +title not only one but two lottery-offices, worth, usually, from six +to ten thousand a year. In such cases, the widow of a general or +nobleman thus "protected" did not keep the lottery-office herself; she +employed a paid manager. When these managers were young men they were +obliged to employ an assistant; for, according to law, the offices had +to be kept open till midnight; moreover, the reports required by the +minister of finance involved considerable writing. The Comtesse de +Bauvan, to whom the Abbe Loraux explained the circumstances of the +widow Bridau, promised, in case her manager should leave, to give the +place to Agathe; meantime she stipulated that the widow should be +taken as assistant, and receive a salary of six hundred francs. Poor +Agathe, who was obliged to be at the office by ten in the morning, had +scarcely time to get her dinner. She returned to her work at seven in +the evening, remaining there till midnight. Joseph never, for two +years, failed to fetch his mother at night, and bring her back to the +rue Mazarin; and often he went to take her to dinner; his friends +frequently saw him leave the opera or some brilliant salon to be +punctually at midnight at the office in the rue Vivienne. + +Agathe soon acquired the monotonous regularity of life which becomes a +stay and a support to those who have endured the shock of violent +sorrows. In the morning, after doing up her room, in which there were +no longer cats and little birds, she prepared the breakfast at her own +fire and carried it into the studio, where she ate it with her son. +She then arranged Joseph's bedroom, put out the fire in her own +chamber, and brought her sewing to the studio, where she sat by the +little iron stove, leaving the room if a comrade or a model entered +it. Though she understood nothing whatever of art, the silence of the +studio suited her. In the matter of art she made not the slightest +progress; she attempted no hypocrisy; she was utterly amazed at the +importance they all attached to color, composition, drawing. When the +Cenacle friends or some brother-painter, like Schinner, Pierre +Grassou, Leon de Lora,--a very youthful "rapin" who was called at that +time Mistigris,--discussed a picture, she would come back afterwards, +examine it attentively, and discover nothing to justify their fine +words and their hot disputes. She made her son's shirts, she mended +his stockings, she even cleaned his palette, supplied him with rags to +wipe his brushes, and kept things in order in the studio. Seeing how +much thought his mother gave to these little details, Joseph heaped +attentions upon her in return. If mother and son had no sympathies in +the matter of art, they were at least bound together by signs of +tenderness. The mother had a purpose. One morning as she was petting +Joseph while he was sketching a large picture (finished in after years +and never understood), she said, as it were, casually and aloud,-- + +"My God! what is he doing?" + +"Doing? who?" + +"Philippe." + +"Oh, ah! he's sowing his wild oats; that fellow will make something of +himself by and by." + +"But he has gone through the lesson of poverty; perhaps it was poverty +which changed him to what he is. If he were prosperous he would be +good--" + +"You think, my dear mother, that he suffered during that journey of +his. You are mistaken; he kept carnival in New York just as he does +here--" + +"But if he is suffering at this moment, near to us, would it not be +horrible?" + +"Yes," replied Joseph. "For my part, I will gladly give him some +money; but I don't want to see him; he killed our poor Descoings." + +"So," resumed Agathe, "you would not be willing to paint his +portrait?" + +"For you, dear mother, I'd suffer martyrdom. I can make myself +remember nothing except that he is my brother." + +"His portrait as a captain of dragoons on horseback?" + +"Yes, I've a copy of a fine horse by Gros and I haven't any use for +it." + +"Well, then, go and see that friend of his and find out what has +become of him." + +"I'll go!" + +Agathe rose; her scissors and work fell at her feet; she went and +kissed Joseph's head, and dropped two tears on his hair. + +"He is your passion, that fellow," said the painter. "We all have our +hopeless passions." + +That afternoon, about four o'clock, Joseph went to the rue du Sentier +and found his brother, who had taken Giroudeau's place. The old +dragoon had been promoted to be cashier of a weekly journal +established by his nephew. Although Finot was still proprietor of the +other newspaper, which he had divided into shares, holding all the +shares himself, the proprietor and editor "de visu" was one of his +friends, named Lousteau, the son of that very sub-delegate of Issoudun +on whom the Bridaus' grandfather, Doctor Rouget, had vowed vengeance; +consequently he was the nephew of Madame Hochon. To make himself +agreeable to his uncle, Finot gave Philippe the place Giroudeau was +quitting; cutting off, however, half the salary. Moreover, daily, at +five o'clock, Giroudeau audited the accounts and carried away the +receipts. Coloquinte, the old veteran, who was the office boy and did +errands, also kept an eye on the slippery Philippe; who was, however, +behaving properly. A salary of six hundred francs, and the five +hundred of his cross sufficed him to live, all the more because, +living in a warm office all day and at the theatre on a free pass +every evening, he had only to provide himself with food and a place to +sleep in. Coloquinte was departing with the stamped papers on his +head, and Philippe was brushing his false sleeves of green linen, when +Joseph entered. + +"Bless me, here's the cub!" cried Philippe. "Well, we'll go and dine +together. You shall go to the opera; Florine and Florentine have got a +box. I'm going with Giroudeau; you shall be of the party, and I'll +introduce you to Nathan." + +He took his leaded cane, and moistened a cigar. + +"I can't accept your invitation; I am to take our mother to dine at a +table d'hote." + +"Ah! how is she, the poor, dear woman?" + +"She is pretty well," answered the painter, "I have just repainted our +father's portrait, and aunt Descoings's. I have also painted my own, +and I should like to give our mother yours, in the uniform of the +dragoons of the Imperial Guard." + +"Very good." + +"You will have to come and sit." + +"I'm obliged to be in this hen-coop from nine o'clock till five." + +"Two Sundays will be enough." + +"So be it, little man," said Napoleon's staff officer, lighting his +cigar at the porter's lamp. + +When Joseph related Philippe's position to his mother, on their way to +dinner in the rue de Beaune, he felt her arm tremble in his, and joy +lighted up her worn face; the poor soul breathed like one relieved of +a heavy weight. The next day, inspired by joy and gratitude, she paid +Joseph a number of little attentions; she decorated his studio with +flowers, and bought him two stands of plants. On the first Sunday when +Philippe was to sit, Agathe arranged a charming breakfast in the +studio. She laid it all out on the table; not forgetting a flask of +brandy, which, however, was only half full. She herself stayed behind +a screen, in which she made a little hole. The ex-dragoon sent his +uniform the night before, and she had not refrained from kissing it. +When Philippe was placed, in full dress, on one of those straw horses, +all saddled, which Joseph had hired for the occasion, Agathe, fearing +to betray her presence, mingled the soft sound of her tears with the +conversation of the two brothers. Philippe posed for two hours before +and two hours after breakfast. At three o'clock in the afternoon, he +put on his ordinary clothes and, as he lighted a cigar, he proposed to +his brother to go and dine together in the Palais-Royal, jingling gold +in his pocket as he spoke. + +"No," said Joseph, "it frightens me to see gold about you." + +"Ah! you'll always have a bad opinion of me in this house," cried the +colonel in a thundering voice. "Can't I save my money, too?" + +"Yes, yes!" cried Agathe, coming out of her hiding-place, and kissing +her son. "Let us go and dine with him, Joseph!" + +Joseph dared not scold his mother. He went and dressed himself; and +Philippe took them to the Rocher de Cancale, where he gave them a +splendid dinner, the bill for which amounted to a hundred francs. + +"The devil!" muttered Joseph uneasily; "with an income of eleven +hundred francs you manage, like Ponchard in the 'Dame Blance,' to save +enough to buy estates." + +"Bah, I'm on a run of luck," answered the dragoon, who had drunk +enormously. + +Hearing this speech just as they were on the steps of the cafe, and +before they got into the carriage to go to the theatre,--for Philippe +was to take his mother to the Cirque-Olympique (the only theatre her +confessor allowed her to visit),--Joseph pinched his mother's arm. She +at once pretended to feel unwell, and refused to go the theatre; +Philippe accordingly took them back to the rue Mazarin, where, as soon +as she was alone with Joseph in her garret, Agathe fell into a gloomy +silence. + +The following Sunday Philippe came again. This time his mother was +visibly present at the sitting. She served the breakfast, and put +several questions to the dragoon. She then learned that the nephew of +old Madame Hochon, the friend of her mother, played a considerable +part in literature. Philippe and his friend Giroudeau lived among a +circle of journalists, actresses, and booksellers, where they were +regarded in the light of cashiers. Philippe, who had been drinking +kirsch before posing, was loquacious. He boasted that he was about to +become a great man. But when Joseph asked a question as to his +pecuniary resources he was dumb. It so happened that there was no +newspaper on the following day, it being a fete, and to finish the +picture Philippe proposed to sit again on the morrow. Joseph told him +that the Salon was close at hand, and as he did not have the money to +buy two frames for the pictures he wished to exhibit, he was forced to +procure it by finishing a copy of a Rubens which had been ordered by +Elie Magus, the picture-dealer. The original belonged to a wealthy +Swiss banker, who had only lent it for ten days, and the next day was +the last; the sitting must therefore be put off till the following +Sunday. + +"Is that it?" asked Philippe, pointing to a picture by Rubens on an +easel. + +"Yes," replied Joseph; "it is worth twenty thousand francs. That's +what genius can do. It will take me all to-morrow to get the tones of +the original and make the copy look so old it can't be distinguished +from it." + +"Adieu, mother," said Philippe, kissing Agathe. "Next Sunday, then." + +The next day Elie Magus was to come for his copy. Joseph's friend, +Pierre Grassou, who was working for the same dealer, wanted to see it +when finished. To play him a trick, Joseph, when he heard his knock, +put the copy, which was varnished with a special glaze of his own, in +place of the original, and put the original on his easel. Pierre +Grassou was completely taken in; and then amazed and delighted at +Joseph's success. + +"Do you think it will deceive old Magus?" he said to Joseph. + +"We shall see," answered the latter. + +The dealer did not come as he had promised. It was getting late; +Agathe dined that day with Madame Desroches, who had lately lost her +husband, and Joseph proposed to Pierre Grassou to dine at his table +d'hote. As he went out he left the key of his studio with the +concierge. + +An hour later Philippe appeared and said to the concierge,-- + +"I am to sit this evening; Joseph will be in soon, and I will wait for +him in the studio." + +The woman gave him the key; Philippe went upstairs, took the copy, +thinking it was the original, and went down again; returned the key to +the concierge with the excuse that he had forgotten something, and +hurried off to sell his Rubens for three thousand francs. He had taken +the precaution to convey a message from his brother to Elie Magus, +asking him not to call till the following day. + +That evening when Joseph returned, bringing his mother from Madame +Desroches's, the concierge told him of Philippe's freak,--how he had +called intending to wait, and gone away again immediately. + +"I am ruined--unless he has had the delicacy to take the copy," cried +the painter, instantly suspecting the theft. He ran rapidly up the +three flights and rushed into his studio. "God be praised!" he +ejaculated. "He is, what he always has been, a vile scoundrel." + +Agathe, who had followed Joseph, did not understand what he was +saying; but when her son explained what had happened, she stood still, +with the tears in her eyes. + +"Have I but one son?" she said in a broken voice. + +"We have never yet degraded him to the eyes of strangers," said +Joseph; "but we must now warn the concierge. In future we shall have +to keep the keys ourselves. I'll finish his blackguard face from +memory; there's not much to do to it." + +"Leave it as it is; it will pain me too much ever to look at it," +answered the mother, heart-stricken and stupefied at such wickedness. + +Philippe had been told how the money for this copy was to be expended; +moreover he knew the abyss into which he would plunge his brother +through the loss of the Rubens; but nothing restrained him. After this +last crime Agathe never mentioned him; her face acquired an expression +of cold and concentrated and bitter despair; one thought took +possession of her mind. + +"Some day," she said to herself, "we shall hear of a Bridau in the +police courts." + +Two months later, as Agathe was about to start for her office, an old +officer, who announced himself as a friend of Philippe on urgent +business, called on Madame Bridau, who happened to be in Joseph's +studio. + +When Giroudeau gave his name, mother and son trembled, and none the +less because the ex-dragoon had the face of a tough old sailor of the +worst type. His fishy gray eyes, his piebald moustache, the remains of +his shaggy hair fringing a skull that was the color of fresh butter, +all gave an indescribably debauched and libidinous expression to his +appearance. He wore an old iron-gray overcoat decorated with the red +ribbon of an officer of the Legion of honor, which met with difficulty +over a gastronomic stomach in keeping with a mouth that stretched from +ear to ear, and a pair of powerful shoulders. The torso was supported +by a spindling pair of legs, while the rubicund tints on the cheek- +bones bore testimony to a rollicking life. The lower part of the +cheeks, which were deeply wrinkled, overhung a coat-collar of velvet +the worse for wear. Among other adornments, the ex-dragoon wore +enormous gold rings in his ears. + +"What a 'noceur'!" thought Joseph, using a popular expression, meaning +a "loose fish," which had lately passed into the ateliers. + +"Madame," said Finot's uncle and cashier, "your son is in so +unfortunate a position that his friends find it absolutely necessary +to ask you to share the somewhat heavy expense which he is to them. He +can no longer do his work at the office; and Mademoiselle Florentine, +of the Porte-Saint-Martin, has taken him to lodge with her, in a +miserable attic in the rue de Vendome. Philippe is dying; and if you +and his brother are not able to pay for the doctor and medicines, we +shall be obliged, for the sake of curing him, to have him taken to the +hospital of the Capuchins. For three hundred francs we would keep him +where he is. But he must have a nurse; for at night, when Mademoiselle +Florentine is at the theatre, he persists in going out, and takes +things that are irritating and injurious to his malady and its +treatment. As we are fond of him, this makes us really very unhappy. +The poor fellow has pledged the pension of his cross for the next +three years; he is temporarily displaced from his office, and he has +literally nothing. He will kill himself, madame, unless we can put him +into the private asylum of Doctor Dubois. It is a decent hospital, +where they will take him for ten francs a day. Florentine and I will +pay half, if you will pay the rest; it won't be for more than two +months." + +"Monsieur, it is difficult for a mother not to be eternally grateful +to you for your kindness to her son," replied Agathe; "but this son is +banished from my heart, and as for money, I have none. Not to be a +burden on my son whom you see here, who works day and night and +deserves all the love his mother can give him, I am the assistant in a +lottery-office--at my age!" + +"And you, young man," said the old dragoon to Joseph; "can't you do as +much for your brother as a poor dancer at the Porte-Saint-Martin and +an old soldier?" + +"Look here!" said Joseph, out of patience; "do you want me to tell you +in artist language what I think of your visit? Well, you have come to +swindle us on false pretences." + +"To-morrow your brother shall go to the hospital." + +"And he will do very well there," answered Joseph. "If I were in like +case, I should go there too." + +Giroudeau withdrew, much disappointed, and also really mortified at +being obliged to send to a hospital a man who had carried the +Emperor's orders at the battle of Montereau. Three months later, at +the end of July, as Agathe one morning was crossing the Pont Neuf to +avoid paying a sou at the Pont des Arts, she saw, coming along by the +shops of the Quai de l'Ecole, a man bearing all the signs of second- +class poverty, who, she thought, resembled Philippe. In Paris, there +are three distinct classes of poverty. First, the poverty of the man +who preserves appearances, and to whom a future still belongs; this is +the poverty of young men, artists, men of the world, momentarily +unfortunate. The outward signs of their distress are not visible, +except under the microscope of a close observer. These persons are the +equestrian order of poverty; they continue to drive about in +cabriolets. In the second order we find old men who have become +indifferent to everything, and, in June, put the cross of the Legion +of honor on alpaca overcoats; that is the poverty of small incomes,-- +of old clerks, who live at Sainte-Perine and care no longer about +their outward man. Then comes, in the third place, poverty in rags, +the poverty of the people, the poverty that is poetic; which Callot, +Hogarth, Murillo, Charlet, Raffet, Gavarni, Meissonier, Art itself +adores and cultivates, especially during the carnival. The man in whom +poor Agathe thought she recognized her son was astride the last two +classes of poverty. She saw the ragged neck-cloth, the scurfy hat, the +broken and patched boots, the threadbare coat, whose buttons had shed +their mould, leaving the empty shrivelled pod dangling in congruity +with the torn pockets and the dirty collar. Scraps of flue were in the +creases of the coat, which showed plainly the dust that filled it. The +man drew from the pockets of his seam-rent iron-gray trousers a pair +of hands as black as those of a mechanic. A knitted woollen waistcoat, +discolored by use, showed below the sleeves of his coat, and above the +trousers, and no doubt served instead of a shirt. Philippe wore a +green silk shade with a wire edge over his eyes; his head, which was +nearly bald, the tints of his skin, and his sunken face too plainly +revealed that he was just leaving the terrible Hopital du Midi. His +blue overcoat, whitened at the seams, was still decorated with the +ribbon of his cross; and the passers-by looked at the hero, doubtless +some victim of the government, with curiosity and commiseration; the +rosette attracted notice, and the fiercest "ultra" was jealous for the +honor of the Legion. In those days, however much the government +endeavored to bring the Order into disrepute by bestowing its cross +right and left, there were not fifty-three thousand persons decorated. + +Agathe trembled through her whole being. If it were impossible to love +this son any longer, she could still suffer for him. Quivering with +this last expression of motherhood, she wept as she saw the brilliant +staff officer of the Emperor turn to enter tobacconist's and pause on +the threshold; he had felt in his pocket and found nothing. Agathe +left the bridge, crossed the quai rapidly, took out her purse, thrust +it into Philippe's hand, and fled away as if she had committed a +crime. After that, she ate nothing for two days; before her was the +horrible vision of her son dying of hunger in the streets of Paris. + +"When he has spent all the money in my purse, who will give him any?" +she thought. "Giroudeau did not deceive us; Philippe is just out of +that hospital." + +She no longer saw the assassin of her poor aunt, the scourge of the +family, the domestic thief, the gambler, the drunkard, the low liver +of a bad life; she saw only the man recovering from illness, yet +doomed to die of starvation, the smoker deprived of his tobacco. At +forty-seven years of age she grew to look like a woman of seventy. Her +eyes were dimmed with tears and prayers. Yet it was not the last grief +this son was to bring upon her; her worst apprehensions were destined +to be realized. A conspiracy of officers was discovered at the heart +of the army, and articles from the "Moniteur" giving details of the +arrests were hawked about the streets. + +In the depths of her cage in the lottery-office of the rue Vivienne, +Agathe heard the name of Philippe Bridau. She fainted, and the +manager, understanding her trouble and the necessity of taking certain +steps, gave her leave of absence for two weeks. + +"Ah! my friend," she said to Joseph, as she went to bed that night, +"it is our severity which drove him to it." + +"I'll go and see Desroches," answered Joseph. + +While the artist was confiding his brother's affairs to the younger +Desroches,--who by this time had the reputation of being one of the +keenest and most astute lawyers in Paris, and who, moreover, did +sundry services for personages of distinction, among others for des +Lupeaulx, then secretary of a ministry,--Giroudeau called upon the +widow. This time, Agathe believed him. + +"Madame," he said, "if you can produce twelve thousand francs your son +will be set at liberty for want of proof. It is necessary to buy the +silence of two witnesses." + +"I will get the money," said the poor mother, without knowing how or +where. + +Inspired by this danger, she wrote to her godmother, old Madame +Hochon, begging her to ask Jean-Jacques Rouget to send her the twelve +thousand francs and save his nephew Philippe. If Rouget refused, she +entreated Madame Hochon to lend them to her, promising to return them +in two years. By return of courier, she received the following +letter:-- + + My dear girl: Though your brother has an income of not less than + forty thousand francs a year, without counting the sums he has + laid by for the last seventeen years, and which Monsieur Hochon + estimates at more than six hundred thousand francs, he will not + give one penny to nephews whom he has never seen. As for me, you + know I cannot dispose of a farthing while my husband lives. Hochon + is the greatest miser in Issoudun. I do not know what he does with + his money; he does not give twenty francs a year to his + grandchildren. As for borrowing the money, I should have to get + his signature, and he would refuse it. I have not even attempted + to speak to your brother, who lives with a concubine, to whom he + is a slave. It is pitiable to see how the poor man is treated in + his own home, when he might have a sister and nephews to take care + of him. + + I have hinted to you several times that your presence at Issoudun + might save your brother, and rescue a fortune of forty, perhaps + sixty, thousand francs a year from the claws of that slut; but you + either do not answer me, or you seem never to understand my + meaning. So to-day I am obliged to write without epistolary + circumlocution. I feel for the misfortune which has overtaken you, + but, my dearest, I can do no more than pity you. And this is why: + Hochon, at eighty-five years of age, takes four meals a day, eats + a salad with hard-boiled eggs every night, and frisks about like a + rabbit. I shall have spent my whole life--for he will live to + write my epitaph--without ever having had twenty francs in my + purse. If you will come to Issoudun and counteract the influence + of that concubine over your brother, you must stay with me, for + there are reasons why Rouget cannot receive you in his own house; + but even then, I shall have hard work to get my husband to let me + have you here. However, you can safely come; I can make him mind + me as to that. I know a way to get what I want out of him; I have + only to speak of making my will. It seems such a horrid thing to + do that I do not often have recourse to it; but for you, dear + Agathe, I will do the impossible. + + I hope your Philippe will get out of his trouble; and I beg you to + employ a good lawyer. In any case, come to Issoudun as soon as you + can. Remember that your imbecile of a brother at fifty-seven is an + older and weaker man than Monsieur Hochon. So it is a pressing + matter. People are talking already of a will that cuts off your + inheritance; but Monsieur Hochon says there is still time to get + it revoked. + + Adieu, my little Agathe; may God help you! Believe in the love of + your godmother, + + Maximilienne Hochon, nee Lousteau. + + P.S. Has my nephew, Etienne, who writes in the newspapers and is + intimate, they tell me, with your son Philippe, been to pay his + respects to you? But come at once to Issoudun, and we will talk + over things. + + +This letter made a great impression on Agathe, who showed it, of +course, to Joseph, to whom she had been forced to mention Giroudeau's +proposal. The artist, who grew wary when it concerned his brother, +pointed out to her that she ought to tell everything to Desroches. + +Conscious of the wisdom of that advice, Agathe went with her son the +next morning, at six o'clock, to find Desroches at his house in the +rue de Bussy. The lawyer, as cold and stern as his late father, with a +sharp voice, a rough skin, implacable eyes, and the visage of a fox as +he licks his lips of the blood of chickens, bounded like a tiger when +he heard of Giroudeau's visit and proposal. + +"And pray, mere Bridau," he cried, in his little cracked voice, "how +long are you going to be duped by your cursed brigand of a son? Don't +give him a farthing. Make yourself easy, I'll answer for Philippe. I +should like to see him brought before the Court of Peers; it might +save his future. You are afraid he will be condemned; but I say, may +it please God his lawyer lets him be convicted. Go to Issoudun, secure +the property for your children. If you don't succeed, if your brother +has made a will in favor of that woman, and you can't make him revoke +it,--well then, at least get all the evidence you can of undue +influence, and I'll institute proceedings for you. But you are too +honest a woman to know how to get at the bottom facts of such a +matter. I'll go myself to Issoudun in the holidays,--if I can." + +That "go myself" made Joseph tremble in his skin. Desroches winked at +him to let his mother go downstairs first, and then the lawyer +detained the young man for a single moment. + +"Your brother is a great scoundrel; he is the cause of the discovery +of this conspiracy,--intentionally or not, I can't say, for the rascal +is so sly no one can find out the exact truth as to that. Fool or +traitor,--take your choice. He will be put under the surveillance of +the police, nothing more. You needn't be uneasy; no one knows this +secret but myself. Go to Issoudun with your mother. You have good +sense; try to save the property." + +"Come, my poor mother, Desroches is right," said Joseph, rejoining +Agathe on the staircase. "I have sold my two pictures, let us start +for Berry; you have two weeks' leave of absence." + +After writing to her godmother to announce their arrival, Agathe and +Joseph started the next evening for their trip to Issoudun, leaving +Philippe to his fate. The diligence rolled through the rue d'Enfer +toward the Orleans highroad. When Agathe saw the Luxembourg, to which +Philippe had been transferred, she could not refrain from saying,-- + +"If it were not for the Allies he would never be there!" + +Many sons would have made an impatient gesture and smiled with pity; +but the artist, who was alone with his mother in the coupe, caught her +in his arms and pressed her to his heart, exclaiming:-- + +"Oh, mother! you are a mother just as Raphael was a painter. And you +will always be a fool of a mother!" + +Madame Bridau's mind, diverted before long from her griefs by the +distractions of the journey, began to dwell on the purpose of it. She +re-read the letter of Madame Hochon, which had so stirred up the +lawyer Desroches. Struck with the words "concubine" and "slut," which +the pen of a septuagenarian as pious as she was respectable had used +to designate the woman now in process of getting hold of Jean-Jacques +Rouget's property, struck also with the word "imbecile" applied to +Rouget himself, she began to ask herself how, by her presence at +Issoudun, she was to save the inheritance. Joseph, poor disinterested +artist that he was, knew little enough about the Code, and his +mother's last remark absorbed his mind. + +"Before our friend Desroches sent us off to protect our rights, he +ought to have explained to us the means of doing so," he exclaimed. + +"So far as my poor head, which whirls at the thought of Philippe in +prison,--without tobacco, perhaps, and about to appear before the +Court of Peers!--leaves me any distinct memory," returned Agathe, "I +think young Desroches said we were to get evidence of undue influence, +in case my brother has made a will in favor of that--that--woman." + +"He is good at that, Desroches is," cried the painter. "Bah! if we can +make nothing of it I'll get him to come himself." + +"Well, don't let us trouble our heads uselessly," said Agathe. "When +we get to Issoudun my godmother will tell us what to do." + +This conversation, which took place just after Madame Bridau and +Joseph changed coaches at Orleans and entered the Sologne, is +sufficient proof of the incapacity of the painter and his mother to +play the part the inexorable Desroches had assigned to them. + +In returning to Issoudun after thirty years' absence, Agathe was about +to find such changes in its manners and customs that it is necessary +to sketch, in a few words, a picture of that town. Without it, the +reader would scarcely understand the heroism displayed by Madame +Hochon in assisting her goddaughter, or the strange situation of Jean- +Jacques Rouget. Though Doctor Rouget had taught his son to regard +Agathe in the light of a stranger, it was certainly a somewhat +extraordinary thing that for thirty years a brother should have given +no signs of life to a sister. Such a silence was evidently caused by +peculiar circumstances, and any other sister and nephew than Agathe +and Joseph would long ago have inquired into them. There is, moreover, +a certain connection between the condition of the city of Issoudun and +the interests of the Bridau family, which can only be seen as the +story goes on. + + + + CHAPTER VII + +Issoudun, be it said without offence to Paris, is one of the oldest +cities in France. In spite of the historical assumption which makes +the emperor Probus the Noah of the Gauls, Caesar speaks of the +excellent wine of Champ-Fort ("de Campo Forti") still one of the best +vintages of Issoudun. Rigord writes of this city in language which +leaves no doubt as to its great population and its immense commerce. +But these testimonies both assign a much lesser age to the city than +its ancient antiquity demands. In fact, the excavations lately +undertaken by a learned archaeologist of the place, Monsieur Armand +Peremet, have brought to light, under the celebrated tower of +Issoudun, a basilica of the fifth century, probably the only one in +France. This church preserves, in its very materials, the sign-manual +of an anterior civilization; for its stones came from a Roman temple +which stood on the same site. + +Issoudun, therefore, according to the researches of this antiquary, +like other cities of France whose ancient or modern autonym ends in +"Dun" ("dunum") bears in its very name the certificate of an +autochthonous existence. The word "Dun," the appanage of all dignity +consecrated by Druidical worship, proves a religious and military +settlement of the Celts. Beneath the Dun of the Gauls must have lain +the Roman temple to Isis. From that comes, according to Chaumon, the +name of the city, Issous-Dun,--"Is" being the abbreviation of "Isis." +Richard Coeur-de-lion undoubtedly built the famous tower (in which he +coined money) above the basilica of the fifth century,--the third +monument of the third religion of this ancient town. He used the +church as a necessary foundation, or stay, for the raising of the +rampart; and he preserved it by covering it with feudal fortifications +as with a mantle. Issoudun was at that time the seat of the ephemeral +power of the Routiers and the Cottereaux, adventurers and free- +lancers, whom Henry II. sent against his son Richard, at the time of +his rebellion as Comte de Poitou. + +The history of Aquitaine, which was not written by the Benedictines, +will probably never be written, because there are no longer +Benedictines: thus we are not able to light up these archaeological +tenebrae in the history of our manners and customs on every occasion +of their appearance. There is another testimony to the ancient +importance of Issoudun in the conversion into a canal of the +Tournemine, a little stream raised several feet above the level of the +Theols which surrounds the town. This is undoubtedly the work of Roman +genius. Moreover, the suburb which extends from the castle in a +northerly direction is intersected by a street which for more than two +thousand years has borne the name of the rue de Rome; and the +inhabitants of this suburb, whose racial characteristics, blood, and +physiognomy have a special stamp of their own, call themselves +descendants of the Romans. They are nearly all vine-growers, and +display a remarkable inflexibility of manners and customs, due, +undoubtedly, to their origin,--perhaps also to their victory over the +Cottereaux and the Routiers, whom they exterminated on the plain of +Charost in the twelfth century. + +After the insurrection of 1830, France was too agitated to pay much +attention to the rising of the vine-growers of Issoudun; a terrible +affair, the facts of which have never been made public,--for good +reasons. In the first place, the bourgeois of Issoudun refused to +allow the military to enter the town. They followed the use and wont +of the bourgeoisie of the Middle Ages and declared themselves +responsible for their own city. The government was obliged to yield to +a sturdy people backed up by seven or eight thousand vine-growers, who +had burned all the archives, also the offices of "indirect taxation," +and had dragged through the streets a customs officer, crying out at +every street lantern, "Let us hang him here!" The poor man's life was +saved by the national guard, who took him to prison on pretext of +drawing up his indictment. The general in command only entered the +town by virtue of a compromise made with the vine-growers; and it +needed some courage to go among them. At the moment when he showed +himself at the hotel-de-ville, a man from the faubourg de Rome slung a +"volant" round his neck (the "volant" is a huge pruning-hook fastened +to a pole, with which they trim trees) crying out, "No more clerks, or +there's an end to compromise!" The fellow would have taken off that +honored head, left untouched by sixteen years of war, had it not been +for the hasty intervention of one of the leaders of the revolt, to +whom a promise had been made that THE CHAMBERS SHOULD BE ASKED TO +SUPPRESS THE EXCISEMEN. + +In the fourteenth century, Issoudun still had sixteen or seventeen +thousand inhabitants, remains of a population double that number in +the time of Rigord. Charles VII. possessed a mansion which still +exists, and was known, as late as the eighteenth century, as the +Maison du Roi. This town, then a centre of the woollen trade, supplied +that commodity to the greater part of Europe, and manufactured on a +large scale blankets, hats, and the excellent Chevreautin gloves. +Under Louis XIV., Issoudun, the birthplace of Baron and Bourdaloue, +was always cited as a city of elegance and good society, where the +language was correctly spoken. The curate Poupard, in his History of +Sancerre, mentions the inhabitants of Issoudun as remarkable among the +other Berrichons for subtlety and natural wit. To-day, the wit and the +splendor have alike disappeared. Issoudun, whose great extent of +ground bears witness to its ancient importance, has now barely twelve +thousand inhabitants, including the vine-dressers of four enormous +suburbs,--those of Saint-Paterne, Vilatte, Rome, and Alouette, which +are really small towns. The bourgeoisie, like that of Versailles, are +spread over the length and breadth of the streets. Issoudun still +holds the market for the fleeces of Berry; a commerce now threatened +by improvements in the stock which are being introduced everywhere +except in Berry. + +The vineyards of Issoudun produce a wine which is drunk throughout the +two departments, and which, if manufactured as Burgundy and Gascony +manufacture theirs, would be one of the best wines in France. Alas, +"to do as our fathers did," with no innovations, is the law of the +land. Accordingly, the vine-growers continue to leave the refuse of +the grape in the juice during its fermentation, which makes the wine +detestable, when it might be a source of ever-springing wealth, and an +industry for the community. Thanks to the bitterness which the refuse +infuses into the wine, and which, they say, lessens with age, a +vintage will keep a century. This reason, given by the vine-grower in +excuse for his obstinacy, is of sufficient importance to oenology to +be made public here; Guillaume le Breton has also proclaimed it in +some lines of his "Phillippide." + +The decline of Issoudun is explained by this spirit of sluggishness, +sunken to actual torpor, which a single fact will illustrate. When the +authorities were talking of a highroad between Paris and Toulouse, it +was natural to think of taking it from Vierzon to Chateauroux by way +of Issoudun. The distance was shorter than to make it, as the road now +is, through Vatan, but the leading people of the neighborhood and the +city council of Issoudun (whose discussion of the matter is said to be +recorded), demanded that it should go by Vatan, on the ground that if +the highroad went through their town, provisions would rise in price +and they might be forced to pay thirty sous for a chicken. The only +analogy to be found for this proceeding is in the wilder parts of +Sardinia, a land once so rich and populous, now so deserted. When +Charles Albert, with a praiseworthy intention of civilization, wished +to unite Sassari, the second capital of the island, with Cagliari by a +magnificent highway (the only one ever made in that wild waste by name +Sardinia), the direct line lay through Bornova, a district inhabited +by lawless people, all the more like our Arab tribes because they are +descended from the Moors. Seeing that they were about to fall into the +clutches of civilization, the savages of Bornova, without taking the +trouble to discuss the matter, declared their opposition to the road. +The government took no notice of it. The first engineer who came to +survey it, got a ball through his head, and died on his level. No +action was taken on this murder, but the road made a circuit which +lengthened it by eight miles! + +The continual lowering of the price of wines drunk in the +neighborhood, though it may satisfy the desire of the bourgeoisie of +Issoudun for cheap provisions, is leading the way to the ruin of the +vine-growers, who are more and more burdened with the costs of +cultivation and the taxes; just as the ruin of the woollen trade is +the result of the non-improvement in the breeding of sheep. Country- +folk have the deepest horror of change; even that which is most +conducive to their interests. In the country, a Parisian meets a +laborer who eats an enormous quantity of bread, cheese, and +vegetables; he proves to him that if he would substitute for that diet +a certain portion of meat, he would be better fed, at less cost; that +he could work more, and would not use up his capital of health and +strength so quickly. The Berrichon sees the correctness of the +calculation, but he answers, "Think of the gossip, monsieur." "Gossip, +what do you mean?" "Well, yes, what would people say of me?" "He would +be the talk of the neighborhood," said the owner of the property on +which this scene took place; "they would think him as rich as a +tradesman. He is afraid of public opinion, afraid of being pointed at, +afraid of seeming ill or feeble. That's how we all are in this +region." Many of the bourgeoisie utter this phrase with feelings of +inward pride. + +While ignorance and custom are invincible in the country regions, +where the peasants are left very much to themselves, the town of +Issoudun itself has reached a state of complete social stagnation. +Obliged to meet the decadence of fortunes by the practice of sordid +economy, each family lives to itself. Moreover, society is permanently +deprived of that distinction of classes which gives character to +manners and customs. There is no opposition of social forces, such as +that to which the cities of the Italian States in the Middle Ages owed +their vitality. There are no longer any nobles in Issoudun. The +Cottereaux, the Routiers, the Jacquerie, the religious wars and the +Revolution did away with the nobility. The town is proud of that +triumph. Issoudun has repeatedly refused to receive a garrison, always +on the plea of cheap provisions. She has thus lost a means of +intercourse with the age, and she has also lost the profits arising +from the presence of troops. Before 1756, Issoudun was one of the most +delightful of all the garrison towns. A judicial drama, which occupied +for a time the attention of France, the feud of a lieutenant-general +of the department with the Marquis de Chapt, whose son, an officer of +dragoons, was put to death,--justly perhaps, yet traitorously, for +some affair of gallantry,--deprived the town from that time forth of a +garrison. The sojourn of the forty-fourth demi-brigade, imposed upon +it during the civil war, was not of a nature to reconcile the +inhabitants to the race of warriors. + +Bourges, whose population is yearly decreasing, is a victim of the +same social malady. Vitality is leaving these communities. +Undoubtedly, the government is to blame. The duty of an administration +is to discover the wounds upon the body-politic, and remedy them by +sending men of energy to the diseased regions, with power to change +the state of things. Alas, so far from that, it approves and +encourages this ominous and fatal tranquillity. Besides, it may be +asked, how could the government send new administrators and able +magistrates? Who, of such men, is willing to bury himself in the +arrondissements, where the good to be done is without glory? If, by +chance, some ambitious stranger settles there, he soon falls into the +inertia of the region, and tunes himself to the dreadful key of +provincial life. Issoudun would have benumbed Napoleon. + +As a result of this particular characteristic, the arrondissement of +Issoudun was governed, in 1822, by men who all belonged to Berry. The +administration of power became either a nullity or a farce,--except in +certain cases, naturally very rare, which by their manifest importance +compelled the authorities to act. The procureur du roi, Monsieur +Mouilleron, was cousin to the entire community, and his substitute +belonged to one of the families of the town. The judge of the court, +before attaining that dignity, was made famous by one of those +provincial sayings which put a cap and bells on a man's head for the +rest of his life. As he ended his summing-up of all the facts of an +indictment, he looked at the accused and said: "My poor Pierre! the +thing is as plain as day; your head will be cut off. Let this be a +lesson to you." The commissary of police, holding office since the +Restoration, had relations throughout the arrondissement. Moreover, +not only was the influence of religion null, but the curate himself +was held in no esteem. + +It was this bourgeoisie, radical, ignorant, and loving to annoy +others, which now related tales, more or less comic, about the +relations of Jean-Jacques Rouget with his servant-woman. The children +of these people went none the less to Sunday-school, and were as +scrupulously prepared for their communion: the schools were kept up +all the same; mass was said; the taxes were paid (the sole thing that +Paris extracts of the provinces), and the mayor passed resolutions. +But all these acts of social existence were done as mere routine, and +thus the laxity of the local government suited admirably with the +moral and intellectual condition of the governed. The events of the +following history will show the effects of this state of things, which +is not as unusual in the provinces as might be supposed. Many towns in +France, more particularly in the South, are like Issoudun. The +condition to which the ascendency of the bourgeoisie has reduced that +local capital is one which will spread over all France, and even to +Paris, if the bourgeois continues to rule the exterior and interior +policy of our country. + +Now, one word of topography. Issoudun stretches north and south, along +a hillside which rounds towards the highroad to Chateauroux. At the +foot of the hill, a canal, now called the "Riviere forcee" whose +waters are taken from the Theols, was constructed in former times, +when the town was flourishing, for the use of manufactories or to +flood the moats of the rampart. The "Riviere forcee" forms an +artificial arm of a natural river, the Tournemine, which unites with +several other streams beyond the suburb of Rome. These little threads +of running water and the two rivers irrigate a tract of wide-spreading +meadow-land, enclosed on all sides by little yellowish or white +terraces dotted with black speckles; for such is the aspect of the +vineyards of Issoudun during seven months of the year. The +vine-growers cut the plants down yearly, leaving only an ugly stump, +without support, sheltered by a barrel. The traveller arriving from +Vierzon, Vatan, or Chateauroux, his eyes weary with monotonous plains, +is agreeably surprised by the meadows of Issoudun,--the oasis of this +part of Berry, which supplies the inhabitants with vegetables +throughout a region of thirty miles in circumference. Below the suburb +of Rome, lies a vast tract entirely covered with kitchen-gardens, and +divided into two sections, which bear the name of upper and lower +Baltan. A long avenue of poplars leads from the town across the +meadows to an ancient convent named Frapesle, whose English gardens, +quite unique in that arrondissement, have received the ambitious name +of Tivoli. Loving couples whisper their vows in its alleys of a +Sunday. + +Traces of the ancient grandeur of Issoudun of course reveal themselves +to the eyes of a careful observer; and the most suggestive are the +divisions of the town. The chateau, formerly almost a town itself with +its walls and moats, is a distinct quarter which can only be entered, +even at the present day, through its ancient gateways,--by means of +three bridges thrown across the arms of the two rivers,--and has all +the appearance of an ancient city. The ramparts show, in places, the +formidable strata of their foundations, on which houses have now +sprung up. Above the chateau, is the famous tower of Issoudun, once +the citadel. The conqueror of the city, which lay around these two +fortified points, had still to gain possession of the tower and the +castle; and possession of the castle did not insure that of the tower, +or citadel. + +The suburb of Saint-Paterne, which lies in the shape of a palette +beyond the tower, encroaching on the meadow-lands, is so considerable +that in the very earliest ages it must have been part of the city +itself. This opinion derived, in 1822, a sort of certainty from the +then existence of the charming church of Saint-Paterne, recently +pulled down by the heir of the individual who bought it of the nation. +This church, one of the finest specimens of the Romanesque that France +possessed, actually perished without a single drawing being made of +the portal, which was in perfect preservation. The only voice raised +to save this monument of a past art found no echo, either in the town +itself or in the department. Though the castle of Issoudun has the +appearance of an old town, with its narrow streets and its ancient +mansions, the city itself, properly so called, which was captured and +burned at different epochs, notably during the Fronde, when it was +laid in ashes, has a modern air. Streets that are spacious in +comparison with those of other towns, and well-built houses form a +striking contrast to the aspect of the citadel,--a contrast that has +won for Issoudun, in certain geographies, the epithet of "pretty." + +In a town thus constituted, without the least activity, even business +activity, without a taste for art, or for learned occupations, and +where everybody stayed in the little round of his or her own home, it +was likely to happen, and did happen under the Restoration in 1816 +when the war was over, that many of the young men of the place had no +career before them, and knew not where to turn for occupation until +they could marry or inherit the property of their fathers. Bored in +their own homes, these young fellows found little or no distraction +elsewhere in the city; and as, in the language of that region, "youth +must shed its cuticle" they sowed their wild oats at the expense of +the town itself. It was difficult to carry on such operations in open +day, lest the perpetrators should be recognized; for the cup of their +misdemeanors once filled, they were liable to be arraigned at their +next peccadillo before the police courts; and they therefore +judiciously selected the night time for the performance of their +mischievous pranks. Thus it was that among the traces of divers lost +civilizations, a vestige of the spirit of drollery that characterized +the manners of antiquity burst into a final flame. + +The young men amused themselves very much as Charles IX. amused +himself with his courtiers, or Henry V. of England and his companions, +or as in former times young men were wont to amuse themselves in the +provinces. Having once banded together for purposes of mutual help, to +defend each other and invent amusing tricks, there presently developed +among them, through the clash of ideas, that spirit of malicious +mischief which belongs to the period of youth and may even be observed +among animals. The confederation, in itself, gave them the mimic +delights of the mystery of an organized conspiracy. They called +themselves the "Knights of Idleness." During the day these young +scamps were youthful saints; they all pretended to extreme quietness; +and, in fact, they habitually slept late after the nights on which +they had been playing their malicious pranks. The "Knights" began with +mere commonplace tricks, such as unhooking and changing signs, ringing +bells, flinging casks left before one house into the cellar of the +next with a crash, rousing the occupants of the house by a noise that +seemed to their frightened ears like the explosion of a mine. In +Issoudun, as in many country towns, the cellar is entered by an +opening near the door of the house, covered with a wooden scuttle, +secured by strong iron hinges and a padlock. + +In 1816, these modern Bad Boys had not altogether given up such tricks +as these, perpetrated in the provinces by all young lads and gamins. +But in 1817 the Order of Idleness acquired a Grand Master, and +distinguished itself by mischief which, up to 1823, spread something +like terror in Issoudun, or at least kept the artisans and the +bourgeoisie perpetually uneasy. + +This leader was a certain Maxence Gilet, commonly called Max, whose +antecedents, no less than his youth and his vigor, predestined him for +such a part. Maxence Gilet was supposed by all Issoudun to be the +natural son of the sub-delegate Lousteau, that brother of Madame +Hochon whose gallantries had left memories behind them, and who, as we +have seen, drew down upon himself the hatred of old Doctor Rouget +about the time of Agathe's birth. But the friendship which bound the +two men together before their quarrel was so close that, to use an +expression of that region and that period, "they willingly walked the +same road." Some people said that Maxence was as likely to be the son +of the doctor as of the sub-delegate; but in fact he belonged to +neither the one nor the other,--his father being a charming dragoon +officer in garrison at Bourges. Nevertheless, as a result of their +enmity, and very fortunately for the child, Rouget and Lousteau never +ceased to claim his paternity. + +Max's mother, the wife of a poor sabot-maker in the Rome suburb, was +possessed, for the perdition of her soul, of a surprising beauty, a +Trasteverine beauty, the only property which she transmitted to her +son. Madame Gilet, pregnant with Maxence in 1788, had long desired +that blessing, which the town attributed to the gallantries of the two +friends,--probably in the hope of setting them against each other. +Gilet, an old drunkard with a triple throat, treated his wife's +misconduct with a collusion that is not uncommon among the lower +classes. To make sure of protectors for her son, Madame Gilet was +careful not to enlighten his reputed fathers as to his parentage. In +Paris, she would have turned out a millionaire; at Issoudun she lived +sometimes at her ease, more often miserably, and, in the long run, +despised. Madame Hochon, Lousteau's sister, paid sixty francs a year +for the lad's schooling. This liberality, which Madame Hochon was +quite unable to practise on her own account because of her husband's +stinginess, was naturally attributed to her brother, then living at +Sancerre. + +When Doctor Rouget, who certainly was not lucky in sons, observed +Max's beauty, he paid the board of the "young rogue," as he called +him, at the seminary, up to the year 1805. As Lousteau died in 1800, +and the doctor apparently obeyed a feeling of vanity in paying the +lad's board until 1805, the question of the paternity was left forever +undecided. Maxence Gilet, the butt of many jests, was soon forgotten, +--and for this reason: In 1806, a year after Doctor Rouget's death, +the lad, who seemed to have been created for a venturesome life, and +was moreover gifted with remarkable vigor and agility, got into a +series of scrapes which more or less threatened his safety. He plotted +with the grandsons of Monsieur Hochon to worry the grocers of the +city; he gathered fruit before the owners could pick it, and made +nothing of scaling walls. He had no equal at bodily exercises, he +played base to perfection, and could have outrun a hare. With a keen +eye worthy of Leather-stocking, he loved hunting passionately. His +time was passed in firing at a mark, instead of studying; and he spent +the money extracted from the old doctor in buying powder and ball for +a wretched pistol that old Gilet, the sabot-maker, had given him. +During the autumn of 1806, Maxence, then seventeen, committed an +involuntary murder, by frightening in the dusk a young woman who was +pregnant, and who came upon him suddenly while stealing fruit in her +garden. Threatened with the guillotine by Gilet, who doubtless wanted +to get rid of him, Max fled to Bourges, met a regiment then on its way +to Egypt, and enlisted. Nothing came of the death of the young woman. + +A young fellow of Max's character was sure to distinguish himself, and +in the course of three campaigns he did distinguish himself so highly +that he rose to be a captain, his lack of education helping him +strenuously. In Portugal, in 1809, he was left for dead in an English +battery, into which his company had penetrated without being able to +hold it. Max, taken prisoner by the English, was sent to the Spanish +hulks at the island of Cabrera, the most horrible of all stations for +prisoners of war. His friends begged that he might receive the cross +of the Legion of honor and the rank of major; but the Emperor was then +in Austria, and he reserved his favors for those who did brilliant +deeds under his own eye: he did not like officers or men who allowed +themselves to be taken prisoner, and he was, moreover, much +dissatisfied with events in Portugal. Max was held at Cabrera from +1810 to 1814.