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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/7950.txt b/7950.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f0346f2 --- /dev/null +++ b/7950.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11674 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Jealousies of a Country Town, 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 Jealousies of a Country Town + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Release Date: July 19, 2004 [EBook #7950] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JEALOUSIES OF A COUNTRY TOWN *** + + + + +Produced by Dagny; and John Bickers + + + +Note: This eBook contains two existing Project Gutenberg eBooks, + An Old Maid (EBook #1352), Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley, + and The Collection of Antiquities (EBook #1405) Translated By Ellen + Marriage; these are combined into their original collected form + and includes an introduction by George Saintsbury. + + + + + + THE JEALOUSIES OF A COUNTRY TOWN + + BY + + HONORE DE BALZAC + + + + + + + INTRODUCTION + +The two stories of /Les Rivalites/ are more closely connected than it +was always Balzac's habit to connect the tales which he united under a +common heading. Not only are both devoted to the society of Alencon--a +town and neighborhood to which he had evidently strong, though it is +not clearly known what, attractions--not only is the Chevalier de +Valois a notable figure in each; but the community, imparted by the +elaborate study of the old /noblesse/ in each case, is even greater +than either of these ties could give. Indeed, if instead of /Les +Rivalites/ the author had chosen some label indicating the study of +the /noblesse qui s'en va/, it might almost have been preferable. He +did not, however; and though in a man who so constantly changed his +titles and his arrangements the actual ones are not excessively +authoritative, they have authority. + +/La Vieille Fille/, despite a certain tone of levity--which, to do +Balzac justice, is not common with him, and which is rather hard upon +the poor heroine--is one of the best and liveliest things he ever did. +The opening picture of the Chevalier, though, like other things of its +author's, especially in his overtures, liable to the charge of being +elaborated a little too much, is one of the very best things of its +kind, and is a sort of /locus classicus/ for its subject. The whole +picture of country town society is about as good as it can be; and the +only blot that I know is to be found in the sentimental Athanase, who +is not quite within Balzac's province, extensive as that province is. +If we compare Mr. Augustus Moddle, we shall see one of the not too +numerous instances in which Dickens has a clear advantage over Balzac; +and if it be retorted that Balzac's object was not to present a merely +ridiculous object, the rejoinder is not very far to seek. Such a +character, with such a fate as Balzac has assigned to him, must be +either humorously grotesque or unfeignedly pathetic, and Balzac has +not quite made Athanase either. + +He is, however, if he is a failure, about the only failure in the +book, and he is atoned for by a whole bundle of successes. Of the +Chevalier, little more need be said. Balzac, it must be remembered, +was the oldest novelist of distinct genius who had the opportunity of +delineating the survivors of the /ancien regime/ from the life, and +directly. It is certain--even if we hesitate at believing him quite so +familiar with all the classes of higher society from the /Faubourg/ +downwards, as he would have us believe him--that he saw something of +most of them, and his genius was unquestionably of the kind to which a +mere thumbnail study, a mere passing view, suffices for the +acquisition of a thorough working knowledge of the object. In this +case the Chevalier has served, and not improperly served, as the +original of a thousand after-studies. His rival, less carefully +projected, is also perhaps a little less alive. Again, Balzac was old +enough to have foregathered with many men of the Revolution. But the +most characteristic of them were not long-lived, the "little window" +and other things having had a bad effect on them; and most of those +who survived had, by the time he was old enough to take much notice, +gone through metamorphoses of Bonapartism, Constitutional Liberalism, +and what not. But still du Bousquier /is/ alive, as well as all the +minor assistants and spectators in the battle for the old maid's hand. +Suzanne, that tactful and graceless Suzanne to whom we are introduced +first of all, is very much alive; and for all her gracelessness, not +at all disagreeable. I am only sorry that she sold the counterfeit +presentment of the Princess Goritza after all. + +/Le Cabinet des Antiques/, in its Alencon scenes, is a worthy pendant +to /La Vieille Fille/. The old-world honor of the Marquis d'Esgrignon, +the thankless sacrifices of Armande, the /prisca fides/ of Maitre +Chesnel, present pictures for which, out of Balzac, we can look only +in Jules Sandeau, and which in Sandeau, though they are presented with +a more poetical touch, have less masterly outline than here. One takes +--or, at least, I take--less interest in the ignoble intrigues of the +other side, except in so far as they menace the fortunes of a worthy +house unworthily represented. Victurnien d'Esgrignon, like his +companion Savinien de Portenduere (who, however, is, in every respect, +a very much better fellow), does not argue in Balzac any high opinion +of the /fils de famille/. He is, in fact, an extremely feeble youth, +who does not seem to have got much real satisfaction out of the +escapades, for which he risked not merely his family's fortune, but +his own honor, and who would seem to have been a rake, not from +natural taste and spirit and relish, but because it seemed to him to +be the proper thing to be. But the beginnings of the fortune of the +aspiring and intriguing Camusots are admirably painted; and Madame de +Maufrigneuse, that rather doubtful divinity, who appears so frequently +in Balzac, here acts the /dea ex machina/ with considerable effect. +And we end well (as we generally do when Blondet, whom Balzac seems +more than once to adopt as mask, is the narrator), in the last glimpse +of Mlle. Armande left alone with the remains of her beauty, the ruins +of everything dear to her--and God. + +These two stories were written at no long interval, yet, for some +reason or other, Balzac did not at once unite them. /La Vieille Fille/ +first appeared in November and December 1836 in the /Presse/, and was +inserted next year in the /Scenes de la Vie de Province/. It had three +chapter divisions. The second part did not appear all at once. Its +first installment, under the general title, came out in the /Chronique +de Paris/ even before the /Vieille Fille/ appeared in March 1836; the +completion was not published (under the title of /Les Rivalites en +Province/) till the autumn of 1838, when the /Constitutionnel/ served +as its vehicle. There were eight chapter divisions in this latter. The +whole of the /Cabinet/ was published in book form (with /Gambara/ to +follow it) in 1839. There were some changes here; and the divisions +were abolished when the whole book in 1844 entered the /Comedie/. One +of the greatest mistakes which, in my humble judgment, the organizers +of the /edition definitive/ have made, is their adoption of Balzac's +never executed separation of the pair and deletion of the excellent +joint-title /Les Rivalites/. + + George Saintsbury + + + + + + I + + + + + AN OLD MAID + + BY + + HONORE DE BALZAC + + + + Translated By + Katharine Prescott Wormeley + + + + DEDICATION + + To Monsieur Eugene-Auguste-Georges-Louis Midy de la Greneraye + Surville, Royal Engineer of the Ponts at Chausses. + + As a testimony to the affection of his brother-in-law, + + De Balzac + + + + + AN OLD MAID + + + + CHAPTER I + + ONE OF MANY CHEVALIERS DE VALOIS + +Most persons have encountered, in certain provinces in France, a +number of Chevaliers de Valois. One lived in Normandy, another at +Bourges, a third (with whom we have here to do) flourished in Alencon, +and doubtless the South possesses others. The number of the Valesian +tribe is, however, of no consequence to the present tale. All these +chevaliers, among whom were doubtless some who were Valois as Louis +XIV. was Bourbon, knew so little of one another that it was not +advisable to speak to one about the others. They were all willing to +leave the Bourbons in tranquil possession of the throne of France; for +it was too plainly established that Henri IV. became king for want of +a male heir in the first Orleans branch called the Valois. If there +are any Valois, they descend from Charles de Valois, Duc d'Angouleme, +son of Charles IX. and Marie Touchet, the male line from whom ended, +until proof to the contrary be produced, in the person of the Abbe de +Rothelin. The Valois-Saint-Remy, who descended from Henri II., also +came to an end in the famous Lamothe-Valois implicated in the affair +of the Diamond Necklace. + +Each of these many chevaliers, if we may believe reports, was, like +the Chevalier of Alencon, an old gentleman, tall, thin, withered, and +moneyless. He of Bourges had emigrated; he of Touraine hid himself; he +of Alencon fought in La Vendee and "chouanized" somewhat. The youth of +the latter was spend in Paris, where the Revolution overtook him when +thirty years of age in the midst of his conquests and gallantries. + +The Chevalier de Valois of Alencon was accepted by the highest +aristocracy of the province as a genuine Valois; and he distinguished +himself, like the rest of his homonyms, by excellent manners, which +proved him a man of society. He dined out every day, and played cards +every evening. He was thought witty, thanks to his foible for relating +a quantity of anecdotes on the reign of Louis XV. and the beginnings +of the Revolution. When these tales were heard for the first time, +they were held to be well narrated. He had, moreover, the great merit +of not repeating his personal bons mots and of never speaking of his +love-affairs, though his smiles and his airs and graces were +delightfully indiscreet. The worthy gentleman used his privilege as a +Voltairean noble to stay away from mass; and great indulgence was +shown to his irreligion because of his devotion to the royal cause. +One of his particular graces was the air and manner (imitated, no +doubt, from Mole) with which he took snuff from a gold box adorned +with the portrait of the Princess Goritza,--a charming Hungarian, +celebrated for her beauty in the last years of the reign of Louis XV. +Having been attached during his youth to that illustrious stranger, he +still mentioned her with emotion. For her sake he had fought a duel +with Monsieur de Lauzun. + +The chevalier, now fifty-eight years of age, owned to only fifty; and +he might well allow himself that innocent deception, for, among the +other advantages granted to fair thin persons, he managed to preserve +the still youthful figure which saves men as well as women from an +appearance of old age. Yes, remember this: all of life, or rather all +the elegance that expresses life, is in the figure. Among the +chevalier's other possessions must be counted an enormous nose with +which nature had endowed him. This nose vigorously divided a pale face +into two sections which seemed to have no knowledge of each other, for +one side would redden under the process of digestion, while the other +continued white. This fact is worthy of remark at a period when +physiology is so busy with the human heart. The incandescence, so to +call it, was on the left side. Though his long slim legs, supporting a +lank body, and his pallid skin, were not indicative of health, +Monsieur de Valois ate like an ogre and declared he had a malady +called in the provinces "hot liver," perhaps to excuse his monstrous +appetite. The circumstance of his singular flush confirmed this +declaration; but in a region where repasts are developed on the line +of thirty or forty dishes and last four hours, the chevalier's stomach +would seem to have been a blessing bestowed by Providence on the good +town of Alencon. According to certain doctors, heat on the left side +denotes a prodigal heart. The chevalier's gallantries confirmed this +scientific assertion, the responsibility for which does not rest, +fortunately, on the historian. + +In spite of these symptoms, Monsieur de Valois' constitution was +vigorous, consequently long-lived. If his liver "heated," to use an +old-fashioned word, his heart was not less inflammable. His face was +wrinkled and his hair silvered; but an intelligent observer would have +recognized at once the stigmata of passion and the furrows of pleasure +which appeared in the crow's-feet and the marches-du-palais, so prized +at the court of Cythera. Everything about this dainty chevalier +bespoke the "ladies' man." He was so minute in his ablutions that his +cheeks were a pleasure to look upon; they seemed to have been laved in +some miraculous water. The part of his skull which his hair refused to +cover shone like ivory. His eyebrows, like his hair, affected youth by +the care and regularity with which they were combed. His skin, already +white, seemed to have been extra-whitened by some secret compound. +Without using perfumes, the chevalier exhaled a certain fragrance of +youth, that refreshed the atmosphere. His hands, which were those of a +gentleman, and were cared for like the hands of a pretty woman, +attracted the eye to their rosy, well-shaped nails. In short, had it +not been for his magisterial and stupendous nose, the chevalier might +have been thought a trifle too dainty. + +We must here compel ourselves to spoil this portrait by the avowal of +a littleness. The chevalier put cotton in his ears, and wore, appended +to them, two little ear-rings representing negroes' heads in diamonds, +of admirable workmanship. He clung to these singular appendages, +explaining that since his ears had been bored he had ceased to have +headaches (he had had headaches). We do not present the chevalier as +an accomplished man; but surely we can pardon, in an old celibate +whose heart sends so much blood to his left cheek, these adorable +qualities, founded, perhaps, on some sublime secret history. + +Besides, the Chevalier de Valois redeemed those negroes' heads by so +many other graces that society felt itself sufficiently compensated. +He really took such immense trouble to conceal his age and give +pleasure to his friends. In the first place, we must call attention to +the extreme care he gave to his linen, the only distinction that +well-bred men can nowadays exhibit in their clothes. The linen of the +chevalier was invariably of a fineness and whiteness that were truly +aristocratic. As for his coat, though remarkable for its cleanliness, +it was always half worn-out, but without spots or creases. The +preservation of that garment was something marvellous to those who +noticed the chevalier's high-bred indifference to its shabbiness. He +did not go so far as to scrape the seams with glass,--a refinement +invented by the Prince of Wales; but he did practice the rudiments of +English elegance with a personal satisfaction little understood by the +people of Alencon. The world owes a great deal to persons who take +such pains to please it. In this there is certainly some +accomplishment of that most difficult precept of the Gospel about +rendering good for evil. This freshness of ablution and all the other +little cares harmonized charmingly with the blue eyes, the ivory +teeth, and the blond person of the old chevalier. + +The only blemish was that this retired Adonis had nothing manly about +him; he seemed to be employing this toilet varnish to hide the ruins +occasioned by the military service of gallantry only. But we must +hasten to add that his voice produced what might be called an +antithesis to his blond delicacy. Unless you adopted the opinion of +certain observers of the human heart, and thought that the chevalier +had the voice of his nose, his organ of speech would have amazed you +by its full and redundant sound. Without possessing the volume of +classical bass voices, the tone of it was pleasing from a slightly +muffled quality like that of an English bugle, which is firm and +sweet, strong but velvety. + +The chevalier had repudiated the ridiculous costume still preserved by +certain monarchical old men; he had frankly modernized himself. He was +always seen in a maroon-colored coat with gilt buttons, half-tight +breeches of poult-de-soie with gold buckles, a white waistcoat without +embroidery, and a tight cravat showing no shirt-collar,--a last +vestige of the old French costume which he did not renounce, perhaps, +because it enabled him to show a neck like that of the sleekest abbe. +His shoes were noticeable for their square buckles, a style of which +the present generation has no knowledge; these buckles were fastened +to a square of polished black leather. The chevalier allowed two +watch-chains to hang parallel to each other from each of his waistcoat +pockets,--another vestige of the eighteenth century, which the +Incroyables had not disdained to use under the Directory. This +transition costume, uniting as it did two centuries, was worn by the +chevalier with the high-bred grace of an old French marquis, the +secret of which is lost to France since the day when Fleury, Mole's +last pupil, vanished. + +The private life of this old bachelor was apparently open to all eyes, +though in fact it was quite mysterious. He lived in a lodging that was +modest, to say the best of it, in the rue du Cours, on the second +floor of a house belonging to Madame Lardot, the best and busiest +washerwoman in the town. This circumstance will explain the excessive +nicety of his linen. Ill-luck would have it that the day came when +Alencon was guilty of believing that the chevalier had not always +comported himself as a gentleman should, and that in fact he was +secretly married in his old age to a certain Cesarine,--the mother of +a child which had had the impertinence to come into the world without +being called for. + +"He had given his hand," as a certain Monsieur du Bousquier remarked, +"to the person who had long had him under irons." + +This horrible calumny embittered the last days of the dainty chevalier +all the more because, as the present Scene will show, he had lost a +hope long cherished to which he had made many sacrifices. + +Madame Lardot leased to the chevalier two rooms on the second floor of +her house, for the modest sum of one hundred francs a year. The worthy +gentleman dined out every day, returning only in time to go to bed. +His sole expense therefore was for breakfast, invariably composed of a +cup of chocolate, with bread and butter and fruits in their season. He +made no fire except in the coldest winter, and then only enough to get +up by. Between eleven and four o'clock he walked about, went to read +the papers, and paid visits. From the time of his settling in Alencon +he had nobly admitted his poverty, saying that his whole fortune +consisted in an annuity of six hundred francs a year, the sole remains +of his former opulence,--a property which obliged him to see his man +of business (who held the annuity papers) quarterly. In truth, one of +the Alencon bankers paid him every three months one hundred and fifty +francs, sent down by Monsieur Bordin of Paris, the last of the +/procureurs du Chatelet/. Every one knew these details because the +chevalier exacted the utmost secrecy from the persons to whom he first +confided them. + +Monsieur de Valois gathered the fruit of his misfortunes. His place at +table was laid in all the most distinguished houses in Alencon, and he +was bidden to all soirees. His talents as a card-player, a narrator, +an amiable man of the highest breeding, were so well known and +appreciated that parties would have seemed a failure if the dainty +connoisseur was absent. Masters of houses and their wives felt the +need of his approving grimace. When a young woman heard the chevalier +say at a ball, "You are delightfully well-dressed!" she was more +pleased at such praise than she would have been at mortifying a rival. +Monsieur de Valois was the only man who could perfectly pronounce +certain phrases of the olden time. The words, "my heart," "my jewel," +"my little pet," "my queen," and the amorous diminutives of 1770, had +a grace that was quite irresistible when they came from his lips. In +short, the chevalier had the privilege of superlatives. His +compliments, of which he was stingy, won the good graces of all the +old women; he made himself agreeable to every one, even to the +officials of the government, from whom he wanted nothing. His behavior +at cards had a lofty distinction which everybody noticed: he never +complained; he praised his adversaries when they lost; he did not +rebuke or teach his partners by showing them how they ought to have +played. When, in the course of a deal, those sickening dissertations +on the game would take place, the chevalier invariably drew out his +snuff-box with a gesture that was worthy of Mole, looked at the +Princess Goritza, raised the cover with dignity, shook, sifted, massed +the snuff, and gathered his pinch, so that by the time the cards were +dealt he had decorated both nostrils and replaced the princess in his +waistcoat pocket,--always on his left side. A gentleman of the "good" +century (in distinction from the "grand" century) could alone have +invented that compromise between contemptuous silence and a sarcasm +which might not have been understood. He accepted poor players and +knew how to make the best of them. His delightful equability of temper +made many persons say,-- + +"I do admire the Chevalier de Valois!" + +His conversation, his manners, seemed bland, like his person. He +endeavored to shock neither man nor woman. Indulgent to defects both +physical and mental, he listened patiently (by the help of the +Princess Goritza) to the many dull people who related to him the petty +miseries of provincial life,--an egg ill-boiled for breakfast, coffee +with feathered cream, burlesque details about health, disturbed sleep, +dreams, visits. The chevalier could call up a languishing look, he +could take on a classic attitude to feign compassion, which made him a +most valuable listener; he could put in an "Ah!" and a "Bah!" and a +"What DID you do?" with charming appropriateness. He died without any +one suspecting him of even an allusion to the tender passages of his +romance with the Princess Goritza. Has any one ever reflected on the +service a dead sentiment can do to society; how love may become both +social and useful? This will serve to explain why, in spite of his +constant winning at play (he never left a salon without carrying off +with him about six francs), the old chevalier remained the spoilt +darling of the town. His losses--which, by the bye, he always +proclaimed, were very rare. + +All who know him declare that they have never met, not even in the +Egyptian museum at Turin, so agreeable a mummy. In no country in the +world did parasitism ever take on so pleasant a form. Never did +selfishness of a most concentrated kind appear less forth-putting, +less offensive, than in this old gentleman; it stood him in place of +devoted friendship. If some one asked Monsieur de Valois to do him a +little service which might have discommoded him, that some one did not +part from the worthy chevalier without being truly enchanted with him, +and quite convinced that he either could not do the service demanded, +or that he should injure the affair if he meddled in it. + +To explain the problematic existence of the chevalier, the historian, +whom Truth, that cruel wanton, grasps by the throat, is compelled to +say that after the "glorious" sad days of July, Alencon discovered +that the chevalier's nightly winnings amounted to about one hundred +and fifty francs every three months; and that the clever old nobleman +had had the pluck to send to himself his annuity in order not to +appear in the eyes of a community, which loves the main chance, to be +entirely without resources. Many of his friends (he was by that time +dead, you will please remark) have contested mordicus this curious +fact, declaring it to be a fable, and upholding the Chevalier de +Valois as a respectable and worthy gentleman whom the liberals +calumniated. Luckily for shrewd players, there are people to be found +among the spectators who will always sustain them. Ashamed of having +to defend a piece of wrong-doing, they stoutly deny it. Do not accuse +them of wilful infatuation; such men have a sense of their dignity; +governments set them the example of a virtue which consists in burying +their dead without chanting the Misere of their defeats. If the +chevalier did allow himself this bit of shrewd practice,--which, by +the bye, would have won him the regard of the Chevalier de Gramont, a +smile from the Baron de Foeneste, a shake of the hand from the Marquis +de Moncade,--was he any the less that amiable guest, that witty +talker, that imperturbable card-player, that famous teller of +anecdotes, in whom all Alencon took delight? Besides, in what way was +this action, which is certainly within the rights of a man's own will, +--in what way was it contrary to the ethics of a gentleman? When so +many persons are forced to pay annuities to others, what more natural +than to pay one to his own best friend? But Laius is dead-- + +To return to the period of which we are writing: after about fifteen +years of this way of life the chevalier had amassed ten thousand and +some odd hundred francs. On the return of the Bourbons, one of his old +friends, the Marquis de Pombreton, formerly lieutenant in the Black +mousquetaires, returned to him--so he said--twelve hundred pistoles +which he had lent to the marquis for the purpose of emigrating. This +event made a sensation; it was used later to refute the sarcasms of +the "Constitutionnel," on the method employed by some emigres in +paying their debts. When this noble act of the Marquis de Pombreton +was lauded before the chevalier, the good man reddened even to his +right cheek. Every one rejoiced frankly at this windfall for Monsieur +de Valois, who went about consulting moneyed people as to the safest +manner of investing this fragment of his past opulence. Confiding in +the future of the Restoration, he finally placed his money on the +Grand-Livre at the moment when the funds were at fifty-six francs and +twenty-five centimes. Messieurs de Lenoncourt, de Navarreins, de +Verneuil, de Fontaine, and La Billardiere, to whom he was known, he +said, obtained for him, from the king's privy purse, a pension of +three hundred francs, and sent him, moreover, the cross of +Saint-Louis. Never was it known positively by what means the old +chevalier obtained these two solemn consecrations of his title and +merits. But one thing is certain; the cross of Saint-Louis authorized +him to take the rank of retired colonel in view of his service in the +Catholic armies of the West. + +Besides his fiction of an annuity, about which no one at the present +time knew anything, the chevalier really had, therefore, a bona fide +income of a thousand francs. But in spite of this bettering of his +circumstances, he made no change in his life, manners, or appearance, +except that the red ribbon made a fine effect on his maroon-colored +coat, and completed, so to speak, the physiognomy of a gentleman. +After 1802, the chevalier sealed his letters with a very old seal, +ill-engraved to be sure, by which the Casterans, the d'Esgrignons, the +Troisvilles were enabled to see that he bore: /Party of France, two +cottises gemelled gules, and gules, five mascles or, placed end to +end; on a chief sable, a cross argent/. For crest, a knight's helmet. +For motto: "Valeo." Bearing such noble arms, the so-called bastard of +the Valois had the right to get into all the royal carriages of the +world. + +Many persons envied the quiet existence of this old bachelor, spent on +whist, boston, backgammon, reversi, and piquet, all well played, on +dinners well digested, snuff gracefully inhaled, and tranquil walks +about the town. Nearly all Alencon believed this life to be exempt +from ambitions and serious interests; but no man has a life as simple +as envious neighbors attribute to him. You will find in the most +out-of-the way villages human mollusks, creatures apparently dead, who +have passions for lepidoptera or for conchology, let us say,--beings +who will give themselves infinite pains about moths, butterflies, or +the concha Veneris. Not only did the chevalier have his own particular +shells, but he cherished an ambitious desire which he pursued with a +craft so profound as to be worthy of Sixtus the Fifth: he wanted to +marry a certain rich old maid, with the intention, no doubt, of making +her a stepping-stone by which to reach the more elevated regions of +the court. There, then, lay the secret of his royal bearing and of his +residence in Alencon. + + + + CHAPTER II + + SUSANNAH AND THE ELDERS + +On a Wednesday morning, early, toward the middle of spring, in the +year 16,--such was his mode of reckoning,--at the moment when the +chevalier was putting on his old green-flowered damask dressing-gown, +he heard, despite the cotton in his ears, the light step of a young +girl who was running up the stairway. Presently three taps were +discreetly struck upon the door; then, without waiting for any +response, a handsome girl slipped like an eel into the room occupied +by the old bachelor. + +"Ah! is it you, Suzanne?" said the Chevalier de Valois, without +discontinuing his occupation, which was that of stropping his razor. +"What have you come for, my dear little jewel of mischief?" + +"I have come to tell you something which may perhaps give you as much +pleasure as pain?" + +"Is it anything about Cesarine?" + +"Cesarine! much I care about your Cesarine!" she said with a saucy +air, half serious, half indifferent. + +This charming Suzanne, whose present comical performance was to +exercise a great influence in the principal personages of our history, +was a work-girl at Madame Lardot's. One word here on the topography of +the house. The wash-rooms occupied the whole of the ground floor. The +little courtyard was used to hang out on wire cords embroidered +handkerchiefs, collarets, capes, cuffs, frilled shirts, cravats, +laces, embroidered dresses,--in short, all the fine linen of the best +families of the town. The chevalier assumed to know from the number of +her capes in the wash how the love-affairs of the wife of the prefect +were going on. Though he guessed much from observations of this kind, +the chevalier was discretion itself; he was never betrayed into an +epigram (he had plenty of wit) which might have closed to him an +agreeable salon. You are therefore to consider Monsieur de Valois as a +man of superior manners, whose talents, like those of many others, +were lost in a narrow sphere. Only--for, after all, he was a man--he +permitted himself certain penetrating glances which could make some +women tremble; although they all loved him heartily as soon as they +discovered the depth of his discretion and the sympathy that he felt +for their little weaknesses. + +The head woman, Madame Lardot's factotum, an old maid of forty-six, +hideous to behold, lived on the opposite side of the passage to the +chevalier. Above them were the attics where the linen was dried in +winter. Each apartment had two rooms,--one lighted from the street, +the other from the courtyard. Beneath the chevalier's room there lived +a paralytic, Madame Lardot's grandfather, an old buccaneer named +Grevin, who had served under Admiral Simeuse in India, and was now +stone-deaf. As for Madame Lardot, who occupied the other lodging on +the first floor, she had so great a weakness for persons of condition +that she may well have been thought blind to the ways of the +chevalier. To her, Monsieur de Valois was a despotic monarch who did +right in all things. Had any of her workwomen been guilty of a +happiness attributed to the chevalier she would have said, "He is so +lovable!" Thus, though the house was of glass, like all provincial +houses, it was discreet as a robber's cave. + +A born confidant to all the little intrigues of the work-rooms, the +chevalier never passed the door, which usually stood open, without +giving something to his little ducks,--chocolate, bonbons, ribbons, +laces, gilt crosses, and such like trifles adored by grisettes; +consequently, the kind old gentleman was adored in return. Women have +an instinct which enables them to divine the men who love them, who +like to be near them, and exact no payment for gallantries. In this +respect women have the instinct of dogs, who in a mixed company will +go straight to the man to whom animals are sacred. + +The poor Chevalier de Valois retained from his former life the need of +bestowing gallant protection, a quality of the seigneurs of other +days. Faithful to the system of the "petite maison," he liked to +enrich women,--the only beings who know how to receive, because they +can always return. But the poor chevalier could no longer ruin himself +for a mistress. Instead of the choicest bonbons wrapped in bank-bills, +he gallantly presented paper-bags full of toffee. Let us say to the +glory of Alencon that the toffee was accepted with more joy than la +Duthe ever showed at a gilt service or a fine equipage offered by the +Comte d'Artois. All these grisettes fully understood the fallen +majesty of the Chevalier de Valois, and they kept their private +familiarities with him a profound secret for his sake. If they were +questioned about him in certain houses when they carried home the +linen, they always spoke respectfully of the chevalier, and made him +out older than he really was; they talked of him as a most respectable +monsieur, whose life was a flower of sanctity; but once in their own +regions they perched on his shoulders like so many parrots. He liked +to be told the secrets which washerwomen discover in the bosom of +households, and day after day these girls would tell him the cancans +which were going the round of Alencon. He called them his "petticoat +gazettes," his "talking feuilletons." Never did Monsieur de Sartines +have spies more intelligent and less expensive, or minions who showed +more honor while displaying their rascality of mind. So it may be said +that in the mornings, while breakfasting, the chevalier usually amused +himself as much as the saints in heaven. + +Suzanne was one of his favorites, a clever, ambitious girl, made of +the stuff of a Sophie Arnold, and handsome withal, as the handsomest +courtesan invited by Titian to pose on black velvet for a model of +Venus; although her face, fine about the eyes and forehead, +degenerated, lower down, into commonness of outline. Hers was a Norman +beauty, fresh, high-colored, redundant, the flesh of Rubens covering +the muscles of the Farnese Hercules, and not the slender articulations +of the Venus de' Medici, Apollo's graceful consort. + +"Well, my child, tell me your great or your little adventure, whatever +it is." + +The particular point about the chevalier which would have made him +noticeable from Paris to Pekin, was the gentle paternity of his manner +to grisettes. They reminded him of the illustrious operatic queens of +his early days, whose celebrity was European during a good third of +the eighteenth century. It is certain that the old gentleman, who had +lived in days gone by with that feminine nation now as much forgotten +as many other great things,--like the Jesuits, the Buccaneers, the +Abbes, and the Farmers-General,--had acquired an irresistible +good-humor, a kindly ease, a laisser-aller devoid of egotism, the +self-effacement of Jupiter with Alcmene, of the king intending to be +duped, who casts his thunderbolts to the devil, wants his Olympus full +of follies, little suppers, feminine profusions--but with Juno out of +the way, be it understood. + +In spite of his old green damask dressing-gown and the bareness of the +room in which he sat, where the floor was covered with a shabby +tapestry in place of carpet, and the walls were hung with tavern-paper +presenting the profiles of Louis XVI. and members of his family, +traced among the branches of a weeping willow with other +sentimentalities invented by royalism during the Terror,--in spite of +his ruins, the chevalier, trimming his beard before a shabby old +toilet-table, draped with trumpery lace, exhaled an essence of the +eighteenth century. All the libertine graces of his youth reappeared; +he seemed to have the wealth of three hundred thousand francs of debt, +while his vis-a-vis waited before the door. He was grand,--like +Berthier on the retreat from Moscow, issuing orders to an army that +existed no longer. + +"Monsieur le chevalier," replied Suzanne, drolly, "seems to me I +needn't tell you anything; you've only to look." + +And Suzanne presented a side view of herself which gave a sort of +lawyer's comment to her words. The chevalier, who, you must know, was +a sly old bird, lowered his right eye on the grisette, still holding +the razor at his throat, and pretended to understand. + +"Well, well, my little duck, we'll talk about that presently. But you +are rather previous, it seems to me." + +"Why, Monsieur le chevalier, ought I to wait until my mother beats me +and Madame Lardot turns me off? If I don't get away soon to Paris, I +shall never be able to marry here, where men are so ridiculous." + +"It can't be helped, my dear; society is changing; women are just as +much victims to the present state of things as the nobility +themselves. After political overturn comes the overturn of morals. +Alas! before long woman won't exist" (he took out the cotton-wool to +arrange his ears): "she'll lose everything by rushing into sentiment; +she'll wring her nerves; good-bye to all the good little pleasures of +our time, desired without shame, accepted without nonsense." (He +polished up the little negroes' heads.) "Women had hysterics in those +days to get their ends, but now" (he began to laugh) "their vapors end +in charcoal. In short, marriage" (here he picked up his pincers to +remove a hair) "will become a thing intolerable; whereas it used to be +so gay in my day! The reigns of Louis XIV. and Louis XV.--remember +this, my child--said farewell to the finest manners and morals ever +known to the world." + +"But, Monsieur le chevalier," said the grisette, "the matter now +concerns the morals and honor of your poor little Suzanne, and I hope +you won't abandon her." + +"Abandon her!" cried the chevalier, finishing his hair; "I'd sooner +abandon my own name." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Suzanne. + +"Now, listen to me, you little mischief," said the chevalier, sitting +down on a huge sofa, formerly called a duchesse, which Madame Lardot +had been at some pains to find for him. + +He drew the magnificent Suzanne before him, holding her legs between +his knees. She let him do as he liked, although in the street she was +offish enough to other men, refusing their familiarities partly from +decorum and partly for contempt for their commonness. She now stood +audaciously in front of the chevalier, who, having fathomed in his day +many other mysteries in minds that were far more wily, took in the +situation at a single glance. He knew very well that no young girl +would joke about a real dishonor; but he took good care not to knock +over the pretty scaffolding of her lie as he touched it. + +"We slander ourselves," he said with inimitable craft; "we are as +virtuous as that beautiful biblical girl whose name we bear; we can +always marry as we please, but we are thirsty for Paris, where +charming creatures--and we are no fool--get rich without trouble. We +want to go and see if the great capital of pleasures hasn't some young +Chevalier de Valois in store for us, with a carriage, diamonds, an +opera-box, and so forth. Russians, Austrians, Britons, have millions +on which we have an eye. Besides, we are patriotic; we want to help +France in getting back her money from the pockets of those gentry. +Hey! hey! my dear little devil's duck! it isn't a bad plan. The world +you live in may cry out a bit, but success justifies all things. The +worst thing in this world, my dear, is to be without money; that's our +disease, yours and mine. Now inasmuch as we have plenty of wit, we +thought it would be a good thing to parade our dear little honor, or +dishonor, to catch an old boy; but that old boy, my dear heart, knows +the Alpha and Omega of female tricks,--which means that you could +easier put salt on a sparrow's tail than to make me believe I have +anything to do with your little affair. Go to Paris, my dear; go at +the cost of an old celibate, I won't prevent it; in fact, I'll help +you, for an old bachelor, Suzanne, is the natural money-box of a young +girl. But don't drag me into the matter. Listen, my queen, you who +know life pretty well; you would me great harm and give me much pain, +--harm, because you would prevent my marriage in a town where people +cling to morality; pain, because if you are in trouble (which I deny, +you sly puss!) I haven't a penny to get you out of it. I'm as poor as +a church mouse; you know that, my dear. Ah! if I marry Mademoiselle +Cormon, if I am once more rich, of course I would prefer you to +Cesarine. You've always seemed to me as fine as the gold they gild on +lead; you were made to be the love of a great seigneur. I think you so +clever that the trick you are trying to play off on me doesn't +surprise me one bit; I expected it. You are flinging the scabbard +after the sword, and that's daring for a girl. It takes nerve and +superior ideas to do it, my angel, and therefore you have won my +respectful esteem." + +"Monsieur le chevalier, I assure you, you are mistaken, and--" + +She colored, and did not dare to say more. The chevalier, with a +single glance, had guessed and fathomed her whole plan. + +"Yes, yes! I understand: you want me to believe it," he said. "Well! I +do believe it. But take my advice: go to Monsieur du Bousquier. +Haven't you taken linen there for the last six or eight months? I'm +not asking what went on between you; but I know the man: he has +immense conceit; he is an old bachelor, and very rich; and he only +spends a quarter of a comfortable income. If you are as clever as I +suppose, you can go to Paris at his expense. There, run along, my +little doe; go and twist him round your finger. Only, mind this: be as +supple as silk; at every word take a double turn round him and make a +knot. He is a man to fear scandal, and if he has given you a chance to +put him in the pillory--in short, understand; threaten him with the +ladies of the Maternity Hospital. Besides, he's ambitious. A man +succeeds through his wife, and you are handsome and clever enough to +make the fortune of a husband. Hey! the mischief! you could hold your +own against all the court ladies." + +Suzanne, whose mind took in at a flash the chevalier's last words, was +eager to run off to du Bousquier, but, not wishing to depart too +abruptly, she questioned the chevalier about Paris, all the while +helping him to dress. The chevalier, however, divined her desire to be +off, and favored it by asking her to tell Cesarine to bring up his +chocolate, which Madame Lardot made for him every morning. Suzanne +then slipped away to her new victim, whose biography must here be +given. + +Born of an old Alencon family, du Bousquier was a cross between the +bourgeois and the country squire. Finding himself without means on the +death of his father, he went, like other ruined provincials, to Paris. +On the breaking out of the Revolution he took part in public affairs. +In spite of revolutionary principles, which made a hobby of republican +honesty, the management of public business in those days was by no +means clean. A political spy, a stock-jobber, a contractor, a man who +confiscated in collusion with the syndic of a commune the property of +emigres in order to sell them and buy them in, a minister, and a +general were all equally engaged in public business. From 1793 to 1799 +du Bousquier was commissary of provisions to the French armies. He +lived in a magnificent hotel and was one of the matadors of finance, +did business with Ouvrard, kept open house, and led the scandalous +life of the period,--the life of a Cincinnatus, on sacks of corn +harvested without trouble, stolen rations, "little houses" full of +mistresses, in which were given splendid fetes to the Directors of the +Republic. + +The citizen du Bousquier was one of Barras' familiars; he was on the +best of terms with Fouche, stood very well with Bernadotte, and fully +expected to become a minister by throwing himself into the party which +secretly caballed against Bonaparte until Marengo. If it had not been +for Kellermann's charge and Desaix's death, du Bousquier would +probably have become a minister. He was one of the chief assistances +of that secret government whom Napoleon's luck send behind the scenes +in 1793. (See "An Historical Mystery.") The unexpected victory of +Marengo was the defeat of that party who actually had their +proclamations printed to return to the principles of the Montagne in +case the First Consul succumbed. + +Convinced of the impossibility of Bonaparte's triumph, du Bousquier +staked the greater part of his property on a fall in the Funds, and +kept two couriers on the field of battle. The first started for Paris +when Melas' victory was certain; the second, starting four hours +later, brought the news of the defeat of the Austrians. Du Bousquier +cursed Kellermann and Desaix; he dared not curse Bonaparte, who might +owe him millions. This alternative of millions to be earned and +present ruin staring him in the face, deprived the purveyor of most of +his faculties: he became nearly imbecile for several days; the man had +so abused his health by excesses that when the thunderbolt fell upon +him he had no strength to resist. The payment of his bills against the +Exchequer gave him some hopes for the future, but, in spite of all +efforts to ingratiate himself, Napoleon's hatred to the contractors +who had speculated on his defeat made itself felt; du Bousquier was +left without a sou. The immorality of his private life, his intimacy +with Barras and Bernadotte, displeased the First Consul even more than +his manoeuvres at the Bourse, and he struck du Bousquier's name from +the list of the government contractors. + +Out of all his past opulence du Bousquier saved only twelve hundred +francs a year from an investment in the Grand Livre, which he had +happened to place there by pure caprice, and which saved him from +penury. A man ruined by the First Consul interested the town of +Alencon, to which he now returned, where royalism was secretly +dominant. Du Bousquier, furious against Bonaparte, relating stories +against him of his meanness, of Josephine's improprieties, and all the +other scandalous anecdotes of the last ten years, was well received. + +About this time, when he was somewhere between forty and fifty, du +Bousquier's appearance was that of a bachelor of thirty-six, of medium +height, plump as a purveyor, proud of his vigorous calves, with a +strongly marked countenance, a flattened nose, the nostrils garnished +with hair, black eyes with thick lashes, from which darted shrewd +glances like those of Monsieur de Talleyrand, though somewhat dulled. +He still wore republican whiskers and his hair very long; his hands, +adorned with bunches of hair on each knuckle, showed the power of his +muscular system in their prominent blue veins. He had the chest of the +Farnese Hercules, and shoulders fit to carry the stocks. Such +shoulders are seen nowadays only at Tortoni's. This wealth of +masculine vigor counted for much in du Bousquier's relations with +others. And yet in him, as in the chevalier, symptoms appeared which +contrasted oddly with the general aspect of their persons. The late +purveyor had not the voice of his muscles. We do not mean that his +voice was a mere thread, such as we sometimes hear issuing from the +mouth of these walruses; on the contrary, it was a strong voice, but +stifled, an idea of which can be given only by comparing it with the +noise of a saw cutting into soft and moistened wood,--the voice of a +worn-out speculator. + +In spite of the claims which the enmity of the First Consul gave +Monsieur du Bousquier to enter the royalist society of the province, +he was not received in the seven or eight families who composed the +faubourg Saint-Germain of Alencon, among whom the Chevalier de Valois +was welcome. He had offered himself in marriage, through her notary, +to Mademoiselle Armande, sister of the most distinguished noble in the +town; to which offer he received a refusal. He consoled himself as +best he could in the society of a dozen rich families, former +manufacturers of the old point d'Alencon, owners of pastures and +cattle, or merchants doing a wholesale business in linen, among whom, +as he hoped, he might find a wealthy wife. In fact, all his hopes now +converged to the perspective of a fortunate marriage. He was not +without a certain financial ability, which many persons used to their +profit. Like a ruined gambler who advises neophytes, he pointed out +enterprises and speculations, together with the means and chances of +conducting them. He was thought a good administrator, and it was often +a question of making him mayor of Alencon; but the memory of his +underhand jobbery still clung to him, and he was never received at the +prefecture. All the succeeding governments, even that of the Hundred +Days, refused to appoint him mayor of Alencon,--a place he coveted, +which, could he have had it, would, he thought, have won him the hand +of a certain old maid on whom his matrimonial views now turned. + +Du Bousquier's aversion to the Imperial government had thrown him at +first into the royalist circles of Alencon, where he remained in spite +of the rebuffs he received there; but when, after the first return of +the Bourbons, he was still excluded from the prefecture, that +mortification inspired him with a hatred as deep as it was secret +against the royalists. He now returned to his old opinions, and became +the leader of the liberal party in Alencon, the invisible manipulator +of elections, and did immense harm to the Restoration by the +cleverness of his underhand proceedings and the perfidy of his outward +behavior. Du Bousquier, like all those who live by their heads only, +carried on his hatreds with the quiet tranquillity of a rivulet, +feeble apparently, but inexhaustible. His hatred was that of a negro, +so peaceful that it deceived the enemy. His vengeance, brooded over +for fifteen years, was as yet satisfied by no victory, not even that +of July, 1830. + +It was not without some private intention that the Chevalier de Valois +had turned Suzanne's designs upon Monsieur du Bousquier. The liberal +and the royalist had mutually divined each other in spite of the wide +dissimulation with which they hid their common hope from the rest of +the town. The two old bachelors were secretly rivals. Each had formed +a plan to marry the Demoiselle Cormon, whom Monsieur de Valois had +mentioned to Suzanne. Both, ensconced in their idea and wearing the +armor of apparent indifference, awaited the moment when some lucky +chance might deliver the old maid over to them. Thus, if the two old +bachelors had not been kept asunder by the two political systems of +which they each offered a living expression, their private rivalry +would still have made them enemies. Epochs put their mark on men. +These two individuals proved the truth of that axiom by the opposing +historic tints that were visible in their faces, in their +conversation, in their ideas, and in their clothes. One, abrupt, +energetic, with loud, brusque manners, curt, rude speech, dark in +tone, in hair, in look, terrible apparently, in reality as impotent as +an insurrection, represented the republic admirably. The other, gentle +and polished, elegant and nice, attaining his ends by the slow and +infallible means of diplomacy, faithful to good taste, was the express +image of the old courtier regime. + +The two enemies met nearly every evening on the same ground. The war +was courteous and benign on the side of the chevalier; but du +Bousquier showed less ceremony on his, though still preserving the +outward appearances demanded by society, for he did not wish to be +driven from the place. They themselves fully understood each other; +but in spite of the shrewd observation which provincials bestow on the +petty interests of their own little centre, no one in the town +suspected the rivalry of these two men. Monsieur le Chevalier de +Valois occupied a vantage-ground: he had never asked for the hand of +Mademoiselle Cormon; whereas du Bousquier, who entered the lists soon +after his rejection by the most distinguished family in the place, had +been refused. But the chevalier believed that his rival had still such +strong chances of success that he dealt him this coup de Jarnac with a +blade (namely, Suzanne) that was finely tempered for the purpose. The +chevalier had cast his plummet-line into the waters of du Bousquier; +and, as we shall see by the sequel, he was not mistaken in any of his +conjectures. + +Suzanne tripped with a light foot from the rue du Cours, by the rue de +la Porte de Seez and the rue du Bercail, to the rue du Cygne, where, +about five years earlier, du Bousquier had bought a little house built +of gray Jura stone, which is something between Breton slate and Norman +granite. There he established himself more comfortably than any +householder in town; for he had managed to preserve certain furniture +and decorations from the days of his splendor. But provincial manners +and morals obscured, little by little, the rays of this fallen +Sardanapalus; these vestiges of his former luxury now produced the +effect of a glass chandelier in a barn. Harmony, that bond of all +work, human or divine, was lacking in great things as well as in +little ones. The stairs, up which everybody mounted without wiping +their feet, were never polished; the walls, painted by some wretched +artisan of the neighborhood, were a terror to the eye; the stone +mantel-piece, ill-carved, "swore" with the handsome clock, which was +further degraded by the company of contemptible candlesticks. Like the +period which du Bousquier himself represented, the house was a jumble +of dirt and magnificence. Being considered a man of leisure, du +Bousquier led the same parasite life as the chevalier; and he who does +not spend his income is always rich. His only servant was a sort of +Jocrisse, a lad of the neighborhood, rather a ninny, trained slowly +and with difficulty to du Bousquier's requirements. His master had +taught him, as he might an orang-outang, to rub the floors, dust the +furniture, black his boots, brush his coats, and bring a lantern to +guide him home at night if the weather were cloudy, and clogs if it +rained. Like many other human beings, this lad hadn't stuff enough in +him for more than one vice; he was a glutton. Often, when du Bousquier +went to a grand dinner, he would take Rene to wait at table; on such +occasions he made him take off his blue cotton jacket, with its big +pockets hanging round his hips, and always bulging with handkerchiefs, +clasp-knives, fruits, or a handful of nuts, and forced him to put on a +regulation coat. Rene would then stuff his fill with the other +servants. This duty, which du Bousquier had turned into a reward, won +him the most absolute discretion from the Breton servant. + +"You here, mademoiselle!" said Rene to Suzanne when she entered; +"'t'isn't your day. We haven't any linen for the wash, tell Madame +Lardot." + +"Old stupid!" said Suzanne, laughing. + +The pretty girl went upstairs, leaving Rene to finish his porringer of +buckwheat in boiled milk. Du Bousquier, still in bed, was revolving in +his mind his plans of fortune; for ambition was all that was left to +him, as to other men who have sucked dry the orange of pleasure. +Ambition and play are inexhaustible; in a well-organized man the +passions which proceed from the brain will always survive the passions +of the heart. + +"Here am I," said Suzanne, sitting down on the bed and jangling the +curtain-rings back along the rod with despotic vehemence. + +"Quesaco, my charmer?" said the old bachelor, sitting up in bed. + +"Monsieur," said Suzanne, gravely, "you must be astonished to see me +here at this hour; but I find myself in a condition which obliges me +not to care for what people may say about it." + +"What does all that mean?" said du Bousquier, crossing his arms. + +"Don't you understand me?" said Suzanne. "I know," she continued, +making a pretty little face, "how ridiculous it is in a poor girl to +come and nag at a man for what he thinks a mere nothing. But if you +really knew me, monsieur, if you knew all that I am capable of for a +man who would attach himself to me as much as I'm attached to you, you +would never repent having married me. Of course it isn't here, in +Alencon, that I should be of service to you; but if we went to Paris, +you would see where I could lead a man with your mind and your +capacities; and just at this time too, when they are remaking the +government from top to toe. So--between ourselves, be it said--/is/ +what has happened a misfortune? Isn't it rather a piece of luck, which +will pay you well? Who and what are you working for now?" + +"For myself, of course!" cried du Bousquier, brutally. + +"Monster! you'll never be a father!" said Suzanne, giving a tone of +prophetic malediction to the words. + +"Come, don't talk nonsense, Suzanne," replied du Bousquier; "I really +think I am still dreaming." + +"How much more reality do you want?" cried Suzanne, standing up. + +Du Bousquier rubbed his cotton night-cap to the top of his head with a +rotatory motion, which plainly indicated the tremendous fermentation +of his ideas. + +"He actually believes it!" thought Suzanne, "and he's flattered. +Heaven! how easy it is to gull men!" + +"Suzanne, what the devil must I do? It is so extraordinary--I, who +thought-- The fact is that-- No, no, it can't be--" + +"What? you can't marry me?" + +"Oh! as for that, no; I have engagements." + +"With Mademoiselle Armande or Mademoiselle Cormon, who have both +refused you? Listen to me, Monsieur du Bousquier, my honor doesn't +need gendarmes to drag you to the mayor's office. I sha'n't lack for +husbands, thank goodness! and I don't want a man who can't appreciate +what I'm worth. But some day you'll repent of the way you are +behaving; for I tell you now that nothing on earth, neither gold nor +silver, will induce me to return the good thing that belongs to you, +if you refuse to accept it to-day." + +"But, Suzanne, are you sure?" + +"Oh, monsieur!" cried the grisette, wrapping her virtue round her, +"what do you take me for? I don't remind you of the promises you made +me, which have ruined a poor young girl whose only blame was to have +as much ambition as love." + +Du Bousquier was torn with conflicting sentiments, joy, distrust, +calculation. He had long determined to marry Mademoiselle Cormon; for +the Charter, on which he had just been ruminating, offered to his +ambition, through the half of her property, the political career of a +deputy. Besides, his marriage with the old maid would put him socially +so high in the town that he would have great influence. Consequently, +the storm upraised by that malicious Suzanne drove him into the +wildest embarrassment. Without this secret scheme, he would have +married Suzanne without hesitation. In which case, he could openly +assume the leadership of the liberal party in Alencon. After such a +marriage he would, of course, renounce the best society and take up +with the bourgeois class of tradesmen, rich manufacturers and +graziers, who would certainly carry him in triumph as their candidate. +Du Bousquier already foresaw the Left side. + +This solemn deliberation he did not conceal; he rubbed his hands over +his head, displacing the cap which covered its disastrous baldness. +Suzanne, meantime, like all those persons who succeed beyond their +hopes, was silent and amazed. To hide her astonishment, she assumed +the melancholy pose of an injured girl at the mercy of her seducer; +inwardly she was laughing like a grisette at her clever trick. + +"My dear child," said du Bousquier at length, "I'm not to be taken in +with such /bosh/, not I!" + +Such was the curt remark which ended du Bousquier's meditation. He +plumed himself on belonging to the class of cynical philosophers who +could never be "taken in" by women,--putting them, one and all, unto +the same category, as /suspicious/. These strong-minded persons are +usually weak men who have a special catechism in the matter of +womenkind. To them the whole sex, from queens of France to milliners, +are essentially depraved, licentious, intriguing, not a little +rascally, fundamentally deceitful, and incapable of thought about +anything but trifles. To them, women are evil-doing queens, who must +be allowed to dance and sing and laugh as they please; they see +nothing sacred or saintly in them, nor anything grand; to them there +is no poetry in the senses, only gross sensuality. Where such +jurisprudence prevails, if a woman is not perpetually tyrannized over, +she reduces the man to the condition of a slave. Under this aspect du +Bousquier was again the antithesis of the chevalier. When he made his +final remark, he flung his night-cap to the foot of the bed, as Pope +Gregory did the taper when he fulminated an excommunication; Suzanne +then learned for the first time that du Bousquier wore a toupet +covering his bald spot. + +"Please to remember, Monsieur du Bousquier," she replied majestically, +"that in coming here to tell you of this matter I have done my duty; +remember that I have offered you my hand, and asked for yours; but +remember also that I behaved with the dignity of a woman who respects +herself. I have not abased myself to weep like a silly fool; I have +not insisted; I have not tormented you. You now know my situation. You +must see that I cannot stay in Alencon: my mother would beat me, and +Madame Lardot rides a hobby of principles; she'll turn me off. Poor +work-girl that I am, must I go to the hospital? must I beg my bread? +No! I'd rather throw myself into the Brillante or the Sarthe. But +isn't it better that I should go to Paris? My mother could find an +excuse to send me there,--an uncle who wants me, or a dying aunt, or a +lady who sends for me. But I must have some money for the journey and +for--you know what." + +This extraordinary piece of news was far more startling to du +Bousquier than to the Chevalier de Valois. Suzanne's fiction +introduced such confusion into the ideas of the old bachelor that he +was literally incapable of sober reflection. Without this agitation +and without his inward delight (for vanity is a swindler which never +fails of its dupe), he would certainly have reflected that, supposing +it were true, a girl like Suzanne, whose heart was not yet spoiled, +would have died a thousand deaths before beginning a discussion of +this kind and asking for money. + +"Will you really go to Paris, then?" he said. + +A flash of gayety lighted Suzanne's gray eyes as she heard these +words; but the self-satisfied du Bousquier saw nothing. + +"Yes, monsieur," she said. + +Du Bousquier then began bitter lamentations: he had the last payments +to make on his house; the painter, the mason, the upholsterers must be +paid. Suzanne let him run on; she was listening for the figures. Du +Bousquier offered her three hundred francs. Suzanne made what is +called on the stage a false exit; that is, she marched toward the +door. + +"Stop, stop! where are you going?" said du Bousquier, uneasily. "This +is what comes of a bachelor's life!" thought he. "The devil take me if +I ever did anything more than rumple her collar, and, lo and behold! +she makes THAT a ground to put her hand in one's pocket!" + +"I'm going, monsieur," replied Suzanne, "to Madame Granson, the +treasurer of the Maternity Society, who, to my knowledge, has saved +many a poor girl in my condition from suicide." + +"Madame Granson!" + +"Yes," said Suzanne, "a relation of Mademoiselle Cormon, the president +of the Maternity Society. Saving your presence, the ladies of the town +have created an institution to protect poor creatures from destroying +their infants, like that handsome Faustine of Argentan who was +executed for it three years ago." + +"Here, Suzanne," said du Bousquier, giving her a key, "open that +secretary, and take out the bag you'll find there: there's about six +hundred francs in it; it is all I possess." + +"Old cheat!" thought Suzanne, doing as he told her, "I'll tell about +your false toupet." + +She compared du Bousquier with that charming chevalier, who had given +her nothing, it is true, but who had comprehended her, advised her, +and carried all grisettes in his heart. + +"If you deceive me, Suzanne," cried du Bousquier, as he saw her with +her hand in the drawer, "you--" + +"Monsieur," she said, interrupting him with ineffable impertinence, +"wouldn't you have given me money if I had asked for it?" + +Recalled to a sense of gallantry, du Bousquier had a remembrance of +past happiness and grunted his assent. Suzanne took the bag and +departed, after allowing the old bachelor to kiss her, which he did +with an air that seemed to say, "It is a right which costs me dear; +but it is better than being harried by a lawyer in the court of +assizes as the seducer of a girl accused of infanticide." + +Suzanne hid the sack in a sort of gamebag made of osier which she had +on her arm, all the while cursing du Bousquier for his stinginess; for +one thousand francs was the sum she wanted. Once tempted of the devil +to desire that sum, a girl will go far when she has set foot on the +path of trickery. As she made her way along the rue du Bercail, it +came into her head that the Maternity Society, presided over by +Mademoiselle Cormon, might be induced to complete the sum at which she +had reckoned her journey to Paris, which to a grisette of Alencon +seemed considerable. Besides, she hated du Bousquier. The latter had +evidently feared a revelation of his supposed misconduct to Madame +Granson; and Suzanne, at the risk of not getting a penny from the +society, was possessed with the desire, on leaving Alencon, of +entangling the old bachelor in the inextricable meshes of a provincial +slander. In all grisettes there is something of the malevolent +mischief of a monkey. Accordingly, Suzanne now went to see Madame +Granson, composing her face to an expression of the deepest dejection. + + + + CHAPTER III + + ATHANASE + +Madame Granson, widow of a lieutenant-colonel of artillery killed at +Jena, possessed, as her whole means of livelihood, a meagre pension of +nine hundred francs a year, and three hundred francs from property of +her own, plus a son whose support and education had eaten up all her +savings. She occupied, in the rue du Bercail, one of those melancholy +ground-floor apartments which a traveller passing along the principal +street of a little provincial town can look through at a glance. The +street door opened at the top of three steep steps; a passage led to +an interior courtyard, at the end of which was the staircase covered +by a wooden gallery. On one side of the passage was the dining-room +and the kitchen; on the other side, a salon put to many uses, and the +widow's bedchamber. + +Athanase Granson, a young man twenty-three years of age, who slept in +an attic room above the second floor of the house, added six hundred +francs to the income of his poor mother, by the salary of a little +place which the influence of his relation, Mademoiselle Cormon, had +obtained for him in the mayor's office, where he was placed in charge +of the archives. + +From these indications it is easy to imagine Madame Granson in her +cold salon with its yellow curtains and Utrecht velvet furniture, also +yellow, as she straightened the round straw mats which were placed +before each chair, that visitors might not soil the red-tiled floor +while they sat there; after which she returned to her cushioned +armchair and little work-table placed beneath the portrait of the +lieutenant-colonel of artillery between two windows,--a point from +which her eye could rake the rue du Bercail and see all comers. She +was a good woman, dressed with bourgeois simplicity in keeping with +her wan face furrowed by grief. The rigorous humbleness of poverty +made itself felt in all the accessories of this household, the very +air of which was charged with the stern and upright morals of the +provinces. At this moment the son and mother were together in the +dining-room, where they were breakfasting with a cup of coffee, with +bread and butter and radishes. To make the pleasure which Suzanne's +visit was to give to Madame Granson intelligible, we must explain +certain secret interests of the mother and son. + +Athanase Granson was a thin and pale young man, of medium height, with +a hollow face in which his two black eyes, sparkling with thoughts, +gave the effect of bits of coal. The rather irregular lines of his +face, the curve of his lips, a prominent chin, the fine modelling of +his forehead, his melancholy countenance, caused by a sense of his +poverty warring with the powers that he felt within him, were all +indications of repressed and imprisoned talent. In any other place +than the town of Alencon the mere aspect of his person would have won +him the assistance of superior men, or of women who are able to +recognize genius in obscurity. If his was not genius, it was at any +rate the form and aspect of it; if he had not the actual force of a +great heart, the glow of such a heart was in his glance. Although he +was capable of expressing the highest feeling, a casing of timidity +destroyed all the graces of his youth, just as the ice of poverty kept +him from daring to put forth all his powers. Provincial life, without +an opening, without appreciation, without encouragement, described a +circle about him in which languished and died the power of thought,--a +power which as yet had scarcely reached its dawn. Moreover, Athanase +possessed that savage pride which poverty intensifies in noble minds, +exalting them in their struggle with men and things; although at their +start in life it is an obstacle to their advancement. Genius proceeds +in two ways: either it takes its opportunity--like Napoleon, like +Moliere--the moment that it sees it, or it waits to be sought when it +has patiently revealed itself. Young Granson belonged to that class of +men of talent who distrust themselves and are easily discouraged. His +soul was contemplative. He lived more by thought than by action. +Perhaps he might have seemed deficient or incomplete to those who +cannot conceive of genius without the sparkle of French passion; but +he was powerful in the world of mind, and he was liable to reach, +through a series of emotions imperceptible to common souls, those +sudden determinations which make fools say of a man, "He is mad." + +The contempt which the world pours out on poverty was death to +Athanase; the enervating heat of solitude, without a breath or current +of air, relaxed the bow which ever strove to tighten itself; his soul +grew weary in this painful effort without results. Athanase was a man +who might have taken his place among the glories of France; but, eagle +as he was, cooped in a cage without his proper nourishment, he was +about to die of hunger after contemplating with an ardent eye the +fields of air and the mountain heights where genius soars. His work in +the city library escaped attention, and he buried in his soul his +thoughts of fame, fearing that they might injure him; but deeper than +all lay buried within him the secret of his heart,--a passion which +hollowed his cheeks and yellowed his brow. He loved his distant +cousin, this very Mademoiselle Cormon whom the Chevalier de Valois and +du Bousquier, his hidden rivals, were stalking. This love had had its +origin in calculation. Mademoiselle Cormon was thought to be one of +the richest persons in the town: the poor lad had therefore been led +to love her by desires for material happiness, by the hope, long +indulged, of gilding with comfort his mother's last years, by eager +longing for the ease of life so needful to men who live by thought; +but this most innocent point of departure degraded his passion in his +own eyes. Moreover, he feared the ridicule the world would cast upon +the love of a young man of twenty-three for an old maid of forty. + +And yet his passion was real; whatever may seem false about such a +love elsewhere, it can be realized as a fact in the provinces, where, +manners and morals being without change or chance or movement or +mystery, marriage becomes a necessity of life. No family will accept a +young man of dissolute habits. However natural the liaison of a young +man, like Athanase, with a handsome girl, like Suzanne, for instance, +might seem in a capital, it alarms provincial parents, and destroys +the hopes of marriage of a poor young man when possibly the fortune of +a rich one might cause such an unfortunate antecedent to be +overlooked. Between the depravity of certain liaisons and a sincere +love, a man of honor and no fortune will not hesitate: he prefers the +misfortunes of virtue to the evils of vice. But in the provinces women +with whom a young man call fall in love are rare. A rich young girl he +cannot obtain in a region where all is calculation; a poor young girl +he is prevented from loving; it would be, as provincials say, marrying +hunger and thirst. Such monkish solitude is, however, dangerous to +youth. + +These reflections explain why provincial life is so firmly based on +marriage. Thus we find that ardent and vigorous genius, forced to rely +on the independence of its own poverty, quits these cold regions where +thought is persecuted by brutal indifference, where no woman is +willing to be a sister of charity to a man of talent, of art, of +science. + +Who will really understand Athanase Granson's love for Mademoiselle +Cormon? Certainly neither rich men--those sultans of society who fill +their harems--nor middle-class men, who follow the well-beaten +high-road of prejudices; nor women who, not choosing to understand the +passions of artists, impose the yoke of their virtues upon men of +genius, imagining that the two sexes are governed by the same laws. + +Here, perhaps, we should appeal to those young men who suffer from the +repression of their first desires at the moment when all their forces +are developing; to artists sick of their own genius smothering under +the pressure of poverty; to men of talent, persecuted and without +influence, often without friends at the start, who have ended by +triumphing over that double anguish, equally agonizing, of soul and +body. Such men will well understand the lancinating pains of the +cancer which was now consuming Athanase; they have gone through those +long and bitter deliberations made in presence of some grandiose +purpose they had not the means to carry out; they have endured those +secret miscarriages in which the fructifying seed of genius falls on +arid soil. Such men know that the grandeur of desires is in proportion +to the height and breadth of the imagination. The higher they spring, +the lower they fall; and how can it be that ties and bonds should not +be broken by such a fall? Their piercing eye has seen--as did Athanase +--the brilliant future which awaited them, and from which they fancied +that only a thin gauze parted them; but that gauze through which their +eyes could see is changed by Society into a wall of iron. Impelled by +a vocation, by a sentiment of art, they endeavor again and again to +live by sentiments which society as incessantly materializes. Alas! +the provinces calculate and arrange marriage with the one view of +material comfort, and a poor artist or man of science is forbidden to +double its purpose and make it the saviour of his genius by securing +to him the means of subsistence! + +Moved by such ideas, Athanase Granson first thought of marriage with +Mademoiselle Cormon as a means of obtaining a livelihood which would +be permanent. Thence he could rise to fame, and make his mother happy, +knowing at the same time that he was capable of faithfully loving his +wife. But soon his own will created, although he did not know it, a +genuine passion. He began to study the old maid, and, by dint of the +charm which habit gives, he ended by seeing only her beauties and +ignoring her defects. + +In a young man of twenty-three the senses count for much in love; +their fire produces a sort of prism between his eyes and the woman. +From this point of view the clasp with which Beaumarchis' Cherubin +seizes Marceline is a stroke of genius. But when we reflect that in +the utter isolation to which poverty condemned poor Athanase, +Mademoiselle Cormon was the only figure presented to his gaze, that +she attracted his eye incessantly, that all the light he had was +concentrated on her, surely his love may be considered natural. + +This sentiment, so carefully hidden, increased from day to day. +Desires, sufferings, hopes, and meditations swelled in quietness and +silence the lake widening ever in the young man's breast, as hour by +hour added its drop of water to the volume. And the wider this inward +circle, drawn by the imagination, aided by the senses, grew, the more +imposing Mademoiselle Cormon appeared to Athanase, and the more his +own timidity increased. + +The mother had divined the truth. Like all provincial mothers, she +calculated candidly in her own mind the advantages of the match. She +told herself that Mademoiselle Cormon would be very lucky to secure a +husband in a young man of twenty-three, full of talent, who would +always be an honor to his family and the neighborhood; at the same +time the obstacles which her son's want of fortune and Mademoiselle +Cormon's age presented to the marriage seemed to her almost +insurmountable; she could think of nothing but patience as being able +to vanquish them. Like du Bousquier, like the Chevalier de Valois, she +had a policy of her own; she was on the watch for circumstances, +awaiting the propitious moment for a move with the shrewdness of +maternal instinct. Madame Granson had no fears at all as to the +chevalier, but she did suppose that du Bousquier, although refused, +retained certain hopes. As an able and underhand enemy to the latter, +she did him much secret harm in the interests of her son; from whom, +by the bye, she carefully concealed all such proceedings. + +After this explanation it is easy to understand the importance which +Suzanne's lie, confided to Madame Granson, was about to acquire. What +a weapon put into the hands of this charitable lady, the treasurer of +the Maternity Society! How she would gently and demurely spread the +news while collecting assistance for the chaste Suzanne! + +At the present moment Athanase, leaning pensively on his elbow at the +breakfast table, was twirling his spoon in his empty cup and +contemplating with a preoccupied eye the poor room with its red brick +floor, its straw chairs, its painted wooden buffet, its pink and white +curtains chequered like a backgammon board, which communicated with +the kitchen through a glass door. As his back was to the chimney which +his mother faced, and as the chimney was opposite to the door, his +pallid face, strongly lighted from the window, framed in beautiful +black hair, the eyes gleaming with despair and fiery with morning +thoughts, was the first object which met the eyes of the incoming +Suzanne. The grisette, who belonged to a class which certainly has the +instinct of misery and the sufferings of the heart, suddenly felt that +electric spark, darting from Heaven knows where, which can never be +explained, which some strong minds deny, but the sympathetic stroke of +which has been felt by many men and many women. It is at once a light +which lightens the darkness of the future, a presentiment of the +sacred joys of a shared love, the certainty of mutual comprehension. +Above all, it is like the touch of a firm and able hand on the +keyboard of the senses. The eyes are fascinated by an irresistible +attraction; the heart is stirred; the melodies of happiness echo in +the soul and in the ears; a voice cries out, "It is he!" Often +reflection casts a douche of cold water on this boiling emotion, and +all is over. + +In a moment, as rapid as the flash of the lightning, Suzanne received +the broadside of this emotion in her heart. The flame of a real love +burned up the evil weeds fostered by a libertine and dissipated life. +She saw how much she was losing of decency and value by accusing +herself falsely. What had seemed to her a joke the night before became +to her eyes a serious charge against herself. She recoiled at her own +success. But the impossibility of any result; the poverty of the young +man; a vague hope of enriching herself, of going to Paris, and +returning with full hands to say, "I love you! here are the means of +happiness!" or mere fate, if you will have it so, dried up the next +moment this beneficent dew. + +The ambitious grisette asked with a timid air for a moment's interview +with Madame Granson, who took her at once into her bedchamber. When +Suzanne came out she looked again at Athanase; he was still in the +same position, and the tears came into her eyes. As for Madame +Granson, she was radiant with joy. At last she had a weapon, and a +terrible one, against du Bousquier; she could now deal him a mortal +blow. She had of course promised the poor seduced girl the support of +all charitable ladies and that of the members of the Maternity Society +in particular; she foresaw a dozen visits which would occupy her whole +day, and brew up a frightful storm on the head of the guilty du +Bousquier. The Chevalier de Valois, while foreseeing the turn the +affair would take, had really no idea of the scandal which would +result from his own action. + +"My dear child," said Madame Granson to her son, "we are to dine, you +know, with Mademoiselle Cormon; do take a little pains with your +appearance. You are wrong to neglect your dress as you do. Put on that +handsome frilled shirt and your green coat of Elbeuf cloth. I have my +reasons," she added slyly. "Besides, Mademoiselle Cormon is going to +Prebaudet, and many persons will doubtless call to bid her good-bye. +When a young man is marriageable he ought to take every means to make +himself agreeable. If girls would only tell the truth, heavens! my +dear boy, you'd be astonished at what makes them fall in love. Often +it suffices for a man to ride past them at the head of a company of +artillery, or show himself at a ball in tight clothes. Sometimes a +mere turn of the head, a melancholy attitude, makes them suppose a +man's whole life; they'll invent a romance to match the hero--who is +often a mere brute, but the marriage is made. Watch the Chevalier de +Valois: study him; copy his manners; see with what ease he presents +himself; he never puts on a stiff air, as you do. Talk a little more; +one would really think you didn't know anything,--you, who know Hebrew +by heart." + +Athanase listened to his mother with a surprised but submissive air; +then he rose, took his cap, and went off to the mayor's office, saying +to himself, "Can my mother suspect my secret?" + +He passed through the rue du Val-Noble, where Mademoiselle Cormon +lived,--a little pleasure which he gave himself every morning, +thinking, as usual, a variety of fanciful things:-- + +"How little she knows that a young man is passing before her house who +loves her well, who would be faithful to her, who would never cause +her any grief; who would leave her the entire management of her +fortune without interference. Good God! what fatality! here, side by +side, in the same town, are two persons in our mutual condition, and +yet nothing can bring them together. Suppose I were to speak to her +this evening?" + +During this time Suzanne had returned to her mother's house thinking +of Athanase; and, like many other women who have longed to help an +adored man beyond the limit of human powers, she felt herself capable +of making her body a stepping-stone on which he could rise to attain +his throne. + +It is now necessary to enter the house of this old maid toward whom so +many interests are converging, where the actors in this scene, with +the exception of Suzanne, were all to meet this very evening. As for +Suzanne, that handsome individual bold enough to burn her ships like +Alexander at her start in life, and to begin the battle by a +falsehood, she disappears from the stage, having introduced upon it a +violent element of interest. Her utmost wishes were gratified. She +quitted her native town a few days later, well supplied with money and +good clothes, among which was a fine dress of green reps and a +charming green bonnet lined with pink, the gift of Monsieur de Valois, +--a present which she preferred to all the rest, even the money. If +the chevalier had gone to Paris in the days of her future brilliancy, +she would certainly have left every one for him. Like the chaste +Susannah of the Bible, whom the Elders hardly saw, she established +herself joyously and full of hope in Paris, while all Alencon was +deploring her misfortunes, for which the ladies of two Societies +(Charity and Maternity) manifested the liveliest sympathy. Though +Suzanne is a fair specimen of those handsome Norman women whom a +learned physician reckons as comprising one third of her fallen class +whom our monstrous Paris absorbs, it must be stated that she remained +in the upper and more decent regions of gallantry. At an epoch when, +as Monsieur de Valois said, Woman no longer existed, she was simply +"Madame du Val-Noble"; in other days she would have rivalled the +Rhodopes, the Imperias, the Ninons of the past. One of the most +distinguished writers of the Restoration has taken her under his +protection; perhaps he may marry her. He is a journalist, and +consequently above public opinion, inasmuch as he manufactures it +afresh every year or two. + + + + CHAPTER III + + MADEMOISELLE CORMON + +In nearly all the second-class prefectures of France there exists one +salon which is the meeting-ground of those considerable and +well-considered persons of the community who are, nevertheless, /not/ +the cream of the best society. The master and mistress of such an +establishment are counted among the leading persons of the town; they +are received wherever it may please them to visit; no fete is given, +no formal or diplomatic dinner takes place, to which they are not +invited. But the chateau people, heads of families possessing great +estates, in short, the highest personages in the department, do not go +to their houses; social intercourse between them is carried on by +cards from one to the other, and a dinner or soiree accepted and +returned. + +This salon, in which the lesser nobility, the clergy, and the +magistracy meet together, exerts a great influence. The judgment and +mind of the region reside in that solid, unostentatious society, where +each man knows the resources of his neighbor, where complete +indifference is shown to luxury and dress,--pleasures which are +thought childish in comparison to that of obtaining ten or twelve +acres of pasture land,--a purchase coveted for years, which has +probably given rise to endless diplomatic combinations. Immovable in +its prejudices, good or evil, this social circle follows a beaten +track, looking neither before it nor behind it. It accepts nothing +from Paris without long examination and trial; it rejects cashmeres as +it does investments on the Grand-Livre; it scoffs at fashions and +novelties; reads nothing, prefers ignorance, whether of science, +literature, or industrial inventions. It insists on the removal of a +prefect when that official does not suit it; and if the administration +resists, it isolates him, after the manner of bees who wall up a snail +in wax when it gets into their hive. + +In this society gossip is often turned into solemn verdicts. Young +women are seldom seen there; when they come it is to seek approbation +of their conduct,--a consecration of their self-importance. This +supremacy granted to one house is apt to wound the sensibilities of +other natives of the region, who console themselves by adding up the +cost it involves, and by which they profit. If it so happens that +there is no fortune large enough to keep open house in this way, the +big-wigs of the place choose a place of meeting, as they did at +Alencon, in the house of some inoffensive person, whose settled life +and character and position offers no umbrage to the vanities or the +interests of any one. + +For some years the upper classes of Alencon had met in this way at the +house of an old maid, whose fortune was, unknown to herself, the aim +and object of Madame Granson, her second cousin, and of the two old +bachelors whose secret hopes in that direction we have just unveiled. +This lady lived with her maternal uncle, a former grand-vicar of the +bishopric of Seez, once her guardian, and whose heir she was. The +family of which Rose-Marie-Victoire Cormon was the present +representative had been in earlier days among the most considerable in +the province. Though belonging to the middle classes, she consorted +with the nobility, among whom she was more or less allied, her family +having furnished, in past years, stewards to the Duc d'Alencon, many +magistrates to the long robe, and various bishops to the clergy. +Monsieur de Sponde, the maternal grandfather of Mademoiselle Cormon, +was elected by the Nobility to the States-General, and Monsieur +Cormon, her father, by the Tiers-Etat, though neither accepted the +mission. For the last hundred years the daughters of the family had +married nobles belonging to the provinces; consequently, this family +had thrown out so many suckers throughout the duchy as to appear on +nearly all the genealogical trees. No bourgeois family had ever seemed +so like nobility. + +The house in which Mademoiselle Cormon lived, build in Henri IV.'s +time, by Pierre Cormon, the steward of the last Duc d'Alencon, had +always belonged to the family; and among the old maid's visible +possessions this one was particularly stimulating to the covetous +desires of the two old lovers. Yet, far from producing revenue, the +house was a cause of expense. But it is so rare to find in the very +centre of a provincial town a private dwelling without unpleasant +surroundings, handsome in outward structure and convenient within, +that Alencon shared the envy of the lovers. + +This old mansion stands exactly in the middle of the rue du Val-Noble. +It is remarkable for the strength of its construction,--a style of +building introduced by Marie de' Medici. Though built of granite,--a +stone which is hard to work,--its angles, and the casings of the doors +and windows, are decorated with corner blocks cut into diamond facets. +It has only one clear story above the ground-floor; but the roof, +rising steeply, has several projecting windows, with carved spandrels +rather elegantly enclosed in oaken frames, and externally adorned with +balustrades. Between each of these windows is a gargoyle presenting +the fantastic jaws of an animal without a body, vomiting the +rain-water upon large stones pierced with five holes. The two gables +are surmounted by leaden bouquets,--a symbol of the bourgeoisie; for +nobles alone had the privilege in former days of having weather-vanes. +To right of the courtyard are the stables and coach-house; to left, +the kitchen, wood-house, and laundry. + +One side of the porte-cochere, being left open, allowed the passers in +the street to see in the midst of the vast courtyard a flower-bed, the +raised earth of which was held in place by a low privet hedge. A few +monthly roses, pinkes, lilies, and Spanish broom filled this bed, +around which in the summer season boxes of paurestinus, pomegranates, +and myrtle were placed. Struck by the scrupulous cleanliness of the +courtyard and its dependencies, a stranger would at once have divined +that the place belonged to an old maid. The eye which presided there +must have been an unoccupied, ferreting eye; minutely careful, less +from nature than for want of something to do. An old maid, forced to +employ her vacant days, could alone see to the grass being hoed from +between the paving stones, the tops of the walls kept clean, the broom +continually going, and the leather curtains of the coach-house always +closed. She alone would have introduced, out of busy idleness, a sort +of Dutch cleanliness into a house on the confines of Bretagne and +Normandie,--a region where they take pride in professing an utter +indifference to comfort. + +Never did the Chevalier de Valois, or du Bousquier, mount the steps of +the double stairway leading to the portico of this house without +saying to himself, one, that it was fit for a peer of France, the +other, that the mayor of the town ought to live there. + +A glass door gave entrance from this portico into an antechamber, a +species of gallery paved in red tiles and wainscoted, which served as +a hospital for the family portraits,--some having an eye put out, +others suffering from a dislocated shoulder; this one held his hat in +a hand that no longer existed; that one was a case of amputation at +the knee. Here were deposited the cloaks, clogs, overshoes, umbrellas, +hoods, and pelisses of the guests. It was an arsenal where each +arrival left his baggage on arriving, and took it up when departing. +Along each wall was a bench for the servants who arrived with +lanterns, and a large stove, to counteract the north wind, which blew +through this hall from the garden to the courtyard. + +The house was divided in two equal parts. On one side, toward the +courtyard, was the well of the staircase, a large dining-room looking +to the garden, and an office or pantry which communicated with the +kitchen. On the other side was the salon, with four windows, beyond +which were two smaller rooms,--one looking on the garden, and used as +a boudoir, the other lighted from the courtyard, and used as a sort of +office. + +The upper floor contained a complete apartment for a family household, +and a suite of rooms where the venerable Abbe de Sponde had his abode. +The garrets offered fine quarters to the rats and mice, whose +nocturnal performances were related by Mademoiselle Cormon to the +Chevalier de Valois, with many expressions of surprise at the +inutility of her efforts to get rid of them. The garden, about half an +acre in size, is margined by the Brillante, so named from the +particles of mica which sparkle in its bed elsewhere than in the +Val-Noble, where its shallow waters are stained by the dyehouses, and +loaded with refuse from the other industries of the town. The shore +opposite to Mademoiselle Cormon's garden is crowded with houses where +a variety of trades are carried on; happily for her, the occupants are +quiet people,--a baker, a cleaner, an upholsterer, and several +bourgeois. The garden, full of common flowers, ends in a natural +terrace, forming a quay, down which are several steps leading to the +river. Imagine on the balustrade of this terrace a number of tall +vases of blue and white pottery, in which are gilliflowers; and to +right and left, along the neighboring walls, hedges of linden closely +trimmed in, and you will gain an idea of the landscape, full of +tranquil chastity, modest cheerfulness, but commonplace withal, which +surrounded the venerable edifice of the Cormon family. What peace! +what tranquillity! nothing pretentious, but nothing transitory; all +seems eternal there! + +The ground-floor is devoted wholly to the reception-rooms. The old, +unchangeable provincial spirit pervades them. The great square salon +has four windows, modestly cased in woodwork painted gray. A single +oblong mirror is placed above the fireplace; the top of its frame +represented the Dawn led by the Hours, and painted in camaieu (two +shades of one color). This style of painting infested the decorative +art of the day, especially above door-frames, where the artist +displayed his eternal Seasons, and made you, in most houses in the +centre of France, abhor the odious Cupids, endlessly employed in +skating, gleaning, twirling, or garlanding one another with flowers. +Each window was draped in green damask curtains, looped up by heavy +cords, which made them resemble a vast dais. The furniture, covered +with tapestry, the woodwork, painted and varnished, and remarkable for +the twisted forms so much the fashion in the last century, bore scenes +from the fables of La Fontaine on the chair-backs; some of this +tapestry had been mended. The ceiling was divided at the centre of the +room by a huge beam, from which depended an old chandelier of +rock-crystal swathed in green gauze. On the fireplace were two vases +in Sevres blue, and two old girandoles attached to the frame of the +mirror, and a clock, the subject of which, taken from the last scene +of the "Deserteur," proved the enormous popularity of Sedaine's work. +This clock, of bronze-gilt, bore eleven personages upon it, each about +four inches tall. At the back the Deserter was seen issuing from +prison between the soldiers; in the foreground the young woman lay +fainting, and pointing to his pardon. On the walls of this salon were +several of the more recent portraits of the family,--one or two by +Rigaud, and three pastels by Latour. Four card tables, a backgammon +board, and a piquet table occupied the vast room, the only one in the +house, by the bye, which was ceiled. + +The dining-room, paved in black and white stone, not ceiled, and its +beams painted, was furnished with one of those enormous sideboards +with marble tops, required by the war waged in the provinces against +the human stomach. The walls, painted in fresco, represented a flowery +trellis. The seats were of varnished cane, and the doors of natural +wood. All things about the place carried out the patriarchal air which +emanated from the inside as well as the outside of the house. The +genius of the provinces preserved everything; nothing was new or old, +neither young nor decrepit. A cold precision made itself felt +throughout. + +Tourists in Normandy, Brittany, Maine, and Anjou must all have seen in +the capitals of those provinces many houses which resemble more or +less that of the Cormons; for it is, in its way, an archetype of the +burgher houses in that region of France, and it deserves a place in +this history because it serves to explain manners and customs, and +represents ideas. Who does not already feel that life must have been +calm and monotonously regular in this old edifice? It contained a +library; but that was placed below the level of the river. The books +were well bound and shelved, and the dust, far from injuring them, +only made them valuable. They were preserved with the care given in +these provinces deprived of vineyards to other native products, +desirable for their antique perfume, and issued by the presses of +Bourgogne, Touraine, Gascogne, and the South. The cost of +transportation was too great to allow any but the best products to be +imported. + +The basis of Mademoiselle Cormon's society consisted of about one +hundred and fifty persons; some went at times to the country; others +were occasionally ill; a few travelled about the department on +business; but certain of the faithful came every night (unless invited +elsewhere), and so did certain others compelled by duties or by habit +to live permanently in the town. All the personages were of ripe age; +few among them had ever travelled; nearly all had spent their lives in +the provinces, and some had taken part in the chouannerie. The latter +were beginning to speak fearlessly of that war, now that rewards were +being showered on the defenders of the good cause. Monsieur de Valois, +one of the movers in the last uprising (during which the Marquis de +Montauran, betrayed by his mistress, perished in spite of the devotion +of Marche-a-Terre, now tranquilly raising cattle for the market near +Mayenne),--Monsieur de Valois had, during the last six months, given +the key to several choice stratagems practised upon an old republican +named Hulot, the commander of a demi-brigade stationed at Alencon from +1798 to 1800, who had left many memories in the place. [See "The +Chouans."] + +The women of this society took little pains with their dress, except +on Wednesdays, when Mademoiselle Cormon gave a dinner, on which +occasion the guests invited on the previous Wednesday paid their +"visit of digestion." Wednesdays were gala days: the assembly was +numerous; guests and visitors appeared in fiocchi; some women brought +their sewing, knitting, or worsted work; the young girls were not +ashamed to make patterns for the Alencon point lace, with the proceeds +of which they paid for their personal expenses. Certain husbands +brought their wives out of policy, for young men were few in that +house; not a word could be whispered in any ear without attracting the +attention of all; there was therefore no danger, either for young +girls or wives, of love-making. + +Every evening, at six o'clock, the long antechamber received its +furniture. Each habitue brought his cane, his cloak, his lantern. All +these persons knew each other so well, and their habits and ways were +so familiarly patriarchal, that if by chance the old Abbe de Sponde +was lying down, or Mademoiselle Cormon was in her chamber, neither +Josette, the maid, nor Jacquelin, the man-servant, nor Mariette, the +cook, informed them. The first comer received the second; then, when +the company were sufficiently numerous for whist, piquet, or boston, +they began the game without awaiting either the Abbe de Sponde or +mademoiselle. If it was dark, Josette or Jacquelin would hasten to +light the candles as soon as the first bell rang. Seeing the salon +lighted up, the abbe would slowly hurry to come down. Every evening +the backgammon and the piquet tables, the three boston tables, and the +whist table were filled,--which gave occupation to twenty-five or +thirty persons; but as many as forty were usually present. Jacquelin +would then light the candles in the other rooms. + +Between eight and nine o'clock the servants began to arrive in the +antechamber to accompany their masters home; and, short of a +revolution, no one remained in the salon at ten o'clock. At that hour +the guests were departing in groups along the street, discoursing on +the game, or continuing conversations on the land they were covetous +of buying, on the terms of some one's will, on quarrels among heirs, +on the haughty assumption of the aristocratic portion of the +community. It was like Paris when the audience of a theatre disperses. + +Certain persons who talk much of poesy and know nothing about it, +declaim against the habits of life in the provinces. But put your +forehead in your left hand, rest one foot on the fender, and your +elbow on your knee; then, if you compass the idea of this quiet and +uniform scene, this house and its interior, this company and its +interests, heightened by the pettiness of its intellect like goldleaf +beaten between sheets of parchment, ask yourself, What is human life? +Try to decide between him who scribbles jokes on Egyptian obelisks, +and him who has "bostoned" for twenty years with Du Bousquier, +Monsieur de Valois, Mademoiselle Cormon, the judge of the court, the +king's attorney, the Abbe de Sponde, Madame Granson, and tutti quanti. +If the daily and punctual return of the same steps to the same path is +not happiness, it imitates happiness so well that men driven by the +storms of an agitated life to reflect upon the blessings of +tranquillity would say that here was happiness /enough/. + +To reckon the importance of Mademoiselle Cormon's salon at its true +value, it will suffice to say that the born statistician of the +society, du Bousquier, had estimated that the persons who frequented +it controlled one hundred and thirty-one votes in the electoral +college, and mustered among themselves eighteen hundred thousand +francs a year from landed estate in the neighborhood. + +The town of Alencon, however, was not entirely represented by this +salon. The higher aristocracy had a salon of their own; moreover, that +of the receiver-general was like an administration inn kept by the +government, where society danced, plotted, fluttered, loved, and +supped. These two salons communicated by means of certain mixed +individuals with the house of Cormon, and vice-versa; but the Cormon +establishment sat severely in judgment on the two other camps. The +luxury of their dinners was criticised; the ices at their balls were +pondered; the behavior of the women, the dresses, and "novelties" +there produced were discussed and disapproved. + +Mademoiselle Cormon, a species of firm, as one might say, under whose +name was comprised an imposing coterie, was naturally the aim and +object of two ambitious men as deep and wily as the Chevalier de +Valois and du Bousquier. To the one as well as to the other, she meant +election as deputy, resulting, for the noble, in the peerage, for the +purveyor, in a receiver-generalship. A leading salon is a difficult +thing to create, whether in Paris or the provinces, and here was one +already created. To marry Mademoiselle Cormon was to reign in Alencon. +Athanase Granson, the only one of the three suitors for the hand of +the old maid who no longer calculated profits, now loved her person as +well as her fortune. + +To employ the jargon of the day, is there not a singular drama in the +situation of these four personages? Surely there is something odd and +fantastic in three rivalries silently encompassing a woman who never +guessed their existence, in spite of an eager and legitimate desire to +be married. And yet, though all these circumstances make the +spinsterhood of this old maid an extraordinary thing, it is not +difficult to explain how and why, in spite of her fortune and her +three lovers, she was still unmarried. In the first place, +Mademoiselle Cormon, following the custom and rule of her house, had +always desired to marry a nobleman; but from 1788 to 1798 public +circumstances were very unfavorable to such pretensions. Though she +wanted to be a woman of condition, as the saying is, she was horribly +afraid of the Revolutionary tribunal. The two sentiments, equal in +force, kept her stationary by a law as true in ethics as it is in +statics. This state of uncertain expectation is pleasing to unmarried +women as long as they feel themselves young, and in a position to +choose a husband. France knows that the political system of Napoleon +resulted in making many widows. Under that regime heiresses were +entirely out of proportion in numbers to the bachelors who wanted to +marry. When the Consulate restored internal order, external +difficulties made the marriage of Mademoiselle Cormon as difficult to +arrange as it had been in the past. If, on the one hand, +Rose-Marie-Victoire refused to marry an old man, on the other, the +fear of ridicule forbade her to marry a very young one. + +In the provinces, families marry their sons early to escape the +conscription. In addition to all this, she was obstinately determined +not to marry a soldier: she did not intend to take a man and then give +him up to the Emperor; she wanted him for herself alone. With these +views, she found it therefore impossible, from 1804 to 1815, to enter +the lists with young girls who were rivalling each other for suitable +matches. + +Besides her predilection for the nobility, Mademoiselle Cormon had +another and very excusable mania: that of being loved for herself. You +could hardly believe the lengths to which this desire led her. She +employed her mind on setting traps for her possible lovers, in order +to test their real sentiments. Her nets were so well laid that the +luckless suitors were all caught, and succumbed to the test she +applied to them without their knowledge. Mademoiselle Cormon did not +study them; she watched them. A single word said heedlessly, a joke +(that she often was unable to understand), sufficed to make her reject +an aspirant as unworthy: this one had neither heart nor delicacy; that +one told lies, and was not religious; a third only wanted to coin +money under the cloak of marriage; another was not of a nature to make +a woman happy; here she suspected hereditary gout; there certain +immoral antecedents alarmed her. Like the Church, she required a noble +priest at her altar; she even wanted to be married for imaginary +ugliness and pretended defects, just as other women wish to be loved +for the good qualities they have not, and for imaginary beauties. +Mademoiselle Cormon's ambition took its rise in the most delicate and +sensitive feminine feeling; she longed to reward a lover by revealing +to him a thousand virtues after marriage, as other women then betray +the imperfections they have hitherto concealed. But she was ill +understood. The noble woman met with none but common souls in whom the +reckoning of actual interests was paramount, and who knew nothing of +the nobler calculations of sentiment. + +The farther she advanced towards that fatal epoch so adroitly called +the "second youth," the more her distrust increased. She affected to +present herself in the most unfavorable light, and played her part so +well that the last wooers hesitated to link their fate to that of a +person whose virtuous blind-man's-buff required an amount of +penetration that men who want the virtuous ready-made would not bestow +upon it. The constant fear of being married for her money rendered her +suspicious and uneasy beyond all reason. She turned to the rich men; +but the rich are in search of great marriages; she feared the poor +men, in whom she denied the disinterestedness she sought so eagerly. +After each disappointment in marriage, the poor lady, led to despise +mankind, began to see them all in a false light. Her character +acquired, necessarily, a secret misanthropy, which threw a tinge of +bitterness into her conversation, and some severity into her eyes. +Celibacy gave to her manners and habits a certain increasing rigidity; +for she endeavored to sanctify herself in despair of fate. Noble +vengeance! she was cutting for God the rough diamond rejected by man. +Before long public opinion was against her; for society accepts the +verdict an independent woman renders on herself by not marrying, +either through losing suitors or rejecting them. Everybody supposed +that these rejections were founded on secret reasons, always ill +interpreted. One said she was deformed; another suggested some hidden +fault; but the poor girl was really as pure as a saint, as healthy as +an infant, and full of loving kindness; Nature had intended her for +all the pleasures, all the joys, and all the fatigues of motherhood. + +Mademoiselle Cormon did not possess in her person an obliging +auxiliary to her desires. She had no other beauty than that very +improperly called la beaute du diable, which consists of a buxom +freshness of youth that the devil, theologically speaking, could never +have,--though perhaps the expression may be explained by the constant +desire that must surely possess him to cool and refresh himself. The +feet of the heiress were broad and flat. Her leg, which she often +exposed to sight by her manner (be it said without malice) of lifting +her gown when it rained, could never have been taken for the leg of a +woman. It was sinewy, with a thick projecting calf like a sailor's. A +stout waist, the plumpness of a wet-nurse, strong dimpled arms, red +hands, were all in keeping with the swelling outlines and the fat +whiteness of Norman beauty. Projecting eyes, undecided in color, gave +to her face, the rounded outline of which had no dignity, an air of +surprise and sheepish simplicity, which was suitable perhaps for an +old maid. If Rose had not been, as she was, really innocent, she would +have seemed so. An aquiline nose contrasted curiously with the +narrowness of her forehead; for it is rare that that form of nose does +not carry with it a fine brow. In spite of her thick red lips, a sign +of great kindliness, the forehead revealed too great a lack of ideas +to allow of the heart being guided by intellect; she was evidently +benevolent without grace. How severely we reproach Virtue for its +defects, and how full of indulgence we all are for the pleasanter +qualities of Vice! + +Chestnut hair of extraordinary length gave to Rose Cormon's face a +beauty which results from vigor and abundance,--the physical qualities +most apparent in her person. In the days of her chief pretensions, +Rose affected to hold her head at the three-quarter angle, in order to +exhibit a very pretty ear, which detached itself from the blue-veined +whiteness of her throat and temples, set off, as it was, by her wealth +of hair. Seen thus in a ball-dress, she might have seemed handsome. +Her protuberant outlines and her vigorous health did, in fact, draw +from the officers of the Empire the approving exclamation,-- + +"What a fine slip of a girl!" + +But, as years rolled on, this plumpness, encouraged by a tranquil, +wholesome life, had insensibly so ill spread itself over the whole of +Mademoiselle Cormon's body that her primitive proportions were +destroyed. At the present moment, no corset could restore a pair of +hips to the poor lady, who seemed to have been cast in a single mould. +The youthful harmony of her bosom existed no longer; and its excessive +amplitude made the spectator fear that if she stooped its heavy masses +might topple her over. But nature had provided against this by giving +her a natural counterpoise, which rendered needless the deceitful +adjunct of a bustle; in Rose Cormon everything was genuine. Her chin, +as it doubled, reduced the length of her neck, and hindered the easy +carriage of her head. Rose had no wrinkles, but she had folds of +flesh; and jesters declared that to save chafing she powdered her skin +as they do an infant's. + +This ample person offered to a young man full of ardent desires like +Athanase an attraction to which he had succumbed. Young imaginations, +essentially eager and courageous, like to rove upon these fine living +sheets of flesh. Rose was like a plump partridge attracting the knife +of a gourmet. Many an elegant deep in debt would very willingly have +resigned himself to make the happiness of Mademoiselle Cormon. But, +alas! the poor girl was now forty years old. At this period, after +vainly seeking to put into her life those interests which make the +Woman, and finding herself forced to be still unmarried, she fortified +her virtue by stern religious practices. She had recourse to religion, +the great consoler of oppressed virginity. A confessor had, for the +last three years, directed Mademoiselle Cormon rather stupidly in the +path of maceration; he advised the use of scourging, which, if modern +medical science is to be believed, produces an effect quite the +contrary to that expected by the worthy priest, whose hygienic +knowledge was not extensive. + +These absurd practices were beginning to shed a monastic tint over the +face of Rose Cormon, who now saw with something like despair her white +skin assuming the yellow tones which proclaim maturity. A slight down +on her upper lip, about the corners, began to spread and darken like a +trail of smoke; her temples grew shiny; decadence was beginning! It +was authentic in Alencon that Mademoiselle Cormon suffered from rush +of blood to the head. She confided her ills to the Chevalier de +Valois, enumerating her foot-baths, and consulting him as to +refrigerants. On such occasions the shrewd old gentleman would pull +out his snuff-box, gaze at the Princess Goritza, and say, by way of +conclusion:-- + +"The right composing draught, my dear lady, is a good and kind +husband." + +"But whom can one trust?" she replied. + +The chevalier would then brush away the snuff which had settled in the +folds of his waistcoat or his paduasoy breeches. To the world at large +this gesture would have seemed very natural; but it always gave +extreme uneasiness to the poor woman. + +The violence of this hope without an object was so great that Rose was +afraid to look a man in the face lest he should perceive in her eyes +the feelings that filled her soul. By a wilfulness, which was perhaps +only the continuation of her earlier methods, though she felt herself +attracted toward the men who might still suit her, she was so afraid +of being accused of folly that she treated them ungraciously. Most +persons in her society, being incapable of appreciating her motives, +which were always noble, explained her manner towards her co-celibates +as the revenge of a refusal received or expected. When the year 1815 +began, Rose had reached that fatal age which she dared not avow. She +was forty-two years old. Her desire for marriage then acquired an +intensity which bordered on monomania, for she saw plainly that all +chance of progeny was about to escape her; and the thing which in her +celestial ignorance she desired above all things was the possession of +children. Not a person in all Alencon ever attributed to this virtuous +woman a single desire for amorous license. She loved, as it were, in +bulk without the slightest imagination of love. Rose was a Catholic +Agnes, incapable of inventing even one of the wiles of Moliere's +Agnes. + +For some months past she had counted on chance. The disbandment of the +Imperial troops and the reorganization of the Royal army caused a +change in the destination of many officers, who returned, some on +half-pay, others with or without a pension, to their native towns, +--all having a desire to counteract their luckless fate, and to end +their life in a way which might to Rose Cormon be a happy beginning of +hers. It would surely be strange if, among those who returned to +Alencon or its neighborhood, no brave, honorable, and, above all, +sound and healthy officer of suitable age could be found, whose +character would be a passport among Bonaparte opinions; or some +ci-devant noble who, to regain his lost position, would join the ranks +of the royalists. This hope kept Mademoiselle Cormon in heart during +the early months of that year. But, alas! all the soldiers who thus +returned were either too old or too young; too aggressively +Bonapartist, or too dissipated; in short, their several situations +were out of keeping with the rank, fortune, and morals of Mademoiselle +Cormon, who now grew daily more and more desperate. The poor woman in +vain prayed to God to send her a husband with whom she could be +piously happy: it was doubtless written above that she should die both +virgin and martyr; no man suitable for a husband presented himself. +The conversations in her salon every evening kept her informed of the +arrival of all strangers in Alencon, and of the facts of their +fortunes, rank, and habits. But Alencon is not a town which attracts +visitors; it is not on the road to any capital; even sailors, +travelling from Brest to Paris, never stop there. The poor woman ended +by admitting to herself that she was reduced to the aborigines. Her +eye now began to assume a certain savage expression, to which the +malicious chevalier responded by a shrewd look as he drew out his +snuff-box and gazed at the Princess Goritza. Monsieur de Valois was +well aware that in the feminine ethics of love fidelity to a first +attachment is considered a pledge for the future. + +But Mademoiselle Cormon--we must admit it--was wanting in intellect, +and did not understand the snuff-box performance. She redoubled her +vigilance against "the evil spirit"; her rigid devotion and fixed +principles kept her cruel sufferings hidden among the mysteries of +private life. Every evening, after the company had left her, she +thought of her lost youth, her faded bloom, the hopes of thwarted +nature; and, all the while immolating her passions at the feet of the +Cross (like poems condemned to stay in a desk), she resolved firmly +that if, by chance, any suitor presented himself, to subject him to no +tests, but to accept him at once for whatever he might be. She even +went so far as to think of marrying a sub-lieutenant, a man who smoked +tobacco, whom she proposed to render, by dint of care and kindness, +one of the best men in the world, although he was hampered with debts. + +But it was only in the silence of night watches that these fantastic +marriages, in which she played the sublime role of guardian angel, +took place. The next day, though Josette found her mistress' bed in a +tossed and tumbled condition, Mademoiselle Cormon had recovered her +dignity, and could only think of a man of forty, a land-owner, well +preserved, and a quasi-young man. + +The Abbe de Sponde was incapable of giving his niece the slightest aid +in her matrimonial manoeuvres. The worthy soul, now seventy years of +age, attributed the disasters of the French Revolution to the design +of Providence, eager to punish a dissolute Church. He had therefore +flung himself into the path, long since abandoned, which anchorites +once followed in order to reach heaven: he led an ascetic life without +proclaiming it, and without external credit. He hid from the world his +works of charity, his continual prayers, his penances; he thought that +all priests should have acted thus during the days of wrath and +terror, and he preached by example. While presenting to the world a +calm and smiling face, he had ended by detaching himself utterly from +earthly interests; his mind turned exclusively to sufferers, to the +needs of the Church, and to his own salvation. He left the management +of his property to his niece, who gave him the income of it, and to +whom he paid a slender board in order to spend the surplus in secret +alms and gifts to the Church. + +All the abbe's affections were concentrated on his niece, who regarded +him as a father, but an abstracted father, unable to conceive the +agitations of the flesh, and thanking God for maintaining his dear +daughter in a state of celibacy; for he had, from his youth up, +adopted the principles of Saint John Chrysostom, who wrote that "the +virgin state is as far above the marriage state as the angel is above +humanity." Accustomed to reverence her uncle, Mademoiselle Cormon +dared not initiate him into the desires which filled her soul for a +change of state. The worthy man, accustomed, on his side, to the ways +of the house, would scarcely have liked the introduction of a husband. +Preoccupied by the sufferings he soothed, lost in the depths of +prayer, the Abbe de Sponde had periods of abstraction which the +habitues of the house regarded as absent-mindedness. In any case, he +talked little; but his silence was affable and benevolent. He was a +man of great height and spare, with grave and solemn manners, though +his face expressed all gentle sentiments and an inward calm; while his +mere presence carried with it a sacred authority. He was very fond of +the Voltairean chevalier. Those two majestic relics of the nobility +and clergy, though of very different habits and morals, recognized +each other by their generous traits. Besides, the chevalier was as +unctuous with the abbe as he was paternal with the grisettes. + +Some persons may fancy that Mademoiselle Cormon used every means to +attain her end; and that among the legitimate lures of womanhood she +devoted herself to dress, wore low-necked gowns, and employed the +negative coquetries of a magnificent display of arms. Not at all! She +was as heroic and immovable in her high-necked chemisette as a sentry +in his box. Her gowns, bonnets, and chiffons were all cut and made by +the dressmaker and the milliner of Alencon, two hump-backed sisters, +who were not without some taste. In spite of the entreaties of these +artists, Mademoiselle Cormon refused to employ the airy deceits of +elegance; she chose to be substantial in all things, flesh and +feathers. But perhaps the heavy fashion of her gowns was best suited +to her cast of countenance. Let those laugh who will at this poor +girl; you would have thought her sublime, O generous souls! who care +but little what form true feeling takes, but admire it where it /is/. + +Here some light-minded person may exclaim against the truth of this +statement; they will say that there is not in all France a girl so +silly as to be ignorant of the art of angling for men; that +Mademoiselle Cormon is one of those monstrous exceptions which +commonsense should prevent a writer from using as a type; that the +most virtuous and also the silliest girl who desires to catch her fish +knows well how to bait the hook. But these criticisms fall before the +fact that the noble catholic, apostolic, and Roman religion is still +erect in Brittany and in the ancient duchy of Alencon. Faith and piety +admit of no subtleties. Mademoiselle Cormon trod the path of +salvation, preferring the sorrows of her virginity so cruelly +prolonged to the evils of trickery and the sin of a snare. In a woman +armed with a scourge virtue could never compromise; consequently both +love and self-interest were forced to seek her, and seek her +resolutely. And here let us have the courage to make a cruel +observation, in days when religion is nothing more than a useful means +to some, and a poesy to others. Devotion causes a moral ophthalmia. By +some providential grace, it takes from souls on the road to eternity +the sight of many little earthly things. In a word, pious persons, +devotes, are stupid on various points. This stupidity proves with what +force they turn their minds to celestial matters; although the +Voltairean Chevalier de Valois declared that it was difficult to +decide whether stupid people became naturally pious, or whether piety +had the effect of making intelligent young women stupid. But reflect +upon this carefully: the purest catholic virtue, with its loving +acceptance of all cups, with its pious submission to the will of God, +with its belief in the print of the divine finger on the clay of all +earthly life, is the mysterious light which glides into the innermost +folds of human history, setting them in relief and magnifying them in +the eyes of those who still have Faith. Besides, if there be +stupidity, why not concern ourselves with the sorrows of stupidity as +well as with the sorrows of genius? The former is a social element +infinitely more abundant than the latter. + +So, then, Mademoiselle Cormon was guilty in the eyes of the world of +the divine ignorance of virgins. She was no observer, and her behavior +with her suitors proved it. At this very moment, a young girl of +sixteen, who had never opened a novel, would have read a hundred +chapters of a love story in the eyes of Athanase Granson, where +Mademoiselle Cormon saw absolutely nothing. Shy herself, she never +suspected shyness in others; she did not recognize in the quavering +tones of his speech the force of a sentiment he could not utter. +Capable of inventing those refinements of sentimental grandeur which +hindered her marriage in her early years, she yet could not recognize +them in Athanase. This moral phenomenon will not seem surprising to +persons who know that the qualities of the heart are as distinct from +those of the mind as the faculties of genius are from the nobility of +soul. A perfect, all-rounded man is so rare that Socrates, one of the +noblest pearls of humanity, declared (as a phrenologist of that day) +that he was born to be a scamp, and a very bad one. A great general +may save his country at Zurich, and take commissions from purveyors. A +great musician may conceive the sublimest music and commit a forgery. +A woman of true feeling may be a fool. In short, a devote may have a +sublime soul and yet be unable to recognize the tones of a noble soul +beside her. The caprices produced by physical infirmities are equally +to be met with in the mental and moral regions. + +This good creature, who grieved at making her yearly preserves for no +one but her uncle and herself, was becoming almost ridiculous. Those +who felt a sympathy for her on account of her good qualities, and +others on account of her defects, now made fun of her abortive +marriages. More than one conversation was based on what would become +of so fine a property, together with the old maid's savings and her +uncle's inheritance. For some time past she had been suspected of +being au fond, in spite of appearances, an "original." In the +provinces it was not permissible to be original: being original means +having ideas that are not understood by others; the provinces demand +equality of mind as well as equality of manners and customs. + +The marriage of Mademoiselle Cormon seemed, after 1804, a thing so +problematical that the saying "married like Mademoiselle Cormon" +became proverbial in Alencon as applied to ridiculous failures. Surely +the sarcastic mood must be an imperative need in France, that so +excellent a woman should excite the laughter of Alencon. Not only did +she receive the whole society of the place at her house, not only was +she charitable, pious, incapable of saying an unkind thing, but she +was fully in accord with the spirit of the place and the habits and +customs of the inhabitants, who liked her as the symbol of their +lives; she was absolutely inlaid into the ways of the provinces; she +had never quitted them; she imbibed all their prejudices; she espoused +all their interests; she adored them. + +In spite of her income of eighteen thousand francs from landed +property, a very considerable fortune in the provinces, she lived on a +footing with families who were less rich. When she went to her +country-place at Prebaudet, she drove there in an old wicker carriole, +hung on two straps of white leather, drawn by a wheezy mare, and +scarcely protected by two leather curtains rusty with age. This +carriole, known to all the town, was cared for by Jacquelin as though +it were the finest coupe in all Paris. Mademoiselle valued it; she had +used it for twelve years,--a fact to which she called attention with +the triumphant joy of happy avarice. Most of the inhabitants of the +town were grateful to Mademoiselle Cormon for not humiliating them by +the luxury she could have displayed; we may even believe that had she +imported a caleche from Paris they would have gossiped more about that +than about her various matrimonial failures. The most brilliant +equipage would, after all, have only taken her, like the old carriole, +to Prebaudet. Now the provinces, which look solely to results, care +little about the beauty or elegance of the means, provided they are +efficient. + + + + CHAPTER V + + AN OLD MAID'S HOUSEHOLD + +To complete the picture of the internal habits and ways of this house, +it is necessary to group around Mademoiselle Cormon and the Abbe de +Sponde Jacquelin, Josette, and Mariette, the cook, who employed +themselves in providing for the comfort of uncle and niece. + +Jacquelin, a man of forty, short, fat, ruddy, and brown, with a face +like a Breton sailor, had been in the service of the house for +twenty-two years. He waited at table, groomed the mare, gardened, +blacked the abbe's boots, went on errands, chopped the wood, drove the +carriole, and fetched the oats, straw, and hay from Prebaudet. He sat +in the antechamber during the evening, where he slept like a dormouse. +He was in love with Josette, a girl of thirty, whom Mademoiselle would +have dismissed had she married him. So the poor fond pair laid by +their wages, and loved each other silently, waiting, hoping for +mademoiselle's own marriage, as the Jews are waiting for the Messiah. +Josette, born between Alencon and Mortagne, was short and plump; her +face, which looked like a dirty apricot, was not wanting in sense and +character; it was said that she ruled her mistress. Josette and +Jacquelin, sure of results, endeavored to hide an inward satisfaction +which allows it to be supposed that, as lovers, they had discounted +the future. Mariette, the cook, who had been fifteen years in the +household, knew how to make all the dishes held in most honor in +Alencon. + +Perhaps we ought to count for much the fat old Norman brown-bay mare, +which drew Mademoiselle Cormon to her country-seat at Prebaudet; for +the five inhabitants of the house bore to this animal a maniacal +affection. She was called Penelope, and had served the family for +eighteen years; but she was kept so carefully and fed with such +regularity that mademoiselle and Jacquelin both hoped to use her for +ten years longer. This beast was the subject of perpetual talk and +occupation; it seemed as if poor Mademoiselle Cormon, having no +children on whom her repressed motherly feelings could expend +themselves, had turned those sentiments wholly on this most fortunate +animal. + +The four faithful servants--for Penelope's intelligence raised her to +the level of the other good servants; while they, on the other hand, +had lowered themselves to the mute, submissive regularity of the beast +--went and came daily in the same occupations with the infallible +accuracy of mechanism. But, as they said in their idiom, they had +eaten their white bread first. Mademoiselle Cormon, like all persons +nervously agitated by a fixed idea, became hard to please, and +nagging, less by nature than from the need of employing her activity. +Having no husband or children to occupy her, she fell back on petty +details. She talked for hours about mere nothings, on a dozen napkins +marked "Z," placed in the closet before the "O's." + +"What can Josette be thinking of?" she exclaimed. "Josette is +beginning to neglect things." + +Mademoiselle inquired for eight days running whether Penelope had had +her oats at two o'clock, because on one occasion Jacquelin was a +trifle late. Her narrow imagination spent itself on trifles. A layer +of dust forgotten by the feather-duster, a slice of toast ill-made by +Mariette, Josette's delay in closing the blinds when the sun came +round to fade the colors of the furniture,--all these great little +things gave rise to serious quarrels in which mademoiselle grew angry. +"Everything was changing," she would cry; "she did not know her own +servants; the fact was she spoiled them!" On one occasion Josette gave +her the "Journee du Chretien" instead of the "Quinzaine de Paques." +The whole town heard of this disaster the same evening. Mademoiselle +had been forced to leave the church and return home; and her sudden +departure, upsetting the chairs, made people suppose a catastrophe had +happened. She was therefore obliged to explain the facts to her +friends. + +"Josette," she said gently, "such a thing must never happen again." + +Mademoiselle Cormon was, without being aware of it, made happier by +such little quarrels, which served as cathartics to relieve her +bitterness. The soul has its needs, and, like the body, its +gymnastics. These uncertainties of temper were accepted by Josette and +Jacquelin as changes in the weather are accepted by husbandmen. Those +worthy souls remark, "It is fine to-day," or "It rains," without +arraigning the heavens. And so when they met in the morning the +servants would wonder in what humor mademoiselle would get up, just as +a farmer wonders about the mists at dawn. + +Mademoiselle Cormon had ended, as it was natural she should end, in +contemplating herself only in the infinite pettinesses of her life. +Herself and God, her confessor and the weekly wash, her preserves and +the church services, and her uncle to care for, absorbed her feeble +intellect. To her the atoms of life were magnified by an optic +peculiar to persons who are selfish by nature or self-absorbed by some +accident. Her perfect health gave alarming meaning to the least little +derangement of her digestive organs. She lived under the iron rod of +the medical science of our forefathers, and took yearly four +precautionary doses, strong enough to have killed Penelope, though +they seemed to rejuvenate her mistress. If Josette, when dressing her, +chanced to discover a little pimple on the still satiny shoulders of +mademoiselle, it became the subject of endless inquiries as to the +various alimentary articles of the preceding week. And what a triumph +when Josette reminded her mistress of a certain hare that was rather +"high," and had doubtless raised that accursed pimple! With what joy +they said to each other: "No doubt, no doubt, it /was/ the hare!" + +"Mariette over-seasoned it," said mademoiselle. "I am always telling +her to do so lightly for my uncle and for me; but Mariette has no more +memory than--" + +"The hare," said Josette. + +"Just so," replied Mademoiselle; "she has no more memory than a hare, +--a very just remark." + +Four times a year, at the beginning of each season, Mademoiselle +Cormon went to pass a certain number of days on her estate of +Prebaudet. It was now the middle of May, the period at which she +wished to see how her apple-trees had "snowed," a saying of that +region which expressed the effect produced beneath the trees by the +falling of their blossoms. When the circular deposit of these fallen +petals resembled a layer of snow the owner of the trees might hope for +an abundant supply of cider. While she thus gauged her vats, +Mademoiselle Cormon also attended to the repairs which the winter +necessitated; she ordered the digging of her flower-beds and her +vegetable garden, from which she supplied her table. Every season had +its own business. Mademoiselle always gave a dinner of farewell to her +intimate friends the day before her departure, although she was +certain to see them again within three weeks. It was always a piece of +news which echoed through Alencon when Mademoiselle Cormon departed. +All her visitors, especially those who had missed a visit, came to bid +her good-bye; the salon was thronged, and every one said farewell as +though she were starting for Calcutta. The next day the shopkeepers +would stand at their doors to see the old carriole pass, and they +seemed to be telling one another some news by repeating from shop to +shop:-- + +"So Mademoiselle Cormon is going to Prebaudet!" + +Some said: "/Her/ bread is baked." + +"Hey! my lad," replied the next man. "She's a worthy woman; if money +always came into such hands we shouldn't see a beggar in the country." + +Another said: "Dear me, I shouldn't be surprised if the vineyards were +in bloom; here's Mademoiselle Cormon going to Prebaudet. How happens +it she doesn't marry?" + +"I'd marry her myself," said a wag; "in fact, the marriage is +half-made, for here's one consenting party; but the other side won't. +Pooh! the oven is heating for Monsieur du Bousquier." + +"Monsieur du Bousquier! Why, she has refused him." + +That evening at all the gatherings it was told gravely:-- + +"Mademoiselle Cormon has gone." + +Or:-- + +"So you have really let Mademoiselle Cormon go." + +The Wednesday chosen by Suzanne to make known her scandal happened to +be this farewell Wednesday,--a day on which Mademoiselle Cormon drove +Josette distracted on the subject of packing. During the morning, +therefore, things had been said and done in the town which lent the +utmost interest to this farewell meeting. Madame Granson had gone the +round of a dozen houses while the old maid was deliberating on the +things she needed for the journey; and the malicious Chevalier de +Valois was playing piquet with Mademoiselle Armande, sister of a +distinguished old marquis, and the queen of the salon of the +aristocrats. If it was not uninteresting to any one to see what figure +the seducer would cut that evening, it was all important for the +chevalier and Madame Granson to know how Mademoiselle Cormon would +take the news in her double capacity of marriageable woman and +president of the Maternity Society. As for the innocent du Bousquier, +he was taking a walk on the promenade, and beginning to suspect that +Suzanne had tricked him; this suspicion confirmed him in his +principles as to women. + +On gala days the table was laid at Mademoiselle Cormon's about +half-past three o'clock. At that period the fashionable people of +Alencon dined at four. Under the Empire they still dined as in former +times at half-past two; but then they supped! One of the pleasures +which Mademoiselle Cormon valued most was (without meaning any malice, +although the fact certainly rests on egotism) the unspeakable +satisfaction she derived from seeing herself dressed as mistress of +the house to receive her guests. When she was thus under arms a ray of +hope would glide into the darkness of her heart; a voice told her that +nature had not so abundantly provided for her in vain, and that some +man, brave and enterprising, would surely present himself. Her desire +was refreshed like her person; she contemplated herself in her heavy +stuffs with a sort of intoxication, and this satisfaction continued +when she descended the stairs to cast her redoubtable eye on the +salon, the dinner-table, and the boudoir. She would then walk about +with the naive contentment of the rich,--who remember at all moments +that they are rich and will never want for anything. She looked at her +eternal furniture, her curiosities, her lacquers, and said to herself +that all these fine things wanted was a master. After admiring the +dining-room, and the oblong dinner-table, on which was spread a +snow-white cloth adorned with twenty covers placed at equal distances; +after verifying the squadron of bottles she had ordered to be brought +up, and which all bore honorable labels; after carefully verifying the +names written on little bits of paper in the trembling handwriting of +the abbe (the only duty he assumed in the household, and one which +gave rise to grave discussions on the place of each guest),--after +going through all these preliminary acts mademoiselle went, in her +fine clothes, to her uncle, who was accustomed at this, the best hour +in the day, to take his walk on the terrace which overlooked the +Brillante, where he could listen to the warble of birds which were +resting in the coppice, unafraid of either sportsmen or children. At +such times of waiting she never joined the Abbe de Sponde without +asking him some ridiculous question, in order to draw the old man into +a discussion which might serve to amuse him. And her reason was this, +--which will serve to complete our picture of this excellent woman's +nature:-- + +Mademoiselle Cormon regarded it as one of her duties to talk; not that +she was talkative, for she had unfortunately too few ideas, and did +not know enough phrases to converse readily. But she believed she was +accomplishing one of the social duties enjoined by religion, which +orders us to make ourselves agreeable to our neighbor. This obligation +cost her so much that she consulted her director, the Abbe Couturier, +upon the subject of this honest but puerile civility. In spite of the +humble remark of his penitent, confessing the inward labor of her mind +in finding anything to say, the old priest, rigid on the point of +discipline, read her a passage from Saint-Francois de Sales on the +duties of women in society, which dwelt on the decent gayety of pious +Christian women, who were bound to reserve their sternness for +themselves, and to be amiable and pleasing in their homes, and see +that their neighbors enjoyed themselves. Thus, filled with a sense of +duty, and wishing, at all costs, to obey her director, who bade her +converse with amenity, the poor soul perspired in her corset when the +talk around her languished, so much did she suffer from the effort of +emitting ideas in order to revive it. Under such circumstances she +would put forth the silliest statements, such as: "No one can be in +two places at once--unless it is a little bird," by which she one day +roused, and not without success, a discussion on the ubiquity of the +apostles, which she was unable to comprehend. Such efforts at +conversation won her the appellation of "that good Mademoiselle +Cormon," which, from the lips of the beaux esprits of society, means +that she was as ignorant as a carp, and rather a poor fool; but many +persons of her own calibre took the remark in its literal sense, and +answered:-- + +"Yes; oh yes! Mademoiselle Cormon is an excellent woman." + +Sometimes she would put such absurd questions (always for the purpose +of fulfilling her duties to society, and making herself agreeable to +her guests) that everybody burst out laughing. She asked, for +instance, what the government did with the taxes they were always +receiving; and why the Bible had not been printed in the days of Jesus +Christ, inasmuch as it was written by Moses. Her mental powers were +those of the English "country gentleman" who, hearing constant mention +of "posterity" in the House of Commons, rose to make the speech that +has since become celebrated: "Gentlemen," he said, "I hear much talk +in this place about Posterity. I should be glad to know what that +power has ever done for England." + +Under these circumstances the heroic Chevalier de Valois would bring +to the succor of the old maid all the powers of his clever diplomacy, +whenever he saw the pitiless smile of wiser heads. The old gentleman, +who loved to assist women, turned Mademoiselle Cormon's sayings into +wit by sustaining them paradoxically, and he often covered the retreat +so well that it seemed as if the good woman had said nothing silly. +She asserted very seriously one evening that she did not see any +difference between an ox and a bull. The dear chevalier instantly +arrested the peals of laughter by asserting that there was only the +difference between a sheep and a lamb. + +But the Chevalier de Valois served an ungrateful dame, for never did +Mademoiselle Cormon comprehend his chivalrous services. Observing that +the conversation grew lively, she simply thought that she was not so +stupid as she was,--the result being that she settled down into her +ignorance with some complacency; she lost her timidity, and acquired a +self-possession which gave to her "speeches" something of the +solemnity with which the British enunciate their patriotic +absurdities,--the self-conceit of stupidity, as it may be called. + +As she approached her uncle, on this occasion, with a majestic step, +she was ruminating over a question that might draw him from a silence, +which always troubled her, for she feared he was dull. + +"Uncle," she said, leaning on his arm and clinging to his side (this +was one of her fictions; for she said to herself "If I had a husband I +should do just so"),--"uncle, if everything here below happens +according to the will of God, there must be a reason for everything." + +"Certainly," replied the abbe, gravely. The worthy man, who cherished +his niece, always allowed her to tear him from his meditations with +angelic patience. + +"Then if I remain unmarried,--supposing that I do,--God wills it?" + +"Yes, my child," replied the abbe. + +"And yet, as nothing prevents me from marrying to-morrow if I choose, +His will can be destroyed by mine?" + +"That would be true if we knew what was really the will of God," +replied the former prior of the Sorbonne. "Observe, my daughter, that +you put in an /if/." + +The poor woman, who expected to draw her uncle into a matrimonial +discussion by an argument ad omnipotentem, was stupefied; but persons +of obtuse mind have the terrible logic of children, which consists in +turning from answer to question,--a logic that is frequently +embarrassing. + +"But, uncle, God did not make women intending them not to marry; +otherwise they ought all to stay unmarried; if not, they ought all to +marry. There's great injustice in the distribution of parts." + +"Daughter," said the worthy abbe, "you are blaming the Church, which +declares celibacy to be the better way to God." + +"But if the Church is right, and all the world were good Catholics, +wouldn't the human race come to an end, uncle?" + +"You have too much mind, Rose; you don't need so much to be happy." + +That remark brought a smile of satisfaction to the lips of the poor +woman, and confirmed her in the good opinion she was beginning to +acquire about herself. That is how the world, our friends, and our +enemies are the accomplices of our defects! + +At this moment the conversation was interrupted by the successive +arrival of the guests. On these ceremonial days, friendly +familiarities were exchanged between the servants of the house and the +company. Mariette remarked to the chief-justice as he passed the +kitchen:-- + +"Ah, Monsieur du Ronceret, I've cooked the cauliflowers au gratin +expressly for you, for mademoiselle knows how you like them; and she +said to me: 'Now don't forget, Mariette, for Monsieur du Ronceret is +coming.'" + +"That good Mademoiselle Cormon!" ejaculated the chief legal authority +of the town. "Mariette, did you steep them in gravy instead of +soup-stock? it is much richer." + +The chief-justice was not above entering the chamber of council where +Mariette held court; he cast the eye of a gastronome around it, and +offered the advice of a past master in cookery. + +"Good-day, madame," said Josette to Madame Granson, who courted the +maid. "Mademoiselle has thought of you, and there's fish for dinner." + +As for the Chevalier de Valois, he remarked to Mariette, in the easy +tone of a great seigneur who condescends to be familiar:-- + +"Well, my dear cordon-bleu, to whom I should give the cross of the +Legion of honor, is there some little dainty for which I had better +reserve myself?" + +"Yes, yes, Monsieur de Valois,--a hare sent from Prebaudet; weighs +fourteen pounds." + +Du Bousquier was not invited. Mademoiselle Cormon, faithful to the +system which we know of, treated that fifty-year-old suitor extremely +ill, although she felt inexplicable sentiments towards him in the +depths of her heart. She had refused him; yet at times she repented; +and a presentiment that she should yet marry him, together with a +terror at the idea which prevented her from wishing for the marriage, +assailed her. Her mind, stimulated by these feelings, was much +occupied by du Bousquier. Without being aware of it, she was +influenced by the herculean form of the republican. Madame Granson and +the Chevalier de Valois, although they could not explain to themselves +Mademoiselle Cormon's inconsistencies, had detected her naive glances +in that direction, the meaning of which seemed clear enough to make +them both resolve to ruin the hopes of the already rejected purveyor, +--hopes which it was evident he still indulged. + +Two guests, whose functions excused them, kept the dinner waiting. One +was Monsieur du Coudrai, the recorder of mortgages; the other Monsieur +Choisnel, former bailiff to the house of Esgrignon, and now the notary +of the upper aristocracy, by whom he was received with a distinction +due to his virtues; he was also a man of considerable wealth. When the +two belated guests arrived, Jacquelin said to them as he saw them +about to enter the salon:-- + +"/They/ are all in the garden." + +No doubt the assembled stomachs were impatient; for on the appearance +of the register of mortgages--who had no defect except that of having +married for her money an intolerable old woman, and of perpetrating +endless puns, at which he was the first to laugh--the gentle murmur by +which such late-comers are welcomed arose. While awaiting the official +announcement of dinner, the company were sauntering on the terrace +above the river, and gazing at the water-plants, the mosaic of the +currents, and the various pretty details of the houses clustering +across the river, their old wooden galleries, their mouldering +window-frames, their little gardens where clothes were drying, the +cabinet-maker's shop,--in short, the many details of a small community +to which the vicinity of a river, a weeping willow, flowers, +rose-bushes, added a certain grace, making the scene quite worthy of a +landscape painter. + +The chevalier studied all faces, for he knew that his firebrand had +been very successfully introduced into the chief houses of the place. +But no one as yet referred openly to the great news of Suzanne and du +Bousquier. Provincials possess in the highest degree the art of +distilling gossip; the right moment for openly discussing this strange +affair had not arrived; it was first necessary that all present should +put themselves on record. So the whispers went round from ear to +ear:-- + +"You have heard?" + +"Yes." + +"Du Bousquier?" + +"And that handsome Suzanne." + +"Does Mademoiselle Cormon know of it?" + +"No." + +"Ha!" + +This was the /piano/ of the scandal; the /rinforzando/ would break +forth as soon as the first course had been removed. Suddenly Monsieur +de Valois's eyes lighted on Madame Granson, arrayed in her green hat +with bunches of auriculas, and beaming with evident joy. Was it merely +the joy of opening the concert? Though such a piece of news was like a +gold mine to work in the monotonous lives of these personages, the +observant and distrustful chevalier thought he recognized in the +worthy woman a far more extended sentiment; namely, the joy caused by +the triumph of self-interest. Instantly he turned to examine Athanase, +and detected him in the significant silence of deep meditation. +Presently, a look cast by the young man on Mademoiselle Cormon carried +to the soul of the chevalier a sudden gleam. That momentary flash of +lightning enabled him to read the past. + +"Ha! the devil!" he said to himself; "what a checkmate I'm exposed +to!" + +Monsieur de Valois now approached Mademoiselle Cormon, and offered his +arm. The old maid's feeling to the chevalier was that of respectful +consideration; and certainly his name, together with the position he +occupied among the aristocratic constellations of the department made +him the most brilliant ornament of her salon. In her inmost mind +Mademoiselle Cormon had wished for the last dozen years to become +Madame de Valois. That name was like the branch of a tree, to which +the ideas which /swarmed/ in her mind about rank, nobility, and the +external qualities of a husband had fastened. But, though the +Chevalier de Valois was the man chosen by her heart, and mind, and +ambition, that elderly ruin, combed and curled like a little +Saint-John in a procession, alarmed Mademoiselle Cormon. She saw the +gentleman in him, but she could not see a husband. The indifference +which the chevalier affected as to marriage, above all, the apparent +purity of his morals in a house which abounded in grisettes, did +singular harm in her mind to Monsieur de Valois against his +expectations. The worthy man, who showed such judgment in the matter +of his annuity, was at fault here. Without being herself aware of it, +the thoughts of Mademoiselle Cormon on the too virtuous chevalier +might be translated thus:-- + +"What a pity that he isn't a trifle dissipated!" + +Observers of the human heart have remarked the leaning of pious women +toward scamps; some have expressed surprise at this taste, considering +it opposed to Christian virtue. But, in the first place, what nobler +destiny can you offer to a virtuous woman than to purify, like +charcoal, the muddy waters of vice? How is it some observers fail to +see that these noble creatures, obliged by the sternness of their own +principles never to infringe on conjugal fidelity, must naturally +desire a husband of wider practical experience than their own? The +scamps of social life are great men in love. Thus the poor woman +groaned in spirit at finding her chosen vessel parted into two pieces. +God alone could solder together a Chevalier de Valois and a du +Bousquier. + +In order to explain the importance of the few words which the +chevalier and Mademoiselle Cormon are about to say to each other, it +is necessary to reveal two serious matters which agitated the town, +and about which opinions were divided; besides, du Bousquier was +mysteriously connected with them. + +One concerns the rector of Alencon, who had formerly taken the +constitutional oath, and who was now conquering the repugnance of the +Catholics by a display of the highest virtues. He was Cheverus on a +small scale, and became in time so fully appreciated that when he died +the whole town mourned him. Mademoiselle Cormon and the Abbe de Sponde +belonged to that "little Church," sublime in its orthodoxy, which was +to the court of Rome what the Ultras were to be to Louis XVIII. The +abbe, more especially, refused to recognize a Church which had +compromised with the constitutionals. The rector was therefore not +received in the Cormon household, whose sympathies were all given to +the curate of Saint-Leonard, the aristocratic parish of Alencon. Du +Bousquier, that fanatic liberal now concealed under the skin of a +royalist, knowing how necessary rallying points are to all discontents +(which are really at the bottom of all oppositions), had drawn the +sympathies of the middle classes around the rector. So much for the +first case; the second was this:-- + +Under the secret inspiration of du Bousquier the idea of building a +theatre had dawned on Alencon. The henchmen of the purveyor did not +know their Mohammed; and they thought they were ardent in carrying out +their own conception. Athanase Granson was one of the warmest +partisans for the theatre; and of late he had urged at the mayor's +office a cause which all the other young clerks had eagerly adopted. + +The chevalier, as we have said, offered his arm to the old maid for a +turn on the terrace. She accepted it, not without thanking him by a +happy look for this attention, to which the chevalier replied by +motioning toward Athanase with a meaning eye. + +"Mademoiselle," he began, "you have so much sense and judgment in +social proprieties, and also, you are connected with that young man by +certain ties--" + +"Distant ones," she said, interrupting him. + +"Ought you not," he continued, "to use the influence you have over his +mother and over himself by saving him from perdition? He is not very +religious, as you know; indeed he approves of the rector; but that is +not all; there is something far more serious; isn't he throwing +himself headlong into an opposition without considering what influence +his present conduct may exert upon his future? He is working for the +construction of a theatre. In this affair he is simply the dupe of +that disguised republican du Bousquier--" + +"Good gracious! Monsieur de Valois," she replied; "his mother is +always telling me he has so much mind, and yet he can't say two words; +he stands planted before me as mum as a post--" + +"Which doesn't think at all!" cried the recorder of mortgages. "I +caught your words on the fly. I present my compliments to Monsieur de +Valois," he added, bowing to that gentleman with much emphasis. + +The chevalier returned the salutation stiffly, and drew Mademoiselle +Cormon toward some flower-pots at a little distance, in order to show +the interrupter that he did not choose to be spied upon. + +"How is it possible," he continued, lowering his voice, and leaning +towards Mademoiselle Cormon's ear, "that a young man brought up in +those detestable lyceums should have ideas? Only sound morals and +noble habits will ever produce great ideas and a true love. It is easy +to see by a mere look at him that the poor lad is likely to be +imbecile, and come, perhaps, to some sad end. See how pale and haggard +he is!" + +"His mother declares he works too hard," replied the old maid, +innocently. "He sits up late, and for what? reading books and writing! +What business ought to require a young man to write at night?" + +"It exhausts him," replied the chevalier, trying to bring the old +maid's thoughts back to the ground where he hoped to inspire her with +horror for her youthful lover. "The morals of those Imperial lyceums +are really shocking." + +"Oh, yes!" said the ingenuous creature. "They march the pupils about +with drums at their head. The masters have no more religion than +pagans. And they put the poor lads in uniform, as if they were troops. +What ideas!" + +"And behold the product!" said the chevalier, motioning to Athanase. +"In my day, young men were not so shy of looking at a pretty woman. As +for him, he drops his eyes whenever he sees you. That young man +frightens me because I am really interested in him. Tell him not to +intrigue with the Bonapartists, as he is now doing about that theatre. +When all these petty folks cease to ask for it insurrectionally, +--which to my mind is the synonym of constitutionally,--the government +will build it. Besides which, tell his mother to keep an eye on him." + +"Oh, I'm sure she will prevent him from seeing those half-pay, +questionable people. I'll talk to her," said Mademoiselle Cormon, "for +he might lose his place in the mayor's office; and then what would he +and his mother have to live on? It makes me shudder." + +As Monsieur de Talleyrand said of his wife, so the chevalier said to +himself, looking at Mademoiselle Cormon:-- + +"Find me another as stupid! Good powers! isn't virtue which drives out +intellect vice? But what an adorable wife for a man of my age! What +principles! what ignorance!" + +Remember that this monologue, addressed to the Princess Goritza, was +mentally uttered while he took a pinch of snuff. + +Madame Granson had divined that the chevalier was talking about +Athanase. Eager to know the result of the conversation, she followed +Mademoiselle Cormon, who was now approaching the young man with much +dignity. But at this moment Jacquelin appeared to announce that +mademoiselle was served. The old maid gave a glance of appeal to the +chevalier; but the gallant recorder of mortgages, who was beginning to +see in the manners of that gentleman the barrier which the provincial +nobles were setting up about this time between themselves and the +bourgeoisie, made the most of his chance to cut out Monsieur de +Valois. He was close to Mademoiselle Cormon, and promptly offered his +arm, which she found herself compelled to accept. The chevalier then +darted, out of policy, upon Madame Granson. + +"Mademoiselle Cormon, my dear lady," he said to her, walking slowly +after all the other guests, "feels the liveliest interest in your dear +Athanase; but I fear it will vanish through his own fault. He is +irreligious and liberal; he is agitating this matter of the theatre; +he frequents the Bonapartists; he takes the side of that rector. Such +conduct may make him lose his place in the mayor's office. You know +with what care the government is beginning to weed out such opinions. +If your dear Athanase loses his place, where can he find other +employment? I advise him not to get himself in bad odor with the +administration." + +"Monsieur le Chevalier," said the poor frightened mother, "how +grateful I am to you! You are right: my son is the tool of a bad set +of people; I shall enlighten him." + +The chevalier had long since fathomed the nature of Athanase, and +recognized in it that unyielding element of republican convictions to +which in his youth a young man is willing to sacrifice everything, +carried away by the word "liberty," so ill-defined and so little +understood, but which to persons disdained by fate is a banner of +revolt; and to such, revolt is vengeance. Athanase would certainly +persist in that faith, for his opinions were woven in with his +artistic sorrows, with his bitter contemplation of the social state. +He was ignorant of the fact that at thirty-six years of age,--the +period of life when a man has judged men and social interests and +relations,--the opinions for which he was ready to sacrifice his +future would be modified in him, as they are in all men of real +superiority. To remain faithful to the Left side of Alencon was to +gain the aversion of Mademoiselle Cormon. There, indeed, the chevalier +saw true. + +Thus we see that this society, so peaceful in appearance, was +internally as agitated as any diplomatic circle, where craft, ability, +and passions group themselves around the grave questions of an empire. +The guests were now seated at the table laden with the first course, +which they ate as provincials eat, without shame at possessing a good +appetite, and not as in Paris, where it seems as if jaws gnashed under +sumptuary laws, which made it their business to contradict the laws of +anatomy. In Paris people eat with their teeth, and trifle with their +pleasure; in the provinces things are done naturally, and interest is +perhaps rather too much concentrated on the grand and universal means +of existence to which God has condemned his creatures. + +It was at the end of the first course that Mademoiselle Cormon made +the most celebrated of her "speeches"; it was talked about for fully +two years, and is still told at the gatherings of the lesser +bourgeoisie whenever the topic of her marriage comes up. + +The conversation, becoming lively as the penultimate entree was +reached, had turned naturally on the affair of the theatre and the +constitutionally sworn rector. In the first fervor of royalty, during +the year 1816, those who later were called Jesuits were all for the +expulsion of the Abbe Francois from his parish. Du Bousquier, +suspected by Monsieur de Valois of sustaining the priest and being at +the bottom of the theatre intrigues, and on whose back the adroit +chevalier would in any case have put those sins with his customary +cleverness, was in the dock with no lawyer to defend him. Athanase, +the only guest loyal enough to stand by du Bousquier, had not the +nerve to emit his ideas in the presence of those potentates of +Alencon, whom in his heart he thought stupid. None but provincial +youths now retain a respectful demeanor before men of a certain age, +and dare neither to censure nor contradict them. The talk, diminished +under the effect of certain delicious ducks dressed with olives, was +falling flat. Mademoiselle Cormon, feeling the necessity of +maintaining it against her own ducks, attempted to defend du +Bousquier, who was being represented as a pernicious fomenter of +intrigues, capable of any trickery. + +"As for me," she said, "I thought that Monsieur du Bousquier cared +chiefly for childish things." + +Under existing circumstances the remark had enormous success. +Mademoiselle Cormon obtained a great triumph; she brought the nose of +the Princess Goritza flat on the table. The chevalier, who little +expected such an apt remark from his Dulcinea, was so amazed that he +could at first find no words to express his admiration; he applauded +noiselessly, as they do at the Opera, tapping his fingers together to +imitate applause. + +"She is adorably witty," he said to Madame Granson. "I always said +that some day she would unmask her batteries." + +"In private she is always charming," replied the widow. + +"In private, madame, all women have wit," returned the chevalier. + +The Homeric laugh thus raised having subsided, Mademoiselle Cormon +asked the reason of her success. Then began the /forte/ of the gossip. +Du Bousquier was depicted as a species of celibate Pere Gigogne, a +monster, who for the last fifteen years had kept the Foundling +Hospital supplied. His immoral habits were at last revealed! these +Parisian saturnalias were the result of them, etc., etc. Conducted by +the Chevalier de Valois, a most able leader of an orchestra of this +kind, the opening of the /cancan/ was magnificent. + +"I really don't know," he said, "what should hinder a du Bousquier +from marrying a Mademoiselle Suzanne What's-her-name. What /is/ her +name, do you know? Suzette! Though I have lodgings at Madame Lardot's, +I know her girls only by sight. If this Suzette is a tall, fine, saucy +girl, with gray eyes, a slim waist, and a pretty foot, whom I have +occasionally seen, and whose behavior always seemed to me extremely +insolent, she is far superior in manners to du Bousquier. Besides, the +girl has the nobility of beauty; from that point of view the marriage +would be a poor one for her; she might do better. You know how the +Emperor Joseph had the curiosity to see the du Barry at Luciennes. He +offered her his arm to walk about, and the poor thing was so surprised +at the honor that she hesitated to accept it: 'Beauty is ever a +queen,' said the Emperor. And he, you know, was an Austrian-German," +added the chevalier. "But I can tell you that Germany, which is +thought here very rustic, is a land of noble chivalry and fine +manners, especially in Poland and Hungary, where--" + +Here the chevalier stopped, fearing to slip into some allusion to his +personal happiness; he took out his snuff-box, and confided the rest +of his remarks to the princess, who had smiled upon him for thirty-six +years and more. + +"That speech was rather a delicate one for Louis XV.," said du +Ronceret. + +"But it was, I think, the Emperor Joseph who made it, and not Louis +XV.," remarked Mademoiselle Cormon, in a correcting tone. + +"Mademoiselle," said the chevalier, observing the malicious glance +exchanged between the judge, the notary, and the recorder, "Madame du +Barry was the Suzanne of Louis XV.,--a circumstance well known to +scamps like ourselves, but unsuitable for the knowledge of young +ladies. Your ignorance proves you to be a flawless diamond; historical +corruptions do not enter your mind." + +The Abbe de Sponde looked graciously at the Chevalier de Valois, and +nodded his head in sign of his laudatory approbation. + +"Doesn't mademoiselle know history?" asked the recorder of mortgages. + +"If you mix up Louis XV. and this girl Suzanne, how am I to know +history?" replied Mademoiselle Cormon, angelically, glad to see that +the dish of ducks was empty at last, and the conversation so ready to +revive that all present laughed with their mouths full at her last +remark. + +"Poor girl!" said the Abbe de Sponde. "When a great misfortune +happens, charity, which is divine love, and as blind as pagan love, +ought not to look into the causes of it. Niece, you are president of +the Maternity Society; you must succor that poor girl, who will now +find it difficult to marry." + +"Poor child!" ejaculated Mademoiselle Cormon. + +"Do you suppose du Bousquier would marry her?" asked the judge. + +"If he is an honorable man he ought to do so," said Madame Granson; +"but really, to tell the truth, my dog has better morals than he--" + +"Azor is, however, a good purveyor," said the recorder of mortgages, +with the air of saying a witty thing. + +At dessert du Bousquier was still the topic of conversation, having +given rise to various little jokes which the wine rendered sparkling. +Following the example of the recorder, each guest capped his +neighbor's joke with another: Du Bousquier was a father, but not a +confessor; he was father less; he was father LY; he was not a reverend +father; nor yet a conscript-father-- + +"Nor can he be a foster-father," said the Abbe de Sponde, with a +gravity which stopped the laughter. + +"Nor a noble father," added the chevalier. + +The Church and the nobility descended thus into the arena of puns, +without, however, losing their dignity. + +"Hush!" exclaimed the recorder of mortgages. "I hear the creaking of +du Bousquier's boots." + +It usually happens that a man is ignorant of rumors that are afloat +about him. A whole town may be talking of his affairs; may calumniate +and decry him, but if he has no good friends, he will know nothing +about it. Now the innocent du Bousquier was superb in his ignorance. +No one had told him as yet of Suzanne's revelations; he therefore +appeared very jaunty and slightly conceited when the company, leaving +the dining-room, returned to the salon for their coffee; several other +guests had meantime assembled for the evening. Mademoiselle Cormon, +from a sense of shamefacedness, dared not look at the terrible +seducer. She seized upon Athanase, and began to lecture him with the +queerest platitudes about royalist politics and religious morality. +Not possessing, like the Chevalier de Valois, a snuff-box adorned with +a princess, by the help of which he could stand this torrent of +silliness, the poor poet listened to the words of her whom he loved +with a stupid air, gazing, meanwhile, at her enormous bust, which held +itself before him in that still repose which is the attribute of all +great masses. His love produced in him a sort of intoxication which +changed the shrill voice of the old maid into a soft murmur, and her +flat remarks into witty speeches. Love is a maker of false coin, +continually changing copper pennies into gold-pieces, and sometimes +turning its real gold into copper. + +"Well, Athanase, will you promise me?" + +This final sentence struck the ear of the absorbed young man like one +of those noises which wake us with a bound. + +"What, mademoiselle?" + +Mademoiselle Cormon rose hastily, and looked at du Bousquier, who at +that moment resembled the stout god of Fable which the Republic +stamped upon her coins. She walked up to Madame Granson, and said in +her ear:-- + +"My dear friend, you son is an idiot. That lyceum has ruined him," she +added, remembering the insistence with which the chevalier had spoken +of the evils of education in such schools. + +What a catastrophe! Unknown to himself, the luckless Athanase had had +an occasion to fling an ember of his own fire upon the pile of brush +gathered in the heart of the old maid. Had he listened to her, he +might have made her, then and there, perceive his passion; for, in the +agitated state of Mademoiselle Cormon's mind, a single word would have +sufficed. But that stupid absorption in his own sentiments, which +characterizes young and true love, had ruined him, as a child full of +life sometimes kills itself out of ignorance. + +"What have you been saying to Mademoiselle Cormon?" demanded his +mother. + +"Nothing." + +"Nothing; well, I can explain that," she thought to herself, putting +off till the next day all further reflection on the matter, and +attaching but little importance to Mademoiselle Cormon's words; for +she fully believed that du Bousquier was forever lost in the old +maid's esteem after the revelation of that evening. + +Soon the four tables were filled with their sixteen players. Four +persons were playing piquet,--an expensive game, at which the most +money was lost. Monsieur Choisnel, the procureur-du-roi, and two +ladies went into the boudoir for a game at backgammon. The glass +lustres were lighted; and then the flower of Mademoiselle Cormon's +company gathered before the fireplace, on sofas, and around the +tables, and each couple said to her as they arrived,-- + +"So you are going to-morrow to Prebaudet?" + +"Yes, I really must," she replied. + +On this occasion the mistress of the house appeared preoccupied. +Madame Granson was the first to perceive the quite unnatural state of +the old maid's mind,--Mademoiselle Cormon was thinking! + +"What are you thinking of, cousin?" she said at last, finding her +seated in the boudoir. + +"I am thinking," she replied, "of that poor girl. As the president of +the Maternity Society, I will give you fifty francs for her." + +"Fifty francs!" cried Madame Granson. "But you have never given as +much as that." + +"But, my dear cousin, it is so natural to have children." + +That immoral speech coming from the heart of the old maid staggered +the treasurer of the Maternity Society. Du Bousquier had evidently +advanced in the estimation of Mademoiselle Cormon. + +"Upon my word," said Madame Granson, "du Bousquier is not only a +monster, he is a villain. When a man has done a wrong like that, he +ought to pay the indemnity. Isn't it his place rather than ours to +look after the girl?