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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dream, by Emile Zola
+#37 in our series by Emile Zola
+
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+Title: The Dream
+
+Author: Emile Zola
+
+Release Date: December, 2005 [EBook #9499]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on October 6, 2003]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DREAM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Dagny, John Bickers, and Roger Proctor
+
+
+
+
+                              THE DREAM
+                              (LE REVE)
+
+                                  BY
+
+                              EMILE ZOLA
+
+
+                     Translated by Eliza E. Chase
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER I
+
+During the severe winter of 1860 the river Oise was frozen over and
+the plains of Lower Picardy were covered with deep snow. On Christmas
+Day, especially, a heavy squall from the north-east had almost buried
+the little city of Beaumont. The snow, which began to fall early in
+the morning, increased towards evening and accumulated during the
+night; in the upper town, in the Rue des Orfevres, at the end of
+which, as if enclosed therein, is the northern front of the cathedral
+transept, this was blown with great force by the wind against the
+portal of Saint Agnes, the old Romanesque portal, where traces of
+Early Gothic could be seen, contrasting its florid ornamentation with
+the bare simplicity of the transept gable.
+
+The inhabitants still slept, wearied by the festive rejoicings of the
+previous day. The town-clock struck six. In the darkness, which was
+slightly lightened by the slow, persistent fall of flakes, a vague
+living form alone was visible: that of a little girl, nine years of
+age, who, having taken refuge under the archway of the portal, had
+passed the night there, shivering, and sheltering herself as well as
+possible. She wore a thin woollen dress, ragged from long use, her
+head was covered with a torn silk handkerchief, and on her bare feet
+were heavy shoes much too large for her. Without doubt she had only
+gone there after having well wandered through the town, for she had
+fallen down from sheer exhaustion. For her it was the end of the
+world; there was no longer anything to interest her. It was the last
+surrender; the hunger that gnaws, the cold which kills; and in her
+weakness, stifled by the heavy weight at her heart, she ceased to
+struggle, and nothing was left to her but the instinctive movement of
+preservation, the desire of changing place, of sinking still deeper
+into these old stones, whenever a sudden gust made the snow whirl
+about her.
+
+Hour after hour passed. For a long time, between the divisions of this
+double door, she leaned her back against the abutting pier, on whose
+column was a statue of Saint Agnes, the martyr of but thirteen years
+of age, a little girl like herself, who carried a branch of palm, and
+at whose feet was a lamb. And in the tympanum, above the lintel, the
+whole legend of the Virgin Child betrothed to Jesus could be seen in
+high relief, set forth with a charming simplicity of faith. Her hair,
+which grew long and covered her like a garment when the Governor,
+whose son she had refused to marry, gave her up to the soldiers; the
+flames of the funeral pile, destined to destroy her, turning aside and
+burning her executioners as soon as they lighted the wood; the
+miracles performed by her relics; Constance, daughter of the Emperor,
+cured of leprosy; and the quaint story of one of her painted images,
+which, when the priest Paulinus offered it a very valuable emerald
+ring, held out its finger, then withdrew it, keeping the ring, which
+can be seen at this present day. At the top of the tympanum, in a halo
+of glory, Agnes is at last received into heaven, where her betrothed,
+Jesus, marries her, so young and so little, giving her the kiss of
+eternal happiness.
+
+But when the wind rushed through the street, the snow was blown in the
+child's face, and the threshold was almost barred by the white masses;
+then she moved away to the side, against the virgins placed above the
+base of the arch. These are the companions of Agnes, the saints who
+served as her escort: three at her right--Dorothea, who was fed in
+prison by miraculous bread; Barbe, who lived in a tower; and
+Genevieve, whose heroism saved Paris: and three at her left--Agatha,
+whose breast was torn; Christina, who was put to torture by her
+father; and Cecilia, beloved by the angels. Above these were statues
+and statues; three close ranks mounting with the curves of the arches,
+decorating them with chaste triumphant figures, who, after the
+suffering and martyrdom of their earthly life, were welcomed by a host
+of winged cherubim, transported with ecstasy into the Celestial
+Kingdom.
+
+There had been no shelter for the little waif for a long time, when at
+last the clock struck eight and daylight came. The snow, had she not
+trampled it down, would have come up to her shoulders. The old door
+behind her was covered with it, as if hung with ermine, and it looked
+as white as an altar, beneath the grey front of the church, so bare
+and smooth that not even a single flake had clung to it. The great
+saints, those of the sloping surface especially, were clothed in it,
+and were glistening in purity from their feet to their white beards.
+Still higher, in the scenes of the tympanum, the outlines of the
+little saints of the arches were designed most clearly on a dark
+background, and this magic sect continued until the final rapture at
+the marriage of Agnes, which the archangels appeared to be celebrating
+under a shower of white roses. Standing upon her pillar, with her
+white branch of palm and her white lamp, the Virgin Child had such
+purity in the lines of her body of immaculate snow, that the
+motionless stiffness of cold seemed to congeal around her the mystic
+transports of victorious youth. And at her feet the other child, so
+miserable, white with snow--she also grew so stiff and pale that it
+seemed as if she were turning to stone, and could scarcely be
+distinguished from the great images above her.
+
+At last, in one of the long line of houses in which all seemed to be
+sleeping, the noise from the drawing up of a blind made her raise her
+eyes. It was at her right hand, in the second story of a house at the
+side of the Cathedral. A very handsome woman, a brunette about forty
+years of age, with a placid expression of serenity, was just looking
+out from there, and in spite of the terrible frost she kept her
+uncovered arm in the air for a moment, having seen the child move. Her
+calm face grew sad with pity and astonishment. Then, shivering, she
+hastily closed the window. She carried with her the rapid vision of a
+fair little creature with violet-coloured eyes under a head-covering
+of an old silk handkerchief. The face was oval, the neck long and
+slender as a lily, and the shoulders drooping; but she was blue from
+cold, her little hands and feet were half dead, and the only thing
+about her that still showed life was the slight vapour of her breath.
+
+The child remained with her eyes upturned, looking at the house
+mechanically. It was a narrow one, two stories in height, very old,
+and evidently built towards the end of the fifteenth century. It was
+almost sealed to the side of the Cathedral, between two buttresses,
+like a wart which had pushed itself between the two toes of a
+Colossus. And thus supported on each side, it was admirably preserved,
+with its stone basement, its second story in wooden panels, ornamented
+with bricks, its roof, of which the framework advanced at least three
+feet beyond the gable, its turret for the projecting stairway at the
+left corner, where could still be seen in the little window the leaden
+setting of long ago. At times repairs had been made on account of its
+age. The tile-roofing dated from the reign of Louis XIV, for one
+easily recognised the work of that epoch; a dormer window pierced in
+the side of the turret, little wooden frames replacing everywhere
+those of the primitive panes; the three united openings of the second
+story had been reduced to two, that of the middle being closed up with
+bricks, thus giving to the front the symmetry of the other buildings
+on the street of a more recent date.
+
+In the basement the changes were equally visible, an oaken door with
+mouldings having taken the place of the old one with iron trimmings
+that was under the stairway; and the great central arcade, of which
+the lower part, the sides, and the point had been plastered over, so
+as to leave only one rectangular opening, was now a species of large
+window, instead of the triple-pointed one which formerly came out on
+to the street.
+
+Without thinking, the child still looked at this venerable dwelling of
+a master-builder, so well preserved, and as she read upon a little
+yellow plate nailed at the left of the door these words, "Hubert,
+chasuble maker," printed in black letters, she was again attracted by
+the sound of the opening of a shutter. This time it was the blind of
+the square window of the ground floor. A man in his turn looked out;
+his face was full, his nose aquiline, his forehead projecting, and his
+thick short hair already white, although he was scarcely yet five-and-
+forty. He, too, forgot the air for a moment as he examined her with a
+sad wrinkle on his great tender mouth. Then she saw him, as he
+remained standing behind the little greenish-looking panes. He turned,
+beckoned to someone, and his wife reappeared. How handsome she was!
+They both stood side by side, looking at her earnestly and sadly.
+
+For four hundred years, the line of Huberts, embroiderers from father
+to son, had lived in this house. A noted maker of chasubles had built
+it under Louis XI, another had repaired it under Louis XIV, and the
+Hubert who now occupied it still embroidered church vestments, as his
+ancestors had always done. At twenty years of age he had fallen in
+love with a young girl of sixteen, Hubertine, and so deep was their
+affection for each other, that when her mother, widow of a magistrate,
+refused to give her consent to their union, they ran away together and
+were married. She was remarkably beautiful, and that was their whole
+romance, their joy, and their misfortune.
+
+When, a year later, she went to the deathbed of her mother, the latter
+disinherited her and gave her her curse. So affected was she by the
+terrible scene, that her infant, born soon after, died, and since then
+it seemed as if, even in her coffin in the cemetery, the willful woman
+had never pardoned her daughter, for it was, alas! a childless
+household. After twenty-four years they still mourned the little one
+they had lost.
+
+Disturbed by their looks, the stranger tried to hide herself behind
+the pillar of Saint Agnes. She was also annoyed by the movement which
+now commenced in the street, as the shops were being opened and people
+began to go out. The Rue des Orfevres, which terminates at the side
+front of the church, would be almost impassable, blocked in as it is
+on one side by the house of the Huberts, if the Rue du Soleil, a
+narrow lane, did not relieve it on the other side by running the whole
+length of the Cathedral to the great front on the Place du Cloitre. At
+this hour there were few passers, excepting one or two persons who
+were on their way to early service, and they looked with surprise at
+the poor little girl, whom they did not recognise as ever having seen
+at Beaumont. The slow, persistent fall of snow continued. The cold
+seemed to increase with the wan daylight, and in the dull thickness of
+the great white shroud which covered the town one heard, as if from a
+distance, the sound of voices. But timid, ashamed of her abandonment,
+as if it were a fault, the child drew still farther back, when
+suddenly she recognised before her Hubertine, who, having no servant,
+had gone out to buy bread.
+
+"What are you doing there, little one? Who are you?"
+
+She did not answer, but hid her face. Then she was no longer conscious
+of suffering; her whole being seemed to have faded away, as if her
+heart, turned to ice, had stopped beating. When the good lady turned
+away with a pitying look, she sank down upon her knees completely
+exhausted, and slipped listlessly into the snow, whose flakes quickly
+covered her.
+
+And the woman, as she returned with her fresh rolls, seeing that she
+had fallen, again approached her.
+
+"Look up, my child! You cannot remain here on this doorstep."
+
+Then Hubert, who had also come out, and was standing near the
+threshold, took the bread from his wife, and said:
+
+"Take her up and bring her into the house."
+
+Hubertine did not reply, but, stooping, lifted her in her strong arms.
+And the child shrank back no longer, but was carried as if inanimate;
+her teeth closely set, her eyes shut, chilled through and through, and
+with the lightness of a little bird that had just fallen from its
+nest.