[1] During those years he became utterly demoralized, for +the hulks were like galleys, minus crime and infamy. At the outset, to +maintain his personal free will, and protect himself against the +corruption which made that horrible prison unworthy of a civilized +people, the handsome young captain killed in a duel (for duels were +fought on those hulks in a space scarcely six feet square) seven +bullies among his fellow-prisoners, thus ridding the island of their +tyranny to the great joy of the other victims. After this, Max reigned +supreme in his hulk, thanks to the wonderful ease and address with +which he handled weapons, to his bodily strength, and also to his +extreme cleverness. + +[1] The cruelty of the Spaniards to the French prisoners at Cabrera + was very great. In the spring of 1811, H.M. brig "Minorca," + Captain Wormeley, was sent by Admiral Sir Charles Cotton, then + commanding the Mediterranean fleet, to make a report of their + condition. As she neared the island, the wretched prisoners swam + out to meet her. They were reduced to skin and bone; many of them + were naked; and their miserable condition so moved the seamen of + the "Minorca" that they came aft to the quarter-deck, and asked + permission to subscribe three days' rations for the relief of the + sufferers. Captain Wormeley carried away some of the prisoners, + and his report to Sir Charles Cotton, being sent to the Admiralty, + was made the basis of a remonstrance on the part of the British + government with Spain on the subject of its cruelties. Sir Charles + Cotton despatched Captain Wormeley a second time to Cabrera with a + good many head of live cattle and a large supply of other + provisions.--Tr. + +But he, in turn, committed arbitrary acts; there were those who +curried favor with him, and worked his will, and became his minions. +In that school of misery, where bitter minds dreamed only of +vengeance, where the sophistries hatched in such brains were laying +up, inevitably, a store of evil thoughts, Max became utterly +demoralized. He listened to the opinions of those who longed for +fortune at any price, and did not shrink from the results of criminal +actions, provided they were done without discovery. When peace was +proclaimed, in April, 1814, he left the island, depraved though still +innocent. On his return to Issoudun he found his father and mother +dead. Like others who give way to their passions and make life, as +they call it, short and sweet, the Gilets had died in the almshouse in +the utmost poverty. Immediately after his return, the news of +Napoleon's landing at Cannes spread through France; Max could do no +better than go to Paris and ask for his rank as major and for his +cross. The marshal who was at that time minister of war remembered the +brave conduct of Captain Gilet in Portugal. He put him in the Guard as +captain, which gave him the grade of major in the infantry; but he +could not get him the cross. "The Emperor says that you will know how +to win it at the first chance," said the marshal. In fact, the Emperor +did put the brave captain on his list for decoration the evening after +the fight at Fleurus, where Gilet distinguished himself. + +After the battle of Waterloo Max retreated to the Loire. At the time +of the disbandment, Marshal Feltre refused to recognize Max's grade as +major, or his claim to the cross. The soldier of Napoleon returned to +Issoudun in a state of exasperation that may well be conceived; he +declared that he would not serve without either rank or cross. The +war-office considered these conditions presumptuous in a young man of +twenty-five without a name, who might, if they were granted, become a +colonel at thirty. Max accordingly sent in his resignation. The major +--for among themselves Bonapartists recognized the grades obtained in +1815--thus lost the pittance called half-pay which was allowed to the +officers of the army of the Loire. But all Issoudun was roused at the +sight of the brave young fellow left with only twenty napoleons in his +possession; and the mayor gave him a place in his office with a salary +of six hundred francs. Max kept it a few months, then gave it up of +his own accord, and was replaced by a captain named Carpentier, who, +like himself, had remained faithful to Napoleon. + +By this time Gilet had become grand master of the Knights of Idleness, +and was leading a life which lost him the good-will of the chief +people of the town; who, however, did not openly make the fact known +to him, for he was violent and much feared by all, even by the +officers of the old army who, like himself, had refused to serve under +the Bourbons, and had come home to plant their cabbages in Berry. The +little affection felt for the Bourbons among the natives of Issoudun +is not surprising when we recall the history which we have just given. +In fact, considering its size and lack of importance, the little place +contained more Bonapartists than any other town in France. These men +became, as is well known, nearly all Liberals. + +In Issoudun and its neighborhood there were a dozen officers in Max's +position. These men admired him and made him their leader,--with the +exception, however, of Carpentier, his successor, and a certain +Monsieur Mignonnet, ex-captain in the artillery of the Guard. +Carpentier, a cavalry officer risen from the ranks, had married into +one of the best families in the town,--the Borniche-Herau. Mignonnet, +brought up at the Ecole Polytechnique, had served in a corps which +held itself superior to all others. In the Imperial armies there were +two shades of distinction among the soldiers themselves. A majority of +them felt a contempt for the bourgeois, the "civilian," fully equal to +the contempt of nobles for their serfs, or conquerors for the +conquered. Such men did not always observe the laws of honor in their +dealings with civilians; nor did they much blame those who rode rough- +shod over the bourgeoisie. The others, and particularly the artillery, +perhaps because of its republicanism, never adopted the doctrine of a +military France and a civil France, the tendency of which was nothing +less than to make two nations. So, although Major Potel and Captain +Renard, two officers living in the Rome suburb, were friends to +Maxence Gilet "through thick and thin," Major Mignonnet and Captain +Carpentier took sides with the bourgeoisie, and thought his conduct +unworthy of a man of honor. + +Major Mignonnet, a lean little man, full of dignity, busied himself +with the problems which the steam-engine requires us to solve, and +lived in a modest way, taking his social intercourse with Monsieur and +Madame Carpentier. His gentle manners and ways, and his scientific +occupations won him the respect of the whole town; and it was +frequently said of him and of Captain Carpentier that they were "quite +another thing" from Major Potel and Captain Renard, Maxence, and other +frequenters of the cafe Militaire, who retained the soldierly manners +and the defective morals of the Empire. + +At the time when Madame Bridau returned to Issoudun, Max was excluded +from the society of the place. He showed, moreover, proper +self-respect in never presenting himself at the club, and in never +complaining of the severe reprobation that was shown him; although he +was the handsomest, the most elegant, and the best dressed man in the +place, spent a great deal of money, and kept a horse,--a thing as +amazing at Issoudun as the horse of Lord Byron at Venice. We are now +to see how it was that Maxence, poor and without apparent means, was +able to become the dandy of the town. The shameful conduct which +earned him the contempt of all scrupulous or religious persons was +connected with the interests which brought Agathe and Joseph to +Issoudun. + +Judging by the audacity of his bearing, and the expression of his +face, Max cared little for public opinion; he expected, no doubt, to +take his revenge some day, and to lord it over those who now condemned +him. Moreover, if the bourgeoisie of Issoudun thought ill of him, the +admiration he excited among the common people counterbalanced their +opinion; his courage, his dashing appearance, his decision of +character, could not fail to please the masses, to whom his +degradations were, for the most part, unknown, and indeed the +bourgeoisie themselves scarcely suspected its extent. Max played a +role at Issoudun which was something like that of the blacksmith in +the "Fair Maid of Perth"; he was the champion of Bonapartism and the +Opposition; they counted upon him as the burghers of Perth counted +upon Smith on great occasions. A single incident will put this hero +and victim of the Hundred-Days into clear relief. + +In 1819, a battalion commanded by royalist officers, young men just +out of the Maison Rouge, passed through Issoudun on its way to go into +garrison at Bourges. Not knowing what to do with themselves in so +constitutional a place as Issoudun, these young gentlemen went to +while away the time at the cafe Militaire. In every provincial town +there is a military cafe. That of Issoudun, built on the place d'Armes +at an angle of the rampart, and kept by the widow of an officer, was +naturally the rendezvous of the Bonapartists, chiefly officers on +half-pay, and others who shared Max's opinions, to whom the politics +of the town allowed free expression of their idolatry for the Emperor. +Every year, dating from 1816, a banquet was given in Issoudun to +commemorate the anniversary of his coronation. The three royalists who +first entered asked for the newspapers, among others, for the +"Quotidienne" and the "Drapeau Blanc." The politics of Issoudun, +especially those of the cafe Militaire, did not allow of such royalist +journals. The establishment had none but the "Commerce,"--a name which +the "Constitutionel" was compelled to adopt for several years after it +was suppressed by the government. But as, in its first issue under the +new name, the leading article began with these words, "Commerce is +essentially constitutional," people continued to call it the +"Constitutionel," the subscribers all understanding the sly play of +words which begged them to pay no attention to the label, as the wine +would be the same. + +The fat landlady replied from her seat at the desk that she did not +take those papers. "What papers do you take then?" asked one of the +officers, a captain. The waiter, a little fellow in a blue cloth +jacket, with an apron of coarse linen tied over it, brought the +"Commerce." + +"Is that your paper? Have you no other?" + +"No," said the waiter, "that's the only one." + +The captain tore it up, flung the pieces on the floor, and spat upon +them, calling out,-- + +"Bring dominos!" + +In ten minutes the news of the insult offered to the Constitution +Opposition and the Liberal party, in the supersacred person of its +revered journal, which attacked priests with courage and the wit we +all remember, spread throughout the town and into the houses like +light itself; it was told and repeated from place to place. One phrase +was on everybody's lips,-- + +"Let us tell Max!" + +Max soon heard of it. The royalist officers were still at their game +of dominos when that hero entered the cafe, accompanied by Major Potel +and Captain Renard, and followed by at least thirty young men, curious +to see the end of the affair, most of whom remained outside in the +street. The room was soon full. + +"Waiter, MY newspaper," said Max, in a quiet voice. + +Then a little comedy was played. The fat hostess, with a timid and +conciliatory air, said, "Captain, I have lent it!" + +"Send for it," cried one of Max's friends. + +"Can't you do without it?" said the waiter; "we have not got it." + +The young royalists were laughing and casting sidelong glances at the +new-comers. + +"They have torn it up!" cried a youth of the town, looking at the feet +of the young royalist captain. + +"Who has dared to destroy that paper?" demanded Max, in a thundering +voice, his eyes flashing as he rose with his arms crossed. + +"And we spat upon it," replied the three young officers, also rising, +and looking at Max. + +"You have insulted the whole town!" said Max, turning livid. + +"Well, what of that?" asked the youngest officer. + +With a dexterity, quickness, and audacity which the young men did not +foresee, Max slapped the face of the officer nearest to him, saying,-- + +"Do you understand French?" + +They fought near by, in the allee de Frapesle, three against three; +for Potel and Renard would not allow Max to deal with the officers +alone. Max killed his man. Major Potel wounded his so severely, that +the unfortunate young man, the son of a good family, died in the +hospital the next day. As for the third, he got off with a sword cut, +after wounding his adversary, Captain Renard. The battalion left for +Bourges that night. This affair, which was noised throughout Berry, +set Max up definitely as a hero. + +The Knights of Idleness, who were all young, the eldest not more than +twenty-five years old, admired Maxence. Some among them, far from +sharing the prudery and strict notions of their families concerning +his conduct, envied his present position and thought him fortunate. +Under such a leader, the Order did great things. After the month of +May, 1817, never a week passed that the town was not thrown into an +uproar by some new piece of mischief. Max, as a matter of honor, +imposed certain conditions upon the Knights. Statutes were drawn up. +These young demons grew as vigilant as the pupils of Amoros,--bold as +hawks, agile at all exercises, clever and strong as criminals. They +trained themselves in climbing roofs, scaling houses, jumping and +walking noiselessly, mixing mortar, and walling up doors. They +collected an arsenal of ropes, ladders, tools, and disguises. After a +time the Knights of Idleness attained to the beau-ideal of malicious +mischief, not only as to the accomplishment but, still more, in the +invention of their pranks. They came at last to possess the genius for +evil that Panurge so much delighted in; which provokes laughter, and +covers its victims with such ridicule that they dare not complain. +Naturally, these sons of good families of Issoudun possessed and +obtained information in their households, which gave them the ways and +means for the perpetration of their outrages. + +Sometimes the young devils incarnate lay in ambush along the Grand'rue +or the Basse rue, two streets which are, as it were, the arteries of +the town, into which many little side streets open. Crouching, with +their heads to the wind, in the angles of the wall and at the corners +of the streets, at the hour when all the households were hushed in +their first sleep, they called to each other in tones of terror from +ambush to ambush along the whole length of the town: "What's the +matter?" "What is it?" till the repeated cries woke up the citizens, +who appeared in their shirts and cotton night-caps, with lights in +their hands, asking questions of one another, holding the strangest +colloquies, and exhibiting the queerest faces. + +A certain poor bookbinder, who was very old, believed in hobgoblins. +Like most provincial artisans, he worked in a small basement shop. The +Knights, disguised as devils, invaded the place in the middle of the +night, put him into his own cutting-press, and left him shrieking to +himself like the souls in hell. The poor man roused the neighbors, to +whom he related the apparitions of Lucifer; and as they had no means +of undeceiving him, he was driven nearly insane. + +In the middle of a severe winter, the Knights took down the chimney of +the collector of taxes, and built it up again in one night apparently +as it was before, without making the slightest noise, or leaving the +least trace of their work. But they so arranged the inside of the +chimney as to send all the smoke into the house. The collector +suffered for two months before he found out why his chimney, which had +always drawn so well, and of which he had often boasted, played him +such tricks; he was then obliged to build a new one. + +At another time, they put three trusses of hay dusted with brimstone, +and a quantity of oiled paper down the chimney of a pious old woman +who was a friend of Madame Hochon. In the morning, when she came to +light her fire, the poor creature, who was very gentle and kindly, +imagined she had started a volcano. The fire-engines came, the whole +population rushed to her assistance. Several Knights were among the +firemen, and they deluged the old woman's house, till they had +frightened her with a flood, as much as they had terrified her with +the fire. She was made ill with fear. + +When they wished to make some one spend the night under arms and in +mortal terror, they wrote an anonymous letter telling him that he was +about to be robbed; then they stole softly, one by one, round the +walls of his house, or under his windows, whistling as if to call each +other. + +One of their famous performances, which long amused the town, where in +fact it is still related, was to write a letter to all the heirs of a +miserly old lady who was likely to leave a large property, announcing +her death, and requesting them to be promptly on hand when the seals +were affixed. Eighty persons arrived from Vatan, Saint-Florent, +Vierzon and the neighboring country, all in deep mourning,--widows +with sons, children with their fathers, some in carrioles, some in +wicker gigs, others in dilapidated carts. Imagine the scene between +the old woman's servants and the first arrivals! and the consultations +among the notaries! It created a sort of riot in Issoudun. + +At last, one day the sub-prefect woke up to a sense that this state of +things was all the more intolerable because it seemed impossible to +find out who was at the bottom of it. Suspicion fell on several young +men; but as the National Guard was a mere name in Issoudun, and there +was no garrison, and the lieutenant of police had only eight gendarmes +under him, so that there were no patrols, it was impossible to get any +proof against them. The sub-prefect was immediately posted in the +"order of the night," and considered thenceforth fair game. This +functionary made a practice of breakfasting on two fresh eggs. He kept +chickens in his yard, and added to his mania for eating fresh eggs +that of boiling them himself. Neither his wife nor his servant, in +fact no one, according to him, knew how to boil an egg properly; he +did it watch in hand, and boasted that he carried off the palm of egg- +boiling from all the world. For two years he had boiled his eggs with +a success which earned him many witticisms. But now, every night for a +whole month, the eggs were taken from his hen-house, and hard-boiled +eggs substituted. The sub-prefect was at his wits' end, and lost his +reputation as the "sous-prefet a l'oeuf." Finally he was forced to +breakfast on other things. Yet he never suspected the Knights of +Idleness, whose trick had been cautiously played. After this, Max +managed to grease the sub-prefect's stoves every night with an oil +which sent forth so fetid a smell that it was impossible for any one +to stay in the house. Even that was not enough; his wife, going to +mass one morning, found her shawl glued together on the inside with +some tenacious substance, so that she was obliged to go without it. +The sub-prefect finally asked for another appointment. The cowardly +submissiveness of this officer had much to do with firmly establishing +the weird and comic authority of the Knights of Idleness. + +Beyond the rue des Minimes and the place Misere, a section of a +quarter was at that time enclosed between an arm of the "Riviere +forcee" on the lower side and the ramparts on the other, beginning at +the place d'Armes and going as far as the pottery market. This +irregular square is filled with poor-looking houses crowded one +against the other, and divided here and there by streets so narrow +that two persons cannot walk abreast. This section of the town, a sort +of cour des Miracles, was occupied by poor people or persons working +at trades that were little remunerative,--a population living in +hovels, and buildings called picturesquely by the familiar term of +"blind houses." From the earliest ages this has no doubt been an +accursed quarter, the haunt of evil-doers; in fact one thoroughfare is +named "the street of the Executioner." For more than five centuries it +has been customary for the executioner to have a red door at the +entrance of his house. The assistant of the executioner of Chateauroux +still lives there,--if we are to believe public rumor, for the +townspeople never see him: the vine-dressers alone maintain an +intercourse with this mysterious being, who inherits from his +predecessors the gift of curing wounds and fractures. In the days when +Issoudun assumed the airs of a capital city the women of the town made +this section of it the scene of their wanderings. Here came the +second-hand sellers of things that look as if they never could find a +purchaser, old-clothes dealers whose wares infected the air; in short, +it was the rendezvous of that apocryphal population which is to be +found in nearly all such portions of a city, where two or three Jews +have gained an ascendency. + +At the corner of one of these gloomy streets in the livelier half of +the quarter, there existed from 1815 to 1823, and perhaps later, a +public-house kept by a woman commonly called Mere Cognette. The house +itself was tolerably well built, in courses of white stone, with the +intermediary spaces filled in with ashlar and cement, one storey high +with an attic above. Over the door was an enormous branch of pine, +looking as though it were cast in Florentine bronze. As if this symbol +were not explanatory enough, the eye was arrested by the blue of a +poster which was pasted over the doorway, and on which appeared, above +the words "Good Beer of Mars," the picture of a soldier pouring out, +in the direction of a very decolletee woman, a jet of foam which +spurted in an arched line from the pitcher to the glass which she was +holding towards him; the whole of a color to make Delacroix swoon. + +The ground-floor was occupied by an immense hall serving both as +kitchen and dining-room, from the beams of which hung, suspended by +huge nails, the provisions needed for the custom of such a house. +Behind this hall a winding staircase led to the upper storey; at the +foot of the staircase a door led into a low, long room lighted from +one of those little provincial courts, so narrow, dark, and sunken +between tall houses, as to seem like the flue of a chimney. Hidden by +a shed, and concealed from all eyes by walls, this low room was the +place where the Bad Boys of Issoudun held their plenary court. +Ostensibly, Pere Cognet boarded and lodged the country-people on +market-days; secretly, he was landlord to the Knights of Idleness. +This man, who was formerly a groom in a rich household, had ended by +marrying La Cognette, a cook in a good family. The suburb of Rome +still continues, like Italy and Poland, to follow the Latin custom of +putting a feminine termination to the husband's name and giving it to +the wife. + +By uniting their savings Pere Cognet and his spouse had managed to buy +their present house. La Cognette, a woman of forty, tall and plump, +with the nose of a Roxelane, a swarthy skin, jet-black hair, brown +eyes that were round and lively, and a general air of mirth and +intelligence, was selected by Maxence Gilet, on account of her +character and her talent for cookery, as the Leonarde of the Order. +Pere Cognet might be about fifty-six years old; he was thick-set, very +much under his wife's rule, and, according to a witticism which she +was fond of repeating, he only saw things with a good eye--for he was +blind of the other. In the course of seven years, that is, from 1816 +to 1823, neither wife nor husband had betrayed what went on nightly at +their house, or who they were that shared in the plot; they felt the +liveliest regard for the Knights; their devotion was absolute. But +this may seem less creditable if we remember that self-interest was +the security of their affection and their silence. No matter at what +hour of the night the Knights dropped in upon the tavern, the moment +they knocked in a certain way Pere Cognet, recognizing the signal, got +up, lit the fire and the candles, opened the door, and went to the +cellar for a particular wine that was laid in expressly for the Order; +while La Cognette cooked an excellent supper, eaten either before or +after the expeditions, which were usually planned the previous evening +or in the course of the preceding day. + + + + CHAPTER VIII + +While Joseph and Madame Bridau were journeying from Orleans to +Issoudun, the Knights of Idleness perpetrated one of their best +tricks. An old Spaniard, a former prisoner of war, who after the peace +had remained in the neighborhood, where he did a small business in +grain, came early one morning to market, leaving his empty cart at the +foot of the tower of Issoudun. Maxence, who arrived at a rendezvous of +the Knights, appointed on that occasion at the foot of the tower, was +soon assailed with the whispered question, "What are we to do to- +night?" + +"Here's Pere Fario's cart," he answered. "I nearly cracked my shins +over it. Let us get it up on the embankment of the tower in the first +place, and we'll make up our minds afterwards." + +When Richard Coeur-de-Lion built the tower of Issoudun he raised it, +as we have said, on the ruins of the basilica, which itself stood +above the Roman temple and the Celtic Dun. These ruins, each of which +represents a period of several centuries, form a mound big with the +monuments of three distinct ages. The tower is, therefore, the apex of +a cone, from which the descent is equally steep on all sides, and +which is only approached by a series of steps. To give in a few words +an idea of the height of this tower, we may compare it to the obelisk +of Luxor on its pedestal. The pedestal of the tower of Issoudun, which +hid within its breast such archaeological treasures, was eighty feet +high on the side towards the town. In an hour the cart was taken off +its wheels and hoisted, piece by piece, to the top of the embankment +at the foot of the tower itself,--a work that was somewhat like that +of the soldiers who carried the artillery over the pass of the Grand +Saint-Bernard. The cart was then remounted on its wheels, and the +Knights, by this time hungry and thirsty, returned to Mere Cognette's, +where they were soon seated round the table in the low room, laughing +at the grimaces Fario would make when he came after his barrow in the +morning. + +The Knights, naturally, did not play such capers every night. The +genius of Sganarelle, Mascarille, and Scapin combined would not have +sufficed to invent three hundred and sixty-five pieces of mischief a +year. In the first place, circumstances were not always propitious: +sometimes the moon shone clear, or the last prank had greatly +irritated their betters; then one or another of their number refused +to share in some proposed outrage because a relation was involved. But +if the scamps were not at Mere Cognette's every night, they always met +during the day, enjoying together the legitimate pleasures of hunting, +or the autumn vintages and the winter skating. Among this assemblage +of twenty youths, all of them at war with the social somnolence of the +place, there are some who were more closely allied than others to Max, +and who made him their idol. A character like his often fascinates +other youths. The two grandsons of Madame Hochon--Francois Hochon and +Baruch Borniche--were his henchmen. These young fellows, accepting the +general opinion of the left-handed parentage of Lousteau, looked upon +Max as their cousin. Max, moreover, was liberal in lending them money +for their pleasures, which their grandfather Hochon refused; he took +them hunting, let them see life, and exercised a much greater +influence over them than their own family. They were both orphans, and +were kept, although each had attained his majority, under the +guardianship of Monsieur Hochon, for reasons which will be explained +when Monsieur Hochon himself comes upon the scene. + +At this particular moment Francois and Baruch (we will call them by +their Christian names for the sake of clearness) were sitting, one on +each side of Max, at the middle of a table that was rather ill lighted +by the fuliginous gleams of four tallow candles of eight to the pound. +A dozen to fifteen bottles of various wines had just been drunk, for +only eleven of the Knights were present. Baruch--whose name indicates +pretty clearly that Calvinism still kept some hold on Issoudun--said +to Max, as the wine was beginning to unloose all tongues,-- + +"You are threatened in your stronghold." + +"What do you mean by that?" asked Max. + +"Why, my grandmother has had a letter from Madame Bridau, who is her +goddaughter, saying that she and her son are coming here. My +grandmother has been getting two rooms ready for them." + +"What's that to me?" said Max, taking up his glass and swallowing the +contents at a gulp with a comic gesture. + +Max was then thirty-four years old. A candle standing near him threw a +gleam upon his soldierly face, lit up his brow, and brought out +admirably his clear skin, his ardent eyes, his black and slightly +curling hair, which had the brilliancy of jet. The hair grew +vigorously upward from the forehead and temples, sharply defining +those five black tongues which our ancestors used to call the "five +points." Notwithstanding this abrupt contrast of black and white, +Max's face was very sweet, owing its charm to an outline like that +which Raphael gave to the faces of his Madonnas, and to a well-cut +mouth whose lips smiled graciously, giving an expression of +countenance which Max had made distinctively his own. The rich +coloring which blooms on a Berrichon cheek added still further to his +look of kindly good-humor. When he laughed heartily, he showed thirty- +two teeth worthy of the mouth of a pretty woman. In height about five +feet six inches, the young man was admirably well-proportioned,-- +neither too stout nor yet too thin. His hands, carefully kept, were +white and rather handsome; but his feet recalled the suburb and the +foot-soldier of the Empire. Max would certainly have made a good +general of division; he had shoulders that were worth a fortune to a +marshal of France, and a breast broad enough to wear all the orders of +Europe. Every movement betrayed intelligence; born with grace and +charm, like nearly all the children of love, the noble blood of his +real father came out in him. + +"Don't you know, Max," cried the son of a former surgeon-major named +Goddet--now the best doctor in the town--from the other end of the +table, "that Madame Hochon's goddaughter is the sister of Rouget? If +she is coming here with her son, no doubt she means to make sure of +getting the property when he dies, and then--good-by to your harvest!" + +Max frowned. Then, with a look which ran from one face to another all +round the table, he watched the effect of this announcement on the +minds of those present, and again replied,-- + +"What's that to me?" + +"But," said Francois, "I should think that if old Rouget revoked his +will,--in case he has made one in favor of the Rabouilleuse--" + +Here Max cut short his henchman's speech. "I've stopped the mouths of +people who have dared to meddle with you, my dear Francois," he said; +"and this is the way you pay your debts? You use a contemptuous +nickname in speaking of a woman to whom I am known to be attached." + +Max had never before said as much as this about his relations with the +person to whom Francois had just applied a name under which she was +known at Issoudun. The late prisoner at Cabrera--the major of the +grenadiers of the Guard--knew enough of what honor was to judge +rightly as to the causes of the disesteem in which society held him. +He had therefore never allowed any one, no matter who, to speak to him +on the subject of Mademoiselle Flore Brazier, the servant-mistress of +Jean-Jacques Rouget, so energetically termed a "slut" by the +respectable Madame Hochon. Everybody knew it was too ticklish a +subject with Max, ever to speak of it unless he began it; and hitherto +he had never begun it. To risk his anger or irritate him was +altogether too dangerous; so that even his best friends had never +joked him about the Rabouilleuse. When they talked of his liaison with +the girl before Major Potel and Captain Renard, with whom he lived on +intimate terms, Potel would reply,-- + +"If he is the natural brother of Jean-Jacques Rouget where else would +you have him live?" + +"Besides, after all," added Captain Renard, "the girl is a worthless +piece, and if Max does live with her where's the harm?" + +After this merited snub, Francois could not at once catch up the +thread of his ideas; but he was still less able to do so when Max said +to him, gently,-- + +"Go on." + +"Faith, no!" cried Francois. + +"You needn't get angry, Max," said young Goddet; "didn't we agree to +talk freely to each other at Mere Cognette's? Shouldn't we all be +mortal enemies if we remembered outside what is said, or thought, or +done here? All the town calls Flore Brazier the Rabouilleuse; and if +Francois did happen to let the nickname slip out, is that a crime +against the Order of Idleness?" + +"No," said Max, "but against our personal friendship. However, I +thought better of it; I recollected we were in session, and that was +why I said, 'Go on.'" + +A deep silence followed. The pause became so embarrassing for the +whole company that Max broke it by exclaiming:-- + +"I'll go on for him," [sensation] "--for all of you," [amazement] +"--and tell you what you are thinking" [profound sensation]. "You +think that Flore, the Rabouilleuse, La Brazier, the housekeeper of +Pere Rouget,--for they call him so, that old bachelor, who can never +have any children!--you think, I say, that that woman supplies all my +wants ever since I came back to Issoudun. If I am able to throw three +hundred francs a month to the dogs, and treat you to suppers,--as I do +to-night,--and lend money to all of you, you think I get the gold out +of Mademoiselle Flore Brazier's purse? Well, yes" [profound +sensation]. "Yes, ten thousand times yes! Yes, Mademoiselle Brazier is +aiming straight for the old man's property." + +"She gets it from father to son," observed Goddet, in his corner. + +"You think," continued Max, smiling at Goddet's speech, "that I intend +to marry Flore when Pere Rouget dies, and so this sister and her son, +of whom I hear to-night for the first time, will endanger my future?" + +"That's just it," cried Francois. + +"That is what every one thinks who is sitting round this table," said +Baruch. + +"Well, don't be uneasy, friends," answered Max. "Forewarned is +forearmed! Now then, I address the Knights of Idleness. If, to get rid +of these Parisians I need the help of the Order, will you lend me a +hand? Oh! within the limits we have marked out for our fooleries," he +added hastily, perceiving a general hesitation. "Do you suppose I want +to kill them,--poison them? Thank God I'm not an idiot. Besides, if +the Bridaus succeed, and Flore has nothing but what she stands in, I +should be satisfied; do you understand that? I love her enough to +prefer her to Mademoiselle Fichet,--if Mademoiselle Fichet would have +me." + +Mademoiselle Fichet was the richest heiress in Issoudun, and the hand +of the daughter counted for much in the reported passion of the +younger Goddet for the mother. Frankness of speech is a pearl of such +price that all the Knights rose to their feet as one man. + +"You are a fine fellow, Max!" + +"Well said, Max; we'll stand by you!" + +"A fig for the Bridaus!" + +"We'll bridle them!" + +"After all, it is only three swains to a shepherdess." + +"The deuce! Pere Lousteau loved Madame Rouget; isn't it better to love +a housekeeper who is not yoked?" + +"If the defunct Rouget was Max's father, the affair is in the family." + +"Liberty of opinion now-a-days!" + +"Hurrah for Max!" + +"Down with all hypocrites!" + +"Here's a health to the beautiful Flore!" + +Such were the eleven responses, acclamations, and toasts shouted forth +by the Knights of Idleness, and characteristic, we may remark, of +their excessively relaxed morality. It is now easy to see what +interest Max had in becoming their grand master. By leading the young +men of the best families in their follies and amusements, and by doing +them services, he meant to create a support for himself when the day +for recovering his position came. He rose gracefully and waved his +glass of claret, while all the others waited eagerly for the coming +allocution. + +"As a mark of the ill-will I bear you, I wish you all a mistress who +is equal to the beautiful Flore! As to this irruption of relations, I +don't feel any present uneasiness; and as to the future, we'll see +what comes--" + +"Don't let us forget Fario's cart!" + +"Hang it! that's safe enough!" said Goddet. + +"Oh! I'll engage to settle that business," cried Max. "Be in the +market-place early, all of you, and let me know when the old fellow +goes for his cart." + +It was striking half-past three in the morning as the Knights slipped +out in silence to go to their homes; gliding close to the walls of the +houses without making the least noise, shod as they were in list +shoes. Max slowly returned to the place Saint-Jean, situated in the +upper part of the town, between the port Saint-Jean and the port +Vilatte, the quarter of the rich bourgeoisie. Maxence Gilet had +concealed his fears, but the news had struck home. His experience on +the hulks at Cabrera had taught him a dissimulation as deep and +thorough as his corruption. First, and above all else, the forty +thousand francs a year from landed property which old Rouget owned +was, let it be clearly understood, the constituent element of Max's +passion for Flore Brazier. By his present bearing it is easy to see +how much confidence the woman had given him in the financial future +she expected to obtain through the infatuation of the old bachelor. +Nevertheless, the news of the arrival of the legitimate heirs was of a +nature to shake Max's faith in Flore's influence. Rouget's savings, +accumulating during the last seventeen years, still stood in his own +name; and even if the will, which Flore declared had long been made in +her favor, were revoked, these savings at least might be secured by +putting them in the name of Mademoiselle Brazier. + +"That fool of a girl never told me, in all these seven years, a word +about the sister and nephews!" cried Max, turning from the rue de la +Marmouse into the rue l'Avenier. "Seven hundred and fifty thousand +francs placed with different notaries at Bourges, and Vierzon, and +Chateauroux, can't be turned into money and put into the Funds in a +week, without everybody knowing it in this gossiping place! The most +important thing is to get rid of these relations; as soon as they are +driven away we ought to make haste to secure the property. I must +think it over." + +Max was tired. By the help of a pass-key, he let himself into Pere +Rouget's house, and went to bed without making any noise, saying to +himself,-- + +"To-morrow, my thoughts will be clear." + +It is now necessary to relate where the sultana of the place Saint- +Jean picked up the nickname of "Rabouilleuse," and how she came to be +the quasi-mistress of Jean-Jacques Rouget's home. + +As old Doctor Rouget, the father of Jean-Jacques and Madame Bridau, +advanced in years, he began to perceive the nonentity of his son; he +then treated him harshly, trying to break him into a routine that +might serve in place of intelligence. He thus, though unconsciously, +prepared him to submit to the yoke of the first tyranny that threw its +halter over his head. + +Coming home one day from his professional round, the malignant and +vicious old man came across a bewitching little girl at the edge of +some fields that lay along the avenue de Tivoli. Hearing the horse, +the child sprang up from the bottom of one of the many brooks which +are to be seen from the heights of Issoudun, threading the meadows +like ribbons of silver on a green robe. Naiad-like, she rose suddenly +on the doctor's vision, showing the loveliest virgin head that +painters ever dreamed of. Old Rouget, who knew the whole country-side, +did not know this miracle of beauty. The child, who was half naked, +wore a forlorn little petticoat of coarse woollen stuff, woven in +alternate strips of brown and white, full of holes and very ragged. A +sheet of rough writing paper, tied on by a shred of osier, served her +for a hat. Beneath this paper--covered with pot-hooks and round O's, +from which it derived the name of "schoolpaper"--the loveliest mass of +blonde hair that ever a daughter of Eve could have desired, was +twisted up, and held in place by a species of comb made to comb out +the tails of horses. Her pretty tanned bosom, and her neck, scarcely +covered by a ragged fichu which was once a Madres handkerchief, showed +edges of the white skin below the exposed and sun-burned parts. One +end of her petticoat was drawn between the legs and fastened with a +huge pin in front, giving that garment the look of a pair of bathing +drawers. The feet and the legs, which could be seen through the clear +water in which she stood, attracted the eye by a delicacy which was +worthy of a sculptor of the middle ages. The charming limbs exposed to +the sun had a ruddy tone that was not without beauty of its own. The +neck and bosom were worthy of being wrapped in silks and cashmeres; +and the nymph had blue eyes fringed with long lashes, whose glance +might have made a painter or a poet fall upon his knees. The doctor, +enough of an anatomist to trace the exquisite figure, recognized the +loss it would be to art if the lines of such a model were destroyed by +the hard toil of the fields. + +"Where do you come from, little girl? I have never seen you before," +said the old doctor, then sixty-two years of age. This scene took +place in the month of September, 1799. + +"I belong in Vatan," she answered. + +Hearing Rouget's voice, an ill-looking man, standing at some distance +in the deeper waters of the brook, raised his head. "What are you +about, Flore?" he said, "While you are talking instead of catching, +the creatures will get away." + +"Why have you come here from Vatan?" continued the doctor, paying no +heed to the interruption. + +"I am catching crabs for my uncle Brazier here." + +"Rabouiller" is a Berrichon word which admirably describes the thing +it is intended to express; namely, the action of troubling the water +of a brook, making it boil and bubble with a branch whose end-shoots +spread out like a racket. The crabs, frightened by this operation, +which they do not understand, come hastily to the surface, and in +their flurry rush into the net the fisher has laid for them at a +little distance. Flore Brazier held her "rabouilloir" in her hand with +the natural grace of childlike innocence. + +"Has your uncle got permission to hunt crabs?" + +"Hey! are not we all under a Republic that is one and indivisible?" +cried the uncle from his station. + +"We are under a Directory," said the doctor, "and I know of no law +which allows a man to come from Vatan and fish in the territory of +Issoudun"; then he said to Flore, "Have you got a mother, little one!" + +"No, monsieur; and my father is in the asylum at Bourges. He went mad +from a sun-stroke he got in the fields." + +"How much do you earn?" + +"Five sous a day while the season lasts; I catch 'em as far as the +Braisne. In harvest time, I glean; in winter, I spin." + +"You are about twelve years old?" + +"Yes, monsieur." + +"Do you want to come with me? You shall be well fed and well dressed, +and have some pretty shoes." + +"No, my niece will stay with me; I am responsible to God and man for +her," said Uncle Brazier who had come up to them. "I am her guardian, +d'ye see?" + +The doctor kept his countenance and checked a smile which might have +escaped most people at the aspect of the man. The guardian wore a +peasant's hat, rotted by sun and rain, eaten like the leaves of a +cabbage that has harbored several caterpillars, and mended, here and +there, with white thread. Beneath the hat was a dark and sunken face, +in which the mouth, nose, and eyes, seemed four black spots. His +forlorn jacket was a bit of patchwork, and his trousers were of crash +towelling. + +"I am Doctor Rouget," said that individual; "and as you are the +guardian of the child, bring her to my house, in the place Saint-Jean. +It will not be a bad day's work for you; nor for her, either." + +Without waiting for an answer, and sure that Uncle Brazier would soon +appear with his pretty "rabouilleuse," Doctor Rouget set spurs to his +horse and returned to Issoudun. He had hardly sat down to dinner, +before his cook announced the arrival of the citoyen and citoyenne +Brazier. + +"Sit down," said the doctor to the uncle and niece. + +Flore and her guardian, still barefooted, looked round the doctor's +dining-room with wondering eyes; never having seen its like before. + +The house, which Rouget inherited from the Descoings estate, stands in +the middle of the place Saint-Jean, a so-called square, very long and +very narrow, planted with a few sickly lindens. The houses in this +part of town are better built than elsewhere, and that of the +Descoings's was one of the finest. It stands opposite to the house of +Monsieur Hochon, and has three windows in front on the first storey, +and a porte-cochere on the ground-floor which gives entrance to a +courtyard, beyond which lies the garden. Under the archway of the +porte-cochere is the door of a large hall lighted by two windows on +the street. The kitchen is behind this hall, part of the space being +used for a staircase which leads to the upper floor and to the attic +above that. Beyond the kitchen is a wood-shed and wash-house, a stable +for two horses and a coach-house, over which are some little lofts for +the storage of oats, hay, and straw, where, at that time, the doctor's +servant slept. + +The hall which the little peasant and her uncle admired with such +wonder is decorated with wooden carvings of the time of Louis XV., +painted gray, and a handsome marble chimney-piece, over which Flore +beheld herself in a large mirror without any upper division and with a +carved and gilded frame. On the panelled walls of the room, from space +to space, hung several pictures, the spoil of various religious +houses, such as the abbeys of Deols, Issoudun, Saint-Gildas, La Pree, +Chezal-Beniot, Saint-Sulpice, and the convents of Bourges and +Issoudun, which the liberality of our kings had enriched with the +precious gifts of the glorious works called forth by the Renaissance. +Among the pictures obtained by the Descoings and inherited by Rouget, +was a Holy Family by Albano, a Saint-Jerome of Demenichino, a Head of +Christ by Gian Bellini, a Virgin of Leonardo, a Bearing of the Cross +by Titian, which formerly belonged to the Marquis de Belabre (the one +who sustained a siege and had his head cut off under Louis XIII.); a +Lazarus of Paul Veronese, a Marriage of the Virgin by the priest +Genois, two church paintings by Rubens, and a replica of a picture by +Perugino, done either by Perugino himself or by Raphael; and finally, +two Correggios and one Andrea del Sarto. + +The Descoings had culled these treasures from three hundred church +pictures, without knowing their value, and selecting them only for +their good preservation. Many were not only in magnificent frames, but +some were still under glass. Perhaps it was the beauty of the frames +and the value of the glass that led the Descoings to retain the +pictures. The furniture of the room was not wanting in the sort of +luxury we prize in these days, though at that time it had no value in +Issoudun. The clock, standing on the mantle-shelf between two superb +silver candlesticks with six branches, had an ecclesiastical splendor +which revealed the hand of Boulle. The armchairs of carved oak, +covered with tapestry-work due to the devoted industry of women of +high rank, would be treasured in these days, for each was surmounted +with a crown and coat-of-arms. Between the windows stood a rich +console, brought from some castle, on whose marble slab stood an +immense China jar, in which the doctor kept his tobacco. But neither +Rouget, nor his son, nor the cook, took the slightest care of all +these treasures. They spat upon a hearth of exquisite delicacy, whose +gilded mouldings were now green with verdigris. A handsome chandelier, +partly of semi-transparent porcelain, was peppered, like the ceiling +from which it hung, with black speckles, bearing witness to the +immunity enjoyed by the flies. The Descoings had draped the windows +with brocatelle curtains torn from the bed of some monastic prior. To +the left of the entrance-door, stood a chest or coffer, worth many +thousand francs, which the doctor now used for a sideboard. + +"Here, Fanchette," cried Rouget to his cook, "bring two glasses; and +give us some of the old wine." + +Fanchette, a big Berrichon countrywoman, who was considered a better +cook than even La Cognette, ran in to receive the order with a +celerity which said much for the doctor's despotism, and something +also for her own curiosity. + +"What is an acre of vineyard worth in your parts?" asked the doctor, +pouring out a glass of wine for Brazier. + +"Three hundred francs in silver." + +"Well, then! leave your niece here as my servant; she shall have three +hundred francs in wages, and, as you are her guardian, you can take +them." + +"Every year?" exclaimed Brazier, with his eyes as wide as saucers. + +"I leave that to your conscience," said the doctor. "She is an orphan; +up to eighteen, she has no right to what she earns." + +"Twelve to eighteen--that's six acres of vineyard!" said the uncle. +"Ay, she's a pretty one, gentle as a lamb, well made and active, and +obedient as a kitten. She were the light o' my poor brother's eyes--" + +"I will pay a year in advance," observed the doctor. + +"Bless me! say two years, and I'll leave her with you, for she'll be +better off with you than with us; my wife beats her, she can't abide +her. There's none but I to stand up for her, and the little saint of a +creature is as innocent as a new-born babe." + +When he heard the last part of this speech, the doctor, struck by the +word "innocent," made a sign to the uncle and took him out into the +courtyard and from thence to the garden; leaving the Rabouilleuse at +the table with Fanchette and Jean-Jacques, who immediately questioned +her, and to whom she naively related her meeting with the doctor. + +"There now, my little darling, good-by," said Uncle Brazier, coming +back and kissing Flore on the forehead; "you can well say I've made +your happiness by leaving you with this kind and worthy father of the +poor; you must obey him as you would me. Be a good girl, and behave +nicely, and do everything he tells you." + +"Get the room over mine ready," said the doctor to Fanchette. "Little +Flore--I am sure she is worthy of the name--will sleep there in +future. To-morrow, we'll send for a shoemaker and a dressmaker. Put +another plate on the table; she shall keep us company." + +That evening, all Issoudun could talk of nothing else than the sudden +appearance of the little "rabouilleuse" in Doctor Rouget's house. In +that region of satire the nickname stuck to Mademoiselle Brazier +before, during, and after the period of her good fortune. + +The doctor no doubt intended to do with Flore Brazier, in a small way, +what Louis XV. did in a large one with Mademoiselle de Romans; but he +was too late about it; Louis XV. was still young, whereas the doctor +was in the flower of old age. From twelve to fourteen, the charming +little Rabouilleuse lived a life of unmixed happiness. Always well- +dressed, and often much better tricked out than the richest girls in +Issoudun, she sported a gold watch and jewels, given by the doctor to +encourage her studies, and she had a master who taught her to read, +write, and cipher. But the almost animal life of the true peasant had +instilled into Flore such deep repugnance to the bitter cup of +knowledge, that the doctor stopped her education at that point. His +intentions with regard to the child, whom he cleansed and clothed, and +taught, and formed with a care which was all the more remarkable +because he was thought to be utterly devoid of tenderness, were +interpreted in a variety of ways by the cackling society of the town, +whose gossip often gave rise to fatal blunders, like those relating to +the birth of Agathe and that of Max. It is not easy for the community +of a country town to disentangle the truth from the mass of conjecture +and contradictory reports to which a single fact gives rise. The +provinces insist--as in former days the politicians of the little +Provence at the Tuileries insisted--on full explanations, and they +usually end by knowing everything. But each person clings to the +version of the event which he, or she, likes best; proclaims it, +argues it, and considers it the only true one. In spite of the strong +light cast upon people's lives by the constant spying of a little +town, truth is thus often obscured; and to be recognized, it needs the +impartiality which historians or superior minds acquire by looking at +the subject from a higher point of view. + +"What do you suppose that old gorilla wants at his age with a little +girl only fifteen years old?" society was still saying two years after +the arrival of the Rabouilleuse. + +"Ah! that's true," they answered, "his days of merry-making are long +past." + +"My dear fellow, the doctor is disgusted at the stupidity of his son, +and he persists in hating his daughter Agathe; it may be that he has +been living a decent life for the last two years, intending to marry +little Flore; suppose she were to give him a fine, active, strapping +boy, full of life like Max?" said one of the wise heads of the town. + +"Bah! don't talk nonsense! After such a life as Rouget and Lousteau +led from 1770 to 1787, is it likely that either of them would have +children at sixty-five years of age? The old