--who, to tell you the truth, seems to me rather +questionable; there are plenty of better men in Alencon than that +cynic du Bousquier. A girl must be depraved, indeed, to go after him." + +"Cynic! Your son teaches you to talk Latin, my dear, which is wholly +incomprehensible. Certainly I don't wish to excuse Monsieur du +Bousquier; but pray explain to me why a woman is depraved because she +prefers one man to another." + +"My dear cousin, suppose you married my son Athanase; nothing could be +more natural. He is young and handsome, full of promise, and he will +be the glory of Alencon; and yet everybody will exclaim against you: +evil tongues will say all sorts of things; jealous women will accuse +you of depravity,--but what will that matter? you will be loved, and +loved truly. If Athanase seemed to you an idiot, my dear, it is that +he has too many ideas; extremes meet. He lives the life of a girl of +fifteen; he has never wallowed in the impurities of Paris, not he! +Well, change the terms, as my poor husband used to say; it is the same +thing with du Bousquier in connection with Suzanne. /You/ would be +calumniated; but in the case of du Bousquier, the charge would be +true. Don't you understand me?" + +"No more than if you were talking Greek," replied Mademoiselle Cormon, +who opened her eyes wide, and strained all the forces of her +intellect. + +"Well, cousin, if I must dot all the i's, it is impossible for Suzanne +to love du Bousquier. And if the heart counts for nothing in this +affair--" + +"But, cousin, what do people love with if not their hearts?" + +Here Madame Granson said to herself, as the chevalier had previously +thought: "My poor cousin is altogether too innocent; such stupidity +passes all bounds!--Dear child," she continued aloud, "it seems to me +that children are not conceived by the spirit only." + +"Why, yes, my dear; the Holy Virgin herself--" + +"But, my love, du Bousquier isn't the Holy Ghost!" + +"True," said the old maid; "he is a man!--a man whose personal +appearance makes him dangerous enough for his friends to advise him to +marry." + +"You could yourself bring about that result, cousin." + +"How so?" said the old maid, with the meekness of Christian charity. + +"By not receiving him in your house until he marries. You owe it to +good morals and to religion to manifest under such circumstances an +exemplary displeasure." + +"On my return from Prebaudet we will talk further of this, my dear +Madame Granson. I will consult my uncle and the Abbe Couturier," said +Mademoiselle Cormon, returning to the salon, where the animation was +now at its height. + +The lights, the group of women in their best clothes, the solemn tone, +the dignified air of the assembly, made Mademoiselle Cormon not a +little proud of her company. To many persons nothing better could be +seen in Paris in the highest society. + +At this moment du Bousquier, who was playing whist with the chevalier +and two old ladies,--Madame du Coudrai and Madame du Ronceret,--was +the object of deep but silent curiosity. A few young women arrived, +who, under pretext of watching the game, gazed fixedly at him in so +singular a manner, though slyly, that the old bachelor began to think +that there must be some deficiency in his toilet. + +"Can my false front be crooked?" he asked himself, seized by one of +those anxieties which beset old bachelors. + +He took advantage of a lost trick, which ended a seventh rubber, to +rise and leave the table. + +"I can't touch a card without losing," he said. "I am decidedly too +unlucky." + +"But you are lucky in other ways," said the chevalier, giving him a +sly look. + +That speech naturally made the rounds of the salon, where every one +exclaimed on the exquisite taste of the chevalier, the Prince de +Talleyrand of the province. + +"There's no one like Monsieur de Valois for such wit." + +Du Bousquier went to look at himself in a little oblong mirror, placed +above the "Deserter," but he saw nothing strange in his appearance. + +After innumerable repetitions of the same text, varied in all keys, +the departure of the company took place about ten o'clock, through the +long antechamber, Mademoiselle Cormon conducting certain of her +favorite guests to the portico. There the groups parted; some followed +the Bretagne road towards the chateau; the others went in the +direction of the river Sarthe. Then began the usual conversation, +which for twenty years had echoed at that hour through this particular +street of Alencon. It was invariably:-- + +"Mademoiselle Cormon looked very well to-night." + +"Mademoiselle Cormon? why, I thought her rather strange." + +"How that poor abbe fails! Did you notice that he slept? He does not +know what cards he holds; he is getting very absent-minded." + +"We shall soon have the grief of losing him." + +"What a fine night! It will be a fine day to-morrow." + +"Good weather for the apple-blossoms." + +"You beat us; but when you play with Monsieur de Valois you never do +otherwise." + +"How much did he win?" + +"Well, to-night, three or four francs; he never loses." + +"True; and don't you know there are three hundred and sixty-five days +a year? At that price his gains are the value of a farm." + +"Ah! what hands we had to-night!" + +"Here you are at home, monsieur and madame, how lucky you are, while +we have half the town to cross!" + +"I don't pity you; you could afford a carriage, and dispense with the +fatigue of going on foot." + +"Ah, monsieur! we have a daughter to marry, which takes off one wheel, +and the support of our son in Paris carries off another." + +"You persist in making a magistrate of him?" + +"What else can be done with a young man? Besides, there's no shame in +serving the king." + +Sometimes a discussion on ciders and flax, always couched in the same +terms, and returning at the same time of year, was continued on the +homeward way. If any observer of human customs had lived in this +street, he would have known the months and seasons by simply +overhearing the conversations. + +On this occasion it was exclusively jocose; for du Bousquier, who +chanced to march alone in front of the groups, was humming the +well-known air,--little thinking of its appropriateness,--"Tender +woman! hear the warble of the birds," etc. To some, du Bousquier was +a strong man and a misjudged man. Ever since he had been confirmed in +his present office by a royal decree, Monsieur du Ronceret had been in +favor of du Bousquier. To others the purveyor seemed dangerous,--a man +of bad habits, capable of anything. In the provinces, as in Paris, men +before the public eye are like that statue in the fine allegorical +tale of Addison, for which two knights on arriving near it fought; for +one saw it white, the other saw it black. Then, when they were both +off their horses, they saw it was white one side and black the other. +A third knight coming along declared it red. + +When the chevalier went home that night, he made many reflections, as +follows:-- + +"It is high time now to spread a rumor of my marriage with +Mademoiselle Cormon. It will leak out from the d'Esgrignon salon, and +go straight to the bishop at Seez, and so get round through the grand +vicars to the curate of Saint-Leonard's, who will be certain to tell +it to the Abbe Couturier; and Mademoiselle Cormon will get the shot in +her upper works. The old Marquis d'Esgrignon shall invite the Abbe de +Sponde to dinner, so as to stop all gossip about Mademoiselle Cormon +if I decide against her, or about me if she refuses me. The abbe shall +be well cajoled; and Mademoiselle Cormon will certainly not hold out +against a visit from Mademoiselle Armande, who will show her the +grandeur and future chances of such an alliance. The abbe's property +is undoubtedly as much as three hundred thousand; her own savings must +amount to more than two hundred thousand; she has her house and +Prebaudet and fifteen thousand francs a year. A word to my friend the +Comte de Fontaine, and I should be mayor of Alencon to-morrow, and +deputy. Then, once seated on the Right benches, we shall reach the +peerage, shouting, 'Cloture!' 'Ordre!'" + +As soon as she reached home Madame Granson had a lively argument with +her son, who could not be made to see the connection which existed +between his love and his political opinions. It was the first quarrel +that had ever troubled that poor household. + + + + CHAPTER VI + + FINAL DISAPPOINTMENT AND ITS FIRST RESULT + +The next day, Mademoiselle Cormon, packed into the old carriole with +Josette, and looking like a pyramid on a vast sea of parcels, drove up +the rue Saint-Blaise on her way to Prebaudet, where she was overtaken +by an event which hurried on her marriage,--an event entirely unlooked +for by either Madame Granson, du Bousquier, Monsieur de Valois, or +Mademoiselle Cormon himself. Chance is the greatest of all artificers. + +The day after her arrival at Prebaudet, she was innocently employed, +about eight o'clock in the morning, in listening, as she breakfasted, +to the various reports of her keeper and her gardener, when Jacquelin +made a violent irruption into the dining-room. + +"Mademoiselle," he cried, out of breath, "Monsieur l'abbe sends you an +express, the son of Mere Grosmort, with a letter. The lad left Alencon +before daylight, and he has just arrived; he ran like Penelope! Can't +I give him a glass of wine?" + +"What can have happened, Josette? Do you think my uncle can be--" + +"He couldn't write if he were," said Josette, guessing her mistress's +fears. + +"Quick! quick!" cried Mademoiselle Cormon, as soon as she had read the +first lines. "Tell Jacquelin to harness Penelope-- Get ready, Josette; +pack up everything in half an hour. We must go back to town--" + +"Jacquelin!" called Josette, excited by the sentiment she saw on her +mistress's face. + +Jacquelin, informed by Josette, came in to say,-- + +"But, mademoiselle, Penelope is eating her oats." + +"What does that signify? I must start at once." + +"But, mademoiselle, it is going to rain." + +"Then we shall get wet." + +"The house is on fire!" muttered Josette, piqued at the silence her +mistress kept as to the contents of the letter, which she read and +reread. + +"Finish your coffee, at any rate, mademoiselle; don't excite your +blood; just see how red you are." + +"Am I red, Josette?" she said, going to a mirror, from which the +quicksilver was peeling, and which presented her features to her +upside down. + +"Good heavens!" thought Mademoiselle Cormon, "suppose I should look +ugly! Come, Josette; come, my dear, dress me at once; I want to be +ready before Jacquelin has harnessed Penelope. If you can't pack my +things in time, I will leave them here rather than lose a single +minute." + +If you have thoroughly comprehended the positive monomania to which +the desire of marriage had brought Mademoiselle Cormon, you will share +her emotion. The worthy uncle announced in this sudden missive that +Monsieur de Troisville, of the Russian army during the Emigration, +grandson of one of his best friends, was desirous of retiring to +Alencon, and asked his, the abbe's hospitality, on the ground of his +friendship for his grandfather, the Vicomte de Troisville. The old +abbe, alarmed at the responsibility, entreated his niece to return +instantly and help him to receive this guest, and do the honors of the +house; for the viscount's letter had been delayed, and he might +descend upon his shoulders that very night. + +After reading this missive could there be a question of the demands of +Prebaudet? The keeper and the gardener, witnesses to Mademoiselle +Cormon's excitement, stood aside and awaited her orders. But when, as +she was about to leave the room, they stopped her to ask for +instructions, for the first time in her life the despotic old maid, +who saw to everything at Prebaudet with her own eyes, said, to their +stupefaction, "Do what you like." This from a mistress who carried her +administration to the point of counting her fruits, and marking them +so as to order their consumption according to the number and condition +of each! + +"I believe I'm dreaming," thought Josette, as she saw her mistress +flying down the staircase like an elephant to which God has given +wings. + +Presently, in spite of a driving rain, Mademoiselle Cormon drove away +from Prebaudet, leaving her factotums with the reins on their necks. +Jacquelin dared not take upon himself to hasten the usual little trot +of the peaceable Penelope, who, like the beautiful queen whose name +she bore, had an appearance of making as many steps backward as she +made forward. Impatient with the pace, mademoiselle ordered Jacquelin +in a sharp voice to drive at a gallop, with the whip, if necessary, to +the great astonishment of the poor beast, so afraid was she of not +having time to arrange the house suitably to receive Monsieur de +Troisville. She calculated that the grandson of her uncle's friend was +probably about forty years of age; a soldier just from service was +undoubtedly a bachelor; and she resolved, her uncle aiding, not to let +Monsieur de Troisville quit their house in the condition he entered +it. Though Penelope galloped, Mademoiselle Cormon, absorbed in +thoughts of her trousseau and the wedding-day, declared again and +again that Jacquelin made no way at all. She twisted about in the +carriole without replying to Josette's questions, and talked to +herself like a person who is mentally revolving important designs. + +The carriole at last arrived in the main street of Alencon, called the +rue Saint-Blaise at the end toward Montagne, but near the hotel du +More it takes the name of the rue de la Porte-de-Seez, and becomes the +rue du Bercail as it enters the road to Brittany. If the departure of +Mademoiselle Cormon made a great noise in Alencon, it is easy to +imagine the uproar caused by her sudden return on the following day, +in a pouring rain which beat her face without her apparently minding +it. Penelope at a full gallop was observed by every one, and +Jacquelin's grin, the early hour, the parcels stuffed into the +carriole topsy-turvy, and the evident impatience of Mademoiselle +Cormon were all noted. + +The property of the house of Troisville lay between Alencon and +Mortagne. Josette knew the various branches of the family. A word +dropped by mademoiselle as they entered Alencon had put Josette on the +scent of the affair; and a discussion having started between them, it +was settled that the expected de Troisville must be between forty and +forty-two years of age, a bachelor, and neither rich nor poor. +Mademoiselle Cormon beheld herself speedily Vicomtesse de Troisville. + +"And to think that my uncle told me nothing! thinks of nothing! +inquires nothing! That's my uncle all over. He'd forget his own nose +if it wasn't fastened to his face." + +Have you never remarked that, under circumstances such as these, old +maids become, like Richard III., keen-witted, fierce, bold, +promissory,--if one may so use the word,--and, like inebriate clerks, +no longer in awe of anything? + +Immediately the town of Alencon, speedily informed from the farther +end of the rue de Saint-Blaise to the gate of Seez of this precipitate +return, accompanied by singular circumstances, was perturbed +throughout its viscera, both public and domestic. Cooks, shopkeepers, +street passengers, told the news from door to door; thence it rose to +the upper regions. Soon the words: "Mademoiselle Cormon has returned!" +burst like a bombshell into all households. At that moment Jacquelin +was descending from his wooden seat (polished by a process unknown to +cabinet-makers), on which he perched in front of the carriole. He +opened the great green gate, round at the top, and closed in sign of +mourning; for during Mademoiselle Cormon's absence the evening +assemblies did not take place. The faithful invited the Abbe de Sponde +to their several houses; and Monsieur de Valois paid his debt by +inviting him to dine at the Marquis d'Esgrignon's. Jacquelin, having +opened the gate, called familiarly to Penelope, whom he had left in +the middle of the street. That animal, accustomed to this proceeding, +turned in of herself, and circled round the courtyard in a manner to +avoid injuring the flower-bed. Jacquelin then took her bridle, and led +the carriage to the portico. + +"Mariette!" cried Mademoiselle Cormon. + +"Mademoiselle!" exclaimed Mariette, who was occupied in closing the +gate. + +"Has the gentleman arrived?" + +"No, mademoiselle." + +"Where's my uncle?" + +"He is at church, mademoiselle." + +Jacquelin and Josette were by this time on the first step of the +portico, holding out their hands to manoeuvre the exit of their +mistress from the carriole as she pulled herself up by the sides of +the vehicle and clung to the curtains. Mademoiselle then threw herself +into their arms; because for the last two years she dared not risk her +weight on the iron step, affixed to the frame of the carriage by a +horrible mechanism of clumsy bolts. + +When Mademoiselle Cormon reached the level of the portico she looked +about her courtyard with an air of satisfaction. + +"Come, come, Mariette, leave that gate alone; I want you." + +"There's something in the wind," whispered Jacquelin, as Mariette +passed the carriole. + +"Mariette, what provisions have you in the house?" asked Mademoiselle +Cormon, sitting down on the bench in the long antechamber like a +person overcome with fatigue. + +"I haven't anything," replied Mariette, with her hands on her hips. +"Mademoiselle knows very well that during her absence Monsieur l'abbe +dines out every day. Yesterday I went to fetch him from Mademoiselle +Armande's." + +"Where is he now?" + +"Monsieur l'abbe? Why, at church; he won't be in before three +o'clock." + +"He thinks of nothing! he ought to have told you to go to market. +Mariette, go at once; and without wasting money, don't spare it; get +all there is that is good and delicate. Go to the diligence office and +see if you can send for pates; and I want shrimps from the Brillante. +What o'clock is it?" + +"A quarter to nine." + +"Good heavens! Mariette, don't stop to chatter. The person my uncle +expects may arrive at any moment. If we had to give him breakfast, +where should we be with nothing in the house?" + +Mariette turned back to Penelope in a lather, and looked at Jacquelin +as if she would say, "Mademoiselle has put her hand on a husband +/this/ time." + +"Now, Josette," continued the old maid, "let us see where we had +better put Monsieur de Troisville to sleep." + +With what joy she said the words, "Put Monsieur de Troisville" +(pronounced Treville) "to sleep." How many ideas in those few words! +The old maid was bathed in hope. + +"Will you put him in the green chamber?" + +"The bishop's room? No; that's too near mine," said Mademoiselle +Cormon. "All very well for monseigneur; he's a saintly man." + +"Give him your uncle's room." + +"Oh, that's so bare; it is actually indecent." + +"Well, then, mademoiselle, why not arrange a bed in your boudoir? It +is easily done; and there's a fire-place. Moreau can certainly find in +his warerooms a bed to match the hangings." + +"You are right, Josette. Go yourself to Moreau; consult with him what +to do; I authorize you to get what is wanted. If the bed could be put +up to-night without Monsieur de Troisville observing it (in case +Monsieur de Troisville arrives while Moreau is here), I should like +it. If Moreau won't engage to do this, then I must put Monsieur de +Troisville in the green room, although Monsieur de Troisville would be +so very near to me." + +Josette was departing when her mistress recalled her. + +"Stop! explain the matter to Jacquelin," she cried, in a loud nervous +tone. "Tell /him/ to go to Moreau; I must be dressed! Fancy if Monsieur +de Troisville surprised me as I am now! and my uncle not here to +receive him! Oh, uncle, uncle! Come, Josette; come and dress me at +once." + +"But Penelope?" said Josette, imprudently. + +"Always Penelope! Penelope this, Penelope that! Is Penelope the +mistress of this house?" + +"But she is all of a lather, and she hasn't had time to eat her oats." + +"Then let her starve!" cried Mademoiselle Cormon; "provided I marry," +she thought to herself. + +Hearing these words, which seemed to her like homicide, Josette stood +still for a moment, speechless. Then, at a gesture from her mistress, +she ran headlong down the steps of the portico. + +"The devil is in her, Jacquelin," were the first words she uttered. + +Thus all things conspired on this fateful day to produce the great +scenic effect which decided the future life of Mademoiselle Cormon. +The town was already topsy-turvy in mind, as a consequence of the five +extraordinary circumstances which accompanied Mademoiselle Cormon's +return; to wit, the pouring rain; Penelope at a gallop, in a lather, +and blown; the early hour; the parcels half-packed; and the singular +air of the excited old maid. But when Mariette made an invasion of the +market, and bought all the best things; when Jacquelin went to the +principal upholsterer in Alencon, two doors from the church, in search +of a bed,--there was matter for the gravest conjectures. These +extraordinary events were discussed on all sides; they occupied the +minds of every one, even Mademoiselle Armande herself, with whom was +Monsieur de Valois. Within two days the town of Alencon had been +agitated by such startling events that certain good women were heard +to remark that the world was coming to an end. This last news, +however, resolved itself into a single question, "What is happening at +the Cormons?" + +The Abbe de Sponde, adroitly questioned when he left Saint-Leonard's +to take his daily walk with the Abbe Couturier, replied with his usual +kindliness that he expected the Vicomte de Troisville, a nobleman in +the service of Russia during the Emigration, who was returning to +Alencon to settle there. From two to five o'clock a species of labial +telegraphy went on throughout the town; and all the inhabitants +learned that Mademoiselle Cormon had at last found a husband by +letter, and was about to marry the Vicomte de Troisville. Some said, +"Moreau has sold them a bed." The bed was six feet wide in that +quarter; it was four feet wide at Madame Granson's, in the rue du +Bercail; but it was reduced to a simple couch at Monsieur du +Ronceret's, where du Bousquier was dining. The lesser bourgeoisie +declared that the cost was eleven hundred francs. But generally it was +thought that, as to this, rumor was counting the chickens before they +were hatched. In other quarters it was said that Mariette had made +such a raid on the market that the price of carp had risen. At the end +of the rue Saint-Blaise, Penelope had dropped dead. This decease was +doubted in the house of the receiver-general; but at the Prefecture it +was authenticated that the poor beast had expired as she turned into +the courtyard of the hotel Cormon, with such velocity had the old maid +flown to meet her husband. The harness-maker, who lived at the corner +of the rue de Seez, was bold enough to call at the house and ask if +anything had happened to Mademoiselle Cormon's carriage, in order to +discover whether Penelope was really dead. From the end of the rue +Saint-Blaise to the end of the rue du Bercail, it was then made known +that, thanks to Jacquelin's devotion, Penelope, that silent victim of +her mistress's impetuosity, still lived, though she seemed to be +suffering. + +Along the road to Brittany the Vicomte de Troisville was stated to be +a younger son without a penny, for the estates in Perche belonged to +the Marquis de Troisville, peer of France, who had children; the +marriage would be, therefore, an enormous piece of luck for a poor +emigre. The aristocracy along that road approved of the marriage; +Mademoiselle Cormon could not do better with her money. But among the +Bourgeoisie, the Vicomte de Troisville was a Russian general who had +fought against France, and was now returning with a great fortune made +at the court of Saint-Petersburg; he was a /foreigner/; one of those +/allies/ so hated by the liberals; the Abbe de Sponde had slyly +negotiated this marriage. All the persons who had a right to call upon +Mademoiselle Cormon determined to do so that very evening. + +During this transurban excitement, which made that of Suzanne almost a +forgotten affair, Mademoiselle was not less agitated; she was filled +with a variety of novel emotions. Looking about her salon, +dining-room, and boudoir, cruel apprehensions took possession of her. +A species of demon showed her with a sneer her old-fashioned luxury. +The handsome things she had admired from her youth up she suddenly +suspected of age and absurdity. In short, she felt that fear which +takes possession of nearly all authors when they read over a work they +have hitherto thought proof against every exacting or blase critic: +new situations seem timeworn; the best-turned and most highly polished +phrases limp and squint; metaphors and images grin or contradict each +other; whatsoever is false strikes the eye. In like manner this poor +woman trembled lest she should see on the lips of Monsieur de +Troisville a smile of contempt for this episcopal salon; she dreaded +the cold look he might cast over that ancient dining-room; in short, +she feared the frame might injure and age the portrait. Suppose these +antiquities should cast a reflected light of old age upon herself? +This question made her flesh creep. She would gladly, at that moment, +spend half her savings on refitting her house if some fairy wand could +do it in a moment. Where is the general who has not trembled on the +eve of a battle? The poor woman was now between her Austerlitz and her +Waterloo. + +"Madame la Vicomtesse de Troisville," she said to herself; "a noble +name! Our property will go to a good family, at any rate." + +She fell a prey to an irritation which made every fibre of her nerves +quiver to all their papillae, long sunk in flesh. Her blood, lashed by +this new hope, was in motion. She felt the strength to converse, if +necessary, with Monsieur de Troisville. + +It is useless to relate the activity with which Josette, Jacquelin, +Mariette, Moreau, and his agents went about their functions. It was +like the busyness of ants about their eggs. All that daily care had +already rendered neat and clean was again gone over and brushed and +rubbed and scrubbed. The china of ceremony saw the light; the damask +linen marked "A, B, C" was drawn from depths where it lay under a +triple guard of wrappings, still further defended by formidable lines +of pins. Above all, Mademoiselle Cormon sacrificed on the altar of her +hopes three bottles of the famous liqueurs of Madame Amphoux, the most +illustrious of all the distillers of the tropics,--a name very dear to +gourmets. Thanks to the devotion of her lieutenants, mademoiselle was +soon ready for the conflict. The different weapons--furniture, +cookery, provisions, in short, all the various munitions of war, +together with a body of reserve forces--were ready along the whole +line. Jacquelin, Mariette, and Josette received orders to appear in +full dress. The garden was raked. The old maid regretted that she +couldn't come to an understanding with the nightingales nesting in the +trees, in order to obtain their finest trilling. + +At last, about four o'clock, at the very moment when the Abbe de +Sponde returned home, and just as mademoiselle began to think she had +set the table with the best plate and linen and prepared the choicest +dishes to no purpose, the click-clack of a postilion was heard in the +Val-Noble. + +"'Tis he!" she said to herself, the snap of the whip echoing in her +heart. + +True enough; heralded by all this gossip, a post-chaise, in which was +a single gentleman, made so great a sensation coming down the rue +Saint-Blaise and turning into the rue du Cours that several little +gamains and some grown persons followed it, and stood in groups about +the gate of the hotel Cormon to see it enter. Jacquelin, who foresaw +his own marriage in that of his mistress, had also heard the +click-clack in the rue Saint-Blaise, and had opened wide the gates +into the courtyard. The postilion, a friend of his, took pride in +making a fine turn-in, and drew up sharply before the portico. The +abbe came forward to greet his guest, whose carriage was emptied with +a speed that highwaymen might put into the operation; the chaise +itself was rolled into the coach-house, the gates closed, and in a few +moments all signs of Monsieur de Troisville's arrival had disappeared. +Never did two chemicals blend into each other with greater rapidity +than the hotel Cormon displayed in absorbing the Vicomte de Troisville. + +Mademoiselle, whose heart was beating like a lizard caught by a +herdsman, sat heroically still on her sofa, beside the fire in the +salon. Josette opened the door; and the Vicomte de Troisville, +followed by the Abbe de Sponde, presented himself to the eyes of the +spinster. + +"Niece, this is Monsieur le Vicomte de Troisville, the grandson of one +of my old schoolmates; Monsieur de Troisville, my niece, Mademoiselle +Cormon." + +"Ah! that good uncle; how well he does it!" thought +Rose-Marie-Victoire. + +The Vicomte de Troisville was, to paint him in two words, du Bousquier +ennobled. Between the two men there was precisely the difference which +separates the vulgar style from the noble style. If they had both been +present, the most fanatic liberal would not have denied the existence +of aristocracy. The viscount's strength had all the distinction of +elegance; his figure had preserved its magnificent dignity. He had +blue eyes, black hair, an olive skin, and looked to be about forty-six +years of age. You might have thought him a handsome Spaniard preserved +in the ice of Russia. His manner, carriage, and attitude, all denoted +a diplomat who had seen Europe. His dress was that of a well-bred +traveller. As he seemed fatigued, the abbe offered to show him to his +room, and was much amazed when his niece threw open the door of the +boudoir, transformed into a bedroom. + +Mademoiselle Cormon and her uncle then left the noble stranger to +attend to his own affairs, aided by Jacquelin, who brought up his +luggage, and went themselves to walk beside the river until their +guest had made his toilet. Although the Abbe de Sponde chanced to be +even more absent-minded than usual, Mademoiselle Cormon was not less +preoccupied. They both walked on in silence. The old maid had never +before met any man as seductive as this Olympean viscount. She might +have said to herself, as the Germans do, "This is my ideal!" instead +of which she felt herself bound from head to foot, and could only say, +"Here's my affair!" Then she flew to Mariette to know if the dinner +could be put back a while without loss of excellence. + +"Uncle, your Monsieur de Troisville is very amiable," she said, on +returning. + +"Why, niece, he hasn't as yet said a word." + +"But you can see it in his ways, his manners, his face. Is he a +bachelor?" + +"I'm sure I don't know," replied the abbe, who was thinking of a +discussion on mercy, lately begun between the Abbe Couturier and +himself. "Monsieur de Troisville wrote me that he wanted to buy a +house here. If he was married, he wouldn't come alone on such an +errand," added the abbe, carelessly, not conceiving the idea that his +niece could be thinking of marriage. + +"Is he rich?" + +"He is a younger son of the younger branch," replied her uncle. "His +grandfather commanded a squadron, but the father of this young man +made a bad marriage." + +"Young man!" exclaimed the old maid. "It seems to me, uncle, that he +must be at least forty-five." She felt the strongest desire to put +their years on a par. + +"Yes," said the abbe; "but to a poor priest of seventy, Rose, a man of +forty seems a youth." + +All Alencon knew by this time that Monsieur de Troisville had arrived +at the Cormons. The traveller soon rejoined his hosts, and began to +admire the Brillante, the garden, and the house. + +"Monsieur l'abbe," he said, "my whole ambition is to have a house like +this." The old maid fancied a declaration lurked in that speech, and +she lowered her eyes. "You must enjoy it very much, mademoiselle," +added the viscount. + +"How could it be otherwise? It has been in our family since 1574, the +period at which one of our ancestors, steward to the Duc d'Alencon, +acquired the land and built the house," replied Mademoiselle Cormon. +"It is built on piles," she added. + +Jacquelin announced dinner. Monsieur de Troisville offered his arm to +the happy woman, who endeavored not to lean too heavily upon it; she +feared, as usual, to seem to make advances. + +"Everything is so harmonious here," said the viscount, as he seated +himself at table. + +"Yes, our trees are full of birds, which give us concerts for nothing; +no one ever frightens them; and the nightingales sing at night," said +Mademoiselle Cormon. + +"I was speaking of the interior of the house," remarked the viscount, +who did not trouble himself to observe Mademoiselle Cormon, and +therefore did not perceive the dulness of her mind. "Everything is so +in keeping,--the tones of color, the furniture, the general +character." + +"But it costs a great deal; taxes are enormous," responded the +excellent woman. + +"Ah! taxes are high, are they?" said the viscount, preoccupied with +his own ideas. + +"I don't know," replied the abbe. "My niece manages the property of +each of us." + +"Taxes are not of much importance to the rich," said Mademoiselle +Cormon, not wishing to be thought miserly. "As for the furniture, I +shall leave it as it is, and change nothing,--unless I marry; and +then, of course, everything here must suit the husband." + +"You have noble principles, mademoiselle," said the viscount, smiling. +"You will make one happy man." + +"No one ever made to me such a pretty speech," thought the old maid. + +The viscount complimented Mademoiselle Cormon on the excellence of her +service and the admirable arrangements of the house, remarking that he +had supposed the provinces behind the age in that respect; but, on the +contrary, he found them, as the English say, "very comfortable." + +"What can that word mean?" she thought. "Oh, where is the chevalier to +explain it to me? 'Comfortable,'--there seem to be several words in +it. Well, courage!" she said to herself. "I can't be expected to +answer a foreign language-- But," she continued aloud, feeling her +tongue untied by the eloquence which nearly all human creatures find +in momentous circumstances, "we have a very brilliant society here, +monsieur. It assembles at my house, and you shall judge of it this +evening, for some of my faithful friends have no doubt heard of my +return and your arrival. Among them is the Chevalier de Valois, a +seigneur of the old court, a man of infinite wit and taste; then there +is Monsieur le Marquis d'Esgrignon and Mademoiselle Armande, his +sister" (she bit her tongue with vexation),--"a woman remarkable in +her way," she added. "She resolved to remain unmarried in order to +leave all her fortune to her brother and nephew." + +"Ah!" exclaimed the viscount. "Yes, the d'Esgrignons,--I remember +them." + +"Alencon is very gay," continued the old maid, now fairly launched. +"There's much amusement: the receiver-general gives balls; the prefect +is an amiable man; and Monseigneur the bishop sometimes honors us with +a visit--" + +"Well, then," said the viscount, smiling, "I have done wisely to come +back, like the hare, to die in my form." + +"Yes," she said. "I, too, attach myself or I die." + +The viscount smiled. + +"Ah!" thought the old maid, "all is well; he understands me." + +The conversation continued on generalities. By one of those mysterious +unknown and undefinable faculties, Mademoiselle Cormon found in her +brain, under the pressure of her desire to be agreeable, all the +phrases and opinions of the Chevalier de Valois. It was like a duel in +which the devil himself pointed the pistol. Never was any adversary +better aimed at. The viscount was far too well-bred to speak of the +excellence of the dinner; but his silence was praise. As he drank the +delicious wines which Jacquelin served to him profusely, he seemed to +feel he was with friends, and to meet them with pleasure; for the true +connoisseur does not applaud, he enjoys. He inquired the price of +land, of houses, of estates; he made Mademoiselle Cormon describe at +length the confluence of the Sarthe and the Brillante; he expressed +surprise that the town was placed so far from the river, and seemed to +be much interested in the topography of the place. + +The silent abbe left his niece to throw the dice of conversation; and +she truly felt that she pleased Monsieur de Troisville, who smiled at +her gracefully, and committed himself during this dinner far more than +her most eager suitors had ever done in ten days. Imagine, therefore, +the little attentions with which he was petted; you might have thought +him a cherished lover, whose return brought joy to the household. +Mademoiselle foresaw the moment when the viscount wanted bread; she +watched his every look; when he turned his head she adroitly put upon +his plate a portion of some dish he seemed to like; had he been a +gourmand, she would almost have killed him; but what a delightful +specimen of the attentions she would show to a husband! She did not +commit the folly of depreciating herself; on the contrary, she set +every sail bravely, ran up all her flags, assumed the bearing of the +queen of Alencon, and boasted of her excellent preserves. In fact, she +fished for compliments in speaking of herself, for she saw that she +pleased the viscount; the truth being that her eager desire had so +transformed her that she became almost a woman. + +At dessert she heard, not without emotions of delight, certain sounds +in the antechamber and salon which denoted the arrival of her usual +guests. She called the attention of her uncle and Monsieur de +Troisville to this prompt attendance as a proof of the affection that +was felt for her; whereas it was really the result of the poignant +curiosity which had seized upon the town. Impatient to show herself in +all her glory, Mademoiselle Cormon told Jacquelin to serve coffee and +liqueurs in the salon, where he presently set out, in view of the +whole company, a magnificent liqueur-stand of Dresden china which saw +the light only twice a year. This circumstance was taken note of by +the company, standing ready to gossip over the merest trifle:-- + +"The deuce!" muttered du Bousquier. "Actually Madame Amphoux's +liqueurs, which they only serve at the four church festivals!" + +"Undoubtedly the marriage was arranged a year ago by letter," said the +chief-justice du Ronceret. "The postmaster tells me his office has +received letters postmarked Odessa for more than a year." + +Madame Granson trembled. The Chevalier de Valois, though he had dined +with the appetite of four men, turned pale even to the left section of +his face. Feeling that he was about to betray himself, he said +hastily,-- + +"Don't you think it is very cold to-day? I am almost frozen." + +"The neighborhood of Russia, perhaps," said du Bousquier. + +The chevalier looked at him as if to say, "Well played!" + +Mademoiselle Cormon appeared so radiant, so triumphant, that the +company thought her handsome. This extraordinary brilliancy was not +the effect of sentiment only. Since early morning her blood had been +whirling tempestuously within her, and her nerves were agitated by the +presentiment of some great crisis. It required all these circumstances +combined to make her so unlike herself. With what joy did she now make +her solemn presentation of the viscount to the chevalier, the +chevalier to the viscount, and all Alencon to Monsieur de Troisville, +and Monsieur de Troisville to all Alencon! + +By an accident wholly explainable, the viscount and chevalier, +aristocrats by nature, came instantly into unison; they recognized +each other at once as men belonging to the same sphere. Accordingly, +they began to converse together, standing before the fireplace. A +circle formed around them; and their conversation, though uttered in a +low voice, was listened to in religious silence. To give the effect of +this scene it is necessary to dramatize it, and to picture +Mademoiselle Cormon occupied in pouring out the coffee of her +imaginary suitor, with her back to the fireplace. + +Monsieur de Valois. "Monsieur le vicomte has come, I am told, to +settle in Alencon?" + +Monsieur de Troisville. "Yes, monsieur, I am looking for a house." +[Mademoiselle Cormon, cup in hand, turns round.] "It must be a large +house" [Mademoiselle Cormon offers him the cup] "to lodge my whole +family." [The eyes of the old maid are troubled.] + +Monsieur de Valois. "Are you married?" + +Monsieur de Troisville. "Yes, for the last sixteen years, to a +daughter of the Princess Scherbellof." + +Mademoiselle Cormon fainted; du Bousquier, who saw her stagger, sprang +forward and received her in his arms; some one opened the door and +allowed him to pass out with his enormous burden. The fiery +republican, instructed by Josette, found strength to carry the old +maid to her bedroom, where he laid her out on the bed. Josette, armed +with scissors, cut the corset, which was terribly tight. Du Bousquier +flung water on Mademoiselle Cormon's face and bosom, which, released +from the corset, overflowed like the Loire in flood. The poor woman +opened her eyes, saw du Bousquier, and gave a cry of modesty at the +sight of him. Du Bousquier retired at once, leaving six women, at the +head of whom was Madame Granson, radiant with joy, to take care of the +invalid. + +What had the Chevalier de Valois been about all this time? Faithful to +his system, he had covered the retreat. + +"That poor Mademoiselle Cormon," he said to Monsieur de Troisville, +gazing at the assembly, whose laughter was repressed by his cool +aristocratic glances, "her blood is horribly out of order; she +wouldn't be bled before going to Prebaudet (her estate),--and see the +result!" + +"She came back this morning in the rain," said the Abbe de Sponde, +"and she may have taken cold. It won't be anything; it is only a +little upset she is subject to." + +"She told me yesterday she had not had one for three months, adding +that she was afraid it would play her a trick at last," said the +chevalier. + +"Ha! so you are married?" said Jacquelin to himself as he looked at +Monsieur de Troisville, who was quietly sipping his coffee. + +The faithful servant espoused his mistress's disappointment; he +divined it, and he promptly carried away the liqueurs of Madame +Amphoux, which were offered to a bachelor, and not to the husband of a +Russian woman. + +All these details were noticed and laughed at. The Abbe de Sponde knew +the object of Monsieur de Troisville's journey; but, absent-minded as +usual, he forgot it, not supposing that his niece could have the +slightest interest in Monsieur de Troisville's marriage. As for the +viscount, preoccupied with the object of his journey, and, like many +husbands, not eager to talk about his wife, he had had no occasion to +say he was married; besides, he would naturally suppose that +Mademoiselle Cormon knew it. + +Du Bousquier reappeared, and was questioned furiously. One of the six +women came down soon after, and announced that Mademoiselle Cormon was +much better, and that the doctor had come. She intended to stay in +bed, as it was necessary to bleed her. The salon was now full. +Mademoiselle Cormon's absence allowed the ladies present to discuss +the tragi-comic scene--embellished, extended, historified, +embroidered, wreathed, colored, and adorned--which had just taken +place, and which, on the morrow, was destined to occupy all Alencon. + +"That good Monsieur du Bousquier! how well he carried you!" said +Josette to her mistress. "He was really pale at the sight of you; he +loves you still." + +That speech served as closure to this solemn and terrible evening. + +Throughout the morning of the next day every circumstance of the late +comedy was known in the household of Alencon, and--let us say it to +the shame of that town,--they caused inextinguishable laughter. But on +that day Mademoiselle Cormon (much benefited by the bleeding) would +have seemed sublime even to the boldest scoffers, had they witnessed +the noble dignity, the splendid Christian resignation which influenced +her as she gave her arm to her involuntary deceiver to go into +breakfast. Cruel jesters! why could you not have seen her as she said +to the viscount,-- + +"Madame de Troisville will have difficulty in finding a suitable +house; do me the favor, monsieur, of accepting the use of mine during +the time you are in search of yours." + +"But, mademoiselle, I have two sons and two daughters; we should +greatly inconvenience you." + +"Pray do not refuse me," she said earnestly. + +"I made you the same offer in the answer I wrote to your letter," said +the abbe; "but you did not receive it." + +"What, uncle! then you knew--" + +The poor woman stopped. Josette sighed. Neither the viscount nor the +abbe observed anything amiss. After breakfast the Abbe de Sponde +carried off his guest, as agreed upon the previous evening, to show +him the various houses in Alencon which could be bought, and the lots +of lands on which he might build. + +Left alone in the salon, Mademoiselle Cormon said to Josette, with a +deeply distressed air, "My child, I am now the talk of the whole +town." + +"Well, then, mademoiselle, you should marry." + +"But I am not prepared to make a choice." + +"Bah! if I were in your place, I should take Monsieur du Bousquier." + +"Josette, Monsieur de Valois says he is so republican." + +"They don't know what they say, your gentlemen: sometimes they declare +that he robbed the republic; he couldn't love it if he did that," said +Josette, departing. + +"That girl has an amazing amount of sense," thought Mademoiselle +Cormon, who remained alone, a prey to her perplexities. + +She saw plainly that a prompt marriage was the only way to silence the +town. This last checkmate, so evidently mortifying, was of a nature to +drive her into some extreme action; for persons deficient in mind find +difficulty in getting out of any path, either good or evil, into which +they have entered. + +Each of the two old bachelors had fully understood the situation in +which Mademoiselle Cormon was about to find herself; consequently, +each resolved to call in the course of that morning to ask after her +health, and take occasion, in bachelor language, to "press his point." +Monsieur de Valois considered that such an occasion demanded a +painstaking toilet; he therefore took a bath and groomed himself with +extraordinary care. For the first and last time Cesarine observed him +putting on with incredible art a suspicion of rouge. Du Bousquier, on +the other hand, that coarse republican, spurred by a brisk will, paid +no attention to his dress, and arrived the first. + +Such little things decide the fortunes of men, as they do of empires. +Kellerman's charge at Marengo, Blucher's arrival at Waterloo, Louis +XIV.'s disdain for Prince Eugene, the rector of Denain,--all these +great causes of fortune or catastrophe history has recorded; but no +one ever profits by them to avoid the small neglects of their own +life. Consequently, observe what happens: the Duchesse de Langeais +(see "History of the Thirteen") makes herself a nun for the lack of +ten minutes' patience; Judge Popinot (see "Commission in Lunacy") puts +off till the morrow the duty of examining the Marquis d'Espard; +Charles Grandet (see "Eugenie Grandet") goes to Paris from Bordeaux +instead of returning by Nantes; and such events are called chance or +fatality! A touch of rouge carefully applied destroyed the hopes of +the Chevalier de Valois; could that nobleman perish in any other way? +He had lived by the Graces, and he was doomed to die by their hand. +While the chevalier was giving this last touch to his toilet the rough +du Bousquier was entering the salon of the desolate old maid. This +entrance produced a thought in Mademoiselle Cormon's mind which was +favorable to the republican, although in all other respects the +Chevalier de Valois held the advantages. + +"God wills it!" she said piously, on seeing du Bousquier. + +"Mademoiselle, you will not, I trust, think my eagerness importunate. +I could not trust to my stupid Rene to bring news of your condition, +and therefore I have come myself." + +"I am perfectly recovered," she replied, in a tone of emotion. "I +thank you, Monsieur du Bousquier," she added, after a slight pause, +and in a significant tone of voice, "for the trouble you have taken, +and for that which I gave you yesterday--" + +She remembered having been in his arms, and that again seemed to her +an order from heaven. She had been seen for the first time by a man +with her laces cut, her treasures violently bursting from their +casket. + +"I carried you with such joy that you seemed to me light." + +Here Mademoiselle Cormon looked at du Bousquier as she had never yet +looked at any man in the world. Thus encouraged, the purveyor cast +upon the old maid a glance which reached her heart. + +"I would," he said, "that that moment had given me the right to keep +you as mine forever" [she listened with a delighted air]; "as you lay +fainting upon that bed, you were enchanting. I have never in my life +seen a more beautiful person,--and I have seen many handsome women. +Plump ladies have this advantage: they are superb to look upon; they +have only to show themselves and they triumph." + +"I fear you are making fun of me," said the old maid, "and that is not +kind when all the town will probably misinterpret what happened to me +yesterday." + +"As true as my name is du Bousquier, mademoiselle, I have never +changed in my feelings toward you; and your first refusal has not +discouraged me." + +The old maid's eyes were lowered. There was a moment of cruel silence +for du Bousquier, and then Mademoiselle Cormon decided on her course. +She raised her eyelids; tears flowed from her eyes, and she gave du +Bousquier a tender glance. + +"If that is so, monsieur," she said, in a trembling voice, "promise me +to live in a Christian manner, and not oppose my religious customs, +but to leave me the right to select my confessors, and I will grant +you my hand"; as she said the words, she held it out to him. + +Du Bousquier seized the good fat hand so full of money, and kissed it +solemnly. + +"But," she said, allowing him to kiss it, "one thing more I must +require of you." + +"If it is a possible thing, it is granted," replied the purveyor. + +"Alas!" returned the old maid. "For my sake, I must ask you to take +upon yourself a sin which I feel to be enormous,--for to lie is one of +the capital sins. But you will confess it, will you not? We will do +penance for it together" [they looked at each other tenderly]. +"Besides, it may be one of those lies which the Church permits as +necessary--" + +"Can she be as Suzanne says she is?" thought du Bousquier. "What luck! +Well, mademoiselle, what is it?" he said aloud. + +"That you will take upon yourself to--" + +"What?" + +"To say that this marriage has been agreed upon between us for the +last six months." + +"Charming woman," said the purveyor, in the tone of a man willing to +devote himself, "such sacrifices can be made only for a creature +adored these ten years." + +"In spite of my harshness?" she said. + +"Yes, in spite of your harshness." + +"Monsieur du Bousquier, I have misjudged you." + +Again she held out the fat red hand, which du Bousquier kissed again. + +At this moment the door opened; the betrothed pair, looking round to +see who entered, beheld the delightful, but tardy Chevalier de Valois. + +"Ah!" he said, on entering, "I see you are about to be up, fair +queen." + +She smiled at the chevalier, feeling a weight upon her heart. Monsieur +de Valois, remarkably young and seductive, had the air of a Lauzun +re-entering the apartments of the Grande Mademoiselle in the +Palais-Royal. + +"Hey! dear du Bousquier," said he, in a jaunty tone, so sure was he of +success, "Monsieur de Troisville and the Abbe de Sponde are examining +your house like appraisers." + +"Faith!" said du Bousquier, "if the Vicomte de Troisville wants it, it +it is his for forty thousand francs. It is useless to me now. If +mademoiselle will permit--it must soon be known-- Mademoiselle, may I +tell it?-- Yes! Well, then, be the first, /my dear Chevalier/, to hear" +[Mademoiselle Cormon dropped her eyes] "of the honor that mademoiselle +has done me, the secret of which I have kept for some months. We shall +be married in a few days; the contract is already drawn, and we shall +sign it to-morrow. You see, therefore, that my house in the rue du +Cygne is useless to me. I have been privately looking for a purchaser +for some time; and the Abbe de Sponde, who knew that fact, has +naturally taken Monsieur de Troisville to see the house." + +This falsehood bore such an appearance of truth that the chevalier was +taken in by it. That "my dear chevalier" was like the revenge taken by +Peter the Great on Charles XII. at Pultawa for all his past defeats. +Du Bousquier revenged himself deliciously for the thousand little +shafts he had long borne in silence; but in his triumph he made a +lively youthful gesture by running his hands through his hair, and in +so doing he--knocked aside his false front. + +"I congratulate you both," said the chevalier, with an agreeable air; +"and I wish that the marriage may end like a fairy tale: /They were +happy ever after, and had--many--children/!" So saying, he took a pinch +of snuff. "But, monsieur," he added satirically, "you forget--that you +are wearing a false front." + +Du Bousquier blushed. The false front was hanging half a dozen inches +from his skull. Mademoiselle Cormon raised her eyes, saw that skull in +all its nudity, and lowered them, abashed. Du Bousquier cast upon the +chevalier the most venomous look that toad ever darted on its prey. + +"Dogs of aristocrats who despise me," thought he, "I'll crush you some +day." + +The chevalier thought he had recovered his advantage. But Mademoiselle +Cormon was not a woman to understand the connection which the +chevalier intimated between his congratulatory wish and the false +front. Besides, even if she had comprehended it, her word was passed, +her hand given. Monsieur de Valois saw at once that all was lost. The +innocent woman, with the two now silent men before her, wished, true +to her sense of duty, to amuse them. + +"Why not play a game of piquet together?" she said artlessly, without +the slightest malice. + +Du Bousquier smiled, and went, as the future master of the house, to +fetch the piquet table. Whether the Chevalier de Valois lost his head, +or whether he wanted to stay and study the causes of his disaster and +remedy it, certain it is that he allowed himself to be led like a lamb +to the slaughter. He had received the most violent knock-down blow +that ever struck a man; any nobleman would have lost his senses for +less. + +The Abbe de Sponde and the Vicomte de Troisville soon returned. +Mademoiselle Cormon instantly rose, hurried into the antechamber, and +took her uncle apart to tell him her resolution. Learning that the +house in the rue du Cygne exactly suited the viscount, she begged her +future husband to do her the kindness to tell him that her uncle knew +it was for sale. She dared not confide that lie to the abbe, fearing +his absent-mindedness. The lie, however, prospered better than if it +had been a virtuous action. In the course of that evening all Alencon +heard the news. For the last four days the town had had as much to +think of as during the fatal days of 1814 and 1815. Some laughed; +others admitted the marriage. These blamed it; those approved it. The +middle classes of Alencon rejoiced; they regarded it as a victory. The +next day, among friends, the Chevalier de Valois said a cruel thing:-- + +"The Cormons end as they began; there's only a hand's breadth between +a steward and a purveyor." + + + + CHAPTER VII + + OTHER RESULTS + +The news of Mademoiselle Cormon's choice stabbed poor Athanase Granson +to the heart; but he showed no outward sign of the terrible agitation +within him. When he first heard of the marriage he was at the house of +the chief-justice, du Ronceret, where his mother was playing boston. +Madame Granson looked at her son in a mirror, and thought him pale; +but he had been so all day, for a vague rumor of the matter had +already reached him. + +Mademoiselle Cormon was the card on which Athanase had staked his +life; and the cold presentiment of a catastrophe was already upon him. +When the soul and the imagination have magnified a misfortune and made +it too heavy for the shoulders and the brain to bear; when a hope long +cherished, the realization of which would pacify the vulture feeding +on the heart, is balked, and the man has faith neither in himself, +despite his powers, nor in the future, despite of the Divine power, +--then that man is lost. Athanase was a fruit of the Imperial system +of education. Fatality, the Emperor's religion, had filtered down from +the throne to the lowest ranks of the army and the benches of the +lyceums. Athanase sat still, with his eyes fixed on Madame du +Ronceret's cards, in a stupor that might so well pass for indifference +that Madame Granson herself was deceived about his feelings. This +apparent unconcern explained her son's refusal to make a sacrifice for +this marriage of his /liberal/ opinions,--the term "liberal" having +lately been created for the Emperor Alexander by, I think, Madame de +Stael, through the lips of Benjamin Constant. + +After that fatal evening the young man took to rambling among the +picturesque regions of the Sarthe, the banks of which are much +frequented by sketchers who come to Alencon for points of view. +Windmills are there, and the river is gay in the meadows. The shores +of the Sarthe are bordered with beautiful trees, well grouped. Though +the landscape is flat, it is not without those modest graces which +distinguish France, where the eye is never wearied by the brilliancy +of Oriental skies, nor saddened by constant fog. The place is +solitary. In the provinces no one pays much attention to a fine view, +either because provincials are blases on the beauty around them, or +because they have no poesy in their souls. If there exists in the +provinces a mall, a promenade, a vantage-ground from which a fine view +can be obtained, that is the point to which no one goes. Athanase was +fond of this solitude, enlivened by the sparkling water, where the +fields were the first to green under the earliest smiling of the +springtide sun. Those persons who saw him sitting beneath a poplar, +and who noticed the vacant eye which he turned to them, would say to +Madame Granson:-- + +"Something is the matter with your son." + +"I know what it is," the mother would reply; hinting that he was +meditating over some great work. + +Athanase no longer took part in politics: he ceased to have opinions; +but he appeared at times quite gay,--gay with the satire of those who +think to insult a whole world with their own individual scorn. This +young man, outside of all the ideas and all the pleasures of the +provinces, interested few persons; he was not even an object of +curiosity. If persons spoke of him to his mother, it was for her sake, +not his. There was not a single soul in Alencon that sympathized with +his; not a woman, not a friend came near to dry his tears; they +dropped into the Sarthe. If the gorgeous Suzanne had happened that +way, how many young miseries might have been born of the meeting! for +the two would surely have loved each other. + +She did come, however. Suzanne's ambition was early excited by the +tale of a strange adventure which had happened at the tavern of the +More,--a tale which had taken possession of her childish brain. A +Parisian woman, beautiful as the angels, was sent by Fouche to +entangle the Marquis de Montauran, otherwise called "The Gars," in a +love-affair (see "The Chouans"). She met him at the tavern of the More +on his return from an expedition to Mortagne; she cajoled him, made +him love her, and then betrayed him. That fantastic power--the power +of beauty over mankind; in fact, the whole story of Marie de Verneuil +and the Gars--dazzled Suzanne; she longed to grow up in order to play +upon men. Some months after her hasty departure she passed through her +native town with an artist on his way to Brittany. She wanted to see +Fougeres, where the adventure of the Marquis de Montauran culminated, +and to stand upon the scene of that picturesque war, the tragedies of +which, still so little known, had filled her childish mind. Besides +this, she had a fancy to pass through Alencon so elegantly equipped +that no one could recognize her; to put her mother above the reach of +necessity, and also to send to poor Athanase, in a delicate manner, a +sum of money,--which in our age is to genius what in the middle ages +was the charger and the coat of mail that Rebecca conveyed to Ivanhoe. + +One month passed away in the strangest uncertainties respecting the +marriage of Mademoiselle Cormon. A party of unbelievers denied the +marriage altogether; the believers, on the other hand, affirmed it. At +the end of two weeks, the faction of unbelief received a vigorous blow +in the sale of du Bousquier's house to the Marquis de Troisville, who +only wanted a simple establishment in Alencon, intending to go to +Paris after the death of the Princess Scherbellof; he proposed to +await that inheritance in retirement, and then to reconstitute his +estates. This seemed positive. The unbelievers, however, were not +crushed. They declared that du Bousquier, married or not, had made an +excellent sale, for the house had only cost him twenty-seven thousand +francs. The believers were depressed by this practical observation of +the incredulous. Choisnel, Mademoiselle Cormon's notary, asserted the +latter, had heard nothing about the marriage contract; but the +believers, still firm in their faith, carried off, on the twentieth +day, a signal victory: Monsieur Lepressoir, the notary of the +liberals, went to Mademoiselle Cormon's house, and the contract was +signed. + +This was the first of the numerous sacrifices which Mademoiselle +Cormon was destined to make to her husband. Du Bousquier bore the +deepest hatred to Choisnel; to him he owed the refusal of the hand of +Mademoiselle Armande,--a refusal which, as he believed, had influenced +that of Mademoiselle Cormon. This circumstance alone made the marriage +drag along. Mademoiselle received several anonymous letters. She +learned, to her great astonishment, that Suzanne was as truly a virgin +as herself so far as du Bousquier was concerned, for that seducer with +the false toupet could never be the hero of any such adventure. +Mademoiselle Cormon disdained anonymous letters; but she wrote to +Suzanne herself, on the ground of enlightening the Maternity Society. +Suzanne, who had no doubt heard of du Bousquier's proposed marriage, +acknowledged her trick, sent a thousand francs to the society, and did +all the harm she could to the old purveyor. Mademoiselle Cormon +convoked the Maternity Society, which held a special meeting at which +it was voted that the association would not in future assist any +misfortunes about to happen, but solely those that had happened. + +In spite of all these various events which kept the town in the +choicest gossip, the banns were published in the churches and at the +mayor's office. Athanase prepared the deeds. As a matter of propriety +and public decency, the bride retired to Prebaudet, where du +Bousquier, bearing sumptuous and horrible bouquets, betook himself +every morning, returning home for dinner. + +At last, on a dull and rainy morning in June, the marriage of +Mademoiselle Cormon and the Sieur du Bousquier took place at noon in +the parish church of Alencon, in sight of the whole town. The bridal +pair went from their own house to the mayor's office, and from the +mayor's office to the church in an open caleche, a magnificent vehicle +for Alencon, which du Bousquier had sent for secretly to Paris. The +loss of the old carriole was a species of calamity in the eyes of the +community. The harness-maker of the Porte de Seez bemoaned it, for he +lost the fifty francs a year which it cost in repairs. Alencon saw +with alarm the possibility of luxury being thus introduced into the +town. Every one feared a rise in the price of rents and provisions, +and a coming invasion of Parisian furniture. Some persons were +sufficiently pricked by curiosity to give ten sous to Jacquelin to +allow them a close inspection of the vehicle which threatened to upset +the whole economy of the region. A pair of horses, bought in +Normandie, were also most alarming. + +"If we bought our own horses," said the Ronceret circle, "we couldn't +sell them to those who come to buy." + +Stupid as it was, this reasoning seemed sound; for surely such a +course would prevent the region from grasping the money of foreigners. +In the eyes of the provinces wealth consisted less in the rapid +turning over of money than in sterile accumulation. It may be +mentioned here that Penelope succumbed to a pleurisy which she +acquired about six weeks before the marriage; nothing could save her. + +Madame Granson, Mariette, Madame du Coudrai, Madame du Ronceret, and +through them the whole town, remarked that Madame du Bousquier entered +the church /with her left foot/,--an omen all the more dreadful because +the term Left was beginning to acquire a political meaning. The priest +whose duty it was to read the opening formula opened his book by +chance at the De Profundis. Thus the marriage was accompanied by +circumstances so fateful, so alarming, so annihilating that no one +dared to augur well of it. Matters, in fact, went from bad to worse. +There was no wedding party; the married pair departed immediately for +Prebaudet. Parisian customs, said the community, were about to triumph +over time-honored provincial ways. + +The marriage of Jacquelin and Josette now took place: it was gay; and +they were the only two persons in Alencon who refuted the sinister +prophecies relating to the marriage of their mistress. + +Du Bousquier determined to use the proceeds of the sale of his late +residence in restoring and modernizing the hotel Cormon. He decided to +remain through two seasons at Prebaudet, and took the Abbe de Sponde +with them. This news spread terror through the town, where every +individual felt that du Bousquier was about to drag the community into +the fatal path of "comfort." This fear increased when the inhabitants +of Alencon saw the bridegroom driving in from Prebaudet one morning to +inspect his works, in a fine tilbury drawn by a new horse, having Rene +at his side in livery. The first act of his administration had been to +place his wife's savings on the Grand-Livre, which was then quoted at +67 fr. 50 cent. In the space of one year, during which he played +constantly for a rise, he made himself a personal fortune almost as +considerable as that of his wife. + +But all these foreboding prophecies, these perturbing innovations, +were superseded and surpassed by an event connected with this marriage +which gave a still more fatal aspect to it. + +On the very evening of the ceremony, Athanase and his mother were +sitting, after their dinner, over a little fire of fagots, which the +servant lighted usually at dessert. + +"Well, we will go this evening to the du Roncerets', inasmuch as we +have lost Mademoiselle Cormon," said Madame Granson. "Heavens! how +shall I ever accustom myself to call her Madame du Bousquier! that +name burns my lips." + +Athanase looked at his mother with a constrained and melancholy air; +he could not smile; but he seemed to wish to welcome that naive +sentiment which soothed his wound, though it could not cure his +anguish. + +"Mamma," he said, in the voice of his childhood, so tender was it, and +using the name he had abandoned for several years,--"my dear mamma, do +not let us go out just yet; it is so pleasant here before the fire." + +The mother heard, without comprehending, that supreme prayer of a +mortal sorrow. + +"Yes, let us stay, my child," she said. "I like much better to talk +with you and listen to your projects than to play at boston and lose +my money." + +"You are so handsome to-night I love to look at you. Besides, I am in +a current of ideas which harmonize with this poor little salon where +we have suffered so much." + +"And where we shall still suffer, my poor Athanase, until your works +succeed. For myself, I am trained to poverty; but you, my treasure! to +see your youth go by without a joy! nothing but toil for my poor boy +in life! That thought is like an illness to a mother; it tortures me +at night; it wakes me in the morning. O God! what have I done? for +what crime dost thou punish me thus?" + +She left her sofa, took a little chair, and sat close to Athanase, so +as to lay her head on the bosom of her child. There is always the +grace of love in true motherhood. Athanase kissed her on the eyes, on +her gray hair, on her forehead, with the sacred desire of laying his +soul wherever he applied his lips. + +"I shall never succeed," he said, trying to deceive his mother as to +the fatal resolution he was revolving in his mind. + +"Pooh! don't get discouraged. As you often say, thought can do all +things. With ten bottles of ink, ten reams of paper, and his powerful +will, Luther upset all Europe. Well, you'll make yourself famous; you +will do good things by the same means which he used to do evil things. +Haven't you said so yourself? For my part, I listen to you; I +understand you a great deal more than you think I do,--for I still +bear you in my bosom, and your every thought still stirs me as your +slightest motion did in other days." + +"I shall never succeed here, mamma; and I don't want you to witness +the sight of my struggles, my misery, my anguish. Oh, mother, let me +leave Alencon! I want to suffer away from you." + +"And I wish to be at your side," replied his mother, proudly. "Suffer +without your mother!--that poor mother who would be your servant if +necessary; who will efface herself rather than injure you; your +mother, who will never shame you. No, no, Athanase; we must not part." + +Athanase clung to his mother with the ardor of a dying man who clings +to life. + +"But I wish it, nevertheless. If not, you will lose me; this double +grief, yours and mine, is killing me. You would rather I lived than +died?" + +Madame Granson looked at her son with a haggard eye. + +"So this is what you have been brooding?" she said. "They told me +right. Do you really mean to go?" + +"Yes." + +"You will not go without telling me; without warning me? You must have +an outfit and money. I have some louis sewn into my petticoat; I shall +give them to you." + +Athanase wept. + +"That's all I wanted to tell you," he said. "Now I'll take you to the +du Roncerets'. Come." + +The mother and the son went out. Athanase left his mother at the door +of the house where she intended to pass the evening. He looked long at +the light which came through the shutters; he clung closely to the +wall, and a frenzied joy came over him when he presently heard his +mother say, "He has great independence of heart." + +"Poor mother! I have deceived her," he cried, as he made his way to +the Sarthe. + +He reached the noble poplar beneath which he had meditated so much for +the last forty days, and where he had placed two heavy stones on which +he now sat down. He contemplated that beautiful nature lighted by the +moon; he reviewed once more the glorious future he had longed for; he +passed through towns that were stirred by his name; he heard the +applauding crowds; he breathed the incense of his fame; he adored that +life long dreamed of; radiant, he sprang to radiant triumphs; he +raised his stature; he evoked his illusions to bid them farewell in a +last Olympic feast. The magic had been potent for a moment; but now it +vanished forever. In that awful hour he clung to the beautiful tree to +which, as to a friend, he had attached himself; then he put the two +stones into the pockets of his overcoat, which he buttoned across his +breast. He had come intentionally without a hat. He now went to the +deep pool he had long selected, and glided into it resolutely, trying +to make as little noise as possible, and, in fact, making scarcely +any. + +When, at half-past nine o'clock, Madame Granson returned home, her +servant said nothing of Athanase, but gave her a letter. She opened it +and read these few words,-- + +"My good mother, I have departed; don't be angry with me." + +"A pretty trick he has played me!" she thought. "And his linen! and +the money! Well, he will write to me, and then I'll follow him. These +poor children think they are so much cleverer than their fathers and +mothers." + +And she went to bed in peace. + +During the preceding morning the Sarthe had risen to a height foreseen +by the fisherman. These sudden rises of muddy water brought eels from +their various runlets. It so happened that a fisherman had spread his +net at the very place where poor Athanase had flung himself, believing +that no one would ever find him. About six o'clock in the morning the +man drew in his net, and with it the young body. The few friends of +the poor mother took every precaution in preparing her to receive the +dreadful remains. The news of this suicide made, as may well be +supposed, a great excitement in Alencon. The poor young man of genius +had no protector the night before, but on the morrow of his death a +thousand voices cried aloud, "I would have helped him." It is so easy +and convenient to be charitable gratis! + +The suicide was explained by the Chevalier de Valois. He revealed, in +a spirit of revenge, the artless, sincere, and genuine love of +Athanase for Mademoiselle Cormon. Madame Granson, enlightened by the +chevalier, remembered a thousand little circumstances which confirmed +the chevalier's statement. The story then became touching, and many +women wept over it. Madame Granson's grief was silent, concentrated, +and little understood. There are two forms of mourning for mothers. +Often the world can enter fully into the nature of their loss: their +son, admired, appreciated, young, perhaps handsome, with a noble path +before him, leading to fortune, possibly to fame, excites universal +regret; society joins in the grief, and alleviates while it magnifies +it. But there is another sorrow of mothers who alone know what their +child was really; who alone have received his smiles and observed the +treasures of a life too soon cut short. That sorrow hides its woe, the +blackness of which surpasses all other mourning; it cannot be +described; happily there are but few women whose heart-strings are +thus severed. + +Before Madame du Bousquier returned to town, Madame du Ronceret, one +of her good friends, had driven out to Prebaudet to fling this corpse +upon the roses of her joy, to show her the love she had ignored, and +sweetly shed a thousand drops of wormwood into the honey of her bridal +month. As Madame du Bousquier drove back to Alencon, she chanced to +meet Madame Granson at the corner of the rue Val-Noble. The glance of +the mother, dying of her grief, struck to the heart of the poor woman. +A thousand maledictions, a thousand flaming reproaches, were in that +look: Madame du Bousquier was horror-struck; that glance predicted and +called down evil upon her head. + +The evening after the catastrophe, Madame Granson, one of the persons +most opposed to the rector of the town, and who had hitherto supported +the minister of Saint-Leonard, began to tremble as she thought of the +inflexible Catholic doctrines professed by her own party. After +placing her son's body in its shroud with her own hands, thinking of +the mother of the Saviour, she went, with a soul convulsed by anguish, +to the house of the hated rector. There she found the modest priest in +an outer room, engaged in putting away the flax and yarns with which +he supplied poor women, in order that they might never be wholly out +of work,--a form of charity which saved many who were incapable of +begging from actual penury. The rector left his yarns and hastened to +take Madame Granson into his dining-room, where the wretched mother +noticed, as she looked at his supper, the frugal method of his own +living. + +"Monsieur l'abbe," she said, "I have come to implore you--" She burst +into tears, unable to continue. + +"I know what brings you," replied the saintly man. "I must trust to +you, madame, and to your relation, Madame du Bousquier, to pacify +Monseigneur the Bishop at Seez. Yes, I will pray for your unhappy +child; yes, I will say the masses. But we must avoid all scandal, and +give no opportunity for evil-judging persons to assemble in the +church. I alone, without other clergy, at night--" + +"Yes, yes, as you think best; if only he may lie in consecrated +ground," said the poor mother, taking the priest's hand and kissing +it. + +Toward midnight a coffin was clandestinely borne to the parish church +by four young men, comrades whom Athanase had liked the best. A few +friends of Madame Granson, women dressed in black, and veiled, were +present; and half a dozen other young men who had been somewhat +intimate with this lost genius. Four torches flickered on the coffin, +which was covered with crape. The rector, assisted by one discreet +choirboy, said the mortuary mass. Then the body of the suicide was +noiselessly carried to a corner of the cemetery, where a black wooden +cross, without inscription, was all that indicated its place hereafter +to the mother. Athanase lived and died in shadow. No voice was raised +to blame the rector; the bishop kept silence. The piety of the mother +redeemed the impiety of the son's last act. + +Some months later, the poor woman, half beside herself with grief, and +moved by one of those inexplicable thirsts which misery feels to steep +its lips in the bitter chalice, determined to see the spot where her +son was drowned. Her instinct may have told her that thoughts of his +could be recovered beneath that poplar; perhaps, too, she desired to +see what his eyes had seen for the last time. Some mothers would die +of the sight; others give themselves up to it in saintly adoration. +Patient anatomists of human nature cannot too often enunciate the +truths before which all educations, laws, and philosophical systems +must give way. Let us repeat continually: it is absurd to force +sentiments into one formula: appearing as they do, in each individual +man, they combine with the elements that form his nature and take his +own physiognomy. + +Madame Granson, as she stood on that fatal spot, saw a woman approach +it, who exclaimed,-- + +"Was it here?" + +That woman wept as the mother wept. It was Suzanne. Arriving that +morning at the hotel du More, she had been told of the catastrophe. If +poor Athanase had been living, she meant to do as many noble souls, +who are moneyless, dream of doing, and as the rich never think of +doing,--she meant to have sent him several thousand francs, writing up +the envelope the words: "Money due to your father from a comrade who +makes restitution to you." This tender scheme had been arranged by +Suzanne during her journey. + +The courtesan caught sight of Madame Granson and moved rapidly away, +whispering as she passed her, "I loved him!" + +Suzanne, faithful to her nature, did not leave Alencon on this +occasion without changing the orange-blossoms of the bride to rue. She +was the first to declare that Madame du Bousquier would never be +anything but Mademoiselle Cormon. With one stab of her tongue she +revenged poor Athanase and her dear chevalier. + +Alencon now witnessed a suicide that was slower and quite differently +pitiful from that of poor Athanase, who was quickly forgotten by +society, which always makes haste to forget its dead. The poor +Chevalier de Valois died in life; his suicide was a daily occurrence +for fourteen years. Three months after the du Bousquier marriage +society remarked, not without astonishment, that the linen of the +chevalier was frayed and rusty, that his hair was irregularly combed +and brushed. With a frowsy head the Chevalier de Valois could no +longer be said to exist! A few of his ivory teeth deserted, though the +keenest observers of human life were unable to discover to what body +they had hitherto belonged, whether to a foreign legion or whether +they were indigenous, vegetable or animal; whether age had pulled them +from the chevalier's mouth, or whether they were left forgotten in the +drawer of his dressing-table. The cravat was crooked, indifferent to +elegance. The negroes' heads grew pale with dust and grease. The +wrinkles of the face were blackened and puckered; the skin became +parchment. The nails, neglected, were often seen, alas! with a black +velvet edging. The waistcoat was tracked and stained with droppings +which spread upon its surface like autumn leaves. The cotton in the +ears was seldom changed. Sadness reigned upon that brow, and slipped +its yellowing tints into the depths of each furrow. In short, the +ruins, hitherto so cleverly hidden, now showed through the cracks and +crevices of that fine edifice, and proved the power of the soul over +the body; for the fair and dainty man, the cavalier, the young blood, +died when hope deserted him. Until then the nose of the chevalier was +ever delicate and nice; never had a damp black blotch, nor an amber +drop fall from it; but now that nose, smeared with tobacco around the +nostrils, degraded by the driblets which took advantage of the natural +gutter placed between itself and the upper lip,--that nose, which no +longer cared to seem agreeable, revealed the infinite pains which the +chevalier had formerly taken with his person, and made observers +comprehend, by the extent of its degradation, the greatness and +persistence of the man's designs upon Mademoiselle Cormon. + +Alas, too, the anecdotes went the way of the teeth; the clever sayings +grew rare. The appetite, however, remained; the old nobleman saved +nothing but his stomach from the wreck of his hopes; though he +languidly prepared his pinches of snuff, he ate alarming dinners. +Perhaps you will more fully understand the disaster that this marriage +was to the mind and heart of the chevalier when you learn that his +intercourse with the Princess Goritza became less frequent. + +One day he appeared in Mademoiselle Armande's salon with the calf of +his leg on the shin-bone. This bankruptcy of the graces was, I do +assure you, terrible, and struck all Alencon with horror. The late +young man had become an old one; this human being, who, by the +breaking-down of his spirit, had passed at once from fifty to ninety +years of age, frightened society. Besides, his secret was betrayed; he +had waited and watched for Mademoiselle Cormon; he had, like a patient +hunter, adjusted his aim for ten whole years, and finally had missed +the game! In short, the impotent Republic had won the day from Valiant +Chivalry, and that, too, under the Restoration! Form triumphed; mind +was vanquished by matter, diplomacy by insurrection. And, O final +blow! a mortified grisette revealed the secret of the chevalier's +mornings, and he now passed for a libertine. The liberals cast at his +door all the foundlings hitherto attributed to du Bousquier. But the +faubourg Saint-Germain of Alencon accepted them proudly: it even said, +"That poor chevalier, what else could he do?" The faubourg pitied him, +gathered him closer to their circle, and brought back a few rare +smiles to his face; but frightful enmity was piled upon the head of du +Bousquier. Eleven persons deserted the Cormon salon, and passed to +that of the d'Esgrignons. + +The old maid's marriage had a signal effect in defining the two +parties in Alencon. The salon d'Esgrignon represented the upper +aristocracy (the returning Troisvilles attached themselves to it); the +Cormon salon represented, under the clever influence of du Bousquier, +that fatal class of opinions which, without being truly liberal or +resolutely royalist, gave birth to the 221 on that famous day when the +struggle openly began between the most august, grandest, and only true +power, /royalty/, and the most false, most changeful, most oppressive of +all powers,--the power called /parliamentary/, which elective assemblies +exercise. The salon du Ronceret, secretly allied to the Cormon salon, +was boldly liberal. + +The Abbe de Sponde, after his return from Prebaudet, bore many and +continual sufferings, which he kept within his breast, saying no word +of them to his niece. But to Mademoiselle Armande he opened his heart, +admitting that, folly for folly, he would much have preferred the +Chevalier de Valois to Monsieur du Bousquier. Never would the dear +chevalier have had the bad taste to contradict and oppose a poor old +man who had but a few days more to live; du Bousquier had destroyed +everything in the good old home. The abbe said, with scanty tears +moistening his aged eyes,-- + +"Mademoiselle, I haven't even the little grove where I have walked for +fifty years. My beloved lindens are all cut down! At the moment of my +death the Republic appears to me more than ever under the form of a +horrible destruction of the Home." + +"You must pardon your niece," said the Chevalier de Valois. +"Republican ideas are the first error of youth which seeks for +liberty; later it finds it the worst of despotisms,--that of an +impotent canaille. Your poor niece is punished where she sinned." + +"What will become of me in a house where naked women are painted on +the walls?" said the poor abbe. "Where shall I find other lindens +beneath which to read my breviary?" + +Like Kant, who was unable to collect his thoughts after the fir-tree +at which he was accustomed to gaze while meditating was cut down, so +the poor abbe could never attain the ardor of his former prayers while +walking up and down the shadeless paths. Du Bousquier had planted an +English garden. + +"It was best," said Madame du Bousquier, without thinking so; but the +Abbe Couterier had authorized her to commit many wrongs to please her +husband. + +These restorations destroyed all the venerable dignity, cordiality, +and patriarchal air of the old house. Like the Chevalier de Valois, +whose personal neglect might be called an abdication, the bourgeois +dignity of the Cormon salon no longer existed when it was turned to +white and gold, with mahogany ottomans covered in blue satin. The +dining-room, adorned in modern taste, was colder in tone than it used +to be, and the dinners were eaten with less appetite than formerly. +Monsieur du Coudrai declared that he felt his puns stick in his throat +as he glanced at the figures painted on the walls, which looked him +out of countenance. Externally, the house was still provincial; but +internally everything revealed the purveyor of the Directory and the +bad taste of the money-changer,--for instance, columns in stucco, +glass doors, Greek mouldings, meaningless outlines, all styles +conglomerated, magnificence out of place and out of season. + +The town of Alencon gabbled for two weeks over this luxury, which +seemed unparalleled; but a few months later the community was proud of +it, and several rich manufacturers restored their houses and set up +fine salons. Modern furniture came into the town, and astral lamps +were seen! + +The Abbe de Sponde was among the first to perceive the secret +unhappiness this marriage now brought to the private life of his +beloved niece. The character of noble simplicity which had hitherto +ruled their lives was lost during the first winter, when du Bousquier +gave two balls every month. Oh, to hear violins and profane music at +these worldly entertainments in the sacred old house! The abbe prayed +on his knees while the revels lasted. Next the political system of the +sober salon was slowly perverted. The abbe fathomed du Bousquier; he +shuddered at his imperious tone; he saw the tears in his niece's eyes +when she felt herself losing all control over her own property; for +her husband now left nothing in her hands but the management of the +linen, the table, and things of a kind which are the lot of women. +Rose had no longer any orders to give. Monsieur's will was alone +regarded by Jacquelin, now become coachman, by Rene, the groom, and by +the chef, who came from Paris, Mariette being reduced to kitchen maid. +Madame du Bousquier had no one to rule but Josette. Who knows what it +costs to relinquish the delights of power? If the triumph of the will +is one of the intoxicating pleasures in the lives of great men, it is +the ALL of life to narrow minds. One must needs have been a minister +dismissed from power to comprehend the bitter pain which came upon +Madame du Bousquier when she found herself reduced to this absolute +servitude. She often got into the carriage against her will; she saw +herself surrounded by servants who were distasteful to her; she no +longer had the handling of her dear money,--she who had known herself +free to spend money, and did not spend it. + +All imposed limits make the human being desire to go beyond them. The +keenest sufferings come from the thwarting of self-will. The beginning +of this state of things was, however, rose-colored. Every concession +made to marital authority was an effect of the love which the poor +woman felt for her husband. Du Bousquier behaved, in the first +instance, admirably to his wife: he was wise; he was excellent; he +gave her the best of reasons for each new encroachment. So for the +first two years of her marriage Madame du Bousquier appeared to be +satisfied. She had that deliberate, demure little air which +distinguishes young women who have married for love. The rush of blood +to her head no longer tormented her. This appearance of satisfaction +routed the scoffers, contradicted certain rumors about du Bousquier, +and puzzled all observers of the human heart. Rose-Marie-Victoire was +so afraid that if she displeased her husband or opposed him, she would +lose his affection and be deprived of his company, that she would +willingly have sacrificed all to him, even her uncle. Her silly little +forms of pleasure deceived even the poor abbe for a time, who endured +his own trials all the better for thinking that his niece was happy, +after all. + +Alencon at first thought the same. But there was one man more +difficult to deceive than the whole town put together. The Chevalier +de Valois, who had taken refuge on the Sacred Mount of the upper +aristocracy, now passed his life at the d'Esgrignons. He listened to +the gossip and the gabble, and he thought day and night upon his +vengeance. He meant to strike du Bousquier to the heart. + +The poor abbe fully understood the baseness of this first and last +love of his niece; he shuddered as, little by little, he perceived the +hypocritical nature of his nephew and his treacherous manoeuvres. +Though du Bousquier restrained himself, as he thought of the abbe's +property, and wished not to cause him vexation, it was his hand that +dealt the blow that sent the old priest to his grave. If you will +interpret the word /intolerance/ as /firmness of principle/, if you do +not wish to condemn in the catholic soul of the Abbe de Sponde the +stoicism which Walter Scott has made you admire in the puritan soul of +Jeanie Deans' father; if you are willing to recognize in the Roman +Church the Potius mori quam foedari that you admire in republican +tenets,--you will understand the sorrow of the Abbe de Sponde when he +saw in his niece's salon the apostate priest, the renegade, the +pervert, the heretic, that enemy of the Church, the guilty taker of +the Constitutional oath. Du Bousquier, whose secret ambition was to +lay down the law to the town, wished, as a first proof of his power, +to reconcile the minister of Saint-Leonard with the rector of the +parish, and he succeeded. His wife thought he had accomplished a work +of peace where the immovable abbe saw only treachery. The bishop came +to visit du Bousquier, and seemed glad of the cessation of +hostilities. The virtues of the Abbe Francois had conquered prejudice, +except that of the aged Roman Catholic, who exclaimed with Cornelle, +"Alas! what virtues do you make me hate!" + +The abbe died when orthodoxy thus expired in the diocese. + +In 1819, the property of the Abbe de Sponde increased Madame du +Bousquier's income from real estate to twenty-five thousand francs +without counting Prebaudet or the house in the Val-Noble. About this +time du Bousquier returned to his wife the capital of her savings +which she had yielded to him; and he made her use it in purchasing +lands contiguous to Prebaudet, which made that domain one of the most +considerable in the department, for the estates of the Abbe de Sponde +also adjoined it. Du Bousquier thus passed for one of the richest men +of the department. This able man, the constant candidate of the +liberals, missing by seven or eight votes only in all the electoral +battles fought under the Restoration, and who ostensibly repudiated +the liberals by trying to be elected as a ministerial royalist +(without ever being able to conquer the aversion of the +administration),--this rancorous republican, mad with ambition, +resolved to rival the royalism and aristocracy of Alencon at the +moment when they once more had the upper hand. He strengthened himself +with the Church by the deceitful appearance of a well-feigned piety: +he accompanied his wife to mass; he gave money for the convents of the +town; he assisted the congregation of the Sacre-Coeur; he took sides +with the clergy on all occasions when the clergy came into collision +with the town, the department, or the State. Secretly supported by the +liberals, protected by the Church, calling himself a constitutional +royalist, he kept beside the aristocracy of the department in the one +hope of ruining it,--and he did ruin it. Ever on the watch for the +faults and blunders of the nobility and the government, he laid plans +for his vengeance against the "chateau-people," and especially against +the d'Esgrignons, in whose bosom he was one day to thrust a poisoned +dagger. + +Among other benefits to the town he gave money liberally to revive the +manufacture of point d'Alencon; he renewed the trade in linens, and +the town had a factory. Inscribing himself thus upon the interests and +heart of the masses, by doing what the royalists did not do, du +Bousquier did not really risk a farthing. Backed by his fortune, he +could afford to wait results which enterprising persons who involve +themselves are forced to abandon to luckier successors. + +Du Bousquier now posed as a banker. This miniature Lafitte was a +partner in all new enterprises, taking good security. He served +himself while apparently serving the interests of the community. He +was the prime mover of insurance companies, the protector of new +enterprises for public conveyance; he suggested petitions for asking +the administration for the necessary roads and bridges. Thus warned, +the government considered this action an encroachment of its own +authority. A struggle was begun injudiciously, for the good of the +community compelled the authorities to yield in the end. Du Bousquier +embittered the provincial nobility against the court nobility and the +peerage; and finally he brought about the shocking adhesion of a +strong party of constitutional royalists to the warfare sustained by +the "Journal des Debats," and M. de Chateaubriand against the throne, +--an ungrateful opposition based on ignoble interests, which was one +cause of the triumph of the bourgeoisie and journalism in 1830. + +Thus du Bousquier, in common with the class he represented, had the +satisfaction of beholding the funeral of royalty. The old republican, +smothered with masses, who for fifteen years had played that comedy to +satisfy his vendetta, himself threw down with his own hand the white +flag of the mayoralty to the applause of the multitude. No man in +France cast upon the new throne raised in August, 1830, a glance of +more intoxicated, joyous vengeance. The accession of the Younger +Branch was the triumph of the Revolution. To him the victory of the +tricolor meant the resurrection of Montagne, which this time should +surely bring the nobility down to the dust by means more certain than +that of the guillotine, because less violent. The peerage without +heredity; the National Guard, which puts on the same camp-bed the +corner grocer and the marquis; the abolition of the entails demanded +by a bourgeois lawyer; the Catholic Church deprived of its supremacy; +and all the other legislative inventions of August, 1830,--were to du +Bousquier the wisest possible application of the principles of 1793. + +Since 1830 this man has been a receiver-general. He relied for his +advancement on his relations with the Duc d'Orleans, father of Louis +Philippe, and with Monsieur de Folmon, formerly steward to the +Duchess-dowager of Orleans. He receives about eighty thousand francs a +year. In the eyes of the people about him Monsieur du Bousquier is a +man of means,--a respectable man, steady in his principles, upright, +and obliging. Alencon owes to him its connection with the industrial +movement by which Brittany may possibly some day be joined to what is +popularly called modern civilization. Alencon, which up to 1816 could +boast of only two private carriages, saw, without amazement, in the +course of ten years, coupes, landaus, tilburies, and cabriolets +rolling through her streets. The burghers and the land-owners, alarmed +at first lest the price of everything should increase, recognized +later that this increase in the style of living had a contrary effect +upon their revenues. The prophetic remark of du Ronceret, "Du +Bousquier is a very strong man," was adopted by the whole +country-side. + +But, unhappily for the wife, that saying has a double meaning. The +husband does not in any way resemble the public politician. This great +citizen, so liberal to the world about him, so kindly inspired with +love for his native place, is a despot in his own house, and utterly +devoid of conjugal affection. This man, so profoundly astute, +hypocritical, and sly; this Cromwell of the Val-Noble,--behaves in his +home as he behaves to the aristocracy, whom he caresses in hopes to +throttle them. Like his friend Bernadotte, he wears a velvet glove +upon his iron hand. His wife has given him no children. Suzanne's +remark and the chevalier's insinuations were therefore justified. But +the liberal bourgeoisie, the constitutional-royalist-bourgeoisie, the +country-squires, the magistracy, and the "church party" laid the blame +on Madame du Bousquier. "She was too old," they said; "Monsieur du +Bousquier had married her too late. Besides, it was very lucky for the +poor woman; it was dangerous at her age to bear children!" When Madame +du Bousquier confided, weeping, her periodic despair to Mesdames du +Coudrai and du Ronceret, those ladies would reply,-- + +"But you are crazy, my dear; you don't know what you are wishing for; +a child would be your death." + +Many men, whose hopes were fastened on du Bousquier's triumph, sang +his praises to their wives, who in turn repeated them to the poor wife +in some such speech as this:-- + +"You are very lucky, dear, to have married such an able man; you'll +escape the misery of women whose husbands are men without energy, +incapable of managing their property, or bringing up their children." + +"Your husband is making you queen of the department, my love. He'll +never leave you embarrassed, not he! Why, he leads all Alencon." + +"But I wish," said the poor wife, "that he gave less time to the +public and--" + +"You are hard to please, my dear Madame du Bousquier. I assure you +that all the women in town envy you your husband." + +Misjudged by society, which began by blaming her, the pious woman +found ample opportunity in her home to display her virtues. She lived +in tears, but she never ceased to present to others a placid face. To +so Christian a soul a certain thought which pecked forever at her +heart was a crime: "I loved the Chevalier de Valois," it said; "but I +have married du Bousquier." The love of poor Athanase Granson also +rose like a phantom of remorse, and pursued her even in her dreams. +The death of her uncle, whose griefs at the last burst forth, made her +life still more sorrowful; for she now felt the suffering her uncle +must have endured in witnessing the change of political and religious +opinion in the old house. Sorrow often falls like a thunderbolt, as it +did on Madame Granson; but in this old maid it slowly spread like a +drop of oil, which never leaves the stuff that slowly imbibes it. + +The Chevalier de Valois was the malicious manipulator who brought +about the crowning misfortune of Madame du Bousquier's life. His heart +was set on undeceiving her pious simplicity; for the chevalier, expert +in love, divined du Bousquier, the married man, as he had divined du +Bousquier, the bachelor. But the wary republican was difficult of +attack. His salon was, of course, closed to the Chevalier de Valois, +as to all those who, in the early days of his marriage, had slighted +the Cormon mansion. He was, moreover, impervious to ridicule; he +possessed a vast fortune; he reigned in Alencon; he cared as little +for his wife as Richard III. cared for the dead horse which had helped +him win a battle. To please her husband, Madame du Bousquier had +broken off relations with the d'Esgrignon household, where she went no +longer, except that sometimes when her husband left her during his +trips to Paris, she would pay a brief visit to Mademoiselle Armande. + +About three years after her marriage, at the time of the Abbe de +Sponde's death, Mademoiselle Armande joined Madame du Bousquier as +they were leaving Saint-Leonard's, where they had gone to hear a +requiem said for him. The generous demoiselle thought that on this +occasion she owed her sympathy to the niece in trouble. They walked +together, talking of the dear deceased, until they reached the +forbidden house, into which Mademoiselle Armande enticed Madame du +Bousquier by the charm of her manner and conversation. The poor +desolate woman was glad to talk of her uncle with one whom he truly +loved. Moreover, she wanted to receive the condolences of the old +marquis, whom she had not seen for nearly three years. It was +half-past one o'clock, and she found at the hotel d'Esgrignon the +Chevalier de Valois, who had come to dinner. As he bowed to her, he +took her by the hands. + +"Well, dear, virtuous, and beloved lady," he said, in a tone of +emotion, "we have lost our sainted friend; we share your grief. Yes, +your loss is as keenly felt here as in your own home,--more so," he +added, alluding to du Bousquier. + +After a few more words of funeral oration, in which all present spoke +from the heart, the chevalier took Madame du Bousquier's arm, and, +gallantly placing it within his own, pressed it adoringly as he led +her to the recess of a window. + +"Are you happy?" he said in a fatherly voice. + +"Yes," she said, dropping her eyes. + +Hearing that "Yes," Madame de Troisville, the daughter of the Princess +Scherbellof, and the old Marquise de Casteran came up and joined the +chevalier, together with Mademoiselle Armande. They all went to walk +in the garden until dinner was served, without any perception on the +part of Madame du Bousquier that a little conspiracy was afoot. "We +have her! now let us find out the secret of the case," were the words +written in the eyes of all present. + +"To make your happiness complete," said Mademoiselle Armande, "you +ought to have children,--a fine lad like my nephew--" + +Tears seemed to start in Madame du Bousquier's eyes. + +"I have heard it said that you were the one to blame in the matter, +and that you feared the dangers of a pregnancy," said the chevalier. + +"I!" she said artlessly. "I would buy a child with a hundred years of +purgatory if I could." + +On the question thus started a discussion arose, conducted by Madame +de Troisville and the old Marquise de Casteran with such delicacy and +adroitness that the poor victim revealed, without being aware of it, +the secrets of her house. Mademoiselle Armande had taken the +chevalier's arm, and walked away so as to leave the three women free +to discuss wedlock. Madame du Bousquier was then enlightened on the +various deceptions of her marriage; and as she was still the same +simpleton she had always been, she amused her advisers by delightful +naivetes. + +Although at first the deceptive marriage of Mademoiselle Cormon made a +laugh throughout the town, which was soon initiated into the story of +the case, before long Madame du Bousquier won the esteem and sympathy +of all the women. The fact that Mademoiselle Cormon had flung herself +headlong into marriage without succeeding in being married, made +everybody laugh at her; but when they learned the exceptional position +in which the sternness of her religious principles placed her, all the +world admired her. "That poor Madame du Bousquier" took the place of +"That good Mademoiselle Cormon." + +Thus the chevalier contrived to render du Bousquier both ridiculous +and odious for a time; but ridicule ends by weakening; when all had +said their say about him, the gossip died out. Besides, at fifty-seven +years of age the dumb republican seemed to many people to have a right +to retire. This affair, however, envenomed the hatred which du +Bousquier already bore to the house of Esgrignon to such a degree that +it made him pitiless when the day of vengeance came. [See "The Gallery +of Antiquities."] Madame du Bousquier received orders never again to +set foot into that house. By way of reprisals upon the chevalier for +the trick thus played him, du Bousquier, who had just created the +journal called the "Courrier de l'Orne," caused the following notice +to be inserted in it:-- + + "Bonds to the amount of one thousand francs a year will be paid to + any person who can prove the existence of one Monsieur de + Pombreton before, during, or after the Emigration." + +Although her marriage was essentially negative, Madame du Bousquier +saw some advantages in it: was it not better to interest herself in +the most remarkable man in the town than to live alone? Du Bousquier +was preferable to a dog, or cat, or those canaries that spinsters +love. He showed for his wife a sentiment more real and less selfish +than that which is felt by servants, confessors, and hopeful heirs. +Later in life she came to consider her husband as the instrument of +divine wrath; for she then saw innumerable sins in her former desires +for marriage; she regarded herself as justly punished for the sorrow +she had brought on Madame Granson, and for the hastened death of her +uncle. Obedient to that religion which commands us to kiss the rod +with which the punishment is inflicted, she praised her husband, and +publicly approved him. But in the confessional, or at night, when +praying, she wept often, imploring God's forgiveness for the apostasy +of the man who thought the contrary of what he professed, and who +desired the destruction of the aristocracy and the Church,--the two +religions of the house of Cormon. + +With all her feelings bruised and immolated within her, compelled by +duty to make her husband happy, attached to him by a certain +indefinable affection, born, perhaps, of habit, her life became one +perpetual contradiction. She had married a man whose conduct and +opinions she hated, but whom she was bound to care for with dutiful +tenderness. Often she walked with the angels when du Bousquier ate her +preserves or thought the dinner good. She watched to see that his +slightest wish was satisfied. If he tore off the cover of his +newspaper and left it on a table, instead of throwing it away, she +would say:-- + +"Rene, leave that where it is; monsieur did not place it there without +intention." + +If du Bousquier had a journey to take, she was anxious about his +trunk, his linen; she took the most minute precautions for his +material benefit. If he went to Prebaudet, she consulted the barometer +the evening before to know if the weather would be fine. She watched +for his will in his eyes, like a dog which hears and sees its master +while sleeping. When the stout du Bousquier, touched by this +scrupulous love, would take her round the waist and kiss her forehead, +saying, "What a good woman you are!" tears of pleasure would come into +the eyes of the poor creature. It is probably that du Bousquier felt +himself obliged to make certain concessions which obtained for him the +respect of Rose-Marie-Victoire; for Catholic virtue does not require a +dissimulation as complete as that of Madame du Bousquier. Often the +good saint sat mutely by and listened to the hatred of men who +concealed themselves under the cloak of constitutional royalists. She +shuddered as she foresaw the ruin of the Church. Occasionally she +risked a stupid word, an observation which du Bousquier cut short with +a glance. + +The worries of such an existence ended by stupefying Madame du +Bousquier, who found it easier and also more dignified to concentrate +her intelligence on her own thoughts and resign herself to lead a life +that was purely animal. She then adopted the submission of a slave, +and regarded it as a meritorious deed to accept the degradation in +which her husband placed her. The fulfilment of his will never once +caused her to murmur. The timid sheep went henceforth in the way the +shepherd led her; she gave herself up to the severest religious +practices, and thought no more of Satan and his works and vanities. +Thus she presented to the eyes of the world a union of all Christian +virtues; and du Bousquier was certainly one of the luckiest men in the +kingdom of France and of Navarre. + +"She will be a simpleton to her last breath," said the former +collector, who, however, dined with her twice a week. + +This history would be strangely incomplete if no mention were made of +the coincidence of the Chevalier de Valois's death occurring at the +same time as that of Suzanne's mother. The chevalier died with the +monarchy, in August, 1830. He had joined the cortege of Charles X. at +Nonancourt, and piously escorted it to Cherbourg with the Troisvilles, +Casterans, d'Esgrignons, Verneuils, etc. The old gentleman had taken +with him fifty thousand francs,--the sum to which his savings then +amounted. He offered them to one of the faithful friends of the king +for transmission to his master, speaking of his approaching death, and +declaring that the money came originally from the goodness of the +king, and, moreover, that the property of the last of the Valois +belonged of right to the crown. It is not known whether the fervor of +his zeal conquered the reluctance of the Bourbon, who abandoned his +fine kingdom of France without carrying away with him a farthing, and +who ought to have been touched by the devotion of the chevalier. It is +certain, however, that Cesarine, the residuary legate of the old man, +received from his estate only six hundred francs a year. The chevalier +returned to Alencon, cruelly weakened by grief and by fatigue; he died +on the very day when Charles X. arrived on a foreign shore. + +Madame du Val-Noble and her protector, who was just then afraid of the +vengeance of the liberal party, were glad of a pretext to remain +incognito in the village where Suzanne's mother died. At the sale of +the chevalier's effects, which took place at that time, Suzanne, +anxious to obtain a souvenir of her first and last friend, pushed up +the price of the famous snuff-box, which was finally knocked down to +her for a thousand francs. The portrait of the Princess Goritza was +alone worth that sum. Two years later, a young dandy, who was making a +collection of the fine snuff-boxes of the last century, obtained from +Madame du Val-Noble the chevalier's treasure. The charming confidant +of many a love and the pleasure of an old age is now on exhibition in +a species of private museum. If the dead could know what happens after +them, the chevalier's head would surely blush upon its left cheek. + +If this history has no other effect than to inspire the possessors of +precious relics with holy fear, and induce them to make codicils to +secure these touching souvenirs of joys that are no more by +bequeathing them to loving hands, it will have done an immense service +to the chivalrous and romantic portion of the community; but it does, +in truth, contain a far higher moral. Does it not show the necessity +for a new species of education? Does it not invoke, from the +enlightened solicitude of the ministers of Public Instruction, the +creation of chairs of anthropology,--a science in which Germany +outstrips us? Modern myths are even less understood than ancient ones, +harried as we are with myths. Myths are pressing us from every point; +they serve all theories, they explain all questions. They are, +according to human ideas, the torches of history; they would save +empires from revolution if only the professors of history would force +the explanations they give into the mind of the provincial masses. If +Mademoiselle Cormon had been a reader or a student, and if there had +existed in the department of the Orne a professor of anthropology, or +even had she read Ariosto, the frightful disasters of her conjugal +life would never have occurred. She would probably have known why the +Italian poet makes Angelica prefer Medoro, who was a blond Chevalier +de Valois, to Orlando, whose mare was dead, and who knew no better +than to fly into a passion. Is not Medoro the mythic form for all +courtiers of feminine royalty, and Orlando the myth of disorderly, +furious, and impotent revolutions, which destroy but cannot produce? +We publish, but without assuming any responsibility for it, this +opinion of a pupil of Monsieur Ballanche. + +No information has reached us as to the fate of the negroes' heads in +diamonds. You may see Madame du Val-Noble every evening at the Opera. +Thanks to the education given her by the Chevalier de Valois, she has +almost the air of a well-bred woman. + +Madame du Bousquier still lives; is not that as much as to say she +still suffers? After reaching the age of sixty--the period at which +women allow themselves to make confessions--she said confidentially to +Madame du Coudrai, that she had never been able to endure the idea of +dying an old maid. + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +(Note: The Collection of Antiquities is a companion piece to The Old +Maid. In other Addendum appearances they are combined under the title +of The Jealousies of a Country Town.) + +Bordin + The Gondreville Mystery + The Seamy Side of History + The Commission in Lunacy + +Bousquier, Du (or Du Croisier or Du Bourguier) + The Collection of Antiquities (companion piece) + The Middle Classes + +Bousquier, Madame du (du Croisier) (Mlle. Cormon) + The Collection of Antiquities (companion piece) + +Casteran, De + The Chouans + The Seamy Side of History + The Collection of Antiquities (companion piece) + Beatrix + The Peasantry + +Chesnel (or Choisnel) + The Seamy Side of History + The Collection of Antiquities (companion piece) + +Coudrai, Du + The Collection of Antiquities (companion piece) + +Esgrignon, Charles-Marie-Victor-Ange-Carol, Marquis d' (or Des Grignons) + The Chouans + The Collection of Antiquities (companion piece) + +Esgrignon, Marie-Armande-Claire d' + The Collection of Antiquities (companion piece) + +Gaillard, Madame Theodore (Suzanne) + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Beatrix + The Unconscious Humorists + +Granson, Athanase + The Government Clerks (mentioned only) + +Lenoncourt, Duc de + The Lily of the Valley + Cesar Birotteau + The Collection of Antiquities (companion piece) + The Gondreville Mystery + Beatrix + +Navarreins, Duc de + Colonel Chabert + The Muse of the Department + The Thirteen + The Peasantry + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Country Parson + The Magic Skin + The Gondreville Mystery + The Secrets of a Princess + Cousin Betty + +Pombreton, Marquis de + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + +Ronceret, Du + The Collection of Antiquities (companion piece) + Beatrix + +Ronceret, Madame Du + The Collection of Antiquities (companion piece) + +Simeuse, Admiral de + Beatrix + The Gondreville Mystery + +Troisville, Guibelin, Vicomte de + The Seamy Side of History + The Chouans + The Collection of Antiquities (companion piece) + The Peasantry + +Valois, Chevalier de + The Chouans + The Collection of Antiquities (companion piece) + +Verneuil, Duc de + The Chouans + The Collection of Antiquities (companion piece) + + + + + + II + + + + + THE COLLECTION OF ANTIQUITIES + + BY + + HONORE DE BALZAC + + + Translated + By + Ellen Marriage + + + + DEDICATION + + To Baron Von Hammer-Purgstall, Member of the Aulic Council, Author + of the History of the Ottoman Empire. + + Dear Baron,--You have taken so warm an interest in my long, vast + "History of French Manners in the Nineteenth Century," you have + given me so much encouragement to persevere with my work, that you + have given me a right to associate your name with some portion of + it. Are you not one of the most important representatives of + conscientious, studious Germany? Will not your approval win for me + the approval of others, and protect this attempt of mine? So proud + am I to have gained your good opinion, that I have striven to + deserve it by continuing my labors with the unflagging courage + characteristic of your methods of study, and of that exhaustive + research among documents without which you could never have given + your monumental work to the world of letters. Your sympathy with + such labor as you yourself have bestowed upon the most brilliant + civilization of the East, has often sustained my ardor through + nights of toil given to the details of our modern civilization. + And will not you, whose naive kindliness can only be compared with + that of our own La Fontaine, be glad to know of this? + + May this token of my respect for you and your work find you at + Dobling, dear Baron, and put you and yours in mind of one of your + most sincere admirers and friends. + + +DE BALZAC. + + + + + THE COLLECTION OF ANTIQUITIES + + + +There stands a house at a corner of a street, in the middle of a town, +in one of the least important prefectures in France, but the name of +the street and the name of the town must be suppressed here. Every one +will appreciate the motives of this sage reticence demanded by +convention; for if a writer takes upon himself the office of annalist +of his own time, he is bound to touch on many sore subjects. The house +was called the Hotel d'Esgrignon; but let d'Esgrignon be considered a +mere fancy name, neither more nor less connected with real people than +the conventional Belval, Floricour, or Derville of the stage, or the +Adalberts and Mombreuses of romance. After all, the names of the +principal characters will be quite as much disguised; for though in +this history the chronicler would prefer to conceal the facts under a +mass of contradictions, anachronisms, improbabilities, and +absurdities, the truth will out in spite of him. You uproot a +vine-stock, as you imagine, and the stem will send up lusty shoots +after you have ploughed your vineyard over. + +The "Hotel d'Esgrignon" was nothing more nor less than the house in +which the old Marquis lived; or, in the style of ancient documents, +Charles Marie Victor Ange Carol, Marquis d'Esgrignon. It was only an +ordinary house, but the townspeople and tradesmen had begun by calling +it the Hotel d'Esgrignon in jest, and ended after a score of years by +giving it that name in earnest. + +The name of Carol, or Karawl, as the Thierrys would have spelt it, was +glorious among the names of the most powerful chieftains of the +Northmen who conquered Gaul and established the feudal system there. +Never had Carol bent his head before King or Communes, the Church or +Finance. Intrusted in the days of yore with the keeping of a French +March, the title of marquis in their family meant no shadow of +imaginary office; it had been a post of honor with duties to +discharge. Their fief had always been their domain. Provincial nobles +were they in every sense of the word; they might boast of an unbroken +line of great descent; they had been neglected by the court for two +hundred years; they were lords paramount in the estates of a province +where the people looked up to them with superstitious awe, as to the +image of the Holy Virgin that cures the toothache. The house of +d'Esgrignon, buried in its remote border country, was preserved as the +charred piles of one of Caesar's bridges are maintained intact in a +river bed. For thirteen hundred years the daughters of the house had +been married without a dowry or taken the veil; the younger sons of +every generation had been content with their share of their mother's +dower and gone forth to be captains or bishops; some had made a +marriage at court; one cadet of the house became an admiral, a duke, +and a peer of France, and died without issue. Never would the Marquis +d'Esgrignon of the elder branch accept the title of duke. + +"I hold my marquisate as His Majesty holds the realm of France, and on +the same conditions," he told the Constable de Luynes, a very paltry +fellow in his eyes at that time. + +You may be sure that d'Esgrignons lost their heads on the scaffold +during the troubles. The old blood showed itself proud and high even +in 1789. The Marquis of that day would not emigrate; he was answerable +for his March. The reverence in which he was held by the countryside +saved his head; but the hatred of the genuine sans-culottes was strong +enough to compel him to pretend to fly, and for a while he lived in +hiding. Then, in the name of the Sovereign People, the d'Esgrignon +lands were dishonored by the District, and the woods sold by the +Nation in spite of the personal protest made by the Marquis, then +turned forty. Mlle. d'Esgrignon, his half-sister, saved some portions +of the fief, thanks to the young steward of the family, who claimed on +her behalf the partage de presuccession, which is to say, the right of +a relative to a portion of the emigre's lands. To Mlle. d'Esgrignon, +therefore, the Republic made over the castle itself and a few farms. +Chesnel [Choisnel], the faithful steward, was obliged to buy in his +own name the church, the parsonage house, the castle gardens, and +other places to which his patron was attached--the Marquis advancing +the money. + +The slow, swift years of the Terror went by, and the Marquis, whose +character had won the respect of the whole country, decided that he +and his sister ought to return to the castle and improve the property +which Maitre Chesnel--for he was now a notary--had contrived to save +for them out of the wreck. Alas! was not the plundered and dismantled +castle all too vast for a lord of the manor shorn of all his ancient +rights; too large for the landowner whose woods had been sold +piecemeal, until he could scarce draw nine thousand francs of income +from the pickings of his old estates? + +It was in the month of October 1800 that Chesnel brought the Marquis +back to the old feudal castle, and saw with deep emotion, almost +beyound his control, his patron standing in the midst of the empty +courtyard, gazing round upon the moat, now filled up with rubbish, and +the castle towers razed to the level of the roof. The descendant of +the Franks looked for the missing Gothic turrets and the picturesque +weather vanes which used to rise above them; and his eyes turned to +the sky, as if asking of heaven the reason of this social upheaval. No +one but Chesnel could understand the profound anguish of the great +d'Esgrignon, now known as Citizen Carol. For a long while the Marquis +stood in silence, drinking in the influences of the place, the ancient +home of his forefathers, with the air that he breathed; then he flung +out a most melancholy exclamation. + +"Chesnel," he said, "we will come back again some day when the +troubles are over; I could not bring myself to live here until the +edict of pacification has been published; /they/ will not allow me to +set my scutcheon on the wall." + +He waved his hand toward the castle, mounted his horse, and rode back +beside his sister, who had driven over in the notary's shabby +basket-chaise. + +The Hotel d'Esgrignon in the town had been demolished; a couple of +factories now stood on the site of the aristocrat's house. So Maitre +Chesnel spent the Marquis' last bag of louis on the purchase of the +old-fashioned building in the square, with its gables, weather-vane, +turret, and dovecote. Once it had been the courthouse of the +bailiwick, and subsequently the presidial; it had belonged to the +d'Esgrignons from generation to generation; and now, in consideration +of five hundred louis d'or, the present owner made it over with the +title given by the Nation to its rightful lord. And so, half in jest, +half in earnest, the old house was christened the Hotel d'Esgrignon. + +In 1800 little or no difficulty was made over erasing names from the +fatal list, and some few emigres began to return. Among the very first +nobles to come back to the old town were the Baron de Nouastre and his +daughter. They were completely ruined. M. d'Esgrignon generously +offered them the shelter of his roof; and in his house, two months +later, the Baron died, worn out with grief. The Nouastres came of +the best blood in the province; Mlle. de Nouastre was a girl of +two-and-twenty; the Marquis d'Esgrignon married her to continue his +line. But she died in childbirth, a victim to the unskilfulness of her +physician, leaving, most fortunately, a son to bear the name of the +d'Esgrignons. The old Marquis--he was but fifty-three, but adversity +and sharp distress had added months to every year--the poor old +Marquis saw the death of the loveliest of human creatures, a noble +woman in whom the charm of the feminine figures of the sixteenth +century lived again, a charm now lost save to men's imaginations. With +her death the joy died out of his old age. It was one of those +terrible shocks which reverberate through every moment of the years +that follow. For a few moments he stood beside the bed where his wife +lay, with her hands folded like a saint, then he kissed her on the +forehead, turned away, drew out his watch, broke the mainspring, and +hung it up beside the hearth. It was eleven o'clock in the morning. + +"Mlle. d'Esgrignon," he said, "let us pray God that this hour may not +prove fatal yet again to our house. My uncle the archbishop was +murdered at this hour; at this hour also my father died----" + +He knelt down beside the bed and buried his face in the coverlet; his +sister did the same, in another moment they both rose to their feet. +Mlle. d'Esgrignon burst into tears; but the old Marquis looked with +dry eyes at the child, round the room, and again on his dead wife. To +the stubbornness of the Frank he united the fortitude of a Christian. + +These things came to pass in the second year of the nineteenth +century. Mlle. d'Esgrignon was then twenty-seven years of age. She was +a beautiful woman. An ex-contractor for forage to the armies of the +Republic, a man of the district, with an income of six thousand +francs, persuaded Chesnel to carry a proposal of marriage to the lady. +The Marquis and his sister were alike indignant with such presumption +in their man of business, and Chesnel was almost heartbroken; he could +not forgive himself for yielding to the Sieur du Croisier's [du +Bousquier] blandishments. The Marquis' manner with his old servant +changed somewhat; never again was there quite the old affectionate +kindliness, which might almost have been taken for friendship. From +that time forth the Marquis was grateful, and his magnanimous and +sincere gratitude continually wounded the poor notary's feelings. To +some sublime natures gratitude seems an excessive payment; they would +rather have that sweet equality of feeling which springs from similar +ways of thought, and the blending of two spirits by their own choice +and will. And Maitre Chesnel had known the delights of such high +friendship; the Marquis had raised him to his own level. The old noble +looked on the good notary as something more than a servant, something +less than a child; he was the voluntary liege man of the house, a serf +bound to his lord by all the ties of affection. There was no balancing +of obligations; the sincere affection on either side put them out of +the question. + +In the eyes of the Marquis, Chesnel's official dignity was as nothing; +his old servitor was merely disguised as a notary. As for Chesnel, the +Marquis was now, as always, a being of a divine race; he believed in +nobility; he did not blush to remember that his father had thrown open +the doors of the salon to announce that "My Lord Marquis is served." +His devotion to the fallen house was due not so much to his creed as +to egoism; he looked on himself as one of the family. So his vexation +was intense. Once he had ventured to allude to his mistake in spite +of the Marquis' prohibition, and the old noble answered gravely +--"Chesnel, before the troubles you would not have permitted yourself +to entertain such injurious suppositions. What can these new doctrines +be if they have spoiled /you/?" + +Maitre Chesnel had gained the confidence of the whole town; people +looked up to him; his high integrity and considerable fortune +contributed to make him a person of importance. From that time forth +he felt a very decided aversion for the Sieur du Crosier; and though +there was little rancor in his composition, he set others against the +sometime forage-contractor. Du Croisier, on the other hand, was a man +to bear a grudge and nurse a vengeance for a score of years. He hated +Chesnel and the d'Esgrignon family with the smothered, all-absorbing +hate only to be found in a country town. His rebuff had simply ruined +him with the malicious provincials among whom he had come to live, +thinking to rule over them. It was so real a disaster that he was not +long in feeling the consequences of it. He betook himself in +desperation to a wealthy old maid, and met with a second refusal. Thus +failed the ambitious schemes with which he had started. He had lost +his hope of a marriage with Mlle. d'Esgrignon, which would have opened +the Faubourg Saint-Germain of the province to him; and after the +second rejection, his credit fell away to such an extent that it was +almost as much as he could do to keep his position in the second rank. + +In 1805, M. de la Roche-Guyon, the oldest son of an ancient family +which had previously intermarried with the d'Esgrignons, made +proposals in form through Maitre Chesnel for Mlle. Marie Armande Clair +d'Esgrignon. She declined to hear the notary. + +"You must have guessed before now that I am a mother, dear Chesnel," +she said; she had just put her nephew, a fine little boy of five, to +bed. + +The old Marquis rose and went up to his sister, but just returned from +the cradle; he kissed her hand reverently, and as he sat down again, +found words to say: + +"My sister, you are a d'Esgrignon." + +A quiver ran through the noble girl; the tears stood in her eyes. M. +d'Esgrignon, the father of the present Marquis, had married a second +wife, the daughter of a farmer of taxes ennobled by Louis XIV. It was +a shocking mesalliance in the eyes of his family, but fortunately of +no importance, since a daughter was the one child of the marriage. +Armande knew this. Kind as her brother had always been, he looked on +her as a stranger in blood. And this speech of his had just recognized +her as one of the family. + +And was not her answer the worthy crown of eleven years of her noble +life? Her every action since she came of age had borne the stamp of +the purest devotion; love for her brother was a sort of religion with +her. + +"I shall die Mlle. d'Esgrignon," she said simply, turning to the +notary. + +"For you there could be no fairer title," returned Chesnel, meaning to +convey a compliment. Poor Mlle. d'Esgrignon reddened. + +"You have blundered, Chesnel," said the Marquis, flattered by the +steward's words, but vexed that his sister had been hurt. "A +d'Esgrignon may marry a Montmorency; their descent is not so pure as +ours. The d'Esgrignons bear or, two bends, gules," he continued, "and +nothing during nine hundred years has changed their scutcheon; as it +was at first, so it is to-day. Hence our device, Cil est nostre, taken +at a tournament in the reign of Philip Augustus, with the supporters, +a knight in armor or on the right, and a lion gules on the left." + + + +"I do not remember that any woman I have ever met has struck my +imagination as Mlle. d'Esgrignon did," said Emile Blondet, to whom +contemporary literature is indebted for this history among other +things. "Truth to tell, I was a boy, a mere child at the time, and +perhaps my memory-pictures of her owe something of their vivid color +to a boy's natural turn for the marvelous. + +"If I was playing with other children on the Parade, and she came to +walk there with her nephew Victurnien, the sight of her in the +distance thrilled me with very much the effect of galvanism on a dead +body. Child as I was, I felt as though new life had been given me. + +"Mlle. Armande had hair of tawny gold; there was a delicate fine down +on her cheek, with a silver gleam upon it which I loved to catch, +putting myself so that I could see the outlines of her face lit up by +the daylight, and feel the fascination of those dreamy emerald eyes, +which sent a flash of fire through me whenever they fell upon my face. +I used to pretend to roll on the grass before her in our games, only +to try to reach her little feet, and admire them on a closer view. The +soft whiteness of her skin, her delicate features, the clearly cut +lines of her forehead, the grace of her slender figure, took me with a +sense of surprise, while as yet I did not know that her shape was +graceful, nor her brows beautiful, nor the outline of her face a +perfect oval. I admired as children pray at that age, without too +clearly understanding why they pray. When my piercing gaze attracted +her notice, when she asked me (in that musical voice of hers, with +more volume in it, as it seemed to me, than all other voices), 'What +are you doing little one? Why do you look at me?'