+
+They went in. Hubert shut the door, while Hubertine, bearing her
+burden, passed through the front room, which served as a parlour, and
+where some embroidered bands were spread out for show before the great
+square window. Then she went into the kitchen, the old servants' hall,
+preserved almost intact, with its heavy beams, its flagstone floor
+mended in a dozen places, and its great fireplace with its stone
+mantelpiece. On shelves were the utensils, the pots, kettles, and
+saucepans, that dated back one or two centuries; and the dishes were
+of old stone, or earthenware, and of pewter. But on the middle of the
+hearth was a modern cooking-stove, a large cast-iron one, whose copper
+trimmings were wondrously bright. It was red from heat, and the water
+was bubbling away in its boiler. A large porringer, filled with
+coffee-and-milk, was on one corner of it.
+
+"Oh! how much more comfortable it is here than outside," said Hubert,
+as he put the bread down on a heavy table of the style of Louis XIII,
+which was in the centre of the room. "Now, seat this poor little
+creature near the stove that she may be thawed out!"
+
+Hubertine had already placed the child close to the fire, and they
+both looked at her as she slowly regained consciousness. As the snow
+that covered her clothes melted it fell in heavy drops. Through the
+holes of her great shoes they could see her little bruised feet,
+whilst the thin woollen dress designed the rigidity of her limbs and
+her poor body, worn by misery and pain. She had a long attack of
+nervous trembling, and then opened her frightened eyes with the start
+of an animal which suddenly awakes from sleep to find itself caught in
+a snare. Her face seemed to sink away under the silken rag which was
+tied under her chin. Her right arm appeared to be helpless, for she
+pressed it so closely to her breast.
+
+"Do not be alarmed, for we will not hurt you. Where did you come from?
+Who are you?"
+
+But the more she was spoken to the more frightened she became, turning
+her head as if someone were behind her who would beat her. She
+examined the kitchen furtively, the flaggings, the beams, and the
+shining utensils; then her glance passed through the irregular windows
+which were left in the ancient opening, and she saw the garden clear
+to the trees by the Bishop's house, whose white shadows towered above
+the wall at the end, while at the left, as if astonished at finding
+itself there, stretched along the whole length of the alley the
+Cathedral, with its Romanesque windows in the chapels of its apses.
+And again, from the heat of the stove which began to penetrate her,
+she had a long attack of shivering, after which she turned her eyes to
+the floor and remained quiet.
+
+"Do you belong to Beaumont? Who is your father?"
+
+She was so entirely silent that Hubert thought her throat must be too
+dry to allow her to speak.
+
+Instead of questioning her he said: "We would do much better to give
+her a cup of coffee as hot as she can drink it."
+
+That was so reasonable that Hubertine immediately handed her the cup
+she herself held. Whilst she cut two large slices of bread and
+buttered them, the child, still mistrustful, continued to shrink back;
+but her hunger was too great, and soon she ate and drank ravenously.
+That there need not be a restraint upon her, the husband and wife were
+silent, and were touched to tears on seeing her little hand tremble to
+such a degree that at times it was difficult for her to reach her
+mouth. She made use only of her left hand, for her right arm seemed to
+be fastened to her chest. When she had finished, she almost broke the
+cup, which she caught again by an awkward movement of her elbow.
+
+"Have you hurt your arm badly?" Hubertine asked. "Do not be afraid, my
+dear, but show it to me."
+
+But as she was about to touch it the child rose up hastily, trying to
+prevent her, and as in the struggle she moved her arm, a little
+pasteboard-covered book, which she had hidden under her dress, slipped
+through a large tear in her waist. She tried to take it, and when she
+saw her unknown hosts open and begin to read it, she clenched her fist
+in anger.
+
+It was an official certificate, given by the Administration des
+Enfants Assistes in the Department of the Seine. On the first page,
+under a medallion containing a likeness of Saint Vincent de Paul, were
+the printed prescribed forms. For the family name, a simple black line
+filled the allotted space. Then for the Christian names were those of
+Angelique Marie; for the dates, born January 22, 1851, admitted the
+23rd of the same month under the registered number of 1,634. So there
+was neither father nor mother; there were no papers; not even a
+statement of where she was born; nothing but this little book of
+official coldness, with its cover of pale red pasteboard. No relative
+in the world! and even her abandonment numbered and classed!
+
+"Oh! then she is a foundling!" exclaimed Hubertine.
+
+In a paroxysm of rage the child replied: "I am much better than all
+the others--yes--yes! I am better, better, better. I have never taken
+anything that did not belong to me, and yet they stole all I had. Give
+me back, now, that which you also have stolen from me!"
+
+Such powerless passion, such pride to be above the others in goodness,
+so shook the body of the little girl, that the Huberts were startled.
+They no longer recognised the blonde creature, with violet eyes and
+graceful figure. Now her eyes were black, her face dark, and her neck
+seemed swollen by a rush of blood to it. Since she had become warm,
+she raised her head and hissed like a serpent that had been picked up
+on the snow.
+
+"Are you then really so naughty?" asked Hubert gently. "If we wish to
+know all about you, it is because we wish to help you."
+
+And looking over the shoulders of his wife he read as the latter
+turned the leaves of the little book. On the second page was the name
+of the nurse. "The child, Angelique Marie, had been given, on January
+25, 1851, to the nurse, Francoise, sister of Mr. Hamelin, a farmer by
+profession, living in the parish of Soulanges, an arrondissement of
+Nevers. The aforesaid nurse had received on her departure the pay for
+the first month of her care, in addition to her clothing." Then there
+was a certificate of her baptism, signed by the chaplain of the Asylum
+for Abandoned Children; also that of the physician on the arrival and
+on the departure of the infant. The monthly accounts, paid in
+quarterly installments, filled farther on the columns of four pages,
+and each time there was the illegible signature of the receiver or
+collector.
+
+"What! Nevers!" asked Hubertine. "You were brought up near Nevers?"
+
+Angelique, red with anger that she could not prevent them from
+reading, had fallen into a sullen silence. But at last she opened her
+mouth to speak of her nurse.
+
+"Ah! you may be sure that Maman Nini would have beaten you. She always
+took my part against others, she did, although sometimes she struck me
+herself. Ah! it is true I was not so unhappy over there, with the
+cattle and all!"
+
+Her voice choked her and she continued, in broken, incoherent
+sentences, to speak of the meadow where she drove the great red cow,
+of the broad road where she played, of the cakes they cooked, and of a
+pet house-dog that had once bitten her.
+
+Hubert interrupted her as he read aloud: "In case of illness, or of
+bad treatment, the superintendent is authorised to change the nurses
+of the children." Below it was written that the child Angelique Marie
+had been given on June 20 to the care of Theresa, wife of Louis
+Franchomme, both of them makers of artificial flowers in Paris.
+
+"Ah! I understand," said Hubertine. "You were ill, and so they took
+you back to Paris."
+
+But no, that was not the case, and the Huberts did not know the whole
+history until they had drawn it, little by little from Angelique.
+Louis Franchomme, who was a cousin of Maman Nini, went to pass a month
+in his native village when recovering from a fever. It was then that
+his wife, Theresa, became very fond of the child, and obtained
+permission to take her to Paris, where she could be taught the trade
+of making flowers. Three months later her husband died, and she
+herself, being delicate in health, was obliged to leave the city and
+to go to her brother's, the tanner Rabier, who was settled at
+Beaumont. She, alas! died in the early days of December, and confided
+to her sister-in-law the little girl, who since that time had been
+injured, beaten, and, in short, suffered martyrdom.
+
+"The Rabiers?" said Hubert. "The Rabiers? Yes, yes! They are tanners
+on the banks of the Ligneul, in the lower town. The husband is lame,
+and the wife is a noted scold."
+
+"They treated me as if I came from the gutter," continued Angelique,
+revolted and enraged in her mortified pride. "They said the river was
+the best place for me. After she had beaten me nearly to death, the
+woman would put something on the floor for me to eat, as if I were a
+cat, and many a time I went to bed suffering from hunger. Oh! I could
+have killed myself, at last!" She made a gesture of furious despair.
+
+"Yesterday, Christmas morning, they had been drinking, and, to amuse
+themselves, they threatened to put out my eyes. Then, after a while,
+they began to fight with each other, and dealt such heavy blows that I
+thought they were dead, as they both fell on the floor of their room.
+For a long time I had determined to run away. But I was anxious to
+have my book. Maman Nini had often said, in showing it to me: 'Look,
+this is all that you own, and if you do not keep this you will not
+even have a name.' And I know that since the death of Maman Theresa
+they had hid it in one of the bureau drawers. So stepping over them as
+quietly as possible, while they were lying on the floor, I got the
+book, hid it under my dress-waist, pressing it against me with my arm.
+It seemed so large that I fancied everyone must see it, and that it
+would be taken from me. Oh! I ran, and ran, and ran, and when night
+came it was so dark! Oh! how cold I was under the poor shelter of that
+great door! Oh dear! I was so cold, it seemed as if I were dead. But
+never mind now, for I did not once let go of my book, and here it is."
+And with a sudden movement, as the Huberts closed it to give it back
+to her, she snatched it from them. Then, sitting down, she put her
+head on the table, sobbing deeply as she laid her cheek on the light
+red cover. Her pride seemed conquered by an intense humility. Her
+whole being appeared to be softened by the sight of these few leaves
+with their rumpled corners--her solitary possession, her one treasure,
+and the only tie which connected her with the life of this world. She
+could not relieve her heart of her great despair; her tears flowed
+continually, and under this complete surrender of herself she regained
+her delicate looks and became again a pretty child. Her slightly oval
+face was pure in its outlines, her violet eyes were made a little
+paler from emotion, and the curve of her neck and shoulders made her
+resemble a little virgin on a church window. At length she seized the
+hand of Hubertine, pressed it to her lips most caressingly, and kissed
+it passionately.
+
+The Huberts were deeply touched, and could scarcely speak. They
+stammered: "Dear, dear child!"
+
+She was not, then, in reality bad! Perhaps with affectionate care she
+could be corrected of this violence of temper which had so alarmed
+them.
+
+In a tone of entreaty the poor child exclaimed: "Do not send me back
+to those dreadful people! Oh, do not send me back again!"
+
+The husband and wife looked at each other for a few moments. In fact,
+since the autumn they had planned taking as an apprentice some young
+girl who would live with them, and thus bring a little brightness into
+their house, which seemed so dull without children. And their decision
+was soon made.
+
+"Would you like it, my dear?" Hubert asked.
+
+Hubertine replied quietly, in her calm voice: "I would indeed."
+
+Immediately they occupied themselves with the necessary formalities.
+The husband went to the Justice of Peace of the northern district of
+Beaumont, who was cousin to his wife, the only relative with whom she
+had kept up an acquaintance, and told him all the facts of the case.
+He took charge of it, wrote to the Hospice of Abandoned Children--
+where, thanks to the registered number, Angelique was easily
+recognised--and obtained permission for her to remain as apprentice
+with the Huberts, who were well known for their honourable position.