villain has read the +Scriptures, if only as a doctor, and he is doing as David did in his +old age; that's all." + +"They say that Brazier, when he is drunk, boasts in Vatan that he +cheated him," cried one of those who always believed the worst of +people. + +"Good heavens! neighbor; what won't they say at Issoudun?" + +From 1800 to 1805, that is, for five years, the doctor enjoyed all the +pleasures of educating Flore without the annoyances which the +ambitions and pretensions of Mademoiselle de Romans inflicted, it is +said, on Louis le Bien-Aime. The little Rabouilleuse was so satisfied +when she compared the life she led at the doctor's with that she would +have led at her uncle Brazier's, that she yielded no doubt to the +exactions of her master as if she had been an Eastern slave. With due +deference to the makers of idylls and to philanthropists, the +inhabitants of the provinces have very little idea of certain virtues; +and their scruples are of a kind that is roused by self-interest, and +not by any sentiment of the right or the becoming. Raised from infancy +with no prospect before them but poverty and ceaseless labor, they are +led to consider anything that saves them from the hell of hunger and +eternal toil as permissible, particularly if it is not contrary to any +law. Exceptions to this rule are rare. Virtue, socially speaking, is +the companion of a comfortable life, and comes only with education. + +Thus the Rabouilleuse was an object of envy to all the young peasant- +girls within a circuit of ten miles, although her conduct, from a +religious point of view, was supremely reprehensible. Flore, born in +1787, grew up in the midst of the saturnalias of 1793 and 1798, whose +lurid gleams penetrated these country regions, then deprived of +priests and faith and altars and religious ceremonies; where marriage +was nothing more than legal coupling, and revolutionary maxims left a +deep impression. This was markedly the case at Issoudun, a land where, +as we have seen, revolt of all kinds is traditional. In 1802, Catholic +worship was scarcely re-established. The Emperor found it a difficult +matter to obtain priests. In 1806, many parishes all over France were +still widowed; so slowly were the clergy, decimated by the scaffold, +gathered together again after their violent dispersion. + +In 1802, therefore, nothing was likely to reproach Flore Brazier, +unless it might be her conscience; and conscience was sure to be +weaker than self-interest in the ward of Uncle Brazier. If, as +everybody chose to suppose, the cynical doctor was compelled by his +age to respect a child of fifteen, the Rabouilleuse was none the less +considered very "wide awake," a term much used in that region. Still, +some persons thought she could claim a certificate of innocence from +the cessation of the doctor's cares and attentions in the last two +years of his life, during which time he showed her something more than +coldness. + +Old Rouget had killed too many people not to know when his own end was +nigh; and his notary, finding him on his death-bed, draped as it were, +in the mantle of encyclopaedic philosophy, pressed him to make a +provision in favor of the young girl, then seventeen years old. + +"So I do," he said, cynically; "my death sets her at liberty." + +This speech paints the nature of the old man. Covering his evil doings +with witty sayings, he obtained indulgence for them, in a land where +wit is always applauded,--especially when addressed to obvious self- +interest. In those words the notary read the concentrated hatred of a +man whose calculations had been balked by Nature herself, and who +revenged himself upon the innocent object of an impotent love. This +opinion was confirmed to some extent by the obstinate resolution of +the doctor to leave nothing to the Rabouilleuse, saying with a bitter +smile, when the notary again urged the subject upon him,-- + +"Her beauty will make her rich enough!" + + + + CHAPTER IX + +Jean-Jacques Rouget did not mourn his father, though Flore Brazier +did. The old doctor had made his son extremely unhappy, especially +since he came of age, which happened in 1791; but he had given the +little peasant-girl the material pleasures which are the ideal of +happiness to country-folk. When Fanchette asked Flore, after the +funeral, "Well, what is to become of you, now that monsieur is dead?" +Jean-Jacques's eyes lighted up, and for the first time in his life his +dull face grew animated, showed feeling, and seemed to brighten under +the rays of a thought. + +"Leave the room," he said to Fanchette, who was clearing the table. + +At seventeen, Flore retained that delicacy of feature and form, that +distinction of beauty which attracted the doctor, and which women of +the world know how to preserve, though it fades among the peasant- +girls like the flowers of the field. Nevertheless, the tendency to +embonpoint, which handsome countrywomen develop when they no longer +live a life of toil and hardship in the fields and in the sunshine, +was already noticeable about her. Her bust had developed. The plump +white shoulders were modelled on rich lines that harmoniously blended +with those of the throat, already showing a few folds of flesh. But +the outline of the face was still faultless, and the chin delicate. + +"Flore," said Jean-Jacques, in a trembling voice, "you feel at home in +this house?" + +"Yes, Monsieur Jean." + +As the heir was about to make his declaration, he felt his tongue +stiffen at the recollection of the dead man, just put away in his +grave, and a doubt seized him as to what lengths his father's +benevolence might have gone. Flore, who was quite unable even to +suspect his simplicity of mind, looked at her future master and waited +for a time, expecting Jean-Jacques to go on with what he was saying; +but she finally left him without knowing what to think of such +obstinate silence. Whatever teaching the Rabouilleuse may have +received from the doctor, it was many a long day before she finally +understood the character of Jean-Jacques, whose history we now present +in a few words. + +At the death of his father, Jacques, then thirty-seven, was as timid +and submissive to paternal discipline as a child of twelve years old. +That timidity ought to explain his childhood, youth, and after-life to +those who are reluctant to admit the existence of such characters, or +such facts as this history relates,--though proofs of them are, alas, +common everywhere, even among princes; for Sophie Dawes was taken by +the last of the Condes under worse circumstances than the +Rabouilleuse. There are two species of timidity,--the timidity of the +mind, and the timidity of the nerves; a physical timidity, and a moral +timidity. The one is independent of the other. The body may fear and +tremble, while the mind is calm and courageous, or vice versa. This is +the key to many moral eccentricities. When the two are united in one +man, that man will be a cipher all his life; such double-sided +timidity makes him what we call "an imbecile." Often fine suppressed +qualities are hidden within that imbecile. To this double infirmity we +may, perhaps, owe the lives of certain monks who lived in ecstasy; for +this unfortunate moral and physical disposition is produced quite as +much by the perfection of the soul and of the organs, as by defects +which are still unstudied. + +The timidity of Jean-Jacques came from a certain torpor of his +faculties, which a great teacher or a great surgeon, like Despleins, +would have roused. In him, as in the cretins, the sense of love had +inherited a strength and vigor which were lacking to his mental +qualities, though he had mind enough to guide him in ordinary affairs. +The violence of passion, stripped of the ideal in which most young men +expend it, only increased his timidity. He had never brought himself +to court, as the saying is, any woman in Issoudun. Certainly no young +girl or matron would make advances to a young man of mean stature, +awkward and shame-faced in attitude; whose vulgar face, with its +flattened features and pallid skin, making him look old before his +time, was rendered still more hideous by a pair of large and prominent +light-green eyes. The presence of a woman stultified the poor fellow, +who was driven by passion on the one hand as violently as the lack of +ideas, resulting from his education, held him back on the other. +Paralyzed between these opposing forces, he had not a word to say, and +feared to be spoken to, so much did he dread the obligation of +replying. Desire, which usually sets free the tongue, only petrified +his powers of speech. Thus it happened that Jean-Jacques Rouget was +solitary and sought solitude because there alone he was at his ease. + +The doctor had seen, too late for remedy, the havoc wrought in his +son's life by a temperament and a character of this kind. He would +have been glad to get him married; but to do that, he must deliver him +over to an influence that was certain to become tyrannical, and the +doctor hesitated. Was it not practically giving the whole management +of the property into the hands of a stranger, some unknown girl? The +doctor knew how difficult it was to gain true indications of the moral +character of a woman from any study of a young girl. So, while he +continued to search for a daughter-in-law whose sentiments and +education offered some guarantees for the future, he endeavored to +push his son into the ways of avarice; meaning to give the poor fool a +sort of instinct that might eventually take the place of intelligence. + +He trained him, in the first place, to mechanical habits of life; and +instilled into him fixed ideas as to the investment of his revenues: +and he spared him the chief difficulties of the management of a +fortune, by leaving his estates all in good order, and leased for long +periods. Nevertheless, a fact which was destined to be of paramount +importance in the life of the poor creature escaped the notice of the +wily old doctor. Timidity is a good deal like dissimulation, and is +equally secretive. Jean-Jacques was passionately in love with the +Rabouilleuse. Nothing, of course, could be more natural. Flore was the +only woman who lived in the bachelor's presence, the only one he could +see at his ease; and at all hours he secretly contemplated her and +watched her. To him, she was the light of his paternal home; she gave +him, unknown to herself, the only pleasures that brightened his youth. +Far from being jealous of his father, he rejoiced in the education the +old man was giving to Flore: would it not make her all he wanted, a +woman easy to win, and to whom, therefore, he need pay no court? The +passion, observe, which is able to reflect, gives even to ninnies, +fools, and imbeciles a species of intelligence, especially in youth. +In the lowest human creature we find an animal instinct whose +persistency resembles thought. + +The next day, Flore, who had been reflecting on her master's silence, +waited in expectation of some momentous communication; but although he +kept near her, and looked at her on the sly with passionate glances, +Jean-Jacques still found nothing to say. At last, when the dessert was +on the table, he recommenced the scene of the night before. + +"You like your life here?" he said to Flore. + +"Yes, Monsieur Jean." + +"Well, stay here then." + +"Thank you, Monsieur Jean." + +This strange situation lasted three weeks. One night, when no sound +broke the stillness of the house, Flore, who chanced to wake up, heard +the regular breathing of human lungs outside her door, and was +frightened to discover Jean-Jacques, crouched like a dog on the +landing. + +"He loves me," she thought; "but he will get the rheumatism if he +keeps up that sort of thing." + +The next day Flore looked at her master with a certain expression. +This mute almost instinctive love had touched her; she no longer +thought the poor ninny so ugly, though his forehead was crowned with +pimples resembling ulcers, the signs of a vitiated blood. + +"You don't want to go back and live in the fields, do you?" said Jean- +Jacques when they were alone. + +"Why do you ask me that?" she said, looking at him. + +"To know--" replied Rouget, turning the color of a boiled lobster. + +"Do you wish to send me back?" she asked. + +"No, mademoiselle." + +"Well, what is it you want to know? You have some reason--" + +"Yes, I want to know--" + +"What?" said Flore. + +"You won't tell me?" exclaimed Rouget. + +"Yes I will, on my honor--" + +"Ah! that's it," returned Rouget, with a frightened air. "Are you an +honest girl?" + +"I'll take my oath--" + +"Are you, truly?" + +"Don't you hear me tell you so?" + +"Come; are you the same as you were when your uncle brought you here +barefooted?" + +"A fine question, faith!" cried Flore, blushing. + +The heir lowered his head and did not raise it again. Flore, amazed at +such an encouraging sign from a man who had been overcome by a fear of +that nature, left the room. + +Three days later, at the same hour (for both seemed to regard the +dessert as a field of battle), Flore spoke first, and said to her +master,-- + +"Have you anything against me?" + +"No, mademoiselle," he answered, "No--" [a pause] "On the contrary." + +"You seemed annoyed the other day to hear I was an honest girl." + +"No, I only wished to know--" [a pause] "But you would not tell me--" + +"On my word!" she said, "I will tell you the whole truth." + +"The whole truth about--my father?" he asked in a strangled voice. + +"Your father," she said, looking full into her master's eye, "was a +worthy man--he liked a joke--What of that?--there was nothing in it. +But, poor dear man, it wasn't the will that was wanting. The truth is, +he had some spite against you, I don't know what, and he meant--oh! he +meant you harm. Sometimes he made me laugh; but there! what of that?" + +"Well, Flore," said the heir, taking her hand, "as my father was +nothing to you--" + +"What did you suppose he was to me?" she cried, as if offended by some +unworthy suspicion. + +"Well, but just listen--" + +"He was my benefactor, that was all. Ah! he would have liked to make +me his wife, but--" + +"But," said Rouget, taking the hand which Flore had snatched away from +him, "if he was nothing to you you can stay here with me, can't you?" + +"If you wish it," she said, dropping her eyes. + +"No, no! if you wish it, you!" exclaimed Rouget. "Yes, you shall be-- +mistress here. All that is here shall be yours; you shall take care of +my property, it is almost yours now--for I love you; I have always +loved you since the day you came and stood there--there!--with bare +feet." + +Flore made no answer. When the silence became embarrassing, Jean- +Jacques had recourse to a terrible argument. + +"Come," he said, with visible warmth, "wouldn't it be better than +returning to the fields?" + +"As you will, Monsieur Jean," she answered. + +Nevertheless, in spite of her "as you will," Jean-Jacques got no +further. Men of his nature want certainty. The effort that they make +in avowing their love is so great, and costs them so much, that they +feel unable to go on with it. This accounts for their attachment to +the first woman who accepts them. We can only guess at circumstances +by results. Ten months after the death of his father, Jean-Jacques +changed completely; his leaden face cleared, and his whole countenance +breathed happiness. Flore exacted that he should take minute care of +his person, and her own vanity was gratified in seeing him well- +dressed; she always stood on the sill of the door, and watched him +starting for a walk, until she could see him no longer. The whole town +noticed these changes, which had made a new man of the bachelor. + +"Have you heard the news?" people said to each other in Issoudun. + +"What is it?" + +"Jean-Jacques inherits everything from his father, even the +Rabouilleuse." + +"Don't you suppose the old doctor was wicked enough to provide a ruler +for his son?" + +"Rouget has got a treasure, that's certain," said everybody. + +"She's a sly one! She is very handsome, and she will make him marry +her." + +"What luck that girl has had, to be sure!" + +"The luck that only comes to pretty girls." + +"Ah, bah! do you believe that? look at my uncle Borniche-Herau. You +have heard of Mademoiselle Ganivet? she was as ugly as seven capital +sins, but for all that, she got three thousand francs a year out of +him." + +"Yes, but that was in 1778." + +"Still, Rouget is making a mistake. His father left him a good forty +thousand francs' income, and he ought to marry Mademoiselle Herau." + +"The doctor tried to arrange it, but she would not consent; Jean- +Jacques is so stupid--" + +"Stupid! why women are very happy with that style of man." + +"Is your wife happy?" + +Such was the sort of tattle that ran through Issoudun. If people, +following the use and wont of the provinces, began by laughing at this +quasi-marriage, they ended by praising Flore for devoting herself to +the poor fellow. We now see how it was that Flore Brazier obtained the +management of the Rouget household,--from father to son, as young +Goddet had said. It is desirable to sketch the history of that +management for the edification of old bachelors. + +Fanchette, the cook, was the only person in Issoudun who thought it +wrong that Flore Brazier should be queen over Jean-Jacques Rouget and +his home. She protested against the immorality of the connection, and +took a tone of injured virtue; the fact being that she was humiliated +by having, at her age, a crab-girl for a mistress,--a child who had +been brought barefoot into the house. Fanchette owned three hundred +francs a year in the Funds, for the doctor made her invest her savings +in that way, and he had left her as much more in an annuity; she could +therefore live at her ease without the necessity of working, and she +quitted the house nine months after the funeral of her old master, +April 15, 1806. That date may indicate, to a perspicacious observer, +the epoch at which Flore Brazier ceased to be an honest girl. + +The Rabouilleuse, clever enough to foresee Fanchette's probable +defection,--there is nothing like the exercise of power for teaching +policy,--was already resolved to do without a servant. For six months +she had studied, without seeming to do so, the culinary operations +that made Fanchette a cordon-bleu worthy of cooking for a doctor. In +the matter of choice living, doctors are on a par with bishops. The +doctor had brought Fanchette's talents to perfection. In the provinces +the lack of occupation and the monotony of existence turn all activity +of mind towards the kitchen. People do not dine as luxuriously in the +country as they do in Paris, but they dine better; the dishes are +meditated upon and studied. In rural regions we often find some Careme +in petticoats, some unrecognized genius able to serve a simple dish of +haricot-beans worthy of the nod with which Rossini welcomed a +perfectly-rendered measure. + +When studying for his degree in Paris, the doctor had followed a +course of chemistry under Rouelle, and had gathered some ideas which +he afterwards put to use in the chemistry of cooking. His memory is +famous in Issoudun for certain improvements little known outside of +Berry. It was he who discovered that an omelette is far more delicate +when the whites and the yolks are not beaten together with the +violence which cooks usually put into the operation. He considered +that the whites should be beaten to a froth and the yolks gently added +by degrees; moreover a frying-pan should never be used, but a +"cagnard" of porcelain or earthenware. The "cagnard" is a species of +thick dish standing on four feet, so that when it is placed on the +stove the air circulates underneath and prevents the fire from +cracking it. In Touraine the "cagnard" is called a "cauquemarre." +Rabelais, I think, speaks of a "cauquemarre" for cooking cockatrice +eggs, thus proving the antiquity of the utensil. The doctor had also +found a way to prevent the tartness of browned butter; but his secret, +which unluckily he kept to his own kitchen, has been lost. + +Flore, a born fryer and roaster, two qualities that can never be +acquired by observation nor yet by labor, soon surpassed Fanchette. In +making herself a cordon-bleu she was thinking of Jean-Jacques's +comfort; though she was, it must be owned, tolerably dainty. +Incapable, like all persons without education, of doing anything with +her brains, she spent her activity upon household matters. She rubbed +up the furniture till it shone, and kept everything about the house in +a state of cleanliness worthy of Holland. She managed the avalanches +of soiled linen and the floods of water that go by the name of "the +wash," which was done, according to provincial usage, three times a +year. She kept a housewifely eye to the linen, and mended it +carefully. Then, desirous of learning little by little the secret of +the family property, she acquired the very limited business knowledge +which Rouget possessed, and increased it by conversations with the +notary of the late doctor, Monsieur Heron. Thus instructed, she gave +excellent advice to her little Jean-Jacques. Sure of being always +mistress, she was as eager and solicitous about the old bachelor's +interests as if they had been her own. She was not obliged to guard +against the exactions of her uncle, for two months before the doctor's +death Brazier died of a fall as he was leaving a wine-shop, where, +since his rise in fortune, he spent most of his time. Flore had also +lost her father; thus she served her master with all the affection +which an orphan, thankful to make herself a home and a settlement in +life, would naturally feel. + +This period of his life was paradise to poor Jean-Jacques, who now +acquired the gentle habits of an animal, trained into a sort of +monastic regularity. He slept late. Flore, who was up at daybreak +attending to her housekeeping, woke him so that he should find his +breakfast ready as soon as he had finished dressing. After breakfast, +about eleven o'clock, Jean-Jacques went to walk; talked with the +people he met, and came home at three in the afternoon to read the +papers,--those of the department, and a journal from Paris which he +received three days after publication, well greased by the thirty +hands through which it came, browned by the snuffy noses that had +pored over it, and soiled by the various tables on which it had lain. +The old bachelor thus got through the day until it was time for +dinner; over that meal he spent as much time as it was possible to +give to it. Flore told him the news of the town, repeating the cackle +that was current, which she had carefully picked up. Towards eight +o'clock the lights were put out. Going to bed early is a saving of +fire and candles very commonly practised in the provinces, which +contributes no doubt to the empty-mindedness of the inhabitants. Too +much sleep dulls and weakens the brain. + +Such was the life of these two persons during a period of nine years, +the great events of which were a few journeys to Bourges, Vierzon, +Chateauroux, or somewhat further, if the notaries of those towns and +Monsieur Heron had no investments ready for acceptance. Rouget lent +his money at five per cent on a first mortgage, with release of the +wife's rights in case the owner was married. He never lent more than a +third of the value of the property, and required notes payable to his +order for an additional interest of two and a half per cent spread +over the whole duration of the loan. Such were the rules his father +had told him to follow. Usury, that clog upon the ambition of the +peasantry, is the destroyer of country regions. This levy of seven and +a half per cent seemed, therefore, so reasonable to the borrowers that +Jean-Jacques Rouget had his choice of investments; and the notaries of +the different towns, who got a fine commission for themselves from +clients for whom they obtained money on such good terms, gave due +notice to the old bachelor. + +During these nine years Flore obtained in the long run, insensibly and +without aiming for it, an absolute control over her master. From the +first, she treated him very familiarly; then, without failing him in +proper respect, she so far surpassed him in superiority of mind and +force of character that he became in fact the servant of his servant. +Elderly child that he was, he met this mastery half-way by letting +Flore take such care of him that she treated him more as a mother +would a son; and he himself ended by clinging to her with the feeling +of a child dependent on a mother's protection. But there were other +ties between them not less tightly knotted. In the first place, Flore +kept the house and managed all its business. Jean-Jacques left +everything to the crab-girl so completely that life without her would +have seemed to him not only difficult, but impossible. In every way, +this woman had become the one need of his existence; she indulged all +his fancies, for she knew them well. He loved to see her bright face +always smiling at him,--the only face that had ever smiled upon him, +the only one to which he could look for a smile. This happiness, a +purely material happiness, expressed in the homely words which come +readiest to the tongue in a Berrichon household, and visible on the +fine countenance of the young woman, was like a reflection of his own +inward content. The state into which Jean-Jacques was thrown when +Flore's brightness was clouded over by some passing annoyance revealed +to the girl her power over him, and, to make sure of it, she sometimes +liked to use it. Using such power means, with women of her class, +abusing it. The Rabouilleuse, no doubt, made her master play some of +those scenes buried in the mysteries of private life, of which Otway +gives a specimen in the tragedy of "Venice Preserved," where the scene +between the senator and Aquilina is the realization of the +magnificently horrible. Flore felt so secure of her power that, +unfortunately for her, and for the bachelor himself, it did not occur +to her to make him marry her. + +Towards the close of 1815, Flore, who was then twenty-seven, had +reached the perfect development of her beauty. Plump and fresh, and +white as a Norman countrywoman, she was the ideal of what our +ancestors used to call "a buxom housewife." Her beauty, always that of +a handsome barmaid, though higher in type and better kept, gave her a +likeness to Mademoiselle George in her palmy days, setting aside the +latter's imperial dignity. Flore had the dazzling white round arms, +the ample modelling, the satiny textures of the skin, the alluring +though less rigidly correct outlines of the great actress. Her +expression was one of sweetness and tenderness; but her glance +commanded less respect than that of the noblest Agrippina that ever +trod the French stage since the days of Racine: on the contrary, it +evoked a vulgar joy. In 1816 the Rabouilleuse saw Maxence Gilet, and +fell in love with him at first sight. Her heart was cleft by the +mythological arrow,--admirable description of an effect of nature +which the Greeks, unable to conceive the chivalric, ideal, and +melancholy love begotten of Christianity, could represent in no other +way. Flore was too handsome to be disdained, and Max accepted his +conquest. + +Thus, at twenty-eight years of age, the Rabouilleuse felt for the +first time a true love, an idolatrous love, the love which includes +all ways of loving,--that of Gulnare and that of Medora. As soon as +the penniless officer found out the respective situations of Flore and +Jean-Jacques Rouget, he saw something more desirable than an +"amourette" in an intimacy with the Rabouilleuse. He asked nothing +better for his future prosperity than to take up his abode at the +Rouget's, recognizing perfectly the feeble nature of the old bachelor. +Flore's passion necessarily affected the life and household affairs of +her master. For a month the old man, now grown excessively timid, saw +the laughing and kindly face of his mistress change to something +terrible and gloomy and sullen. He was made to endure flashes of angry +temper purposely displayed, precisely like a married man whose wife is +meditating an infidelity. When, after some cruel rebuff, he nerved +himself to ask Flore the reason of the change, her eyes were so full +of hatred, and her voice so aggressive and contemptuous, that the poor +creature quailed under them. + +"Good heavens!" she cried; "you have neither heart nor soul! Here's +sixteen years that I have spent my youth in this house, and I have +only just found out that you have got a stone there (striking her +breast). For two months you have seen before your eyes that brave +captain, a victim of the Bourbons, who was cut out for a general, and +is down in the depths of poverty, hunted into a hole of a place where +there's no way to make a penny of money! He's forced to sit on a stool +all day in the mayor's office to earn--what? Six hundred miserable +francs,--a fine thing, indeed! And here are you, with six hundred and +fifty-nine thousand well invested, and sixty thousand francs' income, +--thanks to me, who never spend more than three thousand a year, +everything included, even my own clothes, yes, everything!--and you +never think of offering him a home here, though there's the second +floor empty! You'd rather the rats and mice ran riot in it than put a +human being there,--and he a lad your father always allowed to be his +own son! Do you want to know what you are? I'll tell you,--a +fratricide! And I know why, too. You see I take an interest in him, +and that provokes you. Stupid as you seem, you have got more spite in +you than the spitefullest of men. Well, yes! I do take an interest in +him, and a keen one--" + +"But, Flore--" + +"'BUT, FLORE', indeed! What's that got to do with it? You may go and +find another Flore (if you can!), for I hope this glass of wine may +poison me if I don't get away from your dungeon of a house. I haven't, +God be thanked! cost you one penny during the twelve years I've been +with you, and you have had the pleasure of my company into the +bargain. I could have earned my own living anywhere with the work that +I've done here,--washing, ironing, looking after the linen, going to +market, cooking, taking care of your interests before everything, +slaving myself to death from morning till night,--and this is my +reward!" + +"But, Flore--" + +"Oh, yes, 'FLORE'! find another Flore, if you can, at your time of +life, fifty-one years old, and getting feeble,--for the way your +health is failing is frightful, I know that! and besides, you are none +too amusing--" + +"But, Flore--" + +"Let me alone!" + +She went out, slamming the door with a violence that echoed through +the house, and seemed to shake it to its foundations. Jean-Jacques +softly opened the door and went, still more softly, into the kitchen +where she was muttering to herself. + +"But, Flore," said the poor sheep, "this is the first time I have +heard of this wish of yours; how do you know whether I will agree to +it or not?" + +"In the first place," she said, "there ought to be a man in the house. +Everybody knows you have ten, fifteen, twenty thousand francs here; if +they came to rob you we should both be murdered. For my part, I don't +care to wake up some fine morning chopped in quarters, as happened to +that poor servant-girl who was silly enough to defend her master. +Well! if the robbers knew there was a man in the house as brave as +Caesar and who wasn't born yesterday,--for Max could swallow three +burglars as quick as a flash,--well, then I should sleep easy. People +may tell you a lot of stuff,--that I love him, that I adore him,--and +some say this and some say that! Do you know what you ought to say? +You ought to answer that you know it; that your father told you on his +deathbed to take care of his poor Max. That will stop people's +tongues; for every stone in Issoudun can tell you he paid Max's +schooling--and so! Here's nine years that I have eaten your bread--" + +"Flore,--Flore!" + +"--and many a one in this town has paid court to me, I can tell you! +Gold chains here, and watches there,--what don't they offer me? 'My +little Flore,' they say, 'why won't you leave that old fool of a +Rouget,'--for that's what they call you. 'I leave him!' I always +answer, 'a poor innocent like that? I think I see myself! what would +become of him? No, no, where the kid is tethered, let her browse--'" + +"Yes, Flore; I've none but you in this world, and you make me happy. +If it will give you pleasure, my dear, well, we will have Maxence +Gilet here; he can eat with us--" + +"Heavens! I should hope so!" + +"There, there! don't get angry--" + +"Enough for one is enough for two," she answered laughing. "I'll tell +you what you can do, my lamb, if you really mean to be kind; you must +go and walk up and down near the Mayor's office at four o'clock, and +manage to meet Monsieur Gilet and invite him to dinner. If he makes +excuses, tell him it will give me pleasure; he is too polite to +refuse. And after dinner, at dessert, if he tells you about his +misfortunes, and the hulks and so forth--for you can easily get him to +talk about all that--then you can make him the offer to come and live +here. If he makes any objection, never mind, I shall know how to +settle it." + +Walking slowly along the boulevard Baron, the old celibate reflected, +as much as he had the mind to reflect, over this incident. If he were +to part from Flore (the mere thought confused him) where could he find +another woman? Should he marry? At his age he should be married for +his money, and a legitimate wife would use him far more cruelly than +Flore. Besides, the thought of being deprived of her tenderness, even +if it were a mere pretence, caused him horrible anguish. He was +therefore as polite to Captain Gilet as he knew how to be. The +invitation was given, as Flore had requested, before witnesses, to +guard the hero's honor from all suspicion. + +A reconciliation took place between Flore and her master; but from +that day forth Jean-Jacques noticed many a trifle that betokened a +total change in his mistress's affections. For two or three weeks +Flore Brazier complained to the tradespeople in the markets, and to +the women with whom she gossiped, about Monsieur Rouget's tyranny,-- +how he had taken it into his head to invite his self-styled natural +brother to live with him. No one, however, was taken in by this +comedy; and Flore was looked upon as a wonderfully clever and artful +creature. Old Rouget really found himself very comfortable after Max +became the master of his house; for he thus gained a companion who +paid him many attentions, without, however, showing any servility. +Gilet talked, discussed politics, and sometimes went to walk with +Rouget. After Max was fairly installed, Flore did not choose to do the +cooking; she said it spoiled her hands. At the request of the grand +master of the Order of the Knights of Idleness, Mere Cognette produced +one of her relatives, an old maid whose master, a curate, had lately +died without leaving her anything,--an excellent cook, withal,--who +declared she would devote herself for life or death to Max and Flore. +In the name of the two powers, Mere Cognette promised her an annuity +of three hundred francs a year at the end of ten years, if she served +them loyally, honestly, and discreetly. The Vedie, as she was called, +was noticeable for a face deeply pitted by the small-pox, and +correspondingly ugly. + +After the new cook had entered upon her duties, the Rabouilleuse took +the title of Madame Brazier. She wore corsets; she had silk, or +handsome woollen and cotton dresses, according to the season, +expensive neckerchiefs, embroidered caps and collars, lace ruffles at +her throat, boots instead of shoes, and, altogether, adopted a +richness and elegance of apparel which renewed the youthfulness of her +appearance. She was like a rough diamond, that needed cutting and +mounting by a jeweller to bring out its full value. Her desire was to +do honor to Max. At the end of the first year, in 1817, she brought a +horse, styled English, from Bourges, for the poor cavalry captain, who +was weary of going afoot. Max had picked up in the purlieus of +Issoudun an old lancer of the Imperial Guard, a Pole named Kouski, now +very poor, who asked nothing better than to quarter himself in +Monsieur Rouget's house as the captain's servant. Max was Kouski's +idol, especially after the duel with the three royalists. So, from +1817, the household of the old bachelor was made up of five persons, +three of whom were masters, and the expenses advanced to about eight +thousand francs a year. + + + + CHAPTER X + +At the time when Madame Bridau returned to Issoudun to save--as Maitre +Desroches expressed it--an inheritance that was seriously threatened, +Jean-Jacques Rouget had reached by degrees a condition that was semi- +vegetative. In the first place, after Max's instalment, Flore put the +table on an episcopal footing. Rouget, thrown in the way of good +living, ate more and still more, enticed by the Vedie's excellent +dishes. He grew no fatter, however, in spite of this abundant and +luxurious nourishment. From day to day he weakened like a worn-out +man,--fatigued, perhaps, with the effort of digestion,--and his eyes +had dark circles around them. Still, when his friends and neighbors +met him in his walks and questioned him about his health, he always +answered that he was never better in his life. As he had always been +thought extremely deficient in mind, people did not notice the +constant lowering of his faculties. His love for Flore was the one +thing that kept him alive; in fact, he existed only for her, and his +weakness in her presence was unbounded; he obeyed the creature's mere +look, and watched her movements as a dog watches every gesture of his +master. In short, as Madame Hochon remarked, at fifty-seven years of +age he seemed older than Monsieur Hochon, an octogenarian. + +Every one will suppose, and with reason, that Max's appartement was +worthy of so charming a fellow. In fact, in the course of six years +our captain had by degrees perfected the comfort of his abode and +adorned every detail of it, as much for his own pleasure as for +Flore's. But it was, after all, only the comfort and luxury of +Issoudun,--colored tiles, rather elegant wallpapers, mahogany +furniture, mirrors in gilt frames, muslin curtains with red borders, a +bed with a canopy, and draperies arranged as the provincial +upholsterers arrange them for a rich bride; which in the eyes of +Issoudun seemed the height of luxury, but are so common in vulgar +fashion-plates that even the petty shopkeepers in Paris have discarded +them at their weddings. One very unusual thing appeared, which caused +much talk in Issoudun, namely, a rush-matting on the stairs, no doubt +to muffle the sound of feet. In fact, though Max was in the habit of +coming in at daybreak, he never woke any one, and Rouget was far from +suspecting that his guest was an accomplice in the nocturnal +performances of the Knights of Idleness. + +About eight o'clock the next morning, Flore, wearing a dressing-gown +of some pretty cotton stuff with narrow pink stripes, a lace cap on +her head, and her feet in furred slippers, softly opened the door of +Max's chamber; seeing that he slept, she remained standing beside the +bed. + +"He came in so late!" she said to herself. "It was half-past three. He +must have a good constitution to stand such amusements. Isn't he +strong, the dear love! I wonder what they did last night." + +"Oh, there you are, my little Flore!" said Max, waking like a soldier +trained by the necessities of war to have his wits and his self- +possession about him the instant that he waked, however suddenly it +might happen. + +"You are sleepy; I'll go away." + +"No, stay; there's something serious going on." + +"Were you up to some mischief last night?" + +"Ah, bah! It concerns you and me and that old fool. You never told me +he had a family! Well, his family are coming,--coming here,--no doubt +to turn us out, neck and crop." + +"Ah! I'll shake him well," said Flore. + +"Mademoiselle Brazier," said Max gravely, "things are too serious for +giddiness. Send me my coffee; I'll take it in bed, where I'll think +over what we had better do. Come back at nine o'clock, and we'll talk +about it. Meanwhile, behave as if you had heard nothing." + +Frightened at the news, Flore left Max and went to make his coffee; +but a quarter of an hour later, Baruch burst into Max's bedroom, +crying out to the grand master,-- + +"Fario is hunting for his barrow!" + +In five minutes Max was dressed and in the street, and though he +sauntered along with apparent indifference, he soon reached the foot +of the tower embankment, where he found quite a collection of people. + +"What is it?" asked Max, making his way through the crowd and reaching +the Spaniard. + +Fario was a withered little man, as ugly as though he were a blue- +blooded grandee. His fiery eyes, placed very close to his nose and +piercing as a gimlet, would have won him the name of a sorcerer in +Naples. He seemed gentle because he was calm, quiet, and slow in his +movements; and for this reason people commonly called him "goodman +Fario." But his skin--the color of gingerbread--and his softness of +manner only hid from stupid eyes, and disclosed to observing ones, the +half-Moorish nature of a peasant of Granada, which nothing had as yet +roused from its phlegmatic indolence. + +"Are you sure," Max said to him, after listening to his grievance, +"that you brought your cart to this place? for, thank God, there are +no thieves in Issoudun." + +"I left it just there--" + +"If the horse was harnessed to it, hasn't he drawn it somewhere." + +"Here's the horse," said Fario, pointing to the animal, which stood +harnessed thirty feet away. + +Max went gravely up to the place where the horse stood, because from +there the bottom of the tower at the top of the embankment could be +seen,--the crowd being at the foot of the mound. Everybody followed +Max, and that was what the scoundrel wanted. + +"Has anybody thoughtlessly put a cart in his pocket?" cried Francois. + +"Turn out your pockets, all of you!" said Baruch. + +Shouts of laughter resounded on all sides. Fario swore. Oaths, with a +Spaniard, denote the highest pitch of anger. + +"Was your cart light?" asked Max. + +"Light!" cried Fario. "If those who laugh at me had it on their feet, +their corns would never hurt them again." + +"Well, it must be devilishly light," answered Max, "for look there!" +pointing to the foot of the tower; "it has flown up the embankment." + +At these words all eyes were lifted to the spot, and for a moment +there was a perfect uproar in the market-place. Each man pointed at +the barrow bewitched, and all their tongues wagged. + +"The devil makes common cause with the inn-keepers," said Goddet to +the astonished Spaniard. "He means to teach you not to leave your cart +about in the streets, but to put it in the tavern stables." + +At this speech the crowd hooted, for Fario was thought to be a miser. + +"Come, my good fellow," said Max, "don't lose heart. We'll go up to +the tower and see how your barrow got there. Thunder and cannon! we'll +lend you a hand! Come along, Baruch." + +"As for you," he whispered to Francois, "get the people to stand back, +and make sure there is nobody at the foot of the embankment when you +see us at the top." + +Fario, Max, Baruch, and three other knights climbed to the foot of the +tower. During the rather perilous ascent Max and Fario noticed that no +damage to the embankment, nor even trace of the passage of the barrow, +could be seen. Fario began to imagine witchcraft, and lost his head. +When they reached the top and examined into the matter, it really +seemed a thing impossible that the cart had got there. + +"How shall I ever get it down?" said the Spaniard, whose little eyes +began for the first time to show fear; while his swarthy yellow face, +which seemed as it if could never change color, whitened. + +"How?" said Max. "Why, that's not difficult." + +And taking advantage of the Spaniard's stupefaction, he raised the +barrow by the shafts with his robust arms and prepared to fling it +down, calling in thundering tones as it left his grasp, "Look out +there, below!" + +No accident happened, for the crowd, persuaded by Francois and eaten +up with curiosity, had retired to a distance from which they could see +more clearly what went on at the top of the embankment. The cart was +dashed to an infinite number of pieces in a very picturesque manner. + +"There! you have got it down," said Baruch. + +"Ah, brigands! ah, scoundrels!" cried Fario; "perhaps it was you who +brought it up here!" + +Max, Baruch, and their three comrades began to laugh at the Spaniard's +rage. + +"I wanted to do you a service," said Max coolly, "and in handling the +damned thing I came very near flinging myself after it; and this is +how you thank me, is it? What country do you come from?" + +"I come from a country where they never forgive," replied Fario, +trembling with rage. "My cart will be the cab in which you shall drive +to the devil!--unless," he said, suddenly becoming as meek as a lamb, +"you will give me a new one." + +"We will talk about that," said Max, beginning to descend. + +When they reached the bottom and met the first hilarious group, Max +took Fario by the button of his jacket and said to him,-- + +"Yes, my good Fario, I'll give you a magnificent cart, if you will +give me two hundred and fifty francs; but I won't warrant it to go, +like this one, up a tower." + +At this last jest Fario became as cool as though he were making a +bargain. + +"Damn it!" he said, "give me the wherewithal to replace my barrow, and +it will be the best use you ever made of old Rouget's money." + +Max turned livid; he raised his formidable fist to strike Fario; but +Baruch, who knew that the blow would descend on others besides the +Spaniard, plucked the latter away like a feather and whispered to +Max,-- + +"Don't commit such a folly!" + +The grand master, thus called to order, began to laugh and said to +Fario,-- + +"If I, by accident, broke your barrow, and you in return try to +slander me, we are quits." + +"Not yet," muttered Fario. "But I am glad to know what my barrow was +worth." + +"Ah, Max, you've found your match!" said a spectator of the scene, who +did not belong to the Order of Idleness. + +"Adieu, Monsieur Gilet. I haven't thanked you yet for lending me a +hand," cried the Spaniard, as he kicked the sides of his horse and +disappeared amid loud hurrahs. + +"We will keep the tires of the wheels for you," shouted a wheelwright, +who had come to inspect the damage done to the cart. + +One of the shafts was sticking upright in the ground, as straight as a +tree. Max stood by, pale and thoughtful, and deeply annoyed by Fario's +speech. For five days after this, nothing was talked of in Issoudun +but the tale of the Spaniard's barrow; it was even fated to travel +abroad, as Goddet remarked,--for it went the round of Berry, where the +speeches of Fario and Max were repeated, and at the end of a week the +affair, greatly to the Spaniard's satisfaction, was still the talk of +the three departments and the subject of endless gossip. In +consequence of the vindictive Spaniard's terrible speech, Max and the +Rabouilleuse became the object of certain comments which were merely +whispered in Issoudun, though they were spoken aloud in Bourges, +Vatan, Vierzon, and Chateauroux. Maxence Gilet knew enough of that +region of the country to guess how envenomed such comments would +become. + +"We can't stop their tongues," he said at last. "Ah! I did a foolish +thing!" + +"Max!" said Francois, taking his arm. "They are coming to-night." + +"They! Who!" + +"The Bridaus. My grandmother has just had a letter from her +goddaughter." + +"Listen, my boy," said Max in a low voice. "I have been thinking +deeply of this matter. Neither Flore nor I ought to seem opposed to +the Bridaus. If these heirs are to be got rid of, it is for you +Hochons to drive them out of Issoudun. Find out what sort of people +they are. To-morrow at Mere Cognette's, after I've taken their +measure, we can decide what is to be done, and how we can set your +grandfather against them." + +"The Spaniard found the flaw in Max's armor," said Baruch to his +cousin Francois, as they turned into Monsieur Hochon's house and +watched their comrade entering his own door. + +While Max was thus employed, Flore, in spite of her friend's advice, +was unable to restrain her wrath; and without knowing whether she +would help or hinder Max's plans, she burst forth upon the poor +bachelor. When Jean-Jacques incurred the anger of his mistress, the +little attentions and vulgar fondlings which were all his joy were +suddenly suppressed. Flore sent her master, as the children say, into +disgrace. No more tender glances, no more of the caressing little +words in various tones with which she decked her conversation,--"my +kitten," "my old darling," "my bibi," "my rat," etc. A "you," cold and +sharp and ironically respectful, cut like the blade of a knife through +the heart of the miserable old bachelor. The "you" was a declaration +of war. Instead of helping the poor man with his toilet, handing him +what he wanted, forestalling his wishes, looking at him with the sort +of admiration which all women know how to express, and which, in some +cases, the coarser it is the better it pleases,--saying, for instance, +"You look as fresh as a rose!" or, "What health you have!" "How +handsome you are, my old Jean!"