--I used to come +nearer and wriggle and bite my finger-nails, and redden and say, 'I do +not know.' And if she chanced to stroke my hair with her white hand, +and ask me how old I was, I would run away and call from a distance, +'Eleven!' + +Every princess and fairy of my visions, as I read the Arabian Nights, +looked and walked like Mlle. d'Esgrignon; and afterwards, when my +drawing-master gave me heads from the antique to copy, I noticed that +their hair was braided like Mlle. d'Esgrignon's. Still later, when the +foolish fancies had vanished one by one, Mlle. Armande remained +vaguely in my memory as a type; that Mlle. Armande for whom men made +way respectfully, following the tall brown-robed figure with their +eyes along the Parade and out of sight. Her exquisitely graceful form, +the rounded curves sometimes revealed by a chance gust of wind, and +always visible to my eyes in spite of the ample folds of stuff, +revisited my young man's dreams. Later yet, when I came to think +seriously over certain mysteries of human thought, it seemed to me +that the feeling of reverence was first inspired in me by something +expressed in Mlle. d'Esgrignon's face and bearing. The wonderful calm +of her face, the suppressed passion in it, the dignity of her +movements, the saintly life of duties fulfilled,--all this touched and +awed me. Children are more susceptible than people imagine to the +subtle influences of ideas; they never make game of real dignity; they +feel the charm of real graciousness, and beauty attracts them, for +childhood itself is beautiful, and there are mysterious ties between +things of the same nature. + +"Mlle. d'Esgrignon was one of my religions. To this day I can never +climb the staircase of some old manor-house but my foolish imagination +must needs picture Mlle. Armande standing there, like the spirit of +feudalism. I can never read old chronicles but she appears before my +eyes in the shape of some famous woman of old times; she is Agnes +Sorel, Marie Touchet, Gabrielle; and I lend her all the love that was +lost in her heart, all the love that she never expressed. The angel +shape seen in glimpses through the haze of childish fancies visits me +now sometimes across the mists of dreams." + + + +Keep this portrait in mind; it is a faithful picture and sketch of +character. Mlle. d'Esgrignon is one of the most instructive figures in +this story; she affords an example of the mischief that may be done by +the purest goodness for lack of intelligence. + +Two-thirds of the emigres returned to France during 1804 and 1805, and +almost every exile from the Marquis d'Esgrignon's province came back +to the land of his fathers. There were certainly defections. Men of +good birth entered the service of Napoleon, and went into the army or +held places at the Imperial court, and others made alliances with the +upstart families. All those who cast in their lots with the Empire +retrieved their fortunes and recovered their estates, thanks to the +Emperor's munificence; and these for the most part went to Paris and +stayed there. But some eight or nine families still remained true to +the proscribed noblesse and loyal to the fallen monarchy. The La +Roche-Guyons, Nouastres, Verneuils, Casterans, Troisvilles, and the +rest were some of them rich, some of them poor; but money, more or +less, scarcely counted for anything among them. They took an +antiquarian view of themselves; for them the age and preservation of +the pedigree was the one all-important matter; precisely as, for an +amateur, the weight of metal in a coin is a small matter in comparison +with clean lettering, a flawless stamp, and high antiquity. Of these +families, the Marquis d'Esgrignon was the acknowledged head. His house +became their cenacle. There His Majesty, Emperor and King, was never +anything but "M. de Bonaparte"; there "the King" meant Louis XVIII., +then at Mittau; there the Department was still the Province, and the +prefecture the intendance. + +The Marquis was honored among them for his admirable behavior, his +loyalty as a noble, his undaunted courage; even as he was respected +throughout the town for his misfortunes, his fortitude, his steadfast +adherence to his political convictions. The man so admirable in +adversity was invested with all the majesty of ruined greatness. His +chivalrous fair-mindedness was so well known, that litigants many a +time had referred their disputes to him for arbitration. All gently +bred Imperalists and the authorities themselves showed as much +indulgence for his prejudices as respect for his personal character; +but there was another and a large section of the new society which was +destined to be known after the Restoration as the Liberal party; and +these, with du Croisier as their unacknowledged head, laughed at an +aristocratic oasis which nobody might enter without proof of +irreproachable descent. Their animosity was all the more bitter +because honest country squires and the higher officials, with a good +many worthy folk in the town, were of the opinion that all the best +society thereof was to be found in the Marquis d'Esgrignon's salon. +The prefect himself, the Emperor's chamberlain, made overtures to the +d'Esgrignons, humbly sending his wife (a Grandlieu) as ambassadress. + +Wherefore, those excluded from the miniature provincial Faubourg +Saint-Germain nicknamed the salon "The Collection of Antiquities," and +called the Marquis himself "M. Carol." The receiver of taxes, for +instance, addressed his applications to "M. Carol (ci-devant des +Grignons)," maliciously adopting the obsolete way of spelling. + + + +"For my own part," said Emile Blondet, "if I try to recall my +childhood memories, I remember that the nickname of 'Collection of +Antiquities' always made me laugh, in spite of my respect--my love, I +ought to say--for Mlle. d'Esgrignon. The Hotel d'Esgrignon stood at +the angle of two of the busiest thoroughfares in the town, and not +five hundred paces away from the market place. Two of the drawing-room +windows looked upon the street and two upon the square; the room was +like a glass cage, every one who came past could look through it from +side to side. I was only a boy of twelve at the time, but I thought, +even then, that the salon was one of those rare curiosities which +seem, when you come to think of them afterwards, to lie just on the +borderland between reality and dreams, so that you can scarcely tell +to which side they most belong. + +"The room, the ancient Hall of Audience, stood above a row of cellars +with grated air-holes, once the prison cells of the old court-house, +now converted into a kitchen. I do not know that the magnificent lofty +chimney-piece of the Louvre, with its marvelous carving, seemed more +wonderful to me than the vast open hearth of the salon d'Esgrignon +when I saw it for the first time. It was covered like a melon with a +network of tracery. Over it stood an equestrian portrait of Henri +III., under whom the ancient duchy of appanage reverted to the crown; +it was a great picture executed in low relief, and set in a carved and +gilded frame. The ceiling spaces between the chestnut cross-beams in +the fine old roof were decorated with scroll-work patterns; there was +a little faded gilding still left along the angles. The walls were +covered with Flemish tapestry, six scenes from the Judgment of +Solomon, framed in golden garlands, with satyrs and cupids playing +among the leaves. The parquet floor had been laid down by the present +Marquis, and Chesnel had picked up the furniture at sales of the +wreckage of old chateaux between 1793 and 1795; so that there were +Louis Quatorze consoles, tables, clock-cases, andirons, candle-sconces +and tapestry-covered chairs, which marvelously completed a stately +room, large out of all proportion to the house. Luckily, however, +there was an equally lofty ante-chamber, the ancient Salle des Pas +Perdus of the presidial, which communicated likewise with the +magistrate's deliberating chamber, used by the d'Esgrignons as a +dining-room. + +"Beneath the old paneling, amid the threadbare braveries of a bygone +day, some eight or ten dowagers were drawn up in state in a quavering +line; some with palsied heads, others dark and shriveled like mummies; +some erect and stiff, others bowed and bent, but all of them tricked +out in more or less fantastic costumes as far as possible removed from +the fashion of the day, with be-ribboned caps above their curled and +powdered 'heads,' and old discolored lace. No painter however earnest, +no caricature however wild, ever caught the haunting fascination of +those aged women; they come back to me in dreams; their puckered faces +shape themselves in my memory whenever I meet an old woman who puts me +in mind of them by some faint resemblance of dress or feature. And +whether it is that misfortune has initiated me into the secrets of +irremediable and overwhelming disaster; whether that I have come to +understand the whole range of human feelings, and, best of all, the +thoughts of Old Age and Regret; whatever the reason, nowhere and never +again have I seen among the living or in the faces of the dying the +wan look of certain gray eyes that I remember, nor the dreadful +brightness of others that were black. + +"Neither Hoffmann nor Maturin, the two weirdest imaginations of our +time, ever gave me such a thrill of terror as I used to feel when I +watched the automaton movements of those bodies sheathed in whalebone. +The paint on actors' faces never caused me a shock; I could see below +it the rouge in grain, the rouge de naissance, to quote a comrade at +least as malicious as I can be. Years had leveled those women's faces, +and at the same time furrowed them with wrinkles, till they looked +like the heads on wooden nutcrackers carved in Germany. Peeping +in through the window-panes, I gazed at the battered bodies, and +ill-jointed limbs (how they were fastened together, and, indeed, +their whole anatomy was a mystery I never attempted to explain); I saw +the lantern jaws, the protuberant bones, the abnormal development of +the hips; and the movements of these figures as they came and went +seemed to me no whit less extraordinary than their sepulchral +immobility as they sat round the card-tables. + +"The men looked gray and faded like the ancient tapestries on the +wall, in dress they were much more like the men of the day, but even +they were not altogether convincingly alive. Their white hair, their +withered waxen-hued faces, their devastated foreheads and pale eyes, +revealed their kinship to the women, and neutralized any effects of +reality borrowed from their costume. + +"The very certainty of finding all these folk seated at or among the +tables every day at the same hours invested them at length in my eyes +with a sort of spectacular interest as it were; there was something +theatrical, something unearthly about them. + +"Whenever, in after times, I have gone through museums of old +furniture in Paris, London, Munich, or Vienna, with the gray-headed +custodian who shows you the splendors of time past, I have peopled the +rooms with figures from the Collection of Antiquities. Often, as +little schoolboys of eight or ten we used to propose to go and take a +look at the curiosities in their glass cage, for the fun of the thing. +But as soon as I caught sight of Mlle. Armande's sweet face, I used to +tremble; and there was a trace of jealousy in my admiration for the +lovely child Victurnien, who belonged, as we all instinctively felt, +to a different and higher order of being from our own. It struck me as +something indescribably strange that the young fresh creature should +be there in that cemetery awakened before the time. We could not have +explained our thoughts to ourselves, yet we felt that we were +bourgeois and insignificant in the presence of that proud court." + + + +The disasters of 1813 and 1814, which brought about the downfall of +Napoleon, gave new life to the Collection of Antiquities, and what was +more than life, the hope of recovering their past importance; but the +events of 1815, the troubles of the foreign occupation, and the +vacillating policy of the Government until the fall of M. Decazes, all +contributed to defer the fulfilment of the expectations of the +personages so vividly described by Blondet. This story, therefore, +only begins to shape itself in 1822. + +In 1822 the Marquis d'Esgrignon's fortunes had not improved in spite +of the changes worked by the Restoration in the condition of emigres. +Of all the nobles hardly hit by Revolutionary legislation, his case +was the hardest. Like other great families, the d'Esgrignons before +1789 derived the greater part of their income from their rights as +lords of the manor in the shape of dues paid by those who held of +them; and, naturally, the old seigneurs had reduced the size of the +holdings in order to swell the amounts paid in quit-rents and heriots. +Families in this position were hopelessly ruined. They were not +affected by the ordinance by which Louis XVIII. put the emigres into +possession of such of their lands as had not been sold; and at a later +date it was impossible that the law of indemnity should indemnify +them. Their suppressed rights, as everybody knows, were revived in the +shape of a land tax known by the very name of domaines, but the money +went into the coffers of the State. + +The Marquis by his position belonged to that small section of the +Royalist party which would hear of no kind of compromise with those +whom they styled, not Revolutionaries, but revolted subjects, or, in +more parliamentary language, they had no dealings with Liberals or +Constitutionnels. Such Royalists, nicknamed Ultras by the opposition, +took for leaders and heroes those courageous orators of the Right, who +from the very beginning attempted, with M. de Polignac, to protest +against the charter granted by Louis XVIII. This they regarded as an +ill-advised edict extorted from the Crown by the necessity of the +moment, only to be annulled later on. And, therefore, so far from +co-operating with the King to bring about a new condition of things, +the Marquis d'Esgrignon stood aloof, an upholder of the straitest sect +of the Right in politics, until such time as his vast fortune should +be restored to him. Nor did he so much as admit the thought of the +indemnity which filled the minds of the Villele ministry, and formed a +part of a design of strengthening the Crown by putting an end to those +fatal distinctions of ownership which still lingered on in spite of +legislation. + +The miracles of the Restoration of 1814, the still greater miracle of +Napoleon's return in 1815, the portents of a second flight of the +Bourbons, and a second reinstatement (that almost fabulous phase of +contemporary history), all these things took the Marquis by +surprise at the age of sixty-seven. At that time of life, the most +high-spirited men of their age were not so much vanquished as worn out +in the struggle with the Revolution; their activity, in their remote +provincial retreats, had turned into a passionately held and immovable +conviction; and almost all of them were shut in by the enervating, +easy round of daily life in the country. Could worse luck befall a +political party than this--to be represented by old men at a time when +its ideas are already stigmatized as old-fashioned? + +When the legitimate sovereign appeared to be firmly seated on the +throne again in 1818, the Marquis asked himself what a man of seventy +should do at court; and what duties, what office he could discharge +there? The noble and high-minded d'Esgrignon was fain to be content +with the triumph of the Monarchy and Religion, while he waited for the +results of that unhoped-for, indecisive victory, which proved to be +simply an armistice. He continued as before, lord-paramount of his +salon, so felicitously named the Collection of Antiquities. + +But when the victors of 1793 became the vanquished in their turn, the +nickname given at first in jest began to be used in bitter earnest. +The town was no more free than other country towns from the hatreds +and jealousies bred of party spirit. Du Croisier, contrary to all +expectation, married the old maid who had refused him at first; +carrying her off from his rival, the darling of the aristocratic +quarter, a certain Chevalier whose illustrious name will be +sufficiently hidden by suppressing it altogether, in accordance with +the usage formerly adopted in the place itself, where he was known by +his title only. He was "the Chevalier" in the town, as the Comte +d'Artois was "Monsieur" at court. Now, not only had that marriage +produced a war after the provincial manner, in which all weapons are +fair; it had hastened the separation of the great and little noblesse, +of the aristocratic and bourgeois social elements, which had been +united for a little space by the heavy weight of Napoleonic rule. +After the pressure was removed, there followed that sudden revival of +class divisions which did so much harm to the country. + +The most national of all sentiments in France is vanity. The wounded +vanity of the many induced a thirst for Equality; though, as the most +ardent innovator will some day discover, Equality is an impossibility. +The Royalists pricked the Liberals in the most sensitive spots, and +this happened specially in the provinces, where either party accused +the other of unspeakable atrocities. In those days the blackest deeds +were done in politics, to secure public opinion on one side or the +other, to catch the votes of that public of fools which holds up hands +for those that are clever enough to serve out weapons to them. +Individuals are identified with their political opinions, and +opponents in public life forthwith became private enemies. It is very +difficult in a country town to avoid a man-to-man conflict of this +kind over interests or questions which in Paris appear in a more +general and theoretical form, with the result that political +combatants also rise to a higher level; M. Laffitte, for example, or +M. Casimir-Perier can respect M. de Villele or M. de Payronnet as a +man. M. Laffitte, who drew the fire on the Ministry, would have given +them an asylum in his house if they had fled thither on the 29th of +July 1830. Benjamin Constant sent a copy of his work on Religion to +the Vicomte de Chateaubriand, with a flattering letter acknowledging +benefits received from the former Minister. At Paris men are systems, +whereas in the provinces systems are identified with men; men, +moreover, with restless passions, who must always confront one +another, always spy upon each other in private life, and pull their +opponents' speeches to pieces, and live generally like two duelists +on the watch for a chance to thrust six inches of steel between an +antagonist's ribs. Each must do his best to get under his enemy's +guard, and a political hatred becomes as all-absorbing as a duel to +the death. Epigram and slander are used against individuals to bring +the party into discredit. + +In such warfare as this, waged ceremoniously and without rancor on the +side of the Antiquities, while du Croisier's faction went so far as to +use the poisoned weapons of savages--in this warfare the advantages of +wit and delicate irony lay on the side of the nobles. But it should +never be forgotten that the wounds made by the tongue and the eyes, by +gibe or slight, are the last of all to heal. When the Chevalier turned +his back on mixed society and entrenched himself on the Mons Sacer of +the aristocracy, his witticisms thenceforward were directed at du +Croisier's salon; he stirred up the fires of war, not knowing how far +the spirit of revenge was to urge the rival faction. None but purists +and loyal gentlemen and women sure one of another entered the Hotel +d'Esgrignon; they committed no indiscretions of any kind; they had +their ideas, true or false, good or bad, noble or trivial, but there +was nothing to laugh at in all this. If the Liberals meant to make the +nobles ridiculous, they were obliged to fasten on the political +actions of their opponents; while the intermediate party, composed of +officials and others who paid court to the higher powers, kept the +nobles informed of all that was done and said in the Liberal camp, and +much of it was abundantly laughable. Du Croisier's adherents smarted +under a sense of inferiority, which increased their thirst for +revenge. + +In 1822, du Croisier put himself at the head of the manufacturing +interest of the province, as the Marquis d'Esgrignon headed the +noblesse. Each represented his party. But du Croisier, instead of +giving himself out frankly for a man of the extreme Left, ostensibly +adopted the opinions formulated at a later date by the 221 deputies. + +By taking up this position, he could keep in touch with the +magistrates and local officials and the capitalists of the department. +Du Croisier's salon, a power at least equal to the salon d'Esgrignon, +larger numerically, as well as younger and more energetic, made itself +felt all over the countryside; the Collection of Antiquities, on the +other hand, remained inert, a passive appendage, as it were, of a +central authority which was often embarrassed by its own partisans; +for not merely did they encourage the Government in a mistaken policy, +but some of its most fatal blunders were made in consequence of the +pressure brought to bear upon it by the Conservative party. + +The Liberals, so far, had never contrived to carry their candidate. +The department declined to obey their command knowing that du +Croisier, if elected, would take his place on the Left Centre benches, +and as far as possible to the Left. Du Croisier was in correspondence +with the Brothers Keller, the bankers, the oldest of whom shone +conspicuous among "the nineteen deputies of the Left," that phalanx +made famous by the efforts of the entire Liberal press. This same M. +Keller, moreover, was related by marriage to the Comte de Gondreville, +a Constitutional peer who remained in favor with Louis XVIII. For +these reasons, the Constitutional Opposition (as distinct from the +Liberal party) was always prepared to vote at the last moment, not for +the candidate whom they professed to support, but for du Croisier, if +that worthy could succeed in gaining a sufficient number of Royalist +votes; but at every election du Croisier was regularly thrown out by +the Royalists. The leaders of that party, taking their tone from the +Marquis d'Esgrignon, had pretty thoroughly fathomed and gauged their +man; and with each defeat, du Croisier and his party waxed more +bitter. Nothing so effectually stirs up strife as the failure of some +snare set with elaborate pains. + +In 1822 there seemed to be a lull in hostilities which had been kept +up with great spirit during the first four years of the Restoration. +The salon du Croisier and the salon d'Esgrignon, having measured their +strength and weakness, were in all probability waiting for +opportunity, that Providence of party strife. Ordinary persons were +content with the surface quiet which deceived the Government; but +those who knew du Croisier better, were well aware that the passion of +revenge in him, as in all men whose whole life consists in mental +activity, is implacable, especially when political ambitions are +involved. About this time du Croisier, who used to turn white and red +at the bare mention of d'Esgrignon or the Chevalier, and shuddered at +the name of the Collection of Antiquities, chose to wear the impassive +countenance of a savage. He smiled upon his enemies, hating them but +the more deeply, watching them the more narrowly from hour to hour. +One of his own party, who seconded him in these calculations of cold +wrath, was the President of the Tribunal, M. du Ronceret, a little +country squire, who had vainly endeavored to gain admittance among the +Antiquities. + +The d'Esgrignons' little fortune, carefully administered by Maitre +Chesnel, was barely sufficient for the worthy Marquis' needs; for +though he lived without the slightest ostentation, he also lived like +a noble. The governor found by his Lordship the Bishop for the hope of +the house, the young Comte Victurnien d'Esgrignon, was an elderly +Oratorian who must be paid a certain salary, although he lived with +the family. The wages of a cook, a waiting-woman for Mlle. Armande, an +old valet for M. le Marquis, and a couple of other servants, together +with the daily expenses of the household, and the cost of an education +for which nothing was spared, absorbed the whole family income, in +spite of Mlle. Armande's economies, in spite of Chesnel's careful +management, and the servants' affection. As yet, Chesnel had not been +able to set about repairs at the ruined castle; he was waiting till +the leases fell in to raise the rent of the farms, for rents had been +rising lately, partly on account of improved methods of agriculture, +partly by the fall in the value of money, of which the landlord would +get the benefit at the expiration of leases granted in 1809. + +The Marquis himself knew nothing of the details of the management of +the house or of his property. He would have been thunderstruck if he +had been told of the excessive precautions needed "to make both ends +of the year meet in December," to use the housewife's saying, and he +was so near the end of his life, that every one shrank from opening +his eyes. The Marquis and his adherents believed that a House, to +which no one at Court or in the Government gave a thought, a House +that was never heard of beyond the gates of the town, save here and +there in the same department, was about to revive its ancient +greatness, to shine forth in all its glory. The d'Esgrignons' line +should appear with renewed lustre in the person of Victurnien, just as +the despoiled nobles came into their own again, and the handsome heir +to a great estate would be in a position to go to Court, enter the +King's service, and marry (as other d'Esgrignons had done before him) +a Navarreins, a Cadignan, a d'Uxelles, a Beausant, a Blamont-Chauvry; +a wife, in short, who should unite all the distinctions of birth and +beauty, wit and wealth, and character. + +The intimates who came to play their game of cards of an evening--the +Troisvilles (pronounced Treville), the La Roche-Guyons, the Casterans +(pronounced Cateran), and the Duc de Verneuil--had all so long been +accustomed to look up to the Marquis as a person of immense +consequence, that they encouraged him in such notions as these. They +were perfectly sincere in their belief; and indeed, it would have been +well founded if they could have wiped out the history of the last +forty years. But the most honorable and undoubted sanctions of right, +such as Louis XVIII. had tried to set on record when he dated the +Charter from the one-and-twentieth year of his reign, only exist when +ratified by the general consent. The d'Esgrignons not only lacked the +very rudiments of the language of latter-day politics, to wit, money, +the great modern /relief/, or sufficient rehabilitation of nobility; +but, in their case, too, "historical continuity" was lacking, and that +is a kind of renown which tells quite as much at Court as on the +battlefield, in diplomatic circles as in Parliament, with a book, or +in connection with an adventure; it is, as it were, a sacred ampulla +poured upon the heads of each successive generation. Whereas a noble +family, inactive and forgotten, is very much in the position of a +hard-featured, poverty-stricken, simple-minded, and virtuous maid, +these qualifications being the four cardinal points of misfortune. The +marriage of a daughter of the Troisvilles with General Montcornet, so +far from opening the eyes of the Antiquities, very nearly brought +about a rupture between the Troisvilles and the salon d'Esgrignon, the +latter declaring that the Troisvilles were mixing themselves up with +all sorts of people. + +There was one, and one only, among all these folk who did not share +their illusions. And that one, needless to say, was Chesnel the +notary. Although his devotion, sufficiently proved already, was simply +unbounded for the great house now reduced to three persons; although +he accepted all their ideas, and thought them nothing less than right, +he had too much common sense, he was too good a man of business to +more than half the families in the department, to miss the +significance of the great changes that were taking place in people's +minds, or to be blind to the different conditions brought about by +industrial development and modern manners. He had watched the +Revolution pass through the violent phase of 1793, when men, women, +and children wore arms, and heads fell on the scaffold, and victories +were won in pitched battles with Europe; and now he saw the same +forces quietly at work in men's minds, in the shape of ideas which +sanctioned the issues. The soil had been cleared, the seed sown, and +now came the harvest. To his thinking, the Revolution had formed the +mind of the younger generation; he touched the hard facts, and knew +that although there were countless unhealed wounds, what had been done +was past recall. The death of a king on the scaffold, the protracted +agony of a queen, the division of the nobles' lands, in his eyes were +so many binding contracts; and where so many vested interests were +involved, it was not likely that those concerned would allow them to +be attacked. Chesnel saw clearly. His fanatical attachment to the +d'Esgrignons was whole-hearted, but it was not blind, and it was all +the fairer for this. The young monk's faith that sees heaven laid open +and beholds the angels, is something far below the power of the old +monk who points them out to him. The ex-steward was like the old monk; +he would have given his life to defend a worm-eaten shrine. + +He tried to explain the "innovations" to his old master, using a +thousand tactful precautions; sometimes speaking jestingly, sometimes +affecting surprise or sorrow over this or that; but he always met the +same prophetic smile on the Marquis' lips, the same fixed conviction +in the Marquis' mind, that these follies would go by like others. +Events contributed in a way which has escaped attention to assist such +noble champions of forlorn hope to cling to their superstitions. What +could Chesnel do when the old Marquis said, with a lordly gesture, +"God swept away Bonaparte with his armies, his new great vassals, his +crowned kings, and his vast conceptions! God will deliver us from the +rest." And Chesnel hung his head sadly, and did not dare to answer, +"It cannot be God's will to sweep away France." Yet both of them were +grand figures; the one, standing out against the torrent of facts like +an ancient block of lichen-covered granite, still upright in the +depths of an Alpine gorge; the other, watching the course of the flood +to turn it to account. Then the good gray-headed notary would groan +over the irreparable havoc which the superstitions were sure to work +in the mind, the habits, and ideas of the Comte Victurnien +d'Esgrignon. + +Idolized by his father, idolized by his aunt, the young heir was a +spoilt child in every sense of the word; but still a spoilt child who +justified paternal and maternal illusions. Maternal, be it said, for +Victurnien's aunt was truly a mother to him; and yet, however careful +and tender she may be that never bore a child, there is something +lacking in her motherhood. A mother's second sight cannot be acquired. +An aunt, bound to her nursling by ties of such pure affection as +united Mlle. Armande to Victurnien, may love as much as a mother +might; may be as careful, as kind, as tender, as indulgent, but she +lacks the mother's instinctive knowledge when and how to be severe; +she has no sudden warnings, none of the uneasy presentiments of the +mother's heart; for a mother, bound to her child from the beginnings +of life by all the fibres of her being, still is conscious of the +communication, still vibrates with the shock of every trouble, and +thrills with every joy in the child's life as if it were her own. If +Nature has made of woman, physically speaking, a neutral ground, it +has not been forbidden to her, under certain conditions, to identify +herself completely with her offspring. When she has not merely given +life, but given of her whole life, you behold that wonderful, +unexplained, and inexplicable thing--the love of a woman for one of +her children above the others. The outcome of this story is one more +proof of a proven truth--a mother's place cannot be filled. A mother +foresees danger long before a Mlle. Armande can admit the possibility +of it, even if the mischief is done. The one prevents the evil, the +other remedies it. And besides, in the maiden's motherhood there is an +element of blind adoration, she cannot bring herself to scold a +beautiful boy. + +A practical knowledge of life, and the experience of business, had +taught the old notary a habit of distrustful clear-sighted observation +something akin to the mother's instinct. But Chesnel counted for so +little in the house (especially since he had fallen into something +like disgrace over that unlucky project of a marriage between a +d'Esgrignon and a du Croisier), that he had made up his mind to adhere +blindly in future to the family doctrines. He was a common soldier, +faithful to his post, and ready to give his life; it was never likely +that they would take his advice, even in the height of the storm; +unless chance should bring him, like the King's bedesman in The +Antiquary, to the edge of the sea, when the old baronet and his +daughter were caught by the high tide. + +Du Croisier caught a glimpse of his revenge in the anomalous education +given to the lad. He hoped, to quote the expressive words of the +author quoted above, "to drown the lamb in its mother's milk." /This/ +was the hope which had produced his taciturn resignation and brought +that savage smile on his lips. + +The young Comte Victurnien was taught to believe in his own supremacy +as soon as an idea could enter his head. All the great nobles of the +realm were his peers, his one superior was the King, and the rest of +mankind were his inferiors, people with whom he had nothing in common, +towards whom he had no duties. They were defeated and conquered +enemies, whom he need not take into account for a moment; their +opinions could not affect a noble, and they all owed him respect. +Unluckily, with the rigorous logic of youth, which leads children and +young people to proceed to extremes whether good or bad, Victurnien +pushed these conclusions to their utmost consequences. His own +external advantages, moreover, confirmed him in his beliefs. He had +been extraordinarily beautiful as a child; he became as accomplished a +young man as any father could wish. + +He was of average height, but well proportioned, slender, and almost +delicate-looking, but muscular. He had the brilliant blue eyes of the +d'Esgrignons, the finely-moulded aquiline nose, the perfect oval of +the face, the auburn hair, the white skin, and the graceful gait of +his family; he had their delicate extremities, their long taper +fingers with the inward curve, and that peculiar distinction of +shapeliness of the wrist and instep, that supple felicity of line, +which is as sure a sign of race in men as in horses. Adroit and alert +in all bodily exercises, and an excellent shot, he handled arms like a +St. George, he was a paladin on horseback. In short, he gratified the +pride which parents take in their children's appearance; a pride +founded, for that matter, on a just idea of the enormous influence +exercised by physical beauty. Personal beauty has this in common with +noble birth; it cannot be acquired afterwards; it is everywhere +recognized, and often is more valued than either brains or money; +beauty has only to appear and triumph; nobody asks more of beauty than +that it should simply exist. + +Fate had endowed Victurnien, over and above the privileges of good +looks and noble birth, with a high spirit, a wonderful aptitude of +comprehension, and a good memory. His education, therefore, had been +complete. He knew a good deal more than is usually known by young +provincial nobles, who develop into highly-distinguished sportsmen, +owners of land, and consumers of tobacco; and are apt to treat art, +sciences, letters, poetry, or anything offensively above their +intellects, cavalierly enough. Such gifts of nature and education +surely would one day realize the Marquis d'Esgrignon's ambitions; he +already saw his son a Marshal of France if Victurnien's tastes were +for the army; an ambassador if diplomacy held any attractions for him; +a cabinet minister if that career seemed good in his eyes; every place +in the state belonged to Victurnien. And, most gratifying thought of +all for a father, the young Count would have made his way in the world +by his own merits even if he had not been a d'Esgrignon. + +All through his happy childhood and golden youth, Victurnien had never +met with opposition to his wishes. He had been the king of the house; +no one curbed the little prince's will; and naturally he grew up +insolent and audacious, selfish as a prince, self-willed as the most +high-spirited cardinal of the Middle Ages,--defects of character which +any one might guess from his qualities, essentially those of the +noble. + +The Chevalier was a man of the good old times when the Gray Musketeers +were the terror of the Paris theatres, when they horsewhipped the +watch and drubbed servers of writs, and played a host of page's +pranks, at which Majesty was wont to smile so long as they were +amusing. This charming deceiver and hero of the ruelles had no small +share in bringing about the disasters which afterwards befell. The +amiable old gentleman, with nobody to understand him, was not a little +pleased to find a budding Faublas, who looked the part to admiration, +and put him in mind of his own young days. So, making no allowance for +the difference of the times, he sowed the maxims of a roue of the +Encyclopaedic period broadcast in the boy's mind. He told wicked +anecdotes of the reign of His Majesty Louis XV.; he glorified the +manners and customs of the year 1750; he told of the orgies in petites +maisons, the follies of courtesans, the capital tricks played on +creditors, the manners, in short, which furnished forth Dancourt's +comedies and Beaumarchais' epigrams. And unfortunately, the corruption +lurking beneath the utmost polish tricked itself out in Voltairean +wit. If the Chevalier went rather too far at times, he always added as +a corrective that a man must always behave himself like a gentleman. + +Of all this discourse, Victurnien comprehended just so much as +flattered his passions. From the first he saw his old father laughing +with the Chevalier. The two elderly men considered that the pride of a +d'Esgrignon was a sufficient safeguard against anything unbefitting; +as for a dishonorable action, no one in the house imagined that a +d'Esgrignon could be guilty of it. /Honor/, the great principle of +Monarchy, was planted firm like a beacon in the hearts of the family; +it lighted up the least action, it kindled the least thought of a +d'Esgrignon. "A d'Esgrignon ought not to permit himself to do such and +such a thing; he bears a name which pledges him to make a future +worthy of the past"--a noble teaching which should have been +sufficient in itself to keep alive the tradition of noblesse--had +been, as it were, the burden of Victurnien's cradle song. He heard +them from the old Marquis, from Mlle. Armande, from Chesnel, from the +intimates of the house. And so it came to pass that good and evil met, +and in equal forces, in the boy's soul. + +At the age of eighteen, Victurnien went into society. He noticed some +slight discrepancies between the outer world of the town and the inner +world of the Hotel d'Esgrignon, but he in no wise tried to seek the +causes of them. And, indeed, the causes were to be found in Paris. He +had yet to learn that the men who spoke their minds out so boldly in +evening talk with his father, were extremely careful of what they said +in the presence of the hostile persons with whom their interests +compelled them to mingle. His own father had won the right of freedom +of speech. Nobody dreamed of contradicting an old man of seventy, and +besides, every one was willing to overlook fidelity to the old order +of things in a man who had been violently despoiled. + +Victurnien was deceived by appearances, and his behavior set up the +backs of the townspeople. In his impetuous way he tried to carry +matters with too high a hand over some difficulties in the way of +sport, which ended in formidable lawsuits, hushed up by Chesnel for +money paid down. Nobody dared to tell the Marquis of these things. You +may judge of his astonishment if he had heard that his son had been +prosecuted for shooting over his lands, his domains, his covers, under +the reign of a son of St. Louis! People were too much afraid of the +possible consequences to tell him about such trifles, Chesnel said. + +The young Count indulged in other escapades in the town. These the +Chevalier regarded as "amourettes," but they cost Chesnel something +considerable in portions for forsaken damsels seduced under imprudent +promises of marriage: yet other cases there were which came under an +article of the Code as to the abduction of minors; and but for +Chesnel's timely intervention, the new law would have been allowed to +take its brutal course, and it is hard to say where the Count might +have ended. Victurnien grew the bolder for these victories over +bourgeois justice. He was so accustomed to be pulled out of scrapes, +that he never thought twice before any prank. Courts of law, in his +opinion, were bugbears to frighten people who had no hold on him. +Things which he would have blamed in common people were for him only +pardonable amusements. His disposition to treat the new laws +cavalierly while obeying the maxims of a Code for aristocrats, his +behavior and character, were all pondered, analyzed, and tested by a +few adroit persons in du Croisier's interests. These folk supported +each other in the effort to make the people believe that Liberal +slanders were revelations, and that the Ministerial policy at bottom +meant a return to the old order of things. + +What a bit of luck to find something by way of proof of their +assertions! President du Ronceret, and the public prosecutor likewise, +lent themselves admirably, so far as was compatible with their duty as +magistrates, to the design of letting off the offender as easily as +possible; indeed, they went deliberately out of their way to do this, +well pleased to raise a Liberal clamor against their overlarge +concessions. And so, while seeming to serve the interests of the +d'Esgrignons, they stirred up feeling against them. The treacherous de +Ronceret had it in his mind to pose as incorruptible at the right +moment over some serious charge, with public opinion to back him up. +The young Count's worst tendencies, moreover, were insidiously +encouraged by two or three young men who followed in his train, paid +court to him, won his favor, and flattered and obeyed him, with a view +to confirming his belief in a noble's supremacy; and all this at a +time when a noble's one chance of preserving his power lay in using it +with the utmost discretion for half a century to come. + +Du Croisier hoped to reduce the d'Esgrignons to the last extremity of +poverty; he hoped to see their castle demolished, and their lands sold +piecemeal by auction, through the follies which this harebrained boy +was pretty certain to commit. This was as far as he went; he did not +think, with President du Ronceret, that Victurnien was likely to give +justice another kind of hold upon him. Both men found an ally for +their schemes of revenge in Victurnien's overweening vanity and love +of pleasure. President du Ronceret's son, a lad of seventeen, was +admirably fitted for the part of instigator. He was one of the Count's +companions, a new kind of spy in du Croisier's pay; du Croisier taught +him his lesson, set him to track down the noble and beautiful boy +through his better qualities, and sardonically prompted him to +encourage his victim in his worst faults. Fabien du Ronceret was a +sophisticated youth, to whom such a mystification was attractive; he +had precisely the keen brain and envious nature which finds in such a +pursuit as this the absorbing amusement which a man of an ingenious +turn lacks in the provinces. + +In three years, between the ages of eighteen and one-and-twenty, +Victurnien cost poor Chesnel nearly eighty thousand francs! And this +without the knowledge of Mlle. Armande or the Marquis. More than half +of the money had been spent in buying off lawsuits; the lad's +extravagance had squandered the rest. Of the Marquis' income of ten +thousand livres, five thousand were necessary for the housekeeping; +two thousand more represented Mlle. Armande's allowance (parsimonious +though she was) and the Marquis' expenses. The handsome young +heir-presumptive, therefore, had not a hundred louis to spend. And what +sort of figure can a man make on two thousand livres? Victurnien's +tailor's bills alone absorbed his whole allowance. He had his linen, +his clothes, gloves, and perfumery from Paris. He wanted a good +English saddle-horse, a tilbury, and a second horse. M. du Croisier +had a tilbury and a thoroughbred. Was the bourgeoisie to cut out the +noblesse? Then, the young Count must have a man in the d'Esgrignon +livery. He prided himself on setting the fashion among young men in +the town and the department; he entered that world of luxuries and +fancies which suit youth and good looks and wit so well. Chesnel paid +for it all, not without using, like ancient parliaments, the right of +protest, albeit he spoke with angelic kindness. + +"What a pity it is that so good a man should be so tiresome!" +Victurnien would say to himself every time that the notary staunched +some wound in his purse. + +Chesnel had been left a widower, and childless; he had taken his old +master's son to fill the void in his heart. It was a pleasure to him +to watch the lad driving up the High Street, perched aloft on the +box-seat of the tilbury, whip in hand, and a rose in his button-hole, +handsome, well turned out, envied by every one. + +Pressing need would bring Victurnien with uneasy eyes and coaxing +manner, but steady voice, to the modest house in the Rue du Bercail; +there had been losses at cards at the Troisvilles, or the Duc de +Verneuil's, or the prefecture, or the receiver-general's, and the +Count had come to his providence, the notary. He had only to show +himself to carry the day. + +"Well, what is it, M. le Comte? What has happened?" the old man would +ask, with a tremor in his voice. + +On great occasions Victurnien would sit down, assume a melancholy, +pensive expression, and submit with little coquetries of voice and +gesture to be questioned. Then when he had thoroughly roused the old +man's fears (for Chesnel was beginning to fear how such a course of +extravagance would end), he would own up to a peccadillo which a bill +for a thousand francs would absolve. Chesnel possessed a private +income of some twelve thousand livres, but the fund was not +inexhaustible. The eighty thousand francs thus squandered represented +his savings, accumulated for the day when the Marquis should send his +son to Paris, or open negotiations for a wealthy marriage. + +Chesnel was clear-sighted so long as Victurnien was not there before +him. One by one he lost the illusions which the Marquis and his sister +still fondly cherished. He saw that the young fellow could not be +depended upon in the least, and wished to see him married to some +modest, sensible girl of good birth, wondering within himself how a +young man could mean so well and do so ill, for he made promises one +day only to break them all on the next. + +But there is never any good to be expected of young men who confess +their sins and repent, and straightway fall into them again. A man of +strong character only confesses his faults to himself, and punishes +himself for them; as for the weak, they drop back into the old ruts +when they find that the bank is too steep to climb. The springs of +pride which lie in a great man's secret soul had been slackened in +Victurnien. With such guardians as he had, such company as he kept, +such a life as he led, he had suddenly became an enervated voluptuary +at that turning-point in his life when a man most stands in need of +the harsh discipline of misfortune and adversity which formed a Prince +Eugene, a Frederick II., a Napoleon. Chesnel saw that Victurnien +possessed that uncontrollable appetite for enjoyments which should be +the prerogative of men endowed with giant powers; the men who feel the +need of counterbalancing their gigantic labors by pleasures which +bring one-sided mortals to the pit. + +At times the good man stood aghast; then, again, some profound sally, +some sign of the lad's remarkable range of intellect, would reassure +him. He would say, as the Marquis said at the rumor of some escapade, +"Boys will be boys." Chesnel had spoken to the Chevalier, lamenting +the young lord's propensity for getting into debt; but the Chevalier +manipulated his pinch of snuff, and listened with a smile of +amusement. + +"My dear Chesnel, just explain to me what a national debt is," he +answered. "If France has debts, egad! why should not Victurnien have +debts? At this time and at all times princes have debts, every +gentleman has debts. Perhaps you would rather that Victurnien should +bring you his savings?--Do you know that our great Richelieu (not the +Cardinal, a pitiful fellow that put nobles to death, but the +Marechal), do you know what he did once when his grandson the Prince +de Chinon, the last of the line, let him see that he had not spent his +pocket-money at the University?" + +"No, M. le Chevalier." + +"Oh, well; he flung the purse out of the window to a sweeper in the +courtyard, and said to his grandson, 'Then they do not teach you to be +a prince here?'" + +Chesnel bent his head and made no answer. But that night, as he lay +awake, he thought that such doctrines as these were fatal in times +when there was one law for everybody, and foresaw the first beginnings +of the ruin of the d'Esgrignons. + + + +But for these explanations which depict one side of provincial life in +the time of the Empire and the Restoration, it would not be easy to +understand the opening scene of this history, an incident which took +place in the great salon one evening towards the end of October 1822. +The card-tables were forsaken, the Collection of Antiquities--elderly +nobles, elderly countesses, young marquises, and simple baronesses +--had settled their losses and winnings. The master of the house was +pacing up and down the room, while Mlle. Armande was putting out the +candles on the card-tables. He was not taking exercise alone, the +Chevalier was with him, and the two wrecks of the eighteenth century +were talking of Victurnien. The Chevalier had undertaken to broach the +subject with the Marquis. + +"Yes, Marquis," he was saying, "your son is wasting his time and his +youth; you ought to send him to court." + +"I have always thought," said the Marquis, "that if my great age +prevents me from going to court--where, between ourselves, I do not +know what I should do among all these new people whom his Majesty +receives, and all that is going on there--that if I could not go +myself, I could at least send my son to present our homage to His +Majesty. The King surely would do something for the Count--give him a +company, for instance, or a place in the Household, a chance, in +short, for the boy to win his spurs. My uncle the Archbishop suffered +a cruel martyrdom; I have fought for the cause without deserting the +camp with those who thought it their duty to follow the Princes. I +held that while the King was in France, his nobles should rally round +him.--Ah! well, no one gives us a thought; a Henry IV. would have +written before now to the d'Esgrignons, 'Come to me, my friends; we +have won the day!'--After all, we are something better than the +Troisvilles, yet here are two Troisvilles made peers of France; and +another, I hear, represents the nobles in the Chamber." (He took the +upper electoral colleges for assemblies of his own order.) "Really, +they think no more of us than if we did not exist. I was waiting for +the Princes to make their journey through this part of the world; but +as the Princes do not come to us, we must go to the Princes." + +"I am enchanted to learn that you think of introducing our dear +Victurnien into society," the Chevalier put in adroitly. "He ought not +to bury his talents in a hole like this town. The best fortune that he +can look for here is to come across some Norman girl" (mimicking the +accent), "country-bred, stupid, and rich. What could he make of +her?--his wife? Oh! good Lord!" + +"I sincerely hope that he will defer his marriage until he has +obtained some great office or appointment under the Crown," returned +the gray-haired Marquis. "Still, there are serious difficulties in the +way." + +And these were the only difficulties which the Marquis saw at the +outset of his son's career. + +"My son, the Comte d'Esgrignon, cannot make his appearance at court +like a tatterdemalion," he continued after a pause, marked by a sigh; +"he must be equipped. Alas! for these two hundred years we have had no +retainers. Ah! Chevalier, this demolition from top to bottom always +brings me back to the first hammer stroke delivered by M. de Mirabeau. +The one thing needful nowadays is money; that is all that the +Revolution has done that I can see. The King does not ask you whether +you are a descendant of the Valois or a conquerer of Gaul; he asks +whether you pay a thousand francs in tailles which nobles never used +to pay. So I cannot well send the Count to court without a matter of +twenty thousand crowns----" + +"Yes," assented the Chevalier, "with that trifling sum he could cut a +brave figure." + +"Well," said Mlle. Armande, "I have asked Chesnel to come to-night. +Would you believe it, Chevalier, ever since the day when Chesnel +proposed that I should marry that miserable du Croisier----" + +"Ah! that was truly unworthy, mademoiselle!" cried the Chevalier. + +"Unpardonable!" said the Marquis. + +"Well, since then my brother has never brought himself to ask anything +whatsoever of Chesnel," continued Mlle. Armande. + +"Of your old household servant? Why, Marquis, you would do Chesnel +honor--an honor which he would gratefully remember till his latest +breath." + +"No," said the Marquis, "the thing is beneath one's dignity, it seems +to me." + +"There is not much question of dignity; it is a matter of necessity," +said the Chevalier, with the trace of a shrug. + +"Never," said the Marquis, riposting with a gesture which decided the +Chevalier to risk a great stroke to open his old friend's eyes. + +"Very well," he said, "since you do not know it, I will tell you +myself that Chesnel has let your son have something already, something +like----" + +"My son is incapable of accepting anything whatever from Chesnel," the +Marquis broke in, drawing himself up as he spoke. "He might have come +to /you/ to ask you for twenty-five louis----" + +"Something like a hundred thousand livres," said the Chevalier, +finishing his sentence. + +"The Comte d'Esgrignon owes a hundred thousand livres to a Chesnel!" +cried the Marquis, with every sign of deep pain. "Oh! if he were not +an only son, he should set out to-night for Mexico with a captain's +commission. A man may be in debt to money-lenders, they charge a heavy +interest, and you are quits; that is right enough; but /Chesnel/! a man +to whom one is attached!----" + +"Yes, our adorable Victurnien has run through a hundred thousand +livres, dear Marquis," resumed the Chevalier, flicking a trace of +snuff from his waistcoat; "it is not much, I know. I myself at his +age---- But, after all, let us let old memories be, Marquis. The Count +is living in the provinces; all things taken into consideration, it is +not so much amiss. He will not go far; these irregularities are common +in men who do great things afterwards----" + +"And he is sleeping upstairs, without a word of this to his father," +exclaimed the Marquis. + +"Sleeping innocently as a child who has merely got five or six little +bourgeoises into trouble, and now must have duchesses," returned the +Chevalier. + +"Why, he deserves a lettre de cachet!" + +"'They' have done away with lettres de cachet," said the Chevalier. +"You know what a hubbub there was when they tried to institute a law +for special cases. We could not keep the provost's courts, which +M. /de/ Bonaparte used to call commissions militaires." + +"Well, well; what are we to do if our boys are wild, or turn out +scapegraces? Is there no locking them up in these days?" asked the +Marquis. + +The Chevalier looked at the heartbroken father and lacked courage to +answer, "We shall be obliged to bring them up properly." + +"And you have never said a word of this to me, Mlle. d'Esgrignon," +added the Marquis, turning suddenly round upon Mlle. Armande. He never +addressed her as Mlle. d'Esgrignon except when he was vexed; usually +she was called "my sister." + +"Why, monsieur, when a young man is full of life and spirits, and +leads an idle life in a town like this, what else can you expect?" +asked Mlle. d'Esgrignon. She could not understand her brother's anger. + +"Debts! eh! why, hang it all!" added the Chevalier. "He plays cards, +he has little adventures, he shoots,--all these things are horribly +expensive nowadays." + +"Come," said the Marquis, "it is time to send him to the King. I will +spend to-morrow morning in writing to our kinsmen." + +"I have some acquaintance with the Ducs de Navarreins, de Lenoncourt, +de Maufrigneuse, and de Chaulieu," said the Chevalier, though he knew, +as he spoke, that he was pretty thoroughly forgotten. + +"My dear Chevalier, there is no need of such formalities to present a +d'Esgrignon at court," the Marquis broke in.--"A hundred thousand +livres," he muttered; "this Chesnel makes very free. This is what +comes of these accursed troubles. M. Chesnel protects my son. And now +I must ask him. . . . No, sister, you must undertake this business. +Chesnel shall secure himself for the whole amount by a mortgage on our +lands. And just give this harebrained boy a good scolding; he will end +by ruining himself if he goes on like this." + +The Chevalier and Mlle. d'Esgrignon thought these words perfectly +simple and natural, absurd as they would have sounded to any other +listener. So far from seeing anything ridiculous in the speech, they +were both very much touched by a look of something like anguish in the +old noble's face. Some dark premonition seemed to weigh upon M. +d'Esgrignon at that moment, some glimmering of an insight into the +changed times. He went to the settee by the fireside and sat down, +forgetting that Chesnel would be there before long; that Chesnel, of +whom he could not bring himself to ask anything. + +Just then the Marquis d'Esgrignon looked exactly as any imagination +with a touch of romance could wish. He was almost bald, but a fringe +of silken, white locks, curled at the tips, covered the back of his +head. All the pride of race might be seen in a noble forehead, such as +you may admire in a Louis XV., a Beaumarchais, a Marechal de +Richelieu, it was not the square, broad brow of the portraits of the +Marechal de Saxe; nor yet the small hard circle of Voltaire, compact +to overfulness; it was graciously rounded and finely moulded, the +temples were ivory tinted and soft; and mettle and spirit, unquenched +by age, flashed from the brilliant eyes. The Marquis had the Conde +nose and the lovable Bourbon mouth, from which, as they used to say of +the Comte d'Artois, only witty and urbane words proceed. His cheeks, +sloping rather than foolishly rounded to the chin, were in keeping +with his spare frame, thin legs, and plump hands. The strangulation +cravat at his throat was of the kind which every marquis wears in all +the portraits which adorn eighteenth century literature; it is common +alike to Saint-Preux and to Lovelace, to the elegant Montesquieu's +heroes and to Diderot's homespun characters (see the first editions of +those writers' works). + +The Marquis always wore a white, gold-embroidered, high waistcoat, +with the red ribbon of a commander of the Order of St. Louis blazing +upon his breast; and a blue coat with wide skirts, and fleur-de-lys on +the flaps, which were turned back--an odd costume which the King had +adopted. But the Marquis could not bring himself to give up the +Frenchman's knee-breeches nor yet the white silk stockings or the +buckles at the knees. After six o'clock in the evening he appeared in +full dress. + +He read no newspapers but the Quotidienne and the Gazette de France, +two journals accused by the Constitutional press of obscurantist views +and uncounted "monarchical and religious" enormities; while the +Marquis d'Esgrignon, on the other hand, found heresies and +revolutionary doctrines in every issue. No matter to what extremes the +organs of this or that opinion may go, they will never go quite far +enough to please the purists on their own side; even as the portrayer +of this magnificent personage is pretty certain to be accused of +exaggeration, whereas he has done his best to soften down some of the +cruder tones and dim the more startling tints of the original. + +The Marquis d'Esgrignon rested his elbows on his knees and leant his +head on his hands. During his meditations Mlle. Armande and the +Chevalier looked at one another without uttering the thoughts in their +minds. Was he pained by the discovery that his son's future must +depend upon his sometime land steward? Was he doubtful of the +reception awaiting the young Count? Did he regret that he had made no +preparation for launching his heir into that brilliant world of court? +Poverty had kept him in the depths of his province; how should he have +appeared at court? He sighed heavily as he raised his head. + +That sigh, in those days, came from the real aristocracy all over +France; from the loyal provincial noblesse, consigned to neglect with +most of those who had drawn sword and braved the storm for the cause. + +"What have the Princes done for the du Guenics, or the Fontaines, or +the Bauvans, who never submitted?" he muttered to himself. "They fling +miserable pensions to the men who fought most bravely, and give them a +royal lieutenancy in a fortress somewhere on the outskirts of the +kingdom." + +Evidently the Marquis doubted the reigning dynasty. Mlle. d'Esgrignon +was trying to reassure her brother as to the prospects of the journey, +when a step outside on the dry narrow footway gave them notice of +Chesnel's coming. In another moment Chesnel appeared; Josephin, the +Count's gray-aired valet, admitted the notary without announcing him. + +"Chesnel, my boy----" (Chesnel was a white-haired man of sixty-nine, +with a square-jawed, venerable countenance; he wore knee-breeches, +ample enough to fill several chapters of dissertation in the manner +of Sterne, ribbed stockings, shoes with silver clasps, an +ecclesiastical-looking coat and a high waistcoat of scholastic cut.) + +"Chesnel, my boy, it was very presumptuous of you to lend money to the +Comte d'Esgrignon! If I repaid you at once and we never saw each other +again, it would be no more than you deserve for giving wings to his +vices." + +There was a pause, a silence such as there falls at court when the +King publicly reprimands a courtier. The old notary looked humble and +contrite. + +"I am anxious about that boy, Chesnel," continued the Marquis in a +kindly tone; "I should like to send him to Paris to serve His Majesty. +Make arrangements with my sister for his suitable appearance at +court.--And we will settle accounts----" + +The Marquis looked grave as he left the room with a friendly gesture +of farewell to Chesnel. + +"I thank M. le Marquis for all his goodness," returned the old man, +who still remained standing. + +Mlle. Armande rose to go to the door with her brother; she had rung +the bell, old Josephin was in readiness to light his master to his +room. + +"Take a seat, Chesnel," said the lady, as she returned, and with +womanly tact she explained away and softened the Marquis' harshness. +And yet beneath that harshness Chesnel saw a great affection. The +Marquis' attachment for his old servant was something of the same +order as a man's affection for his dog; he will fight any one who +kicks the animal, the dog is like a part of his existence, a something +which, if not exactly himself, represents him in that which is nearest +and dearest--his sensibilities. + +"It is quite time that M. le Comte should be sent away from the town, +mademoiselle," he said sententiously. + +"Yes," returned she. "Has he been indulging in some new escapade?" + +"No, mademoiselle." + +"Well, why do you blame him?" + +"I am not blaming him, mademoiselle. No, I am not blaming him. I am +very far from blaming him. I will even say that I shall never blame +him, whatever he may do." + +There was a pause. The Chevalier, nothing if not quick to take in a +situation, began to yawn like a sleep-ridden mortal. Gracefully he +made his excuses and went, with as little mind to sleep as to go and +drown himself. The imp Curiosity kept the Chevalier wide awake, and +with airy fingers plucked away the cotton wool from his ears. + +"Well, Chesnel, is it something new?" Mlle. Armande began anxiously. + +"Yes, things that cannot be told to M. le Marquis; he would drop down +in an apoplectic fit." + +"Speak out," she said. With her beautiful head leant on the back of +her low chair, and her arms extended listlessly by her side, she +looked as if she were waiting passively for her deathblow. + +"Mademoiselle, M. le Comte, with all his cleverness, is a plaything in +the hands of mean creatures, petty natures on the lookout for a +crushing revenge. They want to ruin us and bring us low! There is the +President of the Tribunal, M. de Ronceret; he has, as you know, a very +great notion of his descent----" + +"His grandfather was an attorney," interposed Mlle. Armande. + +"I know he was. And for that reason you have not received him; nor +does he go to M. de Troisville's, nor to M. le Duc de Verneuil's, nor +to the Marquis de Casteran's; but he is one of the pillars of du +Croisier's salon. Your nephew may rub shoulders with young M. Fabien +du Ronceret without condescending too far, for he must have companions +of his own age. Well and good. That young fellow is at the bottom of +all M. le Comte's follies; he and two or three of the rest of them +belong to the other side, the side of M. le Chevalier's enemy, who +does nothing but breathe threats of vengeance against you and all the +nobles together. They all hope to ruin you through your nephew. The +ringleader of the conspiracy is this sycophant of a du Croisier, the +pretended Royalist. Du Croisier's wife, poor thing, knows nothing +about it; you know her, I should have heard of it before this if she +had ears to hear evil. For some time these wild young fellows were not +in the secret, nor was anybody else; but the ringleaders let something +drop in jest, and then the fools got to know about it, and after the +Count's recent escapades they let fall some words while they were +drunk. And those words were carried to me by others who are sorry to +see such a fine, handsome, noble, charming lad ruining himself with +pleasure. So far people feel sorry for him; before many days are over +they will--I am afraid to say what----" + +"They will despise him; say it out, Chesnel!" Mlle. Armande cried +piteously. + +"Ah! How can you keep the best people in the town from finding out +faults in their neighbors? They do not know what to do with themselves +from morning to night. And so M. le Comte's losses at play are all +reckoned up. Thirty thousand francs have taken flight during these two +months, and everybody wonders where he gets the money. If they mention +it when I am present, I just call them to order. Ah! but--'Do you +suppose' (I told them this morning), 'do you suppose that if the +d'Esgrignon family have lost their manorial rights, that therefore +they have been robbed of their hoard of treasure? The young Count has +a right to do as he pleases; and so long as he does not owe you a +half-penny, you have no right to say a word.'" + +Mlle, Armande held out her hand, and the notary kissed it +respectfully. + +"Good Chesnel! . . . But, my friend, how shall we find the money for +this journey? Victurnien must appear as befits his rank at court." + +"Oh! I have borrowed money on Le Jard, mademoiselle." + +"What? You have nothing left! Ah, heaven! what can we do to reward +you?" + +"You can take the hundred thousand francs which I hold at your +disposal. You can understand that the loan was negotiated in +confidence, so that it might not reflect on you; for it is known in +the town that I am closely connected with the d'Esgrignon family." + +Tears came into Mlle. Armande's eyes. Chesnel saw them, took a fold of +the noble woman's dress in his hands, and kissed it. + +"Never mind," he said, "a lad must sow his wild oats. In great salons +in Paris his boyish ideas will take a new turn. And, really, though +our old friends here are the worthiest folk in the world, and no one +could have nobler hearts than they, they are not amusing. If M. le +Comte wants amusement, he is obliged to look below his rank, and he +will end by getting into low company." + +Next day the old traveling coach saw the light, and was sent to be put +in repair. In a solemn interview after breakfast, the hope of the +house was duly informed of his father's intentions regarding him--he +was to go to court and ask to serve His Majesty. He would have time +during the journey to make up his mind about his career. The navy or +the army, the privy council, an embassy, or the Royal Household,--all +were open to a d'Esgrignon, a d'Esgrignon had only to choose. The King +would certainly look favorably upon the d'Esgrignons, because they had +asked nothing of him, and had sent the youngest representative of +their house to receive the recognition of Majesty. + +But young d'Esgrignon, with all his wild pranks, had guessed +instinctively what society in Paris meant, and formed his own opinions +of life. So when they talked of his leaving the country and the +paternal roof, he listened with a grave countenance to his revered +parent's lecture, and refrained from giving him a good deal of +information in reply. As, for instance, that young men no longer went +into the army or the navy as they used to do; that if a man had a mind +to be a second lieutenant in a cavalry regiment without passing +through a special training in the Ecoles, he must first serve in the +Pages; that sons of the greatest houses went exactly like commoners to +Saint-Cyr and the Ecole polytechnique, and took their chances of being +beaten by base blood. If he had enlightened his relatives on these +points, funds might not have been forthcoming for a stay in Paris; so +he allowed his father and Aunt Armande to believe that he would be +permitted a seat in the King's carriages, that he must support his +dignity at court as the d'Esgrignon of the time, and rub shoulders +with great lords of the realm. + +It grieved the Marquis that he could send but one servant with his +son; but he gave him his own valet Josephin, a man who can be trusted +to take care of his young master, and to watch faithfully over his +interests. The poor father must do without Josephin, and hope to +replace him with a young lad. + +"Remember that you are a Carol, my boy," he said; "remember that you +come of an unalloyed descent, and that your scutcheon bears the motto +Cil est nostre; with such arms you may hold your head high everywhere, +and aspire to queens. Render grace to your father, as I to mine. We +owe it to the honor of our ancestors, kept stainless until now, that +we can look all men in the face, and need bend the knee to none save a +mistress, the King, and God. This is the greatest of your privileges." + +Chesnel, good man, was breakfasting with the family. He took no part +in counsels based on heraldry, nor in the inditing of letters +addressed to divers mighty personages of the day; but he had spent the +night in writing to an old friend of his, one of the oldest +established notaries of Paris. Without this letter it is not possible +to understand Chesnel's real and assumed fatherhood. It almost recalls +Daedalus' address to Icarus; for where, save in old mythology, can you +look for comparisons worthy of this man of antique mould? + + + + "MY DEAR AND ESTIMABLE SORBIER,--I remember with no little + pleasure that I made my first campaign in our honorable profession + under your father, and that you had a liking for me, poor little + clerk that I was. And now I appeal to old memories of the days + when we worked in the same office, old pleasant memories for our + hearts, to ask you to do me the one service that I have ever asked + of you in the course of our long lives, crossed as they have been + by political catastrophes, to which, perhaps, I owe it that I have + the honor to be your colleague. And now I ask this service of you, + my friend, and my white hairs will be brought with sorrow to the + grave if you should refuse my entreaty. It is no question of + myself or of mine, Sorbier, for I lost poor Mme. Chesnel, and I + have no child of my own. Something more to me than my own family + (if I had one) is involved--it is the Marquis d'Esgrignon's only + son. I have had the honor to be the Marquis' land steward ever + since I left the office to which his father sent me at his own + expense, with the idea of providing for me. The house which + nurtured me has passed through all the troubles of the Revolution. + I have managed to save some of their property; but what is it, + after all, in comparison with the wealth that they have lost? I + cannot tell you, Sorbier, how deeply I am attached to the great + house, which has been all but swallowed up under my eyes by the + abyss of time. M. le Marquis was proscribed, and his lands + confiscated, he was getting on in years, he had no child. + Misfortunes upon misfortunes! Then M. le Marquis married, and his + wife died when the young Count was born, and to-day this noble, + dear, and precious child is all the life of the d'Esgrignon + family; the fate of the house hangs upon him. He has got into debt + here with amusing himself. What else should he do in the provinces + with an allowance of a miserable hundred louis? Yes, my friend, a + hundred louis, the great house has come to this. + + "In this extremity his father thinks it necessary to send the + Count to Paris to ask for the King's favor at court. Paris is a + very dangerous place for a lad; if he is to keep steady there, he + must have the grain of sense which makes notaries of us. Besides, + I should be heartbroken to think of the poor boy living amid such + hardships as we have known.--Do you remember the pleasure with + which we spent a day and a night there waiting to see The Marriage + of Figaro? Oh, blind that we were!--We were happy and poor, but a + noble cannot be happy in poverty. A noble in want--it is a thing + against nature! Ah! Sorbier, when one has known the satisfaction + of propping one of the grandest genealogical trees in the kingdom + in its fall, it is so natural to interest oneself in it and to + grow fond of it, and love it and water it and look to see it + blossom. So you will not be surprised at so many precautions on my + part; you will not wonder when I beg the help of your lights, so + that all may go well with our young man. + + "Keep yourself informed of his movements and doings, of the + company which he keeps, and watch over his connections with women. + M. le Chevalier says that an opera dancer often costs less than a + court lady. Obtain information on that point and let me know. If + you are too busy, perhaps Mme. Sorbier might know what becomes of + the young man, and where he goes. The idea of playing the part of + guardian angel to such a noble and charming boy might have + attractions for her. God will remember her for accepting the + sacred trust. Perhaps when you see M. le Comte Victurnien, her + heart may tremble at the thought of all the dangers awaiting him + in Paris; he is very young, and handsome; clever, and at the same + time disposed to trust others. If he forms a connection with some + designing woman, Mme. Sorbier could counsel him better than you + yourself could do. The old man-servant who is with him can tell + you many things; sound Josephin, I have told him to go to you in + delicate matters. + + "But why should I say more? We once were clerks together, and a + pair of scamps; remember our escapades, and be a little bit young + again, my old friend, in your dealings with him. The sixty + thousand francs will be remitted to you in the shape of a bill on + the Treasury by a gentlemen who is going to Paris," and so forth. + + + +If the old couple to whom this epistle was addressed had followed out +Chesnel's instructions, they would have been compelled to take three +private detectives into their pay. And yet there was ample wisdom +shown in Chesnel's choice of a depositary. A banker pays money to any +one accredited to him so long as the money lasts; whereas, Victurnien +was obliged, every time that he was in want of money, to make a +personal visit to the notary, who was quite sure to use the right of +remonstrance. + +Victurnien heard that he was to be allowed two thousand francs every +month, and thought that he betrayed his joy. He knew nothing of Paris. +He fancied that he could keep up princely state on such a sum. + +Next day he started on his journey. All the benedictions of the +Collection of Antiquities went with him; he was kissed by the +dowagers; good wishes were heaped on his head; his old father, his +aunt, and Chesnel went with him out of the town, tears filling the +eyes of all three. The sudden departure supplied material for +conversation for several evenings; and what was more, it stirred the +rancorous minds of the salon du Croisier to the depths. The +forage-contractor, the president, and others who had vowed to ruin +the d'Esgrignons, saw their prey escaping out of their hands. They +had based their schemes of revenge on a young man's follies, and now +he was beyond their reach. + +The tendency in human nature, which often gives a bigot a rake for a +daughter, and makes a frivolous woman the mother of a narrow pietist; +that rule of contraries, which, in all probability, is the "resultant" +of the law of similarities, drew Victurnien to Paris by a desire to +which he must sooner or later have yielded. Brought up as he had been +in the old-fashioned provincial house, among the quiet, gentle faces +that smiled upon him, among sober servants attached to the family, and +surroundings tinged with a general color of age, the boy had only seen +friends worthy of respect. All of those about him, with the exception +of the Chevalier, had example of venerable age, were elderly men and +women, sedate of manner, decorous and sententious of speech. He had +been petted by those women in gray gowns and embroidered mittens +described by Blondet. The antiquated splendors of his father's house +were as little calculated as possible to suggest frivolous thoughts; +and lastly, he had been educated by a sincerely religious abbe, +possessed of all the charm of old age, which has dwelt in two +centuries, and brings to the Present its gifts of the dried roses of +experience, the faded flowers of the old customs of its youth. +Everything should have combined to fashion Victurnien to serious +habits; his whole surroundings from childhood bade him continue the +glory of a historic name, by taking his life as something noble and +great; and yet Victurnien listened to dangerous promptings. + +For him, his noble birth was a stepping-stone which raised him above +other men. He felt that the idol of Noblesse, before which they burned +incense at home, was hollow; he had come to be one of the commonest as +well as one of the worst types from a social point of view--a +consistent egoist. The aristocratic cult of the /ego/ simply taught him +to follow his own fancies; he had been idolized by those who had the +care of him in childhood, and adored by the companions who shared in +his boyish escapades, and so he had formed a habit of looking and +judging everything as it affected his own pleasure; he took it as a +matter of course when good souls saved him from the consequences of +his follies, a piece of mistaken kindness which could only lead to his +ruin. Victurnien's early training, noble and pious though it was, had +isolated him too much. He was out of the current of the life of the +time, for the life of a provincial town is certainly not in the main +current of the age; Victurnien's true destiny lifted him above it. He +had learned to think of an action, not as it affected others, nor +relatively, but absolutely from his own point of view. Like despots, +he made the law to suit the circumstance, a system which works in the +lives of prodigal sons the same confusion which fancy brings into art. + +Victurnien was quick-sighted, he saw clearly and without illusion, but +he acted on impulse, and unwisely. An indefinable flaw of character, +often seen in young men, but impossible to explain, led him to will +one thing and do another. In spite of an active mind, which showed +itself in unexpected ways, the senses had but to assert themselves, +and the darkened brain seemed to exist no longer. He might have +astonished wise men; he was capable of setting fools agape. His +desires, like a sudden squall of bad weather, overclouded all the +clear and lucid spaces of his brain in a moment; and then, after the +dissipations which he could not resist, he sank, utterly exhausted in +body, heart, and mind, into a collapsed condition bordering upon +imbecility. Such a character will drag a man down into the mire if he +is left to himself, or bring him to the highest heights of political +power if he has some stern friend to keep him in hand. Neither +Chesnel, nor the lad's father, nor Aunt Armande had fathomed the +depths of a nature so nearly akin on many sides to the poetic +temperament, yet smitten with a terrible weakness at its core. + + + +By the time the old town lay several miles away, Victurnien felt not +the slightest regret; he thought no more about the father, who had +loved ten generations in his son, nor of the aunt, and her almost +insane devotion. He was looking forward to Paris with vehement +ill-starred longings; in thought he had lived in that fairyland, it +had been the background of his brightest dreams. He imagined that he +would be first in Paris, as he had been in the town and the department +where his father's name was potent; but it was vanity, not pride, that +filled his soul, and in his dreams his pleasures were to be magnified +by all the greatness of Paris. The distance was soon crossed. The +traveling coach, like his own thoughts, left the narrow horizon of the +province for the vast world of the great city, without a break in the +journey. He stayed in the Rue de Richelieu, in a handsome hotel close +to the boulevard, and hastened to take possession of Paris as a +famished horse rushes into a meadow. + +He was not long in finding out the difference between country and +town, and was rather surprised than abashed by the change. His mental +quickness soon discovered how small an entity he was in the midst of +this all-comprehending Babylon; how insane it would be to attempt to +stem the torrent of new ideas and new ways. A single incident was +enough. He delivered his father's letter of introduction to the Duc de +Lenoncourt, a noble who stood high in favor with the King. He saw the +duke in his splendid mansion, among surroundings befitting his rank. +Next day he met him again. This time the Peer of France was lounging +on foot along the boulevard, just like any ordinary mortal, with an +umbrella in his hand; he did not even wear the Blue Ribbon, without +which no knight of the order could have appeared in public in other +times. And, duke and peer and first gentleman of the bedchamber though +he was, M. de Lenoncourt, in spite of his high courtesy, could not +repress a smile as he read his relative's letter; and that smile told +Victurnien that the Collection of Antiquities and the Tuileries were +separated by more than sixty leagues of road; the distance of several +centuries lay between them. + +The names of the families grouped about the throne are quite different +in each successive reign, and the characters change with the names. It +would seem that, in the sphere of court, the same thing happens over +and over again in each generation; but each time there is a quite +different set of personages. If history did not prove that this is so, +it would seem incredible. The prominent men at the court of Louis +XVIII., for instance, had scarcely any connection with the +Rivieres, Blacas, d'Avarays, Vitrolles, d'Autichamps, Pasquiers, +Larochejaqueleins, Decazes, Dambrays, Laines, de Villeles, La +Bourdonnayes, and others who shone at the court of Louis XV. Compare +the courtiers of Henri IV. with those of Louis XIV.; you will hardly +find five great families of the former time still in existence. The +nephew of the great Richelieu was a very insignificant person at the +court of Louis XIV.; while His Majesty's favorite, Villeroi, was the +grandson of a secretary ennobled by Charles IX. And so it befell that +the d'Esgrignons, all but princes under the Valois, and all-powerful +in the time of Henri IV., had no fortune whatever at the court of +Louis XVIII., which gave them not so much as a thought. At this day +there are names as famous as those of royal houses--the Foix-Graillys, +for instance, or the d'Herouvilles--left to obscurity tantamount to +extinction for want of money, the one power of the time. + +All which things Victurnien beheld entirely from his own point of +view; he felt the equality that he saw in Paris as a personal wrong. +The monster Equality was swallowing down the last fragments of social +distinction in the Restoration. Having made up his mind on this head, +he immediately proceeded to try to win back his place with such +dangerous, if blunted weapons, as the age left to the noblesse. It is +an expensive matter to gain the attention of Paris. To this end, +Victurnien adopted some of the ways then in vogue. He felt that it was +a necessity to have horses and fine carriages, and all the accessories +of modern luxury; he felt, in short, "that a man must keep abreast of +the times," as de Marsay said--de Marsay, the first dandy that he came +across in the first drawing-room to which he was introduced. For his +misfortune, he fell in with a set of roues, with de Marsay, de +Ronquerolles, Maxime de Trailles, des Lupeaulx, Rastignac, +Ajuda-Pinto, Beaudenord, de la Roche-Hugon, de Manerville, and the +Vandenesses, whom he met wherever he went, and a great many houses +were open to a young man with his ancient name and reputation for +wealth. He went to the Marquise d'Espard's, to the Duchesses de +Grandlieu, de Carigliano, and de Chaulieu, to the Marquises +d'Aiglemont and de Listomere, to Mme. de Serizy's, to the Opera, to +the embassies and elsewhere. The Faubourg Saint-Germain has its +provincial genealogies at its fingers' ends; a great name once +recognized and adopted therein is a passport which opens many a door +that will scarcely turn on its hinges for unknown names or the lions +of a lower rank. + +Victurnien found his relatives both amiable and ready to welcome him +so long as he did not appear as a suppliant; he saw at once that the +surest way of obtaining nothing was to ask for something. At Paris, if +the first impulse moves people to protect, second thoughts (which last +a good deal longer) impel them to despise the protege. Independence, +vanity, and pride, all the young Count's better and worse feelings +combined, led him, on the contrary, to assume an aggressive attitude. +And therefore the Ducs de Verneuil, de Lenoncourt, de Chaulieu, de +Navarreins, d'Herouville, de Grandlieu, and de Maufrigneuse, the +Princes de Cadignan and de Blamont-Chauvry, were delighted to present +the charming survivor of the wreck of an ancient family at court. + +Victurnien went to the Tuileries in a splendid carriage with his +armorial bearings on the panels; but his presentation to His Majesty +made it abundantly clear to him that the people occupied the royal +mind so much that his nobility was like to be forgotten. The restored +dynasty, moreover, was surrounded by triple ranks of eligible old men +and gray-headed courtiers; the young noblesse was reduced to a cipher, +and this Victurnien guessed at once. He saw that there was no suitable +place for him at court, nor in the government, nor the army, nor, +indeed, anywhere else. So he launched out into the world of pleasure. +Introduced at the Elyess-Bourbon, at the Duchesse d'Angouleme's, at +the Pavillon Marsan, he met on all sides with the surface civilities +due to the heir of an old family, not so old but it could be called to +mind by the sight of a living member. And, after all, it was not a +small thing to be remembered. In the distinction with which Victurnien +was honored lay the way to the peerage and a splendid marriage; he had +taken the field with a false appearance of wealth, and his vanity +would not allow him to declare his real position. Besides, he had been +so much complimented on the figure that he made, he was so pleased +with his first success, that, like many other young men, he felt +ashamed to draw back. He took a suite of rooms in the Rue du Bac, with +stables and a complete equipment for the fashionable life to which he +had committed himself. These preliminaries cost him fifty thousand +francs, which money, moreover, the young gentleman managed to draw in +spite of all Chesnel's wise precautions, thanks to a series of +unforeseen events. + +Chesnel's letter certainly reached his friend's office, but Maitre +Sorbier was dead; and Mme. Sorbier, a matter-of-fact person, seeing it +was a business letter, handed it on to her husband's successor. Maitre +Cardot, the new notary, informed the young Count that a draft on the +Treasury made payable to the deceased would be useless; and by way of +reply to the letter, which had cost the old provincial notary so much +thought, Cardot despatched four lines intended not to reach Chesnel's +heart, but to produce the money. Chesnel made the draft payable to +Sorbier's young successor; and the latter, feeling but little +inclination to adopt his correspondent's sentimentality, was delighted +to put himself at the Count's orders, and gave Victurnien as much +money as he wanted. + +Now those who know what life in Paris means, know that fifty thousand +francs will not go very far in furniture, horses, carriages, and +elegance generally; but it must be borne in mind that Victurnien +immediately contracted some twenty thousand francs' worth of debts +besides, and his tradespeople at first were not at all anxious to be +paid, for our young gentleman's fortune had been prodigiously +increased, partly by rumor, partly by Josephin, that Chesnel in +livery. + +Victurnien had not been in town a month before he was obliged to +repair to his man of business for ten thousand francs; he had only +been playing whist with the Ducs de Navarreins, de Chaulieu, and de +Lenoncourt, and now and again at his club. He had begun by winning +some thousands of francs but pretty soon lost five or six thousand, +which brought home to him the necessity of a purse for play. +Victurnien had the spirit that gains goodwill everywhere, and puts a +young man of a great family on a level with the very highest. He was +not merely admitted at once into the band of patrician youth, but was +even envied by the rest. It was intoxicating to him to feel that he +was envied, nor was he in this mood very likely to think of reform. +Indeed, he had completely lost his head. He would not think of the +means; he dipped into his money-bags as if they could be refilled +indefinitely; he deliberately shut his eyes to the inevitable results +of the system. In that dissipated set, in the continual whirl of +gaiety, people take the actors in their brilliant costumes as they +find them, no one inquires whether a man can afford to make the figure +he does, there is nothing in worse taste than inquiries as to ways and +means. A man ought to renew his wealth perpetually, and as Nature does +--below the surface and out of sight. People talk if somebody comes to +grief; they joke about a newcomer's fortune till their minds are set +at rest, and at this they draw the line. Victurnien d'Esgrignon, with +all the Faubourg Saint-Germain to back him, with all his protectors +exaggerating the amount of his fortune (were it only to rid themselves +of responsibility), and magnifying his possessions in the most refined +and well-bred way, with a hint or a word; with all these advantages +--to repeat--Victurnien was, in fact, an eligible Count. He was +handsome, witty, sound in politics; his father still possessed the +ancestral castle and the lands of the marquisate. Such a young fellow +is sure of an admirable reception in houses where there are +marriageable daughters, fair but portionless partners at dances, and +young married women who find that time hangs heavy on their hands. So +the world, smiling, beckoned him to the foremost benches in its booth; +the seats reserved for marquises are still in the same place in Paris; +and if the names are changed, the things are the same as ever. + +In the most exclusive circle of society in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, +Victurnien found the Chevalier's double in the person of the Vidame de +Pamiers. The Vidame was a Chevalier de Valois raised to the tenth +power, invested with all the prestige of wealth, enjoying all the +advantages of high position. The dear Vidame was a repositary for +everybody's secrets, and the gazette of the Faubourg besides; +nevertheless, he was discreet, and, like other gazettes, only said +things that might safely be published. Again Victurnien listened to +the Chevalier's esoteric doctrines. The Vidame told young d'Esgrignon, +without mincing matters, to make conquests among women of quality, +supplementing the advice with anecdotes from his own experience. The +Vicomte de Pamiers, it seemed, had permitted himself much that it +would serve no purpose to relate here; so remote was it all from our +modern manners, in which soul and passion play so large a part, that +nobody would believe it. But the excellent Vidame did more than this. + +"Dine with me at a tavern to-morrow," said he, by way of conclusion. +"We will digest our dinner at the Opera, and afterwards I will take +you to a house where several people have the greatest wish to meet +you." + +The Vidame gave a delightful little dinner at the Rocher de Cancale; +three guests only were asked to meet Victurnien--de Marsay, Rastignac, +and Blondet. Emile Blondet, the young Count's fellow-townsman, was a +man of letters on the outskirts of society to which he had been +introduced by a charming woman from the same province. This was one of +the Vicomte de Troisville's daughters, now married to the Comte de +Montcornet, one of those of Napoleon's generals who went over to the +Bourbons. The Vidame held that a dinner-party of more than six persons +was beneath contempt. In that case, according to him, there was an end +alike of cookery and conversation, and a man could not sip his wine in +a proper frame of mind. + +"I have not yet told you, my dear boy, where I mean to take you +to-night," he said, taking Victurnien's hands and tapping on them. +"You are going to see Mlle. des Touches; all the pretty women with any +pretensions to wit will be at her house en petit comite. Literature, +art, poetry, any sort of genius, in short, is held in great esteem +there. It is one of our old-world bureaux d'esprit, with a veneer of +monarchical doctrine, the livery of this present age." + +"It is sometimes as tiresome and tedious there as a pair of new boots, +but there are women with whom you cannot meet anywhere else," said de +Marsay. + +"If all the poets who went there to rub up their muse were like our +friend here," said Rastignac, tapping Blondet familiarly on the +shoulder, "we should have some fun. But a plague of odes, and ballads, +and driveling meditations, and novels with wide margins, pervades the +sofas and the atmosphere." + +"I don't dislike them," said de Marsay, "so long as they corrupt +girls' minds, and don't spoil women." + +"Gentlemen," smiled Blondet, "you are encroaching on my field of +literature." + +"You need not talk. You have robbed us of the most charming woman in +the world, you lucky rogue; we may be allowed to steal your less +brilliant ideas," cried Rastignac. + +"Yes, he is a lucky rascal," said the Vidame, and he twitched +Blondet's ear. "But perhaps Victurnien here will be luckier still this +evening----" + +"/Already/!" exclaimed de Marsay. "Why, he only came here a month ago; +he has scarcely had time to shake the dust of his old manor house off +his feet, to wipe off the brine in which his aunt kept him preserved; +he has only just set up a decent horse, a tilbury in the latest style, +a groom----" + +"No, no, not a groom," interrupted Rastignac; "he has some sort of an +agricultural laborer that he brought with him 'from his place.' +Buisson, who understands a livery as well as most, declared that the +man was physically incapable of wearing a jacket." + +"I will tell you what, you ought to have modeled yourself on +Beaudenord," the Vidame said seriously. "He has this advantage over +all of you, my young friends, he has a genuine specimen of the English +tiger----" + +"Just see, gentlemen, what the noblesse have come to in France!" cried +Victurnien. "For them the one important thing is to have a tiger, a +thoroughbred, and baubles----" + +"Bless me!" said Blondet. "'This gentleman's good sense at times +appalls me.'--Well, yes, young moralist, you nobles have come to that. +You have not even left to you that lustre of lavish expenditure for +which the dear Vidame was famous fifty years ago. We revel on a second +floor in the Rue Montorgueil. There are no more wars with the +Cardinal, no Field of the Cloth of Gold. You, Comte d'Esgrignon, in +short, are supping in the company of one Blondet, younger son of a +miserable provincial magistrate, with whom you would not shake hands +down yonder; and in ten years' time you may sit beside him among peers +of the realm. Believe in yourself after that, if you can." + +"Ah, well," said Rastignac, "we have passed from action to thought, +from brute force to force of intellect, we are talking----" + +"Let us not talk of our reverses," protested the Vidame; "I have made +up my mind to die merrily. If our friend here has not a tiger as yet, +he comes of a race of lions, and can dispense with one." + +"He cannot do without a tiger," said Blondet; "he is too newly come to +town." + +"His elegance may be new as yet," returned de Marsay, "but we are +adopting it. He is worthy of us, he understands his age, he has +brains, he is nobly born and gently bred; we are going to like him, +and serve him, and push him----" + +"Whither?" inquired Blondet. + +"Inquisitive soul!" said Rastignac. + +"With whom will he take up to-night?" de Marsay asked. + +"With a whole seraglio," said the Vidame. + +"Plague take it! What can we have done that the dear Vidame is +punishing us by keeping his word to the infanta? I should be pitiable +indeed if I did not know her----" + +"And I was once a coxcomb even as he," said the Vidame, indicating de +Marsay. + +The conversation continued pitched in the same key, charmingly +scandalous, and agreeably corrupt. The dinner went off very +pleasantly. Rastignac and de Marsay went to the Opera with the Vidame +and Victurnien, with a view to following them afterwards to Mlle. des +Touches' salon. And thither, accordingly, this pair of rakes betook +themselves, calculating that by that time the tragedy would have been +read; for of all things to be taken between eleven and twelve o'clock +at night, a tragedy in their opinion was the most unwholesome. They +went to keep a watch on Victurnien and to embarrass him, a piece of +schoolboys's mischief embittered by a jealous dandy's spite. But +Victurnien was gifted with that page's effrontery which is a great +help to ease of manner; and Rastignac, watching him as he made his +entrance, was surprised to see how quickly he caught the tone of the +moment. + +"That young d'Esgrignon will go far, will he not?" he said, addressing +his companion. + +"That is as may be," returned de Marsay, "but he is in a fair way." + + + +The Vidame introduced his young friend to one of the most amiable and +frivolous duchesses of the day, a lady whose adventures caused an +explosion five years later. Just then, however, she was in the full +blaze of her glory; she had been suspected, it is true, of equivocal +conduct; but suspicion, while it is still suspicion and not proof, +marks a woman out with the kind of distinction which slander gives to +a man. Nonentities are never slandered; they chafe because they are +left in peace. This woman was, in fact, the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, +a daughter of the d'Uxelles; her father-in-law was still alive; she +was not to be the Princesse de Cadignan for some years to come. A +friend of the Duchesse de Langeais and the Vicomtesse de Beauseant, +two glories departed, she was likewise intimate with the Marquise +d'Espard, with whom she disputed her fragile sovereignty as queen of +fashion. Great relations lent her countenance for a long while, but +the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse was one of those women who, in some way, +nobody knows how, or why, or where, will spend the rents of all the +lands of earth, and of the moon likewise, if they were not out of +reach. The general outline of her character was scarcely known as yet; +de Marsay, and de Marsay only, really had read her. That redoubtable +dandy now watched the Vidame de Pamiers' introduction of his young +friend to that lovely woman, and bent over to say in Rastignac's ear: + +"My dear fellow, he will go up /whizz/! like a rocket, and come down +like a stick," an atrociously vulgar saying which was remarkably +fulfilled. + +The Duchesse de Maufrigneuse had lost her heart to Victurnien after +first giving her mind to a serious study of him. Any lover who should +have caught the glance by which she expressed her gratitude to the +Vidame might well have been jealous of such friendship. Women are like +horses let loose on a steppe when they feel, as the Duchess felt with +the Vidame de Pamiers, that the ground is safe; at such moments they +are themselves; perhaps it pleases them to give, as it were, samples +of their tenderness in intimacy in this way. It was a guarded glance, +nothing was lost between eye and eye; there was no possibility of +reflection in any mirror. Nobody intercepted it. + +"See how she has prepared herself," Rastignac said, turning to de +Marsay. "What a virginal toilette; what swan's grace in that +snow-white throat of hers! How white her gown is, and she is wearing +a sash like a little girl; she looks round like a madonna inviolate. +Who would think that you had passed that way?" + +"The very reason why she looks as she does," returned de Marsay, with +a triumphant air. + +The two young men exchanged a smile. Mme. de Maufrigneuse saw the +smile and guessed at their conversation, and gave the pair a broadside +of her eyes, an art acquired by Frenchwomen since the Peace, when +Englishwomen imported it into this country, together with the shape of +their silver plate, their horses and harness, and the piles of insular +ice which impart a refreshing coolness to the atmosphere of any room +in which a certain number of British females are gathered together. +The young men grew serious as a couple of clerks at the end of a +homily from headquarters before the receipt of an expected bonus. + +The Duchess when she lost her heart to Victurnien had made up her mind +to play the part of romantic Innocence, a role much understudied +subsequently by other women, for the misfortune of modern youth. Her +Grace of Maufrigneuse had just come out as an angel at a moment's +notice, precisely as she meant to turn to literature and science +somewhere about her fortieth year instead of taking to devotion. She +made a point of being like nobody else. Her parts, her dresses, her +caps, opinions, toilettes, and manner of acting were all entirely new +and original. Soon after her marriage, when she was scarcely more than +a girl, she had played the part of a knowing and almost depraved +woman; she ventured on risky repartees with shallow people, and +betrayed her ignorance to those who knew better. As the date of that +marriage made it impossible to abstract one little year from her age +without the knowledge of Time, she had taken it into her head to be +immaculate. She scarcely seemed to belong to earth; she shook out her +wide sleeves as if they had been wings. Her eyes fled to heaven at too +warm a glance, or word, or thought. + +There is a madonna painted by Piola, the great Genoese painter, who +bade fair to bring out a second edition of Raphael till his career was +cut short by jealousy and murder; his madonna, however, you may dimly +discern through a pane of glass in a little street in Genoa. + +A more chaste-eyed madonna than Piola's does not exist but compared +with Mme. de Maufrigneuse, that heavenly creature was a Messalina. +Women wondered among themselves how such a giddy young thing had been +transformed by a change of dress into the fair veiled seraph who +seemed (to use an expression now in vogue) to have a soul as white as +new fallen snow on the highest Alpine crests. How had she solved in +such short space the Jesuitical problem how to display a bosom whiter +than her soul by hiding it in gauze? How could she look so ethereal +while her eyes drooped so murderously? Those almost wanton glances +seemed to give promise of untold languorous delight, while by an +ascetic's sigh of aspiration after a better life the mouth appeared to +add that none of those promises would be fulfilled. Ingenuous youths +(for there were a few to be found in the Guards of that day) privately +wondered whether, in the most intimate moments, it were possible to +speak familiarly to this White Lady, this starry vapor slidden down +from the Milky Way. This system, which answered completely for some +years at a stretch, was turned to good account by women of fashion, +whose breasts were lined with a stout philosophy, for they could cloak +no inconsiderable exactions with these little airs from the sacristy. +Not one of the celestial creatures but was quite well aware of the +possibilities of less ethereal love which lay in the longing of every +well-conditioned male to recall such beings to earth. It was a fashion +which permitted them to abide in a semi-religious, semi-Ossianic +empyrean; they could, and did, ignore all the practical details of +daily life, a short and easy method of disposing of many questions. De +Marsay, foreseeing the future developments of the system, added a last +word, for he saw that Rastignac was jealous of Victurnien. + +"My boy," said he, "stay as you are. Our Nucingen will make your +fortune, whereas the Duchess would ruin you. She is too expensive." + +Rastignac allowed de Marsay to go without asking further questions. He +knew Paris. He knew that the most refined and noble and disinterested +of women--a woman who cannot be induced to accept anything but a +bouquet--can be as dangerous an acquaintance for a young man as any +opera girl of former days. As a matter of fact, the opera girl is an +almost mythical being. As things are now at the theatres, dancers and +actresses are about as amusing as a declaration of the rights of +woman, they are puppets that go abroad in the morning in the character +of respected and respectable mothers of families, and act men's parts +in tight-fitting garments at night. + +Worthy M. Chesnel, in his country notary's office, was right; he had +foreseen one of the reefs on which the Count might shipwreck. +Victurnien was dazzled by the poetic aureole which Mme. de +Maufrigneuse chose to assume; he was chained and padlocked from the +first hour in her company, bound captive by that girlish sash, and +caught by the curls twined round fairy fingers. Far corrupted the boy +was already, but he really believed in that farrago of maidenliness +and muslin, in sweet looks as much studied as an Act of Parliament. +And if the one man, who is in duty bound to believe in feminine fibs, +is deceived by them, is not that enough? + +For a pair of lovers, the rest of their species are about as much +alive as figures on the tapestry. The Duchess, flattery apart, was +avowedly and admittedly one of the ten handsomest women in society. +"The loveliest woman in Paris" is, as you know, as often met with in +the world of love-making as "the finest book that has appeared in this +generation," in the world of letters. + +The converse which Victurnien held with the Duchess can be kept up at +his age without too great a strain. He was young enough and ignorant +enough of life in Paris to feel no necessity to be upon his guard, no +need to keep a watch over his lightest words and glances. The +religious sentimentalism, which finds a broadly humorous commentary in +the after-thoughts of either speaker, puts the old-world French chat +of men and women, with its pleasant familiarity, its lively ease, +quite out of the question; they make love in a mist nowadays. + +Victurnien was just sufficient of an unsophisticated provincial to +remain suspended in a highly appropriate and unfeigned rapture which +pleased the Duchess; for women are no more to be deceived by the +comedies which men play than by their own. Mme. de Maufrigneuse +calculated, not without dismay, that the young Count's infatuation was +likely to hold good for six whole months of disinterested love. She +looked so lovely in this dove's mood, quenching the light in her eyes +by the golden fringe of their lashes, that when the Marquise d'Espard +bade her friend good-night, she whispered, "Good! very good, dear!" +And with those farewell words, the fair Marquise left her rival to +make the tour of the modern Pays du Tendre; which, by the way, is not +so absurd a conception as some appear to think. New maps of the +country are engraved for each generation; and if the names of the +routes are different, they still lead to the same capital city. + +In the course of an hour's tete-a-tete, on a corner sofa, under the +eyes of the world, the Duchess brought young d'Esgrignon as far as +Scipio's Generosity, the Devotion of Amadis, and Chivalrous +Self-abnegation (for the Middle Ages were just coming into fashion, +with their daggers, machicolations, hauberks, chain-mail, peaked shoes, +and romantic painted card-board properties). She had an admirable turn, +moreover, for leaving things unsaid, for leaving ideas in a discreet, +seeming careless way, to work their way down, one by one, into +Victurnien's heart, like needles into a cushion. She possessed a +marvelous skill in reticence; she was charming in hypocrisy, lavish of +subtle promises, which revived hope and then melted away like ice in +the sun if you looked at them closely, and most treacherous in the +desire which she felt and inspired. At the close of this charming +encounter she produced the running noose of an invitation to call, and +flung it over him with a dainty demureness which the printed page can +never set forth. + +"You will forget me," she said. "You will find so many women eager to +pay court to you instead of enlightening you. . . . But you will come +back to me undeceived. Are you coming to me first? . . . No. As you +will.--For my own part, I tell you frankly that your visits will be a +great pleasure to me. People of soul are so rare, and I think that you +are one of them.--Come, good-bye; people will begin to talk about us +if we talk together any longer." + +She made good her words and took flight. Victurnien went soon +afterwards, but not before others had guessed his ecstatic condition; +his face wore the expression peculiar to happy men, something between +an Inquisitor's calm discretion and the self-contained beatitude of a +devotee, fresh from the confessional and absolution. + +"Mme. de Maufrigneuse went pretty briskly to the point this evening," +said the Duchesse de Grandlieu, when only half-a-dozen persons were +left in Mlle. des Touches' little drawing-room--to wit, des Lupeaulx, +a Master of Requests, who at that time stood very well at court, +Vandenesse, the Vicomtesse de Grandlieu, Canalis, and Mme. de Serizy. + +"D'Esgrignon and Maufrigneuse are two names that are sure to cling +together," said Mme. de Serizy, who aspired to epigram. + +"For some days past she has been out at grass on Platonism," said des +Lupeaulx. + +"She will ruin that poor innocent," added Charles de Vandenesse. + +"What do you mean?" asked Mlle. des Touches. + +"Oh, morally and financially, beyond all doubt," said the Vicomtesse, +rising. + +The cruel words were cruelly true for young d'Esgrignon. + +Next morning he wrote to his aunt describing his introduction into the +high world of the Faubourg Saint-Germain in bright colors flung by the +prism of love, explaining the reception which met him everywhere in a +way which gratified his father's family pride. The Marquis would have +the whole long letter read to him twice; he rubbed his hands when he +heard of the Vidame de Pamiers' dinner--the Vidame was an old +acquaintance--and of the subsequent introduction to the Duchess; but +at Blondet's name he lost himself in conjectures. What could the +younger son of a judge, a public prosecutor during the Revolution, +have been doing there? + +There was joy that evening among the Collection of Antiquities. They +talked over the young Count's success. So discreet were they with +regard to Mme. de Maufrigneuse, that the one man who heard the secret +was the Chevalier. There was no financial postscript at the end of the +letter, no unpleasant reference to the sinews of war, which every +young man makes in such a case. Mlle. Armande showed it to Chesnel. +Chesnel was pleased and raised not a single objection. It was clear, +as the Marquis and the Chevalier agreed, that a young man in favor +with the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse would shortly be a hero at court, +where in the old days women were all-powerful. The Count had not made +a bad choice. The dowagers told over all the gallant adventures of the +Maufrigneuses from Louis XIII. to Louis XVI.--they spared to inquire +into preceding reigns--and when all was done they were enchanted. +--Mme. de Maufrigneuse was much praised for interesting herself in +Victurnien. Any writer of plays in search of a piece of pure comedy +would have found it well worth his while to listen to the Antiquities +in conclave. + + + +Victurnien received charming letters from his father and aunt, and +also from the Chevalier. That gentleman recalled himself to the +Vidame's memory. He had been at Spa with M. de Pamiers in 1778, after +a certain journey made by a celebrated Hungarian princess. And Chesnel +also wrote. The fond flattery to which the unhappy boy was only too +well accustomed shone out of every page; and Mlle. Armande seemed to +share half of Mme. de Maufrigneuse's happiness. + +Thus happy in the approval of his family, the young Count made a +spirited beginning in the perilous and costly ways of dandyism. He had +five horses--he was moderate--de Marsay had fourteen! He returned the +Vidame's hospitality, even including Blondet in the invitation, as +well as de Marsay and Rastignac. The dinner cost five hundred francs, +and the noble provincial was feted on the same scale. Victurnien +played a good deal, and, for his misfortune, at the fashionable game +of whist. + +He laid out his days in busy idleness. Every day between twelve and +three o'clock he was with the Duchess; afterwards he went to meet her +in the Bois de Boulogne and ride beside her carriage. Sometimes the +charming couple rode together, but this was early in fine summer +mornings. Society, balls, the theatre, and gaiety filled the Count's +evening hours. Everywhere Victurnien made a brilliant figure, +everywhere he flung the pearls of his wit broadcast. He gave his +opinion on men, affairs, and events in profound sayings; he would have +put you in mind of a fruit-tree putting forth all its strength in +blossom. He was leading an enervating life wasteful of money, and even +yet more wasteful, it may be of a man's soul; in that life the fairest +talents are buried out of sight, the most incorruptible honesty +perishes, the best-tempered springs of will are slackened. + +The Duchess, so white and fragile and angel-like, felt attracted to +the dissipations of bachelor life; she enjoyed first nights, she liked +anything amusing, anything improvised. Bohemian restaurants lay +outside her experience; so d'Esgrignon got up a charming little party +at the Rocher de Cancale for her benefit, asked all the amiable scamps +whom she cultivated and sermonized, and there was a vast amount of +merriment, wit, and gaiety, and a corresponding bill to pay. That +supper led to others. And through it all Victurnien worshiped her as +an angel. Mme. de Maufrigneuse for him was still an angel, untouched +by any taint of earth; an angel at the Varietes, where she sat out the +half-obscene, vulgar farces, which made her laugh; an angel through +the cross-fire of highly-flavored jests and scandalous anecdotes, +which enlivened a stolen frolic; a languishing angel in the latticed +box at the Vaudeville; an angel while she criticised the postures of +opera dancers with the experience of an elderly habitue of le coin de +la reine; an angel at the Porte Saint-Martin, at the little boulevard +theatres, at the masked balls, which she enjoyed like any schoolboy. +She was an angel who asked him for the love that lives by +self-abnegation and heroism and self-sacrifice; an angel who would have +her lover live like an English lord, with an income of a million francs. +D'Esgrignon once exchanged a horse because the animal's coat did not +satisfy her notions. At play she was an angel, and certainly no +bourgeoise that ever lived could have bidden d'Esgrignon "Stake for +me!" in such an angelic way. She was so divinely reckless in her +folly, that a man might well have sold his soul to the devil lest this +angel should lose her taste for earthly pleasures. + + + +The first winter went by. The Count had drawn on M. Cardot for the +trifling sum of thirty thousand francs over and above Chesnel's +remittance. As Cardot very carefully refrained from using his right of +remonstrance, Victurnien now learned for the first time that he had +overdrawn his account. He was the more offended by an extremely polite +refusal to make any further advance, since it so happened that he had +just lost six thousand francs at play at the club, and he could not +very well show himself there until they were paid. + +After growing indignant with Maitre Cardot, who had trusted him with +thirty thousand francs (Cardot had written to Chesnel, but to the fair +Duchess' favorite he made the most of his so-called confidence in +him), after all this, d'Esgrignon was obliged to ask the lawyer to +tell him how to set about raising the money, since debts of honor were +in question. + +"Draw bills on your father's banker, and take them to his +correspondent; he, no doubt, will discount them for you. Then write to +your family, and tell them to remit the amount to the banker." + +An inner voice seemed to suggest du Croisier's name in this +predicament. He had seen du Croisier on his knees to the aristocracy, +and of the man's real disposition he was entirely ignorant. So to du +Croisier he wrote a very offhand letter, informing him that he had +drawn a bill of exchange on him for ten thousand francs, adding that +the amount would be repaid on receipt of the letter either by M. +Chesnel or by Mlle. Armande d'Esgrignon. Then he indited two touching +epistles--one to Chesnel, another to his aunt. In the matter of going +headlong to ruin, a young man often shows singular ingenuity and +ability, and fortune favors him. In the morning Victurnien happened on +the name of the Paris bankers in correspondence with du Croisier, and +de Marsay furnished him with the Kellers' address. De Marsay knew +everything in Paris. The Kellers took the bill and gave him the sum +without a word, after deducting the discount. The balance of the +account was in du Croisier's favor. + +But the gaming debt was as nothing in comparison with the state of +things at home. Invoices showered in upon Victurnien. + +"I say! Do you trouble yourself about that sort of thing?" Rastignac +said, laughing. "Are you putting them in order, my dear boy? I did not +think you were so business-like." + +"My dear fellow, it is quite time I thought about it; there are twenty +odd thousand francs there." + +De Marsay, coming in to look up d'Esgrignon for a steeplechase, +produced a dainty little pocket-book, took out twenty thousand francs, +and handed them to him. + +"It is the best way of keeping the money safe," said he; "I am twice +enchanted to have won it yesterday from my honored father, Milord +Dudley." + +Such French grace completely fascinated d'Esgrignon; he took it for +friendship; and as to the money, punctually forgot to pay his debts +with it, and spent it on his pleasures. The fact was that de Marsay +was looking on with an unspeakable pleasure while young d'Esgrignon +"got out of his depth," in dandy's idiom; it pleased de Marsay in all +sorts of fondling ways to lay an arm on the lad's shoulder; by and by +he should feel its weight, and disappear the sooner. For de Marsay was +jealous; the Duchess flaunted her love affair; she was not at home to +other visitors when d'Esgrignon was with her. And besides, de Marsay +was one of those savage humorists who delight in mischief, as Turkish +women in the bath. So when he had carried off the prize, and bets were +settled at the tavern where they breakfasted, and a bottle or two of +good wine had appeared, de Marsay turned to d'Esgrignon with a laugh: + +"Those bills that you are worrying over are not yours, I am sure." + +"Eh! if they weren't, why should he worry himself?" asked Rastignac. + +"And whose should they be?" d'Esgrignon inquired. + +"Then you do not know the Duchess' position?" queried de Marsay, as he +sprang into the saddle. + +"No," said d'Esgrignon, his curiosity aroused. + +"Well, dear fellow, it is like this," returned de Marsay--"thirty +thousand francs to Victorine, eighteen thousand francs to Houbigaut, +lesser amounts to Herbault, Nattier, Nourtier, and those Latour +people,--altogether a hundred thousand francs." + +"An angel!" cried d'Esgrignon, with eyes uplifted to heaven. + +"This is the bill for her wings," Rastignac cried facetiously. + +"She owes all that, my dear boy," continued de Marsay, "precisely +because she is an angel. But we have all seen angels in this +position," he added, glancing at Rastignac; "there is this about women +that is sublime: they understand nothing of money; they do not meddle +with it, it is no affair of theirs; they are invited guests at the +'banquet of life,' as some poet or other said that came to an end in +the workhouse." + +"How do you know this when I do not?" d'Esgrignon artlessly returned. + +"You are sure to be the last to know it, just as she is sure to be the +last to hear that you are in debt." + +"I thought she had a hundred thousand livres a year," said +d'Esgrignon. + +"Her husband," replied de Marsay, "lives apart from her. He stays with +his regiment and practises economy, for he has one or two little debts +of his own as well, has our dear Duke. Where do you come from? Just +learn to do as we do and keep our friends' accounts for them. Mlle. +Diane (I fell in love with her for the name's sake), Mlle. Diane +d'Uxelles brought her husband sixty thousand livres of income; for the +last eight years she has lived as if she had two hundred thousand. It +is perfectly plain that at this moment her lands are mortgaged up to +their full value; some fine morning the crash must come, and the angel +will be put to flight by--must it be said?--by sheriff's officers that +have the effrontery to lay hands on an angel just as they might take +hold of one of us." + +"Poor angel!" + +"Lord! it costs a great deal to dwell in a Parisian heaven; you must +whiten your wings and your complexion every morning," said Rastignac. + +Now as the thought of confessing his debts to his beloved Diane had +passed through d'Esgrignon's mind, something like a shudder ran +through him when he remembered that he still owed sixty thousand +francs, to say nothing of bills to come for another ten thousand. He +went back melancholy enough. His friends remarked his ill-disguised +preoccupation, and spoke of it among themselves at dinner. + +"Young d'Esgrignon is getting out of his depth. He is not up to Paris. +He will blow his brains out. A little fool!" and so on and so on. + +D'Esgrignon, however, promptly took comfort. His servant brought him +two letters. The first was from Chesnel. A letter from Chesnel smacked +of the stale grumbling faithfulness of honesty and its consecrated +formulas. With all respect he put it aside till the evening. But the +second letter he read with unspeakable pleasure. In Ciceronian +phrases, du Croisier groveled before him, like a Sganarelle before a +Geronte, begging the young Count in future to spare him the affront of +first depositing the amount of the bills which he should condescend to +draw. The concluding phrase seemed meant to convey the idea that here +was an open cashbox full of coin at the service of the noble +d'Esgrignon family. So strong was the impression that Victurnien, like +Sganarelle or Mascarille in the play, like everybody else who feels a +twinge of conscience at his finger-tips, made an involuntary gesture. + +Now that he was sure of unlimited credit with the Kellers, he opened +Chesnel's letter gaily. He had expected four full pages, full of +expostulation to the brim; he glanced down the sheet for the familiar +words "prudence," "honor," "determination to do right," and the like, +and saw something else instead which made his head swim. + + "MONSIEUR LE COMTE,--Of all my fortune I have now but two hundred + thousand francs left. I beg of you not to exceed that amount, if + you should do one of the most devoted servants of your family the + honor of taking it. I present my respects to you. + + CHESNEL." + + +"He is one of Plutarch's men," Victurnien said to himself, as he +tossed the letter on the table. He felt chagrined; such magnanimity +made him feel very small. + +"There! one must reform," he thought; and instead of going to a +restaurant and spending fifty or sixty francs over his dinner, he +retrenched by dining with the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, and told her +about the letter. + +"I should like to see that man," she said, letting her eyes shine like +two fixed stars. + +"What would you do?" + +"Why, he should manage my affairs for me." + +Diane de Maufrigneuse was divinely dressed; she meant her toilet to do +honor to Victurnien. The levity with which she treated his affairs or, +more properly speaking, his debts fascinated him. + +The charming pair went to the Italiens. Never had that beautiful and +enchanting woman looked more seraphic, more ethereal. Nobody in the +house could have believed that she had debts which reached the sum +total mentioned by de Marsay that very morning. No single one of the +cares of earth had touched that sublime forehead of hers, full of +woman's pride of the highest kind. In her, a pensive air seemed to be +some gleam of an earthly love, nobly extinguished. The men for the +most part were wagering that Victurnien, with his handsome figure, +laid her under contribution; while the women, sure of their rival's +subterfuge, admired her as Michael Angelo admired Raphael, in petto. +Victurnien loved Diane, according to one of these ladies, for the sake +of her hair--she had the most beautiful fair hair in France; another +maintained that Diane's pallor was her principal merit, for she was +not really well shaped, her dress made the most of her figure; yet +others thought that Victurnien loved her for her foot, her one good +point, for she had a flat figure. But (and this brings the present-day +manner of Paris before you in an astonishing manner) whereas all the +men said that the Duchess was subsidizing Victurnien's splendor, the +women, on the other hand, gave people to understand that it was +Victurnien who paid for the angel's wings, as Rastignac said. + +As they drove back again, Victurnien had it on the tip of his tongue a +score of times to open this chapter, for the Duchess' debts weighed +more heavily upon his mind than his own; and a score of times his +purpose died away before the attitude of the divine creature beside +him. He could see her by the light of the carriage lamps; she was +bewitching in the love-languor which always seemed to be extorted by +the violence of passion from her madonna's purity. The Duchess did not +fall into the mistake of talking of her virtue, of her angel's estate, +as provincial women, her imitators, do. She was far too clever. She +made him, for whom she made such great sacrifices, think these things +for himself. At the end of six months she could make him feel that a +harmless kiss on her hand was a deadly sin; she contrived that every +grace should be extorted from her, and this with such consummate art, +that it was impossible not to feel that she was more an angel than +ever when she yielded. + +None but Parisian women are clever enough always to give a new charm +to the moon, to romanticize the stars, to roll in the same sack of +charcoal and emerge each time whiter than ever. This is the highest +refinement of intellectual and Parisian civilization. Women beyond the +Rhine or the English Channel believe nonsense of this sort when they +utter it; while your Parisienne makes her lover believe that she is an +angel, the better to add to his bliss by flattering his vanity on both +sides--temporal and spiritual. Certain persons, detractors of the +Duchess, maintain that she was the first dupe of her own white magic. +A wicked slander. The Duchess believed in nothing but herself. + +By the end of the year 1823 the Kellers had supplied Victurnien with +two hundred thousand francs, and neither Chesnel nor Mlle. Armande +knew anything about it. He had had, besides, two thousand crowns from +Chesnel at one time and another, the better to hide the sources on +which he was drawing. He wrote lying letters to his poor father and +aunt, who lived on, happy and deceived, like most happy people under +the sun. The insidious current of life in Paris was bringing a +dreadful catastrophe upon the great and noble house; and only one +person was in the secret of it. This was du Croisier. He rubbed his +hands gleefully as he went past in the dark and looked in at the +Antiquities. He had good hope of attaining his ends; and his ends were +not, as heretofore, the simple ruin of the d'Esgrignons, but the +dishonor of their house. He felt instinctively at such times that his +revenge was at hand; he scented it in the wind! He had been sure of it +indeed from the day when he discovered that the young Count's burden +of debt was growing too heavy for the boy to bear. + +Du Croisier's first step was to rid himself of his most hated enemy, +the venerable Chesnel. The good old man lived in the Rue du Bercail, +in a house with a steep-pitched roof. There was a little paved +courtyard in front, where the rose-bushes grew and clambered up to the +windows of the upper story. Behind lay a little country garden, with +its box-edged borders, shut in by damp, gloomy-looking walls. The +prim, gray-painted street door, with its wicket opening and bell +attached, announced quite as plainly as the official scutcheon that "a +notary lives here." + +It was half-past five o'clock in the afternoon, at which hour the +old man usually sat digesting his dinner. He had drawn his black +leather-covered armchair before the fire, and put on his armor, a +painted pasteboard contrivance shaped like a top boot, which protected +his stockinged legs from the heat of the fire; for it was one of the +good man's habits to sit for a while after dinner with his feet on the +dogs and to stir up the glowing coals. He always ate too much; he was +fond of good living. Alas! if it had not been for that little failing, +would he not have been more perfect than it is permitted to mortal man +to be? Chesnel had finished his cup of coffee. His old housekeeper had +just taken away the tray which had been used for the purpose for the +last twenty years. He was waiting for his clerks to go before he +himself went out for his game at cards, and meanwhile he was thinking +--no need to ask of whom or what. A day seldom passed but he asked +himself, "Where is /he/? What is /he/ doing?" He thought that the Count +was in Italy with the fair Duchesse de Maufrigneuse. + +When every franc of a man's fortune has come to him, not by +inheritance, but through his own earning and saving, it is one of his +sweetest pleasures to look back upon the pains that have gone to the +making of it, and then to plan out a future for his crowns. This it is +to conjugate the verb "to enjoy" in every tense. And the old lawyer, +whose affections were all bound up in a single attachment, was +thinking that all the carefully-chosen, well-tilled land which he had +pinched and scraped to buy would one day go to round the d'Esgrignon +estates, and the thought doubled his pleasure. His pride swelled as he +sat at his ease in the old armchair; and the building of glowing +coals, which he raised with the tongs, sometimes seemed to him to be +the old noble house built up again, thanks to his care. He pictured +the young Count's prosperity, and told himself that he had done well +to live for such an aim. Chesnel was not lacking in intelligence; +sheer goodness was not the sole source of his great devotion; he had a +pride of his own; he was like the nobles who used to rebuild a pillar +in a cathedral to inscribe their name upon it; he meant his name to be +remembered by the great house which he had restored. Future +generations of d'Esgrignons should speak of old Chesnel. Just at this +point his old housekeeper came in with signs of alarm in her +countenance. + +"Is the house on fire, Brigitte?" + +"Something of the sort," said she. "Here is M. du Croisier wanting to +speak to you----" + +"M. du Croisier," repeated the old lawyer. A stab of cold misgiving +gave him so sharp a pang at the heart that he dropped the tongs. "M. +du Croisier here!" thought he, "our chief enemy!" + +Du Croisier came in at that moment, like a cat that scents milk in a +dairy. He made a bow, seated himself quietly in the easy-chair which +the lawyer brought forward, and produced a bill for two hundred and +twenty-seven thousand francs, principal and interest, the total amount +of sums advanced to M. Victurnien in bills of exchange drawn upon du +Croisier, and duly honored by him. Of these, he now demanded immediate +payment, with a threat of proceeding to extremities with the +heir-presumptive of the house. Chesnel turned the unlucky letters over +one by one, and asked the enemy to keep the secret. This he engaged to +do if he were paid within forty-eight hours. He was pressed for money +he had obliged various manufacturers; and there followed a series of +the financial fictions by which neither notaries nor borrowers are +deceived. Chesnel's eyes were dim; he could scarcely keep back the +tears. There was but one way of raising the money; he must mortgage +his own lands up to their full value. But when du Croisier learned the +difficulty in the way of repayment, he forgot that he was hard +pressed; he no longer wanted ready money, and suddenly came out with a +proposal to buy the old lawyer's property. The sale was completed +within two days. Poor Chesnel could not bear the thought of the son of +the house undergoing a five years' imprisonment for debt. So in a few +days' time nothing remained to him but his practice, the sums that +were due to him, and the house in which he lived. Chesnel, stripped of +all his lands, paced to and fro in his private office, paneled with +dark oak, his eyes fixed on the beveled edges of the chestnut +cross-beams of the ceiling, or on the trellised vines in the garden +outside. He was not thinking of his farms now, or of Le Jard, his dear +house in the country; not he. + +"What will become of him? He ought to come back; they must marry him +to some rich heiress," he said to himself; and his eyes were dim, his +head heavy. + +How to approach Mlle. Armande, and in what words to break the news to +her, he did not know. The man who had just paid the debts of the +family quaked at the thought of confessing these things. He went from +the Rue du Bercail to the Hotel d'Esgrignon with pulses throbbing like +some girl's heart when she leaves her father's roof by stealth, not to +return again till she is a mother and her heart is broken. + +Mlle. Armande had just received a charming letter, charming in its +hypocrisy. Her nephew was the happiest man under the sun. He had been +to the baths, he had been traveling in Italy with Mme. de +Maufrigneuse, and now sent his journal to his aunt. Every sentence was +instinct with love. There were enchanting descriptions of Venice, and +fascinating appreciations of the great works of Venetian art; there +were most wonderful pages full of the Duomo at Milan, and again of +Florence; he described the Apennines, and how they differed from the +Alps, and how in some village like Chiavari happiness lay all around +you, ready made. + +The poor aunt was under the spell. She saw the far-off country of +love, she saw, hovering above the land, the angel whose tenderness +gave to all that beauty a burning glow. She was drinking in the letter +at long draughts; how should it have been otherwise? The girl who had +put love from her was now a woman ripened by repressed and pent-up +passion, by all the longings continually and gladly offered up as a +sacrifice on the altar of the hearth. Mlle. Armande was not like the +Duchess. She did not look like an angel. She was rather like the +little, straight, slim and slender, ivory-tinted statues, which those +wonderful sculptors, the builders of cathedrals, placed here and there +about the buildings. Wild plants sometimes find a hold in the damp +niches, and weave a crown of beautiful bluebell flowers about the +carved stone. At this moment the blue buds were unfolding in the fair +saint's eyes. Mlle. Armande loved the charming couple as if they stood +apart from real life; she saw nothing wrong in a married woman's love +for Victurnien; any other woman she would have judged harshly; but in +this case, not to have loved her nephew would have been the +unpardonable sin. Aunts, mothers, and sisters have a code of their own +for nephews and sons and brothers. + +Mlle. Armande was in Venice; she saw the lines of fairy palaces that +stand on either side of the Grand Canal; she was sitting in +Victurnien's gondola; he was telling her what happiness it had been to +feel that the Duchess' beautiful hand lay in his own, to know that she +loved him as they floated together on the breast of the amorous Queen +of Italian seas. But even in that moment of bliss, such as angels +know, some one appeared in the garden walk. It was Chesnel! Alas! the +sound of his tread on the gravel might have been the sound of the +sands running from Death's hour-glass to be trodden under his unshod +feet. The sound, the sight of a dreadful hopelessness in Chesnel's +face, gave her that painful shock which follows a sudden recall of the +senses when the soul has sent them forth into the world of dreams. + +"What is it?" she cried, as if some stab had pierced to her heart. + +"All is lost!" said Chesnel. "M. le Comte will bring dishonor upon the +house if we do not set it in order." He held out the bills, and +described the agony of the last few days in a few simple but vigorous +and touching words. + +"He is deceiving us! The miserable boy!" cried Mlle. Armande, her +heart swelling as the blood surged back to it in heavy throbs. + +"Let us both say mea culpa, mademoiselle," the old lawyer said +stoutly; "we have always allowed him to have his own way; he needed +stern guidance; he could not have it from you with your inexperience +of life; nor from me, for he would not listen to me. He has had no +mother." + +"Fate sometimes deals terribly with a noble house in decay," said +Mlle. Armande, with tears in her eyes. + +The Marquis came up as she spoke. He had been walking up and down the +garden while he read the letter sent by his son after his return. +Victurnien gave his itinerary from an aristocrat's point of view; +telling how he had been welcomed by the greatest Italian families of +Genoa, Turin, Milan, Florence, Venice, Rome, and Naples. This +flattering reception he owed to his name, he said, and partly, +perhaps, to the Duchess as well. In short, he had made his appearance +magnificently, and as befitted a d'Esgrignon. + +"Have you been at your old tricks, Chesnel?" asked the Marquis. + +Mlle. Armande made Chesnel an eager sign, dreadful to see. They +understood each other. The poor father, the flower of feudal honor, +must die with all his illusions. A compact of silence and devotion was +ratified between the two noble hearts by a simple inclination of the +head. + +"Ah! Chesnel, it was not exactly in this way that the d'Esgrignons +went into Italy at the end of the fourteenth century, when Marshal +Trivulzio, in the service of the King of France, served under a +d'Esgrignon, who had a Bayard too under his orders. Other times, other +pleasures. And, for that matter, the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse is at +least the equal of a Marchesa di Spinola." + +And, on the strength of his genealogical tree, the old man swung +himself off with a coxcomb's air, as if he himself had once made a +conquest of the Marchesa di Spinola, and still possessed the Duchess +of to-day. + +The two companions in unhappiness were left together on the garden +bench, with the same thought for a bond of union. They sat for a long +time, saying little save vague, unmeaning words, watching the father +walk away in his happiness, gesticulating as if he were talking to +himself. + +"What will become of him now?" Mlle. Armande asked after a while. + +"Du Croisier has sent instructions to the MM. Keller; he is not to be +allowed to draw any more without authorization." + +"And there are debts," continued Mlle. Armande. + +"I am afraid so." + +"If he is left without resources, what will he do?" + +"I dare not answer that question to myself." + +"But he must be drawn out of that life, he must come back to us, or he +will have nothing left." + +"And nothing else left to him," Chesnel said gloomily. But Mlle. +Armande as yet did not and could not understand the full force of +those words. + +"Is there any hope of getting him away from that woman, that Duchess? +Perhaps she leads him on." + +"He would not stick at a crime to be with her," said Chesnel, trying +to pave the way to an intolerable thought by others less intolerable. + +"Crime," repeated Mlle. Armande. "Oh, Chesnel, no one but you would +think of such a thing!" she added, with a withering look; before such +a look from a woman's eyes no mortal can stand. "There is but one +crime that a noble can commit--the crime of high treason; and when he +is beheaded, the block is covered with a black cloth, as it is for +kings." + +"The times have changed very much," said Chesnel, shaking his head. +Victurnien had thinned his last thin, white hairs. "Our Martyr-King +did not die like the English King Charles." + +That thought soothed Mlle. Armande's splendid indignation; a shudder +ran through her; but still she did not realize what Chesnel meant. + +"To-morrow we will decide what we must do," she said; "it needs +thought. At the worst, we have our lands." + +"Yes," said Chesnel. "You and M. le Marquis own the estate conjointly; +but the larger part of it is yours. You can raise money upon it +without saying a word to him." + +The players at whist, reversis, boston, and backgammon noticed that +evening that Mlle. Armande's features, usually so serene and pure, +showed signs of agitation. + +"That poor heroic child!" said the old Marquise de Casteran, "she must +be suffering still. A woman never knows what her sacrifices to her +family may cost her." + +Next day it was arranged with Chesnel that Mlle. Armande should go to +Paris to snatch her nephew from perdition. If any one could carry off +Victurnien, was it not the woman whose motherly heart yearned over +him? Mlle. Armande made up her mind that she would go to the Duchesse +de Maufrigneuse and tell her all. Still, some sort of pretext was +necessary to explain the journey to the Marquis and the whole town. At +some cost to her maidenly delicacy, Mlle. Armande allowed it to be +thought that she was suffering from a complaint which called for a +consultation of skilled and celebrated physicians. Goodness knows +whether the town talked of this or no! But Mlle. Armande saw that +something far more than her own reputation was at stake. She set out. +Chesnel brought her his last bag of louis; she took it, without paying +any attention to it, as she took her white capuchine and thread +mittens. + +"Generous girl! What grace!" he said, as he put her into the carriage +with her maid, a woman who looked like a gray sister. + +Du Croisier had thought out his revenge, as provincials think out +everything. For studying out a question in all its bearings, there are +no folk in this world like savages, peasants, and provincials; and +this is how, when they proceed from thought to action, you find every +contingency provided for from beginning to end. Diplomatists are +children compared with these classes of mammals; they have time before +them, an element which is lacking to those people who are obliged to +think about a great many things, to superintend the progress of all +kinds of schemes, to look forward for all sorts of contingencies in +the wider interests of human affairs. Had de Croisier sounded poor +Victurnien's nature so well, that he foresaw how easily the young +Count would lend himself to his schemes of revenge? Or was he merely +profiting by an opportunity for which he had been on the watch for +years? One circumstance there was, to be sure, in his manner of +preparing his stroke, which shows a certain skill. Who was it that +gave du Croisier warning of the moment? Was it the Kellers? Or could +it have been President du Ronceret's son, then finishing his law +studies in Paris? + +Du Croisier wrote to Victurnien, telling him that the Kellers had been +instructed to advance no more money; and that letter was timed to +arrive just as the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse was in the utmost +perplexity, and the Comte d'Esgrignon consumed by the sense of poverty +as dreadful as it was cunningly hidden. The wretched young man was +exerting all his ingenuity to seem as if he were wealthy! + +Now in the letter which informed the victim that in future the Kellers +would make no further advances without security, there was a tolerably +wide space left between the forms of an exaggerated respect and the +signature. It was quite easy to tear off the best part of the letter +and convert it into a bill of exchange for any amount. The diabolical +missive had been enclosed in an envelope, so that the other side of +the sheet was blank. When it arrived, Victurnien was writhing in the +lowest depths of despair. After two years of the most prosperous, +sensual, thoughtless, and luxurious life, he found himself face to +face with the most inexorable poverty; it was an absolute +impossibility to procure money. There had been some throes of crisis +before the journey came to an end. With the Duchess' help he had +managed to extort various sums from bankers; but it had been with the +greatest difficulty, and, moreover, those very amounts were about to +start up again before him as overdue bills of exchange in all their +rigor, with a stern summons to pay from the Bank of France and the +commercial court. All through the enjoyments of those last weeks the +unhappy boy had felt the point of the Commander's sword; at every +supper-party he heard, like Don Juan, the heavy tread of the statue +outside upon the stairs. He felt an unaccountable creeping of the +flesh, a warning that the sirocco of debt is nigh at hand. He reckoned +on chance. For five years he had never turned up a blank in the +lottery, his purse had always been replenished. After Chesnel had come +du Croisier (he told himself), after du Croisier surely another gold +mine would pour out its wealth. And besides, he was winning great sums +at play; his luck at play had saved him several unpleasant steps +already; and often a wild hope sent him to the Salon des Etrangers +only to lose his winnings afterwards at whist at the club. His life +for the past two months had been like the immortal finale of Mozart's +Don Giovanni; and of a truth, if a young man has come to such a plight +as Victurnien's, that finale is enough to make him shudder. Can +anything better prove the enormous power of music than that sublime +rendering of the disorder and confusion arising out of a life wholly +give up to sensual indulgence? that fearful picture of a deliberate +effort to shut out the thought of debts and duels, deceit and evil +luck? In that music Mozart disputes the palm with Moliere. The +terrific finale, with its glow, its power, its despair and laughter, +its grisly spectres and elfish women, centres about the prodigal's +last effort made in the after-supper heat of wine, the frantic +struggle which ends the drama. Victurnien was living through this +infernal poem, and alone. He saw visions of himself--a friendless, +solitary outcast, reading the words carved on the stone, the last +words on the last page of the book that had held him spellbound--THE +END! + +Yes; for him all would be at an end, and that soon. Already he saw the +cold, ironical eyes which his associates would turn upon him, and +their amusement over his downfall. Some of them he knew were playing +high on that gambling-table kept open all day long at the Bourse, or +in private houses at the clubs, and anywhere and everywhere in Paris; +but not one of these men could spare a banknote to save an intimate. +There was no help for it--Chesnel must be ruined. He had devoured +Chesnel's living. + +He sat with the Duchess in their box at the Italiens, the whole house +envying them their happiness, and while he smiled at her, all the +Furies were tearing at his heart. Indeed, to give some idea of the +depths of doubt, despair, and incredulity in which the boy was +groveling; he who so clung to life--the life which the angel had made +so fair--who so loved it, that he would have stooped to baseness +merely to live; he, the pleasure-loving scapegrace, the degenerate +d'Esgrignon, had even taken out his pistols, had gone so far as to +think of suicide. He who would never have brooked the appearance of an +insult was abusing himself in language which no man is likely to hear +except from himself. + +He left du Croisier's letter lying open on the bed. Josephin had +brought it in at nine o'clock. Victurnien's furniture had been +seized, but he slept none the less. After he came back from the +Opera, he and the Duchess had gone to a voluptuous retreat, where +they often spent a few hours together after the most brilliant +court balls and evening parties and gaieties. Appearances were +very cleverly saved. Their love-nest was a garret like any other +to all appearance; Mme. de Maufrigneuse was obliged to bow her +head with its court feathers or wreath of flowers to enter in at +the door; but within all the peris of the East had made the +chamber fair. And now that the Count was on the brink of ruin, he +had longed to bid farewell to the dainty nest, which he had built +to realize a day-dream worthy of his angel. Presently adversity +would break the enchanted eggs; there would be no brood of white +doves, no brilliant tropical birds, no more of the thousand +bright-winged fancies which hover above our heads even to the +last days of our lives. Alas! alas! in three days he must be +gone; his bills had fallen into the hands of the money-lenders, +the law proceedings had reached the last stage. + +An evil thought crossed his brain. He would fly with the Duchess; they +would live in some undiscovered nook in the wilds of North or South +America; but--he would fly with a fortune, and leave his creditors to +confront their bills. To carry out the plan, he had only to cut off +the lower portion of that letter with du Croisier's signature, and to +fill in the figures to turn it into a bill, and present it to the +Kellers. There was a dreadful struggle with temptation; tears shed, +but the honor of the family triumphed, subject to one condition. +Victurnien wanted to be sure of his beautiful Diane; he would do +nothing unless she should consent to their flight. So he went to the +Duchess in the Rue Faubourg Saint-Honore, and found her in coquettish +morning dress, which cost as much in thought as in money, a fit dress +in which to begin to play the part of Angel at eleven o'clock in the +morning. + +Mme. de Maufrigneuse was somewhat pensive. Cares of a similar kind +were gnawing her mind; but she took them gallantly. Of all the various +feminine organizations classified by physiologists, there is one that +has something indescribably terrible about it. Such women combine +strength of soul and clear insight, with a faculty for prompt +decision, and a recklessness, or rather resolution in a crisis which +would shake a man's nerves. And these powers lie out of sight beneath +an appearance of the most graceful helplessness. Such women only among +womankind afford examples of a phenomenon which Buffon recognized in +men alone, to wit, the union, or rather the disunion, of two different +natures in one human being. Other women are wholly women; wholly +tender, wholly devoted, wholly mothers, completely null and completely +tiresome; nerves and brain and blood are all in harmony; but the +Duchess, and others like her, are capable of rising to the highest +heights of feelings, or of showing the most selfish insensibility. It +is one of the glories of Moliere that he has given us a wonderful +portrait of such a woman, from one point of view only, in that +greatest of his full-length figures--Celimene; Celimene is the typical +aristocratic woman, as Figaro, the second edition of Panurge, +represents the people. + +So, the Duchess, being overwhelmed with debt, laid it upon herself to +give no more than a moment's thought to the avalanche of cares, and to +take her resolution once and for all; Napoleon could take up or lay +down the burden of his thoughts in precisely the same way. The Duchess +possessed the faculty of standing aloof from herself; she could look +on as a spectator at the crash when it came, instead of submitting to +be buried beneath. This was certainly great, but repulsive in a woman. +When she awoke in the morning she collected her thoughts; and by the +time she had begun to dress she had looked at the danger in its +fullest extent and faced the possibilities of terrific downfall. She +pondered. Should she take refuge in a foreign country? Or should she +go to the King and declare her debts to him? Or again, should she +fascinate a du Tillet or a Nucingen, and gamble on the stock exchange +to pay her creditors? The city man would find the money; he would be +intelligent enough to bring her nothing but the profits, without so +much as mentioning the losses, a piece of delicacy which would gloss +all over. The catastrophe, and these various ways of averting it, had +all been reviewed quite coolly, calmly, and without trepidation. + +As a naturalist takes up some king of butterflies and fastens him down +on cotton-wool with a pin, so Mme. de Maufrigneuse had plucked love +out of her heart while she pondered the necessity of the moment, and +was quite ready to replace the beautiful passion on its immaculate +setting so soon as her duchess' coronet was safe. /She/ knew none of the +hesitation which Cardinal Richelieu hid from all the world but Pere +Joseph; none of the doubts that Napoleon kept at first entirely to +himself. "Either the one or the other," she told herself. + +She was sitting by the fire, giving orders for her toilette for a +drive in the Bois if the weather should be fine, when Victurnien came +in. + +The Comte d'Esgrignon, with all his stifled capacity, his so keen +intellect, was in exactly the state which might have been looked for +in the woman. His heart was beating violently, the perspiration broke +out over him as he stood in his dandy's trappings; he was afraid as +yet to lay a hand on the corner-stone which upheld the pyramid of his +life with Diane. So much it cost him to know the truth. The cleverest +men are fain to deceive themselves on one or two points if the truth +once known is likely to humiliate them in their own eyes, and damage +themselves with themselves. Victurnien forced his own irresolution +into the field by committing himself. + +"What is the matter with you?" Diane de Maufrigneuse had said at once, +at the sight of her beloved Victurnien's face. + +"Why, dear Diane, I am in such a perplexity; a man gone to the bottom +and at his last gasp is happy in comparison." + +"Pshaw! it is nothing," said she; "you are a child. Let us see now; +tell me about it." + +"I am hopelessly in debt. I have come to the end of my tether." + +"Is that all?" said she, smiling at him. "Money matters can always be +arranged somehow or other; nothing is irretrievable except disasters +in love." + +Victurnien's mind being set at rest by this swift comprehension of his +position, he unrolled the bright-colored web of his life for the last +two years and a half; but it was the seamy side of it which he +displayed with something of genius, and still more of wit, to his +Diane. He told his tale with the inspiration of the moment, which +fails no one in great crises; he had sufficient artistic skill to set +it off by a varnish of delicate scorn for men and things. It was an +aristocrat who spoke. And the Duchess listened as she could listen. + +One knee was raised, for she sat with her foot on a stool. She rested +her elbow on her knee and leant her face on her hand so that her +fingers closed daintily over her shapely chin. Her eyes never left +his; but thoughts by myriads flitted under the blue surface, like +gleams of stormy light between two clouds. Her forehead was calm, her +mouth gravely intent--grave with love; her lips were knotted fast by +Victurnien's lips. To have her listening thus was to believe that a +divine love flowed from her heart. Wherefore, when the Count had +proposed flight to this soul, so closely knit to his own, he could not +help crying, "You are an angel!" + +The fair Maufrigneuse made silent answer; but she had not spoken as +yet. + +"Good, very good," she said at last. (She had not given herself up to +the love expressed in her face; her mind had been entirely absorbed by +deep-laid schemes which she kept to herself.) "But /that/ is not the +question, dear." (The "angel" was only "that" by this time.) "Let us +think of your affairs. Yes, we will go, and the sooner the better. +Arrange it all; I will follow you. It is glorious to leave Paris and +the world behind. I will set about my preparations in such a way that +no one can suspect anything." + +/I will follow you/! Just so Mlle. Mars might have spoken those words to +send a thrill through two thousand listening men and women. When a +Duchesse de Maufrigneuse offers, in such words, to make such a +sacrifice to love, she has paid her debt. How should Victurnien speak +of sordid details after that? He could so much the better hide his +schemes, because Diane was particularly careful not to inquire into +them. She was now, and always, as de Marsay said, an invited guest at +a banquet wreathed with roses, a banquet which mankind, as in duty +bound, made ready for her. + +Victurnien would not go till the promise had been sealed. He must draw +courage from his happiness before he could bring himself to do a deed +on which, as he inwardly told himself, people would be certain to put +a bad construction. Still (and this was the thought that decided him) +he counted on his aunt and father to hush up the affair; he even +counted on Chesnel. Chesnel would think of one more compromise. +Besides, "this business," as he called it in his thoughts, was the +only way of raising money on the family estate. With three hundred +thousand francs, he and Diane would lead a happy life hidden in some +palace in Venice; and there they would forget the world. They went +through their romance in advance. + +Next day Victurnien made out a bill for three hundred thousand francs, +and took it to the Kellers. The Kellers advanced the money, for du +Croisier happened to have a balance at the time; but they wrote to let +him know that he must not draw again on them without giving them +notice. Du Croisier, much astonished, asked for a statement of +accounts. It was sent. Everything was explained. The day of his +vengeance had arrived. + + + +When Victurnien had drawn "his" money, he took it to Mme. de +Maufrigneuse. She locked up the banknotes in her desk, and proposed to +bid the world farewell by going to the Opera to see it for the last +time. Victurnien was thoughtful, absent, and uneasy. He was beginning +to reflect. He thought that his seat in the Duchess' box might cost +him dear; that perhaps, when he had put the three hundred thousand +francs in safety, it would be better to travel post, to fall at +Chesnel's feet, and tell him all. But before they left the +opera-house, the Duchess, in spite of herself, gave Victurnien an +adorable glance, her eyes were shining with the desire to go back once +more to bid farewell to the nest which she loved so much. And boy that +he was, he lost a night. + +The next day, at three o'clock, he was back again at the Hotel de +Maufrigneuse; he had come to take the Duchess' orders for that night's +escape. And, "Why should we go?" asked she; "I have thought it all +out. The Vicomtesse de Beauseant and the Duchesse de Langeais +disappeared. If I go too, it will be something quite commonplace. We +will brave the storm. It will be a far finer thing to do. I am sure of +success." Victurnien's eyes dazzled; he felt as if his skin were +dissolving and the blood oozing out all over him. + +"What is the matter with you?" cried the fair Diane, noticing a +hesitation which a woman never forgives. Your truly adroit lover will +hasten to agree with any fancy that Woman may take into her head, and +suggest reasons for doing otherwise, while leaving her free exercise +of her right to change her mind, her intentions, and sentiments +generally as often as she pleases. Victurnien was angry for the first +time, angry with the wrath of a weak man of poetic temperament; it was +a storm of rain and lightning flashes, but no thunder followed. The +angel on whose faith he had risked more than his life, the honor of +his house, was very roughly handled. + +"So," said she, "we have come to this after eighteen months of +tenderness! You are unkind, very unkind. Go away!