+
+The Sub-Inspector of the Hospice, on coming to verify the little book,
+signed the new contract as witness for Hubert, by which the latter
+promised to treat the child kindly, to keep her tidy, to send her to
+school and to church, and to give her a good bed to herself. On the
+other side, the Administration agreed to pay him all indemnities, and
+to give the child certain stipulated articles of clothing, as was
+their custom.
+
+In ten days all was arranged. Angelique slept upstairs in a room under
+the roof, by the side of the garret, and the windows of which
+overlooked the garden. She had already taken her first lessons in
+embroidery. The first Sunday morning after she was in her new home,
+before going to mass, Hubertine opened before her the old chest in the
+working-room, where she kept the fine gold thread. She held up the
+little book, then, placing it in that back part of one of the drawers,
+said: "Look! I have put it here. I will not hide it, but leave it
+where you can take it if you ever wish to do so. It is best that you
+should see it, and remember where it is."
+
+On entering the church that day, Angelique found herself again under
+the doorway of Saint Agnes. During the week there had been a partial
+thaw, then the cold weather had returned to so intense a degree that
+the snow which had half melted on the statues had congealed itself in
+large bunches or in icicles. Now, the figures seemed dressed in
+transparent robes of ice, with lace trimmings like spun glass.
+Dorothea was holding a torch, the liquid droppings of which fell upon
+her hands. Cecilia wore a silver crown, in which glistened the most
+brilliant of pearls. Agatha's nude chest was protected by a crystal
+armour. And the scenes in the tympanum, the little virgins in the
+arches, looked as if they had been there for centuries, behind the
+glass and jewels of the shrine of a saint. Agnes herself let trail
+behind her her court mantle, threaded with light and embroidered with
+stars. Her lamb had a fleece of diamonds, and her palm-branch had
+become the colour of heaven. The whole door was resplendent in the
+purity of intense cold.
+
+Angelique recollected the night she had passed there under the
+protection of these saints. She raised her head and smiled upon them.
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II
+
+Beaumont is composed of two villages, completely separated and quite
+distinct one from the other--Beaumont-l'Eglise, on the hill with its
+old Cathedral of the twelfth century, its Bishop's Palace which dates
+only from the seventeenth century, its inhabitants, scarcely one
+thousand in number, who are crowded together in an almost stifling way
+in its narrow streets; and Beaumont-la-Ville, at the foot of the hill,
+on the banks of the Ligneul, an ancient suburb, which the success of
+its manufactories of lace and fine cambric has enriched and enlarged
+to such an extent that it has a population of nearly ten thousand
+persons, several public squares, and an elegant sub-prefecture built
+in the modern style. These two divisions, the northern district and
+the southern district, have thus no longer anything in common except
+in an administrative way. Although scarcely thirty leagues from Paris,
+where one can go by rail in two hours, Beaumont-l'Eglise seems to be
+still immured in its old ramparts, of which, however, only three gates
+remain. A stationary, peculiar class of people lead there a life
+similar to that which their ancestors had led from father to son
+during the past five hundred years.
+
+The Cathedral explains everything, has given birth to and preserved
+everything. It is the mother, the queen, as it rises in all its
+majesty in the centre of, and above, the little collection of low
+houses, which, like shivering birds, are sheltered under her wings of
+stone. One lives there simply for it, and only by it. There is no
+movement of business activity, and the little tradesmen only sell the
+necessities of life, such as are absolutely required to feed, to
+clothe, and to maintain the church and its clergy; and if occasionally
+one meets some private individuals, they are merely the last
+representatives of a scattered crowd of worshippers. The church
+dominates all; each street is one of its veins; the town has no other
+breath than its own. On that account, this spirit of another age, this
+religious torpor from the past, makes the cloistered city which
+surrounds it redolent with a savoury perfume of peace and of faith.
+
+And in all this mystic place, the house of the Huberts, where
+Angelique was to live in the future, was the one nearest to the
+Cathedral, and which clung to it as if in reality it were a part
+thereof. The permission to build there, between two of the great
+buttresses, must have been given by some vicar long ago, who was
+desirous of attaching to himself the ancestors of this line of
+embroiderers, as master chasuble-makers and furnishers for the
+Cathedral clergy. On the southern side, the narrow garden was barred
+by the colossal building; first, the circumference of the side
+chapels, whose windows overlooked the flower-beds, and then the
+slender, long nave, that the flying buttresses supported, and
+afterwards the high roof covered with the sheet lead.
+
+The sun never penetrated to the lower part of this garden, where ivy
+and box alone grew luxuriantly; yet the eternal shadow there was very
+soft and pleasant as it fell from the gigantic brow of the apse--a
+religious shadow, sepulchral and pure, which had a good odour about
+it. In the greenish half-light of its calm freshness, the two towers
+let fall only the sound of their chimes. But the entire house kept the
+quivering therefrom, sealed as it was to these old stones, melted into
+them and supported by them. It trembled at the least of the
+ceremonies; at the High Mass, the rumbling of the organ, the voices of
+the choristers, even the oppressed sighs of the worshippers, murmured
+through each one of its rooms, lulled it as if with a holy breath from
+the Invisible, and at times through the half-cool walls seemed to come
+the vapours from the burning incense.
+
+For five years Angelique lived and grew there, as if in a cloister,
+far away from the world. She only went out to attend the seven-o'clock
+Mass on Sunday mornings, as Hubertine had obtained permission for her
+to study at home, fearing that, if sent to school, she might not
+always have the best of associates. This old dwelling, so shut in,
+with its garden of a dead quiet, was her world. She occupied as her
+chamber a little whitewashed room under the roof; she went down in the
+morning to her breakfast in the kitchen, she went up again to the
+working-room in the second story to her embroidery. And these places,
+with the turning stone stairway of the turret, were the only corners
+in which she passed her time; for she never went into the Huberts'
+apartments, and only crossed the parlour on the first floor, and they
+were the two rooms which had been rejuvenated and modernised. In the
+parlour, the beams were plastered over, and the ceiling had been
+decorated with a palm-leaf cornice, accompanied by a rose centre; the
+wall-paper dated from the First Empire, as well as the white marble
+chimney-piece and the mahogany furniture, which consisted of a sofa
+and four armchairs covered with Utrecht velvet, a centre table, and a
+cabinet.
+
+On the rare occasions when she went there, to add to the articles
+exposed for sale some new bands of embroidery, if she cast her eyes
+without, she saw through the window the same unchanging vista, the
+narrow street ending at the portal of Saint Agnes; a parishioner
+pushing open the little lower door, which shut itself without any
+noise, and the shops of the plate-worker and wax-candle-maker
+opposite, which appeared to be always empty, but where was a display
+of holy sacramental vessels, and long lines of great church tapers.
+And the cloistral calm of all Beaumont-l'Eglise--of the Rue Magloire,
+back of the Bishop's Palace, of the Grande Rue, where the Rue de
+Orfevres began, and of the Place du Cloitre, where rose up the two
+towers, was felt in the drowsy air, and seemed to fall gently with the
+pale daylight on the deserted pavement.
+
+Hubertine had taken upon herself the charge of the education of
+Angelique. Moreover, she was very old-fashioned in her ideas, and
+maintained that a woman knew enough if she could read well, write
+correctly, and had studied thoroughly the first four rules of
+arithmetic. But even for this limited instruction she had constantly
+to contend with an unwillingness on the part of her pupil, who,
+instead of giving her attention to her books, preferred looking out of
+the windows, although the recreation was very limited, as she could
+see nothing but the garden from them. In reality, Angelique cared only
+for reading; notwithstanding in her dictations, chosen from some
+classic writer, she never succeeded in spelling a page correctly, yet
+her handwriting was exceedingly pretty, graceful, and bold, one of
+those irregular styles which were quite the fashion long ago. As for
+other studies, of geography and history and cyphering, she was almost
+completely ignorant of them. What good would knowledge ever do her? It
+was really useless, she thought. Later on, when it was time for her to
+be Confirmed, she learned her Catechism word for word, and with so
+fervent an ardour that she astonished everyone by the exactitude of
+her memory.
+
+Notwithstanding their gentleness, during the first year the Huberts
+were often discouraged. Angelique, who promised to be skilful in
+embroidering, disconcerted them by sudden changes to inexplicable
+idleness after days of praiseworthy application. She was capricious,
+seemed to lose her strength, became greedy, would steal sugar to eat
+when alone, and her cheeks were flushed and her eyes looked wearied
+under their reddened lids. If reproved, she would reply with a flood
+of injurious words. Some days, when they wished to try to subdue her,
+her foolish pride at being interfered with would throw her into such
+serious attacks that she would strike her feet and her hands together,
+and seemed ready to tear her clothing, or to bite anyone who
+approached her. At such moments they drew away from her, for she was
+like a little monster ruled by the evil sprit within her.
+
+Who could she be? Where did she come from? Almost always these
+abandoned children are the offspring of vice. Twice they had resolved
+to give her up and send her back to the Asylum, so discouraged were
+they and so deeply did they regret having taken her. But each time
+these frightful scenes, which almost made the house tremble, ended in
+the same deluge of tears, and the same excited expressions and acts of
+penitence, when the child would throw herself on the floor, begging
+them so earnestly to punish her that they were obliged to forgive her.
+
+Little by little, Hubertine gained great authority over her. She was
+peculiarly adapted for such a task, with her kind heart, her gentle
+firmness, her common-sense and her uniform temper. She taught her the
+duty of obedience and the sin of pride and of passion. To obey was to
+live. We must obey God, our parents, and our superiors. There was a
+whole hierarchy of respect, outside of which existence was
+unrestrained and disorderly. So, after each fit of passion, that she
+might learn humility, some menial labour was imposed upon her as a
+penance, such as washing the cooking-utensils, or wiping up the
+kitchen floor; and, until it was finished, she would remain stooping
+over her work, enraged at first, but conquered at last.
+
+With the little girl excess seemed to be a marked characteristic in
+everything, even in her caresses. Many times Hubertine had seen her
+kissing her hands with vehemence. She would often be in a fever of
+ecstasy before the little pictures of saints and of the Child Jesus,
+which she had collected; and one evening she was found in a half-
+fainting state, with her head upon the table, and her lips pressed to
+those of the images. When Hubertine confiscated them there was a
+terrible scene of tears and cries, as if she herself were being
+tortured. After that she was held very strictly, was made to obey, and
+her freaks were at once checked by keeping her busy at her work; as
+soon as her cheeks grew very red, her eyes dark, and she had nervous
+tremblings, everything was immediately made quiet about her.
+
+Moreover, Hubertine had found an unexpected aid in the book given by
+the Society for the Protection of Abandoned Children. Every three
+months, when the collector signed it, Angelique was very low-spirited
+for the rest of the day. If by chance she saw it when she went to the
+drawer for a ball of gold thread, her heart seemed pierced with agony.