--in short, instead of entertaining him +with the lively chatter and broad jokes in which he delighted, Flore +left him to dress alone. If he called her, she answered from the foot +of the staircase, "I can't do everything at once; how can I look after +your breakfast and wait upon you up there? Are not you big enough to +dress your own self?" + +"Oh, dear! what have I done to displease her?" the old man asked +himself that morning, as he got one of these rebuffs after calling for +his shaving-water. + +"Vedie, take up the hot water," cried Flore. + +"Vedie!" exclaimed the poor man, stupefied with fear of the anger that +was crushing him. "Vedie, what is the matter with Madame this +morning?" + +Flore Brazier required her master and Vedie and Kouski and Max to call +her Madame. + +"She seems to have heard something about you which isn't to your +credit," answered Vedie, assuming an air of deep concern. "You are +doing wrong, monsieur. I'm only a poor servant-woman, and you may say +I have no right to poke my nose into your affairs; but I do say you +may search through all the women in the world, like that king in holy +Scripture, and you won't find the equal of Madame. You ought to kiss +the ground she steps on. Goodness! if you make her unhappy, you'll +only spoil your own life. There she is, poor thing, with her eyes full +of tears." + +Vedie left the poor man utterly cast down; he dropped into an armchair +and gazed into vacancy like the melancholy imbecile that he was, and +forgot to shave. These alternations of tenderness and severity worked +upon this feeble creature whose only life was through his amorous +fibre, the same morbid effect which great changes from tropical heat +to arctic cold produce upon the human body. It was a moral pleurisy, +which wore him out like a physical disease. Flore alone could thus +affect him; for to her, and to her alone, he was as good as he was +foolish. + +"Well, haven't you shaved yet?" she said, appearing at his door. + +Her sudden presence made the old man start violently; and from being +pale and cast down he grew red for an instant, without, however, +daring to complain of her treatment. + +"Your breakfast is waiting," she added. "You can come down as you are, +in dressing-gown and slippers; for you'll breakfast alone, I can tell +you." + +Without waiting for an answer, she disappeared. To make him breakfast +alone was the punishment he dreaded most; he loved to talk to her as +he ate his meals. When he got to the foot of the staircase he was +taken with a fit of coughing; for emotion excited his catarrh. + +"Cough away!" said Flore in the kitchen, without caring whether he +heard her or not. "Confound the old wretch! he is able enough to get +over it without bothering others. If he coughs up his soul, it will +only be after--" + +Such were the amenities the Rabouilleuse addressed to Rouget when she +was angry. The poor man sat down in deep distress at a corner of the +table in the middle of the room, and looked at his old furniture and +the old pictures with a disconsolate air. + +"You might at least have put on a cravat," said Flore. "Do you think +it is pleasant for people to see such a neck as yours, which is redder +and more wrinkled than a turkey's?" + +"But what have I done?" he asked, lifting his big light-green eyes, +full of tears, to his tormentor, and trying to face her hard +countenance. + +"What have you done?" she exclaimed. "As if you didn't know? Oh, what +a hypocrite! Your sister Agathe--who is as much your sister as I am +sister of the tower of Issoudun, if one's to believe your father, and +who has no claim at all upon you--is coming here from Paris with her +son, a miserable two-penny painter, to see you." + +"My sister and my nephews coming to Issoudun!" he said, bewildered. + +"Oh, yes! play the surprised, do; try to make me believe you didn't +send for them! sewing your lies with white bread, indeed! Don't fash +yourself; we won't trouble your Parisians--before they set their feet +in this house, we shall have shaken the dust of it off ours. Max and I +will be gone, never to return. As for your will, I'll tear it in +quarters under your nose, and to your very beard--do you hear? Leave +your property to your family, if you don't think we are your family; +and then see if you'll be loved for yourself by a lot of people who +have not seen you for thirty years,--who in fact have never seen you! +Is it that sort of sister who can take my place? A pinchbeck saint!" + +"If that's all, my little Flore," said the old man, "I won't receive +my sister, or my nephews. I swear to you this is the first word I have +heard of their coming. It is all got up by that Madame Hochon--a +sanctimonious old--" + +Max, who had overheard old Rouget's words, entered suddenly, and said +in a masterful tone,-- + +"What's all this?" + +"My good Max," said the old man, glad to get the protection of the +soldier who, by agreement with Flore, always took his side in a +dispute, "I swear by all that is most sacred, that I now hear this +news for the first time. I have never written to my sister; my father +made me promise not to leave her any of my property; to leave it to +the Church sooner than to her. Well, I won't receive my sister Agathe +to this house, or her sons--" + +"Your father was wrong, my dear Jean-Jacques, and Madame Brazier is +still more wrong," answered Max. "Your father no doubt had his +reasons, but he is dead, and his hatred should die with him. Your +sister is your sister, and your nephews are your nephews. You owe it +to yourself to welcome them, and you owe it to us as well. What would +people say in Issoudun? Thunder! I've got enough upon my shoulders as +it is, without hearing people say that we shut you up and don't allow +you a will of your own, or that we influence you against your +relations and are trying to get hold of your property. The devil take +me if I don't pull up stakes and be off, if that sort of calumny is to +be flung at me! the other is bad enough! Let's eat our breakfast." + +Flore, who was now as mild as a weasel, helped Vedie to set the table. +Old Rouget, full of admiration for Max, took him by both hands and led +him into the recess of a window, saying in a low voice:-- + +"Ah! Max, if I had a son, I couldn't love him better than I love you. +Flore is right: you two are my real family. You are a man of honor, +Max, and what you have just said is true." + +"You ought to receive and entertain your sister and her son, but not +change the arrangements you have made about your property," said Max. +"In that way you will do what is right in the eyes of the world, and +yet keep your promise to your father." + +"Well! my dear loves!" cried Flore, gayly, "the salmi is getting cold. +Come, my old rat, here's a wing for you," she said, smiling on Jean- +Jacques. + +At the words, the long-drawn face of the poor creature lost its +cadaverous tints, the smile of a Theriaki flickered on his pendent +lips; but he was seized with another fit of coughing; for the joy of +being taken back to favor excited as violent an emotion as the +punishment itself. Flore rose, pulled a little cashmere shawl from her +own shoulders, and tied it round the old man's throat, exclaiming: +"How silly to put yourself in such a way about nothing. There, you old +goose, that will do you good; it has been next my heart--" + +"What a good creature!" said Rouget to Max, while Flore went to fetch +a black velvet cap to cover the nearly bald head of the old bachelor. + +"As good as she is beautiful"; answered Max, "but she is quick- +tempered, like all people who carry their hearts in their hands." + +The baldness of this sketch may displease some, who will think the +flashes of Flore's character belong to the sort of realism which a +painter ought to leave in shadow. Well! this scene, played again and +again with shocking variations, is, in its coarse way and its horrible +veracity, the type of such scenes played by women on whatever rung of +the social ladder they are perched, when any interest, no matter what, +draws them from their own line of obedience and induces them to grasp +at power. In their eyes, as in those of politicians, all means to an +end are justifiable. Between Flore Brazier and a duchess, between a +duchess and the richest bourgeoise, between a bourgeoise and the most +luxuriously kept mistress, there are no differences except those of +the education they have received, and the surroundings in which they +live. The pouting of a fine lady is the same thing as the violence of +a Rabouilleuse. At all levels, bitter sayings, ironical jests, cold +contempt, hypocritical complaints, false quarrels, win as much success +as the low outbursts of this Madame Everard of Issoudun. + +Max began to relate, with much humor, the tale of Fario and his +barrow, which made the old man laugh. Vedie and Kouski, who came to +listen, exploded in the kitchen, and as to Flore, she laughed +convulsively. After breakfast, while Jean-Jacques read the newspapers +(for they subscribed to the "Constitutionel" and the "Pandore"), Max +carried Flore to his own quarters. + +"Are you quite sure he has not made any other will since the one in +which he left the property to you?" + +"He hasn't anything to write with," she answered. + +"He might have dictated it to some notary," said Max; "we must look +out for that. Therefore it is well to be cordial to the Bridaus, and +at the same time endeavor to turn those mortgages into money. The +notaries will be only too glad to make the transfers; it is grist to +their mill. The Funds are going up; we shall conquer Spain, and +deliver Ferdinand VII. and the Cortez, and then they will be above +par. You and I could make a good thing out of it by putting the old +fellow's seven hundred and fifty thousand francs into the Funds at +eighty-nine. Only you must try to get it done in your name; it will be +so much secured anyhow." + +"A capital idea!" said Flore. + +"And as there will be an income of fifty thousand francs from eight +hundred and ninety thousand, we must make him borrow one hundred and +forty thousand francs for two years, to be paid back in two +instalments. In two years, we shall get one hundred thousand francs IN +Paris, and ninety thousand here, and risk nothing." + +"If it were not for you, my handsome Max, what would become of me +now?" she said. + +"Oh! to-morrow night at Mere Cognette's, after I have seen the +Parisians, I shall find a way to make the Hochons themselves get rid +of them." + +"Ah! what a head you've got, my angel! You are a love of a man." + +The place Saint-Jean is at the centre of a long street called at the +upper end the rue Grand Narette, and at the lower the rue Petite +Narette. The word "Narette" is used in Berry to express the same lay +of the land as the Genoese word "salita" indicates,--that is to say, a +steep street. The Grand Narette rises rapidly from the place Saint- +Jean to the port Vilatte. The house of old Monsieur Hochon is exactly +opposite that of Jean-Jacques Rouget. From the windows of the room +where Madame Hochon usually sat, it was easy to see what went on at +the Rouget household, and vice versa, when the curtains were drawn +back or the doors were left open. The Hochon house was like the Rouget +house, and the two were doubtless built by the same architect. +Monsieur Hochon, formerly tax-collector at Selles in Berry, born, +however, at Issoudun, had returned to his native place and married the +sister of the sub-delegate, the gay Lousteau, exchanging his office at +Selles for another of the same kind at Issoudun. Having retired before +1787, he escaped the dangers of the Revolution, to whose principles, +however, he firmly adhered, like all other "honest men" who howl with +the winners. Monsieur Hochon came honestly by the reputation of miser. +but it would be mere repetition to sketch him here. A single specimen +of the avarice which made him famous will suffice to make you see +Monsieur Hochon as he was. + +At the wedding of his daughter, now dead, who married a Borniche, it +was necessary to give a dinner to the Borniche family. The bridegroom, +who was heir to a large fortune, had suffered great mortification from +having mismanaged his property, and still more because his father and +mother refused to help him out. The old people, who were living at the +time of the marriage, were delighted to see Monsieur Hochon step in as +guardian,--for the purpose, of course, of making his daughter's dowry +secure. On the day of the dinner, which was given to celebrate the +signing of the marriage contract, the chief relations of the two +families were assembled in the salon, the Hochons on one side, the +Borniches on the other,--all in their best clothes. While the contract +was being solemnly read aloud by young Heron, the notary, the cook +came into the room and asked Monsieur Hochon for some twine to truss +up the turkey,--an essential feature of the repast. The old man dove +into the pocket of his surtout, pulled out an end of string which had +evidently already served to tie up a parcel, and gave it to her; but +before she could leave the room he called out, "Gritte, mind you give +it back to me!" (Gritte is the abbreviation used in Berry for +Marguerite.) + +From year to year old Hochon grew more petty in his meanness, and more +penurious; and at this time he was eighty-five years old. He belonged +to the class of men who stop short in the street, in the middle of a +lively dialogue, and stoop to pick up a pin, remarking, as they stick +it in the sleeve of their coat, "There's the wife's stipend." He +complained bitterly of the poor quality of the cloth manufactured now- +a-days, and called attention to the fact that his coat had lasted only +ten years. Tall, gaunt, thin, and sallow; saying little, reading +little, and doing nothing to fatigue himself; as observant of forms as +an oriental,--he enforced in his own house a discipline of strict +abstemiousness, weighing and measuring out the food and drink of the +family, which, indeed, was rather numerous, and consisted of his wife, +nee Lousteau, his grandson Borniche with a sister Adolphine, the heirs +of old Borniche, and lastly, his other grandson, Francois Hochon. + +Hochon's eldest son was taken by the draft of 1813, which drew in the +sons of well-to-do families who had escaped the regular conscription, +and were now formed into a corps styled the "guards of honor." This +heir-presumptive, who was killed at Hanau, had married early in life a +rich woman, intending thereby to escape all conscriptions; but after +he was enrolled, he wasted his substance, under a presentiment of his +end. His wife, who followed the army at a distance, died at Strasburg +in 1814, leaving debts which her father-in-law Hochon refused to pay, +--answering the creditors with an axiom of ancient law, "Women are +minors." + +The house, though large, was scantily furnished; on the second floor, +however, there were two rooms suitable for Madame Bridau and Joseph. +Old Hochon now repented that he had kept them furnished with two beds, +each bed accompanied by an old armchair of natural wood covered with +needlework, and a walnut table, on which figured a water-pitcher of +the wide-mouthed kind called "gueulard," standing in a basin with a +blue border. The old man kept his winter store of apples and pears, +medlars and quinces on heaps of straw in these rooms, where the rats +and mice ran riot, so that they exhaled a mingled odor of fruit and +vermin. Madame Hochon now directed that everything should be cleaned; +the wall-paper, which had peeled off in places, was fastened up again +with wafers; and she decorated the windows with little curtains which +she pieced together from old hoards of her own. Her husband having +refused to let her buy a strip of drugget, she laid down her own +bedside carpet for her little Agathe,--"Poor little thing!" as she +called the mother, who was now over forty-seven years old. Madame +Hochon borrowed two night-tables from a neighbor, and boldly hired two +chests of drawers with brass handles from a dealer in second-hand +furniture who lived next to Mere Cognette. She herself had preserved +two pairs of candlesticks, carved in choice woods by her own father, +who had the "turning" mania. From 1770 to 1780 it was the fashion +among rich people to learn a trade, and Monsieur Lousteau, the father, +was a turner, just as Louis XVI. was a locksmith. These candlesticks +were ornamented with circlets made of the roots of rose, peach, and +apricot trees. Madame Hochon actually risked the use of her precious +relics! These preparations and this sacrifice increased old Hochon's +anxiety; up to this time he had not believed in the arrival of the +Bridaus. + +The morning of the day that was celebrated by the trick on Fario, +Madame Hochon said to her husband after breakfast:-- + +"I hope, Hochon, that you will receive my goddaughter, Madame Bridau, +properly." Then, after making sure that her grandchildren were out of +hearing, she added: "I am mistress of my own property; don't oblige me +to make up to Agathe in my will for any incivility on your part." + +"Do you think, madame," answered Hochon, in a mild voice, "that, at my +age, I don't know the forms of decent civility?" + +"You know very well what I mean, you crafty old thing! Be friendly to +our guests, and remember that I love Agathe." + +"And you love Maxence Gilet also, who is getting the property away +from your dear Agathe! Ah! you've warmed a viper in your bosom there; +but after all, the Rouget money is bound to go to a Lousteau." + +After making this allusion to the supposed parentage and both Max and +Agathe, Hochon turned to leave the room; but old Madame Hochon, a +woman still erect and spare, wearing a round cap with ribbon knots and +her hair powdered, a taffet petticoat of changeable colors like a +pigeon's breast, tight sleeves, and her feet in high-heeled slippers, +deposited her snuff-box on a little table, and said:-- + +"Really, Monsieur Hochon, how can a man of your sense repeat +absurdities which, unhappily, cost my poor friend her peace of mind, +and Agathe the property which she ought to have had from her father. +Max Gilet is not the son of my brother, whom I often advised to save +the money he paid for him. You know as well as I do that Madame Rouget +was virtue itself--" + +"And the daughter takes after her; for she strikes me as uncommonly +stupid. After losing all her fortune, she brings her sons up so well +that here is one in prison and likely to be brought up on a criminal +indictment before the Court of Peers for a conspiracy worthy of +Berton. As for the other, he is worse off; he's a painter. If your +proteges are to stay here till they have extricated that fool of a +Rouget from the claws of Gilet and the Rabouilleuse, we shall eat a +good deal more than half a measure of salt with them." + +"That's enough, Monsieur Hochon; you had better wish they may not have +two strings to their bow." + +Monsieur Hochon took his hat, and his cane with an ivory knob, and +went away petrified by that terrible speech; for he had no idea that +his wife could show such resolution. Madame Hochon took her prayer- +book to read the service, for her advanced age prevented her from +going daily to church; it was only with difficulty that she got there +on Sundays and holidays. Since receiving her goddaughter's letter she +had added a petition to her usual prayers, supplicating God to open +the eyes of Jean-Jacques Rouget, and to bless Agathe and prosper the +expedition into which she herself had drawn her. Concealing the fact +from her grandchildren, whom she accused of being "parpaillots," she +had asked the curate to say a mass for Agathe's success during a +neuvaine which was being held by her granddaughter, Adolphine +Borniche, who thus made her prayers in church by proxy. + +Adolphine, then eighteen,--who for the last seven years had sewed at +the side of her grandmother in that cold household of monotonous and +methodical customs,--had undertaken her neuvaine all the more +willingly because she hoped to inspire some feeling in Joseph Bridau, +in whom she took the deepest interest because of the monstrosities +which her grandfather attributed in her hearing to the young Parisian. + +All the old people and sensible people of the town, and the fathers of +families approved of Madame Hochon's conduct in receiving her +goddaughter; and their good wishes for the latter's success were in +proportion to the secret contempt with which the conduct of Maxence +Gilet had long inspired them. Thus the news of the arrival of Rouget's +sister and nephew raised two parties in Issoudun,--that of the higher +and older bourgeoisie, who contented themselves with offering good +wishes and in watching events without assisting them, and that of the +Knights of Idleness and the partisans of Max, who, unfortunately, were +capable of committing many high-handed outrages against the Parisians. + + + + CHAPTER XI + +Agathe and Joseph arrived at the coach-office of the Messageries- +Royales in the place Misere at three o'clock. Though tired with the +journey, Madame Bridau felt her youth revive at sight of her native +land, where at every step she came upon memories and impressions of +her girlish days. In the then condition of public opinion in Issoudun, +the arrival of the Parisians was known all over the town in ten +minutes. Madame Hochon came out upon her doorstep to welcome her +godchild, and kissed her as though she were really a daughter. After +seventy-two years of a barren and monotonous existence, exhibiting in +their retrospect the graves of her three children, all unhappy in +their lives, and all dead, she had come to feel a sort of fictitious +motherhood for the young girl whom she had, as she expressed it, +carried in her pouch for sixteen years. Through the gloom of +provincial life the old woman had cherished this early friendship, +this girlish memory, as closely as if Agathe had remained near her, +and she had also taken the deepest interest in Bridau. Agathe was led +in triumph to the salon where Monsieur Hochon was stationed, chilling +as a tepid oven. + +"Here is Monsieur Hochon; how does he seem to you?" asked his wife. + +"Precisely the same as when I last saw him," said the Parisian woman. + +"Ah! it is easy to see you come from Paris; you are so complimentary," +remarked the old man. + +The presentations took place: first, young Baruch Borniche, a tall +youth of twenty-two; then Francois Hochon, twenty-four; and lastly +little Adolphine, who blushed and did not know what to do with her +arms; she was anxious not to seem to be looking at Joseph Bridau, who +in his turn was narrowly observed, though from different points of +view, by the two young men and by old Hochon. The miser was saying to +himself, "He is just out of the hospital; he will be as hungry as a +convalescent." The young men were saying, "What a head! what a +brigand! we shall have our hands full!" + +"This is my son, the painter; my good Joseph," said Agathe at last, +presenting the artist. + +There was an effort in the accent that she put upon the word "good," +which revealed the mother's heart, whose thoughts were really in the +prison of the Luxembourg. + +"He looks ill," said Madame Hochon; "he is not at all like you." + +"No, madame," said Joseph, with the brusque candor of an artist; "I am +like my father, and very ugly at that." + +Madame Hochon pressed Agathe's hand which she was holding, and glanced +at her as much as to say, "Ah! my child; I understand now why you +prefer your good-for-nothing Philippe." + +"I never saw your father, my dear boy," she said aloud; "it is enough +to make me love you that you are your mother's son. Besides, you have +talent, so the late Madame Descoings used to write to me; she was the +only one of late years who told me much about you." + +"Talent!" exclaimed the artist, "not as yet; but with time and +patience I may win fame and fortune." + +"By painting?" said Monsieur Hochon ironically. + +"Come, Adolphine," said Madame Hochon, "go and see about dinner." + +"Mother," said Joseph, "I will attend to the trunks which they are +bringing in." + +"Hochon," said the grandmother to Francois, "show the rooms to +Monsieur Bridau." + +As the dinner was to be served at four o'clock and it was now only +half past three, Baruch rushed into the town to tell the news of the +Bridau arrival, describe Agathe's dress, and more particularly to +picture Joseph, whose haggard, unhealthy, and determined face was not +unlike the ideal of a brigand. That evening Joseph was the topic of +conversation in all the households of Issoudun. + +"That sister of Rouget must have seen a monkey before her son was +born," said one; "he is the image of a baboon." + +"He has the face of a brigand and the eyes of a basilisk." + +"All artists are like that." + +"They are as wicked as the red ass, and as spiteful as monkeys." + +"It is part of their business." + +"I have just seen Monsieur Beaussier, and he says he would not like to +meet him in a dark wood; he saw him in the diligence." + +"He has got hollows over the eyes like a horse, and he laughs like a +maniac." + +"The fellow looks as though he were capable of anything; perhaps it's +his fault that his brother, a fine handsome man they tell me, has gone +to the bad. Poor Madame Bridau doesn't seem as if she were very happy +with him." + +"Suppose we take advantage of his being here, and have our portraits +painted?" + +The result of all these observations, scattered through the town was, +naturally, to excite curiosity. All those who had the right to visit +the Hochons resolved to call that very night and examine the +Parisians. The arrival of these two persons in the stagnant town was +like the falling of a beam into a community of frogs. + +After stowing his mother's things and his own into the two attic +chambers, which he examined as he did so, Joseph took note of the +silent house, where the walls, the stair-case, the wood-work, were +devoid of decoration and humid with frost, and where there was +literally nothing beyond the merest necessaries. He felt the brusque +transition from his poetic Paris to the dumb and arid province; and +when, coming downstairs, he chanced to see Monsieur Hochon cutting +slices of bread for each person, he understood, for the first time in +his life, Moliere's Harpagon. + +"We should have done better to go to an inn," he said to himself. + +The aspect of the dinner confirmed his apprehensions. After a soup +whose watery clearness showed that quantity was more considered than +quality, the bouilli was served, ceremoniously garnished with parsley; +the vegetables, in a dish by themselves, being counted into the items +of the repast. The bouilli held the place of honor in the middle of +the table, accompanied with three other dishes: hard-boiled eggs on +sorrel opposite to the vegetables; then a salad dressed with nut-oil +to face little cups of custard, whose flavoring of burnt oats did +service as vanilla, which it resembles much as coffee made of chiccory +resembles mocha. Butter and radishes, in two plates, were at each end +of the table; pickled gherkins and horse-radish completed the spread, +which won Madam Hochon's approbation. The good old woman gave a +contented little nod when she saw that her husband had done things +properly, for the first day at least. The old man answered with a +glance and a shrug of his shoulders, which it was easy to translate +into-- + +"See the extravagances you force me to commit!" + +As soon as Monsieur Hochon had, as it were, slivered the bouilli into +slices, about as thick as the sole of a dancing-shoe, that dish was +replaced by another, containing three pigeons. The wine was of the +country, vintage 1811. On a hint from her grandmother, Adolphine had +decorated each end of the table with a bunch of flowers. + +"At Rome as the Romans do," thought the artist, looking at the table, +and beginning to eat,--like a man who had breakfasted at Vierzon, at +six o'clock in the morning, on an execrable cup of coffee. When Joseph +had eaten up all his bread and asked for more, Monsieur Hochon rose, +slowly searched in the pocket of his surtout for a key, unlocked a +cupboard behind him, broke off a section of a twelve-pound loaf, +carefully cut a round of it, then divided the round in two, laid the +pieces on a plate, and passed the plate across the table to the young +painter, with the silence and coolness of an old soldier who says to +himself on the eve of battle, "Well, I can meet death." Joseph took +the half-slice, and fully understood that he was not to ask for any +more. No member of the family was the least surprised at this +extraordinary performance. The conversation went on. Agathe learned +that the house in which she was born, her father's house before he +inherited that of the old Descoings, had been bought by the Borniches; +she expressed a wish to see it once more. + +"No doubt," said her godmother, "the Borniches will be here this +evening; we shall have half the town--who want to examine you," she +added, turning to Joseph, "and they will all invite you to their +houses." + +Gritte, who in spite of her sixty years, was the only servant of the +house, brought in for dessert the famous ripe cheese of Touraine and +Berry, made of goat's milk, whose mouldy discolorations so distinctly +reproduce the pattern of the vine-leaves on which it is served, that +Touraine ought to have invented the art of engraving. On either side +of these little cheeses Gritte, with a company air, placed nuts and +some time-honored biscuits. + +"Well, Gritte, the fruit?" said Madame Hochon. + +"But, madame, there is none rotten," answered Gritte. + +Joseph went off into roars of laughter, as though he were among his +comrades in the atelier; for he suddenly perceived that the parsimony +of eating only the fruits which were beginning to rot had degenerated +into a settled habit. + +"Bah! we can eat them all the same," he exclaimed, with the heedless +gayety of a man who will have his say. + +"Monsieur Hochon, pray get some," said the old lady. + +Monsieur Hochon, much incensed at the artist's speech, fetched some +peaches, pears, and Saint Catherine plums. + +"Adolphine, go and gather some grapes," said Madame Hochon to her +granddaughter. + +Joseph looked at the two young men as much as to say: "Is it to such +high living as this that you owe your healthy faces?" + +Baruch understood the keen glance and smiled; for he and his cousin +Hochon were behaving with much discretion. The home-life was of less +importance to youths who supped three times the week at Mere +Cognette's. Moreover, just before dinner, Baruch had received notice +that the grand master convoked the whole Order at midnight for a +magnificent supper, in the course of which a great enterprise would be +arranged. The feast of welcome given by old Hochon to his guests +explains how necessary were the nocturnal repasts at the Cognette's to +two young fellows blessed with good appetites, who, we may add, never +missed any of them. + +"We will take the liqueur in the salon," said Madame Hochon, rising +and motioning to Joseph to give her his arm. As they went out before +the others, she whispered to the painter:-- + +"Eh! my poor boy; this dinner won't give you an indigestion; but I had +hard work to get it for you. It is always Lent here; you will get +enough just to keep life in you, and no more. So you must bear it +patiently." + +The kind-heartedness of the old woman, who thus drew her own +predicament, pleased the artist. + +"I have lived fifty years with that man, without ever hearing half-a- +dozen gold pieces chink in my purse," she went on. "Oh! if I did not +hope that you might save your property, I would never have brought you +and your mother into my prison." + +"But how can you survive it?" cried Joseph naively, with the gayety +which a French artist never loses. + +"Ah, you may well ask!" she said. "I pray." + +Joseph quivered as he heard the words, which raised the old woman so +much in his estimation that he stepped back a little way to look into +her face; it was radiant with so tender a serenity that he said to +her,-- + +"Let me paint your portrait." + +"No, no," she answered, "I am too weary of life to wish to remain here +on canvas." + +Gayly uttering the sad words, she opened a closet, and brought out a +flask containing ratafia, a domestic manufacture of her own, the +receipt for which she obtained from the far-famed nuns to whom is also +due the celebrated cake of Issoudun,--one of the great creations of +French confectionery; which no chef, cook, pastry-cook, or +confectioner has ever been able to reproduce. Monsieur de Riviere, +ambassador at Constantinople, ordered enormous quantities every year +for the Seraglio. + +Adolphine held a lacquer tray on which were a number of little old +glasses with engraved sides and gilt edges; and as her mother filled +each of them, she carried it to the company. + +"It seems as though my father's turn were coming round!" exclaimed +Agathe, to whom this immutable provincial custom recalled the scenes +of her youth. + +"Hochon will go to his club presently to read the papers, and we shall +have a little time to ourselves," said the old lady in a low voice. + +In fact, ten minutes later, the three women and Joseph were alone in +the salon, where the floor was never waxed, only swept, and the +worsted-work designs in oaken frames with grooved mouldings, and all +the other plain and rather dismal furniture seemed to Madame Bridau to +be in exactly the same state as when she had left Issoudun. Monarchy, +Revolution, Empire, and Restoration, which respected little, had +certainly respected this room where their glories and their disasters +had left not the slightest trace. + +"Ah! my godmother, in comparison with your life, mine has been cruelly +tried," exclaimed Madame Bridau, surprised to find even a canary which +she had known when alive, stuffed, and standing on the mantleshelf +between the old clock, the old brass brackets, and the silver +candlesticks. + +"My child," said the old lady, "trials are in the heart. The greater +and more necessary the resignation, the harder the struggle with our +own selves. But don't speak of me, let us talk of your affairs. You +are directly in front of the enemy," she added, pointing to the +windows of the Rouget house. + +"They are sitting down to dinner," said Adolphine. + +The young girl, destined for a cloister, was constantly looking out of +the window, in hopes of getting some light upon the enormities imputed +to Maxence Gilet, the Rabouilleuse, and Jean-Jacques, of which a few +words reached her ears whenever she was sent out of the room that +others might talk about them. The old lady now told her granddaughter +to leave her alone with Madame Bridau and Joseph until the arrival of +visitors. + +"For," she said, turning to the Parisians, "I know my Issoudun by +heart; we shall have ten or twelve batches of inquisitive folk here +to-night." + +In fact Madame Hochon had hardly related the events and the details +concerning the astounding influence obtained by Maxence Gilet and the +Rabouilleuse over Jean-Jacques Rouget (without, of course, following +the synthetical method with which they have been presented here), +adding the many comments, descriptions, and hypotheses with which the +good and evil tongues of the town embroidered them, before Adolphine +announced the approach of the Borniche, Beaussier, Lousteau-Prangin, +Fichet, Goddet-Herau families; in all, fourteen persons looming in the +distance. + +"You now see, my dear child," said the old lady, concluding her tale, +"that it will not be an easy matter to get this property out of the +jaws of the wolf--" + +"It seems to me so difficult--with a scoundrel such as you represent +him, and a daring woman like that crab-girl--as to be actually +impossible," remarked Joseph. "We should have to stay a year in +Issoudun to counteract their influence and overthrow their dominion +over my uncle. Money isn't worth such a struggle,--not to speak of the +meannesses to which we should have to condescend. My mother has only +two weeks' leave of absence; her place is a permanent one, and she +must not risk it. As for me, in the month of October I have an +important work, which Schinner has just obtained for me from a peer of +France; so you see, madame, my future fortune is in my brushes." + +This speech was received by Madame Hochon with much amazement. Though +relatively superior to the town she lived in, the old lady did not +believe in painting. She glanced at her goddaughter, and again pressed +her hand. + +"This Maxence is the second volume of Philippe," whispered Joseph in +his mother's ear, "--only cleverer and better behaved. Well, madame," +he said, aloud, we won't trouble Monsieur Hochon by staying very +long." + +"Ah! you are young; you know nothing of the world," said the old lady. +"A couple of weeks, if you are judicious, may produce great results; +listen to my advice, and act accordingly." + +"Oh! willingly," said Joseph, "I know I have a perfectly amazing +incapacity for domestic statesmanship: for example, I am sure I don't +know what Desroches himself would tell us to do if my uncle declines +to see us." + +Mesdames Borniche, Goddet-Herau, Beaussier, Lousteau-Prangin and +Fichet, decorated with their husbands, here entered the room. + +When the fourteen persons were seated, and the usual compliments were +over, Madame Hochon presented her goddaughter Agathe and Joseph. +Joseph sat in his armchair all the evening, engaged in slyly studying +the sixty faces which, from five o'clock until half past nine, posed +for him gratis, as he afterwards told his mother. Such behavior before +the aristocracy of Issoudun did not tend to change the opinion of the +little town concerning him: every one went home ruffled by his +sarcastic glances, uneasy under his smiles, and even frightened at his +face, which seemed sinister to a class of people unable to recognize +the singularities of genius. + +After ten o'clock, when the household was in bed, Madame Hochon kept +her goddaughter in her chamber until midnight. Secure from +interruption, the two women told each other the sorrows of their +lives, and exchanged their sufferings. As Agathe listened to the last +echoes of a soul that had missed its destiny, and felt the sufferings +of a heart, essentially generous and charitable, whose charity and +generosity could never be exercised, she realized the immensity of the +desert in which the powers of this noble, unrecognized soul had been +wasted, and knew that she herself, with the little joys and interests +of her city life relieving the bitter trials sent from God, was not +the most unhappy of the two. + +"You who are so pious," she said, "explain to me my shortcomings; tell +me what it is that God is punishing in me." + +"He is preparing us, my child," answered the old woman, "for the +striking of the last hour." + +At midnight the Knights of Idleness were collecting, one by one like +shadows, under the trees of the boulevard Baron, and speaking together +in whispers. + +"What are we going to do?" was the first question of each as he +arrived. + +"I think," said Francois, "that Max means merely to give us a supper." + +"No; matters are very serious for him, and for the Rabouilleuse: no +doubt, he has concocted some scheme against the Parisians." + +"It would be a good joke to drive them away." + +"My grandfather," said Baruch, "is terribly alarmed at having two +extra mouths to feed, and he'd seize on any pretext--" + +"Well, comrades!" cried Max softly, now appearing on the scene, "why +are you star-gazing? the planets don't distil kirschwasser. Come, let +us go to Mere Cognette's!" + +"To Mere Cognette's! To Mere Cognette's!" they all cried. + +The cry, uttered as with one voice, produced a clamor which rang +through the town like the hurrah of troops rushing to an assault; +total silence followed. The next day, more than one inhabitant must +have said to his neighbor: "Did you hear those frightful cries last +night, about one o'clock? I thought there was surely a fire +somewhere." + +A supper worthy of La Cognette brightened the faces of the twenty-two +guests; for the whole Order was present. At two in the morning, as +they were beginning to "siroter" (a word in the vocabulary of the +Knights which admirably expresses the act of sipping and tasting the +wine in small quantities), Max rose to speak:-- + +"My dear fellows! the honor of your grand master was grossly attacked +this morning, after our memorable joke with Fario's cart,--attacked by +a vile pedler, and what is more, a Spaniard (oh, Cabrera!); and I have +resolved to make the scoundrel feel the weight of my vengeance; +always, of course, within the limits we have laid down for our fun. +After reflecting about it all day, I have found a trick which is worth +putting into execution,--a famous trick, that will drive him crazy. +While avenging the insult offered to the Order in my person, we shall +be feeding the sacred animals of the Egyptians,--little beasts which +are, after all, the creatures of God, and which man unjustly +persecutes. Thus we see that good is the child of evil, and evil is +the offspring of good; such is the paramount law of the universe! I +now order you all, on pain of displeasing your very humble grand +master, to procure clandestinely, each one of you, twenty rats, male +or female as heaven pleases. Collect your contingent within three +days. If you can get more, the surplus will be welcome. Keep the +interesting rodents without food; for it is essential that the +delightful little beasts be ravenous with hunger. Please observe that +I will accept both house-mice and field-mice as rats. If we multiply +twenty-two by twenty, we shall have four hundred; four hundred +accomplices let loose in the old church of the Capuchins, where Fario +has stored all his grain, will consume a not insignificant quantity! +But be lively about it! There's no time to lose. Fario is to deliver +most of the grain to his customers in a week or so; and I am +determined that that Spaniard shall find a terrible deficit. +Gentlemen, I have not the merit of this invention," continued Max, +observing the signs of general admiration. "Render to Caesar that +which is Caesar's, and to God that which is God's. My scheme is only a +reproduction of Samson's foxes, as related in the Bible. But Samson +was an incendiary, and therefore no philanthropist; while we, like the +Brahmins, are the protectors of a persecuted race. Mademoiselle Flore +Brazier has already set all her mouse-traps, and Kouski, my right-arm, +is hunting field-mice. I have spoken." + +"I know," said Goddet, "where to find an animal that's worth forty +rats, himself alone." + +"What's that?" + +"A squirrel." + +"I offer a little monkey," said one of the younger members, "he'll +make himself drunk on wheat." + +"Bad, very bad!" exclaimed Max, "it would show who put the beasts +there." + +"But we might each catch a pigeon some night," said young Beaussier, +"taking them from different farms; if we put them through a hole in +the roof, they'll attract thousands of others." + +"So, then, for the next week, Fario's storehouse is the order of the +night," cried Max, smiling at Beaussier. "Recollect; people get up +early in Saint-Paterne. Mind, too, that none of you go there without +turning the soles of your list shoes backward. Knight Beaussier, the +inventor of pigeons, is made director. As for me, I shall take care to +leave my imprint on the sacks of wheat. Gentlemen, you are, all of +you, appointed to the commissariat of the Army of Rats. If you find a +watchman sleeping in the church, you must manage to make him drunk,-- +and do it cleverly,--so as to get him far away from the scene of the +Rodents' Orgy." + +"You don't say anything about the Parisians?" questioned Goddet. + +"Oh!" exclaimed Max, "I want time to study them. Meantime, I offer my +best shotgun--the one the Emperor gave me, a treasure from the +manufactory at Versailles--to whoever finds a way to play the Bridaus +a trick which shall get them into difficulties with Madame and +Monsieur Hochon, so that those worthy old people shall send them off, +or they shall be forced to go of their own accord,--without, +understand me, injuring the venerable ancestors of my two friends here +present, Baruch and Francois." + +"All right! I'll think of it," said Goddet, who coveted the gun. + +"If the inventor of the trick doesn't care for the gun, he shall have +my horse," added Max. + +After this night twenty brains were tortured to lay a plot against +Agathe and her son, on the basis of Max's programme. But the devil +alone, or chance, could really help them to success; for the +conditions given made the thing well-nigh impossible. + +The next morning Agathe and Joseph came downstairs just before the +second breakfast, which took place at ten o'clock. In Monsieur +Hochon's household the name of first breakfast was given to a cup of +milk and slice of bread and butter which was taken in bed, or when +rising. While waiting for Madame Hochon, who notwithstanding her age +went minutely through the ceremonies with which the duchesses of Louis +XV.'s time performed their toilette, Joseph noticed Jean-Jacques +Rouget planted squarely on his feet at the door of his house across +the street. He naturally pointed him out to his mother, who was unable +to recognize her brother, so little did he look like what he was when +she left him. + +"That is your brother," said Adolphine, who entered, giving an arm to +her grandmother. + +"What an idiot he looks like!" exclaimed Joseph. + +Agathe clasped her hands, and raised her eyes to heaven. + +"What a state they have driven him to! Good God! can that be a man +only fifty-seven years old?" + +She looked attentively at her brother, and saw Flore Brazier standing +directly behind him, with her hair dressed, a pair of snowy shoulders +and a dazzling bosom showing through a gauze neckerchief, which was +trimmed with lace; she was wearing a dress with a tight-fitting waist, +made of grenadine (a silk material then much in fashion), with leg-of- +mutton sleeves so-called, fastened at the wrists by handsome +bracelets. A gold chain rippled over the crab-girl's bosom as she +leaned forward to give Jean-Jacques his black silk cap lest he should +take cold. The scene was evidently studied. + +"Hey!" cried Joseph, "there's a fine woman, and a rare one! She is +made, as they say, to paint. What flesh-tints! Oh, the lovely tones! +what surface! what curves! Ah, those shoulders! She's a magnificent +caryatide. What a model she would have been for one of Titians' +Venuses!" + +Adolphine and Madame Hochon thought he was talking Greek; but Agathe +signed to them behind his back, as if to say that she was accustomed +to such jargon. + +"So you think a creature who is depriving you of your property +handsome?" said Madame Hochon. + +"That doesn't prevent her from being a splendid model!--just plump +enough not to spoil the hips and the general contour--" + +"My son, you are not in your studio," said Agathe. "Adolphine is +here." + +"Ah, true! I did wrong. But you must remember that ever since leaving +Paris I have seen nothing but ugly women--" + +"My dear godmother," said Agathe hastily, "how shall I be able to meet +my brother, if that creature is always with him?" + +"Bah!" said Joseph. "I'll go and see him myself. I don't think him +such an idiot, now I find he has the sense to rejoice his eyes with a +Titian's Venus." + +"If he were not an idiot," said Monsieur Hochon, who had come in, "he +would have married long ago and had children; and then you would have +no chance at the property. It is an ill wind that blows no good." + +"Your son's idea is very good," said Madame Hochon; "he ought to pay +the first visit. He can make his uncle understand that if you call +there he must be alone." + +"That will affront Mademoiselle Brazier," said old Hochon. "No, no, +madame; swallow the pill. If you can't get the whole property, secure +a small legacy." + +The Hochons were not clever enough to match Max. In the middle of +breakfast Kouski brought over a letter from Monsieur Rouget, addressed +to his sister, Madame Bridau. Madame Hochon made her husband read it +aloud, as follows:-- + + My dear Sister,--I learn from strangers of your arrival in + Issoudun. I can guess the reason which made you prefer the house + of Monsieur and Madame Hochon to mine; but if you will come to see + me you shall be received as you ought to be. I should certainly + pay you the first visit if my health did not compel me just now to + keep the house; for which I offer my affectionate regrets. I shall + be delighted to see my nephew, whom I invite to dine with me to- + morrow,--young men are less sensitive than women about the + company. It will give me pleasure if Messrs. Baruch Borniche and + Francois Hochon will accompany him. + + Your affectionate brother, + + J.-J. Rouget. + + +"Say that we are at breakfast, but that Madame Bridau will send an +answer presently, and the invitations are all accepted," said Monsieur +Hochon to the servant. + +The old man laid a finger on his lips, to require silence from +everybody. When the street-door was shut, Monsieur Hochon, little +suspecting the intimacy between his grandsons and Max, threw one of +his slyest looks at his wife and Agathe, remarking,-- + +"He is just as capable of writing that note as I am of giving away +twenty-five louis; it is the soldier who is corresponding with us!" + +"What does that portend?" asked Madame Hochon. "Well, never mind; we +will answer him. As for you, monsieur," she added, turning to Joseph, +"you must dine there; but if--" + +The old lady was stopped short by a look from her husband. Knowing how +warm a friendship she felt for Agathe, old Hochon was in dread lest +she should leave some legacy to her goddaughter in case the latter +lost the Rouget property. Though fifteen years older than his wife, +the miser hoped to inherit her fortune, and to become eventually the +sole master of their whole property. That hope was a fixed idea with +him. Madame Hochon knew that the best means of obtaining a few +concessions from her husband was to threaten him with her will. +Monsieur Hochon now took sides with his guests. An enormous fortune +was at stake; with a sense of social justice, he wished it to go to +the natural heirs, instead of being pillaged by unworthy outsiders. +Moreover, the sooner the matter was decided, the sooner he should get +rid of his guests. Now that the struggle between the interlopers and +the heirs, hitherto existing only in his wife's mind, had become an +actual fact, Monsieur Hochon's keen intelligence, lulled to sleep by +the monotony of provincial life, was fully roused. Madame Hochon had +been agreeably surprised that morning to perceive, from a few +affectionate words which the old man had said to her about Agathe, +that so able and subtle an auxiliary was on the Bridau side. + +Towards midday the brains of Monsieur and Madame Hochon, of Agathe, +and Joseph (the latter much amazed at the scrupulous care of the old +people in the choice of words), were delivered of the following +answer, concocted solely for the benefit of Max and Flore:-- + + My dear Brother,--If I have stayed away from Issoudun, and kept up + no intercourse with any one, not even with you, the fault lies not + merely with the strange and false ideas my father conceived about + me, but with the joys and sorrows of my life in Paris; for if God + made me a happy wife, he has also deeply afflicted me as a mother. + You are aware that my son, your nephew Philippe, lies under + accusation of a capital offence in consequence of his devotion to + the Emperor. Therefore you can hardly be surprised if a widow, + compelled to take a humble situation in a lottery-office for a + living, should come to seek consolation from those among whom she + was born. + + The profession adopted by the son who accompanies me is one that + requires great talent, many sacrifices, and prolonged studies + before any results can be obtained. Glory for an artist precedes + fortune; is not that to say that Joseph, though he may bring honor + to the family, will still be poor? Your sister, my dear Jean- + Jacques, would have borne in silence the penalties of paternal + injustice, but you will pardon a mother for reminding you that you + have two nephews; one of whom carried the Emperor's orders at the + battle of Montereau and served in the Guard at Waterloo, and is + now in prison for his devotion to Napoleon; the other, from his + thirteenth year, has been impelled by natural gifts to enter a + difficult though glorious career. + + I thank you for your letter, my dear brother, with heart-felt + warmth, for my own sake, and also for Joseph's, who will certainly + accept your invitation. Illness excuses everything, my dear Jean- + Jacques, and I shall therefore go to see you in your own house. A + sister is always at home with a brother, no matter what may be the + life he has adopted. + + I embrace you tenderly. + + Agathe Rouget + + +"There's the matter started. Now, when you see him," said Monsieur +Hochon to Agathe, "you must speak plainly to him about his nephews." + +The letter was carried over by Gritte, who returned ten minutes later +to render an account to her masters of all that she had seen and +heard, according to a settled provincial custom. + +"Since yesterday Madame has had the whole house cleaned up, which she +left--" + +"Whom do you mean by Madame?" asked old Hochon. + +"That's what they call the Rabouilleuse over there," answered Gritte. +"She left the salon and all Monsieur Rouget's part of the house in a +pitiable state; but since yesterday the rooms have been made to look +like what they were before Monsieur Maxence went to live there. You +can see your face on the floors. La Vedie told me that Kouski went off +on horseback at five o'clock this morning, and came back at nine, +bringing provisions. It is going to be a grand dinner!--a dinner fit +for the archbishop of Bourges! There's a fine bustle in the kitchen, +and they are as busy as bees. The old man says, 'I want to do honor to +my nephew,' and he pokes his nose into everything. It appears THE +ROUGETS are highly flattered by the letter. Madame came and told me +so. Oh! she had on such a dress! I never saw anything so handsome in +my life. Two diamonds in her ears!