--I do not want to +see you again. I thought that you loved me. You do not." + +"/I do not love you/?" repeated he, thunderstruck by the reproach. + +"No, monsieur." + +"And yet----" he cried. "Ah! if you but knew what I have just done for +your sake!" + +"And how have you done so much for me, monsieur? As if a man ought not +to do anything for a woman that has done so much for him." + +"You are not worthy to know it!" Victurnien cried in a passion of +anger. + +"Oh!" + +After that sublime, "Oh!" Diane bowed her head on her hand and sat, +still, cold, and implacable as angels naturally may be expected to do, +seeing that they share none of the passions of humanity. At the sight +of the woman he loved in this terrible attitude, Victurnien forgot his +danger. Had he not just that moment wronged the most angelic creature +on earth? He longed for forgiveness, he threw himself before her, he +kissed her feet, he pleaded, he wept. Two whole hours the unhappy +young man spent in all kinds of follies, only to meet the same cold +face, while the great silent tears dropping one by one, were dried as +soon as they fell lest the unworthy lover should try to wipe them +away. The Duchess was acting a great agony, one of those hours which +stamp the woman who passes through them as something august and +sacred. + +Two more hours went by. By this time the Count had gained possession +of Diane's hand; it felt cold and spiritless. The beautiful hand, with +all the treasures in its grasp, might have been supple wood; there was +nothing of Diane in it; he had taken it, it had not been given to him. +As for Victurnien, the spirit had ebbed out of his frame, he had +ceased to think. He would not have seen the sun in heaven. What was to +be done? What course should he take? What resolution should he make? +The man who can keep his head in such circumstances must be made of +the same stuff as the convict who spent the night in robbing the +Bibliotheque Royale of its gold medals, and repaired to his honest +brother in the morning with a request to melt down the plunder. "What +is to be done?" cried the brother. "Make me some coffee," replied the +thief. Victurnien sank into a bewildered stupor, darkness settled down +over his brain. Visions of past rapture flitted across the misty gloom +like the figures that Raphael painted against a black background; to +these he must bid farewell. Inexorable and disdainful, the Duchess +played with the tip of her scarf. She looked in irritation at +Victurnien from time to time; she coquetted with memories, she spoke +to her lover of his rivals as if anger had finally decided her to +prefer one of them to a man who could so change in one moment after +twenty-eight months of love. + +"Ah! that charming young Felix de Vandenesse, so faithful as he was to +Mme. de Mortsauf, would never have permitted himself such a scene! He +can love, can de Vandenesse! De Marsay, that terrible de Marsay, such +a tiger as everyone thought him, was rough with other men; but like +all strong men, he kept his gentleness for women. Montriveau trampled +the Duchesse de Langeais under foot, as Othello killed Desdemona, in a +burst of fury which at any rate proved the extravagance of his love. +It was not like a paltry squabble. There was rapture in being so +crushed. Little, fair-haired, slim, and slender men loved to torment +women; they could only reign over poor, weak creatures; it pleased +them to have some ground for believing that they were men. The tyranny +of love was their one chance of asserting their power. She did not +know why she had put herself at the mercy of fair hair. Such men as de +Marsay, Montriveau, and Vandenesse, dark-haired and well grown, had a +ray of sunlight in their eyes." + +It was a storm of epigrams. Her speeches, like bullets, came hissing +past his ears. Every word that Diane hurled at him was triple-barbed; +she humiliated, stung, and wounded him with an art that was all her +own, as half a score of savages can torture an enemy bound to a stake. + +"You are mad!" he cried at last, at the end of his patience, and out +he went in God knows what mood. He drove as if he had never handled +the reins before, locked his wheels in the wheels of other vehicles, +collided with the curbstone in the Place Louis-Quinze, went he knew +not whither. The horse, left to its own devices, made a bolt for the +stable along the Quai d'Orsay; but as he turned into the Rue de +l'Universite, Josephin appeared to stop the runaway. + +"You cannot go home, sir," the old man said, with a scared face; "they +have come with a warrant to arrest you." + +Victurnien thought that he had been arrested on the criminal charge, +albeit there had not been time for the public prosecutor to receive +his instructions. He had forgotten the matter of the bills of +exchange, which had been stirred up again for some days past in the +form of orders to pay, brought by the officers of the court with +accompaniments in the shape of bailiffs, men in possession, +magistrates, commissaries, policemen, and other representatives of +social order. Like most guilty creatures, Victurnien had forgotten +everything but his crime. + +"It is all over with me," he cried. + +"No, M. le Comte, drive as fast as you can to the Hotel du Bon la +Fontaine, in the Rue de Grenelle. Mlle. Armande is waiting there for +you, the horses have been put in, she will take you with her." + +Victurnien, in his trouble, caught like a drowning man at the branch +that came to his hand; he rushed off to the inn, reached the place, +and flung his arms about his aunt. Mlle. Armande cried as if her heart +would break; any one might have thought that she had a share in her +nephew's guilt. They stepped into the carriage. A few minutes later +they were on the road to Brest, and Paris lay behind them. Victurnien +uttered not a sound; he was paralyzed. And when aunt and nephew began +to speak, they talked at cross purposes; Victurnien, still laboring +under the unlucky misapprehension which flung him into Mlle. Armande's +arms, was thinking of his forgery; his aunt had the debts and the +bills on her mind. + +"You know all, aunt," he had said. + +"Poor boy, yes, but we are here. I am not going to scold you just yet. +Take heart." + +"I must hide somewhere." + +"Perhaps. . . . Yes, it is a very good idea." + +"Perhaps I might get into Chesnel's house without being seen if we +timed ourselves to arrive in the middle of the night?" + +"That will be best. We shall be better able to hide this from my +brother.--Poor angel! how unhappy he is!" said she, petting the +unworthy child. + +"Ah! now I begin to know what dishonor means; it has chilled my love." + +"Unhappy boy; what bliss and what misery!" And Mlle. Armande drew his +fevered face to her breast and kissed his forehead, cold and damp +though it was, as the holy women might have kissed the brow of the +dead Christ when they laid Him in His grave clothes. Following out the +excellent scheme suggested by the prodigal son, he was brought by +night to the quiet house in the Rue du Bercail; but chance ordered it +that by so doing he ran straight into the wolf's jaws, as the saying +goes. That evening Chesnel had been making arrangements to sell his +connection to M. Lepressoir's head-clerk. M. Lepressoir was the notary +employed by the Liberals, just as Chesnel's practice lay among the +aristocratic families. The young fellow's relatives were rich enough +to pay Chesnel the considerable sum of a hundred thousand francs in +cash. + +Chesnel was rubbing his hands. "A hundred thousand francs will go a +long way in buying up debts," he thought. "The young man is paying a +high rate of interest on his loans. We will lock him up down here. I +will go yonder myself and bring those curs to terms." + +Chesnel, honest Chesnel, upright, worthy Chesnel, called his darling +Comte Victurnien's creditors "curs." + +Meanwhile his successor was making his way along the Rue du Bercail +just as Mlle. Armande's traveling carriage turned into it. Any young +man might be expected to feel some curiosity if he saw a traveling +carriage stop at a notary's door in such a town and at such an hour of +the night; the young man in question was sufficiently inquisitive to +stand in a doorway and watch. He saw Mlle. Armande alight. + +"Mlle. Armande d'Esgrignon at this time of night!" said he to himself. +"What can be going forward at the d'Esgrignons'?" + +At the sight of mademoiselle, Chesnel opened the door circumspectly +and set down the light which he was carrying; but when he looked out +and saw Victurnien, Mlle. Armande's first whispered word made the +whole thing plain to him. He looked up and down the street; it seemed +quite deserted; he beckoned, and the young Count sprang out of the +carriage and entered the courtyard. All was lost. Chesnel's successor +had discovered Victurnien's hiding place. + +Victurnien was hurried into the house and installed in a room beyond +Chesnel's private office. No one could enter it except across the old +man's dead body. + +"Ah! M. le Comte!" exclaimed Chesnel, notary no longer. + +"Yes, monsieur," the Count answered, understanding his old friend's +exclamation. "I did not listen to you; and now I have fallen into the +depths, and I must perish." + +"No, no," the good man answered, looking triumphantly from Mlle. +Armande to the Count. "I have sold my connection. I have been working +for a very long time now, and am thinking of retiring. By noon +to-morrow I shall have a hundred thousand francs; many things can be +settled with that. Mademoiselle, you are tired," he added; "go back to +the carriage and go home and sleep. Business to-morrow." + +"Is he safe?" returned she, looking at Victurnien. + +"Yes." + +She kissed her nephew; a few tears fell on his forehead. Then she +went. + +"My good Chesnel," said the Count, when they began to talk of +business, "what are your hundred thousand francs in such a position as +mine? You do not know the full extent of my troubles, I think." + +Victurnien explained the situation. Chesnel was thunderstruck. But for +the strength of his devotion, he would have succumbed to this blow. +Tears streamed from the eyes that might well have had no tears left to +shed. For a few moments he was a child again, for a few moments he was +bereft of his senses; he stood like a man who should find his own +house on fire, and through a window see the cradle ablaze and hear the +hiss of the flames on his children's curls. He rose to his full height +--il se dressa en pied, as Amyot would have said; he seemed to grow +taller; he raised his withered hands and wrung them despairingly and +wildly. + +"If only your father may die and never know this, young man! To be a +forger is enough; a parricide you must not be. Fly, you say? No. They +would condemn you for contempt of court! Oh, wretched boy! Why did you +not forge /my/ signature? /I/ would have paid; I should not have taken +the bill to the public prosecutor.--Now I can do nothing. You have +brought me to a stand in the lowest pit in hell!--Du Croisier! What +will come of it? What is to be done?--If you had killed a man, there +might be some help for it. But forgery--/forgery/! And time--the time +is flying," he went on, shaking his fist towards the old clock. "You +will want a sham passport now. One crime leads to another. First," he +added, after a pause, "first of all we must save the house of +d'Esgrignon." + +"But the money is still in Mme. de Maufrigneuse's keeping," exclaimed +Victurnien. + +"Ah!" exclaimed Chesnel. "Well, there is some hope left--a faint hope. +Could we soften du Croisier, I wonder, or buy him over? He shall have +all the lands if he likes. I will go to him; I will wake him and offer +him all we have.--Besides, it was not you who forged that bill; it was +I. I will go to jail; I am too old for the hulks, they can only put me +in prison." + +"But the body of the bill is in my handwriting," objected Victurnien, +without a sign of surprise at this reckless devotion. + +"Idiot! . . . that is, pardon, M. le Comte. Josephin should have been +made to write it," the old notary cried wrathfully. "He is a good +creature; he would have taken it all on his shoulders. But there is an +end of it; the world is falling to pieces," the old man continued, +sinking exhausted into a chair. "Du Croisier is a tiger; we must be +careful not to rouse him. What time is it? Where is the draft? If it +is at Paris, it might be bought back from the Kellers; they might +accommodate us. Ah! but there are dangers on all sides; a single false +step means ruin. Money is wanted in any case. But there! nobody knows +you are here, you must live buried away in the cellar if needs must. I +will go at once to Paris as fast as I can; I can hear the mail coach +from Brest." + +In a moment the old man recovered the faculties of his youth--his +agility and vigor. He packed up clothes for the journey, took money, +brought a six-pound loaf to the little room beyond the office, and +turned the key on his child by adoption. + +"Not a sound in here," he said, "no light at night; and stop here till +I come back, or you will go to the hulks. Do you understand, M. le +Comte? Yes, /to the hulks/! if anybody in a town like this knows that +you are here." + +With that Chesnel went out, first telling his housekeeper to give out +that he was ill, to allow no one to come into the house, to send +everybody away, and to postpone business of every kind for three days. +He wheedled the manager of the coach-office, made up a tale for his +benefit--he had the makings of an ingenious novelist in him--and +obtained a promise that if there should be a place, he should have it, +passport or no passport, as well as a further promise to keep the +hurried departure a secret. Luckily, the coach was empty when it +arrived. + +In the middle of the following night Chesnel was set down in Paris. At +nine o'clock in the morning he waited on the Kellers, and learned that +the fatal draft had returned to du Croisier three days since; but +while obtaining this information, he in no way committed himself. +Before he went away he inquired whether the draft could be recovered +if the amount were refunded. Francois Keller's answer was to the +effect that the document was du Croisier's property, and that it was +entirely in his power to keep or return it. Then, in desperation, the +old man went to the Duchess. + +Mme. de Maufrigneuse was not at home to any visitor at that hour. +Chesnel, feeling that every moment was precious, sat down in the hall, +wrote a few lines, and succeeded in sending them to the lady by dint +of wheedling, fascinating, bribing, and commanding the most insolent +and inaccessible servants in the world. The Duchess was still in bed; +but, to the great astonishment of her household, the old man in black +knee-breeches, ribbed stockings, and shoes with buckles to them, was +shown into her room. + +"What is it, monsieur?" she asked, posing in her disorder. "What does +he want of me, ungrateful that he is?" + +"It is this, Mme. la Duchesse," the good man exclaimed, "you have a +hundred thousand crowns belonging to us." + +"Yes," began she. "What does it signify----?" + +"The money was gained by a forgery, for which we are going to the +hulks, a forgery which we committed for love of you," Chesnel said +quickly. "How is it that you did not guess it, so clever as you are? +Instead of scolding the boy, you ought to have had the truth out of +him, and stopped him while there was time, and saved him." + +At the first words the Duchess understood; she felt ashamed of her +behavior to so impassioned a lover, and afraid besides that she might +be suspected of complicity. In her wish to prove that she had not +touched the money left in her keeping, she lost all regard for +appearances; and besides, it did not occur to her that the notary was +a man. She flung off the eider-down quilt, sprang to her desk +(flitting past the lawyer like an angel out of one of the vignettes +which illustrate Lamartine's books), held out the notes, and went back +in confusion to bed. + +"You are an angel, madame." (She was to be an angel for all the world, +it seemed.) "But this will not be the end of it. I count upon your +influence to save us." + +"To save you! I will do it or die! Love that will not shrink from a +crime must be love indeed. Is there a woman in the world for whom such +a thing has been done? Poor boy! Come, do not lose time, dear M. +Chesnel; and count upon me as upon yourself." + +"Mme. la Duchesse! Mme. la Duchesse!" It was all that he could say, so +overcome was he. He cried, he could have danced; but he was afraid of +losing his senses, and refrained. + +"Between us, we will save him," she said, as he left the room. + +Chesnel went straight to Josephin. Josephin unlocked the young Count's +desk and writing-table. Very luckily, the notary found letters which +might be useful, letters from du Croisier and the Kellers. Then he +took a place in a diligence which was just about to start; and by dint +of fees to the postilions, the lumbering vehicle went as quickly as +the coach. His two fellow-passengers on the journey happened to be in +as great a hurry as himself, and readily agreed to take their meals in +the carriage. Thus swept over the road, the notary reached the Rue du +Bercail, after three days of absence, an hour before midnight. And yet +he was too late. He saw the gendarmes at the gate, crossed the +threshold, and met the young Count in the courtyard. Victurnien had +been arrested. If Chesnel had had the power, he would beyond a doubt +have killed the officers and men; as it was, he could only fall on +Victurnien's neck. + +"If I cannot hush this matter up, you must kill yourself before the +indictment is made out," he whispered. But Victurnien had sunk into +such stupor, that he stared back uncomprehendingly. + +"Kill myself?" he repeated. + +"Yes. If your courage should fail, my boy, count upon me," said +Chesnel, squeezing Victurnien's hand. + +In spite of the anguish of mind and tottering limbs, he stood firmly +planted, to watch the son of his heart, the Comte d'Esgrignon, go out +of the courtyard between two gendarmes, with the commissary, the +justice of the peace, and the clerk of the court; and not until the +figures had disappeared, and the sound of footsteps had died away into +silence, did he recover his firmness and presence of mind. + +"You will catch cold, sir," Brigitte remonstrated. + +"The devil take you!" cried her exasperated master. + +Never in the nine-and-twenty years that Brigitte had been in his +service had she heard such words from him! Her candle fell out of her +hands, but Chesnel neither heeded his housekeeper's alarm nor heard +her exclaim. He hurried off towards the Val-Noble. + +"He is out of his mind," said she; "after all, it is no wonder. But +where is he off to? I cannot possibly go after him. What will become +of him? Suppose that he should drown himself?" + +And Brigitte went to waken the head-clerk and send him to look along +the river bank; the river had a gloomy reputation just then, for there +had lately been two cases of suicide--one a young man full of promise, +and the other a girl, a victim of seduction. Chesnel went straight to +the Hotel du Croisier. There lay his only hope. The law requires that +a charge of forgery must be brought by a private individual. It was +still possible to withdraw if du Croisier chose to admit that there +had been a misapprehension; and Chesnel had hopes, even then, of +buying the man over. + +M. and Mme. du Croisier had much more company than usual that evening. +Only a few persons were in the secret. M. du Ronceret, president of +the Tribunal; M. Sauvager, deputy Public Prosecutor; and M. du +Coudrai, a registrar of mortgages, who had lost his post by voting on +the wrong side, were the only persons who were supposed to know about +it; but Mesdames du Ronceret and du Coudrai had told the news, in +strict confidence, to one or two intimate friends, so that it had +spread half over the semi-noble, semi-bourgeois assembly at M. du +Croisier's. Everybody felt the gravity of the situation, but no one +ventured to speak of it openly; and, moreover, Mme. du Croisier's +attachment to the upper sphere was so well known, that people scarcely +dared to mention the disaster which had befallen the d'Esgrignons or +to ask for particulars. The persons most interested were waiting till +good Mme. du Croisier retired, for that lady always retreated to her +room at the same hour to perform her religious exercises as far as +possible out of her husband's sight. + +Du Croisier's adherents, knowing the secret and the plans of the great +commercial power, looked round when the lady of the house disappeared; +but there were still several persons present whose opinions or +interests marked them out as untrustworthy, so they continued to play. +About half past eleven all had gone save intimates: M. Sauvager, M. +Camusot, the examining magistrate, and his wife, M. and Mme. du +Ronceret and their son Fabien, M. and Mme. du Coudrai, and Joseph +Blondet, the eldest of an old judge; ten persons in all. + +It is told of Talleyrand that one fatal day, three hours after +midnight, he suddenly interrupted a game of cards in the Duchesse de +Luynes' house by laying down his watch on the table and asking the +players whether the Prince de Conde had any child but the Duc +d'Enghien. + +"Why do you ask?" returned Mme. de Luynes, "when you know so well that +he has not." + +"Because if the Prince has no other son, the House of Conde is now at +an end." + +There was a moment's pause, and they finished the game.--President du +Ronceret now did something very similar. Perhaps he had heard the +anecdote; perhaps, in political life, little minds and great minds are +apt to hit upon the same expression. He looked at his watch, and +interrupted the game of boston with: + +"At this moment M. le Comte d'Esgrignon is arrested, and that house +which has held its head so high is dishonored forever." + +"Then, have you got hold of the boy?" du Coudrai cried gleefully. + +Every one in the room, with the exception of the President, the +deputy, and du Croisier, looked startled. + +"He has just been arrested in Chesnel's house, where he was hiding," +said the deputy public prosecutor, with the air of a capable but +unappreciated public servant, who ought by rights to be Minister of +Police. M. Sauvager, the deputy, was a thin, tall young man of +five-and-twenty, with a lengthy olive-hued countenance, black +frizzled hair, and deep-set eyes; the wide, dark rings beneath them +were completed by the wrinkled purple eyelids above. With a nose like +the beak of some bird of prey, a pinched mouth, and cheeks worn lean +with study and hollowed by ambition, he was the very type of a +second-rate personage on the lookout for something to turn up, and +ready to do anything if so he might get on in the world, while keeping +within the limitations of the possible and the forms of law. His +pompous expression was an admirable indication of the time-serving +eloquence to be expected of him. Chesnel's successor had discovered +the young Count's hiding place to him, and he took great credit to +himself for his penetration. + +The news seemed to come as a shock to the examining magistrate, M. +Camusot, who had granted the warrant of arrest on Sauvager's +application, with no idea that it was to be executed so promptly. +Camusot was short, fair, and fat already, though he was only thirty +years old or thereabouts; he had the flabby, livid look peculiar to +officials who live shut up in their private study or in a court of +justice; and his little, pale, yellow eyes were full of the suspicion +which is often mistaken for shrewdness. + +Mme. Camusot looked at her spouse, as who should say, "Was I not +right?" + +"Then the case will come on," was Camusot's comment. + +"Could you doubt it?" asked du Coudrai. "Now they have got the Count, +all is over." + +"There is the jury," said Camusot. "In this case M. le Prefet is sure +to take care that after the challenges from the prosecution and the +defence, the jury to a man will be for an acquittal.--My advice would +be to come to a compromise," he added, turning to du Croisier. + +"Compromise!" echoed the President; "why, he is in the hands of +justice." + +"Acquitted or convicted, the Comte d'Esgrignon will be dishonored all +the same," put in Sauvager. + +"I am bringing an action,"[*] said du Croisier. "I shall have Dupin +senior. We shall see how the d'Esgrignon family will escape out of his +clutches." + +[*] A trial for an offence of this kind in France is an action brought + by a private person (partie civile) to recover damages, and at the + same time a criminal prosecution conducted on behalf of the + Government.--Tr. + +"The d'Esgrignons will defend the case and have counsel from Paris; +they will have Berryer," said Mme. Camusot. "You will have a Roland +for your Oliver." + +Du Croisier, M. Sauvager, and the President du Ronceret looked at +Camusot, and one thought troubled their minds. The lady's tone, the +way in which she flung her proverb in the faces of the eight +conspirators against the house of d'Esgrignon, caused them inward +perturbation, which they dissembled as provincials can dissemble, by +dint of lifelong practice in the shifts of a monastic existence. +Little Mme. Camusot saw their change of countenance and subsequent +composure when they scented opposition on the part of the examining +magistrate. When her husband unveiled the thoughts in the back of his +own mind, she had tried to plumb the depths of hate in du Croisier's +adherents. She wanted to find out how du Croisier had gained over this +deputy public prosecutor, who had acted so promptly and so directly in +opposition to the views of the central power. + +"In any case," continued she, "if celebrated counsel come down from +Paris, there is a prospect of a very interesting session in the Court +of Assize; but the matter will be snuffed out between the Tribunal and +the Court of Appeal. It is only to be expected that the Government +should do all that can be done, below the surface, to save a young man +who comes of a great family, and has the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse for +a friend. So I think that we shall have a 'sensation at Landernau.'" + +"How you go on, madame!" the President said sternly. "Can you suppose +that the Court of First Instance will be influenced by considerations +which have nothing to do with justice?" + +"The event proves the contrary," she said meaningly, looking full at +Sauvager and the President, who glanced coldly at her. + +"Explain yourself, madame," said Sauvager. "you speak as if we had not +done our duty." + +"Mme. Camusot meant nothing," interposed her husband. + +"But has not M. le President just said something prejudicing a case +which depends on the examination of the prisoner?" said she. "And the +evidence is still to be taken, and the Court had not given its +decision?" + +"We are not at the law-courts," the deputy public prosecutor replied +tartly; "and besides, we know all that." + +"But the public prosecutor knows nothing at all about it yet," +returned she, with an ironical glance. "He will come back from the +Chamber of Deputies in all haste. You have cut out his work for him, +and he, no doubt, will speak for himself." + +The deputy prosecutor knitted his thick bushy brows. Those interested +read tardy scruples in his countenance. A great silence followed, +broken by no sound but the dealing of the cards. M. and Mme. Camusot, +sensible of a decided chill in the atmosphere, took their departure to +leave the conspirators to talk at their ease. + +"Camusot," the lady began in the street, "you went too far. Why lead +those people to suspect that you will have no part in their schemes? +They will play you some ugly trick." + +"What can they do? I am the only examining magistrate." + +"Cannot they slander you in whispers, and procure your dismissal?" + +At that very moment Chesnel ran up against the couple. The old notary +recognized the examining magistrate; and with the lucidity which comes +of an experience of business, he saw that the fate of the d'Esgrignons +lay in the hands of the young man before him. + +"Ah, sir!" he exclaimed, "we shall soon need you badly. Just a word +with you.--Your pardon, madame," he added, as he drew Camusot aside. + +Mme. Camusot, as a good conspirator, looked towards du Croisier's +house, ready to break up the conversation if anybody appeared; but she +thought, and thought rightly, that their enemies were busy discussing +this unexpected turn which she had given to the affair. Chesnel +meanwhile drew the magistrate into a dark corner under the wall, and +lowered his voice for his companion's ear. + +"If you are for the house of d'Esgrignon," he said, "Mme. la Duchesse +de Maufrigneuse, the Prince of Cadignan, the Ducs de Navarreins and de +Lenoncourt, the Keeper of the Seals, the Chancellor, the King himself, +will interest themselves in you. I have just come from Paris; I knew +all about this; I went post-haste to explain everything at Court. We +are counting on you, and I will keep your secret. If you are hostile, +I shall go back to Paris to-morrow and lodge a complaint with the +Keeper of the Seals that there is a suspicion of corruption. Several +functionaries were at du Croisier's house to-night, and no doubt, ate +and drank there, contrary to law; and besides, they are friends of +his." + +Chesnel would have brought the Almighty to intervene if he had had the +power. He did not wait for an answer; he left Camusot and fled like a +deer towards du Croisier's house. Camusot, meanwhile, bidden to reveal +the notary's confidences, was at once assailed with, "Was I not right, +dear?"--a wifely formula used on all occasions, but rather more +vehemently when the fair speaker is in the wrong. By the time they +reached home, Camusot had admitted the superiority of his partner in +life, and appreciated his good fortune in belonging to her; which +confession, doubtless, was the prelude of a blissful night. + +Chesnel met his foes in a body as they left du Croisier's house, and +began to fear that du Croisier had gone to bed. In his position he was +compelled to act quickly, and any delay was a misfortune. + +"In the King's name!" he cried, as the man-servant was closing the +hall door. He had just brought the King on the scene for the benefit +of an ambitious little official, and the word was still on his lips. +He fretted and chafed while the door was unbarred; then, swift as a +thunderbolt, dashed into the ante-chamber, and spoke to the servant. + +"A hundred crowns to you, young man, if you can wake Mme. du Croisier +and send her to me this instant. Tell her anything you like." + +Chesnel grew cool and composed as he opened the door of the brightly +lighted drawing-room, where du Croisier was striding up and down. For +a moment the two men scanned each other, with hatred and enmity, +twenty years' deep, in their eyes. One of the two had his foot on the +heart of the house of d'Esgrignon; the other, with a lion's strength, +came forward to pluck it away. + +"Your humble servant, sir," said Chesnel. "Have you made the charge?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"When was it made?" + +"Yesterday." + +"Have any steps been taken since the warrant of arrest was issued?" + +"I believe so." + +"I have come to treat with you." + +"Justice must take its course, nothing can stop it, the arrest has +been made." + +"Never mind that, I am at your orders, at your feet." The old man +knelt before du Croisier, and stretched out his hands entreatingly. + +"What do you want? Our lands, our castle? Take all; withdraw the +charge; leave us nothing but life and honor. And over and besides all +this, I will be your servant; command and I will obey." + +Du Croisier sat down in an easy-chair and left the old man to kneel. + +"You are not vindictive," pleaded Chesnel; "you are good-hearted, you +do not bear us such a grudge that you will not listen to terms. Before +daylight the young man ought to be at liberty." + +"The whole town knows that he has been arrested," returned du +Croisier, enjoying his revenge. + +"It is a great misfortune, but as there will be neither proofs nor +trial, we can easily manage that." + +Du Croisier reflected. He seemed to be struggling with self-interest; +Chesnel thought that he had gained a hold on his enemy through the +great motive of human action. At that supreme moment Mme. du Croisier +appeared. + +"Come here and help me to soften your dear husband, madame?" said +Chesnel, still on his knees. Mme. du Croisier made him rise with every +sign of profound astonishment. Chesnel explained his errand; and when +she knew it, the generous daughter of the intendants of the Ducs de +Alencon turned to du Croisier with tears in her eyes. + +"Ah! monsieur, can you hesitate? The d'Esgrignons, the honor of the +province!" she said. + +"There is more in it than that," exclaimed du Croisier, rising to +begin his restless walk again. + +"More? What more?" asked Chesnel in amazement. + +"France is involved, M. Chesnel! It is a question of the country, of +the people, of giving my lords your nobles a lesson, and teaching them +that there is such a thing as justice, and law, and a bourgeoisie--a +lesser nobility as good as they, and a match for them! There shall be +no more trampling down half a score of wheat fields for a single hare; +no bringing shame on families by seducing unprotected girls; they +shall not look down on others as good as they are, and mock at them +for ten whole years, without finding out at last that these things +swell into avalanches, and those avalanches will fall and crush and +bury my lords the nobles. You want to go back to the old order of +things. You want to tear up the social compact, the Charter in which +our rights are set forth---" + +"And so?" + +"Is it not a sacred mission to open the people's eyes?" cried du +Croisier. "Their eyes will be opened to the morality of your party +when they see nobles going to be tried at the Assize Court like Pierre +and Jacques. They will say, then, that small folk who keep their +self-respect are as good as great folk that bring shame on themselves. +The Assize Court is a light for all the world. Here, I am the champion +of the people, the friend of law. You yourselves twice flung me on the +side of the people--once when you refused an alliance, twice when you +put me under the ban of your society. You are reaping as you have +sown." + +If Chesnel was startled by this outburst, so no less was Mme. du +Croisier. To her this was a terrible revelation of her husband's +character, a new light not merely on the past but on the future as +well. Any capitulation on the part of the colossus was apparently out +of the question; but Chesnel in no wise retreated before the +impossible. + +"What, monsieur?" said Mme. du Croisier. "Would you not forgive? Then +you are not a Christian." + +"I forgive as God forgives, madame, on certain conditions." + +"And what are they?" asked Chesnel, thinking that he saw a ray of +hope. + +"The elections are coming on; I want the votes at your disposal." + +"You shall have them." + +"I wish that we, my wife and I, should be received familiarly every +evening, with an appearance of friendliness at any rate, by M. le +Marquis d'Esgrignon and his circle," continued du Croisier. + +"I do not know how we are going to compass it, but you shall be +received." + +"I wish to have the family bound over by a surety of four hundred +thousand francs, and by a written document stating the nature of the +compromise, so as to keep a loaded cannon pointed at its heart." + +"We agree," said Chesnel, without admitting that the three hundred +thousand francs was in his possession; "but the amount must be +deposited with a third party and returned to the family after your +election and repayment." + +"No; after the marriage of my grand-niece, Mlle. Duval. She will very +likely have four million francs some day; the reversion of our +property (mine and my wife's) shall be settled upon her by her +marriage-contract, and you shall arrange a match between her and the +young Count." + +"Never!" + +"/Never/!" repeated du Croisier, quite intoxicated with triumph. +"Good-night!" + +"Idiot that I am," thought Chesnel, "why did I shrink from a lie to +such a man?" + +Du Croisier took himself off; he was pleased with himself; he had +enjoyed Chesnel's humiliation; he had held the destinies of a proud +house, the representatives of the aristocracy of the province, +suspended in his hand; he had set the print of his heel on the very +heart of the d'Esgrignons; and, finally, he had broken off the whole +negotiation on the score of his wounded pride. He went up to his room, +leaving his wife alone with Chesnel. In his intoxication, he saw his +victory clear before him. He firmly believed that the three hundred +thousand francs had been squandered; the d'Esgrignons must sell or +mortgage all that they had to raise the money; the Assize Court was +inevitable to his mind. + +An affair of forgery can always be settled out of court in France if +the missing amount is returned. The losers by the crime are usually +well-to-do, and have no wish to blight an imprudent man's character. +But du Croisier had no mind to slacken his hold until he knew what he +was about. He meditated until he fell asleep on the magnificent manner +in which his hopes would be fulfilled by the way of the Assize Court +or by marriage. The murmur of voices below, the lamentations of +Chesnel and Mme. du Croisier, sounded sweet in his ears. + +Mme. du Croisier shared Chesnel's views of the d'Esgrignons. She was a +deeply religious woman, a Royalist attached to the noblesse; the +interview had been in every way a cruel shock to her feelings. She, a +staunch Royalist, had heard the roaring of that Liberalism, which, in +her director's opinion, wished to crush the Church. The Left benches +for her meant the popular upheaval and the scaffolds of 1793. + +"What would your uncle, that sainted man who hears us, say to this?" +exclaimed Chesnel. Mme. du Croisier made no reply, but the great tears +rolled down her checks. + +"You have already been the cause of one poor boy's death; his mother +will go mourning all her days," continued Chesnel; he saw how his +words told, but he would have struck harder and even broken this +woman's heart to save Victurnien. "Do you want to kill Mlle. Armande, +for she would not survive the dishonor of the house for a week? Do you +wish to be the death of poor Chesnel, your old notary? For I shall +kill the Count in prison before they shall bring the charge against +him, and take my own life afterwards, before they shall try me for +murder in an Assize Court." + +"That is enough! that is enough, my friend! I would do anything to put +a stop to such an affair; but I never knew M. du Croisier's real +character until a few minutes ago. To you I can make the admission: +there is nothing to be done." + +"But what if there is?" + +"I would give half the blood in my veins that it were so," said she, +finishing her sentence by a wistful shake of the head. + +As the First Consul, beaten on the field of Marengo till five o'clock +in the evening, by six o'clock saw the tide of battle turned by +Desaix's desperate attack and Kellermann's terrific charge, so Chesnel +in the midst of defeat saw the beginnings of victory. No one but a +Chesnel, an old notary, an ex-steward of the manor, old Maitre +Sorbier's junior clerk, in the sudden flash of lucidity which comes +with despair, could rise thus, high as a Napoleon, nay, higher. This +was not Marengo, it was Waterloo, and the Prussians had come up; +Chesnel saw this, and was determined to beat them off the field. + +"Madame," he said, "remember that I have been your man of business for +twenty years; remember that if the d'Esgrignons mean the honor of the +province, you represent the honor of the bourgeoisie; it rests with +you, and you alone, to save the ancient house. Now, answer me; are you +going to allow dishonor to fall on the shade of your dead uncle, on +the d'Esgrignons, on poor Chesnel? Do you want to kill Mlle. Armande +weeping yonder? Or do you wish to expiate wrongs done to others by a +deed which will rejoice your ancestors, the intendants of the dukes of +Alencon, and bring comfort to the soul of our dear Abbe? If he could +rise from his grave, he would command you to do this thing that I beg +of you upon my knees." + +"What is it?" asked Mme. du Croisier. + +"Well. Here are the hundred thousand crowns," said Chesnel, drawing +the bundles of notes from his pocket. "Take them, and there will be an +end of it." + +"If that is all," she began, "and if no harm can come of it to my +husband----" + +"Nothing but good," Chesnel replied. "You are saving him from eternal +punishment in hell, at the cost of a slight disappointment here +below." + +"He will not be compromised, will he?" she asked, looking into +Chesnel's face. + +Then Chesnel read the depths of the poor wife's mind. Mme. du Croisier +was hesitating between her two creeds; between wifely obedience to her +husband as laid down by the Church, and obedience to the altar and the +throne. Her husband, in her eyes, was acting wrongly, but she dared +not blame him; she would fain save the d'Esgrignons, but she was loyal +to her husband's interests. + +"Not in the least," Chesnel answered; "your old notary swears it by +the Holy Gospels----" + +He had nothing left to lose for the d'Esgrignons but his soul; he +risked it now by this horrible perjury, but Mme. du Croisier must be +deceived, there was no other choice but death. Without losing a +moment, he dictated a form of receipt by which Mme. du Croisier +acknowledged payment of a hundred thousand crowns five days before the +fatal letter of exchange appeared; for he recollected that du Croisier +was away from home, superintending improvements on his wife's property +at the time. + +"Now swear to me that you will declare before the examining magistrate +that you received the money on that date," he said, when Mme. du +Croisier had taken the notes and he held the receipt in his hand. + +"It will be a lie, will it not?" + +"Venial sin," said Chesnel. + +"I could not do it without consulting my director, M. l'Abbe +Couturier." + +"Very well," said Chesnel, "will you be guided entirely by his advice +in this affair?" + +"I promise that." + +"And you must not give the money to M. du Croisier until you have been +before the magistrate." + +"No. Ah! God give me strength to appear in a Court of Justice and +maintain a lie before men!" + +Chesnel kissed Mme. du Croisier's hand, then stood upright, and +majestic as one of the prophets that Raphael painted in the Vatican. + +"You uncle's soul is thrilled with joy," he said; "you have wiped out +for ever the wrong that you did by marrying an enemy of altar and +throne"--words that made a lively impression on Mme. du Croisier's +timorous mind. + +Then Chesnel all at once bethought himself that he must make sure of +the lady's director, the Abbe Couturier. He knew how obstinately +devout souls can work for the triumph of their views when once they +come forward for their side, and wished to secure the concurrence of +the Church as early as possible. So he went to the Hotel d'Esgrignon, +roused up Mlle. Armande, gave her an account of that night's work, and +sped her to fetch the Bishop himself into the forefront of the battle. + +"Ah, God in heaven! Thou must save the house of d'Esgrignon!" he +exclaimed, as he went slowly home again. "The affair is developing now +into a fight in a Court of Law. We are face to face with men that have +passions and interests of their own; we can get anything out of them. +This du Croisier has taken advantage of the public prosecutor's +absence; the public prosecutor is devoted to us, but since the opening +of the Chambers he has gone to Paris. Now, what can they have done to +get round his deputy? They have induced him to take up the charge +without consulting his chief. This mystery must be looked into, and +the ground surveyed to-morrow; and then, perhaps, when I have +unraveled this web of theirs, I will go back to Paris to set great +powers at work through Mme. de Maufrigneuse." + +So he reasoned, poor, aged, clear-sighted wrestler, before he lay down +half dead with bearing the weight of so much emotion and fatigue. And +yet, before he fell asleep he ran a searching eye over the list of +magistrates, taking all their secret ambitions into account, casting +about for ways of influencing them, calculating his chances in the +coming struggle. Chesnel's prolonged scrutiny of consciences, given in +a condensed form, will perhaps serve as a picture of the judicial +world in a country town. + +Magistrates and officials generally are obliged to begin their career +in the provinces; judicial ambition there ferments. At the outset +every man looks towards Paris; they all aspire to shine in the vast +theatre where great political causes come before the courts, and the +higher branches of the legal profession are closely connected with the +palpitating interests of society. But few are called to that paradise +of the man of law, and nine-tenths of the profession are bound sooner +or later to regard themselves as shelved for good in the provinces. +Wherefore, every Tribunal of First Instance and every Court-Royal is +sharply divided in two. The first section has given up hope, and is +either torpid or content; content with the excessive respect paid to +office in a country town, or torpid with tranquillity. The second +section is made up of the younger sort, in whom the desire of success +is untempered as yet by disappointment, and of the really clever men +urged on continually by ambition as with a goad; and these two are +possessed with a sort of fanatical belief in their order. + +At this time the younger men were full of Royalist zeal against the +enemies of the Bourbons. The most insignificant deputy official was +dreaming of conducting a prosecution, and praying with all his might +for one of those political cases which bring a man's zeal into +prominence, draw the attention of the higher powers, and mean +advancement for King's men. Was there a member of an official staff of +prosecuting counsel who could hear of a Bonapartist conspiracy +breaking out somewhere else without a feeling of envy? Where was the +man that did not burn to discover a Caron, or a Berton, or a revolt of +some sort? With reasons of State, and the necessity of diffusing the +monarchical spirit throughout France as their basis, and a fierce +ambition stirred up whenever party spirit ran high, these ardent +politicians on their promotion were lucid, clear-sighted, and +perspicacious. They kept up a vigorous detective system throughout the +kingdom; they did the work of spies, and urged the nation along a path +of obedience, from which it had no business to swerve. + +Justice, thus informed with monarchical enthusiasm, atoned for the +errors of the ancient parliaments, and walked, perhaps, too +ostentatiously hand in hand with religion. There was more zeal than +discretion shown; but justice sinned not so much in the direction of +machiavelism as by giving the candid expression to its views, when +those views appeared to be opposed to the general interests of a +country which must be put safely out of reach of revolutions. But +taken as a whole, there was still too much of the bourgeois element in +the administration; it was too readily moved by petty liberal +agitation; and as a result, it was inevitable that it should incline +sooner or later to the Constitutional party, and join ranks with the +bourgeoisie in the day of battle. In the great body of legal +functionaries, as in other departments of the administration, there +was not wanting a certain hypocrisy, or rather that spirit of +imitation which always leads France to model herself on the Court, +and, quite unintentionally, to deceive the powers that be. + +Officials of both complexions were to be found in the court in which +young d'Esgrignon's fate depended. M. le President du Ronceret and an +elderly judge, Blondet by name, represented the section of +functionaries shelved for good, and resigned to stay where they were; +while the young and ambitious party comprised the examining magistrate +M. Camusot, and his deputy M. Michu, appointed through the interests +of the Cinq-Cygnes, and certain of promotion to the Court of Appeal of +Paris at the first opportunity. + +President du Ronceret held a permanent post; it was impossible to turn +him out. The aristocratic party declined to give him what he +considered to be his due, socially speaking; so he declared for the +bourgeoisie, glossed over his disappointment with the name of +independence, and failed to realize that his opinions condemned him to +remain a president of a court of the first instance for the rest of +his life. Once started in this track the sequence of events led du +Ronceret to place his hopes of advancement on the triumph of du +Croisier and the Left. He was in no better odor at the Prefecture than +at the Court-Royal. He was compelled to keep on good terms with the +authorities; the Liberals distrusted him, consequently he belonged to +neither party. He was obliged to resign his chances of election to du +Croisier, he exercised no influence, and played a secondary part. The +false position reacted on his character; he was soured and +discontented; he was tired of political ambiguity, and privately had +made up his mind to come forward openly as leader of the Liberal +party, and so to strike ahead of du Croisier. His behavior in the +d'Esgrignon affair was the first step in this direction. To begin +with, he was an admirable representative of that section of the middle +classes which allows its petty passions to obscure the wider interests +of the country; a class of crotchety politicians, upholding the +government one day and opposing it the next, compromising every cause +and helping none; helpless after they have done the mischief till they +set about brewing more; unwilling to face their own incompetence, +thwarting authority while professing to serve it. With a compound of +arrogance and humility they demand of the people more submission than +kings expect, and fret their souls because those above them are not +brought down to their level, as if greatness could be little, as if +power existed without force. + +President du Ronceret was a tall, spare man with a receding forehead +and scanty, auburn hair. He was wall-eyed, his complexion was +blotched, his lips thin and hard, his scarcely audible voice came out +like the husky wheezings of asthma. He had for a wife a great, solemn, +clumsy creature, tricked out in the most ridiculous fashion, and +outrageously overdressed. Mme. la Presidente gave herself the airs of +a queen; she wore vivid colors, and always appeared at balls adorned +with the turban, dear to the British female, and lovingly cultivated +in out-of-the-way districts in France. Each of the pair had an income +of four or five thousand francs, which with the President's salary, +reached a total of some twelve thousand. In spite of a decided +tendency to parsimony, vanity required that they should receive one +evening in the week. Du Croisier might import modern luxury into the +town, M. and Mme. de Ronceret were faithful to the old traditions. +They had always lived in the old-fashioned house belonging to Mme. du +Ronceret, and had made no changes in it since their marriage. The +house stood between a garden and a courtyard. The gray old gable end, +with one window in each story, gave upon the road. High walls enclosed +the garden and the yard, but the space taken up beneath them in the +garden by a walk shaded with chestnut trees was filled in the yard by +a row of outbuildings. An old rust-devoured iron gate in the garden +wall balanced the yard gateway, a huge, double-leaved carriage +entrance with a buttress on either side, and a mighty shell on the +top. The same shell was repeated over the house-door. + +The whole place was gloomy, close, and airless. The row of iron-gated +openings in the opposite wall, as you entered, reminded you of prison +windows. Every passer-by could look in through the railings to see how +the garden grew; the flowers in the little square borders never seemed +to thrive there. + +The drawing-room on the ground floor was lighted by a single window on +the side of the street, and a French window above a flight of steps, +which gave upon the garden. The dining-room on the other side of the +great ante-chamber, with its windows also looking out into the garden, +was exactly the same size as the drawing-room, and all three +apartments were in harmony with the general air of gloom. It wearied +your eyes to look at the ceilings all divided up by huge painted +crossbeams and adorned with a feeble lozenge pattern or a rosette in +the middle. The paint was old, startling in tint, and begrimed with +smoke. The sun had faded the heavy silk curtains in the drawing-room; +the old-fashioned Beauvais tapestry which covered the white-painted +furniture had lost all its color with wear. A Louis Quinze clock on +the chimney-piece stood between two extravagant, branched sconces +filled with yellow wax candles, which the Presidente only lighted on +occasions when the old-fashioned rock-crystal chandelier emerged from +its green wrapper. Three card-tables, covered with threadbare baize, +and a backgammon box, sufficed for the recreations of the company; and +Mme. du Ronceret treated them to such refreshments as cider, +chestnuts, pastry puffs, glasses of eau sucree, and home-made orgeat. +For some time past she had made a practice of giving a party once a +fortnight, when tea and some pitiable attempts at pastry appeared to +grace the occasion. + +Once a quarter the du Roncerets gave a grand three-course dinner, +which made a great sensation in the town, a dinner served up in +execrable ware, but prepared with the science for which the provincial +cook is remarkable. It was a Gargantuan repast, which lasted for six +whole hours, and by abundance the President tried to vie with du +Croisier's elegance. + +And so du Ronceret's life and its accessories were just what might +have been expected from his character and his false position. He felt +dissatisfied at home without precisely knowing what was the matter; +but he dared not go to any expense to change existing conditions, and +was only too glad to put by seven or eight thousand francs every year, +so as to leave his son Fabien a handsome private fortune. Fabien du +Ronceret had no mind for the magistracy, the bar, or the civil +service, and his pronounced turn for doing nothing drove his parent to +despair. + +On this head there was rivalry between the President and the +Vice-President, old M. Blondet. M. Blondet, for a long time past, had +been sedulously cultivating an acquaintance between his son and the +Blandureau family. The Blandureaus were well-to-do linen +manufacturers, with an only daughter, and it was on this daughter that +the President had fixed his choice of a wife for Fabien. Now, Joseph +Blondet's marriage with Mlle. Blandureau depended on his nomination to +the post which his father, old Blondet, hoped to obtain for him when +he himself should retire. But President du Ronceret, in underhand +ways, was thwarting the old man's plans, and working indirectly upon +the Blandureaus. Indeed, if it had not been for this affair of young +d'Esgrignon's, the astute President might have cut them out, father +and son, for their rivals were very much richer. + +M. Blondet, the victim of the machiavelian President's intrigues, was +one of the curious figures which lie buried away in the provinces like +old coins in a crypt. He was at that time a man of sixty-seven or +thereabouts, but he carried his years well; he was very tall, and in +build reminded you of the canons of the good old times. The smallpox +had riddled his face with numberless dints, and spoilt the shape of +his nose by imparting to it a gimlet-like twist; it was a countenance +by no means lacking in character, very evenly tinted with a diffused +red, lighted up by a pair of bright little eyes, with a sardonic look +in them, while a certain sarcastic twitch of the purpled lips gave +expression to that feature. + +Before the Revolution broke out, Blondet senior had been a barrister; +afterwards he became the public accuser, and one of the mildest of +those formidable functionaries. Goodman Blondet, as they used to call +him, deadened the force of the new doctrines by acquiescing in them +all, and putting none of them in practice. He had been obliged to send +one or two nobles to prison; but his further proceedings were marked +with such deliberation, that he brought them through to the 9th +Thermidor with a dexterity which won respect for him on all sides. As +a matter of fact, Goodman Blondet ought to have been President of the +Tribunal, but when the courts of law were reorganized he had been set +aside; Napoleon's aversion for Republicans was apt to reappear in the +smallest appointments under his government. The qualification of +ex-public accuser, written in the margin of the list against Blondet's +name, set the Emperor inquiring of Cambaceres whether there might not +be some scion of an ancient parliamentary stock to appoint instead. +The consequence was that du Ronceret, whose father had been a +councillor of parliament, was nominated to the presidency; but, the +Emperor's repugnance notwithstanding, Cambaceres allowed Blondet to +remain on the bench, saying that the old barrister was one of the best +jurisconsults in France. + +Blondet's talents, his knowledge of the old law of the land and +subsequent legislation, should by rights have brought him far in his +profession; but he had this much in common with some few great +spirits: he entertained a prodigious contempt for his own special +knowledge, and reserved all his pretentions, leisure, and capacity for +a second pursuit unconnected with the law. To this pursuit he gave his +almost exclusive attention. The good man was passionately fond of +gardening. He was in correspondence with some of the most celebrated +amateurs; it was his ambition to create new species; he took an +interest in botanical discoveries, and lived, in short, in the world +of flowers. Like all florists, he had a predilection for one +particular plant; the pelargonium was his especial favorite. The +court, the cases that came before it, and his outward life were as +nothing to him compared with the inward life of fancies and abundant +emotions which the old man led. He fell more and more in love with his +flower-seraglio; and the pains which he bestowed on his garden, the +sweet round of the labors of the months, held Goodman Blondet fast in +his greenhouse. But for that hobby he would have been a deputy under +the Empire, and shone conspicuous beyond a doubt in the Corps +Legislatif. + +His marriage was the second cause of his obscurity. As a man of forty, +he was rash enough to marry a girl of eighteen, by whom he had a son +named Joseph in the first year of their marriage. Three years +afterwards Mme. Blondet, then the prettiest woman in the town, +inspired in the prefect of the department a passion which ended only +with her death. The prefect was the father of her second son Emile; +the whole town knew this, old Blondet himself knew it. The wife who +might have roused her husband's ambition, who might have won him away +from his flowers, positively encouraged the judge in his botanical +tastes. She no more cared to leave the place than the prefect cared to +leave his prefecture so long as his mistress lived. + +Blondet felt himself unequal at his age to a contest with a young +wife. He sought consolation in his greenhouse, and engaged a very +pretty servant-maid to assist him to tend his ever-changing bevy of +beauties. So while the judge potted, pricked out, watered, layered, +slipped, blended, and induced his flowers to break, Mme. Blondet spent +his substance on the dress and finery in which she shone at the +prefecture. One interest alone had power to draw her away from the +tender care of a romantic affection which the town came to admire in +the end; and this interest was Emile's education. The child of love +was a bright and pretty boy, while Joseph was no less heavy and +plain-featured. The old judge, blinded by paternal affection loved +Joseph as his wife loved Emile. + +For a dozen years M. Blondet bore his lot with perfect resignation. He +shut his eyes to his wife's intrigue with a dignified, well-bred +composure, quite in the style of an eighteenth century grand seigneur; +but, like all men with a taste for a quiet life, he could cherish a +profound dislike, and he hated his younger son. When his wife died, +therefore, in 1818, he turned the intruder out of the house, and +packed him off to Paris to study law on an allowance of twelve hundred +francs for all resource, nor could any cry of distress extract another +penny from his purse. Emile Blondet would have gone under if it had +not been for his real father. + +M. Blondet's house was one of the prettiest in the town. It stood +almost opposite the prefecture, with a neat little court in front. A +row of old-fashioned iron railings between two brick-work piers +enclosed it from the street; and a low wall, also of brick, with a +second row of railings along the top, connected the piers with the +neighboring house. The little court, a space about ten fathoms in +width by twenty in length, was cut in two by a brick pathway which ran +from the gate to the house door between a border on either side. Those +borders were always renewed; at every season of the year they +exhibited a successful show of blossom, to the admiration of the +public. All along the back of the gardenbeds a quantity of climbing +plants grew up and covered the walls of the neighboring houses with a +magnificent mantle; the brick-work piers were hidden in clusters of +honeysuckle; and, to crown all, in a couple of terra-cotta vases at +the summit, a pair of acclimatized cactuses displayed to the +astonished eyes of the ignorant those thick leaves bristling with +spiny defences which seem to be due to some plant disease. + +It was a plain-looking house, built of brick, with brick-work arches +above the windows, and bright green Venetian shutters to make it gay. +Through the glass door you could look straight across the house to the +opposite glass door, at the end of a long passage, and down the +central alley in the garden beyond; while through the windows of the +dining-room and drawing-room, which extended, like the passage from +back to front of the house, you could often catch further glimpses of +the flower-beds in a garden of about two acres in extent. Seen from +the road, the brick-work harmonized with the fresh flowers and shrubs, +for two centuries had overlaid it with mosses and green and russet +tints. No one could pass through the town without falling in love with +a house with such charming surroundings, so covered with flowers and +mosses to the roof-ridge, where two pigeons of glazed crockery ware +were perched by way of ornament. + +M. Blondet possessed an income of about four thousand livres derived +from land, besides the old house in the town. He meant to avenge his +wrongs legitimately enough. He would leave his house, his lands, his +seat on the bench to his son Joseph, and the whole town knew what he +meant to do. He had made a will in that son's favor; he had gone as +far as the Code will permit a man to go in the way of disinheriting +one child to benefit another; and what was more, he had been putting +by money for the past fifteen years to enable his lout of a son to buy +back from Emile that portion of his father's estate which could not +legally be taken away from him. + +Emile Blondet thus turned adrift had contrived to gain distinction in +Paris, but so far it was rather a name than a practical result. +Emile's indolence, recklessness, and happy-go-lucky ways drove his +real father to despair; and when that father died, a half-ruined man, +turned out of office by one of the political reactions so frequent +under the Restoration, it was with a mind uneasy as to the future of a +man endowed with the most brilliant qualities. + +Emile Blondet found support in a friendship with a Mlle. de +Troisville, whom he had known before her marriage with the Comte de +Montcornet. His mother was living when the Troisvilles came back after +the emigration; she was related to the family, distantly it is true, +but the connection was close enough to allow her to introduce Emile to +the house. She, poor woman, foresaw the future. She knew that when she +died her son would lose both mother and father, a thought which made +death doubly bitter, so she tried to interest others in him. She +encouraged the liking that sprang up between Emile and the eldest +daughter of the house of Troisville; but while the liking was +exceedingly strong on the young lady's part, a marriage was out of the +question. It was a romance on the pattern of Paul et Virginie. Mme. +Blondet did what she could to teach her son to look to the +Troisvilles, to found a lasting attachment on a children's game of +"make-believe" love, which was bound to end as boy-and-girl romances +usually do. When Mlle. de Troisville's marriage with General +Montcornet was announced, Mme. Blondet, a dying woman, went to the +bride and solemnly implored her never to abandon Emile, and to use her +influence for him in society in Paris, whither the General's fortune +summoned her to shine. + +Luckily for Emile, he was able to make his own way. He made his +appearance, at the age of twenty, as one of the masters of modern +literature; and met with no less success in the society into which he +was launched by the father who at first could afford to bear the +expense of the young man's extravagance. Perhaps Emile's precocious +celebrity and the good figure that he made strengthened the bonds of +his friendship with the Countess. Perhaps Mme. de Montcornet, with the +Russian blood in her veins (her mother was the daughter of the +Princess Scherbelloff), might have cast off the friend of her +childhood if he had been a poor man struggling with all his might +among the difficulties which beset a man of letters in Paris; but by +the time that the real strain of Emile's adventurous life began, their +attachment was unalterable on either side. He was looked upon as one +of the leading lights of journalism when young d'Esgrignon met him at +his first supper party in Paris; his acknowledged position in the +world of letters was very high, and he towered above his reputation. +Goodman Blondet had not the faintest conception of the power which the +Constitutional Government had given to the press; nobody ventured to +talk in his presence of the son of whom he refused to hear. And so it +came to pass that he knew nothing of Emile whom he had cursed and +Emile's greatness. + +Old Blondet's integrity was as deeply rooted in him as his passion for +flowers; he knew nothing but law and botany. He would have interviews +with litigants, listen to them, chat with them, and show them his +flowers; he would accept rare seeds from them; but once on the bench, +no judge on earth was more impartial. Indeed, his manner of proceeding +was so well known, that litigants never went near him except to hand +over some document which might enlighten him in the performance of his +duty, and nobody tried to throw dust in his eyes. With his learning, +his lights, and his way of holding his real talents cheap, he was so +indispensable to President du Ronceret, that, matrimonial schemes +apart, that functionary would have done all that he could, in an +underhand way, to prevent the vice-president from retiring in favor of +his son. If the learned old man left the bench, the President would be +utterly unable to do without him. + +Goodman Blondet did not know that it was in Emile's power to fulfil +all his wishes in a few hours. The simplicity of his life was worthy +of one of Plutarch's men. In the evening he looked over his cases; +next morning he worked among his flowers; and all day long he gave +decisions on the bench. The pretty maid-servant, now of ripe age, and +wrinkled like an Easter pippin, looked after the house, and they lived +according to the established customs of the strictest parsimony. Mlle. +Cadot always carried the keys of her cupboards and fruit-loft about +with her. She was indefatigable. She went to market herself, she +cooked and dusted and swept, and never missed mass of a morning. To +give some idea of the domestic life of the household, it will be +enough to remark that the father and son never ate fruit till it was +beginning to spoil, because Mlle. Cadot always brought out anything +that would not keep. No one in the house ever tasted the luxury of new +bread, and all the fast days in the calendar were punctually observed. +The gardener was put on rations like a soldier; the elderly Valideh +always kept an eye upon him. And she, for her part, was so +deferentially treated, that she took her meals with the family, and in +consequence was continually trotting to and fro between the kitchen +and the parlor at breakfast and dinner time. + +Mlle. Blandureau's parents had consented to her marriage with Joseph +Blondet upon one condition--the penniless and briefless barrister must +be an assistant judge. So, with the desire of fitting his son to fill +the position, old M. Blondet racked his brains to hammer the law into +his son's head by dint of lessons, so as to make a cut-and-dried +lawyer of him. As for Blondet junior, he spent almost every evening at +the Blandureaus' house, to which also young Fabien du Ronceret had +been admitted since his return, without raising the slightest +suspicion in the minds of father or son. + +Everything in this life of theirs was measured with an accuracy worthy +of Gerard Dow's Money Changer; not a grain of salt too much, not a +single profit foregone; but the economical principles by which it was +regulated were relaxed in favor of the greenhouse and garden. "The +garden was the master's craze," Mlle. Cadot used to say. The master's +blind fondness for Joseph was not a craze in her eyes; she shared the +father's predilection; she pampered Joseph; she darned his stockings; +and would have been better pleased if the money spent on the garden +had been put by for Joseph's benefit. + +That garden was kept in marvelous order by a single man; the paths, +covered with river-sand, continually turned over with the rake, +meandered among the borders full of the rarest flowers. Here were all +kinds of color and scent, here were lizards on the walls, legions of +little flower-pots standing out in the sun, regiments of forks and +hoes, and a host of innocent things, a combination of pleasant results +to justify the gardener's charming hobby. + +At the end of the greenhouse the judge had set up a grandstand, an +amphitheatre of benches to hold some five or six thousand pelargoniums +in pots--a splendid and famous show. People came to see his geraniums +in flower, not only from the neighborhood, but even from the +departments round about. The Empress Marie Louise, passing through the +town, had honored the curiously kept greenhouse with a visit; so much +was she impressed with the sight, that she spoke of it to Napoleon, +and the old judge received the Cross of the Legion of Honor. But as +the learned gardener never mingled in society at all, and went nowhere +except to the Blandureaus, he had no suspicion of the President's +underhand manoeuvres; and others who could see the President's +intentions were far too much afraid of him to interfere or to warn the +inoffensive Blondets. + +As for Michu, that young man with his powerful connections gave much +more thought to making himself agreeable to the women in the upper +social circles to which he was introduced by the Cinq-Cygnes, than to +the extremely simple business of a provincial Tribunal. With his +independent means (he had an income of twelve thousand livres), he was +courted by mothers of daughters, and led a frivolous life. He did just +enough at the Tribunal to satisfy his conscience, much as a schoolboy +does his exercises, saying ditto on all occasions, with a "Yes, dear +President." But underneath the appearance of indifference lurked the +unusual powers of the Paris law student who had distinguished himself +as one of the staff of prosecuting counsel before he came to the +provinces. He was accustomed to taking broad views of things; he could +do rapidly what the President and Blondet could only do after much +thinking, and very often solved knotty points for them. In delicate +conjunctures the President and Vice-President took counsel with their +junior, confided thorny questions to him, and never failed to wonder +at the readiness with which he brought back a task in which old +Blondet found nothing to criticise. Michu was sure of the influence of +the most crabbed aristocrats, and he was young and rich; he lived, +therefore, above the level of departmental intrigues and pettinesses. +He was an indispensable man at picnics, he frisked with young ladies +and paid court to their mothers, he danced at balls, he gambled like a +capitalist. In short, he played his part of young lawyer of fashion to +admiration; without, at the same time, compromising his dignity, which +he knew how to assert at the right moment like a man of spirit. He won +golden opinions by the manner in which he threw himself into +provincial ways, without criticising them; and for these reasons, +every one endeavored to make his time of exile endurable. + +The public prosecutor was a lawyer of the highest ability; he had +taken the plunge into political life, and was one of the most +distinguished speakers on the ministerialist benches. The President +stood in awe of him; if he had not been away in Paris at the time, no +steps would have been taken against Victurnien; his dexterity, his +experience of business, would have prevented the whole affair. At that +moment, however, he was in the Chamber of Deputies, and the President +and du Croisier had taken advantage of his absence to weave their +plot, calculating, with a certain ingenuity, that if once the law +stepped in, and the matter was noised abroad, things would have gone +too far to be remedied. + +As a matter of fact, no staff of prosecuting counsel in any Tribunal, +at that particular time, would have taken up a charge of forgery +against the eldest son of one of the noblest houses in France without +going into the case at great length, and a special reference, in all +probability, to the Attorney-General. In such a case as this, the +authorities and the Government would have tried endless ways of +compromising and hushing up an affair which might send an imprudent +young man to the hulks. They would very likely have done the same for +a Liberal family in a prominent position, so long as the Liberals were +not too openly hostile to the throne and the altar. So du Croisier's +charge and the young Count's arrest had not been very easy to manage. +The President and du Croisier had compassed their ends in the +following manner. + +M. Sauvager, a young Royalist barrister, had reached the position of +deputy public prosecutor by dint of subservience to the Ministry. In +the absence of his chief he was head of the staff of counsel for +prosecution, and, consequently, it fell to him to take up the charge +made by du Croisier. Sauvager was a self-made man; he had nothing but +his stipend; and for that reason the authorities reckoned upon some +one who had everything to gain by devotion. The President now +exploited the position. No sooner was the document with the alleged +forgery in du Croisier's hands, than Mme. la Presidente du Ronceret, +prompted by her spouse, had a long conversation with M. Sauvager. In +the course of it she pointed out the uncertainties of a career in the +magistrature debout compared with the magistrature assise, and the +advantages of the bench over the bar; she showed how a freak on the +part of some official, or a single false step, might ruin a man's +career. + +"If you are conscientious and give your conclusions against the powers +that be, you are lost," continued she. "Now, at this moment, you might +turn your position to account to make a fine match that would put you +above unlucky chances for the rest of your life; you may marry a wife +with fortune sufficient to land you on the bench, in the magistrature +assise. There is a fine chance for you. M. du Croisier will never have +any children; everybody knows why. His money, and his wife's as well, +will go to his niece, Mlle. Duval. M. Duval is an ironmaster, his +purse is tolerably filled, to begin with, and his father is still +alive, and has a little property besides. The father and son have a +million of francs between them; they will double it with du Croisier's +help, for du Croisier has business connections among great capitalists +and manufacturers in Paris. M. and Mme. Duval the younger would be +certain to give their daughter to a suitor brought forward by du +Croisier, for he is sure to leave two fortunes to his niece; and, in +all probability, he will settle the reversion of his wife's property +upon Mlle. Duval in the marriage contract, for Mme. du Croisier has no +kin. You know how du Croisier hates the d'Esgrignons. Do him a +service, be his man, take up this charge of forgery which he is going +to make against young d'Esgrignon, and follow up the proceedings at +once without consulting the public prosecutor at Paris. And, then, +pray Heaven that the Ministry dismisses you for doing your office +impartially, in spite of the powers that be; for if they do, your +fortune is made! You will have a charming wife and thirty thousand +francs a year with her, to say nothing of four millions expectations +in ten years' time." + +In two evenings Sauvager was talked over. Both he and the President +kept the affair a secret from old Blondet, from Michu, and from the +second member of the staff of prosecuting counsel. Feeling sure of +Blondet's impartiality on a question of fact, the President made +certain of a majority without counting Camusot. And now Camusot's +unexpected defection had thrown everything out. What the President +wanted was a committal for trial before the public prosecutor got +warning. How if Camusot or the second counsel for the prosecution +should send word to Paris? + +And here some portion of Camusot's private history may perhaps explain +how it came to pass that Chesnel took it for granted that the +examining magistrate would be on the d'Esgrignons' side, and how he +had the boldness to tamper in the open street with that representative +of justice. + +Camusot's father, a well-known silk mercer in the Rue des Bourdonnais, +was ambitious for the only son of his first marriage, and brought him +up to the law. When Camusot junior took a wife, he gained with her the +influence of an usher of the Royal cabinet, backstairs influence, it +is true, but still sufficient, since it had brought him his first +appointment as justice of the peace, and the second as examining +magistrate. At the time of his marriage, his father only settled an +income of six thousand francs upon him (the amount of his mother's +fortune, which he could legally claim), and as Mlle. Thirion brought +him no more than twenty thousand francs as her portion, the young +couple knew the hardships of hidden poverty. The salary of a +provincial justice of the peace does not exceed fifteen hundred +francs, while an examining magistrate's stipend is augmented by +something like a thousand francs, because his position entails +expenses and extra work. The post, therefore, is much coveted, though +it is not permanent, and the work is heavy, and that was why Mme. +Camusot had just scolded her husband for allowing the President to +read his thoughts. + +Marie Cecile Amelie Thirion, after three years of marriage, perceived +the blessing of Heaven upon it in the regularity of two auspicious +events--the births of a girl and a boy; but she prayed to be less +blessed in the future. A few more of such blessings would turn +straitened means into distress. M. Camusot's father's money was not +likely to come to them for a long time; and, rich as he was, he would +scarcely leave more than eight or ten thousand francs a year to each +of his children, four in number, for he had been married twice. And +besides, by the time that all "expectations," as matchmakers call +them, were realized, would not the magistrate have children of his own +to settle in life? Any one can imagine the situation for a little +woman with plenty of sense and determination, and Mme. Camusot was +such a woman. She did not refrain from meddling in matters judicial. +She had far too strong a sense of the gravity of a false step in her +husband's career. + +She was the only child of an old servant of Louis XVIII., a valet who +had followed his master in his wanderings in Italy, Courland, and +England, till after the Restoration the King awarded him with the one +place that he could fill at Court, and made him usher by rotation to +the royal cabinet. So in Amelie's home there had been, as it were, a +sort of reflection of the Court. Thirion used to tell her about the +lords, and ministers, and great men whom he announced and introduced +and saw passing to and fro. The girl, brought up at the gates of the +Tuileries, had caught some tincture of the maxims practised there, and +adopted the dogma of passive obedience to authority. She had sagely +judged that her husband, by ranging himself on the side of the +d'Esgrignons, would find favor with Mme. la Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, +and with two powerful families on whose influence with the King the +Sieur Thirion could depend at an opportune moment. Camusot might get +an appointment at the first opportunity within the jurisdiction of +Paris, and afterwards at Paris itself. That promotion, dreamed of and +longed for at every moment, was certain to have a salary of six +thousand francs attached to it, as well as the alleviation of living +in her own father's house, or under the Camusots' roof, and all the +advantages of a father's fortune on either side. If the adage, "Out of +sight is out of mind," holds good of most women, it is particularly +true where family feeling or royal or ministerial patronage is +concerned. The personal attendants of kings prosper at all times; you +take an interest in a man, be it only a man in livery, if you see him +every day. + +Mme. Camusot, regarding herself as a bird of passage, had taken a +little house in the Rue du Cygne. Furnished lodgings there were none; +the town was not enough of a thoroughfare, and the Camusots could not +afford to live at an inn like M. Michu. So the fair Parisian had no +choice for it but to take such furniture as she could find; and as she +paid a very moderate rent, the house was remarkably ugly, albeit a +certain quaintness of detail was not wanting. It was built against a +neighboring house in such a fashion that the side with only one window +in each story, gave upon the street, and the front looked out upon a +yard where rose-bushes and buckhorn were growing along the wall on +either side. On the farther side, opposite the house, stood a shed, a +roof over two brick arches. A little wicket-gate gave entrance into +the gloomy place (made gloomier still by the great walnut-tree +which grew in the yard), but a double flight of steps, with an +elaborately-wrought but rust-eaten handrail, led to the house door. +Inside the house there were two rooms on each floor. The dining-room +occupied that part of the ground floor nearest the street, and the +kitchen lay on the other side of a narrow passage almost wholly taken +up by the wooden staircase. Of the two first-floor rooms, one did duty +as the magistrate's study, the other as a bedroom, while the nursery +and the servants' bedroom stood above in the attics. There were no +ceilings in the house; the cross-beams were simply white-washed and the +spaces plastered over. Both rooms on the first floor and the dining-room +below were wainscoted and adorned with the labyrinthine designs which +taxed the patience of the eighteenth century joiner; but the carving +had been painted a dingy gray most depressing to behold. + +The magistrate's study looked as though it belonged to a provincial +lawyer; it contained a big bureau, a mahogany armchair, a law +student's books, and shabby belongings transported from Paris. +Mme. Camusot's room was more of a native product; it boasted a +blue-and-white scheme of decoration, a carpet, and that anomalous kind +of furniture which appears to be in the fashion, while it is simply some +style that has failed in Paris. As to the dining-room, it was nothing +but an ordinary provincial dining-room, bare and chilly, with a damp, +faded paper on the walls. + +In this shabby room, with nothing to see but the walnut-tree, the dark +leaves growing against the walls, and the almost deserted road beyond +them, a somewhat lively and frivolous woman, accustomed to the +amusements and stir of Paris, used to sit all day long, day after day, +and for the most part of the time alone, though she received tiresome +and inane visits which led her to think her loneliness preferable to +empty tittle-tattle. If she permitted herself the slightest gleam of +intelligence, it gave rise to interminable comment and embittered her +condition. She occupied herself a great deal with her children, not so +much from taste as for the sake of an interest in her almost solitary +life, and exercised her mind on the only subjects which she could find +--to wit, the intrigues which went on around her, the ways of +provincials, and the ambitions shut in by their narrow horizons. So +she very soon fathomed mysteries of which her husband had no idea. As +she sat at her window with a piece of intermittent embroidery work in +her fingers, she did not see her woodshed full of faggots nor the +servant busy at the wash tub; she was looking out upon Paris, Paris +where everything is pleasure, everything is full of life. She dreamed +of Paris gaieties, and shed tears because she must abide in this dull +prison of a country town. She was disconsolate because she lived in a +peaceful district, where no conspiracy, no great affair would ever +occur. She saw herself doomed to sit under the shadow of the +walnut-tree for some time to come. + +Mme. Camusot was a little, plump, fresh, fair-haired woman, with a +very prominent forehead, a mouth which receded, and a turned-up chin, +a type of countenance which is passable in youth, but looks old before +the time. Her bright, quick eyes expressed her innocent desire to get +on in the world, and the envy born of her present inferior position, +with rather too much candor; but still they lighted up her commonplace +face and set it off with a certain energy of feeling, which success +was certain to extinguish in later life. At that time she used to give +a good deal of time and thought to her dresses, inventing trimmings +and embroidering them; she planned out her costumes with the maid whom +she had brought with her from Paris, and so maintained the reputation +of Parisiennes in the provinces. Her caustic tongue was dreaded; she +was not loved. In that keen, investigating spirit peculiar to +unoccupied women who are driven to find some occupation for empty +days, she had pondered the President's private opinions, until at +length she discovered what he meant to do, and for some time past she +had advised Camusot to declare war. The young Count's affair was an +excellent opportunity. Was it not obviously Camusot's part to make a +stepping-stone of this criminal case by favoring the d'Esgrignons, a +family with power of a very different kind from the power of the du +Croisier party? + +"Sauvager will never marry Mlle. Duval. They are dangling her before +him, but he will be the dupe of those Machiavels in the Val-Noble to +whom he is going to sacrifice his position. Camusot, this affair, so +unfortunate as it is for the d'Esgrignons, so insidiously brought on +by the President for du Croisier's benefit, will turn out well for +nobody but /you/," she had said, as they went in. + +The shrewd Parisienne had likewise guessed the President's underhand +manoeuvres with the Blandureaus, and his object in baffling old +Blondet's efforts, but she saw nothing to be gained by opening the +eyes of father or son to the perils of the situation; she was enjoying +the beginning of the comedy; she knew about the proposals made by +Chesnel's successor on behalf of Fabien du Ronceret, but she did not +suspect how important that secret might be to her. If she or her +husband were threatened by the President, Mme. Camusot could threaten +too, in her turn, to call the amateur gardener's attention to a scheme +for carrying off the flower which he meant to transplant into his +house. + +Chesnel had not penetrated, like Mme. Camusot, into the means by which +Sauvager had been won over; but by dint of looking into the various +lives and interests of the men grouped about the Lilies of the +Tribunal, he knew that he could count upon the public prosecutor, upon +Camusot, and M. Michu. Two judges for the d'Esgrignons would paralyze +the rest. And, finally, Chesnel knew old Blondet well enough to feel +sure that if he ever swerved from impartiality, it would be for the +sake of the work of his whole lifetime,--to secure his son's +appointment. So Chesnel slept, full of confidence, on the resolve to +go to M. Blondet and offer to realize his so long cherished hopes, +while he opened his eyes to President du Ronceret's treachery. Blondet +won over, he would take a peremptory tone with the examining +magistrate, to whom he hoped to prove that if Victurnien was not +blameless, he had been merely imprudent; the whole thing should be +shown in the light of a boy's thoughtless escapade. + +But Chesnel slept neither soundly nor for long. Before dawn he was +awakened by his housekeeper. The most bewitching person in this +history, the most adorable youth on the face of the globe, Mme. la +Duchesse de Maufrigneuse herself, in man's attire, had driven alone +from Paris in a caleche, and was waiting to see him. + +"I have come to save him or to die with him," said she, addressing the +notary, who thought that he was dreaming. "I have brought a hundred +thousand francs, given me by His Majesty out of his private purse, to +buy Victurnien's innocence, if his adversary can be bribed. If we fail +utterly, I have brought poison to snatch him away before anything +takes place, before even the indictment is drawn up. But we shall not +fail. I have sent word to the public prosecutor; he is on the road +behind me; he could not travel in my caleche, because he wished to +take the instructions of the Keeper of the Seals." + +Chesnel rose to the occasion and played up to the Duchess; he wrapped +himself in his dressing-gown, fell at her feet, and kissed them, not +without asking her pardon for forgetting himself in his joy. + +"We are saved!" cried he; and gave orders to Brigitte to see that Mme. +la Duchesse had all that she needed after traveling post all night. He +appealed to the fair Diane's spirit, by making her see that it was +absolutely necessary that she should visit the examining magistrate +before daylight, lest any one should discover the secret, or so much +as imagine that the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse had come. + +"And have I not a passport in due form?" quoth she, displaying a sheet +of paper, wherein she was described as M. le Vicomte Felix de +Vandeness, Master of Requests, and His Majesty's private secretary. +"And do I not play my man's part well?" she added, running her fingers +through her wig a la Titus, and twirling her riding switch. + +"O! Mme. la Duchesse, you are an angel!" cried Chesnel, with tears in +his eyes. (She was destined always to be an angel, even in man's +attire.) "Button up your greatcoat, muffle yourself up to the eyes in +your traveling cloak, take my arm, and let us go as quickly as +possible to Camusot's house before anybody can meet us." + +"Then am I going to see a man called Camusot?" she asked. + +"With a nose to match his name,"[*] assented Chesnel. + +[*] Camus, flat-nosed + +The old notary felt his heart dead within him, but he thought it none +the less necessary to humor the Duchess, to laugh when she laughed, +and shed tears when she wept; groaning in spirit, all the same, over +the feminine frivolity which could find matter for a jest while +setting about a matter so serious. What would he not have done to save +the Count? While Chesnel dressed; Mme. de Maufrigneuse sipped the cup +of coffee and cream which Brigitte brought her, and agreed with +herself that provincial women cooks are superior to Parisian chefs, +who despise the little details which make all the difference to an +epicure. Thanks to Chesnel's taste for delicate fare, Brigitte was +found prepared to set an excellent meal before the Duchess. + +Chesnel and his charming companion set out for M. and Mme. Camusot's +house. + +"Ah! so there is a Mme. Camusot?" said the Duchess. "Then the affair +may be managed." + +"And so much the more readily, because the lady is visibly tired +enough of living among us provincials; she comes from Paris," said +Chesnel. + +"Then we must have no secrets from her?" + +"You will judge how much to tell or to conceal," Chesnel replied +humbly. "I am sure that she will be greatly flattered to be the +Duchesse de Maufrigneuse's hostess; you will be obliged to stay in her +house until nightfall, I expect, unless you find it inconvenient to +remain." + +"Is this Mme. Camusot a good-looking woman?" asked the Duchess, with a +coxcomb's air. + +"She is a bit of a queen in her own house." + +"Then she is sure to meddle in court-house affairs," returned the +Duchess. "Nowhere but in France, my dear M. Chesnel, do you see women +so much wedded to their husbands that they are wedded to their +husband's professions, work, or business as well. In Italy, England, +and Germany, women make it a point of honor to leave men to fight +their own battles; they shut their eyes to their husbands' work as +perseveringly as our French citizens' wives do all that in them lies +to understand the position of their joint-stock partnership; is not +that what you call it in your legal language? Frenchwomen are so +incredibly jealous in the conduct of their married life, that they +insist on knowing everything; and that is how, in the least +difficulty, you feel the wife's hand in the business; the Frenchwoman +advises, guides, and warns her husband. And, truth to tell, the man is +none the worse off. In England, if a married man is put in prison for +debt for twenty-four hours, his wife will be jealous and make a scene +when he comes back." + +"Here we are, without meeting a soul on the way," said Chesnel. "You +are the more sure of complete ascendency here, Mme. la Duchesse, since +Mme. Camusot's father is one Thirion, usher of the royal cabinet." + +"And the King never thought of that!" exclaimed the Duchess. "He +thinks of nothing! Thirion introduced us, the Prince de Cadignan, M. +de Vandeness, and me! We shall have it all our own way in this house. +Settle everything with M. Camusot while I talk to his wife." + +The maid, who was washing and dressing the children, showed the +visitors into the little fireless dining-room. + +"Take that card to your mistress," said the Duchess, lowering her +voice for the woman's ear; "nobody else is to see it. If you are +discreet, child, you shall not lose by it." + +At the sound of a woman's voice, and the sight of the handsome young +man's face, the maid looked thunderstruck. + +"Wake M. Camusot," said Chesnel, "and tell him, that I am waiting to +see him on important business," and she departed upstairs forthwith. + +A few minutes later Mme. Camusot, in her dressing-gown, sprang +downstairs and brought the handsome stranger into her room. She had +pushed Camusot out of bed and into his study with all his clothes, +bidding him dress himself at once and wait there. The transformation +scene had been brought about by a bit of pasteboard with the words +MADAME LA DUCHESSE DE MAUFRIGNEUSE engraved upon it. A daughter of the +usher of the royal cabinet took in the whole situation at once. + +"Well!" exclaimed the maid-servant, left with Chesnel in the +dining-room, "Would not any one think that a thunderbolt had dropped +in among us? The master is dressing in his study; you can go upstairs." + +"Not a word of all this, mind," said Chesnel. + +Now that he was conscious of the support of a great lady who had the +King's consent (by word of mouth) to the measures about to be taken +for rescuing the Comte d'Esgrignon, he spoke with an air of authority, +which served his cause much better with Camusot than the humility with +which he would otherwise have approached him. + +"Sir," said he, "the words let fall last evening may have surprised +you, but they are serious. The house of d'Esgrignon counts upon you +for the proper conduct of investigations from which it must issue +without a spot." + +"I shall pass over anything in your remarks, sir, which must be +offensive to me personally, and obnoxious to justice; for your +position with regard to the d'Esgrignons excuses you up to a certain +point, but----" + +"Pardon me, sir, if I interrupt you," said Chesnel. "I have just +spoken aloud the things which your superiors are thinking and dare not +avow; though what those things are any intelligent man can guess, and +you are an intelligent man.--Grant that the young man had acted +imprudently, can you suppose that the sight of a d'Esgrignon dragged +into an Assize Court can be gratifying to the King, the Court, or the +Ministry? Is it to the interest of the kingdom, or of the country, +that historic houses should fall? Is not the existence of a great +aristocracy, consecrated by time, a guarantee of that Equality which +is the catchword of the Opposition at this moment? Well and good; now +not only has there not been the slightest imprudence, but we are +innocent victims caught in a trap." + +"I am curious to know how," said the examining magistrate. + +"For the last two years, the Sieur du Croisier has regularly allowed +M. le Comte d'Esgrignon to draw upon him for very large sums," said +Chesnel. "We are going to produce drafts for more than a hundred +thousand crowns, which he continually met; the amounts being remitted +by me--bear that well in mind--either before or after the bills fell +due. M. le Comte d'Esgrignon is in a position to produce a receipt for +the sum paid by him, before this bill, this alleged forgery was drawn. +Can you fail to see in that case that this charge is a piece of spite +and party feeling? And a charge brought against the heir of a great +house by one of the most dangerous enemies of the Throne and Altar, +what is it but an odious slander? There has been no more forgery in +this affair than there has been in my office. Summon Mme. du Croisier, +who knows nothing as yet of the charge of forgery; she will declare to +you that I brought the money and paid it over to her, so that in her +husband's absence she might remit the amount for which he has not +asked her. Examine du Croisier on the point; he will tell you that he +knows nothing of my payment to Mme. du Croisier. + +"You may make such assertions as these, sir, in M. d'Esgrignon's +salon, or in any other house where people know nothing of business, +and they may be believed; but no examining magistrate, unless he is a +driveling idiot, can imagine that a woman like Mme. du Croisier, so +submissive as she is to her husband, has a hundred thousand crowns +lying in her desk at this moment, without saying a word to him; nor +yet that an old notary would not have advised M. du Croisier of the +deposit on his return to town." + +"The old notary, sir, had gone to Paris to put a stop to the young +man's extravagance." + +"I have not yet examined the Comte d'Esgrignon," Camusot began; "his +answers will point out my duty." + +"Is he in close custody?" + +"Yes." + +"Sir," said Chesnel, seeing danger ahead, "the examination can be made +in our interests or against them. But there are two courses open to +you: you can establish the fact on Mme. du Croisier's deposition that +the amount was deposited with her before the bill was drawn; or you +can examine the unfortunate young man implicated in this affair, and +he in his confusion may remember nothing and commit himself. You will +decide which is the more credible--a slip of memory on the part of a +woman in her ignorance of business, or a forgery committed by a +d'Esgrignon." + +"All this is beside the point," began Camusot; "the question is, +whether M. le Comte d'Esgrignon has or has not used the lower half of +a letter addressed to him by du Croisier as a bill of exchange." + +"Eh! and so he might," a voice cried suddenly, as Mme. Camusot broke +in, followed by the handsome stranger, "so he might when M. Chesnel +had advanced the money to meet the bill----" + +She leant over her husband. + +"You will have the first vacant appointment as assistant judge at +Paris, you are serving the King himself in this affair; I have proof +of it; you will not be forgotten," she said, lowering her voice in his +ear. "This young man that you see here is the Duchesse de +Maufrigneuse; you must never have seen her, and do all that you can +for the young Count boldly." + +"Gentlemen," said Camusot, "even if the preliminary examination is +conducted to prove the young Count's innocence, can I answer for the +view the court may take? M. Chesnel, and you also, my sweet, know what +M. le President wants." + +"Tut, tut, tut!" said Mme. Camusot, "go yourself to M. Michu this +morning, and tell him that the Count has been arrested; you will be +two against two in that case, I will be bound. /Michu/ comes from Paris, +and you know he is devoted to the noblesse. Good blood cannot lie." + +At that very moment Mlle. Cadot's voice was heard in the doorway. She +had brought a note, and was waiting for an answer. Camusot went out, +and came back again to read the note aloud: + +"M. le Vice-President begs M. Camusot to sit in audience to-day and +for the next few days, so that there may be a quorum during M. le +President's absence." + +"Then there is an end of the preliminary examination!" cried Mme. +Camusot. "Did I not tell you, dear, that they would play you some ugly +trick? The President has gone off to slander you to the public +prosecutor and the President of the Court-Royal. You will be changed +before you can make the examination. Is that clear?" + +"You will stay, monsieur," said the Duchess. "The public prosecutor is +coming, I hope, in time." + +"When the public prosecutor arrives," little Mme. Camusot said, with +some heat, "he must find all over.--Yes, my dear, yes," she added, +looking full at her amazed husband.--"Ah! old hypocrite of a +President, you are setting your wits against us; you shall remember +it! You have a mind to help us to a dish of your own making, you shall +have two served up to you by your humble servant Cecile Amelie +Thirion!--Poor old Blondet! It is lucky for him that the President has +taken this journey to turn us out, for now that great oaf of a Joseph +Blondet will marry Mlle. Blandureau. I will let Father Blondet have +some seeds in return.--As for you, Camusot, go to M. Michu's, while +Mme. la Duchesse and I will go to find old Blondet. You must expect to +hear it said all over the town to-morrow that I took a walk with a +lover this morning." + +Mme. Camusot took the Duchess' arm, and they went through the town by +deserted streets to avoid any unpleasant adventure on the way to the +old Vice-President's house. Chesnel meanwhile conferred with the young +Count in prison; Camusot had arranged a stolen interview. Cook-maids, +servants, and the other early risers of a country town, seeing Mme. +Camusot and the Duchess taking their way through the back streets, +took the young gentleman for an adorer from Paris. That evening, as +Cecile Amelie had said, the news of her behavior was circulated about +the town, and more than one scandalous rumor was occasioned thereby. +Mme. Camusot and her supposed lover found old Blondet in his +greenhouse. He greeted his colleague's wife and her companion, and +gave the charming young man a keen, uneasy glance. + +"I have the honor to introduce one of my husband's cousins," said Mme. +Camusot, bringing forward the Duchess; "he is one of the most +distinguished horticulturists in Paris; and as he cannot spend more +than one day with us, on his way back from Brittany, and has heard of +your flowers and plants, I have taken the liberty of coming early." + +"Oh, the gentleman is a horticulturist, is he?" said the old Blondet. + +The Duchess bowed. + +"This is my coffee-plant," said Blondet, "and here is a tea-plant." + +"What can have taken M. le President away from home?" put in Mme. +Camusot. "I will wager that his absence concerns M. Camusot." + +"Exactly.--This, monsieur, is the queerest of all cactuses," he +continued, producing a flower-pot which appeared to contain a piece of +mildewed rattan; "it comes from Australia. You are very young, sir, to +be a horticulturist." + +"Dear M. Blondet, never mind your flowers," said Mme. Camusot. "/You/ +are concerned, you and your hopes, and your son's marriage with Mlle. +Blandureau. You are duped by the President." + +"Bah!" said old Blondet, with an incredulous air. + +"Yes," retorted she. "If you cultivated people a little more and your +flowers a little less, you would know that the dowry and the hopes you +have sown, and watered, and tilled, and weeded are on the point of +being gathered now by cunning hands." + +"Madame!----" + +"Oh, nobody in the town will have the courage to fly in the +President's face and warn you. I, however, do not belong to the town, +and, thanks to this obliging young man, I shall soon be going back to +Paris; so I can inform you that Chesnel's successor has made formal +proposals for Mlle. Claire Blandureau's hand on behalf of young du +Ronceret, who is to have fifty thousand crowns from his parents. As +for Fabien, he has made up his mind to receive a call to the bar, so +as to gain an appointment as judge." + +Old Blondet dropped the flower-pot which he had brought out for the +Duchess to see. + +"Oh, my cactus! Oh, my son! and Mlle. Blandureau! . . . Look here! the +cactus flower is broken to pieces." + +"No," Mme. Camusot answered, laughing; "everything can be put right. +If you have a mind to see your son a judge in another month, we will +tell you how you must set to work----" + +"Step this way, sir, and you will see my pelargoniums, an enchanting +sight while they are in flower----" Then he added to Mme. Camusot, +"Why did you speak of these matters while your cousin was present." + +"All depends upon him," riposted Mme. Camusot. "Your son's appointment +is lost for ever if you let fall a word about this young man." + +"Bah!" + +"The young man is a flower----" + +"Ah!" + +"He is the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, sent here by His Majesty to save +young d'Esgrignon, whom they arrested yesterday on a charge of forgery +brought against him by du Croisier. Mme. la Duchesse has authority +from the Keeper of the Seals; he will ratify any promises that she +makes to us----" + +"My cactus is all right!" exclaimed Blondet, peering at his precious +plant.--"Go on, I am listening." + +"Take counsel with Camusot and Michu to hush up the affair as soon as +possible, and your son will get the appointment. It will come in time +enough to baffle du Ronceret's underhand dealings with the +Blandureaus. Your son will be something better than assistant judge; +he will have M. Camusot's post within the year. The public prosecutor +will be here to-day. M. Sauvager will be obliged to resign, I expect, +after his conduct in this affair. At the court my husband will show +you documents which completely exonerate the Count and prove that the +forgery was a trap of du Croisier's own setting." + +Old Blondet went into the Olympic circus where his six thousand +pelargoniums stood, and made his bow to the Duchess. + +"Monsieur," said he, "if your wishes do not exceed the law, this thing +may be done." + +"Monsieur," returned the Duchess, "send in your resignation to M. +Chesnel to-morrow, and I will promise you that your son shall be +appointed within the week; but you must not resign until you have had +confirmation of my promise from the public prosecutor. You men of law +will come to a better understanding among yourselves. Only let him +know that the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse had pledged her word to you. +And not a word as to my journey hither," she added. + +The old judge kissed her hand and began recklessly to gather his best +flowers for her. + +"Can you think of it? Give them to madame," said the Duchess. "A young +man should not have flowers about him when he has a pretty woman on +his arm." + +"Before you go down to the court," added Mme. Camusot, "ask Chesnel's +successor about those proposals that he made in the name of M. and +Mme. du Ronceret." + +Old Blondet, quite overcome by this revelation of the President's +duplicity, stood planted on his feet by the wicket gate, looking after +the two women as they hurried away through by-streets home again. The +edifice raised so painfully during ten years for his beloved son was +crumbling visibly before his eyes. Was it possible? He suspected some +trick, and hurried away to Chesnel's successor. + +At half-past nine, before the court was sitting, Vice-President +Blondet, Camusot, and Michu met with remarkable punctuality in the +council chamber. Blondet locked the door with some precautions when +Camusot and Michu came in together. + +"Well, Mr. Vice-President," began Michu, "M. Sauvager, without +consulting the public prosecutor, has issued a warrant for the +apprehension of one Comte d'Esgrignon, in order to serve a grudge +borne against him by one du Croisier, an enemy of the King's +government. It is a regular topsy-turvy affair. The President, for his +part, goes away, and thereby puts a stop to the preliminary +examination! And we know nothing of the matter. Do they, by any +chance, mean to force our hand?" + +"This is the first word I have heard of it," said the Vice-President. +He was furious with the President for stealing a march on him with the +Blandureaus. Chesnel's successor, the du Roncerets' man, had just +fallen into a snare set by the old judge; the truth was out, he knew +the secret. + +"It is lucky that we spoke to you about the matter, my dear master," +said Camusot, "or you might have given up all hope of seating your son +on the bench or of marrying him to Mlle. Blandureau." + +"But it is no question of my son, nor of his marriage," said the +Vice-President; "we are talking of young Comte d'Esgrignon. Is he or +is he not guilty?" + +"It seems that Chesnel deposited the amount to meet the bill with Mme. +du Croisier," said Michu, "and a crime has been made of a mere +irregularity. According to the charge, the Count made use of the lower +half of a letter bearing du Croisier's signature as a draft which he +cashed at the Kellers'." + +"An imprudent thing to do," was Camusot's comment. + +"But why is du Croisier proceeding against him if the amount was paid +in beforehand?" asked Vice-President Blondet. + +"He does not know that the money was deposited with his wife; or he +pretends that he does not know," said Camusot. + +"It is a piece of provincial spite," said Michu. + +"Still it looks like a forgery to me," said old Blondet. No passion +could obscure judicial clear-sightedness in him. + +"Do you think so?" returned Camusot. "But, at the outset, supposing +that the Count had no business to draw upon du Croisier, there would +still be no forgery of the signature; and the Count believed that he +had a right to draw on Croisier when Chesnel advised him that the +money had been placed to his credit." + +"Well, then, where is the forgery?" asked Blondet. "It is the intent +to defraud which constitutes forgery in a civil action." + +"Oh, it is clear, if you take du Croisier's version for truth, that +the signature was diverted from its purpose to obtain a sum of money +in spite of du Croisier's contrary injunction to his bankers," Camusot +answered. + +"Gentlemen," said Blondet, "this seems to me to be a mere triffle, a +quibble.--Suppose you had the money, I ought perhaps to have waited +until I had your authorization; but I, Comte d'Esgrignon, was pressed +for money, so I---- Come, come, your prosecution is a piece of +revengeful spite. Forgery is defined by the law as an attempt to +obtain any advantage which rightfully belongs to another. There is no +forgery here, according to the letter of the Roman law, nor according +to the spirit of modern jurisprudence (always from the point of a +civil action, for we are not here concerned with the falsification of +public or authentic documents). Between private individuals the +essence of a forgery is the intent to defraud; where is it in this +case? In what times are we living, gentlemen? Here is the President +going away to balk a preliminary examination which ought to be over by +this time! Until to-day I did not know M. le President, but he shall +have the benefit of arrears; from this time forth he shall draft his +decisions himself. You must set about this affair with all possible +speed, M. Camusot." + +"Yes," said Michu. "In my opinion, instead of letting the young man +out on bail, we ought to pull him out of this mess at once. Everything +turns on the examination of du Croisier and his wife. You might +summons them to appear while the court is sitting, M. Camusot; take +down their depositions before four o'clock, send in your report +to-night, and we will give our decision in the morning before the court +sits." + +"We will settle what course to pursue while the barristers are +pleading," said Vice-President Blondet, addressing Camusot. + +And with that the three judges put on their robes and went into court. + +At noon Mlle. Armande and the Bishop reached the Hotel d'Esgrignon; +Chesnel and M. Couturier were there to meet them. There was a +sufficiently short conference between the prelate and Mme. du +Croisier's director, and the latter set out at once to visit his +charge. + +At eleven o'clock that morning du Croisier received a summons to +appear in the examining magistrate's office between one and two in the +afternoon. Thither he betook himself, consumed by well-founded +suspicions. It was impossible that the President should have foreseen +the arrival of the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse upon the scene, the return +of the public prosecutor, and the hasty confabulation of his learned +brethren; so he had omitted to trace out a plan for du Croisier's +guidance in the event of the preliminary examination taking place. +Neither of the pair imagined that the proceedings would be hurried on +in this way. Du Croisier obeyed the summons at once; he wanted to know +how M. Camusot was disposed to act. So he was compelled to answer the +questions put to him. Camusot addressed him in summary fashion with +the six following inquiries:-- + +"Was the signature on the bill alleged to be a forgery in your +handwriting?--Had you previously done business with M. le Comte +d'Esgrignon?--Was not M. le Comte d'Esgrignon in the habit of drawing +upon you, with or without advice?--Did you not write a letter +authorizing M. d'Esgrignon to rely upon you at any time?-- Had not +Chesnel squared the account not once, but many times already?-- Were +you not away from home when this took place?" + +All these questions the banker answered in the affirmative. In spite +of wordy explanations, the magistrate always brought him back to a +"Yes" or "No." When the questions and answers alike had been resumed +in the proces-verbal, the examining magistrate brought out a final +thunderbolt. + +"Was du Croisier aware that the money destined to meet the bill had +been deposited with him, du Croisier, according to Chesnel's +declaration, and a letter of advice sent by the said Chesnel to the +Comte d'Esgrignon, five days before the date of the bill?" + +That last question frightened du Croisier. He asked what was meant by +it, and whether he was supposed to be the defendant and M. le Comte +d'Esgrignon the plaintiff? He called the magistrate's attention to the +fact that if the money had been deposited with him, there was no +ground for the action. + +"Justice is seeking information," said the magistrate, as he dismissed +the witness, but not before he had taken down du Croisier's last +observation. + +"But the money, sir----" + +"The money is at your house." + +Chesnel, likewise summoned, came forward to explain the matter. The +truth of his assertions was borne out by Mme. du Croisier's +deposition. The Count had already been examined. Prompted by Chesnel, +he produced du Croisier's first letter, in which he begged the Count +to draw upon him without the insulting formality of depositing the +amount beforehand. The Comte d'Esgrignon next brought out a letter in +Chesnel's handwriting, by which the notary advised him of the deposit +of a hundred thousand crowns with M. du Croisier. With such primary +facts as these to bring forward as evidence, the young Count's +innocence was bound to emerge triumphantly from a court of law. + +Du Croisier went home from the court, his face white with rage, and +the foam of repressed fury on his lips. His wife was sitting by the +fireside in the drawing-room at work upon a pair of slippers for him. +She trembled when she looked into his face, but her mind was made up. + +"Madame," he stammered out, "what deposition is this that you made +before the magistrate? You have dishonored, ruined, and betrayed me!" + +"I have saved you, monsieur," answered she. "If some day you will have +the honor of connecting yourself with the d'Esgrignons by marrying +your niece to the Count, it will be entirely owing to my conduct +to-day." + +"A miracle!" cried he. "Balaam's ass has spoken. Nothing will astonish +me after this. And where are the hundred thousand crowns which (so M. +Camusot tells me) are here in my house?" + +"Here they are," said she, pulling out a bundle of banknotes from +beneath the cushions of her settee. "I have not committed mortal sin +by declaring that M. Chesnel gave them into my keeping." + +"While I was away?" + +"You were not here." + +"Will you swear that to me on your salvation?" + +"I swear it," she said composedly. + +"Then why did you say nothing to me about it?" demanded he. + +"I was wrong there," said his wife, "but my mistake was all for your +good. Your niece will be Marquise d'Esgrignon some of these days, and +you will perhaps be a deputy, if you behave well in this deplorable +business. You have gone too far; you must find out how to get back +again." + +Du Croisier, under stress of painful agitation, strode up and down his +drawing-room; while his wife, in no less agitation, awaited the result +of this exercise. Du Croisier at length rang the bell. + +"I am not at home to any one to-night," he said, when the man +appeared; "shut the gates; and if any one calls, tell them that your +mistress and I have gone into the country. We shall start directly +after dinner, and dinner must be half an hour earlier than usual." + + + +The great news was discussed that evening in every drawing-room; +little shopkeepers, working folk, beggars, the noblesse, the merchant +class--the whole town, in short, was talking of the Comte +d'Esgrignon's arrest on a charge of forgery. The Comte d'Esgrignon +would be tried in the Assize Court; he would be condemned and branded. +Most of those who cared for the honor of the family denied the fact. +At nightfall Chesnel went to Mme. Camusot and escorted the stranger to +the Hotel d'Esgrignon. Poor Mlle. Armande was expecting him; she led +the fair Duchess to her own room, which she had given up to her, for +his lordship the Bishop occupied Victurnien's chamber; and, left alone +with her guest, the noble woman glanced at the Duchess with most +piteous eyes. + +"You owed help, indeed, madame, to the poor boy who ruined himself for +your sake," she said, "the boy to whom we are all of us sacrificing +ourselves." + +The Duchess had already made a woman's survey of Mlle. d'Esgrignon's +room; the cold, bare, comfortless chamber, that might have been a +nun's cell, was like a picture of the life of the heroic woman before +her. The Duchess saw it all--past, present, and future--with rising +emotion, felt the incongruity of her presence, and could not keep back +the falling tears that made answer for her. + +But in Mlle. Armande the Christian overcame Victurnien's aunt. "Ah, I +was wrong; forgive me, Mme. la Duchesse; you did not know how poor we +were, and my nephew was incapable of the admission. And besides, now +that I see you, I can understand all--even the crime!" + +And Mlle. Armande, withered and thin and white, but beautiful as those +tall austere slender figures which German art alone can paint, had +tears too in her eyes. + +"Do not fear, dear angel," the Duchess said at last; "he is safe." + +"Yes, but honor?--and his career? Chesnel told me; the King knows the +truth." + +"We will think of a way of repairing the evil," said the Duchess. + +Mlle. Armande went downstairs to the salon, and found the Collection +of Antiquities complete to a man. Every one of them had come, partly +to do honor to the Bishop, partly to rally round the Marquis; but +Chesnel, posted in the antechamber, warned each new arrival to say no +word of the affair, that the aged Marquis might never know that such a +thing had been. The loyal Frank was quite capable of killing his son +or du Croisier; for either the one or the other must have been guilty +of death in his eyes. It chanced, strangely enough, that he talked +more of Victurnien than usual; he was glad that his son had gone back +to Paris. The King would give Victurnien a place before very long; the +King was interesting himself at last in the d'Esgrignons. And his +friends, their hearts dead within them, praised Victurnien's conduct +to the skies. Mlle. Armande prepared the way for her nephew's sudden +appearance among them by remarking to her brother that Victurnien +would be sure to come to see them, and that he must be even then on +his way. + +"Bah!" said the Marquis, standing with his back to the hearth, "if he +is doing well where he is, he ought to stay there, and not be thinking +of the joy it would give his old father to see him again. The King's +service has the first claim." + +Scarcely one of those present heard the words without a shudder. +Justice might give over a d'Esgrignon to the executioner's branding +iron. There was a dreadful pause. The old Marquise de Casteran could +not keep back a tear that stole down over her rouge, and turned her +head away to hide it. + +Next day at noon, in the sunny weather, a whole excited population was +dispersed in groups along the high street, which ran through the heart +of the town, and nothing was talked of but the great affair. Was the +Count in prison or was he not?--All at once the Comte d'Esgrignon's +well-known tilbury was seen driving down the Rue Saint-Blaise; it had +evidently come from the Prefecture, the Count himself was on the box +seat, and by his side sat a charming young man, whom nobody +recognized. The pair were laughing and talking and in great spirits. +They wore Bengal roses in their button-holes. Altogether, it was a +theatrical surprise which words fail to describe. + +At ten o'clock the court had decided to dismiss the charge, stating +their very sufficient reasons for setting the Count at liberty, in a +document which contained a thunderbolt for du Croisier, in the shape +of an /inasmuch/ that gave the Count the right to institute +proceedings for libel. Old Chesnel was walking up the Grand Rue, as if +by accident, telling all who cared to hear him that du Croisier had set +the most shameful of snares for the d'Esgrignons' honor, and that it +was entirely owing to the forbearance and magnanimity of the family +that he was not prosecuted for slander. + +On the evening of that famous day, after the Marquis d'Esgrignon had +gone to bed, the Count, Mlle. Armande, and the Chevalier were left +with the handsome young page, now about to return to Paris. The +charming cavalier's sex could not be hidden from the Chevalier, and he +alone, besides the three officials and Mme. Camusot, knew that the +Duchess had been among them. + +"The house is saved," began Chesnel, "but after this shock it will +take a hundred years to rise again. The debts must be paid now; you +must marry an heiress, M. le Comte, there is nothing left for you to +do." + +"And take her where you may find her," said the Duchess. + +"A second mesalliance!" exclaimed Mlle. Armande. + +The Duchess began to laugh. + +"It is better to marry than to die," she said. As she spoke she drew +from her waistcoat pocket a tiny crystal phial that came from the +court apothecary. + +Mlle. Armande shrank away in horror. Old Chesnel took the fair +Maufrigneuse's hand, and kissed it without permission. + +"Are you all out of your minds here?" continued the Duchess. "Do you +really expect to live in the fifteenth century when the rest of the +world has reached the nineteenth? My dear children, there is no +noblesse nowadays; there is no aristocracy left! Napoleon's Code Civil +made an end of the parchments, exactly as cannon made an end of feudal +castles. When you have some money, you will be very much more of +nobles than you are now. Marry anybody you please, Victurnien, you +will raise your wife to your rank; that is the most substantial +privilege left to the French noblesse. Did not M. de Talleyrand marry +Mme. Grandt without compromising his position? Remember that Louis +XIV. took the Widow Scarron for his wife." + +"He did not marry her for her money," interposed Mlle. Armande. + +"If the Comtesse d'Esgrignon were one du Croisier's niece, for +instance, would you receive her?" asked Chesnel. + +"Perhaps," replied the Duchess; "but the King, beyond all doubt, would +be very glad to see her.--So you do not know what is going on in the +world?" continued she, seeing the amazement in their faces. +"Victurnien has been in Paris; he knows how things go there. We had +more influence under Napoleon. Marry Mlle. Duval, Victurnien; she will +be just as much Marquise d'Esgrignon as I am Duchesse de +Maufrigneuse." + +"All is lost--even honor!" said the Chevalier, with a wave of the +hand. + +"Good-bye, Victurnien," said the Duchess, kissing her lover on the +forehead; "we shall not see each other again. Live on your lands; that +is the best thing for you to do; the air of Paris is not at all good +for you." + +"Diane!" the young Count cried despairingly. + +"Monsieur, you forget yourself strangely," the Duchess retorted +coolly, as she laid aside her role of man and mistress, and became not +merely an angel again, but a duchess, and not only a duchess, but +Moliere's Celimene. + +The Duchesse de Maufrigneuse made a stately bow to these four +personages, and drew from the Chevalier his last tear of admiration at +the service of le beau sexe. + +"How like she is to the Princess Goritza!" he exclaimed in a low +voice. + +Diane had disappeared. The crack of the postilion's whip told +Victurnien that the fair romance of his first love was over. While +peril lasted, Diane could still see her lover in the young Count; but +out of danger, she despised him for the weakling that he was. + + + +Six months afterwards, Camusot received the appointment of assistant +judge at Paris, and later he became an examining magistrate. Goodman +Blondet was made a councillor to the Royal-Court; he held the post +just long enough to secure a retiring pension, and then went back to +live in his pretty little house. Joseph Blondet sat in his father's +seat at the court till the end of his days; there was not the faintest +chance of promotion for him, but he became Mlle. Blandereau's husband; +and she, no doubt, is leading to-day, in the little flower-covered +brick house, as dull a life as any carp in a marble basin. Michu and +Camusot also received the Cross of the Legion of Honor, while Blondet +became an Officer. As for M. Sauvager, deputy public prosecutor, he +was sent to Corsica, to du Croisier's great relief; he had decidedly +no mind to bestow his niece upon that functionary. + +Du Croisier himself, urged by President du Ronceret, appealed from the +finding of the Tribunal to the Court-Royal, and lost his cause. The +Liberals throughout the department held that little d'Esgrignon was +guilty; while the Royalists, on the other hand, told frightful stories +of plots woven by "that abominable du Croisier" to compass his +revenge. A duel was fought indeed; the hazard of arms favored du +Croisier, the young Count was dangerously wounded, and his antagonist +maintained his words. This affair embittered the strife between the +two parties; the Liberals brought it forward on all occasions. +Meanwhile du Croisier never could carry his election, and saw no hope +of marrying his niece to the Count, especially after the duel. + +A month after the decision of the Tribunal was confirmed in the +Court-Royal, Chesnel died, exhausted by the dreadful strain, which had +weakened and shaken him mentally and physically. He died in the hour +of victory, like some old faithful hound that has brought the boar to +bay, and gets his death on the tusks. He died as happily as might be, +seeing that he left the great House all but ruined, and the heir in +penury, bored to death by an idle life, and without a hope of +establishing himself. That bitter thought and his own exhaustion, no +doubt, hastened the old man's end. One great comfort came to him as he +lay amid the wreck of so many hopes, sinking under the burden of so +many cares--the old Marquis, at his sister's entreaty, gave him back +all the old friendship. The great lord came to the little house in the +Rue du Bercail, and sat by his old servant's bedside, all unaware how +much that servant had done and sacrificed for him. Chesnel sat +upright, and repeated Simeon's cry.--The Marquis allowed them to bury +Chesnel in the castle chapel; they laid him crosswise at the foot of +the tomb which was waiting for the Marquis himself, the last, in a +sense, of the d'Esgrignons. + +And so died one of the last representatives of that great and +beautiful thing, Service; giving to that often discredited word its +original meaning, the relation between feudal lord and servitor. That +relation, only to be found in some out-of-the-way province, or among a +few old servants of the King, did honor alike to a noblesse that could +call forth such affection, and to a bourgeoisie that could conceive +it. Such noble and magnificent devotion is no longer possible among +us. Noble houses have no servitors left; even as France has no longer +a King, nor an hereditary peerage, nor lands that are bound +irrevocably to an historic house, that the glorious names of the +nation may be perpetuated. Chesnel was not merely one of the obscure +great men of private life; he was something more--he was a great fact. +In his sustained self-devotion is there not something indefinably +solemn and sublime, something that rises above the one beneficent +deed, or the heroic height which is reached by a moment's supreme +effort? Chesnel's virtues belong essentially to the classes which +stand between the poverty of the people on the one hand, and the +greatness of the aristocracy on the other; for these can combine +homely burgher virtues with the heroic ideals of the noble, +enlightening both by a solid education. + +Victurnien was not well looked upon at Court; there was no more chance +of a great match for him, nor a place. His Majesty steadily refused to +raise the d'Esgrignons to the peerage, the one royal favor which could +rescue Victurnien from his wretched position. It was impossible that +he should marry a bourgeoise heiress in his father's lifetime, so he +was bound to live on shabbily under the paternal roof with memories of +his two years of splendor in Paris, and the lost love of a great lady +to bear him company. He grew moody and depressed, vegetating at home +with a careworn aunt and a half heart-broken father, who attributed +his son's condition to a wasting malady. Chesnel was no longer there. + +The Marquis died in 1830. The great d'Esgrignon, with a following of +all the less infirm noblesse from the Collection of Antiquities, went +to wait upon Charles X. at Nonancourt; he paid his respects to his +sovereign, and swelled the meagre train of the fallen king. It was an +act of courage which seems simple enough to-day, but, in that time of +enthusiastic revolt, it was heroism. + +"The Gaul has conquered!" These were the Marquis' last words. + +By that time du Croisier's victory was complete. The new Marquis +d'Esgrignon accepted Mlle. Duval as his wife a week after his old +father's death. His bride brought him three millions of francs for du +Croisier and his wife settled the reversion of their fortunes upon her +in the marriage-contract. Du Croisier took occasion to say during the +ceremony that the d'Esgrignon family was the most honorable of all the +ancient houses in France. + +Some day the present Marquis d'Esgrignon will have an income of more +than a hundred thousand crowns. You may see him in Paris, for he comes +to town every winter and leads a jolly bachelor life, while he treats +his wife with something more than the indifference of the grand +seigneur of olden times; he takes no thought whatever for her. + +"As for Mlle. d'Esgrignon," said Emile Blondet, to whom all the detail +of the story is due, "if she is no longer like the divinely fair woman +whom I saw by glimpses in my childhood, she is decidedly, at the age +of sixty-seven, the most pathetic and interesting figure in the +Collection of Antiquities. She queens it among them still. I saw her +when I made my last journey to my native place in search of the +necessary papers for my marriage. When my father knew who it was that +I had married, he was struck dumb with amazement; he had not a word to +say until I told him that I was a prefect. + +"'You were born to it,' he said, with a smile. + +"As I took a walk around the town, I met Mlle. Armande. She looked +taller than ever. I looked at her, and thought of Marius among the +ruins of Carthage. Had she not outlived her creed, and the beliefs +that had been destroyed? She is a sad and silent woman, with nothing +of her old beauty left except the eyes, that shine with an unearthly +light. I watched her on her way to mass, with her book in her hand, +and could not help thinking that she prayed to God to take her out of +the world." + + + +LES JARDIES, July 1837. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Note: The Old Maid is a companion piece to The Collection of +Antiquities. In other Addendum appearances they are combined under the +title of The Jealousies of a Country Town. + +Blondet (Judge) + Beatrix + +Blondet, Emile + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Modeste Mignon + Another Study of Woman + The Secrets of a Princess + A Daughter of Eve + The Firm of Nucingen + The Peasantry + +Blondet, Virginie + The Secrets of a Princess + The Peasantry + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Another Study of Woman + The Member for Arcis + A Daughter of Eve + +Bousquier, Du (or Du Croisier or Du Bourguier) + The Old Maid + The Middle Classes + +Bousquier, Madame du (or du Croisier) + The Old Maid + +Camusot de Marville + Cousin Pons + The Commission in Lunacy + Scenes from a Cuortesan's Life + +Camusot de Marville, Madame + The Vendetta + Cesar Birotteau + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Cousin Pons + +Cardot (Parisian notary) + The Muse of the Department + A Man of Business + Pierre Grassou + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons + +Casteran, De + The Chouans + The Seamy Side of History + The Old Maid + Beatrix + The Peasantry + +Chesnel (or Choisnel) + The Seamy Side of History + The Old Maid + +Coudrai, Du + The Old Maid + +Esgrignon, Charles-Marie-Victor-Ange-Carol, Marquis d' (or Des Grignons) + The Chouans + The Old Maid + +Esgrignon, Victurnien, Comte (then Marquis d') + Letters of Two Brides + A Man of Business + The Secrets of a Princess + Cousin Betty + +Esgrignon, Marie-Armande-Claire d' + The Old Maid + +Herouville, Duc d' + The Hated Son + Modeste Mignon + Cousin Betty + +Lenoncourt, Duc de + The Lily of the Valley + Cesar Birotteau + The Old Maid + The Gondreville Mystery + Beatrix + +Leroi, Pierre + The Chouans + The Seamy Side of History + +Marsay, Henri de + The Thirteen + The Unconscious Humorists + Another Study of Woman + The Lily of the Valley + Father Goriot + Ursule Mirouet + A Marriage Settlement + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Letters of Two Brides + The Ball at Sceaux + Modest Mignon + The Secrets of a Princess + The Gondreville Mystery + A Daughter of Eve + +Maufrigneuse, Duchesse de + The Secrets of a Princess + Modeste Mignon + The Muse of the Department + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Letters of Two Brides + Another Study of Woman + The Gondreville Mystery + The Member for Arcis + +Michu, Francois + The Gondreville Mystery + The Member for Arcis + +Pamiers, Vidame de + The Thirteen + +Ronceret, Du + The Old Maid + Beatrix + +Ronceret, Madame du + The Old Maid + +Ronceret, Fabien-Felicien du (or Duronceret) + Beatrix + Gaudissart II + +Scherbelloff, Princesse (or Scherbellof or Sherbelloff) + The Peasantry + +Thirion + The Vendetta + Cesar Birotteau + +Troisville, Guibelin, Vicomte de + The Seamy Side of History + The Chouans + The Old Maid + The Peasantry + +Valois, Chevalier de + The Chouans + The Old Maid + +Verneuil, Duc de + The Chouans + The Old Maid + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Jealousies of a Country Town +by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JEALOUSIES OF A COUNTRY TOWN *** + +***** This file should be named 7950.txt or 7950.