+And one day, when in a fit of uncontrollable fury, which nothing had
+been able to conquer, she turned over the contents of the drawer, she
+suddenly appeared as if thunderstruck before the red-covered book. Her
+sobs stifled her. She threw herself at the feet of the Huberts in
+great humility, stammering that they had made a mistake in giving her
+shelter, and that she was not worthy of all their kindness. From that
+time her anger was frequently restrained by the sight or the mention
+of the book.
+
+In this way Angelique lived until she was twelve years of age and
+ready to be Confirmed. The calm life of the household, the little old-
+fashioned building sleeping under the shadow of the Cathedral,
+perfumed with incense, and penetrated with religious music, favoured
+the slow amelioration of this untutored nature, this wild flower,
+taken from no one knew where, and transplanted in the mystic soil of
+the narrow garden. Added to this was the regularity of her daily work
+and the utter ignorance of what was going on in the world, without
+even an echo from a sleepy quarter penetrating therein.
+
+But, above all, the gentlest influence came from the great love of the
+Huberts for each other, which seemed to be enlarged by some unknown,
+incurable remorse. He passed the days in endeavouring to make his wife
+forget the injury he had done her in marrying her in spite of the
+opposition of her mother. He had realised at the death of their child
+that she half accused him of this punishment, and he wished to be
+forgiven. She had done so years ago, and now she idolised him.
+Sometimes he was not sure of it, and this doubt saddened his life. He
+wished they might have had another infant, and so feel assured that
+the obstinate mother had been softened after death, and had withdrawn
+her malediction. That, in fact, was their united desire--a child of
+pardon; and he worshipped his wife with a tender love, ardent and pure
+as that of a betrothed. If before the apprentice he did not even kiss
+her hand, he never entered their chamber, even after twenty years of
+marriage, without an emotion of gratitude for all the happiness that
+had been given him. This was their true home, this room with its
+tinted paintings, its blue wall-paper, its pretty hangings, and its
+walnut furniture. Never was an angry word uttered therein, and, as if
+from a sanctuary, a sentiment of tenderness went out from its
+occupants, and filled the house. It was thus for Angelique an
+atmosphere of affection and love, in which she grew and thrived.
+
+An unexpected event finished the work of forming her character. As she
+was rummaging one morning in a corner of the working-room, she found
+on a shelf, among implements of embroidery which were no longer used,
+a very old copy of the "Golden Legend," by Jacques de Voragine. This
+French translation, dating from 1549, must have been bought in the
+long ago by some master-workman in church vestments, on account of the
+pictures, full of useful information upon the Saints. It was a great
+while since Angelique had given any attention to the little old carved
+images, showing such childlike faith, which had once delighted her.
+But now, as soon as she was allowed to go out and play in the garden,
+she took the book with her. It had been rebound in yellow calf, and
+was in a good condition. She slowly turned over some of the leaves,
+then looked at the title-page, in red and black, with the address of
+the bookseller: "a Paris, en la rue Neufre Nostre-Dame, a l'enseigne
+Saint Jehan Baptiste;" and decorated with medallions of the four
+Evangelists, framed at the bottom by the Adoration of the Three Magi,
+and at the top by the Triumph of Jesus Christ, and His resurrection.
+And then picture after picture followed; there were ornamented
+letters, large and small, engravings in the text and at the heading of
+the chapters; "The Annunciation," an immense angel inundating with
+rays of light a slight, delicate-looking Mary; "The Massacre of the
+Innocents," where a cruel Herod was seen surrounded by dead bodies of
+dear little children; "The Nativity," where Saint Joseph is holding a
+candle, the light of which falls upon the face of the Infant Jesus,
+Who sleeps in His mother's arms; Saint John the Almoner, giving to the
+poor; Saint Matthias, breaking an idol; Saint Nicholas as a bishop,
+having at his right hand a little bucket filled with babies. And then,
+a little farther on, came the female saints: Agnes, with her neck
+pierced by a sword; Christina, torn by pincers; Genevieve, followed by
+her lambs; Juliana, being whipped; Anastasia, burnt; Maria the
+Egyptian, repenting in the desert, Mary of Magdalene, carrying the
+vase of precious ointment; and others and still others followed. There
+was an increasing terror and a piety in each one of them, making it a
+history which weighs upon the heart and fills the eyes with tears.
+
+But, little by little, Angelique was curious to know exactly what
+these engravings represented. The two columns of closely-printed text,
+the impression of which remained very black upon the papers yellowed
+by time, frightened her by the strange, almost barbaric look of the
+Gothic letters. Still, she accustomed herself to it, deciphered these
+characters, learned the abbreviations and the contractions, and soon
+knew how to explain the turning of the phrases and the old-fashioned
+words. At last she could read it easily, and was as enchanted as if
+she were penetrating a mystery, and she triumphed over each new
+difficulty that she conquered.
+
+Under these laborious shades a whole world of light revealed itself.
+She entered, as it were, into a celestial splendour. For now the few
+classic books they owned, so cold and dry, existed no longer. The
+Legend alone interested her. She bent over it, with her forehead
+resting on her hands, studying it so intently, that she no longer
+lived in the real life, but, unconscious of time, she seemed to see,
+mounting from the depths of the unknown, the broad expansion of a
+dream.
+
+How wonderful it all was! These saints and virgins! They are born
+predestined; solemn voices announce their coming, and their mothers
+have marvellous dreams about them. All are beautiful, strong, and
+victorious. Great lights surround them, and their countenances are
+resplendent. Dominic has a star on his forehead. They read the minds
+of men and repeat their thoughts aloud. They have the gift of
+prophecy, and their predictions are always realised. Their number is
+infinite. Among them are bishops and monks, virgins and fallen women,
+beggars and nobles of a royal race, unclothed hermits who live on
+roots, and old men who inhabit caverns with goats. Their history is
+always the same. They grow up for Christ, believe fervently in Him,
+refuse to sacrifice to false gods, are tortured, and die filled with
+glory. Emperors were at last weary of persecuting them. Andrew, after
+being attached to the cross, preached during two days to twenty
+thousand persons. Conversions were made in masses, forty thousand men
+being baptised at one time. When the multitudes were not converted by
+the miracles, they fled terrified. The saints were accused of sorcery;
+enigmas were proposed to them, which they solved at once; they were
+obliged to dispute questions with learned men, who remained speechless
+before them. As soon as they entered the temples of sacrifice the
+idols were overthrown with a breath, and were broken to pieces. A
+virgin tied her sash around the neck of a statue of Venus, which at
+once fell in powder. The earth trembled. The Temple of Diana was
+struck by lightning and destroyed; and the people revolting, civil
+wars ensued. Then often the executioners asked to be baptised; kings
+knelt at the feet of saints in rags who had devoted themselves to
+poverty. Sabina flees from the paternal roof. Paula abandons her five
+children. Mortifications of the flesh and fasts purify, not oil or
+water. Germanus covers his food with ashes. Bernard cares not to eat,
+but delights only in the taste of fresh water. Agatha keeps for three
+years a pebble in her mouth. Augustinus is in despair for the sin he
+has committed in turning to look after a dog who was running.
+Prosperity and health are despised, and joy begins with privations
+which kill the body. And it is thus that, subduing all things, they
+live at last in gardens where the flowers are stars, and where the
+leaves of the trees sing. They exterminate dragons, they raise and
+appease tempests, they seem in their ecstatic visions to be borne
+above the earth. Their wants are provided for while living, and after
+their death friends are advised by dreams to go and bury them.
+Extraordinary things happen to them, and adventures far more
+marvellous than those in a work of fiction. And when their tombs are
+opened after hundreds of years, sweet odours escape therefrom.
+
+Then, opposite the saints, behold the evil spirits!
+
+"They often fly about us like insects, and fill the air without
+number. The air is also full of demons, as the rays of the sun are
+full of atoms. It is even like powder." And the eternal contest
+begins. The saints are always victorious, and yet they are constantly
+obliged to renew the battle. The more the demons are driven away, the
+more they return. There were counted six thousand six hundred and
+sixty-six in the body of a woman whom Fortunatus delivered. They
+moved, they talked and cried, by the voice of the person possessed,
+whose body they shook as if by a tempest. At each corner of the
+highways an afflicted one is seen, and the first saint who passes
+contends with the evil spirits. They enter by the eyes, the ears, and
+by the mouth, and, after days of fearful struggling, they go out with
+loud groanings. Basilus, to save a young man, contends personally with
+the Evil One. Macarius was attacked when in a cemetery, and passed a
+whole night in defending himself. The angels, even at deathbeds, in
+order to secure the soul of the dying were obliged to beat the demons.
+At other times the contests are only of the intellect and the mind,
+but are equally remarkable. Satan, who prowls about, assumes many
+forms, sometimes disguising himself as a woman, and again, even as a
+saint. But, once overthrown, he appears in all his ugliness: "a black
+cat, larger than a dog, his huge eyes emitting flame, his tongue long,
+large, and bloody, his tail twisted and raised in the air, and his
+whole body disgusting to the last degree." He is the one thing that is
+hated, and the only preoccupation. People fear him, yet ridicule him.
+One is not even honest with him. In reality, notwithstanding the
+ferocious appearance of his furnaces, he is the eternal dupe. All the
+treaties he makes are forced from him by violence or cunning. Feeble
+women throw him down: Margaret crushes his head with her feet, and
+Juliana beats him with her chain. From all this a serenity disengages
+itself, a disdain of evil, since it is powerless, and a certainty of
+good, since virtue triumphs. It is only necessary to cross one's self,
+and the Devil can do no harm, but yells and disappears, while the
+infernal regions tremble.