--two diamonds that cost, Vedie told +me, three thousand francs apiece; and such lace! rings on her fingers, +and bracelets! you'd think she was a shrine; and a silk dress as fine +as an altar-cloth. So then she said to me, 'Monsieur is delighted to +find his sister so amiable, and I hope she will permit us to pay her +all the attention she deserves. We shall count on her good opinion +after the welcome we mean to give her son. Monsieur is very impatient +to see his nephew.' Madame had little black satin slippers; and her +stockings! my! they were marvels,--flowers in silk and openwork, just +like lace, and you could see her rosy little feet through them. Oh! +she's in high feather, and she had a lovely little apron in front of +her which, Vedie says, cost more than two years of our wages put +together." + +"Well done! We shall have to dress up," said the artist laughing. + +"What do you think of all this, Monsieur Hochon?" said the old lady +when Gritte had departed. + +Madame Hochon made Agathe observe her husband, who was sitting with +his head in his hands, his elbows on the arms of his chair, plunged in +thought. + +"You have to do with a Maitre Bonin!" said the old man at last. "With +your ideas, young man," he added, looking at Joseph, "you haven't +force enough to struggle with a practised scoundrel like Maxence +Gilet. No matter what I say to you, you will commit some folly. But, +at any rate, tell me everything you see, and hear, and do to-night. +Go, and God be with you! Try to get alone with your uncle. If, in +spite of all your genius, you can't manage it, that in itself will +throw some light upon their scheme. But if you do get a moment alone +with him, out of ear-shot, damn it, you must pull the wool from his +eyes as to the situation those two have put him in, and plead your +mother's cause." + + + + CHAPTER XII + +At four o'clock, Joseph crossed the open space which separated the +Rouget house from the Hochon house,--a sort of avenue of weakly +lindens, two hundred feet long and of the same width as the rue Grande +Narette. When the nephew arrived, Kouski, in polished boots, black +cloth trousers, white waistcoat, and black coat, announced him. The +table was set in the large hall, and Joseph, who easily distinguished +his uncle, went up to him, kissed him, and bowed to Flore and Max. + +"We have not seen each other since I came into the world, my dear +uncle," said the painter gayly; "but better late than never." + +"You are very welcome, my friend," said the old man, looking at his +nephew in a dull way. + +"Madame," Joseph said to Flore with an artist's vivacity, "this +morning I was envying my uncle the pleasure he enjoys in being able to +admire you every day." + +"Isn't she beautiful?" said the old man, whose dim eyes began to +shine. + +"Beautiful enough to be the model of a great painter." + +"Nephew," said Rouget, whose elbow Flore was nudging, "this is +Monsieur Maxence Gilet; a man who served the Emperor, like your +brother, in the Imperial Guard." + +Joseph rose, and bowed. + +"Your brother was in the dragoons, I believe," said Maxence. "I was +only a dust-trotter." + +"On foot or on horseback," said Flore, "you both of you risked your +skins." + +Joseph took note of Max quite as much as Max took note of Joseph. Max, +who got his clothes from Paris, was dressed as the young dandies of +that day dressed themselves. A pair of light-blue cloth trousers, made +with very full plaits, covered his feet so that only the toes and the +spurs of his boots were seen. His waist was pinched in by a white +waistcoat with chased gold buttons, which was laced behind to serve as +a belt. The waistcoat, buttoned to the throat, showed off his broad +chest, and a black satin stock obliged him to hold his head high, in +soldierly fashion. A handsome gold chain hung from a waistcoat pocket, +in which the outline of a flat watch was barely seen. He was twisting +a watch-key of the kind called a "criquet," which Breguet had lately +invented. + +"The fellow is fine-looking," thought Joseph, admiring with a +painter's eye the eager face, the air of strength, and the +intellectual gray eyes which Max had inherited from his father, the +noble. "My uncle must be a fearful bore, and that handsome girl takes +her compensations. It is a triangular household; I see that." + +At this instant, Baruch and Francois entered. + +"Have you been to see the tower of Issoudun?" Flore asked Joseph. "No? +then if you would like to take a little walk before dinner, which will +not be served for an hour, we will show you the great curiosity of the +town." + +"Gladly," said the artist, quite incapable of seeing the slightest +impropriety in so doing. + +While Flore went to put on her bonnet, gloves, and cashmere shawl, +Joseph suddenly jumped up, as if an enchanter had touched him with his +wand, to look at the pictures. + +"Ah! you have pictures, indeed, uncle!" he said, examining the one +that had caught his eye. + +"Yes," answered the old man. "They came to us from the Descoings, who +bought them during the Revolution, when the convents and churches in +Berry were dismantled." + +Joseph was not listening; he was lost in admiration of the pictures. + +"Magnificent!" he cried. "Oh! what painting! that fellow didn't spoil +his canvas. Dear, dear! better and better, as it is at Nicolet's--" + +"There are seven or eight very large ones up in the garret, which were +kept on account of the frames," said Gilet. + +"Let me see them!" cried the artist; and Max took him upstairs. + +Joseph came down wildly enthusiastic. Max whispered a word to the +Rabouilleuse, who took the old man into the embrasure of a window, +where Joseph heard her say in a low voice, but still so that he could +hear the words:-- + +"Your nephew is a painter; you don't care for those pictures; be kind, +and give them to him." + +"It seems," said Jean-Jacques, leaning on Flore's arm to reach the +place were Joseph was standing in ecstasy before an Albano, "--it +seems that you are a painter--" + +"Only a 'rapin,'" said Joseph. + +"What may that be?" asked Flore. + +"A beginner," replied Joseph. + +"Well," continued Jean-Jacques, "if these pictures can be of any use +to you in your business, I give them to you,--but without the frames. +Oh! the frames are gilt, and besides, they are very funny; I will +put--" + +"Well done, uncle!" cried Joseph, enchanted; "I'll make you copies of +the same dimensions, which you can put into the frames." + +"But that will take your time, and you will want canvas and colors," +said Flore. "You will have to spend money. Come, Pere Rouget, offer +your nephew a hundred francs for each copy; here are twenty-seven +pictures, and I think there are eleven very big ones in the garret +which ought to cost double,--call the whole four thousand francs. Oh, +yes," she went on, turning to Joseph, "your uncle can well afford to +pay you four thousand francs for making the copies, since he keeps the +frames--but bless me! you'll want frames; and they say frames cost +more than pictures; there's more gold on them. Answer, monsieur," she +continued, shaking the old man's arm. "Hein? it isn't dear; your +nephew will take four thousand francs for new pictures in the place of +the old ones. It is," she whispered in his ear, "a very good way to +give him four thousand francs; he doesn't look to me very flush--" + +"Well, nephew, I will pay you four thousand francs for the copies--" + +"No, no!" said the honest Joseph; "four thousand francs and the +pictures, that's too much; the pictures, don't you see, are +valuable--" + +"Accept, simpleton!" said Flore; "he is your uncle, you know." + +"Very good, I accept," said Joseph, bewildered by the luck that had +befallen him; for he had recognized a Perugino. + +The result was that the artist beamed with satisfaction as he went out +of the house with the Rabouilleuse on his arm, all of which helped +Maxence's plans immensely. Neither Flore, nor Rouget, nor Max, nor +indeed any one in Issoudun knew the value of the pictures, and the +crafty Max thought he had bought Flore's triumph for a song, as she +paraded triumphantly before the eyes of the astonished town, leaning +on the arm of her master's nephew, and evidently on the best of terms +with him. People flocked to their doors to see the crab-girl's triumph +over the family. This astounding event made the sensation on which Max +counted; so that when they all returned at five o'clock, nothing was +talked of in every household but the cordial understanding between Max +and Flore and the nephew of old Rouget. The incident of the pictures +and the four thousand francs circulated already. The dinner, at which +Lousteau, one of the court judges, and the Mayor of Issoudun were +present, was splendid. It was one of those provincial dinners lasting +five hours. The most exquisite wines enlivened the conversation. By +nine o'clock, at dessert, the painter, seated opposite to his uncle, +and between Flore and Max, had fraternized with the soldier, and +thought him the best fellow on earth. Joseph returned home at eleven +o'clock somewhat tipsy. As to old Rouget, Kouski had carried him to +his bed dead-drunk; he had eaten as though he were an actor from +foreign parts, and had soaked up the wine like the sands of the +desert. + +"Well," said Max when he was alone with Flore, "isn't this better than +making faces at them? The Bridaus are well received, they get small +presents, and are smothered with attentions, and the end of it is they +will sing our praises; they will go away satisfied and leave us in +peace. To-morrow morning you and I and Kouski will take down all those +pictures and send them over to the painter, so that he shall see them +when he wakes up. We will put the frames in the garret, and cover the +walls with one of those varnished papers which represent scenes from +Telemachus, such as I have seen at Monsieur Mouilleron's." + +"Oh, that will be much prettier!" said Flore. + +On the morrow, Joseph did not wake up till midday. From his bed he saw +the pictures, which had been brought in while he was asleep, leaning +one against another on the opposite wall. While he examined them anew, +recognizing each masterpiece, studying the manner of each painter, and +searching for the signature, his mother had gone to see and thank her +brother, urged thereto by old Hochon, who, having heard of the follies +the painter had committed the night before, almost despaired of the +Bridau cause. + +"Your adversaries have the cunning of foxes," he said to Agathe. "In +all my days I never saw a man carry things with such a high hand as +that soldier; they say war educates young men! Joseph has let himself +be fooled. They have shut his mouth with wine, and those miserable +pictures, and four thousand francs! Your artist hasn't cost Maxence +much!" + +The long-headed old man instructed Madame Bridau carefully as to the +line of conduct she ought to pursue,--advising her to enter into +Maxence's ideas and cajole Flore, so as to set up a sort of intimacy +with her, and thus obtain a few moments' interview with Jean-Jacques +alone. Madame Bridau was very warmly received by her brother, to whom +Flore had taught his lesson. The old man was in bed, quite ill from +the excesses of the night before. As Agathe, under the circumstances, +could scarcely begin at once to speak of family matters, Max thought +it proper and magnanimous to leave the brother and sister alone +together. The calculation was a good one. Poor Agathe found her +brother so ill that she would not deprive him of Madame Brazier's +care. + +"Besides," she said to the old bachelor, "I wish to know a person to +whom I am grateful for the happiness of my brother." + +These words gave evident pleasure to the old man, who rang for Madame +Flore. Flore, as we may well believe, was not far off. The female +antagonists bowed to each other. The Rabouilleuse showed the most +servile attentions and the utmost tenderness to her master; fancied +his head was too low, beat up the pillows, and took care of him like a +bride of yesterday. The poor creature received it with a rush of +feeling. + +"We owe you much gratitude, mademoiselle," said Agathe, "for the +proofs of attachment you have so long given to my brother, and for the +way in which you watch over his happiness." + +"That is true, my dear Agathe," said the old man; "she has taught me +what happiness is; she is a woman of excellent qualities." + +"And therefore, my dear brother, you ought to have recompensed +Mademoiselle by making her your wife. Yes! I am too sincere in my +religion not to wish to see you obey the precepts of the church. You +would each be more tranquil in mind if you were not at variance with +morality and the laws. I have come here, dear brother, to ask for help +in my affliction; but do not suppose that we wish to make any +remonstrance as to the manner in which you may dispose of your +property--" + +"Madame," said Flore, "we know how unjust your father was to you. +Monsieur, here, can tell you," she went on, looking fixedly at her +victim, "that the only quarrels we have ever had were about you. I +have always told him that he owes you part of the fortune he received +from his father, and your father, my benefactor,--for he was my +benefactor," she added in a tearful voice; "I shall ever remember him! +But your brother, madame, has listened to reason--" + +"Yes," said the old man, "when I make my will you shall not be +forgotten." + +"Don't talk of these things, my dear brother; you do not yet know my +nature." + +After such a beginning, it is easy to imagine how the visit went on. +Rouget invited his sister to dinner on the next day but one. + +We may here mention that during these three days the Knights of +Idleness captured an immense quantity of rats and mice, which were +kept half-famished until they were let loose in the grain one fine +night, to the number of four hundred and thirty-six, of which some +were breeding mothers. Not content with providing Fario's store-house +with these boarders, the Knights made holes in the roof of the old +church and put in a dozen pigeons, taken from as many different farms. +These four-footed and feathered creatures held high revels,--all the +more securely because the watchman was enticed away by a fellow who +kept him drunk from morning till night, so that he took no care of his +master's property. + +Madame Bridau believed, contrary to the opinion of old Hochon, that +her brother has as yet made no will; she intended asking him what were +his intentions respecting Mademoiselle Brazier, as soon as she could +take a walk with him alone,--a hope which Flore and Maxence were +always holding out to her, and, of course, always disappointing. + +Meantime the Knights were searching for a way to put the Parisians to +flight, and finding none that were not impracticable follies. + +At the end of a week--half the time the Parisians were to stay in +Issoudun--the Bridaus were no farther advanced in their object than +when they came. + +"Your lawyer does not understand the provinces," said old Hochon to +Madame Bridau. "What you have come to do can't be done in two weeks, +nor in two years; you ought never to leave your brother, but live here +and try to give him some ideas of religion. You cannot countermine the +fortifications of Flore and Maxence without getting a priest to sap +them. That is my advice, and it is high time to set about it." + +"You certainly have very singular ideas about the clergy," said Madame +Hochon to her husband. + +"Bah!" exclaimed the old man, "that's just like you pious women." + +"God would never bless an enterprise undertaken in a sacrilegious +spirit," said Madame Bridau. "Use religion for such a purpose! Why, we +should be more criminal than Flore." + +This conversation took place at breakfast,--Francois and Baruch +listening with all their ears. + +"Sacrilege!" exclaimed old Hochon. "If some good abbe, keen as I have +known many of them to be, knew what a dilemma you are in, he would not +think it sacrilege to bring your brother's lost soul back to God, and +call him to repentance for his sins, by forcing him to send away the +woman who causes the scandal (with a proper provision, of course), and +showing him how to set his conscience at rest by giving a few thousand +francs a year to the seminary of the archbishop and leaving his +property to the rightful heirs." + +The passive obedience which the old miser had always exacted from his +children, and now from his grandchildren (who were under his +guardianship and for whom he was amassing a small fortune, doing for +them, he said, just as he would for himself), prevented Baruch and +Francois from showing signs of surprise or disapproval; but they +exchanged significant glances expressing how dangerous and fatal such +a scheme would be to Max's interest. + +"The fact is, madame," said Baruch, "that if you want to secure your +brother's property, the only sure and true way will be to stay in +Issoudun for the necessary length of time--" + +"Mother," said Joseph hastily, "you had better write to Desroches +about all this. As for me, I ask nothing more than what my uncle has +already given me." + +After fully recognizing the great value of his thirty-nine pictures, +Joseph had carefully unnailed the canvases and fastened paper over +them, gumming it at the edges with ordinary glue; he then laid them +one above another in an enormous wooden box, which he sent to +Desroches by the carrier's waggon, proposing to write him a letter +about it by post. The precious freight had been sent off the night +before. + +"You are satisfied with a pretty poor bargain," said Monsieur Hochon. + +"I can easily get a hundred and fifty thousand francs for those +pictures," replied Joseph. + +"Painter's nonsense!" exclaimed old Hochon, giving Joseph a peculiar +look. + +"Mother," said Joseph, "I am going to write to Desroches and explain +to him the state of things here. If he advises you to remain, you had +better do so. As for your situation, we can always find you another +like it." + +"My dear Joseph," said Madame Hochon, following him as he left the +table, "I don't know anything about your uncle's pictures, but they +ought to be good, judging by the places from which they came. If they +are worth only forty thousand francs,--a thousand francs apiece,--tell +no one. Though my grandsons are discreet and well-behaved, they might, +without intending harm, speak of this windfall; it would be known all +over Issoudun; and it is very important that our adversaries should +not suspect it. You behave like a child!" + +In fact, before evening many persons in Issoudun, including Max, were +informed of this estimate, which had the immediate effect of causing a +search for all the old paintings which no one had ever cared for, and +the appearance of many execrable daubs. Max repented having driven the +old man into giving away the pictures, and the rage he felt against +the heirs after hearing from Baruch old Hochon's ecclesiastical +scheme, was increased by what he termed his own stupidity. The +influence of religion upon such a feeble creature as Rouget was the +one thing to fear. The news brought by his two comrades decided +Maxence Gilet to turn all Rouget's investments into money, and to +borrow upon his landed property, so as to buy into the Funds as soon +as possible; but he considered it even more important to get rid of +the Parisians at once. The genius of the Mascarilles and Scapins out +together would hardly have solved the latter problem easily. + +Flore, acting by Max's advice, pretended that Monsieur was too feeble +to take walks, and that he ought, at his age, to have a carriage. This +pretext grew out of the necessity of not exciting inquiry when they +went to Bourges, Vierzon, Chateauroux, Vatan, and all the other places +where the project of withdrawing investments obliged Max and Flore to +betake themselves with Rouget. At the close of the week, all Issoudun +was amazed to learn that the old man had gone to Bourges to buy a +carriage,--a step which the Knights of Idleness regarded as favorable +to the Rabouilleuse. Flore and Max selected a hideous "berlingot," +with cracked leather curtains and windows without glass, aged twenty- +two years and nine campaigns, sold on the decease of a colonel, the +friend of grand-marshal Bertrand, who, during the absence of that +faithful companion of the Emperor, was left in charge of the affairs +of Berry. This "berlingot," painted bright green, was somewhat like a +caleche, though shafts had taken the place of a pole, so that it could +be driven with one horse. It belonged to a class of carriages brought +into vogue by diminished fortunes, which at that time bore the candid +name of "demi-fortune"; at its first introduction it was called a +"seringue." The cloth lining of this demi-fortune, sold under the name +of caleche, was moth-eaten; its gimps looked like the chevrons of an +old Invalide; its rusty joints squeaked,--but it only cost four +hundred and fifty francs; and Max bought a good stout mare, trained to +harness, from an officer of a regiment then stationed at Bourges. He +had the carriage repainted a dark brown, and bought a tolerable +harness at a bargain. The whole town of Issoudun was shaken to its +centre in expectation of Pere Rouget's equipage; and on the occasion +of its first appearance, every household was on its door-step and +curious faces were at all the windows. + +The second time the old bachelor went out he drove to Bourges, where, +to escape the trouble of attending personally to the business, or, if +you prefer it, being ordered to do so by Flore, he went before a +notary and signed a power of attorney in favor of Maxence Gilet, +enabling him to make all the transfers enumerated in the document. +Flore reserved to herself the business of making Monsieur sell out the +investments in Issoudun and its immediate neighborhood. The principal +notary in Bourges was requested by Rouget to get him a loan of one +hundred and forty thousand francs on his landed estate. Nothing was +known at Issoudun of these proceedings, which were secretly and +cleverly carried out. Maxence, who was a good rider, went with his own +horse to Bourges and back between five in the morning and five in the +afternoon. Flore never left the old bachelor. Rouget consented without +objection to the action Flore dictated to him; but he insisted that +the investment in the Funds, producing fifty thousand francs a year, +should stand in Flore's name as holding a life-interest only, and in +his as owner of the principal. The tenacity the old man displayed in +the domestic disputes which this idea created caused Max a good deal +of anxiety; he thought he could see the result of reflections inspired +by the sight of the natural heirs. + +Amid all these movements, which Max concealed from the knowledge of +everyone, he forgot the Spaniard and his granary. Fario came back to +Issoudun to deliver his corn, after various trips and business +manoeuvres undertaken to raise the price of cereals. The morning after +his arrival he noticed that the roof the church of the Capuchins was +black with pigeons. He cursed himself for having neglected to examine +its condition, and hurried over to look into his storehouse, where he +found half his grain devoured. Thousands of mice-marks and rat-marks +scattered about showed a second cause of ruin. The church was a +Noah's-ark. But anger turned the Spaniard white as a bit of cambric +when, trying to estimate the extent of the destruction and his +consequence losses, he noticed that the grain at the bottom of the +heap, near the floor, was sprouting from the effects of water, which +Max had managed to introduce by means of tin tubes into the very +centre of the pile of wheat. The pigeons and the rats could be +explained by animal instinct; but the hand of man was plainly visible +in this last sign of malignity. + +Fario sat down on the steps of a chapel altar, holding his head +between his hands. After half an hour of Spanish reflections, he spied +the squirrel, which Goddet could not refrain from giving him as a +guest, playing with its tail upon a cross-beam, on the middle of which +rested one of the uprights that supported the roof. The Spaniard rose +and turned to his watchman with a face that was as calm and cold as an +Arab's. He made no complaint, but went home, hired laborers to gather +into sacks what remained of the sound grain, and to spread in the sun +all that was moist, so as to save as much as possible; then, after +estimating that his losses amounted to about three fifths, he attended +to filling his orders. But his previous manipulations of the market +had raised the price of cereals, and he lost on the three fifths he +was obliged to buy to fill his orders; so that his losses amounted +really to more than half. The Spaniard, who had no enemies, at once +attributed this revenge to Gilet. He was convinced that Maxence and +some others were the authors of all the nocturnal mischief, and had in +all probability carried his cart up the embankment of the tower, and +now intended to amuse themselves by ruining him. It was a matter to +him of over three thousand francs,--very nearly the whole capital he +had scraped together since the peace. Driven by the desire for +vengeance, the man now displayed the cunning and stealthy persistence +of a detective to whom a large reward is offered. Hiding at night in +different parts of Issoudun, he soon acquired proof of the proceedings +of the Knights of Idleness; he saw them all, counted them, watched +their rendezvous, and knew of their suppers at Mere Cognette's; after +that he lay in wait to witness one of their deeds, and thus became +well informed as to their nocturnal habits. + +In spite of Max's journeys and pre-occupations, he had no intention of +neglecting his nightly employments,--first, because he did not wish +his comrades to suspect the secret of his operations with Pere +Rouget's property; and secondly, to keep the Knights well in hand. +They were therefore convened for the preparation of a prank which +might deserve to be talked of for years to come. Poisoned meat was to +be thrown on a given night to every watch-dog in the town and in the +environs. Fario overheard them congratulating each other, as they came +out from a supper at the Cognettes', on the probable success of the +performance, and laughing over the general mourning that would follow +this novel massacre of the innocents,--revelling, moreover, in the +apprehensions it would excite as to the sinister object of depriving +all the households of their guardian watch-dogs. + +"It will make people forget Fario's cart," said Goddet. + +Fario did not need that speech to confirm his suspicions; besides, his +mind was already made up. + +After three weeks' stay in Issoudun, Agathe was convinced, and so was +Madame Hochon, of the truth of the old miser's observation, that it +would take years to destroy the influence which Max and the +Rabouilleuse had acquired over her brother. She had made no progress +in Jean-Jacques's confidence, and she was never left alone with him. +On the other hand, Mademoiselle Brazier triumphed openly over the +heirs by taking Agathe to drive in the caleche, sitting beside her on +the back seat, while Monsieur Rouget and his nephew occupied the +front. Mother and son impatiently awaited an answer to the +confidential letter they had written to Desroches. The day before the +night on which the dogs were to be poisoned, Joseph, who was nearly +bored to death in Issoudun, received two letters: the first from the +great painter Schinner,--whose age allowed him a closer intimacy than +Joseph could have with Gros, their master,--and the second from +Desroches. + +Here is the first, postmarked Beaumont-sur-Oise:-- + + My dear Joseph,--I have just finished the principal panel- + paintings at the chateau de Presles for the Comte de Serizy. I + have left all the mouldings and the decorative painting; and I + have recommended you so strongly to the count, and also to Gridot + the architect, that you have nothing to do but pick up your + brushes and come at once. Prices are arranged to please you. I am + off to Italy with my wife; so you can have Mistigris to help you + along. The young scamp has talent, and I put him at your disposal. + He is twittering like a sparrow at the very idea of amusing + himself at the chateau de Presles. + + Adieu, my dear Joseph; if I am still absent, and should send + nothing to next year's Salon, you must take my place. Yes, dear + Jojo, I know your picture is a masterpiece, but a masterpiece + which will rouse a hue and cry about romanticism; you are doomed + to lead the life of a devil in holy water. Adieu. + + Thy friend, + + Schinner + + +Here follows the letter of Desroches:-- + + My dear Joseph,--Your Monsieur Hochon strikes me as an old man + full of common-sense, and you give me a high idea of his methods; + he is perfectly right. My advice, since you ask it, is that your + mother should remain at Issoudun with Madame Hochon, paying a + small board,--say four hundred francs a year,--to reimburse her + hosts for what she eats. Madame Bridau ought, in my opinion, to + follow Monsieur Hochon's advice in everything; for your excellent + mother will have many scruples in dealing with persons who have no + scruple at all, and whose behavior to her is a master-stroke of + policy. That Maxence, you are right enough, is dangerous. He is + another Philippe, but of a different calibre. The scoundrel makes + his vices serve his fortunes, and gets his amusement gratis; + whereas your brother's follies are never useful to him. All that + you say alarms me, but I could do no good by going to Issoudun. + Monsieur Hochon, acting behind your mother, will be more useful to + you than I. As for you, you had better come back here; you are + good for nothing in a matter which requires continual attention, + careful observation, servile civilities, discretion in speech, and + a dissimulation of manner and gesture which is wholly against the + grain of artists. + + If they have told you no will has been made, you may be quite sure + they have possessed one for a long time. But wills can be revoked, + and as long as your fool of an uncle lives he is no doubt + susceptible of being worked upon by remorse and religion. Your + inheritance will be the result of a combat between the Church and + the Rabouilleuse. There will inevitably come a time when that + woman will lose her grip on the old man, and religion will be all- + powerful. So long as your uncle makes no gift of the property + during his lifetime, and does not change the nature of his estate, + all may come right whenever religion gets the upper hand. For this + reason, you must beg Monsieur Hochon to keep an eye, as well as he + can, on the condition of your uncle's property. It is necessary to + know if the real estate is mortgaged, and if so, where and in + whose name the proceeds are invested. It is so easy to terrify an + old man with fears about his life, in case you find him despoiling + his own property for the sake of these interlopers, that almost + any heir with a little adroitness could stop the spoliation at its + outset. But how should your mother, with her ignorance of the + world, her disinterestedness, and her religious ideas, know how to + manage such an affair? However, I am not able to throw any light + on the matter. All that you have done so far has probably given + the alarm, and your adversaries may already have secured + themselves-- + +"That is what I call an opinion in good shape," exclaimed Monsieur +Hochon, proud of being himself appreciated by a Parisian lawyer. + +"Oh! Desroches is a famous fellow," answered Joseph. + +"It would be well to read that letter to the two women," said the old +man. + +"There it is," said Joseph, giving it to him; "as to me, I want to be +off to-morrow; and I am now going to say good-by to my uncle." + +"Ah!" said Monsieur Hochon, "I see that Monsieur Desroches tells you +in a postscript to burn the letter." + +"You can burn it after showing it to my mother," said the painter. + +Joseph dressed, crossed the little square, and called on his uncle, +who was just finishing breakfast. Max and Flore were at table. + +"Don't disturb yourself, my dear uncle; I have only come to say good- +by." + +"You are going?" said Max, exchanging glances with Flore. + +"Yes; I have some work to do at the chateau of Monsieur de Serizy, and +I am all the more glad of it because his arm is long enough to do a +service to my poor brother in the Chamber of Peers." + +"Well, well, go and work"; said old Rouget, with a silly air. Joseph +thought him extraordinarily changed within a few days. "Men must work +--I am sorry you are going." + +"Oh! my mother will be here some time longer," remarked Joseph. + +Max made a movement with his lips which the Rabouilleuse observed, and +which signified: "They are going to try the plan Baruch warned me of." + +"I am very glad I came," said Joseph, "for I have had the pleasure of +making your acquaintance and you have enriched my studio--" + +"Yes," said Flore, "instead of enlightening your uncle on the value of +his pictures, which is now estimated at over one hundred thousand +francs, you have packed them off in a hurry to Paris. Poor dear man! +he is no better than a baby! We have just been told of a little +treasure at Bourges,--what did they call it? a Poussin,--which was in +the choir of the cathedral before the Revolution and is now worth, all +by itself, thirty thousand francs." + +"That was not right of you, my nephew," said Jean-Jacques, at a sign +from Max, which Joseph could not see. + +"Come now, frankly," said the soldier, laughing, "on your honor, what +should you say those pictures were worth? You've made an easy haul out +of your uncle! and right enough, too,--uncles are made to be pillaged. +Nature deprived me of uncles, but damn it, if I'd had any I should +have shown them no mercy." + +"Did you know, monsieur," said Flore to Rouget, "what YOUR pictures +were worth? How much did you say, Monsieur Joseph?" + +"Well," answered the painter, who had grown as red as a beetroot,-- +"the pictures are certainly worth something." + +"They say you estimated them to Monsieur Hochon at one hundred and +fifty thousand francs," said Flore; "is that true?" + +"Yes," said the painter, with childlike honesty. + +"And did you intend," said Flore to the old man, "to give a hundred +and fifty thousand francs to your nephew?" + +"Never, never!" cried Jean-Jacques, on whom Flore had fixed her eye. + +"There is one way to settle all this," said the painter, "and that is +to return them to you, uncle." + +"No, no, keep them," said the old man. + +"I shall send them back to you," said Joseph, wounded by the offensive +silence of Max and Flore. "There is something in my brushes which will +make my fortune, without owing anything to any one, even an uncle. My +respects to you, mademoiselle; good-day, monsieur--" + +And Joseph crossed the square in a state of irritation which artists +can imagine. The entire Hochon family were in the salon. When they saw +Joseph gesticulating and talking to himself, they asked him what was +the matter. The painter, who was as open as the day, related before +Baruch and Francois the scene that had just taken place; and which, +two hours later, thanks to the two young men, was the talk of the +whole town, embroidered with various circumstances that were more or +less ridiculous. Some persons insisted that the painter was maltreated +by Max; others that he had misbehaved to Flore, and that Max had +turned him out of doors. + +"What a child your son is!" said Hochon to Madame Bridau; "the booby +is the dupe of a scene which they have been keeping back for the last +day of his visit. Max and the Rabouilleuse have known the value of +those pictures for the last two weeks,--ever since he had the folly to +tell it before my grandsons, who never rested till they had blurted it +out to all the world. Your artist had better have taken himself off +without taking leave." + +"My son has done right to return the pictures if they are really so +valuable," said Agathe. + +"If they are worth, as he says, two hundred thousand francs," said old +Hochon, "it was folly to put himself in the way of being obliged to +return them. You might have had that, at least, out of the property; +whereas, as things are going now, you won't get anything. And this +scene with Joseph is almost a reason why your brother should refuse to +see you again." + + + + CHAPTER XIII + +Between midnight and one o'clock, the Knights of Idleness began their +gratuitous distribution of comestibles to the dogs of the town. This +memorable expedition was not over till three in the morning, the hour +at which these reprobates went to sup at Cognette's. At half-past +four, in the early dawn, they crept home. Just as Max turned the +corner of the rue l'Avenier into the Grande rue, Fario, who stood +ambushed in a recess, struck a knife at his heart, drew out the blade, +and escaped by the moat towards Vilatte, wiping the blade of his knife +on his handkerchief. The Spaniard washed the handkerchief in the +Riviere forcee, and returned quietly to his lodgings at Saint-Paterne, +where he got in by a window he had left open, and went to bed: later, +he was awakened by his new watchman, who found him fast asleep. + +As he fell, Max uttered a fearful cry which no one could mistake. +Lousteau-Prangin, son of a judge, a distant relation to the family of +the sub-delegate, and young Goddet, who lived at the lower end of the +Grande rue, ran at full speed up the street, calling to each other,-- + +"They are killing Max! Help! help!" + +But not a dog barked; and all the town, accustomed to the false alarms +of these nightly prowlers, stayed quietly in their beds. When his two +comrades reached him, Max had fainted. It was necessary to rouse +Monsieur Goddet, the surgeon. Max had recognized Fario; but when he +came to his senses, with several persons about him, and felt that his +wound was not mortal, it suddenly occurred to him to make capital out +of the attack, and he said, in a faint voice,-- + +"I think I recognized that cursed painter!" + +Thereupon Lousteau-Prangin ran off to his father, the judge. Max was +carried home by Cognette, young Goddet, and two other persons. Mere +Cognette and Monsieur Goddet walked beside the stretcher. Those who +carried the wounded man naturally looked across at Monsieur Hochon's +door while waiting for Kouski to let them in, and saw Monsieur +Hochon's servant sweeping the steps. At the old miser's, as everywhere +else in the provinces, the household was early astir. The few words +uttered by Max had roused the suspicions of Monsieur Goddet, and he +called to the woman,-- + +"Gritte, is Monsieur Joseph Bridau in bed?" + +"Bless me!" she said, "he went out at half-past four. I don't know +what ailed him; he walked up and down his room all night." + +This simple answer drew forth such exclamations of horror that the +woman came over, curious to know what they were carrying to old +Rouget's house. + +"A precious fellow he is, that painter of yours!" they said to her. +And the procession entered the house, leaving Gritte open-mouthed with +amazement at the sight of Max in his bloody shirt, stretched half- +fainting on a mattress. + +Artists will readily guess what ailed Joseph, and kept him restless +all night. He imagined the tale the bourgeoisie of Issoudun would tell +of him. They would say he had fleeced his uncle; that he was +everything but what he had tried to be,--a loyal fellow and an honest +artist! Ah! he would have given his great picture to have flown like a +swallow to Paris, and thrown his uncle's paintings at Max's nose. To +be the one robbed, and to be thought the robber!--what irony! So at +the earliest dawn, he had started for the poplar avenue which led to +Tivoli, to give free course to his agitation. + +While the innocent fellow was vowing, by way of consolation, never to +return to Issoudun, Max was preparing a horrible outrage for his +sensitive spirit. When Monsieur Goddet had probed the wound and +discovered that the knife, turned aside by a little pocket-book, had +happily spared Max's life (though making a serious wound), he did as +all doctors, and particularly country surgeons, do; he paved the way +for his own credit by "not answering for the patient's life"; and +then, after dressing the soldier's wound, and stating the verdict of +science to the Rabouilleuse, Jean-Jacques Rouget, Kouski, and the +Vedie, he left the house. The Rabouilleuse came in tears to her dear +Max, while Kouski and the Vedie told the assembled crowd that the +captain was in a fair way to die. The news brought nearly two hundred +persons in groups about the place Saint-Jean and the two Narettes. + +"I sha'n't be a month in bed; and I know who struck the blow," +whispered Max to Flore. "But we'll profit by it to get rid of the +Parisians. I have said I thought I recognized the painter; so pretend +that I am expected to die, and try to have Joseph Bridau arrested. Let +him taste a prison for a couple of days, and I know well enough the +mother will be off in a jiffy for Paris when she gets him out. And +then we needn't fear the priests they talk of setting on the old +fool." + +When Flore Brazier came downstairs, she found the assembled crowd +quite prepared to take the impression she meant to give them. She went +out with tears in her eyes, and related, sobbing, how the painter, +"who had just the face for that sort of thing," had been angry with +Max the night before about some pictures he had "wormed out" of Pere +Rouget. + +"That brigand--for you've only got to look at him to see what he is-- +thinks that if Max were dead, his uncle would leave him his fortune; +as if," she cried, "a brother were not more to him than a nephew! Max +is Doctor Rouget's son. The old one told me so before he died!" + +"Ah! he meant to do the deed just before he left Issoudun; he chose +his time, for he was going away to-day," said one of the Knights of +Idleness. + +"Max hasn't an enemy in Issoudun," said another. + +"Besides, Max recognized the painter," said the Rabouilleuse. + +"Where's that cursed Parisian? Let us find him!" they all cried. + +"Find him?" was the answer, "why, he left Monsieur Hochon's at +daybreak." + +A Knight of Idleness ran off at once to Monsieur Mouilleron. The crowd +increased; and the tumult became threatening. Excited groups filled up +the whole of the Grande-Narette. Others stationed themselves before +the church of Saint-Jean. An assemblage gathered at the porte Vilatte, +which is at the farther end of the Petite-Narette. Monsieur Lousteau- +Prangin and Monsieur Mouilleron, the commissary of police, the +lieutenant of gendarmes, and two of his men, had some difficulty in +reaching the place Saint-Jean through two hedges of people, whose +cries and exclamations could and did prejudice them against the +Parisian; who was, it is needless to say, unjustly accused, although, +it is true, circumstances told against him. + +After a conference between Max and the magistrates, Monsieur +Mouilleron sent the commissary of police and a sergeant with one +gendarme to examine what, in the language of the ministry of the +interior, is called "the theatre of the crime." Then Messieurs +Mouilleron and Lousteau-Prangin, accompanied by the lieutenant of +gendarmes crossed over to the Hochon house, which was now guarded by +two gendarmes in the garden and two at the front door. The crowd was +still increasing. The whole town was surging in the Grande rue. + +Gritte had rushed terrified to her master, crying out: "Monsieur, we +shall be pillaged! the town is in revolt; Monsieur Maxence Gilet has +been assassinated; he is dying! and they say it is Monsieur Joseph who +has done it!" + +Monsieur Hochon dressed quickly, and came downstairs; but seeing the +angry populace, he hastily retreated within the house, and bolted the +door. On questioning Gritte, he learned that his guest had left the +house at daybreak, after walking the floor all night in great +agitation, and had not yet come in. Much alarmed, he went to find +Madame Hochon, who was already awakened by the noise, and to whom he +told the frightful news which, true or false, was causing almost a +riot in Issoudun. + +"He is innocent, of course," said Madame Hochon. + +"Before his innocence can be proved, the crowd may get in here and +pillage us," said Monsieur Hochon, livid with fear, for he had gold in +his cellar. + +"Where is Agathe?" + +"Sound asleep." + +"Ah! so much the better," said Madame Hochon. "I wish she may sleep on +till the matter is cleared up. Such a shock might kill the poor +child." + +But Agathe woke up and came down half-dressed; for the evasive answers +of Gritte, whom she questioned, had disturbed both her head and heart. +She found Madame Hochon, looking very pale, with her eyes full of +tears, at one of the windows of the salon beside her husband. + +"Courage, my child. God sends us our afflictions," said the old lady. +"Joseph is accused--" + +"Of what?" + +"Of a bad action which he could never have committed," answered Madame +Hochon. + +Hearing the words, and seeing the lieutenant of gendarmes, who at this +moment entered the room accompanied by the two gentlemen, Agathe +fainted away. + +"There now!" said Monsieur Hochon to his wife and Gritte, "carry off +Madame Bridau; women are only in the way at these times. Take her to +her room and stay there, both of you. Sit down, gentlemen," continued +the old man. "The mistake to which we owe your visit will soon, I +hope, be cleared up." + +"Even if it should be a mistake," said Monsieur Mouilleron, "the +excitement of the crowd is so great, and their minds are so +exasperated, that I fear for the safety of the accused. I should like +to get him arrested, and that might satisfy these people." + +"Who would ever have believed that Monsieur Maxence Gilet had inspired +so much affection in this town?" asked Lousteau-Prangin. + +"One of my men says there's a crowd of twelve hundred more just coming +in from the faubourg de Rome," said the lieutenant of gendarmes, "and +they are threatening death to the assassin." + +"Where is your guest?" said Monsieur Mouilleron to Monsieur Hochon. + +"He has gone to walk in the country, I believe." + +"Call Gritte," said the judge gravely. "I was in hopes he had not left +the house. You are aware that the crime was committed not far from +here, at daybreak." + +While Monsieur Hochon went to find Gritte, the three functionaries +looked at each other significantly. + +"I never liked that painter's face," said the lieutenant to Monsieur +Mouilleron. + +"My good woman," said the judge to Gritte, when she appeared, "they +say you saw Monsieur Joseph Bridau leave the house this morning?" + +"Yes, monsieur," she answered, trembling like a leaf. + +"At what hour?" + +"Just as I was getting up: he walked about his room all night, and was +dressed when I came downstairs." + +"Was it daylight?" + +"Barely." + +"Did he seem excited?" + +"Yes, he was all of a twitter." + +"Send one of your men for my clerk," said Lousteau-Prangin to the +lieutenant, "and tell him to bring warrants with him--" + +"Good God! don't be in such a hurry," cried Monsieur Hochon. "The +young man's agitation may have been caused by something besides the +premeditation of this crime. He meant to return to Paris to-day, to +attend to a matter in which Gilet and Mademoiselle Brazier had doubted +his honor." + +"Yes, the affair of the pictures," said Monsieur Mouilleron. "Those +pictures caused a very hot quarrel between them yesterday, and it is a +word and a blow with artists, they tell me." + +"Who is there in Issoudun who had any object in killing Gilet?" said +Lousteau. "No one,--neither a jealous husband nor anybody else; for +the fellow has never harmed a soul." + +"But what was Monsieur Gilet doing in the streets at four in the +morning?" remarked Monsieur Hochon. + +"Now, Monsieur Hochon, you must allow us to manage this affair in our +own way," answered Mouilleron; "you don't know all: Gilet recognized +your painter." + +At this instant a clamor was heard from the other end of the town, +growing louder and louder, like the roll of thunder, as it followed +the course of the Grande-Narette. + +"Here he is! here he is!--he's arrested!" + +These words rose distinctly on the ear above the hoarse roar of the +populace. Poor Joseph, returning quietly past the mill at Landrole +intending to get home in time for breakfast, was spied by the various +groups of people, as soon as he reached the place Misere. Happily for +him, a couple of gendarmes arrived on a run in time to snatch him from +the inhabitants of the faubourg de Rome, who had already pinioned him +by the arms and were threatening him with death. + +"Give way! give way!" cried the gendarmes, calling to some of their +comrades to help them, and putting themselves one before and the other +behind Bridau. + +"You see, monsieur," said the one who held the painter, "it concerns +our skin as well as yours at this moment. Innocent or guilty, we must +protect you against the tumult raised by the murder of Captain Gilet. +And the crowd is not satisfied with suspecting you; they declare, hard +as iron, that you are the murderer. Monsieur Gilet is adored by all +the people, who--look at them!--want to take justice into their own +hands. Ah! didn't we see them, in 1830, dusting the jackets of the +tax-gatherers? whose life isn't a bed of roses, anyway!" + +Joseph Bridau grew pale as death, and collected all his strength to +walk onward. + +"After all," he said, "I am innocent. Go on!" + +Poor artist! he was forced to bear his cross. Amid the hooting and +insults and threats from the mob, he made the dreadful transit from +the place Misere to the place Saint-Jean. The gendarmes were obliged +to draw their sabres on the furious mob, which pelted them with +stones. One of the officers was wounded, and Joseph received several +of the missiles on his legs, and shoulders, and hat. + +"Here we are!" said one of the gendarmes, as they entered Monsieur +Hochon's hall, "and not without difficulty, lieutenant." + +"We must now manage to disperse the crowd; and I see but one way, +gentlemen," said the lieutenant to the magistrates. "We must take +Monsieur Bridau to the Palais accompanied by all of you; I and my +gendarmes will make a circle round you. One can't answer for anything +in presence of a furious crowd of six thousand--" + +"You are right," said Monsieur Hochon, who was trembling all the while +for his gold. + +"If that's your only way to protect innocence in Issoudun," said +Joseph, "I congratulate you. I came near being stoned--" + +"Do you wish your friend's house to be taken by assault and pillaged?" +asked the lieutenant. "Could we beat back with our sabres a crowd of +people who are pushed from behind by an angry populace that knows +nothing of the forms of justice?" + +"That will do, gentlemen, let us go; we can come to explanations +later," said Joseph, who had recovered his self-possession. + +"Give way, friends!" said the lieutenant to the crowd; "HE is +arrested, and we are taking him to the Palais." + +"Respect the law, friends!" said Monsieur Mouilleron. + +"Wouldn't you prefer to see him guillotined?" said one of the +gendarmes to an angry group. + +"Yes, yes, they shall guillotine him!" shouted one madman. + +"They are going to guillotine him!" cried the women. + +By the time they reached the end of the Grande-Narette the crowd were +shouting: "They are taking him to the guillotine!" "They found the +knife upon him!" "That's what Parisians are!" "He carries crime on his +face!" + +Though all Joseph's blood had flown to his head, he walked the +distance from the place Saint-Jean to the Palais with remarkable +calmness and self-possession. Nevertheless, he was very glad to find +himself in the private office of Monsieur Lousteau-Prangin. + +"I need hardly tell you, gentlemen, that I am innocent," said Joseph, +addressing Monsieur Mouilleron, Monsieur Lousteau-Prangin, and the +clerk. "I can only beg you to assist me in proving my innocence. I +know nothing of this affair." + +When the judge had stated all the suspicious facts which were against +him, ending with Max's declaration, Joseph was astounded. + +"But," said he, "it was past five o'clock when I left the house. I +went up the Grande rue, and at half-past five I was standing looking +up at the facade of the parish church of Saint-Cyr. I talked there +with the sexton, who came to ring the angelus, and asked him for +information about the building, which seems to me fantastic and +incomplete. Then I passed through the vegetable-market, where some +women had already assembled. From there, crossing the place Misere, I +went as far as the mill of Landrole by the Pont aux Anes, where I +watched the ducks for five or six minutes, and the miller's men must +have noticed me. I saw the women going to wash; they are probably +still there. They made a little fun of me, and declared that I was not +handsome; I told them it was not all gold that glittered. From there, +I followed the long avenue to Tivoli, where I talked with the +gardener. Pray have these facts verified; and do not even arrest me, +for I give you my word of honor that I will stay quietly in this +office till you are convinced of my innocence." + +These sensible words, said without the least hesitation, and with the +ease of a man who is perfectly sure of his facts, made some impression +on the magistrates. + +"Yes, we must find all these persons and summon them," said Monsieur +Mouilleron; "but it is more than the affair of a day. Make up your +mind, therefore, in your own interests, to be imprisoned in the +Palais." + +"Provided I can write to my mother, so as to reassure her, poor woman +--oh! you can read the letter," he added. + +This request was too just not to be granted, and Joseph wrote the +following letter:-- + + "Do not be uneasy, dear mother; the mistake of which I am a victim + can easily be rectified; I have already given them the means of + doing so. To-morrow, or perhaps this evening, I shall be at + liberty. I kiss you, and beg you to say to Monsieur and Madame + Hochon how grieved I am at this affair; in which, however, I have + had no hand,--it is the result of some chance which, as yet, I do + not understand." + +When the note reached Madame Bridau, she was suffering from a nervous +attack, and the potions which Monsieur Goddet was trying to make her +swallow were powerless to soothe her. The reading of the letter acted +like balm; after a few quiverings, Agathe subsided into the depression +which always follows such attacks. Later, when Monsieur Goddet +returned to his patient he found her regretting that she had ever +quitted Paris. + +"Well," said Madame Hochon to Monsieur Goddet, "how is Monsieur +Gilet?" + +"His wound, though serious, is not mortal," replied the doctor. "With +a month's nursing he will be all right. I left him writing to Monsieur +Mouilleron to request him to set your son at liberty, madame," he +added, turning to Agathe. "Oh! Max is a fine fellow. I told him what a +state you were in, and he then remembered a circumstance which goes to +prove that the assassin was not your son; the man wore list shoes, +whereas it is certain that Monsieur Joseph left the house in his +boots--" + +"Ah! God forgive him the harm he has done me--" + +The fact was, a man had left a note for Max, after dark, written in +type-letters, which ran as follows:-- + + "Captain Gilet ought not to let an innocent man suffer. He who + struck the blow promises not to strike again if Monsieur Gilet + will have Monsieur Joseph Bridau set at liberty, without naming + the man who did it." + +After reading this letter and burning it, Max wrote to Monsieur +Mouilleron stating the circumstance of the list shoes, as reported by +Monsieur Goddet, begging him to set Joseph at liberty, and to come and +see him that he might explain the matter more at length. + +By the time this letter was received, Monsieur Lousteau-Prangin had +verified, by the testimony of the bell-ringer, the market-women and +washerwomen, and the miller's men, the truth of Joseph's explanation. +Max's letter made his innocence only the more certain, and Monsieur +Mouilleron himself escorted him back to the Hochons'. Joseph was +greeted with such overflowing tenderness by his mother that the poor +misunderstood son gave thanks to ill-luck--like the husband to the +thief, in La Fontaine's fable--for a mishap which brought him such +proofs of affection. + +"Oh," said Monsieur Mouilleron, with a self-satisfied air, "I knew at +once by the way you looked at the angry crowd that you were innocent; +but whatever I may have thought, any one who knows Issoudun must also +know that the only way to protect you was to make the arrest as we +did. Ah! you carried your head high." + +"I was thinking of something else," said the artist simply. "An +officer in the army told me that he was once stopped in Dalmatia under +similar circumstances by an excited populace, in the early morning as +he was returning from a walk. This recollection came into my mind, and +I looked at all those heads with the idea of painting a revolt of the +year 1793. Besides, I kept saying to myself: Blackguard that I am! I +have only got my deserts for coming here to look after an inheritance, +instead of painting in my studio." + +"If you will allow me to offer you a piece of advice," said the +procureur du roi, "you will take a carriage to-night, which the +postmaster will lend you, and return to Paris by the diligence from +Bourges." + +"That is my advice also," said Monsieur Hochon, who was burning with a +desire for the departure of his guests. + +"My most earnest wish is to get away from Issoudun, though I leave my +only friend here," said Agathe, kissing Madame Hochon's hand. "When +shall I see you again?" + +"Ah! my dear, never until we meet above. We have suffered enough here +below," she added in a low voice, "for God to take pity upon us." + +Shortly after, while Monsieur Mouilleron had gone across the way to +talk with Max, Gritte greatly astonished Monsieur and Madame Hochon, +Agathe, Joseph, and Adolphine by announcing the visit of Monsieur +Rouget. Jean-Jacques came to bid his sister good-by, and to offer her +his caleche for the drive to Bourges. + +"Ah! your pictures have been a great evil to us," said Agathe. + +"Keep them, my sister," said the old man, who did not even now believe +in their value. + +"Neighbor," remarked Monsieur Hochon, "our best friends, our surest +defenders, are our own relations; above all, when they are such as +your sister Agathe, and your nephew Joseph." + +"Perhaps so," said old Rouget in his dull way. + +"We ought all to think of ending our days in a Christian manner," said +Madame Hochon. + +"Ah! Jean-Jacques," said Agathe, "what a day this has been!" + +"Will you accept my carriage?" asked Rouget. + +"No, brother," answered Madame Bridau, "I thank you, and wish you +health and comfort." + +Rouget let his sister and nephew kiss him, and then he went away +without manifesting any feeling himself. Baruch, at a hint from his +grandfather, had been to see the postmaster. At eleven o'clock that +night, the two Parisians, ensconced in a wicker cabriolet drawn by one +horse and ridden by a postilion, quitted Issoudun. Adolphine and +Madame Hochon parted from them with tears in their eyes; they alone +regretted Joseph and Agathe. + +"They are gone!" said Francois Hochon, going, with the Rabouilleuse, +into Max's bedroom. + +"Well done! the trick succeeded," answered Max, who was now tired and +feverish. + +"But what did you say to old Mouilleron?" asked Francois. + +"I told him that I had given my assassin some cause to waylay me; that +he was a dangerous man and likely, if I followed up the affair, to +kill me like a dog before he could be captured. Consequently, I begged +Mouilleron and Prangin to make the most active search ostensibly, but +really to let the assassin go in peace, unless they wished to see me a +dead man." + +"I do hope, Max," said Flore, "that you will be quiet at night for +some time to come." + +"At any rate, we are delivered from the Parisians!" cried Max. "The +fellow who stabbed me had no idea what a service he was doing us." + +The next day, the departure of the Parisians was celebrated as a +victory of the provinces over Paris by every one in Issoudun, except +the more sober and staid inhabitants, who shared the opinions of +Monsieur and Madame Hochon. A few of Max's friends spoke very harshly +of the Bridaus. + +"Do those Parisians fancy we are all idiots," cried one, "and think +they have only got to hold their hats and catch legacies?" + +"They came to fleece, but they have got shorn themselves," said +another; "the nephew is not to the uncle's taste." + +"And, if you please, they actually consulted a lawyer in Paris--" + +"Ah! had they really a plan?" + +"Why, of course,--a plan to get possession of old Rouget. But the +Parisians were not clever enough; that lawyer can't crow over us +Berrichons!" + +"How abominable!" + +"That's Paris for you!" + +"The Rabouilleuse knew they came to attack her, and she defended +herself." + +"She did gloriously right!" + +To the townspeople at large the Bridaus were Parisians and foreigners; +they preferred Max and Flore. + +We can imagine the satisfaction with which, after this campaign, +Joseph and Agathe re-entered their little lodging in the rue Mazarin. +On the journey, the artist recovered his spirits, which had, not +unnaturally, been put to flight by his arrest and twenty-four hours' +confinement; but he could not cheer up his mother. The Court of Peers +was about to begin the trial of the military conspirators, and that +was sufficient to keep Agathe from recovering her peace of mind. +Philippe's conduct, in spite of the clever defender whom Desroches +recommended to him, roused suspicions that were unfavorable to his +character. In view of this, Joseph, as soon as he had put Desroches in +possession of all that was going on at Issoudun, started with +Mistigris for the chateau of the Comte de Serizy, to escape hearing +about the trial of the conspirators, which lasted for twenty days. + +It is useless to record facts that may be found in contemporaneous +histories. Whether it were that he played a part previously agreed +upon, or that he was really an informer, Philippe was condemned to +five years' surveillance by the police department, and ordered to +leave Paris the same day for Autun, the town which the director- +general of police selected as the place of his exile for five years. +This punishment resembled the detention of prisoners on parole who +have a town for a prison. Learning that the Comte de Serizy, one of +the peers appointed by the Chamber on the court-martial, was employing +Joseph to decorate his chateau at Presles, Desroches begged the +minister to grant him an audience, and found Monsieur de Serizy most +amiably disposed toward Joseph, with whom he had happened to make +personal acquaintance. Desroches explained the financial condition of +the two brothers, recalling the services of the father, and the +neglect shown to them under the Restoration. + +"Such injustice, monseigneur," said the lawyer, "is a lasting cause of +irritation and discontent. You knew the father; give the sons a +chance, at least, of making a fortune--" + +And he drew a succinct picture of the situation of the family affairs +at Issoudun, begging the all-powerful vice-president of the Council of +State to take steps to induce the director-general of police to change +Philippe's place of residence from Autun to Issoudun. He also spoke of +Philippe's extreme poverty, and asked a dole of sixty francs a month, +which the minister of war ought, he said, for mere shame's sake, to +grant to a former lieutenant-colonel. + +"I will obtain all you ask of me, for I think it just," replied the +count. + +Three days later, Desroches, furnished with the necessary authority, +fetched Philippe from the prison of the Court of Peers, and took him +to his own house, rue de Bethizy. Once there, the young barrister read +the miserable vagabond one of those unanswerable lectures in which +lawyers rate things at their actual value; using plain terms to +qualify the conduct, and to analyze and reduce to their simplest +meaning the sentiments and ideas of clients toward whom they feel +enough interest to speak plainly. After humbling the Emperor's staff- +officer by reproaching him with his reckless dissipations, his +mother's misfortunes, and the death of Madame Descoings, he went on to +tell him the state of things at Issoudun, explaining it according to +his lights, and probing both the scheme and the character of Maxence +Gilet and the Rabouilleuse to their depths. Philippe, who was gifted +with a keen comprehension in such directions, listened with much more +interest to this part of Desroches's lecture than to what had gone +before. + +"Under these circumstances," continued the lawyer, "you can repair the +injury you have done to your estimable family,--so far at least as it +is reparable; for you cannot restore life to the poor mother you have +all but killed. But you alone can--" + +"What can I do?" asked Philippe. + +"I have obtained a change of residence for you from Autun to +Issoudun.