diff options
Diffstat (limited to '9164-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 9164-h/9164-h.htm | 5536 |
1 files changed, 5536 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/9164-h/9164-h.htm b/9164-h/9164-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..55336f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/9164-h/9164-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5536 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en"> + +<head> + +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> + +<title> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of The Three Cities Trilogy: Paris Vol 1, by Emile Zola +</title> + +<style type="text/css"> +body { color: black; + background: white; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +p {text-indent: 4% } + +p.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +p.t1 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 200%; + text-align: center } + +p.t2 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 150%; + text-align: center } + +p.t3 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 100%; + text-align: center } + +p.t3b {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 100%; + font-weight: bold; + text-align: center } + +p.t4 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 80%; + text-align: center } + +p.t4b {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 80%; + font-weight: bold; + text-align: center } + +p.t5 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 60%; + text-align: center } + +h1 { text-align: center } +h2 { text-align: center } +h3 { text-align: center } +h4 { text-align: center } +h5 { text-align: center } + +p.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; } + +p.contents {text-indent: -3%; + margin-left: 5% } + +p.thought {text-indent: 0% ; + letter-spacing: 4em ; + text-align: center } + +p.letter {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +p.footnote {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 80%; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +p.transnote {text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +p.intro {font-size: 90% ; + text-indent: -5% ; + margin-left: 5% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +p.quote {text-indent: 4% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +p.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's The Three Cities Trilogy: Paris, Vol. 1, by Emile Zola + +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 + + +Posting Date: April 13, 2014 [EBook #9164] +Release Date: October, 2005 +First Posted: September 10, 2003 + +Title: The Three Cities Trilogy: Paris, Vol. 1 + +Author: Emile Zola + +Translator: Ernest A. Vizetelly + +Release Date: April 13, 2014 [EBook #9164] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THREE CITIES TRILOGY: PARIS VOL 1 *** + + + + +Produced by Dagny, and David Widger. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1> +<br /><br /><br /> + THE THREE CITIES<br /> +</h1> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="t2"> + PARIS<br /> +</p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="t3b"> + BY<br /> +<br /> + EMILE ZOLA<br /> +</p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="t3"> + TRANSLATED BY ERNEST A. VIZETELLY<br /> +</p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="t3b"> + BOOK I<br /> +</p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="t3b"> + TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE<br /> +</p> + +<p> +WITH the present work M. Zola completes the "Trilogy of the Three +Cities," which he began with "Lourdes" and continued with "Rome"; and +thus the adventures and experiences of Abbe Pierre Froment, the doubting +Catholic priest who failed to find faith at the miraculous grotto by the +Cave, and hope amidst the crumbling theocracy of the Vatican, are here +brought to what, from M. Zola's point of view, is their logical +conclusion. From the first pages of "Lourdes," many readers will have +divined that Abbe Froment was bound to finish as he does, for, frankly, +no other finish was possible from a writer of M. Zola's opinions. +</p> + +<p> +Taking the Trilogy as a whole, one will find that it is essentially +symbolical. Abbe Froment is Man, and his struggles are the struggles +between Religion, as personified by the Roman Catholic Church, on the one +hand, and Reason and Life on the other. In the Abbe's case the victory +ultimately rests with the latter; and we may take it as being M. Zola's +opinion that the same will eventually be the case with the great bulk of +mankind. English writers are often accused of treating subjects from an +insular point of view, and certainly there may be good ground for such a +charge. But they are not the only writers guilty of the practice. The +purview of French authors is often quite as limited: they regard French +opinion as the only good opinion, and judge the rest of the world by +their own standard. In the present case, if we leave the world and +mankind generally on one side, and apply M. Zola's facts and theories to +France alone, it will be found, I think, that he has made out a +remarkably good case for himself. For it is certain that Catholicism, I +may say Christianity, is fast crumbling in France. There may be revivals +in certain limited circles, efforts of the greatest energy to prop up the +tottering edifice by a "rallying" of believers to the democratic cause, +and by a kindling of the most bitter anti-Semitic warfare; but all these +revivals and efforts, although they are extremely well-advertised and +create no little stir, produce very little impression on the bulk of the +population. So far as France is concerned, the policy of Leo XIII. seems +to have come too late. The French masses regard Catholicism or +Christianity, whichever one pleases, as a religion of death,—a religion +which, taking its stand on the text "There shall always be poor among +you," condemns them to toil and moil in poverty and distress their whole +life long, with no other consolation than the promise of happiness in +heaven. And, on the other hand, they see the ministers of the Deity, +"whose kingdom is not of this world," supporting the wealthy and +powerful, and striving to secure wealth and power for themselves. Charity +exists, of course, but the masses declare that it is no remedy; they do +not ask for doles, they ask for Justice. It is largely by reason of all +this that Socialism and Anarchism have made such great strides in France +of recent years. Robespierre, as will be remembered, once tried to +suppress Christianity altogether, and for a time certainly there was a +virtually general cessation of religious observances in France. But no +such Reign of Terror prevails there to-day. Men are perfectly free to +believe if they are inclined to do so; and yet never were there fewer +religious marriages, fewer baptisms or smaller congregations in the +French churches. I refer not merely to Paris and other large cities, but +to the smaller towns, and even the little hamlets of many parts. Old +village priests, men practising what they teach and possessed of the most +loving, benevolent hearts, have told me with tears in their eyes of the +growing infidelity of their parishioners. +</p> + +<p> +I have been studying this matter for some years, and write without +prejudice, merely setting down what I believe to be the truth. Of course +we are all aware that the most stupendous efforts are being made by the +Catholic clergy and zealous believers to bring about a revival of the +faith, and certainly in some circles there has been a measure of success. +But the reconversion of a nation is the most formidable of tasks; and, in +my own opinion, as in M. Zola's, France as a whole is lost to the +Christian religion. On this proposition, combined with a second one, +namely, that even as France as a nation will be the first to discard +Christianity, so she will be the first to promulgate a new faith based on +reason, science and the teachings of life, is founded the whole argument +of M. Zola's Trilogy. +</p> + +<p> +Having thus dealt with the Trilogy's religious aspects, I would now speak +of "Paris," its concluding volume. This is very different from "Lourdes" +and "Rome." Whilst recounting the struggles and fate of Abbe Froment and +his brother Guillaume, and entering largely into the problem of Capital +and Labour, which problem has done so much to turn the masses away from +Christianity, it contains many an interesting and valuable picture of the +Parisian world at the close of the nineteenth century. It is no +guide-book to Paris; but it paints the city's social life, its rich and +poor, its scandals and crimes, its work and its pleasures. Among the +households to which the reader is introduced are those of a banker, an +aged Countess of the old <i>noblesse</i>, a cosmopolitan Princess, of a kind +that Paris knows only too well, a scientist, a manufacturer, a working +mechanician, a priest, an Anarchist, a petty clerk and an actress of a +class that so often dishonours the French stage. Science and art and +learning and religion, all have their representatives. Then, too, the +political world is well to the front. There are honest and unscrupulous +Ministers of State, upright and venal deputies, enthusiastic and cautious +candidates for power, together with social theoreticians of various +schools. And the <i>blase</i>, weak-minded man of fashion is here, as well as +the young "symbolist" of perverted, degraded mind. The women are of all +types, from the most loathsome to the most lovable. Then, too, the +journalists are portrayed in such life-like fashion that I might give +each of them his real name. And journalism, Parisian journalism, is +flagellated, shown as it really is,—if just a few well-conducted organs +be excepted,—that is, venal and impudent, mendacious and even petty. +</p> + +<p> +The actual scenes depicted are quite as kaleidoscopic as are the +characters in their variety. We enter the banker's gilded saloon and the +hovel of the pauper, the busy factory, the priest's retired home and the +laboratory of the scientist. We wait in the lobbies of the Chamber of +Deputies, and afterwards witness "a great debate"; we penetrate into the +private sanctum of a Minister of the Interior; we attend a fashionable +wedding at the Madeleine and a first performance at the Comedie +Francaise; we dine at the Cafe Anglais and listen to a notorious vocalist +in a low music hall at Montmartre; we pursue an Anarchist through the +Bois de Boulogne; we slip into the Assize Court and see that Anarchist +tried there; we afterwards gaze upon his execution by the guillotine; we +are also on the boulevards when the lamps are lighted for a long night of +revelry, and we stroll along the quiet streets in the small hours of the +morning, when crime and homeless want are prowling round. +</p> + +<p> +And ever the scene changes; the whole world of Paris passes before one. +Yet the book, to my thinking, is far less descriptive than analytical. +The souls of the principal characters are probed to their lowest depths. +Many of the scenes, too, are intensely dramatic, admirably adapted for +the stage; as, for instance, Baroness Duvillard's interview with her +daughter in the chapter which I have called "The Rivals." And side by +side with baseness there is heroism, while beauty of the flesh finds its +counterpart in beauty of the mind. M. Zola has often been reproached for +showing us the vileness of human nature; and no doubt such vileness may +be found in "Paris," but there are contrasting pictures. If some of M. +Zola's characters horrify the reader, there are others that the latter +can but admire. Life is compounded of good and evil, and unfortunately it +is usually the evil that makes the most noise and attracts the most +attention. Moreover, in M. Zola's case, it has always been his purpose to +expose the evils from which society suffers in the hope of directing +attention to them and thereby hastening a remedy, and thus, in the course +of his works, he could not do otherwise than drag the whole frightful +mass of human villany and degradation into the full light of day. But if +there are, again, black pages in "Paris," others, bright and comforting, +will be found near them. And the book ends in no pessimist strain. +Whatever may be thought of the writer's views on religion, most readers +will, I imagine, agree with his opinion that, despite much social +injustice, much crime, vice, cupidity and baseness, we are ever marching +on to better things. +</p> + +<p> +In the making of the coming, though still far-away, era of truth and +justice, Paris, he thinks, will play the leading part, for whatever the +stains upon her, they are but surface-deep; her heart remains good and +sound; she has genius and courage and energy and wit and fancy. She can +be generous, too, when she chooses, and more than once her ideas have +irradiated the world. Thus M. Zola hopes much from her, and who will +gainsay him? Not I, who can apply to her the words which Byron addressed +to the home of my own and M. Zola's forefathers:— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "I loved her from my boyhood; she to me<br /> + Was as a fairy city of the heart."<br /> +</p> + +<p> +Thus I can but hope that Paris, where I learnt the little I know, where I +struggled and found love and happiness, whose every woe and disaster and +triumph I have shared for over thirty years, may, however dark the clouds +that still pass over her, some day fully justify M. Zola's confidence, +and bring to pass his splendid dream of perfect truth and perfect +justice. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +E. A. V. +<br /> +MERTON, SURREY, ENGLAND, +<br /> +Feb. 5, 1898. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<h2> + PARIS<br /> +</h2> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<h2> + BOOK I<br /> +</h2> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<h3> +I +</h3> + +<h3> +THE PRIEST AND THE POOR +</h3> + +<p> +THAT morning, one towards the end of January, Abbe Pierre Froment, who +had a mass to say at the Sacred Heart at Montmartre, was on the height, +in front of the basilica, already at eight o'clock. And before going in +he gazed for a moment upon the immensity of Paris spread out below him. +</p> + +<p> +After two months of bitter cold, ice and snow, the city was steeped in a +mournful, quivering thaw. From the far-spreading, leaden-hued heavens a +thick mist fell like a mourning shroud. All the eastern portion of the +city, the abodes of misery and toil, seemed submerged beneath ruddy +steam, amid which the panting of workshops and factories could be +divined; while westwards, towards the districts of wealth and enjoyment, +the fog broke and lightened, becoming but a fine and motionless veil of +vapour. The curved line of the horizon could scarcely be divined, the +expanse of houses, which nothing bounded, appeared like a chaos of stone, +studded with stagnant pools, which filled the hollows with pale steam; +whilst against them the summits of the edifices, the housetops of the +loftier streets, showed black like soot. It was a Paris of mystery, +shrouded by clouds, buried as it were beneath the ashes of some disaster, +already half-sunken in the suffering and the shame of that which its +immensity concealed. +</p> + +<p> +Thin and sombre in his flimsy cassock, Pierre was looking on when Abbe +Rose, who seemed to have sheltered himself behind a pillar of the porch +on purpose to watch for him, came forward: "Ah! it's you at last, my dear +child," said he, "I have something to ask you." +</p> + +<p> +He seemed embarrassed and anxious, and glanced round distrustfully to +make sure that nobody was near. Then, as if the solitude thereabouts did +not suffice to reassure him, he led Pierre some distance away, through +the icy, biting wind, which he himself did not seem to feel. "This is the +matter," he resumed, "I have been told that a poor fellow, a former +house-painter, an old man of seventy, who naturally can work no more, is +dying of hunger in a hovel in the Rue des Saules. So, my dear child, I +thought of you. I thought you would consent to take him these three +francs from me, so that he may at least have some bread to eat for a few +days." +</p> + +<p> +"But why don't you take him your alms yourself?" +</p> + +<p> +At this Abbe Rose again grew anxious, and cast vague, frightened glances +about him. "Oh, no, oh, no!" he said, "I can no longer do that after all +the worries that have befallen me. You know that I am watched, and should +get another scolding if I were caught giving alms like this, scarcely +knowing to whom I give them. It is true that I had to sell something to +get these three francs. But, my dear child, render me this service, I +pray you." +</p> + +<p> +Pierre, with heart oppressed, stood contemplating the old priest, whose +locks were quite white, whose full lips spoke of infinite kindliness, and +whose eyes shone clear and childlike in his round and smiling face. And +he bitterly recalled the story of that lover of the poor, the +semi-disgrace into which he had fallen through the sublime candour of his +charitable goodness. His little ground-floor of the Rue de Charonne, +which he had turned into a refuge where he offered shelter to all the +wretchedness of the streets, had ended by giving cause for scandal. His +<i>naivete</i> and innocence had been abused; and abominable things had gone +on under his roof without his knowledge. Vice had turned the asylum into +a meeting-place; and at last, one night, the police had descended upon it +to arrest a young girl accused of infanticide. Greatly concerned by this +scandal, the diocesan authorities had forced Abbe Rose to close his +shelter, and had removed him from the church of Ste. Marguerite to that +of St. Pierre of Montmartre, where he now again acted as curate. Truth to +tell, it was not a disgrace but a removal to another spot. However, he +had been scolded and was watched, as he said; and he was much ashamed of +it, and very unhappy at being only able to give alms by stealth, much +like some harebrained prodigal who blushes for his faults. +</p> + +<p> +Pierre took the three francs. "I promise to execute your commission, my +friend, oh! with all my heart," he said. +</p> + +<p> +"You will go after your mass, won't you? His name is Laveuve, he lives in +the Rue des Saules in a house with a courtyard, just before reaching the +Rue Marcadet. You are sure to find it. And if you want to be very kind +you will tell me of your visit this evening at five o'clock, at the +Madeleine, where I am going to hear Monseigneur Martha's address. He has +been so good to me! Won't you also come to hear him?" +</p> + +<p> +Pierre made an evasive gesture. Monseigneur Martha, Bishop of Persepolis +and all powerful at the archiepiscopal palace, since, like the genial +propagandist he was, he had been devoting himself to increasing the +subscriptions for the basilica of the Sacred Heart, had indeed supported +Abbe Rose; in fact, it was by his influence that the abbe had been kept +in Paris, and placed once more at St. Pierre de Montmartre. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know if I shall be able to hear the address," said Pierre, "but +in any case I will go there to meet you." +</p> + +<p> +The north wind was blowing, and the gloomy cold penetrated both of them +on that deserted summit amidst the fog which changed the vast city into a +misty ocean. However, some footsteps were heard, and Abbe Rose, again +mistrustful, saw a man go by, a tall and sturdy man, who wore clogs and +was bareheaded, showing his thick and closely-cut white hair. "Is not +that your brother?" asked the old priest. +</p> + +<p> +Pierre had not stirred. "Yes, it is my brother Guillaume," he quietly +responded. "I have found him again since I have been coming occasionally +to the Sacred Heart. He owns a house close by, where he has been living +for more than twenty years, I think. When we meet we shake hands, but I +have never even been to his house. Oh! all is quite dead between us, we +have nothing more in common, we are parted by worlds." +</p> + +<p> +Abbe Rose's tender smile again appeared, and he waved his hand as if to +say that one must never despair of love. Guillaume Froment, a savant of +lofty intelligence, a chemist who lived apart from others, like one who +rebelled against the social system, was now a parishioner of the abbe's, +and when the latter passed the house where Guillaume lived with his three +sons—a house all alive with work—he must often have dreamt of leading +him back to God. +</p> + +<p> +"But, my dear child," he resumed, "I am keeping you here in this dark +cold, and you are not warm. Go and say your mass. Till this evening, at +the Madeleine." Then, in entreating fashion, after again making sure that +none could hear them, he added, still with the air of a child at fault: +"And not a word to anybody about my little commission—it would again be +said that I don't know how to conduct myself." +</p> + +<p> +Pierre watched the old priest as he went off towards the Rue Cartot, +where he lived on a damp ground-floor, enlivened by a strip of garden. +The veil of disaster, which was submerging Paris, now seemed to grow +thicker under the gusts of the icy north wind. And at last Pierre entered +the basilica, his heart upset, overflowing with the bitterness stirred up +by the recollection of Abbe Rose's story—that bankruptcy of charity, the +frightful irony of a holy man punished for bestowing alms, and hiding +himself that he might still continue to bestow them. Nothing could calm +the smart of the wound reopened in Pierre's heart—neither the warm +peacefulness into which he entered, nor the silent solemnity of the +broad, deep fabric, whose new stonework was quite bare, without a single +painting or any kind of decoration; the nave being still half-barred by +the scaffoldings which blocked up the unfinished dome. At that early hour +the masses of entreaty had already been said at several altars, under the +grey light falling from the high and narrow windows, and the tapers of +entreaty were burning in the depths of the apse. So Pierre made haste to +go to the sacristy, there to assume his vestments in order that he might +say his mass in the chapel of St. Vincent de Paul. +</p> + +<p> +But the floodgates of memory had been opened, and he had no thought but +for his distress whilst, in mechanical fashion, he performed the rites +and made the customary gestures. Since his return from Rome three years +previously, he had been living in the very worst anguish that can fall on +man. At the outset, in order to recover his lost faith, he had essayed a +first experiment: he had gone to Lourdes, there to seek the innocent +belief of the child who kneels and prays, the primitive faith of young +nations bending beneath the terror born of ignorance; but he had rebelled +yet more than ever in presence of what he had witnessed at Lourdes: that +glorification of the absurd, that collapse of common sense; and was +convinced that salvation, the peace of men and nations nowadays, could +not lie in that puerile relinquishment of reason. And afterwards, again +yielding to the need of loving whilst yet allowing reason, so hard to +satisfy, her share in his intellect, he had staked his final peace on a +second experiment, and had gone to Rome to see if Catholicism could there +be renewed, could revert to the spirit of primitive Christianity and +become the religion of the democracy, the faith which the modern world, +upheaving and in danger of death, was awaiting in order to calm down and +live. And he had found there naught but ruins, the rotted trunk of a tree +that could never put forth another springtide; and he had heard there +naught but the supreme rending of the old social edifice, near to its +fall. Then it was, that, relapsing into boundless doubt, total negation, +he had been recalled to Paris by Abbe Rose, in the name of their poor, +and had returned thither that he might forget and immolate himself and +believe in them—the poor—since they and their frightful sufferings +alone remained certain. And then it was too, that for three years he came +into contact with that collapse, that very bankruptcy of goodness itself: +charity a derision, charity useless and flouted. +</p> + +<p> +Those three years had been lived by Pierre amidst ever-growing torments, +in which his whole being had ended by sinking. His faith was forever +dead; dead, too, even his hope of utilising the faith of the multitudes +for the general salvation. He denied everything, he anticipated nothing +but the final, inevitable catastrophe: revolt, massacre and +conflagration, which would sweep away a guilty and condemned world. +Unbelieving priest that he was, yet watching over the faith of others, +honestly, chastely discharging his duties, full of haughty sadness at the +thought that he had been unable to renounce his mind as he had renounced +his flesh and his dream of being a saviour of the nations, he withal +remained erect, full of fierce yet solitary grandeur. And this +despairing, denying priest, who had dived to the bottom of nothingness, +retained such a lofty and grave demeanour, perfumed by such pure +kindness, that in his parish of Neuilly he had acquired the reputation of +being a young saint, one beloved by Providence, whose prayers wrought +miracles. He was but a personification of the rules of the Church; of the +priest he retained only the gestures; he was like an empty sepulchre in +which not even the ashes of hope remained; yet grief-stricken weeping +women worshipped him and kissed his cassock; and it was a tortured mother +whose infant was in danger of death, who had implored him to come and ask +that infant's cure of Jesus, certain as she felt that Jesus would grant +her the boon in that sanctuary of Montmartre where blazed the prodigy of +His heart, all burning with love. +</p> + +<p> +Clad in his vestments, Pierre had reached the chapel of St. Vincent de +Paul. He there ascended the altar-step and began the mass; and when he +turned round with hands spread out to bless the worshippers he showed his +hollow cheeks, his gentle mouth contracted by bitterness, his loving eyes +darkened by suffering. He was no longer the young priest whose +countenance had glowed with tender fever on the road to Lourdes, whose +face had been illumined by apostolic fervour when he started for Rome. +The two hereditary influences which were ever at strife within him—that +of his father to whom he owed his impregnable, towering brow, that of his +mother who had given him his love-thirsting lips, were still waging war, +the whole human battle of sentiment and reason, in that now ravaged face +of his, whither in moments of forgetfulness ascended all the chaos of +internal suffering. The lips still confessed that unquenched thirst for +love, self-bestowal and life, which he well thought he could nevermore +content, whilst the solid brow, the citadel which made him suffer, +obstinately refused to capitulate, whatever might be the assaults of +error. But he stiffened himself, hid the horror of the void in which he +struggled, and showed himself superb, making each gesture, repeating each +word in sovereign fashion. And gazing at him through her tears, the +mother who was there among the few kneeling women, the mother who awaited +a supreme intercession from him, who thought him in communion with Jesus +for the salvation of her child, beheld him radiant with angelic beauty +like some messenger of the divine grace. +</p> + +<p> +When, after the offertory, Pierre uncovered the chalice he felt contempt +for himself. The shock had been too great, and he thought of those things +in spite of all. What puerility there had been in his two experiments at +Lourdes and Rome, the <i>naivete</i> of a poor distracted being, consumed by +desire to love and believe. To have imagined that present-day science +would in his person accommodate itself to the faith of the year One +Thousand, and in particular to have foolishly believed that he, petty +priest that he was, would be able to indoctrinate the Pope and prevail on +him to become a saint and change the face of the world! It all filled him +with shame; how people must have laughed at him! Then, too, his idea of a +schism made him blush. He again beheld himself at Rome, dreaming of +writing a book by which he would violently sever himself from Catholicism +to preach the new religion of the democracies, the purified, human and +living Gospel. But what ridiculous folly! A schism? He had known in Paris +an abbe of great heart and mind who had attempted to bring about that +famous, predicted, awaited schism. Ah! the poor man, the sad, the +ludicrous labour in the midst of universal incredulity, the icy +indifference of some, the mockery and the reviling of others! If Luther +were to come to France in our days he would end, forgotten and dying of +hunger, on a Batignolles fifth-floor. A schism cannot succeed among a +people that no longer believes, that has ceased to take all interest in +the Church, and sets its hope elsewhere. And it was all Catholicism, in +fact all Christianity, that would be swept away, for, apart from certain +moral maxims, the Gospel no longer supplied a possible code for society. +And this conviction increased Pierre's torment on the days when his +cassock weighed more heavily on his shoulders, when he ended by feeling +contempt for himself at thus celebrating the divine mystery of the mass, +which for him had become but the formula of a dead religion. +</p> + +<p> +Having half filled the chalice with wine from the vase, Pierre washed his +hands and again perceived the mother with her face of ardent entreaty. +Then he thought it was for her that, with the charitable leanings of a +vow-bound man, he had remained a priest, a priest without belief, feeding +the belief of others with the bread of illusion. But this heroic conduct, +the haughty spirit of duty in which he imprisoned himself, was not +practised by him without growing anguish. Did not elementary probity +require that he should cast aside the cassock and return into the midst +of men? At certain times the falsity of his position filled him with +disgust for his useless heroism; and he asked himself if it were not +cowardly and dangerous to leave the masses in superstition. Certainly the +theory of a just and vigilant Providence, of a future paradise where all +these sufferings of the world would receive compensation, had long seemed +necessary to the wretchedness of mankind; but what a trap lay in it, what +a pretext for the tyrannical grinding down of nations; and how far more +virile it would be to undeceive the nations, however brutally, and give +them courage to live the real life, even if it were in tears. If they +were already turning aside from Christianity was not this because they +needed a more human ideal, a religion of health and joy which should not +be a religion of death? On the day when the idea of charity should +crumble, Christianity would crumble also, for it was built upon the idea +of divine charity correcting the injustice of fate, and offering future +rewards to those who might suffer in this life. And it was crumbling; for +the poor no longer believed in it, but grew angry at the thought of that +deceptive paradise, with the promise of which their patience had been +beguiled so long, and demanded that their share of happiness should not +always be put off until the morrow of death. A cry for justice arose from +every lip, for justice upon this earth, justice for those who hunger and +thirst, whom alms are weary of relieving after eighteen hundred years of +Gospel teaching, and who still and ever lack bread to eat. +</p> + +<p> +When Pierre, with his elbows on the altar, had emptied the chalice after +breaking the sacred wafer, he felt himself sinking into yet greater +distress. And so a third experiment was beginning for him, the supreme +battle of justice against charity, in which his heart and his mind would +struggle together in that great Paris, so full of terrible, unknown +things. The need for the divine