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/7/9/5/7950/ + +Produced by Dagny; and John Bickers + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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 Jealousies of a Country Town + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7950] +[This file was first posted on June 4, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE JEALOUSIES OF A COUNTRY TOWN *** + + + + +Etext prepared by Dagny <dagnypg@yahoo.com> and John Bickers +<jbickers@ihug.co.nz + +Editorial note: This book combines two existing Project Gutenberg + books, An Old Maid (EBook#1352, omaid10.xxx) and + The Collection of Antiquities (EBook#1405, clntq10.xxx) + into their original collected form with a new + introduction. + + + + + +THE JEALOUSIES OF A COUNTRY TOWN + +BY + +HONORE DE BALZAC + + + + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +The two stories of _Les Rivalites_ are more closely connected than it +was always Balzac's habit to connect the tales which he united under a +common heading. Not only are both devoted to the society of Alencon--a +town and neighborhood to which he had evidently strong, though it is +not clearly known what, attractions--not only is the Chevalier de +Valois a notable figure in each; but the community, imparted by the +elaborate study of the old _noblesse_ in each case, is even greater +than either of these ties could give. Indeed, if instead of _Les +Rivalites_ the author had chosen some label indicating the study of +the _noblesse qui s'en va_, it might almost have been preferable. He +did not, however; and though in a man who so constantly changed his +titles and his arrangements the actual ones are not excessively +authoritative, they have authority. + +_La Vieille Fille_, despite a certain tone of levity--which, to do +Balzac justice, is not common with him, and which is rather hard upon +the poor heroine--is one of the best and liveliest things he ever did. +The opening picture of the Chevalier, though, like other things of its +author's, especially in his overtures, liable to the charge of being +elaborated a little too much, is one of the very best things of its +kind, and is a sort of _locus classicus_ for its subject. The whole +picture of country town society is about as good as it can be; and the +only blot that I know is to be found in the sentimental Athanase, who +is not quite within Balzac's province, extensive as that province is. +If we compare Mr. Augustus Moddle, we shall see one of the not too +numerous instances in which Dickens has a clear advantage over Balzac; +and if it be retorted that Balzac's object was not to present a merely +ridiculous object, the rejoinder is not very far to seek. Such a +character, with such a fate as Balzac has assigned to him, must be +either humorously grotesque or unfeignedly pathetic, and Balzac has +not quite made Athanase either. + +He is, however, if he is a failure, about the only failure in the +book, and he is atoned for by a whole bundle of successes. Of the +Chevalier, little more need be said. Balzac, it must be remembered, +was the oldest novelist of distinct genius who had the opportunity of +delineating the survivors of the _ancien regime_ from the life, and +directly. It is certain--even if we hesitate at believing him quite so +familiar with all the classes of higher society from the _Faubourg_ +downwards, as he would have us believe him--that he saw something of +most of them, and his genius was unquestionably of the kind to which a +mere thumbnail study, a mere passing view, suffices for the +acquisition of a thorough working knowledge of the object. In this +case the Chevalier has served, and not improperly served, as the +original of a thousand after-studies. His rival, less carefully +projected, is also perhaps a little less alive. Again, Balzac was old +enough to have foregathered with many men of the Revolution. But the +most characteristic of them were not long-lived, the "little window" +and other things having had a bad effect on them; and most of those +who survived had, by the time he was old enough to take much notice, +gone through metamorphoses of Bonapartism, Constitutional Liberalism, +and what not. But still du Bousquier _is_ alive, as well as all the +minor assistants and spectators in the battle for the old maid's hand. +Suzanne, that tactful and graceless Suzanne to whom we are introduced +first of all, is very much alive; and for all her gracelessness, not +at all disagreeable. I am only sorry that she sold the counterfeit +presentment of the Princess Goritza after all. + +_Le Cabinet des Antiques_, in its Alencon scenes, is a worthy pendant +to _La Vieille Fille_. The old-world honor of the Marquis d'Esgrignon, +the thankless sacrifices of Armande, the _prisca fides_ of Maitre +Chesnel, present pictures for which, out of Balzac, we can look only +in Jules Sandeau, and which in Sandeau, though they are presented with +a more poetical touch, have less masterly outline than here. One takes +--or, at least, I take--less interest in the ignoble intrigues of the +other side, except in so far as they menace the fortunes of a worthy +house unworthily represented. Victurnien d'Esgrignon, like his +companion Savinien de Portenduere (who, however, is, in every respect, +a very much better fellow), does not argue in Balzac any high opinion +of the _fils de famille_. He is, in fact, an extremely feeble youth, +who does not seem to have got much real satisfaction out of the +escapades, for which he risked not merely his family's fortune, but +his own honor, and who would seem to have been a rake, not from +natural taste and spirit and relish, but because it seemed to him to +be the proper thing to be. But the beginnings of the fortune of the +aspiring and intriguing Camusots are admirably painted; and Madame de +Maufrigneuse, that rather doubtful divinity, who appears so frequently +in Balzac, here acts the _dea ex machina_ with considerable effect. +And we end well (as we generally do when Blondet, whom Balzac seems +more than once to adopt as mask, is the narrator), in the last glimpse +of Mlle. Armande left alone with the remains of her beauty, the ruins +of everything dear to her--and God. + +These two stories were written at no long interval, yet, for some +reason or other, Balzac did not at once unite them. _La Vieille Fille_ +first appeared in November and December 1836 in the _Presse_, and was +inserted next year in the _Scenes de la Vie de Province_. It had three +chapter divisions. The second part did not appear all at once. Its +first installment, under the general title, came out in the _Chronique +de Paris_ even before the _Vieille Fille_ appeared in March 1836; the +completion was not published (under the title of _Les Rivalites en +Province_) till the autumn of 1838, when the _Constitutionnel_ served +as its vehicle. There were eight chapter divisions in this latter. The +whole of the _Cabinet_ was published in book form (with _Gambara_ to +follow it) in 1839. There were some changes here; and the divisions +were abolished when the whole book in 1844 entered the _Comedie_. One +of the greatest mistakes which, in my humble judgment, the organizers +of the _edition definitive_ have made, is their adoption of Balzac's +never executed separation of the pair and deletion of the excellent +joint-title _Les Rivalites_. + + George Saintsbury + + + + + +I + + + + +AN OLD MAID + +By HONORE DE BALZAC + + +Translated by +Katharine Prescott Wormeley + + + +DEDICATION + + To Monsieur Eugene-Auguste-Georges-Louis Midy de la Greneraye + Surville, Royal Engineer of the Ponts at Chausses. + + As a testimony to the affection of his brother-in-law, + + DE BALZAC. + + + +AN OLD MAID + + + +CHAPTER I + +ONE OF MANY CHEVALIERS DE VALOIS + +Most persons have encountered, in certain provinces in France, a +number of Chevaliers de Valois. One lived in Normandy, another at +Bourges, a third (with whom we have here to do) flourished in Alencon, +and doubtless the South possesses others. The number of the Valesian +tribe is, however, of no consequence to the present tale. All these +chevaliers, among whom were doubtless some who were Valois as Louis +XIV. was Bourbon, knew so little of one another that it was not +advisable to speak to one about the others. They were all willing to +leave the Bourbons in tranquil possession of the throne of France; for +it was too plainly established that Henri IV. became king for want of +a male heir in the first Orleans branch called the Valois. If there +are any Valois, they descend from Charles de Valois, Duc d'Angouleme, +son of Charles IX. and Marie Touchet, the male line from whom ended, +until proof to the contrary be produced, in the person of the Abbe de +Rothelin. The Valois-Saint-Remy, who descended from Henri II., also +came to an end in the famous Lamothe-Valois implicated in the affair +of the Diamond Necklace. + +Each of these many chevaliers, if we may believe reports, was, like +the Chevalier of Alencon, an old gentleman, tall, thin, withered, and +moneyless. He of Bourges had emigrated; he of Touraine hid himself; he +of Alencon fought in La Vendee and "chouanized" somewhat. The youth of +the latter was spend in Paris, where the Revolution overtook him when +thirty years of age in the midst of his conquests and gallantries. + +The Chevalier de Valois of Alencon was accepted by the highest +aristocracy of the province as a genuine Valois; and he distinguished +himself, like the rest of his homonyms, by excellent manners, which +proved him a man of society. He dined out every day, and played cards +every evening. He was thought witty, thanks to his foible for relating +a quantity of anecdotes on the reign of Louis XV. and the beginnings +of the Revolution. When these tales were heard for the first time, +they were held to be well narrated. He had, moreover, the great merit +of not repeating his personal bons mots and of never speaking of his +love-affairs, though his smiles and his airs and graces were +delightfully indiscreet. The worthy gentleman used his privilege as a +Voltairean noble to stay away from mass; and great indulgence was +shown to his irreligion because of his devotion to the royal cause. +One of his particular graces was the air and manner (imitated, no +doubt, from Mole) with which he took snuff from a gold box adorned +with the portrait of the Princess Goritza,--a charming Hungarian, +celebrated for her beauty in the last years of the reign of Louis XV. +Having been attached during his youth to that illustrious stranger, he +still mentioned her with emotion. For her sake he had fought a duel +with Monsieur de Lauzun. + +The chevalier, now fifty-eight years of age, owned to only fifty; and +he might well allow himself that innocent deception, for, among the +other advantages granted to fair thin persons, he managed to preserve +the still youthful figure which saves men as well as women from an +appearance of old age. Yes, remember this: all of life, or rather all +the elegance that expresses life, is in the figure. Among the +chevalier's other possessions must be counted an enormous nose with +which nature had endowed him. This nose vigorously divided a pale face +into two sections which seemed to have no knowledge of each other, for +one side would redden under the process of digestion, while the other +continued white. This fact is worthy of remark at a period when +physiology is so busy with the human heart. The incandescence, so to +call it, was on the left side. Though his long slim legs, supporting a +lank body, and his pallid skin, were not indicative of health, +Monsieur de Valois ate like an ogre and declared he had a malady +called in the provinces "hot liver," perhaps to excuse his monstrous +appetite. The circumstance of his singular flush confirmed this +declaration; but in a region where repasts are developed on the line +of thirty or forty dishes and last four hours, the chevalier's stomach +would seem to have been a blessing bestowed by Providence on the good +town of Alencon. According to certain doctors, heat on the left side +denotes a prodigal heart. The chevalier's gallantries confirmed this +scientific assertion, the responsibility for which does not rest, +fortunately, on the historian. + +In spite of these symptoms, Monsieur de Valois' constitution was +vigorous, consequently long-lived. If his liver "heated," to use an +old-fashioned word, his heart was not less inflammable. His face was +wrinkled and his hair silvered; but an intelligent observer would have +recognized at once the stigmata of passion and the furrows of pleasure +which appeared in the crow's-feet and the marches-du-palais, so prized +at the court of Cythera. Everything about this dainty chevalier +bespoke the "ladies' man." He was so minute in his ablutions that his +cheeks were a pleasure to look upon; they seemed to have been laved in +some miraculous water. The part of his skull which his hair refused to +cover shone like ivory. His eyebrows, like his hair, affected youth by +the care and regularity with which they were combed. His skin, already +white, seemed to have been extra-whitened by some secret compound. +Without using perfumes, the chevalier exhaled a certain fragrance of +youth, that refreshed the atmosphere. His hands, which were those of a +gentleman, and were cared for like the hands of a pretty woman, +attracted the eye to their rosy, well-shaped nails. In short, had it +not been for his magisterial and stupendous nose, the chevalier might +have been thought a trifle too dainty. + +We must here compel ourselves to spoil this portrait by the avowal of +a littleness. The chevalier put cotton in his ears, and wore, appended +to them, two little ear-rings representing negroes' heads in diamonds, +of admirable workmanship. He clung to these singular appendages, +explaining that since his ears had been bored he had ceased to have +headaches (he had had headaches). We do not present the chevalier as +an accomplished man; but surely we can pardon, in an old celibate +whose heart sends so much blood to his left cheek, these adorable +qualities, founded, perhaps, on some sublime secret history. + +Besides, the Chevalier de Valois redeemed those negroes' heads by so +many other graces that society felt itself sufficiently compensated. +He really took such immense trouble to conceal his age and give +pleasure to his friends. In the first place, we must call attention to +the extreme care he gave to his linen, the only distinction that well- +bred men can nowadays exhibit in their clothes. The linen of the +chevalier was invariably of a fineness and whiteness that were truly +aristocratic. As for his coat, though remarkable for its cleanliness, +it was always half worn-out, but without spots or creases. The +preservation of that garment was something marvellous to those who +noticed the chevalier's high-bred indifference to its shabbiness. He +did not go so far as to scrape the seams with glass,--a refinement +invented by the Prince of Wales; but he did practice the rudiments of +English elegance with a personal satisfaction little understood by the +people of Alencon. The world owes a great deal to persons who take +such pains to please it. In this there is certainly some +accomplishment of that most difficult precept of the Gospel about +rendering good for evil. This freshness of ablution and all the other +little cares harmonized charmingly with the blue eyes, the ivory +teeth, and the blond person of the old chevalier. + +The only blemish was that this retired Adonis had nothing manly about +him; he seemed to be employing this toilet varnish to hide the ruins +occasioned by the military service of gallantry only. But we must +hasten to add that his voice produced what might be called an +antithesis to his blond delicacy. Unless you adopted the opinion of +certain observers of the human heart, and thought that the chevalier +had the voice of his nose, his organ of speech would have amazed you +by its full and redundant sound. Without possessing the volume of +classical bass voices, the tone of it was pleasing from a slightly +muffled quality like that of an English bugle, which is firm and +sweet, strong but velvety. + +The chevalier had repudiated the ridiculous costume still preserved by +certain monarchical old men; he had frankly modernized himself. He was +always seen in a maroon-colored coat with gilt buttons, half-tight +breeches of poult-de-soie with gold buckles, a white waistcoat without +embroidery, and a tight cravat showing no shirt-collar,--a last +vestige of the old French costume which he did not renounce, perhaps, +because it enabled him to show a neck like that of the sleekest abbe. +His shoes were noticeable for their square buckles, a style of which +the present generation has no knowledge; these buckles were fastened +to a square of polished black leather. The chevalier allowed two +watch-chains to hang parallel to each other from each of his waistcoat +pockets,--another vestige of the eighteenth century, which the +Incroyables had not disdained to use under the Directory. This +transition costume, uniting as it did two centuries, was worn by the +chevalier with the high-bred grace of an old French marquis, the +secret of which is lost to France since the day when Fleury, Mole's +last pupil, vanished. + +The private life of this old bachelor was apparently open to all eyes, +though in fact it was quite mysterious. He lived in a lodging that was +modest, to say the best of it, in the rue du Cours, on the second +floor of a house belonging to Madame Lardot, the best and busiest +washerwoman in the town. This circumstance will explain the excessive +nicety of his linen. Ill-luck would have it that the day came when +Alencon was guilty of believing that the chevalier had not always +comported himself as a gentleman should, and that in fact he was +secretly married in his old age to a certain Cesarine,--the mother of +a child which had had the impertinence to come into the world without +being called for. + +"He had given his hand," as a certain Monsieur du Bousquier remarked, +"to the person who had long had him under irons." + +This horrible calumny embittered the last days of the dainty chevalier +all the more because, as the present Scene will show, he had lost a +hope long cherished to which he had made many sacrifices. + +Madame Lardot leased to the chevalier two rooms on the second floor of +her house, for the modest sum of one hundred francs a year. The worthy +gentleman dined out every day, returning only in time to go to bed. +His sole expense therefore was for breakfast, invariably composed of a +cup of chocolate, with bread and butter and fruits in their season. He +made no fire except in the coldest winter, and then only enough to get +up by. Between eleven and four o'clock he walked about, went to read +the papers, and paid visits. From the time of his settling in Alencon +he had nobly admitted his poverty, saying that his whole fortune +consisted in an annuity of six hundred francs a year, the sole remains +of his former opulence,--a property which obliged him to see his man +of business (who held the annuity papers) quarterly. In truth, one of +the Alencon bankers paid him every three months one hundred and fifty +francs, sent down by Monsieur Bordin of Paris, the last of the +procureurs du Chatelet. Every one knew these details because the +chevalier exacted the utmost secrecy from the persons to whom he first +confided them. + +Monsieur de Valois gathered the fruit of his misfortunes. His place at +table was laid in all the most distinguished houses in Alencon, and he +was bidden to all soirees. His talents as a card-player, a narrator, +an amiable man of the highest breeding, were so well known and +appreciated that parties would have seemed a failure if the dainty +connoisseur was absent. Masters of houses and their wives felt the +need of his approving grimace. When a young woman heard the chevalier +say at a ball, "You are delightfully well-dressed!" she was more +pleased at such praise than she would have been at mortifying a rival. +Monsieur de Valois was the only man who could perfectly pronounce +certain phrases of the olden time. The words, "my heart," "my jewel," +"my little pet," "my queen," and the amorous diminutives of 1770, had +a grace that was quite irresistible when they came from his lips. In +short, the chevalier had the privilege of superlatives. His +compliments, of which he was stingy, won the good graces of all the +old women; he made himself agreeable to every one, even to the +officials of the government, from whom he wanted nothing. His behavior +at cards had a lofty distinction which everybody noticed: he never +complained; he praised his adversaries when they lost; he did not +rebuke or teach his partners by showing them how they ought to have +played. When, in the course of a deal, those sickening dissertations +on the game would take place, the chevalier invariably drew out his +snuff-box with a gesture that was worthy of Mole, looked at the +Princess Goritza, raised the cover with dignity, shook, sifted, massed +the snuff, and gathered his pinch, so that by the time the cards were +dealt he had decorated both nostrils and replaced the princess in his +waistcoat pocket,--always on his left side. A gentleman of the "good" +century (in distinction from the "grand" century) could alone have +invented that compromise between contemptuous silence and a sarcasm +which might not have been understood. He accepted poor players and +knew how to make the best of them. His delightful equability of temper +made many persons say,-- + +"I do admire the Chevalier de Valois!" + +His conversation, his manners, seemed bland, like his person. He +endeavored to shock neither man nor woman. Indulgent to defects both +physical and mental, he listened patiently (by the help of the +Princess Goritza) to the many dull people who related to him the petty +miseries of provincial life,--an egg ill-boiled for breakfast, coffee +with feathered cream, burlesque details about health, disturbed sleep, +dreams, visits. The chevalier could call up a languishing look, he +could take on a classic attitude to feign compassion, which made him a +most valuable listener; he could put in an "Ah!" and a "Bah!" and a +"What DID you do?" with charming appropriateness. He died without any +one suspecting him of even an allusion to the tender passages of his +romance with the Princess Goritza. Has any one ever reflected on the +service a dead sentiment can do to society; how love may become both +social and useful? This will serve to explain why, in spite of his +constant winning at play (he never left a salon without carrying off +with him about six francs), the old chevalier remained the spoilt +darling of the town. His losses--which, by the bye, he always +proclaimed, were very rare. + +All who know him declare that they have never met, not even in the +Egyptian museum at Turin, so agreeable a mummy. In no country in the +world did parasitism ever take on so pleasant a form. Never did +selfishness of a most concentrated kind appear less forth-putting, +less offensive, than in this old gentleman; it stood him in place of +devoted friendship. If some one asked Monsieur de Valois to do him a +little service which might have discommoded him, that some one did not +part from the worthy chevalier without being truly enchanted with him, +and quite convinced that he either could not do the service demanded, +or that he should injure the affair if he meddled in it. + +To explain the problematic existence of the chevalier, the historian, +whom Truth, that cruel wanton, grasps by the throat, is compelled to +say that after the "glorious" sad days of July, Alencon discovered +that the chevalier's nightly winnings amounted to about one hundred +and fifty francs every three months; and that the clever old nobleman +had had the pluck to send to himself his annuity in order not to +appear in the eyes of a community, which loves the main chance, to be +entirely without resources. Many of his friends (he was by that time +dead, you will please remark) have contested mordicus this curious +fact, declaring it to be a fable, and upholding the Chevalier de +Valois as a respectable and worthy gentleman whom the liberals +calumniated. Luckily for shrewd players, there are people to be found +among the spectators who will always sustain them. Ashamed of having +to defend a piece of wrong-doing, they stoutly deny it. Do not accuse +them of wilful infatuation; such men have a sense of their dignity; +governments set them the example of a virtue which consists in burying +their dead without chanting the Misere of their defeats. If the +chevalier did allow himself this bit of shrewd practice,--which, by +the bye, would have won him the regard of the Chevalier de Gramont, a +smile from the Baron de Foeneste, a shake of the hand from the Marquis +de Moncade,--was he any the less that amiable guest, that witty +talker, that imperturbable card-player, that famous teller of +anecdotes, in whom all Alencon took delight? Besides, in what way was +this action, which is certainly within the rights of a man's own will, +--in what way was it contrary to the ethics of a gentleman? When so +many persons are forced to pay annuities to others, what more natural +than to pay one to his own best friend? But Laius is dead-- + +To return to the period of which we are writing: after about fifteen +years of this way of life the chevalier had amassed ten thousand and +some odd hundred francs. On the return of the Bourbons, one of his old +friends, the Marquis de Pombreton, formerly lieutenant in the Black +mousquetaires, returned to him--so he said--twelve hundred pistoles +which he had lent to the marquis for the purpose of emigrating. This +event made a sensation; it was used later to refute the sarcasms of +the "Constitutionnel," on the method employed by some emigres in +paying their debts. When this noble act of the Marquis de Pombreton +was lauded before the chevalier, the good man reddened even to his +right cheek. Every one rejoiced frankly at this windfall for Monsieur +de Valois, who went about consulting moneyed people as to the safest +manner of investing this fragment of his past opulence. Confiding in +the future of the Restoration, he finally placed his money on the +Grand-Livre at the moment when the funds were at fifty-six francs and +twenty-five centimes. Messieurs de Lenoncourt, de Navarreins, de +Verneuil, de Fontaine, and La Billardiere, to whom he was known, he +said, obtained for him, from the king's privy purse, a pension of +three hundred francs, and sent him, moreover, the cross of Saint- +Louis. Never was it known positively by what means the old chevalier +obtained these two solemn consecrations of his title and merits. But +one thing is certain; the cross of Saint-Louis authorized him to take +the rank of retired colonel in view of his service in the Catholic +armies of the West. + +Besides his fiction of an annuity, about which no one at the present +time knew anything, the chevalier really had, therefore, a bona fide +income of a thousand francs. But in spite of this bettering of his +circumstances, he made no change in his life, manners, or appearance, +except that the red ribbon made a fine effect on his maroon-colored +coat, and completed, so to speak, the physiognomy of a gentleman. +After 1802, the chevalier sealed his letters with a very old seal, +ill-engraved to be sure, by which the Casterans, the d'Esgrignons, the +Troisvilles were enabled to see that he bore: Party of France, two +cottises gemelled gules, and gules, five mascles or, placed end to +end; on a chief sable, a cross argent. For crest, a knight's helmet. +For motto: "Valeo." Bearing such noble arms, the so-called bastard of +the Valois had the right to get into all the royal carriages of the +world. + +Many persons envied the quiet existence of this old bachelor, spent on +whist, boston, backgammon, reversi, and piquet, all well played, on +dinners well digested, snuff gracefully inhaled, and tranquil walks +about the town. Nearly all Alencon believed this life to be exempt +from ambitions and serious interests; but no man has a life as simple +as envious neighbors attribute to him. You will find in the most out- +of-the way villages human mollusks, creatures apparently dead, who +have passions for lepidoptera or for conchology, let us say,--beings +who will give themselves infinite pains about moths, butterflies, or +the concha Veneris. Not only did the chevalier have his own particular +shells, but he cherished an ambitious desire which he pursued with a +craft so profound as to be worthy of Sixtus the Fifth: he wanted to +marry a certain rich old maid, with the intention, no doubt, of making +her a stepping-stone by which to reach the more elevated regions of +the court. There, then, lay the secret of his royal bearing and of his +residence in Alencon. + + + +CHAPTER II + +SUSANNAH AND THE ELDERS + +On a Wednesday morning, early, toward the middle of spring, in the +year 16,--such was his mode of reckoning,--at the moment when the +chevalier was putting on his old green-flowered damask dressing-gown, +he heard, despite the cotton in his ears, the light step of a young +girl who was running up the stairway. Presently three taps were +discreetly struck upon the door; then, without waiting for any +response, a handsome girl slipped like an eel into the room occupied +by the old bachelor. + +"Ah! is it you, Suzanne?" said the Chevalier de Valois, without +discontinuing his occupation, which was that of stropping his razor. +"What have you come for, my dear little jewel of mischief?" + +"I have come to tell you something which may perhaps give you as much +pleasure as pain?" + +"Is it anything about Cesarine?" + +"Cesarine! much I care about your Cesarine!" she said with a saucy +air, half serious, half indifferent. + +This charming Suzanne, whose present comical performance was to +exercise a great influence in the principal personages of our history, +was a work-girl at Madame Lardot's. One word here on the topography of +the house. The wash-rooms occupied the whole of the ground floor. The +little courtyard was used to hang out on wire cords embroidered +handkerchiefs, collarets, capes, cuffs, frilled shirts, cravats, +laces, embroidered dresses,--in short, all the fine linen of the best +families of the town. The chevalier assumed to know from the number of +her capes in the wash how the love-affairs of the wife of the prefect +were going on. Though he guessed much from observations of this kind, +the chevalier was discretion itself; he was never betrayed into an +epigram (he had plenty of wit) which might have closed to him an +agreeable salon. You are therefore to consider Monsieur de Valois as a +man of superior manners, whose talents, like those of many others, +were lost in a narrow sphere. Only--for, after all, he was a man--he +permitted himself certain penetrating glances which could make some +women tremble; although they all loved him heartily as soon as they +discovered the depth of his discretion and the sympathy that he felt +for their little weaknesses. + +The head woman, Madame Lardot's factotum, an old maid of forty-six, +hideous to behold, lived on the opposite side of the passage to the +chevalier. Above them were the attics where the linen was dried in +winter. Each apartment had two rooms,--one lighted from the street, +the other from the courtyard. Beneath the chevalier's room there lived +a paralytic, Madame Lardot's grandfather, an old buccaneer named +Grevin, who had served under Admiral Simeuse in India, and was now +stone-deaf. As for Madame Lardot, who occupied the other lodging on +the first floor, she had so great a weakness for persons of condition +that she may well have been thought blind to the ways of the +chevalier. To her, Monsieur de Valois was a despotic monarch who did +right in all things. Had any of her workwomen been guilty of a +happiness attributed to the chevalier she would have said, "He is so +lovable!" Thus, though the house was of glass, like all provincial +houses, it was discreet as a robber's cave. + +A born confidant to all the little intrigues of the work-rooms, the +chevalier never passed the door, which usually stood open, without +giving something to his little ducks,--chocolate, bonbons, ribbons, +laces, gilt crosses, and such like trifles adored by grisettes; +consequently, the kind old gentleman was adored in return. Women have +an instinct which enables them to divine the men who love them, who +like to be near them, and exact no payment for gallantries. In this +respect women have the instinct of dogs, who in a mixed company will +go straight to the man to whom animals are sacred. + +The poor Chevalier de Valois retained from his former life the need of +bestowing gallant protection, a quality of the seigneurs of other +days. Faithful to the system of the "petite maison," he liked to +enrich women,--the only beings who know how to receive, because they +can always return. But the poor chevalier could no longer ruin himself +for a mistress. Instead of the choicest bonbons wrapped in bank-bills, +he gallantly presented paper-bags full of toffee. Let us say to the +glory of Alencon that the toffee was accepted with more joy than la +Duthe ever showed at a gilt service or a fine equipage offered by the +Comte d'Artois. All these grisettes fully understood the fallen +majesty of the Chevalier de Valois, and they kept their private +familiarities with him a profound secret for his sake. If they were +questioned about him in certain houses when they carried home the +linen, they always spoke respectfully of the chevalier, and made him +out older than he really was; they talked of him as a most respectable +monsieur, whose life was a flower of sanctity; but once in their own +regions they perched on his shoulders like so many parrots. He liked +to be told the secrets which washerwomen discover in the bosom of +households, and day after day these girls would tell him the cancans +which were going the round of Alencon. He called them his "petticoat +gazettes," his "talking feuilletons." Never did Monsieur de Sartines +have spies more intelligent and less expensive, or minions who showed +more honor while displaying their rascality of mind. So it may be said +that in the mornings, while breakfasting, the chevalier usually amused +himself as much as the saints in heaven. + +Suzanne was one of his favorites, a clever, ambitious girl, made of +the stuff of a Sophie Arnold, and handsome withal, as the handsomest +courtesan invited by Titian to pose on black velvet for a model of +Venus; although her face, fine about the eyes and forehead, +degenerated, lower down, into commonness of outline. Hers was a Norman +beauty, fresh, high-colored, redundant, the flesh of Rubens covering +the muscles of the Farnese Hercules, and not the slender articulations +of the Venus de' Medici, Apollo's graceful consort. + +"Well, my child, tell me your great or your little adventure, whatever +it is." + +The particular point about the chevalier which would have made him +noticeable from Paris to Pekin, was the gentle paternity of his manner +to grisettes. They reminded him of the illustrious operatic queens of +his early days, whose celebrity was European during a good third of +the eighteenth century. It is certain that the old gentleman, who had +lived in days gone by with that feminine nation now as much forgotten +as many other great things,--like the Jesuits, the Buccaneers, the +Abbes, and the Farmers-General,--had acquired an irresistible good- +humor, a kindly ease, a laisser-aller devoid of egotism, the self- +effacement of Jupiter with Alcmene, of the king intending to be duped, +who casts his thunderbolts to the devil, wants his Olympus full of +follies, little suppers, feminine profusions--but with Juno out of the +way, be it understood. + +In spite of his old green damask dressing-gown and the bareness of the +room in which he sat, where the floor was covered with a shabby +tapestry in place of carpet, and the walls were hung with tavern-paper +presenting the profiles of Louis XVI. and members of his family, +traced among the branches of a weeping willow with other +sentimentalities invented by royalism during the Terror,--in spite of +his ruins, the chevalier, trimming his beard before a shabby old +toilet-table, draped with trumpery lace, exhaled an essence of the +eighteenth century. All the libertine graces of his youth reappeared; +he seemed to have the wealth of three hundred thousand francs of debt, +while his vis-a-vis waited before the door. He was grand,--like +Berthier on the retreat from Moscow, issuing orders to an army that +existed no longer. + +"Monsieur le chevalier," replied Suzanne, drolly, "seems to me I +needn't tell you anything; you've only to look." + +And Suzanne presented a side view of herself which gave a sort of +lawyer's comment to her words. The chevalier, who, you must know, was +a sly old bird, lowered his right eye on the grisette, still holding +the razor at his throat, and pretended to understand. + +"Well, well, my little duck, we'll talk about that presently. But you +are rather previous, it seems to me." + +"Why, Monsieur le chevalier, ought I to wait until my mother beats me +and Madame Lardot turns me off? If I don't get away soon to Paris, I +shall never be able to marry here, where men are so ridiculous." + +"It can't be helped, my dear; society is changing; women are just as +much victims to the present state of things as the nobility +themselves. After political overturn comes the overturn of morals. +Alas! before long woman won't exist" (he took out the cotton-wool to +arrange his ears): "she'll lose everything by rushing into sentiment; +she'll wring her nerves; good-bye to all the good little pleasures of +our time, desired without shame, accepted without nonsense." (He +polished up the little negroes' heads.) "Women had hysterics in those +days to get their ends, but now" (he began to laugh) "their vapors end +in charcoal. In short, marriage" (here he picked up his pincers to +remove a hair) "will become a thing intolerable; whereas it used to be +so gay in my day! The reigns of Louis XIV. and Louis XV.--remember +this, my child--said farewell to the finest manners and morals ever +known to the world." + +"But, Monsieur le chevalier," said the grisette, "the matter now +concerns the morals and honor of your poor little Suzanne, and I hope +you won't abandon her." + +"Abandon her!" cried the chevalier, finishing his hair; "I'd sooner +abandon my own name." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Suzanne. + +"Now, listen to me, you little mischief," said the chevalier, sitting +down on a huge sofa, formerly called a duchesse, which Madame Lardot +had been at some pains to find for him. + +He drew the magnificent Suzanne before him, holding her legs between +his knees. She let him do as he liked, although in the street she was +offish enough to other men, refusing their familiarities partly from +decorum and partly for contempt for their commonness. She now stood +audaciously in front of the chevalier, who, having fathomed in his day +many other mysteries in minds that were far more wily, took in the +situation at a single glance. He knew very well that no young girl +would joke about a real dishonor; but he took good care not to knock +over the pretty scaffolding of her lie as he touched it. + +"We slander ourselves," he said with inimitable craft; "we are as +virtuous as that beautiful biblical girl whose name we bear; we can +always marry as we please, but we are thirsty for Paris, where +charming creatures--and we are no fool--get rich without trouble. We +want to go and see if the great capital of pleasures hasn't some young +Chevalier de Valois in store for us, with a carriage, diamonds, an +opera-box, and so forth. Russians, Austrians, Britons, have millions +on which we have an eye. Besides, we are patriotic; we want to help +France in getting back her money from the pockets of those gentry. +Hey! hey! my dear little devil's duck! it isn't a bad plan. The world +you live in may cry out a bit, but success justifies all things. The +worst thing in this world, my dear, is to be without money; that's our +disease, yours and mine. Now inasmuch as we have plenty of wit, we +thought it would be a good thing to parade our dear little honor, or +dishonor, to catch an old boy; but that old boy, my dear heart, knows +the Alpha and Omega of female tricks,--which means that you could +easier put salt on a sparrow's tail than to make me believe I have +anything to do with your little affair. Go to Paris, my dear; go at +the cost of an old celibate, I won't prevent it; in fact, I'll help +you, for an old bachelor, Suzanne, is the natural money-box of a young +girl. But don't drag me into the matter. Listen, my queen, you who +know life pretty well; you would me great harm and give me much pain, +--harm, because you would prevent my marriage in a town where people +cling to morality; pain, because if you are in trouble (which I deny, +you sly puss!) I haven't a penny to get you out of it. I'm as poor as +a church mouse; you know that, my dear. Ah! if I marry Mademoiselle +Cormon, if I am once more rich, of course I would prefer you to +Cesarine. You've always seemed to me as fine as the gold they gild on +lead; you were made to be the love of a great seigneur. I think you so +clever that the trick you are trying to play off on me doesn't +surprise me one bit; I expected it. You are flinging the scabbard +after the sword, and that's daring for a girl. It takes nerve and +superior ideas to do it, my angel, and therefore you have won my +respectful esteem." + +"Monsieur le chevalier, I assure you, you are mistaken, and--" + +She colored, and did not dare to say more. The chevalier, with a +single glance, had guessed and fathomed her whole plan. + +"Yes, yes! I understand: you want me to believe it," he said. "Well! I +do believe it. But take my advice: go to Monsieur du Bousquier. +Haven't you taken linen there for the last six or eight months? I'm +not asking what went on between you; but I know the man: he has +immense conceit; he is an old bachelor, and very rich; and he only +spends a quarter of a comfortable income. If you are as clever as I +suppose, you can go to Paris at his expense. There, run along, my +little doe; go and twist him round your finger. Only, mind this: be as +supple as silk; at every word take a double turn round him and make a +knot. He is a man to fear scandal, and if he has given you a chance to +put him in the pillory--in short, understand; threaten him with the +ladies of the Maternity Hospital. Besides, he's ambitious. A man +succeeds through his wife, and you are handsome and clever enough to +make the fortune of a husband. Hey! the mischief! you could hold your +own against all the court ladies." + +Suzanne, whose mind took in at a flash the chevalier's last words, was +eager to run off to du Bousquier, but, not wishing to depart too +abruptly, she questioned the chevalier about Paris, all the while +helping him to dress. The chevalier, however, divined her desire to be +off, and favored it by asking her to tell Cesarine to bring up his +chocolate, which Madame Lardot made for him every morning. Suzanne +then slipped away to her new victim, whose biography must here be +given. + +Born of an old Alencon family, du Bousquier was a cross between the +bourgeois and the country squire. Finding himself without means on the +death of his father, he went, like other ruined provincials, to Paris. +On the breaking out of the Revolution he took part in public affairs. +In spite of revolutionary principles, which made a hobby of republican +honesty, the management of public business in those days was by no +means clean. A political spy, a stock-jobber, a contractor, a man who +confiscated in collusion with the syndic of a commune the property of +emigres in order to sell them and buy them in, a minister, and a +general were all equally engaged in public business. From 1793 to 1799 +du Bousquier was commissary of provisions to the French armies. He +lived in a magnificent hotel and was one of the matadors of finance, +did business with Ouvrard, kept open house, and led the scandalous +life of the period,--the life of a Cincinnatus, on sacks of corn +harvested without trouble, stolen rations, "little houses" full of +mistresses, in which were given splendid fetes to the Directors of the +Republic. + +The citizen du Bousquier was one of Barras' familiars; he was on the +best of terms with Fouche, stood very well with Bernadotte, and fully +expected to become a minister by throwing himself into the party which +secretly caballed against Bonaparte until Marengo. If it had not been +for Kellermann's charge and Desaix's death, du Bousquier would +probably have become a minister. He was one of the chief assistances +of that secret government whom Napoleon's luck send behind the scenes +in 1793. (See "An Historical Mystery.") The unexpected victory of +Marengo was the defeat of that party who actually had their +proclamations printed to return to the principles of the Montagne in +case the First Consul succumbed. + +Convinced of the impossibility of Bonaparte's triumph, du Bousquier +staked the greater part of his property on a fall in the Funds, and +kept two couriers on the field of battle. The first started for Paris +when Melas' victory was certain; the second, starting four hours +later, brought the news of the defeat of the Austrians. Du Bousquier +cursed Kellermann and Desaix; he dared not curse Bonaparte, who might +owe him millions. This alternative of millions to be earned and +present ruin staring him in the face, deprived the purveyor of most of +his faculties: he became nearly imbecile for several days; the man had +so abused his health by excesses that when the thunderbolt fell upon +him he had no strength to resist. The payment of his bills against the +Exchequer gave him some hopes for the future, but, in spite of all +efforts to ingratiate himself, Napoleon's hatred to the contractors +who had speculated on his defeat made itself felt; du Bousquier was +left without a sou. The immorality of his private life, his intimacy +with Barras and Bernadotte, displeased the First Consul even more than +his manoeuvres at the Bourse, and he struck du Bousquier's name from +the list of the government contractors. + +Out of all his past opulence du Bousquier saved only twelve hundred +francs a year from an investment in the Grand Livre, which he had +happened to place there by pure caprice, and which saved him from +penury. A man ruined by the First Consul interested the town of +Alencon, to which he now returned, where royalism was secretly +dominant. Du Bousquier, furious against Bonaparte, relating stories +against him of his meanness, of Josephine's improprieties, and all the +other scandalous anecdotes of the last ten years, was well received. + +About this time, when he was somewhere between forty and fifty, du +Bousquier's appearance was that of a bachelor of thirty-six, of medium +height, plump as a purveyor, proud of his vigorous calves, with a +strongly marked countenance, a flattened nose, the nostrils garnished +with hair, black eyes with thick lashes, from which darted shrewd +glances like those of Monsieur de Talleyrand, though somewhat dulled. +He still wore republican whiskers and his hair very long; his hands, +adorned with bunches of hair on each knuckle, showed the power of his +muscular system in their prominent blue veins. He had the chest of the +Farnese Hercules, and shoulders fit to carry the stocks. Such +shoulders are seen nowadays only at Tortoni's. This wealth of +masculine vigor counted for much in du Bousquier's relations with +others. And yet in him, as in the chevalier, symptoms appeared which +contrasted oddly with the general aspect of their persons. The late +purveyor had not the voice of his muscles. We do not mean that his +voice was a mere thread, such as we sometimes hear issuing from the +mouth of these walruses; on the contrary, it was a strong voice, but +stifled, an idea of which can be given only by comparing it with the +noise of a saw cutting into soft and moistened wood,--the voice of a +worn-out speculator. + +In spite of the claims which the enmity of the First Consul gave +Monsieur du Bousquier to enter the royalist society of the province, +he was not received in the seven or eight families who composed the +faubourg Saint-Germain of Alencon, among whom the Chevalier de Valois +was welcome. He had offered himself in marriage, through her notary, +to Mademoiselle Armande, sister of the most distinguished noble in the +town; to which offer he received a refusal. He consoled himself as +best he could in the society of a dozen rich families, former +manufacturers of the old point d'Alencon, owners of pastures and +cattle, or merchants doing a wholesale business in linen, among whom, +as he hoped, he might find a wealthy wife. In fact, all his hopes now +converged to the perspective of a fortunate marriage. He was not +without a certain financial ability, which many persons used to their +profit. Like a ruined gambler who advises neophytes, he pointed out +enterprises and speculations, together with the means and chances of +conducting them. He was thought a good administrator, and it was often +a question of making him mayor of Alencon; but the memory of his +underhand jobbery still clung to him, and he was never received at the +prefecture. All the succeeding governments, even that of the Hundred +Days, refused to appoint him mayor of Alencon,--a place he coveted, +which, could he have had it, would, he thought, have won him the hand +of a certain old maid on whom his matrimonial views now turned. + +Du Bousquier's aversion to the Imperial government had thrown him at +first into the royalist circles of Alencon, where he remained in spite +of the rebuffs he received there; but when, after the first return of +the Bourbons, he was still excluded from the prefecture, that +mortification inspired him with a hatred as deep as it was secret +against the royalists. He now returned to his old opinions, and became +the leader of the liberal party in Alencon, the invisible manipulator +of elections, and did immense harm to the Restoration by the +cleverness of his underhand proceedings and the perfidy of his outward +behavior. Du Bousquier, like all those who live by their heads only, +carried on his hatreds with the quiet tranquillity of a rivulet, +feeble apparently, but inexhaustible. His hatred was that of a negro, +so peaceful that it deceived the enemy. His vengeance, brooded over +for fifteen years, was as yet satisfied by no victory, not even that +of July, 1830. + +It was not without some private intention that the Chevalier de Valois +had turned Suzanne's designs upon Monsieur du Bousquier. The liberal +and the royalist had mutually divined each other in spite of the wide +dissimulation with which they hid their common hope from the rest of +the town. The two old bachelors were secretly rivals. Each had formed +a plan to marry the Demoiselle Cormon, whom Monsieur de Valois had +mentioned to Suzanne. Both, ensconced in their idea and wearing the +armor of apparent indifference, awaited the moment when some lucky +chance might deliver the old maid over to them. Thus, if the two old +bachelors had not been kept asunder by the two political systems of +which they each offered a living expression, their private rivalry +would still have made them enemies. Epochs put their mark on men. +These two individuals proved the truth of that axiom by the opposing +historic tints that were visible in their faces, in their +conversation, in their ideas, and in their clothes. One, abrupt, +energetic, with loud, brusque manners, curt, rude speech, dark in +tone, in hair, in look, terrible apparently, in reality as impotent as +an insurrection, represented the republic admirably. The other, gentle +and polished, elegant and nice, attaining his ends by the slow and +infallible means of diplomacy, faithful to good taste, was the express +image of the old courtier regime. + +The two enemies met nearly every evening on the same ground. The war +was courteous and benign on the side of the chevalier; but du +Bousquier showed less ceremony on his, though still preserving the +outward appearances demanded by society, for he did not wish to be +driven from the place. They themselves fully understood each other; +but in spite of the shrewd observation which provincials bestow on the +petty interests of their own little centre, no one in the town +suspected the rivalry of these two men. Monsieur le Chevalier de +Valois occupied a vantage-ground: he had never asked for the hand of +Mademoiselle Cormon; whereas du Bousquier, who entered the lists soon +after his rejection by the most distinguished family in the place, had +been refused. But the chevalier believed that his rival had still such +strong chances of success that he dealt him this coup de Jarnac with a +blade (namely, Suzanne) that was finely tempered for the purpose. The +chevalier had cast his plummet-line into the waters of du Bousquier; +and, as we shall see by the sequel, he was not mistaken in any of his +conjectures. + +Suzanne tripped with a light foot from the rue du Cours, by the rue de +la Porte de Seez and the rue du Bercail, to the rue du Cygne, where, +about five years earlier, du Bousquier had bought a little house built +of gray Jura stone, which is something between Breton slate and Norman +granite. There he established himself more comfortably than any +householder in town; for he had managed to preserve certain furniture +and decorations from the days of his splendor. But provincial manners +and morals obscured, little by little, the rays of this fallen +Sardanapalus; these vestiges of his former luxury now produced the +effect of a glass chandelier in a barn. Harmony, that bond of all +work, human or divine, was lacking in great things as well as in +little ones. The stairs, up which everybody mounted without wiping +their feet, were never polished; the walls, painted by some wretched +artisan of the neighborhood, were a terror to the eye; the stone +mantel-piece, ill-carved, "swore" with the handsome clock, which was +further degraded by the company of contemptible candlesticks. Like the +period which du Bousquier himself represented, the house was a jumble +of dirt and magnificence. Being considered a man of leisure, du +Bousquier led the same parasite life as the chevalier; and he who does +not spend his income is always rich. His only servant was a sort of +Jocrisse, a lad of the neighborhood, rather a ninny, trained slowly +and with difficulty to du Bousquier's requirements. His master had +taught him, as he might an orang-outang, to rub the floors, dust the +furniture, black his boots, brush his coats, and bring a lantern to +guide him home at night if the weather were cloudy, and clogs if it +rained. Like many other human beings, this lad hadn't stuff enough in +him for more than one vice; he was a glutton. Often, when du Bousquier +went to a grand dinner, he would take Rene to wait at table; on such +occasions he made him take off his blue cotton jacket, with its big +pockets hanging round his hips, and always bulging with handkerchiefs, +clasp-knives, fruits, or a handful of nuts, and forced him to put on a +regulation coat. Rene would then stuff his fill with the other +servants. This duty, which du Bousquier had turned into a reward, won +him the most absolute discretion from the Breton servant. + +"You here, mademoiselle!" said Rene to Suzanne when she entered; +"'t'isn't your day. We haven't any linen for the wash, tell Madame +Lardot." + +"Old stupid!" said Suzanne, laughing. + +The pretty girl went upstairs, leaving Rene to finish his porringer of +buckwheat in boiled milk. Du Bousquier, still in bed, was revolving in +his mind his plans of fortune; for ambition was all that was left to +him, as to other men who have sucked dry the orange of pleasure. +Ambition and play are inexhaustible; in a well-organized man the +passions which proceed from the brain will always survive the passions +of the heart. + +"Here am I," said Suzanne, sitting down on the bed and jangling the +curtain-rings back along the rod with despotic vehemence. + +"Quesaco, my charmer?" said the old bachelor, sitting up in bed. + +"Monsieur," said Suzanne, gravely, "you must be astonished to see me +here at this hour; but I find myself in a condition which obliges me +not to care for what people may say about it." + +"What does all that mean?" said du Bousquier, crossing his arms. + +"Don't you understand me?" said Suzanne. "I know," she continued, +making a pretty little face, "how ridiculous it is in a poor girl to +come and nag at a man for what he thinks a mere nothing. But if you +really knew me, monsieur, if you knew all that I am capable of for a +man who would attach himself to me as much as I'm attached to you, you +would never repent having married me. Of course it isn't here, in +Alencon, that I should be of service to you; but if we went to Paris, +you would see where I could lead a man with your mind and your +capacities; and just at this time too, when they are remaking the +government from top to toe. So--between ourselves, be it said--IS what +has happened a misfortune? Isn't it rather a piece of luck, which will +pay you well? Who and what are you working for now?" + +"For myself, of course!" cried du Bousquier, brutally. + +"Monster! you'll never be a father!" said Suzanne, giving a tone of +prophetic malediction to the words. + +"Come, don't talk nonsense, Suzanne," replied du Bousquier; "I really +think I am still dreaming." + +"How much more reality do you want?" cried Suzanne, standing up. + +Du Bousquier rubbed his cotton night-cap to the top of his head with a +rotatory motion, which plainly indicated the tremendous fermentation +of his ideas. + +"He actually believes it!" thought Suzanne, "and he's flattered. +Heaven! how easy it is to gull men!" + +"Suzanne, what the devil must I do? It is so extraordinary--I, who +thought--The fact is that--No, no, it can't be--" + +"What? you can't marry me?" + +"Oh! as for that, no; I have engagements." + +"With Mademoiselle Armande or Mademoiselle Cormon, who have both +refused you? Listen to me, Monsieur du Bousquier, my honor doesn't +need gendarmes to drag you to the mayor's office. I sha'n't lack for +husbands, thank goodness! and I don't want a man who can't appreciate +what I'm worth. But some day you'll repent of the way you are +behaving; for I tell you now that nothing on earth, neither gold nor +silver, will induce me to return the good thing that belongs to you, +if you refuse to accept it to-day." + +"But, Suzanne, are you sure?" + +"Oh, monsieur!" cried the grisette, wrapping her virtue round her, +"what do you take me for? I don't remind you of the promises you made +me, which have ruined a poor young girl whose only blame was to have +as much ambition as love." + +Du Bousquier was torn with conflicting sentiments, joy, distrust, +calculation. He had long determined to marry Mademoiselle Cormon; for +the Charter, on which he had just been ruminating, offered to his +ambition, through the half of her property, the political career of a +deputy. Besides, his marriage with the old maid would put him socially +so high in the town that he would have great influence. Consequently, +the storm upraised by that malicious Suzanne drove him into the +wildest embarrassment. Without this secret scheme, he would have +married Suzanne without hesitation. In which case, he could openly +assume the leadership of the liberal party in Alencon. After such a +marriage he would, of course, renounce the best society and take up +with the bourgeois class of tradesmen, rich manufacturers and +graziers, who would certainly carry him in triumph as their candidate. +Du Bousquier already foresaw the Left side. + +This solemn deliberation he did not conceal; he rubbed his hands over +his head, displacing the cap which covered its disastrous baldness. +Suzanne, meantime, like all those persons who succeed beyond their +hopes, was silent and amazed. To hide her astonishment, she assumed +the melancholy pose of an injured girl at the mercy of her seducer; +inwardly she was laughing like a grisette at her clever trick. + +"My dear child," said du Bousquier at length, "I'm not to be taken in +with such BOSH, not I!" + +Such was the curt remark which ended du Bousquier's meditation. He +plumed himself on belonging to the class of cynical philosophers who +could never be "taken in" by women,--putting them, one and all, unto +the same category, as SUSPICIOUS. These strong-minded persons are +usually weak men who have a special catechism in the matter of +womenkind. To them the whole sex, from queens of France to milliners, +are essentially depraved, licentious, intriguing, not a little +rascally, fundamentally deceitful, and incapable of thought about +anything but trifles. To them, women are evil-doing queens, who must +be allowed to dance and sing and laugh as they please; they see +nothing sacred or saintly in them, nor anything grand; to them there +is no poetry in the senses, only gross sensuality. Where such +jurisprudence prevails, if a woman is not perpetually tyrannized over, +she reduces the man to the condition of a slave. Under this aspect du +Bousquier was again the antithesis of the chevalier. When he made his +final remark, he flung his night-cap to the foot of the bed, as Pope +Gregory did the taper when he fulminated an excommunication; Suzanne +then learned for the first time that du Bousquier wore a toupet +covering his bald spot. + +"Please to remember, Monsieur du Bousquier," she replied majestically, +"that in coming here to tell you of this matter I have done my duty; +remember that I have offered you my hand, and asked for yours; but +remember also that I behaved with the dignity of a woman who respects +herself. I have not abased myself to weep like a silly fool; I have +not insisted; I have not tormented you. You now know my situation. You +must see that I cannot stay in Alencon: my mother would beat me, and +Madame Lardot rides a hobby of principles; she'll turn me off. Poor +work-girl that I am, must I go to the hospital? must I beg my bread? +No! I'd rather throw myself into the Brillante or the Sarthe. But +isn't it better that I should go to Paris? My mother could find an +excuse to send me there,--an uncle who wants me, or a dying aunt, or a +lady who sends for me. But I must have some money for the journey and +for--you know what." + +This extraordinary piece of news was far more startling to du +Bousquier than to the Chevalier de Valois. Suzanne's fiction +introduced such confusion into the ideas of the old bachelor that he +was literally incapable of sober reflection. Without this agitation +and without his inward delight (for vanity is a swindler which never +fails of its dupe), he would certainly have reflected that, supposing +it were true, a girl like Suzanne, whose heart was not yet spoiled, +would have died a thousand deaths before beginning a discussion of +this kind and asking for money. + +"Will you really go to Paris, then?" he said. + +A flash of gayety lighted Suzanne's gray eyes as she heard these +words; but the self-satisfied du Bousquier saw nothing. + +"Yes, monsieur," she said. + +Du Bousquier then began bitter lamentations: he had the last payments +to make on his house; the painter, the mason, the upholsterers must be +paid. Suzanne let him run on; she was listening for the figures. Du +Bousquier offered her three hundred francs. Suzanne made what is +called on the stage a false exit; that is, she marched toward the +door. + +"Stop, stop! where are you going?" said du Bousquier, uneasily. "This +is what comes of a bachelor's life!" thought he. "The devil take me if +I ever did anything more than rumple her collar, and, lo and behold! +she makes THAT a ground to put her hand in one's pocket!" + +"I'm going, monsieur," replied Suzanne, "to Madame Granson, the +treasurer of the Maternity Society, who, to my knowledge, has saved +many a poor girl in my condition from suicide." + +"Madame Granson!" + +"Yes," said Suzanne, "a relation of Mademoiselle Cormon, the president +of the Maternity Society. Saving your presence, the ladies of the town +have created an institution to protect poor creatures from destroying +their infants, like that handsome Faustine of Argentan who was +executed for it three years ago." + +"Here, Suzanne," said du Bousquier, giving her a key, "open that +secretary, and take out the bag you'll find there: there's about six +hundred francs in it; it is all I possess." + +"Old cheat!" thought Suzanne, doing as he told her, "I'll tell about +your false toupet." + +She compared du Bousquier with that charming chevalier, who had given +her nothing, it is true, but who had comprehended her, advised her, +and carried all grisettes in his heart. + +"If you deceive me, Suzanne," cried du Bousquier, as he saw her with +her hand in the drawer, "you--" + +"Monsieur," she said, interrupting him with ineffable impertinence, +"wouldn't you have given me money if I had asked for it?" + +Recalled to a sense of gallantry, du Bousquier had a remembrance of +past happiness and grunted his assent. Suzanne took the bag and +departed, after allowing the old bachelor to kiss her, which he did +with an air that seemed to say, "It is a right which costs me dear; +but it is better than being harried by a lawyer in the court of +assizes as the seducer of a girl accused of infanticide." + +Suzanne hid the sack in a sort of gamebag made of osier which she had +on her arm, all the while cursing du Bousquier for his stinginess; for +one thousand francs was the sum she wanted. Once tempted of the devil +to desire that sum, a girl will go far when she has set foot on the +path of trickery. As she made her way along the rue du Bercail, it +came into her head that the Maternity Society, presided over by +Mademoiselle Cormon, might be induced to complete the sum at which she +had reckoned her journey to Paris, which to a grisette of Alencon +seemed considerable. Besides, she hated du Bousquier. The latter had +evidently feared a revelation of his supposed misconduct to Madame +Granson; and Suzanne, at the risk of not getting a penny from the +society, was possessed with the desire, on leaving Alencon, of +entangling the old bachelor in the inextricable meshes of a provincial +slander. In all grisettes there is something of the malevolent +mischief of a monkey. Accordingly, Suzanne now went to see Madame +Granson, composing her face to an expression of the deepest dejection. + + + +CHAPTER III + +ATHANASE + +Madame Granson, widow of a lieutenant-colonel of artillery killed at +Jena, possessed, as her whole means of livelihood, a meagre pension of +nine hundred francs a year, and three hundred francs from property of +her own, plus a son whose support and education had eaten up all her +savings. She occupied, in the rue du Bercail, one of those melancholy +ground-floor apartments which a traveller passing along the principal +street of a little provincial town can look through at a glance. The +street door opened at the top of three steep steps; a passage led to +an interior courtyard, at the end of which was the staircase covered +by a wooden gallery. On one side of the passage was the dining-room +and the kitchen; on the other side, a salon put to many uses, and the +widow's bedchamber. + +Athanase Granson, a young man twenty-three years of age, who slept in +an attic room above the second floor of the house, added six hundred +francs to the income of his poor mother, by the salary of a little +place which the influence of his relation, Mademoiselle Cormon, had +obtained for him in the mayor's office, where he was placed in charge +of the archives. + +From these indications it is easy to imagine Madame Granson in her +cold salon with its yellow curtains and Utrecht velvet furniture, also +yellow, as she straightened the round straw mats which were placed +before each chair, that visitors might not soil the red-tiled floor +while they sat there; after which she returned to her cushioned +armchair and little work-table placed beneath the portrait of the +lieutenant-colonel of artillery between two windows,--a point from +which her eye could rake the rue du Bercail and see all comers. She +was a good woman, dressed with bourgeois simplicity in keeping with +her wan face furrowed by grief. The rigorous humbleness of poverty +made itself felt in all the accessories of this household, the very +air of which was charged with the stern and upright morals of the +provinces. At this moment the son and mother were together in the +dining-room, where they were breakfasting with a cup of coffee, with +bread and butter and radishes. To make the pleasure which Suzanne's +visit was to give to Madame Granson intelligible, we must explain +certain secret interests of the mother and son. + +Athanase Granson was a thin and pale young man, of medium height, with +a hollow face in which his two black eyes, sparkling with thoughts, +gave the effect of bits of coal. The rather irregular lines of his +face, the curve of his lips, a prominent chin, the fine modelling of +his forehead, his melancholy countenance, caused by a sense of his +poverty warring with the powers that he felt within him, were all +indications of repressed and imprisoned talent. In any other place +than the town of Alencon the mere aspect of his person would have won +him the assistance of superior men, or of women who are able to +recognize genius in obscurity. If his was not genius, it was at any +rate the form and aspect of it; if he had not the actual force of a +great heart, the glow of such a heart was in his glance. Although he +was capable of expressing the highest feeling, a casing of timidity +destroyed all the graces of his youth, just as the ice of poverty kept +him from daring to put forth all his powers. Provincial life, without +an opening, without appreciation, without encouragement, described a +circle about him in which languished and died the power of thought,--a +power which as yet had scarcely reached its dawn. Moreover, Athanase +possessed that savage pride which poverty intensifies in noble minds, +exalting them in their struggle with men and things; although at their +start in life it is an obstacle to their advancement. Genius proceeds +in two ways: either it takes its opportunity--like Napoleon, like +Moliere--the moment that it sees it, or it waits to be sought when it +has patiently revealed itself. Young Granson belonged to that class of +men of talent who distrust themselves and are easily discouraged. His +soul was contemplative. He lived more by thought than by action. +Perhaps he might have seemed deficient or incomplete to those who +cannot conceive of genius without the sparkle of French passion; but +he was powerful in the world of mind, and he was liable to reach, +through a series of emotions imperceptible to common souls, those +sudden determinations which make fools say of a man, "He is mad." + +The contempt which the world pours out on poverty was death to +Athanase; the enervating heat of solitude, without a breath or current +of air, relaxed the bow which ever strove to tighten itself; his soul +grew weary in this painful effort without results. Athanase was a man +who might have taken his place among the glories of France; but, eagle +as he was, cooped in a cage without his proper nourishment, he was +about to die of hunger after contemplating with an ardent eye the +fields of air and the mountain heights where genius soars. His work in +the city library escaped attention, and he buried in his soul his +thoughts of fame, fearing that they might injure him; but deeper than +all lay buried within him the secret of his heart,--a passion which +hollowed his cheeks and yellowed his brow. He loved his distant +cousin, this very Mademoiselle Cormon whom the Chevalier de Valois and +du Bousquier, his hidden rivals, were stalking. This love had had its +origin in calculation. Mademoiselle Cormon was thought to be one of +the richest persons in the town: the poor lad had therefore been led +to love her by desires for material happiness, by the hope, long +indulged, of gilding with comfort his mother's last years, by eager +longing for the ease of life so needful to men who live by thought; +but this most innocent point of departure degraded his passion in his +own eyes. Moreover, he feared the ridicule the world would cast upon +the love of a young man of twenty-three for an old maid of forty. + +And yet his passion was real; whatever may seem false about such a +love elsewhere, it can be realized as a fact in the provinces, where, +manners and morals being without change or chance or movement or +mystery, marriage becomes a necessity of life. No family will accept a +young man of dissolute habits. However natural the liaison of a young +man, like Athanase, with a handsome girl, like Suzanne, for instance, +might seem in a capital, it alarms provincial parents, and destroys +the hopes of marriage of a poor young man when possibly the fortune of +a rich one might cause such an unfortunate antecedent to be +overlooked. Between the depravity of certain liaisons and a sincere +love, a man of honor and no fortune will not hesitate: he prefers the +misfortunes of virtue to the evils of vice. But in the provinces women +with whom a young man call fall in love are rare. A rich young girl he +cannot obtain in a region where all is calculation; a poor young girl +he is prevented from loving; it would be, as provincials say, marrying +hunger and thirst. Such monkish solitude is, however, dangerous to +youth. + +These reflections explain why provincial life is so firmly based on +marriage. Thus we find that ardent and vigorous genius, forced to rely +on the independence of its own poverty, quits these cold regions where +thought is persecuted by brutal indifference, where no woman is +willing to be a sister of charity to a man of talent, of art, of +science. + +Who will really understand Athanase Granson's love for Mademoiselle +Cormon? Certainly neither rich men--those sultans of society who fill +their harems--nor middle-class men, who follow the well-beaten high- +road of prejudices; nor women who, not choosing to understand the +passions of artists, impose the yoke of their virtues upon men of +genius, imagining that the two sexes are governed by the same laws. + +Here, perhaps, we should appeal to those young men who suffer from the +repression of their first desires at the moment when all their forces +are developing; to artists sick of their own genius smothering under +the pressure of poverty; to men of talent, persecuted and without +influence, often without friends at the start, who have ended by +triumphing over that double anguish, equally agonizing, of soul and +body. Such men will well understand the lancinating pains of the +cancer which was now consuming Athanase; they have gone through those +long and bitter deliberations made in presence of some grandiose +purpose they had not the means to carry out; they have endured those +secret miscarriages in which the fructifying seed of genius falls on +arid soil. Such men know that the grandeur of desires is in proportion +to the height and breadth of the imagination. The higher they spring, +the lower they fall; and how can it be that ties and bonds should not +be broken by such a fall? Their piercing eye has seen--as did Athanase +--the brilliant future which awaited them, and from which they fancied +that only a thin gauze parted them; but that gauze through which their +eyes could see is changed by Society into a wall of iron. Impelled by +a vocation, by a sentiment of art, they endeavor again and again to +live by sentiments which society as incessantly materializes. Alas! +the provinces calculate and arrange marriage with the one view of +material comfort, and a poor artist or man of science is forbidden to +double its purpose and make it the saviour of his genius by securing +to him the means of subsistence! + +Moved by such ideas, Athanase Granson first thought of marriage with +Mademoiselle Cormon as a means of obtaining a livelihood which would +be permanent. Thence he could rise to fame, and make his mother happy, +knowing at the same time that he was capable of faithfully loving his +wife. But soon his own will created, although he did not know it, a +genuine passion. He began to study the old maid, and, by dint of the +charm which habit gives, he ended by seeing only her beauties and +ignoring her defects. + +In a young man of twenty-three the senses count for much in love; +their fire produces a sort of prism between his eyes and the woman. +From this point of view the clasp with which Beaumarchis' Cherubin +seizes Marceline is a stroke of genius. But when we reflect that in +the utter isolation to which poverty condemned poor Athanase, +Mademoiselle Cormon was the only figure presented to his gaze, that +she attracted his eye incessantly, that all the light he had was +concentrated on her, surely his love may be considered natural. + +This sentiment, so carefully hidden, increased from day to day. +Desires, sufferings, hopes, and meditations swelled in quietness and +silence the lake widening ever in the young man's breast, as hour by +hour added its drop of water to the volume. And the wider this inward +circle, drawn by the imagination, aided by the senses, grew, the more +imposing Mademoiselle Cormon appeared to Athanase, and the more his +own timidity increased. + +The mother had divined the truth. Like all provincial mothers, she +calculated candidly in her own mind the advantages of the match. She +told herself that Mademoiselle Cormon would be very lucky to secure a +husband in a young man of twenty-three, full of talent, who would +always be an honor to his family and the neighborhood; at the same +time the obstacles which her son's want of fortune and Mademoiselle +Cormon's age presented to the marriage seemed to her almost +insurmountable; she could think of nothing but patience as being able +to vanquish them. Like du Bousquier, like the Chevalier de Valois, she +had a policy of her own; she was on the watch for circumstances, +awaiting the propitious moment for a move with the shrewdness of +maternal instinct. Madame Granson had no fears at all as to the +chevalier, but she did suppose that du Bousquier, although refused, +retained certain hopes. As an able and underhand enemy to the latter, +she did him much secret harm in the interests of her son; from whom, +by the bye, she carefully concealed all such proceedings. + +After this explanation it is easy to understand the importance which +Suzanne's lie, confided to Madame Granson, was about to acquire. What +a weapon put into the hands of this charitable lady, the treasurer of +the Maternity Society! How she would gently and demurely spread the +news while collecting assistance for the chaste Suzanne! + +At the present moment Athanase, leaning pensively on his elbow at the +breakfast table, was twirling his spoon in his empty cup and +contemplating with a preoccupied eye the poor room with its red brick +floor, its straw chairs, its painted wooden buffet, its pink and white +curtains chequered like a backgammon board, which communicated with +the kitchen through a glass door. As his back was to the chimney which +his mother faced, and as the chimney was opposite to the door, his +pallid face, strongly lighted from the window, framed in beautiful +black hair, the eyes gleaming with despair and fiery with morning +thoughts, was the first object which met the eyes of the incoming +Suzanne. The grisette, who belonged to a class which certainly has the +instinct of misery and the sufferings of the heart, suddenly felt that +electric spark, darting from Heaven knows where, which can never be +explained, which some strong minds deny, but the sympathetic stroke of +which has been felt by many men and many women. It is at once a light +which lightens the darkness of the future, a presentiment of the +sacred joys of a shared love, the certainty of mutual comprehension. +Above all, it is like the touch of a firm and able hand on the +keyboard of the senses. The eyes are fascinated by an irresistible +attraction; the heart is stirred; the melodies of happiness echo in +the soul and in the ears; a voice cries out, "It is he!" Often +reflection casts a douche of cold water on this boiling emotion, and +all is over. + +In a moment, as rapid as the flash of the lightning, Suzanne received +the broadside of this emotion in her heart. The flame of a real love +burned up the evil weeds fostered by a libertine and dissipated life. +She saw how much she was losing of decency and value by accusing +herself falsely. What had seemed to her a joke the night before became +to her eyes a serious charge against herself. She recoiled at her own +success. But the impossibility of any result; the poverty of the young +man; a vague hope of enriching herself, of going to Paris, and +returning with full hands to say, "I love you! here are the means of +happiness!" or mere fate, if you will have it so, dried up the next +moment this beneficent dew. + +The ambitious grisette asked with a timid air for a moment's interview +with Madame Granson, who took her at once into her bedchamber. When +Suzanne came out she looked again at Athanase; he was still in the +same position, and the tears came into her eyes. As for Madame +Granson, she was radiant with joy. At last she had a weapon, and a +terrible one, against du Bousquier; she could now deal him a mortal +blow. She had of course promised the poor seduced girl the support of +all charitable ladies and that of the members of the Maternity Society +in particular; she foresaw a dozen visits which would occupy her whole +day, and brew up a frightful storm on the head of the guilty du +Bousquier. The Chevalier de Valois, while foreseeing the turn the +affair would take, had really no idea of the scandal which would +result from his own action. + +"My dear child," said Madame Granson to her son, "we are to dine, you +know, with Mademoiselle Cormon; do take a little pains with your +appearance. You are wrong to neglect your dress as you do. Put on that +handsome frilled shirt and your green coat of Elbeuf cloth. I have my +reasons," she added slyly. "Besides, Mademoiselle Cormon is going to +Prebaudet, and many persons will doubtless call to bid her good-bye. +When a young man is marriageable he ought to take every means to make +himself agreeable. If girls would only tell the truth, heavens! my +dear boy, you'd be astonished at what makes them fall in love. Often +it suffices for a man to ride past them at the head of a company of +artillery, or show himself at a ball in tight clothes. Sometimes a +mere turn of the head, a melancholy attitude, makes them suppose a +man's whole life; they'll invent a romance to match the hero--who is +often a mere brute, but the marriage is made. Watch the Chevalier de +Valois: study him; copy his manners; see with what ease he presents +himself; he never puts on a stiff air, as you do. Talk a little more; +one would really think you didn't know anything,--you, who know Hebrew +by heart." + +Athanase listened to his mother with a surprised but submissive air; +then he rose, took his cap, and went off to the mayor's office, saying +to himself, "Can my mother suspect my secret?" + +He passed through the rue du Val-Noble, where Mademoiselle Cormon +lived,--a little pleasure which he gave himself every morning, +thinking, as usual, a variety of fanciful things:-- + +"How little she knows that a young man is passing before her house who +loves her well, who would be faithful to her, who would never cause +her any grief; who would leave her the entire management of her +fortune without interference. Good God! what fatality! here, side by +side, in the same town, are two persons in our mutual condition, and +yet nothing can bring them together. Suppose I were to speak to her +this evening?" + +During this time Suzanne had returned to her mother's house thinking +of Athanase; and, like many other women who have longed to help an +adored man beyond the limit of human powers, she felt herself capable +of making her body a stepping-stone on which he could rise to attain +his throne. + +It is now necessary to enter the house of this old maid toward whom so +many interests are converging, where the actors in this scene, with +the exception of Suzanne, were all to meet this very evening. As for +Suzanne, that handsome individual bold enough to burn her ships like +Alexander at her start in life, and to begin the battle by a +falsehood, she disappears from the stage, having introduced upon it a +violent element of interest. Her utmost wishes were gratified. She +quitted her native town a few days later, well supplied with money and +good clothes, among which was a fine dress of green reps and a +charming green bonnet lined with pink, the gift of Monsieur de Valois, +--a present which she preferred to all the rest, even the money. If +the chevalier had gone to Paris in the days of her future brilliancy, +she would certainly have left every one for him. Like the chaste +Susannah of the Bible, whom the Elders hardly saw, she established +herself joyously and full of hope in Paris, while all Alencon was +deploring her misfortunes, for which the ladies of two Societies +(Charity and Maternity) manifested the liveliest sympathy. Though +Suzanne is a fair specimen of those handsome Norman women whom a +learned physician reckons as comprising one third of her fallen class +whom our monstrous Paris absorbs, it must be stated that she remained +in the upper and more decent regions of gallantry. At an epoch when, +as Monsieur de Valois said, Woman no longer existed, she was simply +"Madame du Val-Noble"; in other days she would have rivalled the +Rhodopes, the Imperias, the Ninons of the past. One of the most +distinguished writers of the Restoration has taken her under his +protection; perhaps he may marry her. He is a journalist, and +consequently above public opinion, inasmuch as he manufactures it +afresh every year or two. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +MADEMOISELLE CORMON + +In nearly all the second-class prefectures of France there exists one +salon which is the meeting-ground of those considerable and well- +considered persons of the community who are, nevertheless, NOT the +cream of the best society. The master and mistress of such an +establishment are counted among the leading persons of the town; they +are received wherever it may please them to visit; no fete is given, +no formal or diplomatic dinner takes place, to which they are not +invited. But the chateau people, heads of families possessing great +estates, in short, the highest personages in the department, do not go +to their houses; social intercourse between them is carried on by +cards from one to the other, and a dinner or soiree accepted and +returned. + +This salon, in which the lesser nobility, the clergy, and the +magistracy meet together, exerts a great influence. The judgment and +mind of the region reside in that solid, unostentatious society, where +each man knows the resources of his neighbor, where complete +indifference is shown to luxury and dress,--pleasures which are +thought childish in comparison to that of obtaining ten or twelve +acres of pasture land,--a purchase coveted for years, which has +probably given rise to endless diplomatic combinations. Immovable in +its prejudices, good or evil, this social circle follows a beaten +track, looking neither before it nor behind it. It accepts nothing +from Paris without long examination and trial; it rejects cashmeres as +it does investments on the Grand-Livre; it scoffs at fashions and +novelties; reads nothing, prefers ignorance, whether of science, +literature, or industrial inventions. It insists on the removal of a +prefect when that official does not suit it; and if the administration +resists, it isolates him, after the manner of bees who wall up a snail +in wax when it gets into their hive. + +In this society gossip is often turned into solemn verdicts. Young +women are seldom seen there; when they come it is to seek approbation +of their conduct,--a consecration of their self-importance. This +supremacy granted to one house is apt to wound the sensibilities of +other natives of the region, who console themselves by adding up the +cost it involves, and by which they profit. If it so happens that +there is no fortune large enough to keep open house in this way, the +big-wigs of the place choose a place of meeting, as they did at +Alencon, in the house of some inoffensive person, whose settled life +and character and position offers no umbrage to the vanities or the +interests of any one. + +For some years the upper classes of Alencon had met in this way at the +house of an old maid, whose fortune was, unknown to herself, the aim +and object of Madame Granson, her second cousin, and of the two old +bachelors whose secret hopes in that direction we have just unveiled. +This lady lived with her maternal uncle, a former grand-vicar of the +bishopric of Seez, once her guardian, and whose heir she was. The +family of which Rose-Marie-Victoire Cormon was the present +representative had been in earlier days among the most considerable in +the province. Though belonging to the middle classes, she consorted +with the nobility, among whom she was more or less allied, her family +having furnished, in past years, stewards to the Duc d'Alencon, many +magistrates to the long robe, and various bishops to the clergy. +Monsieur de Sponde, the maternal grandfather of Mademoiselle Cormon, +was elected by the Nobility to the States-General, and Monsieur +Cormon, her father, by the Tiers-Etat, though neither accepted the +mission. For the last hundred years the daughters of the family had +married nobles belonging to the provinces; consequently, this family +had thrown out so many suckers throughout the duchy as to appear on +nearly all the genealogical trees. No bourgeois family had ever seemed +so like nobility. + +The house in which Mademoiselle Cormon lived, build in Henri IV.'s +time, by Pierre Cormon, the steward of the last Duc d'Alencon, had +always belonged to the family; and among the old maid's visible +possessions this one was particularly stimulating to the covetous +desires of the two old lovers. Yet, far from producing revenue, the +house was a cause of expense. But it is so rare to find in the very +centre of a provincial town a private dwelling without unpleasant +surroundings, handsome in outward structure and convenient within, +that Alencon shared the envy of the lovers. + +This old mansion stands exactly in the middle of the rue du Val-Noble. +It is remarkable for the strength of its construction,--a style of +building introduced by Marie de' Medici. Though built of granite,--a +stone which is hard to work,--its angles, and the casings of the doors +and windows, are decorated with corner blocks cut into diamond facets. +It has only one clear story above the ground-floor; but the roof, +rising steeply, has several projecting windows, with carved spandrels +rather elegantly enclosed in oaken frames, and externally adorned with +balustrades. Between each of these windows is a gargoyle presenting +the fantastic jaws of an animal without a body, vomiting the rain- +water upon large stones pierced with five holes. The two gables are +surmounted by leaden bouquets,--a symbol of the bourgeoisie; for +nobles alone had the privilege in former days of having weather-vanes. +To right of the courtyard are the stables and coach-house; to left, +the kitchen, wood-house, and laundry. + +One side of the porte-cochere, being left open, allowed the passers in +the street to see in the midst of the vast courtyard a flower-bed, the +raised earth of which was held in place by a low privet hedge. A few +monthly roses, pinkes, lilies, and Spanish broom filled this bed, +around which in the summer season boxes of paurestinus, pomegranates, +and myrtle were placed. Struck by the scrupulous cleanliness of the +courtyard and its dependencies, a stranger would at once have divined +that the place belonged to an old maid. The eye which presided there +must have been an unoccupied, ferreting eye; minutely careful, less +from nature than for want of something to do. An old maid, forced to +employ her vacant days, could alone see to the grass being hoed from +between the paving stones, the tops of the walls kept clean, the broom +continually going, and the leather curtains of the coach-house always +closed. She alone would have introduced, out of busy idleness, a sort +of Dutch cleanliness into a house on the confines of Bretagne and +Normandie,--a region where they take pride in professing an utter +indifference to comfort. + +Never did the Chevalier de Valois, or du Bousquier, mount the steps of +the double stairway leading to the portico of this house without +saying to himself, one, that it was fit for a peer of France, the +other, that the mayor of the town ought to live there. + +A glass door gave entrance from this portico into an antechamber, a +species of gallery paved in red tiles and wainscoted, which served as +a hospital for the family portraits,--some having an eye put out, +others suffering from a dislocated shoulder; this one held his hat in +a hand that no longer existed; that one was a case of amputation at +the knee. Here were deposited the cloaks, clogs, overshoes, umbrellas, +hoods, and pelisses of the guests. It was an arsenal where each +arrival left his baggage on arriving, and took it up when departing. +Along each wall was a bench for the servants who arrived with +lanterns, and a large stove, to counteract the north wind, which blew +through this hall from the garden to the courtyard. + +The house was divided in two equal parts. On one side, toward the +courtyard, was the well of the staircase, a large dining-room looking +to the garden, and an office or pantry which communicated with the +kitchen. On the other side was the salon, with four windows, beyond +which were two smaller rooms,--one looking on the garden, and used as +a boudoir, the other lighted from the courtyard, and used as a sort of +office. + +The upper floor contained a complete apartment for a family household, +and a suite of rooms where the venerable Abbe de Sponde had his abode. +The garrets offered fine quarters to the rats and mice, whose +nocturnal performances were related by Mademoiselle Cormon to the +Chevalier de Valois, with many expressions of surprise at the +inutility of her efforts to get rid of them. The garden, about half an +acre in size, is margined by the Brillante, so named from the +particles of mica which sparkle in its bed elsewhere than in the Val- +Noble, where its shallow waters are stained by the dyehouses, and +loaded with refuse from the other industries of the town. The shore +opposite to Mademoiselle Cormon's garden is crowded with houses where +a variety of trades are carried on; happily for her, the occupants are +quiet people,--a baker, a cleaner, an upholsterer, and several +bourgeois. The garden, full of common flowers, ends in a natural +terrace, forming a quay, down which are several steps leading to the +river. Imagine on the balustrade of this terrace a number of tall +vases of blue and white pottery, in which are gilliflowers; and to +right and left, along the neighboring walls, hedges of linden closely +trimmed in, and you will gain an idea of the landscape, full of +tranquil chastity, modest cheerfulness, but commonplace withal, which +surrounded the venerable edifice of the Cormon family. What peace! +what tranquillity! nothing pretentious, but nothing transitory; all +seems eternal there! + +The ground-floor is devoted wholly to the reception-rooms. The old, +unchangeable provincial spirit pervades them. The great square salon +has four windows, modestly cased in woodwork painted gray. A single +oblong mirror is placed above the fireplace; the top of its frame +represented the Dawn led by the Hours, and painted in camaieu (two +shades of one color). This style of painting infested the decorative +art of the day, especially above door-frames, where the artist +displayed his eternal Seasons, and made you, in most houses in the +centre of France, abhor the odious Cupids, endlessly employed in +skating, gleaning, twirling, or garlanding one another with flowers. +Each window was draped in green damask curtains, looped up by heavy +cords, which made them resemble a vast dais. The furniture, covered +with tapestry, the woodwork, painted and varnished, and remarkable for +the twisted forms so much the fashion in the last century, bore scenes +from the fables of La Fontaine on the chair-backs; some of this +tapestry had been mended. The ceiling was divided at the centre of the +room by a huge beam, from which depended an old chandelier of rock- +crystal swathed in green gauze. On the fireplace were two vases in +Sevres blue, and two old girandoles attached to the frame of the +mirror, and a clock, the subject of which, taken from the last scene +of the "Deserteur," proved the enormous popularity of Sedaine's work. +This clock, of bronze-gilt, bore eleven personages upon it, each about +four inches tall. At the back the Deserter was seen issuing from +prison between the soldiers; in the foreground the young woman lay +fainting, and pointing to his pardon. On the walls of this salon were +several of the more recent portraits of the family,--one or two by +Rigaud, and three pastels by Latour. Four card tables, a backgammon +board, and a piquet table occupied the vast room, the only one in the +house, by the bye, which was ceiled. + +The dining-room, paved in black and white stone, not ceiled, and its +beams painted, was furnished with one of those enormous sideboards +with marble tops, required by the war waged in the provinces against +the human stomach. The walls, painted in fresco, represented a flowery +trellis. The seats were of varnished cane, and the doors of natural +wood. All things about the place carried out the patriarchal air which +emanated from the inside as well as the outside of the house. The +genius of the provinces preserved everything; nothing was new or old, +neither young nor decrepit. A cold precision made itself felt +throughout. + +Tourists in Normandy, Brittany, Maine, and Anjou must all have seen in +the capitals of those provinces many houses which resemble more or +less that of the Cormons; for it is, in its way, an archetype of the +burgher houses in that region of France, and it deserves a place in +this history because it serves to explain manners and customs, and +represents ideas. Who does not already feel that life must have been +calm and monotonously regular in this old edifice? It contained a +library; but that was placed below the level of the river. The books +were well bound and shelved, and the dust, far from injuring them, +only made them valuable. They were preserved with the care given in +these provinces deprived of vineyards to other native products, +desirable for their antique perfume, and issued by the presses of +Bourgogne, Touraine, Gascogne, and the South. The cost of +transportation was too great to allow any but the best products to be +imported. + +The basis of Mademoiselle Cormon's society consisted of about one +hundred and fifty persons; some went at times to the country; others +were occasionally ill; a few travelled about the department on +business; but certain of the faithful came every night (unless invited +elsewhere), and so did certain others compelled by duties or by habit +to live permanently in the town. All the personages were of ripe age; +few among them had ever travelled; nearly all had spent their lives in +the provinces, and some had taken part in the chouannerie. The latter +were beginning to speak fearlessly of that war, now that rewards were +being showered on the defenders of the good cause. Monsieur de Valois, +one of the movers in the last uprising (during which the Marquis de +Montauran, betrayed by his mistress, perished in spite of the devotion +of Marche-a-Terre, now tranquilly raising cattle for the market near +Mayenne),--Monsieur de Valois had, during the last six months, given +the key to several choice stratagems practised upon an old republican +named Hulot, the commander of a demi-brigade stationed at Alencon from +1798 to 1800, who had left many memories in the place. [See "The +Chouans."] + +The women of this society took little pains with their dress, except +on Wednesdays, when Mademoiselle Cormon gave a dinner, on which +occasion the guests invited on the previous Wednesday paid their +"visit of digestion." Wednesdays were gala days: the assembly was +numerous; guests and visitors appeared in fiocchi; some women brought +their sewing, knitting, or worsted work; the young girls were not +ashamed to make patterns for the Alencon point lace, with the proceeds +of which they paid for their personal expenses. Certain husbands +brought their wives out of policy, for young men were few in that +house; not a word could be whispered in any ear without attracting the +attention of all; there was therefore no danger, either for young +girls or wives, of love-making. + +Every evening, at six o'clock, the long antechamber received its +furniture. Each habitue brought his cane, his cloak, his lantern. All +these persons knew each other so well, and their habits and ways were +so familiarly patriarchal, that if by chance the old Abbe de Sponde +was lying down, or Mademoiselle Cormon was in her chamber, neither +Josette, the maid, nor Jacquelin, the man-servant, nor Mariette, the +cook, informed them. The first comer received the second; then, when +the company were sufficiently numerous for whist, piquet, or boston, +they began the game without awaiting either the Abbe de Sponde or +mademoiselle. If it was dark, Josette or Jacquelin would hasten to +light the candles as soon as the first bell rang. Seeing the salon +lighted up, the abbe would slowly hurry to come down. Every evening +the backgammon and the piquet tables, the three boston tables, and the +whist table were filled,--which gave occupation to twenty-five or +thirty persons; but as many as forty were usually present. Jacquelin +would then light the candles in the other rooms. + +Between eight and nine o'clock the servants began to arrive in the +antechamber to accompany their masters home; and, short of a +revolution, no one remained in the salon at ten o'clock. At that hour +the guests were departing in groups along the street, discoursing on +the game, or continuing conversations on the land they were covetous +of buying, on the terms of some one's will, on quarrels among heirs, +on the haughty assumption of the aristocratic portion of the +community. It was like Paris when the audience of a theatre disperses. + +Certain persons who talk much of poesy and know nothing about it, +declaim against the habits of life in the provinces. But put your +forehead in your left hand, rest one foot on the fender, and your +elbow on your knee; then, if you compass the idea of this quiet and +uniform scene, this house and its interior, this company and its +interests, heightened by the pettiness of its intellect like goldleaf +beaten between sheets of parchment, ask yourself, What is human life? +Try to decide between him who scribbles jokes on Egyptian obelisks, +and him who has "bostoned" for twenty years with Du Bousquier, +Monsieur de Valois, Mademoiselle Cormon, the judge of the court, the +king's attorney, the Abbe de Sponde, Madame Granson, and tutti quanti. +If the daily and punctual return of the same steps to the same path is +not happiness, it imitates happiness so well that men driven by the +storms of an agitated life to reflect upon the blessings of +tranquillity would say that here was happiness ENOUGH. + +To reckon the importance of Mademoiselle Cormon's salon at its true +value, it will suffice to say that the born statistician of the +society, du Bousquier, had estimated that the persons who frequented +it controlled one hundred and thirty-one votes in the electoral +college, and mustered among themselves eighteen hundred thousand +francs a year from landed estate in the neighborhood. + +The town of Alencon, however, was not entirely represented by this +salon. The higher aristocracy had a salon of their own; moreover, that +of the receiver-general was like an administration inn kept by the +government, where society danced, plotted, fluttered, loved, and +supped. These two salons communicated by means of certain mixed +individuals with the house of Cormon, and vice-versa; but the Cormon +establishment sat severely in judgment on the two other camps. The +luxury of their dinners was criticised; the ices at their balls were +pondered; the behavior of the women, the dresses, and "novelties" +there produced were discussed and disapproved. + +Mademoiselle Cormon, a species of firm, as one might say, under whose +name was comprised an imposing coterie, was naturally the aim and +object of two ambitious men as deep and wily as the Chevalier de +Valois and du Bousquier. To the one as well as to the other, she meant +election as deputy, resulting, for the noble, in the peerage, for the +purveyor, in a receiver-generalship. A leading salon is a difficult +thing to create, whether in Paris or the provinces, and here was one +already created. To marry Mademoiselle Cormon was to reign in Alencon. +Athanase Granson, the only one of the three suitors for the hand of +the old maid who no longer calculated profits, now loved her person as +well as her fortune. + +To employ the jargon of the day, is there not a singular drama in the +situation of these four personages? Surely there is something odd and +fantastic in three rivalries silently encompassing a woman who never +guessed their existence, in spite of an eager and legitimate desire to +be married. And yet, though all these circumstances make the +spinsterhood of this old maid an extraordinary thing, it is not +difficult to explain how and why, in spite of her fortune and her +three lovers, she was still unmarried. In the first place, +Mademoiselle Cormon, following the custom and rule of her house, had +always desired to marry a nobleman; but from 1788 to 1798 public +circumstances were very unfavorable to such pretensions. Though she +wanted to be a woman of condition, as the saying is, she was horribly +afraid of the Revolutionary tribunal. The two sentiments, equal in +force, kept her stationary by a law as true in ethics as it is in +statics. This state of uncertain expectation is pleasing to unmarried +women as long as they feel themselves young, and in a position to +choose a husband. France knows that the political system of Napoleon +resulted in making many widows. Under that regime heiresses were +entirely out of proportion in numbers to the bachelors who wanted to +marry. When the Consulate restored internal order, external +difficulties made the marriage of Mademoiselle Cormon as difficult to +arrange as it had been in the past. If, on the one hand, Rose-Marie- +Victoire refused to marry an old man, on the other, the fear of +ridicule forbade her to marry a very young one. + +In the provinces, families marry their sons early to escape the +conscription. In addition to all this, she was obstinately determined +not to marry a soldier: she did not intend to take a man and then give +him up to the Emperor; she wanted him for herself alone. With these +views, she found it therefore impossible, from 1804 to 1815, to enter +the lists with young girls who were rivalling each other for suitable +matches. + +Besides her predilection for the nobility, Mademoiselle Cormon had +another and very excusable mania: that of being loved for herself. You +could hardly believe the lengths to which this desire led her. She +employed her mind on setting traps for her possible lovers, in order +to test their real sentiments. Her nets were so well laid that the +luckless suitors were all caught, and succumbed to the test she +applied to them without their knowledge. Mademoiselle Cormon did not +study them; she watched them. A single word said heedlessly, a joke +(that she often was unable to understand), sufficed to make her reject +an aspirant as unworthy: this one had neither heart nor delicacy; that +one told lies, and was not religious; a third only wanted to coin +money under the cloak of marriage; another was not of a nature to make +a woman happy; here she suspected hereditary gout; there certain +immoral antecedents alarmed her. Like the Church, she required a noble +priest at her altar; she even wanted to be married for imaginary +ugliness and pretended defects, just as other women wish to be loved +for the good qualities they have not, and for imaginary beauties. +Mademoiselle Cormon's ambition took its rise in the most delicate and +sensitive feminine feeling; she longed to reward a lover by revealing +to him a thousand virtues after marriage, as other women then betray +the imperfections they have hitherto concealed. But she was ill +understood. The noble woman met with none but common souls in whom the +reckoning of actual interests was paramount, and who knew nothing of +the nobler calculations of sentiment. + +The farther she advanced towards that fatal epoch so adroitly called +the "second youth," the more her distrust increased. She affected to +present herself in the most unfavorable light, and played her part so +well that the last wooers hesitated to link their fate to that of a +person whose virtuous blind-man's-buff required an amount of +penetration that men who want the virtuous ready-made would not bestow +upon it. The constant fear of being married for her money rendered her +suspicious and uneasy beyond all reason. She turned to the rich men; +but the rich are in search of great marriages; she feared the poor +men, in whom she denied the disinterestedness she sought so eagerly. +After each disappointment in marriage, the poor lady, led to despise +mankind, began to see them all in a false light. Her character +acquired, necessarily, a secret misanthropy, which threw a tinge of +bitterness into her conversation, and some severity into her eyes. +Celibacy gave to her manners and habits a certain increasing rigidity; +for she endeavored to sanctify herself in despair of fate. Noble +vengeance! she was cutting for God the rough diamond rejected by man. +Before long public opinion was against her; for society accepts the +verdict an independent woman renders on herself by not marrying, +either through losing suitors or rejecting them. Everybody supposed +that these rejections were founded on secret reasons, always ill +interpreted. One said she was deformed; another suggested some hidden +fault; but the poor girl was really as pure as a saint, as healthy as +an infant, and full of loving kindness; Nature had intended her for +all the pleasures, all the joys, and all the fatigues of motherhood. + +Mademoiselle Cormon did not possess in her person an obliging +auxiliary to her desires. She had no other beauty than that very +improperly called la beaute du diable, which consists of a buxom +freshness of youth that the devil, theologically speaking, could never +have,--though perhaps the expression may be explained by the constant +desire that must surely possess him to cool and refresh himself. The +feet of the heiress were broad and flat. Her leg, which she often +exposed to sight by her manner (be it said without malice) of lifting +her gown when it rained, could never have been taken for the leg of a +woman. It was sinewy, with a thick projecting calf like a sailor's. A +stout waist, the plumpness of a wet-nurse, strong dimpled arms, red +hands, were all in keeping with the swelling outlines and the fat +whiteness of Norman beauty. Projecting eyes, undecided in color, gave +to her face, the rounded outline of which had no dignity, an air of +surprise and sheepish simplicity, which was suitable perhaps for an +old maid. If Rose had not been, as she was, really innocent, she would +have seemed so. An aquiline nose contrasted curiously with the +narrowness of her forehead; for it is rare that that form of nose does +not carry with it a fine brow. In spite of her thick red lips, a sign +of great kindliness, the forehead revealed too great a lack of ideas +to allow of the heart being guided by intellect; she was evidently +benevolent without grace. How severely we reproach Virtue for its +defects, and how full of indulgence we all are for the pleasanter +qualities of Vice! + +Chestnut hair of extraordinary length gave to Rose Cormon's face a +beauty which results from vigor and abundance,--the physical qualities +most apparent in her person. In the days of her chief pretensions, +Rose affected to hold her head at the three-quarter angle, in order to +exhibit a very pretty ear, which detached itself from the blue-veined +whiteness of her throat and temples, set off, as it was, by her wealth +of hair. Seen thus in a ball-dress, she might have seemed handsome. +Her protuberant outlines and her vigorous health did, in fact, draw +from the officers of the Empire the approving exclamation,-- + +"What a fine slip of a girl!" + +But, as years rolled on, this plumpness, encouraged by a tranquil, +wholesome life, had insensibly so ill spread itself over the whole of +Mademoiselle Cormon's body that her primitive proportions were +destroyed. At the present moment, no corset could restore a pair of +hips to the poor lady, who seemed to have been cast in a single mould. +The youthful harmony of her bosom existed no longer; and its excessive +amplitude made the spectator fear that if she stooped its heavy masses +might topple her over. But nature had provided against this by giving +her a natural counterpoise, which rendered needless the deceitful +adjunct of a bustle; in Rose Cormon everything was genuine. Her chin, +as it doubled, reduced the length of her neck, and hindered the easy +carriage of her head. Rose had no wrinkles, but she had folds of +flesh; and jesters declared that to save chafing she powdered her skin +as they do an infant's. + +This ample person offered to a young man full of ardent desires like +Athanase an attraction to which he had succumbed. Young imaginations, +essentially eager and courageous, like to rove upon these fine living +sheets of flesh. Rose was like a plump partridge attracting the knife +of a gourmet. Many an elegant deep in debt would very willingly have +resigned himself to make the happiness of Mademoiselle Cormon. But, +alas! the poor girl was now forty years old. At this period, after +vainly seeking to put into her life those interests which make the +Woman, and finding herself forced to be still unmarried, she fortified +her virtue by stern religious practices. She had recourse to religion, +the great consoler of oppressed virginity. A confessor had, for the +last three years, directed Mademoiselle Cormon rather stupidly in the +path of maceration; he advised the use of scourging, which, if modern +medical science is to be believed, produces an effect quite the +contrary to that expected by the worthy priest, whose hygienic +knowledge was not extensive. + +These absurd practices were beginning to shed a monastic tint over the +face of Rose Cormon, who now saw with something like despair her white +skin assuming the yellow tones which proclaim maturity. A slight down +on her upper lip, about the corners, began to spread and darken like a +trail of smoke; her temples grew shiny; decadence was beginning! It +was authentic in Alencon that Mademoiselle Cormon suffered from rush +of blood to the head. She confided her ills to the Chevalier de +Valois, enumerating her foot-baths, and consulting him as to +refrigerants. On such occasions the shrewd old gentleman would pull +out his snuff-box, gaze at the Princess Goritza, and say, by way of +conclusion:-- + +"The right composing draught, my dear lady, is a good and kind +husband." + +"But whom can one trust?" she replied. + +The chevalier would then brush away the snuff which had settled in the +folds of his waistcoat or his paduasoy breeches. To the world at large +this gesture would have seemed very natural; but it always gave +extreme uneasiness to the poor woman. + +The violence of this hope without an object was so great that Rose was +afraid to look a man in the face lest he should perceive in her eyes +the feelings that filled her soul. By a wilfulness, which was perhaps +only the continuation of her earlier methods, though she felt herself +attracted toward the men who might still suit her, she was so afraid +of being accused of folly that she treated them ungraciously. Most +persons in her society, being incapable of appreciating her motives, +which were always noble, explained her manner towards her co-celibates +as the revenge of a refusal received or expected. When the year 1815 +began, Rose had reached that fatal age which she dared not avow. She +was forty-two years old. Her desire for marriage then acquired an +intensity which bordered on monomania, for she saw plainly that all +chance of progeny was about to escape her; and the thing which in her +celestial ignorance she desired above all things was the possession of +children. Not a person in all Alencon ever attributed to this virtuous +woman a single desire for amorous license. She loved, as it were, in +bulk without the slightest imagination of love. Rose was a Catholic +Agnes, incapable of inventing even one of the wiles of Moliere's +Agnes. + +For some months past she had counted on chance. The disbandment of the +Imperial troops and the reorganization of the Royal army caused a +change in the destination of many officers, who returned, some on +half-pay, others with or without a pension, to their native towns,-- +all having a desire to counteract their luckless fate, and to end +their life in a way which might to Rose Cormon be a happy beginning of +hers. It would surely be strange if, among those who returned to +Alencon or its neighborhood, no brave, honorable, and, above all, +sound and healthy officer of suitable age could be found, whose +character would be a passport among Bonaparte opinions; or some ci- +devant noble who, to regain his lost position, would join the ranks of +the royalists. This hope kept Mademoiselle Cormon in heart during the +early months of that year. But, alas! all the soldiers who thus +returned were either too old or too young; too aggressively +Bonapartist, or too dissipated; in short, their several situations +were out of keeping with the rank, fortune, and morals of Mademoiselle +Cormon, who now grew daily more and more desperate. The poor woman in +vain prayed to God to send her a husband with whom she could be +piously happy: it was doubtless written above that she should die both +virgin and martyr; no man suitable for a husband presented himself. +The conversations in her salon every evening kept her informed of the +arrival of all strangers in Alencon, and of the facts of their +fortunes, rank, and habits. But Alencon is not a town which attracts +visitors; it is not on the road to any capital; even sailors, +travelling from Brest to Paris, never stop there. The poor woman ended +by admitting to herself that she was reduced to the aborigines. Her +eye now began to assume a certain savage expression, to which the +malicious chevalier responded by a shrewd look as he drew out his +snuff-box and gazed at the Princess Goritza. Monsieur de Valois was +well aware that in the feminine ethics of love fidelity to a first +attachment is considered a pledge for the future. + +But Mademoiselle Cormon--we must admit it--was wanting in intellect, +and did not understand the snuff-box performance. She redoubled her +vigilance against "the evil spirit"; her rigid devotion and fixed +principles kept her cruel sufferings hidden among the mysteries of +private life. Every evening, after the company had left her, she +thought of her lost youth, her faded bloom, the hopes of thwarted +nature; and, all the while immolating her passions at the feet of the +Cross (like poems condemned to stay in a desk), she resolved firmly +that if, by chance, any suitor presented himself, to subject him to no +tests, but to accept him at once for whatever he might be. She even +went so far as to think of marrying a sub-lieutenant, a man who smoked +tobacco, whom she proposed to render, by dint of care and kindness, +one of the best men in the world, although he was hampered with debts. + +But it was only in the silence of night watches that these fantastic +marriages, in which she played the sublime role of guardian angel, +took place. The next day, though Josette found her mistress' bed in a +tossed and tumbled condition, Mademoiselle Cormon had recovered her +dignity, and could only think of a man of forty, a land-owner, well +preserved, and a quasi-young man. + +The Abbe de Sponde was incapable of giving his niece the slightest aid +in her matrimonial manoeuvres. The worthy soul, now seventy years of +age, attributed the disasters of the French Revolution to the design +of Providence, eager to punish a dissolute Church. He had therefore +flung himself into the path, long since abandoned, which anchorites +once followed in order to reach heaven: he led an ascetic life without +proclaiming it, and without external credit. He hid from the world his +works of charity, his continual prayers, his penances; he thought that +all priests should have acted thus during the days of wrath and +terror, and he preached by example. While presenting to the world a +calm and smiling face, he had ended by detaching himself utterly from +earthly interests; his mind turned exclusively to sufferers, to the +needs of the Church, and to his own salvation. He left the management +of his property to his niece, who gave him the income of it, and to +whom he paid a slender board in order to spend the surplus in secret +alms and gifts to the Church. + +All the abbe's affections were concentrated on his niece, who regarded +him as a father, but an abstracted father, unable to conceive the +agitations of the flesh, and thanking God for maintaining his dear +daughter in a state of celibacy; for he had, from his youth up, +adopted the principles of Saint John Chrysostom, who wrote that "the +virgin state is as far above the marriage state as the angel is above +humanity." Accustomed to reverence her uncle, Mademoiselle Cormon +dared not initiate him into the desires which filled her soul for a +change of state. The worthy man, accustomed, on his side, to the ways +of the house, would scarcely have liked the introduction of a husband. +Preoccupied by the sufferings he soothed, lost in the depths of +prayer, the Abbe de Sponde had periods of abstraction which the +habitues of the house regarded as absent-mindedness. In any case, he +talked little; but his silence was affable and benevolent. He was a +man of great height and spare, with grave and solemn manners, though +his face expressed all gentle sentiments and an inward calm; while his +mere presence carried with it a sacred authority. He was very fond of +the Voltairean chevalier. Those two majestic relics of the nobility +and clergy, though of very different habits and morals, recognized +each other by their generous traits. Besides, the chevalier was as +unctuous with the abbe as he was paternal with the grisettes. + +Some persons may fancy that Mademoiselle Cormon used every means to +attain her end; and that among the legitimate lures of womanhood she +devoted herself to dress, wore low-necked gowns, and employed the +negative coquetries of a magnificent display of arms. Not at all! She +was as heroic and immovable in her high-necked chemisette as a sentry +in his box. Her gowns, bonnets, and chiffons were all cut and made by +the dressmaker and the milliner of Alencon, two hump-backed sisters, +who were not without some taste. In spite of the entreaties of these +artists, Mademoiselle Cormon refused to employ the airy deceits of +elegance; she chose to be substantial in all things, flesh and +feathers. But perhaps the heavy fashion of her gowns was best suited +to her cast of countenance. Let those laugh who will at this poor +girl; you would have thought her sublime, O generous souls! who care +but little what form true feeling takes, but admire it where it IS. + +Here some light-minded person may exclaim against the truth of this +statement; they will say that there is not in all France a girl so +silly as to be ignorant of the art of angling for men; that +Mademoiselle Cormon is one of those monstrous exceptions which +commonsense should prevent a writer from using as a type; that the +most virtuous and also the silliest girl who desires to catch her fish +knows well how to bait the hook. But these criticisms fall before the +fact that the noble catholic, apostolic, and Roman religion is still +erect in Brittany and in the ancient duchy of Alencon. Faith and piety +admit of no subtleties. Mademoiselle Cormon trod the path of +salvation, preferring the sorrows of her virginity so cruelly +prolonged to the evils of trickery and the sin of a snare. In a woman +armed with a scourge virtue could never compromise; consequently both +love and self-interest were forced to seek her, and seek her +resolutely. And here let us have the courage to make a cruel +observation, in days when religion is nothing more than a useful means +to some, and a poesy to others. Devotion causes a moral ophthalmia. By +some providential grace, it takes from souls on the road to eternity +the sight of many little earthly things. In a word, pious persons, +devotes, are stupid on various points. This stupidity proves with what +force they turn their minds to celestial matters; although the +Voltairean Chevalier de Valois declared that it was difficult to +decide whether stupid people became naturally pious, or whether piety +had the effect of making intelligent young women stupid. But reflect +upon this carefully: the purest catholic virtue, with its loving +acceptance of all cups, with its pious submission to the will of God, +with its belief in the print of the divine finger on the clay of all +earthly life, is the mysterious light which glides into the innermost +folds of human history, setting them in relief and magnifying them in +the eyes of those who still have Faith. Besides, if there be +stupidity, why not concern ourselves with the sorrows of stupidity as +well as with the sorrows of genius? The former is a social element +infinitely more abundant than the latter. + +So, then, Mademoiselle Cormon was guilty in the eyes of the world of +the divine ignorance of virgins. She was no observer, and her behavior +with her suitors proved it. At this very moment, a young girl of +sixteen, who had never opened a novel, would have read a hundred +chapters of a love story in the eyes of Athanase Granson, where +Mademoiselle Cormon saw absolutely nothing. Shy herself, she never +suspected shyness in others; she did not recognize in the quavering +tones of his speech the force of a sentiment he could not utter. +Capable of inventing those refinements of sentimental grandeur which +hindered her marriage in her early years, she yet could not recognize +them in Athanase. This moral phenomenon will not seem surprising to +persons who know that the qualities of the heart are as distinct from +those of the mind as the faculties of genius are from the nobility of +soul. A perfect, all-rounded man is so rare that Socrates, one of the +noblest pearls of humanity, declared (as a phrenologist of that day) +that he was born to be a scamp, and a very bad one. A great general +may save his country at Zurich, and take commissions from purveyors. A +great musician may conceive the sublimest music and commit a forgery. +A woman of true feeling may be a fool. In short, a devote may have a +sublime soul and yet be unable to recognize the tones of a noble soul +beside her. The caprices produced by physical infirmities are equally +to be met with in the mental and moral regions. + +This good creature, who grieved at making her yearly preserves for no +one but her uncle and herself, was becoming almost ridiculous. Those +who felt a sympathy for her on account of her good qualities, and +others on account of her defects, now made fun of her abortive +marriages. More than one conversation was based on what would become +of so fine a property, together with the old maid's savings and her +uncle's inheritance. For some time past she had been suspected of +being au fond, in spite of appearances, an "original." In the +provinces it was not permissible to be original: being original means +having ideas that are not understood by others; the provinces demand +equality of mind as well as equality of manners and customs. + +The marriage of Mademoiselle Cormon seemed, after 1804, a thing so +problematical that the saying "married like Mademoiselle Cormon" +became proverbial in Alencon as applied to ridiculous failures. Surely +the sarcastic mood must be an imperative need in France, that so +excellent a woman should excite the laughter of Alencon. Not only did +she receive the whole society of the place at her house, not only was +she charitable, pious, incapable of saying an unkind thing, but she +was fully in accord with the spirit of the place and the habits and +customs of the inhabitants, who liked her as the symbol of their +lives; she was absolutely inlaid into the ways of the provinces; she +had never quitted them; she imbibed all their prejudices; she espoused +all their interests; she adored them. + +In spite of her income of eighteen thousand francs from landed +property, a very considerable fortune in the provinces, she lived on a +footing with families who were less rich. When she went to her +country-place at Prebaudet, she drove there in an old wicker carriole, +hung on two straps of white leather, drawn by a wheezy mare, and +scarcely protected by two leather curtains rusty with age. This +carriole, known to all the town, was cared for by Jacquelin as though +it were the finest coupe in all Paris. Mademoiselle valued it; she had +used it for twelve years,--a fact to which she called attention with +the triumphant joy of happy avarice. Most of the inhabitants of the +town were grateful to Mademoiselle Cormon for not humiliating them by +the luxury she could have displayed; we may even believe that had she +imported a caleche from Paris they would have gossiped more about that +than about her various matrimonial failures. The most brilliant +equipage would, after all, have only taken her, like the old carriole, +to Prebaudet. Now the provinces, which look solely to results, care +little about the beauty or elegance of the means, provided they are +efficient. + + + +CHAPTER V + +AN OLD MAID'S HOUSEHOLD + +To complete the picture of the internal habits and ways of this house, +it is necessary to group around Mademoiselle Cormon and the Abbe de +Sponde Jacquelin, Josette, and Mariette, the cook, who employed +themselves in providing for the comfort of uncle and niece. + +Jacquelin, a man of forty, short, fat, ruddy, and brown, with a face +like a Breton sailor, had been in the service of the house for twenty- +two years. He waited at table, groomed the mare, gardened, blacked the +abbe's boots, went on errands, chopped the wood, drove the carriole, +and fetched the oats, straw, and hay from Prebaudet. He sat in the +antechamber during the evening, where he slept like a dormouse. He was +in love with Josette, a girl of thirty, whom Mademoiselle would have +dismissed had she married him. So the poor fond pair laid by their +wages, and loved each other silently, waiting, hoping for +mademoiselle's own marriage, as the Jews are waiting for the Messiah. +Josette, born between Alencon and Mortagne, was short and plump; her +face, which looked like a dirty apricot, was not wanting in sense and +character; it was said that she ruled her mistress. Josette and +Jacquelin, sure of results, endeavored to hide an inward satisfaction +which allows it to be supposed that, as lovers, they had discounted +the future. Mariette, the cook, who had been fifteen years in the +household, knew how to make all the dishes held in most honor in +Alencon. + +Perhaps we ought to count for much the fat old Norman brown-bay mare, +which drew Mademoiselle Cormon to her country-seat at Prebaudet; for +the five inhabitants of the house bore to this animal a maniacal +affection. She was called Penelope, and had served the family for +eighteen years; but she was kept so carefully and fed with such +regularity that mademoiselle and Jacquelin both hoped to use her for +ten years longer. This beast was the subject of perpetual talk and +occupation; it seemed as if poor Mademoiselle Cormon, having no +children on whom her repressed motherly feelings could expend +themselves, had turned those sentiments wholly on this most fortunate +animal. + +The four faithful servants--for Penelope's intelligence raised her to +the level of the other good servants; while they, on the other hand, +had lowered themselves to the mute, submissive regularity of the beast +--went and came daily in the same occupations with the infallible +accuracy of mechanism. But, as they said in their idiom, they had +eaten their white bread first. Mademoiselle Cormon, like all persons +nervously agitated by a fixed idea, became hard to please, and +nagging, less by nature than from the need of employing her activity. +Having no husband or children to occupy her, she fell back on petty +details. She talked for hours about mere nothings, on a dozen napkins +marked "Z," placed in the closet before the "O's." + +"What can Josette be thinking of?" she exclaimed. "Josette is +beginning to neglect things." + +Mademoiselle inquired for eight days running whether Penelope had had +her oats at two o'clock, because on one occasion Jacquelin was a +trifle late. Her narrow imagination spent itself on trifles. A layer +of dust forgotten by the feather-duster, a slice of toast ill-made by +Mariette, Josette's delay in closing the blinds when the sun came +round to fade the colors of the furniture,--all these great little +things gave rise to serious quarrels in which mademoiselle grew angry. +"Everything was changing," she would cry; "she did not know her own +servants; the fact was she spoiled them!" On one occasion Josette gave +her the "Journee du Chretien" instead of the "Quinzaine de Paques." +The whole town heard of this disaster the same evening. Mademoiselle +had been forced to leave the church and return home; and her sudden +departure, upsetting the chairs, made people suppose a catastrophe had +happened. She was therefore obliged to explain the facts to her +friends. + +"Josette," she said gently, "such a thing must never happen again." + +Mademoiselle Cormon was, without being aware of it, made happier by +such little quarrels, which served as cathartics to relieve her +bitterness. The soul has its needs, and, like the body, its +gymnastics. These uncertainties of temper were accepted by Josette and +Jacquelin as changes in the weather are accepted by husbandmen. Those +worthy souls remark, "It is fine to-day," or "It rains," without +arraigning the heavens. And so when they met in the morning the +servants would wonder in what humor mademoiselle would get up, just as +a farmer wonders about the mists at dawn. + +Mademoiselle Cormon had ended, as it was natural she should end, in +contemplating herself only in the infinite pettinesses of her life. +Herself and God, her confessor and the weekly wash, her preserves and +the church services, and her uncle to care for, absorbed her feeble +intellect. To her the atoms of life were magnified by an optic +peculiar to persons who are selfish by nature or self-absorbed by some +accident. Her perfect health gave alarming meaning to the least little +derangement of her digestive organs. She lived under the iron rod of +the medical science of our forefathers, and took yearly four +precautionary doses, strong enough to have killed Penelope, though +they seemed to rejuvenate her mistress. If Josette, when dressing her, +chanced to discover a little pimple on the still satiny shoulders of +mademoiselle, it became the subject of endless inquiries as to the +various alimentary articles of the preceding week. And what a triumph +when Josette reminded her mistress of a certain hare that was rather +"high," and had doubtless raised that accursed pimple! With what joy +they said to each other: "No doubt, no doubt, it WAS the hare!" + +"Mariette over-seasoned it," said mademoiselle. "I am always telling +her to do so lightly for my uncle and for me; but Mariette has no more +memory than--" + +"The hare," said Josette. + +"Just so," replied Mademoiselle; "she has no more memory than a hare, +--a very just remark." + +Four times a year, at the beginning of each season, Mademoiselle +Cormon went to pass a certain number of days on her estate of +Prebaudet. It was now the middle of May, the period at which she +wished to see how her apple-trees had "snowed," a saying of that +region which expressed the effect produced beneath the trees by the +falling of their blossoms. When the circular deposit of these fallen +petals resembled a layer of snow the owner of the trees might hope for +an abundant supply of cider. While she thus gauged her vats, +Mademoiselle Cormon also attended to the repairs which the winter +necessitated; she ordered the digging of her flower-beds and her +vegetable garden, from which she supplied her table. Every season had +its own business. Mademoiselle always gave a dinner of farewell to her +intimate friends the day before her departure, although she was +certain to see them again within three weeks. It was always a piece of +news which echoed through Alencon when Mademoiselle Cormon departed. +All her visitors, especially those who had missed a visit, came to bid +her good-bye; the salon was thronged, and every one said farewell as +though she were starting for Calcutta. The next day the shopkeepers +would stand at their doors to see the old carriole pass, and they +seemed to be telling one another some news by repeating from shop to +shop:-- + +"So Mademoiselle Cormon is going to Prebaudet!" + +Some said: "HER bread is baked." + +"Hey! my lad," replied the next man. "She's a worthy woman; if money +always came into such hands we shouldn't see a beggar in the country." + +Another said: "Dear me, I shouldn't be surprised if the vineyards were +in bloom; here's Mademoiselle Cormon going to Prebaudet. How happens +it she doesn't marry?" + +"I'd marry her myself," said a wag; "in fact, the marriage is half- +made, for here's one consenting party; but the other side won't. Pooh! +the oven is heating for Monsieur du Bousquier." + +"Monsieur du Bousquier! Why, she has refused him." + +That evening at all the gatherings it was told gravely:-- + +"Mademoiselle Cormon has gone." + +Or:-- + +"So you have really let Mademoiselle Cormon go." + +The Wednesday chosen by Suzanne to make known her scandal happened to +be this farewell Wednesday,--a day on which Mademoiselle Cormon drove +Josette distracted on the subject of packing. During the morning, +therefore, things had been said and done in the town which lent the +utmost interest to this farewell meeting. Madame Granson had gone the +round of a dozen houses while the old maid was deliberating on the +things she needed for the journey; and the malicious Chevalier de +Valois was playing piquet with Mademoiselle Armande, sister of a +distinguished old marquis, and the queen of the salon of the +aristocrats. If it was not uninteresting to any one to see what figure +the seducer would cut that evening, it was all important for the +chevalier and Madame Granson to know how Mademoiselle Cormon would +take the news in her double capacity of marriageable woman and +president of the Maternity Society. As for the innocent du Bousquier, +he was taking a walk on the promenade, and beginning to suspect that +Suzanne had tricked him; this suspicion confirmed him in his +principles as to women. + +On gala days the table was laid at Mademoiselle Cormon's about half- +past three o'clock. At that period the fashionable people of Alencon +dined at four. Under the Empire they still dined as in former times at +half-past two; but then they supped! One of the pleasures which +Mademoiselle Cormon valued most was (without meaning any malice, +although the fact certainly rests on egotism) the unspeakable +satisfaction she derived from seeing herself dressed as mistress of +the house to receive her guests. When she was thus under arms a ray of +hope would glide into the darkness of her heart; a voice told her that +nature had not so abundantly provided for her in vain, and that some +man, brave and enterprising, would surely present himself. Her desire +was refreshed like her person; she contemplated herself in her heavy +stuffs with a sort of intoxication, and this satisfaction continued +when she descended the stairs to cast her redoubtable eye on the +salon, the dinner-table, and the boudoir. She would then walk about +with the naive contentment of the rich,--who remember at all moments +that they are rich and will never want for anything. She looked at her +eternal furniture, her curiosities, her lacquers, and said to herself +that all these fine things wanted was a master. After admiring the +dining-room, and the oblong dinner-table, on which was spread a snow- +white cloth adorned with twenty covers placed at equal distances; +after verifying the squadron of bottles she had ordered to be brought +up, and which all bore honorable labels; after carefully verifying the +names written on little bits of paper in the trembling handwriting of +the abbe (the only duty he assumed in the household, and one which +gave rise to grave discussions on the place of each guest),--after +going through all these preliminary acts mademoiselle went, in her +fine clothes, to her uncle, who was accustomed at this, the best hour +in the day, to take his walk on the terrace which overlooked the +Brillante, where he could listen to the warble of birds which were +resting in the coppice, unafraid of either sportsmen or children. At +such times of waiting she never joined the Abbe de Sponde without +asking him some ridiculous question, in order to draw the old man into +a discussion which might serve to amuse him. And her reason was this, +--which will serve to complete our picture of this excellent woman's +nature:-- + +Mademoiselle Cormon regarded it as one of her duties to talk; not that +she was talkative, for she had unfortunately too few ideas, and did +not know enough phrases to converse readily. But she believed she was +accomplishing one of the social duties enjoined by religion, which +orders us to make ourselves agreeable to our neighbor. This obligation +cost her so much that she consulted her director, the Abbe Couturier, +upon the subject of this honest but puerile civility. In spite of the +humble remark of his penitent, confessing the inward labor of her mind +in finding anything to say, the old priest, rigid on the point of +discipline, read her a passage from Saint-Francois de Sales on the +duties of women in society, which dwelt on the decent gayety of pious +Christian women, who were bound to reserve their sternness for +themselves, and to be amiable and pleasing in their homes, and see +that their neighbors enjoyed themselves. Thus, filled with a sense of +duty, and wishing, at all costs, to obey her director, who bade her +converse with amenity, the poor soul perspired in her corset when the +talk around her languished, so much did she suffer from the effort of +emitting ideas in order to revive it. Under such circumstances she +would put forth the silliest statements, such as: "No one can be in +two places at once--unless it is a little bird," by which she one day +roused, and not without success, a discussion on the ubiquity of the +apostles, which she was unable to comprehend. Such efforts at +conversation won her the appellation of "that good Mademoiselle +Cormon," which, from the lips of the beaux esprits of society, means +that she was as ignorant as a carp, and rather a poor fool; but many +persons of her own calibre took the remark in its literal sense, and +answered:-- + +"Yes; oh yes! Mademoiselle Cormon is an excellent woman." + +Sometimes she would put such absurd questions (always for the purpose +of fulfilling her duties to society, and making herself agreeable to +her guests) that everybody burst out laughing. She asked, for +instance, what the government did with the taxes they were always +receiving; and why the Bible had not been printed in the days of Jesus +Christ, inasmuch as it was written by Moses. Her mental powers were +those of the English "country gentleman" who, hearing constant mention +of "posterity" in the House of Commons, rose to make the speech that +has since become celebrated: "Gentlemen," he said, "I hear much talk +in this place about Posterity. I should be glad to know what that +power has ever done for England." + +Under these circumstances the heroic Chevalier de Valois would bring +to the succor of the old maid all the powers of his clever diplomacy, +whenever he saw the pitiless smile of wiser heads. The old gentleman, +who loved to assist women, turned Mademoiselle Cormon's sayings into +wit by sustaining them paradoxically, and he often covered the retreat +so well that it seemed as if the good woman had said nothing silly. +She asserted very seriously one evening that she did not see any +difference between an ox and a bull. The dear chevalier instantly +arrested the peals of laughter by asserting that there was only the +difference between a sheep and a lamb. + +But the Chevalier de Valois served an ungrateful dame, for never did +Mademoiselle Cormon comprehend his chivalrous services. Observing that +the conversation grew lively, she simply thought that she was not so +stupid as she was,--the result being that she settled down into her +ignorance with some complacency; she lost her timidity, and acquired a +self-possession which gave to her "speeches" something of the +solemnity with which the British enunciate their patriotic +absurdities,--the self-conceit of stupidity, as it may be called. + +As she approached her uncle, on this occasion, with a majestic step, +she was ruminating over a question that might draw him from a silence, +which always troubled her, for she feared he was dull. + +"Uncle," she said, leaning on his arm and clinging to his side (this +was one of her fictions; for she said to herself "If I had a husband I +should do just so"),--"uncle, if everything here below happens +according to the will of God, there must be a reason for everything." + +"Certainly," replied the abbe, gravely. The worthy man, who cherished +his niece, always allowed her to tear him from his meditations with +angelic patience. + +"Then if I remain unmarried,--supposing that I do,--God wills it?" + +"Yes, my child," replied the abbe. + +"And yet, as nothing prevents me from marrying to-morrow if I choose, +His will can be destroyed by mine?" + +"That would be true if we knew what was really the will of God," +replied the former prior of the Sorbonne. "Observe, my daughter, that +you put in an IF." + +The poor woman, who expected to draw her uncle into a matrimonial +discussion by an argument ad omnipotentem, was stupefied; but persons +of obtuse mind have the terrible logic of children, which consists in +turning from answer to question,--a logic that is frequently +embarrassing. + +"But, uncle, God did not make women intending them not to marry; +otherwise they ought all to stay unmarried; if not, they ought all to +marry. There's great injustice in the distribution of parts." + +"Daughter," said the worthy abbe, "you are blaming the Church, which +declares celibacy to be the better way to God." + +"But if the Church is right, and all the world were good Catholics, +wouldn't the human race come to an end, uncle?" + +"You have too much mind, Rose; you don't need so much to be happy." + +That remark brought a smile of satisfaction to the lips of the poor +woman, and confirmed her in the good opinion she was beginning to +acquire about herself. That is how the world, our friends, and our +enemies are the accomplices of our defects! + +At this moment the conversation was interrupted by the successive +arrival of the guests. On these ceremonial days, friendly +familiarities were exchanged between the servants of the house and the +company. Mariette remarked to the chief-justice as he passed the +kitchen:-- + +"Ah, Monsieur du Ronceret, I've cooked the cauliflowers au gratin +expressly for you, for mademoiselle knows how you like them; and she +said to me: 'Now don't forget, Mariette, for Monsieur du Ronceret is +coming.'" + +"That good Mademoiselle Cormon!" ejaculated the chief legal authority +of the town. "Mariette, did you steep them in gravy instead of soup- +stock? it is much richer." + +The chief-justice was not above entering the chamber of council where +Mariette held court; he cast the eye of a gastronome around it, and +offered the advice of a past master in cookery. + +"Good-day, madame," said Josette to Madame Granson, who courted the +maid. "Mademoiselle has thought of you, and there's fish for dinner." + +As for the Chevalier de Valois, he remarked to Mariette, in the easy +tone of a great seigneur who condescends to be familiar:-- + +"Well, my dear cordon-bleu, to whom I should give the cross of the +Legion of honor, is there some little dainty for which I had better +reserve myself?" + +"Yes, yes, Monsieur de Valois,--a hare sent from Prebaudet; weighs +fourteen pounds." + +Du Bousquier was not invited. Mademoiselle Cormon, faithful to the +system which we know of, treated that fifty-year-old suitor extremely +ill, although she felt inexplicable sentiments towards him in the +depths of her heart. She had refused him; yet at times she repented; +and a presentiment that she should yet marry him, together with a +terror at the idea which prevented her from wishing for the marriage, +assailed her. Her mind, stimulated by these feelings, was much +occupied by du Bousquier. Without being aware of it, she was +influenced by the herculean form of the republican. Madame Granson and +the Chevalier de Valois, although they could not explain to themselves +Mademoiselle Cormon's inconsistencies, had detected her naive glances +in that direction, the meaning of which seemed clear enough to make +them both resolve to ruin the hopes of the already rejected purveyor, +--hopes which it was evident he still indulged. + +Two guests, whose functions excused them, kept the dinner waiting. One +was Monsieur du Coudrai, the recorder of mortgages; the other Monsieur +Choisnel, former bailiff to the house of Esgrignon, and now the notary +of the upper aristocracy, by whom he was received with a distinction +due to his virtues; he was also a man of considerable wealth. When the +two belated guests arrived, Jacquelin said to them as he saw them +about to enter the salon:-- + +"THEY are all in the garden." + +No doubt the assembled stomachs were impatient; for on the appearance +of the register of mortgages--who had no defect except that of having +married for her money an intolerable old woman, and of perpetrating +endless puns, at which he was the first to laugh--the gentle murmur by +which such late-comers are welcomed arose. While awaiting the official +announcement of dinner, the company were sauntering on the terrace +above the river, and gazing at the water-plants, the mosaic of the +currents, and the various pretty details of the houses clustering +across the river, their old wooden galleries, their mouldering window- +frames, their little gardens where clothes were drying, the cabinet- +maker's shop,--in short, the many details of a small community to +which the vicinity of a river, a weeping willow, flowers, rose-bushes, +added a certain grace, making the scene quite worthy of a landscape +painter. + +The chevalier studied all faces, for he knew that his firebrand had +been very successfully introduced into the chief houses of the place. +But no one as yet referred openly to the great news of Suzanne and du +Bousquier. Provincials possess in the highest degree the art of +distilling gossip; the right moment for openly discussing this strange +affair had not arrived; it was first necessary that all present should +put themselves on record. So the whispers went round from ear to +ear:-- + +"You have heard?" + +"Yes." + +"Du Bousquier?" + +"And that handsome Suzanne." + +"Does Mademoiselle Cormon know of it?" + +"No." + +"Ha!" + +This was the PIANO of the scandal; the RINFORZANDO would break forth +as soon as the first course had been removed. Suddenly Monsieur de +Valois's eyes lighted on Madame Granson, arrayed in her green hat with +bunches of auriculas, and beaming with evident joy. Was it merely the +joy of opening the concert? Though such a piece of news was like a +gold mine to work in the monotonous lives of these personages, the +observant and distrustful chevalier thought he recognized in the +worthy woman a far more extended sentiment; namely, the joy caused by +the triumph of self-interest. Instantly he turned to examine Athanase, +and detected him in the significant silence of deep meditation. +Presently, a look cast by the young man on Mademoiselle Cormon carried +to the soul of the chevalier a sudden gleam. That momentary flash of +lightning enabled him to read the past. + +"Ha! the devil!" he said to himself; "what a checkmate I'm exposed +to!" + +Monsieur de Valois now approached Mademoiselle Cormon, and offered his +arm. The old maid's feeling to the chevalier was that of respectful +consideration; and certainly his name, together with the position he +occupied among the aristocratic constellations of the department made +him the most brilliant ornament of her salon. In her inmost mind +Mademoiselle Cormon had wished for the last dozen years to become +Madame de Valois. That name was like the branch of a tree, to which +the ideas which SWARMED in her mind about rank, nobility, and the +external qualities of a husband had fastened. But, though the +Chevalier de Valois was the man chosen by her heart, and mind, and +ambition, that elderly ruin, combed and curled like a little Saint- +John in a procession, alarmed Mademoiselle Cormon. She saw the +gentleman in him, but she could not see a husband. The indifference +which the chevalier affected as to marriage, above all, the apparent +purity of his morals in a house which abounded in grisettes, did +singular harm in her mind to Monsieur de Valois against his +expectations. The worthy man, who showed such judgment in the matter +of his annuity, was at fault here. Without being herself aware of it, +the thoughts of Mademoiselle Cormon on the too virtuous chevalier +might be translated thus:-- + +"What a pity that he isn't a trifle dissipated!" + +Observers of the human heart have remarked the leaning of pious women +toward scamps; some have expressed surprise at this taste, considering +it opposed to Christian virtue. But, in the first place, what nobler +destiny can you offer to a virtuous woman than to purify, like +charcoal, the muddy waters of vice? How is it some observers fail to +see that these noble creatures, obliged by the sternness of their own +principles never to infringe on conjugal fidelity, must naturally +desire a husband of wider practical experience than their own? The +scamps of social life are great men in love. Thus the poor woman +groaned in spirit at finding her chosen vessel parted into two pieces. +God alone could solder together a Chevalier de Valois and a du +Bousquier. + +In order to explain the importance of the few words which the +chevalier and Mademoiselle Cormon are about to say to each other, it +is necessary to reveal two serious matters which agitated the town, +and about which opinions were divided; besides, du Bousquier was +mysteriously connected with them. + +One concerns the rector of Alencon, who had formerly taken the +constitutional oath, and who was now conquering the repugnance of the +Catholics by a display of the highest virtues. He was Cheverus on a +small scale, and became in time so fully appreciated that when he died +the whole town mourned him. Mademoiselle Cormon and the Abbe de Sponde +belonged to that "little Church," sublime in its orthodoxy, which was +to the court of Rome what the Ultras were to be to Louis XVIII. The +abbe, more especially, refused to recognize a Church which had +compromised with the constitutionals. The rector was therefore not +received in the Cormon household, whose sympathies were all given to +the curate of Saint-Leonard, the aristocratic parish of Alencon. Du +Bousquier, that fanatic liberal now concealed under the skin of a +royalist, knowing how necessary rallying points are to all discontents +(which are really at the bottom of all oppositions), had drawn the +sympathies of the middle classes around the rector. So much for the +first case; the second was this:-- + +Under the secret inspiration of du Bousquier the idea of building a +theatre had dawned on Alencon. The henchmen of the purveyor did not +know their Mohammed; and they thought they were ardent in carrying out +their own conception. Athanase Granson was one of the warmest +partisans for the theatre; and of late he had urged at the mayor's +office a cause which all the other young clerks had eagerly adopted. + +The chevalier, as we have said, offered his arm to the old maid for a +turn on the terrace. She accepted it, not without thanking him by a +happy look for this attention, to which the chevalier replied by +motioning toward Athanase with a meaning eye. + +"Mademoiselle," he began, "you have so much sense and judgment in +social proprieties, and also, you are connected with that young man by +certain ties--" + +"Distant ones," she said, interrupting him. + +"Ought you not," he continued, "to use the influence you have over his +mother and over himself by saving him from perdition? He is not very +religious, as you know; indeed he approves of the rector; but that is +not all; there is something far more serious; isn't he throwing +himself headlong into an opposition without considering what influence +his present conduct may exert upon his future? He is working for the +construction of a theatre. In this affair he is simply the dupe of +that disguised republican du Bousquier--" + +"Good gracious! Monsieur de Valois," she replied; "his mother is +always telling me he has so much mind, and yet he can't say two words; +he stands planted before me as mum as a post--" + +"Which doesn't think at all!" cried the recorder of mortgages. "I +caught your words on the fly. I present my compliments to Monsieur de +Valois," he added, bowing to that gentleman with much emphasis. + +The chevalier returned the salutation stiffly, and drew Mademoiselle +Cormon toward some flower-pots at a little distance, in order to show +the interrupter that he did not choose to be spied upon. + +"How is it possible," he continued, lowering his voice, and leaning +towards Mademoiselle Cormon's ear, "that a young man brought up in +those detestable lyceums should have ideas? Only sound morals and +noble habits will ever produce great ideas and a true love. It is easy +to see by a mere look at him that the poor lad is likely to be +imbecile, and come, perhaps, to some sad end. See how pale and haggard +he is!" + +"His mother declares he works too hard," replied the old maid, +innocently. "He sits up late, and for what? reading books and writing! +What business ought to require a young man to write at night?" + +"It exhausts him," replied the chevalier, trying to bring the old +maid's thoughts back to the ground where he hoped to inspire her with +horror for her youthful lover. "The morals of those Imperial lyceums +are really shocking." + +"Oh, yes!" said the ingenuous creature. "They march the pupils about +with drums at their head. The masters have no more religion than +pagans. And they put the poor lads in uniform, as if they were troops. +What ideas!" + +"And behold the product!" said the chevalier, motioning to Athanase. +"In my day, young men were not so shy of looking at a pretty woman. As +for him, he drops his eyes whenever he sees you. That young man +frightens me because I am really interested in him. Tell him not to +intrigue with the Bonapartists, as he is now doing about that theatre. +When all these petty folks cease to ask for it insurrectionally,-- +which to my mind is the synonym of constitutionally,--the government +will build it. Besides which, tell his mother to keep an eye on him." + +"Oh, I'm sure she will prevent him from seeing those half-pay, +questionable people. I'll talk to her," said Mademoiselle Cormon, "for +he might lose his place in the mayor's office; and then what would he +and his mother have to live on? It makes me shudder." + +As Monsieur de Talleyrand said of his wife, so the chevalier said to +himself, looking at Mademoiselle Cormon:-- + +"Find me another as stupid! Good powers! isn't virtue which drives out +intellect vice? But what an adorable wife for a man of my age! What +principles! what ignorance!" + +Remember that this monologue, addressed to the Princess Goritza, was +mentally uttered while he took a pinch of snuff. + +Madame Granson had divined that the chevalier was talking about +Athanase. Eager to know the result of the conversation, she followed +Mademoiselle Cormon, who was now approaching the young man with much +dignity. But at this moment Jacquelin appeared to announce that +mademoiselle was served. The old maid gave a glance of appeal to the +chevalier; but the gallant recorder of mortgages, who was beginning to +see in the manners of that gentleman the barrier which the provincial +nobles were setting up about this time between themselves and the +bourgeoisie, made the most of his chance to cut out Monsieur de +Valois. He was close to Mademoiselle Cormon, and promptly offered his +arm, which she found herself compelled to accept. The chevalier then +darted, out of policy, upon Madame Granson. + +"Mademoiselle Cormon, my dear lady," he said to her, walking slowly +after all the other guests, "feels the liveliest interest in your dear +Athanase; but I fear it will vanish through his own fault. He is +irreligious and liberal; he is agitating this matter of the theatre; +he frequents the Bonapartists; he takes the side of that rector. Such +conduct may make him lose his place in the mayor's office. You know +with what care the government is beginning to weed out such opinions. +If your dear Athanase loses his place, where can he find other +employment? I advise him not to get himself in bad odor with the +administration." + +"Monsieur le Chevalier," said the poor frightened mother, "how +grateful I am to you! You are right: my son is the tool of a bad set +of people; I shall enlighten him." + +The chevalier had long since fathomed the nature of Athanase, and +recognized in it that unyielding element of republican convictions to +which in his youth a young man is willing to sacrifice everything, +carried away by the word "liberty," so ill-defined and so little +understood, but which to persons disdained by fate is a banner of +revolt; and to such, revolt is vengeance. Athanase would certainly +persist in that faith, for his opinions were woven in with his +artistic sorrows, with his bitter contemplation of the social state. +He was ignorant of the fact that at thirty-six years of age,--the +period of life when a man has judged men and social interests and +relations,--the opinions for which he was ready to sacrifice his +future would be modified in him, as they are in all men of real +superiority. To remain faithful to the Left side of Alencon was to +gain the aversion of Mademoiselle Cormon. There, indeed, the chevalier +saw true. + +Thus we see that this society, so peaceful in appearance, was +internally as agitated as any diplomatic circle, where craft, ability, +and passions group themselves around the grave questions of an empire. +The guests were now seated at the table laden with the first course, +which they ate as provincials eat, without shame at possessing a good +appetite, and not as in Paris, where it seems as if jaws gnashed under +sumptuary laws, which made it their business to contradict the laws of +anatomy. In Paris people eat with their teeth, and trifle with their +pleasure; in the provinces things are done naturally, and interest is +perhaps rather too much concentrated on the grand and universal means +of existence to which God has condemned his creatures. + +It was at the end of the first course that Mademoiselle Cormon made +the most celebrated of her "speeches"; it was talked about for fully +two years, and is still told at the gatherings of the lesser +bourgeoisie whenever the topic of her marriage comes up. + +The conversation, becoming lively as the penultimate entree was +reached, had turned naturally on the affair of the theatre and the +constitutionally sworn rector. In the first fervor of royalty, during +the year 1816, those who later were called Jesuits were all for the +expulsion of the Abbe Francois from his parish. Du Bousquier, +suspected by Monsieur de Valois of sustaining the priest and being at +the bottom of the theatre intrigues, and on whose back the adroit +chevalier would in any case have put those sins with his customary +cleverness, was in the dock with no lawyer to defend him. Athanase, +the only guest loyal enough to stand by du Bousquier, had not the +nerve to emit his ideas in the presence of those potentates of +Alencon, whom in his heart he thought stupid. None but provincial +youths now retain a respectful demeanor before men of a certain age, +and dare neither to censure nor contradict them. The talk, diminished +under the effect of certain delicious ducks dressed with olives, was +falling flat. Mademoiselle Cormon, feeling the necessity of +maintaining it against her own ducks, attempted to defend du +Bousquier, who was being represented as a pernicious fomenter of +intrigues, capable of any trickery. + +"As for me," she said, "I thought that Monsieur du Bousquier cared +chiefly for childish things." + +Under existing circumstances the remark had enormous success. +Mademoiselle Cormon obtained a great triumph; she brought the nose of +the Princess Goritza flat on the table. The chevalier, who little +expected such an apt remark from his Dulcinea, was so amazed that he +could at first find no words to express his admiration; he applauded +noiselessly, as they do at the Opera, tapping his fingers together to +imitate applause. + +"She is adorably witty," he said to Madame Granson. "I always said +that some day she would unmask her batteries." + +"In private she is always charming," replied the widow. + +"In private, madame, all women have wit," returned the chevalier. + +The Homeric laugh thus raised having subsided, Mademoiselle Cormon +asked the reason of her success. Then began the FORTE of the gossip. +Du Bousquier was depicted as a species of celibate Pere Gigogne, a +monster, who for the last fifteen years had kept the Foundling +Hospital supplied. His immoral habits were at last revealed! these +Parisian saturnalias were the result of them, etc., etc. Conducted by +the Chevalier de Valois, a most able leader of an orchestra of this +kind, the opening of the CANCAN was magnificent. + +"I really don't know," he said, "what should hinder a du Bousquier +from marrying a Mademoiselle Suzanne What's-her-name. What IS her +name, do you know? Suzette! Though I have lodgings at Madame Lardot's, +I know her girls only by sight. If this Suzette is a tall, fine, saucy +girl, with gray eyes, a slim waist, and a pretty foot, whom I have +occasionally seen, and whose behavior always seemed to me extremely +insolent, she is far superior in manners to du Bousquier. Besides, the +girl has the nobility of beauty; from that point of view the marriage +would be a poor one for her; she might do better. You know how the +Emperor Joseph had the curiosity to see the du Barry at Luciennes. He +offered her his arm to walk about, and the poor thing was so surprised +at the honor that she hesitated to accept it: 'Beauty is ever a +queen,' said the Emperor. And he, you know, was an Austrian-German," +added the chevalier. "But I can tell you that Germany, which is +thought here very rustic, is a land of noble chivalry and fine +manners, especially in Poland and Hungary, where--" + +Here the chevalier stopped, fearing to slip into some allusion to his +personal happiness; he took out his snuff-box, and confided the rest +of his remarks to the princess, who had smiled upon him for thirty-six +years and more. + +"That speech was rather a delicate one for Louis XV.," said du +Ronceret. + +"But it was, I think, the Emperor Joseph who made it, and not Louis +XV.," remarked Mademoiselle Cormon, in a correcting tone. + +"Mademoiselle," said the chevalier, observing the malicious glance +exchanged between the judge, the notary, and the recorder, "Madame du +Barry was the Suzanne of Louis XV.,--a circumstance well known to +scamps like ourselves, but unsuitable for the knowledge of young +ladies. Your ignorance proves you to be a flawless diamond; historical +corruptions do not enter your mind." + +The Abbe de Sponde looked graciously at the Chevalier de Valois, and +nodded his head in sign of his laudatory approbation. + +"Doesn't mademoiselle know history?" asked the recorder of mortgages. + +"If you mix up Louis XV. and this girl Suzanne, how am I to know +history?" replied Mademoiselle Cormon, angelically, glad to see that +the dish of ducks was empty at last, and the conversation so ready to +revive that all present laughed with their mouths full at her last +remark. + +"Poor girl!" said the Abbe de Sponde. "When a great misfortune +happens, charity, which is divine love, and as blind as pagan love, +ought not to look into the causes of it. Niece, you are president of +the Maternity Society; you must succor that poor girl, who will now +find it difficult to marry." + +"Poor child!" ejaculated Mademoiselle Cormon. + +"Do you suppose du Bousquier would marry her?" asked the judge. + +"If he is an honorable man he ought to do so," said Madame Granson; +"but really, to tell the truth, my dog has better morals than he--" + +"Azor is, however, a good purveyor," said the recorder of mortgages, +with the air of saying a witty thing. + +At dessert du Bousquier was still the topic of conversation, having +given rise to various little jokes which the wine rendered sparkling. +Following the example of the recorder, each guest capped his +neighbor's joke with another: Du Bousquier was a father, but not a +confessor; he was father less; he was father LY; he was not a reverend +father; nor yet a conscript-father-- + +"Nor can he be a foster-father," said the Abbe de Sponde, with a +gravity which stopped the laughter. + +"Nor a noble father," added the chevalier. + +The Church and the nobility descended thus into the arena of puns, +without, however, losing their dignity. + +"Hush!" exclaimed the recorder of mortgages. "I hear the creaking of +du Bousquier's boots." + +It usually happens that a man is ignorant of rumors that are afloat +about him. A whole town may be talking of his affairs; may calumniate +and decry him, but if he has no good friends, he will know nothing +about it. Now the innocent du Bousquier was superb in his ignorance. +No one had told him as yet of Suzanne's revelations; he therefore +appeared very jaunty and slightly conceited when the company, leaving +the dining-room, returned to the salon for their coffee; several other +guests had meantime assembled for the evening. Mademoiselle Cormon, +from a sense of shamefacedness, dared not look at the terrible +seducer. She seized upon Athanase, and began to lecture him with the +queerest platitudes about royalist politics and religious morality. +Not possessing, like the Chevalier de Valois, a snuff-box adorned with +a princess, by the help of which he could stand this torrent of +silliness, the poor poet listened to the words of her whom he loved +with a stupid air, gazing, meanwhile, at her enormous bust, which held +itself before him in that still repose which is the attribute of all +great masses. His love produced in him a sort of intoxication which +changed the shrill voice of the old maid into a soft murmur, and her +flat remarks into witty speeches. Love is a maker of false coin, +continually changing copper pennies into gold-pieces, and sometimes +turning its real gold into copper. + +"Well, Athanase, will you promise me?" + +This final sentence struck the ear of the absorbed young man like one +of those noises which wake us with a bound. + +"What, mademoiselle?" + +Mademoiselle Cormon rose hastily, and looked at du Bousquier, who at +that moment resembled the stout god of Fable which the Republic +stamped upon her coins. She walked up to Madame Granson, and said in +her ear:-- + +"My dear friend, you son is an idiot. That lyceum has ruined him," she +added, remembering the insistence with which the chevalier had spoken +of the evils of education in such schools. + +What a catastrophe! Unknown to himself, the luckless Athanase had had +an occasion to fling an ember of his own fire upon the pile of brush +gathered in the heart of the old maid. Had he listened to her, he +might have made her, then and there, perceive his passion; for, in the +agitated state of Mademoiselle Cormon's mind, a single word would have +sufficed. But that stupid absorption in his own sentiments, which +characterizes young and true love, had ruined him, as a child full of +life sometimes kills itself out of ignorance. + +"What have you been saying to Mademoiselle Cormon?" demanded his +mother. + +"Nothing." + +"Nothing; well, I can explain that," she thought to herself, putting +off till the next day all further reflection on the matter, and +attaching but little importance to Mademoiselle Cormon's words; for +she fully believed that du Bousquier was forever lost in the old +maid's esteem after the revelation of that evening. + +Soon the four tables were filled with their sixteen players. Four +persons were playing piquet,--an expensive game, at which the most +money was lost. Monsieur Choisnel, the procureur-du-roi, and two +ladies went into the boudoir for a game at backgammon. The glass +lustres were lighted; and then the flower of Mademoiselle Cormon's +company gathered before the fireplace, on sofas, and around the +tables, and each couple said to her as they arrived,-- + +"So you are going to-morrow to Prebaudet?" + +"Yes, I really must," she replied. + +On this occasion the mistress of the house appeared preoccupied. +Madame Granson was the first to perceive the quite unnatural state of +the old maid's mind,--Mademoiselle Cormon was thinking! + +"What are you thinking of, cousin?" she said at last, finding her +seated in the boudoir. + +"I am thinking," she replied, "of that poor girl. As the president of +the Maternity Society, I will give you fifty francs for her." + +"Fifty francs!" cried Madame Granson. "But you have never given as +much as that." + +"But, my dear cousin, it is so natural to have children." + +That immoral speech coming from the heart of the old maid staggered +the treasurer of the Maternity Society. Du Bousquier had evidently +advanced in the estimation of Mademoiselle Cormon. + +"Upon my word," said Madame Granson, "du Bousquier is not only a +monster, he is a villain. When a man has done a wrong like that, he +ought to pay the indemnity. Isn't it his place rather than ours to +look after the girl?