+
+Then, in this combat of legions of saints against Satan are developed
+the fearful sufferings from persecutions. The executioners expose to
+the flies the martyrs whose bodies are covered with honey; they make
+them walk with bare feet over broken glass or red-hot coals, put them
+in ditches with reptiles; chastise them with whips, whose thongs are
+weighted with leaden balls; nail them when alive in coffins, which
+they throw into the sea; hang them by their hair, and then set fire to
+them; moisten their wounds with quicklime, boiling pitch, or molten
+lead; make them sit on red-hot iron stools; burn their sides with
+torches; break their bones on wheels, and torture them in every
+conceivable way. And, with all this, physical pain counts for nothing;
+indeed, it seems to be desired. Moreover, a continual miracle protects
+them. John drinks poison but is unharmed. Sebastian smiles although
+pierced with arrows; sometimes they remain in the air at the right or
+left of the martyr, or, launched by the archer, they return upon
+himself and put out his eyes. Molten lead is swallowed as if it were
+ice-water. Lions prostrate themselves, and lick their hands as gently
+as lambs. The gridiron of Saint Lawrence is of an agreeable freshness
+to him. He cries, "Unhappy man, you have roasted one side, turn the
+other and then eat, for it is sufficiently cooked." Cecilia, placed in
+a boiling bath, is refreshed by it. Christina exhorts those who would
+torture her. Her father had her whipped by twelve men, who at last
+drop from fatigue; she is then attached to a wheel, under which a fire
+is kindled, and the flame, turning to one side, devours fifteen
+hundred persons. She is then thrown into the sea, but the angels
+support her; Jesus comes to baptise her in person, then gives her to
+the charge of Saint Michael, that he may conduct her back to the
+earth; after that she is placed for five days in a heated oven, where
+she suffers not, but sings constantly. Vincent, who was exposed to
+still greater tortures, feels them not. His limbs are broken, he is
+covered with red-hot irons, he is pricked with needles, he is placed
+on a brazier of live coals, and then taken back to prison, where his
+feet are nailed to a post. Yet he still lives, and his pains are
+changed into a sweetness of flowers, a great light fills his dungeon,
+and angels sing with him, giving him rest as if he were on a bed of
+roses. The sweet sound of singing, and the fresh odour of flowers
+spread without in the room, and when the guards saw the miracle they
+were converted to the faith, and when Dacian heard of it, he was
+greatly enraged, and said, "Do nothing more to him, for we are
+conquered." Such was the excitement among the persecutors, it could
+only end either by their conversion or by their death. Their hands are
+paralysed; they perish violently; they are choked by fish-bones; they
+are struck by lightning, and their chariots are broken. In the
+meanwhile, the cells of the martyrs are resplendent. Mary and the
+Apostles enter them at will, although the doors are bolted. Constant
+aid is given, apparitions descend from the skies, where angels are
+waiting, holding crowns of precious stones. Since death seems joyous,
+it is not feared, and their friends are glad when they succumb to it.
+On Mount Ararat ten thousand are crucified, and at Cologne eleven
+thousand virgins are massacred by the Huns. In the circuses they are
+devoured by wild beasts. Quirique, who, by the influence of the Holy
+Spirit, taught like a man, suffered martyrdom when but three years of
+age. Nursing-children reproved the executioners. The hope for
+celestial happiness deadened the physical senses and softened pain.
+Were they torn to pieces, or burnt, they minded it not. They never
+yielded, and they called for the sword, which alone could kill them.
+Eulalia, when at the stake, breathes the flame that she may die the
+more quickly. Her prayer is granted, and a white dove flies from her
+mouth and bears her soul to heaven.
+
+Angelique marvelled greatly at all these accounts. So many
+abominations and such triumphant joy delighted her and carried her out
+of herself.
+
+But other points in the Legend, of quite a different nature, also
+interested her; the animals, for instance, of which there were enough
+to fill an Ark of Noah. She liked the ravens and the eagles who fed
+the hermits.
+
+Then what lovely stories there were about the lions. The serviceable
+one who found a resting-place in a field for Mary the Egyptian; the
+flaming lion who protected virgins or maidens in danger; and then the
+lion of Saint Jerome, to whose care an ass had been confided, and,
+when the animal was stolen, went in search of him and brought him
+back. There was also the penitent wolf, who had restored a little pig
+he had intended eating. Then there was Bernard, who excommunicates the
+flies, and they drop dead. Remi and Blaise feed birds at their table,
+bless them, and make them strong. Francis, "filled with a dove-like
+simplicity," preaches to them, and exhorts them to love God. A bird
+was on a branch of a fig-tree, and Francis, holding out his hand,
+beckoned to it, and soon it obeyed, and lighted on his hand. And he
+said to it, "Sing my sister, and praise the Lord." And immediately the
+bird began to sing, and did not go away until it was told to do so.
+
+All this was a continual source of recreation to Angelique, and gave
+her the idea of calling to the swallows, and hoping they might come to
+her.
+
+The good giant Christopher, who carried the Infant Christ on his
+shoulders, delighted her so much as to bring tears to her eyes.
+
+She was very merry over the misadventures of a certain Governor with
+the three chambermaids of Anastasia, whom he hoped to have found in
+the kitchen, where he kissed the stove and the kettles, thinking he
+was embracing them. "He went out therefrom very black and ugly, and
+his clothes quite smutched. And when his servants, who were waiting,
+saw him in such a state, they thought he was the Devil. Then they beat
+him with birch-rods, and, running away, left him alone."
+
+But that which convulsed her most with laughter, was the account of
+the blows given to the Evil One himself, especially when Juliana,
+having been tempted by him in her prison cell, administered such an
+extraordinary chastisement with her chain. "Then the Provost commanded
+that Juliana should be brought before him; and when she came into his
+presence, she was drawing the Devil after her, and he cried out,
+saying, 'My good lady Juliana, do not hurt me any more!' She led him
+in this way around the public square, and afterwards threw him into a
+deep ditch."
+
+Often Angelique would repeat to the Huberts, as they were all at work
+together, legends far more interesting than any fairy-tale. She had
+read them over so often that she knew them by heart, and she told in a
+charming way the story of the Seven Sleepers, who, to escape
+persecution, walled themselves up in a cavern, and whose awakening
+greatly astonished the Emperor Theodosius. Then the Legend of Saint
+Clement with its endless adventures, so unexpected and touching, where
+the whole family, father, mother, and three sons, separated by
+terrible misfortunes, are finally re-united in the midst of the most
+beautiful miracles.
+
+Her tears would flow at these recitals. She dreamed of them at night,
+she lived, as it were, only in this tragic and triumphant world of
+prodigy, in a supernatural country where all virtues are recompensed
+by all imaginable joys.
+
+When Angelique partook of her first Communion, it seemed as if she
+were walking, like the saints, a little above the earth. She was a
+young Christian of the primitive Church; she gave herself into the
+hands of God, having learned from her book that she could not be saved
+without grace.
+
+The Huberts were simple in their profession of faith. They went every
+Sunday to Mass, and to Communion on all great fete-days, and this was
+done with the tranquil humility of true belief, aided a little by
+tradition, as the chasubliers had from father to son always observed
+the Church ceremonies, particularly those at Easter.
+
+Hubert himself had a tendency to imaginative fancies. He would at
+times stop his work and let fall his frame to listen to the child as
+she read or repeated the legends, and, carried away for the moment by
+her enthusiasm, it seemed as if his hair were blown about by the light
+breath of some invisible power. He was so in sympathy with Angelique,
+and associated her to such a degree with the youthful saints of the
+past, that he wept when he saw her in her white dress and veil. This
+day at church was like a dream, and they returned home quite
+exhausted. Hubertine was obliged to scold them both, for, with her
+excellent common-sense, she disliked exaggeration even in good things.
+
+From that time she had to restrain the zeal of Angelique, especially
+in her tendency to what she thought was charity, and to which she
+wished to devote herself. Saint Francis had wedded poverty; Julien the
+Chaplain had called the poor his superiors; Gervasius and Protais had
+washed the feet of the most indigent, and Martin had divided his cloak
+with them. So she, following the example of Lucy, wished to sell
+everything that she might give. At first she disposed of all her
+little private possessions, then she began to pillage the house. But
+at last she gave without judgment and foolishly. One evening, two days
+after her Confirmation, being reprimanded for having thrown from the
+window several articles of underwear to a drunken woman, she had a
+terrible attack of anger like those when she was young; then, overcome
+by shame, she was really ill and forced to keep her bed for a couple
+of days.
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER III
+
+In the meanwhile, weeks and months went by. Two years had passed.
+Angelique was now fourteen years of age and quite womanly. When she
+read the "Golden Legend," she would have a humming in her ears, the
+blood circulated quickly through the blue veins near her temples, and
+she felt a deep tenderness towards all these virgin saints.
+
+Maidenhood is the sister of the angels, the union of all good, the
+overthrow of evil, the domain of faith. It gives grace, it is
+perfection, which has only need to show itself to conquer. The action
+of the Holy Spirit rendered Lucy so heavy that a thousand men and five
+pair of oxen could not drag her away from her home. An officer who
+tried to kiss Anastasia was struck blind. Under torture, the purity of
+the virgins is always powerful; from their exquisite white limbs, torn
+by instruments, milk flows instead of blood. Ten different times the
+story is told of the young convert who, to escape from her family, who
+wish her to marry against her will, assumes the garb of a monk, is
+accused of some misdeed, suffers punishment without indicating
+herself, and at last triumphs by announcing her name. Eugenia is in
+this way brought before a judge, whom she recognises as her father and
+reveals herself to him. Externally the combat of chastity recommences;
+always the thorns reappear. Thus the wisest saints shrink from being
+tempted. As the world is filled with snares, hermits flee to the
+desert, where they scourge themselves, throw themselves on the snow,
+or in beds of prickly herbs. A solitary monk covers his fingers with
+his mantle, that he may aid his mother in crossing a creek. A martyr
+bound to a stake, being tempted by a young girl, bites off his tongue
+with his teeth and spits it at her. All glorify the state of single
+blessedness. Alexis, very wealthy and in a high position, marries, but
+leaves his wife at the church-door. One weds only to die. Justina, in
+love with Cyprianus, converts him, and they walk together to their
+punishment. Cecilia, beloved by an angel, reveals the secret to
+Valerian on their wedding-day, and he, that he may see the spirit,
+consents to be baptised. He found in his room Cecilia talking with the
+angel, who held in his hand two wreaths of roses, and, giving one to
+Cecilia, and one to Valerian, he said, "Keep these crowns, like your
+hearts, pure and unspotted." In many cases it was proved that death
+was stronger than love, and couples were united only as a challenge to
+existence. It was said that even the Virgin Mary at times prevented
+betrothals from ending in a marriage. A nobleman, a relative of the
+King of Hungary, renounced his claims to a young girl of marvellous
+beauty on this account. "Suddenly our Blessed Lady appeared, and said
+to him: 'If I am indeed so beautiful as you have called me, why do you
+leave me for another?' And he became a most devout man for the rest of
+his life."
+
+Among all this saintly company, Angelique had her preferences, and
+there were those whose experiences touched her to the heart, and
+helped her to correct her failings. Thus the learned Catherine, of
+high birth, enchanted her by her great scientific knowledge, when,
+only eighteen years of age, she was called by the Emperor Maximus to
+discuss certain questions with fifty rhetoricians and grammarians. She
+astonished and convinced them. "They were amazed and knew not what to
+say, but they remained quiet. And the Emperor blamed them for their
+weakness in allowing themselves to be so easily conquered by a young
+girl." The fifty professors then declared that they were converted.