--" + +Philippe's sunken face, which had grown almost sinister in expression +and was furrowed with sufferings and privation, instantly lighted up +with a flash of joy. + +"And, as I was saying, you alone can recover the inheritance of old +Rouget's property; half of which may by this time be in the jaws of +the wolf named Gilet," replied Desroches. "You now know all the +particulars, and it is for you to act accordingly. I suggest no plan; +I have no ideas at all as to that; besides, everything will depend on +local circumstances. You have to deal with a strong force; that fellow +is very astute. The way he attempted to get back the pictures your +uncle had given to Joseph, the audacity with which he laid a crime on +your poor brother's shoulders, all go to prove that the adversary is +capable of everything. Therefore, be prudent; and try to behave +properly out of policy, if you can't do so out of decency. Without +telling Joseph, whose artist's pride would be up in arms, I have sent +the pictures to Monsieur Hochon, telling him to give them up to no one +but you. By the way, Maxence Gilet is a brave man." + +"So much the better," said Philippe; "I count on his courage for +success; a coward would leave Issoudun." + +"Well,--think of your mother who has been so devoted to you, and of +your brother, whom you made your milch cow." + +"Ah! did he tell you that nonsense?" cried Philippe. + +"Am I not the friend of the family, and don't I know much more about +you than they do?" asked Desroches. + +"What do you know?" said Philippe. + +"That you betrayed your comrades." + +"I!" exclaimed Philippe. "I! a staff-officer of the Emperor! Absurd! +Why, we fooled the Chamber of Peers, the lawyers, the government, and +the whole of the damned concern. The king's people were completely +hood-winked." + +"That's all very well, if it was so," answered the lawyer. "But, don't +you see, the Bourbons can't be overthrown; all Europe is backing them; +and you ought to try to make your peace with the war department,--you +could do that readily enough if you were rich. To get rich, you and +your brother, you must lay hold of your uncle. If you will take the +trouble to manage an affair which needs great cleverness, patience, +and caution, you have enough work before you to occupy your five +years." + +"No, no," cried Philippe, "I must take the bull by the horns at once. +This Maxence may alter the investment of the property and put it in +that woman's name; and then all would be lost." + +"Monsieur Hochon is a good adviser, and sees clearly; consult him. You +have your orders from the police; I have taken your place in the +Orleans diligence for half-past seven o'clock this evening. I suppose +your trunk is ready; so, now come and dine." + +"I own nothing but what I have got on my back," said Philippe, opening +his horrible blue overcoat; "but I only need three things, which you +must tell Giroudeau, the uncle of Finot, to send me,--my sabre, my +sword, and my pistols." + +"You need more than that," said the lawyer, shuddering as he looked at +his client. "You will receive a quarterly stipend which will clothe +you decently." + +"Bless me! are you here, Godeschal?" cried Philippe, recognizing in +Desroches's head-clerk, as they passed out, the brother of Mariette. + +"Yes, I have been with Monsieur Desroches for the last two months." + +"And he will stay with me, I hope, till he gets a business of his +own," said Desroches. + +"How is Mariette?" asked Philippe, moved at his recollections. + +"She is getting ready for the opening of the new theatre." + +"It would cost her little trouble to get my sentence remitted," said +Philippe. "However, as she chooses!" + +After a meagre dinner, given by Desroches who boarded his head-clerk, +the two lawyers put the political convict in the diligence, and wished +him good luck. + + + + CHAPTER XIV + +On the second of November, All-Souls' day, Philippe Bridau appeared +before the commissary of police at Issoudun, to have the date of his +arrival recorded on his papers; and by that functionary's advice he +went to lodge in the rue l'Avenier. The news of the arrival of an +officer, banished on account of the late military conspiracy, spread +rapidly through the town, and caused all the more excitement when it +was known that this officer was a brother of the painter who had been +falsely accused. Maxence Gilet, by this time entirely recovered from +his wound, had completed the difficult operation of turning all Pere +Rouget's mortgages into money, and putting the proceeds in one sum, on +the "grand-livre." The loan of one hundred and forty thousand francs +obtained by the old man on his landed property had caused a great +sensation,--for everything is known in the provinces. Monsieur Hochon, +in the Bridau interest, was much put about by this disaster, and +questioned old Monsieur Heron, the notary at Bourges, as to the object +of it. + +"The heirs of old Rouget, if old Rouget changes his mind, ought to +make me a votive offering," cried Monsieur Heron. "If it had not been +for me, the old fellow would have allowed the fifty thousand francs' +income to stand in the name of Maxence Gilet. I told Mademoiselle +Brazier that she ought to look to the will only, and not run the risk +of a suit for spoliation, seeing what numerous proofs these transfers +in every direction would give against them. To gain time, I advised +Maxence and his mistress to keep quiet, and let this sudden change in +the usual business habits of the old man be forgotten." + +"Protect the Bridaus, for they have nothing," said Monsieur Hochon, +who in addition to all other reasons, could not forgive Gilet the +terrors he had endured when fearing the pillage of his house. + +Maxence Gilet and Flore Brazier, now secure against all attack, were +very merry over the arrival of another of old Rouget's nephews. They +knew they were able, at the first signal of danger, to make the old +man sign a power of attorney under which the money in the Funds could +be transferred either to Max or Flore. If the will leaving Flore the +principal, should be revoked, an income of fifty thousand francs was a +very tolerable crumb of comfort,--more particularly after squeezing +from the real estate that mortgage of a hundred and forty thousand. + +The day after his arrival, Philippe called upon his uncle about ten +o'clock in the morning, anxious to present himself in his dilapidated +clothing. When the convalescent of the Hopital du Midi, the prisoner +of the Luxembourg, entered the room, Flore Brazier felt a shiver pass +over her at the repulsive sight. Gilet himself was conscious of that +particular disturbance both of mind and body, by which Nature +sometimes warns us of a latent enmity, or a coming danger. If there +was something indescribably sinister in Philippe's countenance, due to +his recent misfortunes, the effect was heightened by his clothes. His +forlorn blue great-coat was buttoned in military fashion to the +throat, for painful reasons; and yet it showed much that it pretended +to conceal. The bottom edges of the trousers, ragged like those of an +almshouse beggar, were the sign of abject poverty. The boots left wet +splashes on the floor, as the mud oozed from fissures in the soles. +The gray hat, which the colonel held in his hand, was horribly greasy +round the rim. The malacca cane, from which the polish had long +disappeared, must have stood in all the corners of all the cafes in +Paris, and poked its worn-out end into many a corruption. Above the +velvet collar, rubbed and worn till the frame showed through it, rose +a head like that which Frederick Lemaitre makes up for the last act in +"The Life of a Gambler,"--where the exhaustion of a man still in the +prime of life is betrayed by the metallic, brassy skin, discolored as +if with verdigris. Such tints are seen on the faces of debauched +gamblers who spend their nights in play: the eyes are sunken in a +dusky circle, the lids are reddened rather than red, the brow is +menacing from the wreck and ruin it reveals. Philippe's cheeks, which +were sunken and wrinkled, showed signs of the illness from which he +had scarcely recovered. His head was bald, except for a fringe of hair +at the back which ended at the ears. The pure blue of his brilliant +eyes had acquired the cold tones of polished steel. + +"Good-morning, uncle," he said, in a hoarse voice. "I am your nephew, +Philippe Bridau,--a specimen of how the Bourbons treat a lieutenant- +colonel, an old soldier of the old army, one who carried the Emperor's +orders at the battle of Montereau. If my coat were to open, I should +be put to shame in presence of Mademoiselle. Well, it is the rule of +the game! We hoped to begin it again; we tried it, and we have failed! +I am to reside in your city by the order of the police, with a full +pay of sixty francs a month. So the inhabitants needn't fear that I +shall raise the price of provisions! I see you are in good and lovely +company." + +"Ah! you are my nephew," said Jean-Jacques. + +"Invite monsieur le colonel to breakfast with us," said Flore. + +"No, I thank you, madame," answered Philippe, "I have breakfasted. +Besides, I would cut off my hand sooner than ask a bit of bread or a +farthing from my uncle, after the treatment my mother and brother +received in this town. It did not seem proper, however, that I should +settle here, in Issoudun, without paying my respects to him from time +to time. You can do what you like," he added, offering the old man his +hand, into which Rouget put his own, which Philippe shook, "--whatever +you like. I shall have nothing to say against it; provided the honor +of the Bridaus is untouched." + +Gilet could look at the lieutenant-colonel as much as he pleased, for +Philippe pointedly avoided casting his eyes in his direction. Max, +though the blood boiled in his veins, was too well aware of the +importance of behaving with political prudence--which occasionally +resembles cowardice--to take fire like a young man; he remained, +therefore, perfectly calm and cold. + +"It wouldn't be right, monsieur," said Flore, "to live on sixty francs +a month under the nose of an uncle who has forty thousand francs a +year, and who has already behaved so kindly to Captain Gilet, his +natural relation, here present--" + +"Yes, Philippe," cried the old man, "you must see that!" + +On Flore's presentation, Philippe made a half-timid bow to Max. + +"Uncle, I have some pictures to return to you; they are now at +Monsieur Hochon's. Will you be kind enough to come over some day and +identify them." + +Saying these last words in a curt tone, lieutenant-colonel Philippe +Bridau departed. The tone of his visit made, if possible, a deeper +impression on Flore's mind, and also on that of Max, than the shock +they had felt at the first sight of that horrible campaigner. As soon +as Philippe had slammed the door, with the violence of a disinherited +heir, Max and Flore hid behind the window-curtains to watch him as he +crossed the road, to the Hochons'. + +"What a vagabond!" exclaimed Flore, questioning Max with a glance of +her eye. + +"Yes; unfortunately there were men like him in the armies of the +Emperor; I sent seven to the shades at Cabrera," answered Gilet. + +"I do hope, Max, that you won't pick a quarrel with that fellow," said +Mademoiselle Brazier. + +"He smelt so of tobacco," complained the old man. + +"He was smelling after your money-bags," said Flore, in a peremptory +tone. "My advice is that you don't let him into the house again." + +"I'd prefer not to," replied Rouget. + +"Monsieur," said Gritte, entering the room where the Hochon family +were all assembled after breakfast, "here is the Monsieur Bridau you +were talking about." + +Philippe made his entrance politely, in the midst of a dead silence +caused by general curiosity. Madame Hochon shuddered from head to foot +as she beheld the author of all Agathe's woes and the murderer of good +old Madame Descoings. Adolphine also felt a shock of fear. Baruch and +Francois looked at each other in surprise. Old Hochon kept his self- +possession, and offered a seat to the son of Madame Bridau. + +"I have come, monsieur," said Philippe, "to introduce myself to you; I +am forced to consider how I can manage to live here, for five years, +on sixty francs a month." + +"It can be done," said the octogenarian. + +Philippe talked about things in general, with perfect propriety. He +mentioned the journalist Lousteau, nephew of the old lady, as a "rara +avis," and won her good graces from the moment she heard him say that +the name of Lousteau would become celebrated. He did not hesitate to +admit his faults of conduct. To a friendly admonition which Madame +Hochon addressed to him in a low voice, he replied that he had +reflected deeply while in prison, and could promise that in future he +would live another life. + +On a hint from Philippe, Monsieur Hochon went out with him when he +took his leave. When the miser and the soldier reached the boulevard +Baron, a place where no one could overhear them, the colonel turned to +the old man,-- + +"Monsieur," he said, "if you will be guided by me, we will never speak +together of matters and things, or people either, unless we are +walking in the open country, or in places where we cannot be heard. +Maitre Desroches has fully explained to me the influence of the gossip +of a little town. Therefore I don't wish you to be suspected of +advising me; though Desroches has told me to ask for your advice, and +I beg you not to be chary of giving it. We have a powerful enemy in +our front, and it won't do to neglect any precaution which may help to +defeat him. In the first place, therefore, excuse me if I do not call +upon you again. A little coldness between us will clear you of all +suspicion of influencing my conduct. When I want to consult you, I +will pass along the square at half-past nine, just as you are coming +out after breakfast. If you see me carry my cane on my shoulder, that +will mean that we must meet--accidentally--in some open space which +you will point out to me." + +"I see you are a prudent man, bent on success," said old Hochon. + +"I shall succeed, monsieur. First of all, give me the names of the +officers of the old army now living in Issoudun, who have not taken +sides with Maxence Gilet; I wish to make their acquaintance." + +"Well, there's a captain of the artillery of the Guard, Monsieur +Mignonnet, a man about forty years of age, who was brought up at the +Ecole Polytechnique, and lives in a quiet way. He is a very honorable +man, and openly disapproves of Max, whose conduct he considers +unworthy of a true soldier." + +"Good!" remarked the lieutenant-colonel. + +"There are not many soldiers here of that stripe," resumed Monsieur +Hochon; "the only other that I know is an old cavalry captain." + +"That is my arm," said Philippe. "Was he in the Guard?" + +"Yes," replied Monsieur Hochon. "Carpentier was, in 1810, sergeant- +major in the dragoons; then he rose to be sub-lieutenant in the line, +and subsequently captain of cavalry." + +"Giroudeau may know him," thought Philippe. + +"This Monsieur Carpentier took the place in the mayor's office which +Gilet threw up; he is a friend of Monsieur Mignonnet." + +"How can I earn my living here?" + +"They are going, I think, to establish a mutual insurance agency in +Issoudun, for the department of the Cher; you might get a place in it, +but the pay won't be more than fifty francs a month at the outside." + +"That will be enough." + +At the end of a week Philippe had a new suit of clothes,--coat, +waistcoat, and trousers,--of good blue Elbeuf cloth, bought on credit, +to be paid for at so much a month; also new boots, buckskin gloves, +and a hat. Giroudeau sent him some linen, with his weapons and a +letter for Carpentier, who had formerly served under Giroudeau. The +letter secured him Carpentier's good-will, and the latter presented +him to his friend Mignonnet as a man of great merit and the highest +character. Philippe won the admiration of these worthy officers by +confiding to them a few facts about the late conspiracy, which was, as +everybody knows, the last attempt of the old army against the +Bourbons; for the affair of the sergeants at La Rochelle belongs to +another order of ideas. + +Warned by the fate of the conspiracy of the 19th of August, 1820, and +of those of Berton and Caron, the soldiers of the old army resigned +themselves, after their failure in 1822, to await events. This last +conspiracy, which grew out of that of the 19th of August, was really a +continuation of the latter, carried on by a better element. Like its +predecessor, it was absolutely unknown to the royal government. +Betrayed once more, the conspirators had the wit to reduce their vast +enterprise to the puny proportions of a barrack plot. This conspiracy, +in which several regiments of cavalry, infantry, and artillery were +concerned, had its centre in the north of France. The strong places +along the frontier were to be captured at a blow. If success had +followed, the treaties of 1815 would have been broken by a federation +with Belgium, which, by a military compact made among the soldiers, +was to withdraw from the Holy Alliance. Two thrones would have been +plunged in a moment into the vortex of this sudden cyclone. Instead of +this formidable scheme--concerted by strong minds and supported by +personages of high rank--being carried out, one small part of it, and +that only, was discovered and brought before the Court of Peers. +Philippe Bridau consented to screen the leaders, who retired the +moment the plot was discovered (either by treachery or accident), and +from their seats in both Chambers lent their co-operation to the +inquiry only to work for the ultimate success of their purpose at the +heart of the government. + +To recount this scheme, which, since 1830, the Liberals have openly +confessed in all its ramifications, would trench upon the domain of +history and involve too long a digression. This glimpse of it is +enough to show the double part which Philippe Bridau undertook to +play. The former staff-officer of the Emperor was to lead a movement +in Paris solely for the purpose of masking the real conspiracy and +occupying the mind of the government at its centre, while the great +struggle should burst forth at the north. When the latter miscarried +before discovery, Philippe was ordered to break all links connecting +the two plots, and to allow the secrets of the secondary plot only to +become known. For this purpose, his abject misery, to which his state +of health and his clothing bore witness, was amply sufficient to +undervalue the character of the conspiracy and reduce its proportions +in the eyes of the authorities. The role was well suited to the +precarious position of the unprincipled gambler. Feeling himself +astride of both parties, the crafty Philippe played the saint to the +royal government, all the while retaining the good opinion of the men +in high places who were of the other party,--determined to cast in his +lot at a later day with whichever side he might then find most to his +advantage. + +These revelations as to the vast bearings of the real conspiracy made +Philippe a man of great distinction in the eyes of Carpentier and +Mignonnet, to whom his self-devotion seemed a state-craft worthy of +the palmy days of the Convention. In a short time the tricky +Bonapartist was seen to be on friendly terms with the two officers, +and the consideration they enjoyed in the town was, of course, shared +by him. He soon obtained, through their recommendation, the situation +in the insurance office that old Hochon had suggested, which required +only three hours of his day. Mignonnet and Carpentier put him up at +their club, where his good manners and bearing, in keeping with the +high opinion which the two officers expressed about him, won him a +respect often given to external appearances that are only deceitful. + +Philippe, whose conduct was carefully considered and planned, had +indeed made many reflections while in prison as to the inconveniences +of leading a debauched life. He did not need Desroches's lecture to +understand the necessity of conciliating the people at Issoudun by +decent, sober, and respectable conduct. Delighted to attract Max's +ridicule by behaving with the propriety of a Mignonnet, he went +further, and endeavored to lull Gilet's suspicions by deceiving him as +to his real character. He was bent on being taken for a fool by +appearing generous and disinterested; all the while drawing a net +around his adversary, and keeping his eye on his uncle's property. His +mother and brother, on the contrary, who were really disinterested, +generous, and lofty, had been accused of greed because they had acted +with straightforward simplicity. Philippe's covetousness was fully +roused by Monsieur Hochon, who gave him all the details of his uncle's +property. In the first secret conversation which he held with the +octogenarian, they agreed that Philippe must not awaken Max's +suspicions; for the game would be lost if Flore and Max were to carry +off their victim, though no further than Bourges. + +Once a week the colonel dined with Mignonnet; another day with +Carpentier; and every Thursday with Monsieur Hochon. At the end of +three weeks he received other invitations for the remaining days, so +that he had little more than his breakfast to provide. He never spoke +of his uncle, nor of the Rabouilleuse, nor of Gilet, unless it were in +connection with his mother and his brother's stay in Issoudun. The +three officers--the only soldiers in the town who were decorated, and +among whom Philippe had the advantage of the rosette, which in the +eyes of all provincials gave him a marked superiority--took a habit of +walking together every day before dinner, keeping, as the saying is, +to themselves. This reserve and tranquillity of demeanor had an +excellent effect on Issoudun. All Max's adherents thought Philippe a +"sabreur,"--an expression applied by soldiers to the commonest sort of +courage in their superior officers, while denying that they possess +the requisite qualities of a commander. + +"He is a very honorable man," said Goddet the surgeon, to Max. + +"Bah!" replied Gilet, "his behavior before the Court of Peers proves +him to have been either a dupe or a spy; he is, as you say, ninny +enough to have been duped by the great players." + +After obtaining his situation, Philippe, who was well informed as to +the gossip of the town, wished to conceal certain circumstances of his +present life as much as possible from the knowledge of the +inhabitants; he therefore went to live in a house at the farther end +of the faubourg Saint-Paterne, to which was attached a large garden. +Here he was able in the utmost secrecy to fence with Carpentier, who +had been a fencing-master in the infantry before entering the cavalry. +Philippe soon recovered his early dexterity, and learned other and new +secrets from Carpentier, which convinced him that he need not fear the +prowess of any adversary. This done, he began openly to practise with +pistols, with Mignonnet and Carpentier, declaring it was for +amusement, but really intending to make Max believe that, in case of a +duel, he should rely on that weapon. Whenever Philippe met Gilet he +waited for him to bow first, and answered the salutation by touching +the brim of his hat cavalierly, as an officer acknowledges the salute +of a private. Maxence Gilet gave no sign of impatience or displeasure; +he never uttered a single word about Bridau at the Cognettes' where he +still gave suppers; although, since Fario's attack, the pranks of the +Order of Idleness were temporarily suspended. + +After a while, however, the contempt shown by Lieutenant-colonel +Bridau for the former cavalry captain, Gilet, was a settled fact, +which certain Knights of Idleness, who were less bound to Max than +Francois, Baruch, and three or four others, discussed among +themselves. They were much surprised to see the violent and fiery Max +behave with such discretion. No one in Issoudun, not even Potel or +Renard, dared broach so delicate a subject with him. Potel, somewhat +disturbed by this open misunderstanding between two heroes of the +Imperial Guard, suggested that Max might be laying a net for the +colonel; he asserted that some new scheme might be looked for from the +man who had got rid of the mother and one brother by making use of +Fario's attack upon him, the particulars of which were now no longer a +mystery. Monsieur Hochon had taken care to reveal the truth of Max's +atrocious accusation to the best people of the town. Thus it happened +that in talking over the situation of the lieutenant-colonel in +relation to Max, and in trying to guess what might spring from their +antagonism, the whole town regarded the two men, from the start, as +adversaries. + +Philippe, who had carefully investigated all the circumstances of his +brother's arrest and the antecedents of Gilet and the Rabouilleuse, +was finally brought into rather close relations with Fario, who lived +near him. After studying the Spaniard, Philippe thought he might trust +a man of that quality. The two found their hatred so firm a bond of +union, that Fario put himself at Philippe's disposal, and related all +that he knew about the Knights of Idleness. Philippe promised, in case +he succeeded in obtaining over his uncle the power now exercised by +Gilet, to indemnify Fario for his losses; this bait made the Spaniard +his henchman. Maxence was now face to face with a dangerous foe; he +had, as they say in those parts, some one to handle. Roused by much +gossip and various rumors, the town of Issoudun expected a mortal +combat between the two men, who, we must remark, mutually despised +each other. + +One morning, toward the end of November, Philippe met Monsieur Hochon +about twelve o'clock, in the long avenue of Frapesle, and said to +him:-- + +"I have discovered that your grandsons Baruch and Francois are the +intimate friends of Maxence Gilet. The rascals are mixed up in all the +pranks that are played about this town at night. It was through them +that Maxence knew what was said in your house when my mother and +brother were staying there." + +"How did you get proof of such a monstrous thing?" + +"I overheard their conversation one night as they were leaving a +drinking-shop. Your grandsons both owe Max more than three thousand +francs. The scoundrel told the lads to try and find out our +intentions; he reminded them that you had once thought of getting +round my uncle by priestcraft, and declared that nobody but you could +guide me; for he thinks, fortunately, that I am nothing more than a +'sabreur.'" + +"My grandsons! is it possible?" + +"Watch them," said Philippe. "You will see them coming home along the +place Saint-Jean, at two or three o'clock in the morning, as tipsy as +champagne-corks, and in company with Gilet--" + +"That's why the scamps keep so sober at home!" cried Monsieur Hochon. + +"Fario has told me all about their nocturnal proceedings," resumed +Philippe; "without him, I should never have suspected them. My uncle +is held down under an absolute thraldom, if I may judge by certain +things which the Spaniard has heard Max say to your boys. I suspect +Max and the Rabouilleuse of a scheme to make sure of the fifty +thousand francs' income from the Funds, and then, after pulling that +feather from their pigeon's wing, to run away, I don't know where, and +get married. It is high time to know what is going on under my uncle's +roof, but I don't see how to set about it." + +"I will think of it," said the old man. + +They separated, for several persons were now approaching. + +Never, at any time in his life, did Jean-Jacques suffer as he had done +since the first visit of his nephew Philippe. Flore was terrified by +the presentiment of some evil that threatened Max. Weary of her +master, and fearing that he might live to be very old, since he was +able to bear up under their criminal practices, she formed the very +simple plan of leaving Issoudun and being married to Maxence in Paris, +after obtaining from Jean-Jacques the transfer of the income in the +Funds. The old bachelor, guided, not by any justice to his family, nor +by personal avarice, but solely by his passion, steadily refused to +make the transfer, on the ground that Flore was to be his sole heir. +The unhappy creature knew to what extent Flore loved Max, and he +believed he would be abandoned the moment she was made rich enough to +marry. When Flore, after employing the tenderest cajoleries, was +unable to succeed, she tried rigor; she no longer spoke to her master; +Vedie was sent to wait upon him, and found him in the morning with his +eyes swollen and red with weeping. For a week or more, poor Rouget had +breakfasted alone, and Heaven knows on what food! + +The day after Philippe's conversation with Monsieur Hochon, he +determined to pay a second visit to his uncle, whom he found much +changed. Flore stayed beside the old man, speaking tenderly and +looking at him with much affection; she played the comedy so well that +Philippe guessed some immediate danger, merely from the solicitude +thus displayed in his presence. Gilet, whose policy it was to avoid +all collision with Philippe, did not appear. After watching his uncle +and Flore for a time with a discerning eye, the colonel judged that +the time had come to strike his grand blow. + +"Adieu, my dear uncle," he said, rising as if to leave the house. + +"Oh! don't go yet," cried the old man, who was comforted by Flore's +false tenderness. "Dine with us, Philippe." + +"Yes, if you will come and take a walk with me." + +"Monsieur is very feeble," interposed Mademoiselle Brazier; "just now +he was unwilling even to go out in the carriage," she added, turning +upon the old man the fixed look with which keepers quell a maniac. + +Philippe took Flore by the arm, compelling her to look at him, and +looking at her in return as fixedly as she had just looked at her +victim. + +"Tell me, mademoiselle," he said, "is it a fact that my uncle is not +free to take a walk with me?" + +"Why, yes he is, monsieur," replied Flore, who was unable to make any +other answer. + +"Very well. Come, uncle. Mademoiselle, give him his hat and cane." + +"But--he never goes out without me. Do you, monsieur?" + +"Yes, Philippe, yes; I always want her--" + +"It would be better to take the carriage," said Flore. + +"Yes, let us take the carriage," cried the old man, in his anxiety to +make his two tyrants agree. + +"Uncle, you will come with me, alone, and on foot, or I shall never +return here; I shall know that the town of Issoudun tells the truth, +when it declares you are under the dominion of Mademoiselle Flore +Brazier. That my uncle should love you, is all very well," he resumed, +holding Flore with a fixed eye; "that you should not love my uncle is +also on the cards; but when it comes to your making him unhappy--halt! +If people want to get hold of an inheritance, they must earn it. Are +you coming, uncle?" + +Philippe saw the eyes of the poor imbecile roving from himself to +Flore, in painful hesitation. + +"Ha! that's how it is, is it?" resumed the lieutenant-colonel. "Well, +adieu, uncle. Mademoiselle, I kiss your hands." + +He turned quickly when he reached the door, and caught Flore in the +act of making a menacing gesture at his uncle. + +"Uncle," he said, "if you wish to go with me, I will meet you at your +door in ten minutes: I am now going to see Monsieur Hochon. If you and +I do not take that walk, I shall take upon myself to make some others +walk." + +So saying, he went away, and crossed the place Saint-Jean to the +Hochons. + +Every one can imagine the scenes which the revelations made by +Philippe to Monsieur Hochon had brought about within that family. At +nine o'clock, old Monsieur Heron, the notary, presented himself with a +bundle of papers, and found a fire in the hall which the old miser, +contrary to all his habits, had ordered to be lighted. Madame Hochon, +already dressed at this unusual hour, was sitting in her armchair at +the corner of the fireplace. The two grandsons, warned the night +before by Adolphine that a storm was gathering about their heads, had +been ordered to stay in the house. Summoned now by Gritte, they were +alarmed at the formal preparations of their grandparents, whose +coldness and anger they had been made to feel in the air for the last +twenty-four hours. + +"Don't rise for them," said their grandfather to Monsieur Heron; "you +see before you two miscreants, unworthy of pardon." + +"Oh, grandpapa!" said Francois. + +"Be silent!" said the old man sternly. "I know of your nocturnal life +and your intimacy with Monsieur Maxence Gilet. But you will meet him +no more at Mere Cognette's at one in the morning; for you will not +leave this house, either of you, until you go to your respective +destinations. Ha! it was you who ruined Fario, was it? you, who have +narrowly escaped the police-courts-- Hold your tongue!" he said, +seeing that Baruch was about to speak. "You both owe money to Monsieur +Maxence Gilet; who, for six years, has paid for your debauchery. +Listen, both of you, to my guardianship accounts; after that, I shall +have more to say. You will see, after these papers are read, whether +you can still trifle with me,--still trifle with family laws by +betraying the secrets of this house, and reporting to a Monsieur +Maxence Gilet what is said and what is done here. For three thousand +francs, you became spies; for ten thousand, you would, no doubt, +become assassins. You did almost kill Madame Bridau; for Monsieur +Gilet knew very well it was Fario who stabbed him when he threw the +crime upon my guest, Monsieur Joseph Bridau. If that jail-bird did so +wicked an act, it was because you told him what Madame Bridau meant to +do. You, my grandsons, the spies of such a man! You, house-breakers +and marauders! Don't you know that your worthy leader killed a poor +young woman, in 1806? I will not have assassins and thieves in my +family. Pack your things; you shall go hang elsewhere!" + +The two young men turned white and stiff as plaster casts. + +"Read on, Monsieur Heron," said Hochon. + +The old notary read the guardianship accounts; from which it appeared +that the net fortune of the two Borniche children amounted to seventy +thousand francs, a sum derived from the dowry of their mother: but +Monsieur Hochon had lent his daughter various large sums, and was now, +as creditor, the owner of a part of the property of his Borniche +grandchildren. The portion coming to Baruch amounted to only twenty +thousand francs. + +"Now you are rich," said the old man, "take your money, and go. I +remain master of my own property and that of Madame Hochon, who in +this matter shares all my intentions, and I shall give it to whom I +choose; namely, our dear Adolphine. Yes, we can marry her if we please +to the son of a peer of France, for she will be an heiress." + +"A noble fortune!" said Monsieur Heron. + +"Monsieur Maxence Gilet will make up this loss to you," said Madame +Hochon. + +"Let my hard-saved money go to a scapegrace like you? no, indeed!" +cried Monsieur Hochon. + +"Forgive me!" stammered Baruch. + +"'Forgive, and I won't do it again,'" sneered the old man, imitating a +child's voice. "If I were to forgive you, and let you out of this +house, you would go and tell Monsieur Maxence what has happened, and +warn him to be on his guard. No, no, my little men. I shall keep my +eye on you, and I have means of knowing what you do. As you behave, so +shall I behave to you. It will be by a long course of good conduct, +not that of a day or a month, but of years, that I shall judge you. I +am strong on my legs, my eyes are good, my health is sound; I hope to +live long enough to see what road you take. Your first move will be to +Paris, where you will study banking under Messieurs Mongenod and Sons. +Ill-luck to you if you don't walk straight; you will be watched. Your +property is in the hand of Messieurs Mongenod; here is a cheque for +the amount. Now then, release me as guardian, and sign the accounts, +and also this receipt," he added, taking the papers from Monsieur +Heron and handing them to Baruch. + +"As for you, Francois Hochon, you owe me money instead of having any +to receive," said the old man, looking at his other grandson. +"Monsieur Heron, read his account; it is all clear--perfectly clear." + +The reading was done in the midst of perfect stillness. + +"You will have six hundred francs a year, and with that you will go to +Poitiers and study law," said the grandfather, when the notary had +finished. "I had a fine life in prospect for you; but now, you must +earn your living as a lawyer. Ah! my young rascals, you have deceived +me for six years; you now know it has taken me but one hour to get +even with you: I have seven-leagued boots." + +Just as old Monsieur Heron was preparing to leave with the signed +papers, Gritte announced Colonel Bridau. Madame Hochon left the room, +taking her grandsons with her, that she might, as old Hochon said, +confess them privately and find out what effect this scene had +produced upon them. + +Philippe and the old man stood in the embrasure of a window and spoke +in low tones. + +"I have been reflecting on the state of your affairs over there," said +Monsieur Hochon pointing to the Rouget house. "I have just had a talk +with Monsieur Heron. The security for the fifty thousand francs a year +from the property in the Funds cannot be sold unless by the owner +himself or some one with a power of attorney from him. Now, since your +arrival here, your uncle has not signed any such power before any +notary; and, as he has not left Issoudun, he can't have signed one +elsewhere. If he attempts to give a power of attorney here, we shall +know it instantly; if he goes away to give one, we shall also know it, +for it will have to be registered, and that excellent Heron has means +of finding it out. Therefore, if Rouget leaves Issoudun, have him +followed, learn where he goes, and we will find a way to discover what +he does." + +"The power of attorney has not been given," said Philippe; "they are +trying to get it; but--they--will--not--suc--ceed--" added the +vagabond, whose eye just then caught sight of his uncle on the steps +of the opposite house: he pointed him out to Monsieur Hochon, and +related succinctly the particulars, at once so petty and so important, +of his visit. + +"Maxence is afraid of me, but he can't evade me. Mignonnet says that +all the officers of the old army who are in Issoudun give a yearly +banquet on the anniversary of the Emperor's coronation; so Maxence +Gilet and I are sure to meet in a few days." + +"If he gets a power of attorney by the morning of the first of +December," said Hochon, "he might take the mail-post for Paris, and +give up the banquet." + +"Very good. The first thing is, then, to get possession of my uncle; +I've an eye that cows a fool," said Philippe, giving Monsieur Hochon +an atrocious glance that made the old man tremble. + +"If they let him walk with you, Maxence must believe he has found some +means to win the game," remarked the old miser. + +"Oh! Fario is on the watch," said Philippe, "and he is not alone. That +Spaniard has discovered one of my old soldiers in the neighborhood of +Vatan, a man I once did some service to. Without any one's suspecting +it, Benjamin Bourdet is under Fario's orders, who has lent him a horse +to get about with." + +"If you kill that monster who has corrupted my grandsons, I shall say +you have done a good deed." + +"Thanks to me, the town of Issoudun now knows what Monsieur Maxence +Gilet has been doing at night for the last six years," replied +Philippe; "and the cackle, as you call it here, is now started on him. +Morally his day is over." + +The moment Philippe left his uncle's house Flore went to Max's room to +tell him every particular of the nephew's bold visit. + +"What's to be done?" she asked. + +"Before trying the last means,--which will be to fight that big +reprobate," replied Maxence, "--we must play double or quits, and try +our grand stroke. Let the old idiot go with his nephew." + +"But that big brute won't mince matters," remonstrated Flore; "he'll +call things by their right names." + +"Listen to me," said Maxence in a harsh voice. "Do you think I've not +kept my ears open, and reflected about how we stand? Send to Pere +Cognette for a horse and a char-a-banc, and say we want them +instantly: they must be here in five minutes. Pack all your +belongings, take Vedie, and go to Vatan. Settle yourself there as if +you mean to stay; carry off the twenty thousand francs in gold which +the old fellow has got in his drawer. If I bring him to you in Vatan, +you are to refuse to come back here unless he signs the power of +attorney. As soon as we get it I'll slip off to Paris, while you're +returning to Issoudun. When Jean-Jacques gets back from his walk and +finds you gone, he'll go beside himself, and want to follow you. Well! +when he does, I'll give him a talking to." + + + + CHAPTER XV + +While the foregoing plot was progressing, Philippe was walking arm in +arm with his uncle along the boulevard Baron. + +"The two great tacticians are coming to close quarters at last," +thought Monsieur Hochon as he watched the colonel marching off with +his uncle; "I am curious to see the end of the game, and what becomes +of the stake of ninety thousand francs a year." + +"My dear uncle," said Philippe, whose phraseology had a flavor of his +affinities in Paris, "you love this girl, and you are devilishly +right. She is damnably handsome! Instead of billing and cooing she +makes you trot like a valet; well, that's all simple enough; but she +wants to see you six feet underground, so that she may marry Max, whom +she adores." + +"I know that, Philippe, but I love her all the same." + +"Well, I have sworn by the soul of my mother, who is your own sister," +continued Philippe, "to make your Rabouilleuse as supple as my glove, +and the same as she was before that scoundrel, who is unworthy to have +served in the Imperial Guard, ever came to quarter himself in your +house." + +"Ah! if you could do that!--" said the old man. + +"It is very easy," answered Philippe, cutting his uncle short. "I'll +kill Max as I would a dog; but--on one condition," added the old +campaigner. + +"What is that?" said Rouget, looking at his nephew in a stupid way. + +"Don't sign that power of attorney which they want of you before the +third of December; put them off till then. Your torturers only want it +to enable them to sell the fifty thousand a year you have in the +Funds, so that they may run off to Paris and pay for their wedding +festivities out of your millions." + +"I am afraid so," replied Rouget. + +"Well, whatever they may say or do to you, put off giving that power +of attorney until next week." + +"Yes; but when Flore talks to me she stirs my very soul, till I don't +know what I do. I give you my word, when she looks at me in a certain +way, her blue eyes seem like paradise, and I am no longer master of +myself,--especially when for some days she had been harsh to me." + +"Well, whether she is sweet or sour, don't do more than promise to +sign the paper, and let me know the night before you are going to do +it. That will answer. Maxence shall not be your proxy unless he first +kills me. If I kill him, you must agree to take me in his place, and +I'll undertake to break in that handsome girl and keep her at your +beck and call. Yes, Flore shall love you, and if she doesn't satisfy +you--thunder! I'll thrash her." + +"Oh! I never could allow that. A blow struck at Flore would break my +heart." + +"But it is the only way to govern women and horses. A man makes +himself feared, or loved, or respected. Now that is what I wanted to +whisper in your ear--Good-morning, gentlemen," he said to Mignonnet +and Carpentier, who came up at the moment; "I am taking my uncle for a +walk, as you see, and trying to improve him; for we are in an age when +children are obliged to educate their grandparents." + +They all bowed to each other. + +"You behold in my dear uncle the effects of an unhappy passion. Those +two want to strip him of his fortune and leave him in the lurch--you +know to whom I refer? He sees the plot; but he hasn't the courage to +give up his SUGAR-PLUM for a few days so as to baffle it." + +Philippe briefly explained his uncle's position. + +"Gentlemen," he remarked, in conclusion, "you see there are no two +ways of saving him: either Colonel Bridau must kill Captain Gilet, or +Captain Gilet must kill Colonel Bridau. We celebrate the Emperor's +coronation on the day after to-morrow; I rely upon you to arrange the +seats at the banquet so that I shall sit opposite to Gilet. You will +do me the honor, I hope, of being my seconds." + +"We will appoint you to preside, and sit ourselves on either side of +you. Max, as vice-president, will of course sit opposite," said +Mignonnet. + +"Oh! the scoundrel will have Potel and Renard with him," said +Carpentier. "In spite of all that Issoudun now knows and says of his +midnight maraudings, those two worthy officers, who have already been +his seconds, remain faithful to him." + +"You see how it all maps out, uncle," said Philippe. "Therefore, sign +no paper before the third of December; the next day you shall be free, +happy, and beloved by Flore, without having to coax for it." + +"You don't know him, Philippe," said the terrified old man. "Maxence +has killed nine men in duels." + +"Yes; but ninety thousand francs a year didn't depend on it," answered +Philippe. + +"A bad conscience shakes the hand," remarked Mignonnet sententiously. + +"In a few days from now," resumed Philippe, "you and the Rabouilleuse +will be living together as sweet as honey,--that is, after she gets +through mourning. At first she'll twist like a worm, and yelp, and +weep; but never mind, let the water run!" + +The two soldiers approved of Philippe's arguments, and tried to +hearten up old Rouget, with whom they walked about for nearly two +hours. At last Philippe took his uncle home, saying as they parted:-- + +"Don't take any steps without me. I know women. I have paid for one, +who cost me far more than Flore can ever cost you. But she taught me +how to behave to the fair sex for the rest of my days. Women are bad +children; they are inferior animals to men; we must make them fear us; +the worst condition in the world is to be governed by such brutes." + +It was about half-past two in the afternoon when the old man got home. +Kouski opened the door in tears,--that is, by Max's orders, he gave +signs of weeping. + +"Oh! Monsieur, Madame has gone away, and taken Vedie with her!" + +"Gone--a--way!" said the old man in a strangled voice. + +The blow was so violent that Rouget sat down on the stairs, unable to +stand. A moment after, he rose, looked about the hall, into the +kitchen, went up to his own room, searched all the chambers, and +returned to the salon, where he threw himself into a chair, and burst +into tears. + +"Where is she?" he sobbed. "Oh! where is she? where is Max?" + +"I don't know," answered Kouski. "The captain went out without telling +me." + +Gilet thought it politic to be seen sauntering about the town. By +leaving the old man alone with his despair, he knew he should make him +feel his desertion the more keenly, and reduce him to docility. To +keep Philippe from assisting his uncle at this crisis, he had given +Kouski strict orders not to open the door to any one. Flore away, the +miserable old man grew frantic, and the situation of things approached +a crisis. During his walk through the town, Maxence Gilet was avoided +by many persons who a day or two earlier would have hastened to shake +hands with him. A general reaction had set in against him. The deeds +of the Knights of Idleness were ringing on every tongue. The tale of +Joseph Bridau's arrest, now cleared up, disgraced Max in the eyes of +all; and his life and conduct received in one day their just award. +Gilet met Captain Potel, who was looking for him, and seemed almost +beside himself. + +"What's the matter with you, Potel?" + +"My dear fellow, the Imperial Guard is being black-guarded all over +the town! These civilians are crying you down! and it goes to the +bottom of my heart." + +"What are they complaining of?" asked Max. + +"Of what you do at night." + +"As if we couldn't amuse ourselves a little!" + +"But that isn't all," said Potel. + +Potel belonged to the same class as the officer who replied to the +burgomasters: "Eh! your town will be paid for, if we do burn it!" So +he was very little troubled about the deeds of the Order of Idleness. + +"What more?" inquired Gilet. + +"The Guard is against the Guard. It is that that breaks my heart. +Bridau has set all these bourgeois on you. The Guard against the +Guard! no, it ought not to be! You can't back down, Max; you must meet +Bridau. I had a great mind to pick a quarrel with the low scoundrel +myself and send him to the shades; I wish I had, and then the +bourgeois wouldn't have seen the spectacle of the Guard against the +Guard. In war times, I don't say anything against it. Two heroes of +the Guard may quarrel, and fight,--but at least there are no civilians +to look on and sneer. No, I say that big villain never served in the +Guard. A guardsman would never behave as he does to another guardsman, +under the very eyes of the bourgeois; impossible! Ah! it's all wrong; +the Guard is disgraced--and here, at Issoudun! where it was once so +honored." + +"Come, Potel, don't worry yourself," answered Max; "even if you do not +see me at the banquet--" + +"What! do you mean that you won't be there the day after to-morrow?" +cried Potel, interrupting his friend. "Do you wish to be called a +coward? and have it said you are running away from Bridau? No, no! The +unmounted grenadiers of the Guard can not draw back before the +dragoons of the Guard. Arrange your business in some other way and be +there!" + +"One more to send to the shades!" said Max. "Well, I think I can +manage my business so as to get there--For," he thought to himself, +"that power of attorney ought not to be in my name; as old Heron says, +it would look too much like theft." + +This lion, tangled in the meshes Philippe Bridau was weaving for him, +muttered between his teeth as he went along; he avoided the looks of +those he met and returned home by the boulevard Vilatte, still talking +to himself. + +"I will have that money before I fight," he said. "If I die, it shall +not go to Philippe. I must put it in Flore's name. She will follow my +instructions, and go straight to Paris. Once there, she can marry, if +she chooses, the son of some marshal of France who has been sent to +the right-about. I'll have that power of attorney made in Baruch's +name, and he'll transfer the property by my order." + +Max, to do him justice, was never more cool and calm in appearance +than when his blood and his ideas were boiling. No man ever united in +a higher degree the qualities which make a great general. If his +career had not been cut short by his captivity at Cabrera, the Emperor +would certainly have found him one of those men who are necessary to +the success of vast enterprises. When he entered the room where the +hapless victim of all these comic and tragic scenes was still weeping, +Max asked the meaning of such distress; seemed surprised, pretended +that he knew nothing, and heard, with well-acted amazement, of Flore's +departure. He questioned Kouski, to obtain some light on the object of +this inexplicable journey. + +"Madame said like this," Kouski replied, "--that I was to tell +monsieur she had taken twenty thousand francs in gold from his drawer, +thinking that monsieur wouldn't refuse her that amount as wages for +the last twenty-two years." + +"Wages?" exclaimed Rouget. + +"Yes," replied Kouski. "Ah! I shall never come back," she said to +Vedie as she drove away. "Poor Vedie, who is so attached to monsieur, +remonstrated with madame. 'No, no,' she answered, 'he has no affection +for me; he lets his nephew treat me like the lowest of the low'; and +she wept--oh! bitterly." + +"Eh! what do I care for Philippe?" cried the old man, whom Max was +watching. "Where is Flore? how can we find out where she is?" + +"Philippe, whose advice you follow, will help you," said Max coldly. + +"Philippe?" said the old man, "what has he to do with the poor child? +There is no one but you, my good Max, who can find Flore. She will +follow you--you could bring her back to me--" + +"I don't wish to oppose Monsieur Bridau," observed Max. + +"As for that," cried Rouget, "if that hinders you, he told me he meant +to kill you." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Gilet, laughing, "we will see about it!" + +"My friend," said the old man, "find Flore, and I will do all she +wants of me." + +"Some one must have seen her as she passed through the town," said +Maxence to Kouski. "Serve dinner; put everything on the table, and +then go and make inquiries from place to place. Let us know, by +dessert, which road Mademoiselle Brazier has taken." + +This order quieted for a time the poor creature, who was moaning like +a child that has lost its nurse. At this moment Rouget, who hated Max, +thought his tormentor an angel. A passion like that of this miserable +old man for Flore is astonishingly like the emotions of childhood. At +six o'clock, the Pole, who had merely taken a walk, returned to +announce that Flore had driven towards Vatan. + +"Madame is going back to her own people, that's plain," said Kouski. + +"Would you like to go to Vatan to-night?" said Max. "The road is bad, +but Kouski knows how to drive, and you'll make your peace better to- +night than to-morrow morning." + +"Let us go!" cried Rouget. + +"Put the horse in quietly," said Max to Kouski; "manage, if you can, +that the town shall not know of this nonsense, for Monsieur Rouget's +sake. Saddle my horse," he added in a whisper. "I will ride on ahead +of you." + +Monsieur Hochon had already notified Philippe of Flore's departure; +and the colonel rose from Monsieur Mignonnet's dinner-table to rush to +the place Saint-Jean; for he at once guessed the meaning of this +clever strategy. When Philippe presented himself at his uncle's house, +Kouski answered through a window that Monsieur Rouget was unable to +see any one. + +"Fario," said Philippe to the Spaniard, who was stationed in the +Grande-Narette, "go and tell Benjamin to mount his horse; it is all- +important that I shall know what Gilet does with my uncle." + +"They are now putting the horse into the caleche," said Fario, who had +been watching the Rouget stable. + +"If they go towards Vatan," answered Philippe, "get me another horse, +and come yourself with Benjamin to Monsieur Mignonnet's." + +"What do you mean to do?" asked Monsieur Hochon, who had come out of +his own house when he saw Philippe and Fario standing together. + +"The genius of a general, my dear Monsieur Hochon," said Philippe, +"consists not only in carefully observing the enemy's movements, but +also in guessing his intentions from those movements, and in modifying +his own plan whenever the enemy interferes with it by some unexpected +action. Now, if my uncle and Max drive out together, they are going to +Vatan; Maxence will have promised to reconcile him with Flore, who +'fugit ad salices,'--the manoeuvre is General Virgil's. If that's the +line they take, I don't yet know what I shall do; I shall have some +hours to think it over, for my uncle can't sign a power of attorney at +ten o'clock at night; the notaries will all be in bed. If, as I rather +fancy, Max goes on in advance of my uncle to teach Flore her lesson,-- +which seems necessary and probable,--the rogue is lost! you will see +the sort of revenge we old soldiers take in a game of this kind. Now, +as I need a helper for this last stroke, I must go back to Mignonnet's +and make an arrangement with my friend Carpentier." + +Shaking hands with Monsieur Hochon, Philippe went off down the Petite- +Narette to Mignonnet's house. Ten minutes later, Monsieur Hochon saw +Max ride off at a quick trot; and the old miser's curiosity was so +powerfully excited that he remained standing at his window, eagerly +expecting to hear the wheels of the old demi-fortune, which was not +long in coming. Jean-Jacques's impatience made him follow Max within +twenty minutes. Kouski, no doubt under orders from his master, walked +the horse through the town. + +"If they get to Paris, all is lost," thought Monsieur Hochon. + +At this moment, a lad from the faubourg de Rome came to the Hochon +house with a letter for Baruch. The two grandsons, much subdued by the +events of the morning, had kept their rooms of their own accord during +the day. Thinking over their prospects, they saw plainly that they had +better be cautious with their grandparents. Baruch knew very well the +influence which his grandfather Hochon exerted over his grandfather +and grandmother Borniche: Monsieur Hochon would not hesitate to get +their property for Adolphine if his conduct were such as to make them +pin their hopes on the grand marriage with which his grandfather had +threatened him that morning. Being richer than Francois, Baruch had +the most to lose; he therefore counselled an absolute surrender, with +no other condition than the payment of their debt to Max. As for +Francois, his future was entirely in the hands of his grandfather; he +had no expectations except from him, and by the guardianship account, +he was now his debtor. The two young men accordingly gave solemn +promises of amendment, prompted by their imperilled interests, and by +the hope Madame Hochon held out, that the debt to Max should be paid. + +"You have done very wrong," she said to them; "repair it by future +good conduct, and Monsieur Hochon will forget it." + +So, when Francois had read the letter which had been brought for +Baruch, over the latter's shoulder, he whispered in his ear, "Ask +grandpapa's advice." + +"Read this," said Baruch, taking the letter to old Hochon. + +"Read it to me yourself; I haven't my spectacles." + + My dear Friend,--I hope you will not hesitate, under the serious + circumstances in which I find myself, to do me the service of + receiving a power of attorney from Monsieur Rouget. Be at Vatan + to-morrow morning at nine o'clock. I shall probably send you to + Paris, but don't be uneasy; I will furnish you with money for the + journey, and join you there immediately. I am almost sure I shall + be obliged to leave Issoudun, December third. + + Adieu. I count on your friendship; rely on that of your friend, + + Maxence + + +"God be praised!" exclaimed Monsieur Hochon; "the property of that old +idiot is saved from the claws of the devil." + +"It will be if you say so," said Madame Hochon; "and I thank God,--who +has no doubt heard my prayers. The prosperity of the wicked is always +fleeting." + +"You must go to Vatan, and accept the power of attorney from Monsieur +Rouget," said the old man to Baruch. "Their object is to get fifty +thousand francs a year transferred to Mademoiselle Brazier. They will +send you to Paris, and you must seem to go; but you are to stop at +Orleans, and wait there till you hear from me. Let no one--not a soul +--know where you lodge; go to the first inn you come to in the +faubourg Bannier, no matter if it is only a post-house--" + +"Look here!" cried Francois, who had rushed to the window at the +sudden noise of wheels in the Grande-Narette. "Here's something new!-- +Pere Rouget and Colonel Bridau coming back together in the caleche, +Benjamin and Captain Carpentier following on horseback!" + +"I'll go over," cried Monsieur Hochon, whose curiosity carried the day +over every other feeling. + +Monsieur Hochon found old Rouget in his bedroom, writing the following +letter at his nephew's dictation: + + Mademoiselle,--If you do not start to return here the moment you + receive this letter, your conduct will show such ingratitude for + all my goodness that I shall revoke the will I have made in your + favor, and give my property to my nephew Philippe. You will + understand that Monsieur Gilet can no longer be my guest after + staying with you at Vatan. I send this letter by Captain + Carpentier, who will put it into your own hands. I hope you will + listen to his advice; he will speak to you with authority from me. + Your affectionate + + J.-J. Rouget. + + +"Captain Carpentier and I MET my uncle, who was so foolish as to +follow Mademoiselle Brazier and Monsieur Gilet to Vatan," said +Philippe, with sarcastic emphasis, to Monsieur Hochon. "I have made my +uncle see that he was running his head into a noose; for that girl +will abandon him the moment she gets him to sign a power of attorney, +by which they mean to obtain the income of his money in the Funds. +That letter will bring her back under his roof, the handsome runaway! +this very night, or I'm mistaken. I promise to make her as pliable as +a bit of whalebone for the rest of her days, if my uncle allows me to +take Maxence Gilet's place; which, in my opinion, he ought never to +have had in the first place. Am I not right?--and yet here's my uncle +bemoaning himself!" + +"Neighbor," said Monsieur Hochon, "you have taken the best means to +get peace in your household. Destroy your will, and Flore will be once +more what she used to be in the early days." + +"No, she will never forgive me for what I have made her suffer," +whimpered the old man; "she will no longer love me." + +"She shall love you, and closely too; I'll take care of that," said +Philippe. + +"Come, open your eyes!" exclaimed Monsieur Hochon. "They mean to rob +you and abandon you." + +"Oh! I was sure of it!" cried the poor imbecile. + +"See, here is a letter Maxence has written to my grandson Borniche," +said old Hochon. "Read it." + +"What infamy!" exclaimed Carpentier, as he listened to the letter, +which Rouget read aloud, weeping. + +"Is that plain enough, uncle?" demanded Philippe. "Hold that hussy by +her interests and she'll adore you as you deserve." + +"She loves Maxence too well; she will leave me," cried the frightened +old man. + +"But, uncle, Maxence or I,--one or the other of us--won't leave our +footsteps in the dust of Issoudun three days hence." + +"Well then go, Monsieur Carpentier," said Rouget; "if you promise me +to bring her back, go! You are a good man; say to her in my name all +you think you ought to say." + +"Captain Carpentier will whisper in her ear that I have sent to Paris +for a woman whose youth and beauty are captivating; that will bring +the jade back in a hurry!" + +The captain departed, driving himself in the old caleche; Benjamin +accompanied him on horseback, for Kouski was nowhere to be found. +Though threatened by the officers with arrest and the loss of his +situation, the Pole had gone to Vatan on a hired horse, to warn Max +and Flore of the adversary's move. After fulfilling his mission, +Carpentier, who did not wish to drive back with Flore, was to change +places with Benjamin, and take the latter's horse. + +When Philippe was told of Kouski's flight he said to Benjamin, "You +will take the Pole's place, from this time on. It is all mapping out, +papa Hochon!" cried the lieutenant-colonel. "That banquet will be +jovial!" + +"You will come and live here, of course," said the old miser. + +"I have told Fario to send me all my things," answered Philippe. "I +shall sleep in the room adjoining Gilet's apartment,--if my uncle +consents." + +"What will come of all this?" cried the terrified old man. + +"Mademoiselle Flore Brazier is coming, gentle as a paschal lamb," +replied Monsieur Hochon. + +"God grant it!" exclaimed Rouget, wiping his eyes. + +"It is now seven o'clock," said Philippe; "the sovereign of your heart +will be here at half-past eleven: you'll never see Gilet again, and +you will be as happy ever after as a pope.--If you want me to +succeed," he whispered to Monsieur Hochon, "stay here till the hussy +comes; you can help me in keeping the old man up to his resolution; +and, together, we'll make that crab-girl see on which side her bread +is buttered." + +Monsieur Hochon felt the reasonableness of the request and stayed: but +they had their hands full, for old Rouget gave way to childish +lamentations, which were only quieted by Philippe's repeating over and +over a dozen times:-- + +"Uncle, you will see that I am right when Flore returns to you as +tender as ever. You shall be petted; you will save your property: be +guided by my advice, and you'll live in paradise for the rest of your +days." + +When, about half-past eleven, wheels were heard in the Grande-Narette, +the question was, whether the carriage were returning full or empty. +Rouget's face wore an expression of agony, which changed to the +prostration of excessive joy when he saw the two women, as the +carriage turned to enter the courtyard. + +"Kouski," said Philippe, giving a hand to Flore to help her down. "You +are no longer in Monsieur Rouget's service. You will not sleep here +to-night; get your things together, and go. Benjamin takes your +place." + +"Are you the master here?" said Flore sarcastically. + +"With your permission," replied Philippe, squeezing her hand as if in +a vice. "Come! we must have an understanding, you and I"; and he led +the bewildered woman out into the place Saint-Jean. + +"My fine lady," began the old campaigner, stretching out his right +hand, "three days hence, Maxence Gilet will be sent to the shades by +that arm, or his will have taken me off guard. If I die, you will be +the mistress of my poor imbecile uncle; 'bene sit.' If I remain on my +pins, you'll have to walk straight, and keep him supplied with first- +class happiness. If you don't, I know girls in Paris who are, with all +due respect, much prettier than you; for they are only seventeen years +old: they would make my uncle excessively happy, and they are in my +interests. Begin your attentions this very evening; if the old man is +not as gay as a lark to-morrow morning, I have only a word to say to +you; it is this, pay attention to it,--there is but one way to kill a +man without the interference of the law, and that is to fight a duel +with him; but I know three ways to get rid of a woman: mind that, my +beauty!" + +During this address, Flore shook like a person with the ague. + +"Kill Max--?" she said, gazing at Philippe in the moonlight. + +"Come, here's my uncle." + +Old Rouget, turning a deaf ear to Monsieur Hochon's remonstrances, now +came out into the street, and took Flore by the hand, as a miser might +have grasped his treasure; he drew her back to the house and into his +own room and shut the door. + +"This is Saint-Lambert's day, and he who deserts his place, loses it," +remarked Benjamin to the Pole. + +"My master will shut your mouth for you," answered Kouski, departing +to join Max who established himself at the hotel de la Poste. + +On the morrow, between nine and eleven o'clock, all the women talked +to each other from door to door throughout the town. The story of the +wonderful change in the Rouget household spread everywhere. The upshot +of the conversations was the same on all sides,-- + +"What will happen at the banquet between Max and Colonel Bridau?" + +Philippe said but few words to the Vedie,--"Six hundred francs' +annuity, or dismissal." They were enough, however, to keep her +neutral, for a time, between the two great powers, Philippe and Flore. + +Knowing Max's life to be in danger, Flore became more affectionate to +Rouget than in the first days of their alliance. Alas! in love, a +self-interested devotion is sometimes more agreeable than a truthful +one; and that is why many men pay so much for clever deceivers. The +Rabouilleuse did not appear till the next morning, when she came down +to breakfast with Rouget on her arm. Tears filled her eyes as she +beheld, sitting in Max's place, the terrible adversary, with his +sombre blue eyes, and the cold, sinister expression on his face. + +"What is the matter, mademoiselle?" he said, after wishing his uncle +good-morning. + +"She can't endure the idea of your fighting Maxence," said old Rouget. + +"I have not the slightest desire to kill Gilet," answered Philippe. +"He need only take himself off from Issoudun and go to America on a +venture. I should be the first to advise you to give him an outfit, +and to wish him a safe voyage. He would soon make a fortune there, and +that is far more honorable than turning Issoudun topsy-turvy at night, +and playing the devil in your household." + +"Well, that's fair enough," said Rouget, glancing at Flore. + +"A-mer-i-ca!" she ejaculated, sobbing. + +"It is better to kick his legs about in a free country than have them +rot in a pine box in France. However, perhaps you think he is a good +shot, and can kill me; it's on the cards," observed the colonel. + +"Will you let me speak to him?" said Flore, imploring Philippe in a +humble and submissive tone. + +"Certainly; he can come here and pack up his things. I will stay with +my uncle during that time; for I shall not leave the old man again," +replied Philippe. + +"Vedie," cried Flore, "run to the hotel, and tell Monsieur Gilet that +I beg him--" + +"--to come and get his belongings," said Philippe, interrupting +Flore's message. + +"Yes, yes, Vedie; that will be a good pretext to see me; I must speak +to him." + +Terror controlled her hatred; and the shock which her whole being +experienced when she first encountered this strong and pitiless nature +was now so overwhelming that she bowed before Philippe just as Rouget +had been in the habit of bending before her. She anxiously awaited +Vedie's return. The woman brought a formal refusal from Max, who +requested Mademoiselle Brazier to send his things to the hotel de la +Poste. + +"Will you allow me to take them to him?" she said to Jean-Jacques +Rouget. + +"Yes, but will you come back?" said the old man. + +"If Mademoiselle is not back by midday, you will give me a power of +attorney to attend to your property," said Philippe, looking at Flore. +"Take Vedie with you, to save appearances, mademoiselle. In future you +are to think of my uncle's honor." + +Flore could get nothing out of Max. Desperate at having allowed +himself, before the eyes of the whole town, to be routed out of his +shameless position, Gilet was too proud to run away from Philippe. The +Rabouilleuse combated this objection, and proposed that they should +fly together to America; but Max, who did not want Flore without her +money, and yet did not wish the girl to see the bottom of his heart, +insisted on his intention of killing Philippe. + +"We have committed a monstrous folly," he said. "We ought all three to +have gone to Paris and spent the winter there; but how could one +guess, from the mere sight of that fellow's big carcass, that things +would turn out as they have? The turn of events is enough to make one +giddy! I took the colonel for one of those fire-eaters who haven't two +ideas in their head; that was the blunder I made. As I didn't have the +sense to double like a hare in the beginning, I'll not be such a +coward as to back down before him. He has lowered me in the estimation +of this town, and I cannot get back what I have lost unless I kill +him." + +"Go to America with forty thousand francs. I'll find a way to get rid +of that scoundrel, and join you. It would be much wiser." + +"What would people say of me?" he exclaimed. "No; I have buried nine +already. The fellow doesn't seem as if he knew much; he went from +school to the army, and there he was always fighting till 1815; then +he went to America, and I doubt if the brute ever set foot in a +fencing-alley; while I have no match with the sabre. The sabre is his +arm; I shall seem very generous in offering it to him,--for I mean, if +possible, to let him insult me,--and I can easily run him through. +Unquestionably, it is my wisest course. Don't be uneasy; we shall be +masters of the field in a couple of days." + +That it was that a stupid point of honor had more influence over Max +than sound policy. When Flore got home she shut herself up to cry at +ease. During the whole of that day gossip ran wild in Issoudun, and +the duel between Philippe and Maxence was considered inevitable. + +"Ah! Monsieur Hochon," said Mignonnet, who, accompanied by Carpentier, +met the old man on the boulevard Baron, "we are very uneasy; for Gilet +is clever with all weapons." + +"Never mind," said the old provincial diplomatist; "Philippe has +managed this thing well from the beginning. I should never have +thought that big, easy-going fellow would have succeeded as he has. +The two have rolled together like a couple of thunder-clouds." + +"Oh!" said Carpentier, "Philippe is a remarkable man. His conduct +before the Court of Peers was a masterpiece of diplomacy." + +"Well, Captain Renard," said one of the townsfolk to Max's friend. +"They say wolves don't devour each other, but it seems that Max is +going to set his teeth in Colonel Bridau. That's pretty serious among +you gentlemen of the Old Guard." + +"You make fun of it, do you? Because the poor fellow amused himself a +little at night, you are all against him," said Potel. "But Gilet is a +man who couldn't stay in a hole like Issoudun without finding +something to do." + +"Well, gentlemen," remarked another, "Max and the colonel must play +out their game. Bridau had to avenge his brother. Don't you remember +Max's treachery to the poor lad?" + +"Bah! nothing but an artist," said Renard. + +"But the real question is about the old man's property," said a third. +"They say Monsieur Gilet was laying hands on fifty thousand francs a +year, when the colonel turned him out of his uncle's house." + +"Gilet rob a man! Come, don't say that to any one but me, Monsieur +Canivet," cried Potel. "If you do, I'll make you swallow your tongue, +--and without any sauce." + +Every household in town offered prayers for the honorable Colonel +Bridau. + + + + CHAPTER XVI + +Towards four o'clock the following day, the officers of the old army +who were at Issoudun or its environs, were sauntering about the place +du Marche, in front of an eating-house kept by a man named Lacroix, +and waiting the arrival of Colonel Philippe Bridau. The banquet in +honor of the coronation was to take place with military punctuality at +five o'clock. Various groups of persons were talking of Max's +discomfiture, and his dismissal from old Rouget's house; for not only +were the officers to dine at Lacroix's, but the common soldiers had +determined on a meeting at a neighboring wine-shop. Among the +officers, Potel and Renard were the only ones who attempted to defend +Max. + +"Is it any of our business what takes place among the old man's +heirs?" said Renard. + +"Max is weak with women," remarked the cynical Potel. + +"There'll be sabres unsheathed before long," said an old sub- +lieutenant, who cultivated a kitchen-garden in the upper Baltan. "If +Monsieur Maxence Gilet committed the folly of going to live under old +Rouget's roof, he would he a coward if he allowed himself to be turned +off like a valet without asking why." + +"Of course," said Mignonnet dryly. "A folly that doesn't succeed +becomes a crime." + +At this moment Max joined the old soldiers of Napoleon, and was +received in significant silence. Potel and Renard each took an arm of +their friend, and walked about with him, conversing. Presently +Philippe was seen approaching in full dress; he trailed his cane after +him with an imperturbable air which contrasted with the forced +attention Max was paying to the remarks of his two supporters. +Bridau's hand was grasped by Mignonnet, Carpentier, and several +others. This welcome, so different from that accorded to Max, +dispelled the last feeling of cowardice, or, if you prefer it, wisdom, +which Flore's entreaties, and above all, her tendernesses, had +awakened in the latter's mind. + +"We shall fight," he said to Renard, "and to the death. Therefore +don't talk to me any more; let me play my part well." + +After these words, spoken in a feverish tone, the three Bonapartists +returned to the group of officers and mixed among them. Max bowed +first to Bridau, who returned his bow, and the two exchanged a frigid +glance. + +"Come, gentlemen, let us take our seats," said Potel. + +"And drink to the health of the Little Corporal, who is now in the +paradise of heroes," cried Renard. + +The company poured into the long, low dining-hall of the restaurant +Lacroix, the windows of which opened on the market-place. Each guest +took his seat at the table, where, in compliance with Philippe's +request, the two adversaries were placed directly opposite to each +other. Some young men of the town, among them several Knights of +Idleness, anxious to know what might happen at the banquet, were +walking about the street and discussing the critical position into +which Philippe had contrived to force Max. They all deplored the +crisis, though each considered the duel to be inevitable. + +Everything went off well until the dessert, though the two antagonists +displayed, in spite of the apparent joviality of the dinner, a certain +vigilance that resembled disquietude. While waiting for the quarrel +that both were planning, Philippe showed admirable coolness, and Max a +distracting gayety; but to an observer, each was playing a part. + +When the desert was served Philippe rose and said: "Fill your glasses, +my friends! I ask permission to propose the first toast." + +"He said MY FRIENDS, don't fill your glass," whispered Renard to Max. + +Max poured out some wine. + +"To the Grand Army!" cried Philippe, with genuine enthusiasm. + +"To the Grand Army!" was repeated with acclamation by every voice. + +At this moment eleven private soldiers, among whom were Benjamin and +Kouski, appeared at the door of the room and repeated the toast,-- + +"To the Grand Army!" + +"Come in, my sons; we are going to drink His health." + +The old soldiers came in and stood behind the officers. + +"You see He is not dead!" said Kouski to an old sergeant, who had +perhaps been grieving that the Emperor's agony was over. + +"I claim the second toast," said Mignonnet, as he rose. "Let us drink +to those who attempted to restore his son!" + +Every one present, except Maxence Gilet, bowed to Philippe Bridau, and +stretched their glasses towards him. + +"One word," said Max, rising. + +"It is Max! it is Max!" cried voices outside; and then a deep silence +reigned in the room and in the street, for Gilet's known character +made every one expect a taunt. + +"May we ALL meet again at this time next year," said Max, bowing +ironically to Philippe. + +"It's coming!" whispered Kouski to his neighbor. + +"The Paris police would never allow a banquet of this kind," said +Potel to Philippe. + +"Why do the devil to you mention the police to Colonel Bridau?" said +Maxence insolently. + +"Captain Potel--HE--meant no insult," said Philippe, smiling coldly. +The stillness was so profound that the buzzing of a fly could have +been heard if there had been one. + +"The police were sufficiently afraid of me," resumed Philippe, "to +send me to Issoudun,--a place where I have had the pleasure of meeting +old comrades, but where, it must be owned, there is a dearth of +amusement. For a man who doesn't despise folly, I'm rather restricted. +However, it is certainly economical, for I am not one of those to whom +feather-beds give incomes; Mariette of the Grand Opera cost me +fabulous sums." + +"Is that remark meant for me, my dear colonel?" asked Max, sending a +glance at Philippe which was like a current of electricity. + +"Take it as you please," answered Bridau. + +"Colonel, my two friends here, Renard and Potel, will call to-morrow +on--" + +"--on Mignonnet and Carpentier," answered Philippe, cutting short +Max's sentence, and motioning towards his two neighbors. + +"Now," said Max, "let us go on with the toasts." + +The two adversaries had not raised their voices above the tone of +ordinary conversation; there was nothing solemn in the affair except +the dead silence in which it took place. + +"Look here, you others!" cried Philippe, addressing the soldiers who +stood behind the officers; "remember that our affairs don't concern +the bourgeoisie--not a word, therefore, on what goes on here. It is +for the Old Guard only." + +"They'll obey orders, colonel," said Renard. "I'll answer for them." + +"Long live His little one! May he reign over France!" cried Potel. + +"Death to Englishmen!" cried Carpentier. + +That toast was received with prodigious applause. + +"Shame on Hudson Lowe," said Captain Renard. + +The dessert passed off well; the libations were plentiful. The +antagonists and their four seconds made it a point of honor that a +duel, involving so large a fortune, and the reputation of two men +noted for their courage, should not appear the result of an ordinary +squabble. No two gentlemen could have behaved better than Philippe and +Max; in this respect the anxious waiting of the young men and +townspeople grouped about the market-place was balked. All the guests, +like true soldiers, kept silence as to the episode which took place at +dessert. At ten o'clock that night the two adversaries were informed +that the sabre was the weapon agreed upon by the seconds; the place +chosen for the rendezvous was behind the chancel of the church of the +Capuchins at eight o'clock the next morning. Goddet, who was at the +banquet in his quality of former army surgeon, was requested to be +present at the meeting. The seconds agreed that, no matter what might +happen, the combat should last only ten minutes. + +At eleven o'clock that night, to Colonel Bridau's amazement, Monsieur +Hochon appeared at his rooms just as he was going to bed, escorting +Madame Hochon. + +"We know what has happened," said the old lady, with her eyes full of +tears, "and I have come to entreat you not to leave the house to- +morrow morning without saying your prayers. Lift your soul to God!" + +"Yes, madame," said Philippe, to whom old Hochon made a sign from +behind his wife's back. + +"That is not all," said Agathe's godmother. "I stand in the place of +your poor mother, and I divest myself, for you, of a thing which I +hold most precious,--here," she went on, holding towards Philippe a +tooth, fastened upon a piece of black velvet embroidered in gold, to +which she had sewn a pair of green strings. Having shown it to him, +she replaced it in a little bag. "It is a relic of Sainte Solange, the +patron saint of Berry," she said, "I saved it during the Revolution; +wear it on your breast to-morrow." + +"Will it protect me from a sabre-thrust?" asked Philippe. + +"Yes," replied the old lady. + +"Then I have no right to wear that accoutrement any more than if it +were a cuirass," cried Agathe's son. + +"What does he mean?" said Madame Hochon. + +"He says it is not playing fair," answered Hochon. + +"Then we will say no more about it," said the old lady, "I shall pray +for you." + +"Well, madame, prayer--and a good point--can do no harm," said +Philippe, making a thrust as if to pierce Monsieur Hochon's heart. + +The old lady kissed the colonel on his forehead. As she left the +house, she gave thirty francs--all the money she possessed--to +Benjamin, requesting him to sew the relic into the pocket of his +master's trousers. Benjamin did so,--not that he believed in the +virtue of the tooth, for he said his master had a much better talisman +than that against Gilet, but because his conscience constrained him to +fulfil a commission for which he had been so liberally paid. Madame +Hochon went home full of confidence in Saint Solange. + +At eight o'clock the next morning, December third, the weather being +cloudy, Max, accompanied by his seconds and the Pole, arrived on the +little meadow which then surrounded the apse of the church of the +Capuchins. There he found Philippe and his seconds, with Benjamin, +waiting for him. Potel and Mignonnet paced off twenty-four feet; at +each extremity, the two attendants drew a line on the earth with a +spade: the combatants were not allowed to retreat beyond that line, on +pain of being thought cowardly. Each was to stand at his own line, and +advance as he pleased when the seconds gave the word. + +"Do we take off our coats?" said Philippe to his adversary coldly. + +"Of course," answered Maxence, with the assumption of a bully. + +They did so; the rosy tints of their skin appearing through the +cambric of their shirts. Each, armed with a cavalry sabre selected of +equal weight, about three pounds, and equal length, three feet, placed +himself at his own line, the point of his weapon on the ground, +awaiting the signal. Both were so calm that, in spite of the cold, +their muscles quivered no more than if they had been made of iron. +Goddet, the four seconds, and the two soldiers felt an involuntary +admiration. + +"They are a proud pair!" + +The exclamation came from Potel. + +Just as the signal was given, Max caught sight of Fario's sinister +face looking at them through the hole which the Knights of Idleness +had made for the pigeons in the roof of the church. Those eyes, which +sent forth streams of fire, hatred, and revenge, dazzled Max for a +moment. The colonel went straight to his adversary, and put himself on +guard in a way that gained him an advantage. Experts in the art of +killing, know that, of two antagonists, the ablest takes the "inside +of the pavement,"--to use an expression which gives the reader a +tangible idea of the effect of a good guard. That pose, which is in +some degree observant, marks so plainly a duellist of the first rank +that a feeling of inferiority came into Max's soul, and produced the +same disarray of powers which demoralizes a gambler when, in presence +of a master or a lucky hand, he loses his self-possession and plays +less well than usual. + +"Ah! the lascar!" thought Max, "he's an expert; I'm lost!" + +He attempted a "moulinet," and twirled his sabre with the dexterity of +a single-stick. He wanted to bewilder Philippe, and strike his weapon +so as to disarm him; but at the first encounter he felt that the +colonel's wrist was iron, with the flexibility of a steel string. +Maxence was then forced, unfortunate fellow, to think of another move, +while Philippe, whose eyes were darting gleams that were sharper than +the flash of their blades, parried every attack with the coolness of a +fencing-master wearing his plastron in an armory. + +Between two men of the calibre of these combatants, there occurs a +phenomenon very like that which takes place among the lower classes, +during the terrible tussle called "the savante," which is fought with +the feet, as the name implies. Victory depends on a false movement, on +some error of the calculation, rapid as lightning, which must be made +and followed almost instinctively. During a period of time as short to +the spectators as it seems long to the combatants, the contest lies in +observation, so keen as to absorb the powers of mind and body, and yet +concealed by preparatory feints whose slowness and apparent prudence +seem to show that the antagonists are not intending to fight. This +moment, which is followed by a rapid and decisive struggle, is +terrible to a connoisseur. At a bad parry from Max the colonel sent +the sabre spinning from his hand. + +"Pick it up," he said, pausing; "I am not the man to kill a disarmed +enemy." + +There was something atrocious in the grandeur of these words; they +seemed to show such consciousness of superiority that the onlookers +took them for a shrewd calculation. In fact, when Max replaced himself +in position, he had lost his coolness, and was once more confronted +with his adversary's raised guard which defended the colonel's whole +person while it menaced his. He resolved to redeem his shameful defeat +by a bold stroke. He no longer guarded himself, but took his sabre in +both hands and rushed furiously on his antagonist, resolved to kill +him, if he had to lose his own life. Philippe received a sabre-cut +which slashed open his forehead and a part of his face, but he cleft +Max's head obliquely by the terrible sweep of a "moulinet," made to +break the force of the annihilating stroke Max aimed at him. These two +savage blows ended the combat, at the ninth minute. Fario came down to +gloat over the sight of his enemy in the convulsions of death; for the +muscles of a man of Maxence Gilet's vigor quiver horribly. Philippe +was carried back to his uncle's house. + +Thus perished a man destined to do great deeds had he lived his life +amid environments which were suited to him; a man treated by Nature as +a favorite child, for she gave him courage, self-possession, and the +political sagacity of a Cesar Borgia. But education had not bestowed +upon him that nobility of conduct and ideas without which nothing +great is possible in any walk of life. He was not regretted, because +of the perfidy with which his adversary, who was a worse man than he, +had contrived to bring him into disrepute. His death put an end to the +exploits of the Order of Idleness, to the great satisfaction of the +town of Issoudun. Philippe therefore had nothing to fear in +consequence of the duel, which seemed almost the result of divine +vengeance: its circumstances were related throughout that whole region +of country, with unanimous praise for the bravery of the two +combatants. + +"But they had better both have been killed," remarked Monsieur +Mouilleron; "it would have been a good riddance for the Government." + +The situation of Flore Brazier would have been very embarrassing were +it not for the condition into which she was thrown by Max's death. A +brain-fever set in, combined with a dangerous inflammation resulting +from her escapade to Vatan. If she had had her usual health, she might +have fled the house where, in the room above her, Max's room, and in +Max's bed, lay and suffered Max's murderer. She hovered between life +and death for three months, attended by Monsieur Goddet, who was also +attending Philippe. + +As soon as Philippe was able to hold a pen, he wrote the following +letters:-- + + To Monsieur Desroches: + + I have already killed the most venomous of the two reptiles; not + however without getting my own head split open by a sabre; but the + rascal struck with a dying hand. The other viper is here, and I + must come to an understanding with her, for my uncle clings to her + like the apple of his eye. I have been half afraid the girl, who + is devilishly handsome, might run away, and then my uncle would + have followed her; but an illness which seized her suddenly has + kept her in bed. If God desired to protect me, he would call her + soul to himself, now, while she is repenting of her sins. + Meantime, on my side I have, thanks to that old trump, Hochon, the + doctor of Issoudun, one named Goddet, a worthy soul who conceives + that the property of uncles ought to go to nephews rather than to + sluts. + + Monsieur Hochon has some influence on a certain papa Fichet, who + is rich, and whose daughter Goddet wants as a wife for his son: so + the thousand francs they have promised him if he mends up my pate + is not the chief cause of his devotion. Moreover, this Goddet, who + was formerly head-surgeon to the 3rd regiment of the line, has + been privately advised by my staunch friends, Mignonnet and + Carpentier; so he is now playing the hypocrite with his other + patient. He says to Mademoiselle Brazier, as he feels her pulse, + "You see, my child, that there's a God after all. You have been + the cause of a great misfortune, and you must now repair it. The + finger of God is in all this [it is inconceivable what they don't + say the finger of God is in!]. Religion is religion: submit, + resign yourself, and that will quiet you better than my drugs. + Above all, resolve to stay here and take care of your master: + forget and forgive,--that's Christianity." + + Goddet has promised to keep the Rabouilleuse three months in her + bed. By degrees the girl will get accustomed to living under the + same roof with me. I have bought over the cook. That abominable + old woman tells her mistress Max would have led her a hard life; + and declares she overheard him say that if, after the old man's + death, he was obliged to marry Flore, he didn't mean to have his + prospects ruined by it, and he should find a way to get rid of + her. + + Thus, all goes well, so far. My uncle, by old Hochon's advice, has + destroyed his will. + +To Monsieur Giroudeau, care of Mademoiselle Florentine. Rue de +Vendome, Marais: + + My dear old Fellow,--Find out if the little rat Cesarine has any + engagement, and if not, try to arrange that she can come to + Issoudun in case I send for her; if I do, she must come at once. + It is a matter this time of decent behavior; no theatre morals. + She must present herself as the daughter of a brave soldier, + killed on the battle-field. Therefore, mind,--sober manners, + schoolgirl's clothes, virtue of the best quality; that's the + watchword. If I need Cesarine, and if she answers my purpose, I + will give her fifty thousand francs on my uncle's death. If + Cesarine has other engagements, explain what I want to Florentine; + and between you, find me some ballet-girl capable of playing the + part. + + I have had my skull cracked in a duel with the fellow who was + filching my inheritance, and is now feeding the worms. I'll tell + you all about it some day. Ah! old fellow, the good times are + coming back for you and me; we'll amuse ourselves once more, or we + are not the pair we really are. If you can send me five hundred + more cartridges I'll bite them. + + Adieu, my old fire-eater. Light your pipe with this letter. Mind, + the daughter of the officer is to come from Chateauroux, and must + seem to be in need of assistance. I hope however that I shall not + be driven to such dangerous expedients. Remember me to Mariette + and all our friends. + +Agathe, informed by Madame Hochon of what had happened, rushed to +Issoudun, and was received by her brother, who gave her Philippe's +former room. The poor mother's tenderness for the worthless son +revived in all its maternal strength; a few happy days were hers at +last, as she listened to the praises which the whole town bestowed +upon her hero. + +"After all, my child," said Madame Hochon on the day of her arrival, +"youth must have its fling. The dissipations of a soldier under the +Empire must, of course, be greater than those of young men who are +looked after by their fathers. Oh! if you only knew what went on here +at night under that wretched Max! Thanks to your son, Issoudun now +breathes and sleeps in peace. Philippe has come to his senses rather +late; he told us frankly that those three months in the Luxembourg +sobered him. Monsieur Hochon is delighted with his conduct here; every +one thinks highly of it. If he can be kept away from the temptations +of Paris, he will end by being a comfort to you." + +Hearing these consolatory words Agathe's eyes filled with tears. + +Philippe played the saint to his mother, for he had need of her. That +wily politician did not wish to have recourse to Cesarine unless he +continued to be an object of horror to Mademoiselle Brazier. He saw +that Flore had been thoroughly broken to harness by Max; he knew she +was an essential part of his uncle's life, and he greatly preferred to +use her rather than send for the ballet-girl, who might take it into +her head to marry the old man. Fouche advised Louis XVIII. to sleep in +Napoleon's sheets instead of granting the charter; and Philippe would +have liked to remain in Gilet's sheets; but he was reluctant to risk +the good reputation he had made for himself in Berry. To take Max's +place with the Rabouilleuse would be as odious on his part as on hers. +He could, without discredit and by the laws of nepotism, live in his +uncle's house and at his uncle's expense; but he could not have Flore +unless her character were whitewashed. Hampered by this difficulty, +and stimulated by the hope of finally getting hold of the property, +the idea came into his head of making his uncle marry the +Rabouilleuse. With this in view he requested his mother to go and see +the girl and treat her in a sisterly manner. + +"I must confess, my dear mother," he said, in a canting tone, looking +at Monsieur and Madame Hochon who accompanied her, "that my uncle's +way of life is not becoming; he could, however, make Mademoiselle +Brazier respected by the community if he chose. Wouldn't it be far +better for her to be Madame Rouget than the servant-mistress of an old +bachelor? She had better obtain a definite right to his property by a +marriage contract then threaten a whole family with disinheritance. If +you, or Monsieur Hochon, or some good priest would speak of the matter +to both parties, you might put a stop to the scandal which offends +decent people. Mademoiselle Brazier would be only too happy if you +were to welcome her as a sister, and I as an aunt." + +On the morrow Agathe and Madame Hochon appeared at Flore's bedside, +and repeated to the sick girl and to Rouget, the excellent sentiments +expressed by Philippe. Throughout Issoudun the colonel was talked of +as a man of noble character, especially because of his conduct towards +Flore. For a month, the Rabouilleuse heard Goddet, her doctor, the +individual who has paramount influence over a sick person, the +respectable Madame Hochon, moved by religious principle, and Agathe, +so gentle and pious, all representing to her the advantages of a +marriage with Rouget. And when, attracted by the idea of becoming +Madame Rouget, a dignified and virtuous bourgeoisie, she grew eager to +recover, so that the marriage might speedily be celebrated, it was not +difficult to make her understand that she would not be allowed to +enter the family of the Rougets if she intended to turn Philippe from +its doors. + +"Besides," remarked the doctor, "you really owe him this good fortune. +Max would never have allowed you to marry old Rouget. And," he added +in her ear, "if you have children, you can revenge Max, for that will +disinherit the Bridaus." + +Two months after the fatal duel in February, 1823, the sick woman, +urged by those about her, and implored by Rouget, consented to receive +Philippe, the sight of whose scars made her weep, but whose softened +and affectionate manner calmed her. By Philippe's wish they were left +alone together. + +"My dear child," said the soldier. "It is I, who, from the start, have +advised your marriage with my uncle; if you consent, it will take +place as soon as you are quite recovered." + +"So they tell me," she replied. + +"Circumstances have compelled me to give you pain, it is natural +therefore that I should wish to do you all the good I can. Wealth, +respect, and a family position are worth more than what you have lost. +You wouldn't have been that fellow's wife long after my uncle's death, +for I happen to know, through friends of his, that he intended to get +rid of you. Come, my dear, let us understand each other, and live +happily. You shall be my aunt, and nothing more than my aunt. You will +take care that my uncle does not forget me in his will; on my side, +you shall see how well I will have you treated in the marriage +contract. Keep calm, think it over, and we will talk of it later. All +sensible people, indeed the whole town, urge you to put an end to your +illegal position; no one will blame you for receiving me. It is well +understood in the world that interests go before feelings. By the day +of your marriage you will be handsomer than ever. The pallor of +illness has given you an air of distinction, and on my honor, if my +uncle did not love you so madly, you should be the wife of Colonel +Bridau." + +Philippe left the room, having dropped this hint into Flore's mind to +waken a vague idea of vengeance which might please the girl, who did, +in fact, feel a sort of happiness as she saw this dreadful being at +her feet. In this scene Philippe repeated, in miniature, that of +Richard III. with the queen he had widowed. The meaning of it is that +personal calculation, hidden under sentiment, has a powerful influence +on the heart, and is able to dissipate even genuine grief. This is +how, in individual life, Nature does that which in works of genius is +thought to be consummate art: she works by self-interest,--the genius +of money. + +At the beginning of April, 1823, the hall of Jean-Jacques Rouget's +house was the scene of a splendid dinner, given to celebrate the +signing of the marriage contract between Mademoiselle Flore Brazier +and the old bachelor. The guests were Monsieur Heron, the four +witnesses, Messieurs Mignonnet, Carpentier, Hochon, and Goddet, the +mayor and the curate, Agathe Bridau, Madame Hochon, and her friend +Madame Borniche, the two old ladies who laid down the law to the +society of Issoudun. The bride was much impressed by this concession, +obtained by Philippe, and intended by the two ladies as a mark of +protection to a repentant woman. Flore was in dazzling beauty. The +curate, who for the last fortnight had been instructing the ignorant +crab-girl, was to allow her, on the following day, to make her first +communion. The marriage was the text of the following pious article in +the "Journal du Cher," published at Bourges, and in the "Journal de +l'Indre," published at Chateauroux: + + Issoudun.