--who, to tell you the truth, seems to me rather +questionable; there are plenty of better men in Alencon than that +cynic du Bousquier. A girl must be depraved, indeed, to go after him." + +"Cynic! Your son teaches you to talk Latin, my dear, which is wholly +incomprehensible. Certainly I don't wish to excuse Monsieur du +Bousquier; but pray explain to me why a woman is depraved because she +prefers one man to another." + +"My dear cousin, suppose you married my son Athanase; nothing could be +more natural. He is young and handsome, full of promise, and he will +be the glory of Alencon; and yet everybody will exclaim against you: +evil tongues will say all sorts of things; jealous women will accuse +you of depravity,--but what will that matter? you will be loved, and +loved truly. If Athanase seemed to you an idiot, my dear, it is that +he has too many ideas; extremes meet. He lives the life of a girl of +fifteen; he has never wallowed in the impurities of Paris, not he! +Well, change the terms, as my poor husband used to say; it is the same +thing with du Bousquier in connection with Suzanne. YOU would be +calumniated; but in the case of du Bousquier, the charge would be +true. Don't you understand me?" + +"No more than if you were talking Greek," replied Mademoiselle Cormon, +who opened her eyes wide, and strained all the forces of her +intellect. + +"Well, cousin, if I must dot all the i's, it is impossible for Suzanne +to love du Bousquier. And if the heart counts for nothing in this +affair--" + +"But, cousin, what do people love with if not their hearts?" + +Here Madame Granson said to herself, as the chevalier had previously +thought: "My poor cousin is altogether too innocent; such stupidity +passes all bounds!--Dear child," she continued aloud, "it seems to me +that children are not conceived by the spirit only." + +"Why, yes, my dear; the Holy Virgin herself--" + +"But, my love, du Bousquier isn't the Holy Ghost!" + +"True," said the old maid; "he is a man!--a man whose personal +appearance makes him dangerous enough for his friends to advise him to +marry." + +"You could yourself bring about that result, cousin." + +"How so?" said the old maid, with the meekness of Christian charity. + +"By not receiving him in your house until he marries. You owe it to +good morals and to religion to manifest under such circumstances an +exemplary displeasure." + +"On my return from Prebaudet we will talk further of this, my dear +Madame Granson. I will consult my uncle and the Abbe Couturier," said +Mademoiselle Cormon, returning to the salon, where the animation was +now at its height. + +The lights, the group of women in their best clothes, the solemn tone, +the dignified air of the assembly, made Mademoiselle Cormon not a +little proud of her company. To many persons nothing better could be +seen in Paris in the highest society. + +At this moment du Bousquier, who was playing whist with the chevalier +and two old ladies,--Madame du Coudrai and Madame du Ronceret,--was +the object of deep but silent curiosity. A few young women arrived, +who, under pretext of watching the game, gazed fixedly at him in so +singular a manner, though slyly, that the old bachelor began to think +that there must be some deficiency in his toilet. + +"Can my false front be crooked?" he asked himself, seized by one of +those anxieties which beset old bachelors. + +He took advantage of a lost trick, which ended a seventh rubber, to +rise and leave the table. + +"I can't touch a card without losing," he said. "I am decidedly too +unlucky." + +"But you are lucky in other ways," said the chevalier, giving him a +sly look. + +That speech naturally made the rounds of the salon, where every one +exclaimed on the exquisite taste of the chevalier, the Prince de +Talleyrand of the province. + +"There's no one like Monsieur de Valois for such wit." + +Du Bousquier went to look at himself in a little oblong mirror, placed +above the "Deserter," but he saw nothing strange in his appearance. + +After innumerable repetitions of the same text, varied in all keys, +the departure of the company took place about ten o'clock, through the +long antechamber, Mademoiselle Cormon conducting certain of her +favorite guests to the portico. There the groups parted; some followed +the Bretagne road towards the chateau; the others went in the +direction of the river Sarthe. Then began the usual conversation, +which for twenty years had echoed at that hour through this particular +street of Alencon. It was invariably:-- + +"Mademoiselle Cormon looked very well to-night." + +"Mademoiselle Cormon? why, I thought her rather strange." + +"How that poor abbe fails! Did you notice that he slept? He does not +know what cards he holds; he is getting very absent-minded." + +"We shall soon have the grief of losing him." + +"What a fine night! It will be a fine day to-morrow." + +"Good weather for the apple-blossoms." + +"You beat us; but when you play with Monsieur de Valois you never do +otherwise." + +"How much did he win?" + +"Well, to-night, three or four francs; he never loses." + +"True; and don't you know there are three hundred and sixty-five days +a year? At that price his gains are the value of a farm." + +"Ah! what hands we had to-night!" + +"Here you are at home, monsieur and madame, how lucky you are, while +we have half the town to cross!" + +"I don't pity you; you could afford a carriage, and dispense with the +fatigue of going on foot." + +"Ah, monsieur! we have a daughter to marry, which takes off one wheel, +and the support of our son in Paris carries off another." + +"You persist in making a magistrate of him?" + +"What else can be done with a young man? Besides, there's no shame in +serving the king." + +Sometimes a discussion on ciders and flax, always couched in the same +terms, and returning at the same time of year, was continued on the +homeward way. If any observer of human customs had lived in this +street, he would have known the months and seasons by simply +overhearing the conversations. + +On this occasion it was exclusively jocose; for du Bousquier, who +chanced to march alone in front of the groups, was humming the well- +known air,--little thinking of its appropriateness,--"Tender woman! +hear the warble of the birds," etc. To some, du Bousquier was a strong +man and a misjudged man. Ever since he had been confirmed in his +present office by a royal decree, Monsieur du Ronceret had been in +favor of du Bousquier. To others the purveyor seemed dangerous,--a man +of bad habits, capable of anything. In the provinces, as in Paris, men +before the public eye are like that statue in the fine allegorical +tale of Addison, for which two knights on arriving near it fought; for +one saw it white, the other saw it black. Then, when they were both +off their horses, they saw it was white one side and black the other. +A third knight coming along declared it red. + +When the chevalier went home that night, he made many reflections, as +follows:-- + +"It is high time now to spread a rumor of my marriage with +Mademoiselle Cormon. It will leak out from the d'Esgrignon salon, and +go straight to the bishop at Seez, and so get round through the grand +vicars to the curate of Saint-Leonard's, who will be certain to tell +it to the Abbe Couturier; and Mademoiselle Cormon will get the shot in +her upper works. The old Marquis d'Esgrignon shall invite the Abbe de +Sponde to dinner, so as to stop all gossip about Mademoiselle Cormon +if I decide against her, or about me if she refuses me. The abbe shall +be well cajoled; and Mademoiselle Cormon will certainly not hold out +against a visit from Mademoiselle Armande, who will show her the +grandeur and future chances of such an alliance. The abbe's property +is undoubtedly as much as three hundred thousand; her own savings must +amount to more than two hundred thousand; she has her house and +Prebaudet and fifteen thousand francs a year. A word to my friend the +Comte de Fontaine, and I should be mayor of Alencon to-morrow, and +deputy. Then, once seated on the Right benches, we shall reach the +peerage, shouting, 'Cloture!' 'Ordre!'" + +As soon as she reached home Madame Granson had a lively argument with +her son, who could not be made to see the connection which existed +between his love and his political opinions. It was the first quarrel +that had ever troubled that poor household. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +FINAL DISAPPOINTMENT AND ITS FIRST RESULT + +The next day, Mademoiselle Cormon, packed into the old carriole with +Josette, and looking like a pyramid on a vast sea of parcels, drove up +the rue Saint-Blaise on her way to Prebaudet, where she was overtaken +by an event which hurried on her marriage,--an event entirely unlooked +for by either Madame Granson, du Bousquier, Monsieur de Valois, or +Mademoiselle Cormon himself. Chance is the greatest of all artificers. + +The day after her arrival at Prebaudet, she was innocently employed, +about eight o'clock in the morning, in listening, as she breakfasted, +to the various reports of her keeper and her gardener, when Jacquelin +made a violent irruption into the dining-room. + +"Mademoiselle," he cried, out of breath, "Monsieur l'abbe sends you an +express, the son of Mere Grosmort, with a letter. The lad left Alencon +before daylight, and he has just arrived; he ran like Penelope! Can't +I give him a glass of wine?" + +"What can have happened, Josette? Do you think my uncle can be--" + +"He couldn't write if he were," said Josette, guessing her mistress's +fears. + +"Quick! quick!" cried Mademoiselle Cormon, as soon as she had read the +first lines. "Tell Jacquelin to harness Penelope--Get ready, Josette; +pack up everything in half an hour. We must go back to town--" + +"Jacquelin!" called Josette, excited by the sentiment she saw on her +mistress's face. + +Jacquelin, informed by Josette, came in to say,-- + +"But, mademoiselle, Penelope is eating her oats." + +"What does that signify? I must start at once." + +"But, mademoiselle, it is going to rain." + +"Then we shall get wet." + +"The house is on fire!" muttered Josette, piqued at the silence her +mistress kept as to the contents of the letter, which she read and +reread. + +"Finish your coffee, at any rate, mademoiselle; don't excite your +blood; just see how red you are." + +"Am I red, Josette?" she said, going to a mirror, from which the +quicksilver was peeling, and which presented her features to her +upside down. + +"Good heavens!" thought Mademoiselle Cormon, "suppose I should look +ugly! Come, Josette; come, my dear, dress me at once; I want to be +ready before Jacquelin has harnessed Penelope. If you can't pack my +things in time, I will leave them here rather than lose a single +minute." + +If you have thoroughly comprehended the positive monomania to which +the desire of marriage had brought Mademoiselle Cormon, you will share +her emotion. The worthy uncle announced in this sudden missive that +Monsieur de Troisville, of the Russian army during the Emigration, +grandson of one of his best friends, was desirous of retiring to +Alencon, and asked his, the abbe's hospitality, on the ground of his +friendship for his grandfather, the Vicomte de Troisville. The old +abbe, alarmed at the responsibility, entreated his niece to return +instantly and help him to receive this guest, and do the honors of the +house; for the viscount's letter had been delayed, and he might +descend upon his shoulders that very night. + +After reading this missive could there be a question of the demands of +Prebaudet? The keeper and the gardener, witnesses to Mademoiselle +Cormon's excitement, stood aside and awaited her orders. But when, as +she was about to leave the room, they stopped her to ask for +instructions, for the first time in her life the despotic old maid, +who saw to everything at Prebaudet with her own eyes, said, to their +stupefaction, "Do what you like." This from a mistress who carried her +administration to the point of counting her fruits, and marking them +so as to order their consumption according to the number and condition +of each! + +"I believe I'm dreaming," thought Josette, as she saw her mistress +flying down the staircase like an elephant to which God has given +wings. + +Presently, in spite of a driving rain, Mademoiselle Cormon drove away +from Prebaudet, leaving her factotums with the reins on their necks. +Jacquelin dared not take upon himself to hasten the usual little trot +of the peaceable Penelope, who, like the beautiful queen whose name +she bore, had an appearance of making as many steps backward as she +made forward. Impatient with the pace, mademoiselle ordered Jacquelin +in a sharp voice to drive at a gallop, with the whip, if necessary, to +the great astonishment of the poor beast, so afraid was she of not +having time to arrange the house suitably to receive Monsieur de +Troisville. She calculated that the grandson of her uncle's friend was +probably about forty years of age; a soldier just from service was +undoubtedly a bachelor; and she resolved, her uncle aiding, not to let +Monsieur de Troisville quit their house in the condition he entered +it. Though Penelope galloped, Mademoiselle Cormon, absorbed in +thoughts of her trousseau and the wedding-day, declared again and +again that Jacquelin made no way at all. She twisted about in the +carriole without replying to Josette's questions, and talked to +herself like a person who is mentally revolving important designs. + +The carriole at last arrived in the main street of Alencon, called the +rue Saint-Blaise at the end toward Montagne, but near the hotel du +More it takes the name of the rue de la Porte-de-Seez, and becomes the +rue du Bercail as it enters the road to Brittany. If the departure of +Mademoiselle Cormon made a great noise in Alencon, it is easy to +imagine the uproar caused by her sudden return on the following day, +in a pouring rain which beat her face without her apparently minding +it. Penelope at a full gallop was observed by every one, and +Jacquelin's grin, the early hour, the parcels stuffed into the +carriole topsy-turvy, and the evident impatience of Mademoiselle +Cormon were all noted. + +The property of the house of Troisville lay between Alencon and +Mortagne. Josette knew the various branches of the family. A word +dropped by mademoiselle as they entered Alencon had put Josette on the +scent of the affair; and a discussion having started between them, it +was settled that the expected de Troisville must be between forty and +forty-two years of age, a bachelor, and neither rich nor poor. +Mademoiselle Cormon beheld herself speedily Vicomtesse de Troisville. + +"And to think that my uncle told me nothing! thinks of nothing! +inquires nothing! That's my uncle all over. He'd forget his own nose +if it wasn't fastened to his face." + +Have you never remarked that, under circumstances such as these, old +maids become, like Richard III., keen-witted, fierce, bold, +promissory,--if one may so use the word,--and, like inebriate clerks, +no longer in awe of anything? + +Immediately the town of Alencon, speedily informed from the farther +end of the rue de Saint-Blaise to the gate of Seez of this precipitate +return, accompanied by singular circumstances, was perturbed +throughout its viscera, both public and domestic. Cooks, shopkeepers, +street passengers, told the news from door to door; thence it rose to +the upper regions. Soon the words: "Mademoiselle Cormon has returned!" +burst like a bombshell into all households. At that moment Jacquelin +was descending from his wooden seat (polished by a process unknown to +cabinet-makers), on which he perched in front of the carriole. He +opened the great green gate, round at the top, and closed in sign of +mourning; for during Mademoiselle Cormon's absence the evening +assemblies did not take place. The faithful invited the Abbe de Sponde +to their several houses; and Monsieur de Valois paid his debt by +inviting him to dine at the Marquis d'Esgrignon's. Jacquelin, having +opened the gate, called familiarly to Penelope, whom he had left in +the middle of the street. That animal, accustomed to this proceeding, +turned in of herself, and circled round the courtyard in a manner to +avoid injuring the flower-bed. Jacquelin then took her bridle, and led +the carriage to the portico. + +"Mariette!" cried Mademoiselle Cormon. + +"Mademoiselle!" exclaimed Mariette, who was occupied in closing the +gate. + +"Has the gentleman arrived?" + +"No, mademoiselle." + +"Where's my uncle?" + +"He is at church, mademoiselle." + +Jacquelin and Josette were by this time on the first step of the +portico, holding out their hands to manoeuvre the exit of their +mistress from the carriole as she pulled herself up by the sides of +the vehicle and clung to the curtains. Mademoiselle then threw herself +into their arms; because for the last two years she dared not risk her +weight on the iron step, affixed to the frame of the carriage by a +horrible mechanism of clumsy bolts. + +When Mademoiselle Cormon reached the level of the portico she looked +about her courtyard with an air of satisfaction. + +"Come, come, Mariette, leave that gate alone; I want you." + +"There's something in the wind," whispered Jacquelin, as Mariette +passed the carriole. + +"Mariette, what provisions have you in the house?" asked Mademoiselle +Cormon, sitting down on the bench in the long antechamber like a +person overcome with fatigue. + +"I haven't anything," replied Mariette, with her hands on her hips. +"Mademoiselle knows very well that during her absence Monsieur l'abbe +dines out every day. Yesterday I went to fetch him from Mademoiselle +Armande's." + +"Where is he now?" + +"Monsieur l'abbe? Why, at church; he won't be in before three +o'clock." + +"He thinks of nothing! he ought to have told you to go to market. +Mariette, go at once; and without wasting money, don't spare it; get +all there is that is good and delicate. Go to the diligence office and +see if you can send for pates; and I want shrimps from the Brillante. +What o'clock is it?" + +"A quarter to nine." + +"Good heavens! Mariette, don't stop to chatter. The person my uncle +expects may arrive at any moment. If we had to give him breakfast, +where should we be with nothing in the house?" + +Mariette turned back to Penelope in a lather, and looked at Jacquelin +as if she would say, "Mademoiselle has put her hand on a husband THIS +time." + +"Now, Josette," continued the old maid, "let us see where we had +better put Monsieur de Troisville to sleep." + +With what joy she said the words, "Put Monsieur de Troisville" +(pronounced Treville) "to sleep." How many ideas in those few words! +The old maid was bathed in hope. + +"Will you put him in the green chamber?" + +"The bishop's room? No; that's too near mine," said Mademoiselle +Cormon. "All very well for monseigneur; he's a saintly man." + +"Give him your uncle's room." + +"Oh, that's so bare; it is actually indecent." + +"Well, then, mademoiselle, why not arrange a bed in your boudoir? It +is easily done; and there's a fire-place. Moreau can certainly find in +his warerooms a bed to match the hangings." + +"You are right, Josette. Go yourself to Moreau; consult with him what +to do; I authorize you to get what is wanted. If the bed could be put +up to-night without Monsieur de Troisville observing it (in case +Monsieur de Troisville arrives while Moreau is here), I should like +it. If Moreau won't engage to do this, then I must put Monsieur de +Troisville in the green room, although Monsieur de Troisville would be +so very near to me." + +Josette was departing when her mistress recalled her. + +"Stop! explain the matter to Jacquelin," she cried, in a loud nervous +tone. "Tell HIM to go to Moreau; I must be dressed! Fancy if Monsieur +de Troisville surprised me as I am now! and my uncle not here to +receive him! Oh, uncle, uncle! Come, Josette; come and dress me at +once." + +"But Penelope?" said Josette, imprudently. + +"Always Penelope! Penelope this, Penelope that! Is Penelope the +mistress of this house?" + +"But she is all of a lather, and she hasn't had time to eat her oats." + +"Then let her starve!" cried Mademoiselle Cormon; "provided I marry," +she thought to herself. + +Hearing these words, which seemed to her like homicide, Josette stood +still for a moment, speechless. Then, at a gesture from her mistress, +she ran headlong down the steps of the portico. + +"The devil is in her, Jacquelin," were the first words she uttered. + +Thus all things conspired on this fateful day to produce the great +scenic effect which decided the future life of Mademoiselle Cormon. +The town was already topsy-turvy in mind, as a consequence of the five +extraordinary circumstances which accompanied Mademoiselle Cormon's +return; to wit, the pouring rain; Penelope at a gallop, in a lather, +and blown; the early hour; the parcels half-packed; and the singular +air of the excited old maid. But when Mariette made an invasion of the +market, and bought all the best things; when Jacquelin went to the +principal upholsterer in Alencon, two doors from the church, in search +of a bed,--there was matter for the gravest conjectures. These +extraordinary events were discussed on all sides; they occupied the +minds of every one, even Mademoiselle Armande herself, with whom was +Monsieur de Valois. Within two days the town of Alencon had been +agitated by such startling events that certain good women were heard +to remark that the world was coming to an end. This last news, +however, resolved itself into a single question, "What is happening at +the Cormons?" + +The Abbe de Sponde, adroitly questioned when he left Saint-Leonard's +to take his daily walk with the Abbe Couturier, replied with his usual +kindliness that he expected the Vicomte de Troisville, a nobleman in +the service of Russia during the Emigration, who was returning to +Alencon to settle there. From two to five o'clock a species of labial +telegraphy went on throughout the town; and all the inhabitants +learned that Mademoiselle Cormon had at last found a husband by +letter, and was about to marry the Vicomte de Troisville. Some said, +"Moreau has sold them a bed." The bed was six feet wide in that +quarter; it was four feet wide at Madame Granson's, in the rue du +Bercail; but it was reduced to a simple couch at Monsieur du +Ronceret's, where du Bousquier was dining. The lesser bourgeoisie +declared that the cost was eleven hundred francs. But generally it was +thought that, as to this, rumor was counting the chickens before they +were hatched. In other quarters it was said that Mariette had made +such a raid on the market that the price of carp had risen. At the end +of the rue Saint-Blaise, Penelope had dropped dead. This decease was +doubted in the house of the receiver-general; but at the Prefecture it +was authenticated that the poor beast had expired as she turned into +the courtyard of the hotel Cormon, with such velocity had the old maid +flown to meet her husband. The harness-maker, who lived at the corner +of the rue de Seez, was bold enough to call at the house and ask if +anything had happened to Mademoiselle Cormon's carriage, in order to +discover whether Penelope was really dead. From the end of the rue +Saint-Blaise to the end of the rue du Bercail, it was then made known +that, thanks to Jacquelin's devotion, Penelope, that silent victim of +her mistress's impetuosity, still lived, though she seemed to be +suffering. + +Along the road to Brittany the Vicomte de Troisville was stated to be +a younger son without a penny, for the estates in Perche belonged to +the Marquis de Troisville, peer of France, who had children; the +marriage would be, therefore, an enormous piece of luck for a poor +emigre. The aristocracy along that road approved of the marriage; +Mademoiselle Cormon could not do better with her money. But among the +Bourgeoisie, the Vicomte de Troisville was a Russian general who had +fought against France, and was now returning with a great fortune made +at the court of Saint-Petersburg; he was a FOREIGNER; one of those +ALLIES so hated by the liberals; the Abbe de Sponde had slyly +negotiated this marriage. All the persons who had a right to call upon +Mademoiselle Cormon determined to do so that very evening. + +During this transurban excitement, which made that of Suzanne almost a +forgotten affair, Mademoiselle was not less agitated; she was filled +with a variety of novel emotions. Looking about her salon, dining- +room, and boudoir, cruel apprehensions took possession of her. A +species of demon showed her with a sneer her old-fashioned luxury. The +handsome things she had admired from her youth up she suddenly +suspected of age and absurdity. In short, she felt that fear which +takes possession of nearly all authors when they read over a work they +have hitherto thought proof against every exacting or blase critic: +new situations seem timeworn; the best-turned and most highly polished +phrases limp and squint; metaphors and images grin or contradict each +other; whatsoever is false strikes the eye. In like manner this poor +woman trembled lest she should see on the lips of Monsieur de +Troisville a smile of contempt for this episcopal salon; she dreaded +the cold look he might cast over that ancient dining-room; in short, +she feared the frame might injure and age the portrait. Suppose these +antiquities should cast a reflected light of old age upon herself? +This question made her flesh creep. She would gladly, at that moment, +spend half her savings on refitting her house if some fairy wand could +do it in a moment. Where is the general who has not trembled on the +eve of a battle? The poor woman was now between her Austerlitz and her +Waterloo. + +"Madame la Vicomtesse de Troisville," she said to herself; "a noble +name! Our property will go to a good family, at any rate." + +She fell a prey to an irritation which made every fibre of her nerves +quiver to all their papillae, long sunk in flesh. Her blood, lashed by +this new hope, was in motion. She felt the strength to converse, if +necessary, with Monsieur de Troisville. + +It is useless to relate the activity with which Josette, Jacquelin, +Mariette, Moreau, and his agents went about their functions. It was +like the busyness of ants about their eggs. All that daily care had +already rendered neat and clean was again gone over and brushed and +rubbed and scrubbed. The china of ceremony saw the light; the damask +linen marked "A, B, C" was drawn from depths where it lay under a +triple guard of wrappings, still further defended by formidable lines +of pins. Above all, Mademoiselle Cormon sacrificed on the altar of her +hopes three bottles of the famous liqueurs of Madame Amphoux, the most +illustrious of all the distillers of the tropics,--a name very dear to +gourmets. Thanks to the devotion of her lieutenants, mademoiselle was +soon ready for the conflict. The different weapons--furniture, +cookery, provisions, in short, all the various munitions of war, +together with a body of reserve forces--were ready along the whole +line. Jacquelin, Mariette, and Josette received orders to appear in +full dress. The garden was raked. The old maid regretted that she +couldn't come to an understanding with the nightingales nesting in the +trees, in order to obtain their finest trilling. + +At last, about four o'clock, at the very moment when the Abbe de +Sponde returned home, and just as mademoiselle began to think she had +set the table with the best plate and linen and prepared the choicest +dishes to no purpose, the click-clack of a postilion was heard in the +Val-Noble. + +"'Tis he!" she said to herself, the snap of the whip echoing in her +heart. + +True enough; heralded by all this gossip, a post-chaise, in which was +a single gentleman, made so great a sensation coming down the rue +Saint-Blaise and turning into the rue du Cours that several little +gamains and some grown persons followed it, and stood in groups about +the gate of the hotel Cormon to see it enter. Jacquelin, who foresaw +his own marriage in that of his mistress, had also heard the click- +clack in the rue Saint-Blaise, and had opened wide the gates into the +courtyard. The postilion, a friend of his, took pride in making a fine +turn-in, and drew up sharply before the portico. The abbe came forward +to greet his guest, whose carriage was emptied with a speed that +highwaymen might put into the operation; the chaise itself was rolled +into the coach-house, the gates closed, and in a few moments all signs +of Monsieur de Troisville's arrival had disappeared. Never did two +chemicals blend into each other with greater rapidity than the hotel +Cormon displayed in absorbing the Vicomte de Troisville. + +Mademoiselle, whose heart was beating like a lizard caught by a +herdsman, sat heroically still on her sofa, beside the fire in the +salon. Josette opened the door; and the Vicomte de Troisville, +followed by the Abbe de Sponde, presented himself to the eyes of the +spinster. + +"Niece, this is Monsieur le Vicomte de Troisville, the grandson of one +of my old schoolmates; Monsieur de Troisville, my niece, Mademoiselle +Cormon." + +"Ah! that good uncle; how well he does it!" thought Rose-Marie- +Victoire. + +The Vicomte de Troisville was, to paint him in two words, du Bousquier +ennobled. Between the two men there was precisely the difference which +separates the vulgar style from the noble style. If they had both been +present, the most fanatic liberal would not have denied the existence +of aristocracy. The viscount's strength had all the distinction of +elegance; his figure had preserved its magnificent dignity. He had +blue eyes, black hair, an olive skin, and looked to be about forty-six +years of age. You might have thought him a handsome Spaniard preserved +in the ice of Russia. His manner, carriage, and attitude, all denoted +a diplomat who had seen Europe. His dress was that of a well-bred +traveller. As he seemed fatigued, the abbe offered to show him to his +room, and was much amazed when his niece threw open the door of the +boudoir, transformed into a bedroom. + +Mademoiselle Cormon and her uncle then left the noble stranger to +attend to his own affairs, aided by Jacquelin, who brought up his +luggage, and went themselves to walk beside the river until their +guest had made his toilet. Although the Abbe de Sponde chanced to be +even more absent-minded than usual, Mademoiselle Cormon was not less +preoccupied. They both walked on in silence. The old maid had never +before met any man as seductive as this Olympean viscount. She might +have said to herself, as the Germans do, "This is my ideal!" instead +of which she felt herself bound from head to foot, and could only say, +"Here's my affair!" Then she flew to Mariette to know if the dinner +could be put back a while without loss of excellence. + +"Uncle, your Monsieur de Troisville is very amiable," she said, on +returning. + +"Why, niece, he hasn't as yet said a word." + +"But you can see it in his ways, his manners, his face. Is he a +bachelor?" + +"I'm sure I don't know," replied the abbe, who was thinking of a +discussion on mercy, lately begun between the Abbe Couturier and +himself. "Monsieur de Troisville wrote me that he wanted to buy a +house here. If he was married, he wouldn't come alone on such an +errand," added the abbe, carelessly, not conceiving the idea that his +niece could be thinking of marriage. + +"Is he rich?" + +"He is a younger son of the younger branch," replied her uncle. "His +grandfather commanded a squadron, but the father of this young man +made a bad marriage." + +"Young man!" exclaimed the old maid. "It seems to me, uncle, that he +must be at least forty-five." She felt the strongest desire to put +their years on a par. + +"Yes," said the abbe; "but to a poor priest of seventy, Rose, a man of +forty seems a youth." + +All Alencon knew by this time that Monsieur de Troisville had arrived +at the Cormons. The traveller soon rejoined his hosts, and began to +admire the Brillante, the garden, and the house. + +"Monsieur l'abbe," he said, "my whole ambition is to have a house like +this." The old maid fancied a declaration lurked in that speech, and +she lowered her eyes. "You must enjoy it very much, mademoiselle," +added the viscount. + +"How could it be otherwise? It has been in our family since 1574, the +period at which one of our ancestors, steward to the Duc d'Alencon, +acquired the land and built the house," replied Mademoiselle Cormon. +"It is built on piles," she added. + +Jacquelin announced dinner. Monsieur de Troisville offered his arm to +the happy woman, who endeavored not to lean too heavily upon it; she +feared, as usual, to seem to make advances. + +"Everything is so harmonious here," said the viscount, as he seated +himself at table. + +"Yes, our trees are full of birds, which give us concerts for nothing; +no one ever frightens them; and the nightingales sing at night," said +Mademoiselle Cormon. + +"I was speaking of the interior of the house," remarked the viscount, +who did not trouble himself to observe Mademoiselle Cormon, and +therefore did not perceive the dulness of her mind. "Everything is so +in keeping,--the tones of color, the furniture, the general +character." + +"But it costs a great deal; taxes are enormous," responded the +excellent woman. + +"Ah! taxes are high, are they?" said the viscount, preoccupied with +his own ideas. + +"I don't know," replied the abbe. "My niece manages the property of +each of us." + +"Taxes are not of much importance to the rich," said Mademoiselle +Cormon, not wishing to be thought miserly. "As for the furniture, I +shall leave it as it is, and change nothing,--unless I marry; and +then, of course, everything here must suit the husband." + +"You have noble principles, mademoiselle," said the viscount, smiling. +"You will make one happy man." + +"No one ever made to me such a pretty speech," thought the old maid. + +The viscount complimented Mademoiselle Cormon on the excellence of her +service and the admirable arrangements of the house, remarking that he +had supposed the provinces behind the age in that respect; but, on the +contrary, he found them, as the English say, "very comfortable." + +"What can that word mean?" she thought. "Oh, where is the chevalier to +explain it to me? 'Comfortable,'--there seem to be several words in +it. Well, courage!" she said to herself. "I can't be expected to +answer a foreign language--But," she continued aloud, feeling her +tongue untied by the eloquence which nearly all human creatures find +in momentous circumstances, "we have a very brilliant society here, +monsieur. It assembles at my house, and you shall judge of it this +evening, for some of my faithful friends have no doubt heard of my +return and your arrival. Among them is the Chevalier de Valois, a +seigneur of the old court, a man of infinite wit and taste; then there +is Monsieur le Marquis d'Esgrignon and Mademoiselle Armande, his +sister" (she bit her tongue with vexation),--"a woman remarkable in +her way," she added. "She resolved to remain unmarried in order to +leave all her fortune to her brother and nephew." + +"Ah!" exclaimed the viscount. "Yes, the d'Esgrignons,--I remember +them." + +"Alencon is very gay," continued the old maid, now fairly launched. +"There's much amusement: the receiver-general gives balls; the prefect +is an amiable man; and Monseigneur the bishop sometimes honors us with +a visit--" + +"Well, then," said the viscount, smiling, "I have done wisely to come +back, like the hare, to die in my form." + +"Yes," she said. "I, too, attach myself or I die." + +The viscount smiled. + +"Ah!" thought the old maid, "all is well; he understands me." + +The conversation continued on generalities. By one of those mysterious +unknown and undefinable faculties, Mademoiselle Cormon found in her +brain, under the pressure of her desire to be agreeable, all the +phrases and opinions of the Chevalier de Valois. It was like a duel in +which the devil himself pointed the pistol. Never was any adversary +better aimed at. The viscount was far too well-bred to speak of the +excellence of the dinner; but his silence was praise. As he drank the +delicious wines which Jacquelin served to him profusely, he seemed to +feel he was with friends, and to meet them with pleasure; for the true +connoisseur does not applaud, he enjoys. He inquired the price of +land, of houses, of estates; he made Mademoiselle Cormon describe at +length the confluence of the Sarthe and the Brillante; he expressed +surprise that the town was placed so far from the river, and seemed to +be much interested in the topography of the place. + +The silent abbe left his niece to throw the dice of conversation; and +she truly felt that she pleased Monsieur de Troisville, who smiled at +her gracefully, and committed himself during this dinner far more than +her most eager suitors had ever done in ten days. Imagine, therefore, +the little attentions with which he was petted; you might have thought +him a cherished lover, whose return brought joy to the household. +Mademoiselle foresaw the moment when the viscount wanted bread; she +watched his every look; when he turned his head she adroitly put upon +his plate a portion of some dish he seemed to like; had he been a +gourmand, she would almost have killed him; but what a delightful +specimen of the attentions she would show to a husband! She did not +commit the folly of depreciating herself; on the contrary, she set +every sail bravely, ran up all her flags, assumed the bearing of the +queen of Alencon, and boasted of her excellent preserves. In fact, she +fished for compliments in speaking of herself, for she saw that she +pleased the viscount; the truth being that her eager desire had so +transformed her that she became almost a woman. + +At dessert she heard, not without emotions of delight, certain sounds +in the antechamber and salon which denoted the arrival of her usual +guests. She called the attention of her uncle and Monsieur de +Troisville to this prompt attendance as a proof of the affection that +was felt for her; whereas it was really the result of the poignant +curiosity which had seized upon the town. Impatient to show herself in +all her glory, Mademoiselle Cormon told Jacquelin to serve coffee and +liqueurs in the salon, where he presently set out, in view of the +whole company, a magnificent liqueur-stand of Dresden china which saw +the light only twice a year. This circumstance was taken note of by +the company, standing ready to gossip over the merest trifle:-- + +"The deuce!" muttered du Bousquier. "Actually Madame Amphoux's +liqueurs, which they only serve at the four church festivals!" + +"Undoubtedly the marriage was arranged a year ago by letter," said the +chief-justice du Ronceret. "The postmaster tells me his office has +received letters postmarked Odessa for more than a year." + +Madame Granson trembled. The Chevalier de Valois, though he had dined +with the appetite of four men, turned pale even to the left section of +his face. Feeling that he was about to betray himself, he said +hastily,-- + +"Don't you think it is very cold to-day? I am almost frozen." + +"The neighborhood of Russia, perhaps," said du Bousquier. + +The chevalier looked at him as if to say, "Well played!" + +Mademoiselle Cormon appeared so radiant, so triumphant, that the +company thought her handsome. This extraordinary brilliancy was not +the effect of sentiment only. Since early morning her blood had been +whirling tempestuously within her, and her nerves were agitated by the +presentiment of some great crisis. It required all these circumstances +combined to make her so unlike herself. With what joy did she now make +her solemn presentation of the viscount to the chevalier, the +chevalier to the viscount, and all Alencon to Monsieur de Troisville, +and Monsieur de Troisville to all Alencon! + +By an accident wholly explainable, the viscount and chevalier, +aristocrats by nature, came instantly into unison; they recognized +each other at once as men belonging to the same sphere. Accordingly, +they began to converse together, standing before the fireplace. A +circle formed around them; and their conversation, though uttered in a +low voice, was listened to in religious silence. To give the effect of +this scene it is necessary to dramatize it, and to picture +Mademoiselle Cormon occupied in pouring out the coffee of her +imaginary suitor, with her back to the fireplace. + +Monsieur de Valois. "Monsieur le vicomte has come, I am told, to +settle in Alencon?" + +Monsieur de Troisville. "Yes, monsieur, I am looking for a house." +[Mademoiselle Cormon, cup in hand, turns round.] "It must be a large +house" [Mademoiselle Cormon offers him the cup] "to lodge my whole +family." [The eyes of the old maid are troubled.] + +Monsieur de Valois. "Are you married?" + +Monsieur de Troisville. "Yes, for the last sixteen years, to a +daughter of the Princess Scherbellof." + +Mademoiselle Cormon fainted; du Bousquier, who saw her stagger, sprang +forward and received her in his arms; some one opened the door and +allowed him to pass out with his enormous burden. The fiery +republican, instructed by Josette, found strength to carry the old +maid to her bedroom, where he laid her out on the bed. Josette, armed +with scissors, cut the corset, which was terribly tight. Du Bousquier +flung water on Mademoiselle Cormon's face and bosom, which, released +from the corset, overflowed like the Loire in flood. The poor woman +opened her eyes, saw du Bousquier, and gave a cry of modesty at the +sight of him. Du Bousquier retired at once, leaving six women, at the +head of whom was Madame Granson, radiant with joy, to take care of the +invalid. + +What had the Chevalier de Valois been about all this time? Faithful to +his system, he had covered the retreat. + +"That poor Mademoiselle Cormon," he said to Monsieur de Troisville, +gazing at the assembly, whose laughter was repressed by his cool +aristocratic glances, "her blood is horribly out of order; she +wouldn't be bled before going to Prebaudet (her estate),--and see the +result!" + +"She came back this morning in the rain," said the Abbe de Sponde, +"and she may have taken cold. It won't be anything; it is only a +little upset she is subject to." + +"She told me yesterday she had not had one for three months, adding +that she was afraid it would play her a trick at last," said the +chevalier. + +"Ha! so you are married?" said Jacquelin to himself as he looked at +Monsieur de Troisville, who was quietly sipping his coffee. + +The faithful servant espoused his mistress's disappointment; he +divined it, and he promptly carried away the liqueurs of Madame +Amphoux, which were offered to a bachelor, and not to the husband of a +Russian woman. + +All these details were noticed and laughed at. The Abbe de Sponde knew +the object of Monsieur de Troisville's journey; but, absent-minded as +usual, he forgot it, not supposing that his niece could have the +slightest interest in Monsieur de Troisville's marriage. As for the +viscount, preoccupied with the object of his journey, and, like many +husbands, not eager to talk about his wife, he had had no occasion to +say he was married; besides, he would naturally suppose that +Mademoiselle Cormon knew it. + +Du Bousquier reappeared, and was questioned furiously. One of the six +women came down soon after, and announced that Mademoiselle Cormon was +much better, and that the doctor had come. She intended to stay in +bed, as it was necessary to bleed her. The salon was now full. +Mademoiselle Cormon's absence allowed the ladies present to discuss +the tragi-comic scene--embellished, extended, historified, +embroidered, wreathed, colored, and adorned--which had just taken +place, and which, on the morrow, was destined to occupy all Alencon. + +"That good Monsieur du Bousquier! how well he carried you!" said +Josette to her mistress. "He was really pale at the sight of you; he +loves you still." + +That speech served as closure to this solemn and terrible evening. + +Throughout the morning of the next day every circumstance of the late +comedy was known in the household of Alencon, and--let us say it to +the shame of that town,--they caused inextinguishable laughter. But on +that day Mademoiselle Cormon (much benefited by the bleeding) would +have seemed sublime even to the boldest scoffers, had they witnessed +the noble dignity, the splendid Christian resignation which influenced +her as she gave her arm to her involuntary deceiver to go into +breakfast. Cruel jesters! why could you not have seen her as she said +to the viscount,-- + +"Madame de Troisville will have difficulty in finding a suitable +house; do me the favor, monsieur, of accepting the use of mine during +the time you are in search of yours." + +"But, mademoiselle, I have two sons and two daughters; we should +greatly inconvenience you." + +"Pray do not refuse me," she said earnestly. + +"I made you the same offer in the answer I wrote to your letter," said +the abbe; "but you did not receive it." + +"What, uncle! then you knew--" + +The poor woman stopped. Josette sighed. Neither the viscount nor the +abbe observed anything amiss. After breakfast the Abbe de Sponde +carried off his guest, as agreed upon the previous evening, to show +him the various houses in Alencon which could be bought, and the lots +of lands on which he might build. + +Left alone in the salon, Mademoiselle Cormon said to Josette, with a +deeply distressed air, "My child, I am now the talk of the whole +town." + +"Well, then, mademoiselle, you should marry." + +"But I am not prepared to make a choice." + +"Bah! if I were in your place, I should take Monsieur du Bousquier." + +"Josette, Monsieur de Valois says he is so republican." + +"They don't know what they say, your gentlemen: sometimes they declare +that he robbed the republic; he couldn't love it if he did that," said +Josette, departing. + +"That girl has an amazing amount of sense," thought Mademoiselle +Cormon, who remained alone, a prey to her perplexities. + +She saw plainly that a prompt marriage was the only way to silence the +town. This last checkmate, so evidently mortifying, was of a nature to +drive her into some extreme action; for persons deficient in mind find +difficulty in getting out of any path, either good or evil, into which +they have entered. + +Each of the two old bachelors had fully understood the situation in +which Mademoiselle Cormon was about to find herself; consequently, +each resolved to call in the course of that morning to ask after her +health, and take occasion, in bachelor language, to "press his point." +Monsieur de Valois considered that such an occasion demanded a +painstaking toilet; he therefore took a bath and groomed himself with +extraordinary care. For the first and last time Cesarine observed him +putting on with incredible art a suspicion of rouge. Du Bousquier, on +the other hand, that coarse republican, spurred by a brisk will, paid +no attention to his dress, and arrived the first. + +Such little things decide the fortunes of men, as they do of empires. +Kellerman's charge at Marengo, Blucher's arrival at Waterloo, Louis +XIV.'s disdain for Prince Eugene, the rector of Denain,--all these +great causes of fortune or catastrophe history has recorded; but no +one ever profits by them to avoid the small neglects of their own +life. Consequently, observe what happens: the Duchesse de Langeais +(see "History of the Thirteen") makes herself a nun for the lack of +ten minutes' patience; Judge Popinot (see "Commission in Lunacy") puts +off till the morrow the duty of examining the Marquis d'Espard; +Charles Grandet (see "Eugenie Grandet") goes to Paris from Bordeaux +instead of returning by Nantes; and such events are called chance or +fatality! A touch of rouge carefully applied destroyed the hopes of +the Chevalier de Valois; could that nobleman perish in any other way? +He had lived by the Graces, and he was doomed to die by their hand. +While the chevalier was giving this last touch to his toilet the rough +du Bousquier was entering the salon of the desolate old maid. This +entrance produced a thought in Mademoiselle Cormon's mind which was +favorable to the republican, although in all other respects the +Chevalier de Valois held the advantages. + +"God wills it!" she said piously, on seeing du Bousquier. + +"Mademoiselle, you will not, I trust, think my eagerness importunate. +I could not trust to my stupid Rene to bring news of your condition, +and therefore I have come myself." + +"I am perfectly recovered," she replied, in a tone of emotion. "I +thank you, Monsieur du Bousquier," she added, after a slight pause, +and in a significant tone of voice, "for the trouble you have taken, +and for that which I gave you yesterday--" + +She remembered having been in his arms, and that again seemed to her +an order from heaven. She had been seen for the first time by a man +with her laces cut, her treasures violently bursting from their +casket. + +"I carried you with such joy that you seemed to me light." + +Here Mademoiselle Cormon looked at du Bousquier as she had never yet +looked at any man in the world. Thus encouraged, the purveyor cast +upon the old maid a glance which reached her heart. + +"I would," he said, "that that moment had given me the right to keep +you as mine forever" [she listened with a delighted air]; "as you lay +fainting upon that bed, you were enchanting. I have never in my life +seen a more beautiful person,--and I have seen many handsome women. +Plump ladies have this advantage: they are superb to look upon; they +have only to show themselves and they triumph." + +"I fear you are making fun of me," said the old maid, "and that is not +kind when all the town will probably misinterpret what happened to me +yesterday." + +"As true as my name is du Bousquier, mademoiselle, I have never +changed in my feelings toward you; and your first refusal has not +discouraged me." + +The old maid's eyes were lowered. There was a moment of cruel silence +for du Bousquier, and then Mademoiselle Cormon decided on her course. +She raised her eyelids; tears flowed from her eyes, and she gave du +Bousquier a tender glance. + +"If that is so, monsieur," she said, in a trembling voice, "promise me +to live in a Christian manner, and not oppose my religious customs, +but to leave me the right to select my confessors, and I will grant +you my hand"; as she said the words, she held it out to him. + +Du Bousquier seized the good fat hand so full of money, and kissed it +solemnly. + +"But," she said, allowing him to kiss it, "one thing more I must +require of you." + +"If it is a possible thing, it is granted," replied the purveyor. + +"Alas!" returned the old maid. "For my sake, I must ask you to take +upon yourself a sin which I feel to be enormous,--for to lie is one of +the capital sins. But you will confess it, will you not? We will do +penance for it together" [they looked at each other tenderly]. +"Besides, it may be one of those lies which the Church permits as +necessary--" + +"Can she be as Suzanne says she is?" thought du Bousquier. "What luck! +Well, mademoiselle, what is it?" he said aloud. + +"That you will take upon yourself to--" + +"What?" + +"To say that this marriage has been agreed upon between us for the +last six months." + +"Charming woman," said the purveyor, in the tone of a man willing to +devote himself, "such sacrifices can be made only for a creature +adored these ten years." + +"In spite of my harshness?" she said. + +"Yes, in spite of your harshness." + +"Monsieur du Bousquier, I have misjudged you." + +Again she held out the fat red hand, which du Bousquier kissed again. + +At this moment the door opened; the betrothed pair, looking round to +see who entered, beheld the delightful, but tardy Chevalier de Valois. + +"Ah!" he said, on entering, "I see you are about to be up, fair +queen." + +She smiled at the chevalier, feeling a weight upon her heart. Monsieur +de Valois, remarkably young and seductive, had the air of a Lauzun re- +entering the apartments of the Grande Mademoiselle in the Palais- +Royal. + +"Hey! dear du Bousquier," said he, in a jaunty tone, so sure was he of +success, "Monsieur de Troisville and the Abbe de Sponde are examining +your house like appraisers." + +"Faith!" said du Bousquier, "if the Vicomte de Troisville wants it, it +it is his for forty thousand francs. It is useless to me now. If +mademoiselle will permit--it must soon be known--Mademoiselle, may I +tell it?--Yes! Well, then, be the first, MY DEAR CHEVALIER, to hear" +[Mademoiselle Cormon dropped her eyes] "of the honor that mademoiselle +has done me, the secret of which I have kept for some months. We shall +be married in a few days; the contract is already drawn, and we shall +sign it to-morrow. You see, therefore, that my house in the rue du +Cygne is useless to me. I have been privately looking for a purchaser +for some time; and the Abbe de Sponde, who knew that fact, has +naturally taken Monsieur de Troisville to see the house." + +This falsehood bore such an appearance of truth that the chevalier was +taken in by it. That "my dear chevalier" was like the revenge taken by +Peter the Great on Charles XII. at Pultawa for all his past defeats. +Du Bousquier revenged himself deliciously for the thousand little +shafts he had long borne in silence; but in his triumph he made a +lively youthful gesture by running his hands through his hair, and in +so doing he--knocked aside his false front. + +"I congratulate you both," said the chevalier, with an agreeable air; +"and I wish that the marriage may end like a fairy tale: THEY WERE +HAPPY EVER AFTER, AND HAD--MANY--CHILDREN!" So saying, he took a pinch +of snuff. "But, monsieur," he added satirically, "you forget--that you +are wearing a false front." + +Du Bousquier blushed. The false front was hanging half a dozen inches +from his skull. Mademoiselle Cormon raised her eyes, saw that skull in +all its nudity, and lowered them, abashed. Du Bousquier cast upon the +chevalier the most venomous look that toad ever darted on its prey. + +"Dogs of aristocrats who despise me," thought he, "I'll crush you some +day." + +The chevalier thought he had recovered his advantage. But Mademoiselle +Cormon was not a woman to understand the connection which the +chevalier intimated between his congratulatory wish and the false +front. Besides, even if she had comprehended it, her word was passed, +her hand given. Monsieur de Valois saw at once that all was lost. The +innocent woman, with the two now silent men before her, wished, true +to her sense of duty, to amuse them. + +"Why not play a game of piquet together?" she said artlessly, without +the slightest malice. + +Du Bousquier smiled, and went, as the future master of the house, to +fetch the piquet table. Whether the Chevalier de Valois lost his head, +or whether he wanted to stay and study the causes of his disaster and +remedy it, certain it is that he allowed himself to be led like a lamb +to the slaughter. He had received the most violent knock-down blow +that ever struck a man; any nobleman would have lost his senses for +less. + +The Abbe de Sponde and the Vicomte de Troisville soon returned. +Mademoiselle Cormon instantly rose, hurried into the antechamber, and +took her uncle apart to tell him her resolution. Learning that the +house in the rue du Cygne exactly suited the viscount, she begged her +future husband to do her the kindness to tell him that her uncle knew +it was for sale. She dared not confide that lie to the abbe, fearing +his absent-mindedness. The lie, however, prospered better than if it +had been a virtuous action. In the course of that evening all Alencon +heard the news. For the last four days the town had had as much to +think of as during the fatal days of 1814 and 1815. Some laughed; +others admitted the marriage. These blamed it; those approved it. The +middle classes of Alencon rejoiced; they regarded it as a victory. The +next day, among friends, the Chevalier de Valois said a cruel thing:-- + +"The Cormons end as they began; there's only a hand's breadth between +a steward and a purveyor." + + + +CHAPTER VII + +OTHER RESULTS + +The news of Mademoiselle Cormon's choice stabbed poor Athanase Granson +to the heart; but he showed no outward sign of the terrible agitation +within him. When he first heard of the marriage he was at the house of +the chief-justice, du Ronceret, where his mother was playing boston. +Madame Granson looked at her son in a mirror, and thought him pale; +but he had been so all day, for a vague rumor of the matter had +already reached him. + +Mademoiselle Cormon was the card on which Athanase had staked his +life; and the cold presentiment of a catastrophe was already upon him. +When the soul and the imagination have magnified a misfortune and made +it too heavy for the shoulders and the brain to bear; when a hope long +cherished, the realization of which would pacify the vulture feeding +on the heart, is balked, and the man has faith neither in himself, +despite his powers, nor in the future, despite of the Divine power,-- +then that man is lost. Athanase was a fruit of the Imperial system of +education. Fatality, the Emperor's religion, had filtered down from +the throne to the lowest ranks of the army and the benches of the +lyceums. Athanase sat still, with his eyes fixed on Madame du +Ronceret's cards, in a stupor that might so well pass for indifference +that Madame Granson herself was deceived about his feelings. This +apparent unconcern explained her son's refusal to make a sacrifice for +this marriage of his LIBERAL opinions,--the term "liberal" having +lately been created for the Emperor Alexander by, I think, Madame de +Stael, through the lips of Benjamin Constant. + +After that fatal evening the young man took to rambling among the +picturesque regions of the Sarthe, the banks of which are much +frequented by sketchers who come to Alencon for points of view. +Windmills are there, and the river is gay in the meadows. The shores +of the Sarthe are bordered with beautiful trees, well grouped. Though +the landscape is flat, it is not without those modest graces which +distinguish France, where the eye is never wearied by the brilliancy +of Oriental skies, nor saddened by constant fog. The place is +solitary. In the provinces no one pays much attention to a fine view, +either because provincials are blases on the beauty around them, or +because they have no poesy in their souls. If there exists in the +provinces a mall, a promenade, a vantage-ground from which a fine view +can be obtained, that is the point to which no one goes. Athanase was +fond of this solitude, enlivened by the sparkling water, where the +fields were the first to green under the earliest smiling of the +springtide sun. Those persons who saw him sitting beneath a poplar, +and who noticed the vacant eye which he turned to them, would say to +Madame Granson:-- + +"Something is the matter with your son." + +"I know what it is," the mother would reply; hinting that he was +meditating over some great work. + +Athanase no longer took part in politics: he ceased to have opinions; +but he appeared at times quite gay,--gay with the satire of those who +think to insult a whole world with their own individual scorn. This +young man, outside of all the ideas and all the pleasures of the +provinces, interested few persons; he was not even an object of +curiosity. If persons spoke of him to his mother, it was for her sake, +not his. There was not a single soul in Alencon that sympathized with +his; not a woman, not a friend came near to dry his tears; they +dropped into the Sarthe. If the gorgeous Suzanne had happened that +way, how many young miseries might have been born of the meeting! for +the two would surely have loved each other. + +She did come, however. Suzanne's ambition was early excited by the +tale of a strange adventure which had happened at the tavern of the +More,--a tale which had taken possession of her childish brain. A +Parisian woman, beautiful as the angels, was sent by Fouche to +entangle the Marquis de Montauran, otherwise called "The Gars," in a +love-affair (see "The Chouans"). She met him at the tavern of the More +on his return from an expedition to Mortagne; she cajoled him, made +him love her, and then betrayed him. That fantastic power--the power +of beauty over mankind; in fact, the whole story of Marie de Verneuil +and the Gars--dazzled Suzanne; she longed to grow up in order to play +upon men. Some months after her hasty departure she passed through her +native town with an artist on his way to Brittany. She wanted to see +Fougeres, where the adventure of the Marquis de Montauran culminated, +and to stand upon the scene of that picturesque war, the tragedies of +which, still so little known, had filled her childish mind. Besides +this, she had a fancy to pass through Alencon so elegantly equipped +that no one could recognize her; to put her mother above the reach of +necessity, and also to send to poor Athanase, in a delicate manner, a +sum of money,--which in our age is to genius what in the middle ages +was the charger and the coat of mail that Rebecca conveyed to Ivanhoe. + +One month passed away in the strangest uncertainties respecting the +marriage of Mademoiselle Cormon. A party of unbelievers denied the +marriage altogether; the believers, on the other hand, affirmed it. At +the end of two weeks, the faction of unbelief received a vigorous blow +in the sale of du Bousquier's house to the Marquis de Troisville, who +only wanted a simple establishment in Alencon, intending to go to +Paris after the death of the Princess Scherbellof; he proposed to +await that inheritance in retirement, and then to reconstitute his +estates. This seemed positive. The unbelievers, however, were not +crushed. They declared that du Bousquier, married or not, had made an +excellent sale, for the house had only cost him twenty-seven thousand +francs. The believers were depressed by this practical observation of +the incredulous. Choisnel, Mademoiselle Cormon's notary, asserted the +latter, had heard nothing about the marriage contract; but the +believers, still firm in their faith, carried off, on the twentieth +day, a signal victory: Monsieur Lepressoir, the notary of the +liberals, went to Mademoiselle Cormon's house, and the contract was +signed. + +This was the first of the numerous sacrifices which Mademoiselle +Cormon was destined to make to her husband. Du Bousquier bore the +deepest hatred to Choisnel; to him he owed the refusal of the hand of +Mademoiselle Armande,--a refusal which, as he believed, had influenced +that of Mademoiselle Cormon. This circumstance alone made the marriage +drag along. Mademoiselle received several anonymous letters. She +learned, to her great astonishment, that Suzanne was as truly a virgin +as herself so far as du Bousquier was concerned, for that seducer with +the false toupet could never be the hero of any such adventure. +Mademoiselle Cormon disdained anonymous letters; but she wrote to +Suzanne herself, on the ground of enlightening the Maternity Society. +Suzanne, who had no doubt heard of du Bousquier's proposed marriage, +acknowledged her trick, sent a thousand francs to the society, and did +all the harm she could to the old purveyor. Mademoiselle Cormon +convoked the Maternity Society, which held a special meeting at which +it was voted that the association would not in future assist any +misfortunes about to happen, but solely those that had happened. + +In spite of all these various events which kept the town in the +choicest gossip, the banns were published in the churches and at the +mayor's office. Athanase prepared the deeds. As a matter of propriety +and public decency, the bride retired to Prebaudet, where du +Bousquier, bearing sumptuous and horrible bouquets, betook himself +every morning, returning home for dinner. + +At last, on a dull and rainy morning in June, the marriage of +Mademoiselle Cormon and the Sieur du Bousquier took place at noon in +the parish church of Alencon, in sight of the whole town. The bridal +pair went from their own house to the mayor's office, and from the +mayor's office to the church in an open caleche, a magnificent vehicle +for Alencon, which du Bousquier had sent for secretly to Paris. The +loss of the old carriole was a species of calamity in the eyes of the +community. The harness-maker of the Porte de Seez bemoaned it, for he +lost the fifty francs a year which it cost in repairs. Alencon saw +with alarm the possibility of luxury being thus introduced into the +town. Every one feared a rise in the price of rents and provisions, +and a coming invasion of Parisian furniture. Some persons were +sufficiently pricked by curiosity to give ten sous to Jacquelin to +allow them a close inspection of the vehicle which threatened to upset +the whole economy of the region. A pair of horses, bought in +Normandie, were also most alarming. + +"If we bought our own horses," said the Ronceret circle, "we couldn't +sell them to those who come to buy." + +Stupid as it was, this reasoning seemed sound; for surely such a +course would prevent the region from grasping the money of foreigners. +In the eyes of the provinces wealth consisted less in the rapid +turning over of money than in sterile accumulation. It may be +mentioned here that Penelope succumbed to a pleurisy which she +acquired about six weeks before the marriage; nothing could save her. + +Madame Granson, Mariette, Madame du Coudrai, Madame du Ronceret, and +through them the whole town, remarked that Madame du Bousquier entered +the church WITH HER LEFT FOOT,--an omen all the more dreadful because +the term Left was beginning to acquire a political meaning. The priest +whose duty it was to read the opening formula opened his book by +chance at the De Profundis. Thus the marriage was accompanied by +circumstances so fateful, so alarming, so annihilating that no one +dared to augur well of it. Matters, in fact, went from bad to worse. +There was no wedding party; the married pair departed immediately for +Prebaudet. Parisian customs, said the community, were about to triumph +over time-honored provincial ways. + +The marriage of Jacquelin and Josette now took place: it was gay; and +they were the only two persons in Alencon who refuted the sinister +prophecies relating to the marriage of their mistress. + +Du Bousquier determined to use the proceeds of the sale of his late +residence in restoring and modernizing the hotel Cormon. He decided to +remain through two seasons at Prebaudet, and took the Abbe de Sponde +with them. This news spread terror through the town, where every +individual felt that du Bousquier was about to drag the community into +the fatal path of "comfort." This fear increased when the inhabitants +of Alencon saw the bridegroom driving in from Prebaudet one morning to +inspect his works, in a fine tilbury drawn by a new horse, having Rene +at his side in livery. The first act of his administration had been to +place his wife's savings on the Grand-Livre, which was then quoted at +67 fr. 50 cent. In the space of one year, during which he played +constantly for a rise, he made himself a personal fortune almost as +considerable as that of his wife. + +But all these foreboding prophecies, these perturbing innovations, +were superseded and surpassed by an event connected with this marriage +which gave a still more fatal aspect to it. + +On the very evening of the ceremony, Athanase and his mother were +sitting, after their dinner, over a little fire of fagots, which the +servant lighted usually at dessert. + +"Well, we will go this evening to the du Roncerets', inasmuch as we +have lost Mademoiselle Cormon," said Madame Granson. "Heavens! how +shall I ever accustom myself to call her Madame du Bousquier! that +name burns my lips." + +Athanase looked at his mother with a constrained and melancholy air; +he could not smile; but he seemed to wish to welcome that naive +sentiment which soothed his wound, though it could not cure his +anguish. + +"Mamma," he said, in the voice of his childhood, so tender was it, and +using the name he had abandoned for several years,--"my dear mamma, do +not let us go out just yet; it is so pleasant here before the fire." + +The mother heard, without comprehending, that supreme prayer of a +mortal sorrow. + +"Yes, let us stay, my child," she said. "I like much better to talk +with you and listen to your projects than to play at boston and lose +my money." + +"You are so handsome to-night I love to look at you. Besides, I am in +a current of ideas which harmonize with this poor little salon where +we have suffered so much." + +"And where we shall still suffer, my poor Athanase, until your works +succeed. For myself, I am trained to poverty; but you, my treasure! to +see your youth go by without a joy! nothing but toil for my poor boy +in life! That thought is like an illness to a mother; it tortures me +at night; it wakes me in the morning. O God! what have I done? for +what crime dost thou punish me thus?" + +She left her sofa, took a little chair, and sat close to Athanase, so +as to lay her head on the bosom of her child. There is always the +grace of love in true motherhood. Athanase kissed her on the eyes, on +her gray hair, on her forehead, with the sacred desire of laying his +soul wherever he applied his lips. + +"I shall never succeed," he said, trying to deceive his mother as to +the fatal resolution he was revolving in his mind. + +"Pooh! don't get discouraged. As you often say, thought can do all +things. With ten bottles of ink, ten reams of paper, and his powerful +will, Luther upset all Europe. Well, you'll make yourself famous; you +will do good things by the same means which he used to do evil things. +Haven't you said so yourself? For my part, I listen to you; I +understand you a great deal more than you think I do,--for I still +bear you in my bosom, and your every thought still stirs me as your +slightest motion did in other days." + +"I shall never succeed here, mamma; and I don't want you to witness +the sight of my struggles, my misery, my anguish. Oh, mother, let me +leave Alencon! I want to suffer away from you." + +"And I wish to be at your side," replied his mother, proudly. "Suffer +without your mother!--that poor mother who would be your servant if +necessary; who will efface herself rather than injure you; your +mother, who will never shame you. No, no, Athanase; we must not part." + +Athanase clung to his mother with the ardor of a dying man who clings +to life. + +"But I wish it, nevertheless. If not, you will lose me; this double +grief, yours and mine, is killing me. You would rather I lived than +died?" + +Madame Granson looked at her son with a haggard eye. + +"So this is what you have been brooding?" she said. "They told me +right. Do you really mean to go?" + +"Yes." + +"You will not go without telling me; without warning me? You must have +an outfit and money. I have some louis sewn into my petticoat; I shall +give them to you." + +Athanase wept. + +"That's all I wanted to tell you," he said. "Now I'll take you to the +du Roncerets'. Come." + +The mother and the son went out. Athanase left his mother at the door +of the house where she intended to pass the evening. He looked long at +the light which came through the shutters; he clung closely to the +wall, and a frenzied joy came over him when he presently heard his +mother say, "He has great independence of heart." + +"Poor mother! I have deceived her," he cried, as he made his way to +the Sarthe. + +He reached the noble poplar beneath which he had meditated so much for +the last forty days, and where he had placed two heavy stones on which +he now sat down. He contemplated that beautiful nature lighted by the +moon; he reviewed once more the glorious future he had longed for; he +passed through towns that were stirred by his name; he heard the +applauding crowds; he breathed the incense of his fame; he adored that +life long dreamed of; radiant, he sprang to radiant triumphs; he +raised his stature; he evoked his illusions to bid them farewell in a +last Olympic feast. The magic had been potent for a moment; but now it +vanished forever. In that awful hour he clung to the beautiful tree to +which, as to a friend, he had attached himself; then he put the two +stones into the pockets of his overcoat, which he buttoned across his +breast. He had come intentionally without a hat. He now went to the +deep pool he had long selected, and glided into it resolutely, trying +to make as little noise as possible, and, in fact, making scarcely +any. + +When, at half-past nine o'clock, Madame Granson returned home, her +servant said nothing of Athanase, but gave her a letter. She opened it +and read these few words,-- + +"My good mother, I have departed; don't be angry with me." + +"A pretty trick he has played me!" she thought. "And his linen! and +the money! Well, he will write to me, and then I'll follow him. These +poor children think they are so much cleverer than their fathers and +mothers." + +And she went to bed in peace. + +During the preceding morning the Sarthe had risen to a height foreseen +by the fisherman. These sudden rises of muddy water brought eels from +their various runlets. It so happened that a fisherman had spread his +net at the very place where poor Athanase had flung himself, believing +that no one would ever find him. About six o'clock in the morning the +man drew in his net, and with it the young body. The few friends of +the poor mother took every precaution in preparing her to receive the +dreadful remains. The news of this suicide made, as may well be +supposed, a great excitement in Alencon. The poor young man of genius +had no protector the night before, but on the morrow of his death a +thousand voices cried aloud, "I would have helped him." It is so easy +and convenient to be charitable gratis! + +The suicide was explained by the Chevalier de Valois. He revealed, in +a spirit of revenge, the artless, sincere, and genuine love of +Athanase for Mademoiselle Cormon. Madame Granson, enlightened by the +chevalier, remembered a thousand little circumstances which confirmed +the chevalier's statement. The story then became touching, and many +women wept over it. Madame Granson's grief was silent, concentrated, +and little understood. There are two forms of mourning for mothers. +Often the world can enter fully into the nature of their loss: their +son, admired, appreciated, young, perhaps handsome, with a noble path +before him, leading to fortune, possibly to fame, excites universal +regret; society joins in the grief, and alleviates while it magnifies +it. But there is another sorrow of mothers who alone know what their +child was really; who alone have received his smiles and observed the +treasures of a life too soon cut short. That sorrow hides its woe, the +blackness of which surpasses all other mourning; it cannot be +described; happily there are but few women whose heart-strings are +thus severed. + +Before Madame du Bousquier returned to town, Madame du Ronceret, one +of her good friends, had driven out to Prebaudet to fling this corpse +upon the roses of her joy, to show her the love she had ignored, and +sweetly shed a thousand drops of wormwood into the honey of her bridal +month. As Madame du Bousquier drove back to Alencon, she chanced to +meet Madame Granson at the corner of the rue Val-Noble. The glance of +the mother, dying of her grief, struck to the heart of the poor woman. +A thousand maledictions, a thousand flaming reproaches, were in that +look: Madame du Bousquier was horror-struck; that glance predicted and +called down evil upon her head. + +The evening after the catastrophe, Madame Granson, one of the persons +most opposed to the rector of the town, and who had hitherto supported +the minister of Saint-Leonard, began to tremble as she thought of the +inflexible Catholic doctrines professed by her own party. After +placing her son's body in its shroud with her own hands, thinking of +the mother of the Saviour, she went, with a soul convulsed by anguish, +to the house of the hated rector. There she found the modest priest in +an outer room, engaged in putting away the flax and yarns with which +he supplied poor women, in order that they might never be wholly out +of work,--a form of charity which saved many who were incapable of +begging from actual penury. The rector left his yarns and hastened to +take Madame Granson into his dining-room, where the wretched mother +noticed, as she looked at his supper, the frugal method of his own +living. + +"Monsieur l'abbe," she said, "I have come to implore you--" She burst +into tears, unable to continue. + +"I know what brings you," replied the saintly man. "I must trust to +you, madame, and to your relation, Madame du Bousquier, to pacify +Monseigneur the Bishop at Seez. Yes, I will pray for your unhappy +child; yes, I will say the masses. But we must avoid all scandal, and +give no opportunity for evil-judging persons to assemble in the +church. I alone, without other clergy, at night--" + +"Yes, yes, as you think best; if only he may lie in consecrated +ground," said the poor mother, taking the priest's hand and kissing +it. + +Toward midnight a coffin was clandestinely borne to the parish church +by four young men, comrades whom Athanase had liked the best. A few +friends of Madame Granson, women dressed in black, and veiled, were +present; and half a dozen other young men who had been somewhat +intimate with this lost genius. Four torches flickered on the coffin, +which was covered with crape. The rector, assisted by one discreet +choirboy, said the mortuary mass. Then the body of the suicide was +noiselessly carried to a corner of the cemetery, where a black wooden +cross, without inscription, was all that indicated its place hereafter +to the mother. Athanase lived and died in shadow. No voice was raised +to blame the rector; the bishop kept silence. The piety of the mother +redeemed the impiety of the son's last act. + +Some months later, the poor woman, half beside herself with grief, and +moved by one of those inexplicable thirsts which misery feels to steep +its lips in the bitter chalice, determined to see the spot where her +son was drowned. Her instinct may have told her that thoughts of his +could be recovered beneath that poplar; perhaps, too, she desired to +see what his eyes had seen for the last time. Some mothers would die +of the sight; others give themselves up to it in saintly adoration. +Patient anatomists of human nature cannot too often enunciate the +truths before which all educations, laws, and philosophical systems +must give way. Let us repeat continually: it is absurd to force +sentiments into one formula: appearing as they do, in each individual +man, they combine with the elements that form his nature and take his +own physiognomy. + +Madame Granson, as she stood on that fatal spot, saw a woman approach +it, who exclaimed,-- + +"Was it here?" + +That woman wept as the mother wept. It was Suzanne. Arriving that +morning at the hotel du More, she had been told of the catastrophe. If +poor Athanase had been living, she meant to do as many noble souls, +who are moneyless, dream of doing, and as the rich never think of +doing,--she meant to have sent him several thousand francs, writing up +the envelope the words: "Money due to your father from a comrade who +makes restitution to you." This tender scheme had been arranged by +Suzanne during her journey. + +The courtesan caught sight of Madame Granson and moved rapidly away, +whispering as she passed her, "I loved him!" + +Suzanne, faithful to her nature, did not leave Alencon on this +occasion without changing the orange-blossoms of the bride to rue. She +was the first to declare that Madame du Bousquier would never be +anything but Mademoiselle Cormon. With one stab of her tongue she +revenged poor Athanase and her dear chevalier. + +Alencon now witnessed a suicide that was slower and quite differently +pitiful from that of poor Athanase, who was quickly forgotten by +society, which always makes haste to forget its dead. The poor +Chevalier de Valois died in life; his suicide was a daily occurrence +for fourteen years. Three months after the du Bousquier marriage +society remarked, not without astonishment, that the linen of the +chevalier was frayed and rusty, that his hair was irregularly combed +and brushed. With a frowsy head the Chevalier de Valois could no +longer be said to exist! A few of his ivory teeth deserted, though the +keenest observers of human life were unable to discover to what body +they had hitherto belonged, whether to a foreign legion or whether +they were indigenous, vegetable or animal; whether age had pulled them +from the chevalier's mouth, or whether they were left forgotten in the +drawer of his dressing-table. The cravat was crooked, indifferent to +elegance. The negroes' heads grew pale with dust and grease. The +wrinkles of the face were blackened and puckered; the skin became +parchment. The nails, neglected, were often seen, alas! with a black +velvet edging. The waistcoat was tracked and stained with droppings +which spread upon its surface like autumn leaves. The cotton in the +ears was seldom changed. Sadness reigned upon that brow, and slipped +its yellowing tints into the depths of each furrow. In short, the +ruins, hitherto so cleverly hidden, now showed through the cracks and +crevices of that fine edifice, and proved the power of the soul over +the body; for the fair and dainty man, the cavalier, the young blood, +died when hope deserted him. Until then the nose of the chevalier was +ever delicate and nice; never had a damp black blotch, nor an amber +drop fall from it; but now that nose, smeared with tobacco around the +nostrils, degraded by the driblets which took advantage of the natural +gutter placed between itself and the upper lip,--that nose, which no +longer cared to seem agreeable, revealed the infinite pains which the +chevalier had formerly taken with his person, and made observers +comprehend, by the extent of its degradation, the greatness and +persistence of the man's designs upon Mademoiselle Cormon. + +Alas, too, the anecdotes went the way of the teeth; the clever sayings +grew rare. The appetite, however, remained; the old nobleman saved +nothing but his stomach from the wreck of his hopes; though he +languidly prepared his pinches of snuff, he ate alarming dinners. +Perhaps you will more fully understand the disaster that this marriage +was to the mind and heart of the chevalier when you learn that his +intercourse with the Princess Goritza became less frequent. + +One day he appeared in Mademoiselle Armande's salon with the calf of +his leg on the shin-bone. This bankruptcy of the graces was, I do +assure you, terrible, and struck all Alencon with horror. The late +young man had become an old one; this human being, who, by the +breaking-down of his spirit, had passed at once from fifty to ninety +years of age, frightened society. Besides, his secret was betrayed; he +had waited and watched for Mademoiselle Cormon; he had, like a patient +hunter, adjusted his aim for ten whole years, and finally had missed +the game! In short, the impotent Republic had won the day from Valiant +Chivalry, and that, too, under the Restoration! Form triumphed; mind +was vanquished by matter, diplomacy by insurrection. And, O final +blow! a mortified grisette revealed the secret of the chevalier's +mornings, and he now passed for a libertine. The liberals cast at his +door all the foundlings hitherto attributed to du Bousquier. But the +faubourg Saint-Germain of Alencon accepted them proudly: it even said, +"That poor chevalier, what else could he do?" The faubourg pitied him, +gathered him closer to their circle, and brought back a few rare +smiles to his face; but frightful enmity was piled upon the head of du +Bousquier. Eleven persons deserted the Cormon salon, and passed to +that of the d'Esgrignons. + +The old maid's marriage had a signal effect in defining the two +parties in Alencon. The salon d'Esgrignon represented the upper +aristocracy (the returning Troisvilles attached themselves to it); the +Cormon salon represented, under the clever influence of du Bousquier, +that fatal class of opinions which, without being truly liberal or +resolutely royalist, gave birth to the 221 on that famous day when the +struggle openly began between the most august, grandest, and only true +power, ROYALTY, and the most false, most changeful, most oppressive of +all powers,--the power called PARLIAMENTARY, which elective assemblies +exercise. The salon du Ronceret, secretly allied to the Cormon salon, +was boldly liberal. + +The Abbe de Sponde, after his return from Prebaudet, bore many and +continual sufferings, which he kept within his breast, saying no word +of them to his niece. But to Mademoiselle Armande he opened his heart, +admitting that, folly for folly, he would much have preferred the +Chevalier de Valois to Monsieur du Bousquier. Never would the dear +chevalier have had the bad taste to contradict and oppose a poor old +man who had but a few days more to live; du Bousquier had destroyed +everything in the good old home. The abbe said, with scanty tears +moistening his aged eyes,-- + +"Mademoiselle, I haven't even the little grove where I have walked for +fifty years. My beloved lindens are all cut down! At the moment of my +death the Republic appears to me more than ever under the form of a +horrible destruction of the Home." + +"You must pardon your niece," said the Chevalier de Valois. +"Republican ideas are the first error of youth which seeks for +liberty; later it finds it the worst of despotisms,--that of an +impotent canaille. Your poor niece is punished where she sinned." + +"What will become of me in a house where naked women are painted on +the walls?" said the poor abbe. "Where shall I find other lindens +beneath which to read my breviary?" + +Like Kant, who was unable to collect his thoughts after the fir-tree +at which he was accustomed to gaze while meditating was cut down, so +the poor abbe could never attain the ardor of his former prayers while +walking up and down the shadeless paths. Du Bousquier had planted an +English garden. + +"It was best," said Madame du Bousquier, without thinking so; but the +Abbe Couterier had authorized her to commit many wrongs to please her +husband. + +These restorations destroyed all the venerable dignity, cordiality, +and patriarchal air of the old house. Like the Chevalier de Valois, +whose personal neglect might be called an abdication, the bourgeois +dignity of the Cormon salon no longer existed when it was turned to +white and gold, with mahogany ottomans covered in blue satin. The +dining-room, adorned in modern taste, was colder in tone than it used +to be, and the dinners were eaten with less appetite than formerly. +Monsieur du Coudrai declared that he felt his puns stick in his throat +as he glanced at the figures painted on the walls, which looked him +out of countenance. Externally, the house was still provincial; but +internally everything revealed the purveyor of the Directory and the +bad taste of the money-changer,--for instance, columns in stucco, +glass doors, Greek mouldings, meaningless outlines, all styles +conglomerated, magnificence out of place and out of season. + +The town of Alencon gabbled for two weeks over this luxury, which +seemed unparalleled; but a few months later the community was proud of +it, and several rich manufacturers restored their houses and set up +fine salons. Modern furniture came into the town, and astral lamps +were seen! + +The Abbe de Sponde was among the first to perceive the secret +unhappiness this marriage now brought to the private life of his +beloved niece. The character of noble simplicity which had hitherto +ruled their lives was lost during the first winter, when du Bousquier +gave two balls every month. Oh, to hear violins and profane music at +these worldly entertainments in the sacred old house! The abbe prayed +on his knees while the revels lasted. Next the political system of the +sober salon was slowly perverted. The abbe fathomed du Bousquier; he +shuddered at his imperious tone; he saw the tears in his niece's eyes +when she felt herself losing all control over her own property; for +her husband now left nothing in her hands but the management of the +linen, the table, and things of a kind which are the lot of women. +Rose had no longer any orders to give. Monsieur's will was alone +regarded by Jacquelin, now become coachman, by Rene, the groom, and by +the chef, who came from Paris, Mariette being reduced to kitchen maid. +Madame du Bousquier had no one to rule but Josette. Who knows what it +costs to relinquish the delights of power? If the triumph of the will +is one of the intoxicating pleasures in the lives of great men, it is +the ALL of life to narrow minds. One must needs have been a minister +dismissed from power to comprehend the bitter pain which came upon +Madame du Bousquier when she found herself reduced to this absolute +servitude. She often got into the carriage against her will; she saw +herself surrounded by servants who were distasteful to her; she no +longer had the handling of her dear money,--she who had known herself +free to spend money, and did not spend it. + +All imposed limits make the human being desire to go beyond them. The +keenest sufferings come from the thwarting of self-will. The beginning +of this state of things was, however, rose-colored. Every concession +made to marital authority was an effect of the love which the poor +woman felt for her husband. Du Bousquier behaved, in the first +instance, admirably to his wife: he was wise; he was excellent; he +gave her the best of reasons for each new encroachment. So for the +first two years of her marriage Madame du Bousquier appeared to be +satisfied. She had that deliberate, demure little air which +distinguishes young women who have married for love. The rush of blood +to her head no longer tormented her. This appearance of satisfaction +routed the scoffers, contradicted certain rumors about du Bousquier, +and puzzled all observers of the human heart. Rose-Marie-Victoire was +so afraid that if she displeased her husband or opposed him, she would +lose his affection and be deprived of his company, that she would +willingly have sacrificed all to him, even her uncle. Her silly little +forms of pleasure deceived even the poor abbe for a time, who endured +his own trials all the better for thinking that his niece was happy, +after all. + +Alencon at first thought the same. But there was one man more +difficult to deceive than the whole town put together. The Chevalier +de Valois, who had taken refuge on the Sacred Mount of the upper +aristocracy, now passed his life at the d'Esgrignons. He listened to +the gossip and the gabble, and he thought day and night upon his +vengeance. He meant to strike du Bousquier to the heart. + +The poor abbe fully understood the baseness of this first and last +love of his niece; he shuddered as, little by little, he perceived the +hypocritical nature of his nephew and his treacherous manoeuvres. +Though du Bousquier restrained himself, as he thought of the abbe's +property, and wished not to cause him vexation, it was his hand that +dealt the blow that sent the old priest to his grave. If you will +interpret the word INTOLERANCE as FIRMNESS OF PRINCIPLE, if you do not +wish to condemn in the catholic soul of the Abbe de Sponde the +stoicism which Walter Scott has made you admire in the puritan soul of +Jeanie Deans' father; if you are willing to recognize in the Roman +Church the Potius mori quam foedari that you admire in republican +tenets,--you will understand the sorrow of the Abbe de Sponde when he +saw in his niece's salon the apostate priest, the renegade, the +pervert, the heretic, that enemy of the Church, the guilty taker of +the Constitutional oath. Du Bousquier, whose secret ambition was to +lay down the law to the town, wished, as a first proof of his power, +to reconcile the minister of Saint-Leonard with the rector of the +parish, and he succeeded. His wife thought he had accomplished a work +of peace where the immovable abbe saw only treachery. The bishop came +to visit du Bousquier, and seemed glad of the cessation of +hostilities. The virtues of the Abbe Francois had conquered prejudice, +except that of the aged Roman Catholic, who exclaimed with Cornelle, +"Alas! what virtues do you make me hate!" + +The abbe died when orthodoxy thus expired in the diocese. + +In 1819, the property of the Abbe de Sponde increased Madame du +Bousquier's income from real estate to twenty-five thousand francs +without counting Prebaudet or the house in the Val-Noble. About this +time du Bousquier returned to his wife the capital of her savings +which she had yielded to him; and he made her use it in purchasing +lands contiguous to Prebaudet, which made that domain one of the most +considerable in the department, for the estates of the Abbe de Sponde +also adjoined it. Du Bousquier thus passed for one of the richest men +of the department. This able man, the constant candidate of the +liberals, missing by seven or eight votes only in all the electoral +battles fought under the Restoration, and who ostensibly repudiated +the liberals by trying to be elected as a ministerial royalist +(without ever being able to conquer the aversion of the +administration),--this rancorous republican, mad with ambition, +resolved to rival the royalism and aristocracy of Alencon at the +moment when they once more had the upper hand. He strengthened himself +with the Church by the deceitful appearance of a well-feigned piety: +he accompanied his wife to mass; he gave money for the convents of the +town; he assisted the congregation of the Sacre-Coeur; he took sides +with the clergy on all occasions when the clergy came into collision +with the town, the department, or the State. Secretly supported by the +liberals, protected by the Church, calling himself a constitutional +royalist, he kept beside the aristocracy of the department in the one +hope of ruining it,--and he did ruin it. Ever on the watch for the +faults and blunders of the nobility and the government, he laid plans +for his vengeance against the "chateau-people," and especially against +the d'Esgrignons, in whose bosom he was one day to thrust a poisoned +dagger. + +Among other benefits to the town he gave money liberally to revive the +manufacture of point d'Alencon; he renewed the trade in linens, and +the town had a factory. Inscribing himself thus upon the interests and +heart of the masses, by doing what the royalists did not do, du +Bousquier did not really risk a farthing. Backed by his fortune, he +could afford to wait results which enterprising persons who involve +themselves are forced to abandon to luckier successors. + +Du Bousquier now posed as a banker. This miniature Lafitte was a +partner in all new enterprises, taking good security. He served +himself while apparently serving the interests of the community. He +was the prime mover of insurance companies, the protector of new +enterprises for public conveyance; he suggested petitions for asking +the administration for the necessary roads and bridges. Thus warned, +the government considered this action an encroachment of its own +authority. A struggle was begun injudiciously, for the good of the +community compelled the authorities to yield in the end. Du Bousquier +embittered the provincial nobility against the court nobility and the +peerage; and finally he brought about the shocking adhesion of a +strong party of constitutional royalists to the warfare sustained by +the "Journal des Debats," and M. de Chateaubriand against the throne, +--an ungrateful opposition based on ignoble interests, which was one +cause of the triumph of the bourgeoisie and journalism in 1830. + +Thus du Bousquier, in common with the class he represented, had the +satisfaction of beholding the funeral of royalty. The old republican, +smothered with masses, who for fifteen years had played that comedy to +satisfy his vendetta, himself threw down with his own hand the white +flag of the mayoralty to the applause of the multitude. No man in +France cast upon the new throne raised in August, 1830, a glance of +more intoxicated, joyous vengeance. The accession of the Younger +Branch was the triumph of the Revolution. To him the victory of the +tricolor meant the resurrection of Montagne, which this time should +surely bring the nobility down to the dust by means more certain than +that of the guillotine, because less violent. The peerage without +heredity; the National Guard, which puts on the same camp-bed the +corner grocer and the marquis; the abolition of the entails demanded +by a bourgeois lawyer; the Catholic Church deprived of its supremacy; +and all the other legislative inventions of August, 1830,--were to du +Bousquier the wisest possible application of the principles of 1793. + +Since 1830 this man has been a receiver-general. He relied for his +advancement on his relations with the Duc d'Orleans, father of Louis +Philippe, and with Monsieur de Folmon, formerly steward to the +Duchess-dowager of Orleans. He receives about eighty thousand francs a +year. In the eyes of the people about him Monsieur du Bousquier is a +man of means,--a respectable man, steady in his principles, upright, +and obliging. Alencon owes to him its connection with the industrial +movement by which Brittany may possibly some day be joined to what is +popularly called modern civilization. Alencon, which up to 1816 could +boast of only two private carriages, saw, without amazement, in the +course of ten years, coupes, landaus, tilburies, and cabriolets +rolling through her streets. The burghers and the land-owners, alarmed +at first lest the price of everything should increase, recognized +later that this increase in the style of living had a contrary effect +upon their revenues. The prophetic remark of du Ronceret, "Du +Bousquier is a very strong man," was adopted by the whole country- +side. + +But, unhappily for the wife, that saying has a double meaning. The +husband does not in any way resemble the public politician. This great +citizen, so liberal to the world about him, so kindly inspired with +love for his native place, is a despot in his own house, and utterly +devoid of conjugal affection. This man, so profoundly astute, +hypocritical, and sly; this Cromwell of the Val-Noble,--behaves in his +home as he behaves to the aristocracy, whom he caresses in hopes to +throttle them. Like his friend Bernadotte, he wears a velvet glove +upon his iron hand. His wife has given him no children. Suzanne's +remark and the chevalier's insinuations were therefore justified. But +the liberal bourgeoisie, the constitutional-royalist-bourgeoisie, the +country-squires, the magistracy, and the "church party" laid the blame +on Madame du Bousquier. "She was too old," they said; "Monsieur du +Bousquier had married her too late. Besides, it was very lucky for the +poor woman; it was dangerous at her age to bear children!" When Madame +du Bousquier confided, weeping, her periodic despair to Mesdames du +Coudrai and du Ronceret, those ladies would reply,-- + +"But you are crazy, my dear; you don't know what you are wishing for; +a child would be your death." + +Many men, whose hopes were fastened on du Bousquier's triumph, sang +his praises to their wives, who in turn repeated them to the poor wife +in some such speech as this:-- + +"You are very lucky, dear, to have married such an able man; you'll +escape the misery of women whose husbands are men without energy, +incapable of managing their property, or bringing up their children." + +"Your husband is making you queen of the department, my love. He'll +never leave you embarrassed, not he! Why, he leads all Alencon." + +"But I wish," said the poor wife, "that he gave less time to the +public and--" + +"You are hard to please, my dear Madame du Bousquier. I assure you +that all the women in town envy you your husband." + +Misjudged by society, which began by blaming her, the pious woman +found ample opportunity in her home to display her virtues. She lived +in tears, but she never ceased to present to others a placid face. To +so Christian a soul a certain thought which pecked forever at her +heart was a crime: "I loved the Chevalier de Valois," it said; "but I +have married du Bousquier." The love of poor Athanase Granson also +rose like a phantom of remorse, and pursued her even in her dreams. +The death of her uncle, whose griefs at the last burst forth, made her +life still more sorrowful; for she now felt the suffering her uncle +must have endured in witnessing the change of political and religious +opinion in the old house. Sorrow often falls like a thunderbolt, as it +did on Madame Granson; but in this old maid it slowly spread like a +drop of oil, which never leaves the stuff that slowly imbibes it. + +The Chevalier de Valois was the malicious manipulator who brought +about the crowning misfortune of Madame du Bousquier's life. His heart +was set on undeceiving her pious simplicity; for the chevalier, expert +in love, divined du Bousquier, the married man, as he had divined du +Bousquier, the bachelor. But the wary republican was difficult of +attack. His salon was, of course, closed to the Chevalier de Valois, +as to all those who, in the early days of his marriage, had slighted +the Cormon mansion. He was, moreover, impervious to ridicule; he +possessed a vast fortune; he reigned in Alencon; he cared as little +for his wife as Richard III. cared for the dead horse which had helped +him win a battle. To please her husband, Madame du Bousquier had +broken off relations with the d'Esgrignon household, where she went no +longer, except that sometimes when her husband left her during his +trips to Paris, she would pay a brief visit to Mademoiselle Armande. + +About three years after her marriage, at the time of the Abbe de +Sponde's death, Mademoiselle Armande joined Madame du Bousquier as +they were leaving Saint-Leonard's, where they had gone to hear a +requiem said for him. The generous demoiselle thought that on this +occasion she owed her sympathy to the niece in trouble. They walked +together, talking of the dear deceased, until they reached the +forbidden house, into which Mademoiselle Armande enticed Madame du +Bousquier by the charm of her manner and conversation. The poor +desolate woman was glad to talk of her uncle with one whom he truly +loved. Moreover, she wanted to receive the condolences of the old +marquis, whom she had not seen for nearly three years. It was half- +past one o'clock, and she found at the hotel d'Esgrignon the Chevalier +de Valois, who had come to dinner. As he bowed to her, he took her by +the hands. + +"Well, dear, virtuous, and beloved lady," he said, in a tone of +emotion, "we have lost our sainted friend; we share your grief. Yes, +your loss is as keenly felt here as in your own home,--more so," he +added, alluding to du Bousquier. + +After a few more words of funeral oration, in which all present spoke +from the heart, the chevalier took Madame du Bousquier's arm, and, +gallantly placing it within his own, pressed it adoringly as he led +her to the recess of a window. + +"Are you happy?" he said in a fatherly voice. + +"Yes," she said, dropping her eyes. + +Hearing that "Yes," Madame de Troisville, the daughter of the Princess +Scherbellof, and the old Marquise de Casteran came up and joined the +chevalier, together with Mademoiselle Armande. They all went to walk +in the garden until dinner was served, without any perception on the +part of Madame du Bousquier that a little conspiracy was afoot. "We +have her! now let us find out the secret of the case," were the words +written in the eyes of all present. + +"To make your happiness complete," said Mademoiselle Armande, "you +ought to have children,--a fine lad like my nephew--" + +Tears seemed to start in Madame du Bousquier's eyes. + +"I have heard it said that you were the one to blame in the matter, +and that you feared the dangers of a pregnancy," said the chevalier. + +"I!" she said artlessly. "I would buy a child with a hundred years of +purgatory if I could." + +On the question thus started a discussion arose, conducted by Madame +de Troisville and the old Marquise de Casteran with such delicacy and +adroitness that the poor victim revealed, without being aware of it, +the secrets of her house. Mademoiselle Armande had taken the +chevalier's arm, and walked away so as to leave the three women free +to discuss wedlock. Madame du Bousquier was then enlightened on the +various deceptions of her marriage; and as she was still the same +simpleton she had always been, she amused her advisers by delightful +naivetes. + +Although at first the deceptive marriage of Mademoiselle Cormon made a +laugh throughout the town, which was soon initiated into the story of +the case, before long Madame du Bousquier won the esteem and sympathy +of all the women. The fact that Mademoiselle Cormon had flung herself +headlong into marriage without succeeding in being married, made +everybody laugh at her; but when they learned the exceptional position +in which the sternness of her religious principles placed her, all the +world admired her. "That poor Madame du Bousquier" took the place of +"That good Mademoiselle Cormon." + +Thus the chevalier contrived to render du Bousquier both ridiculous +and odious for a time; but ridicule ends by weakening; when all had +said their say about him, the gossip died out. Besides, at fifty-seven +years of age the dumb republican seemed to many people to have a right +to retire. This affair, however, envenomed the hatred which du +Bousquier already bore to the house of Esgrignon to such a degree that +it made him pitiless when the day of vengeance came. [See "The Gallery +of Antiquities."] Madame du Bousquier received orders never again to +set foot into that house. By way of reprisals upon the chevalier for +the trick thus played him, du Bousquier, who had just created the +journal called the "Courrier de l'Orne," caused the following notice +to be inserted in it:-- + + "Bonds to the amount of one thousand francs a year will be paid to + any person who can prove the existence of one Monsieur de + Pombreton before, during, or after the Emigration." + +Although her marriage was essentially negative, Madame du Bousquier +saw some advantages in it: was it not better to interest herself in +the most remarkable man in the town than to live alone? Du Bousquier +was preferable to a dog, or cat, or those canaries that spinsters +love. He showed for his wife a sentiment more real and less selfish +than that which is felt by servants, confessors, and hopeful heirs. +Later in life she came to consider her husband as the instrument of +divine wrath; for she then saw innumerable sins in her former desires +for marriage; she regarded herself as justly punished for the sorrow +she had brought on Madame Granson, and for the hastened death of her +uncle. Obedient to that religion which commands us to kiss the rod +with which the punishment is inflicted, she praised her husband, and +publicly approved him. But in the confessional, or at night, when +praying, she wept often, imploring God's forgiveness for the apostasy +of the man who thought the contrary of what he professed, and who +desired the destruction of the aristocracy and the Church,--the two +religions of the house of Cormon. + +With all her feelings bruised and immolated within her, compelled by +duty to make her husband happy, attached to him by a certain +indefinable affection, born, perhaps, of habit, her life became one +perpetual contradiction. She had married a man whose conduct and +opinions she hated, but whom she was bound to care for with dutiful +tenderness. Often she walked with the angels when du Bousquier ate her +preserves or thought the dinner good. She watched to see that his +slightest wish was satisfied. If he tore off the cover of his +newspaper and left it on a table, instead of throwing it away, she +would say:-- + +"Rene, leave that where it is; monsieur did not place it there without +intention." + +If du Bousquier had a journey to take, she was anxious about his +trunk, his linen; she took the most minute precautions for his +material benefit. If he went to Prebaudet, she consulted the barometer +the evening before to know if the weather would be fine. She watched +for his will in his eyes, like a dog which hears and sees its master +while sleeping. When the stout du Bousquier, touched by this +scrupulous love, would take her round the waist and kiss her forehead, +saying, "What a good woman you are!" tears of pleasure would come into +the eyes of the poor creature. It is probably that du Bousquier felt +himself obliged to make certain concessions which obtained for him the +respect of Rose-Marie-Victoire; for Catholic virtue does not require a +dissimulation as complete as that of Madame du Bousquier. Often the +good saint sat mutely by and listened to the hatred of men who +concealed themselves under the cloak of constitutional royalists. She +shuddered as she foresaw the ruin of the Church. Occasionally she +risked a stupid word, an observation which du Bousquier cut short with +a glance. + +The worries of such an existence ended by stupefying Madame du +Bousquier, who found it easier and also more dignified to concentrate +her intelligence on her own thoughts and resign herself to lead a life +that was purely animal. She then adopted the submission of a slave, +and regarded it as a meritorious deed to accept the degradation in +which her husband placed her. The fulfilment of his will never once +caused her to murmur. The timid sheep went henceforth in the way the +shepherd led her; she gave herself up to the severest religious +practices, and thought no more of Satan and his works and vanities. +Thus she presented to the eyes of the world a union of all Christian +virtues; and du Bousquier was certainly one of the luckiest men in the +kingdom of France and of Navarre. + +"She will be a simpleton to her last breath," said the former +collector, who, however, dined with her twice a week. + +This history would be strangely incomplete if no mention were made of +the coincidence of the Chevalier de Valois's death occurring at the +same time as that of Suzanne's mother. The chevalier died with the +monarchy, in August, 1830. He had joined the cortege of Charles X. at +Nonancourt, and piously escorted it to Cherbourg with the Troisvilles, +Casterans, d'Esgrignons, Verneuils, etc. The old gentleman had taken +with him fifty thousand francs,--the sum to which his savings then +amounted. He offered them to one of the faithful friends of the king +for transmission to his master, speaking of his approaching death, and +declaring that the money came originally from the goodness of the +king, and, moreover, that the property of the last of the Valois +belonged of right to the crown. It is not known whether the fervor of +his zeal conquered the reluctance of the Bourbon, who abandoned his +fine kingdom of France without carrying away with him a farthing, and +who ought to have been touched by the devotion of the chevalier. It is +certain, however, that Cesarine, the residuary legate of the old man, +received from his estate only six hundred francs a year. The chevalier +returned to Alencon, cruelly weakened by grief and by fatigue; he died +on the very day when Charles X. arrived on a foreign shore. + +Madame du Val-Noble and her protector, who was just then afraid of the +vengeance of the liberal party, were glad of a pretext to remain +incognito in the village where Suzanne's mother died. At the sale of +the chevalier's effects, which took place at that time, Suzanne, +anxious to obtain a souvenir of her first and last friend, pushed up +the price of the famous snuff-box, which was finally knocked down to +her for a thousand francs. The portrait of the Princess Goritza was +alone worth that sum. Two years later, a young dandy, who was making a +collection of the fine snuff-boxes of the last century, obtained from +Madame du Val-Noble the chevalier's treasure. The charming confidant +of many a love and the pleasure of an old age is now on exhibition in +a species of private museum. If the dead could know what happens after +them, the chevalier's head would surely blush upon its left cheek. + +If this history has no other effect than to inspire the possessors of +precious relics with holy fear, and induce them to make codicils to +secure these touching souvenirs of joys that are no more by +bequeathing them to loving hands, it will have done an immense service +to the chivalrous and romantic portion of the community; but it does, +in truth, contain a far higher moral. Does it not show the necessity +for a new species of education? Does it not invoke, from the +enlightened solicitude of the ministers of Public Instruction, the +creation of chairs of anthropology,--a science in which Germany +outstrips us? Modern myths are even less understood than ancient ones, +harried as we are with myths. Myths are pressing us from every point; +they serve all theories, they explain all questions. They are, +according to human ideas, the torches of history; they would save +empires from revolution if only the professors of history would force +the explanations they give into the mind of the provincial masses. If +Mademoiselle Cormon had been a reader or a student, and if there had +existed in the department of the Orne a professor of anthropology, or +even had she read Ariosto, the frightful disasters of her conjugal +life would never have occurred. She would probably have known why the +Italian poet makes Angelica prefer Medoro, who was a blond Chevalier +de Valois, to Orlando, whose mare was dead, and who knew no better +than to fly into a passion. Is not Medoro the mythic form for all +courtiers of feminine royalty, and Orlando the myth of disorderly, +furious, and impotent revolutions, which destroy but cannot produce? +We publish, but without assuming any responsibility for it, this +opinion of a pupil of Monsieur Ballanche. + +No information has reached us as to the fate of the negroes' heads in +diamonds. You may see Madame du Val-Noble every evening at the Opera. +Thanks to the education given her by the Chevalier de Valois, she has +almost the air of a well-bred woman. + +Madame du Bousquier still lives; is not that as much as to say she +still suffers? After reaching the age of sixty--the period at which +women allow themselves to make confessions--she said confidentially to +Madame du Coudrai, that she had never been able to endure the idea of +dying an old maid. + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +(Note: The Collection of Antiquities is a companion piece to The Old +Maid. In other Addendum appearances they are combined under the title +of The Jealousies of a Country Town.) + +Bordin + The Gondreville Mystery + The Seamy Side of History + The Commission in Lunacy + +Bousquier, Du (or Du Croisier or Du Bourguier) + The Collection of Antiquities (companion piece) + The Middle Classes + +Bousquier, Madame du (du Croisier) (Mlle. Cormon) + The Collection of Antiquities (companion piece) + +Casteran, De + The Chouans + The Seamy Side of History + The Collection of Antiquities (companion piece) + Beatrix + The Peasantry + +Chesnel (or Choisnel) + The Seamy Side of History + The Collection of Antiquities (companion piece) + +Coudrai, Du + The Collection of Antiquities (companion piece) + +Esgrignon, Charles-Marie-Victor-Ange-Carol, Marquis d' (or Des +Grignons) + The Chouans + The Collection of Antiquities (companion piece) + +Esgrignon, Marie-Armande-Claire d' + The Collection of Antiquities (companion piece) + +Gaillard, Madame Theodore (Suzanne) + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Beatrix + The Unconscious Humorists + +Granson, Athanase + The Government Clerks (mentioned only) + +Lenoncourt, Duc de + The Lily of the Valley + Cesar Birotteau + The Collection of Antiquities (companion piece) + The Gondreville Mystery + Beatrix + +Navarreins, Duc de + Colonel Chabert + The Muse of the Department + The Thirteen + The Peasantry + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Country Parson + The Magic Skin + The Gondreville Mystery + The Secrets of a Princess + Cousin Betty + +Pombreton, Marquis de + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + +Ronceret, Du + The Collection of Antiquities (companion piece) + Beatrix + +Ronceret, Madame Du + The Collection of Antiquities (companion piece) + +Simeuse, Admiral de + Beatrix + The Gondreville Mystery + +Troisville, Guibelin, Vicomte de + The Seamy Side of History + The Chouans + The Collection of Antiquities (companion piece) + The Peasantry + +Valois, Chevalier de + The Chouans + The Collection of Antiquities (companion piece) + +Verneuil, Duc de + The Chouans + The Collection of Antiquities (companion piece) + + + + + +II + + + + +THE COLLECTION OF ANTIQUITIES + +By HONORE DE BALZAC + + +Translated by +Ellen Marriage + + + + DEDICATION + + To Baron Von Hammer-Purgstall, Member of the Aulic Council, Author + of the History of the Ottoman Empire. + + Dear Baron,--You have taken so warm an interest in my long, vast + "History of French Manners in the Nineteenth Century," you have + given me so much encouragement to persevere with my work, that you + have given me a right to associate your name with some portion of + it. Are you not one of the most important representatives of + conscientious, studious Germany? Will not your approval win for me + the approval of others, and protect this attempt of mine? So proud + am I to have gained your good opinion, that I have striven to + deserve it by continuing my labors with the unflagging courage + characteristic of your methods of study, and of that exhaustive + research among documents without which you could never have given + your monumental work to the world of letters. Your sympathy with + such labor as you yourself have bestowed upon the most brilliant + civilization of the East, has often sustained my ardor through + nights of toil given to the details of our modern civilization. + And will not you, whose naive kindliness can only be compared with + that of our own La Fontaine, be glad to know of this? + + May this token of my respect for you and your work find you at + Dobling, dear Baron, and put you and yours in mind of one of your + most sincere admirers and friends. + + DE BALZAC. + + + + THE COLLECTION OF ANTIQUITIES + + + +There stands a house at a corner of a street, in the middle of a town, +in one of the least important prefectures in France, but the name of +the street and the name of the town must be suppressed here. Every one +will appreciate the motives of this sage reticence demanded by +convention; for if a writer takes upon himself the office of annalist +of his own time, he is bound to touch on many sore subjects. The house +was called the Hotel d'Esgrignon; but let d'Esgrignon be considered a +mere fancy name, neither more nor less connected with real people than +the conventional Belval, Floricour, or Derville of the stage, or the +Adalberts and Mombreuses of romance. After all, the names of the +principal characters will be quite as much disguised; for though in +this history the chronicler would prefer to conceal the facts under a +mass of contradictions, anachronisms, improbabilities, and +absurdities, the truth will out in spite of him. You uproot a vine- +stock, as you imagine, and the stem will send up lusty shoots after +you have ploughed your vineyard over. + +The "Hotel d'Esgrignon" was nothing more nor less than the house in +which the old Marquis lived; or, in the style of ancient documents, +Charles Marie Victor Ange Carol, Marquis d'Esgrignon. It was only an +ordinary house, but the townspeople and tradesmen had begun by calling +it the Hotel d'Esgrignon in jest, and ended after a score of years by +giving it that name in earnest. + +The name of Carol, or Karawl, as the Thierrys would have spelt it, was +glorious among the names of the most powerful chieftains of the +Northmen who conquered Gaul and established the feudal system there. +Never had Carol bent his head before King or Communes, the Church or +Finance. Intrusted in the days of yore with the keeping of a French +March, the title of marquis in their family meant no shadow of +imaginary office; it had been a post of honor with duties to +discharge. Their fief had always been their domain. Provincial nobles +were they in every sense of the word; they might boast of an unbroken +line of great descent; they had been neglected by the court for two +hundred years; they were lords paramount in the estates of a province +where the people looked up to them with superstitious awe, as to the +image of the Holy Virgin that cures the toothache. The house of +d'Esgrignon, buried in its remote border country, was preserved as the +charred piles of one of Caesar's bridges are maintained intact in a +river bed. For thirteen hundred years the daughters of the house had +been married without a dowry or taken the veil; the younger sons of +every generation had been content with their share of their mother's +dower and gone forth to be captains or bishops; some had made a +marriage at court; one cadet of the house became an admiral, a duke, +and a peer of France, and died without issue. Never would the Marquis +d'Esgrignon of the elder branch accept the title of duke. + +"I hold my marquisate as His Majesty holds the realm of France, and on +the same conditions," he told the Constable de Luynes, a very paltry +fellow in his eyes at that time. + +You may be sure that d'Esgrignons lost their heads on the scaffold +during the troubles. The old blood showed itself proud and high even +in 1789. The Marquis of that day would not emigrate; he was answerable +for his March. The reverence in which he was held by the countryside +saved his head; but the hatred of the genuine sans-culottes was strong +enough to compel him to pretend to fly, and for a while he lived in +hiding. Then, in the name of the Sovereign People, the d'Esgrignon +lands were dishonored by the District, and the woods sold by the +Nation in spite of the personal protest made by the Marquis, then +turned forty. Mlle. d'Esgrignon, his half-sister, saved some portions +of the fief, thanks to the young steward of the family, who claimed on +her behalf the partage de presuccession, which is to say, the right of +a relative to a portion of the emigre's lands. To Mlle. d'Esgrignon, +therefore, the Republic made over the castle itself and a few farms. +Chesnel [Choisnel], the faithful steward, was obliged to buy in his +own name the church, the parsonage house, the castle gardens, and +other places to which his patron was attached--the Marquis advancing +the money. + +The slow, swift years of the Terror went by, and the Marquis, whose +character had won the respect of the whole country, decided that he +and his sister ought to return to the castle and improve the property +which Maitre Chesnel--for he was now a notary--had contrived to save +for them out of the wreck. Alas! was not the plundered and dismantled +castle all too vast for a lord of the manor shorn of all his ancient +rights; too large for the landowner whose woods had been sold +piecemeal, until he could scarce draw nine thousand francs of income +from the pickings of his old estates? + +It was in the month of October 1800 that Chesnel brought the Marquis +back to the old feudal castle, and saw with deep emotion, almost +beyound his control, his patron standing in the midst of the empty +courtyard, gazing round upon the moat, now filled up with rubbish, and +the castle towers razed to the level of the roof. The descendant of +the Franks looked for the missing Gothic turrets and the picturesque +weather vanes which used to rise above them; and his eyes turned to +the sky, as if asking of heaven the reason of this social upheaval. No +one but Chesnel could understand the profound anguish of the great +d'Esgrignon, now known as Citizen Carol. For a long while the Marquis +stood in silence, drinking in the influences of the place, the ancient +home of his forefathers, with the air that he breathed; then he flung +out a most melancholy exclamation. + +"Chesnel," he said, "we will come back again some day when the +troubles are over; I could not bring myself to live here until the +edict of pacification has been published; THEY will not allow me to +set my scutcheon on the wall." + +He waved his hand toward the castle, mounted his horse, and rode back +beside his sister, who had driven over in the notary's shabby basket- +chaise. + +The Hotel d'Esgrignon in the town had been demolished; a couple of +factories now stood on the site of the aristocrat's house. So Maitre +Chesnel spent the Marquis' last bag of louis on the purchase of the +old-fashioned building in the square, with its gables, weather-vane, +turret, and dovecote. Once it had been the courthouse of the +bailiwick, and subsequently the presidial; it had belonged to the +d'Esgrignons from generation to generation; and now, in consideration +of five hundred louis d'or, the present owner made it over with the +title given by the Nation to its rightful lord. And so, half in jest, +half in earnest, the old house was christened the Hotel d'Esgrignon. + +In 1800 little or no difficulty was made over erasing names from the +fatal list, and some few emigres began to return. Among the very first +nobles to come back to the old town were the Baron de Nouastre and his +daughter. They were completely ruined. M. d'Esgrignon generously +offered them the shelter of his roof; and in his house, two months +later, the Baron died, worn out with grief. The Nouastres came of the +best blood in the province; Mlle. de Nouastre was a girl of two-and- +twenty; the Marquis d'Esgrignon married her to continue his line. But +she died in childbirth, a victim to the unskilfulness of her +physician, leaving, most fortunately, a son to bear the name of the +d'Esgrignons. The old Marquis--he was but fifty-three, but adversity +and sharp distress had added months to every year--the poor old +Marquis saw the death of the loveliest of human creatures, a noble +woman in whom the charm of the feminine figures of the sixteenth +century lived again, a charm now lost save to men's imaginations. With +her death the joy died out of his old age. It was one of those +terrible shocks which reverberate through every moment of the years +that follow. For a few moments he stood beside the bed where his wife +lay, with her hands folded like a saint, then he kissed her on the +forehead, turned away, drew out his watch, broke the mainspring, and +hung it up beside the hearth. It was eleven o'clock in the morning. + +"Mlle. d'Esgrignon," he said, "let us pray God that this hour may not +prove fatal yet again to our house. My uncle the archbishop was +murdered at this hour; at this hour also my father died----" + +He knelt down beside the bed and buried his face in the coverlet; his +sister did the same, in another moment they both rose to their feet. +Mlle. d'Esgrignon burst into tears; but the old Marquis looked with +dry eyes at the child, round the room, and again on his dead wife. To +the stubbornness of the Frank he united the fortitude of a Christian. + +These things came to pass in the second year of the nineteenth +century. Mlle. d'Esgrignon was then twenty-seven years of age. She was +a beautiful woman. An ex-contractor for forage to the armies of the +Republic, a man of the district, with an income of six thousand +francs, persuaded Chesnel to carry a proposal of marriage to the lady. +The Marquis and his sister were alike indignant with such presumption +in their man of business, and Chesnel was almost heartbroken; he could +not forgive himself for yielding to the Sieur du Croisier's [du +Bousquier] blandishments. The Marquis' manner with his old servant +changed somewhat; never again was there quite the old affectionate +kindliness, which might almost have been taken for friendship. From +that time forth the Marquis was grateful, and his magnanimous and +sincere gratitude continually wounded the poor notary's feelings. To +some sublime natures gratitude seems an excessive payment; they would +rather have that sweet equality of feeling which springs from similar +ways of thought, and the blending of two spirits by their own choice +and will. And Maitre Chesnel had known the delights of such high +friendship; the Marquis had raised him to his own level. The old noble +looked on the good notary as something more than a servant, something +less than a child; he was the voluntary liege man of the house, a serf +bound to his lord by all the ties of affection. There was no balancing +of obligations; the sincere affection on either side put them out of +the question. + +In the eyes of the Marquis, Chesnel's official dignity was as nothing; +his old servitor was merely disguised as a notary. As for Chesnel, the +Marquis was now, as always, a being of a divine race; he believed in +nobility; he did not blush to remember that his father had thrown open +the doors of the salon to announce that "My Lord Marquis is served." +His devotion to the fallen house was due not so much to his creed as +to egoism; he looked on himself as one of the family. So his vexation +was intense. Once he had ventured to allude to his mistake in spite of +the Marquis' prohibition, and the old noble answered gravely-- +"Chesnel, before the troubles you would not have permitted yourself to +entertain such injurious suppositions. What can these new doctrines be +if they have spoiled YOU?" + +Maitre Chesnel had gained the confidence of the whole town; people +looked up to him; his high integrity and considerable fortune +contributed to make him a person of importance. From that time forth +he felt a very decided aversion for the Sieur du Crosier; and though +there was little rancor in his composition, he set others against the +sometime forage-contractor. Du Croisier, on the other hand, was a man +to bear a grudge and nurse a vengeance for a score of years. He hated +Chesnel and the d'Esgrignon family with the smothered, all-absorbing +hate only to be found in a country town. His rebuff had simply ruined +him with the malicious provincials among whom he had come to live, +thinking to rule over them. It was so real a disaster that he was not +long in feeling the consequences of it. He betook himself in +desperation to a wealthy old maid, and met with a second refusal. Thus +failed the ambitious schemes with which he had started. He had lost +his hope of a marriage with Mlle. d'Esgrignon, which would have opened +the Faubourg Saint-Germain of the province to him; and after the +second rejection, his credit fell away to such an extent that it was +almost as much as he could do to keep his position in the second rank. + +In 1805, M. de la Roche-Guyon, the oldest son of an ancient family +which had previously intermarried with the d'Esgrignons, made +proposals in form through Maitre Chesnel for Mlle. Marie Armande Clair +d'Esgrignon. She declined to hear the notary. + +"You must have guessed before now that I am a mother, dear Chesnel," +she said; she had just put her nephew, a fine little boy of five, to +bed. + +The old Marquis rose and went up to his sister, but just returned from +the cradle; he kissed her hand reverently, and as he sat down again, +found words to say: + +"My sister, you are a d'Esgrignon." + +A quiver ran through the noble girl; the tears stood in her eyes. M. +d'Esgrignon, the father of the present Marquis, had married a second +wife, the daughter of a farmer of taxes ennobled by Louis XIV. It was +a shocking mesalliance in the eyes of his family, but fortunately of +no importance, since a daughter was the one child of the marriage. +Armande knew this. Kind as her brother had always been, he looked on +her as a stranger in blood. And this speech of his had just recognized +her as one of the family. + +And was not her answer the worthy crown of eleven years of her noble +life? Her every action since she came of age had borne the stamp of +the purest devotion; love for her brother was a sort of religion with +her. + +"I shall die Mlle. d'Esgrignon," she said simply, turning to the +notary. + +"For you there could be no fairer title," returned Chesnel, meaning to +convey a compliment. Poor Mlle. d'Esgrignon reddened. + +"You have blundered, Chesnel," said the Marquis, flattered by the +steward's words, but vexed that his sister had been hurt. "A +d'Esgrignon may marry a Montmorency; their descent is not so pure as +ours. The d'Esgrignons bear or, two bends, gules," he continued, "and +nothing during nine hundred years has changed their scutcheon; as it +was at first, so it is to-day. Hence our device, Cil est nostre, taken +at a tournament in the reign of Philip Augustus, with the supporters, +a knight in armor or on the right, and a lion gules on the left." + + + +"I do not remember that any woman I have ever met has struck my +imagination as Mlle. d'Esgrignon did," said Emile Blondet, to whom +contemporary literature is indebted for this history among other +things. "Truth to tell, I was a boy, a mere child at the time, and +perhaps my memory-pictures of her owe something of their vivid color +to a boy's natural turn for the marvelous. + +"If I was playing with other children on the Parade, and she came to +walk there with her nephew Victurnien, the sight of her in the +distance thrilled me with very much the effect of galvanism on a dead +body. Child as I was, I felt as though new life had been given me. + +"Mlle. Armande had hair of tawny gold; there was a delicate fine down +on her cheek, with a silver gleam upon it which I loved to catch, +putting myself so that I could see the outlines of her face lit up by +the daylight, and feel the fascination of those dreamy emerald eyes, +which sent a flash of fire through me whenever they fell upon my face. +I used to pretend to roll on the grass before her in our games, only +to try to reach her little feet, and admire them on a closer view. The +soft whiteness of her skin, her delicate features, the clearly cut +lines of her forehead, the grace of her slender figure, took me with a +sense of surprise, while as yet I did not know that her shape was +graceful, nor her brows beautiful, nor the outline of her face a +perfect oval. I admired as children pray at that age, without too +clearly understanding why they pray. When my piercing gaze attracted +her notice, when she asked me (in that musical voice of hers, with +more volume in it, as it seemed to me, than all other voices), 'What +are you doing little one? Why do you look at me?'