+"And as soon as the tyrant heard that, he had so terrible a fit of
+anger, that he commanded they should all be burned to death in the
+public square." In her eyes Catherine was the invincible learned
+woman, as proud and dazzling in intellect as in beauty, just as she
+would have liked to be, that she might convert men, and be fed in
+prison by a dove, before having her head cut off. But Saint Elizabeth,
+the daughter of the King of Hungary, was for her a constant teacher
+and guide. Whenever she was inclined to yield to her violent temper,
+she thought of this model of gentleness and simplicity, who was at
+five years of age very devout, refusing to join her playmates in their
+sports, and sleeping on the ground, that, in abasing herself, she
+might all the better render homage to God. Later, she was the
+faithful, obedient wife of the Landgrave of Thuringia, always showing
+to her husband a smiling face, although she passed her nights in
+tears. When she became a widow she was driven from her estates, but
+was happy to lead the life of poverty. Her dress was so thin from use,
+that she wore a grey mantle, lengthened out by cloth of a different
+shade. The sleeves of her jacket had been torn, and were mended with a
+material of another colour. The king, her father, wishing her to come
+to him, sent for her by a Count. And when the Count saw her clothed in
+such a way and spinning, overcome with surprise and grief, he
+exclaimed: "Never before did one see the daughter of a Royal House in
+so miserable a garb, and never was one known to spin wool until now."
+So Christian and sincere was her humility, that she ate black bread
+with the poorest peasants, nursed them when ill, dressed their sores
+without repugnance, put on coarse garments like theirs, and followed
+them in the church processions with bare feet. She was once washing
+the porringers and the utensils of the kitchen, when the maids, seeing
+her so out of place, urged her to desist, but she replied, "Could I
+find another task more menial even than this, I would do it."
+Influenced by her example, Angelique, who was formerly angry when
+obliged to do any cleaning in the kitchen, now tried to invent some
+extremely disagreeable task when she felt nervous and in need of
+control.
+
+But more than Catherine, more than Elizabeth, far nearer and dearer to
+her than all the other saints, was Agnes, the child-martyr; and her
+heart leaped with joy on refinding in the "Golden Legend" this virgin,
+clothed with her own hair, who had protected her under the Cathedral
+portal. What ardour of pure love, as she repelled the son of the
+Governor when he accosted her on her way from school! "Go--leave me,
+minister of death, commencement of sin, and child of treason!" How
+exquisitely she described her beloved! "I love the One whose Mother
+was a Virgin, and whose father was faithful to her, at whose beauty
+the sun and moon marvelled, and at whose touch the dead were made
+alive." And when Aspasien commanded that "her throat should be cut by
+the sword," she ascended into Paradise to be united to her "betrothed,
+whiter and purer than silver-gilt."
+
+Always, when weary or disturbed, Angelique called upon and implored
+her, and it seemed as if peace came to her at once. She saw her
+constantly near her, and often she regretted having done or thought of
+things which would have displeased her.
+
+One evening as she was kissing her hands, a habit which she still at
+times indulged in, she suddenly blushed and turned away, although she
+was quite alone, for it seemed as if the little saint must have seen
+her. Agnes was her guardian angel.
+
+Thus, at fifteen Angelique was an adorable child. Certainly, neither
+the quiet, laborious life, nor the soothing shadows of the Cathedral,
+nor the legends of the beautiful saints, had made her an angel, a
+creature of absolute perfection. She was often angry, and certain
+weaknesses of character showed themselves, which had never been
+sufficiently guarded against; but she was always ashamed and penitent
+if she had done wrong, for she wished so much to be perfect. And she
+was so human, so full of life, so ignorant, and withal so pure in
+reality.
+
+One day, on returning from a long excursion which the Huberts allowed
+her to take twice a year, on Pentecost Monday and on Assumption Day,
+she took home with her a sweetbriar bush, and then amused herself by
+replanting it in the narrow garden. She trimmed it and watered it
+well: it grew and sent out long branches, filled with odour. With her
+usual intensity, she watched it daily, but was unwilling to have it
+grafted, as she wished to see if, by some miracle, it could not be
+made to bear roses. She danced around it, she repeated constantly:
+"This bush is like me; it is like me!" And if one joked her upon her
+great wild-rose bush, she joined them in their laughter, although a
+little pale, and with tears almost ready to fall. Her violet-coloured
+eyes were softer than ever, her half-opened lips revealed little white
+teeth, and her oval face had a golden aureole from her light wavy
+hair. She had grown tall without being too slight; her neck and
+shoulders were exquisitely graceful; her chest was full, her waist
+flexible; and gay, healthy, of a rare beauty, she had an infinite
+charm, arising from the innocence and purity of her soul.
+
+Every day the affection of the Huberts for her increased. They often
+talked together of their mutual wish to adopt her. Yet they took no
+active measures in that way, lest they might have cause to regret it.
+One morning, when the husband announced his final decision, his wife
+suddenly began to weep bitterly. To adopt a child? Was not that the
+same as giving up all hope of having one of their own? Yet it was
+useless for them to expect one now, after so many years of waiting,
+and she gave her consent, in reality delighted that she could call her
+her daughter. When Angelique was spoken to on the subject, she threw
+her arms around their necks, kissed them both, and was almost choked
+with tears of joy.
+
+So it was agreed upon that she was always to remain with them in this
+house, which now seemed to be filled with her presence, rejuvenated by
+her youth, and penetrated by her laughter. But an unexpected obstacle
+was met with at the first step. The Justice of the Peace, Monsieur
+Grandsire, on being consulted, explained to them the radical
+impossibility of adoption, since by law the adopted must be "of age."
+Then, seeing their disappointment, he suggested the expedient of a
+legal guardianship: any individual over fifty years of age can attach
+himself to a minor of fifteen years or less by a legal claim, on
+becoming their official protector. The ages were all right, so they
+were delighted, and accepted. It was even arranged that they should
+afterwards confer the title of adoption upon their ward by way of
+their united last will and testament, as such a thing would be
+permitted by the Code. Monsieur Grandsire, furnished with the demand
+of the husband and the authorisation of the wife, then put himself in
+communication with the Director of Public Aid, the general guardian
+for all abandoned children, whose consent it was necessary to have.
+Great inquiries were made, and at last the necessary papers were
+placed in Paris, with a certain Justice of the Peace chosen for the
+purpose. And all was ready except the official report which
+constitutes the legality of guardianship, when the Huberts suddenly
+were taken with certain scruples.
+
+Before receiving Angelique into their family, ought not they to
+ascertain if she had any relatives on her side? Was her mother still
+alive? Had they the right to dispose of the daughter without being
+absolutely sure that she had willingly been given up and deserted?
+Then, in reality, the unknown origin of the child, which had troubled
+them long ago, came back to them now and made them hesitate. They were
+so tormented by this anxiety that they could not sleep.
+
+Without any more talk, Hubert unexpectedly announced that he was going
+to Paris. Such a journey seemed like a catastrophe in his calm
+existence. He explained the necessity of it to Angelique, by speaking
+of the guardianship. He hoped to arrange everything in twenty-four
+hours. But once in the city, days passed; obstacles arose on every
+side. He spent a week there, sent from one to another, really doing
+nothing, and quite discouraged. In the first place, he was received
+very coldly at the Office of Public Assistance. The rule of the
+Administration is that children shall not be told of their parents
+until they are of age. So for two mornings in succession he was sent
+away from the office. He persisted, however, explained the matter to
+three secretaries, made himself hoarse in talking to an under-officer,
+who wished to counsel him that he had not official papers. The
+Administration were quite ignorant. A nurse had left the child there,
+"Angelique Marie," without naming the mother. In despair he was about
+to return to Beaumont, when a new idea impelled him to return for the
+fourth time to the office, to see the book in which the arrival of the
+infant had been noted down, and in that way to have the address of the
+nurse. That proved quite an undertaking. But at last he succeeded, and
+found it was a Madame Foucart, and that in 1850 she lived on the Rue
+des Deux-Ecus.
+
+Then he recommenced his hunting up and down. The end of the Rue des
+Deux-Ecus had been demolished, and no shopkeeper in the neighbourhood
+recollected ever having heard of Madame Foucart. He consulted the
+directory, but there was no such name. Looking at every sign as he
+walked along, he called on one after another, and at last, in this
+way, he had the good fortune to find an old woman, who exclaimed, in
+answer to his questions, "What! Do I know Madame Foucart? A most
+honourable person, but one who has had many misfortunes. She lives on
+the Rue de Censier, quite at the other end of Paris." He hastened
+there at once.
+
+Warned by experience, he determined now to be diplomatic. But Madame
+Foucart, an enormous woman, would not allow him to ask questions in
+the good order he had arranged them before going there. As soon as he
+mentioned the two names of the child, she seemed to be eager to talk,
+and she related its whole history in a most spiteful way. "Ah! the
+child was alive! Very well; she might flatter herself that she had for
+a mother a most famous hussy. Yes, Madame Sidonie, as she was called
+since she became a widow, was a woman of a good family, having, it is
+said, a brother who was a minister, but that did not prevent her from
+being very bad." And she explained that she had made her acquaintance
+when she kept, on the Rue Saint-Honore, a little shop where they dealt
+in fruit and oil from Provence, she and her husband, when they came
+from Plassans, hoping to make their fortune in the city. The husband
+died and was buried, and soon after Madame Sidonie had a little
+daughter, which she sent at once to the hospital, and never after even
+inquired for her, as she was "a heartless woman, cold as a protest and
+brutal as a sheriff's aid." A fault can be pardoned, but not
+ingratitude! Was not it true that, obliged to leave her shop as she
+was so heavily in debt, she had been received and cared for by Madame
+Foucart? And when in her turn she herself had fallen into
+difficulties, she had never been able to obtain from Madame Sidonie,
+even the month's board she owed her, nor the fifteen francs she had
+once lent her. To-day the "hateful thing" lived on the Rue de
+Faubourg-Poissonniere, where she had a little apartment of three
+rooms. She pretended to be a cleaner and mender of lace, but she sold
+a good many other things. Ah! yes! such a mother as that it was best
+to know nothing about!
+
+An hour later, Hubert was walking round the house where Madame Sidonie
+lived. He saw through the window a woman, thin, pale, coarse-looking,
+wearing an old black gown, stained and greased. Never could the heart
+of such a person be touched by the recollection of a daughter whom she
+had only seen on the day of its birth. He concluded it would be best
+not to repeat, even to his wife, many things that he had just learned.
+Still he hesitated. Once more he passed by the place, and looked
+again. Ought not he to go in, to introduce himself, and to ask the
+consent of the unnatural parent? As an honest man, it was for him to
+judge if he had the right of cutting the tie there and for ever.
+Brusquely he turned his back, hurried away, and returned that evening
+to Beaumont.
+
+Hubertine had just learned that the _proces-verbal_ at Monsieur
+Grandsire's, for the guardianship of the child, had been signed. And
+when Angelique threw herself into Hubert's arms, he saw clearly by the
+look of supplication in her eyes, that she had understood the true
+reason of his journey.
+
+Then he said quietly: "My child, your mother is not living." Angelique
+wept, as she kissed him most affectionately. After this the subject
+was not referred to. She was their daughter.
+
+At Whitsuntide, this year, the Huberts had taken Angelique with them
+to lunch at the ruins of the Chateau d'Hautecoeur, which overlooks the
+Ligneul, two leagues below Beaumont; and, after the day spent in
+running and laughing in the open air, the young girl still slept when,
+the next morning, the old house-clock struck eight.
+
+Hubertine was obliged to go up and rap at her door.