still battled within him against +domineering intelligence. How among the masses would one ever be able to +content the thirst for the mysterious? Leaving the <i>elite</i> on one side, +would science suffice to pacify desire, lull suffering, and satisfy the +dream? And what would become of himself in the bankruptcy of that same +charity, which for three years had alone kept him erect by occupying his +every hour, and giving him the illusion of self-devotion, of being useful +to others? It seemed, all at once, as if the ground sank beneath him, and +he heard nothing save the cry of the masses, silent so long, but now +demanding justice, growling and threatening to take their share, which +was withheld from them by force and ruse. Nothing more, it seemed, could +delay the inevitable catastrophe, the fratricidal class warfare that +would sweep away the olden world, which was condemned to disappear +beneath the mountain of its crimes. Every hour with frightful sadness he +expected the collapse, Paris steeped in blood, Paris in flames. And his +horror of all violence froze him; he knew not where to seek the new +belief which might dissipate the peril. Fully conscious, though he was, +that the social and religious problems are but one, and are alone in +question in the dreadful daily labour of Paris, he was too deeply +troubled himself, too far removed from ordinary things by his position as +a priest, and too sorely rent by doubt and powerlessness to tell as yet +where might be truth, and health, and life. Ah! to be healthy and to +live, to content at last both heart and reason in the peace, the certain, +simply honest labour, which man has come to accomplish upon this earth! +</p> + +<p> +The mass was finished, and Pierre descended from the altar, when the +weeping mother, near whom he passed, caught hold of a corner of the +chasuble with her trembling hands, and kissed it with wild fervour, as +one may kiss some relic of a saint from whom one expects salvation. She +thanked him for the miracle which he must have accomplished, certain as +she felt that she would find her child cured. And he was deeply stirred +by that love, that ardent faith of hers, in spite of the sudden and yet +keener distress which he felt at being in no wise the sovereign minister +that she thought him, the minister able to obtain a respite from Death. +But he dismissed her consoled and strengthened, and it was with an ardent +prayer that he entreated the unknown but conscious Power to succour the +poor creature. Then, when he had divested himself in the sacristy, and +found himself again out of doors before the basilica, lashed by the keen +wintry wind, a mortal shiver came upon him, and froze him, while through +the mist he looked to see if a whirlwind of anger and justice had not +swept Paris away: that catastrophe which must some day destroy it, +leaving under the leaden heavens only the pestilential quagmire of its +ruins. +</p> + +<p> +Pierre wished to fulfil Abbe Rose's commission immediately. He followed +the Rue des Norvins, on the crest of Montmartre; and, reaching the Rue +des Saules, descended by its steep slope, between mossy walls, to the +other side of Paris. The three francs which he was holding in his +cassock's pocket, filled him at once with gentle emotion and covert anger +against the futility of charity. But as he gradually descended by the +sharp declivities and interminable storeys of steps, the mournful nooks +of misery which he espied took possession of him, and infinite pity wrung +his heart. A whole new district was here being built alongside the broad +thoroughfares opened since the great works of the Sacred Heart had begun. +Lofty middle-class houses were already rising among ripped-up gardens and +plots of vacant land, still edged with palings. And these houses with +their substantial frontages, all new and white, lent a yet more sombre +and leprous aspect to such of the old shaky buildings as remained, the +low pot-houses with blood-coloured walls, the <i>cites</i> of workmen's +dwellings, those abodes of suffering with black, soiled buildings in +which human cattle were piled. Under the low-hanging sky that day, the +pavement, dented by heavily-laden carts, was covered with mud; the thaw +soaked the walls with an icy dampness, whilst all the filth and +destitution brought terrible sadness to the heart. +</p> + +<p> +After going as far as the Rue Marcadet, Pierre retraced his steps; and in +the Rue des Saules, certain that he was not mistaken, he entered the +courtyard of a kind of barracks or hospital, encompassed by three +irregular buildings. This court was a quagmire, where filth must have +accumulated during the two months of terrible frost; and now all was +melting, and an abominable stench arose. The buildings were half falling, +the gaping vestibules looked like cellar holes, strips of paper streaked +the cracked and filthy window-panes, and vile rags hung about like flags +of death. Inside a shanty which served as the door-keeper's abode Pierre +only saw an infirm man rolled up in a tattered strip of what had once +been a horse-cloth. +</p> + +<p> +"You have an old workman named Laveuve here," said the priest. "Which +staircase is it, which floor?" +</p> + +<p> +The man did not answer, but opened his anxious eyes, like a scared idiot. +The door-keeper, no doubt, was in the neighbourhood. For a moment the +priest waited; then seeing a little girl on the other side of the +courtyard, he risked himself, crossed the quagmire on tip-toe, and asked: +"Do you know an old workman named Laveuve in the house, my child?" +</p> + +<p> +The little girl, who only had a ragged gown of pink cotton stuff about +her meagre figure, stood there shivering, her hands covered with +chilblains. She raised her delicate face, which looked pretty though +nipped by the cold: "Laveuve," said she, "no, don't know, don't know." +And with the unconscious gesture of a beggar child she put out one of her +poor, numbed and disfigured hands. Then, when the priest had given her a +little bit of silver, she began to prance through the mud like a joyful +goat, singing the while in a shrill voice: "Don't know, don't know." +</p> + +<p> +Pierre decided to follow her. She vanished into one of the gaping +vestibules, and, in her rear, he climbed a dark and fetid staircase, +whose steps were half-broken and so slippery, on account of the vegetable +parings strewn over them, that he had to avail himself of the greasy rope +by which the inmates hoisted themselves upwards. But every door was +closed; he vainly knocked at several of them, and only elicited, at the +last, a stifled growl, as though some despairing animal were confined +within. Returning to the yard, he hesitated, then made his way to another +staircase, where he was deafened by piercing cries, as of a child who is +being butchered. He climbed on hearing this noise and at last found +himself in front of an open room where an infant, who had been left +alone, tied in his little chair, in order that he might not fall, was +howling and howling without drawing breath. Then Pierre went down again, +upset, frozen by the sight of so much destitution and abandonment. +</p> + +<p> +But a woman was coming in, carrying three potatoes in her apron, and on +being questioned by him she gazed distrustfully at his cassock. "Laveuve, +Laveuve? I can't say," she replied. "If the door-keeper were there, she +might be able to tell you. There are five staircases, you see, and we +don't all know each other. Besides, there are so many changes. Still try +over there; at the far end." +</p> + +<p> +The staircase at the back of the yard was yet more abominable than the +others, its steps warped, its walls slimy, as if soaked with the sweat of +anguish. At each successive floor the drain-sinks exhaled a pestilential +stench, whilst from every lodging came moans, or a noise of quarrelling, +or some frightful sign of misery. A door swung open, and a man appeared +dragging a woman by the hair whilst three youngsters sobbed aloud. On the +next floor, Pierre caught a glimpse of a room where a young girl in her +teens, racked by coughing, was hastily carrying an infant to and fro to +quiet it, in despair that all the milk of her breast should be exhausted. +Then, in an adjoining lodging, came the poignant spectacle of three +beings, half clad in shreds, apparently sexless and ageless, who, amidst +the dire bareness of their room, were gluttonously eating from the same +earthen pan some pottage which even dogs would have refused. They barely +raised their heads to growl, and did not answer Pierre's questions. +</p> + +<p> +He was about to go down again, when right atop of the stairs, at the +entry of a passage, it occurred to him to make a last try by knocking at +the door. It was opened by a woman whose uncombed hair was already +getting grey, though she could not be more than forty; while her pale +lips, and dim eyes set in a yellow countenance, expressed utter +lassitude, the shrinking, the constant dread of one whom wretchedness has +pitilessly assailed. The sight of Pierre's cassock disturbed her, and she +stammered anxiously: "Come in, come in, Monsieur l'Abbe." +</p> + +<p> +However, a man whom Pierre had not at first seen—a workman also of some +forty years, tall, thin and bald, with scanty moustache and beard of a +washed-out reddish hue—made an angry gesture—a threat as it were—to +turn the priest out of doors. But he calmed himself, sat down near a +rickety table and pretended to turn his back. And as there was also a +child present—a fair-haired girl, eleven or twelve years old, with a +long and gentle face and that intelligent and somewhat aged expression +which great misery imparts to children—he called her to him, and held +her between his knees, doubtless to keep her away from the man in the +cassock. +</p> + +<p> +Pierre—whose heart was oppressed by his reception, and who realised the +utter destitution of this family by the sight of the bare, fireless room, +and the distressed mournfulness of its three inmates—decided all the +same to repeat his question: "Madame, do you know an old workman named +Laveuve in the house?" +</p> + +<p> +The woman—who now trembled at having admitted him, since it seemed to +displease her man—timidly tried to arrange matters. "Laveuve, Laveuve? +no, I don't. But Salvat, you hear? Do you know a Laveuve here?" +</p> + +<p> +Salvat merely shrugged his shoulders; but the little girl could not keep +her tongue still: "I say, mamma Theodore, it's p'raps the Philosopher." +</p> + +<p> +"A former house-painter," continued Pierre, "an old man who is ill and +past work." +</p> + +<p> +Madame Theodore was at once enlightened. "In that case it's him, it's +him. We call him the Philosopher, a nickname folks have given him in the +neighbourhood. But there's nothing to prevent his real name from being +Laveuve." +</p> + +<p> +With one of his fists raised towards the ceiling, Salvat seemed to be +protesting against the abomination of a world and a Providence that +allowed old toilers to die of hunger just like broken-down beasts. +However, he did not speak, but relapsed into the savage, heavy silence, +the bitter meditation in which he had been plunged when the priest +arrived. He was a journeyman engineer, and gazed obstinately at the table +where lay his little leather tool-bag, bulging with something it +contained—something, perhaps, which he had to take back to a work-shop. +He might have been thinking of a long, enforced spell of idleness, of a +vain search for any kind of work during the two previous months of that +terrible winter. Or perhaps it was the coming bloody reprisals of the +starvelings that occupied the fiery reverie which set his large, strange, +vague blue eyes aglow. All at once he noticed that his daughter had taken +up the tool-bag and was trying to open it to see what it might contain. +At this he quivered and at last spoke, his voice kindly, yet bitter with +sudden emotion, which made him turn pale. "Celine, you must leave that +alone. I forbade you to touch my tools," said he; then taking the bag, he +deposited it with great precaution against the wall behind him. +</p> + +<p> +"And so, madame," asked Pierre, "this man Laveuve lives on this floor?" +</p> + +<p> +Madame Theodore directed a timid, questioning glance at Salvat. She was +not in favour of hustling priests when they took the trouble to call, for +at times there was a little money to be got from them. And when she +realised that Salvat, who had once more relapsed into his black reverie, +left her free to act as she pleased, she at once tendered her services. +"If Monsieur l'Abbe is agreeable, I will conduct him. It's just at the +end of the passage. But one must know the way, for there are still some +steps to climb." +</p> + +<p> +Celine, finding a pastime in this visit, escaped from her father's knees +and likewise accompanied the priest. And Salvat remained alone in that +den of poverty and suffering, injustice and anger, without a fire, +without bread, haunted by his burning dream, his eyes again fixed upon +his bag, as if there, among his tools, he possessed the wherewithal to +heal the ailing world. +</p> + +<p> +It indeed proved necessary to climb a few more steps; and then, following +Madame Theodore and Celine, Pierre found himself in a kind of narrow +garret under the roof, a loft a few yards square, where one could not +stand erect. There was no window, only a skylight, and as the snow still +covered it one had to leave the door wide open in order that one might +see. And the thaw was entering the place, the melting snow was falling +drop by drop, and coming over the tiled floor. After long weeks of +intense cold, dark dampness rained quivering over all. And there, lacking +even a chair, even a plank, Laveuve lay in a corner on a little pile of +filthy rags spread upon the bare tiles; he looked like some animal dying +on a dung-heap. +</p> + +<p> +"There!" said Celine in her sing-song voice, "there he is, that's the +Philosopher!" +</p> + +<p> +Madame Theodore had bent down to ascertain if he still lived. "Yes, he +breathes; he's sleeping I think. Oh! if he only had something to eat +every day, he would be well enough. But what would you have? He has +nobody left him, and when one gets to seventy the best is to throw +oneself into the river. In the house-painting line it often happens that +a man has to give up working on ladders and scaffoldings at fifty. He at +first found some work to do on the ground level. Then he was lucky enough +to get a job as night watchman. But that's over, he's been turned away +from everywhere, and, for two months now, he's been lying in this nook +waiting to die. The landlord hasn't dared to fling him into the street as +yet, though not for want of any inclination that way. We others sometimes +bring him a little wine and a crust, of course; but when one has nothing +oneself, how can one give to others?" +</p> + +<p> +Pierre, terrified, gazed at that frightful remnant of humanity, that +remnant into which fifty years of toil, misery and social injustice had +turned a man. And he ended by distinguishing Laveuve's white, worn, +sunken, deformed head. Here, on a human face, appeared all the ruin +following upon hopeless labour. Laveuve's unkempt beard straggled over +his features, suggesting an old horse that is no longer cropped; his +toothless jaws were quite askew, his eyes were vitreous, and his nose +seemed to plunge into his mouth. But above all else one noticed his +resemblance to some beast of burden, deformed by hard toil, lamed, worn +to death, and now only good for the knackers. +</p> + +<p> +"Ah! the poor fellow," muttered the shuddering priest. "And he is left to +die of hunger, all alone, without any succour? And not a hospital, not an +asylum has given him shelter?" +</p> + +<p> +"Well," resumed Madame Theodore in her sad yet resigned voice, "the +hospitals are built for the sick, and he isn't sick, he's simply +finishing off, with his strength at an end. Besides he isn't always easy +to deal with. People came again only lately to put him in an asylum, but +he won't be shut up. And he speaks coarsely to those who question him, +not to mention that he has the reputation of liking drink and talking +badly about the gentle-folks. But, thank Heaven, he will now soon be +delivered." +</p> + +<p> +Pierre had leant forward on seeing Laveuve's eyes open, and he spoke to +him tenderly, telling him that he had come from a friend with a little +money to enable him to buy what he might most pressingly require. At +first, on seeing Pierre's cassock, the old man had growled some coarse +words; but, despite his extreme feebleness, he still retained the pert +chaffing spirit of the Parisian artisan: "Well, then, I'll willingly +drink a drop," he said distinctly, "and have a bit of bread with it, if +there's the needful; for I've lost taste of both for a couple of days +past." +</p> + +<p> +Celine offered her services, and Madame Theodore sent her to fetch a loaf +and a quart of wine with Abbe Rose's money. And in the interval she told +Pierre how Laveuve was at one moment to have entered the Asylum of the +Invalids of Labour, a charitable enterprise whose lady patronesses were +presided over by Baroness Duvillard. However, the usual regulation +inquiries had doubtless led to such an unfavourable report that matters +had gone no further. +</p> + +<p> +"Baroness Duvillard! but I know her, and will go to see her to-day!" +exclaimed Pierre, whose heart was bleeding. "It is impossible for a man +to be left in such circumstances any longer." +</p> + +<p> +Then, as Celine came back with the loaf and the wine, the three of them +tried to make Laveuve more comfortable, raised him on his heap of rags, +gave him to eat and to drink, and then left the remainder of the wine and +the loaf—a large four-pound loaf—near him, recommending him to wait +awhile before he finished the bread, as otherwise he might stifle. +</p> + +<p> +"Monsieur l'Abbe ought to give me his address in case I should have any +news to send him," said Madame Theodore when she again found herself at +her door. +</p> + +<p> +Pierre had no card with him, and so all three went into the room. But +Salvat was no longer alone there. He stood talking in a low voice very +quickly, and almost mouth to mouth, with a young fellow of twenty. The +latter, who was slim and dark, with a sprouting beard and hair cut in +brush fashion, had bright eyes, a straight nose and thin lips set in a +pale and slightly freckled face, betokening great intelligence. With +stern and stubborn brow, he stood shivering in his well-worn jacket. +</p> + +<p> +"Monsieur l'Abbe wants to leave me his address for the Philosopher's +affair," gently explained Madame Theodore, annoyed to find another there +with Salvat. +</p> + +<p> +The two men had glanced at the priest and then looked at one another, +each with terrible mien. And they suddenly ceased speaking in the bitter +cold which fell from the ceiling. Then, again with infinite precaution, +Salvat went to take his tool-bag from alongside the wall. +</p> + +<p> +"So you are going down, you are again going to look for work?" asked +Madame Theodore. +</p> + +<p> +He did not answer, but merely made an angry gesture, as if to say that he +would no longer have anything to do with work since work for so long a +time had not cared to have anything to do with him. +</p> + +<p> +"All the same," resumed the woman, "try to bring something back with you, +for you know there's nothing. At what time will you be back?" +</p> + +<p> +With another gesture he seemed to answer that he would come back when he +could, perhaps never. And tears rising, despite all his efforts, to his +vague, blue, glowing eyes he caught hold of his daughter Celine, kissed +her violently, distractedly, and then went off, with his bag under his +arm, followed by his young companion. +</p> + +<p> +"Celine," resumed Madame Theodore, "give Monsieur l'Abbe your pencil, +and, see, monsieur, seat yourself here, it will be better for writing." +</p> + +<p> +Then, when Pierre had installed himself at the table, on the chair +previously occupied by Salvat, she went on talking, seeking to excuse her +man for his scanty politeness: "He hasn't a bad heart, but he's had so +many worries in life that he has become a bit cracked. It's like that +young man whom you just saw here, Monsieur Victor Mathis. There's another +for you, who isn't happy, a young man who was well brought up, who has a +lot of learning, and whose mother, a widow, has only just got the +wherewithal to buy bread. So one can understand it, can't one? It all +upsets their heads, and they talk of blowing up everybody. For my part +those are not my notions, but I forgive them, oh! willingly enough." +</p> + +<p> +Perturbed, yet interested by all the mystery and vague horror which he +could divine around him, Pierre made no haste to write his address, but +lingered listening, as if inviting confidence. +</p> + +<p> +"If you only knew, Monsieur l'Abbe, that poor Salvat was a forsaken +child, without father or mother, and had to scour the roads and try every +trade at first to get a living. Then afterwards he became a mechanician, +and a very good workman, I assure you, very skilful and very painstaking. +But he already had those ideas of his, and quarrelled with people, and +tried to bring his mates over to his views; and so he was unable to stay +anywhere. At last, when he was thirty, he was stupid enough to go to +America with an inventor, who traded on him to such a point that after +six years of it he came back ill and penniless. I must tell you that he +had married my younger sister Leonie, and that she died before he went to +America, leaving him little Celine, who was then only a year old. I was +then living with my husband, Theodore Labitte, a mason; and it's not to +brag that I say it, but however much I wore out my eyes with needlework +he used to beat me till he left me half-dead on the floor. But he ended +by deserting me and going off with a young woman of twenty, which, after +all, caused me more pleasure than grief. And naturally when Salvat came +back he sought me out and found me alone with his little Celine, whom he +had left in my charge when he went away, and who called me mamma. And +we've all three been living together since then—" +</p> + +<p> +She became somewhat embarrassed, and then, as if to show that she did not +altogether lack some respectable family connections, she went on to say: +"For my part I've had no luck; but I've another sister, Hortense, who's +married to a clerk, Monsieur Chretiennot, and lives in a pretty lodging +on the Boulevard Rochechouart. There were three of us born of my father's +second marriage,—Hortense, who's the youngest, Leonie, who's dead, and +myself, Pauline, the eldest. And of my father's first marriage I've still +a brother Eugene Toussaint, who is ten years older than me and is an +engineer like Salvat, and has been working ever since the war in the same +establishment, the Grandidier factory, only a hundred steps away in the +Rue Marcadet. The misfortune is that he had a stroke lately. As for me, +my eyes are done for; I ruined them by working ten hours a day at fine +needlework. And now I can no longer even try to mend anything without my +eyes filling with water till I can't see at all. I've tried to find +charwoman's work, but I can't get any; bad luck always follows us. And so +we are in need of everything; we've nothing but black misery, two or +three days sometimes going by without a bite, so that it's like the +chance life of a dog that feeds on what it can find. And with these last +two months of bitter cold to freeze us, it's sometimes made us think that +one morning we should never wake up again. But what would you have? I've +never been happy, I was beaten to begin with, and now I'm done for, left +in a corner, living on, I really don't know why." +</p> + +<p> +Her voice had begun to tremble, her red eyes moistened, and Pierre could +realise that she thus wept through life, a good enough woman but one who +had no will, and was already blotted out, so to say, from existence. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh! I don't complain of Salvat," she went on. "He's a good fellow; he +only dreams of everybody's happiness, and he doesn't drink, and he works +when he can. Only it's certain that he'd work more if he didn't busy +himself with politics. One can't discuss things with comrades, and go to +public meetings and be at the workshop at the same time. In that he's at +fault, that's evident. But all the same he has good reason to complain, +for one can't imagine such misfortunes as have pursued him. Everything +has fallen on him, everything has beaten him down. Why, a saint even +would have gone mad, so that one can understand that a poor beggar who +has never had any luck should get quite wild. For the last two months he +has only met one good heart, a learned gentleman who lives up yonder on +the height, Monsieur Guillaume Froment, who has given him a little work, +just something to enable us to have some soup now and then." +</p> + +<p> +Much surprised by this mention of his brother, Pierre wished to ask +certain questions; but a singular feeling of uneasiness, in which fear +and discretion mingled, checked his tongue. He looked at Celine, who +stood before him, listening in silence with her grave, delicate air; and +Madame Theodore, seeing him smile at the child, indulged in a final +remark: "It's just the idea of that child," said she, "that throws Salvat +out of his wits. He adores her, and he'd kill everybody if he could, when +he sees her go supperless to bed. She's such a good girl, she was +learning so nicely at the Communal School! But now she hasn't even a +shift to go there in." +</p> + +<p> +Pierre, who had at last written his address, slipped a five-franc piece +into the little girl's hand, and, desirous as he was of curtailing any +thanks, he hastily said: "You will know now where to find me if you need +me for Laveuve. But I'm going to busy myself about him this very +afternoon, and I really hope that he will be fetched away this evening." +</p> + +<p> +Madame Theodore did not listen, but poured forth all possible blessings; +whilst Celine, thunderstruck at seeing five francs in her hand, murmured: +"Oh! that poor papa, who has gone to hunt for money! Shall I run after +him to tell him that we've got enough for to-day?" +</p> + +<p> +Then the priest, who was already in the passage, heard the woman answer: +"Oh! he's far away if he's still walking. He'll p'raps come back right +enough." +</p> + +<p> +However, as Pierre, with buzzing head and grief-stricken heart, hastily +escaped out of that frightful house of suffering, he perceived to his +astonishment Salvat and Victor Mathis standing erect in a corner of the +filthy courtyard, where the stench was so pestilential. They had come +downstairs, there to continue their interrupted colloquy. And again, they +were talking in very low tones, and very quickly, mouth to mouth, +absorbed in the violent thoughts which made their eyes flare. But they +heard the priest's footsteps, recognised him, and suddenly becoming cold +and calm, exchanged an energetic hand-shake without uttering another +word. Victor went up towards Montmartre, whilst Salvat hesitated like a +man who is consulting destiny. Then, as if trusting himself to stern +chance, drawing up his thin figure, the figure of a weary, hungry toiler, +he turned into the Rue Marcadet, and walked towards Paris, his tool-bag +still under his arm. +</p> + +<p> +For an instant Pierre felt a desire to run and call to him that his +little girl wished him to go back again. But the same feeling of +uneasiness as before came over the priest—a commingling of discretion +and fear, a covert conviction that nothing could stay destiny. And he +himself was no longer calm, no longer experienced the icy, despairing +distress of the early morning. On finding himself again in the street, +amidst the quivering fog, he felt the fever, the glow of charity which +the sight of such frightful wretchedness had ignited, once more within +him. No, no! such suffering was too much; he wished to struggle still, to +save Laveuve and restore a little joy to all those poor folk. The new +experiment presented itself with that city of Paris which he had seen +shrouded as with ashes, so mysterious and so perturbing beneath the +threat of inevitable justice. And he dreamed of a huge sun bringing +health and fruitfulness, which would make of the huge city the fertile +field where would sprout the better world of to-morrow. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<h3> +II +</h3> + +<h3> +WEALTH AND WORLDLINESS +</h3> + +<p> +THAT same morning, as was the case nearly every day, some intimates were +expected to <i>dejeuner</i> at the Duvillards', a few friends who more or less +invited themselves. And on that chilly day, all thaw and fog, the regal +mansion in the Rue Godot-de-Mauroy near the Boulevard de la Madeleine +bloomed with the rarest flowers, for flowers were the greatest passion of +the Baroness, who transformed the lofty, sumptuous rooms, littered with +marvels, into warm and odoriferous conservatories, whither the gloomy, +livid light of Paris penetrated caressingly with infinite softness. +</p> + +<p> +The great reception rooms were on the ground-floor looking on to the +spacious courtyard, and preceded by a little winter garden, which served +as a vestibule where two footmen in liveries of dark green and gold were +invariably on duty. A famous gallery of paintings, valued at millions of +francs, occupied the whole of the northern side of the house. And the +grand staircase, of a sumptuousness which also was famous, conducted to +the apartments usually occupied by the family, a large red drawing-room, +a small blue and silver drawing-room, a study whose walls were hung with +old stamped leather, and a dining-room in pale green with English +furniture, not to mention the various bedchambers and dressing-rooms. +Built in the time of Louis XIV. the mansion retained an aspect of noble +grandeur, subordinated to the epicurean tastes of the triumphant +<i>bourgeoisie</i>, which for a century now had reigned by virtue of the +omnipotence of money. +</p> + +<p> +Noon had not yet struck, and Baron Duvillard, contrary to custom, found +himself the first in the little blue and silver <i>salon</i>. He was a man of +sixty, tall and sturdy, with a large nose, full cheeks, broad, fleshy +lips, and wolfish teeth, which had remained very fine. He had, however, +become bald at an early age, and dyed the little hair that was left him. +Moreover, since his beard had turned white, he had kept his face +clean-shaven. His grey eyes bespoke his audacity, and in his laugh there +was a ring of conquest, while the whole of his face expressed the fact +that this conquest was his own, that he wielded the sovereignty of an +unscrupulous master, who used and abused the power stolen and retained by +his caste. +</p> + +<p> +He took a few steps, and then halted in front of a basket of wonderful +orchids near the window. On the mantel-piece and table tufts of violets +sent forth their perfume, and in the warm, deep silence which seemed to +fall from the hangings, the Baron sat down and stretched himself in one +of the large armchairs, upholstered in blue satin striped with silver. He +had taken a newspaper from his pocket, and began to re-peruse an article +it contained, whilst all around him the entire mansion proclaimed his +immense fortune, his sovereign power, the whole history of the century +which had made him the master. His grandfather, Jerome Duvillard, son of +a petty advocate of Poitou, had come to Paris as a notary's clerk in +1788, when he was eighteen; and very keen, intelligent and hungry as he +was, he had gained the family's first three millions—at first in +trafficking with the <i>emigres'</i> estates when they were confiscated and +sold as national property, and later, in contracting for supplies to the +imperial army. His father, Gregoire Duvillard, born in 1805, and the real +great man of the family—he who had first reigned in the Rue +Godot-de-Mauroy, after King Louis Philippe had granted him the title of +Baron—remained one of the recognized heroes of modern finance by reason +of the scandalous profits which he had made in every famous thieving +speculation of the July Monarchy and the Second Empire, such as mines, +railroads, and the Suez Canal. And he, the present Baron, Henri by name, +and born in 1836, had only seriously gone into business on Baron +Gregoire's death soon after the Franco-German War. However, he had done +so with such a rageful appetite, that in a quarter of a century he had +again doubled the family fortune. He rotted and devoured, corrupted, +swallowed everything that he touched; and he was also the tempter +personified—the man who bought all consciences that were for +sale—having fully understood the new times and its tendencies in +presence of the democracy, which in its turn had become hungry and +impatient. Inferior though he was both to his father and his grandfather, +being a man of enjoyment, caring less for the work of conquest than the +division of the spoil, he nevertheless remained a terrible fellow, a +sleek triumpher, whose operations were all certainties, who amassed +millions at each stroke, and treated with governments on a footing of +equality, able as he was to place, if not France, at least a ministry in +his pocket. In one century and three generations, royalty had become +embodied in him: a royalty already threatened, already shaken by the +tempest close ahead. And at times his figure grew and expanded till it +became, as it were, an incarnation of the whole <i>bourgeoisie</i>—that +<i>bourgeoisie</i> which at the division of the spoils in 1789 appropriated +everything, and has since fattened on everything at the expense of the +masses, and refuses to restore anything whatever. +</p> + +<p> +The article which the Baron was re-perusing in a halfpenny newspaper +interested him. "La Voix du Peuple" was a noisy sheet which, under the +pretence of defending outraged justice and morality, set a fresh scandal +circulating every morning in the hope of thereby increasing its sales. +And that morning, in big type on its front page, this sub-title was +displayed: "The Affair of the African Railways. Five Millions spent in +Bribes: Two Ministers Bought, Thirty Deputies and Senators Compromised." +Then in an article of odious violence the paper's editor, the famous +Sagnier, announced that he possessed and intended to publish the list of +the thirty-two members of Parliament, whose support Baron Duvillard had +purchased at the time when the Chambers had voted the bill for the +African Railway Lines. Quite a romantic story was mingled with all this, +the adventures of a certain Hunter, whom the Baron had employed as his +go-between and who had now fled. The Baron, however, re-perused each +sentence and weighed each word of the article very calmly; and although +he was alone he shrugged his shoulders and spoke aloud with the tranquil +assurance of a man whose responsibility is covered and who is, moreover, +too powerful to be molested. +</p> + +<p> +"The idiot," he said, "he knows even less than he pretends." +</p> + +<p> +Just then, however, a first guest arrived, a man of barely four and +thirty, elegantly dressed, dark and good looking, with a delicately +shaped nose, and curly hair and beard. As a rule, too, he had laughing +eyes, and something giddy, flighty, bird-like in his demeanour; but that +morning he seemed nervous, anxious even, and smiled in a scared way. +</p> + +<p> +"Ah! it's you, Duthil," said the Baron, rising. "Have you read this?" And +he showed the new comer the "Voix du Peuple," which he was folding up to +replace it in his pocket. +</p> + +<p> +"Why yes, I've read it. It's amazing. How can Sagnier have got hold of +the list of names? Has there been some traitor?" +</p> + +<p> +The Baron looked at his companion quietly, amused by his secret anguish. +Duthil, the son of a notary of Angouleme, almost poor and very honest, +had been sent to Paris as deputy for that town whilst yet very young, +thanks to the high reputation of his father; and he there led a life of +pleasure and idleness, even as he had formerly done when a student. +However, his pleasant bachelor's quarters in the Rue de Suresnes, and his +success as a handsome man in the whirl of women among whom he lived, cost +him no little money; and gaily enough, devoid as he was of any moral +sense, he had already glided into all sorts of compromising and lowering +actions, like a light-headed, superior man, a charming, thoughtless +fellow, who attached no importance whatever to such trifles. +</p> + +<p> +"Bah!" said the Baron at last. "Has Sagnier even got a list? I doubt it, +for there was none; Hunter wasn't so foolish as to draw one up. And then, +too, it was merely an ordinary affair; nothing more was done than is +always done in such matters of business." +</p> + +<p> +Duthil, who for the first time in his life had felt anxious, listened +like one that needs to be reassured. "Quite so, eh?" he exclaimed. +"That's what I thought. There isn't a cat to be whipped in the whole +affair." +</p> + +<p> +He tried to laugh as usual, and no longer exactly knew how it was that he +had received some ten thousand francs in connection with the matter, +whether it were in the shape of a vague loan, or else under some pretext +of publicity, puffery, or advertising, for Hunter had acted with extreme +adroitness so as to give no offence to the susceptibilities of even the +least virginal consciences. +</p> + +<p> +"No, there's not a cat to be whipped," repeated Duvillard, who decidedly +seemed amused by the face which Duthil was pulling. "And besides, my dear +fellow, it's well known that cats always fall on their feet. But have you +seen Silviane?" +</p> + +<p> +"I just left her. I found her in a great rage with you. She learnt this +morning that her affair of the Comedie is off." +</p> + +<p> +A rush of anger suddenly reddened the Baron's face. He, who could scoff +so calmly at the threat of the African Railways scandal, lost his balance +and felt his blood boiling directly there was any question of Silviane, +the last, imperious passion of his sixtieth year. "What! off?" said he. +"But at the Ministry of Fine Arts they gave me almost a positive promise +only the day before yesterday." +</p> + +<p> +He referred to a stubborn caprice of Silviane d'Aulnay, who, although she +had hitherto only reaped a success of beauty on the stage, obstinately +sought to enter the Comedie Francaise and make her <i>debut</i> there in the +part of "Pauline" in Corneille's "Polyeucte," which part she had been +studying desperately for several months past. Her idea seemed an insane +one, and all Paris laughed at it; but the young woman, with superb +assurance, kept herself well to the front, and imperiously demanded the +<i>role</i>, feeling sure that she would conquer. +</p> + +<p> +"It was the minister who wouldn't have it," explained Duthil. +</p> + +<p> +The Baron was choking. "The minister, the minister! Ah! well, I will soon +have that minister sent to the rightabout." +</p> + +<p> +However, he had to cease speaking, for at that moment Baroness Duvillard +came into the little drawing-room. At forty-six years of age she was +still very beautiful. Very fair and tall, having hitherto put on but +little superfluous fat, and retaining perfect arms and shoulders, with +speckless silky skin, it was only her face that was spoiling, colouring +slightly with reddish blotches. And these blemishes were her torment, her +hourly thought and worry. Her Jewish origin was revealed by her somewhat +long and strangely charming face, with blue and softly voluptuous eyes. +As indolent as an Oriental slave, disliking to have to move, walk, or +even speak, she seemed intended for a harem life, especially as she was +for ever tending her person. That day she was all in white, gowned in a +white silk toilette of delicious and lustrous simplicity. +</p> + +<p> +Duthil complimented her, and kissed her hand with an enraptured air. "Ah! +madame, you set a little springtide in my heart. Paris is so black and +muddy this morning." +</p> + +<p> +However, a second guest entered the room, a tall and handsome man of five +or six and thirty; and the Baron, still disturbed by his passion, +profited by this opportunity to make his escape. He carried Duthil away +into his study, saying, "Come here an instant, my dear fellow. I have a +few more words to say to you about the affair in question. Monsieur de +Quinsac will keep my wife company for a moment." +</p> + +<p> +The Baroness, as soon as she was alone with the new comer, who, like +Duthil, had most respectfully kissed her hand, gave him a long, silent +look, while her soft eyes filled with tears. Deep silence, tinged with +some slight embarrassment, had fallen, but she ended by saying in a very +low voice: "How happy I am, Gerard, to find myself alone with you for a +moment. For a month past I have not had that happiness." +</p> + +<p> +The circumstances in which Henri Duvillard had married the younger +daughter of Justus Steinberger, the great Jew banker, formed quite a +story which was often recalled. The Steinbergers—after the fashion of +the Rothschilds—were originally four brothers—Justus, residing in +Paris, and the three others at Berlin, Vienna, and London, a circumstance +which gave their secret association most formidable power in the +financial markets of Europe. Justus, however, was the least wealthy of +the four, and in Baron Gregoire Duvillard he had a redoubtable adversary +against whom he was compelled to struggle each time that any large prey +was in question. And it was after a terrible encounter between the pair, +after the eager sharing of the spoils, that the crafty idea had come to +Justus of giving his younger daughter Eve in marriage, by way of +<i>douceur</i>, to the Baron's son, Henri. So far the latter had only been +known as an amiable fellow, fond of horses and club life; and no doubt +Justus's idea was that, at the death of the redoubtable Baron, who was +already condemned by his physicians, he would be able to lay his hands on +the rival banking-house, particularly if he only had in front of him a +son-in-law whom it was easy to conquer. As it happened, Henri had been +mastered by a violent passion for Eve's blond beauty, which was then +dazzling. He wished to marry her, and his father, who knew him, +consented, in reality greatly amused to think that Justus was making an +execrably bad stroke of business. The enterprise became indeed disastrous +for Justus when Henri succeeded his father and the man of prey appeared +from beneath the man of pleasure and carved himself his own huge share in +exploiting the unbridled appetites of the middle-class democracy, which +had at last secured possession of power. Not only did Eve fail to devour +Henri, who in his turn had become Baron Duvillard, the all-powerful +banker, more and more master of the market; but it was the Baron who +devoured Eve, and this in less than four years' time. After she had borne +him a daughter and a son in turn, he suddenly drew away from her, +neglected her, as if she were a mere toy that he no longer cared for. She +was at first both surprised and distressed by the change, especially on +learning that he was resuming his bachelor's habits, and had set his +fickle if ardent affections elsewhere. Then, however, without any kind of +recrimination, any display of anger, or even any particular effort to +regain her ascendency over him, she, on her side, imitated his example. +She could not live without love, and assuredly she had only been born to +be beautiful, to fascinate and reap adoration. To the lover whom she +chose when she was five and twenty she remained faithful for more than +fifteen years, as faithful as she might have been to a husband; and when +he died her grief was intense, it was like real widowhood. Six months +later, however, having met Count Gerard de Quinsac she had again been +unable to resist her imperative need of adoration, and an intrigue had +followed. +</p> + +<p> +"Have you been ill, my dear Gerard?" she inquired, noticing the young +man's embarrassment. "Are you hiding some worry from me?" +</p> + +<p> +She was ten years older than he was; and she clung desperately to this +last passion of hers, revolting at the thought of growing old, and +resolved upon every effort to keep the young man beside her. +</p> + +<p> +"No, I am hiding nothing, I assure you," replied the Count. "But my +mother has had much need of me recently." +</p> + +<p> +She continued looking at him, however, with anxious passion, finding him +so tall and aristocratic of mien, with his regular features and dark hair +and moustaches which were always most carefully tended. He belonged to +one of the oldest families of France, and resided on a ground-floor in +the Rue St. Dominique with his widowed mother, who had been ruined by her +adventurously inclined husband, and had at most an income of some fifteen +thousand francs* to live upon. Gerard for his part had never done +anything; contenting himself with his one year of obligatory military +service, he had renounced the profession of arms in the same way as he +had renounced that of diplomacy, the only one that offered him an opening +of any dignity. He spent his days in that busy idleness common to all +young men who lead "Paris life." And his mother, haughtily severe though +she was, seemed to excuse this, as if in her opinion a man of his birth +was bound by way of protest to keep apart from official life under a +Republic. However, she no doubt had more intimate, more disturbing +reasons for indulgence. She had nearly lost him when he was only seven, +through an attack of brain fever. At eighteen he had complained of his +heart, and the doctors had recommended that he should be treated gently +in all respects. She knew, therefore, what a lie lurked behind his proud +demeanour, within his lofty figure, that haughty <i>facade</i> of his race. He +was but dust, ever threatened with illness and collapse. In the depths of +his seeming virility there was merely girlish <i>abandon</i>; and he was +simply a weak, good-natured fellow, liable to every stumble. It was on +the occasion of a visit which he had paid with his mother to the Asylum +of the Invalids of Labour that he had first seen Eve, whom he continued +to meet; his mother, closing her eyes to this culpable connection in a +sphere of society which she treated with contempt, in the same way as she +had closed them to so many other acts of folly which she had forgiven +because she regarded them as the mere lapses of an ailing child. +Moreover, Eve had made a conquest of Madame de Quinsac, who was very +pious, by an action which had recently amazed society. It had been +suddenly learnt that she had allowed Monseigneur Martha to convert her to +the Roman Catholic faith. This thing, which she had refused to do when +solicited by her lawful husband, she had now done in the hope of ensuring +herself a lover's eternal affection. And all Paris was still stirred by +the magnificence exhibited at the Madeleine, on the occasion of the +baptism of this Jewess of five and forty, whose beauty and whose tears +had upset every heart. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> + * About 3000 dollars.<br /> +</p> + +<p> +Gerard, on his side, was still flattered by the deep and touching +tenderness shown to him; but weariness was coming, and he had already +sought to break off the connection by avoiding any further assignations. +He well understood Eve's glances and her tears, and though he was moved +at sight of them he tried to excuse himself. "I assure you," said he, "my +mother has kept me so busy that I could not get away." But she, without a +word, still turned her tearful glance on him, and weak, like herself, in +despair that he should have been left alone with her in this fashion, he +yielded, unable to continue refusing. "Well, then," said he, "this +afternoon at four o'clock if you are free." +</p> + +<p> +He had lowered his voice in speaking, but a slight rustle made him turn +his head and start like one in fault. It was the Baroness's daughter +Camille entering the room. She had heard nothing; but by the smile which +the others had exchanged, by the very quiver of the air, she understood +everything; an assignation for that very day and at the very spot which +she suspected. Some slight embarrassment followed, an exchange of anxious +and evil glances. +</p> + +<p> +Camille, at three and twenty, was a very dark young woman, short of +stature and somewhat deformed, with her left shoulder higher than the +right. There seemed to be nothing of her father or mother in her. Her +case was one of those unforeseen accidents in family heredity which make +people wonder whence they can arise. Her only pride lay in her beautiful +black eyes and superb black hair, which, short as she was, would, said +she, have sufficed to clothe her. But her nose was long, her face +deviated to the left, and her chin was pointed. Her thin, witty, and +malicious lips bespoke all the rancour and perverse anger stored in the +heart of this uncomely creature, whom the thought of her uncomeliness +enraged. However, the one whom she most hated in the whole world was her +own mother, that <i>amorosa</i> who was so little fitted to be a mother, who +had never loved her, never paid attention to her, but had abandoned her +to the care of servants from her very infancy. In this wise real hatred +had grown up between the two women, mute and frigid on the one side, and +active and passionate on the other. The daughter hated her mother because +she found her beautiful, because she had not been created in the same +image: beautiful with the beauty with which her mother crushed her. Day +by day she suffered at being sought by none, at realising that the +adoration of one and all still went to her mother. As she was amusing in +her maliciousness, people listened to her and laughed; however, the +glances of all the men—even and indeed especially the younger ones—soon +reverted to her triumphant mother, who seemingly defied old age. In part +for this reason Camille, with ferocious determination, had decided that +she would dispossess her mother of her last lover Gerard, and marry him +herself, conscious that such a loss would doubtless kill the Baroness. +Thanks to her promised dowry of five millions of francs, the young woman +did not lack suitors; but, little flattered by their advances, she was +accustomed to say, with her malicious laugh: "Oh! of course; why for five +millions they would take a wife from a mad-house." However, she, herself, +had really begun to love Gerard, who, good-natured as he was, evinced +much kindness towards this suffering young woman whom nature had treated +so harshly. It worried him to see her forsaken by everyone, and little by +little he yielded to the grateful tenderness which she displayed towards +him, happy, handsome man that he was, at being regarded as a demi-god and +having such a slave. Indeed, in his attempt to quit the mother there was +certainly a thought of allowing the daughter to marry him, which would be +an agreeable ending to it all, though he did not as yet acknowledge this, +ashamed as he felt and embarrassed by his illustrious name and all the +complications and tears which he foresaw. +</p> + +<p> +The silence continued. Camille with her piercing glance, as sharp as any +knife, had told her mother that she knew the truth; and then with another +and pain-fraught glance she had complained to Gerard. He, in order to +re-establish equilibrium, could only think of a compliment: "Good +morning, Camille. Ah! that havana-brown gown of yours looks nice! It's +astonishing how well rather sombre colours suit you." +</p> + +<p> +Camille glanced at her mother's white robe, and then at her own dark +gown, which scarcely allowed her neck and wrists to be seen. "Yes," she +replied laughing, "I only look passable when I don't dress as a young +girl." +</p> + +<p> +Eve, ill at ease, worried by the growth of a rivalry in which she did not +as yet wish to believe, changed the conversation. "Isn't your brother +there?" she asked. +</p> + +<p> +"Why yes, we came down together." +</p> + +<p> +Hyacinthe, who came in at that moment, shook hands with Gerard in a weary +way. He was twenty, and had inherited his mother's pale blond hair, and +her long face full of Oriental languor; while from his father he had +derived his grey eyes and thick lips, expressive of unscrupulous +appetites. A wretched scholar, regarding every profession with the same +contempt, he had decided to do nothing. Spoilt by his father, he took +some little interest in poetry and music, and lived in an extraordinary +circle of artists, low women, madmen and bandits; boasting himself of all +sorts of crimes and vices, professing the very worst philosophical and +social ideas, invariably going to extremes, becoming in turn a +Collectivist, an Individualist, an Anarchist, a Pessimist, a Symbolist, +and what not besides; without, however, ceasing to be a Catholic, as this +conjunction of Catholicity with something else seemed to him the supreme +<i>bon ton</i>. In reality he was simply empty and rather a fool. In four +generations the vigorous hungry blood of the Duvillards, after producing +three magnificent beasts of prey, had, as if exhausted by the contentment +of every passion, ended in this sorry emasculated creature, who was +incapable alike of great knavery or great debauchery. +</p> + +<p> +Camille, who was too intelligent not to realise her brother's +nothingness, was fond of teasing him; and looking at him as he stood +there, tightly buttoned in his long frock coat with pleated skirt—a +resurrection of the romantic period, which he carried to exaggeration, +she resumed: "Mamma has been asking for you, Hyacinthe. Come and show her +your gown. You are the one who would look nice dressed as a young girl." +</p> + +<p> +However, he eluded her without replying. He was covertly afraid of her, +though they lived together in great intimacy, frankly exchanging +confidences respecting their perverse views of life. And he directed a +glance of disdain at the wonderful basket of orchids which seemed to him +past the fashion, far too common nowadays. For his part he had left the +lilies of life behind him, and reached the ranunculus, the flower of +blood. +</p> + +<p> +The two last guests who were expected now arrived almost together. The +first was the investigating magistrate Amadieu, a little man of five and +forty, who was an intimate of the household and had been brought into +notoriety by a recent anarchist affair. Between a pair of fair, bushy +whiskers he displayed a flat, regular judicial face, to which he tried to +impart an expression of keenness by wearing a single eyeglass behind +which his glance sparkled. Very worldly, moreover, he belonged to the new +judicial school, being a distinguished psychologist and having written a +book in reply to the abuses of criminalist physiology. And he was also a +man of great, tenacious ambition, fond of notoriety and ever on the +lookout for those resounding legal affairs which bring glory. Behind him, +at last appeared General de Bozonnet, Gerard's uncle on the maternal +side, a tall, lean old man with a nose like an eagle's beak. Chronic +rheumatism had recently compelled him to retire from the service. Raised +to a colonelcy after the Franco-German War in reward for his gallant +conduct at St. Privat, he had, in spite of his extremely monarchical +connections, kept his sworn faith to Napoleon III. And he was excused in +his own sphere of society for this species of military Bonapartism, on +account of the bitterness with which he accused the Republic of having +ruined the army. Worthy fellow that he was, extremely fond of his sister, +Madame de Quinsac, it seemed as though he acted in accordance with some +secret desire of hers in accepting the invitations of Baroness Duvillard +by way of rendering Gerard's constant presence in her house more natural +and excusable. +</p> + +<p> +However, the Baron and Duthil now returned from the study, laughing +loudly in an exaggerated way, doubtless to make the others believe that +they were quite easy in mind. And one and all passed into the large +dining-room where a big wood fire was burning, its gay flames shining +like a ray of springtide amid the fine mahogany furniture of English make +laden with silver and crystal. The room, of a soft mossy green, had an +unassuming charm in the pale light, and the table which in the centre +displayed the richness of its covers and the immaculate whiteness of its +linen adorned with Venetian point, seemed to have flowered miraculously +with a wealth of large tea roses, most admirable blooms for the season, +and of delicious perfume. +</p> + +<p> +The Baroness seated the General on her right, and Amadieu on her left. +The Baron on his right placed Duthil, and on his left Gerard. Then the +young people installed themselves at either end, Camille between Gerard +and the General, and Hyacinthe between Duthil and Amadieu. And forthwith, +from the moment of starting on the scrambled eggs and truffles, +conversation began, the usual conversation of Parisian <i>dejeuners</i>, when +every event, great or little, of the morning or the day before is passed +in review: the truths and the falsehoods current in every social sphere, +the financial scandal, and the political adventure of the hour, the novel +that has just appeared, the play that has just been produced, the stories +which should only be retailed in whispers, but which are repeated aloud. +And beneath all the light wit which circulates, beneath all the laughter, +which often has a false ring, each retains his or her particular worry, +or distress of mind, at times so acute that it becomes perfect agony. +</p> + +<p> +With his quiet and wonted impudence, the Baron, bravely enough, was the +first to speak of the article in the "Voix du Peuple." "I say, have you +read Sagnier's article this morning? It's a good one; he has <i>verve</i> you +know, but what a dangerous lunatic he is!" +</p> + +<p> +This set everybody at ease, for the article would certainly have weighed +upon the <i>dejeuner</i> had no one mentioned it. +</p> + +<p> +"It's the 'Panama' dodge over again!" cried Duthil. "But no, no, we've +had quite enough of it!" +</p> + +<p> +"Why," resumed the Baron, "the affair of the African Railway Lines is as +clear as spring water! All those whom Sagnier threatens may sleep in +peace. The truth is that it's a scheme to upset Barroux's ministry. Leave +to interpellate will certainly be asked for this afternoon. You'll see +what a fine uproar there'll be in the Chamber." +</p> + +<p> +"That libellous, scandal-seeking press," said Amadieu gravely, "is a +dissolving agent which will bring France to ruin. We ought to have laws +against it." +</p> + +<p> +The General made an angry gesture: "Laws, what's the use of them, since +nobody has the courage to enforce them." +</p> + +<p> +Silence fell. With a light, discreet step the house-steward presented +some grilled mullet. So noiseless was the service amid the cheerful +perfumed warmth that not even the faintest clatter of crockery was heard. +Without anyone knowing how it had come about, however, the conversation +had suddenly changed; and somebody inquired: "So the revival of the piece +is postponed?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes," said Gerard, "I heard this morning that 'Polyeucte' wouldn't get +its turn till April at the earliest." +</p> + +<p> +At this Camille, who had hitherto remained silent, watching the young +Count and seeking to win him back, turned her glittering eyes upon her +father and mother. It was a question of that revival in which Silviane +was so stubbornly determined to make her <i>debut</i>. However, the Baron and +the Baroness evinced perfect serenity, having long been acquainted with +all that concerned each other. Moreover Eve was too much occupied with +her own passion to think of anything else; and the Baron too busy with +the fresh application which he intended to make in tempestuous fashion at +the Ministry of Fine Arts, so as to wrest Silviane's engagement from +those in office. He contented himself with saying: "How would you have +them revive pieces at the Comedie! They have no actresses left there." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, by the way," the Baroness on her side simply remarked, "yesterday, +in that play at the Vaudeville, Delphine Vignot wore such an exquisite +gown. She's the only one too who knows how to arrange her hair." +</p> + +<p> +Thereupon Duthil, in somewhat veiled language, began to relate a story +about Delphine and a well-known senator. And then came another scandal, +the sudden and almost suspicious death of a lady friend of the +Duvillards'; whereupon the General, without any transition, broke in to +relieve his bitter feelings by denouncing the idiotic manner in which the +army was nowadays organised. Meantime the old Bordeaux glittered like +ruby blood in the delicate crystal glasses. A truffled fillet of venison +had just cast its somewhat sharp scent amidst the dying perfume of the +roses, when some asparagus made its appearance, a <i>primeur</i> which once +had been so rare but which no longer caused any astonishment. +</p> + +<p> +"Nowadays we get it all through the winter," said the Baron with a +gesture of disenchantment. +</p> + +<p> +"And so," asked Gerard at the same moment, "the Princess de Harn's +<i>matinee</i> is for this afternoon?" +</p> + +<p> +Camille quickly intervened. "Yes, this afternoon. Shall you go?" +</p> + +<p> +"No, I don't think so, I shan't be able," replied the young man in +embarrassment. +</p> + +<p> +"Ah! that little Princess, she's really deranged you know," exclaimed +Duthil. "You are aware that she calls herself a widow? But the truth, it +seems, is that her husband, a real Prince, connected with a royal house +and very handsome, is travelling about the world in the company of a +singer. She with her vicious urchin-like face preferred to come and reign +in Paris, in that mansion of the Avenue Hoche, which is certainly the +most extraordinary Noah's ark imaginable, with its swarming of +cosmopolitan society indulging in every extravagance!" +</p> + +<p> +"Be quiet, you malicious fellow," the Baroness gently interrupted. "We, +here, are very fond of Rosemonde, who is a charming woman." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh! certainly," Camille again resumed. "She invited us; and we are going +to her place by-and-by, are we not, mamma?" +</p> + +<p> +To avoid replying, the Baroness pretended that she did not hear, whilst +Duthil, who seemed to be well-informed concerning the Princess, continued +to make merry over her intended <i>matinee</i>, at which she meant to produce +some Spanish dancing girls, whose performance was so very indecorous that +all Paris, forewarned of the circumstance, would certainly swarm to her +house. And he added: "You've heard that she has given up painting. Yes, +she busies herself with chemistry. Her <i>salon</i> is full of Anarchists +now—and, by the way, it seemed to me that she had cast her eyes on you, +my dear Hyacinthe." +</p> + +<p> +Hyacinthe had hitherto held his tongue, as if he took no interest in +anything. "Oh! she bores me to death," he now condescended to reply. "If +I'm going to her <i>matinee</i> it's simply in the hope of meeting my friend +young Lord George Eldrett, who wrote to me from London to give me an +appointment at the Princess's. And I admit that hers is the only <i>salon</i> +where I find somebody to talk to." +</p> + +<p> +"And so," asked Amadieu in an ironical way, "you have now gone over to +Anarchism?" +</p> + +<p> +With his air of lofty elegance Hyacinthe imperturbably confessed his +creed: "But it seems to me, monsieur, that in these times of universal +baseness and ignominy, no man of any distinction can be other than an +Anarchist." +</p> + +<p> +A laugh ran round the table. Hyacinthe was very much spoilt, and +considered very entertaining. His father in particular was immensely +amused by the notion that he of all men should have an Anarchist for a +son. However, the General, in his rancorous moments, talked anarchically +enough of blowing up a society which was so stupid as to let itself be +led by half a dozen disreputable characters. And, indeed, the +investigating magistrate, who was gradually making a specialty of +Anarchist affairs, proved the only one who opposed the young man, +defending threatened civilisation and giving terrifying particulars +concerning what he called the army of devastation and massacre. The +others, while partaking of some delicious duck's-liver <i>pate</i>, which the +house-steward handed around, continued smiling. There was so much misery, +said they; one must take everything into account: things would surely end +by righting themselves. And the Baron himself declared, in a conciliatory +manner: "It's certain that one might do something, though nobody knows +exactly what. As for all sensible and moderate claims, oh! I agree to +them in advance. For instance, the lot of the working classes may be +ameliorated, charitable enterprises may be undertaken, such, for +instance, as our Asylum for the Invalids of Labour, which we have reason +to be proud of. But we must not be asked for impossibilities." +</p> + +<p> +With the dessert came a sudden spell of silence; it was as if, amidst the +restless fluttering of the conversation, and the dizziness born of the +copious meal, each one's worry or distress was again wringing the heart +and setting an expression of perturbation on the countenance. The nervous +unconscientiousness of Duthil, threatened with denunciation, was seen to +revive; so, too, the anxious anger of the Baron, who was meditating how +he might possibly manage to content Silviane. That woman was this sturdy, +powerful man's taint, the secret sore which would perhaps end by eating +him away and destroying him. But it was the frightful drama in which the +Baroness, Camille and Gerard were concerned that flitted by most visibly +across the faces of all three of them: that hateful rivalry of mother and +daughter, contending for the man they loved. And, meantime, the +silver-gilt blades of the dessert-knives were delicately peeling choice +fruit. And there were bunches of golden grapes looking beautifully fresh, +and a procession of sweetmeats, little cakes, an infinity of dainties, +over which the most satiated appetites lingered complacently. +</p> + +<p> +Then, just as the finger-glasses were being served, a footman came and +bent over the Baroness, who answered in an undertone, "Well, show him +into the <i>salon</i>, I will join him there." And aloud to the others she +added: "It's Monsieur l'Abbe Froment, who has called and asks most +particularly to see me. He won't be in our way; I think that almost all +of you know him. Oh! he's a genuine saint, and I have much sympathy for +him." +</p> + +<p> +For a few minutes longer they loitered round the table, and then at last +quitted the dining-room, which was full of the odours of viands, wines, +fruits and roses; quite warm, too, with the heat thrown out by the big +logs of firewood, which were falling into embers amidst the somewhat +jumbled brightness of all the crystal and silver, and the pale, delicate +light which fell upon the disorderly table. +</p> + +<p> +Pierre had remained standing in the centre of the little blue and silver +<i>salon</i>. Seeing a tray on which the coffee and the liqueurs were in +readiness, he regretted that he had insisted upon being received. And his +embarrassment increased when the company came in rather noisily, with +bright eyes and rosy cheeks. However, his charitable fervour had revived +so ardently within him that he overcame this embarrassment, and all that +remained to him of it was a slight feeling of discomfort at bringing the +whole frightful morning which he had just spent amid such scenes of +wretchedness, so much darkness and cold, so much filth and hunger, into +this bright, warm, perfumed affluence, where the useless and the +superfluous overflowed around those folks who seemed so gay at having +made a delightful meal. +</p> + +<p> +However, the Baroness at once came forward with Gerard, for it was +through the latter, whose mother he knew, that the priest had been +presented to the Duvillards at the time of the famous conversion. And as +he apologised for having called at such an inconvenient hour, the +Baroness responded: "But you are always welcome, Monsieur l'Abbe. You +will allow me just to attend to my guests, won't you? I will be with you +in an instant." +</p> + +<p> +She thereupon returned to the table on which the tray had been placed, in +order to serve the coffee and the liqueurs, with her daughter's +assistance. Gerard, however, remained with Pierre; and, it so chanced, +began to speak to him of the Asylum for the Invalids of Labour, where +they had met one another at the recent laying of the foundation-stone of +a new pavilion which was being erected, thanks to a handsome donation of +100,000 francs made by Baron Duvillard. So far, the enterprise only +comprised four pavilions out of the fourteen which it was proposed to +erect on the vast site given by the City of Paris on the peninsula of +Gennevilliers*; and so the subscription fund remained open, and, indeed, +no little noise was made over this charitable enterprise, which was +regarded as a complete and peremptory reply to the accusations of those +evilly disposed persons who charged the satiated <i>bourgeoisie</i> with doing +nothing for the workers. But the truth was that a magnificent chapel, +erected in the centre of the site, had absorbed two-thirds of the funds +hitherto collected. Numerous lady patronesses, chosen from all the +"worlds" of Paris—the Baroness Duvillard, the Countess de Quinsac, the +Princess Rosemonde de Harn, and a score of others—were entrusted with +the task of keeping the enterprise alive by dint of collections and fancy +bazaars. But success had been chiefly obtained, thanks to the happy idea +of ridding the ladies of all the weighty cares of organisation, by +choosing as managing director a certain Fonsegue, who, besides being a +deputy and editor of the "Globe" newspaper, was a prodigious promoter of +all sorts of enterprises. And the "Globe" never paused in its propaganda, +but answered the attacks of the revolutionaries by extolling the +inexhaustible charity of the governing classes in such wise that, at the +last elections, the enterprise had served as a victorious electoral +weapon. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> + * This so-called peninsula lies to the northwest of Paris, and + is formed by the windings of the Seine.—Trans. +</p> + +<p> +However, Camille was walking about with a steaming cup of coffee in her +hand: "Will you take some coffee, Monsieur l'Abbe?" she inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"No, thank you, mademoiselle." +</p> + +<p> +"A glass of Chartreuse then?" +</p> + +<p> +"No, thank you." +</p> + +<p> +Then everybody being served, the Baroness came back and said amiably: +"Come, Monsieur l'Abbe, what do you desire of me?" +</p> + +<p> +Pierre began to speak almost in an undertone, his throat contracting and +his heart beating with emotion. "I have come, madame, to appeal to your +great kindness of heart. This morning, in a frightful house, in the Rue +des Saules, behind Montmartre, I beheld a sight which utterly upset me. +You can have no idea what an abode of misery and suffering it was; its +inmates without fire or bread, the men reduced to idleness because there +is no work, the mothers having no more milk for their babes, the children +barely clad, coughing and shivering. And among all these horrors I saw +the worst, the most abominable of all, an old workman, laid on his back +by age, dying of hunger, huddled on a heap of rags, in a nook which a dog +would not even accept as kennel." +</p> + +<p> +He tried to recount things as discreetly as possible, frightened by the +very words he spoke, the horrors he had to relate in that sphere of +superlative luxury and enjoyment, before those happy ones who possessed +all the gifts of this world; for—to use a slang expression—he fully +realised that he sang out of tune, and in most uncourteous fashion. What +a strange idea of his to have called at the hour when one has just +finished <i>dejeuner</i>, when the aroma of hot coffee flatters happy +digestion. Nevertheless he went on, and even ended by raising his voice, +yielding to the feeling of revolt which gradually stirred him, going to +the end of his terrible narrative, naming Laveuve, insisting on the +unjust abandonment in which the old man was left, and asking for succour +in the name of human compassion. And the whole company approached to +listen to him; he could see the Baron and the General, and Duthil and +Amadieu, in front of him, sipping their coffee, in silence, without a +gesture. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, madame," he concluded, "it seemed to me that one could not leave +that old man an hour longer in such a frightful position, and that this +very evening you would have the extreme goodness to have him admitted +into the Asylum of the Invalids of Labour, which is, I think, the proper +and only place for him." +</p> + +<p> +Tears had moistened Eve's beautiful eyes. She was in consternation at so +sad a story coming to her to spoil her afternoon when she was looking +forward to her assignation with Gerard. Weak and indolent as she was, +lacking all initiative, too much occupied moreover with her own person, +she had only accepted the presidency of the Committee on the condition +that all administrative worries were to fall on Fonsegue. "Ah! Monsieur +l'Abbe," she murmured, "you rend my heart. But I can do nothing, nothing +at all, I assure you. Moreover, I believe that we have already inquired +into the affair of that man Laveuve. With us, you know, there must be the +most serious guarantees with regard to every admission. A reporter is +chosen who has to give us full information. Wasn't it you, Monsieur +Duthil, who was charged with this man Laveuve's affair?" +</p> + +<p> +The deputy was finishing a glass of Chartreuse. "Yes, it was I. That fine +fellow played you a comedy, Monsieur l'Abbe. He isn't at all ill, and if +you left him any money you may be sure he went down to drink it as soon +as you were gone. For he is always drunk; and, besides that, he has the +most hateful disposition imaginable, crying out from morning till evening +against the <i>bourgeois</i>, and saying that if he had any strength left in +his arms he would undertake to blow up the whole show. And, moreover, he +won't go into the asylum; he says that it's a real prison where one's +guarded by Beguins who force one to hear mass, a dirty convent where the +gates are shut at nine in the evening! And there are so many of them like +that, who rather than be succoured prefer their liberty, with cold and +hunger and death. Well then, let the Laveuves die in the street, since +they refuse to be with us, and be warm and eat in our asylums!" +</p> + +<p> +The General and Amadieu nodded their heads approvingly. But Duvillard +showed himself more generous. "No, no, indeed! A man's a man after all, +and should be succoured in spite of himself." +</p> + +<p> +Eve, however, in despair at the idea that she would be robbed of her +afternoon, struggled and sought for reasons. "I assure you that my hands +are altogether tied. Monsieur l'Abbe does not doubt my heart or my zeal. +But how call I possibly assemble the Committee without a few days' delay? +And I have particular reasons for coming to no decision, especially in an +affair which has already been inquired into and pronounced upon, without +the Committee's sanction." Then, all at once she found a solution: "What +I advise you to do, Monsieur l'Abbe, is to go at once to see Monsieur +Fonsegue, our managing director. He alone can act in an urgent case, for +he knows that the ladies have unlimited confidence in him and approve +everything he does." +</p> + +<p> +"You will find Fonsegue at the Chamber," added Duthil smiling, "only the +sitting will be a warm one, and I doubt whether you will be able to have +a comfortable chat with him." +</p> + +<p> +Pierre, whose heart had contracted yet more painfully, insisted on the +subject no further; but at once made up his mind to see Fonsegue, and in +any event obtain from him a promise that the wretched Laveuve should be +admitted to the Asylum that very evening. Then he lingered in the saloon +for a few minutes listening to Gerard, who obligingly pointed out to him +how he might best convince the deputy, which was by alleging how bad an +effect such a story could have, should it be brought to light by the +revolutionary newspapers. However, the guests were beginning to take +their leave. The General, as he went off, came to ask his nephew if he +should see him that afternoon at his mother's, Madame de Quinsac, whose +"day" it was: a question which the young man answered with an evasive +gesture when he noticed that both Eve and Camille were looking at him. +Then came the turn of Amadieu, who hurried off saying that a serious +affair required his presence at the Palace of Justice. And Duthil soon +followed him in order to repair to the Chamber. +</p> + +<p> +"I'll see you between four and five at Silviane's, eh?" said the Baron as +he conducted him to the door. "Come and tell me what occurs at the +Chamber in consequence of that odious article of Sagnier's. I must at all +events know. For my part I shall go to the Ministry of Fine Arts, to +settle that affair of the Comedie; and besides I've some calls to make, +some contractors to see, and a big launching and advertisement affair to +settle." +</p> + +<p> +"It's understood then, between four and five, at Silviane's," said the +deputy, who went off again mastered by his vague uneasiness, his anxiety +as to what turn that nasty affair of the African Railway Lines might +take. +</p> + +<p> +And all of them had forgotten Laveuve, the miserable wretch who lay at +death's door; and all of them were hastening away to their business or +their passions, caught in the toils, sinking under the grindstone and +whisked away by that rush of all Paris, whose fever bore them along, +throwing one against another in an ardent scramble, in which the sole +question was who should pass over the others and crush them. +</p> + +<p> +"And so, mamma," said Camille, who continued to scrutinise her mother and +Gerard, "you are going to take us to the Princess's <i>matinee</i>?" +</p> + +<p> +"By-and-by, yes. Only I shan't be able to stay there with you. I received +a telegram from Salmon about my corsage this morning, and I must +absolutely go to try it on at four o'clock." +</p> + +<p> +By the slight trembling of her mother's voice, the girl felt certain that +she was telling a falsehood. "Oh!" said she, "I thought you were only +going to try it on to-morrow? In that case I suppose we are to go and +call for you at Salmon's with the carriage on leaving the <i>matinee</i>?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh! no my dear! One never knows when one will be free; and besides, if I +have a moment, I shall call at the <i>modiste's</i>." +</p> + +<p> +Camille's secret rage brought almost a murderous glare to her dark eyes. +The truth was evident. But however passionately she might desire to set +some obstacle across her mother's path, she could not, dared not, carry +matters any further. In vain had she attempted to implore Gerard with her +eyes. He was standing to take his leave, and turned away his eyes. +Pierre, who had become acquainted with many things since he had +frequented the house, noticed how all three of them quivered, and divined +thereby the mute and terrible drama. +</p> + +<p> +At this moment, however, Hyacinthe, stretched in an armchair, and +munching an ether capsule, the only liqueur in which he indulged, raised +his voice: "For my part, you know, I'm going to the Exposition du Lis. +All Paris is swarming there. There's one painting in particular, 'The +Rape of a Soul,' which it's absolutely necessary for one to have seen." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, but I don't refuse to drive you there," resumed the Baroness. +"Before going to the Princess's we can look in at that exhibition." +</p> + +<p> +"That's it, that's it," hastily exclaimed Camille, who, though she +harshly derided the symbolist painters as a rule, now doubtless desired +to delay her mother. Then, forcing herself to smile, she asked: "Won't +you risk a look-in at the Exposition du Lis with us, Monsieur Gerard?" +</p> + +<p> +"Well, no," replied the Count, "I want to walk. I shall go with Monsieur +l'Abbe Froment to the Chamber." +</p> + +<p> +Thereupon he took leave of mother and daughter, kissing the hand of each +in turn. It had just occurred to him that to while away his time he also +might call for a moment at Silviane's, where, like the others, he had his +<i>entrees</i>. On reaching the cold and solemn courtyard he said to the +priest, "Ah! it does one good to breathe a little cool air. They keep +their rooms too hot, and all those flowers, too, give one the headache." +</p> + +<p> +Pierre for his part was going off with his brain in a whirl, his hands +feverish, his senses oppressed by all the luxury which he left behind +him, like the dream of some glowing, perfumed paradise where only the +elect had their abode. At the same time his reviving thirst for charity +had become keener than ever, and without listening to the Count, who was +speaking very affectionately of his mother, he reflected as to how he +might obtain Laveuve's admission to the Asylum from Fonsegue. However, +when the door of the mansion had closed behind them and they had taken a +few steps along the street, it occurred to Pierre that a moment +previously a sudden vision had met his gaze. Had he not seen a workman +carrying a tool-bag, standing and waiting on the foot pavement across the +road, gazing at that monumental door, closed upon so much fabulous +wealth—a workman in whom he fancied he had recognised Salvat, that +hungry fellow who had gone off that morning in search of work? At this +thought Pierre hastily turned round. Such wretchedness in face of so much +affluence and enjoyment made him feel anxious. But the workman, disturbed +in his contemplation, and possibly fearing that he had been recognised, +was going off with dragging step. And now, getting only a back view of +him, Pierre hesitated, and ended by thinking that he must have been +mistaken. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<h3> +III +</h3> + +<h3> +RANTERS AND RULERS +</h3> + +<p> +WHEN Abbe Froment was about to enter the Palais-Bourbon he remembered +that he had no card, and he was making up his mind that he would simply +ask for Fonsegue, though he was not known to him, when, on reaching the +vestibule, he perceived Mege, the Collectivist deputy, with whom he had +become acquainted in his days of militant charity in the poverty-stricken +Charonne district. +</p> + +<p> +"What, you here? You surely have not come to evangelise us?" said Mege. +</p> + +<p> +"No, I've come to see Monsieur Fonsegue on an urgent matter, about a poor +fellow who cannot wait." +</p> + +<p> +"Fonsegue? I don't know if he has arrived. Wait a moment." And stopping a +short, dark young fellow with a ferreting, mouse-like air, Mege said to +him: "Massot, here's Monsieur l'Abbe Froment, who wants to speak to your +governor at once." +</p> + +<p> +"The governor? But he isn't here. I left him at the office of the paper, +where he'll be detained for another quarter of an hour. However, if +Monsieur l'Abbe likes to wait he will surely see him here." +</p> + +<p> +Thereupon Mege ushered Pierre into the large waiting-hall, the Salle des +Pas Perdus, which in other moments looked so vast and cold with its +bronze Minerva and Laocoon, and its bare walls on which the pale mournful +winter light fell from the glass doors communicating with the garden. +Just then, however, it was crowded, and warmed, as it were, by the +feverish agitation of the many groups of men that had gathered here and +there, and the constant coming and going of those who hastened through +the throng. Most of these were deputies, but there were also numerous +journalists and inquisitive visitors. And a growing uproar prevailed: +colloquies now in undertones, now in loud voices, exclamations and bursts +of laughter, amidst a deal of passionate gesticulation, Mege's return +into the tumult seemed to fan it. He was tall, apostolically thin, and +somewhat neglectful of his person, looking already old and worn for his +age, which was but five and forty, though his eyes still glowed with +youth behind the glasses which never left his beak-like nose. And he had +a warm but grating voice, and had always been known to cough, living on +solely because he was bitterly intent on doing so in order to realise the +dream of social re-organisation which haunted him. The son of an +impoverished medical man of a northern town, he had come to Paris when +very young, living there during the Empire on petty newspaper and other +unknown work, and first making a reputation as an orator at the public +meetings of the time. Then, after the war, having become the chief of the +Collectivist party, thanks to his ardent faith and the extraordinary +activity of his fighting nature, he had at last managed to enter the +Chamber, where, brimful of information, he fought for his ideas with +fierce determination and obstinacy, like a <i>doctrinaire</i> who has decided +in his own mind what the world ought to be, and who regulates in advance, +and bit by bit, the whole dogma of Collectivism. However, since he had +taken pay as a deputy, the outside Socialists had looked upon him as a +mere rhetorician, an aspiring dictator who only tried to cast society in +a new mould for the purpose of subordinating it to his personal views and +ruling it. +</p> + +<p> +"You know what is going on?" he said to Pierre. "This is another nice +affair, is it not? But what would you have? We are in mud to our very +ears." +</p> + +<p> +He had formerly conceived genuine sympathy for the priest, whom he had +found so gentle with all who suffered, and so desirous of social +regeneration. And the priest himself had ended by taking an interest in +this authoritarian dreamer, who was resolved to make men happy in spite +even of themselves. He knew that he was poor, and led a retired life with +his wife and four children, to whom he was devoted. +</p> + +<p> +"You can well understand that I am no ally of Sagnier's," Mege resumed. +"But as he chose to speak out this morning and threaten to publish the +names of all those who have taken bribes, we can't allow ourselves to +pass as accomplices any further. It has long been said that there was +some nasty jobbery in that suspicious affair of the African railways. And +the worst is that two members of the present Cabinet are in question, for +three years ago, when the Chambers dealt with Duvillard's emission, +Barroux was at the Home Department, and Monferrand at that of Public +Works. Now that they have come back again, Monferrand at the Home +Department, and Barroux at that of Finance, with the Presidency of the +Council, it isn't possible, is it, for us to do otherwise than compel +them to enlighten us, in their own interest even, about their former +goings-on? No, no, they can no longer keep silence, and I've announced +that I intend to interpellate them this very day." +</p> + +<p> +It was the announcement of Mege's interpellation, following the terrible +article of the "Voix du Peuple," which thus set the lobbies in an uproar. +And Pierre remained rather scared at this big political affair falling +into the midst of his scheme to save a wretched pauper from hunger and +death. Thus he listened without fully understanding the explanations +which the Socialist deputy was passionately giving him, while all around +them the uproar increased, and bursts of laughter rang out, testifying to +the astonishment which the others felt at seeing Mege in conversation +with a priest. +</p> + +<p> +"How stupid they are!" said Mege disdainfully. "Do they think then that I +eat a cassock for <i>dejeuner</i> every morning? But I beg your pardon, my +dear Monsieur Froment. Come, take a place on that seat and wait for +Fonsegue." +</p> + +<p> +Then he himself plunged into all the turmoil, and Pierre realised that +his best course was to sit down and wait quietly. His surroundings began +to influence and interest him, and he gradually forgot Laveuve for the +passion of the Parliamentary crisis amidst which he found himself cast. +The frightful Panama adventure was scarcely over; he had followed the +progress of that tragedy with the anguish of a man who every night +expects to hear the tocsin sound the last hour of olden, agonising +society. And now a little Panama was beginning, a fresh cracking of the +social edifice, an affair such as had been frequent in all parliaments in +connection with big financial questions, but one which acquired mortal +gravity from the circumstances in which it came to the front. That story +of the African Railway Lines, that little patch of mud, stirred up and +exhaling a perturbing odour, and suddenly fomenting all that emotion, +fear, and anger in the Chamber, was after all but an opportunity for +political strife, a field on which the voracious appetites of the various +"groups" would take exercise and sharpen; and, at bottom, the sole +question was that of overthrowing the ministry and replacing it by +another. Only, behind all that lust of power, that continuous onslaught +of ambition, what a distressful prey was stirring—the whole people with +all its poverty and its sufferings! +</p> + +<p> +Pierre noticed that Massot, "little Massot," as he was generally called, +had just seated himself on the bench beside him. With his lively eye and +ready ear listening to everything and noting it, gliding everywhere with +his ferret-like air, Massot was not there in the capacity of a gallery +man, but had simply scented a stormy debate, and come to see if he could +not pick up material for some occasional "copy." And this priest lost in +the midst of the throng doubtless interested him. +</p> + +<p> +"Have a little patience, Monsieur l'Abbe," said he, with the amiable +gaiety of a young gentleman who makes fun of everything. "The governor +will certainly come, for he knows well enough that they are going to heat +the oven here. You are not one of his constituents from La Correze, are +you?" +</p> + +<p> +"No, no! I belong to Paris; I've come on account of a poor fellow whom I +wish to get admitted into the Asylum of the Invalids of Labour." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh! all right. Well, I'm a child of Paris, too." +</p> + +<p> +Then Massot laughed. And indeed he was a child of Paris, son of a chemist +of the St. Denis district, and an ex-dunce of the Lycee Charlemagne, +where he had not even finished his studies. He had failed entirely, and +at eighteen years of age had found himself cast into journalism with +barely sufficient knowledge of orthography for that calling. And for +twelve years now, as he often said, he had been a rolling stone wandering +through all spheres of society, confessing some and guessing at others. +He had seen everything, and become disgusted with everything, no longer +believing in the existence of great men, or of truth, but living +peacefully enough on universal malice and folly. He naturally had no +literary ambition, in fact he professed a deliberate contempt for +literature. Withal, he was not a fool, but wrote in accordance with no +matter what views in no matter what newspaper, having neither conviction +nor belief, but quietly claiming the right to say whatever he pleased to +the public on condition that he either amused or impassioned it. +</p> + +<p> +"And so," said he, "you know Mege, Monsieur l'Abbe? What a study in +character, eh? A big child, a dreamer of dreams in the skin of a terrible +sectarian! Oh! I have had a deal of intercourse with him, I know him +thoroughly. You are no doubt aware that he lives on with the everlasting +conviction that he will attain to power in six months' time, and that +between evening and morning he will have established that famous +Collectivist community which is to succeed capitalist society, just as +day follows night. And, by the way, as regards his interpellation to-day, +he is convinced that in overthrowing the Barroux ministry he'll be +hastening his own turn. His system is to use up his adversaries. How many +times haven't I heard him making his calculations: there's such a one to +be used up, then such a one, and then such a one, so that he himself may +at last reign. And it's always to come off in six months at the latest. +The misfortune is, however, that others are always springing up, and so +his turn never comes at all." +</p> + +<p> +Little Massot openly made merry over it. Then, slightly lowering his +voice, he asked: "And Sagnier, do you know him? No? Do you see that +red-haired man with the bull's neck—the one who looks like a butcher? +That one yonder who is talking in a little group of frayed frock-coats." +</p> + +<p> +Pierre at last perceived the man in question. He had broad red ears, a +hanging under-lip, a large nose, and big, projecting dull eyes. +</p> + +<p> +"I know that one thoroughly, as well," continued Massot; "I was on the +'Voix du Peuple' under him before I went on the 'Globe.' The one thing +that nobody is exactly aware of is whence Sagnier first came. He long +dragged out his life in the lower depths of journalism, doing nothing at +all brilliant, but wild with ambition and appetite. Perhaps you remember +the first hubbub he made, that rather dirty affair of a new Louis XVII. +which he tried to launch, and which made him the extraordinary Royalist +that he still is. Then it occurred to him to espouse the cause of the +masses, and he made a display of vengeful Catholic socialism, attacking +the Republic and all the abominations of the times in the name of justice +and morality, under the pretext of curing them. He began with a series of +sketches of financiers, a mass of dirty, uncontrolled, unproved +tittle-tattle, which ought to have led him to the dock, but which met, as +you know, with such wonderful success when gathered together in a volume. +And he goes on in the same style in the 'Voix du Peuple,' which he +himself made a success at the time of the Panama affair by dint of +denunciation and scandal, and which to-day is like a sewer-pipe pouring +forth all the filth of the times. And whenever the stream slackens, why, +he invents things just to satisfy his craving for that hubbub on which +both his pride and his pocket subsist." +</p> + +<p> +Little Massot spoke without bitterness; indeed, he had even begun to +laugh again. Beneath his thoughtless ferocity he really felt some respect +for Sagnier. "Oh! he's a bandit," he continued, "but a clever fellow all +the same. You can't imagine how full of vanity he is. Lately it occurred +to him to get himself acclaimed by the populace, for he pretends to be a +kind of King of the Markets, you know. Perhaps he has ended by taking his +fine judge-like airs in earnest, and really believes that he is saving +the people and helping the cause of virtue. What astonishes me is his +fertility in the arts of denunciation and scandalmongering. Never a +morning comes but he discovers some fresh horror, and delivers fresh +culprits over to the hatred of the masses. No! the stream of mud never +ceases; there is an incessant, unexpected spurt of infamy, an increase of +monstrous fancies each time that the disgusted public shows any sign of +weariness. And, do you know, there's genius in that, Monsieur l'Abbe; for +he is well aware that his circulation goes up as soon as he threatens to +speak out and publish a list of traitors and bribe-takers. His sales are +certain now for some days to come." +</p> + +<p> +Listening to Massot's gay, bantering voice, Pierre began to understand +certain