--I used to come +nearer and wriggle and bite my finger-nails, and redden and say, 'I do +not know.' And if she chanced to stroke my hair with her white hand, +and ask me how old I was, I would run away and call from a distance, +'Eleven!' + +"Every princess and fairy of my visions, as I read the Arabian Nights, +looked and walked like Mlle. d'Esgrignon; and afterwards, when my +drawing-master gave me heads from the antique to copy, I noticed that +their hair was braided like Mlle. d'Esgrignon's. Still later, when the +foolish fancies had vanished one by one, Mlle. Armande remained +vaguely in my memory as a type; that Mlle. Armande for whom men made +way respectfully, following the tall brown-robed figure with their +eyes along the Parade and out of sight. Her exquisitely graceful form, +the rounded curves sometimes revealed by a chance gust of wind, and +always visible to my eyes in spite of the ample folds of stuff, +revisited my young man's dreams. Later yet, when I came to think +seriously over certain mysteries of human thought, it seemed to me +that the feeling of reverence was first inspired in me by something +expressed in Mlle. d'Esgrignon's face and bearing. The wonderful calm +of her face, the suppressed passion in it, the dignity of her +movements, the saintly life of duties fulfilled,--all this touched and +awed me. Children are more susceptible than people imagine to the +subtle influences of ideas; they never make game of real dignity; they +feel the charm of real graciousness, and beauty attracts them, for +childhood itself is beautiful, and there are mysterious ties between +things of the same nature. + +"Mlle. d'Esgrignon was one of my religions. To this day I can never +climb the staircase of some old manor-house but my foolish imagination +must needs picture Mlle. Armande standing there, like the spirit of +feudalism. I can never read old chronicles but she appears before my +eyes in the shape of some famous woman of old times; she is Agnes +Sorel, Marie Touchet, Gabrielle; and I lend her all the love that was +lost in her heart, all the love that she never expressed. The angel +shape seen in glimpses through the haze of childish fancies visits me +now sometimes across the mists of dreams." + + + +Keep this portrait in mind; it is a faithful picture and sketch of +character. Mlle. d'Esgrignon is one of the most instructive figures in +this story; she affords an example of the mischief that may be done by +the purest goodness for lack of intelligence. + +Two-thirds of the emigres returned to France during 1804 and 1805, and +almost every exile from the Marquis d'Esgrignon's province came back +to the land of his fathers. There were certainly defections. Men of +good birth entered the service of Napoleon, and went into the army or +held places at the Imperial court, and others made alliances with the +upstart families. All those who cast in their lots with the Empire +retrieved their fortunes and recovered their estates, thanks to the +Emperor's munificence; and these for the most part went to Paris and +stayed there. But some eight or nine families still remained true to +the proscribed noblesse and loyal to the fallen monarchy. The La +Roche-Guyons, Nouastres, Verneuils, Casterans, Troisvilles, and the +rest were some of them rich, some of them poor; but money, more or +less, scarcely counted for anything among them. They took an +antiquarian view of themselves; for them the age and preservation of +the pedigree was the one all-important matter; precisely as, for an +amateur, the weight of metal in a coin is a small matter in comparison +with clean lettering, a flawless stamp, and high antiquity. Of these +families, the Marquis d'Esgrignon was the acknowledged head. His house +became their cenacle. There His Majesty, Emperor and King, was never +anything but "M. de Bonaparte"; there "the King" meant Louis XVIII., +then at Mittau; there the Department was still the Province, and the +prefecture the intendance. + +The Marquis was honored among them for his admirable behavior, his +loyalty as a noble, his undaunted courage; even as he was respected +throughout the town for his misfortunes, his fortitude, his steadfast +adherence to his political convictions. The man so admirable in +adversity was invested with all the majesty of ruined greatness. His +chivalrous fair-mindedness was so well known, that litigants many a +time had referred their disputes to him for arbitration. All gently +bred Imperalists and the authorities themselves showed as much +indulgence for his prejudices as respect for his personal character; +but there was another and a large section of the new society which was +destined to be known after the Restoration as the Liberal party; and +these, with du Croisier as their unacknowledged head, laughed at an +aristocratic oasis which nobody might enter without proof of +irreproachable descent. Their animosity was all the more bitter +because honest country squires and the higher officials, with a good +many worthy folk in the town, were of the opinion that all the best +society thereof was to be found in the Marquis d'Esgrignon's salon. +The prefect himself, the Emperor's chamberlain, made overtures to the +d'Esgrignons, humbly sending his wife (a Grandlieu) as ambassadress. + +Wherefore, those excluded from the miniature provincial Faubourg +Saint-Germain nicknamed the salon "The Collection of Antiquities," and +called the Marquis himself "M. Carol." The receiver of taxes, for +instance, addressed his applications to "M. Carol (ci-devant des +Grignons)," maliciously adopting the obsolete way of spelling. + + + +"For my own part," said Emile Blondet, "if I try to recall my +childhood memories, I remember that the nickname of 'Collection of +Antiquities' always made me laugh, in spite of my respect--my love, I +ought to say--for Mlle. d'Esgrignon. The Hotel d'Esgrignon stood at +the angle of two of the busiest thoroughfares in the town, and not +five hundred paces away from the market place. Two of the drawing-room +windows looked upon the street and two upon the square; the room was +like a glass cage, every one who came past could look through it from +side to side. I was only a boy of twelve at the time, but I thought, +even then, that the salon was one of those rare curiosities which +seem, when you come to think of them afterwards, to lie just on the +borderland between reality and dreams, so that you can scarcely tell +to which side they most belong. + +"The room, the ancient Hall of Audience, stood above a row of cellars +with grated air-holes, once the prison cells of the old court-house, +now converted into a kitchen. I do not know that the magnificent lofty +chimney-piece of the Louvre, with its marvelous carving, seemed more +wonderful to me than the vast open hearth of the salon d'Esgrignon +when I saw it for the first time. It was covered like a melon with a +network of tracery. Over it stood an equestrian portrait of Henri +III., under whom the ancient duchy of appanage reverted to the crown; +it was a great picture executed in low relief, and set in a carved and +gilded frame. The ceiling spaces between the chestnut cross-beams in +the fine old roof were decorated with scroll-work patterns; there was +a little faded gilding still left along the angles. The walls were +covered with Flemish tapestry, six scenes from the Judgment of +Solomon, framed in golden garlands, with satyrs and cupids playing +among the leaves. The parquet floor had been laid down by the present +Marquis, and Chesnel had picked up the furniture at sales of the +wreckage of old chateaux between 1793 and 1795; so that there were +Louis Quatorze consoles, tables, clock-cases, andirons, candle-sconces +and tapestry-covered chairs, which marvelously completed a stately +room, large out of all proportion to the house. Luckily, however, +there was an equally lofty ante-chamber, the ancient Salle des Pas +Perdus of the presidial, which communicated likewise with the +magistrate's deliberating chamber, used by the d'Esgrignons as a +dining-room. + +"Beneath the old paneling, amid the threadbare braveries of a bygone +day, some eight or ten dowagers were drawn up in state in a quavering +line; some with palsied heads, others dark and shriveled like mummies; +some erect and stiff, others bowed and bent, but all of them tricked +out in more or less fantastic costumes as far as possible removed from +the fashion of the day, with be-ribboned caps above their curled and +powdered 'heads,' and old discolored lace. No painter however earnest, +no caricature however wild, ever caught the haunting fascination of +those aged women; they come back to me in dreams; their puckered faces +shape themselves in my memory whenever I meet an old woman who puts me +in mind of them by some faint resemblance of dress or feature. And +whether it is that misfortune has initiated me into the secrets of +irremediable and overwhelming disaster; whether that I have come to +understand the whole range of human feelings, and, best of all, the +thoughts of Old Age and Regret; whatever the reason, nowhere and never +again have I seen among the living or in the faces of the dying the +wan look of certain gray eyes that I remember, nor the dreadful +brightness of others that were black. + +"Neither Hoffmann nor Maturin, the two weirdest imaginations of our +time, ever gave me such a thrill of terror as I used to feel when I +watched the automaton movements of those bodies sheathed in whalebone. +The paint on actors' faces never caused me a shock; I could see below +it the rouge in grain, the rouge de naissance, to quote a comrade at +least as malicious as I can be. Years had leveled those women's faces, +and at the same time furrowed them with wrinkles, till they looked +like the heads on wooden nutcrackers carved in Germany. Peeping in +through the window-panes, I gazed at the battered bodies, and ill- +jointed limbs (how they were fastened together, and, indeed, their +whole anatomy was a mystery I never attempted to explain); I saw the +lantern jaws, the protuberant bones, the abnormal development of the +hips; and the movements of these figures as they came and went seemed +to me no whit less extraordinary than their sepulchral immobility as +they sat round the card-tables. + +"The men looked gray and faded like the ancient tapestries on the +wall, in dress they were much more like the men of the day, but even +they were not altogether convincingly alive. Their white hair, their +withered waxen-hued faces, their devastated foreheads and pale eyes, +revealed their kinship to the women, and neutralized any effects of +reality borrowed from their costume. + +"The very certainty of finding all these folk seated at or among the +tables every day at the same hours invested them at length in my eyes +with a sort of spectacular interest as it were; there was something +theatrical, something unearthly about them. + +"Whenever, in after times, I have gone through museums of old +furniture in Paris, London, Munich, or Vienna, with the gray-headed +custodian who shows you the splendors of time past, I have peopled the +rooms with figures from the Collection of Antiquities. Often, as +little schoolboys of eight or ten we used to propose to go and take a +look at the curiosities in their glass cage, for the fun of the thing. +But as soon as I caught sight of Mlle. Armande's sweet face, I used to +tremble; and there was a trace of jealousy in my admiration for the +lovely child Victurnien, who belonged, as we all instinctively felt, +to a different and higher order of being from our own. It struck me as +something indescribably strange that the young fresh creature should +be there in that cemetery awakened before the time. We could not have +explained our thoughts to ourselves, yet we felt that we were +bourgeois and insignificant in the presence of that proud court." + + + +The disasters of 1813 and 1814, which brought about the downfall of +Napoleon, gave new life to the Collection of Antiquities, and what was +more than life, the hope of recovering their past importance; but the +events of 1815, the troubles of the foreign occupation, and the +vacillating policy of the Government until the fall of M. Decazes, all +contributed to defer the fulfilment of the expectations of the +personages so vividly described by Blondet. This story, therefore, +only begins to shape itself in 1822. + +In 1822 the Marquis d'Esgrignon's fortunes had not improved in spite +of the changes worked by the Restoration in the condition of emigres. +Of all the nobles hardly hit by Revolutionary legislation, his case +was the hardest. Like other great families, the d'Esgrignons before +1789 derived the greater part of their income from their rights as +lords of the manor in the shape of dues paid by those who held of +them; and, naturally, the old seigneurs had reduced the size of the +holdings in order to swell the amounts paid in quit-rents and heriots. +Families in this position were hopelessly ruined. They were not +affected by the ordinance by which Louis XVIII. put the emigres into +possession of such of their lands as had not been sold; and at a later +date it was impossible that the law of indemnity should indemnify +them. Their suppressed rights, as everybody knows, were revived in the +shape of a land tax known by the very name of domaines, but the money +went into the coffers of the State. + +The Marquis by his position belonged to that small section of the +Royalist party which would hear of no kind of compromise with those +whom they styled, not Revolutionaries, but revolted subjects, or, in +more parliamentary language, they had no dealings with Liberals or +Constitutionnels. Such Royalists, nicknamed Ultras by the opposition, +took for leaders and heroes those courageous orators of the Right, who +from the very beginning attempted, with M. de Polignac, to protest +against the charter granted by Louis XVIII. This they regarded as an +ill-advised edict extorted from the Crown by the necessity of the +moment, only to be annulled later on. And, therefore, so far from co- +operating with the King to bring about a new condition of things, the +Marquis d'Esgrignon stood aloof, an upholder of the straitest sect of +the Right in politics, until such time as his vast fortune should be +restored to him. Nor did he so much as admit the thought of the +indemnity which filled the minds of the Villele ministry, and formed a +part of a design of strengthening the Crown by putting an end to those +fatal distinctions of ownership which still lingered on in spite of +legislation. + +The miracles of the Restoration of 1814, the still greater miracle of +Napoleon's return in 1815, the portents of a second flight of the +Bourbons, and a second reinstatement (that almost fabulous phase of +contemporary history), all these things took the Marquis by surprise +at the age of sixty-seven. At that time of life, the most high- +spirited men of their age were not so much vanquished as worn out in +the struggle with the Revolution; their activity, in their remote +provincial retreats, had turned into a passionately held and immovable +conviction; and almost all of them were shut in by the enervating, +easy round of daily life in the country. Could worse luck befall a +political party than this--to be represented by old men at a time when +its ideas are already stigmatized as old-fashioned? + +When the legitimate sovereign appeared to be firmly seated on the +throne again in 1818, the Marquis asked himself what a man of seventy +should do at court; and what duties, what office he could discharge +there? The noble and high-minded d'Esgrignon was fain to be content +with the triumph of the Monarchy and Religion, while he waited for the +results of that unhoped-for, indecisive victory, which proved to be +simply an armistice. He continued as before, lord-paramount of his +salon, so felicitously named the Collection of Antiquities. + +But when the victors of 1793 became the vanquished in their turn, the +nickname given at first in jest began to be used in bitter earnest. +The town was no more free than other country towns from the hatreds +and jealousies bred of party spirit. Du Croisier, contrary to all +expectation, married the old maid who had refused him at first; +carrying her off from his rival, the darling of the aristocratic +quarter, a certain Chevalier whose illustrious name will be +sufficiently hidden by suppressing it altogether, in accordance with +the usage formerly adopted in the place itself, where he was known by +his title only. He was "the Chevalier" in the town, as the Comte +d'Artois was "Monsieur" at court. Now, not only had that marriage +produced a war after the provincial manner, in which all weapons are +fair; it had hastened the separation of the great and little noblesse, +of the aristocratic and bourgeois social elements, which had been +united for a little space by the heavy weight of Napoleonic rule. +After the pressure was removed, there followed that sudden revival of +class divisions which did so much harm to the country. + +The most national of all sentiments in France is vanity. The wounded +vanity of the many induced a thirst for Equality; though, as the most +ardent innovator will some day discover, Equality is an impossibility. +The Royalists pricked the Liberals in the most sensitive spots, and +this happened specially in the provinces, where either party accused +the other of unspeakable atrocities. In those days the blackest deeds +were done in politics, to secure public opinion on one side or the +other, to catch the votes of that public of fools which holds up hands +for those that are clever enough to serve out weapons to them. +Individuals are identified with their political opinions, and +opponents in public life forthwith became private enemies. It is very +difficult in a country town to avoid a man-to-man conflict of this +kind over interests or questions which in Paris appear in a more +general and theoretical form, with the result that political +combatants also rise to a higher level; M. Laffitte, for example, or +M. Casimir-Perier can respect M. de Villele or M. de Payronnet as a +man. M. Laffitte, who drew the fire on the Ministry, would have given +them an asylum in his house if they had fled thither on the 29th of +July 1830. Benjamin Constant sent a copy of his work on Religion to +the Vicomte de Chateaubriand, with a flattering letter acknowledging +benefits received from the former Minister. At Paris men are systems, +whereas in the provinces systems are identified with men; men, +moreover, with restless passions, who must always confront one +another, always spy upon each other in private life, and pull their +opponents' speeches to pieces, and live generally like two duelists on +the watch for a chance to thrust six inches of steel between an +antagonist's ribs. Each must do his best to get under his enemy's +guard, and a political hatred becomes as all-absorbing as a duel to +the death. Epigram and slander are used against individuals to bring +the party into discredit. + +In such warfare as this, waged ceremoniously and without rancor on the +side of the Antiquities, while du Croisier's faction went so far as to +use the poisoned weapons of savages--in this warfare the advantages of +wit and delicate irony lay on the side of the nobles. But it should +never be forgotten that the wounds made by the tongue and the eyes, by +gibe or slight, are the last of all to heal. When the Chevalier turned +his back on mixed society and entrenched himself on the Mons Sacer of +the aristocracy, his witticisms thenceforward were directed at du +Croisier's salon; he stirred up the fires of war, not knowing how far +the spirit of revenge was to urge the rival faction. None but purists +and loyal gentlemen and women sure one of another entered the Hotel +d'Esgrignon; they committed no indiscretions of any kind; they had +their ideas, true or false, good or bad, noble or trivial, but there +was nothing to laugh at in all this. If the Liberals meant to make the +nobles ridiculous, they were obliged to fasten on the political +actions of their opponents; while the intermediate party, composed of +officials and others who paid court to the higher powers, kept the +nobles informed of all that was done and said in the Liberal camp, and +much of it was abundantly laughable. Du Croisier's adherents smarted +under a sense of inferiority, which increased their thirst for +revenge. + +In 1822, du Croisier put himself at the head of the manufacturing +interest of the province, as the Marquis d'Esgrignon headed the +noblesse. Each represented his party. But du Croisier, instead of +giving himself out frankly for a man of the extreme Left, ostensibly +adopted the opinions formulated at a later date by the 221 deputies. + +By taking up this position, he could keep in touch with the +magistrates and local officials and the capitalists of the department. +Du Croisier's salon, a power at least equal to the salon d'Esgrignon, +larger numerically, as well as younger and more energetic, made itself +felt all over the countryside; the Collection of Antiquities, on the +other hand, remained inert, a passive appendage, as it were, of a +central authority which was often embarrassed by its own partisans; +for not merely did they encourage the Government in a mistaken policy, +but some of its most fatal blunders were made in consequence of the +pressure brought to bear upon it by the Conservative party. + +The Liberals, so far, had never contrived to carry their candidate. +The department declined to obey their command knowing that du +Croisier, if elected, would take his place on the Left Centre benches, +and as far as possible to the Left. Du Croisier was in correspondence +with the Brothers Keller, the bankers, the oldest of whom shone +conspicuous among "the nineteen deputies of the Left," that phalanx +made famous by the efforts of the entire Liberal press. This same M. +Keller, moreover, was related by marriage to the Comte de Gondreville, +a Constitutional peer who remained in favor with Louis XVIII. For +these reasons, the Constitutional Opposition (as distinct from the +Liberal party) was always prepared to vote at the last moment, not for +the candidate whom they professed to support, but for du Croisier, if +that worthy could succeed in gaining a sufficient number of Royalist +votes; but at every election du Croisier was regularly thrown out by +the Royalists. The leaders of that party, taking their tone from the +Marquis d'Esgrignon, had pretty thoroughly fathomed and gauged their +man; and with each defeat, du Croisier and his party waxed more +bitter. Nothing so effectually stirs up strife as the failure of some +snare set with elaborate pains. + +In 1822 there seemed to be a lull in hostilities which had been kept +up with great spirit during the first four years of the Restoration. +The salon du Croisier and the salon d'Esgrignon, having measured their +strength and weakness, were in all probability waiting for +opportunity, that Providence of party strife. Ordinary persons were +content with the surface quiet which deceived the Government; but +those who knew du Croisier better, were well aware that the passion of +revenge in him, as in all men whose whole life consists in mental +activity, is implacable, especially when political ambitions are +involved. About this time du Croisier, who used to turn white and red +at the bare mention of d'Esgrignon or the Chevalier, and shuddered at +the name of the Collection of Antiquities, chose to wear the impassive +countenance of a savage. He smiled upon his enemies, hating them but +the more deeply, watching them the more narrowly from hour to hour. +One of his own party, who seconded him in these calculations of cold +wrath, was the President of the Tribunal, M. du Ronceret, a little +country squire, who had vainly endeavored to gain admittance among the +Antiquities. + +The d'Esgrignons' little fortune, carefully administered by Maitre +Chesnel, was barely sufficient for the worthy Marquis' needs; for +though he lived without the slightest ostentation, he also lived like +a noble. The governor found by his Lordship the Bishop for the hope of +the house, the young Comte Victurnien d'Esgrignon, was an elderly +Oratorian who must be paid a certain salary, although he lived with +the family. The wages of a cook, a waiting-woman for Mlle. Armande, an +old valet for M. le Marquis, and a couple of other servants, together +with the daily expenses of the household, and the cost of an education +for which nothing was spared, absorbed the whole family income, in +spite of Mlle. Armande's economies, in spite of Chesnel's careful +management, and the servants' affection. As yet, Chesnel had not been +able to set about repairs at the ruined castle; he was waiting till +the leases fell in to raise the rent of the farms, for rents had been +rising lately, partly on account of improved methods of agriculture, +partly by the fall in the value of money, of which the landlord would +get the benefit at the expiration of leases granted in 1809. + +The Marquis himself knew nothing of the details of the management of +the house or of his property. He would have been thunderstruck if he +had been told of the excessive precautions needed "to make both ends +of the year meet in December," to use the housewife's saying, and he +was so near the end of his life, that every one shrank from opening +his eyes. The Marquis and his adherents believed that a House, to +which no one at Court or in the Government gave a thought, a House +that was never heard of beyond the gates of the town, save here and +there in the same department, was about to revive its ancient +greatness, to shine forth in all its glory. The d'Esgrignons' line +should appear with renewed lustre in the person of Victurnien, just as +the despoiled nobles came into their own again, and the handsome heir +to a great estate would be in a position to go to Court, enter the +King's service, and marry (as other d'Esgrignons had done before him) +a Navarreins, a Cadignan, a d'Uxelles, a Beausant, a Blamont-Chauvry; +a wife, in short, who should unite all the distinctions of birth and +beauty, wit and wealth, and character. + +The intimates who came to play their game of cards of an evening--the +Troisvilles (pronounced Treville), the La Roche-Guyons, the Casterans +(pronounced Cateran), and the Duc de Verneuil--had all so long been +accustomed to look up to the Marquis as a person of immense +consequence, that they encouraged him in such notions as these. They +were perfectly sincere in their belief; and indeed, it would have been +well founded if they could have wiped out the history of the last +forty years. But the most honorable and undoubted sanctions of right, +such as Louis XVIII. had tried to set on record when he dated the +Charter from the one-and-twentieth year of his reign, only exist when +ratified by the general consent. The d'Esgrignons not only lacked the +very rudiments of the language of latter-day politics, to wit, money, +the great modern RELIEF, or sufficient rehabilitation of nobility; +but, in their case, too, "historical continuity" was lacking, and that +is a kind of renown which tells quite as much at Court as on the +battlefield, in diplomatic circles as in Parliament, with a book, or +in connection with an adventure; it is, as it were, a sacred ampulla +poured upon the heads of each successive generation. Whereas a noble +family, inactive and forgotten, is very much in the position of a +hard-featured, poverty-stricken, simple-minded, and virtuous maid, +these qualifications being the four cardinal points of misfortune. The +marriage of a daughter of the Troisvilles with General Montcornet, so +far from opening the eyes of the Antiquities, very nearly brought +about a rupture between the Troisvilles and the salon d'Esgrignon, the +latter declaring that the Troisvilles were mixing themselves up with +all sorts of people. + +There was one, and one only, among all these folk who did not share +their illusions. And that one, needless to say, was Chesnel the +notary. Although his devotion, sufficiently proved already, was simply +unbounded for the great house now reduced to three persons; although +he accepted all their ideas, and thought them nothing less than right, +he had too much common sense, he was too good a man of business to +more than half the families in the department, to miss the +significance of the great changes that were taking place in people's +minds, or to be blind to the different conditions brought about by +industrial development and modern manners. He had watched the +Revolution pass through the violent phase of 1793, when men, women, +and children wore arms, and heads fell on the scaffold, and victories +were won in pitched battles with Europe; and now he saw the same +forces quietly at work in men's minds, in the shape of ideas which +sanctioned the issues. The soil had been cleared, the seed sown, and +now came the harvest. To his thinking, the Revolution had formed the +mind of the younger generation; he touched the hard facts, and knew +that although there were countless unhealed wounds, what had been done +was past recall. The death of a king on the scaffold, the protracted +agony of a queen, the division of the nobles' lands, in his eyes were +so many binding contracts; and where so many vested interests were +involved, it was not likely that those concerned would allow them to +be attacked. Chesnel saw clearly. His fanatical attachment to the +d'Esgrignons was whole-hearted, but it was not blind, and it was all +the fairer for this. The young monk's faith that sees heaven laid open +and beholds the angels, is something far below the power of the old +monk who points them out to him. The ex-steward was like the old monk; +he would have given his life to defend a worm-eaten shrine. + +He tried to explain the "innovations" to his old master, using a +thousand tactful precautions; sometimes speaking jestingly, sometimes +affecting surprise or sorrow over this or that; but he always met the +same prophetic smile on the Marquis' lips, the same fixed conviction +in the Marquis' mind, that these follies would go by like others. +Events contributed in a way which has escaped attention to assist such +noble champions of forlorn hope to cling to their superstitions. What +could Chesnel do when the old Marquis said, with a lordly gesture, +"God swept away Bonaparte with his armies, his new great vassals, his +crowned kings, and his vast conceptions! God will deliver us from the +rest." And Chesnel hung his head sadly, and did not dare to answer, +"It cannot be God's will to sweep away France." Yet both of them were +grand figures; the one, standing out against the torrent of facts like +an ancient block of lichen-covered granite, still upright in the +depths of an Alpine gorge; the other, watching the course of the flood +to turn it to account. Then the good gray-headed notary would groan +over the irreparable havoc which the superstitions were sure to work +in the mind, the habits, and ideas of the Comte Victurnien +d'Esgrignon. + +Idolized by his father, idolized by his aunt, the young heir was a +spoilt child in every sense of the word; but still a spoilt child who +justified paternal and maternal illusions. Maternal, be it said, for +Victurnien's aunt was truly a mother to him; and yet, however careful +and tender she may be that never bore a child, there is something +lacking in her motherhood. A mother's second sight cannot be acquired. +An aunt, bound to her nursling by ties of such pure affection as +united Mlle. Armande to Victurnien, may love as much as a mother +might; may be as careful, as kind, as tender, as indulgent, but she +lacks the mother's instinctive knowledge when and how to be severe; +she has no sudden warnings, none of the uneasy presentiments of the +mother's heart; for a mother, bound to her child from the beginnings +of life by all the fibres of her being, still is conscious of the +communication, still vibrates with the shock of every trouble, and +thrills with every joy in the child's life as if it were her own. If +Nature has made of woman, physically speaking, a neutral ground, it +has not been forbidden to her, under certain conditions, to identify +herself completely with her offspring. When she has not merely given +life, but given of her whole life, you behold that wonderful, +unexplained, and inexplicable thing--the love of a woman for one of +her children above the others. The outcome of this story is one more +proof of a proven truth--a mother's place cannot be filled. A mother +foresees danger long before a Mlle. Armande can admit the possibility +of it, even if the mischief is done. The one prevents the evil, the +other remedies it. And besides, in the maiden's motherhood there is an +element of blind adoration, she cannot bring herself to scold a +beautiful boy. + +A practical knowledge of life, and the experience of business, had +taught the old notary a habit of distrustful clear-sighted observation +something akin to the mother's instinct. But Chesnel counted for so +little in the house (especially since he had fallen into something +like disgrace over that unlucky project of a marriage between a +d'Esgrignon and a du Croisier), that he had made up his mind to adhere +blindly in future to the family doctrines. He was a common soldier, +faithful to his post, and ready to give his life; it was never likely +that they would take his advice, even in the height of the storm; +unless chance should bring him, like the King's bedesman in The +Antiquary, to the edge of the sea, when the old baronet and his +daughter were caught by the high tide. + +Du Croisier caught a glimpse of his revenge in the anomalous education +given to the lad. He hoped, to quote the expressive words of the +author quoted above, "to drown the lamb in its mother's milk." THIS +was the hope which had produced his taciturn resignation and brought +that savage smile on his lips. + +The young Comte Victurnien was taught to believe in his own supremacy +as soon as an idea could enter his head. All the great nobles of the +realm were his peers, his one superior was the King, and the rest of +mankind were his inferiors, people with whom he had nothing in common, +towards whom he had no duties. They were defeated and conquered +enemies, whom he need not take into account for a moment; their +opinions could not affect a noble, and they all owed him respect. +Unluckily, with the rigorous logic of youth, which leads children and +young people to proceed to extremes whether good or bad, Victurnien +pushed these conclusions to their utmost consequences. His own +external advantages, moreover, confirmed him in his beliefs. He had +been extraordinarily beautiful as a child; he became as accomplished a +young man as any father could wish. + +He was of average height, but well proportioned, slender, and almost +delicate-looking, but muscular. He had the brilliant blue eyes of the +d'Esgrignons, the finely-moulded aquiline nose, the perfect oval of +the face, the auburn hair, the white skin, and the graceful gait of +his family; he had their delicate extremities, their long taper +fingers with the inward curve, and that peculiar distinction of +shapeliness of the wrist and instep, that supple felicity of line, +which is as sure a sign of race in men as in horses. Adroit and alert +in all bodily exercises, and an excellent shot, he handled arms like a +St. George, he was a paladin on horseback. In short, he gratified the +pride which parents take in their children's appearance; a pride +founded, for that matter, on a just idea of the enormous influence +exercised by physical beauty. Personal beauty has this in common with +noble birth; it cannot be acquired afterwards; it is everywhere +recognized, and often is more valued than either brains or money; +beauty has only to appear and triumph; nobody asks more of beauty than +that it should simply exist. + +Fate had endowed Victurnien, over and above the privileges of good +looks and noble birth, with a high spirit, a wonderful aptitude of +comprehension, and a good memory. His education, therefore, had been +complete. He knew a good deal more than is usually known by young +provincial nobles, who develop into highly-distinguished sportsmen, +owners of land, and consumers of tobacco; and are apt to treat art, +sciences, letters, poetry, or anything offensively above their +intellects, cavalierly enough. Such gifts of nature and education +surely would one day realize the Marquis d'Esgrignon's ambitions; he +already saw his son a Marshal of France if Victurnien's tastes were +for the army; an ambassador if diplomacy held any attractions for him; +a cabinet minister if that career seemed good in his eyes; every place +in the state belonged to Victurnien. And, most gratifying thought of +all for a father, the young Count would have made his way in the world +by his own merits even if he had not been a d'Esgrignon. + +All through his happy childhood and golden youth, Victurnien had never +met with opposition to his wishes. He had been the king of the house; +no one curbed the little prince's will; and naturally he grew up +insolent and audacious, selfish as a prince, self-willed as the most +high-spirited cardinal of the Middle Ages,--defects of character which +any one might guess from his qualities, essentially those of the +noble. + +The Chevalier was a man of the good old times when the Gray Musketeers +were the terror of the Paris theatres, when they horsewhipped the +watch and drubbed servers of writs, and played a host of page's +pranks, at which Majesty was wont to smile so long as they were +amusing. This charming deceiver and hero of the ruelles had no small +share in bringing about the disasters which afterwards befell. The +amiable old gentleman, with nobody to understand him, was not a little +pleased to find a budding Faublas, who looked the part to admiration, +and put him in mind of his own young days. So, making no allowance for +the difference of the times, he sowed the maxims of a roue of the +Encyclopaedic period broadcast in the boy's mind. He told wicked +anecdotes of the reign of His Majesty Louis XV.; he glorified the +manners and customs of the year 1750; he told of the orgies in petites +maisons, the follies of courtesans, the capital tricks played on +creditors, the manners, in short, which furnished forth Dancourt's +comedies and Beaumarchais' epigrams. And unfortunately, the corruption +lurking beneath the utmost polish tricked itself out in Voltairean +wit. If the Chevalier went rather too far at times, he always added as +a corrective that a man must always behave himself like a gentleman. + +Of all this discourse, Victurnien comprehended just so much as +flattered his passions. From the first he saw his old father laughing +with the Chevalier. The two elderly men considered that the pride of a +d'Esgrignon was a sufficient safeguard against anything unbefitting; +as for a dishonorable action, no one in the house imagined that a +d'Esgrignon could be guilty of it. HONOR, the great principle of +Monarchy, was planted firm like a beacon in the hearts of the family; +it lighted up the least action, it kindled the least thought of a +d'Esgrignon. "A d'Esgrignon ought not to permit himself to do such and +such a thing; he bears a name which pledges him to make a future +worthy of the past"--a noble teaching which should have been +sufficient in itself to keep alive the tradition of noblesse--had +been, as it were, the burden of Victurnien's cradle song. He heard +them from the old Marquis, from Mlle. Armande, from Chesnel, from the +intimates of the house. And so it came to pass that good and evil met, +and in equal forces, in the boy's soul. + +At the age of eighteen, Victurnien went into society. He noticed some +slight discrepancies between the outer world of the town and the inner +world of the Hotel d'Esgrignon, but he in no wise tried to seek the +causes of them. And, indeed, the causes were to be found in Paris. He +had yet to learn that the men who spoke their minds out so boldly in +evening talk with his father, were extremely careful of what they said +in the presence of the hostile persons with whom their interests +compelled them to mingle. His own father had won the right of freedom +of speech. Nobody dreamed of contradicting an old man of seventy, and +besides, every one was willing to overlook fidelity to the old order +of things in a man who had been violently despoiled. + +Victurnien was deceived by appearances, and his behavior set up the +backs of the townspeople. In his impetuous way he tried to carry +matters with too high a hand over some difficulties in the way of +sport, which ended in formidable lawsuits, hushed up by Chesnel for +money paid down. Nobody dared to tell the Marquis of these things. You +may judge of his astonishment if he had heard that his son had been +prosecuted for shooting over his lands, his domains, his covers, under +the reign of a son of St. Louis! People were too much afraid of the +possible consequences to tell him about such trifles, Chesnel said. + +The young Count indulged in other escapades in the town. These the +Chevalier regarded as "amourettes," but they cost Chesnel something +considerable in portions for forsaken damsels seduced under imprudent +promises of marriage: yet other cases there were which came under an +article of the Code as to the abduction of minors; and but for +Chesnel's timely intervention, the new law would have been allowed to +take its brutal course, and it is hard to say where the Count might +have ended. Victurnien grew the bolder for these victories over +bourgeois justice. He was so accustomed to be pulled out of scrapes, +that he never thought twice before any prank. Courts of law, in his +opinion, were bugbears to frighten people who had no hold on him. +Things which he would have blamed in common people were for him only +pardonable amusements. His disposition to treat the new laws +cavalierly while obeying the maxims of a Code for aristocrats, his +behavior and character, were all pondered, analyzed, and tested by a +few adroit persons in du Croisier's interests. These folk supported +each other in the effort to make the people believe that Liberal +slanders were revelations, and that the Ministerial policy at bottom +meant a return to the old order of things. + +What a bit of luck to find something by way of proof of their +assertions! President du Ronceret, and the public prosecutor likewise, +lent themselves admirably, so far as was compatible with their duty as +magistrates, to the design of letting off the offender as easily as +possible; indeed, they went deliberately out of their way to do this, +well pleased to raise a Liberal clamor against their overlarge +concessions. And so, while seeming to serve the interests of the +d'Esgrignons, they stirred up feeling against them. The treacherous de +Ronceret had it in his mind to pose as incorruptible at the right +moment over some serious charge, with public opinion to back him up. +The young Count's worst tendencies, moreover, were insidiously +encouraged by two or three young men who followed in his train, paid +court to him, won his favor, and flattered and obeyed him, with a view +to confirming his belief in a noble's supremacy; and all this at a +time when a noble's one chance of preserving his power lay in using it +with the utmost discretion for half a century to come. + +Du Croisier hoped to reduce the d'Esgrignons to the last extremity of +poverty; he hoped to see their castle demolished, and their lands sold +piecemeal by auction, through the follies which this harebrained boy +was pretty certain to commit. This was as far as he went; he did not +think, with President du Ronceret, that Victurnien was likely to give +justice another kind of hold upon him. Both men found an ally for +their schemes of revenge in Victurnien's overweening vanity and love +of pleasure. President du Ronceret's son, a lad of seventeen, was +admirably fitted for the part of instigator. He was one of the Count's +companions, a new kind of spy in du Croisier's pay; du Croisier taught +him his lesson, set him to track down the noble and beautiful boy +through his better qualities, and sardonically prompted him to +encourage his victim in his worst faults. Fabien du Ronceret was a +sophisticated youth, to whom such a mystification was attractive; he +had precisely the keen brain and envious nature which finds in such a +pursuit as this the absorbing amusement which a man of an ingenious +turn lacks in the provinces. + +In three years, between the ages of eighteen and one-and-twenty, +Victurnien cost poor Chesnel nearly eighty thousand francs! And this +without the knowledge of Mlle. Armande or the Marquis. More than half +of the money had been spent in buying off lawsuits; the lad's +extravagance had squandered the rest. Of the Marquis' income of ten +thousand livres, five thousand were necessary for the housekeeping; +two thousand more represented Mlle. Armande's allowance (parsimonious +though she was) and the Marquis' expenses. The handsome young heir- +presumptive, therefore, had not a hundred louis to spend. And what +sort of figure can a man make on two thousand livres? Victurnien's +tailor's bills alone absorbed his whole allowance. He had his linen, +his clothes, gloves, and perfumery from Paris. He wanted a good +English saddle-horse, a tilbury, and a second horse. M. du Croisier +had a tilbury and a thoroughbred. Was the bourgeoisie to cut out the +noblesse? Then, the young Count must have a man in the d'Esgrignon +livery. He prided himself on setting the fashion among young men in +the town and the department; he entered that world of luxuries and +fancies which suit youth and good looks and wit so well. Chesnel paid +for it all, not without using, like ancient parliaments, the right of +protest, albeit he spoke with angelic kindness. + +"What a pity it is that so good a man should be so tiresome!" +Victurnien would say to himself every time that the notary staunched +some wound in his purse. + +Chesnel had been left a widower, and childless; he had taken his old +master's son to fill the void in his heart. It was a pleasure to him +to watch the lad driving up the High Street, perched aloft on the box- +seat of the tilbury, whip in hand, and a rose in his button-hole, +handsome, well turned out, envied by every one. + +Pressing need would bring Victurnien with uneasy eyes and coaxing +manner, but steady voice, to the modest house in the Rue du Bercail; +there had been losses at cards at the Troisvilles, or the Duc de +Verneuil's, or the prefecture, or the receiver-general's, and the +Count had come to his providence, the notary. He had only to show +himself to carry the day. + +"Well, what is it, M. le Comte? What has happened?" the old man would +ask, with a tremor in his voice. + +On great occasions Victurnien would sit down, assume a melancholy, +pensive expression, and submit with little coquetries of voice and +gesture to be questioned. Then when he had thoroughly roused the old +man's fears (for Chesnel was beginning to fear how such a course of +extravagance would end), he would own up to a peccadillo which a bill +for a thousand francs would absolve. Chesnel possessed a private +income of some twelve thousand livres, but the fund was not +inexhaustible. The eighty thousand francs thus squandered represented +his savings, accumulated for the day when the Marquis should send his +son to Paris, or open negotiations for a wealthy marriage. + +Chesnel was clear-sighted so long as Victurnien was not there before +him. One by one he lost the illusions which the Marquis and his sister +still fondly cherished. He saw that the young fellow could not be +depended upon in the least, and wished to see him married to some +modest, sensible girl of good birth, wondering within himself how a +young man could mean so well and do so ill, for he made promises one +day only to break them all on the next. + +But there is never any good to be expected of young men who confess +their sins and repent, and straightway fall into them again. A man of +strong character only confesses his faults to himself, and punishes +himself for them; as for the weak, they drop back into the old ruts +when they find that the bank is too steep to climb. The springs of +pride which lie in a great man's secret soul had been slackened in +Victurnien. With such guardians as he had, such company as he kept, +such a life as he led, he had suddenly became an enervated voluptuary +at that turning-point in his life when a man most stands in need of +the harsh discipline of misfortune and adversity which formed a Prince +Eugene, a Frederick II., a Napoleon. Chesnel saw that Victurnien +possessed that uncontrollable appetite for enjoyments which should be +the prerogative of men endowed with giant powers; the men who feel the +need of counterbalancing their gigantic labors by pleasures which +bring one-sided mortals to the pit. + +At times the good man stood aghast; then, again, some profound sally, +some sign of the lad's remarkable range of intellect, would reassure +him. He would say, as the Marquis said at the rumor of some escapade, +"Boys will be boys." Chesnel had spoken to the Chevalier, lamenting +the young lord's propensity for getting into debt; but the Chevalier +manipulated his pinch of snuff, and listened with a smile of +amusement. + +"My dear Chesnel, just explain to me what a national debt is," he +answered. "If France has debts, egad! why should not Victurnien have +debts? At this time and at all times princes have debts, every +gentleman has debts. Perhaps you would rather that Victurnien should +bring you his savings?--Do you know that our great Richelieu (not the +Cardinal, a pitiful fellow that put nobles to death, but the +Marechal), do you know what he did once when his grandson the Prince +de Chinon, the last of the line, let him see that he had not spent his +pocket-money at the University?" + +"No, M. le Chevalier." + +"Oh, well; he flung the purse out of the window to a sweeper in the +courtyard, and said to his grandson, 'Then they do not teach you to be +a prince here?'" + +Chesnel bent his head and made no answer. But that night, as he lay +awake, he thought that such doctrines as these were fatal in times +when there was one law for everybody, and foresaw the first beginnings +of the ruin of the d'Esgrignons. + + + +But for these explanations which depict one side of provincial life in +the time of the Empire and the Restoration, it would not be easy to +understand the opening scene of this history, an incident which took +place in the great salon one evening towards the end of October 1822. +The card-tables were forsaken, the Collection of Antiquities--elderly +nobles, elderly countesses, young marquises, and simple baronesses-- +had settled their losses and winnings. The master of the house was +pacing up and down the room, while Mlle. Armande was putting out the +candles on the card-tables. He was not taking exercise alone, the +Chevalier was with him, and the two wrecks of the eighteenth century +were talking of Victurnien. The Chevalier had undertaken to broach the +subject with the Marquis. + +"Yes, Marquis," he was saying, "your son is wasting his time and his +youth; you ought to send him to court." + +"I have always thought," said the Marquis, "that if my great age +prevents me from going to court--where, between ourselves, I do not +know what I should do among all these new people whom his Majesty +receives, and all that is going on there--that if I could not go +myself, I could at least send my son to present our homage to His +Majesty. The King surely would do something for the Count--give him a +company, for instance, or a place in the Household, a chance, in +short, for the boy to win his spurs. My uncle the Archbishop suffered +a cruel martyrdom; I have fought for the cause without deserting the +camp with those who thought it their duty to follow the Princes. I +held that while the King was in France, his nobles should rally round +him.--Ah! well, no one gives us a thought; a Henry IV. would have +written before now to the d'Esgrignons, 'Come to me, my friends; we +have won the day!'--After all, we are something better than the +Troisvilles, yet here are two Troisvilles made peers of France; and +another, I hear, represents the nobles in the Chamber." (He took the +upper electoral colleges for assemblies of his own order.) "Really, +they think no more of us than if we did not exist. I was waiting for +the Princes to make their journey through this part of the world; but +as the Princes do not come to us, we must go to the Princes." + +"I am enchanted to learn that you think of introducing our dear +Victurnien into society," the Chevalier put in adroitly. "He ought not +to bury his talents in a hole like this town. The best fortune that he +can look for here is to come across some Norman girl" (mimicking the +accent), "country-bred, stupid, and rich. What could he make of +her?--his wife? Oh! good Lord!" + +"I sincerely hope that he will defer his marriage until he has +obtained some great office or appointment under the Crown," returned +the gray-haired Marquis. "Still, there are serious difficulties in the +way." + +And these were the only difficulties which the Marquis saw at the +outset of his son's career. + +"My son, the Comte d'Esgrignon, cannot make his appearance at court +like a tatterdemalion," he continued after a pause, marked by a sigh; +"he must be equipped. Alas! for these two hundred years we have had no +retainers. Ah! Chevalier, this demolition from top to bottom always +brings me back to the first hammer stroke delivered by M. de Mirabeau. +The one thing needful nowadays is money; that is all that the +Revolution has done that I can see. The King does not ask you whether +you are a descendant of the Valois or a conquerer of Gaul; he asks +whether you pay a thousand francs in tailles which nobles never used +to pay. So I cannot well send the Count to court without a matter of +twenty thousand crowns----" + +"Yes," assented the Chevalier, "with that trifling sum he could cut a +brave figure." + +"Well," said Mlle. Armande, "I have asked Chesnel to come to-night. +Would you believe it, Chevalier, ever since the day when Chesnel +proposed that I should marry that miserable du Croisier----" + +"Ah! that was truly unworthy, mademoiselle!" cried the Chevalier. + +"Unpardonable!" said the Marquis. + +"Well, since then my brother has never brought himself to ask anything +whatsoever of Chesnel," continued Mlle. Armande. + +"Of your old household servant? Why, Marquis, you would do Chesnel +honor--an honor which he would gratefully remember till his latest +breath." + +"No," said the Marquis, "the thing is beneath one's dignity, it seems +to me." + +"There is not much question of dignity; it is a matter of necessity," +said the Chevalier, with the trace of a shrug. + +"Never," said the Marquis, riposting with a gesture which decided the +Chevalier to risk a great stroke to open his old friend's eyes. + +"Very well," he said, "since you do not know it, I will tell you +myself that Chesnel has let your son have something already, something +like----" + +"My son is incapable of accepting anything whatever from Chesnel," the +Marquis broke in, drawing himself up as he spoke. "He might have come +to YOU to ask you for twenty-five louis----" + +"Something like a hundred thousand livres," said the Chevalier, +finishing his sentence. + +"The Comte d'Esgrignon owes a hundred thousand livres to a Chesnel!" +cried the Marquis, with every sign of deep pain. "Oh! if he were not +an only son, he should set out to-night for Mexico with a captain's +commission. A man may be in debt to money-lenders, they charge a heavy +interest, and you are quits; that is right enough; but CHESNEL! a man +to whom one is attached!----" + +"Yes, our adorable Victurnien has run through a hundred thousand +livres, dear Marquis," resumed the Chevalier, flicking a trace of +snuff from his waistcoat; "it is not much, I know. I myself at his +age---- But, after all, let us let old memories be, Marquis. The Count +is living in the provinces; all things taken into consideration, it is +not so much amiss. He will not go far; these irregularities are common +in men who do great things afterwards----" + +"And he is sleeping upstairs, without a word of this to his father," +exclaimed the Marquis. + +"Sleeping innocently as a child who has merely got five or six little +bourgeoises into trouble, and now must have duchesses," returned the +Chevalier. + +"Why, he deserves a lettre de cachet!" + +"'They' have done away with lettres de cachet," said the Chevalier. +"You know what a hubbub there was when they tried to institute a law +for special cases. We could not keep the provost's courts, which M. DE +Bonaparte used to call commissions militaires." + +"Well, well; what are we to do if our boys are wild, or turn out +scapegraces? Is there no locking them up in these days?" asked the +Marquis. + +The Chevalier looked at the heartbroken father and lacked courage to +answer, "We shall be obliged to bring them up properly." + +"And you have never said a word of this to me, Mlle. d'Esgrignon," +added the Marquis, turning suddenly round upon Mlle. Armande. He never +addressed her as Mlle. d'Esgrignon except when he was vexed; usually +she was called "my sister." + +"Why, monsieur, when a young man is full of life and spirits, and +leads an idle life in a town like this, what else can you expect?" +asked Mlle. d'Esgrignon. She could not understand her brother's anger. + +"Debts! eh! why, hang it all!" added the Chevalier. "He plays cards, +he has little adventures, he shoots,--all these things are horribly +expensive nowadays." + +"Come," said the Marquis, "it is time to send him to the King. I will +spend to-morrow morning in writing to our kinsmen." + +"I have some acquaintance with the Ducs de Navarreins, de Lenoncourt, +de Maufrigneuse, and de Chaulieu," said the Chevalier, though he knew, +as he spoke, that he was pretty thoroughly forgotten. + +"My dear Chevalier, there is no need of such formalities to present a +d'Esgrignon at court," the Marquis broke in.--"A hundred thousand +livres," he muttered; "this Chesnel makes very free. This is what +comes of these accursed troubles. M. Chesnel protects my son. And now +I must ask him. . . . No, sister, you must undertake this business. +Chesnel shall secure himself for the whole amount by a mortgage on our +lands. And just give this harebrained boy a good scolding; he will end +by ruining himself if he goes on like this." + +The Chevalier and Mlle. d'Esgrignon thought these words perfectly +simple and natural, absurd as they would have sounded to any other +listener. So far from seeing anything ridiculous in the speech, they +were both very much touched by a look of something like anguish in the +old noble's face. Some dark premonition seemed to weigh upon M. +d'Esgrignon at that moment, some glimmering of an insight into the +changed times. He went to the settee by the fireside and sat down, +forgetting that Chesnel would be there before long; that Chesnel, of +whom he could not bring himself to ask anything. + +Just then the Marquis d'Esgrignon looked exactly as any imagination +with a touch of romance could wish. He was almost bald, but a fringe +of silken, white locks, curled at the tips, covered the back of his +head. All the pride of race might be seen in a noble forehead, such as +you may admire in a Louis XV., a Beaumarchais, a Marechal de +Richelieu, it was not the square, broad brow of the portraits of the +Marechal de Saxe; nor yet the small hard circle of Voltaire, compact +to overfulness; it was graciously rounded and finely moulded, the +temples were ivory tinted and soft; and mettle and spirit, unquenched +by age, flashed from the brilliant eyes. The Marquis had the Conde +nose and the lovable Bourbon mouth, from which, as they used to say of +the Comte d'Artois, only witty and urbane words proceed. His cheeks, +sloping rather than foolishly rounded to the chin, were in keeping +with his spare frame, thin legs, and plump hands. The strangulation +cravat at his throat was of the kind which every marquis wears in all +the portraits which adorn eighteenth century literature; it is common +alike to Saint-Preux and to Lovelace, to the elegant Montesquieu's +heroes and to Diderot's homespun characters (see the first editions of +those writers' works). + +The Marquis always wore a white, gold-embroidered, high waistcoat, +with the red ribbon of a commander of the Order of St. Louis blazing +upon his breast; and a blue coat with wide skirts, and fleur-de-lys on +the flaps, which were turned back--an odd costume which the King had +adopted. But the Marquis could not bring himself to give up the +Frenchman's knee-breeches nor yet the white silk stockings or the +buckles at the knees. After six o'clock in the evening he appeared in +full dress. + +He read no newspapers but the Quotidienne and the Gazette de France, +two journals accused by the Constitutional press of obscurantist views +and uncounted "monarchical and religious" enormities; while the +Marquis d'Esgrignon, on the other hand, found heresies and +revolutionary doctrines in every issue. No matter to what extremes the +organs of this or that opinion may go, they will never go quite far +enough to please the purists on their own side; even as the portrayer +of this magnificent personage is pretty certain to be accused of +exaggeration, whereas he has done his best to soften down some of the +cruder tones and dim the more startling tints of the original. + +The Marquis d'Esgrignon rested his elbows on his knees and leant his +head on his hands. During his meditations Mlle. Armande and the +Chevalier looked at one another without uttering the thoughts in their +minds. Was he pained by the discovery that his son's future must +depend upon his sometime land steward? Was he doubtful of the +reception awaiting the young Count? Did he regret that he had made no +preparation for launching his heir into that brilliant world of court? +Poverty had kept him in the depths of his province; how should he have +appeared at court? He sighed heavily as he raised his head. + +That sigh, in those days, came from the real aristocracy all over +France; from the loyal provincial noblesse, consigned to neglect with +most of those who had drawn sword and braved the storm for the cause. + +"What have the Princes done for the du Guenics, or the Fontaines, or +the Bauvans, who never submitted?" he muttered to himself. "They fling +miserable pensions to the men who fought most bravely, and give them a +royal lieutenancy in a fortress somewhere on the outskirts of the +kingdom." + +Evidently the Marquis doubted the reigning dynasty. Mlle. d'Esgrignon +was trying to reassure her brother as to the prospects of the journey, +when a step outside on the dry narrow footway gave them notice of +Chesnel's coming. In another moment Chesnel appeared; Josephin, the +Count's gray-aired valet, admitted the notary without announcing him. + +"Chesnel, my boy----" (Chesnel was a white-haired man of sixty-nine, +with a square-jawed, venerable countenance; he wore knee-breeches, +ample enough to fill several chapters of dissertation in the manner of +Sterne, ribbed stockings, shoes with silver clasps, an ecclesiastical- +looking coat and a high waistcoat of scholastic cut.) + +"Chesnel, my boy, it was very presumptuous of you to lend money to the +Comte d'Esgrignon! If I repaid you at once and we never saw each other +again, it would be no more than you deserve for giving wings to his +vices." + +There was a pause, a silence such as there falls at court when the +King publicly reprimands a courtier. The old notary looked humble and +contrite. + +"I am anxious about that boy, Chesnel," continued the Marquis in a +kindly tone; "I should like to send him to Paris to serve His Majesty. +Make arrangements with my sister for his suitable appearance at +court.--And we will settle accounts----" + +The Marquis looked grave as he left the room with a friendly gesture +of farewell to Chesnel. + +"I thank M. le Marquis for all his goodness," returned the old man, +who still remained standing. + +Mlle. Armande rose to go to the door with her brother; she had rung +the bell, old Josephin was in readiness to light his master to his +room. + +"Take a seat, Chesnel," said the lady, as she returned, and with +womanly tact she explained away and softened the Marquis' harshness. +And yet beneath that harshness Chesnel saw a great affection. The +Marquis' attachment for his old servant was something of the same +order as a man's affection for his dog; he will fight any one who +kicks the animal, the dog is like a part of his existence, a something +which, if not exactly himself, represents him in that which is nearest +and dearest--his sensibilities. + +"It is quite time that M. le Comte should be sent away from the town, +mademoiselle," he said sententiously. + +"Yes," returned she. "Has he been indulging in some new escapade?" + +"No, mademoiselle." + +"Well, why do you blame him?" + +"I am not blaming him, mademoiselle. No, I am not blaming him. I am +very far from blaming him. I will even say that I shall never blame +him, whatever he may do." + +There was a pause. The Chevalier, nothing if not quick to take in a +situation, began to yawn like a sleep-ridden mortal. Gracefully he +made his excuses and went, with as little mind to sleep as to go and +drown himself. The imp Curiosity kept the Chevalier wide awake, and +with airy fingers plucked away the cotton wool from his ears. + +"Well, Chesnel, is it something new?" Mlle. Armande began anxiously. + +"Yes, things that cannot be told to M. le Marquis; he would drop down +in an apoplectic fit." + +"Speak out," she said. With her beautiful head leant on the back of +her low chair, and her arms extended listlessly by her side, she +looked as if she were waiting passively for her deathblow. + +"Mademoiselle, M. le Comte, with all his cleverness, is a plaything in +the hands of mean creatures, petty natures on the lookout for a +crushing revenge. They want to ruin us and bring us low! There is the +President of the Tribunal, M. de Ronceret; he has, as you know, a very +great notion of his descent----" + +"His grandfather was an attorney," interposed Mlle. Armande. + +"I know he was. And for that reason you have not received him; nor +does he go to M. de Troisville's, nor to M. le Duc de Verneuil's, nor +to the Marquis de Casteran's; but he is one of the pillars of du +Croisier's salon. Your nephew may rub shoulders with young M. Fabien +du Ronceret without condescending too far, for he must have companions +of his own age. Well and good. That young fellow is at the bottom of +all M. le Comte's follies; he and two or three of the rest of them +belong to the other side, the side of M. le Chevalier's enemy, who +does nothing but breathe threats of vengeance against you and all the +nobles together. They all hope to ruin you through your nephew. The +ringleader of the conspiracy is this sycophant of a du Croisier, the +pretended Royalist. Du Croisier's wife, poor thing, knows nothing +about it; you know her, I should have heard of it before this if she +had ears to hear evil. For some time these wild young fellows were not +in the secret, nor was anybody else; but the ringleaders let something +drop in jest, and then the fools got to know about it, and after the +Count's recent escapades they let fall some words while they were +drunk. And those words were carried to me by others who are sorry to +see such a fine, handsome, noble, charming lad ruining himself with +pleasure. So far people feel sorry for him; before many days are over +they will--I am afraid to say what----" + +"They will despise him; say it out, Chesnel!" Mlle. Armande cried +piteously. + +"Ah! How can you keep the best people in the town from finding out +faults in their neighbors? They do not know what to do with themselves +from morning to night. And so M. le Comte's losses at play are all +reckoned up. Thirty thousand francs have taken flight during these two +months, and everybody wonders where he gets the money. If they mention +it when I am present, I just call them to order. Ah! but--'Do you +suppose' (I told them this morning), 'do you suppose that if the +d'Esgrignon family have lost their manorial rights, that therefore +they have been robbed of their hoard of treasure? The young Count has +a right to do as he pleases; and so long as he does not owe you a +half-penny, you have no right to say a word.'" + +Mlle, Armande held out her hand, and the notary kissed it +respectfully. + +"Good Chesnel! . . . But, my friend, how shall we find the money for +this journey? Victurnien must appear as befits his rank at court." + +"Oh! I have borrowed money on Le Jard, mademoiselle." + +"What? You have nothing left! Ah, heaven! what can we do to reward +you?" + +"You can take the hundred thousand francs which I hold at your +disposal. You can understand that the loan was negotiated in +confidence, so that it might not reflect on you; for it is known in +the town that I am closely connected with the d'Esgrignon family." + +Tears came into Mlle. Armande's eyes. Chesnel saw them, took a fold of +the noble woman's dress in his hands, and kissed it. + +"Never mind," he said, "a lad must sow his wild oats. In great salons +in Paris his boyish ideas will take a new turn. And, really, though +our old friends here are the worthiest folk in the world, and no one +could have nobler hearts than they, they are not amusing. If M. le +Comte wants amusement, he is obliged to look below his rank, and he +will end by getting into low company." + +Next day the old traveling coach saw the light, and was sent to be put +in repair. In a solemn interview after breakfast, the hope of the +house was duly informed of his father's intentions regarding him--he +was to go to court and ask to serve His Majesty. He would have time +during the journey to make up his mind about his career. The navy or +the army, the privy council, an embassy, or the Royal Household,--all +were open to a d'Esgrignon, a d'Esgrignon had only to choose. The King +would certainly look favorably upon the d'Esgrignons, because they had +asked nothing of him, and had sent the youngest representative of +their house to receive the recognition of Majesty. + +But young d'Esgrignon, with all his wild pranks, had guessed +instinctively what society in Paris meant, and formed his own opinions +of life. So when they talked of his leaving the country and the +paternal roof, he listened with a grave countenance to his revered +parent's lecture, and refrained from giving him a good deal of +information in reply. As, for instance, that young men no longer went +into the army or the navy as they used to do; that if a man had a mind +to be a second lieutenant in a cavalry regiment without passing +through a special training in the Ecoles, he must first serve in the +Pages; that sons of the greatest houses went exactly like commoners to +Saint-Cyr and the Ecole polytechnique, and took their chances of being +beaten by base blood. If he had enlightened his relatives on these +points, funds might not have been forthcoming for a stay in Paris; so +he allowed his father and Aunt Armande to believe that he would be +permitted a seat in the King's carriages, that he must support his +dignity at court as the d'Esgrignon of the time, and rub shoulders +with great lords of the realm. + +It grieved the Marquis that he could send but one servant with his +son; but he gave him his own valet Josephin, a man who can be trusted +to take care of his young master, and to watch faithfully over his +interests. The poor father must do without Josephin, and hope to +replace him with a young lad. + +"Remember that you are a Carol, my boy," he said; "remember that you +come of an unalloyed descent, and that your scutcheon bears the motto +Cil est nostre; with such arms you may hold your head high everywhere, +and aspire to queens. Render grace to your father, as I to mine. We +owe it to the honor of our ancestors, kept stainless until now, that +we can look all men in the face, and need bend the knee to none save a +mistress, the King, and God. This is the greatest of your privileges." + +Chesnel, good man, was breakfasting with the family. He took no part +in counsels based on heraldry, nor in the inditing of letters +addressed to divers mighty personages of the day; but he had spent the +night in writing to an old friend of his, one of the oldest +established notaries of Paris. Without this letter it is not possible +to understand Chesnel's real and assumed fatherhood. It almost recalls +Daedalus' address to Icarus; for where, save in old mythology, can you +look for comparisons worthy of this man of antique mould? + + + "MY DEAR AND ESTIMABLE SORBIER,--I remember with no little + pleasure that I made my first campaign in our honorable profession + under your father, and that you had a liking for me, poor little + clerk that I was. And now I appeal to old memories of the days + when we worked in the same office, old pleasant memories for our + hearts, to ask you to do me the one service that I have ever asked + of you in the course of our long lives, crossed as they have been + by political catastrophes, to which, perhaps, I owe it that I have + the honor to be your colleague. And now I ask this service of you, + my friend, and my white hairs will be brought with sorrow to the + grave if you should refuse my entreaty. It is no question of + myself or of mine, Sorbier, for I lost poor Mme. Chesnel, and I + have no child of my own. Something more to me than my own family + (if I had one) is involved--it is the Marquis d'Esgrignon's only + son. I have had the honor to be the Marquis' land steward ever + since I left the office to which his father sent me at his own + expense, with the idea of providing for me. The house which + nurtured me has passed through all the troubles of the Revolution. + I have managed to save some of their property; but what is it, + after all, in comparison with the wealth that they have lost? I + cannot tell you, Sorbier, how deeply I am attached to the great + house, which has been all but swallowed up under my eyes by the + abyss of time. M. le Marquis was proscribed, and his lands + confiscated, he was getting on in years, he had no child. + Misfortunes upon misfortunes! Then M. le Marquis married, and his + wife died when the young Count was born, and to-day this noble, + dear, and precious child is all the life of the d'Esgrignon + family; the fate of the house hangs upon him. He has got into debt + here with amusing himself. What else should he do in the provinces + with an allowance of a miserable hundred louis? Yes, my friend, a + hundred louis, the great house has come to this. + + "In this extremity his father thinks it necessary to send the + Count to Paris to ask for the King's favor at court. Paris is a + very dangerous place for a lad; if he is to keep steady there, he + must have the grain of sense which makes notaries of us. Besides, + I should be heartbroken to think of the poor boy living amid such + hardships as we have known.--Do you remember the pleasure with + which we spent a day and a night there waiting to see The Marriage + of Figaro? Oh, blind that we were!--We were happy and poor, but a + noble cannot be happy in poverty. A noble in want--it is a thing + against nature! Ah! Sorbier, when one has known the satisfaction + of propping one of the grandest genealogical trees in the kingdom + in its fall, it is so natural to interest oneself in it and to + grow fond of it, and love it and water it and look to see it + blossom. So you will not be surprised at so many precautions on my + part; you will not wonder when I beg the help of your lights, so + that all may go well with our young man. + + "Keep yourself informed of his movements and doings, of the + company which he keeps, and watch over his connections with women. + M. le Chevalier says that an opera dancer often costs less than a + court lady. Obtain information on that point and let me know. If + you are too busy, perhaps Mme. Sorbier might know what becomes of + the young man, and where he goes. The idea of playing the part of + guardian angel to such a noble and charming boy might have + attractions for her. God will remember her for accepting the + sacred trust. Perhaps when you see M. le Comte Victurnien, her + heart may tremble at the thought of all the dangers awaiting him + in Paris; he is very young, and handsome; clever, and at the same + time disposed to trust others. If he forms a connection with some + designing woman, Mme. Sorbier could counsel him better than you + yourself could do. The old man-servant who is with him can tell + you many things; sound Josephin, I have told him to go to you in + delicate matters. + + "But why should I say more? We once were clerks together, and a + pair of scamps; remember our escapades, and be a little bit young + again, my old friend, in your dealings with him. The sixty + thousand francs will be remitted to you in the shape of a bill on + the Treasury by a gentlemen who is going to Paris," and so forth. + + +If the old couple to whom this epistle was addressed had followed out +Chesnel's instructions, they would have been compelled to take three +private detectives into their pay. And yet there was ample wisdom +shown in Chesnel's choice of a depositary. A banker pays money to any +one accredited to him so long as the money lasts; whereas, Victurnien +was obliged, every time that he was in want of money, to make a +personal visit to the notary, who was quite sure to use the right of +remonstrance. + +Victurnien heard that he was to be allowed two thousand francs every +month, and thought that he betrayed his joy. He knew nothing of Paris. +He fancied that he could keep up princely state on such a sum. + +Next day he started on his journey. All the benedictions of the +Collection of Antiquities went with him; he was kissed by the +dowagers; good wishes were heaped on his head; his old father, his +aunt, and Chesnel went with him out of the town, tears filling the +eyes of all three. The sudden departure supplied material for +conversation for several evenings; and what was more, it stirred the +rancorous minds of the salon du Croisier to the depths. The forage- +contractor, the president, and others who had vowed to ruin the +d'Esgrignons, saw their prey escaping out of their hands. They had +based their schemes of revenge on a young man's follies, and now he +was beyond their reach. + +The tendency in human nature, which often gives a bigot a rake for a +daughter, and makes a frivolous woman the mother of a narrow pietist; +that rule of contraries, which, in all probability, is the "resultant" +of the law of similarities, drew Victurnien to Paris by a desire to +which he must sooner or later have yielded. Brought up as he had been +in the old-fashioned provincial house, among the quiet, gentle faces +that smiled upon him, among sober servants attached to the family, and +surroundings tinged with a general color of age, the boy had only seen +friends worthy of respect. All of those about him, with the exception +of the Chevalier, had example of venerable age, were elderly men and +women, sedate of manner, decorous and sententious of speech. He had +been petted by those women in gray gowns and embroidered mittens +described by Blondet. The antiquated splendors of his father's house +were as little calculated as possible to suggest frivolous thoughts; +and lastly, he had been educated by a sincerely religious abbe, +possessed of all the charm of old age, which has dwelt in two +centuries, and brings to the Present its gifts of the dried roses of +experience, the faded flowers of the old customs of its youth. +Everything should have combined to fashion Victurnien to serious +habits; his whole surroundings from childhood bade him continue the +glory of a historic name, by taking his life as something noble and +great; and yet Victurnien listened to dangerous promptings. + +For him, his noble birth was a stepping-stone which raised him above +other men. He felt that the idol of Noblesse, before which they burned +incense at home, was hollow; he had come to be one of the commonest as +well as one of the worst types from a social point of view--a +consistent egoist. The aristocratic cult of the EGO simply taught him +to follow his own fancies; he had been idolized by those who had the +care of him in childhood, and adored by the companions who shared in +his boyish escapades, and so he had formed a habit of looking and +judging everything as it affected his own pleasure; he took it as a +matter of course when good souls saved him from the consequences of +his follies, a piece of mistaken kindness which could only lead to his +ruin. Victurnien's early training, noble and pious though it was, had +isolated him too much. He was out of the current of the life of the +time, for the life of a provincial town is certainly not in the main +current of the age; Victurnien's true destiny lifted him above it. He +had learned to think of an action, not as it affected others, nor +relatively, but absolutely from his own point of view. Like despots, +he made the law to suit the circumstance, a system which works in the +lives of prodigal sons the same confusion which fancy brings into art. + +Victurnien was quick-sighted, he saw clearly and without illusion, but +he acted on impulse, and unwisely. An indefinable flaw of character, +often seen in young men, but impossible to explain, led him to will +one thing and do another. In spite of an active mind, which showed +itself in unexpected ways, the senses had but to assert themselves, +and the darkened brain seemed to exist no longer. He might have +astonished wise men; he was capable of setting fools agape. His +desires, like a sudden squall of bad weather, overclouded all the +clear and lucid spaces of his brain in a moment; and then, after the +dissipations which he could not resist, he sank, utterly exhausted in +body, heart, and mind, into a collapsed condition bordering upon +imbecility. Such a character will drag a man down into the mire if he +is left to himself, or bring him to the highest heights of political +power if he has some stern friend to keep him in hand. Neither +Chesnel, nor the lad's father, nor Aunt Armande had fathomed the +depths of a nature so nearly akin on many sides to the poetic +temperament, yet smitten with a terrible weakness at its core. + + + +By the time the old town lay several miles away, Victurnien felt not +the slightest regret; he thought no more about the father, who had +loved ten generations in his son, nor of the aunt, and her almost +insane devotion. He was looking forward to Paris with vehement ill- +starred longings; in thought he had lived in that fairyland, it had +been the background of his brightest dreams. He imagined that he would +be first in Paris, as he had been in the town and the department where +his father's name was potent; but it was vanity, not pride, that +filled his soul, and in his dreams his pleasures were to be magnified +by all the greatness of Paris. The distance was soon crossed. The +traveling coach, like his own thoughts, left the narrow horizon of the +province for the vast world of the great city, without a break in the +journey. He stayed in the Rue de Richelieu, in a handsome hotel close +to the boulevard, and hastened to take possession of Paris as a +famished horse rushes into a meadow. + +He was not long in finding out the difference between country and +town, and was rather surprised than abashed by the change. His mental +quickness soon discovered how small an entity he was in the midst of +this all-comprehending Babylon; how insane it would be to attempt to +stem the torrent of new ideas and new ways. A single incident was +enough. He delivered his father's letter of introduction to the Duc de +Lenoncourt, a noble who stood high in favor with the King. He saw the +duke in his splendid mansion, among surroundings befitting his rank. +Next day he met him again. This time the Peer of France was lounging +on foot along the boulevard, just like any ordinary mortal, with an +umbrella in his hand; he did not even wear the Blue Ribbon, without +which no knight of the order could have appeared in public in other +times. And, duke and peer and first gentleman of the bedchamber though +he was, M. de Lenoncourt, in spite of his high courtesy, could not +repress a smile as he read his relative's letter; and that smile told +Victurnien that the Collection of Antiquities and the Tuileries were +separated by more than sixty leagues of road; the distance of several +centuries lay between them. + +The names of the families grouped about the throne are quite different +in each successive reign, and the characters change with the names. +It would seem that, in the sphere of court, the same thing happens +over and over again in each generation; but each time there is a +quite different set of personages. If history did not prove that this +is so, it would seem incredible. The prominent men at the court of +Louis XVIII., for instance, had scarcely any connection with the +Rivieres, Blacas, d'Avarays, Vitrolles, d'Autichamps, Pasquiers, +Larochejaqueleins, Decazes, Dambrays, Laines, de Villeles, La +Bourdonnayes, and others who shone at the court of Louis XV. Compare +the courtiers of Henri IV. with those of Louis XIV.; you will hardly +find five great families of the former time still in existence. The +nephew of the great Richelieu was a very insignificant person at the +court of Louis XIV.; while His Majesty's favorite, Villeroi, was the +grandson of a secretary ennobled by Charles IX. And so it befell that +the d'Esgrignons, all but princes under the Valois, and all-powerful +in the time of Henri IV., had no fortune whatever at the court of +Louis XVIII., which gave them not so much as a thought. At this day +there are names as famous as those of royal houses--the Foix-Graillys, +for instance, or the d'Herouvilles--left to obscurity tantamount to +extinction for want of money, the one power of the time. + +All which things Victurnien beheld entirely from his own point of +view; he felt the equality that he saw in Paris as a personal wrong. +The monster Equality was swallowing down the last fragments of social +distinction in the Restoration. Having made up his mind on this head, +he immediately proceeded to try to win back his place with such +dangerous, if blunted weapons, as the age left to the noblesse. It is +an expensive matter to gain the attention of Paris. To this end, +Victurnien adopted some of the ways then in vogue. He felt that it was +a necessity to have horses and fine carriages, and all the accessories +of modern luxury; he felt, in short, "that a man must keep abreast of +the times," as de Marsay said--de Marsay, the first dandy that he came +across in the first drawing-room to which he was introduced. For his +misfortune, he fell in with a set of roues, with de Marsay, de +Ronquerolles, Maxime de Trailles, des Lupeaulx, Rastignac, Ajuda- +Pinto, Beaudenord, de la Roche-Hugon, de Manerville, and the +Vandenesses, whom he met wherever he went, and a great many houses +were open to a young man with his ancient name and reputation for +wealth. He went to the Marquise d'Espard's, to the Duchesses de +Grandlieu, de Carigliano, and de Chaulieu, to the Marquises +d'Aiglemont and de Listomere, to Mme. de Serizy's, to the Opera, to +the embassies and elsewhere. The Faubourg Saint-Germain has its +provincial genealogies at its fingers' ends; a great name once +recognized and adopted therein is a passport which opens many a door +that will scarcely turn on its hinges for unknown names or the lions +of a lower rank. + +Victurnien found his relatives both amiable and ready to welcome him +so long as he did not appear as a suppliant; he saw at once that the +surest way of obtaining nothing was to ask for something. At Paris, if +the first impulse moves people to protect, second thoughts (which last +a good deal longer) impel them to despise the protege. Independence, +vanity, and pride, all the young Count's better and worse feelings +combined, led him, on the contrary, to assume an aggressive attitude. +And therefore the Ducs de Verneuil, de Lenoncourt, de Chaulieu, de +Navarreins, d'Herouville, de Grandlieu, and de Maufrigneuse, the +Princes de Cadignan and de Blamont-Chauvry, were delighted to present +the charming survivor of the wreck of an ancient family at court. + +Victurnien went to the Tuileries in a splendid carriage with his +armorial bearings on the panels; but his presentation to His Majesty +made it abundantly clear to him that the people occupied the royal +mind so much that his nobility was like to be forgotten. The restored +dynasty, moreover, was surrounded by triple ranks of eligible old men +and gray-headed courtiers; the young noblesse was reduced to a cipher, +and this Victurnien guessed at once. He saw that there was no suitable +place for him at court, nor in the government, nor the army, nor, +indeed, anywhere else. So he launched out into the world of pleasure. +Introduced at the Elyess-Bourbon, at the Duchesse d'Angouleme's, at +the Pavillon Marsan, he met on all sides with the surface civilities +due to the heir of an old family, not so old but it could be called to +mind by the sight of a living member. And, after all, it was not a +small thing to be remembered. In the distinction with which Victurnien +was honored lay the way to the peerage and a splendid marriage; he had +taken the field with a false appearance of wealth, and his vanity +would not allow him to declare his real position. Besides, he had been +so much complimented on the figure that he made, he was so pleased +with his first success, that, like many other young men, he felt +ashamed to draw back. He took a suite of rooms in the Rue du Bac, with +stables and a complete equipment for the fashionable life to which he +had committed himself. These preliminaries cost him fifty thousand +francs, which money, moreover, the young gentleman managed to draw in +spite of all Chesnel's wise precautions, thanks to a series of +unforeseen events. + +Chesnel's letter certainly reached his friend's office, but Maitre +Sorbier was dead; and Mme. Sorbier, a matter-of-fact person, seeing it +was a business letter, handed it on to her husband's successor. Maitre +Cardot, the new notary, informed the young Count that a draft on the +Treasury made payable to the deceased would be useless; and by way of +reply to the letter, which had cost the old provincial notary so much +thought, Cardot despatched four lines intended not to reach Chesnel's +heart, but to produce the money. Chesnel made the draft payable to +Sorbier's young successor; and the latter, feeling but little +inclination to adopt his correspondent's sentimentality, was delighted +to put himself at the Count's orders, and gave Victurnien as much +money as he wanted. + +Now those who know what life in Paris means, know that fifty thousand +francs will not go very far in furniture, horses, carriages, and +elegance generally; but it must be borne in mind that Victurnien +immediately contracted some twenty thousand francs' worth of debts +besides, and his tradespeople at first were not at all anxious to be +paid, for our young gentleman's fortune had been prodigiously +increased, partly by rumor, partly by Josephin, that Chesnel in +livery. + +Victurnien had not been in town a month before he was obliged to +repair to his man of business for ten thousand francs; he had only +been playing whist with the Ducs de Navarreins, de Chaulieu, and de +Lenoncourt, and now and again at his club. He had begun by winning +some thousands of francs but pretty soon lost five or six thousand, +which brought home to him the necessity of a purse for play. +Victurnien had the spirit that gains goodwill everywhere, and puts a +young man of a great family on a level with the very highest. He was +not merely admitted at once into the band of patrician youth, but was +even envied by the rest. It was intoxicating to him to feel that he +was envied, nor was he in this mood very likely to think of reform. +Indeed, he had completely lost his head. He would not think of the +means; he dipped into his money-bags as if they could be refilled +indefinitely; he deliberately shut his eyes to the inevitable results +of the system. In that dissipated set, in the continual whirl of +gaiety, people take the actors in their brilliant costumes as they +find them, no one inquires whether a man can afford to make the figure +he does, there is nothing in worse taste than inquiries as to ways and +means. A man ought to renew his wealth perpetually, and as Nature does +--below the surface and out of sight. People talk if somebody comes to +grief; they joke about a newcomer's fortune till their minds are set +at rest, and at this they draw the line. Victurnien d'Esgrignon, with +all the Faubourg Saint-Germain to back him, with all his protectors +exaggerating the amount of his fortune (were it only to rid themselves +of responsibility), and magnifying his possessions in the most refined +and well-bred way, with a hint or a word; with all these advantages-- +to repeat--Victurnien was, in fact, an eligible Count. He was +handsome, witty, sound in politics; his father still possessed the +ancestral castle and the lands of the marquisate. Such a young fellow +is sure of an admirable reception in houses where there are +marriageable daughters, fair but portionless partners at dances, and +young married women who find that time hangs heavy on their hands. So +the world, smiling, beckoned him to the foremost benches in its booth; +the seats reserved for marquises are still in the same place in Paris; +and if the names are changed, the things are the same as ever. + +In the most exclusive circle of society in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, +Victurnien found the Chevalier's double in the person of the Vidame de +Pamiers. The Vidame was a Chevalier de Valois raised to the tenth +power, invested with all the prestige of wealth, enjoying all the +advantages of high position. The dear Vidame was a repositary for +everybody's secrets, and the gazette of the Faubourg besides; +nevertheless, he was discreet, and, like other gazettes, only said +things that might safely be published. Again Victurnien listened to +the Chevalier's esoteric doctrines. The Vidame told young d'Esgrignon, +without mincing matters, to make conquests among women of quality, +supplementing the advice with anecdotes from his own experience. The +Vicomte de Pamiers, it seemed, had permitted himself much that it +would serve no purpose to relate here; so remote was it all from our +modern manners, in which soul and passion play so large a part, that +nobody would believe it. But the excellent Vidame did more than this. + +"Dine with me at a tavern to-morrow," said he, by way of conclusion. +"We will digest our dinner at the Opera, and afterwards I will take +you to a house where several people have the greatest wish to meet +you." + +The Vidame gave a delightful little dinner at the Rocher de Cancale; +three guests only were asked to meet Victurnien--de Marsay, Rastignac, +and Blondet. Emile Blondet, the young Count's fellow-townsman, was a +man of letters on the outskirts of society to which he had been +introduced by a charming woman from the same province. This was one of +the Vicomte de Troisville's daughters, now married to the Comte de +Montcornet, one of those of Napoleon's generals who went over to the +Bourbons. The Vidame held that a dinner-party of more than six persons +was beneath contempt. In that case, according to him, there was an end +alike of cookery and conversation, and a man could not sip his wine in +a proper frame of mind. + +"I have not yet told you, my dear boy, where I mean to take you to- +night," he said, taking Victurnien's hands and tapping on them. "You +are going to see Mlle. des Touches; all the pretty women with any +pretensions to wit will be at her house en petit comite. Literature, +art, poetry, any sort of genius, in short, is held in great esteem +there. It is one of our old-world bureaux d'esprit, with a veneer of +monarchical doctrine, the livery of this present age." + +"It is sometimes as tiresome and tedious there as a pair of new boots, +but there are women with whom you cannot meet anywhere else," said de +Marsay. + +"If all the poets who went there to rub up their muse were like our +friend here," said Rastignac, tapping Blondet familiarly on the +shoulder, "we should have some fun. But a plague of odes, and ballads, +and driveling meditations, and novels with wide margins, pervades the +sofas and the atmosphere." + +"I don't dislike them," said de Marsay, "so long as they corrupt +girls' minds, and don't spoil women." + +"Gentlemen," smiled Blondet, "you are encroaching on my field of +literature." + +"You need not talk. You have robbed us of the most charming woman in +the world, you lucky rogue; we may be allowed to steal your less +brilliant ideas," cried Rastignac. + +"Yes, he is a lucky rascal," said the Vidame, and he twitched +Blondet's ear. "But perhaps Victurnien here will be luckier still this +evening----" + +"ALREADY!" exclaimed de Marsay. "Why, he only came here a month ago; +he has scarcely had time to shake the dust of his old manor house off +his feet, to wipe off the brine in which his aunt kept him preserved; +he has only just set up a decent horse, a tilbury in the latest style, +a groom----" + +"No, no, not a groom," interrupted Rastignac; "he has some sort of an +agricultural laborer that he brought with him 'from his place.' +Buisson, who understands a livery as well as most, declared that the +man was physically incapable of wearing a jacket." + +"I will tell you what, you ought to have modeled yourself on +Beaudenord," the Vidame said seriously. "He has this advantage over +all of you, my young friends, he has a genuine specimen of the English +tiger----" + +"Just see, gentlemen, what the noblesse have come to in France!" cried +Victurnien. "For them the one important thing is to have a tiger, a +thoroughbred, and baubles----" + +"Bless me!" said Blondet. "'This gentleman's good sense at times +appalls me.'--Well, yes, young moralist, you nobles have come to that. +You have not even left to you that lustre of lavish expenditure for +which the dear Vidame was famous fifty years ago. We revel on a second +floor in the Rue Montorgueil. There are no more wars with the +Cardinal, no Field of the Cloth of Gold. You, Comte d'Esgrignon, in +short, are supping in the company of one Blondet, younger son of a +miserable provincial magistrate, with whom you would not shake hands +down yonder; and in ten years' time you may sit beside him among peers +of the realm. Believe in yourself after that, if you can." + +"Ah, well," said Rastignac, "we have passed from action to thought, +from brute force to force of intellect, we are talking----" + +"Let us not talk of our reverses," protested the Vidame; "I have made +up my mind to die merrily. If our friend here has not a tiger as yet, +he comes of a race of lions, and can dispense with one." + +"He cannot do without a tiger," said Blondet; "he is too newly come to +town." + +"His elegance may be new as yet," returned de Marsay, "but we are +adopting it. He is worthy of us, he understands his age, he has +brains, he is nobly born and gently bred; we are going to like him, +and serve him, and push him----" + +"Whither?" inquired Blondet. + +"Inquisitive soul!" said Rastignac. + +"With whom will he take up to-night?" de Marsay asked. + +"With a whole seraglio," said the Vidame. + +"Plague take it! What can we have done that the dear Vidame is +punishing us by keeping his word to the infanta? I should be pitiable +indeed if I did not know her----" + +"And I was once a coxcomb even as he," said the Vidame, indicating de +Marsay. + +The conversation continued pitched in the same key, charmingly +scandalous, and agreeably corrupt. The dinner went off very +pleasantly. Rastignac and de Marsay went to the Opera with the Vidame +and Victurnien, with a view to following them afterwards to Mlle. des +Touches' salon. And thither, accordingly, this pair of rakes betook +themselves, calculating that by that time the tragedy would have been +read; for of all things to be taken between eleven and twelve o'clock +at night, a tragedy in their opinion was the most unwholesome. They +went to keep a watch on Victurnien and to embarrass him, a piece of +schoolboys's mischief embittered by a jealous dandy's spite. But +Victurnien was gifted with that page's effrontery which is a great +help to ease of manner; and Rastignac, watching him as he made his +entrance, was surprised to see how quickly he caught the tone of the +moment. + +"That young d'Esgrignon will go far, will he not?" he said, addressing +his companion. + +"That is as may be," returned de Marsay, "but he is in a fair way." + + + +The Vidame introduced his young friend to one of the most amiable and +frivolous duchesses of the day, a lady whose adventures caused an +explosion five years later. Just then, however, she was in the full +blaze of her glory; she had been suspected, it is true, of equivocal +conduct; but suspicion, while it is still suspicion and not proof, +marks a woman out with the kind of distinction which slander gives to +a man. Nonentities are never slandered; they chafe because they are +left in peace. This woman was, in fact, the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, +a daughter of the d'Uxelles; her father-in-law was still alive; she +was not to be the Princesse de Cadignan for some years to come. A +friend of the Duchesse de Langeais and the Vicomtesse de Beauseant, +two glories departed, she was likewise intimate with the Marquise +d'Espard, with whom she disputed her fragile sovereignty as queen of +fashion. Great relations lent her countenance for a long while, but +the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse was one of those women who, in some way, +nobody knows how, or why, or where, will spend the rents of all the +lands of earth, and of the moon likewise, if they were not out of +reach. The general outline of her character was scarcely known as yet; +de Marsay, and de Marsay only, really had read her. That redoubtable +dandy now watched the Vidame de Pamiers' introduction of his young +friend to that lovely woman, and bent over to say in Rastignac's ear: + +"My dear fellow, he will go up WHIZZ! like a rocket, and come down +like a stick," an atrociously vulgar saying which was remarkably +fulfilled. + +The Duchesse de Maufrigneuse had lost her heart to Victurnien after +first giving her mind to a serious study of him. Any lover who should +have caught the glance by which she expressed her gratitude to the +Vidame might well have been jealous of such friendship. Women are like +horses let loose on a steppe when they feel, as the Duchess felt with +the Vidame de Pamiers, that the ground is safe; at such moments they +are themselves; perhaps it pleases them to give, as it were, samples +of their tenderness in intimacy in this way. It was a guarded glance, +nothing was lost between eye and eye; there was no possibility of +reflection in any mirror. Nobody intercepted it. + +"See how she has prepared herself," Rastignac said, turning to de +Marsay. "What a virginal toilette; what swan's grace in that snow- +white throat of hers! How white her gown is, and she is wearing a sash +like a little girl; she looks round like a madonna inviolate. Who +would think that you had passed that way?" + +"The very reason why she looks as she does," returned de Marsay, with +a triumphant air. + +The two young men exchanged a smile. Mme. de Maufrigneuse saw the +smile and guessed at their conversation, and gave the pair a broadside +of her eyes, an art acquired by Frenchwomen since the Peace, when +Englishwomen imported it into this country, together with the shape of +their silver plate, their horses and harness, and the piles of insular +ice which impart a refreshing coolness to the atmosphere of any room +in which a certain number of British females are gathered together. +The young men grew serious as a couple of clerks at the end of a +homily from headquarters before the receipt of an expected bonus. + +The Duchess when she lost her heart to Victurnien had made up her mind +to play the part of romantic Innocence, a role much understudied +subsequently by other women, for the misfortune of modern youth. Her +Grace of Maufrigneuse had just come out as an angel at a moment's +notice, precisely as she meant to turn to literature and science +somewhere about her fortieth year instead of taking to devotion. She +made a point of being like nobody else. Her parts, her dresses, her +caps, opinions, toilettes, and manner of acting were all entirely new +and original. Soon after her marriage, when she was scarcely more than +a girl, she had played the part of a knowing and almost depraved +woman; she ventured on risky repartees with shallow people, and +betrayed her ignorance to those who knew better. As the date of that +marriage made it impossible to abstract one little year from her age +without the knowledge of Time, she had taken it into her head to be +immaculate. She scarcely seemed to belong to earth; she shook out her +wide sleeves as if they had been wings. Her eyes fled to heaven at too +warm a glance, or word, or thought. + +There is a madonna painted by Piola, the great Genoese painter, who +bade fair to bring out a second edition of Raphael till his career was +cut short by jealousy and murder; his madonna, however, you may dimly +discern through a pane of glass in a little street in Genoa. + +A more chaste-eyed madonna than Piola's does not exist but compared +with Mme. de Maufrigneuse, that heavenly creature was a Messalina. +Women wondered among themselves how such a giddy young thing had been +transformed by a change of dress into the fair veiled seraph who +seemed (to use an expression now in vogue) to have a soul as white as +new fallen snow on the highest Alpine crests. How had she solved in +such short space the Jesuitical problem how to display a bosom whiter +than her soul by hiding it in gauze? How could she look so ethereal +while her eyes drooped so murderously? Those almost wanton glances +seemed to give promise of untold languorous delight, while by an +ascetic's sigh of aspiration after a better life the mouth appeared to +add that none of those promises would be fulfilled. Ingenuous youths +(for there were a few to be found in the Guards of that day) privately +wondered whether, in the most intimate moments, it were possible to +speak familiarly to this White Lady, this starry vapor slidden down +from the Milky Way. This system, which answered completely for some +years at a stretch, was turned to good account by women of fashion, +whose breasts were lined with a stout philosophy, for they could cloak +no inconsiderable exactions with these little airs from the sacristy. +Not one of the celestial creatures but was quite well aware of the +possibilities of less ethereal love which lay in the longing of every +well-conditioned male to recall such beings to earth. It was a fashion +which permitted them to abide in a semi-religious, semi-Ossianic +empyrean; they could, and did, ignore all the practical details of +daily life, a short and easy method of disposing of many questions. De +Marsay, foreseeing the future developments of the system, added a last +word, for he saw that Rastignac was jealous of Victurnien. + +"My boy," said he, "stay as you are. Our Nucingen will make your +fortune, whereas the Duchess would ruin you. She is too expensive." + +Rastignac allowed de Marsay to go without asking further questions. He +knew Paris. He knew that the most refined and noble and disinterested +of women--a woman who cannot be induced to accept anything but a +bouquet--can be as dangerous an acquaintance for a young man as any +opera girl of former days. As a matter of fact, the opera girl is an +almost mythical being. As things are now at the theatres, dancers and +actresses are about as amusing as a declaration of the rights of +woman, they are puppets that go abroad in the morning in the character +of respected and respectable mothers of families, and act men's parts +in tight-fitting garments at night. + +Worthy M. Chesnel, in his country notary's office, was right; he had +foreseen one of the reefs on which the Count might shipwreck. +Victurnien was dazzled by the poetic aureole which Mme. de +Maufrigneuse chose to assume; he was chained and padlocked from the +first hour in her company, bound captive by that girlish sash, and +caught by the curls twined round fairy fingers. Far corrupted the boy +was already, but he really believed in that farrago of maidenliness +and muslin, in sweet looks as much studied as an Act of Parliament. +And if the one man, who is in duty bound to believe in feminine fibs, +is deceived by them, is not that enough? + +For a pair of lovers, the rest of their species are about as much +alive as figures on the tapestry. The Duchess, flattery apart, was +avowedly and admittedly one of the ten handsomest women in society. +"The loveliest woman in Paris" is, as you know, as often met with in +the world of love-making as "the finest book that has appeared in this +generation," in the world of letters. + +The converse which Victurnien held with the Duchess can be kept up at +his age without too great a strain. He was young enough and ignorant +enough of life in Paris to feel no necessity to be upon his guard, no +need to keep a watch over his lightest words and glances. The +religious sentimentalism, which finds a broadly humorous commentary in +the after-thoughts of either speaker, puts the old-world French chat +of men and women, with its pleasant familiarity, its lively ease, +quite out of the question; they make love in a mist nowadays. + +Victurnien was just sufficient of an unsophisticated provincial to +remain suspended in a highly appropriate and unfeigned rapture which +pleased the Duchess; for women are no more to be deceived by the +comedies which men play than by their own. Mme. de Maufrigneuse +calculated, not without dismay, that the young Count's infatuation was +likely to hold good for six whole months of disinterested love. She +looked so lovely in this dove's mood, quenching the light in her eyes +by the golden fringe of their lashes, that when the Marquise d'Espard +bade her friend good-night, she whispered, "Good! very good, dear!" +And with those farewell words, the fair Marquise left her rival to +make the tour of the modern Pays du Tendre; which, by the way, is not +so absurd a conception as some appear to think. New maps of the +country are engraved for each generation; and if the names of the +routes are different, they still lead to the same capital city. + +In the course of an hour's tete-a-tete, on a corner sofa, under the +eyes of the world, the Duchess brought young d'Esgrignon as far as +Scipio's Generosity, the Devotion of Amadis, and Chivalrous Self- +abnegation (for the Middle Ages were just coming into fashion, with +their daggers, machicolations, hauberks, chain-mail, peaked shoes, and +romantic painted card-board properties). She had an admirable turn, +moreover, for leaving things unsaid, for leaving ideas in a discreet, +seeming careless way, to work their way down, one by one, into +Victurnien's heart, like needles into a cushion. She possessed a +marvelous skill in reticence; she was charming in hypocrisy, lavish of +subtle promises, which revived hope and then melted away like ice in +the sun if you looked at them closely, and most treacherous in the +desire which she felt and inspired. At the close of this charming +encounter she produced the running noose of an invitation to call, and +flung it over him with a dainty demureness which the printed page can +never set forth. + +"You will forget me," she said. "You will find so many women eager to +pay court to you instead of enlightening you. . . . But you will come +back to me undeceived. Are you coming to me first? . . . No. As you +will.--For my own part, I tell you frankly that your visits will be a +great pleasure to me. People of soul are so rare, and I think that you +are one of them.--Come, good-bye; people will begin to talk about us +if we talk together any longer." + +She made good her words and took flight. Victurnien went soon +afterwards, but not before others had guessed his ecstatic condition; +his face wore the expression peculiar to happy men, something between +an Inquisitor's calm discretion and the self-contained beatitude of a +devotee, fresh from the confessional and absolution. + +"Mme. de Maufrigneuse went pretty briskly to the point this evening," +said the Duchesse de Grandlieu, when only half-a-dozen persons were +left in Mlle. des Touches' little drawing-room--to wit, des Lupeaulx, +a Master of Requests, who at that time stood very well at court, +Vandenesse, the Vicomtesse de Grandlieu, Canalis, and Mme. de Serizy. + +"D'Esgrignon and Maufrigneuse are two names that are sure to cling +together," said Mme. de Serizy, who aspired to epigram. + +"For some days past she has been out at grass on Platonism," said des +Lupeaulx. + +"She will ruin that poor innocent," added Charles de Vandenesse. + +"What do you mean?" asked Mlle. des Touches. + +"Oh, morally and financially, beyond all doubt," said the Vicomtesse, +rising. + +The cruel words were cruelly true for young d'Esgrignon. + +Next morning he wrote to his aunt describing his introduction into the +high world of the Faubourg Saint-Germain in bright colors flung by the +prism of love, explaining the reception which met him everywhere in a +way which gratified his father's family pride. The Marquis would have +the whole long letter read to him twice; he rubbed his hands when he +heard of the Vidame de Pamiers' dinner--the Vidame was an old +acquaintance--and of the subsequent introduction to the Duchess; but +at Blondet's name he lost himself in conjectures. What could the +younger son of a judge, a public prosecutor during the Revolution, +have been doing there? + +There was joy that evening among the Collection of Antiquities. They +talked over the young Count's success. So discreet were they with +regard to Mme. de Maufrigneuse, that the one man who heard the secret +was the Chevalier. There was no financial postscript at the end of the +letter, no unpleasant reference to the sinews of war, which every +young man makes in such a case. Mlle. Armande showed it to Chesnel. +Chesnel was pleased and raised not a single objection. It was clear, +as the Marquis and the Chevalier agreed, that a young man in favor +with the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse would shortly be a hero at court, +where in the old days women were all-powerful. The Count had not made +a bad choice. The dowagers told over all the gallant adventures of the +Maufrigneuses from Louis XIII. to Louis XVI.--they spared to inquire +into preceding reigns--and when all was done they were enchanted.-- +Mme. de Maufrigneuse was much praised for interesting herself in +Victurnien. Any writer of plays in search of a piece of pure comedy +would have found it well worth his while to listen to the Antiquities +in conclave. + + + +Victurnien received charming letters from his father and aunt, and +also from the Chevalier. That gentleman recalled himself to the +Vidame's memory. He had been at Spa with M. de Pamiers in 1778, after +a certain journey made by a celebrated Hungarian princess. And Chesnel +also wrote. The fond flattery to which the unhappy boy was only too +well accustomed shone out of every page; and Mlle. Armande seemed to +share half of Mme. de Maufrigneuse's happiness. + +Thus happy in the approval of his family, the young Count made a +spirited beginning in the perilous and costly ways of dandyism. He had +five horses--he was moderate--de Marsay had fourteen! He returned the +Vidame's hospitality, even including Blondet in the invitation, as +well as de Marsay and Rastignac. The dinner cost five hundred francs, +and the noble provincial was feted on the same scale. Victurnien +played a good deal, and, for his misfortune, at the fashionable game +of whist. + +He laid out his days in busy idleness. Every day between twelve and +three o'clock he was with the Duchess; afterwards he went to meet her +in the Bois de Boulogne and ride beside her carriage. Sometimes the +charming couple rode together, but this was early in fine summer +mornings. Society, balls, the theatre, and gaiety filled the Count's +evening hours. Everywhere Victurnien made a brilliant figure, +everywhere he flung the pearls of his wit broadcast. He gave his +opinion on men, affairs, and events in profound sayings; he would have +put you in mind of a fruit-tree putting forth all its strength in +blossom. He was leading an enervating life wasteful of money, and even +yet more wasteful, it may be of a man's soul; in that life the fairest +talents are buried out of sight, the most incorruptible honesty +perishes, the best-tempered springs of will are slackened. + +The Duchess, so white and fragile and angel-like, felt attracted to +the dissipations of bachelor life; she enjoyed first nights, she liked +anything amusing, anything improvised. Bohemian restaurants lay +outside her experience; so d'Esgrignon got up a charming little party +at the Rocher de Cancale for her benefit, asked all the amiable scamps +whom she cultivated and sermonized, and there was a vast amount of +merriment, wit, and gaiety, and a corresponding bill to pay. That +supper led to others. And through it all Victurnien worshiped her as +an angel. Mme. de Maufrigneuse for him was still an angel, untouched +by any taint of earth; an angel at the Varietes, where she sat out the +half-obscene, vulgar farces, which made her laugh; an angel through +the cross-fire of highly-flavored jests and scandalous anecdotes, +which enlivened a stolen frolic; a languishing angel in the latticed +box at the Vaudeville; an angel while she criticised the postures of +opera dancers with the experience of an elderly habitue of le coin de +la reine; an angel at the Porte Saint-Martin, at the little boulevard +theatres, at the masked balls, which she enjoyed like any schoolboy. +She was an angel who asked him for the love that lives by self- +abnegation and heroism and self-sacrifice; an angel who would have her +lover live like an English lord, with an income of a million francs. +D'Esgrignon once exchanged a horse because the animal's coat did not +satisfy her notions. At play she was an angel, and certainly no +bourgeoise that ever lived could have bidden d'Esgrignon "Stake for +me!" in such an angelic way. She was so divinely reckless in her +folly, that a man might well have sold his soul to the devil lest this +angel should lose her taste for earthly pleasures. + + + +The first winter went by. The Count had drawn on M. Cardot for the +trifling sum of thirty thousand francs over and above Chesnel's +remittance. As Cardot very carefully refrained from using his right of +remonstrance, Victurnien now learned for the first time that he had +overdrawn his account. He was the more offended by an extremely polite +refusal to make any further advance, since it so happened that he had +just lost six thousand francs at play at the club, and he could not +very well show himself there until they were paid. + +After growing indignant with Maitre Cardot, who had trusted him with +thirty thousand francs (Cardot had written to Chesnel, but to the fair +Duchess' favorite he made the most of his so-called confidence in +him), after all this, d'Esgrignon was obliged to ask the lawyer to +tell him how to set about raising the money, since debts of honor were +in question. + +"Draw bills on your father's banker, and take them to his +correspondent; he, no doubt, will discount them for you. Then write to +your family, and tell them to remit the amount to the banker." + +An inner voice seemed to suggest du Croisier's name in this +predicament. He had seen du Croisier on his knees to the aristocracy, +and of the man's real disposition he was entirely ignorant. So to du +Croisier he wrote a very offhand letter, informing him that he had +drawn a bill of exchange on him for ten thousand francs, adding that +the amount would be repaid on receipt of the letter either by M. +Chesnel or by Mlle. Armande d'Esgrignon. Then he indited two touching +epistles--one to Chesnel, another to his aunt. In the matter of going +headlong to ruin, a young man often shows singular ingenuity and +ability, and fortune favors him. In the morning Victurnien happened on +the name of the Paris bankers in correspondence with du Croisier, and +de Marsay furnished him with the Kellers' address. De Marsay knew +everything in Paris. The Kellers took the bill and gave him the sum +without a word, after deducting the discount. The balance of the +account was in du Croisier's favor. + +But the gaming debt was as nothing in comparison with the state of +things at home. Invoices showered in upon Victurnien. + +"I say! Do you trouble yourself about that sort of thing?" Rastignac +said, laughing. "Are you putting them in order, my dear boy? I did not +think you were so business-like." + +"My dear fellow, it is quite time I thought about it; there are twenty +odd thousand francs there." + +De Marsay, coming in to look up d'Esgrignon for a steeplechase, +produced a dainty little pocket-book, took out twenty thousand francs, +and handed them to him. + +"It is the best way of keeping the money safe," said he; "I am twice +enchanted to have won it yesterday from my honored father, Milord +Dudley." + +Such French grace completely fascinated d'Esgrignon; he took it for +friendship; and as to the money, punctually forgot to pay his debts +with it, and spent it on his pleasures. The fact was that de Marsay +was looking on with an unspeakable pleasure while young d'Esgrignon +"got out of his depth," in dandy's idiom; it pleased de Marsay in all +sorts of fondling ways to lay an arm on the lad's shoulder; by and by +he should feel its weight, and disappear the sooner. For de Marsay was +jealous; the Duchess flaunted her love affair; she was not at home to +other visitors when d'Esgrignon was with her. And besides, de Marsay +was one of those savage humorists who delight in mischief, as Turkish +women in the bath. So when he had carried off the prize, and bets were +settled at the tavern where they breakfasted, and a bottle or two of +good wine had appeared, de Marsay turned to d'Esgrignon with a laugh: + +"Those bills that you are worrying over are not yours, I am sure." + +"Eh! if they weren't, why should he worry himself?" asked Rastignac. + +"And whose should they be?" d'Esgrignon inquired. + +"Then you do not know the Duchess' position?" queried de Marsay, as he +sprang into the saddle. + +"No," said d'Esgrignon, his curiosity aroused. + +"Well, dear fellow, it is like this," returned de Marsay--"thirty +thousand francs to Victorine, eighteen thousand francs to Houbigaut, +lesser amounts to Herbault, Nattier, Nourtier, and those Latour +people,--altogether a hundred thousand francs." + +"An angel!" cried d'Esgrignon, with eyes uplifted to heaven. + +"This is the bill for her wings," Rastignac cried facetiously. + +"She owes all that, my dear boy," continued de Marsay, "precisely +because she is an angel. But we have all seen angels in this +position," he added, glancing at Rastignac; "there is this about women +that is sublime: they understand nothing of money; they do not meddle +with it, it is no affair of theirs; they are invited guests at the +'banquet of life,' as some poet or other said that came to an end in +the workhouse." + +"How do you know this when I do not?" d'Esgrignon artlessly returned. + +"You are sure to be the last to know it, just as she is sure to be the +last to hear that you are in debt." + +"I thought she had a hundred thousand livres a year," said +d'Esgrignon. + +"Her husband," replied de Marsay, "lives apart from her. He stays with +his regiment and practises economy, for he has one or two little debts +of his own as well, has our dear Duke. Where do you come from? Just +learn to do as we do and keep our friends' accounts for them. Mlle. +Diane (I fell in love with her for the name's sake), Mlle. Diane +d'Uxelles brought her husband sixty thousand livres of income; for the +last eight years she has lived as if she had two hundred thousand. It +is perfectly plain that at this moment her lands are mortgaged up to +their full value; some fine morning the crash must come, and the angel +will be put to flight by--must it be said?--by sheriff's officers that +have the effrontery to lay hands on an angel just as they might take +hold of one of us." + +"Poor angel!" + +"Lord! it costs a great deal to dwell in a Parisian heaven; you must +whiten your wings and your complexion every morning," said Rastignac. + +Now as the thought of confessing his debts to his beloved Diane had +passed through d'Esgrignon's mind, something like a shudder ran +through him when he remembered that he still owed sixty thousand +francs, to say nothing of bills to come for another ten thousand. He +went back melancholy enough. His friends remarked his ill-disguised +preoccupation, and spoke of it among themselves at dinner. + +"Young d'Esgrignon is getting out of his depth. He is not up to Paris. +He will blow his brains out. A little fool!" and so on and so on. + +D'Esgrignon, however, promptly took comfort. His servant brought him +two letters. The first was from Chesnel. A letter from Chesnel smacked +of the stale grumbling faithfulness of honesty and its consecrated +formulas. With all respect he put it aside till the evening. But the +second letter he read with unspeakable pleasure. In Ciceronian +phrases, du Croisier groveled before him, like a Sganarelle before a +Geronte, begging the young Count in future to spare him the affront of +first depositing the amount of the bills which he should condescend to +draw. The concluding phrase seemed meant to convey the idea that here +was an open cashbox full of coin at the service of the noble +d'Esgrignon family. So strong was the impression that Victurnien, like +Sganarelle or Mascarille in the play, like everybody else who feels a +twinge of conscience at his finger-tips, made an involuntary gesture. + +Now that he was sure of unlimited credit with the Kellers, he opened +Chesnel's letter gaily. He had expected four full pages, full of +expostulation to the brim; he glanced down the sheet for the familiar +words "prudence," "honor," "determination to do right," and the like, +and saw something else instead which made his head swim. + + "MONSIEUR LE COMTE,--Of all my fortune I have now but two hundred + thousand francs left. I beg of you not to exceed that amount, if + you should do one of the most devoted servants of your family the + honor of taking it. I present my respects to you. + + "CHESNEL." + + +"He is one of Plutarch's men," Victurnien said to himself, as he +tossed the letter on the table. He felt chagrined; such magnanimity +made him feel very small. + +"There! one must reform," he thought; and instead of going to a +restaurant and spending fifty or sixty francs over his dinner, he +retrenched by dining with the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, and told her +about the letter. + +"I should like to see that man," she said, letting her eyes shine like +two fixed stars. + +"What would you do?" + +"Why, he should manage my affairs for me." + +Diane de Maufrigneuse was divinely dressed; she meant her toilet to do +honor to Victurnien. The levity with which she treated his affairs or, +more properly speaking, his debts fascinated him. + +The charming pair went to the Italiens. Never had that beautiful and +enchanting woman looked more seraphic, more ethereal. Nobody in the +house could have believed that she had debts which reached the sum +total mentioned by de Marsay that very morning. No single one of the +cares of earth had touched that sublime forehead of hers, full of +woman's pride of the highest kind. In her, a pensive air seemed to be +some gleam of an earthly love, nobly extinguished. The men for the +most part were wagering that Victurnien, with his handsome figure, +laid her under contribution; while the women, sure of their rival's +subterfuge, admired her as Michael Angelo admired Raphael, in petto. +Victurnien loved Diane, according to one of these ladies, for the sake +of her hair--she had the most beautiful fair hair in France; another +maintained that Diane's pallor was her principal merit, for she was +not really well shaped, her dress made the most of her figure; yet +others thought that Victurnien loved her for her foot, her one good +point, for she had a flat figure. But (and this brings the present-day +manner of Paris before you in an astonishing manner) whereas all the +men said that the Duchess was subsidizing Victurnien's splendor, the +women, on the other hand, gave people to understand that it was +Victurnien who paid for the angel's wings, as Rastignac said. + +As they drove back again, Victurnien had it on the tip of his tongue a +score of times to open this chapter, for the Duchess' debts weighed +more heavily upon his mind than his own; and a score of times his +purpose died away before the attitude of the divine creature beside +him. He could see her by the light of the carriage lamps; she was +bewitching in the love-languor which always seemed to be extorted by +the violence of passion from her madonna's purity. The Duchess did not +fall into the mistake of talking of her virtue, of her angel's estate, +as provincial women, her imitators, do. She was far too clever. She +made him, for whom she made such great sacrifices, think these things +for himself. At the end of six months she could make him feel that a +harmless kiss on her hand was a deadly sin; she contrived that every +grace should be extorted from her, and this with such consummate art, +that it was impossible not to feel that she was more an angel than +ever when she yielded. + +None but Parisian women are clever enough always to give a new charm +to the moon, to romanticize the stars, to roll in the same sack of +charcoal and emerge each time whiter than ever. This is the highest +refinement of intellectual and Parisian civilization. Women beyond the +Rhine or the English Channel believe nonsense of this sort when they +utter it; while your Parisienne makes her lover believe that she is an +angel, the better to add to his bliss by flattering his vanity on both +sides--temporal and spiritual. Certain persons, detractors of the +Duchess, maintain that she was the first dupe of her own white magic. +A wicked slander. The Duchess believed in nothing but herself. + +By the end of the year 1823 the Kellers had supplied Victurnien with +two hundred thousand francs, and neither Chesnel nor Mlle. Armande +knew anything about it. He had had, besides, two thousand crowns from +Chesnel at one time and another, the better to hide the sources on +which he was drawing. He wrote lying letters to his poor father and +aunt, who lived on, happy and deceived, like most happy people under +the sun. The insidious current of life in Paris was bringing a +dreadful catastrophe upon the great and noble house; and only one +person was in the secret of it. This was du Croisier. He rubbed his +hands gleefully as he went past in the dark and looked in at the +Antiquities. He had good hope of attaining his ends; and his ends were +not, as heretofore, the simple ruin of the d'Esgrignons, but the +dishonor of their house. He felt instinctively at such times that his +revenge was at hand; he scented it in the wind! He had been sure of it +indeed from the day when he discovered that the young Count's burden +of debt was growing too heavy for the boy to bear. + +Du Croisier's first step was to rid himself of his most hated enemy, +the venerable Chesnel. The good old man lived in the Rue du Bercail, +in a house with a steep-pitched roof. There was a little paved +courtyard in front, where the rose-bushes grew and clambered up to the +windows of the upper story. Behind lay a little country garden, with +its box-edged borders, shut in by damp, gloomy-looking walls. The +prim, gray-painted street door, with its wicket opening and bell +attached, announced quite as plainly as the official scutcheon that "a +notary lives here." + +It was half-past five o'clock in the afternoon, at which hour the old +man usually sat digesting his dinner. He had drawn his black leather- +covered armchair before the fire, and put on his armor, a painted +pasteboard contrivance shaped like a top boot, which protected his +stockinged legs from the heat of the fire; for it was one of the good +man's habits to sit for a while after dinner with his feet on the dogs +and to stir up the glowing coals. He always ate too much; he was fond +of good living. Alas! if it had not been for that little failing, +would he not have been more perfect than it is permitted to mortal man +to be? Chesnel had finished his cup of coffee. His old housekeeper had +just taken away the tray which had been used for the purpose for the +last twenty years. He was waiting for his clerks to go before he +himself went out for his game at cards, and meanwhile he was thinking +--no need to ask of whom or what. A day seldom passed but he asked +himself, "Where is HE? What is HE doing?" He thought that the Count +was in Italy with the fair Duchesse de Maufrigneuse. + +When every franc of a man's fortune has come to him, not by +inheritance, but through his own earning and saving, it is one of his +sweetest pleasures to look back upon the pains that have gone to the +making of it, and then to plan out a future for his crowns. This it is +to conjugate the verb "to enjoy" in every tense. And the old lawyer, +whose affections were all bound up in a single attachment, was +thinking that all the carefully-chosen, well-tilled land which he had +pinched and scraped to buy would one day go to round the d'Esgrignon +estates, and the thought doubled his pleasure. His pride swelled as he +sat at his ease in the old armchair; and the building of glowing +coals, which he raised with the tongs, sometimes seemed to him to be +the old noble house built up again, thanks to his care. He pictured +the young Count's prosperity, and told himself that he had done well +to live for such an aim. Chesnel was not lacking in intelligence; +sheer goodness was not the sole source of his great devotion; he had a +pride of his own; he was like the nobles who used to rebuild a pillar +in a cathedral to inscribe their name upon it; he meant his name to be +remembered by the great house which he had restored. Future +generations of d'Esgrignons should speak of old Chesnel. Just at this +point his old housekeeper came in with signs of alarm in her +countenance. + +"Is the house on fire, Brigitte?" + +"Something of the sort," said she. "Here is M. du Croisier wanting to +speak to you----" + +"M. du Croisier," repeated the old lawyer. A stab of cold misgiving +gave him so sharp a pang at the heart that he dropped the tongs. "M. +du Croisier here!" thought he, "our chief enemy!" + +Du Croisier came in at that moment, like a cat that scents milk in a +dairy. He made a bow, seated himself quietly in the easy-chair which +the lawyer brought forward, and produced a bill for two hundred and +twenty-seven thousand francs, principal and interest, the total amount +of sums advanced to M. Victurnien in bills of exchange drawn upon du +Croisier, and duly honored by him. Of these, he now demanded immediate +payment, with a threat of proceeding to extremities with the heir- +presumptive of the house. Chesnel turned the unlucky letters over one +by one, and asked the enemy to keep the secret. This he engaged to do +if he were paid within forty-eight hours. He was pressed for money he +had obliged various manufacturers; and there followed a series of the +financial fictions by which neither notaries nor borrowers are +deceived. Chesnel's eyes were dim; he could scarcely keep back the +tears. There was but one way of raising the money; he must mortgage +his own lands up to their full value. But when du Croisier learned the +difficulty in the way of repayment, he forgot that he was hard +pressed; he no longer wanted ready money, and suddenly came out with a +proposal to buy the old lawyer's property. The sale was completed +within two days. Poor Chesnel could not bear the thought of the son of +the house undergoing a five years' imprisonment for debt. So in a few +days' time nothing remained to him but his practice, the sums that +were due to him, and the house in which he lived. Chesnel, stripped of +all his lands, paced to and fro in his private office, paneled with +dark oak, his eyes fixed on the beveled edges of the chestnut cross- +beams of the ceiling, or on the trellised vines in the garden outside. +He was not thinking of his farms now, or of Le Jard, his dear house in +the country; not he. + +"What will become of him? He ought to come back; they must marry him +to some rich heiress," he said to himself; and his eyes were dim, his +head heavy. + +How to approach Mlle. Armande, and in what words to break the news to +her, he did not know. The man who had just paid the debts of the +family quaked at the thought of confessing these things. He went from +the Rue du Bercail to the Hotel d'Esgrignon with pulses throbbing like +some girl's heart when she leaves her father's roof by stealth, not to +return again till she is a mother and her heart is broken. + +Mlle. Armande had just received a charming letter, charming in its +hypocrisy. Her nephew was the happiest man under the sun. He had been +to the baths, he had been traveling in Italy with Mme. de +Maufrigneuse, and now sent his journal to his aunt. Every sentence was +instinct with love. There were enchanting descriptions of Venice, and +fascinating appreciations of the great works of Venetian art; there +were most wonderful pages full of the Duomo at Milan, and again of +Florence; he described the Apennines, and how they differed from the +Alps, and how in some village like Chiavari happiness lay all around +you, ready made. + +The poor aunt was under the spell. She saw the far-off country of +love, she saw, hovering above the land, the angel whose tenderness +gave to all that beauty a burning glow. She was drinking in the letter +at long draughts; how should it have been otherwise? The girl who had +put love from her was now a woman ripened by repressed and pent-up +passion, by all the longings continually and gladly offered up as a +sacrifice on the altar of the hearth. Mlle. Armande was not like the +Duchess. She did not look like an angel. She was rather like the +little, straight, slim and slender, ivory-tinted statues, which those +wonderful sculptors, the builders of cathedrals, placed here and there +about the buildings. Wild plants sometimes find a hold in the damp +niches, and weave a crown of beautiful bluebell flowers about the +carved stone. At this moment the blue buds were unfolding in the fair +saint's eyes. Mlle. Armande loved the charming couple as if they stood +apart from real life; she saw nothing wrong in a married woman's love +for Victurnien; any other woman she would have judged harshly; but in +this case, not to have loved her nephew would have been the +unpardonable sin. Aunts, mothers, and sisters have a code of their own +for nephews and sons and brothers. + +Mlle. Armande was in Venice; she saw the lines of fairy palaces that +stand on either side of the Grand Canal; she was sitting in +Victurnien's gondola; he was telling her what happiness it had been to +feel that the Duchess' beautiful hand lay in his own, to know that she +loved him as they floated together on the breast of the amorous Queen +of Italian seas. But even in that moment of bliss, such as angels +know, some one appeared in the garden walk. It was Chesnel! Alas! the +sound of his tread on the gravel might have been the sound of the +sands running from Death's hour-glass to be trodden under his unshod +feet. The sound, the sight of a dreadful hopelessness in Chesnel's +face, gave her that painful shock which follows a sudden recall of the +senses when the soul has sent them forth into the world of dreams. + +"What is it?" she cried, as if some stab had pierced to her heart. + +"All is lost!" said Chesnel. "M. le Comte will bring dishonor upon the +house if we do not set it in order." He held out the bills, and +described the agony of the last few days in a few simple but vigorous +and touching words. + +"He is deceiving us! The miserable boy!" cried Mlle. Armande, her +heart swelling as the blood surged back to it in heavy throbs. + +"Let us both say mea culpa, mademoiselle," the old lawyer said +stoutly; "we have always allowed him to have his own way; he needed +stern guidance; he could not have it from you with your inexperience +of life; nor from me, for he would not listen to me. He has had no +mother." + +"Fate sometimes deals terribly with a noble house in decay," said +Mlle. Armande, with tears in her eyes. + +The Marquis came up as she spoke. He had been walking up and down the +garden while he read the letter sent by his son after his return. +Victurnien gave his itinerary from an aristocrat's point of view; +telling how he had been welcomed by the greatest Italian families of +Genoa, Turin, Milan, Florence, Venice, Rome, and Naples. This +flattering reception he owed to his name, he said, and partly, +perhaps, to the Duchess as well. In short, he had made his appearance +magnificently, and as befitted a d'Esgrignon. + +"Have you been at your old tricks, Chesnel?" asked the Marquis. + +Mlle. Armande made Chesnel an eager sign, dreadful to see. They +understood each other. The poor father, the flower of feudal honor, +must die with all his illusions. A compact of silence and devotion was +ratified between the two noble hearts by a simple inclination of the +head. + +"Ah! Chesnel, it was not exactly in this way that the d'Esgrignons +went into Italy at the end of the fourteenth century, when Marshal +Trivulzio, in the service of the King of France, served under a +d'Esgrignon, who had a Bayard too under his orders. Other times, other +pleasures. And, for that matter, the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse is at +least the equal of a Marchesa di Spinola." + +And, on the strength of his genealogical tree, the old man swung +himself off with a coxcomb's air, as if he himself had once made a +conquest of the Marchesa di Spinola, and still possessed the Duchess +of to-day. + +The two companions in unhappiness were left together on the garden +bench, with the same thought for a bond of union. They sat for a long +time, saying little save vague, unmeaning words, watching the father +walk away in his happiness, gesticulating as if he were talking to +himself. + +"What will become of him now?" Mlle. Armande asked after a while. + +"Du Croisier has sent instructions to the MM. Keller; he is not to be +allowed to draw any more without authorization." + +"And there are debts," continued Mlle. Armande. + +"I am afraid so." + +"If he is left without resources, what will he do?" + +"I dare not answer that question to myself." + +"But he must be drawn out of that life, he must come back to us, or he +will have nothing left." + +"And nothing else left to him," Chesnel said gloomily. But Mlle. +Armande as yet did not and could not understand the full force of +those words. + +"Is there any hope of getting him away from that woman, that Duchess? +Perhaps she leads him on." + +"He would not stick at a crime to be with her," said Chesnel, trying +to pave the way to an intolerable thought by others less intolerable. + +"Crime," repeated Mlle. Armande. "Oh, Chesnel, no one but you would +think of such a thing!" she added, with a withering look; before such +a look from a woman's eyes no mortal can stand. "There is but one +crime that a noble can commit--the crime of high treason; and when he +is beheaded, the block is covered with a black cloth, as it is for +kings." + +"The times have changed very much," said Chesnel, shaking his head. +Victurnien had thinned his last thin, white hairs. "Our Martyr-King +did not die like the English King Charles." + +That thought soothed Mlle. Armande's splendid indignation; a shudder +ran through her; but still she did not realize what Chesnel meant. + +"To-morrow we will decide what we must do," she said; "it needs +thought. At the worst, we have our lands." + +"Yes," said Chesnel. "You and M. le Marquis own the estate conjointly; +but the larger part of it is yours. You can raise money upon it +without saying a word to him." + +The players at whist, reversis, boston, and backgammon noticed that +evening that Mlle. Armande's features, usually so serene and pure, +showed signs of agitation. + +"That poor heroic child!" said the old Marquise de Casteran, "she must +be suffering still. A woman never knows what her sacrifices to her +family may cost her." + +Next day it was arranged with Chesnel that Mlle. Armande should go to +Paris to snatch her nephew from perdition. If any one could carry off +Victurnien, was it not the woman whose motherly heart yearned over +him? Mlle. Armande made up her mind that she would go to the Duchesse +de Maufrigneuse and tell her all. Still, some sort of pretext was +necessary to explain the journey to the Marquis and the whole town. At +some cost to her maidenly delicacy, Mlle. Armande allowed it to be +thought that she was suffering from a complaint which called for a +consultation of skilled and celebrated physicians. Goodness knows +whether the town talked of this or no! But Mlle. Armande saw that +something far more than her own reputation was at stake. She set out. +Chesnel brought her his last bag of louis; she took it, without paying +any attention to it, as she took her white capuchine and thread +mittens. + +"Generous girl! What grace!" he said, as he put her into the carriage +with her maid, a woman who looked like a gray sister. + +Du Croisier had thought out his revenge, as provincials think out +everything. For studying out a question in all its bearings, there are +no folk in this world like savages, peasants, and provincials; and +this is how, when they proceed from thought to action, you find every +contingency provided for from beginning to end. Diplomatists are +children compared with these classes of mammals; they have time before +them, an element which is lacking to those people who are obliged to +think about a great many things, to superintend the progress of all +kinds of schemes, to look forward for all sorts of contingencies in +the wider interests of human affairs. Had de Croisier sounded poor +Victurnien's nature so well, that he foresaw how easily the young +Count would lend himself to his schemes of revenge? Or was he merely +profiting by an opportunity for which he had been on the watch for +years? One circumstance there was, to be sure, in his manner of +preparing his stroke, which shows a certain skill. Who was it that +gave du Croisier warning of the moment? Was it the Kellers? Or could +it have been President du Ronceret's son, then finishing his law +studies in Paris? + +Du Croisier wrote to Victurnien, telling him that the Kellers had been +instructed to advance no more money; and that letter was timed to +arrive just as the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse was in the utmost +perplexity, and the Comte d'Esgrignon consumed by the sense of poverty +as dreadful as it was cunningly hidden. The wretched young man was +exerting all his ingenuity to seem as if he were wealthy! + +Now in the letter which informed the victim that in future the Kellers +would make no further advances without security, there was a tolerably +wide space left between the forms of an exaggerated respect and the +signature. It was quite easy to tear off the best part of the letter +and convert it into a bill of exchange for any amount. The diabolical +missive had been enclosed in an envelope, so that the other side of +the sheet was blank. When it arrived, Victurnien was writhing in the +lowest depths of despair. After two years of the most prosperous, +sensual, thoughtless, and luxurious life, he found himself face to +face with the most inexorable poverty; it was an absolute +impossibility to procure money. There had been some throes of crisis +before the journey came to an end. With the Duchess' help he had +managed to extort various sums from bankers; but it had been with the +greatest difficulty, and, moreover, those very amounts were about to +start up again before him as overdue bills of exchange in all their +rigor, with a stern summons to pay from the Bank of France and the +commercial court. All through the enjoyments of those last weeks the +unhappy boy had felt the point of the Commander's sword; at every +supper-party he heard, like Don Juan, the heavy tread of the statue +outside upon the stairs. He felt an unaccountable creeping of the +flesh, a warning that the sirocco of debt is nigh at hand. He reckoned +on chance. For five years he had never turned up a blank in the +lottery, his purse had always been replenished. After Chesnel had come +du Croisier (he told himself), after du Croisier surely another gold +mine would pour out its wealth. And besides, he was winning great sums +at play; his luck at play had saved him several unpleasant steps +already; and often a wild hope sent him to the Salon des Etrangers +only to lose his winnings afterwards at whist at the club. His life +for the past two months had been like the immortal finale of Mozart's +Don Giovanni; and of a truth, if a young man has come to such a plight +as Victurnien's, that finale is enough to make him shudder. Can +anything better prove the enormous power of music than that sublime +rendering of the disorder and confusion arising out of a life wholly +give up to sensual indulgence? that fearful picture of a deliberate +effort to shut out the thought of debts and duels, deceit and evil +luck? In that music Mozart disputes the palm with Moliere. The +terrific finale, with its glow, its power, its despair and laughter, +its grisly spectres and elfish women, centres about the prodigal's +last effort made in the after-supper heat of wine, the frantic +struggle which ends the drama. Victurnien was living through this +infernal poem, and alone. He saw visions of himself--a friendless, +solitary outcast, reading the words carved on the stone, the last +words on the last page of the book that had held him spellbound--THE +END! + +Yes; for him all would be at an end, and that soon. Already he saw the +cold, ironical eyes which his associates would turn upon him, and +their amusement over his downfall. Some of them he knew were playing +high on that gambling-table kept open all day long at the Bourse, or +in private houses at the clubs, and anywhere and everywhere in Paris; +but not one of these men could spare a banknote to save an intimate. +There was no help for it--Chesnel must be ruined. He had devoured +Chesnel's living. + +He sat with the Duchess in their box at the Italiens, the whole house +envying them their happiness, and while he smiled at her, all the +Furies were tearing at his heart. Indeed, to give some idea of the +depths of doubt, despair, and incredulity in which the boy was +groveling; he who so clung to life--the life which the angel had made +so fair--who so loved it, that he would have stooped to baseness +merely to live; he, the pleasure-loving scapegrace, the degenerate +d'Esgrignon, had even taken out his pistols, had gone so far as to +think of suicide. He who would never have brooked the appearance of an +insult was abusing himself in language which no man is likely to hear +except from himself. + +He left du Croisier's letter lying open on the bed. Josephin had +brought it in at nine o'clock. Victurnien's furniture had been +seized, but he slept none the less. After he came back from the +Opera, he and the Duchess had gone to a voluptuous retreat, where +they often spent a few hours together after the most brilliant +court balls and evening parties and gaieties. Appearances were +very cleverly saved. Their love-nest was a garret like any other +to all appearance; Mme. de Maufrigneuse was obliged to bow her +head with its court feathers or wreath of flowers to enter in at +the door; but within all the peris of the East had made the +chamber fair. And now that the Count was on the brink of ruin, he +had longed to bid farewell to the dainty nest, which he had built +to realize a day-dream worthy of his angel. Presently adversity +would break the enchanted eggs; there would be no brood of white +doves, no brilliant tropical birds, no more of the thousand +bright-winged fancies which hover above our heads even to the +last days of our lives. Alas! alas! in three days he must be +gone; his bills had fallen into the hands of the money-lenders, +the law proceedings had reached the last stage. + +An evil thought crossed his brain. He would fly with the Duchess; they +would live in some undiscovered nook in the wilds of North or South +America; but--he would fly with a fortune, and leave his creditors to +confront their bills. To carry out the plan, he had only to cut off +the lower portion of that letter with du Croisier's signature, and to +fill in the figures to turn it into a bill, and present it to the +Kellers. There was a dreadful struggle with temptation; tears shed, +but the honor of the family triumphed, subject to one condition. +Victurnien wanted to be sure of his beautiful Diane; he would do +nothing unless she should consent to their flight. So he went to the +Duchess in the Rue Faubourg Saint-Honore, and found her in coquettish +morning dress, which cost as much in thought as in money, a fit dress +in which to begin to play the part of Angel at eleven o'clock in the +morning. + +Mme. de Maufrigneuse was somewhat pensive. Cares of a similar kind +were gnawing her mind; but she took them gallantly. Of all the various +feminine organizations classified by physiologists, there is one that +has something indescribably terrible about it. Such women combine +strength of soul and clear insight, with a faculty for prompt +decision, and a recklessness, or rather resolution in a crisis which +would shake a man's nerves. And these powers lie out of sight beneath +an appearance of the most graceful helplessness. Such women only among +womankind afford examples of a phenomenon which Buffon recognized in +men alone, to wit, the union, or rather the disunion, of two different +natures in one human being. Other women are wholly women; wholly +tender, wholly devoted, wholly mothers, completely null and completely +tiresome; nerves and brain and blood are all in harmony; but the +Duchess, and others like her, are capable of rising to the highest +heights of feelings, or of showing the most selfish insensibility. It +is one of the glories of Moliere that he has given us a wonderful +portrait of such a woman, from one point of view only, in that +greatest of his full-length figures--Celimene; Celimene is the typical +aristocratic woman, as Figaro, the second edition of Panurge, +represents the people. + +So, the Duchess, being overwhelmed with debt, laid it upon herself to +give no more than a moment's thought to the avalanche of cares, and to +take her resolution once and for all; Napoleon could take up or lay +down the burden of his thoughts in precisely the same way. The Duchess +possessed the faculty of standing aloof from herself; she could look +on as a spectator at the crash when it came, instead of submitting to +be buried beneath. This was certainly great, but repulsive in a woman. +When she awoke in the morning she collected her thoughts; and by the +time she had begun to dress she had looked at the danger in its +fullest extent and faced the possibilities of terrific downfall. She +pondered. Should she take refuge in a foreign country? Or should she +go to the King and declare her debts to him? Or again, should she +fascinate a du Tillet or a Nucingen, and gamble on the stock exchange +to pay her creditors? The city man would find the money; he would be +intelligent enough to bring her nothing but the profits, without so +much as mentioning the losses, a piece of delicacy which would gloss +all over. The catastrophe, and these various ways of averting it, had +all been reviewed quite coolly, calmly, and without trepidation. + +As a naturalist takes up some king of butterflies and fastens him down +on cotton-wool with a pin, so Mme. de Maufrigneuse had plucked love +out of her heart while she pondered the necessity of the moment, and +was quite ready to replace the beautiful passion on its immaculate +setting so soon as her duchess' coronet was safe. SHE knew none of the +hesitation which Cardinal Richelieu hid from all the world but Pere +Joseph; none of the doubts that Napoleon kept at first entirely to +himself. "Either the one or the other," she told herself. + +She was sitting by the fire, giving orders for her toilette for a +drive in the Bois if the weather should be fine, when Victurnien came +in. + +The Comte d'Esgrignon, with all his stifled capacity, his so keen +intellect, was in exactly the state which might have been looked for +in the woman. His heart was beating violently, the perspiration broke +out over him as he stood in his dandy's trappings; he was afraid as +yet to lay a hand on the corner-stone which upheld the pyramid of his +life with Diane. So much it cost him to know the truth. The cleverest +men are fain to deceive themselves on one or two points if the truth +once known is likely to humiliate them in their own eyes, and damage +themselves with themselves. Victurnien forced his own irresolution +into the field by committing himself. + +"What is the matter with you?" Diane de Maufrigneuse had said at once, +at the sight of her beloved Victurnien's face. + +"Why, dear Diane, I am in such a perplexity; a man gone to the bottom +and at his last gasp is happy in comparison." + +"Pshaw! it is nothing," said she; "you are a child. Let us see now; +tell me about it." + +"I am hopelessly in debt. I have come to the end of my tether." + +"Is that all?" said she, smiling at him. "Money matters can always be +arranged somehow or other; nothing is irretrievable except disasters +in love." + +Victurnien's mind being set at rest by this swift comprehension of his +position, he unrolled the bright-colored web of his life for the last +two years and a half; but it was the seamy side of it which he +displayed with something of genius, and still more of wit, to his +Diane. He told his tale with the inspiration of the moment, which +fails no one in great crises; he had sufficient artistic skill to set +it off by a varnish of delicate scorn for men and things. It was an +aristocrat who spoke. And the Duchess listened as she could listen. + +One knee was raised, for she sat with her foot on a stool. She rested +her elbow on her knee and leant her face on her hand so that her +fingers closed daintily over her shapely chin. Her eyes never left +his; but thoughts by myriads flitted under the blue surface, like +gleams of stormy light between two clouds. Her forehead was calm, her +mouth gravely intent--grave with love; her lips were knotted fast by +Victurnien's lips. To have her listening thus was to believe that a +divine love flowed from her heart. Wherefore, when the Count had +proposed flight to this soul, so closely knit to his own, he could not +help crying, "You are an angel!" + +The fair Maufrigneuse made silent answer; but she had not spoken as +yet. + +"Good, very good," she said at last. (She had not given herself up to +the love expressed in her face; her mind had been entirely absorbed by +deep-laid schemes which she kept to herself.) "But THAT is not the +question, dear." (The "angel" was only "that" by this time.) "Let us +think of your affairs. Yes, we will go, and the sooner the better. +Arrange it all; I will follow you. It is glorious to leave Paris and +the world behind. I will set about my preparations in such a way that +no one can suspect anything." + +I WILL FOLLOW YOU! Just so Mlle. Mars might have spoken those words to +send a thrill through two thousand listening men and women. When a +Duchesse de Maufrigneuse offers, in such words, to make such a +sacrifice to love, she has paid her debt. How should Victurnien speak +of sordid details after that? He could so much the better hide his +schemes, because Diane was particularly careful not to inquire into +them. She was now, and always, as de Marsay said, an invited guest at +a banquet wreathed with roses, a banquet which mankind, as in duty +bound, made ready for her. + +Victurnien would not go till the promise had been sealed. He must draw +courage from his happiness before he could bring himself to do a deed +on which, as he inwardly told himself, people would be certain to put +a bad construction. Still (and this was the thought that decided him) +he counted on his aunt and father to hush up the affair; he even +counted on Chesnel. Chesnel would think of one more compromise. +Besides, "this business," as he called it in his thoughts, was the +only way of raising money on the family estate. With three hundred +thousand francs, he and Diane would lead a happy life hidden in some +palace in Venice; and there they would forget the world. They went +through their romance in advance. + +Next day Victurnien made out a bill for three hundred thousand francs, +and took it to the Kellers. The Kellers advanced the money, for du +Croisier happened to have a balance at the time; but they wrote to let +him know that he must not draw again on them without giving them +notice. Du Croisier, much astonished, asked for a statement of +accounts. It was sent. Everything was explained. The day of his +vengeance had arrived. + + + +When Victurnien had drawn "his" money, he took it to Mme. de +Maufrigneuse. She locked up the banknotes in her desk, and proposed to +bid the world farewell by going to the Opera to see it for the last +time. Victurnien was thoughtful, absent, and uneasy. He was beginning +to reflect. He thought that his seat in the Duchess' box might cost +him dear; that perhaps, when he had put the three hundred thousand +francs in safety, it would be better to travel post, to fall at +Chesnel's feet, and tell him all. But before they left the opera- +house, the Duchess, in spite of herself, gave Victurnien an adorable +glance, her eyes were shining with the desire to go back once more to +bid farewell to the nest which she loved so much. And boy that he was, +he lost a night. + +The next day, at three o'clock, he was back again at the Hotel de +Maufrigneuse; he had come to take the Duchess' orders for that night's +escape. And, "Why should we go?" asked she; "I have thought it all +out. The Vicomtesse de Beauseant and the Duchesse de Langeais +disappeared. If I go too, it will be something quite commonplace. We +will brave the storm. It will be a far finer thing to do. I am sure of +success." Victurnien's eyes dazzled; he felt as if his skin were +dissolving and the blood oozing out all over him. + +"What is the matter with you?" cried the fair Diane, noticing a +hesitation which a woman never forgives. Your truly adroit lover will +hasten to agree with any fancy that Woman may take into her head, and +suggest reasons for doing otherwise, while leaving her free exercise +of her right to change her mind, her intentions, and sentiments +generally as often as she pleases. Victurnien was angry for the first +time, angry with the wrath of a weak man of poetic temperament; it was +a storm of rain and lightning flashes, but no thunder followed. The +angel on whose faith he had risked more than his life, the honor of +his house, was very roughly handled. + +"So," said she, "we have come to this after eighteen months of +tenderness! You are unkind, very unkind. Go away!