+
+"Ah, well! Little lazy child! We have already had our breakfast, and
+it is late."
+
+Angelique dressed herself quickly and went down to the kitchen, where
+she took her rolls and coffee alone. Then, when she entered the
+workroom, where Hubert and his wife had just seated themselves, after
+having arranged their frames for embroidery, she said:
+
+"Oh! how soundly I did sleep! I had quite forgotten that we had
+promised to finish this chasuble for next Sunday."
+
+This workroom, the windows of which opened upon the garden, was a
+large apartment, preserved almost entirely in its original state. The
+two principal beams of the ceiling, and the three visible cross-beams
+of support, had not even been whitewashed, and they were blackened by
+smoke and worm-eaten, while, through the openings of the broken
+plaster, here and there, the laths of the inner joists could be seen.
+On one of the stone corbels, which supported the beams, was the date
+1463, without doubt the date of the construction of the building. The
+chimney-piece, also in stone, broken and disjointed, had traces of its
+original elegance, with its slender uprights, its brackets, its frieze
+with a cornice, and its basket-shaped funnel terminating in a crown.
+On the frieze could be seen even now, as if softened by age, an
+ingenious attempt at sculpture, in the way of a likeness of Saint
+Clair, the patron of embroiderers. But this chimney was no longer
+used, and the fireplace had been turned into an open closet by putting
+shelves therein, on which were piles of designs and patterns. The room
+was now heated by a great bell-shaped cast-iron stove, the pipe of
+which, after going the whole length of the ceiling, entered an opening
+made expressly for it in the wall. The doors, already shaky, were of
+the time of Louis XIV. The original tiles of the floor were nearly all
+gone, and had been replaced, one by one, by those of a later style. It
+was nearly a hundred years since the yellow walls had been coloured,
+and at the top of the room they were almost of a greyish white, and,
+lower down, were scratched and spotted with saltpetre. Each year there
+was talk of repainting them, but nothing had yet been done, from a
+dislike of making any change.
+
+Hubertine, busy at her work, raised her head as Angelique spoke and
+said:
+
+"You know that if our work is done on Sunday, I have promised to give
+you a basket of pansies for your garden."
+
+The young girl exclaimed gaily: "Oh, yes! that is true. Ah, well! I
+will do my best then! But where is my thimble? It seems as if all
+working implements take to themselves wings and fly away, if not in
+constant use."
+
+She flipped the old _doigtier_ of ivory on the second joint of her
+little finger, and took her place on the other side of the frame,
+opposite to the window.
+
+Since the middle of the last century there had not been the slightest
+modification in the fittings and arrangements of the workroom.
+Fashions changed, the art of the embroiderer was transformed, but
+there was still seen fastened to the wall the chantlate, the great
+piece of wood where was placed one end of the frame or work, while the
+other end was supported by a moving trestle. In the corners were many
+ancient tools--a little machine called a "diligent," with its wheels
+and its long pins, to wind the gold thread on the reels without
+touching it; a hand spinning-wheel; a species of pulley to twist the
+threads which were attached to the wall; rollers of various sizes
+covered with silks and threads used in the crochet embroidery. Upon a
+shelf was spread out an old collection of punches for the spangles,
+and there was also to be seen a valuable relic, in the shape of the
+classic chandelier in hammered brass which belonged to some ancient
+master-workman. On the rings of a rack made of a nailed leather strap
+were hung awls, mallets, hammers, irons to cut the vellum, and
+roughing chisels of bogwood, which were used to smooth the threads as
+fast as they were employed. And yet again, at the foot of the heavy
+oaken table on which the cutting-out was done, was a great winder,
+whose two movable reels of wicker held the skeins. Long chains of
+spools of bright-coloured silks strung on cords were hung near that
+case of drawers. On the floor was a large basket filled with empty
+bobbins. A pair of great shears rested on the straw seat of one of the
+chairs, and a ball of cord had just fallen on the floor, half unwound.
+
+"Oh! what lovely weather! What perfect weather!" continued Angelique.
+"It is a pleasure simply to live and to breathe."
+
+And before stooping to apply herself to her work, she delayed another
+moment before the open window, through which entered all the beauty of
+a radiant May morning.
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV
+
+The sun shone brightly on the roof of the Cathedral, a fresh odour of
+lilacs came up from the bushes in the garden of the Bishop. Angelique
+smiled, as she stood there, dazzled, and as if bathed in the
+springtide. Then, starting as if suddenly awakened from sleep, she
+said:
+
+"Father, I have no more gold thread for my work."
+
+Hubert, who had just finished pricking the tracing of the pattern of a
+cope, went to get a skein from the case of drawers, cut it, tapered
+off the two ends by scratching the gold which covered the silk, and he
+brought it to her rolled up in parchment.
+
+"Is that all you need?"
+
+"Yes, thanks."
+
+With a quick glance she had assured herself that nothing more was
+wanting; the needles were supplied with the different golds, the red,
+the green, and the blue; there were spools of every shade of silk; the
+spangles were ready; and the twisted wires for the gold lace were in
+the crown of a hat which served as a box, with the long fine needles,
+the steel pincers, the thimbles, the scissors, and the ball of wax.
+All these were on the frame even, or on the material stretched
+therein, which was protected by a thick brown paper.
+
+She had threaded a needle with the gold thread. But at the first
+stitch it broke, and she was obliged to thread it again, breaking off
+tiny bits of the gold, which she threw immediately into the pasteboard
+waste-basket which was near her.
+
+"Now at last I am ready," she said, as she finished her first stitch.
+
+Perfect silence followed. Hubert was preparing to stretch some
+material on another frame. He had placed the two heavy ends on the
+chantlate and the trestle directly opposite in such a way as to take
+lengthwise the red silk of the cope, the breadths of which Hubertine
+had just stitched together, and fitting the laths into the mortice of
+the beams, he fastened them with four little nails. Then, after
+smoothing the material many times from right to left, he finished
+stretching it and tacked on the nails. To assure himself that it was
+thoroughly tight and firm, he tapped on the cloth with his fingers and
+it sounded like a drum.
+
+Angelique had become a most skilful worker, and the Huberts were
+astonished at her cleverness and taste. In addition to what they had
+taught her, she carried into all she did her personal enthusiasm,
+which gave life to flowers and faith to symbols. Under her hands, silk
+and gold seemed animated; the smaller ornaments were full of mystic
+meaning; she gave herself up to it entirely, with her imagination
+constantly active and her firm belief in the infinitude of the
+invisible world.
+
+The Diocese of Beaumont had been so charmed with certain pieces of her
+embroidery, that a clergyman who was an archaeologist, and another who
+was an admirer of pictures, had come to see her, and were in raptures
+before her Virgins, which they compared to the simple gracious figures
+of the earliest masters. There was the same sincerity, the same
+sentiment of the beyond, as if encircled in the minutest perfection of
+detail. She had the real gift of design, a miraculous one indeed,
+which, without a teacher, with nothing but her evening studies by
+lamplight, enabled her often to correct her models, to deviate
+entirely from them, and to follow her own fancies, creating beautiful
+things with the point of her needle. So the Huberts, who had always
+insisted that a thorough knowledge of the science of drawing was
+necessary to make a good embroiderer, were obliged to yield before
+her, notwithstanding their long experience. And, little by little,
+they modestly withdrew into the background, becoming simply her aids,
+surrendering to her all the most elaborate work, the under part of
+which they prepared for her.
+
+From one end of the year to the other, what brilliant and sacred
+marvels passed through her hands! She was always occupied with silks,
+satins, velvets, or cloths of gold or silver. She embroidered
+chasubles, stoles, maniples, copes, dalmatics, mitres, banners, and
+veils for the chalice and the pyx. But, above all, their orders for
+chasubles never failed, and they worked constantly at those vestments,
+with their five colours: the white, for Confessors and Virgins; the
+red, for Apostles and Martyrs; the black, for the days of fasting and
+for the dead; the violet, for the Innocents; and the green for fete-
+days. Gold was also often used in place of white or of green. The same
+symbols were always in the centre of the Cross: the monograms of Jesus
+and of the Virgin Mary, the triangle surrounded with rays, the lamb,
+the pelican, the dove, a chalice, a monstrance, and a bleeding heart
+pierced with thorns; while higher up and on the arms were designs, or
+flowers, all the ornamentation being in the ancient style, and all the
+flora in large blossoms, like anemones, tulips, peonies, pomegranates,
+or hortensias. No season passed in which she did not remake the grapes
+and thorns symbolic, putting silver on black, and gold on red. For the
+most costly vestments, she varied the pictures of the heads of saints,
+having, as a central design, the Annunciation, the Last Supper, or the
+Crucifixion. Sometimes the orfreys were worked on the original
+material itself; at others, she applied bands of silk or satin on
+brocades of gold cloth, or of velvet. And all this efflorescence of
+sacred splendour was created, little by little, by her deft fingers.
+At this moment the vestment on which Angelique was at work was a
+chasuble of white satin, the cross of which was made by a sheaf of
+golden lilies intertwined with bright roses, in various shades of
+silk. In the centre, in a wreath of little roses of dead gold, was the
+monogram of the Blessed Virgin, in red and green gold, with a great
+variety of ornaments.
+
+For an hour, during which she skilfully finished the little roses, the
+silence had not been broken even by a single word. But her thread
+broke again, and she re-threaded her needle by feeling carefully under
+the frame, as only an adroit person can do. Then, as she raised her
+head, she again inhaled with satisfaction the pure, fresh air that
+came in from the garden.
+
+"Ah!" she said softly, "how beautiful it was yesterday! The sunshine
+is always perfect."
+
+Hubertine shook her head as she stopped to wax her thread.
+
+"As for me, I am so wearied, it seems as if I had no arms, and it
+tires me to work. But that is not strange, for I so seldom go out, and
+am no longer young and strong, as you are at sixteen."
+
+Angelique had reseated herself and resumed her work. She prepared the
+lilies by sewing bits of vellum on certain places that had been
+marked, so as to give them relief, but the flowers themselves were not
+to be made until later, for fear the gold be tarnished were the hands
+moved much over it.
+
+Hubert, who, having finished arranging the material in its frame, was
+about drawing with pumice the pattern of the cope, joined in the
+conversation and said: "These first warm days of spring are sure to
+give me a terrible headache."
+
+Angelique's eyes seemed to be vaguely lost in the rays which now fell
+upon one of the flying buttresses of the church, as she dreamily
+added: "Oh no, father, I do not think so. One day in the lively air,
+like yesterday, does me a world of good."
+
+Having finished the little golden leaves, she began one of the large
+roses, near the lilies. Already she had threaded several needles with
+the silks required, and she embroidered in stitches varying in length,
+according to the natural position and movement of the petals, and
+notwithstanding the extreme delicacy and absorbing nature of this
+work, the recollections of the previous day, which she lived over
+again in thought and in silence, now came to her lips, and crowded so
+closely upon each other that she no longer tried to keep them back. So
+she talked of their setting out upon their expedition, of the
+beautiful fields they crossed, of their lunch over there in the ruins
+of Hautecoeur, upon the flagstones of a little room whose tumble-down
+walls towered far above the Ligneul, which rolled gently among the
+willows fifty yards below them.