things, the exact meaning of which had hitherto escaped him. He +ended by questioning the young journalist, surprised as he was that so +many deputies should be in the lobbies when the sitting was in progress. +Oh! the sitting indeed. The gravest matters, some bill of national +interest, might be under discussion, yet every member fled from it at the +sudden threat of an interpellation which might overturn the ministry. And +the passion stirring there was the restrained anger, the growing anxiety +of the present ministry's clients, who feared that they might have to +give place to others; and it was also the sudden hope, the eager hunger +of all who were waiting—the clients of the various possible ministries +of the morrow. +</p> + +<p> +Massot pointed to Barroux, the head of the Cabinet, who, though he was +out of his element in the Department of Finances, had taken it simply +because his generally recognised integrity was calculated to reassure +public opinion after the Panama crisis. Barroux was chatting in a corner +with the Minister of Public Instruction, Senator Taboureau, an old +university man with a shrinking, mournful air, who was extremely honest, +but totally ignorant of Paris, coming as he did from some far-away +provincial faculty. Barroux for his part was of decorative aspect, tall, +and with a handsome, clean-shaven face, which would have looked quite +noble had not his nose been rather too small. Although he was sixty, he +still had a profusion of curly snow-white hair completing the somewhat +theatrical majesty of his appearance, which he was wont to turn to +account when in the tribune. Coming of an old Parisian family, +well-to-do, an advocate by profession, then a Republican journalist under +the Empire, he had reached office with Gambetta, showing himself at once +honest and romantic, loud of speech, and somewhat stupid, but at the same +time very brave and very upright, and still clinging with ardent faith to +the principles of the great Revolution. However, his Jacobinism was +getting out of fashion, he was becoming an "ancestor," as it were, one of +the last props of the middle-class Republic, and the new comers, the +young politicians with long teeth, were beginning to smile at him. +Moreover, beneath the ostentation of his demeanour, and the pomp of his +eloquence, there was a man of hesitating, sentimental nature, a good +fellow who shed tears when re-perusing the verses of Lamartine. +</p> + +<p> +However, Monferrand, the minister for the Home Department, passed by and +drew Barroux aside to whisper a few words in his ear. He, Monferrand, was +fifty, short and fat, with a smiling, fatherly air; nevertheless a look +of keen intelligence appeared at times on his round and somewhat common +face fringed by a beard which was still dark. In him one divined a man of +government, with hands which were fitted for difficult tasks, and which +never released a prey. Formerly mayor of the town of Tulle, he came from +La Correze, where he owned a large estate. He was certainly a force in +motion, one whose constant rise was anxiously watched by keen observers. +He spoke in a simple quiet way, but with extraordinary power of +conviction. Having apparently no ambition, affecting indeed the greatest +disinterestedness, he nevertheless harboured the most ferocious +appetites. Sagnier had written that he was a thief and a murderer, having +strangled two of his aunts in order to inherit their property. But even +if he were a murderer, he was certainly not a vulgar one. +</p> + +<p> +Then, too, came another personage of the drama which was about to be +performed—deputy Vignon, whose arrival agitated the various groups. The +two ministers looked at him, whilst he, at once surrounded by his +friends, smiled at them from a distance. He was not yet thirty-six. Slim, +and of average height, very fair, with a fine blond beard of which he +took great care, a Parisian by birth, having rapidly made his way in the +government service, at one time Prefect at Bordeaux, he now represented +youth and the future in the Chamber. He had realised that new men were +needed in the direction of affairs in order to accomplish the more +urgent, indispensable reforms; and very ambitious and intelligent as he +was, knowing many things, he already had a programme, the application of +which he was quite capable of attempting, in part at any rate. However, +he evinced no haste, but was full of prudence and shrewdness, convinced +that his day would dawn, strong in the fact that he was as yet +compromised in nothing, but had all space before him. At bottom he was +merely a first-class administrator, clear and precise in speech, and his +programme only differed from Barroux's by the rejuvenation of its +formulas, although the advent of a Vignon ministry in place of a Barroux +ministry appeared an event of importance. And it was of Vignon that +Sagnier had written that he aimed at the Presidency of the Republic, even +should he have to march through blood to reach the Elysee Palace. +</p> + +<p> +"<i>Mon Dieu</i>!" Massot was explaining, "it's quite possible that Sagnier +isn't lying this time, and that he has really found a list of names in +some pocket-book of Hunter's that has fallen into his hands. I myself +have long known that Hunter was Duvillard's vote-recruiter in the affair +of the African Railways. But to understand matters one must first realise +what his mode of proceeding was, the skill and the kind of amiable +delicacy which he showed, which were far from the brutal corruption and +dirty trafficking that people imagine. One must be such a man as Sagnier +to picture a parliament as an open market, where every conscience is for +sale and is impudently knocked down to the highest bidder. Oh! things +happened in a very different way indeed; and they are explainable, and at +times even excusable. Thus the article is levelled in particular against +Barroux and Monferrand, who are designated in the clearest possible +manner although they are not named. You are no doubt aware that at the +time of the vote Barroux was at the Home Department and Monferrand at +that of Public Works, and so now they are accused of having betrayed +their trusts, the blackest of all social crimes. I don't know into what +political combinations Barroux may have entered, but I am ready to swear +that he put nothing in his pocket, for he is the most honest of men. As +for Monferrand, that's another matter; he's a man to carve himself his +share, only I should be much surprised if he had put himself in a bad +position. He's incapable of a blunder, particularly of a stupid blunder, +like that of taking money and leaving a receipt for it lying about." +</p> + +<p> +Massot paused, and with a jerk of his head called Pierre's attention to +Duthil, who, feverish, but nevertheless smiling, stood in a group which +had just collected around the two ministers. "There! do you see that +young man yonder, that dark handsome fellow whose beard looks so +triumphant?" +</p> + +<p> +"I know him," said Pierre. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh! you know Duthil. Well, he's one who most certainly took money. But +he's a mere bird. He came to us from Angouleme to lead the pleasantest of +lives here, and he has no more conscience, no more scruples, than the +pretty finches of his native part, who are ever love-making. Ah! for +Duthil, Hunter's money was like manna due to him, and he never even +paused to think that he was dirtying his fingers. You may be quite sure +he feels astonished that people should attach the slightest importance to +the matter." +</p> + +<p> +Then Massot designated another deputy in the same group, a man of fifty +or thereabouts, of slovenly aspect and lachrymose mien, lanky, too, like +a maypole, and somewhat bent by the weight of his head, which was long +and suggestive of a horse's. His scanty, straight, yellowish hair, his +drooping moustaches, in fact the whole of his distracted countenance, +expressed everlasting distress. +</p> + +<p> +"And Chaigneux, do you know him?" continued Massot, referring to the +deputy in question. "No? Well, look at him and ask yourself if it isn't +quite as natural that he, too, should have taken money. He came from +Arras. He was a solicitor there. When his division elected him he let +politics intoxicate him, and sold his practice to make his fortune in +Paris, where he installed himself with his wife and his three daughters. +And you can picture his bewilderment amidst those four women, terrible +women ever busy with finery, receiving and paying visits, and running +after marriageable men who flee away. It's ill-luck with a vengeance, the +daily defeat of a poor devil of mediocre attainments, who imagined that +his position as a deputy would facilitate money-making, and who is +drowning himself in it all. And so how can Chaigneux have done otherwise +than take money, he who is always hard up for a five-hundred-franc note! +I admit that originally he wasn't a dishonest man. But he's become one, +that's all." +</p> + +<p> +Massot was now fairly launched, and went on with his portraits, the +series which he had, at one moment, dreamt of writing under the title of +"Deputies for Sale." There were the simpletons who fell into the furnace, +the men whom ambition goaded to exasperation, the low minds that yielded +to the temptation of an open drawer, the company-promoters who grew +intoxicated and lost ground by dint of dealing with big figures. At the +same time, however, Massot admitted that these men were relatively few in +number, and that black sheep were to be found in every parliament of the +world. Then Sagnier's name cropped up again, and Massot remarked that +only Sagnier could regard the French Chambers as mere dens of thieves. +</p> + +<p> +Pierre, meantime, felt most interested in the tempest which the threat of +a ministerial crisis was stirring up before him. Not only the men like +Duthil and Chaigneux, pale at feeling the ground tremble beneath them, +and wondering whether they would not sleep at the Mazas prison that +night, were gathered round Barroux and Monferrand; all the latters' +clients were there, all who enjoyed influence or office through them, and +who would collapse and disappear should they happen to fall. And it was +something to see the anxious glances and the pale dread amidst all the +whispered chatter, the bits of information and tittle-tattle which were +carried hither and thither. Then, in a neighbouring group formed round +Vignon, who looked very calm and smiled, were the other clients, those +who awaited the moment to climb to the assault of power, in order that +they, in their turn, might at last possess influence or office. Eyes +glittered with covetousness, hopeful delight could be read in them, +pleasant surprise at the sudden opportunity now offered. Vignon avoided +replying to the over-direct questions of his friends, and simply +announced that he did not intend to intervene. Evidently enough his plan +was to let Mege interpellate and overthrow the ministry, for he did not +fear him, and in his own estimation would afterwards simply have to stoop +to pick up the fallen portfolios. +</p> + +<p> +"Ah! Monferrand now," little Massot was saying, "there's a rascal who +trims his sails! I knew him as an anti-clerical, a devourer of priests, +Monsieur l'Abbe, if you will allow me so to express myself; however, I +don't say this to be agreeable to you, but I think I may tell you for +certain that he has become reconciled to religion. At least, I have been +told that Monseigneur Martha, who is a great converter, now seldom leaves +him. This is calculated to please one in these new times, when science +has become bankrupt, and religion blooms afresh with delicious mysticism +on all sides, whether in art, literature, or society itself." +</p> + +<p> +Massot was jesting, according to his wont; but he spoke so amiably that +the priest could not do otherwise than bow. However, a great stir had set +in before them; it was announced that Mege was about to ascend the +tribune, and thereupon all the deputies hastened into the assembly hall, +leaving only the inquisitive visitors and a few journalists in the Salle +des Pas Perdus. +</p> + +<p> +"It's astonishing that Fonsegue hasn't yet arrived," resumed Massot; +"he's interested in what's going on. However, he's so cunning, that when +he doesn't behave as others do, one may be sure that he has his reasons +for it. Do you know him?" And as Pierre gave a negative answer, Massot +went on: "Oh! he's a man of brains and real power—I speak with all +freedom, you know, for I don't possess the bump of veneration; and, as +for my editors, well, they're the very puppets that I know the best and +pick to pieces with the most enjoyment. Fonsegue, also, is clearly +designated in Sagnier's article. Moreover, he's one of Duvillard's usual +clients. There can be no doubt that he took money, for he takes money in +everything. Only he always protects himself, and takes it for reasons +which may be acknowledged—as payment or commission on account of +advertising, and so forth. And if I left him just now, looking, as it +seemed to me, rather disturbed, and if he delays his arrival here to +establish, as it were, a moral alibi, the truth must be that he has +committed the first imprudent action in his life." +</p> + +<p> +Then Massot rattled on, telling all there was to tell about Fonsegue. He, +too, came from the department of La Correze, and had quarrelled for life +with Monferrand after some unknown underhand affairs. Formerly an +advocate at Tulle, his ambition had been to conquer Paris; and he had +really conquered it, thanks to his big morning newspaper, "Le Globe," of +which he was both founder and director. He now resided in a luxurious +mansion in the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, and no enterprise was launched +but he carved himself a princely share in it. He had a genius for +"business," and employed his newspaper as a weapon to enable him to reign +over the market. But how very carefully he had behaved, what long and +skilful patience he had shown, before attaining to the reputation of a +really serious man, who guided authoritatively the most virtuous and +respected of the organs of the press! Though in reality he believed +neither in God nor in Devil, he had made this newspaper the supporter of +order, property, and family ties; and though he had become a Conservative +Republican, since it was to his interest to be such, he had remained +outwardly religious, affecting a Spiritualism which reassured the +<i>bourgeoisie</i>. And amidst all his accepted power, to which others bowed, +he nevertheless had one hand deep in every available money-bag. +</p> + +<p> +"Ah! Monsieur l'Abbe," said Massot, "see to what journalism may lead a +man. There you have Sagnier and Fonsegue: just compare them a bit. In +reality they are birds of the same feather: each has a quill and uses it. +But how different the systems and the results. Sagnier's print is really +a sewer which rolls him along and carries him to the cesspool; while the +other's paper is certainly an example of the best journalism one can +have, most carefully written, with a real literary flavour, a treat for +readers of delicate minds, and an honour to the man who directs it. But +at the bottom, good heavens! in both cases the farce is precisely the +same!" +</p> + +<p> +Massot burst out laughing, well pleased with this final thrust. Then all +at once: "Ah! here's Fonsegue at last!" said he. +</p> + +<p> +Quite at his ease, and still laughing, he forthwith introduced the +priest. "This is Monsieur l'Abbe Froment, my dear <i>patron</i>, who has been +waiting more than twenty minutes for you—I'm just going to see what is +happening inside. You know that Mege is interpellating the government." +</p> + +<p> +The new comer started slightly: "An interpellation!" said he. "All right, +all right, I'll go to it." +</p> + +<p> +Pierre was looking at him. He was about fifty years of age, short of +stature, thin and active, still looking young without a grey hair in his +black beard. He had sparkling eyes, too, but his mouth, said to be a +terrible one, was hidden by his moustaches. And withal he looked a +pleasant companion, full of wit to the tip of his little pointed nose, +the nose of a sporting dog that is ever scenting game. "What can I do for +you, Monsieur l'Abbe?" he inquired. +</p> + +<p> +Then Pierre briefly presented his request, recounting his visit to +Laveuve that morning, giving every heart-rending particular, and asking +for the poor wretch's immediate admittance to the Asylum. +</p> + +<p> +"Laveuve!" said the other, "but hasn't his affair been examined? Why, +Duthil drew up a report on it, and things appeared to us of such a nature +that we could not vote for the man's admittance." +</p> + +<p> +But the priest insisted: "I assure you, monsieur, that your heart would +have burst with compassion had you been with me this morning. It is +revolting that an old man should be left in such frightful abandonment +even for another hour. He must sleep at the Asylum to-night." +</p> + +<p> +Fonsegue began to protest. "To-night! But it's impossible, altogether +impossible! There are all sorts of indispensable formalities to be +observed. And besides I alone cannot take such responsibility. I haven't +the power. I am only the manager; all that I do is to execute the orders +of the committee of lady patronesses." +</p> + +<p> +"But it was precisely Baroness Duvillard who sent me to you, monsieur, +telling me that you alone had the necessary authority to grant immediate +admittance in an exceptional case." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh! it was the Baroness who sent you? Ah! that is just like her, +incapable of coming to any decision herself, and far too desirous of her +own quietude to accept any responsibility. Why is it that she wants me to +have the worries? No, no, Monsieur l'Abbe, I certainly won't go against +all our regulations; I won't give an order which would perhaps embroil me +with all those ladies. You don't know them, but they become positively +terrible directly they attend our meetings." +</p> + +<p> +He was growing lively, defending himself with a jocular air, whilst in +secret he was fully determined to do nothing. However, just then Duthil +abruptly reappeared, darting along bareheaded, hastening from lobby to +lobby to recruit absent members, particularly those who were interested +in the grave debate at that moment beginning. "What, Fonsegue!" he cried, +"are you still here? Go, go to your seat at once, it's serious!" And +thereupon he disappeared. +</p> + +<p> +His colleague evinced no haste, however. It was as if the suspicious +affair which was impassioning the Chamber had no concern for him. And he +still smiled, although a slight feverish quiver made him blink. "Excuse +me, Monsieur l'Abbe," he said at last. "You see that my friends have need +of me. I repeat to you that I can do absolutely nothing for your +<i>protege</i>." +</p> + +<p> +But Pierre would not accept this reply as a final one. "No, no, +monsieur," he rejoined, "go to your affairs, I will wait for you here. +Don't come to a decision without full reflection. You are wanted, and I +feel that your mind is not sufficiently at liberty for you to listen to +me properly. By-and-by, when you come back and give me your full +attention, I am sure that you will grant me what I ask." +</p> + +<p> +And, although Fonsegue, as he went off, repeated that he could not alter +his decision, the priest stubbornly resolved to make him do so, and sat +down on the bench again, prepared, if needful, to stay there till the +evening. The Salle des Pas Perdus was now almost quite empty, and looked +yet more frigid and mournful with its Laocoon and its Minerva, its bare +commonplace walls like those of a railway-station waiting-room, between +which all the scramble of the century passed, though apparently without +even warming the lofty ceiling. Never had paler and more callous light +entered by the large glazed doors, behind which one espied the little +slumberous garden with its meagre, wintry lawns. And not an echo of the +tempest of the sitting near at hand reached the spot; from the whole +heavy pile there fell but death-like silence, and a covert quiver of +distress that had come from far away, perhaps from the entire country. +</p> + +<p> +It was that which now haunted Pierre's reverie. The whole ancient, +envenomed sore spread out before his mind's eye, with its poison and +virulence. Parliamentary rottenness had slowly increased till it had +begun to attack society itself. Above all the low intrigues and the rush +of personal ambition there certainly remained the loftier struggle of the +contending principles, with history on the march, clearing the past away +and seeking to bring more truth, justice, and happiness in the future. +But in practice, if one only considered the horrid daily cuisine of the +sphere, what an unbridling of egotistical appetite one beheld, what an +absorbing passion to strangle one's neighbour and triumph oneself alone! +Among the various groups one found but an incessant battle for power and +the satisfactions that it gives. "Left," "Right," "Catholics," +"Republicans," "Socialists," the names given to the parties of twenty +different shades, were simply labels classifying forms of the one burning +thirst to rule and dominate. All questions could be reduced to a single +one, that of knowing whether this man, that man, or that other man should +hold France in his grasp, to enjoy it, and distribute its favours among +his creatures. And the worst was that the outcome of the great +parliamentary battles, the days and the weeks lost in setting this man in +the place of that man, and that other man in the place of this man, was +simply stagnation, for not one of the three men was better than his +fellows, and there were but vague points of difference between them; in +such wise that the new master bungled the very same work as the previous +one had bungled, forgetful, perforce, of programmes and promises as soon +as ever he began to reign. +</p> + +<p> +However, Pierre's thoughts invincibly reverted to Laveuve, whom he had +momentarily forgotten, but who now seized hold of him again with a quiver +as of anger and death. Ah! what could it matter to that poor old wretch, +dying of hunger on his bed of rags, whether Mege should overthrow +Barroux's ministry, and whether a Vignon ministry should ascend to power +or not! At that rate, a century, two centuries, would be needed before +there would be bread in the garrets where groan the lamed sons of labour, +the old, broken-down beasts of burden. And behind Laveuve there appeared +the whole army of misery, the whole multitude of the disinherited and the +poor, who agonised and asked for justice whilst the Chamber, sitting in +all pomp, grew furiously impassioned over the question as to whom the +nation should belong to, as to who should devour it. Mire was flowing on +in a broad stream, the hideous, bleeding, devouring sore displayed itself +in all impudence, like some cancer which preys upon an organ and spreads +to the heart. And what disgust, what nausea must such a spectacle +inspire; and what a longing for the vengeful knife that would bring +health and joy! +</p> + +<p> +Pierre could not have told for how long he had been plunged in this +reverie, when uproar again filled the hall. People were coming back, +gesticulating and gathering in groups. And suddenly he heard little +Massot exclaim near him: "Well, if it isn't down it's not much better +off. I wouldn't give four sous for its chance of surviving." +</p> + +<p> +He referred to the ministry, and began to recount the sitting to a fellow +journalist who had just arrived. Mege had spoken very eloquently, with +extraordinary fury of indignation against the rotten <i>bourgeoisie</i>, which +rotted everything it touched; but, as usual, he had gone much too far, +alarming the Chamber by his very violence. And so, when Barroux had +ascended the tribune to ask for a month's adjournment of the +interpellation, he had merely had occasion to wax indignant, in all +sincerity be it said, full of lofty anger that such infamous campaigns +should be carried on by a certain portion of the press. Were the shameful +Panama scandals about to be renewed? Were the national representatives +going to let themselves be intimidated by fresh threats of denunciation? +It was the Republic itself which its adversaries were seeking to submerge +beneath a flood of abominations. No, no, the hour had come for one to +collect one's thoughts, and work in quietude without allowing those who +hungered for scandal to disturb the public peace. And the Chamber, +impressed by these words, fearing, too, lest the electorate should at +last grow utterly weary of the continuous overflow of filth, had +adjourned the interpellation to that day month. However, although Vignon +had not personally intervened in the debate, the whole of his group had +voted against the ministry, with the result that the latter had merely +secured a majority of two votes—a mockery. +</p> + +<p> +"But in that case they will resign," said somebody to Massot. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, so it's rumoured. But Barroux is very tenacious. At all events if +they show any obstinacy they will be down before a week is over, +particularly as Sagnier, who is quite furious, declares that he will +publish the list of names to-morrow." +</p> + +<p> +Just then, indeed, Barroux and Monferrand were seen to pass, hastening +along with thoughtful, busy mien, and followed by their anxious clients. +It was said that the whole Cabinet was about to assemble to consider the +position and come to a decision. And then Vignon, in his turn, reappeared +amidst a stream of friends. He, for his part, was radiant, with a joy +which he sought to conceal, calming his friends in his desire not to cry +victory too soon. However, the eyes of the band glittered, like those of +a pack of hounds when the moment draws near for the offal of the quarry +to be distributed. And even Mege also looked triumphant. He had all but +overthrown the ministry. That made another one that was worn out, and +by-and-by he would wear out Vignon's, and at last govern in his turn. +</p> + +<p> +"The devil!" muttered little Massot, "Chaigneux and Duthil look like +whipped dogs. And see, there's nobody who is worth the governor. Just +look at him, how superb he is, that Fonsegue! But good-by, I must now be +off!" +</p> + +<p> +Then he shook hands with his brother journalist unwilling as he was to +remain any longer, although the sitting still continued, some bill of +public importance again being debated before the rows of empty seats. +</p> + +<p> +Chaigneux, with his desolate mien, had gone to lean against the pedestal +of the high figure of Minerva; and never before had he been more bowed +down by his needy distress, the everlasting anguish of his ill-luck. On +the other hand, Duthil, in spite of everything, was perorating in the +centre of a group with an affectation of scoffing unconcern; nevertheless +nervous twitches made his nose pucker and distorted his mouth, while the +whole of his handsome face was becoming moist with fear. And even as +Massot had said, there really was only Fonsegue who showed composure and +bravery, ever the same with his restless little figure, and his eyes +beaming with wit, though at times they were just faintly clouded by a +shadow of uneasiness. +</p> + +<p> +Pierre had risen to renew his request; but Fonsegue forestalled him, +vivaciously exclaiming: "No, no, Monsieur l'Abbe, I repeat that I cannot +take on myself such an infraction of our rules. There was an inquiry, and +a decision was arrived at. How would you have me over-rule it?" +</p> + +<p> +"Monsieur," said the priest, in a tone of deep grief, "it is a question +of an old man who is hungry and cold, and in danger of death if he be not +succoured." +</p> + +<p> +With a despairing gesture, the director of "Le Globe" seemed to take the +very walls as witnesses of his powerlessness. No doubt he feared some +nasty affair for his newspaper, in which he had abused the Invalids of +Labour enterprise as an electoral weapon. Perhaps, too, the secret terror +into which the sitting of the Chamber had just thrown him was hardening +his heart. "I can do nothing," he repeated. "But naturally I don't ask +better than to have my hands forced by the ladies of the Committee. You +already have the support of the Baroness Duvillard, secure that of some +others." +</p> + +<p> +Pierre, who was determined to fight on to the very end, saw in this +suggestion a supreme chance. "I know the Countess de Quinsac," he said, +"I can go to see her at once." +</p> + +<p> +"Quite so! an excellent idea, the Countess de Quinsac! Take a cab and go +to see the Princess de Harn as well. She bestirs herself a great deal, +and is becoming very influential. Secure the approval of these ladies, go +back to the Baroness's at seven, get a letter from her to cover me, and +then call on me at the office of my paper. That done, your man shall +sleep at the Asylum at nine o'clock!" +</p> + +<p> +He evinced in speaking a kind of joyous good nature, as though he no +longer doubted of success now that he ran no risk of compromising +himself. And great hope again came back to the priest: "Ah! thank you, +monsieur," he said; "it is a work of salvation that you will accomplish." +</p> + +<p> +"But you surely know that I ask nothing better. Ah! if we could only cure +misery, prevent hunger and thirst by a mere word. However, make haste, +you have not a minute to lose." +</p> + +<p> +They shook hands, and Pierre at once tried to get out of the throng. +This, however, was no easy task, for the various groups had grown larger +as all the anger and anguish, roused by the recent debate, ebbed back +there amid a confused tumult. It was as when a stone, cast into a pool, +stirs the ooze below, and causes hidden, rotting things to rise once more +to the surface. And Pierre had to bring his elbows into play and force a +passage athwart the throng, betwixt the shivering cowardice of some, the +insolent audacity of others, and the smirchings which sullied the greater +number, given the contagion which inevitably prevailed. However, he +carried away a fresh hope, and it seemed to him that if he should save a +life, make but one man happy that day, it would be like a first +instalment of redemption, a sign that a little forgiveness would be +extended to the many follies and errors of that egotistical and +all-devouring political world. +</p> + +<p> +On reaching the vestibule a final incident detained him for a moment +longer. Some commotion prevailed there following upon a quarrel between a +man and an usher, the latter of whom had prevented the former from +entering on finding that the admission ticket which he tendered was an +old one, with its original date scratched out. The man, very rough at the +outset, had then refrained from insisting, as if indeed sudden timidity +had come upon him. And in this ill-dressed fellow Pierre was astonished +to recognise Salvat, the journeyman engineer, whom he had seen going off +in search of work that same morning. This time it was certainly he, tall, +thin and ravaged, with dreamy yet flaming eyes, which set his pale +starveling's face aglow. He no longer carried his tool-bag; his ragged +jacket was buttoned up and distended on the left side by something that +he carried in a pocket, doubtless some hunk of bread. And on being +repulsed by the ushers, he walked away, taking the Concorde bridge, +slowly, as if chancewise, like a man who knows not whither he is going. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<h3> +IV +</h3> + +<h3> +SOCIAL SIDELIGHTS +</h3> + +<p> +IN her old faded drawing-room—a Louis Seize <i>salon</i> with grey +woodwork—the Countess de Quinsac sat near the chimney-piece in her +accustomed place. She was singularly like her son, with a long and noble +face, her chin somewhat stern, but her eyes still beautiful beneath her +fine snowy hair, which was arranged in the antiquated style of her youth. +And whatever her haughty coldness, she knew how to be amiable, with +perfect, kindly graciousness. +</p> + +<p> +Slightly waving her hand after a long silence, she resumed, addressing +herself to the Marquis de Morigny, who sat on the other side of the +chimney, where for long years he had always taken the same armchair. "Ah! +you are right, my friend, Providence has left us here forgotten, in a +most abominable epoch." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, we passed by the side of happiness and missed it," the Marquis +slowly replied, "and it was your fault, and doubtless mine as well." +</p> + +<p> +Smiling sadly, she stopped him with another wave of her hand. And the +silence fell once more; not a sound from the streets reached that gloomy +ground floor at the rear of the courtyard of an old mansion in the Rue +St. Dominique, almost at the corner of the Rue de Bourgogne. +</p> + +<p> +The Marquis was an old man of seventy-five, nine years older than the +Countess. Short and thin though he was, he none the less had a +distinguished air, with his clean-shaven face, furrowed by deep, +aristocratic wrinkles. He belonged to one of the most ancient families of +France, and remained one of the last hopeless Legitimists, of very pure +and lofty views, zealously keeping his faith to the dead monarchy amidst +the downfall of everything. His fortune, still estimated at several +millions of francs, remained, as it were, in a state of stagnation, +through his refusal to invest it in any of the enterprises of the +century. It was known that in all discretion he had loved the Countess, +even when M. de Quinsac was alive, and had, moreover, offered marriage +after the latter's death, at the time when the widow had sought a refuge +on that damp ground floor with merely an income of some 15,000 francs, +saved with great difficulty from the wreck of the family fortune. But +she, who adored her son Gerard, then in his tenth year, and of delicate +health, had sacrificed everything to the boy from a kind of maternal +chasteness and a superstitious fear that she might lose him should she +set another affection and another duty in her life. And the Marquis, +while bowing to her decision, had continued to worship her with his whole +soul, ever paying his court as on the first evening when he had seen her, +still gallant and faithful after a quarter of a century had passed. There +had never been anything between them, not even the exchange of a kiss. +</p> + +<p> +Seeing how sad she looked, he feared that he might have displeased her, +and so he asked: "I should have liked to render you happy, but I didn't +know how, and the fault can certainly only rest with me. Is Gerard giving +you any cause for anxiety?" +</p> + +<p> +She shook her head, and then replied: "As long as things remain as they +are we cannot complain of them, my friend, since we accepted them." +</p> + +<p> +She referred to her son's culpable connection with Baroness Duvillard. +She had ever shown much weakness with regard to that son whom she had had +so much trouble to rear, for she alone knew what exhaustion, what racial +collapse was hidden behind his proud bearing. She tolerated his idleness, +the apathetic disgust which, man of pleasure that he was, had turned him +from the profession of diplomacy as from that of arms. How many times had +she not repaired his acts of folly and paid his petty debts, keeping +silent concerning them, and refusing all pecuniary help from the Marquis, +who no longer dared offer his millions, so stubbornly intent she was on +living upon the remnants of her own fortune. And thus she had ended by +closing her eyes to her son's scandalous love intrigue, divining in some +measure how things had happened, through self-abandonment and lack of +conscience—the man weak, unable to resume possession of himself, and the +woman holding and retaining him. The Marquis, however, strangely enough, +had only forgiven the intrigue on the day when Eve had allowed herself to +be converted. +</p> + +<p> +"You know, my friend, how good-natured Gerard is," the Countess resumed. +"In that lie both his strength and weakness. How would you have me scold +him when he weeps over it all with me? He will tire of that woman." +</p> + +<p> +M. de Morigny wagged his head. "She is still very beautiful," said he. +"And then there's the daughter. It would be graver still if he were to +marry her—" +</p> + +<p> +"But the daughter's infirm?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, and you know what would be said: A Quinsac marrying a monster for +the sake of her millions." +</p> + +<p> +This was their mutual terror. They knew everything that went on at the +Duvillards, the affectionate friendship of the uncomely Camille and the +handsome Gerard, the seeming idyll beneath which lurked the most awful of +dramas. And they protested with all their indignation. "Oh! that, no, no, +never!" the Countess declared. "My son in that family, no, I will never +consent to it." +</p> + +<p> +Just at that moment General de Bozonnet entered. He was much attached to +his sister and came to keep her company on the days when she received, +for the old circle had gradually dwindled down till now only a few +faithful ones ventured into that grey gloomy <i>salon</i>, where one might +have fancied oneself at thousands of leagues from present-day Paris. And +forthwith, in order to enliven the room, he related that he had been to +<i>dejeuner</i> at the Duvillards, and named the guests, Gerard among them. He +knew that he pleased his sister by going to the banker's house whence he +brought her news, a house, too, which he cleansed in some degree by +conferring on it the great honour of his presence. And he himself in no +wise felt bored there, for he had long been gained over to the century +and showed himself of a very accommodating disposition in everything that +did not pertain to military art. +</p> + +<p> +"That poor little Camille worships Gerard," said he; "she was devouring +him with her eyes at table." +</p> + +<p> +But M. de Morigny gravely intervened: "There lies the danger, a marriage +would be absolutely monstrous from every point of view." +</p> + +<p> +The General seemed astonished: "Why, pray? She isn't beautiful, but it's +not only the beauties who marry! And there are her millions. However, our +dear child would only have to put them to a good use. True, there is also +the mother; but, <i>mon Dieu</i>! such things are so common nowadays in Paris +society." +</p> + +<p> +This revolted the Marquis, who made a gesture of utter disgust. What was +the use of discussion when all collapsed? How could one answer a +Bozonnet, the last surviving representative of such an illustrious +family, when he reached such a point as to excuse the infamous morals +that prevailed under the Republic; after denying his king, too, and +serving the Empire, faithfully and passionately attaching himself to the +fortunes and memory of Caesar? However, the Countess also became +indignant: "Oh! what are you saying, brother? I will never authorize such +a scandal, I swore so only just now." +</p> + +<p> +"Don't swear, sister," exclaimed the General; "for my part I should like +to see our Gerard happy. That's all. And one must admit that he's not +good for much. I can understand that he didn't go into the Army, for that +profession is done for. But I do not so well understand why he did not +enter the diplomatic profession, or accept some other occupation. It is +very fine, no doubt, to run down the present times and declare that a man +of our sphere cannot possibly do any clean work in them. But, as a matter +of fact, it is only idle fellows who still say that. And Gerard has but +one excuse, his lack of aptitude, will and strength." +</p> + +<p> +Tears had risen to the mother's eyes. She even trembled, well knowing how +deceitful were appearances: a mere chill might carry her son off, however +tall and strong he might look. And was he not indeed a symbol of that +old-time aristocracy, still so lofty and proud in appearance, though at +bottom it is but dust? +</p> + +<p> +"Well," continued the General, "he's thirty-six now; he's constantly +hanging on your hands, and he must make an end of it all." +</p> + +<p> +However, the Countess silenced him and turned to the Marquis: "Let us put +our confidence in God, my friend," said she. "He cannot but come to my +help, for I have never willingly offended Him." +</p> + +<p> +"Never!" replied the Marquis, who in that one word set an expression of +all his grief, all his affection and worship for that woman whom he had +adored for so many years. +</p> + +<p> +But another faithful friend came in and the conversation changed. M. de +Larombiere, Vice-President of the Appeal Court, was an old man of +seventy-five, thin, bald and clean shaven but for a pair of little white +whiskers. And his grey eyes, compressed mouth and square and obstinate +chin lent an expression of great austerity to his long face. The grief of +his life was that, being afflicted with a somewhat childish lisp, he had +never been able to make his full merits known when a public prosecutor, +for he esteemed himself to be a great orator. And this secret worry +rendered him morose. In him appeared an incarnation of that old royalist +France which sulked and only served the Republic against its heart, that +old stern magistracy which closed itself to all evolution, to all new +views of things and beings. Of petty "gown" nobility, originally a +Legitimist but now supporting Orleanism, he believed himself to be the +one man of wisdom and logic in that <i>salon</i>, where he was very proud to +meet the Marquis. +</p> + +<p> +They talked of the last events; but with them political conversation was +soon exhausted, amounting as it did to a mere bitter condemnation of men +and occurrences, for all three were of one mind as to the abominations of +the Republican <i>regime</i>. They themselves, however, were only ruins, the +remnants of the old parties now all but utterly powerless. The Marquis +for his part soared on high, yielding in nothing, ever faithful to the +dead past; he was one of the last representatives of that lofty obstinate +<i>noblesse</i> which dies when it finds itself without an effort to escape +its fate. The judge, who at least had a pretender living, relied on a +miracle, and demonstrated the necessity for one if France were not to +sink into the depths of misfortune and completely disappear. And as for +the General, all that he regretted of the two Empires was their great +wars; he left the faint hope of a Bonapartist restoration on one side to +declare that by not contenting itself with the Imperial military system, +and by substituting thereto obligatory service, the nation in arms, the +Republic had killed both warfare and the country. +</p> + +<p> +When the Countess's one man-servant came to ask her if she would consent +to receive Abbe Froment she seemed somewhat surprised. "What can he want +of me? Show him in," she said. +</p> + +<p> +She was very pious, and having met Pierre in connection with various +charitable enterprises, she had been touched by his zeal as well as by +the saintly reputation which he owed to his Neuilly parishioners. +</p> + +<p> +He, absorbed by his fever, felt intimidated directly he crossed the +threshold. He could at first distinguish nothing, but fancied he was +entering some place of mourning, a shadowy spot where human forms seemed +to melt away, and voices were never raised above a whisper. Then, on +perceiving the persons present, he felt yet more out of his element, for +they seemed so sad, so far removed from the world whence he had just +come, and whither he was about to return. And when the Countess had made +him sit down beside her in front of the chimney-piece, it was in a low +voice that he told her the lamentable story of Laveuve, and asked her +support to secure the man's admittance to the Asylum for the Invalids of +Labour. +</p> + +<p> +"Ah! yes," said she, "that enterprise which my son wished me to belong +to. But, Monsieur l'Abbe, I have never once attended the Committee +meetings. So how could I intervene, having assuredly no influence +whatever?" +</p> + +<p> +Again had the figures of Eve and Gerard arisen before her, for it was at +this asylum that the pair had first met. And influenced by her sorrowful +maternal love she was already weakening, although it was regretfully that +she had lent her name to one of those noisy charitable enterprises, which +people abused to further their selfish interests in a manner she +condemned. +</p> + +<p> +"But, madame," Pierre insisted, "it is a question of a poor starving old +man. I implore you to be compassionate." +</p> + +<p> +Although the priest had spoken in a low voice the General drew near. +"It's for your old revolutionary that you are running about, is it not," +said he. "Didn't you succeed with the manager, then? The fact is that +it's difficult to feel any pity for fellows who, if they were the +masters, would, as they themselves say, sweep us all away." +</p> + +<p> +M. de Larombiere jerked his chin approvingly. For some time past he had +been haunted by the Anarchist peril. But Pierre, distressed and +quivering, again began to plead his cause. He spoke of all the frightful +misery, the homes where there was no food, the women and children +shivering with cold, and the fathers scouring muddy, wintry Paris in +search of a bit of bread. All that he asked for was a line on a visiting +card, a kindly word from the Countess, which he would at once carry to +Baroness Duvillard to prevail on her to set the regulations aside. And +his words fell one by one, tremulous with stifled tears, in that mournful +<i>salon</i>, like sounds from afar, dying away in a dead world where there +was no echo left. +</p> + +<p> +Madame de Quinsac turned towards M. de Morigny, but he seemed to take no +interest in it all. He was gazing fixedly at the fire, with the haughty +air of a stranger who was indifferent to the things and beings in whose +midst an error of time compelled him to live. But feeling that the glance +of the woman he worshipped was fixed upon him he raised his head; and +then their eyes met for a moment with an expression of infinite +gentleness, the mournful gentleness of their heroic love. +</p> + +<p> +"<i>Mon Dieu</i>!" said she, "I know your merits, Monsieur l'Abbe, and I won't +refuse my help to one of your good works." +</p> + +<p> +Then she went off for a moment, and returned with a card on which she had +written that she supported with all her heart Monsieur l'Abbe Froment in +the steps he was taking. And he thanked her and went off delighted, as if +he carried yet a fresh hope of salvation from that drawing-room where, as +he retired, gloom and silence once more seemed to fall on that old lady +and her last faithful friends gathered around the fire, last relics of a +world that was soon to disappear. +</p> + +<p> +Once outside, Pierre joyfully climbed into his cab again, after giving +the Princess de Harn's address in the Avenue Kleber. If he could also +obtain her approval he would no longer doubt of success. However, there +was such a crush on the Concorde bridge, that the driver had to walk his +horse. And, on the foot-pavement, Pierre again saw Duthil, who, with a +cigar between his lips, was smiling at the crowd, with his amiable +bird-like heedlessness, happy as he felt at finding the pavement dry and +the sky blue on leaving that worrying sitting of the Chamber. Seeing how +gay and triumphant he looked, a sudden inspiration came to the priest, +who said to himself that he ought to win over this young man, whose +report had had such a disastrous effect. As it happened, the cab having +been compelled to stop altogether, the deputy had just recognized him and +was smiling at him. +</p> + +<p> +"Where are you going, Monsieur Duthil?" Pierre asked. +</p> + +<p> +"Close by, in the Champs Elysees." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm going that way, and, as I should much like to speak to you for a +moment, it would be very kind of you to take a seat beside me. I will set +you down wherever you like." +</p> + +<p> +"Willingly, Monsieur l'Abbe. It won't inconvenience you if I finish my +cigar?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh! not at all." +</p> + +<p> +The cab found its way out of the crush, crossed the Place de la Concorde +and began to ascend the Champs Elysees. And Pierre, reflecting that he +had very few minutes before him, at once attacked Duthil, quite ready for +any effort to convince him. He remembered what a sortie the young deputy +had made against Laveuve at the Baron's; and thus he was astonished to +hear him interrupt and say quite pleasantly, enlivened as he seemed by +the bright sun which was again beginning to shine: "Ah, yes! your old +drunkard! So you didn't settle his business with Fonsegue? And what is it +you want? To have him admitted to-day? Well, you know I don't oppose it?" +</p> + +<p> +"But there's your report." +</p> + +<p> +"My report, oh, my report! But questions change according to the way one +looks at them. And if you are so anxious about your Laveuve I won't +refuse to help you." +</p> + +<p> +Pierre looked at him in astonishment, at bottom extremely well pleased. +And there was no further necessity even for him to speak. +</p> + +<p> +"You didn't take the matter in hand properly," continued Duthil, leaning +forward with a confidential air. "It's the Baron who's the master at +home, for reasons which you may divine, which you may very likely know. +The Baroness does all that he asks without even discussing the point; and +this morning,—instead of starting on a lot of useless visits, you only +had to gain his support, particularly as he seemed to be very well +disposed. And she would then have given way immediately." Duthil began to +laugh. "And so," he continued, "do you know what I'll do? Well, I'll gain +the Baron over to your cause. Yes, I am this moment going to a house +where he is, where one is certain to find him every day at this time." +Then he laughed more loudly. "And perhaps you are not ignorant of it, +Monsieur l'Abbe. When he is there you may be certain he never gives a +refusal. I promise you I'll make him swear that he will compel his wife +to grant your man admission this very evening. Only it will, perhaps, be +rather late." +</p> + +<p> +Then all at once, as if struck by a fresh idea, Duthil went on: "But why +shouldn't you come with me? You secure a line from the Baron, and +thereupon, without losing a minute, you go in search of the Baroness. Ah! +yes, the house embarrasses you a little, I understand it. Would you like +to see only the Baron there? You can wait for him in a little <i>salon</i> +downstairs; I will bring him to you." +</p> + +<p> +This proposal made Duthil altogether merry, but Pierre, quite scared, +hesitated at the idea of thus going to Silviane d'Aulnay's. It was hardly +a place for him. However, to achieve his purpose, he would have descended +into the very dwelling of the fiend, and had already done so sometimes +with Abbe Rose, when there was hope of assuaging wretchedness. So he +turned to Duthil and consented to accompany him. +</p> + +<p> +Silviane d'Aulnay's little mansion, a very luxurious one, displaying, +too, so to say, the luxury of a temple, refined but suggestive of +gallantry, stood in the Avenue d'Antin, near the Champs Elysees. The +inmate of this sanctuary, where the orfrays of old dalmaticas glittered +in the mauve reflections from the windows of stained-glass, had just +completed her twenty-fifth year. Short and slim she was, of an adorable, +dark beauty, and all Paris was acquainted with her delicious, virginal +countenance of a gentle oval, her delicate nose, her little mouth, her +candid cheeks and artless chin, above all which she wore her black hair +in thick, heavy bands, which hid her low brow. Her notoriety was due +precisely to her pretty air of astonishment, the infinite purity of her +blue eyes, the whole expression of chaste innocence which she assumed +when it so pleased her, an expression which contrasted powerfully with +her true nature, shameless creature that she really was, of the most +monstrous, confessed, and openly-displayed perversity; such as, in fact, +often spring up from the rotting soil of great cities. Extraordinary +things were related about Silviane's tastes and fancies. Some said that +she was a door-keeper's, others a doctor's, daughter. In any case she had +managed to acquire instruction and manners, for when occasion required +she lacked neither wit, nor style, nor deportment. She had been rolling +through the theatres for ten years or so, applauded for her beauty's +sake, and she had even ended by obtaining some pretty little successes in +such parts as those of very pure young girls or loving and persecuted +young women. Since there had been a question, though, of her entering the +Comedie Francaise to play the <i>role</i> of Pauline in "Polyeucte," some +people had waxed indignant and others had roared with laughter, so +ridiculous did the idea appear, so outrageous for the majesty of classic +tragedy. She, however, quiet and stubborn, wished this thing to be, was +resolved that it should be, certain as she was that she would secure it, +insolent like a creature to whom men had never yet been able to refuse +anything. +</p> + +<p> +That day, at three o'clock, Gerard de Quinsac, not knowing how to kill +the time pending the appointment he had given Eve in the Rue Matignon, +had thought of calling at Silviane's, which was in the neighbourhood. She +was an old caprice of his, and even nowadays he would sometimes linger at +the little mansion if its pretty mistress felt bored. But he had this +time found her in a fury; and, reclining in one of the deep armchairs of +the <i>salon</i> where "old gold" formed the predominant colour, he was +listening to her complaints. She, standing in a white gown, white indeed +from head to foot like Eve herself at the <i>dejeuner</i>, was speaking +passionately, and fast convincing the young man, who, won over by so much +youth and beauty, unconsciously compared her to his other flame, weary +already of his coming assignation, and so mastered by supineness, both +moral and physical, that he would have preferred to remain all day in the +depths of that armchair. +</p> + +<p> +"You hear me, Gerard!" she at last exclaimed, "I'll have nothing whatever +to do with him, unless he brings me my nomination." +</p> + +<p> +Just then Baron Duvillard came in, and forthwith she changed to ice and +received him like some sorely offended young queen who awaits an +explanation; whilst he, who foresaw the storm and brought moreover +disastrous tidings, forced a smile, though very ill at ease. She was the +stain, the blemish attaching to that man who was yet so sturdy and so +powerful amidst the general decline of his race. And she was also the +beginning of justice and punishment, taking all his piled-up gold from +him by the handful, and by her cruelty avenging those who shivered and +who starved. And it was pitiful to see that feared and flattered man, +beneath whom states and governments trembled, here turn pale with +anxiety, bend low in all humility, and relapse into the senile, lisping +infancy of acute passion. +</p> + +<p> +"Ah! my dear friend," said he, "if you only knew how I have been rushing +about. I had a lot of worrying business, some contractors to see, a big +advertisement affair to settle, and I feared that I should never be able +to come and kiss your hand." +</p> + +<p> +He kissed it, but she let her arm fall, coldly, indifferently, contenting +herself with looking at him, waiting for what he might have to say to +her, and embarrassing him to such a point that he began to perspire and +stammer, unable to express himself. "Of course," he began, "I also +thought of you, and went to the Fine Arts Office, where I had received a +positive promise. Oh! they are still very much in your favour at the Fine +Arts Office! Only, just fancy, it's that idiot of a minister, that +Taboureau,* an old professor from the provinces who knows nothing about +our Paris, that has expressly opposed your nomination, saying that as +long as he is in office you shall not appear at the Comedie." +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> + * Taboureau is previously described as Minister of Public + Instruction. It should be pointed out, however, that + although under the present Republic the Ministries of + Public Instruction and Fine Arts have occasionally been + distinct departments, at other times they have been + united, one minister, as in Taboureau's case, having + charge of both.—Trans. +</p> + +<p> +Erect and rigid, she spoke but two words: "And then?" +</p> + +<p> +"And then—well, my dear, what would you have me do? One can't after all +overthrow a ministry to enable you to play the part of Pauline." +</p> + +<p> +"Why not?" +</p> + +<p> +He pretended to laugh, but his blood rushed to his face, and the whole of +his sturdy figure quivered with anguish. "Come, my little Silviane," said +he, "don't be obstinate. You can be so nice when you choose. Give up the +idea of that <i>debut</i>. You, yourself, would risk a great deal in it, for +what would be your worries if you were to fail? You would weep all the +tears in your body. And besides, you can ask me for so many other things +which I should be so happy to give you. Come now, at once, make a wish +and I will gratify it immediately." +</p> + +<p> +In a frolicsome way he sought to take her hand again. But she drew back +with an air of much dignity. "No, you hear me, my dear fellow, I will +have nothing whatever to do with you—nothing, so long as I don't play +Pauline." +</p> + +<p> +He understood her fully, and he knew her well enough to realise how +rigorously she would treat him. Only a kind of grunt came from his +contracted throat, though he still tried to treat the matter in a jesting +way. "Isn't she bad-tempered to-day!" he resumed at last, turning towards +Gerard. "What have you done to her that I find her in such a state?" +</p> + +<p> +But the young man, who kept very quiet for fear lest he himself might be +bespattered in the course of the dispute, continued to stretch himself +out in a languid way and gave no answer. +</p> + +<p> +But Silviane's anger burst forth. "What has he done to me? He has pitied +me for being at the mercy of such a man as you—so egotistical, so +insensible to the insults heaped upon me. Ought you not to be the first +to bound with indignation? Ought you not to have exacted my admittance to +the Comedie as a reparation for the insult? For, after all, it is a +defeat for you; if I'm considered unworthy, you are struck at the same +time as I am. And so I'm a drab, eh? Say at once that I'm a creature to +be driven away from all respectable houses." +</p> + +<p> +She went on in this style, coming at last to vile words, the abominable +words which, in moments of anger, always ended by returning to her +innocent-looking lips. The Baron, who well knew that a syllable from him +would only increase the foulness of the overflow, vainly turned an +imploring glance on the Count to solicit his intervention. Gerard, with +his keen desire for peace and quietness, often brought about a +reconciliation, but this time he did not stir, feeling too lazy and +sleepy to interfere. And Silviane all at once came to a finish, repeating +her trenchant, severing words: "Well, manage as you can, secure my +<i>debut</i>, or I'll have nothing more to do with you, nothing!" +</p> + +<p> +"All right! all right!" Duvillard at last murmured, sneering, but in +despair, "we'll arrange it all." +</p> + +<p> +However, at that moment a servant came in to say that M. Duthil was +downstairs and wished to speak to the Baron in the smoking-room. +Duvillard was astonished at this, for Duthil usually came up as though +the house were his own. Then he reflected that the deputy had doubtless +brought him some serious news from the Chamber which he wished to impart +to him confidentially at once. So he followed the servant, leaving Gerard +and Silviane together. +</p> + +<p> +In the smoking-room, an apartment communicating with the hall by a wide +bay, the curtain of which was drawn up, Pierre stood with his companion, +waiting and glancing curiously around him. What particularly struck him +was the almost religious solemnness of the entrance, the heavy hangings, +the mystic gleams of the stained-glass, the old furniture steeped in +chapel-like gloom amidst scattered perfumes of myrrh and incense. Duthil, +who was still very gay, tapped a low divan with his cane and said: "She +has a nicely-furnished house, eh? Oh! she knows how to look after her +interests." +</p> + +<p> +Then the Baron came in, still quite upset and anxious. And without even +perceiving the priest, desirous as he was of tidings, he began: "Well, +what did they do? Is there some very bad news, then?" +</p> + +<p> +"Mege interpellated and applied for a declaration of urgency so as to +overthrow Barroux. You can imagine what his speech was." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, yes, against the <i>bourgeois</i>, against me, against you. It's always +the same thing—And then?" +</p> + +<p> +"Then—well, urgency wasn't voted, but, in spite of a very fine defence, +Barroux only secured a majority of two votes." +</p> + +<p> +"Two votes, the devil! Then he's down, and we shall have a Vignon +ministry next week." +</p> + +<p> +"That's what everybody said in the lobbies." +</p> + +<p> +The Baron frowned, as if he were estimating what good or evil might +result to the world from such a change. Then, with a gesture of +displeasure, he said: "A Vignon ministry! The devil! that would hardly be +any better. Those young democrats pretend to be virtuous, and a Vignon +ministry wouldn't admit Silviane to the Comedie." +</p> + +<p> +This, at first, was his only thought in presence of the crisis which made +the political world tremble. And so the deputy could not refrain from +referring to his own anxiety. "Well, and we others, what is our position +in it all?" +</p> + +<p> +This brought Duvillard back to the situation. With a fresh gesture, this +time a superbly proud one, he expressed his full and impudent confidence. +"We others, why we remain as we are; we've never been in peril, I +imagine. Oh! I am quite at ease. Sagnier can publish his famous list if +it amuses him to do so. If we haven't long since bought Sagnier and his +list, it's because Barroux is a thoroughly honest man, and for my part I +don't care to throw money out of the window—I repeat to you that we fear +nothing." +</p> + +<p> +Then, as he at last recognised Abbe Froment, who had remained in the +shade, Duthil explained what service the priest desired of him. And +Duvillard, in his state of emotion, his heart still rent by Silviane's +sternness, must have felt a covert hope that a good action might bring +him luck; so he at once consented to intervene in favour of Laveuve's +admission. Taking a card and a pencil from his pocket-book he drew near +to the window. "Oh! whatever you desire, Monsieur l'Abbe," he said, "I +shall be very happy to participate in this good work. Here, this is what +I have written: 'My dear, please do what M. l'Abbe Froment solicits in +favour of this unfortunate man, since our friend Fonsegue only awaits a +word from you to take proper steps.'" +</p> + +<p> +At this moment through the open bay Pierre caught sight of Gerard, whom +Silviane, calm once more, and inquisitive no doubt to know why Duthil had +called, was escorting into the hall. And the sight of the young woman +filled him with astonishment, so simple and gentle did she seem to him, +full of the immaculate candour of a virgin. Never had he dreamt of a lily +of more unobtrusive yet delicious bloom in the whole garden of innocence. +</p> + +<p> +"Now," continued Duvillard, "if you wish to hand this card to my wife at +once, you must go to the Princess de Harn's, where there is a +<i>matinee</i>—" +</p> + +<p> +"I was going there, Monsieur le Baron." +</p> + +<p> +"Very good. You will certainly find my wife there; she is to take the +children there." Then he paused, for he too had just seen Gerard; and he +called him: "I say, Gerard, my wife said that she was going to that +<i>matinee</i>, didn't she? You feel sure—don't you?