--The revival of religion is progressing in Berry. + Friends of the Church and all respectable persons in this town + were yesterday witnesses of a marriage ceremony by which a leading + man of property put an end to a scandalous connection, which began + at the time when the authority of religion was overthrown in this + region. This event, due to the enlightened zeal of the clergy of + Issoudun will, we trust, have imitators, and put a stop to + marriages, so-called, which have never been solemnized, and were + only contracted during the disastrous epoch of revolutionary rule. + + One remarkable feature of the event to which we allude, is the + fact that it was brought about at the entreaty of a colonel + belonging to the old army, sent to our town by a sentence of the + Court of Peers, who may, in consequence, lose the inheritance of + his uncle's property. Such disinterestedness is so rare in these + days that it deserves public mention. + +By the marriage contract Rouget secured to Flore a dower of one +hundred thousand francs, and a life annuity of thirty thousand more. + +After the wedding, which was sumptuous, Agathe returned to Paris the +happiest of mothers, and told Joseph and Desroches what she called the +good news. + +"Your son Philippe is too wily a man not to keep his paw on that +inheritance," said the lawyer, when he had heard Madame Bridau to the +end. "You and your poor Joseph will never get one penny of your +brother's property." + +"You, and Joseph too, will always be unjust to that poor boy," said +the mother. "His conduct before the Court of Peers was worthy of a +statesman; he succeeded in saving many heads. Philippe's errors came +from his great faculties being unemployed. He now sees how faults of +conduct injure the prospects of a man who has his way to make. He is +ambitious; that I am sure of; and I am not the only one to predict his +future. Monsieur Hochon firmly believes that Philippe has a noble +destiny before him." + +"Oh! if he chooses to apply his perverted powers to making his +fortune, I have no doubt he will succeed: he is capable of everything; +and such fellows go fast and far," said Desroches. + +"Why do you suppose that he will not succeed by honest means?" +demanded Madame Bridau. + +"You will see!" exclaimed Desroches. "Fortunate or unfortunate, +Philippe will remain the man of the rue Mazarin, the murderer of +Madame Descoings, the domestic thief. But don't worry yourself; he +will manage to appear honest to the world." + +After breakfast, on the morning succeeding the marriage, Philippe took +Madame Rouget by the arm when his uncle rose from table and went +upstairs to dress,--for the pair had come down, the one in her +morning-robe, and the other in his dressing-gown. + +"My dear aunt," said the colonel, leading her into the recess of a +window, "you now belong to the family. Thanks to me, the law has tied +the knot. Now, no nonsense. I intend that you and I should play above +board. I know the tricks you will try against me; and I shall watch +you like a duenna. You will never go out of this house except on my +arm; and you will never leave me. As to what passes within the house, +damn it, you'll find me like a spider in the middle of his web. Here +is something," he continued, showing the bewildered woman a letter, +"which will prove to you that I could, while you were lying ill +upstairs, unable to move hand or foot, have turned you out of doors +without a penny. Read it." + +He gave her the letter. + + My dear Fellow,--Florentine, who has just made her debut at the + new Opera House in a "pas de trois" with Mariette and Tullia, is + thinking steadily about your affair, and so is Florine,--who has + finally given up Lousteau and taken Nathan. That shrewd pair have + found you a most delicious little creature,--only seventeen, + beautiful as an English woman, demure as a "lady," up to all + mischief, sly as Desroches, faithful as Godeschal. Mariette is + forming her, so as to give you a fair chance. No woman could hold + her own against this little angel, who is a devil under her skin; + she can play any part you please; get complete possession of your + uncle, or drive him crazy with love. She has that celestial look + poor Coralie used to have; she can weep,--the tones of her voice + will draw a thousand-franc note from a granite heart; and the + young mischief soaks up champagne better than any of us. It is a + precious discovery; she is under obligations to Mariette, and + wants to pay them off. After squandering the fortunes of two + Englishmen, a Russian, and an Italian prince, Mademoiselle Esther + is now in poverty; give her ten thousand francs, that will satisfy + her. She has just remarked, laughing, that she has never yet + fricasseed a bourgeois, and it will get her hand in. Esther is + well known to Finot, Bixiou, and des Lupeaulx, in fact to all our + set. Ah! if there were any real fortunes left in France, she would + be the greatest courtesan of modern times. + + All the editorial staff, Nathan, Finot, Bixiou, etc., are now + joking the aforesaid Esther in a magnificent appartement just + arranged for Florine by old Lord Dudley (the real father of de + Marsay); the lively actress captured him by the dress of her new + role. Tullia is with the Duc de Rhetore, Mariette is still with + the Duc de Maufrigneuse; between them, they will get your sentence + remitted in time for the King's fete. Bury your uncle under the + roses before the Saint-Louis, bring away the property, and spend a + little of it with Esther and your old friends, who sign this + epistle in a body, to remind you of them. + + Nathan, Florine, Bixiou, Finot, Mariette, + + Florentine, Giroudeau, Tullia + + +The letter shook in the trembling hands of Madame Rouget, and betrayed +the terror of her mind and body. The aunt dared not look at the +nephew, who fixed his eyes upon her with terrible meaning. + +"I trust you," he said, "as you see; but I expect some return. I have +made you my aunt intending to marry you some day. You are worth more +to me than Esther in managing my uncle. In a year from now, we must be +in Paris; the only place where beauty really lives. You will amuse +yourself much better there than here; it is a perpetual carnival. I +shall return to the army, and become a general, and you will be a +great lady. There's our future; now work for it. But I must have a +pledge to bind this agreement. You are to give me, within a month from +now, a power of attorney from my uncle, which you must obtain under +pretence of relieving him of the fatigues of business. Also, a month +later, I must have a special power of attorney to transfer the income +in the Funds. When that stands in my name, you and I have an equal +interest in marrying each other. There it all is, my beautiful aunt, +as plain as day. Between you and me there must be no ambiguity. I can +marry my aunt at the end of a year's widowhood; but I could not marry +a disgraced girl." + +He left the room without waiting for an answer. When Vedie came in, +fifteen minutes later, to clear the table, she found her mistress pale +and moist with perspiration, in spite of the season. Flore felt like a +woman who had fallen to the bottom of a precipice; the future loomed +black before her; and on its blackness, in the far distance, were +shapes of monstrous things, indistinctly perceptible, and terrifying. +She felt the damp chill of vaults, instinctive fear of the man crushed +her; and yet a voice cried in her ear that she deserved to have him +for her master. She was helpless against her fate. Flore Brazier had +had a room of her own in Rouget's house; but Madame Rouget belonged to +her husband, and was now deprived of the free-will of a servant- +mistress. In the horrible situation in which she now found herself, +the hope of having a child came into her mind; but she soon recognized +its impossibility. The marriage was to Jean-Jacques what the second +marriage of Louis XII. was to that king. The incessant watchfulness of +a man like Philippe, who had nothing to do and never quitted his post +of observation, made any form of vengeance impossible. Benjamin was +his innocent and devoted spy. The Vedie trembled before him. Flore +felt herself deserted and utterly helpless. She began to fear death. +Without knowing how Philippe might manage to kill her, she felt +certain that whenever he suspected her of pregnancy her doom would be +sealed. The sound of that voice, the veiled glitter of that gambler's +eye, the slightest movement of the soldier, who treated her with a +brutality that was still polite, made her shudder. As to the power of +attorney demanded by the ferocious colonel, who in the eyes of all +Issoudun was a hero, he had it as soon as he wanted it; for Flore fell +under the man's dominion as France had fallen under that of Napoleon. + +Like a butterfly whose feet are caught in the incandescent wax of a +taper, Rouget rapidly dissipated his remaining strength. In presence +of that decay, the nephew remained as cold and impassible as the +diplomatists of 1814 during the convulsions of imperial France. + +Philippe, who did not believe in Napoleon II., now wrote the following +letter to the minister of war, which Mariette made the Duc de +Maufrigneuse convey to that functionary:-- + + Monseigneur,--Napoleon is no more. I desired to remain faithful to + him according to my oath; now I am free to offer my services to + His Majesty. If your Excellency deigns to explain my conduct to + His Majesty, the King will see that it is in keeping with the laws + of honor, if not with those of his government. The King, who + thought it proper that his aide-de-camp, General Rapp, should + mourn his former master, will no doubt feel indulgently for me. + Napoleon was my benefactor. + + I therefore entreat your Excellency to take into consideration the + request I make for employment in my proper rank; and I beg to + assure you of my entire submission. The King will find in me a + faithful subject. + + Deign to accept the assurance of respect with which I have the + honor to be, + Your Excellency's very submissive and + + Very humble servant, + + Philippe Bridau + + Formerly chief of squadron in the dragoons of the Guard; officer + of the Legion of honor; now under police surveillance at Issoudun. + + +To this letter was joined a request for permission to go to Paris on +urgent family business; and Monsieur Mouilleron annexed letters from +the mayor, the sub-prefect, and the commissary of police at Issoudun, +all bestowing many praises on Philippe's conduct, and dwelling upon +the newspaper article relating to his uncle's marriage. + +Two weeks later, Philippe received the desired permission, and a +letter, in which the minister of war informed him that, by order of +the King, he was, as a preliminary favor, reinstated lieutenant- +colonel in the royal army. + + + + CHAPTER XVII + +Lieutenant-Colonel Bridau returned to Paris, taking with him his aunt +and the helpless Rouget, whom he escorted, three days after their +arrival, to the Treasury, where Jean-Jacques signed the transfer of +the income, which henceforth became Philippe's. The exhausted old man +and the Rabouilleuse were now plunged by their nephew into the +excessive dissipations of the dangerous and restless society of +actresses, journalists, artists, and the equivocal women among whom +Philippe had already wasted his youth; where old Rouget found +excitements that soon after killed him. Instigated by Giroudeau, +Lolotte, one of the handsomest of the Opera ballet-girls, was the +amiable assassin of the old man. Rouget died after a splendid supper +at Florentine's, and Lolotte threw the blame of his death upon a slice +of pate de foie gras; as the Strasburg masterpiece could make no +defence, it was considered settled that the old man died of +indigestion. + +Madame Rouget was in her element in the midst of this excessively +decollete society; but Philippe gave her in charge of Mariette, and +that monitress did not allow the widow--whose mourning was diversified +with a few amusements--to commit any actual follies. + +In October, 1823, Philippe returned to Issoudun, furnished with a +power of attorney from his aunt, to liquidate the estate of his uncle; +a business that was soon over, for he returned to Paris in March, +1824, with sixteen hundred thousand francs,--the net proceeds of old +Rouget's property, not counting the precious pictures, which had never +left Monsieur Hochon's hands. Philippe put the whole property into the +hands of Mongenod and Sons, where young Baruch Borniche was employed, +and on whose solvency and business probity old Hochon had given him +satisfactory assurances. This house took his sixteen hundred thousand +francs at six per cent per annum, on condition of three months' notice +in case of the withdrawal of the money. + +One fine day, Philippe went to see his mother, and invited her to be +present at his marriage, which was witnessed by Giroudeau, Finot, +Nathan, and Bixiou. By the terms of the marriage contract, the widow +Rouget, whose portion of her late husband's property amounted to a +million of francs, secured to her future husband her whole fortune in +case she died without children. No invitations to the wedding were +sent out, nor any "billets de faire part"; Philippe had his designs. +He lodged his wife in an appartement in the rue Saint-Georges, which +he bought ready-furnished from Lolotte. Madame Bridau the younger +thought it delightful, and her husband rarely set foot in it. Without +her knowledge, Philippe purchased in the rue de Clichy, at a time when +no one suspected the value which property in that quarter would one +day acquire, a magnificent hotel for two hundred and fifty thousand +francs; of which he paid one hundred and fifty thousand down, taking +two years to pay the remainder. He spent large sums in altering the +interior and furnishing it; in fact, he put his income for two years +into this outlay. The pictures, now restored, and estimated at three +hundred thousand francs, appeared in such surroundings in all their +beauty. + +The accession of Charles X. had brought into still greater court favor +the family of the Duc de Chaulieu, whose eldest son, the Duc de +Rhetore, was in the habit of seeing Philippe at Tullia's. Under +Charles X., the elder branch of the Bourbons, believing itself +permanently seated on the throne, followed the advice previously given +by Marshal Gouvion-Saint-Cyr to encourage the adherence of the +soldiers of the Empire. Philippe, who had no doubt made invaluable +revelations as to the conspiracies of 1820 and 1822, was appointed +lieutenant-colonel in the regiment of the Duc de Maufrigneuse. That +fascinating nobleman thought himself bound to protect the man from +whom he had taken Mariette. The corps-de-ballet went for something, +therefore, in the appointment. Moreover, it was decided in the private +councils of Charles X., to give a faint tinge of liberalism to the +surroundings of Monseigneur the Dauphin. Philippe, now a sort of +equerry to the Duc de Maufrigneuse, was presented not only to the +Dauphin, but also to the Dauphine, who was not averse to brusque and +soldierly characters who had become noted for a past fidelity. +Philippe thoroughly understood the part the Dauphin had to play; and +he turned the first exhibition of that spurious liberalism to his own +profit, by getting himself appointed aide-de-camp to a marshal who +stood well at court. + +In January, 1827, Philippe, who was now promoted to the Royal Guard as +lieutenant-colonel in a regiment then commanded by the Duc de +Maufrigneuse, solicited the honor of being ennobled. Under the +Restoration, nobility became a sort of perquisite to the "roturiers" +who served in the Guard. Colonel Bridau had lately bought the estate +of Brambourg, and he now asked to be allowed to entail it under the +title of count. This favor was accorded through the influence of his +many intimacies in the highest rank of society, where he now appeared +in all the luxury of horses, carriages, and liveries; in short, with +the surroundings of a great lord. As soon as he saw himself gazetted +in the Almanack under the title of Comte de Brambourg, he began to +frequent the house of a lieutenant-general of artillery, the Comte de +Soulanges. + +Insatiable in his wants, and backed by the mistresses of influential +men, Philippe now solicited the honor of being one of the Dauphin's +aides-de-camp. He had the audacity to say to the Dauphin that "an old +soldier, wounded on many a battle-field and who knew real warfare, +might, on occasion, be serviceable to Monseigneur." Philippe, who +could take the tone of all varieties of sycophancy, became in the +regions of the highest social life exactly what the position required +him to be; just as at Issoudun, he had copied the respectability of +Mignonnet. He had, moreover, a fine establishment and gave fetes and +dinners; admitting none of his old friends to his house if he thought +their position in life likely to compromise his future. He was +pitiless to the companions of his former debauches, and curtly refused +Bixiou when that lively satirist asked him to say a word in favor of +Giroudeau, who wanted to re-enter the army after the desertion of +Florentine. + +"The man has neither manners nor morals," said Philippe. + +"Ha! did he say that of me?" cried Giroudeau, "of me, who helped him +to get rid of his uncle!" + +"We'll pay him off yet," said Bixiou. + +Philippe intended to marry Mademoiselle Amelie de Soulanges, and +become a general, in command of a regiment of the Royal Guard. He +asked so many favors that, to keep him quiet, they made him a +Commander of the Legion of honor, and also Commander of the order of +Saint Louis. One rainy evening, as Agathe and Joseph were returning +home along the muddy streets, they met Philippe in full uniform, +bedizened with orders, leaning back in a corner of a handsome coupe +lined with yellow silk, whose armorial bearings were surmounted with a +count's coronet. He was on his way to a fete at the Elysee-Bourbon; +the wheels splashed his mother and brother as he waved them a +patronizing greeting. + +"He's going it, that fellow!" said Joseph to his mother. +"Nevertheless, he might send us something better than mud in our +faces." + +"He has such a fine position, in such high society, that we ought not +to blame him for forgetting us," said Madame Bridau. "When a man rises +to so great a height, he has many obligations to repay, many +sacrifices to make; it is natural he should not come to see us, though +he may think of us all the same." + +"My dear fellow," said the Duc de Maufrigneuse one evening, to the new +Comte de Brambourg, "I am sure that your addresses will be favorably +received; but in order to marry Amelie de Soulanges, you must be free +to do so. What have you done with your wife?" + +"My wife?" said Philippe, with a gesture, look, and accent which +Frederick Lemaitre was inspired to use in one of his most terrible +parts. "Alas! I have the melancholy certainty of losing her. She has +not a week to live. My dear duke, you don't know what it is to marry +beneath you. A woman who was a cook, and has the tastes of a cook! who +dishonors me--ah! I am much to be pitied. I have had the honor to +explain my position to Madame la Dauphine. At the time of the +marriage, it was a question of saving to the family a million of +francs which my uncle had left by will to that person. Happily, my +wife took to drinking; at her death, I come into possession of that +million, which is now in the hands of Mongenod and Sons. I have thirty +thousand francs a year in the five per cents, and my landed property, +which is entailed, brings me in forty thousand more. If, as I am led +to suppose, Monsieur de Soulanges gets a marshal's baton, I am on the +high-road with my title of Comte de Brambourg, to becoming general and +peer of France. That will be the proper end of an aide-de-camp of the +Dauphin." + +After the Salon of 1823, one of the leading painters of the day, a +most excellent man, obtained the management of a lottery-office near +the Markets, for the mother of Joseph Bridau. Agathe was fortunately +able, soon after, to exchange it on equal terms with the incumbent of +another office, situated in the rue de Seine, in a house where Joseph +was able to have his atelier. The widow now hired an agent herself, +and was no longer an expense to her son. And yet, as late as 1828, +though she was the directress of an excellent office which she owed +entirely to Joseph's fame, Madame Bridau still had no belief in that +fame, which was hotly contested, as all true glory ever will be. The +great painter, struggling with his genius, had enormous wants; he did +not earn enough to pay for the luxuries which his relations to +society, and his distinguished position in the young School of Art +demanded. Though powerfully sustained by his friends of the Cenacle +and by Mademoiselle des Touches, he did not please the Bourgeois. That +being, from whom comes the money of these days, never unties its +purse-strings for genius that is called in question; unfortunately, +Joseph had the classics and the Institute, and the critics who cry up +those two powers, against him. The brave artist, though backed by Gros +and Gerard, by whose influence he was decorated after the Salon of +1827, obtained few orders. If the ministry of the interior and the +King's household were with difficulty induced to buy some of his +greatest pictures, the shopkeepers and the rich foreigners noticed +them still less. Moreover, Joseph gave way rather too much, as we must +all acknowledge, to imaginative fancies, and that produced a certain +inequality in his work which his enemies made use of to deny his +talent. + +"High art is at a low ebb," said his friend Pierre Grassou, who made +daubs to suit the taste of the bourgeoisie, in whose appartements fine +paintings were at a discount. + +"You ought to have a whole cathedral to decorate; that's what you +want," declared Schinner; "then you would silence criticism with a +master-stroke." + +Such speeches, which alarmed the good Agathe, only corroborated the +judgment she had long since formed upon Philippe and Joseph. Facts +sustained that judgment in the mind of a woman who had never ceased to +be a provincial. Philippe, her favorite child, was he not the great +man of the family at last? in his early errors she saw only the +ebullitions of youth. Joseph, to the merit of whose productions she +was insensible, for she saw them too long in process of gestation to +admire them when finished, seemed to her no more advanced in 1828 than +he was in 1816. Poor Joseph owed money, and was bowed down by the +burden of debt; he had chosen, she felt, a worthless career that made +him no return. She could not conceive why they had given him the cross +of the Legion of honor. Philippe, on the other hand, rich enough to +cease gambling, a guest at the fetes of MADAME, the brilliant colonel +who at all reviews and in all processions appeared before her eyes in +splendid uniforms, with his two crosses on his breast, realized all +her maternal dreams. One such day of public ceremony effaced from +Agathe's mind the horrible sight of Philippe's misery on the Quai de +l'Ecole; on that day he passed his mother at the self-same spot, in +attendance on the Dauphin, with plumes in his shako, and his pelisse +gorgeous with gold and fur. Agathe, who to her artist son was now a +sort of devoted gray sister, felt herself the mother of none but the +dashing aide-de-camp to his Royal Highness, the Dauphin of France. +Proud of Philippe, she felt he made the ease and happiness of her +life,--forgetting that the lottery-office, by which she was enabled to +live at all, came through Joseph. + +One day Agathe noticed that her poor artist was more worried than +usual by the bill of his color-man, and she determined, though cursing +his profession in her heart, to free him from his debts. The poor +woman kept the house with the proceeds of her office, and took care +never to ask Joseph for a farthing. Consequently she had no money of +her own; but she relied on Philippe's good heart and well-filled +purse. For three years she had waited in expectation of his coming to +see her; she now imagined that if she made an appeal to him he would +bring some enormous sum; and her thoughts dwelt on the happiness she +should feel in giving it to Joseph, whose judgment of his brother, +like that of Madame Descoings, was so unfair. + +Saying nothing to Joseph, she wrote the following letter to +Philippe:-- + + To Monsieur le comte de Brambourg: + + My dear Philippe,--You have not given the least little word of + remembrance to your mother for five years. That is not right. You + should remember the past, if only for the sake of your excellent + brother. Joseph is now in need of money, and you are floating in + wealth; he works, while you are flying from fete to fete. You now + possess, all to yourself, the property of my brother. Little + Borniche tells me you cannot have less than two hundred thousand + francs a year. Well, then, come and see Joseph. During your visit, + slip into the skull a few thousand-franc notes. Philippe, you owe + them to us; nevertheless, your brother will feel grateful to you, + not to speak of the happiness you will give + + Your mother, + + Agathe Bridau, nee Rouget + + +Two days later the concierge brought to the atelier, where poor Agathe +was breakfasting with Joseph, the following terrible letter:-- + + My dear Mother,--A man does not marry a Mademoiselle Amelie de + Soulanges without the purse of Fortunatus, if under the name of + Comte de Brambourg he hides that of + + Your son, + + Philippe Bridau + + +As Agathe fell half-fainting on the sofa, the letter dropped to the +floor. The slight noise made by the paper, and the smothered but +dreadful exclamation which escaped Agathe startled Joseph, who had +forgotten his mother for a moment and was vehemently rubbing in a +sketch; he leaned his head round the edge of his canvas to see what +had happened. The sight of his mother stretched out on the floor made +him drop palette and brushes, and rush to lift what seemed a lifeless +body. He took Agathe in his arms and carried her to her own bed, and +sent the servant for his friend Horace Bianchon. As soon as he could +question his mother she told him of her letter to Philippe, and of the +answer she had received from him. The artist went to his atelier and +picked up the letter, whose concise brutality had broken the tender +heart of the poor mother, and shattered the edifice of trust her +maternal preference had erected. When Joseph returned to her bedside +he had the good feeling to be silent. He did not speak of his brother +in the three weeks during which--we will not say the illness, but--the +death agony of the poor woman lasted. Bianchon, who came every day and +watched his patient with the devotion of a true friend, told Joseph +the truth on the first day of her seizure. + +"At her age," he said, "and under the circumstances which have +happened to her, all we can hope to do is to make her death as little +painful as possible." + +She herself felt so surely called of God that she asked the next day +for the religious help of old Abbe Loraux, who had been her confessor +for more than twenty-two years. As soon as she was alone with him, and +had poured her griefs into his heart, she said--as she had said to +Madame Hochon, and had repeated to herself again and again throughout +her life:-- + +"What have I done to displease God? Have I not loved Him with all my +soul? Have I wandered from the path of grace? What is my sin? Can I be +guilty of wrong when I know not what it is? Have I the time to repair +it?" + +"No," said the old man, in a gentle voice. "Alas! your life seems to +have been pure and your soul spotless; but the eye of God, poor +afflicted creature, is keener than that of his ministers. I see the +truth too late; for you have misled even me." + +Hearing these words from lips that had never spoken other than +peaceful and pleasant words to her, Agathe rose suddenly in her bed +and opened her eyes wide, with terror and distress. + +"Tell me! tell me!" she cried. + +"Be comforted," said the priest. "Your punishment is a proof that you +will receive pardon. God chastens his elect. Woe to those whose +misdeeds meet with fortunate success; they will be kneaded again in +humanity until they in their turn are sorely punished for simple +errors, and are brought to the maturity of celestial fruits. Your +life, my daughter, has been one long error. You have fallen into the +pit which you dug for yourself; we fail ever on the side we have +ourselves weakened. You gave your heart to an unnatural son, in whom +you made your glory, and you have misunderstood the child who is your +true glory. You have been so deeply unjust that you never even saw the +striking contrast between the brothers. You owe the comfort of your +life to Joseph, while your other son has pillaged you repeatedly. The +poor son, who loves you with no return of equal tenderness, gives you +all the comfort that your life has had; the rich son, who never thinks +of you, despises you and desires your death--" + +"Oh! no," she cried. + +"Yes," resumed the priest, "your humble position stands in the way of +his proud hopes. Mother, these are your sins! Woman, your sorrows and +your anguish foretell that you shall know the peace of God. Your son +Joseph is so noble that his tenderness has never been lessened by the +injustice your maternal preferences have done him. Love him now; give +him all your heart during your remaining days; pray for him, as I +shall pray for you." + +The eyes of the mother, opened by so firm a hand, took in with one +retrospective glance the whole course of her life. Illumined by this +flash of light, she saw her involuntary wrong-doing and burst into +tears. The old priest was so deeply moved at the repentance of a being +who had sinned solely through ignorance, that he left the room hastily +lest she should see his pity. + +Joseph returned to his mother's room about two hours after her +confessor had left her. He had been to a friend to borrow the +necessary money to pay his most pressing debts, and he came in on +tiptoe, thinking that his mother was asleep. He sat down in an +armchair without her seeing him; but he sprang up with a cold chill +running through him as he heard her say, in a voice broken with +sobs,-- + +"Will he forgive me?" + +"What is it, mother?" he exclaimed, shocked at the stricken face of +the poor woman, and thinking the words must mean the delirium that +precedes death. + +"Ah, Joseph! can you pardon me, my child?" she cried. + +"For what?" he said. + +"I have never loved you as you deserved to be loved." + +"Oh, what an accusation!" he cried. "Not loved me? For seven years +have we not lived alone together? All these seven years have you not +taken care of me and done everything for me? Do I not see you every +day,--hear your voice? Are you not the gentle and indulgent companion +of my miserable life? You don't understand painting?--Ah! but that's a +gift not always given. I was saying to Grassou only yesterday: 'What +comforts me in the midst of my trials is that I have such a good +mother. She is all that an artist's wife should be; she sees to +everything; she takes care of my material wants without ever troubling +or worrying me.'" + +"No, Joseph, no; you have loved me, but I have not returned you love +for love. Ah! would that I could live a little longer-- Give me your +hand." + +Agathe took her son's hand, kissed it, held it on her heart, and +looked in his face a long time,--letting him see the azure of her eyes +resplendent with a tenderness she had hitherto bestowed on Philippe +only. The painter, well fitted to judge of expression, was so struck +by the change, and saw so plainly how the heart of his mother had +opened to him, that he took her in his arms, and held her for some +moments to his heart, crying out like one beside himself,--"My mother! +oh, my mother!" + +"Ah! I feel that I am forgiven!" she said. "God will confirm the +child's pardon of its mother." + +"You must be calm: don't torment yourself; hear me. I feel myself +loved enough in this one moment for all the past," he said, as he laid +her back upon the pillows. + +During the two weeks' struggle between life and death, there glowed +such love in every look and gesture and impulse of the soul of the +pious creature, that each effusion of her feelings seemed like the +expression of a lifetime. The mother thought only of her son; she +herself counted for nothing; sustained by love, she was unaware of her +sufferings. D'Arthez, Michel Chrestien, Fulgence Ridal, Pierre +Grassou, and Bianchon often kept Joseph company, and she heard them +talking art in a low voice in a corner of her room. + +"Oh, how I wish I knew what color is!" she exclaimed one evening as +she heard them discussing one of Joseph's pictures. + +Joseph, on his side, was sublimely devoted to his mother. He never +left her chamber; answered tenderness by tenderness, cherishing her +upon his heart. The spectacle was never afterwards forgotten by his +friends; and they themselves, a band of brothers in talent and +nobility of nature, were to Joseph and his mother all that they should +have been,--friends who prayed, and truly wept; not saying prayers and +shedding tears, but one with their friend in thought and action. +Joseph, inspired as much by feeling as by genius, divined in the +occasional expression of his mother's face a desire that was deep +hidden in her heart, and he said one day to d'Arthez,-- + +"She has loved that brigand Philippe too well not to want to see him +before she dies." + +Joseph begged Bixiou, who frequented the Bohemian regions where +Philippe was still occasionally to be found, to persuade that +shameless son to play, if only out of pity, a little comedy of +tenderness which might wrap the mother's heart in a winding-sheet of +illusive happiness. Bixiou, in his capacity as an observing and +misanthropical scoffer, desired nothing better than to undertake such +a mission. When he had made known Madame Bridau's condition to the +Comte de Brambourg, who received him in a bedroom hung with yellow +damask, the colonel laughed. + +"What the devil do you want me to do there?" he cried. "The only +service the poor woman can render me is to die as soon as she can; she +would be rather a sorry figure at my marriage with Mademoiselle de +Soulanges. The less my family is seen, the better my position. You can +easily understand that I should like to bury the name of Bridau under +all the monuments in Pere-Lachaise. My brother irritates me by +bringing the name into publicity. You are too knowing not to see the +situation as I do. Look at it as if it were your own: if you were a +deputy, with a tongue like yours, you would be as much feared as +Chauvelin; you would be made Comte Bixiou, and director of the Beaux- +Arts. Once there, how should you like it if your grandmother Descoings +were to turn up? Would you want that worthy woman, who looked like a +Madame Saint-Leon, to be hanging on to you? Would you give her an arm +in the Tuileries, and present her to the noble family you were trying +to enter? Damn it, you'd wish her six feet under ground, in a leaden +night-gown. Come, breakfast with me, and let us talk of something +else. I am a parvenu, my dear fellow, and I know it. I don't choose +that my swaddling-clothes shall be seen. My son will be more fortunate +than I; he will be a great lord. The scamp will wish me dead; I expect +it,--or he won't be my son." + +He rang the bell, and ordered the servant to serve breakfast. + +"The fashionable world wouldn't see you in your mother's bedroom," +said Bixiou. "What would it cost you to seem to love that poor woman +for a few hours?" + +"Whew!" cried Philippe, winking. "So you come from them, do you? I'm +an old camel, who knows all about genuflections. My mother makes the +excuse of her last illness to get something out of me for Joseph. No, +thank you!" + +When Bixiou related this scene to Joseph, the poor painter was chilled +to the very soul. + +"Does Philippe know I am ill?" asked Agathe in a piteous tone, the day +after Bixiou had rendered an account of his fruitless errand. + +Joseph left the room, suffocating with emotion. The Abbe Loraux, who +was sitting by the bedside of his penitent, took her hand and pressed +it, and then he answered, "Alas! my child, you have never had but one +son." + +The words, which Agathe understood but too well, conveyed a shock +which was the beginning of the end. She died twenty hours later. + +In the delirium which preceded death, the words, "Whom does Philippe +take after?" escaped her. + +Joseph followed his mother to the grave alone. Philippe had gone, on +business it was said, to Orleans; in reality, he was driven from Paris +by the following letter, which Joseph wrote to him a moment after +their mother had breathed her last sigh:-- + + Monster! my poor mother has died of the shock your letter caused + her. Wear mourning, but pretend illness; I will not suffer her + assassin to stand at my side before her coffin. + + Joseph B. + + +The painter, who no longer had the heart to paint, though his bitter +grief sorely needed the mechanical distraction which labor is wont to +give, was surrounded by friends who agreed with one another never to +leave him entirely alone. Thus it happened that Bixiou, who loved +Joseph as much as a satirist can love any one, was sitting in the +atelier with a group of other friends about two weeks after Agathe's +funeral. The servant entered with a letter, brought by an old woman, +she said, who was waiting below for the answer. + + Monsieur,--To you, whom I scarcely dare to call my brother, I am + forced to address myself, if only on account of the name I bear.-- + +Joseph turned the page and read the signature. The name "Comtesse +Flore de Brambourg" made him shudder. He foresaw some new atrocity on +the part of his brother. + +"That brigand," he cried, "is the devil's own. And he calls himself a +man of honor! And he wears a lot of crosses on his breast! And he +struts about at court instead of being bastinadoed! And the scoundrel +is called Monsieur le Comte!" + +"There are many like him," said Bixiou. + +"After all," said Joseph, "the Rabouilleuse deserves her fate, +whatever it is. She is not worth pitying; she'd have had my neck wrung +like a chicken's without so much as saying, 'He's innocent.'" + +Joseph flung away the letter, but Bixiou caught it in the air, and +read it aloud, as follows:-- + + Is it decent that the Comtesse Bridau de Brambourg should die in a + hospital, no matter what may have been her faults? If such is to + be my fate, if such is your determination and that of monsieur le + comte, so be it; but if so, will you, who are the friend of Doctor + Bianchon, ask him for a permit to let me enter a hospital? + + The person who carries this letter has been eleven consecutive + days to the hotel de Brambourg, rue de Clichy, without getting any + help from my husband. The poverty in which I now am prevents my + employing a lawyer to make a legal demand for what is due to me, + that I may die with decency. Nothing can save me, I know that. In + case you are unwilling to see your unhappy sister-in-law, send me, + at least, the money to end my days. Your brother desires my death; + he has always desired it. He warned me that he knew three ways of + killing a woman, but I had not the sense to foresee the one he has + employed. + + In case you will consent to relieve me, and judge for yourself the + misery in which I now am, I live in the rue du Houssay, at the + corner of the rue Chantereine, on the fifth floor. If I cannot pay + my rent to-morrow I shall be put out--and then, where can I go? + May I call myself, + + Your sister-in-law, + + Comtesse Flore de Brambourg. + + +"What a pit of infamy!" cried Joseph; "there is something under it +all." + +"Let us send for the woman who brought the letter; we may get the +preface of the story," said Bixiou. + +The woman presently appeared, looking, as Bixiou observed, like +perambulating rags. She was, in fact, a mass of old gowns, one on top +of another, fringed with mud on account of the weather, the whole +mounted on two thick legs with heavy feet which were ill-covered by +ragged stockings and shoes from whose cracks the water oozed upon the +floor. Above the mound of rags rose a head like those that Charlet has +given to his scavenger-women, caparisoned with a filthy bandanna +handkerchief slit in the folds. + +"What is your name?" said Joseph, while Bixiou sketched her, leaning +on an umbrella belonging to the year II. of the Republic. + +"Madame Gruget, at your service. I've seen better days, my young +gentleman," she said to Bixiou, whose laugh affronted her. "If my poor +girl hadn't had the ill-luck to love some one too much, you wouldn't +see me what I am. She drowned herself in the river, my poor Ida,-- +saving your presence! I've had the folly to nurse up a quaterne, and +that's why, at seventy-seven years of age, I'm obliged to take care of +sick folks for ten sous a day, and go--" + +"--without clothes?" said Bixiou. "My grandmother nursed up a trey, +but she dressed herself properly." + +"Out of my ten sous I have to pay for a lodging--" + +"What's the matter with the lady you are nursing?" + +"In the first place, she hasn't got any money; and then she has a +disease that scares the doctors. She owes me for sixty days' nursing; +that's why I keep on nursing her. The husband, who is a count,--she is +really a countess,--will no doubt pay me when she is dead; and so I've +lent her all I had. And now I haven't anything; all I did have has +gone to the pawn-brokers. She owes me forty-seven francs and twelve +sous, beside thirty francs for the nursing. She wants to kill herself +with charcoal. I tell her it ain't right; and, indeed, I've had to get +the concierge to look after her while I'm gone, or she's likely to +jump out of the window." + +"But what's the matter with her?" said Joseph. + +"Ah! monsieur, the doctor from the Sisters' hospital came; but as to +the disease," said Madame Gruget, assuming a modest air, "he told me +she must go to the hospital. The case is hopeless." + +"Let us go and see her," said Bixiou. + +"Here," said Joseph to the woman, "take these ten francs." + +Plunging his hand into the skull and taking out all his remaining +money, the painter called a coach from the rue Mazarin and went to +find Bianchon, who was fortunately at home. Meantime Bixiou went off +at full speed to the rue de Bussy, after Desroches. The four friends +reached Flore's retreat in the rue du Houssay an hour later. + +"That Mephistopheles on horseback, named Philippe Bridau," said +Bixiou, as they mounted the staircase, "has sailed his boat cleverly +to get rid of his wife. You know our old friend Lousteau? well, +Philippe paid him a thousand francs a month to keep Madame Bridau in +the society of Florine, Mariette, Tullia, and the Val-Noble. When +Philippe saw his crab-girl so used to pleasure and dress that she +couldn't do without them, he stopped paying the money, and left her to +get it as she could--it is easy to know how. By the end of eighteen +months, the brute had forced his wife, stage by stage, lower and +lower; till at last, by the help of a young officer, he gave her a +taste for drinking. As he went up in the world, his wife went down; +and the countess is now in the mud. The girl, bred in the country, has +a strong constitution. I don't know what means Philippe has lately +taken to get rid of her. I am anxious to study this precious little +drama, for I am determined to avenge Joseph here. Alas, friends," he +added, in a tone which left his three companions in doubt whether he +was jesting or speaking seriously, "give a man over to a vice and +you'll get rid of him. Didn't Hugo say: 'She loved a ball, and died of +it'? So it is. My grandmother loved the lottery. Old Rouget loved a +loose life, and Lolotte killed him. Madame Bridau, poor woman, loved +Philippe, and perished of it. Vice! vice! my dear friends, do you want +to know what vice is? It is the Bonneau of death." + +"Then you'll die of a joke," said Desroches, laughing. + +Above the fourth floor, the young men were forced to climb one of the +steep, straight stairways that are almost ladders, by which the attics +of Parisian houses are often reached. Though Joseph, who remembered +Flore in all her beauty, expected to see some frightful change, he was +not prepared for the hideous spectacle which now smote his artist's +eye. In a room with bare, unpapered walls, under the sharp pitch of an +attic roof, on a cot whose scanty mattress was filled, perhaps, with +refuse cotton, a woman lay, green as a body that has been drowned two +days, thin as a consumptive an hour before death. This putrid skeleton +had a miserable checked handkerchief bound about her head, which had +lost its hair. The circle round the hollow eyes was red, and the +eyelids were like the pellicle of an egg. Nothing remained of the +body, once so captivating, but an ignoble, bony structure. As Flore +caught sight of the visitors, she drew across her breast a bit of +muslin which might have been a fragment of a window-curtain, for it +was edged with rust as from a rod. The young men saw two chairs, a +broken bureau on which was a tallow-candle stuck into a potato, a few +dishes on the floor, and an earthen fire-pot in a corner of the +chimney, in which there was no fire; this was all the furniture of the +room. Bixiou noticed the remaining sheets of writing-paper, brought +from some neighboring grocery for the letter which the two women had +doubtless concocted together. The word "disgusting" is a positive to +which no superlative exists, and we must therefore use it to convey +the impression caused by this sight. When the dying woman saw Joseph +approaching her, two great tears rolled down her cheeks. + +"She can still weep!" whispered Bixiou. "A strange sight,--tears from +dominos! It is like the miracle of Moses." + +"How burnt up!" cried Joseph. + +"In the fires of repentance," said Flore. "I cannot get a priest; I +have nothing, not even a crucifix, to help me see God. Ah, monsieur!" +she cried, raising her arms, that were like two pieces of carved wood, +"I am a guilty woman; but God never punished any one as he has +punished me! Philippe killed Max, who advised me to do dreadful +things, and now he has killed me. God uses him as a scourge!" + +"Leave me alone with her," said Bianchon, "and let me find out if the +disease is curable." + +"If you cure her, Philippe Bridau will die of rage," said Desroches. +"I am going to draw up a statement of the condition in which we have +found his wife. He has not brought her before the courts as an +adulteress, and therefore her rights as a wife are intact: he shall +have the shame of a suit. But first, we must remove the Comtesse de +Brambourg to the private hospital of Doctor Dubois, in the rue du +Faubourg-Saint-Denis. She will be well cared for there. Then I will +summon the count for the restoration of the conjugal home." + +"Bravo, Desroches!" cried Bixiou. "What a pleasure to do so much good +that will make some people feel so badly!" + +Ten minutes later, Bianchon came down and joined them. + +"I am going straight to Despleins," he said. "He can save the woman by +an operation. Ah! he will take good care of the case, for her abuse of +liquor has developed a magnificent disease which was thought to be +lost." + +"Wag of a mangler! Isn't there but one disease in life?" cried Bixiou. + +But Bianchon was already out of sight, so great was his haste to tell +Despleins the wonderful news. Two hours later, Joseph's miserable +sister-in-law was removed to the decent hospital established by Doctor +Dubois, which was afterward bought of him by the city of Paris. Three +weeks later, the "Hospital Gazette" published an account of one of the +boldest operations of modern surgery, on a case designated by the +initials "F. B." The patient died,--more from the exhaustion produced +by misery and starvation than from the effects of the treatment. + +No sooner did this occur, than the Comte de Brambourg went, in deep +mourning, to call on the Comte de Soulanges, and inform him of the sad +loss he had just sustained. Soon after, it was whispered about in the +fashionable world that the Comte de Soulanges would shortly marry his +daughter to a parvenu of great merit, who was about to be appointed +brigadier-general and receive command of a regiment of the Royal +Guard. De Marsay told this news to Eugene de Rastignac, as they were +supping together at the Rocher de Cancale, where Bixiou happened to +be. + +"It shall not take place!" said the witty artist to himself. + +Among the many old friends whom Philippe now refused to recognize, +there were some, like Giroudeau, who were unable to revenge +themselves; but it happened that he had wounded Bixiou, who, thanks to +his brilliant qualities, was everywhere received, and who never +forgave an insult. One day at the Rocher de Cancale, before a number +of well-bred persons who were supping there, Philippe had replied to +Bixiou, who spoke of visiting him at the hotel de Brambourg: "You can +come and see me when you are made a minister." + +"Am I to turn Protestant before I can visit you?" said Bixiou, +pretending to misunderstand the speech; but he said to himself, "You +may be Goliath, but I have got my sling, and plenty of stones." + +The next day he went to an actor, who was one of his friends, and +metamorphosed himself, by the all-powerful aid of dress, into a +secularized priest with green spectacles; then he took a carriage and +drove to the hotel de Soulanges. Received by the count, on sending in +a message that he wanted to speak with him on a matter of serious +importance, he related in a feigned voice the whole story of the dead +countess, the secret particulars of whose horrible death had been +confided to him by Bianchon; the history of Agathe's death; the +history of old Rouget's death, of which the Comte de Brambourg had +openly boasted; the history of Madame Descoings's death; the history +of the theft from the newspaper; and the history of Philippe's private +morals during his early days. + +"Monsieur le comte, don't give him your daughter until you have made +every inquiry; interrogate his former comrades,--Bixiou, Giroudeau, +and others." + +Three months later, the Comte de Brambourg gave a supper to du Tillet, +Nucingen, Eugene de Rastignac, Maxime de Trailles, and Henri de +Marsay. The amphitryon accepted with much nonchalance the half- +consolatory condolences they made to him as to his rupture with the +house of Soulanges. + +"You can do better," said Maxime de Trailles. + +"How much money must a man have to marry a demoiselle de Grandlieu?" +asked Philippe of de Marsay. + +"You? They wouldn't give you the ugliest of the six for less than ten +millions," answered de Marsay insolently. + +"Bah!" said Rastignac. "With an income of two hundred thousand francs +you can have Mademoiselle de Langeais, the daughter of the marquis; +she is thirty years old, and ugly, and she hasn't a sou; that ought to +suit you." + +"I shall have ten millions two years from now," said Philippe Bridau. + +"It is now the 16th of January, 1829," cried du Tillet, laughing. "I +have been hard at work for ten years and I have not made as much as +that yet." + +"We'll take counsel of each other," said Bridau; "you shall see how +well I understand finance." + +"How much do you really own?" asked Nucingen. + +"Three millions, excluding my house and my estate, which I shall not +sell; in fact, I cannot, for the property is now entailed and goes +with the title." + +Nucingen and du Tillet looked at each other; after that sly glance du +Tillet said to Philippe, "My dear count, I shall be delighted to do +business with you." + +De Marsay intercepted the look du Tillet had exchanged with Nucingen, +and which meant, "We will have those millions." The two bank magnates +were at the centre of political affairs, and could, at a given time, +manipulate matters at the Bourse, so as to play a sure game against +Philippe, when the probabilities might all seem for him and yet be +secretly against him. + +The occasion came. In July, 1830, du Tillet and Nucingen had helped +the Comte de Brambourg to make fifteen hundred thousand francs; he +could therefore feel no distrust of those who had given him such good +advice. Philippe, who owed his rise to the Restoration, was misled by +his profound contempt for "civilians"; he believed in the triumph of +the Ordonnances, and was bent on playing for a rise; du Tillet and +Nucingen, who were sure of a revolution, played against him for a +fall. The crafty pair confirmed the judgment of the Comte de Brambourg +and seemed to share his convictions; they encouraged his hopes of +doubling his millions, and apparently took steps to help him. Philippe +fought like a man who had four millions depending on the issue of the +struggle. His devotion was so noticeable, that he received orders to +go to Saint-Cloud with the Duc de Maufrigneuse and attend a council. +This mark of favor probably saved Philippe's life; for when the order +came, on the 25th of July, he was intending to make a charge and sweep +the boulevards, when he would undoubtedly have been shot down by his +friend Giroudeau, who commanded a division of the assailants. + +A month later, nothing was left of Colonel Bridau's immense fortune +but his house and furniture, his estates, and the pictures which had +come from Issoudun. He committed the still further folly, as he said +himself, of believing in the restoration of the elder branch, to which +he remained faithful until 1834. The not imcomprehensible jealousy +Philippe felt on seeing Giroudeau a colonel drove him to re-enter the +service. Unluckily for himself, he obtained, in 1835, the command of a +regiment in Algiers, where he remained three years in a post of +danger, always hoping for the epaulets of a general. But some +malignant influence--that, in fact, of General Giroudeau,--continually +balked him. Grown hard and brutal, Philippe exceeded the ordinary +severity of the service, and was hated, in spite of his bravery a la +Murat. + +At the beginning of the fatal year 1839, while making a sudden dash +upon the Arabs during a retreat before superior forces, he flung +himself against the enemy, followed by only a single company, and fell +in, unfortunately, with the main body of the enemy. The battle was +bloody and terrible, man to man, and only a few horsemen escaped +alive. Seeing that their colonel was surrounded, these men, who were +at some distance, were unwilling to perish uselessly in attempting to +rescue him. They heard his cry: "Your colonel! to me! a colonel of the +Empire!" but they rejoined the regiment. Philippe met with a horrible +death, for the Arabs, after hacking him to pieces with their +scimitars, cut off his head. + +Joseph, who was married about this time, through the good offices of +the Comte de Serizy, to the daughter of a millionaire farmer, +inherited his brother's house in Paris and the estate of Brambourg, in +consequence of the entail, which Philippe, had he foreseen this +result, would certainly have broken. The chief pleasure the painter +derived from his inheritance was in the fine collection of paintings +from Issoudun. He now possesses an income of sixty thousand francs, +and his father-in-law, the farmer, continues to pile up the five-franc +pieces. Though Joseph Bridau paints magnificent pictures, and renders +important services to artists, he is not yet a member of the +Institute. As the result of a clause in the deed of entail, he is now +Comte de Brambourg, a fact which often makes him roar with laughter +among his friends in the atelier. + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Note: The Two Brothers is also known as A Bachelor's Establishment, +The Black Sheep, and La Rabouilleuse. In other Addendum appearances +it is referred to as A Bachelor's Establishment. + +Bianchon, Horace + Father Goriot + The Atheist's Mass + Cesar Birotteau + The Commission in Lunacy + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Secrets of a Princess + The Government Clerks + Pierrette + A Study of Woman + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + The Seamy Side of History + The Magic Skin + A Second Home + A Prince of Bohemia + Letters of Two Brides + The Muse of the Department + The Imaginary Mistress + The Middle Classes + Cousin Betty + The Country Parson +In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following: + Another Study of Woman + La Grande Breteche + +Birotteau, Cesar + Cesar Birotteau + At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + +Bixiou, Jean-Jacques + The Purse + The Government Clerks + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Firm of Nucingen + The Muse of the Department + Cousin Betty + The Member for Arcis + Beatrix + A Man of Business + Gaudissart II. + The Unconscious Humorists + Cousin Pons + +Brambourg, Comte de (Title of Philippe Bridau, later Joseph) + The Unconscious Humorists + +Bridau, Philippe + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + +Bridau, Joseph + The Purse + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Start in Life + Modeste Mignon + Another Study of Woman + Pierre Grassou + Letters of Two Brides + Cousin Betty + The Member for Arcis + +Bruel, Jean Francois du + The Government Clerks + A Start in Life + A Prince of Bohemia + The Middle Classes + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Daughter of Eve + +Bruel, Claudine Chaffaroux, Madame du + A Prince of Bohemia + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Letters of Two Brides + The Middle Classes + +Cabirolle, Madame + A Start in Life + +Cabirolle, Agathe-Florentine + A Start in Life + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + +Camusot + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Cousin Pons + The Muse of the Department + Cesar Birotteau + At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + +Cardot, Jean-Jerome-Severin + A Start in Life + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + Cesar Birotteau + +Chaulieu, Henri, Duc de + Letters of Two Brides + Modest Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Thirteen + +Chrestien, Michel + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Secrets of a Princess + +Claparon, Charles + Cesar Birotteau + Melmoth Reconciled + The Firm of Nucingen + A Man of Business + The Middle Classes + +Coloquinte + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + +Coralie, Mademoiselle + A Start in Life + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + +Desplein + The Atheist's Mass + Cousin Pons + Lost Illusions + The Thirteen + The Government Clerks + Pierrette + The Seamy Side of History + Modest Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + +Desroches (son) + Colonel Chabert + A Start in Life + A Woman of Thirty + The Commission in Lunacy + The Government Clerks + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Firm of Nucingen + A Man of Business + The Middle Classes + +Finot, Andoche + Cesar Birotteau + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Government Clerks + A Start in Life + Gaudissart the Great + The Firm of Nucingen + +Gaillard, Madame Theodore + Jealousies of a Country Town + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Beatrix + The Unconscious Humorists + +Gerard, Francois-Pascal-Simon, Baron + Beatrix + +Giraud, Leon + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Secrets of a Princess + The Unconscious Humorists + +Giroudeau + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Start in Life + +Gobseck, Esther Van + Gobseck + The Firm of Nucingen + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + +Godeschal, Francois-Claude-Marie + Colonel Chabert + A Start in Life + The Commission in Lunacy + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons + +Godeschal, Marie + A Start in Life + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Cousin Pons + +Grandlieu, Duc Ferdinand de + The Gondreville Mystery + The Thirteen + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + +Grandlieu, Mademoiselle de + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + +Grassou, Pierre + Pierre Grassou + Cousin Betty + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons + +Gruget, Madame Etienne + The Thirteen + The Government Clerks + +Haudry (doctor) + Cesar Birotteau + The Thirteen + The Seamy Side of History + Cousin Pons + +Lora, Leon de + The Unconscious Humorists + A Start in Life + Pierre Grassou + Honorine + Cousin Betty + Beatrix + +Loraux, Abbe + A Start in Life + Cesar Birotteau + Honorine + +Lousteau, Etienne + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + A Daughter of Eve + Beatrix + The Muse of the Department + Cousin Betty + A Prince of Bohemia + A Man of Business + The Middle Classes + The Unconscious Humorists + +Lupeaulx, Clement Chardin des + The Muse of the Department + Eugenie Grandet + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Government Clerks + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Ursule Mirouet + +Magus, Elie + The Vendetta + A Marriage Settlement + Pierre Grassou + Cousin Pons + +Matifat (wealthy druggist) + Cesar Birotteau + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Firm of Nucingen + Cousin Pons + +Maufrigneuse, Duc de + The Secrets of a Princess + A Start in Life + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + +Nathan, Madame Raoul + The Muse of the Department + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Government Clerks + Ursule Mirouet + Eugenie Grandet + The Imaginary Mistress + A Prince of Bohemia + A Daughter of Eve + The Unconscious Humorists + +Navarreins, Duc de + Colonel Chabert + The Muse of the Department + The Thirteen + Jealousies of a Country Town + The Peasantry + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Country Parson + The Magic Skin + The Gondreville Mystery + The Secrets of a Princess + Cousin Betty + +Rhetore, Duc Alphonse de + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Letters of Two Brides + Albert Savarus + The Member for Arcis + +Ridal, Fulgence + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Unconscious Humorists + +Roguin + Cesar Birotteau + Eugenie Grandet + Pierrette + The Vendetta + +Rouget, Jean-Jacques + The Muse of the Department + +Schinner, Hippolyte + The Purse + Pierre Grassou + A Start in Life + Albert Savarus + The Government Clerks + Modeste Mignon + The Imaginary Mistress + The Unconscious Humorists + +Serizy, Comte Hugret de + A Start in Life + Honorine + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + +Tillet, Ferdinand du + Cesar Birotteau + The Firm of Nucingen + The Middle Classes + Pierrette + Melmoth Reconciled + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Secrets of a Princess + A Daughter of Eve + The Member for Arcis + Cousin Betty + The Unconscious Humorists + +Touches, Mademoiselle Felicite des + Beatrix + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Another Study of Woman + A Daughter of Eve + Honorine + Beatrix + The Muse of the Department + +Vernou, Felicien + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + A Daughter of Eve + Cousin Betty + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Celibates, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CELIBATES *** + +This file should be named celib10.txt or celib10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, celib11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, celib10a.txt + +Produced by John Bickers and 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