--I do not want to +see you again. I thought that you loved me. You do not." + +"I DO NOT LOVE YOU?" repeated he, thunderstruck by the reproach. + +"No, monsieur." + +"And yet----" he cried. "Ah! if you but knew what I have just done for +your sake!" + +"And how have you done so much for me, monsieur? As if a man ought not +to do anything for a woman that has done so much for him." + +"You are not worthy to know it!" Victurnien cried in a passion of +anger. + +"Oh!" + +After that sublime, "Oh!" Diane bowed her head on her hand and sat, +still, cold, and implacable as angels naturally may be expected to do, +seeing that they share none of the passions of humanity. At the sight +of the woman he loved in this terrible attitude, Victurnien forgot his +danger. Had he not just that moment wronged the most angelic creature +on earth? He longed for forgiveness, he threw himself before her, he +kissed her feet, he pleaded, he wept. Two whole hours the unhappy +young man spent in all kinds of follies, only to meet the same cold +face, while the great silent tears dropping one by one, were dried as +soon as they fell lest the unworthy lover should try to wipe them +away. The Duchess was acting a great agony, one of those hours which +stamp the woman who passes through them as something august and +sacred. + +Two more hours went by. By this time the Count had gained possession +of Diane's hand; it felt cold and spiritless. The beautiful hand, with +all the treasures in its grasp, might have been supple wood; there was +nothing of Diane in it; he had taken it, it had not been given to him. +As for Victurnien, the spirit had ebbed out of his frame, he had +ceased to think. He would not have seen the sun in heaven. What was to +be done? What course should he take? What resolution should he make? +The man who can keep his head in such circumstances must be made of +the same stuff as the convict who spent the night in robbing the +Bibliotheque Royale of its gold medals, and repaired to his honest +brother in the morning with a request to melt down the plunder. "What +is to be done?" cried the brother. "Make me some coffee," replied the +thief. Victurnien sank into a bewildered stupor, darkness settled down +over his brain. Visions of past rapture flitted across the misty gloom +like the figures that Raphael painted against a black background; to +these he must bid farewell. Inexorable and disdainful, the Duchess +played with the tip of her scarf. She looked in irritation at +Victurnien from time to time; she coquetted with memories, she spoke +to her lover of his rivals as if anger had finally decided her to +prefer one of them to a man who could so change in one moment after +twenty-eight months of love. + +"Ah! that charming young Felix de Vandenesse, so faithful as he was to +Mme. de Mortsauf, would never have permitted himself such a scene! He +can love, can de Vandenesse! De Marsay, that terrible de Marsay, such +a tiger as everyone thought him, was rough with other men; but like +all strong men, he kept his gentleness for women. Montriveau trampled +the Duchesse de Langeais under foot, as Othello killed Desdemona, in a +burst of fury which at any rate proved the extravagance of his love. +It was not like a paltry squabble. There was rapture in being so +crushed. Little, fair-haired, slim, and slender men loved to torment +women; they could only reign over poor, weak creatures; it pleased +them to have some ground for believing that they were men. The tyranny +of love was their one chance of asserting their power. She did not +know why she had put herself at the mercy of fair hair. Such men as de +Marsay, Montriveau, and Vandenesse, dark-haired and well grown, had a +ray of sunlight in their eyes." + +It was a storm of epigrams. Her speeches, like bullets, came hissing +past his ears. Every word that Diane hurled at him was triple-barbed; +she humiliated, stung, and wounded him with an art that was all her +own, as half a score of savages can torture an enemy bound to a stake. + +"You are mad!" he cried at last, at the end of his patience, and out +he went in God knows what mood. He drove as if he had never handled +the reins before, locked his wheels in the wheels of other vehicles, +collided with the curbstone in the Place Louis-Quinze, went he knew +not whither. The horse, left to its own devices, made a bolt for the +stable along the Quai d'Orsay; but as he turned into the Rue de +l'Universite, Josephin appeared to stop the runaway. + +"You cannot go home, sir," the old man said, with a scared face; "they +have come with a warrant to arrest you." + +Victurnien thought that he had been arrested on the criminal charge, +albeit there had not been time for the public prosecutor to receive +his instructions. He had forgotten the matter of the bills of +exchange, which had been stirred up again for some days past in the +form of orders to pay, brought by the officers of the court with +accompaniments in the shape of bailiffs, men in possession, +magistrates, commissaries, policemen, and other representatives of +social order. Like most guilty creatures, Victurnien had forgotten +everything but his crime. + +"It is all over with me," he cried. + +"No, M. le Comte, drive as fast as you can to the Hotel du Bon la +Fontaine, in the Rue de Grenelle. Mlle. Armande is waiting there for +you, the horses have been put in, she will take you with her." + +Victurnien, in his trouble, caught like a drowning man at the branch +that came to his hand; he rushed off to the inn, reached the place, +and flung his arms about his aunt. Mlle. Armande cried as if her heart +would break; any one might have thought that she had a share in her +nephew's guilt. They stepped into the carriage. A few minutes later +they were on the road to Brest, and Paris lay behind them. Victurnien +uttered not a sound; he was paralyzed. And when aunt and nephew began +to speak, they talked at cross purposes; Victurnien, still laboring +under the unlucky misapprehension which flung him into Mlle. Armande's +arms, was thinking of his forgery; his aunt had the debts and the +bills on her mind. + +"You know all, aunt," he had said. + +"Poor boy, yes, but we are here. I am not going to scold you just yet. +Take heart." + +"I must hide somewhere." + +"Perhaps. . . . Yes, it is a very good idea." + +"Perhaps I might get into Chesnel's house without being seen if we +timed ourselves to arrive in the middle of the night?" + +"That will be best. We shall be better able to hide this from my +brother.--Poor angel! how unhappy he is!" said she, petting the +unworthy child. + +"Ah! now I begin to know what dishonor means; it has chilled my love." + +"Unhappy boy; what bliss and what misery!" And Mlle. Armande drew his +fevered face to her breast and kissed his forehead, cold and damp +though it was, as the holy women might have kissed the brow of the +dead Christ when they laid Him in His grave clothes. Following out the +excellent scheme suggested by the prodigal son, he was brought by +night to the quiet house in the Rue du Bercail; but chance ordered it +that by so doing he ran straight into the wolf's jaws, as the saying +goes. That evening Chesnel had been making arrangements to sell his +connection to M. Lepressoir's head-clerk. M. Lepressoir was the notary +employed by the Liberals, just as Chesnel's practice lay among the +aristocratic families. The young fellow's relatives were rich enough +to pay Chesnel the considerable sum of a hundred thousand francs in +cash. + +Chesnel was rubbing his hands. "A hundred thousand francs will go a +long way in buying up debts," he thought. "The young man is paying a +high rate of interest on his loans. We will lock him up down here. I +will go yonder myself and bring those curs to terms." + +Chesnel, honest Chesnel, upright, worthy Chesnel, called his darling +Comte Victurnien's creditors "curs." + +Meanwhile his successor was making his way along the Rue du Bercail +just as Mlle. Armande's traveling carriage turned into it. Any young +man might be expected to feel some curiosity if he saw a traveling +carriage stop at a notary's door in such a town and at such an hour of +the night; the young man in question was sufficiently inquisitive to +stand in a doorway and watch. He saw Mlle. Armande alight. + +"Mlle. Armande d'Esgrignon at this time of night!" said he to himself. +"What can be going forward at the d'Esgrignons'?" + +At the sight of mademoiselle, Chesnel opened the door circumspectly +and set down the light which he was carrying; but when he looked out +and saw Victurnien, Mlle. Armande's first whispered word made the +whole thing plain to him. He looked up and down the street; it seemed +quite deserted; he beckoned, and the young Count sprang out of the +carriage and entered the courtyard. All was lost. Chesnel's successor +had discovered Victurnien's hiding place. + +Victurnien was hurried into the house and installed in a room beyond +Chesnel's private office. No one could enter it except across the old +man's dead body. + +"Ah! M. le Comte!" exclaimed Chesnel, notary no longer. + +"Yes, monsieur," the Count answered, understanding his old friend's +exclamation. "I did not listen to you; and now I have fallen into the +depths, and I must perish." + +"No, no," the good man answered, looking triumphantly from Mlle. +Armande to the Count. "I have sold my connection. I have been working +for a very long time now, and am thinking of retiring. By noon to- +morrow I shall have a hundred thousand francs; many things can be +settled with that. Mademoiselle, you are tired," he added; "go back to +the carriage and go home and sleep. Business to-morrow." + +"Is he safe?" returned she, looking at Victurnien. + +"Yes." + +She kissed her nephew; a few tears fell on his forehead. Then she +went. + +"My good Chesnel," said the Count, when they began to talk of +business, "what are your hundred thousand francs in such a position as +mine? You do not know the full extent of my troubles, I think." + +Victurnien explained the situation. Chesnel was thunderstruck. But for +the strength of his devotion, he would have succumbed to this blow. +Tears streamed from the eyes that might well have had no tears left to +shed. For a few moments he was a child again, for a few moments he was +bereft of his senses; he stood like a man who should find his own +house on fire, and through a window see the cradle ablaze and hear the +hiss of the flames on his children's curls. He rose to his full height +--il se dressa en pied, as Amyot would have said; he seemed to grow +taller; he raised his withered hands and wrung them despairingly and +wildly. + +"If only your father may die and never know this, young man! To be a +forger is enough; a parricide you must not be. Fly, you say? No. They +would condemn you for contempt of court! Oh, wretched boy! Why did you +not forge MY signature? _I_ would have paid; I should not have taken +the bill to the public prosecutor.--Now I can do nothing. You have +brought me to a stand in the lowest pit in hell!--Du Croisier! What +will come of it? What is to be done?--If you had killed a man, there +might be some help for it. But forgery--FORGERY! And time--the time is +flying," he went on, shaking his fist towards the old clock. "You will +want a sham passport now. One crime leads to another. First," he +added, after a pause, "first of all we must save the house of +d'Esgrignon." + +"But the money is still in Mme. de Maufrigneuse's keeping," exclaimed +Victurnien. + +"Ah!" exclaimed Chesnel. "Well, there is some hope left--a faint hope. +Could we soften du Croisier, I wonder, or buy him over? He shall have +all the lands if he likes. I will go to him; I will wake him and offer +him all we have.--Besides, it was not you who forged that bill; it was +I. I will go to jail; I am too old for the hulks, they can only put me +in prison." + +"But the body of the bill is in my handwriting," objected Victurnien, +without a sign of surprise at this reckless devotion. + +"Idiot! . . . that is, pardon, M. le Comte. Josephin should have been +made to write it," the old notary cried wrathfully. "He is a good +creature; he would have taken it all on his shoulders. But there is an +end of it; the world is falling to pieces," the old man continued, +sinking exhausted into a chair. "Du Croisier is a tiger; we must be +careful not to rouse him. What time is it? Where is the draft? If it +is at Paris, it might be bought back from the Kellers; they might +accommodate us. Ah! but there are dangers on all sides; a single false +step means ruin. Money is wanted in any case. But there! nobody knows +you are here, you must live buried away in the cellar if needs must. I +will go at once to Paris as fast as I can; I can hear the mail coach +from Brest." + +In a moment the old man recovered the faculties of his youth--his +agility and vigor. He packed up clothes for the journey, took money, +brought a six-pound loaf to the little room beyond the office, and +turned the key on his child by adoption. + +"Not a sound in here," he said, "no light at night; and stop here till +I come back, or you will go to the hulks. Do you understand, M. le +Comte? Yes, TO THE HULKS! if anybody in a town like this knows that +you are here." + +With that Chesnel went out, first telling his housekeeper to give out +that he was ill, to allow no one to come into the house, to send +everybody away, and to postpone business of every kind for three days. +He wheedled the manager of the coach-office, made up a tale for his +benefit--he had the makings of an ingenious novelist in him--and +obtained a promise that if there should be a place, he should have it, +passport or no passport, as well as a further promise to keep the +hurried departure a secret. Luckily, the coach was empty when it +arrived. + +In the middle of the following night Chesnel was set down in Paris. At +nine o'clock in the morning he waited on the Kellers, and learned that +the fatal draft had returned to du Croisier three days since; but +while obtaining this information, he in no way committed himself. +Before he went away he inquired whether the draft could be recovered +if the amount were refunded. Francois Keller's answer was to the +effect that the document was du Croisier's property, and that it was +entirely in his power to keep or return it. Then, in desperation, the +old man went to the Duchess. + +Mme. de Maufrigneuse was not at home to any visitor at that hour. +Chesnel, feeling that every moment was precious, sat down in the hall, +wrote a few lines, and succeeded in sending them to the lady by dint +of wheedling, fascinating, bribing, and commanding the most insolent +and inaccessible servants in the world. The Duchess was still in bed; +but, to the great astonishment of her household, the old man in black +knee-breeches, ribbed stockings, and shoes with buckles to them, was +shown into her room. + +"What is it, monsieur?" she asked, posing in her disorder. "What does +he want of me, ungrateful that he is?" + +"It is this, Mme. la Duchesse," the good man exclaimed, "you have a +hundred thousand crowns belonging to us." + +"Yes," began she. "What does it signify----?" + +"The money was gained by a forgery, for which we are going to the +hulks, a forgery which we committed for love of you," Chesnel said +quickly. "How is it that you did not guess it, so clever as you are? +Instead of scolding the boy, you ought to have had the truth out of +him, and stopped him while there was time, and saved him." + +At the first words the Duchess understood; she felt ashamed of her +behavior to so impassioned a lover, and afraid besides that she might +be suspected of complicity. In her wish to prove that she had not +touched the money left in her keeping, she lost all regard for +appearances; and besides, it did not occur to her that the notary was +a man. She flung off the eider-down quilt, sprang to her desk +(flitting past the lawyer like an angel out of one of the vignettes +which illustrate Lamartine's books), held out the notes, and went back +in confusion to bed. + +"You are an angel, madame." (She was to be an angel for all the world, +it seemed.) "But this will not be the end of it. I count upon your +influence to save us." + +"To save you! I will do it or die! Love that will not shrink from a +crime must be love indeed. Is there a woman in the world for whom such +a thing has been done? Poor boy! Come, do not lose time, dear M. +Chesnel; and count upon me as upon yourself." + +"Mme. la Duchesse! Mme. la Duchesse!" It was all that he could say, so +overcome was he. He cried, he could have danced; but he was afraid of +losing his senses, and refrained. + +"Between us, we will save him," she said, as he left the room. + +Chesnel went straight to Josephin. Josephin unlocked the young Count's +desk and writing-table. Very luckily, the notary found letters which +might be useful, letters from du Croisier and the Kellers. Then he +took a place in a diligence which was just about to start; and by dint +of fees to the postilions, the lumbering vehicle went as quickly as +the coach. His two fellow-passengers on the journey happened to be in +as great a hurry as himself, and readily agreed to take their meals in +the carriage. Thus swept over the road, the notary reached the Rue du +Bercail, after three days of absence, an hour before midnight. And yet +he was too late. He saw the gendarmes at the gate, crossed the +threshold, and met the young Count in the courtyard. Victurnien had +been arrested. If Chesnel had had the power, he would beyond a doubt +have killed the officers and men; as it was, he could only fall on +Victurnien's neck. + +"If I cannot hush this matter up, you must kill yourself before the +indictment is made out," he whispered. But Victurnien had sunk into +such stupor, that he stared back uncomprehendingly. + +"Kill myself?" he repeated. + +"Yes. If your courage should fail, my boy, count upon me," said +Chesnel, squeezing Victurnien's hand. + +In spite of the anguish of mind and tottering limbs, he stood firmly +planted, to watch the son of his heart, the Comte d'Esgrignon, go out +of the courtyard between two gendarmes, with the commissary, the +justice of the peace, and the clerk of the court; and not until the +figures had disappeared, and the sound of footsteps had died away into +silence, did he recover his firmness and presence of mind. + +"You will catch cold, sir," Brigitte remonstrated. + +"The devil take you!" cried her exasperated master. + +Never in the nine-and-twenty years that Brigitte had been in his +service had she heard such words from him! Her candle fell out of her +hands, but Chesnel neither heeded his housekeeper's alarm nor heard +her exclaim. He hurried off towards the Val-Noble. + +"He is out of his mind," said she; "after all, it is no wonder. But +where is he off to? I cannot possibly go after him. What will become +of him? Suppose that he should drown himself?" + +And Brigitte went to waken the head-clerk and send him to look along +the river bank; the river had a gloomy reputation just then, for there +had lately been two cases of suicide--one a young man full of promise, +and the other a girl, a victim of seduction. Chesnel went straight to +the Hotel du Croisier. There lay his only hope. The law requires that +a charge of forgery must be brought by a private individual. It was +still possible to withdraw if du Croisier chose to admit that there +had been a misapprehension; and Chesnel had hopes, even then, of +buying the man over. + +M. and Mme. du Croisier had much more company than usual that evening. +Only a few persons were in the secret. M. du Ronceret, president of +the Tribunal; M. Sauvager, deputy Public Prosecutor; and M. du +Coudrai, a registrar of mortgages, who had lost his post by voting on +the wrong side, were the only persons who were supposed to know about +it; but Mesdames du Ronceret and du Coudrai had told the news, in +strict confidence, to one or two intimate friends, so that it had +spread half over the semi-noble, semi-bourgeois assembly at M. du +Croisier's. Everybody felt the gravity of the situation, but no one +ventured to speak of it openly; and, moreover, Mme. du Croisier's +attachment to the upper sphere was so well known, that people scarcely +dared to mention the disaster which had befallen the d'Esgrignons or +to ask for particulars. The persons most interested were waiting till +good Mme. du Croisier retired, for that lady always retreated to her +room at the same hour to perform her religious exercises as far as +possible out of her husband's sight. + +Du Croisier's adherents, knowing the secret and the plans of the great +commercial power, looked round when the lady of the house disappeared; +but there were still several persons present whose opinions or +interests marked them out as untrustworthy, so they continued to play. +About half past eleven all had gone save intimates: M. Sauvager, M. +Camusot, the examining magistrate, and his wife, M. and Mme. du +Ronceret and their son Fabien, M. and Mme. du Coudrai, and Joseph +Blondet, the eldest of an old judge; ten persons in all. + +It is told of Talleyrand that one fatal day, three hours after +midnight, he suddenly interrupted a game of cards in the Duchesse de +Luynes' house by laying down his watch on the table and asking the +players whether the Prince de Conde had any child but the Duc +d'Enghien. + +"Why do you ask?" returned Mme. de Luynes, "when you know so well that +he has not." + +"Because if the Prince has no other son, the House of Conde is now at +an end." + +There was a moment's pause, and they finished the game.--President du +Ronceret now did something very similar. Perhaps he had heard the +anecdote; perhaps, in political life, little minds and great minds are +apt to hit upon the same expression. He looked at his watch, and +interrupted the game of boston with: + +"At this moment M. le Comte d'Esgrignon is arrested, and that house +which has held its head so high is dishonored forever." + +"Then, have you got hold of the boy?" du Coudrai cried gleefully. + +Every one in the room, with the exception of the President, the +deputy, and du Croisier, looked startled. + +"He has just been arrested in Chesnel's house, where he was hiding," +said the deputy public prosecutor, with the air of a capable but +unappreciated public servant, who ought by rights to be Minister of +Police. M. Sauvager, the deputy, was a thin, tall young man of five- +and-twenty, with a lengthy olive-hued countenance, black frizzled +hair, and deep-set eyes; the wide, dark rings beneath them were +completed by the wrinkled purple eyelids above. With a nose like the +beak of some bird of prey, a pinched mouth, and cheeks worn lean with +study and hollowed by ambition, he was the very type of a second-rate +personage on the lookout for something to turn up, and ready to do +anything if so he might get on in the world, while keeping within the +limitations of the possible and the forms of law. His pompous +expression was an admirable indication of the time-serving eloquence +to be expected of him. Chesnel's successor had discovered the young +Count's hiding place to him, and he took great credit to himself for +his penetration. + +The news seemed to come as a shock to the examining magistrate, M. +Camusot, who had granted the warrant of arrest on Sauvager's +application, with no idea that it was to be executed so promptly. +Camusot was short, fair, and fat already, though he was only thirty +years old or thereabouts; he had the flabby, livid look peculiar to +officials who live shut up in their private study or in a court of +justice; and his little, pale, yellow eyes were full of the suspicion +which is often mistaken for shrewdness. + +Mme. Camusot looked at her spouse, as who should say, "Was I not +right?" + +"Then the case will come on," was Camusot's comment. + +"Could you doubt it?" asked du Coudrai. "Now they have got the Count, +all is over." + +"There is the jury," said Camusot. "In this case M. le Prefet is sure +to take care that after the challenges from the prosecution and the +defence, the jury to a man will be for an acquittal.--My advice would +be to come to a compromise," he added, turning to du Croisier. + +"Compromise!" echoed the President; "why, he is in the hands of +justice." + +"Acquitted or convicted, the Comte d'Esgrignon will be dishonored all +the same," put in Sauvager. + +"I am bringing an action,"[*] said du Croisier. "I shall have Dupin +senior. We shall see how the d'Esgrignon family will escape out of his +clutches." + +[*] A trial for an offence of this kind in France is an action brought + by a private person (partie civile) to recover damages, and at the + same time a criminal prosecution conducted on behalf of the + Government.--Tr. + +"The d'Esgrignons will defend the case and have counsel from Paris; +they will have Berryer," said Mme. Camusot. "You will have a Roland +for your Oliver." + +Du Croisier, M. Sauvager, and the President du Ronceret looked at +Camusot, and one thought troubled their minds. The lady's tone, the +way in which she flung her proverb in the faces of the eight +conspirators against the house of d'Esgrignon, caused them inward +perturbation, which they dissembled as provincials can dissemble, by +dint of lifelong practice in the shifts of a monastic existence. +Little Mme. Camusot saw their change of countenance and subsequent +composure when they scented opposition on the part of the examining +magistrate. When her husband unveiled the thoughts in the back of his +own mind, she had tried to plumb the depths of hate in du Croisier's +adherents. She wanted to find out how du Croisier had gained over this +deputy public prosecutor, who had acted so promptly and so directly in +opposition to the views of the central power. + +"In any case," continued she, "if celebrated counsel come down from +Paris, there is a prospect of a very interesting session in the Court +of Assize; but the matter will be snuffed out between the Tribunal and +the Court of Appeal. It is only to be expected that the Government +should do all that can be done, below the surface, to save a young man +who comes of a great family, and has the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse for +a friend. So I think that we shall have a 'sensation at Landernau.'" + +"How you go on, madame!" the President said sternly. "Can you suppose +that the Court of First Instance will be influenced by considerations +which have nothing to do with justice?" + +"The event proves the contrary," she said meaningly, looking full at +Sauvager and the President, who glanced coldly at her. + +"Explain yourself, madame," said Sauvager. "you speak as if we had not +done our duty." + +"Mme. Camusot meant nothing," interposed her husband. + +"But has not M. le President just said something prejudicing a case +which depends on the examination of the prisoner?" said she. "And the +evidence is still to be taken, and the Court had not given its +decision?" + +"We are not at the law-courts," the deputy public prosecutor replied +tartly; "and besides, we know all that." + +"But the public prosecutor knows nothing at all about it yet," +returned she, with an ironical glance. "He will come back from the +Chamber of Deputies in all haste. You have cut out his work for him, +and he, no doubt, will speak for himself." + +The deputy prosecutor knitted his thick bushy brows. Those interested +read tardy scruples in his countenance. A great silence followed, +broken by no sound but the dealing of the cards. M. and Mme. Camusot, +sensible of a decided chill in the atmosphere, took their departure to +leave the conspirators to talk at their ease. + +"Camusot," the lady began in the street, "you went too far. Why lead +those people to suspect that you will have no part in their schemes? +They will play you some ugly trick." + +"What can they do? I am the only examining magistrate." + +"Cannot they slander you in whispers, and procure your dismissal?" + +At that very moment Chesnel ran up against the couple. The old notary +recognized the examining magistrate; and with the lucidity which comes +of an experience of business, he saw that the fate of the d'Esgrignons +lay in the hands of the young man before him. + +"Ah, sir!" he exclaimed, "we shall soon need you badly. Just a word +with you.--Your pardon, madame," he added, as he drew Camusot aside. + +Mme. Camusot, as a good conspirator, looked towards du Croisier's +house, ready to break up the conversation if anybody appeared; but she +thought, and thought rightly, that their enemies were busy discussing +this unexpected turn which she had given to the affair. Chesnel +meanwhile drew the magistrate into a dark corner under the wall, and +lowered his voice for his companion's ear. + +"If you are for the house of d'Esgrignon," he said, "Mme. la Duchesse +de Maufrigneuse, the Prince of Cadignan, the Ducs de Navarreins and de +Lenoncourt, the Keeper of the Seals, the Chancellor, the King himself, +will interest themselves in you. I have just come from Paris; I knew +all about this; I went post-haste to explain everything at Court. We +are counting on you, and I will keep your secret. If you are hostile, +I shall go back to Paris to-morrow and lodge a complaint with the +Keeper of the Seals that there is a suspicion of corruption. Several +functionaries were at du Croisier's house to-night, and no doubt, ate +and drank there, contrary to law; and besides, they are friends of +his." + +Chesnel would have brought the Almighty to intervene if he had had the +power. He did not wait for an answer; he left Camusot and fled like a +deer towards du Croisier's house. Camusot, meanwhile, bidden to reveal +the notary's confidences, was at once assailed with, "Was I not right, +dear?"--a wifely formula used on all occasions, but rather more +vehemently when the fair speaker is in the wrong. By the time they +reached home, Camusot had admitted the superiority of his partner in +life, and appreciated his good fortune in belonging to her; which +confession, doubtless, was the prelude of a blissful night. + +Chesnel met his foes in a body as they left du Croisier's house, and +began to fear that du Croisier had gone to bed. In his position he was +compelled to act quickly, and any delay was a misfortune. + +"In the King's name!" he cried, as the man-servant was closing the +hall door. He had just brought the King on the scene for the benefit +of an ambitious little official, and the word was still on his lips. +He fretted and chafed while the door was unbarred; then, swift as a +thunderbolt, dashed into the ante-chamber, and spoke to the servant. + +"A hundred crowns to you, young man, if you can wake Mme. du Croisier +and send her to me this instant. Tell her anything you like." + +Chesnel grew cool and composed as he opened the door of the brightly +lighted drawing-room, where du Croisier was striding up and down. For +a moment the two men scanned each other, with hatred and enmity, +twenty years' deep, in their eyes. One of the two had his foot on the +heart of the house of d'Esgrignon; the other, with a lion's strength, +came forward to pluck it away. + +"Your humble servant, sir," said Chesnel. "Have you made the charge?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"When was it made?" + +"Yesterday." + +"Have any steps been taken since the warrant of arrest was issued?" + +"I believe so." + +"I have come to treat with you." + +"Justice must take its course, nothing can stop it, the arrest has +been made." + +"Never mind that, I am at your orders, at your feet." The old man +knelt before du Croisier, and stretched out his hands entreatingly. + +"What do you want? Our lands, our castle? Take all; withdraw the +charge; leave us nothing but life and honor. And over and besides all +this, I will be your servant; command and I will obey." + +Du Croisier sat down in an easy-chair and left the old man to kneel. + +"You are not vindictive," pleaded Chesnel; "you are good-hearted, you +do not bear us such a grudge that you will not listen to terms. Before +daylight the young man ought to be at liberty." + +"The whole town knows that he has been arrested," returned du +Croisier, enjoying his revenge. + +"It is a great misfortune, but as there will be neither proofs nor +trial, we can easily manage that." + +Du Croisier reflected. He seemed to be struggling with self-interest; +Chesnel thought that he had gained a hold on his enemy through the +great motive of human action. At that supreme moment Mme. du Croisier +appeared. + +"Come here and help me to soften your dear husband, madame?" said +Chesnel, still on his knees. Mme. du Croisier made him rise with every +sign of profound astonishment. Chesnel explained his errand; and when +she knew it, the generous daughter of the intendants of the Ducs de +Alencon turned to du Croisier with tears in her eyes. + +"Ah! monsieur, can you hesitate? The d'Esgrignons, the honor of the +province!" she said. + +"There is more in it than that," exclaimed du Croisier, rising to +begin his restless walk again. + +"More? What more?" asked Chesnel in amazement. + +"France is involved, M. Chesnel! It is a question of the country, of +the people, of giving my lords your nobles a lesson, and teaching them +that there is such a thing as justice, and law, and a bourgeoisie--a +lesser nobility as good as they, and a match for them! There shall be +no more trampling down half a score of wheat fields for a single hare; +no bringing shame on families by seducing unprotected girls; they +shall not look down on others as good as they are, and mock at them +for ten whole years, without finding out at last that these things +swell into avalanches, and those avalanches will fall and crush and +bury my lords the nobles. You want to go back to the old order of +things. You want to tear up the social compact, the Charter in which +our rights are set forth---" + +"And so?" + +"Is it not a sacred mission to open the people's eyes?" cried du +Croisier. "Their eyes will be opened to the morality of your party +when they see nobles going to be tried at the Assize Court like Pierre +and Jacques. They will say, then, that small folk who keep their self- +respect are as good as great folk that bring shame on themselves. The +Assize Court is a light for all the world. Here, I am the champion of +the people, the friend of law. You yourselves twice flung me on the +side of the people--once when you refused an alliance, twice when you +put me under the ban of your society. You are reaping as you have +sown." + +If Chesnel was startled by this outburst, so no less was Mme. du +Croisier. To her this was a terrible revelation of her husband's +character, a new light not merely on the past but on the future as +well. Any capitulation on the part of the colossus was apparently out +of the question; but Chesnel in no wise retreated before the +impossible. + +"What, monsieur?" said Mme. du Croisier. "Would you not forgive? Then +you are not a Christian." + +"I forgive as God forgives, madame, on certain conditions." + +"And what are they?" asked Chesnel, thinking that he saw a ray of +hope. + +"The elections are coming on; I want the votes at your disposal." + +"You shall have them." + +"I wish that we, my wife and I, should be received familiarly every +evening, with an appearance of friendliness at any rate, by M. le +Marquis d'Esgrignon and his circle," continued du Croisier. + +"I do not know how we are going to compass it, but you shall be +received." + +"I wish to have the family bound over by a surety of four hundred +thousand francs, and by a written document stating the nature of the +compromise, so as to keep a loaded cannon pointed at its heart." + +"We agree," said Chesnel, without admitting that the three hundred +thousand francs was in his possession; "but the amount must be +deposited with a third party and returned to the family after your +election and repayment." + +"No; after the marriage of my grand-niece, Mlle. Duval. She will very +likely have four million francs some day; the reversion of our +property (mine and my wife's) shall be settled upon her by her +marriage-contract, and you shall arrange a match between her and the +young Count." + +"Never!" + +"NEVER!" repeated du Croisier, quite intoxicated with triumph. "Good- +night!" + +"Idiot that I am," thought Chesnel, "why did I shrink from a lie to +such a man?" + +Du Croisier took himself off; he was pleased with himself; he had +enjoyed Chesnel's humiliation; he had held the destinies of a proud +house, the representatives of the aristocracy of the province, +suspended in his hand; he had set the print of his heel on the very +heart of the d'Esgrignons; and, finally, he had broken off the whole +negotiation on the score of his wounded pride. He went up to his room, +leaving his wife alone with Chesnel. In his intoxication, he saw his +victory clear before him. He firmly believed that the three hundred +thousand francs had been squandered; the d'Esgrignons must sell or +mortgage all that they had to raise the money; the Assize Court was +inevitable to his mind. + +An affair of forgery can always be settled out of court in France if +the missing amount is returned. The losers by the crime are usually +well-to-do, and have no wish to blight an imprudent man's character. +But du Croisier had no mind to slacken his hold until he knew what he +was about. He meditated until he fell asleep on the magnificent manner +in which his hopes would be fulfilled by the way of the Assize Court +or by marriage. The murmur of voices below, the lamentations of +Chesnel and Mme. du Croisier, sounded sweet in his ears. + +Mme. du Croisier shared Chesnel's views of the d'Esgrignons. She was a +deeply religious woman, a Royalist attached to the noblesse; the +interview had been in every way a cruel shock to her feelings. She, a +staunch Royalist, had heard the roaring of that Liberalism, which, in +her director's opinion, wished to crush the Church. The Left benches +for her meant the popular upheaval and the scaffolds of 1793. + +"What would your uncle, that sainted man who hears us, say to this?" +exclaimed Chesnel. Mme. du Croisier made no reply, but the great tears +rolled down her checks. + +"You have already been the cause of one poor boy's death; his mother +will go mourning all her days," continued Chesnel; he saw how his +words told, but he would have struck harder and even broken this +woman's heart to save Victurnien. "Do you want to kill Mlle. Armande, +for she would not survive the dishonor of the house for a week? Do you +wish to be the death of poor Chesnel, your old notary? For I shall +kill the Count in prison before they shall bring the charge against +him, and take my own life afterwards, before they shall try me for +murder in an Assize Court." + +"That is enough! that is enough, my friend! I would do anything to put +a stop to such an affair; but I never knew M. du Croisier's real +character until a few minutes ago. To you I can make the admission: +there is nothing to be done." + +"But what if there is?" + +"I would give half the blood in my veins that it were so," said she, +finishing her sentence by a wistful shake of the head. + +As the First Consul, beaten on the field of Marengo till five o'clock +in the evening, by six o'clock saw the tide of battle turned by +Desaix's desperate attack and Kellermann's terrific charge, so Chesnel +in the midst of defeat saw the beginnings of victory. No one but a +Chesnel, an old notary, an ex-steward of the manor, old Maitre +Sorbier's junior clerk, in the sudden flash of lucidity which comes +with despair, could rise thus, high as a Napoleon, nay, higher. This +was not Marengo, it was Waterloo, and the Prussians had come up; +Chesnel saw this, and was determined to beat them off the field. + +"Madame," he said, "remember that I have been your man of business for +twenty years; remember that if the d'Esgrignons mean the honor of the +province, you represent the honor of the bourgeoisie; it rests with +you, and you alone, to save the ancient house. Now, answer me; are you +going to allow dishonor to fall on the shade of your dead uncle, on +the d'Esgrignons, on poor Chesnel? Do you want to kill Mlle. Armande +weeping yonder? Or do you wish to expiate wrongs done to others by a +deed which will rejoice your ancestors, the intendants of the dukes of +Alencon, and bring comfort to the soul of our dear Abbe? If he could +rise from his grave, he would command you to do this thing that I beg +of you upon my knees." + +"What is it?" asked Mme. du Croisier. + +"Well. Here are the hundred thousand crowns," said Chesnel, drawing +the bundles of notes from his pocket. "Take them, and there will be an +end of it." + +"If that is all," she began, "and if no harm can come of it to my +husband----" + +"Nothing but good," Chesnel replied. "You are saving him from eternal +punishment in hell, at the cost of a slight disappointment here +below." + +"He will not be compromised, will he?" she asked, looking into +Chesnel's face. + +Then Chesnel read the depths of the poor wife's mind. Mme. du Croisier +was hesitating between her two creeds; between wifely obedience to her +husband as laid down by the Church, and obedience to the altar and the +throne. Her husband, in her eyes, was acting wrongly, but she dared +not blame him; she would fain save the d'Esgrignons, but she was loyal +to her husband's interests. + +"Not in the least," Chesnel answered; "your old notary swears it by +the Holy Gospels----" + +He had nothing left to lose for the d'Esgrignons but his soul; he +risked it now by this horrible perjury, but Mme. du Croisier must be +deceived, there was no other choice but death. Without losing a +moment, he dictated a form of receipt by which Mme. du Croisier +acknowledged payment of a hundred thousand crowns five days before the +fatal letter of exchange appeared; for he recollected that du Croisier +was away from home, superintending improvements on his wife's property +at the time. + +"Now swear to me that you will declare before the examining magistrate +that you received the money on that date," he said, when Mme. du +Croisier had taken the notes and he held the receipt in his hand. + +"It will be a lie, will it not?" + +"Venial sin," said Chesnel. + +"I could not do it without consulting my director, M. l'Abbe +Couturier." + +"Very well," said Chesnel, "will you be guided entirely by his advice +in this affair?" + +"I promise that." + +"And you must not give the money to M. du Croisier until you have been +before the magistrate." + +"No. Ah! God give me strength to appear in a Court of Justice and +maintain a lie before men!" + +Chesnel kissed Mme. du Croisier's hand, then stood upright, and +majestic as one of the prophets that Raphael painted in the Vatican. + +"You uncle's soul is thrilled with joy," he said; "you have wiped out +for ever the wrong that you did by marrying an enemy of altar and +throne"--words that made a lively impression on Mme. du Croisier's +timorous mind. + +Then Chesnel all at once bethought himself that he must make sure of +the lady's director, the Abbe Couturier. He knew how obstinately +devout souls can work for the triumph of their views when once they +come forward for their side, and wished to secure the concurrence of +the Church as early as possible. So he went to the Hotel d'Esgrignon, +roused up Mlle. Armande, gave her an account of that night's work, and +sped her to fetch the Bishop himself into the forefront of the battle. + +"Ah, God in heaven! Thou must save the house of d'Esgrignon!" he +exclaimed, as he went slowly home again. "The affair is developing now +into a fight in a Court of Law. We are face to face with men that have +passions and interests of their own; we can get anything out of them. +This du Croisier has taken advantage of the public prosecutor's +absence; the public prosecutor is devoted to us, but since the opening +of the Chambers he has gone to Paris. Now, what can they have done to +get round his deputy? They have induced him to take up the charge +without consulting his chief. This mystery must be looked into, and +the ground surveyed to-morrow; and then, perhaps, when I have +unraveled this web of theirs, I will go back to Paris to set great +powers at work through Mme. de Maufrigneuse." + +So he reasoned, poor, aged, clear-sighted wrestler, before he lay down +half dead with bearing the weight of so much emotion and fatigue. And +yet, before he fell asleep he ran a searching eye over the list of +magistrates, taking all their secret ambitions into account, casting +about for ways of influencing them, calculating his chances in the +coming struggle. Chesnel's prolonged scrutiny of consciences, given in +a condensed form, will perhaps serve as a picture of the judicial +world in a country town. + +Magistrates and officials generally are obliged to begin their career +in the provinces; judicial ambition there ferments. At the outset +every man looks towards Paris; they all aspire to shine in the vast +theatre where great political causes come before the courts, and the +higher branches of the legal profession are closely connected with the +palpitating interests of society. But few are called to that paradise +of the man of law, and nine-tenths of the profession are bound sooner +or later to regard themselves as shelved for good in the provinces. +Wherefore, every Tribunal of First Instance and every Court-Royal is +sharply divided in two. The first section has given up hope, and is +either torpid or content; content with the excessive respect paid to +office in a country town, or torpid with tranquillity. The second +section is made up of the younger sort, in whom the desire of success +is untempered as yet by disappointment, and of the really clever men +urged on continually by ambition as with a goad; and these two are +possessed with a sort of fanatical belief in their order. + +At this time the younger men were full of Royalist zeal against the +enemies of the Bourbons. The most insignificant deputy official was +dreaming of conducting a prosecution, and praying with all his might +for one of those political cases which bring a man's zeal into +prominence, draw the attention of the higher powers, and mean +advancement for King's men. Was there a member of an official staff of +prosecuting counsel who could hear of a Bonapartist conspiracy +breaking out somewhere else without a feeling of envy? Where was the +man that did not burn to discover a Caron, or a Berton, or a revolt of +some sort? With reasons of State, and the necessity of diffusing the +monarchical spirit throughout France as their basis, and a fierce +ambition stirred up whenever party spirit ran high, these ardent +politicians on their promotion were lucid, clear-sighted, and +perspicacious. They kept up a vigorous detective system throughout the +kingdom; they did the work of spies, and urged the nation along a path +of obedience, from which it had no business to swerve. + +Justice, thus informed with monarchical enthusiasm, atoned for the +errors of the ancient parliaments, and walked, perhaps, too +ostentatiously hand in hand with religion. There was more zeal than +discretion shown; but justice sinned not so much in the direction of +machiavelism as by giving the candid expression to its views, when +those views appeared to be opposed to the general interests of a +country which must be put safely out of reach of revolutions. But +taken as a whole, there was still too much of the bourgeois element in +the administration; it was too readily moved by petty liberal +agitation; and as a result, it was inevitable that it should incline +sooner or later to the Constitutional party, and join ranks with the +bourgeoisie in the day of battle. In the great body of legal +functionaries, as in other departments of the administration, there +was not wanting a certain hypocrisy, or rather that spirit of +imitation which always leads France to model herself on the Court, +and, quite unintentionally, to deceive the powers that be. + +Officials of both complexions were to be found in the court in which +young d'Esgrignon's fate depended. M. le President du Ronceret and an +elderly judge, Blondet by name, represented the section of +functionaries shelved for good, and resigned to stay where they were; +while the young and ambitious party comprised the examining magistrate +M. Camusot, and his deputy M. Michu, appointed through the interests +of the Cinq-Cygnes, and certain of promotion to the Court of Appeal of +Paris at the first opportunity. + +President du Ronceret held a permanent post; it was impossible to turn +him out. The aristocratic party declined to give him what he +considered to be his due, socially speaking; so he declared for the +bourgeoisie, glossed over his disappointment with the name of +independence, and failed to realize that his opinions condemned him to +remain a president of a court of the first instance for the rest of +his life. Once started in this track the sequence of events led du +Ronceret to place his hopes of advancement on the triumph of du +Croisier and the Left. He was in no better odor at the Prefecture than +at the Court-Royal. He was compelled to keep on good terms with the +authorities; the Liberals distrusted him, consequently he belonged to +neither party. He was obliged to resign his chances of election to du +Croisier, he exercised no influence, and played a secondary part. The +false position reacted on his character; he was soured and +discontented; he was tired of political ambiguity, and privately had +made up his mind to come forward openly as leader of the Liberal +party, and so to strike ahead of du Croisier. His behavior in the +d'Esgrignon affair was the first step in this direction. To begin +with, he was an admirable representative of that section of the middle +classes which allows its petty passions to obscure the wider interests +of the country; a class of crotchety politicians, upholding the +government one day and opposing it the next, compromising every cause +and helping none; helpless after they have done the mischief till they +set about brewing more; unwilling to face their own incompetence, +thwarting authority while professing to serve it. With a compound of +arrogance and humility they demand of the people more submission than +kings expect, and fret their souls because those above them are not +brought down to their level, as if greatness could be little, as if +power existed without force. + +President du Ronceret was a tall, spare man with a receding forehead +and scanty, auburn hair. He was wall-eyed, his complexion was +blotched, his lips thin and hard, his scarcely audible voice came out +like the husky wheezings of asthma. He had for a wife a great, solemn, +clumsy creature, tricked out in the most ridiculous fashion, and +outrageously overdressed. Mme. la Presidente gave herself the airs of +a queen; she wore vivid colors, and always appeared at balls adorned +with the turban, dear to the British female, and lovingly cultivated +in out-of-the-way districts in France. Each of the pair had an income +of four or five thousand francs, which with the President's salary, +reached a total of some twelve thousand. In spite of a decided +tendency to parsimony, vanity required that they should receive one +evening in the week. Du Croisier might import modern luxury into the +town, M. and Mme. de Ronceret were faithful to the old traditions. +They had always lived in the old-fashioned house belonging to Mme. du +Ronceret, and had made no changes in it since their marriage. The +house stood between a garden and a courtyard. The gray old gable end, +with one window in each story, gave upon the road. High walls enclosed +the garden and the yard, but the space taken up beneath them in the +garden by a walk shaded with chestnut trees was filled in the yard by +a row of outbuildings. An old rust-devoured iron gate in the garden +wall balanced the yard gateway, a huge, double-leaved carriage +entrance with a buttress on either side, and a mighty shell on the +top. The same shell was repeated over the house-door. + +The whole place was gloomy, close, and airless. The row of iron-gated +openings in the opposite wall, as you entered, reminded you of prison +windows. Every passer-by could look in through the railings to see how +the garden grew; the flowers in the little square borders never seemed +to thrive there. + +The drawing-room on the ground floor was lighted by a single window on +the side of the street, and a French window above a flight of steps, +which gave upon the garden. The dining-room on the other side of the +great ante-chamber, with its windows also looking out into the garden, +was exactly the same size as the drawing-room, and all three +apartments were in harmony with the general air of gloom. It wearied +your eyes to look at the ceilings all divided up by huge painted +crossbeams and adorned with a feeble lozenge pattern or a rosette in +the middle. The paint was old, startling in tint, and begrimed with +smoke. The sun had faded the heavy silk curtains in the drawing-room; +the old-fashioned Beauvais tapestry which covered the white-painted +furniture had lost all its color with wear. A Louis Quinze clock on +the chimney-piece stood between two extravagant, branched sconces +filled with yellow wax candles, which the Presidente only lighted on +occasions when the old-fashioned rock-crystal chandelier emerged from +its green wrapper. Three card-tables, covered with threadbare baize, +and a backgammon box, sufficed for the recreations of the company; and +Mme. du Ronceret treated them to such refreshments as cider, +chestnuts, pastry puffs, glasses of eau sucree, and home-made orgeat. +For some time past she had made a practice of giving a party once a +fortnight, when tea and some pitiable attempts at pastry appeared to +grace the occasion. + +Once a quarter the du Roncerets gave a grand three-course dinner, +which made a great sensation in the town, a dinner served up in +execrable ware, but prepared with the science for which the provincial +cook is remarkable. It was a Gargantuan repast, which lasted for six +whole hours, and by abundance the President tried to vie with du +Croisier's elegance. + +And so du Ronceret's life and its accessories were just what might +have been expected from his character and his false position. He felt +dissatisfied at home without precisely knowing what was the matter; +but he dared not go to any expense to change existing conditions, and +was only too glad to put by seven or eight thousand francs every year, +so as to leave his son Fabien a handsome private fortune. Fabien du +Ronceret had no mind for the magistracy, the bar, or the civil +service, and his pronounced turn for doing nothing drove his parent to +despair. + +On this head there was rivalry between the President and the Vice- +President, old M. Blondet. M. Blondet, for a long time past, had been +sedulously cultivating an acquaintance between his son and the +Blandureau family. The Blandureaus were well-to-do linen +manufacturers, with an only daughter, and it was on this daughter that +the President had fixed his choice of a wife for Fabien. Now, Joseph +Blondet's marriage with Mlle. Blandureau depended on his nomination to +the post which his father, old Blondet, hoped to obtain for him when +he himself should retire. But President du Ronceret, in underhand +ways, was thwarting the old man's plans, and working indirectly upon +the Blandureaus. Indeed, if it had not been for this affair of young +d'Esgrignon's, the astute President might have cut them out, father +and son, for their rivals were very much richer. + +M. Blondet, the victim of the machiavelian President's intrigues, was +one of the curious figures which lie buried away in the provinces like +old coins in a crypt. He was at that time a man of sixty-seven or +thereabouts, but he carried his years well; he was very tall, and in +build reminded you of the canons of the good old times. The smallpox +had riddled his face with numberless dints, and spoilt the shape of +his nose by imparting to it a gimlet-like twist; it was a countenance +by no means lacking in character, very evenly tinted with a diffused +red, lighted up by a pair of bright little eyes, with a sardonic look +in them, while a certain sarcastic twitch of the purpled lips gave +expression to that feature. + +Before the Revolution broke out, Blondet senior had been a barrister; +afterwards he became the public accuser, and one of the mildest of +those formidable functionaries. Goodman Blondet, as they used to call +him, deadened the force of the new doctrines by acquiescing in them +all, and putting none of them in practice. He had been obliged to send +one or two nobles to prison; but his further proceedings were marked +with such deliberation, that he brought them through to the 9th +Thermidor with a dexterity which won respect for him on all sides. As +a matter of fact, Goodman Blondet ought to have been President of the +Tribunal, but when the courts of law were reorganized he had been set +aside; Napoleon's aversion for Republicans was apt to reappear in the +smallest appointments under his government. The qualification of +ex-public accuser, written in the margin of the list against Blondet's +name, set the Emperor inquiring of Cambaceres whether there might not +be some scion of an ancient parliamentary stock to appoint instead. +The consequence was that du Ronceret, whose father had been a +councillor of parliament, was nominated to the presidency; but, the +Emperor's repugnance notwithstanding, Cambaceres allowed Blondet to +remain on the bench, saying that the old barrister was one of the best +jurisconsults in France. + +Blondet's talents, his knowledge of the old law of the land and +subsequent legislation, should by rights have brought him far in his +profession; but he had this much in common with some few great +spirits: he entertained a prodigious contempt for his own special +knowledge, and reserved all his pretentions, leisure, and capacity for +a second pursuit unconnected with the law. To this pursuit he gave his +almost exclusive attention. The good man was passionately fond of +gardening. He was in correspondence with some of the most celebrated +amateurs; it was his ambition to create new species; he took an +interest in botanical discoveries, and lived, in short, in the world +of flowers. Like all florists, he had a predilection for one +particular plant; the pelargonium was his especial favorite. The +court, the cases that came before it, and his outward life were as +nothing to him compared with the inward life of fancies and abundant +emotions which the old man led. He fell more and more in love with his +flower-seraglio; and the pains which he bestowed on his garden, the +sweet round of the labors of the months, held Goodman Blondet fast in +his greenhouse. But for that hobby he would have been a deputy under +the Empire, and shone conspicuous beyond a doubt in the Corps +Legislatif. + +His marriage was the second cause of his obscurity. As a man of forty, +he was rash enough to marry a girl of eighteen, by whom he had a son +named Joseph in the first year of their marriage. Three years +afterwards Mme. Blondet, then the prettiest woman in the town, +inspired in the prefect of the department a passion which ended only +with her death. The prefect was the father of her second son Emile; +the whole town knew this, old Blondet himself knew it. The wife who +might have roused her husband's ambition, who might have won him away +from his flowers, positively encouraged the judge in his botanical +tastes. She no more cared to leave the place than the prefect cared to +leave his prefecture so long as his mistress lived. + +Blondet felt himself unequal at his age to a contest with a young +wife. He sought consolation in his greenhouse, and engaged a very +pretty servant-maid to assist him to tend his ever-changing bevy of +beauties. So while the judge potted, pricked out, watered, layered, +slipped, blended, and induced his flowers to break, Mme. Blondet spent +his substance on the dress and finery in which she shone at the +prefecture. One interest alone had power to draw her away from the +tender care of a romantic affection which the town came to admire in +the end; and this interest was Emile's education. The child of love +was a bright and pretty boy, while Joseph was no less heavy and plain- +featured. The old judge, blinded by paternal affection loved Joseph as +his wife loved Emile. + +For a dozen years M. Blondet bore his lot with perfect resignation. He +shut his eyes to his wife's intrigue with a dignified, well-bred +composure, quite in the style of an eighteenth century grand seigneur; +but, like all men with a taste for a quiet life, he could cherish a +profound dislike, and he hated his younger son. When his wife died, +therefore, in 1818, he turned the intruder out of the house, and +packed him off to Paris to study law on an allowance of twelve hundred +francs for all resource, nor could any cry of distress extract another +penny from his purse. Emile Blondet would have gone under if it had +not been for his real father. + +M. Blondet's house was one of the prettiest in the town. It stood +almost opposite the prefecture, with a neat little court in front. A +row of old-fashioned iron railings between two brick-work piers +enclosed it from the street; and a low wall, also of brick, with a +second row of railings along the top, connected the piers with the +neighboring house. The little court, a space about ten fathoms in +width by twenty in length, was cut in two by a brick pathway which ran +from the gate to the house door between a border on either side. Those +borders were always renewed; at every season of the year they +exhibited a successful show of blossom, to the admiration of the +public. All along the back of the gardenbeds a quantity of climbing +plants grew up and covered the walls of the neighboring houses with a +magnificent mantle; the brick-work piers were hidden in clusters of +honeysuckle; and, to crown all, in a couple of terra-cotta vases at +the summit, a pair of acclimatized cactuses displayed to the +astonished eyes of the ignorant those thick leaves bristling with +spiny defences which seem to be due to some plant disease. + +It was a plain-looking house, built of brick, with brick-work arches +above the windows, and bright green Venetian shutters to make it gay. +Through the glass door you could look straight across the house to the +opposite glass door, at the end of a long passage, and down the +central alley in the garden beyond; while through the windows of the +dining-room and drawing-room, which extended, like the passage from +back to front of the house, you could often catch further glimpses of +the flower-beds in a garden of about two acres in extent. Seen from +the road, the brick-work harmonized with the fresh flowers and shrubs, +for two centuries had overlaid it with mosses and green and russet +tints. No one could pass through the town without falling in love with +a house with such charming surroundings, so covered with flowers and +mosses to the roof-ridge, where two pigeons of glazed crockery ware +were perched by way of ornament. + +M. Blondet possessed an income of about four thousand livres derived +from land, besides the old house in the town. He meant to avenge his +wrongs legitimately enough. He would leave his house, his lands, his +seat on the bench to his son Joseph, and the whole town knew what he +meant to do. He had made a will in that son's favor; he had gone as +far as the Code will permit a man to go in the way of disinheriting +one child to benefit another; and what was more, he had been putting +by money for the past fifteen years to enable his lout of a son to buy +back from Emile that portion of his father's estate which could not +legally be taken away from him. + +Emile Blondet thus turned adrift had contrived to gain distinction in +Paris, but so far it was rather a name than a practical result. +Emile's indolence, recklessness, and happy-go-lucky ways drove his +real father to despair; and when that father died, a half-ruined man, +turned out of office by one of the political reactions so frequent +under the Restoration, it was with a mind uneasy as to the future of a +man endowed with the most brilliant qualities. + +Emile Blondet found support in a friendship with a Mlle. de +Troisville, whom he had known before her marriage with the Comte de +Montcornet. His mother was living when the Troisvilles came back after +the emigration; she was related to the family, distantly it is true, +but the connection was close enough to allow her to introduce Emile to +the house. She, poor woman, foresaw the future. She knew that when she +died her son would lose both mother and father, a thought which made +death doubly bitter, so she tried to interest others in him. She +encouraged the liking that sprang up between Emile and the eldest +daughter of the house of Troisville; but while the liking was +exceedingly strong on the young lady's part, a marriage was out of the +question. It was a romance on the pattern of Paul et Virginie. Mme. +Blondet did what she could to teach her son to look to the +Troisvilles, to found a lasting attachment on a children's game of +"make-believe" love, which was bound to end as boy-and-girl romances +usually do. When Mlle. de Troisville's marriage with General +Montcornet was announced, Mme. Blondet, a dying woman, went to the +bride and solemnly implored her never to abandon Emile, and to use her +influence for him in society in Paris, whither the General's fortune +summoned her to shine. + +Luckily for Emile, he was able to make his own way. He made his +appearance, at the age of twenty, as one of the masters of modern +literature; and met with no less success in the society into which he +was launched by the father who at first could afford to bear the +expense of the young man's extravagance. Perhaps Emile's precocious +celebrity and the good figure that he made strengthened the bonds of +his friendship with the Countess. Perhaps Mme. de Montcornet, with the +Russian blood in her veins (her mother was the daughter of the +Princess Scherbelloff), might have cast off the friend of her +childhood if he had been a poor man struggling with all his might +among the difficulties which beset a man of letters in Paris; but by +the time that the real strain of Emile's adventurous life began, their +attachment was unalterable on either side. He was looked upon as one +of the leading lights of journalism when young d'Esgrignon met him at +his first supper party in Paris; his acknowledged position in the +world of letters was very high, and he towered above his reputation. +Goodman Blondet had not the faintest conception of the power which the +Constitutional Government had given to the press; nobody ventured to +talk in his presence of the son of whom he refused to hear. And so it +came to pass that he knew nothing of Emile whom he had cursed and +Emile's greatness. + +Old Blondet's integrity was as deeply rooted in him as his passion for +flowers; he knew nothing but law and botany. He would have interviews +with litigants, listen to them, chat with them, and show them his +flowers; he would accept rare seeds from them; but once on the bench, +no judge on earth was more impartial. Indeed, his manner of proceeding +was so well known, that litigants never went near him except to hand +over some document which might enlighten him in the performance of his +duty, and nobody tried to throw dust in his eyes. With his learning, +his lights, and his way of holding his real talents cheap, he was so +indispensable to President du Ronceret, that, matrimonial schemes +apart, that functionary would have done all that he could, in an +underhand way, to prevent the vice-president from retiring in favor of +his son. If the learned old man left the bench, the President would be +utterly unable to do without him. + +Goodman Blondet did not know that it was in Emile's power to fulfil +all his wishes in a few hours. The simplicity of his life was worthy +of one of Plutarch's men. In the evening he looked over his cases; +next morning he worked among his flowers; and all day long he gave +decisions on the bench. The pretty maid-servant, now of ripe age, and +wrinkled like an Easter pippin, looked after the house, and they lived +according to the established customs of the strictest parsimony. Mlle. +Cadot always carried the keys of her cupboards and fruit-loft about +with her. She was indefatigable. She went to market herself, she +cooked and dusted and swept, and never missed mass of a morning. To +give some idea of the domestic life of the household, it will be +enough to remark that the father and son never ate fruit till it was +beginning to spoil, because Mlle. Cadot always brought out anything +that would not keep. No one in the house ever tasted the luxury of new +bread, and all the fast days in the calendar were punctually observed. +The gardener was put on rations like a soldier; the elderly Valideh +always kept an eye upon him. And she, for her part, was so +deferentially treated, that she took her meals with the family, and in +consequence was continually trotting to and fro between the kitchen +and the parlor at breakfast and dinner time. + +Mlle. Blandureau's parents had consented to her marriage with Joseph +Blondet upon one condition--the penniless and briefless barrister must +be an assistant judge. So, with the desire of fitting his son to fill +the position, old M. Blondet racked his brains to hammer the law into +his son's head by dint of lessons, so as to make a cut-and-dried +lawyer of him. As for Blondet junior, he spent almost every evening at +the Blandureaus' house, to which also young Fabien du Ronceret had +been admitted since his return, without raising the slightest +suspicion in the minds of father or son. + +Everything in this life of theirs was measured with an accuracy worthy +of Gerard Dow's Money Changer; not a grain of salt too much, not a +single profit foregone; but the economical principles by which it was +regulated were relaxed in favor of the greenhouse and garden. "The +garden was the master's craze," Mlle. Cadot used to say. The master's +blind fondness for Joseph was not a craze in her eyes; she shared the +father's predilection; she pampered Joseph; she darned his stockings; +and would have been better pleased if the money spent on the garden +had been put by for Joseph's benefit. + +That garden was kept in marvelous order by a single man; the paths, +covered with river-sand, continually turned over with the rake, +meandered among the borders full of the rarest flowers. Here were all +kinds of color and scent, here were lizards on the walls, legions of +little flower-pots standing out in the sun, regiments of forks and +hoes, and a host of innocent things, a combination of pleasant results +to justify the gardener's charming hobby. + +At the end of the greenhouse the judge had set up a grandstand, an +amphitheatre of benches to hold some five or six thousand pelargoniums +in pots--a splendid and famous show. People came to see his geraniums +in flower, not only from the neighborhood, but even from the +departments round about. The Empress Marie Louise, passing through the +town, had honored the curiously kept greenhouse with a visit; so much +was she impressed with the sight, that she spoke of it to Napoleon, +and the old judge received the Cross of the Legion of Honor. But as +the learned gardener never mingled in society at all, and went nowhere +except to the Blandureaus, he had no suspicion of the President's +underhand manoeuvres; and others who could see the President's +intentions were far too much afraid of him to interfere or to warn the +inoffensive Blondets. + +As for Michu, that young man with his powerful connections gave much +more thought to making himself agreeable to the women in the upper +social circles to which he was introduced by the Cinq-Cygnes, than to +the extremely simple business of a provincial Tribunal. With his +independent means (he had an income of twelve thousand livres), he was +courted by mothers of daughters, and led a frivolous life. He did just +enough at the Tribunal to satisfy his conscience, much as a schoolboy +does his exercises, saying ditto on all occasions, with a "Yes, dear +President." But underneath the appearance of indifference lurked the +unusual powers of the Paris law student who had distinguished himself +as one of the staff of prosecuting counsel before he came to the +provinces. He was accustomed to taking broad views of things; he could +do rapidly what the President and Blondet could only do after much +thinking, and very often solved knotty points for them. In delicate +conjunctures the President and Vice-President took counsel with their +junior, confided thorny questions to him, and never failed to wonder +at the readiness with which he brought back a task in which old +Blondet found nothing to criticise. Michu was sure of the influence of +the most crabbed aristocrats, and he was young and rich; he lived, +therefore, above the level of departmental intrigues and pettinesses. +He was an indispensable man at picnics, he frisked with young ladies +and paid court to their mothers, he danced at balls, he gambled like a +capitalist. In short, he played his part of young lawyer of fashion to +admiration; without, at the same time, compromising his dignity, which +he knew how to assert at the right moment like a man of spirit. He won +golden opinions by the manner in which he threw himself into +provincial ways, without criticising them; and for these reasons, +every one endeavored to make his time of exile endurable. + +The public prosecutor was a lawyer of the highest ability; he had +taken the plunge into political life, and was one of the most +distinguished speakers on the ministerialist benches. The President +stood in awe of him; if he had not been away in Paris at the time, no +steps would have been taken against Victurnien; his dexterity, his +experience of business, would have prevented the whole affair. At that +moment, however, he was in the Chamber of Deputies, and the President +and du Croisier had taken advantage of his absence to weave their +plot, calculating, with a certain ingenuity, that if once the law +stepped in, and the matter was noised abroad, things would have gone +too far to be remedied. + +As a matter of fact, no staff of prosecuting counsel in any Tribunal, +at that particular time, would have taken up a charge of forgery +against the eldest son of one of the noblest houses in France without +going into the case at great length, and a special reference, in all +probability, to the Attorney-General. In such a case as this, the +authorities and the Government would have tried endless ways of +compromising and hushing up an affair which might send an imprudent +young man to the hulks. They would very likely have done the same for +a Liberal family in a prominent position, so long as the Liberals were +not too openly hostile to the throne and the altar. So du Croisier's +charge and the young Count's arrest had not been very easy to manage. +The President and du Croisier had compassed their ends in the +following manner. + +M. Sauvager, a young Royalist barrister, had reached the position of +deputy public prosecutor by dint of subservience to the Ministry. In +the absence of his chief he was head of the staff of counsel for +prosecution, and, consequently, it fell to him to take up the charge +made by du Croisier. Sauvager was a self-made man; he had nothing but +his stipend; and for that reason the authorities reckoned upon some +one who had everything to gain by devotion. The President now +exploited the position. No sooner was the document with the alleged +forgery in du Croisier's hands, than Mme. la Presidente du Ronceret, +prompted by her spouse, had a long conversation with M. Sauvager. In +the course of it she pointed out the uncertainties of a career in the +magistrature debout compared with the magistrature assise, and the +advantages of the bench over the bar; she showed how a freak on the +part of some official, or a single false step, might ruin a man's +career. + +"If you are conscientious and give your conclusions against the powers +that be, you are lost," continued she. "Now, at this moment, you might +turn your position to account to make a fine match that would put you +above unlucky chances for the rest of your life; you may marry a wife +with fortune sufficient to land you on the bench, in the magistrature +assise. There is a fine chance for you. M. du Croisier will never have +any children; everybody knows why. His money, and his wife's as well, +will go to his niece, Mlle. Duval. M. Duval is an ironmaster, his +purse is tolerably filled, to begin with, and his father is still +alive, and has a little property besides. The father and son have a +million of francs between them; they will double it with du Croisier's +help, for du Croisier has business connections among great capitalists +and manufacturers in Paris. M. and Mme. Duval the younger would be +certain to give their daughter to a suitor brought forward by du +Croisier, for he is sure to leave two fortunes to his niece; and, in +all probability, he will settle the reversion of his wife's property +upon Mlle. Duval in the marriage contract, for Mme. du Croisier has no +kin. You know how du Croisier hates the d'Esgrignons. Do him a +service, be his man, take up this charge of forgery which he is going +to make against young d'Esgrignon, and follow up the proceedings at +once without consulting the public prosecutor at Paris. And, then, +pray Heaven that the Ministry dismisses you for doing your office +impartially, in spite of the powers that be; for if they do, your +fortune is made! You will have a charming wife and thirty thousand +francs a year with her, to say nothing of four millions expectations +in ten years' time." + +In two evenings Sauvager was talked over. Both he and the President +kept the affair a secret from old Blondet, from Michu, and from the +second member of the staff of prosecuting counsel. Feeling sure of +Blondet's impartiality on a question of fact, the President made +certain of a majority without counting Camusot. And now Camusot's +unexpected defection had thrown everything out. What the President +wanted was a committal for trial before the public prosecutor got +warning. How if Camusot or the second counsel for the prosecution +should send word to Paris? + +And here some portion of Camusot's private history may perhaps explain +how it came to pass that Chesnel took it for granted that the +examining magistrate would be on the d'Esgrignons' side, and how he +had the boldness to tamper in the open street with that representative +of justice. + +Camusot's father, a well-known silk mercer in the Rue des Bourdonnais, +was ambitious for the only son of his first marriage, and brought him +up to the law. When Camusot junior took a wife, he gained with her the +influence of an usher of the Royal cabinet, backstairs influence, it +is true, but still sufficient, since it had brought him his first +appointment as justice of the peace, and the second as examining +magistrate. At the time of his marriage, his father only settled an +income of six thousand francs upon him (the amount of his mother's +fortune, which he could legally claim), and as Mlle. Thirion brought +him no more than twenty thousand francs as her portion, the young +couple knew the hardships of hidden poverty. The salary of a +provincial justice of the peace does not exceed fifteen hundred +francs, while an examining magistrate's stipend is augmented by +something like a thousand francs, because his position entails +expenses and extra work. The post, therefore, is much coveted, though +it is not permanent, and the work is heavy, and that was why Mme. +Camusot had just scolded her husband for allowing the President to +read his thoughts. + +Marie Cecile Amelie Thirion, after three years of marriage, perceived +the blessing of Heaven upon it in the regularity of two auspicious +events--the births of a girl and a boy; but she prayed to be less +blessed in the future. A few more of such blessings would turn +straitened means into distress. M. Camusot's father's money was not +likely to come to them for a long time; and, rich as he was, he would +scarcely leave more than eight or ten thousand francs a year to each +of his children, four in number, for he had been married twice. And +besides, by the time that all "expectations," as matchmakers call +them, were realized, would not the magistrate have children of his own +to settle in life? Any one can imagine the situation for a little +woman with plenty of sense and determination, and Mme. Camusot was +such a woman. She did not refrain from meddling in matters judicial. +She had far too strong a sense of the gravity of a false step in her +husband's career. + +She was the only child of an old servant of Louis XVIII., a valet who +had followed his master in his wanderings in Italy, Courland, and +England, till after the Restoration the King awarded him with the one +place that he could fill at Court, and made him usher by rotation to +the royal cabinet. So in Amelie's home there had been, as it were, a +sort of reflection of the Court. Thirion used to tell her about the +lords, and ministers, and great men whom he announced and introduced +and saw passing to and fro. The girl, brought up at the gates of the +Tuileries, had caught some tincture of the maxims practised there, and +adopted the dogma of passive obedience to authority. She had sagely +judged that her husband, by ranging himself on the side of the +d'Esgrignons, would find favor with Mme. la Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, +and with two powerful families on whose influence with the King the +Sieur Thirion could depend at an opportune moment. Camusot might get +an appointment at the first opportunity within the jurisdiction of +Paris, and afterwards at Paris itself. That promotion, dreamed of and +longed for at every moment, was certain to have a salary of six +thousand francs attached to it, as well as the alleviation of living +in her own father's house, or under the Camusots' roof, and all the +advantages of a father's fortune on either side. If the adage, "Out of +sight is out of mind," holds good of most women, it is particularly +true where family feeling or royal or ministerial patronage is +concerned. The personal attendants of kings prosper at all times; you +take an interest in a man, be it only a man in livery, if you see him +every day. + +Mme. Camusot, regarding herself as a bird of passage, had taken a +little house in the Rue du Cygne. Furnished lodgings there were none; +the town was not enough of a thoroughfare, and the Camusots could not +afford to live at an inn like M. Michu. So the fair Parisian had no +choice for it but to take such furniture as she could find; and as she +paid a very moderate rent, the house was remarkably ugly, albeit a +certain quaintness of detail was not wanting. It was built against a +neighboring house in such a fashion that the side with only one window +in each story, gave upon the street, and the front looked out upon a +yard where rose-bushes and buckhorn were growing along the wall on +either side. On the farther side, opposite the house, stood a shed, a +roof over two brick arches. A little wicket-gate gave entrance into +the gloomy place (made gloomier still by the great walnut-tree which +grew in the yard), but a double flight of steps, with an elaborately- +wrought but rust-eaten handrail, led to the house door. Inside the +house there were two rooms on each floor. The dining-room occupied +that part of the ground floor nearest the street, and the kitchen lay +on the other side of a narrow passage almost wholly taken up by the +wooden staircase. Of the two first-floor rooms, one did duty as the +magistrate's study, the other as a bedroom, while the nursery and the +servants' bedroom stood above in the attics. There were no ceilings in +the house; the cross-beams were simply white-washed and the spaces +plastered over. Both rooms on the first floor and the dining-room +below were wainscoted and adorned with the labyrinthine designs which +taxed the patience of the eighteenth century joiner; but the carving +had been painted a dingy gray most depressing to behold. + +The magistrate's study looked as though it belonged to a provincial +lawyer; it contained a big bureau, a mahogany armchair, a law +student's books, and shabby belongings transported from Paris. Mme. +Camusot's room was more of a native product; it boasted a blue-and- +white scheme of decoration, a carpet, and that anomalous kind of +furniture which appears to be in the fashion, while it is simply some +style that has failed in Paris. As to the dining-room, it was nothing +but an ordinary provincial dining-room, bare and chilly, with a damp, +faded paper on the walls. + +In this shabby room, with nothing to see but the walnut-tree, the dark +leaves growing against the walls, and the almost deserted road beyond +them, a somewhat lively and frivolous woman, accustomed to the +amusements and stir of Paris, used to sit all day long, day after day, +and for the most part of the time alone, though she received tiresome +and inane visits which led her to think her loneliness preferable to +empty tittle-tattle. If she permitted herself the slightest gleam of +intelligence, it gave rise to interminable comment and embittered her +condition. She occupied herself a great deal with her children, not so +much from taste as for the sake of an interest in her almost solitary +life, and exercised her mind on the only subjects which she could find +--to wit, the intrigues which went on around her, the ways of +provincials, and the ambitions shut in by their narrow horizons. So +she very soon fathomed mysteries of which her husband had no idea. As +she sat at her window with a piece of intermittent embroidery work in +her fingers, she did not see her woodshed full of faggots nor the +servant busy at the wash tub; she was looking out upon Paris, Paris +where everything is pleasure, everything is full of life. She dreamed +of Paris gaieties, and shed tears because she must abide in this dull +prison of a country town. She was disconsolate because she lived in a +peaceful district, where no conspiracy, no great affair would ever +occur. She saw herself doomed to sit under the shadow of the walnut- +tree for some time to come. + +Mme. Camusot was a little, plump, fresh, fair-haired woman, with a +very prominent forehead, a mouth which receded, and a turned-up chin, +a type of countenance which is passable in youth, but looks old before +the time. Her bright, quick eyes expressed her innocent desire to get +on in the world, and the envy born of her present inferior position, +with rather too much candor; but still they lighted up her commonplace +face and set it off with a certain energy of feeling, which success +was certain to extinguish in later life. At that time she used to give +a good deal of time and thought to her dresses, inventing trimmings +and embroidering them; she planned out her costumes with the maid whom +she had brought with her from Paris, and so maintained the reputation +of Parisiennes in the provinces. Her caustic tongue was dreaded; she +was not loved. In that keen, investigating spirit peculiar to +unoccupied women who are driven to find some occupation for empty +days, she had pondered the President's private opinions, until at +length she discovered what he meant to do, and for some time past she +had advised Camusot to declare war. The young Count's affair was an +excellent opportunity. Was it not obviously Camusot's part to make a +stepping-stone of this criminal case by favoring the d'Esgrignons, a +family with power of a very different kind from the power of the du +Croisier party? + +"Sauvager will never marry Mlle. Duval. They are dangling her before +him, but he will be the dupe of those Machiavels in the Val-Noble to +whom he is going to sacrifice his position. Camusot, this affair, so +unfortunate as it is for the d'Esgrignons, so insidiously brought on +by the President for du Croisier's benefit, will turn out well for +nobody but YOU," she had said, as they went in. + +The shrewd Parisienne had likewise guessed the President's underhand +manoeuvres with the Blandureaus, and his object in baffling old +Blondet's efforts, but she saw nothing to be gained by opening the +eyes of father or son to the perils of the situation; she was enjoying +the beginning of the comedy; she knew about the proposals made by +Chesnel's successor on behalf of Fabien du Ronceret, but she did not +suspect how important that secret might be to her. If she or her +husband were threatened by the President, Mme. Camusot could threaten +too, in her turn, to call the amateur gardener's attention to a scheme +for carrying off the flower which he meant to transplant into his +house. + +Chesnel had not penetrated, like Mme. Camusot, into the means by which +Sauvager had been won over; but by dint of looking into the various +lives and interests of the men grouped about the Lilies of the +Tribunal, he knew that he could count upon the public prosecutor, upon +Camusot, and M. Michu. Two judges for the d'Esgrignons would paralyze +the rest. And, finally, Chesnel knew old Blondet well enough to feel +sure that if he ever swerved from impartiality, it would be for the +sake of the work of his whole lifetime,--to secure his son's +appointment. So Chesnel slept, full of confidence, on the resolve to +go to M. Blondet and offer to realize his so long cherished hopes, +while he opened his eyes to President du Ronceret's treachery. Blondet +won over, he would take a peremptory tone with the examining +magistrate, to whom he hoped to prove that if Victurnien was not +blameless, he had been merely imprudent; the whole thing should be +shown in the light of a boy's thoughtless escapade. + +But Chesnel slept neither soundly nor for long. Before dawn he was +awakened by his housekeeper. The most bewitching person in this +history, the most adorable youth on the face of the globe, Mme. la +Duchesse de Maufrigneuse herself, in man's attire, had driven alone +from Paris in a caleche, and was waiting to see him. + +"I have come to save him or to die with him," said she, addressing the +notary, who thought that he was dreaming. "I have brought a hundred +thousand francs, given me by His Majesty out of his private purse, to +buy Victurnien's innocence, if his adversary can be bribed. If we fail +utterly, I have brought poison to snatch him away before anything +takes place, before even the indictment is drawn up. But we shall not +fail. I have sent word to the public prosecutor; he is on the road +behind me; he could not travel in my caleche, because he wished to +take the instructions of the Keeper of the Seals." + +Chesnel rose to the occasion and played up to the Duchess; he wrapped +himself in his dressing-gown, fell at her feet, and kissed them, not +without asking her pardon for forgetting himself in his joy. + +"We are saved!" cried he; and gave orders to Brigitte to see that Mme. +la Duchesse had all that she needed after traveling post all night. He +appealed to the fair Diane's spirit, by making her see that it was +absolutely necessary that she should visit the examining magistrate +before daylight, lest any one should discover the secret, or so much +as imagine that the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse had come. + +"And have I not a passport in due form?" quoth she, displaying a sheet +of paper, wherein she was described as M. le Vicomte Felix de +Vandeness, Master of Requests, and His Majesty's private secretary. +"And do I not play my man's part well?" she added, running her fingers +through her wig a la Titus, and twirling her riding switch. + +"O! Mme. la Duchesse, you are an angel!" cried Chesnel, with tears in +his eyes. (She was destined always to be an angel, even in man's +attire.) "Button up your greatcoat, muffle yourself up to the eyes in +your traveling cloak, take my arm, and let us go as quickly as +possible to Camusot's house before anybody can meet us." + +"Then am I going to see a man called Camusot?" she asked. + +"With a nose to match his name,"[*] assented Chesnel. + +[*] Camus, flat-nosed + +The old notary felt his heart dead within him, but he thought it none +the less necessary to humor the Duchess, to laugh when she laughed, +and shed tears when she wept; groaning in spirit, all the same, over +the feminine frivolity which could find matter for a jest while +setting about a matter so serious. What would he not have done to save +the Count? While Chesnel dressed; Mme. de Maufrigneuse sipped the cup +of coffee and cream which Brigitte brought her, and agreed with +herself that provincial women cooks are superior to Parisian chefs, +who despise the little details which make all the difference to an +epicure. Thanks to Chesnel's taste for delicate fare, Brigitte was +found prepared to set an excellent meal before the Duchess. + +Chesnel and his charming companion set out for M. and Mme. Camusot's +house. + +"Ah! so there is a Mme. Camusot?" said the Duchess. "Then the affair +may be managed." + +"And so much the more readily, because the lady is visibly tired +enough of living among us provincials; she comes from Paris," said +Chesnel. + +"Then we must have no secrets from her?" + +"You will judge how much to tell or to conceal," Chesnel replied +humbly. "I am sure that she will be greatly flattered to be the +Duchesse de Maufrigneuse's hostess; you will be obliged to stay in her +house until nightfall, I expect, unless you find it inconvenient to +remain." + +"Is this Mme. Camusot a good-looking woman?" asked the Duchess, with a +coxcomb's air. + +"She is a bit of a queen in her own house." + +"Then she is sure to meddle in court-house affairs," returned the +Duchess. "Nowhere but in France, my dear M. Chesnel, do you see women +so much wedded to their husbands that they are wedded to their +husband's professions, work, or business as well. In Italy, England, +and Germany, women make it a point of honor to leave men to fight +their own battles; they shut their eyes to their husbands' work as +perseveringly as our French citizens' wives do all that in them lies +to understand the position of their joint-stock partnership; is not +that what you call it in your legal language? Frenchwomen are so +incredibly jealous in the conduct of their married life, that they +insist on knowing everything; and that is how, in the least +difficulty, you feel the wife's hand in the business; the Frenchwoman +advises, guides, and warns her husband. And, truth to tell, the man is +none the worse off. In England, if a married man is put in prison for +debt for twenty-four hours, his wife will be jealous and make a scene +when he comes back." + +"Here we are, without meeting a soul on the way," said Chesnel. "You +are the more sure of complete ascendency here, Mme. la Duchesse, since +Mme. Camusot's father is one Thirion, usher of the royal cabinet." + +"And the King never thought of that!" exclaimed the Duchess. "He +thinks of nothing! Thirion introduced us, the Prince de Cadignan, M. +de Vandeness, and me! We shall have it all our own way in this house. +Settle everything with M. Camusot while I talk to his wife." + +The maid, who was washing and dressing the children, showed the +visitors into the little fireless dining-room. + +"Take that card to your mistress," said the Duchess, lowering her +voice for the woman's ear; "nobody else is to see it. If you are +discreet, child, you shall not lose by it." + +At the sound of a woman's voice, and the sight of the handsome young +man's face, the maid looked thunderstruck. + +"Wake M. Camusot," said Chesnel, "and tell him, that I am waiting to +see him on important business," and she departed upstairs forthwith. + +A few minutes later Mme. Camusot, in her dressing-gown, sprang +downstairs and brought the handsome stranger into her room. She had +pushed Camusot out of bed and into his study with all his clothes, +bidding him dress himself at once and wait there. The transformation +scene had been brought about by a bit of pasteboard with the words +MADAME LA DUCHESSE DE MAUFRIGNEUSE engraved upon it. A daughter of the +usher of the royal cabinet took in the whole situation at once. + +"Well!" exclaimed the maid-servant, left with Chesnel in the dining- +room, "Would not any one think that a thunderbolt had dropped in among +us? The master is dressing in his study; you can go upstairs." + +"Not a word of all this, mind," said Chesnel. + +Now that he was conscious of the support of a great lady who had the +King's consent (by word of mouth) to the measures about to be taken +for rescuing the Comte d'Esgrignon, he spoke with an air of authority, +which served his cause much better with Camusot than the humility with +which he would otherwise have approached him. + +"Sir," said he, "the words let fall last evening may have surprised +you, but they are serious. The house of d'Esgrignon counts upon you +for the proper conduct of investigations from which it must issue +without a spot." + +"I shall pass over anything in your remarks, sir, which must be +offensive to me personally, and obnoxious to justice; for your +position with regard to the d'Esgrignons excuses you up to a certain +point, but----" + +"Pardon me, sir, if I interrupt you," said Chesnel. "I have just +spoken aloud the things which your superiors are thinking and dare not +avow; though what those things are any intelligent man can guess, and +you are an intelligent man.--Grant that the young man had acted +imprudently, can you suppose that the sight of a d'Esgrignon dragged +into an Assize Court can be gratifying to the King, the Court, or the +Ministry? Is it to the interest of the kingdom, or of the country, +that historic houses should fall? Is not the existence of a great +aristocracy, consecrated by time, a guarantee of that Equality which +is the catchword of the Opposition at this moment? Well and good; now +not only has there not been the slightest imprudence, but we are +innocent victims caught in a trap." + +"I am curious to know how," said the examining magistrate. + +"For the last two years, the Sieur du Croisier has regularly allowed +M. le Comte d'Esgrignon to draw upon him for very large sums," said +Chesnel. "We are going to produce drafts for more than a hundred +thousand crowns, which he continually met; the amounts being remitted +by me--bear that well in mind--either before or after the bills fell +due. M. le Comte d'Esgrignon is in a position to produce a receipt for +the sum paid by him, before this bill, this alleged forgery was drawn. +Can you fail to see in that case that this charge is a piece of spite +and party feeling? And a charge brought against the heir of a great +house by one of the most dangerous enemies of the Throne and Altar, +what is it but an odious slander? There has been no more forgery in +this affair than there has been in my office. Summon Mme. du Croisier, +who knows nothing as yet of the charge of forgery; she will declare to +you that I brought the money and paid it over to her, so that in her +husband's absence she might remit the amount for which he has not +asked her. Examine du Croisier on the point; he will tell you that he +knows nothing of my payment to Mme. du Croisier. + +"You may make such assertions as these, sir, in M. d'Esgrignon's +salon, or in any other house where people know nothing of business, +and they may be believed; but no examining magistrate, unless he is a +driveling idiot, can imagine that a woman like Mme. du Croisier, so +submissive as she is to her husband, has a hundred thousand crowns +lying in her desk at this moment, without saying a word to him; nor +yet that an old notary would not have advised M. du Croisier of the +deposit on his return to town." + +"The old notary, sir, had gone to Paris to put a stop to the young +man's extravagance." + +"I have not yet examined the Comte d'Esgrignon," Camusot began; "his +answers will point out my duty." + +"Is he in close custody?" + +"Yes." + +"Sir," said Chesnel, seeing danger ahead, "the examination can be made +in our interests or against them. But there are two courses open to +you: you can establish the fact on Mme. du Croisier's deposition that +the amount was deposited with her before the bill was drawn; or you +can examine the unfortunate young man implicated in this affair, and +he in his confusion may remember nothing and commit himself. You will +decide which is the more credible--a slip of memory on the part of a +woman in her ignorance of business, or a forgery committed by a +d'Esgrignon." + +"All this is beside the point," began Camusot; "the question is, +whether M. le Comte d'Esgrignon has or has not used the lower half of +a letter addressed to him by du Croisier as a bill of exchange." + +"Eh! and so he might," a voice cried suddenly, as Mme. Camusot broke +in, followed by the handsome stranger, "so he might when M. Chesnel +had advanced the money to meet the bill----" + +She leant over her husband. + +"You will have the first vacant appointment as assistant judge at +Paris, you are serving the King himself in this affair; I have proof +of it; you will not be forgotten," she said, lowering her voice in his +ear. "This young man that you see here is the Duchesse de +Maufrigneuse; you must never have seen her, and do all that you can +for the young Count boldly." + +"Gentlemen," said Camusot, "even if the preliminary examination is +conducted to prove the young Count's innocence, can I answer for the +view the court may take? M. Chesnel, and you also, my sweet, know what +M. le President wants." + +"Tut, tut, tut!" said Mme. Camusot, "go yourself to M. Michu this +morning, and tell him that the Count has been arrested; you will be +two against two in that case, I will be bound. MICHU comes from Paris, +and you know he is devoted to the noblesse. Good blood cannot lie." + +At that very moment Mlle. Cadot's voice was heard in the doorway. She +had brought a note, and was waiting for an answer. Camusot went out, +and came back again to read the note aloud: + +"M. le Vice-President begs M. Camusot to sit in audience to-day and +for the next few days, so that there may be a quorum during M. le +President's absence." + +"Then there is an end of the preliminary examination!" cried Mme. +Camusot. "Did I not tell you, dear, that they would play you some ugly +trick? The President has gone off to slander you to the public +prosecutor and the President of the Court-Royal. You will be changed +before you can make the examination. Is that clear?" + +"You will stay, monsieur," said the Duchess. "The public prosecutor is +coming, I hope, in time." + +"When the public prosecutor arrives," little Mme. Camusot said, with +some heat, "he must find all over.--Yes, my dear, yes," she added, +looking full at her amazed husband.--"Ah! old hypocrite of a +President, you are setting your wits against us; you shall remember +it! You have a mind to help us to a dish of your own making, you shall +have two served up to you by your humble servant Cecile Amelie +Thirion!--Poor old Blondet! It is lucky for him that the President has +taken this journey to turn us out, for now that great oaf of a Joseph +Blondet will marry Mlle. Blandureau. I will let Father Blondet have +some seeds in return.--As for you, Camusot, go to M. Michu's, while +Mme. la Duchesse and I will go to find old Blondet. You must expect to +hear it said all over the town to-morrow that I took a walk with a +lover this morning." + +Mme. Camusot took the Duchess' arm, and they went through the town by +deserted streets to avoid any unpleasant adventure on the way to the +old Vice-President's house. Chesnel meanwhile conferred with the young +Count in prison; Camusot had arranged a stolen interview. Cook-maids, +servants, and the other early risers of a country town, seeing Mme. +Camusot and the Duchess taking their way through the back streets, +took the young gentleman for an adorer from Paris. That evening, as +Cecile Amelie had said, the news of her behavior was circulated about +the town, and more than one scandalous rumor was occasioned thereby. +Mme. Camusot and her supposed lover found old Blondet in his green- +house. He greeted his colleague's wife and her companion, and gave the +charming young man a keen, uneasy glance. + +"I have the honor to introduce one of my husband's cousins," said Mme. +Camusot, bringing forward the Duchess; "he is one of the most +distinguished horticulturists in Paris; and as he cannot spend more +than one day with us, on his way back from Brittany, and has heard of +your flowers and plants, I have taken the liberty of coming early." + +"Oh, the gentleman is a horticulturist, is he?" said the old Blondet. + +The Duchess bowed. + +"This is my coffee-plant," said Blondet, "and here is a tea-plant." + +"What can have taken M. le President away from home?" put in Mme. +Camusot. "I will wager that his absence concerns M. Camusot." + +"Exactly.--This, monsieur, is the queerest of all cactuses," he +continued, producing a flower-pot which appeared to contain a piece of +mildewed rattan; "it comes from Australia. You are very young, sir, to +be a horticulturist." + +"Dear M. Blondet, never mind your flowers," said Mme. Camusot. "YOU +are concerned, you and your hopes, and your son's marriage with Mlle. +Blandureau. You are duped by the President." + +"Bah!" said old Blondet, with an incredulous air. + +"Yes," retorted she. "If you cultivated people a little more and your +flowers a little less, you would know that the dowry and the hopes you +have sown, and watered, and tilled, and weeded are on the point of +being gathered now by cunning hands." + +"Madame!----" + +"Oh, nobody in the town will have the courage to fly in the +President's face and warn you. I, however, do not belong to the town, +and, thanks to this obliging young man, I shall soon be going back to +Paris; so I can inform you that Chesnel's successor has made formal +proposals for Mlle. Claire Blandureau's hand on behalf of young du +Ronceret, who is to have fifty thousand crowns from his parents. As +for Fabien, he has made up his mind to receive a call to the bar, so +as to gain an appointment as judge." + +Old Blondet dropped the flower-pot which he had brought out for the +Duchess to see. + +"Oh, my cactus! Oh, my son! and Mlle. Blandureau! . . . Look here! the +cactus flower is broken to pieces." + +"No," Mme. Camusot answered, laughing; "everything can be put right. +If you have a mind to see your son a judge in another month, we will +tell you how you must set to work----" + +"Step this way, sir, and you will see my pelargoniums, an enchanting +sight while they are in flower----" Then he added to Mme. Camusot, +"Why did you speak of these matters while your cousin was present." + +"All depends upon him," riposted Mme. Camusot. "Your son's appointment +is lost for ever if you let fall a word about this young man." + +"Bah!" + +"The young man is a flower----" + +"Ah!" + +"He is the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, sent here by His Majesty to save +young d'Esgrignon, whom they arrested yesterday on a charge of forgery +brought against him by du Croisier. Mme. la Duchesse has authority +from the Keeper of the Seals; he will ratify any promises that she +makes to us----" + +"My cactus is all right!" exclaimed Blondet, peering at his precious +plant.--"Go on, I am listening." + +"Take counsel with Camusot and Michu to hush up the affair as soon as +possible, and your son will get the appointment. It will come in time +enough to baffle du Ronceret's underhand dealings with the +Blandureaus. Your son will be something better than assistant judge; +he will have M. Camusot's post within the year. The public prosecutor +will be here today. M. Sauvager will be obliged to resign, I expect, +after his conduct in this affair. At the court my husband will show +you documents which completely exonerate the Count and prove that the +forgery was a trap of du Croisier's own setting." + +Old Blondet went into the Olympic circus where his six thousand +pelargoniums stood, and made his bow to the Duchess. + +"Monsieur," said he, "if your wishes do not exceed the law, this thing +may be done." + +"Monsieur," returned the Duchess, "send in your resignation to M. +Chesnel to-morrow, and I will promise you that your son shall be +appointed within the week; but you must not resign until you have had +confirmation of my promise from the public prosecutor. You men of law +will come to a better understanding among yourselves. Only let him +know that the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse had pledged her word to you. +And not a word as to my journey hither," she added. + +The old judge kissed her hand and began recklessly to gather his best +flowers for her. + +"Can you think of it? Give them to madame," said the Duchess. "A young +man should not have flowers about him when he has a pretty woman on +his arm." + +"Before you go down to the court," added Mme. Camusot, "ask Chesnel's +successor about those proposals that he made in the name of M. and +Mme. du Ronceret." + +Old Blondet, quite overcome by this revelation of the President's +duplicity, stood planted on his feet by the wicket gate, looking after +the two women as they hurried away through by-streets home again. The +edifice raised so painfully during ten years for his beloved son was +crumbling visibly before his eyes. Was it possible? He suspected some +trick, and hurried away to Chesnel's successor. + +At half-past nine, before the court was sitting, Vice-President +Blondet, Camusot, and Michu met with remarkable punctuality in the +council chamber. Blondet locked the door with some precautions when +Camusot and Michu came in together. + +"Well, Mr. Vice-President," began Michu, "M. Sauvager, without +consulting the public prosecutor, has issued a warrant for the +apprehension of one Comte d'Esgrignon, in order to serve a grudge +borne against him by one du Croisier, an enemy of the King's +government. It is a regular topsy-turvy affair. The President, for his +part, goes away, and thereby puts a stop to the preliminary +examination! And we know nothing of the matter. Do they, by any +chance, mean to force our hand?" + +"This is the first word I have heard of it," said the Vice-President. +He was furious with the President for stealing a march on him with the +Blandureaus. Chesnel's successor, the du Roncerets' man, had just +fallen into a snare set by the old judge; the truth was out, he knew +the secret. + +"It is lucky that we spoke to you about the matter, my dear master," +said Camusot, "or you might have given up all hope of seating your son +on the bench or of marrying him to Mlle. Blandureau." + +"But it is no question of my son, nor of his marriage," said the Vice- +President; "we are talking of young Comte d'Esgrignon. Is he or is he +not guilty?" + +"It seems that Chesnel deposited the amount to meet the bill with Mme. +du Croisier," said Michu, "and a crime has been made of a mere +irregularity. According to the charge, the Count made use of the lower +half of a letter bearing du Croisier's signature as a draft which he +cashed at the Kellers'." + +"An imprudent thing to do," was Camusot's comment. + +"But why is du Croisier proceeding against him if the amount was paid +in beforehand?" asked Vice-President Blondet. + +"He does not know that the money was deposited with his wife; or he +pretends that he does not know," said Camusot. + +"It is a piece of provincial spite," said Michu. + +"Still it looks like a forgery to me," said old Blondet. No passion +could obscure judicial clear-sightedness in him. + +"Do you think so?" returned Camusot. "But, at the outset, supposing +that the Count had no business to draw upon du Croisier, there would +still be no forgery of the signature; and the Count believed that he +had a right to draw on Croisier when Chesnel advised him that the +money had been placed to his credit." + +"Well, then, where is the forgery?" asked Blondet. "It is the intent +to defraud which constitutes forgery in a civil action." + +"Oh, it is clear, if you take du Croisier's version for truth, that +the signature was diverted from its purpose to obtain a sum of money +in spite of du Croisier's contrary injunction to his bankers," Camusot +answered. + +"Gentlemen," said Blondet, "this seems to me to be a mere triffle, a +quibble.--Suppose you had the money, I ought perhaps to have waited +until I had your authorization; but I, Comte d'Esgrignon, was pressed +for money, so I---- Come, come, your prosecution is a piece of +revengeful spite. Forgery is defined by the law as an attempt to +obtain any advantage which rightfully belongs to another. There is no +forgery here, according to the letter of the Roman law, nor according +to the spirit of modern jurisprudence (always from the point of a +civil action, for we are not here concerned with the falsification of +public or authentic documents). Between private individuals the +essence of a forgery is the intent to defraud; where is it in this +case? In what times are we living, gentlemen? Here is the President +going away to balk a preliminary examination which ought to be over by +this time! Until to-day I did not know M. le President, but he shall +have the benefit of arrears; from this time forth he shall draft his +decisions himself. You must set about this affair with all possible +speed, M. Camusot." + +"Yes," said Michu. "In my opinion, instead of letting the young man +out on bail, we ought to pull him out of this mess at once. Everything +turns on the examination of du Croisier and his wife. You might +summons them to appear while the court is sitting, M. Camusot; take +down their depositions before four o'clock, send in your report to- +night, and we will give our decision in the morning before the court +sits." + +"We will settle what course to pursue while the barristers are +pleading," said Vice-President Blondet, addressing Camusot. + +And with that the three judges put on their robes and went into court. + +At noon Mlle. Armande and the Bishop reached the Hotel d'Esgrignon; +Chesnel and M. Couturier were there to meet them. There was a +sufficiently short conference between the prelate and Mme. du +Croisier's director, and the latter set out at once to visit his +charge. + +At eleven o'clock that morning du Croisier received a summons to +appear in the examining magistrate's office between one and two in the +afternoon. Thither he betook himself, consumed by well-founded +suspicions. It was impossible that the President should have foreseen +the arrival of the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse upon the scene, the return +of the public prosecutor, and the hasty confabulation of his learned +brethren; so he had omitted to trace out a plan for du Croisier's +guidance in the event of the preliminary examination taking place. +Neither of the pair imagined that the proceedings would be hurried on +in this way. Du Croisier obeyed the summons at once; he wanted to know +how M. Camusot was disposed to act. So he was compelled to answer the +questions put to him. Camusot addressed him in summary fashion with +the six following inquiries:-- + +"Was the signature on the bill alleged to be a forgery in your +handwriting?--Had you previously done business with M. le Comte +d'Esgrignon?--Was not M. le Comte d'Esgrignon in the habit of drawing +upon you, with or without advice?--Did you not write a letter +authorizing M. d'Esgrignon to rely upon you at any time?--Had not +Chesnel squared the account not once, but many times already?--Were +you not away from home when this took place?" + +All these questions the banker answered in the affirmative. In spite +of wordy explanations, the magistrate always brought him back to a +"Yes" or "No." When the questions and answers alike had been resumed +in the proces-verbal, the examining magistrate brought out a final +thunderbolt. + +"Was du Croisier aware that the money destined to meet the bill had +been deposited with him, du Croisier, according to Chesnel's +declaration, and a letter of advice sent by the said Chesnel to the +Comte d'Esgrignon, five days before the date of the bill?" + +That last question frightened du Croisier. He asked what was meant by +it, and whether he was supposed to be the defendant and M. le Comte +d'Esgrignon the plaintiff? He called the magistrate's attention to the +fact that if the money had been deposited with him, there was no +ground for the action. + +"Justice is seeking information," said the magistrate, as he dismissed +the witness, but not before he had taken down du Croisier's last +observation. + +"But the money, sir----" + +"The money is at your house." + +Chesnel, likewise summoned, came forward to explain the matter. The +truth of his assertions was borne out by Mme. du Croisier's +deposition. The Count had already been examined. Prompted by Chesnel, +he produced du Croisier's first letter, in which he begged the Count +to draw upon him without the insulting formality of depositing the +amount beforehand. The Comte d'Esgrignon next brought out a letter in +Chesnel's handwriting, by which the notary advised him of the deposit +of a hundred thousand crowns with M. du Croisier. With such primary +facts as these to bring forward as evidence, the young Count's +innocence was bound to emerge triumphantly from a court of law. + +Du Croisier went home from the court, his face white with rage, and +the foam of repressed fury on his lips. His wife was sitting by the +fireside in the drawing-room at work upon a pair of slippers for him. +She trembled when she looked into his face, but her mind was made up. + +"Madame," he stammered out, "what deposition is this that you made +before the magistrate? You have dishonored, ruined, and betrayed me!" + +"I have saved you, monsieur," answered she. "If some day you will have +the honor of connecting yourself with the d'Esgrignons by marrying +your niece to the Count, it will be entirely owing to my conduct to- +day." + +"A miracle!" cried he. "Balaam's ass has spoken. Nothing will astonish +me after this. And where are the hundred thousand crowns which (so M. +Camusot tells me) are here in my house?" + +"Here they are," said she, pulling out a bundle of banknotes from +beneath the cushions of her settee. "I have not committed mortal sin +by declaring that M. Chesnel gave them into my keeping." + +"While I was away?" + +"You were not here." + +"Will you swear that to me on your salvation?" + +"I swear it," she said composedly. + +"Then why did you say nothing to me about it?" demanded he. + +"I was wrong there," said his wife, "but my mistake was all for your +good. Your niece will be Marquise d'Esgrignon some of these days, and +you will perhaps be a deputy, if you behave well in this deplorable +business. You have gone too far; you must find out how to get back +again." + +Du Croisier, under stress of painful agitation, strode up and down his +drawing-room; while his wife, in no less agitation, awaited the result +of this exercise. Du Croisier at length rang the bell. + +"I am not at home to any one to-night," he said, when the man +appeared; "shut the gates; and if any one calls, tell them that your +mistress and I have gone into the country. We shall start directly +after dinner, and dinner must be half an hour earlier than usual." + + + +The great news was discussed that evening in every drawing-room; +little shopkeepers, working folk, beggars, the noblesse, the merchant +class--the whole town, in short, was talking of the Comte +d'Esgrignon's arrest on a charge of forgery. The Comte d'Esgrignon +would be tried in the Assize Court; he would be condemned and branded. +Most of those who cared for the honor of the family denied the fact. +At nightfall Chesnel went to Mme. Camusot and escorted the stranger to +the Hotel d'Esgrignon. Poor Mlle. Armande was expecting him; she led +the fair Duchess to her own room, which she had given up to her, for +his lordship the Bishop occupied Victurnien's chamber; and, left alone +with her guest, the noble woman glanced at the Duchess with most +piteous eyes. + +"You owed help, indeed, madame, to the poor boy who ruined himself for +your sake," she said, "the boy to whom we are all of us sacrificing +ourselves." + +The Duchess had already made a woman's survey of Mlle. d'Esgrignon's +room; the cold, bare, comfortless chamber, that might have been a +nun's cell, was like a picture of the life of the heroic woman before +her. The Duchess saw it all--past, present, and future--with rising +emotion, felt the incongruity of her presence, and could not keep back +the falling tears that made answer for her. + +But in Mlle. Armande the Christian overcame Victurnien's aunt. "Ah, I +was wrong; forgive me, Mme. la Duchesse; you did not know how poor we +were, and my nephew was incapable of the admission. And besides, now +that I see you, I can understand all--even the crime!" + +And Mlle. Armande, withered and thin and white, but beautiful as those +tall austere slender figures which German art alone can paint, had +tears too in her eyes. + +"Do not fear, dear angel," the Duchess said at last; "he is safe." + +"Yes, but honor?--and his career? Chesnel told me; the King knows the +truth." + +"We will think of a way of repairing the evil," said the Duchess. + +Mlle. Armande went downstairs to the salon, and found the Collection +of Antiquities complete to a man. Every one of them had come, partly +to do honor to the Bishop, partly to rally round the Marquis; but +Chesnel, posted in the antechamber, warned each new arrival to say no +word of the affair, that the aged Marquis might never know that such a +thing had been. The loyal Frank was quite capable of killing his son +or du Croisier; for either the one or the other must have been guilty +of death in his eyes. It chanced, strangely enough, that he talked +more of Victurnien than usual; he was glad that his son had gone back +to Paris. The King would give Victurnien a place before very long; the +King was interesting himself at last in the d'Esgrignons. And his +friends, their hearts dead within them, praised Victurnien's conduct +to the skies. Mlle. Armande prepared the way for her nephew's sudden +appearance among them by remarking to her brother that Victurnien +would be sure to come to see them, and that he must be even then on +his way. + +"Bah!" said the Marquis, standing with his back to the hearth, "if he +is doing well where he is, he ought to stay there, and not be thinking +of the joy it would give his old father to see him again. The King's +service has the first claim." + +Scarcely one of those present heard the words without a shudder. +Justice might give over a d'Esgrignon to the executioner's branding +iron. There was a dreadful pause. The old Marquise de Casteran could +not keep back a tear that stole down over her rouge, and turned her +head away to hide it. + +Next day at noon, in the sunny weather, a whole excited population was +dispersed in groups along the high street, which ran through the heart +of the town, and nothing was talked of but the great affair. Was the +Count in prison or was he not?--All at once the Comte d'Esgrignon's +well-known tilbury was seen driving down the Rue Saint-Blaise; it had +evidently come from the Prefecture, the Count himself was on the box +seat, and by his side sat a charming young man, whom nobody +recognized. The pair were laughing and talking and in great spirits. +They wore Bengal roses in their button-holes. Altogether, it was a +theatrical surprise which words fail to describe. + +At ten o'clock the court had decided to dismiss the charge, stating +their very sufficient reasons for setting the Count at liberty, in a +document which contained a thunderbolt for du Croisier, in the shape +of an INASMUCH that gave the Count the right to institute proceedings +for libel. Old Chesnel was walking up the Grand Rue, as if by +accident, telling all who cared to hear him that du Croisier had set +the most shameful of snares for the d'Esgrignons' honor, and that it +was entirely owing to the forbearance and magnanimity of the family +that he was not prosecuted for slander. + +On the evening of that famous day, after the Marquis d'Esgrignon had +gone to bed, the Count, Mlle. Armande, and the Chevalier were left +with the handsome young page, now about to return to Paris. The +charming cavalier's sex could not be hidden from the Chevalier, and he +alone, besides the three officials and Mme. Camusot, knew that the +Duchess had been among them. + +"The house is saved," began Chesnel, "but after this shock it will +take a hundred years to rise again. The debts must be paid now; you +must marry an heiress, M. le Comte, there is nothing left for you to +do." + +"And take her where you may find her," said the Duchess. + +"A second mesalliance!" exclaimed Mlle. Armande. + +The Duchess began to laugh. + +"It is better to marry than to die," she said. As she spoke she drew +from her waistcoat pocket a tiny crystal phial that came from the +court apothecary. + +Mlle. Armande shrank away in horror. Old Chesnel took the fair +Maufrigneuse's hand, and kissed it without permission. + +"Are you all out of your minds here?" continued the Duchess. "Do you +really expect to live in the fifteenth century when the rest of the +world has reached the nineteenth? My dear children, there is no +noblesse nowadays; there is no aristocracy left! Napoleon's Code Civil +made an end of the parchments, exactly as cannon made an end of feudal +castles. When you have some money, you will be very much more of +nobles than you are now. Marry anybody you please, Victurnien, you +will raise your wife to your rank; that is the most substantial +privilege left to the French noblesse. Did not M. de Talleyrand marry +Mme. Grandt without compromising his position? Remember that Louis +XIV. took the Widow Scarron for his wife." + +"He did not marry her for her money," interposed Mlle. Armande. + +"If the Comtesse d'Esgrignon were one du Croisier's niece, for +instance, would you receive her?" asked Chesnel. + +"Perhaps," replied the Duchess; "but the King, beyond all doubt, would +be very glad to see her.--So you do not know what is going on in the +world?" continued she, seeing the amazement in their faces. +"Victurnien has been in Paris; he knows how things go there. We had +more influence under Napoleon. Marry Mlle. Duval, Victurnien; she will +be just as much Marquise d'Esgrignon as I am Duchesse de +Maufrigneuse." + +"All is lost--even honor!" said the Chevalier, with a wave of the +hand. + +"Good-bye, Victurnien," said the Duchess, kissing her lover on the +forehead; "we shall not see each other again. Live on your lands; that +is the best thing for you to do; the air of Paris is not at all good +for you." + +"Diane!" the young Count cried despairingly. + +"Monsieur, you forget yourself strangely," the Duchess retorted +coolly, as she laid aside her role of man and mistress, and became not +merely an angel again, but a duchess, and not only a duchess, but +Moliere's Celimene. + +The Duchesse de Maufrigneuse made a stately bow to these four +personages, and drew from the Chevalier his last tear of admiration at +the service of le beau sexe. + +"How like she is to the Princess Goritza!" he exclaimed in a low +voice. + +Diane had disappeared. The crack of the postilion's whip told +Victurnien that the fair romance of his first love was over. While +peril lasted, Diane could still see her lover in the young Count; but +out of danger, she despised him for the weakling that he was. + + + +Six months afterwards, Camusot received the appointment of assistant +judge at Paris, and later he became an examining magistrate. Goodman +Blondet was made a councillor to the Royal-Court; he held the post +just long enough to secure a retiring pension, and then went back to +live in his pretty little house. Joseph Blondet sat in his father's +seat at the court till the end of his days; there was not the faintest +chance of promotion for him, but he became Mlle. Blandereau's husband; +and she, no doubt, is leading to-day, in the little flower-covered +brick house, as dull a life as any carp in a marble basin. Michu and +Camusot also received the Cross of the Legion of Honor, while Blondet +became an Officer. As for M. Sauvager, deputy public prosecutor, he +was sent to Corsica, to du Croisier's great relief; he had decidedly +no mind to bestow his niece upon that functionary. + +Du Croisier himself, urged by President du Ronceret, appealed from the +finding of the Tribunal to the Court-Royal, and lost his cause. The +Liberals throughout the department held that little d'Esgrignon was +guilty; while the Royalists, on the other hand, told frightful stories +of plots woven by "that abominable du Croisier" to compass his +revenge. A duel was fought indeed; the hazard of arms favored du +Croisier, the young Count was dangerously wounded, and his antagonist +maintained his words. This affair embittered the strife between the +two parties; the Liberals brought it forward on all occasions. +Meanwhile du Croisier never could carry his election, and saw no hope +of marrying his niece to the Count, especially after the duel. + +A month after the decision of the Tribunal was confirmed in the Court- +Royal, Chesnel died, exhausted by the dreadful strain, which had +weakened and shaken him mentally and physically. He died in the hour +of victory, like some old faithful hound that has brought the boar to +bay, and gets his death on the tusks. He died as happily as might be, +seeing that he left the great House all but ruined, and the heir in +penury, bored to death by an idle life, and without a hope of +establishing himself. That bitter thought and his own exhaustion, no +doubt, hastened the old man's end. One great comfort came to him as he +lay amid the wreck of so many hopes, sinking under the burden of so +many cares--the old Marquis, at his sister's entreaty, gave him back +all the old friendship. The great lord came to the little house in the +Rue du Bercail, and sat by his old servant's bedside, all unaware how +much that servant had done and sacrificed for him. Chesnel sat +upright, and repeated Simeon's cry.--The Marquis allowed them to bury +Chesnel in the castle chapel; they laid him crosswise at the foot of +the tomb which was waiting for the Marquis himself, the last, in a +sense, of the d'Esgrignons. + +And so died one of the last representatives of that great and +beautiful thing, Service; giving to that often discredited word its +original meaning, the relation between feudal lord and servitor. That +relation, only to be found in some out-of-the-way province, or among a +few old servants of the King, did honor alike to a noblesse that could +call forth such affection, and to a bourgeoisie that could conceive +it. Such noble and magnificent devotion is no longer possible among +us. Noble houses have no servitors left; even as France has no longer +a King, nor an hereditary peerage, nor lands that are bound +irrevocably to an historic house, that the glorious names of the +nation may be perpetuated. Chesnel was not merely one of the obscure +great men of private life; he was something more--he was a great fact. +In his sustained self-devotion is there not something indefinably +solemn and sublime, something that rises above the one beneficent +deed, or the heroic height which is reached by a moment's supreme +effort? Chesnel's virtues belong essentially to the classes which +stand between the poverty of the people on the one hand, and the +greatness of the aristocracy on the other; for these can combine +homely burgher virtues with the heroic ideals of the noble, +enlightening both by a solid education. + +Victurnien was not well looked upon at Court; there was no more chance +of a great match for him, nor a place. His Majesty steadily refused to +raise the d'Esgrignons to the peerage, the one royal favor which could +rescue Victurnien from his wretched position. It was impossible that +he should marry a bourgeoise heiress in his father's lifetime, so he +was bound to live on shabbily under the paternal roof with memories of +his two years of splendor in Paris, and the lost love of a great lady +to bear him company. He grew moody and depressed, vegetating at home +with a careworn aunt and a half heart-broken father, who attributed +his son's condition to a wasting malady. Chesnel was no longer there. + +The Marquis died in 1830. The great d'Esgrignon, with a following of +all the less infirm noblesse from the Collection of Antiquities, went +to wait upon Charles X. at Nonancourt; he paid his respects to his +sovereign, and swelled the meagre train of the fallen king. It was an +act of courage which seems simple enough to-day, but, in that time of +enthusiastic revolt, it was heroism. + +"The Gaul has conquered!" These were the Marquis' last words. + +By that time du Croisier's victory was complete. The new Marquis +d'Esgrignon accepted Mlle. Duval as his wife a week after his old +father's death. His bride brought him three millions of francs for du +Croisier and his wife settled the reversion of their fortunes upon her +in the marriage-contract. Du Croisier took occasion to say during the +ceremony that the d'Esgrignon family was the most honorable of all the +ancient houses in France. + +Some day the present Marquis d'Esgrignon will have an income of more +than a hundred thousand crowns. You may see him in Paris, for he comes +to town every winter and leads a jolly bachelor life, while he treats +his wife with something more than the indifference of the grand +seigneur of olden times; he takes no thought whatever for her. + +"As for Mlle. d'Esgrignon," said Emile Blondet, to whom all the detail +of the story is due, "if she is no longer like the divinely fair woman +whom I saw by glimpses in my childhood, she is decidedly, at the age +of sixty-seven, the most pathetic and interesting figure in the +Collection of Antiquities. She queens it among them still. I saw her +when I made my last journey to my native place in search of the +necessary papers for my marriage. When my father knew who it was that +I had married, he was struck dumb with amazement; he had not a word to +say until I told him that I was a prefect. + +"'You were born to it,' he said, with a smile. + +"As I took a walk around the town, I met Mlle. Armande. She looked +taller than ever. I looked at her, and thought of Marius among the +ruins of Carthage. Had she not outlived her creed, and the beliefs +that had been destroyed? She is a sad and silent woman, with nothing +of her old beauty left except the eyes, that shine with an unearthly +light. I watched her on her way to mass, with her book in her hand, +and could not help thinking that she prayed to God to take her out of +the world." + + + +LES JARDIES, July 1837. + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Note: The Old Maid is a companion piece to The Collection of +Antiquities. In other Addendum appearances they are combined under the +title of The Jealousies of a Country Town. + +Blondet (Judge) + Beatrix + +Blondet, Emile + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Modeste Mignon + Another Study of Woman + The Secrets of a Princess + A Daughter of Eve + The Firm of Nucingen + The Peasantry + +Blondet, Virginie + The Secrets of a Princess + The Peasantry + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Another Study of Woman + The Member for Arcis + A Daughter of Eve + +Bousquier, Du (or Du Croisier or Du Bourguier) + The Old Maid + The Middle Classes + +Bousquier, Madame du (or du Croisier) + The Old Maid + +Camusot de Marville + Cousin Pons + The Commission in Lunacy + Scenes from a Cuortesan's Life + +Camusot de Marville, Madame + The Vendetta + Cesar Birotteau + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Cousin Pons + +Cardot (Parisian notary) + The Muse of the Department + A Man of Business + Pierre Grassou + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons + +Casteran, De + The Chouans + The Seamy Side of History + The Old Maid + Beatrix + The Peasantry + +Chesnel (or Choisnel) + The Seamy Side of History + The Old Maid + +Coudrai, Du + The Old Maid + +Esgrignon, Charles-Marie-Victor-Ange-Carol, Marquis d' (or Des +Grignons) + The Chouans + The Old Maid + +Esgrignon, Victurnien, Comte (then Marquis d') + Letters of Two Brides + A Man of Business + The Secrets of a Princess + Cousin Betty + +Esgrignon, Marie-Armande-Claire d' + The Old Maid + +Herouville, Duc d' + The Hated Son + Modeste Mignon + Cousin Betty + +Lenoncourt, Duc de + The Lily of the Valley + Cesar Birotteau + The Old Maid + The Gondreville Mystery + Beatrix + +Leroi, Pierre + The Chouans + The Seamy Side of History + +Marsay, Henri de + The Thirteen + The Unconscious Humorists + Another Study of Woman + The Lily of the Valley + Father Goriot + Ursule Mirouet + A Marriage Settlement + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Letters of Two Brides + The Ball at Sceaux + Modest Mignon + The Secrets of a Princess + The Gondreville Mystery + A Daughter of Eve + +Maufrigneuse, Duchesse de + The Secrets of a Princess + Modeste Mignon + The Muse of the Department + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Letters of Two Brides + Another Study of Woman + The Gondreville Mystery + The Member for Arcis + +Michu, Francois + The Gondreville Mystery + The Member for Arcis + +Pamiers, Vidame de + The Thirteen + +Ronceret, Du + The Old Maid + Beatrix + +Ronceret, Madame du + The Old Maid + +Ronceret, Fabien-Felicien du (or Duronceret) + Beatrix + Gaudissart II + +Scherbelloff, Princesse (or Scherbellof or Sherbelloff) + The Peasantry + +Thirion + The Vendetta + Cesar Birotteau + +Troisville, Guibelin, Vicomte de + The Seamy Side of History + The Chouans + The Old Maid + The Peasantry + +Valois, Chevalier de + The Chouans + The Old Maid + +Verneuil, Duc de + The Chouans + The Old Maid + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE JEALOUSIES OF A COUNTRY TOWN *** + +This file should be named jlsct10.txt or jlsct10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, jlsct11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, jlsct10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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