—that Monsieur l'Abbe +will find her there?" +</p> + +<p> +Although the young man was then going to the Rue Matignon, there to wait +for Eve, it was in the most natural manner possible that he replied: "If +Monsieur l'Abbe makes haste, I think he will find her there, for she was +certainly going there before trying on a corsage at Salmon's." +</p> + +<p> +Then he kissed Silviane's hand, and went off with the air of a handsome, +indolent man, who knows no malice, and is even weary of pleasure. +</p> + +<p> +Pierre, feeling rather embarrassed, was obliged to let Duvillard +introduce him to the mistress of the house. He bowed in silence, whilst +she, likewise silent, returned his bow with modest reserve, the tact +appropriate to the occasion, such as no <i>ingenue</i>, even at the Comedie, +was then capable of. And while the Baron accompanied the priest to the +door, she returned to the <i>salon</i> with Duthil, who was scarcely screened +by the door-curtain before he passed his arm round her waist. +</p> + +<p> +When Pierre, who at last felt confident of success, found himself, still +in his cab, in front of the Princess de Harn's mansion in the Avenue +Kleber, he suddenly relapsed into great embarrassment. The avenue was +crowded with carriages brought thither by the musical <i>matinee</i>, and such +a throng of arriving guests pressed round the entrance, decorated with a +kind of tent with scallopings of red velvet, that he deemed the house +unapproachable. How could he manage to get in? And how in his cassock +could he reach the Princess, and ask for a minute's conversation with +Baroness Duvillard? Amidst all his feverishness he had not thought of +these difficulties. However, he was approaching the door on foot, asking +himself how he might glide unperceived through the throng, when the sound +of a merry voice made him turn: "What, Monsieur l'Abbe! Is it possible! +So now I find you here!" +</p> + +<p> +It was little Massot who spoke. He went everywhere, witnessed ten sights +a day,—a parliamentary sitting, a funeral, a wedding, any festive or +mourning scene,—when he wanted a good subject for an article. "What! +Monsieur l'Abbe," he resumed, "and so you have come to our amiable +Princess's to see the Mauritanians dance!" +</p> + +<p> +He was jesting, for the so-called Mauritanians were simply six Spanish +dancing-girls, who by the sensuality of their performance were then +making all Paris rush to the Folies-Bergere. For drawing-room +entertainments these girls reserved yet more indecorous dances—dances of +such a character indeed that they would certainly not have been allowed +in a theatre. And the <i>beau monde</i> rushed to see them at the houses of +the bolder lady-entertainers, the eccentric and foreign ones like the +Princess, who in order to draw society recoiled from no "attraction." +</p> + +<p> +But when Pierre had explained to little Massot that he was still running +about on the same business, the journalist obligingly offered to pilot +him. He knew the house, obtained admittance by a back door, and brought +Pierre along a passage into a corner of the hall, near the very entrance +of the grand drawing-room. Lofty green plants decorated this hall, and in +the spot selected Pierre was virtually hidden. "Don't stir, my dear +Abbe," said Massot, "I will try to ferret out the Princess for you. And +you shall know if Baroness Duvillard has already arrived." +</p> + +<p> +What surprised Pierre was that every window-shutter of the mansion was +closed, every chink stopped up so that daylight might not enter, and that +every room flared with electric lamps, an illumination of supernatural +intensity. The heat was already very great, the atmosphere heavy with a +violent perfume of flowers and <i>odore di femina</i>. And to Pierre, who felt +both blinded and stifled, it seemed as if he were entering one of those +luxurious, unearthly Dens of the Flesh such as the pleasure-world of +Paris conjures from dreamland. By rising on tiptoes, as the drawing-room +entrance was wide open, he could distinguish the backs of the women who +were already seated, rows of necks crowned with fair or dark hair. The +Mauritanians were doubtless executing their first dance. He did not see +them, but he could divine the lascivious passion of the dance from the +quiver of all those women's necks, which swayed as beneath a great gust +of wind. Then laughter arose and a tempest of bravos, quite a tumult of +enjoyment. +</p> + +<p> +"I can't put my hand on the Princess; you must wait a little," Massot +returned to say. "I met Janzen and he promised to bring her to me. Don't +you know Janzen?" +</p> + +<p> +Then, in part because his profession willed it, and in part for +pleasure's sake, he began to gossip. The Princess was a good friend of +his. He had described her first <i>soiree</i> during the previous year, when +she had made her <i>debut</i> at that mansion on her arrival in Paris. He knew +the real truth about her so far as it could be known. Rich? yes, perhaps +she was, for she spent enormous sums. Married she must have been, and to +a real prince, too; no doubt she was still married to him, in spite of +her story of widowhood. Indeed, it seemed certain that her husband, who +was as handsome as an archangel, was travelling about with a vocalist. As +for having a bee in her bonnet that was beyond discussion, as clear as +noonday. Whilst showing much intelligence, she constantly and suddenly +shifted. Incapable of any prolonged effort, she went from one thing that +had awakened her curiosity to another, never attaching herself anywhere. +After ardently busying herself with painting, she had lately become +impassioned for chemistry, and was now letting poetry master her. +</p> + +<p> +"And so you don't know Janzen," continued Massot. "It was he who threw +her into chemistry, into the study of explosives especially, for, as you +may imagine, the only interest in chemistry for her is its connection +with Anarchism. She, I think, is really an Austrian, though one must +always doubt anything she herself says. As for Janzen, he calls himself a +Russian, but he's probably German. Oh! he's the most unobtrusive, +enigmatical man in the world, without a home, perhaps without a name—a +terrible fellow with an unknown past. I myself hold proofs which make me +think that he took part in that frightful crime at Barcelona. At all +events, for nearly a year now I've been meeting him in Paris, where the +police no doubt are watching him. And nothing can rid me of the idea that +he merely consented to become our lunatic Princess's lover in order to +throw the detectives off the scent. He affects to live in the midst of +<i>fetes</i>, and he has introduced to the house some extraordinary people, +Anarchists of all nationalities and all colours—for instance, one +Raphanel, that fat, jovial little man yonder, a Frenchman he is, and his +companions would do well to mistrust him. Then there's a Bergaz, a +Spaniard, I think, an obscure jobber at the Bourse, whose sensual, +blobber-lipped mouth is so disquieting. And there are others and others, +adventurers and bandits from the four corners of the earth! . . . Ah! the +foreign colonies of our Parisian pleasure-world! There are a few spotless +fine names, a few real great fortunes among them, but as for the rest, +ah! what a herd!" +</p> + +<p> +Rosemonde's own drawing-room was summed up in those words: resounding +titles, real millionaires, then, down below, the most extravagant medley +of international imposture and turpitude. And Pierre thought of that +internationalism, that cosmopolitanism, that flight of foreigners which, +ever denser and denser, swooped down upon Paris. Most certainly it came +thither to enjoy it, as to a city of adventure and delight, and it helped +to rot it a little more. Was it then a necessary thing, that +decomposition of the great cities which have governed the world, that +affluxion of every passion, every desire, every gratification, that +accumulation of reeking soil from all parts of the world, there where, in +beauty and intelligence, blooms the flower of civilisation? +</p> + +<p> +However, Janzen appeared, a tall, thin fellow of about thirty, very fair +with grey, pale, harsh eyes, and a pointed beard and flowing curly hair +which elongated his livid, cloudy face. He spoke indifferent French in a +low voice and without a gesture. And he declared that the Princess could +not be found; he had looked for her everywhere. Possibly, if somebody had +displeased her, she had shut herself up in her room and gone to bed, +leaving her guests to amuse themselves in all freedom in whatever way +they might choose. +</p> + +<p> +"Why, but here she is!" suddenly said Massot. +</p> + +<p> +Rosemonde was indeed there, in the vestibule, watching the door as if she +expected somebody. Short, slight, and strange rather than pretty, with +her delicate face, her sea-green eyes, her small quivering nose, her +rather large and over-ruddy mouth, which was parted so that one could see +her superb teeth, she that day wore a sky-blue gown spangled with silver; +and she had silver bracelets on her arms and a silver circlet in her pale +brown hair, which rained down in curls and frizzy, straggling locks as +though waving in a perpetual breeze. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh! whatever you desire, Monsieur l'Abbe," she said to Pierre as soon as +she knew his business. "If they don't take your old man in at our asylum, +send him to me, I'll take him, I will; I will sleep him somewhere here." +</p> + +<p> +Still, she remained disturbed, and continually glanced towards the door. +And on the priest asking if Baroness Duvillard had yet arrived, "Why no!" +she cried, "and I am much surprised at it. She is to bring her son and +daughter. Yesterday, Hyacinthe positively promised me that he would +come." +</p> + +<p> +There lay her new caprice. If her passion for chemistry was giving way to +a budding taste for decadent, symbolical verse, it was because one +evening, whilst discussing Occultism with Hyacinthe, she had discovered +an extraordinary beauty in him: the astral beauty of Nero's wandering +soul! At least, said she, the signs of it were certain. +</p> + +<p> +And all at once she quitted Pierre: "Ah, at last!" she cried, feeling +relieved and happy. Then she darted forward: Hyacinthe was coming in with +his sister Camille. +</p> + +<p> +On the very threshold, however, he had just met the friend on whose +account he was there, young Lord George Eldrett, a pale and languid +stripling with the hair of a girl; and he scarcely condescended to notice +the tender greeting of Rosemonde, for he professed to regard woman as an +impure and degrading creature. Distressed by such coldness, she followed +the two young men, returning in their rear into the reeking, blinding +furnace of the drawing-room. +</p> + +<p> +Massot, however, had been obliging enough to stop Camille and bring her +to Pierre, who at the first words they exchanged relapsed into despair. +"What, mademoiselle, has not madame your mother accompanied you here?" +</p> + +<p> +The girl, clad according to her wont in a dark gown, this time of +peacock-blue, was nervous, with wicked eyes and sibilant voice. And as +she ragefully drew up her little figure, her deformity, her left shoulder +higher than the right one, became more apparent than ever. "No," she +rejoined, "she was unable. She had something to try on at her +dressmaker's. We stopped too long at the Exposition du Lis, and she +requested us to set her down at Salmon's door on our way here." +</p> + +<p> +It was Camille herself who had skilfully prolonged the visit to the art +show, still hoping to prevent her mother from meeting Gerard. And her +rage arose from the ease with which her mother had got rid of her, thanks +to that falsehood of having something to try on. +</p> + +<p> +"But," ingenuously said Pierre, "if I went at once to this person Salmon, +I might perhaps be able to send up my card." +</p> + +<p> +Camille gave a shrill laugh, so funny did the idea appear to her. Then +she retorted: "Oh! who knows if you would still find her there? She had +another pressing appointment, and is no doubt already keeping it!" +</p> + +<p> +"Well, then, I will wait for her here. She will surely come to fetch you, +will she not?" +</p> + +<p> +"Fetch us? Oh no! since I tell you that she has other important affairs +to attend to. The carriage will take us home alone, my brother and I." +</p> + +<p> +Increasing bitterness was infecting the girl's pain-fraught irony. Did he +not understand her then, that priest who asked such naive questions which +were like dagger-thrusts in her heart? Yet he must know, since everybody +knew the truth. +</p> + +<p> +"Ah! how worried I am," Pierre resumed, so grieved indeed that tears +almost came to his eyes. "It's still on account of that poor man about +whom I have been busying myself since this morning. I have a line from +your father, and Monsieur Gerard told me—" But at this point he paused +in confusion, and amidst all his thoughtlessness of the world, absorbed +as he was in the one passion of charity, he suddenly divined the truth. +"Yes," he added mechanically, "I just now saw your father again with +Monsieur de Quinsac." +</p> + +<p> +"I know, I know," replied Camille, with the suffering yet scoffing air of +a girl who is ignorant of nothing. "Well, Monsieur l'Abbe, if you have a +line from papa for mamma, you must wait till mamma has finished her +business. You might come to the house about six o'clock, but I doubt if +you'll find her there, as she may well be detained." +</p> + +<p> +While Camille thus spoke, her murderous eyes glistened, and each word she +uttered, simple as it seemed, became instinct with ferocity, as if it +were a knife, which she would have liked to plunge into her mother's +breast. In all certainty she had never before hated her mother to such a +point as this in her envy of her beauty and her happiness in being loved. +And the irony which poured from the girl's virgin lips, before that +simple priest, was like a flood of mire with which she sought to submerge +her rival. +</p> + +<p> +Just then, however, Rosemonde came back again, feverish and flurried as +usual. And she led Camille away: "Ah, my dear, make haste. They are +extraordinary, delightful, intoxicating!" +</p> + +<p> +Janzen and little Massot also followed the Princess. All the men hastened +from the adjoining rooms, scrambled and plunged into the <i>salon</i> at the +news that the Mauritanians had again begun to dance. That time it must +have been the frantic, lascivious gallop that Paris whispered about, for +Pierre saw the rows of necks and heads, now fair, now dark, wave and +quiver as beneath a violent wind. With every window-shutter closed, the +conflagration of the electric lamps turned the place into a perfect +brazier, reeking with human effluvia. And there came a spell of rapture, +fresh laughter and bravos, all the delight of an overflowing orgy. +</p> + +<p> +When Pierre again found himself on the footwalk, he remained for a moment +bewildered, blinking, astonished to be in broad daylight once more. +Half-past four would soon strike, but he had nearly two hours to wait +before calling at the house in the Rue Godot-de-Mauroy. What should he +do? He paid his driver; preferring to descend the Champs Elysees on foot, +since he had some time to lose. A walk, moreover, might calm the fever +which was burning his hands, in the passion of charity which ever since +the morning had been mastering him more and more, in proportion as he +encountered fresh and fresh obstacles. He now had but one pressing +desire, to complete his good work, since success henceforth seemed +certain. And he tried to restrain his steps and walk leisurely down the +magnificent avenue, which had now been dried by the bright sun, and was +enlivened by a concourse of people, while overhead the sky was again +blue, lightly blue, as in springtime. +</p> + +<p> +Nearly two hours to lose while, yonder, the wretched Laveuve lay with +life ebbing from him on his bed of rags, in his icy den. Sudden feelings +of revolt, of well-nigh irresistible impatience ascended from Pierre's +heart, making him quiver with desire to run off and at once find Baroness +Duvillard so as to obtain from her the all-saving order. He felt sure +that she was somewhere near, in one of those quiet neighbouring streets, +and great was his perturbation, his grief-fraught anger at having to wait +in this wise to save a human life until she should have attended to those +affairs of hers, of which her daughter spoke with such murderous glances! +He seemed to hear a formidable cracking, the family life of the +<i>bourgeoisie</i> was collapsing: the father was at a hussy's house, the +mother with a lover, the son and daughter knew everything; the former +gliding to idiotic perversity, the latter enraged and dreaming of +stealing her mother's lover to make a husband of him. And meantime the +splendid equipages descended the triumphal avenue, and the crowd with its +luxury flowed along the sidewalks, one and all joyous and superb, +seemingly with no idea that somewhere at the far end there was a gaping +abyss wherein everyone of them would fall and be annihilated! +</p> + +<p> +When Pierre got as far as the Summer Circus he was much surprised at +again seeing Salvat, the journeyman engineer, on one of the avenue seats. +He must have sunk down there, overcome by weariness and hunger, after +many a vain search. However, his jacket was still distended by something +he carried in or under it, some bit of bread, no doubt, which he meant to +take home with him. And leaning back, with his arms hanging listlessly, +he was watching with dreamy eyes the play of some very little children, +who, with the help of their wooden spades, were laboriously raising +mounds of sand, and then destroying them by dint of kicks. As he looked +at them his red eyelids moistened, and a very gentle smile appeared on +his poor discoloured lips. This time Pierre, penetrated by disquietude, +wished to approach and question him. But Salvat distrustfully rose and +went off towards the Circus, where a concert was drawing to a close; and +he prowled around the entrance of that festive edifice in which two +thousand happy people were heaped up together listening to music. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<h3> +V +</h3> + +<h3> +FROM RELIGION TO ANARCHY +</h3> + +<p> +AS Pierre was reaching the Place de la Concorde he suddenly remembered +the appointment which Abbe Rose had given him for five o'clock at the +Madeleine, and which he was forgetting in the feverishness born of his +repeated steps to save Laveuve. And at thought of it he hastened on, well +pleased at having this appointment to occupy and keep him patient. +</p> + +<p> +When he entered the church he was surprised to find it so dark. There +were only a few candles burning, huge shadows were flooding the nave, and +amidst the semi-obscurity a very loud, clear voice spoke on with a +ceaseless streaming of words. All that one could at first distinguish of +the numerous congregation was a pale, vague mass of heads, motionless +with extreme attention. In the pulpit stood Monseigneur Martha, finishing +his third address on the New Spirit. The two former ones had re-echoed +far and wide, and so what is called "all Paris" was there—women of +society, politicians, and writers, who were captivated by the speaker's +artistic oratory, his warm, skilful language, and his broad, easy +gestures, worthy of a great actor. +</p> + +<p> +Pierre did not wish to disturb the solemn attention, the quivering +silence above which the prelate's voice alone rang out. Accordingly he +resolved to wait before seeking Abbe Rose, and remained standing near a +pillar. A parting gleam of daylight fell obliquely on Monseigneur Martha, +who looked tall and sturdy in his white surplice, and scarcely showed a +grey hair, although he was more than fifty. He had handsome features: +black, keen eyes, a commanding nose, a mouth and chin of the greatest +firmness of contour. What more particularly struck one, however, what +gained the heart of every listener, was the expression of extreme +amiability and anxious sympathy which ever softened the imperious +haughtiness of the prelate's face. +</p> + +<p> +Pierre had formerly known him as Cure, or parish priest, of Ste. +Clotilde. He was doubtless of Italian origin, but he had been born in +Paris, and had quitted the seminary of St. Sulpice with the best possible +record. Very intelligent and very ambitious, he had evinced an activity +which even made his superiors anxious. Then, on being appointed Bishop of +Persepolis, he had disappeared, gone to Rome, where he had spent five +years engaged in work of which very little was known. However, since his +return he had been astonishing Paris by his brilliant propaganda, busying +himself with the most varied affairs, and becoming much appreciated and +very powerful at the archiepiscopal residence. He devoted himself in +particular, and with wonderful results, to the task of increasing the +subscriptions for the completion of the basilica of the Sacred Heart. He +recoiled from nothing, neither from journeys, nor lectures, nor +collections, nor applications to Government, nor even endeavours among +Israelites and Freemasons. And at last, again enlarging his sphere of +action, he had undertaken to reconcile Science with Catholicism, and to +bring all Christian France to the Republic, on all sides expounding the +policy of Pope Leo XIII., in order that the Church might finally triumph. +</p> + +<p> +However, in spite of the advances of this influential and amiable man, +Pierre scarcely liked him. He only felt grateful to him for one thing, +the appointment of good Abbe Rose as curate at St. Pierre de Montmartre, +which appointment he had secured for him no doubt in order to prevent +such a scandal as the punishment of an old priest for showing himself too +charitable. On thus finding and hearing the prelate speak in that +renowned pulpit of the Madeleine, still and ever pursuing his work of +conquest, Pierre remembered how he had seen him at the Duvillards' during +the previous spring, when, with his usual <i>maestria</i>, he had achieved his +greatest triumph—the conversion of Eve to Catholicism. That church, too, +had witnessed her baptism, a wonderfully pompous ceremony, a perfect gala +offered to the public which figures in all the great events of Parisian +life. Gerard had knelt down, moved to tears, whilst the Baron triumphed +like a good-natured husband who was happy to find religion establishing +perfect harmony in his household. It was related among the spectators +that Eve's family, and particularly old Justus Steinberger, her father, +was not in reality much displeased by the affair. The old man sneeringly +remarked, indeed, that he knew his daughter well enough to wish her to +belong to his worst enemy. In the banking business there is a class of +security which one is pleased to see discounted by one's rivals. With the +stubborn hope of triumph peculiar to his race, Justus, consoling himself +for the failure of his first scheme, doubtless considered that Eve would +prove a powerful dissolving agent in the Christian family which she had +entered, and thus help to make all wealth and power fall into the hands +of the Jews. +</p> + +<p> +However, Pierre's vision faded. Monseigneur Martha's voice was rising +with increase of volume, celebrating, amidst the quivering of the +congregation, the benefits that would accrue from the New Spirit, which +was at last about to pacify France and restore her to her due rank and +power. Were there not certain signs of this resurrection on every hand? +The New Spirit was the revival of the Ideal, the protest of the soul +against degrading materialism, the triumph of spirituality over filthy +literature; and it was also Science accepted, but set in its proper +place, reconciled with Faith, since it no longer pretended to encroach on +the latter's sacred domain; and it was further the Democracy welcomed in +fatherly fashion, the Republic legitimated, recognised in her turn as +Eldest Daughter of the Church. A breath of poetry passed by. The Church +opened her heart to all her children, there would henceforth be but +concord and delight if the masses, obedient to the New Spirit, would give +themselves to the Master of love as they had given themselves to their +kings, recognising that the Divinity was the one unique power, absolute +sovereign of both body and soul. +</p> + +<p> +Pierre was now listening attentively, wondering where it was that he had +previously heard almost identical words. And suddenly he remembered; and +could fancy that he was again at Rome, listening to the last words of +Monsignor Nani, the Assessor of the Holy Office. Here, again, he found +the dream of a democratic Pope, ceasing to support the compromised +monarchies, and seeking to subdue the masses. Since Caesar was down, or +nearly so, might not the Pope realise the ancient ambition of his +forerunners and become both emperor and pontiff, the sovereign, universal +divinity on earth? This, too, was the dream in which Pierre himself, with +apostolic naivete, had indulged when writing his book, "New Rome": a +dream from which the sight of the real Rome had so roughly roused him. At +bottom it was merely a policy of hypocritical falsehood, the priestly +policy which relies on time, and is ever tenacious, carrying on the work +of conquest with extraordinary suppleness, resolved to profit by +everything. And what an evolution it was, the Church of Rome making +advances to Science, to the Democracy, to the Republican <i>regimes</i>, +convinced that it would be able to devour them if only it were allowed +the time! Ah! yes, the New Spirit was simply the Old Spirit of +Domination, incessantly reviving and hungering to conquer and possess the +world. +</p> + +<p> +Pierre thought that he recognised among the congregation certain deputies +whom he had seen at the Chamber. Wasn't that tall gentleman with the fair +beard, who listened so devoutly, one of Monferrand's creatures? It was +said that Monferrand, once a devourer of priests, was now smilingly +coquetting with the clergy. Quite an underhand evolution was beginning in +the sacristies, orders from Rome flitted hither and thither; it was a +question of accepting the new form of government, and absorbing it by +dint of invasion. France was still the Eldest Daughter of the Church, the +only great nation which had sufficient health and strength to place the +Pope in possession of his temporal power once more. So France must be +won; it was well worth one's while to espouse her, even if she were +Republican. In the eager struggle of ambition the bishop made use of the +minister, who thought it to his interest to lean upon the bishop. But +which of the two would end by devouring the other? And to what a <i>role</i> +had religion sunk: an electoral weapon, an element in a parliamentary +majority, a decisive, secret reason for obtaining or retaining a +ministerial portfolio! Of divine charity, the basis of religion, there +was no thought, and Pierre's heart filled with bitterness as he +remembered the recent death of Cardinal Bergerot, the last of the great +saints and pure minds of the French episcopacy, among which there now +seemed to be merely a set of intriguers and fools. +</p> + +<p> +However, the address was drawing to a close. In a glowing peroration, +which evoked the basilica of the Sacred Heart dominating Paris with the +saving symbol of the Cross from the sacred Mount of the Martyrs,* +Monseigneur Martha showed that great city of Paris Christian once more +and master of the world, thanks to the moral omnipotence conferred upon +it by the divine breath of the New Spirit. Unable to applaud, the +congregation gave utterance to a murmur of approving rapture, delighted +as it was with this miraculous finish which reassured both pocket and +conscience. Then Monseigneur Martha quitted the pulpit with a noble step, +whilst a loud noise of chairs broke upon the dark peacefulness of the +church, where the few lighted candles glittered like the first stars in +the evening sky. A long stream of men, vague, whispering shadows, glided +away. The women alone remained, praying on their knees. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> + * Montmartre.<br /> +</p> + +<p> +Pierre, still in the same spot, was rising on tip-toes, looking for Abbe +Rose, when a hand touched him. It was that of the old priest, who had +seen him from a distance. "I was yonder near the pulpit," said he, "and I +saw you plainly, my dear child. Only I preferred to wait so as to disturb +nobody. What a beautiful address dear Monseigneur delivered!" +</p> + +<p> +He seemed, indeed, much moved. But there was deep sadness about his +kindly mouth and clear childlike eyes, whose smile as a rule illumined +his good, round white face. "I was afraid you might go off without seeing +me," he resumed, "for I have something to tell you. You know that poor +old man to whom I sent you this morning and in whom I asked you to +interest yourself? Well, on getting home I found a lady there, who +sometimes brings me a little money for my poor. Then I thought to myself +that the three francs I gave you were really too small a sum, and as the +thought worried me like a kind of remorse, I couldn't resist the impulse, +but went this afternoon to the Rue des Saules myself." +</p> + +<p> +He lowered his voice from a feeling of respect, in order not to disturb +the deep, sepulchral silence of the church. Covert shame, moreover, +impeded his utterance, shame at having again relapsed into the sin of +blind, imprudent charity, as his superiors reproachfully said. And, +quivering, he concluded in a very low voice indeed: "And so, my child, +picture my grief. I had five francs more to give the poor old man, and I +found him dead." +</p> + +<p> +Pierre suddenly shuddered. But he was unwilling to understand: "What, +dead!" he cried. "That old man dead! Laveuve dead?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, I found him dead—ah! amidst what frightful wretchedness, like an +old animal that has laid itself down for the finish on a heap of rags in +the depths of a hole. No neighbours had assisted him in his last moments; +he had simply turned himself towards the wall. And ah! how bare and cold +and deserted it was! And what a pang for a poor creature to go off like +that without a word, a caress. Ah! my heart bounded within me and it is +still bleeding!" +</p> + +<p> +Pierre in his utter amazement at first made but a gesture of revolt +against imbecile social cruelty. Had the bread left near the unfortunate +wretch, and devoured too eagerly, perhaps, after long days of abstinence, +been the cause of his death? Or was not this rather the fatal +<i>denouement</i> of an ended life, worn away by labour and privation? +However, what did the cause signify? Death had come and delivered the +poor man. "It isn't he that I pity," Pierre muttered at last; "it is +we—we who witness all that, we who are guilty of these abominations." +</p> + +<p> +But good Abbe Rose was already becoming resigned, and would only think of +forgiveness and hope. "No, no, my child, rebellion is evil. If we are all +guilty we can only implore Providence to forget our faults. I had given +you an appointment here hoping for good news; and it's I who come to tell +you of that frightful thing. Let us be penitent and pray." +</p> + +<p> +Then he knelt upon the flagstones near the pillar, in the rear of the +praying women, who looked black and vague in the gloom. And he inclined +his white head, and for a long time remained in a posture of humility. +</p> + +<p> +But Pierre was unable to pray, so powerfully did revolt stir him. He did +not even bend his knees, but remained erect and quivering. His heart +seemed to have been crushed; not a tear came to his ardent eyes. So +Laveuve had died yonder, stretched on his litter of rags, his hands +clenched in his obstinate desire to cling to his life of torture, whilst +he, Pierre, again glowing with the flame of charity, consumed by +apostolic zeal, was scouring Paris to find him for the evening a clean +bed on which he might be saved. Ah! the atrocious irony of it all! He +must have been at the Duvillards' in the warm <i>salon</i>, all blue and +silver, whilst the old man was expiring; and it was for a wretched corpse +that he had then hastened to the Chamber of Deputies, to the Countess de +Quinsac's, to that creature Silviane's, and to that creature Rosemonde's. +And it was for that corpse, freed from life, escaped from misery as from +prison, that he had worried people, broken in upon their egotism, +disturbed the peace of some, threatened the pleasures of others! What was +the use of hastening from the parliamentary den to the cold <i>salon</i> where +the dust of the past was congealing; of going from the sphere of +middle-class debauchery to that of cosmopolitan extravagance, since one +always arrived too late, and saved people when they were already dead? +How ridiculous to have allowed himself to be fired once more by that +blaze of charity, that final conflagration, only the ashes of which he +now felt within him? This time he thought he was dead himself; he was +naught but an empty sepulchre. +</p> + +<p> +And all the frightful void and chaos which he had felt that morning at +the basilica of the Sacred Heart after his mass became yet deeper, +henceforth unfathomable. If charity were illusory and useless the Gospel +crumbled, the end of the Book was nigh. After centuries of stubborn +efforts, Redemption through Christianity failed, and another means of +salvation was needed by the world in presence of the exasperated thirst +for justice which came from the duped and wretched nations. They would +have no more of that deceptive paradise, the promise of which had so long +served to prop up social iniquity; they demanded that the question of +happiness should be decided upon this earth. But how? By means of what +new religion, what combination between the sentiment of the Divine and +the necessity for honouring life in its sovereignty and its fruitfulness? +Therein lay the grievous, torturing problem, into the midst of which +Pierre was sinking; he, a priest, severed by vows of chastity and +superstition from the rest of mankind. +</p> + +<p> +He had ceased to believe in the efficacy of alms; it was not sufficient +that one should be charitable, henceforth one must be just. Given +justice, indeed, horrid misery would disappear, and no such thing as +charity would be needed. Most certainly there was no lack of +compassionate hearts in that grievous city of Paris; charitable +foundations sprouted forth there like green leaves at the first warmth of +springtide. There were some for every age, every peril, every misfortune. +Through the concern shown for mothers, children were succoured even +before they were born; then came the infant and orphan asylums lavishly +provided for all sorts of classes; and, afterwards, man was followed +through his life, help was tendered on all sides, particularly as he grew +old, by a multiplicity of asylums, almshouses, and refuges. And there +were all the hands stretched out to the forsaken ones, the disinherited +ones, even the criminals, all sorts of associations to protect the weak, +societies for the prevention of crime, homes that offered hospitality to +those who repented. Whether as regards the propagation of good deeds, the +support of the young, the saving of life, the bestowal of pecuniary help, +or the promotion of guilds, pages and pages would have been needed merely +to particularise the extraordinary vegetation of charity that sprouted +between the paving-stones of Paris with so fine a vigour, in which +goodness of soul was mingled with social vanity. Still that could not +matter, since charity redeemed and purified all. But how terrible the +proposition that this charity was a useless mockery! What! after so many +centuries of Christian charity not a sore had healed. Misery had only +grown and spread, irritated even to rage. Incessantly aggravated, the +evil was reaching the point when it would be impossible to tolerate it +for another day, since social injustice was neither arrested nor even +diminished thereby. And besides, if only one single old man died of cold +and hunger, did not the social edifice, raised on the theory of charity, +collapse? But one victim, and society was condemned, thought Pierre. +</p> + +<p> +He now felt such bitterness of heart that he could remain no longer in +that church where the shadows ever slowly fell, blurring the sanctuaries +and the large pale images of Christ nailed upon the Cross. All was about +to sink into darkness, and he could hear nothing beyond an expiring +murmur of prayers, a plaint from the women who were praying on their +knees, in the depths of the shrouding gloom. +</p> + +<p> +At the same time he hardly liked to go off without saying a word to Abbe +Rose, who in his entreaties born of simple faith left the happiness and +peace of mankind to the good pleasure of the Invisible. However, fearing +that he might disturb him, Pierre was making up his mind to retire, when +the old priest of his own accord raised his head. "Ah, my child," said +he, "how difficult it is to be good in a reasonable manner. Monseigneur +Martha has scolded me again, and but for the forgiveness of God I should +fear for my salvation." +</p> + +<p> +For a moment Pierre paused under the porticus of the Madeleine, on the +summit of the great flight of steps which, rising above the railings, +dominates the Place. Before him was the Rue Royale dipping down to the +expanse of the Place de la Concorde, where rose the obelisk and the pair +of plashing fountains. And, farther yet, the paling colonnade of the +Chamber of Deputies bounded the horizon. It was a vista of sovereign +grandeur under that pale sky over which twilight was slowly stealing, and +which seemed to broaden the thoroughfares, throw back the edifices, and +lend them the quivering, soaring aspect of the palaces of dreamland. No +other capital in the world could boast a scene of such aerial pomp, such +grandiose magnificence, at that hour of vagueness, when falling night +imparts to cities a dreamy semblance, the infinite of human immensity. +</p> + +<p> +Motionless and hesitating in presence of the opening expanse, Pierre +distressfully pondered as to whither he should go now that all which he +had so passionately sought to achieve since the morning had suddenly +crumbled away. Was he still bound for the Duvillard mansion in the Rue +Godot-de-Mauroy? He no longer knew. Then the exasperating remembrance, +with its cruel irony, returned to him. Since Laveuve was dead, of what +use was it for him to kill time and perambulate the pavements pending the +arrival of six o'clock? The idea that he had a home, and that the most +simple course would be to return to it, did not even occur to him. He +felt as if there were something of importance left for him to do, though +he could not possibly tell what it might be. It seemed to him to be +everywhere and yet very far away, to be so vague and so difficult of +accomplishment that he would certainly never be in time or have +sufficient power to do it. However, with heavy feet and tumultuous brain +he descended the steps and, yielding to some obstinate impulse, began to +walk through the flower-market, a late winter market where the first +azaleas were opening with a little shiver. Some women were purchasing +Nice roses and violets; and Pierre looked at them as if he were +interested in all that soft, delicate, perfumed luxury. But suddenly he +felt a horror of it and went off, starting along the Boulevards. +</p> + +<p> +He walked straight before him without knowing why or whither. The falling +darkness surprised him as if it were an unexpected phenomenon. Raising +his eyes to the sky he felt astonished at seeing its azure gently pale +between the slender black streaks of the chimney funnels. And the huge +golden letters by which names or trades were advertised on every balcony +also seemed to him singular in the last gleams of the daylight. Never +before had he paid attention to the motley tints seen on the +house-fronts, the painted mirrors, the blinds, the coats of arms, the +posters of violent hues, the magnificent shops, like drawing-rooms and +boudoirs open to the full light. And then, both in the roadway and along +the foot-pavements, between the blue, red or yellow columns and kiosks, +what mighty traffic there was, what an extraordinary crowd! The vehicles +rolled along in a thundering stream: on all sides billows of cabs were +parted by the ponderous tacking of huge omnibuses, which suggested lofty, +bright-hued battle-ships. And on either hand, and farther and farther, +and even among the wheels, the flood of passengers rushed on incessantly, +with the conquering haste of ants in a state of revolution. Whence came +all those people, and whither were all those vehicles going? How +stupefying and torturing it all was. +</p> + +<p> +Pierre was still walking straight ahead, mechanically, carried on by his +gloomy reverie. Night was coming, the first gas-burners were being +lighted; it was the dusk of Paris, the hour when real darkness has not +yet come, when the electric lights flame in the dying day. Lamps shone +forth on all sides, the shop-fronts were being illumined. Soon, moreover, +right along the Boulevards the vehicles would carry their vivid starry +lights, like a milky way on the march betwixt the foot-pavements all +glowing with lanterns and cordons and girandoles, a dazzling profusion of +radiance akin to sunlight. And the shouts of the drivers and the jostling +of the foot passengers re-echoed the parting haste of the Paris which is +all business or passion, which is absorbed in the merciless struggle for +love and for money. The hard day was over, and now the Paris of Pleasure +was lighting up for its night of <i>fete</i>. The cafes, the wine shops, the +restaurants, flared and displayed their bright metal bars, and their +little white tables behind their clear and lofty windows, whilst near +their doors, by way of temptation, were oysters and choice fruits. And +the Paris which was thus awaking with the first flashes of the gas was +already full of the gaiety of enjoyment, already yielding to an unbridled +appetite for whatsoever may be purchased. +</p> + +<p> +However, Pierre had a narrow escape from being knocked down. A flock of +newspaper hawkers came out of a side street, and darted through the crowd +shouting the titles of the evening journals. A fresh edition of the "Voix +du Peuple" gave rise, in particular, to a deafening clamour, which rose +above all the rumbling of wheels. At regular intervals hoarse voices +raised and repeated the cry: "Ask for the 'Voix du Peuple'—the new +scandal of the African Railway Lines, the repulse of the ministry, the +thirty-two bribe-takers of the Chamber and the Senate!" And these +announcements, set in huge type, could be read on the copies of the +paper, which the hawkers flourished like banners. Accustomed as it was to +such filth, saturated with infamy, the crowd continued on its way without +paying much attention. Still a few men paused and bought the paper, while +painted women, who had come down to the Boulevards in search of a dinner, +trailed their skirts and waited for some chance lover, glancing +interrogatively at the outside customers of the cafes. And meantime the +dishonouring shout of the newspaper hawkers, that cry in which there was +both smirch and buffet, seemed like the last knell of the day, ringing +the nation's funeral at the outset of the night of pleasure which was +beginning. +</p> + +<p> +Then Pierre once more remembered his morning and that frightful house in +the Rue des Saules, where so much want and suffering were heaped up. He +again saw the yard filthy like a quagmire, the evil-smelling staircases, +the sordid, bare, icy rooms, the families fighting for messes which even +stray dogs would not have eaten; the mothers, with exhausted breasts, +carrying screaming children to and fro; the old men who fell in corners +like brute beasts, and died of hunger amidst filth. And then came his +other hours with the magnificence or the quietude or the gaiety of the +<i>salons</i> through which he had passed, the whole insolent display of +financial Paris, and political Paris, and society Paris. And at last he +came to the dusk, and to that Paris-Sodom and Paris-Gomorrah before him, +which was lighting itself up for the night, for the abominations of that +accomplice night which, like fine dust, was little by little submerging +the expanse of roofs. And the hateful monstrosity of it all howled aloud +under the pale sky where the first pure, twinkling stars were gleaming. +</p> + +<p> +A great shudder came upon Pierre as he thought of all that mass of +iniquity and suffering, of all that went on below amid want and crime, +and all that went on above amid wealth and vice. The <i>bourgeoisie</i>, +wielding power, would relinquish naught of the sovereignty which it had +conquered, wholly stolen, while the people, the eternal dupe, silent so +long, clenched its fists and growled, claiming its legitimate share. And +it was that frightful injustice which filled the growing gloom with +anger. From what dark-breasted cloud would the thunderbolt fall? For +years he had been waiting for that thunderbolt which low rumbles +announced on all points of the horizon. And if he had written a book full +of candour and hope, if he had gone in all innocence to Rome, it was to +avert that thunderbolt and its frightful consequences. But all hope of +the kind was dead within him; he felt that the thunderbolt was +inevitable, that nothing henceforth could stay the catastrophe. And never +before had he felt it to be so near, amidst the happy impudence of some, +and the exasperated distress of others. And it was gathering, and it +would surely fall over that Paris, all lust and bravado, which, when +evening came, thus stirred up its furnace. +</p> + +<p> +Tired out and distracted, Pierre raised his eyes as he reached the Place +de l'Opera. Where was he then? The heart of the great city seemed to beat +on this spot, in that vast expanse where met so many thoroughfares, as if +from every point the blood of distant districts flowed thither along +triumphal avenues. Right away to the horizon stretched the great gaps of +the Avenue de l'Opera, the Rue du Quatre-Septembre, and the Rue de la +Paix, still showing clearly in a final glimpse of daylight, but already +starred with swarming sparks. The torrent of the Boulevard traffic poured +across the Place, where clashed, too, all that from the neighbouring +streets, with a constant turning and eddying which made the spot the most +dangerous of whirlpools. In vain did the police seek to impose some +little prudence, the stream of pedestrians still overflowed, wheels +became entangled and horses reared amidst all the uproar of the human +tide, which was as loud, as incessant, as the tempest voice of an ocean. +Then there was the detached mass of the opera-house, slowly steeped in +gloom, and rising huge and mysterious like a symbol, its lyre-bearing +figure of Apollo, right aloft, showing a last reflection of daylight +amidst the livid sky. And all the windows of the house-fronts began to +shine, gaiety sprang from those thousands of lamps which coruscated one +by one, a universal longing for ease and free gratification of each +desire spread with the increasing darkness; whilst, at long intervals, +the large globes of the electric lights shone as brightly as the moons of +the city's cloudless nights. +</p> + +<p> +But why was he, Pierre, there, he asked himself, irritated and wondering. +Since Laveuve was dead he had but to go home, bury himself in his nook, +and close up door and windows, like one who was henceforth useless, who +had neither belief nor hope, and awaited naught save annihilation. It was +a long journey from the Place de l'Opera to his little house at Neuilly. +Still, however great his weariness, he would not take a cab, but retraced +his steps, turning towards the Madeleine again, and plunging into the +scramble of the pavements, amidst the deafening uproar from the roadway, +with a bitter desire to aggravate his wound and saturate himself with +revolt and anger. Was it not yonder at the corner of that street, at the +end of that Boulevard, that he would find the expected abyss into which +that rotten world, whose old society he could hear rending at each step, +must soon assuredly topple? +</p> + +<p> +However, when Pierre wished to cross the Rue Scribe a block in the +traffic made him halt. In front of a luxurious cafe two tall, +shabbily-clad and very dirty fellows were alternately offering the "Voix +du Peuple" with its account of the scandals and the bribe-takers of the +Chamber and the Senate, in voices so suggestive of cracked brass that +passers-by clustered around them. And here, in a hesitating, wandering +man, who after listening drew near to the large cafe and peered through +its windows, Pierre was once again amazed to recognise Salvat. This time +the meeting struck him forcibly, filled him with suspicion to such a +point that he also stopped and resolved to watch the journeyman engineer. +He did not expect that one of such wretched aspect, with what seemed to +be a hunk of bread distending his old ragged jacket, would enter and seat +himself at one of the cafe's little tables amidst the warm gaiety of the +lamps. However, he waited for a moment, and then saw him wander away with +slow and broken steps as if the cafe, which was nearly empty, did not +suit him. What could he have been seeking, whither had he been going, +since the morning, ever on a wild, solitary chase through the Paris of +wealth and enjoyment while hunger dogged his steps? It was only with +difficulty that he now dragged himself along, his will and energy seemed +to be exhausted. As if quite overcome, he drew near to a kiosk, and for a +moment leant against it. Then, however, he drew himself up again, and +walked on further, still as it were in search of something. +</p> + +<p> +And now came an incident which brought Pierre's emotion to a climax. A +tall sturdy man on turning out of the Rue Caumartin caught sight of +Salvat, and approached him. And just as the new comer without false pride +was shaking the workman's hand, Pierre recognised him as his brother +Guillaume. Yes, it was indeed he, with his thick bushy hair already white +like snow, though he was but seven and forty. However, his heavy +moustaches had remained quite dark without one silver thread, thus +lending an expression of vigorous life to his full face with its lofty +towering brow. It was from his father that he had inherited that brow of +impregnable logic and reason, similar to that which Pierre himself +possessed. But the lower part of the elder brother's countenance was +fuller than that of his junior; his nose was larger, his chin was square, +and his mouth broad and firm of contour. A pale scar, the mark of an old +wound, streaked his left temple. And his physiognomy, though it might at +first seem very grave, rough, and unexpansive, beamed with masculine +kindliness whenever a smile revealed his teeth, which had remained +extremely white. +</p> + +<p> +While looking at his brother, Pierre remembered what Madame Theodore had +told him that morning. Guillaume, touched by Salvat's dire want, had +arranged to give him a few days' employment. And this explained the air +of interest with which he now seemed to be questioning him, while the +engineer, whom the meeting disturbed, stamped about as if eager to resume +his mournful ramble. For a moment Guillaume appeared to notice the +other's perturbation, by the embarrassed answers which he obtained from +him. Still, they at last parted as if each were going his way. Then, +however, almost immediately, Guillaume turned round again and watched the +other, as with harassed stubborn mien he went off through the crowd. And +the thoughts which had come to Guillaume must have been very serious and +very pressing, for he all at once began to retrace his steps and follow +the workman from a distance, as if to ascertain for certain what +direction he would take. +</p> + +<p> +Pierre had watched the scene with growing disquietude. His nervous +apprehension of some great unknown calamity, the suspicions born of his +frequent and inexplicable meetings with Salvat, his surprise at now +seeing his brother mingled with the affair, all helped to fill him with a +pressing desire to know, witness, and perhaps prevent. So he did not +hesitate, but began to follow the others in a prudent way. +</p> + +<p> +Fresh perturbation came upon him when first Salvat and then Guillaume +suddenly turned into the Rue Godot-de-Mauroy. What destiny was thus +bringing him back to that street whither a little time previously he had +wished to return in feverish haste, and whence only the death of Laveuve +had kept him? And his consternation increased yet further when, after +losing sight of Salvat for a moment, he saw him standing in front of the +Duvillard mansion, on the same spot where he had fancied he recognised +him that morning. As it happened the carriage entrance of the mansion was +wide open. Some repairs had been made to the paving of the porch, and +although the workmen had now gone off, the doorway remained gaping, full +of the falling night. The narrow street, running from the glittering +Boulevard, was steeped in bluish gloom, starred at long intervals by a +few gas-lamps. Some women went by, compelling Salvat to step off the +foot-pavement. But he returned to it again, lighted the stump of a cigar, +some remnant which he had found under a table outside a cafe, and then +resumed his watch, patient and motionless, in front of the mansion. +</p> + +<p> +Disturbed by his dim conjectures, Pierre gradually grew frightened, and +asked himself if he ought not to approach that man. The chief thing that +detained him was the presence of his brother, whom he had seen disappear +into a neighbouring doorway, whence he also was observing the engineer, +ready to intervene. And so Pierre contented himself with not losing sight +of Salvat, who was still waiting and watching, merely taking his eyes +from the mansion in order to glance towards the Boulevard as though he +expected someone or something which would come from that direction. And +at last, indeed, the Duvillards' landau appeared, with coachman and +footman in livery of green and gold—a closed landau to which a pair of +tall horses of superb build were harnessed in stylish fashion. +</p> + +<p> +Contrary to custom, however, the carriage, which at that hour usually +brought the father and mother home, was only occupied that evening by the +son and daughter, Hyacinthe and Camille. Returning from the Princess de +Harn's <i>matinee</i>, they were chatting freely, with that calm immodesty by +which they sought to astonish one another. Hyacinthe, influenced by his +perverted ideas, was attacking women, whilst Camille openly counselled +him to respond to the Princess's advances. However, she was visibly +irritated and feverish that evening, and, suddenly changing the subject, +she began to speak of their mother and Gerard de Quinsac. +</p> + +<p> +"But what can it matter to you?" quietly retorted Hyacinthe; and, seeing +that she almost bounded from the seat at this remark, he continued: "Are +you still in love with him, then? Do you still want to marry him?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, I do, and I will!" she cried with all the jealous rage of an +uncomely girl, who suffered so acutely at seeing herself spurned whilst +her yet beautiful mother stole from her the man she wanted. +</p> + +<p> +"You will, you will!" resumed Hyacinthe, well pleased to have an +opportunity of teasing his sister, whom he somewhat feared. "But you +won't unless <i>he</i> is willing—And he doesn't care for you." +</p> + +<p> +"He does!" retorted Camille in a fury. "He's kind and pleasant with me, +and that's enough." +</p> + +<p> +Her brother felt afraid as he noticed the blackness of her glance, and +the clenching of her weak little hands, whose fingers bent like claws. +And after a pause he asked: "And papa, what does he say about it?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, papa! All that he cares about is the other one." +</p> + +<p> +Then Hyacinthe began to laugh. +</p> + +<p> +But the landau, with its tall horses trotting on sonorously, had turned +into the street and was approaching the house, when a slim fair-haired +girl of sixteen or seventeen, a modiste's errand girl with a large +bandbox on her arm, hastily crossed the road in order to enter the arched +doorway before the carriage. She was bringing a bonnet for the Baroness, +and had come all along the Boulevard musing, with her soft blue eyes, her +pinky nose, and her mouth which ever laughed in the most adorable little +face that one could see. And it was at this same moment that Salvat, +after another glance at the landau, sprang forward and entered the +doorway. An instant afterwards he reappeared, flung his lighted cigar +stump into the gutter; and without undue haste went off, slinking into +the depths of the vague gloom of the street. +</p> + +<p> +And then what happened? Pierre, later on, remembered that a dray of the +Western Railway Company in coming up stopped and delayed the landau for a +moment, whilst the young errand girl entered the doorway. And with a +heart-pang beyond description he saw his brother Guillaume in his turn +spring forward and rush into the mansion as though impelled to do so by +some revelation, some sudden certainty. He, Pierre, though he understood +nothing clearly, could divine the approach of some frightful horror. But +when he would have run, when he would have shouted, he found himself as +if nailed to the pavement, and felt his throat clutched as by a hand of +lead. Then suddenly came a thunderous roar, a formidable explosion, as if +the earth was opening, and the lightning-struck mansion was being +annihilated. Every window-pane of the neighbouring houses was shivered, +the glass raining down with the loud clatter of hail. For a moment a +hellish flame fired the street, and the dust and the smoke were such that +the few passers-by were blinded and howled with affright, aghast at +toppling, as they thought, into that fiery furnace. +</p> + +<p> +And that dazzling flare brought Pierre enlightenment. He once more saw +the bomb distending the tool-bag, which lack of work had emptied and +rendered useless. He once more saw it under the ragged jacket, a +protuberance caused, he had fancied, by some hunk of bread, picked up in +a corner and treasured that it might be carried home to wife and child. +After wandering and threatening all happy Paris, it was there that it had +flared, there that it had burst with a thunder-clap, there on the +threshold of the sovereign <i>bourgeoisie</i> to whom all wealth belonged. He, +however, at that moment thought only of his brother Guillaume, and flung +himself into that porch where a volcanic crater seemed to have opened. +And at first he distinguished nothing, the acrid smoke streamed over all. +Then he perceived the walls split, the upper floor rent open, the paving +broken up, strewn with fragments. Outside, the landau which had been on +the point of entering, had escaped all injury; neither of the horses had +been touched, nor was there even a scratch on any panel of the vehicle. +But the young girl, the pretty, slim, fair-haired errand girl, lay there +on her back, her stomach ripped open, whilst her delicate face remained +intact, her eyes clear, her smile full of astonishment, so swiftly and +lightning-like had come the catastrophe. And near her, from the fallen +bandbox, whose lid had merely come unfastened, had rolled the bonnet, a +very fragile pink bonnet, which still looked charming in its flowery +freshness. +</p> + +<p> +By a prodigy Guillaume was alive and already on his legs again. His left +hand alone streamed with blood, a projectile seemed to have broken his +wrist. His moustaches moreover had been burnt, and the explosion by +throwing him to the ground had so shaken and bruised him that he shivered +from head to feet as with intense cold. Nevertheless, he recognised his +brother without even feeling astonished to see him there, as indeed often +happens after great disasters, when the unexplained becomes providential. +That brother, of whom he had so long lost sight, was there, naturally +enough, because it was necessary that he should be there. And Guillaume, +amidst the wild quivers by which he was shaken, at once cried to him +"Take me away! take me away! To your house at Neuilly, oh! take me away!" +</p> + +<p> +Then, for sole explanation, and referring to Salvat, he stammered: "I +suspected that he had stolen a cartridge from me; only one, most +fortunately, for otherwise the whole district would have been blown to +pieces. Ah! the wretched fellow! I wasn't in time to set my foot upon the +match." +</p> + +<p> +With perfect lucidity of mind, such as danger sometimes imparts, Pierre, +neither speaking nor losing a moment, remembered that the mansion had a +back entrance fronting the Rue Vignon. He had just realised in what +serious peril his brother would be if he were found mixed up in that +affair. And with all speed, when he had led him into the gloom of the Rue +Vignon, he tied his handkerchief round his wrist, which he bade him press +to his chest, under his coat, as that would conceal it. +</p> + +<p> +But Guillaume, still shivering and haunted by the horror he had +witnessed, repeated: "Take me away—to your place at Neuilly—not to my +home." +</p> + +<p> +"Of course, of course, be easy. Come, wait here a second, I will stop a +cab." +</p> + +<p> +In his eagerness to procure a conveyance, Pierre had brought his brother +down to the Boulevard again. But the terrible thunderclap of the +explosion had upset the whole neighbourhood, horses were still rearing, +and people were running demented, hither and thither. And numerous +policemen had hastened up, and a rushing crowd was already blocking the +lower part of the Rue Godot-de-Mauroy, which was now as black as a pit, +every light in it having been extinguished; whilst on the Boulevard a +hawker of the "Voix du Peuple" still stubbornly vociferated: "The new +scandal of the African Railway Lines! The thirty-two bribe-takers of the +Chamber and the Senate! The approaching fall of the ministry!" +</p> + +<p> +Pierre was at last managing to stop a cab when he heard a person who ran +by say to another, "The ministry? Ah, well! that bomb will mend it right +enough!" +</p> + +<p> +Then the brothers seated themselves in the cab, which carried them away. +And now, over the whole of rumbling Paris black night had gathered, an +unforgiving night, in which the stars foundered amidst the mist of crime +and anger that had risen from the house-roofs. The great cry of justice +swept by amidst the same terrifying flapping of wings which Sodom and +Gomorrah once heard bearing down upon them from all the black clouds of +the horizon. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /><br /></p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Three Cities Trilogy: Paris, Vol. 1, by +Emile Zola + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THREE CITIES TRILOGY: PARIS VOL 1 *** + +***** This file should be named 9164-h.htm or 9164-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/9/1/6/9164/ + +Produced by Dagny, and David Widger. HTML version by Al Haines. + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at + www.gutenberg.org/license. + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 +North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email +contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the +Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> + +</html> + |