+
+She was enthusiastic over these crumbling ruins, and the scattered
+blocks of stone among the brambles, which showed how enormous the
+colossal structure must have been as, when first built, it commanded
+the two valleys. The donjon remained, nearly two hundred feet in
+height, discoloured, cracked, but nevertheless firm, upon its
+foundation pillars fifteen feet thick. Two of its towers had also
+resisted the attacks of Time--that of Charlemagne and that of David--
+united by a heavy wall almost intact. In the interior, the chapel, the
+court-room, and certain chambers were still easily recognised; and all
+this appeared to have been built by giants, for the steps of the
+stairways, the sills of the windows, and the branches on the terraces,
+were all on a scale far out of proportion for the generation of
+to-day. It was, in fact, quite a little fortified city. Five hundred
+men could have sustained there a siege of thirty months without
+suffering from want of ammunition or of provisions. For two centuries
+the bricks of the lowest story had been disjointed by the wild roses;
+lilacs and laburnums covered with blossoms the rubbish of the fallen
+ceilings; a plane-tree had even grown up in the fireplace of the
+guardroom. But when, at sunset, the outline of the donjon cast its
+long shadow over three leagues of cultivated ground, and the colossal
+Chateau seemed to be rebuilt in the evening mists, one still felt the
+great strength, and the old sovereignty, which had made of it so
+impregnable a fortress that even the kings of France trembled before
+it.
+
+"And I am sure," continued Angelique, "that it is inhabited by the
+souls of the dead, who return at night. All kinds of noises are heard
+there; in every direction are monsters who look at you, and when I
+turned round as we were coming away, I saw great white figures
+fluttering above the wall. But, mother, you know all the history of
+the castle, do you not?"
+
+Hubertine replied, as she smiled in an amused way: "Oh! as for ghosts,
+I have never seen any of them myself."
+
+But in reality, she remembered perfectly the history, which she had
+read long ago, and to satisfy the eager questionings of the young
+girl, she was obliged to relate it over again.
+
+The land belonged to the Bishopric of Rheims, since the days of Saint
+Remi, who had received it from Clovis.
+
+An archbishop, Severin, in the early years of the tenth century, had
+erected at Hautecoeur a fortress to defend the country against the
+Normans, who were coming up the river Oise, into which the Ligneul
+flows.
+
+In the following century a successor of Severin gave it in fief to
+Norbert, a younger son of the house of Normandy, in consideration of
+an annual quit-rent of sixty sous, and on the condition that the city
+of Beaumont and its church should remain free and unincumbered. It was
+in this way that Norbert I became the head of the Marquesses of
+Hautecoeur, whose famous line from that date became so well known in
+history. Herve IV, excommunicated twice for his robbery of
+ecclesiastical property, became a noted highwayman, who killed, on a
+certain occasion, with his own hands, thirty citizens, and his tower
+was razed to the ground by Louis le Gros, against whom he had dared to
+declare war. Raoul I, who went to the Crusades with Philip Augustus,
+perished before Saint Jean d'Acre, having been pierced through the
+heart by a lance. But the most illustrious of the race was John V, the
+Great, who, in 1225, rebuilt the fortress, finishing in less than five
+years this formidable Chateau of Hautecoeur, under whose shelter he,
+for a moment, dreamed of aspiring to the throne of France, and after
+having escaped from being killed in twenty battles, he at last died
+quietly in his bed, brother-in-law to the King of Scotland. Then came
+Felician III, who made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem barefooted; Herve
+VII, who asserted his claims to the throne of Scotland; and still many
+others, noble and powerful in their day and generation, down to Jean
+IX, who, under Mazarin, had the grief of assisting at the dismantling
+of the castle. After a desperate siege, the vaults of the towers and
+of the donjon were blown up with powder, and the different
+constructions were set on fire; where Charles VI had been sent to
+rest, and to turn his attention from his vagaries, and where, nearly
+two hundred years later, Henri IV had passed a week as Gabrielle
+D'Estress. Thenceforth, all these royal souvenirs had passed into
+oblivion.
+
+Angelique, without stopping the movement of her needle, listened
+eagerly, as if the vision of these past grandeurs rose up from her
+frame, in proportion as the rose grew there in its delicate life of
+colour. Her ignorance of general history enlarged facts, and she
+received them as if they were the basis of a marvellous legend. She
+trembled with delight, and, transported by her faith, it seemed as if
+the reconstructed Chateau mounted to the very gates of heaven, and the
+Hautecoeurs were cousins to the Virgin Mary.
+
+When there was a pause in the recital she asked, "Is not our new
+Bishop Monseigneur d'Hautecoeur, a descendant of this noted family?"
+
+Hubertine replied that Monseigneur must belong to the younger branch
+of the family, as the elder branch had been extinct for a very long
+time. It was, indeed, a most singular return, as for centuries the
+Marquesses of Hautecoeur and the clergy of Beaumont had been hostile
+to each other. Towards 1150 an abbot undertook to build a church, with
+no other resources than those of his Order; so his funds soon gave
+out, when the edifice was no higher than the arches of the side
+chapels, and they were obliged to cover the nave with a wooden roof.
+Eighty years passed, and Jean V came to rebuild the Chateau, when he
+gave three hundred thousand pounds, which, added to other sums,
+enabled the work on the church to be continued. The nave was finished,
+but the two towers and the great front were terminated much later,
+towards 1430, in the full fifteenth century. To recompense Jean V for
+his liberality, the clergy accorded to him, for himself and his
+descendants, the right of burial in a chapel of the apse, consecrated
+to St. George, and which, since that time, had been called the Chapel
+Hautecoeur. But these good terms were not of long duration. The
+freedom of Beaumont was put in constant peril by the Chateau, and
+there were continual hostilities on the questions of tribute and of
+precedence. One especially, the right of paying toll, which the nobles
+demanded for the navigation of the Ligneul, perpetuated the quarrels.
+Then it was that the great prosperity of the lower town began, with
+its manufacturing of fine linen and lace, and from this epoch the
+fortune of Beaumont increased daily, while that of Hautecoeur
+diminished, until the time when the castle was dismantled and the
+church triumphed. Louis XIV made of it a cathedral, a bishop's palace
+was built in the old enclosure of the monks, and, by a singular chain
+of circumstances, to-day a member of the family of Hautecoeur had
+returned as a bishop to command the clergy, who, always powerful, had
+conquered his ancestors, after a contest of four hundred years.
+
+"But," said Angelique, "Monseigneur has been married, and has not he a
+son at least twenty years of age?"
+
+Hubertine had taken up the shears to remodel one of the pieces of
+vellum.
+
+"Yes," she replied, "the Abbot Cornille told me the whole story, and
+it is a very sad history. When but twenty years of age, Monseigneur
+was a captain under Charles X. In 1830, when only four-and-twenty, he
+resigned his position in the army, and it is said that from that time
+until he was forty years of age he led an adventurous life, travelling
+everywhere and having many strange experiences. At last, one evening,
+he met, at the house of a friend in the country, the daughter of the
+Count de Valencay, Mademoiselle Pauline, very wealthy, marvellously
+beautiful, and scarcely nineteen years of age, twenty-two years
+younger than himself. He fell violently in love with her, and, as she
+returned his affection, there was no reason why the marriage should
+not take place at once. He then bought the ruins of Hautecoeur for a
+mere song--ten thousand francs, I believe--with the intention of
+repairing the Chateau and installing his wife therein when all would
+be in order and in readiness to receive her. In the meanwhile they
+went to live on one of his family estates in Anjou, scarcely seeing
+any of their friends, and finding in their united happiness the days
+all too short. But, alas! at the end of a year Pauline had a son and
+died."
+
+Hubert, who was still occupied with marking out his pattern, raised
+his head, showing a very pale face as he said in a low voice: "Oh! the
+unhappy man!"
+
+"It was said that he himself almost died from his great grief,"
+continued Hubertine. "At all events, a fortnight later he entered into
+Holy Orders, and soon became a priest. That was twenty years ago, and
+now he is a bishop. But I have also been told that during all this
+time he has refused to see his son, the child whose birth cost the
+life of its mother. He had placed him with an uncle of his wife's, an
+old abbot, not wishing even to hear of him, and trying to forget his
+existence. One day a picture of the boy was sent him, but in looking
+at it he found so strong a resemblance to his beloved dead that he
+fell on the floor unconscious and stiff, as if he had received a blow
+from a hammer. . . . Now age and prayer have helped to soften his deep
+grief, for yesterday the good Father Cornille told me that Monseigneur
+had just decided to send for his son to come to him."
+
+Angelique, having finished her rose, so fresh and natural that
+perfume seemed to be exhaled from it, looked again through the window
+into the sunny garden, and, as if in a reverie, she said in a low
+voice: "The son of Monseigneur!"
+
+Hubertine continued her story.
+
+"It seems that the young man is handsome as a god, and his father
+wished him to be educated for the priesthood. But the old abbot would
+not consent to that, saying that the youth had not the slightest
+inclination in that direction. And then, to crown all, his wealth, it
+is said, is enormous. Two million pounds sterling! Yes, indeed! His
+mother left him a tenth of that sum, which was invested in land in
+Paris, where the increase in the price of real estate has been so
+great, that to-day it represents fifty millions of francs. In short,
+rich as a king!"
+
+"Rich as a king, beautiful as a god!" repeated Angelique
+unconsciously, in her dreamy voice.
+
+And with one hand she mechanically took from the frame a bobbin wound
+with gold thread, in order to make the open-work centre of one of the
+large lilies. After having loosened the end from the point of the
+reel, she fastened it with a double stitch of silk to the edge of the
+vellum which was to give a thickness to the embroidery. Then,
+continuing her work, she said again, without finishing her thought,
+which seemed lost in the vagueness of its desire, "Oh! as for me, what
+I would like, that which I would like above all else----"
+
+The silence fell again, deep and profound, broken only by the dull
+sound of chanting which came from the church. Hubert arranged his
+design by repassing with a little brush all the perforated lines of
+the drawing, and thus the ornamentation of the cope appeared in white
+on the red silk. It was he who first resumed speaking.
+
+"Ah! those ancient days were magnificent! Noblemen then wore costumes
+weighted with embroidery. At Lyons, material was sometimes sold for as
+much as six hundred francs an ell. One ought to read the by-laws and
+regulations of the Guild of Master Workmen, where it is laid down that
+'The embroiderers of the King have always the right to summon, by
+armed force if necessary, the workmen of other masters.' . . . And
+then we had coats of arms, too! Azure, a fesso engrailed or, between
+three fleurs-de-lys of the same, two of them being near the top and
+the third in the point. Ah! it was indeed beautiful in the days of
+long ago!"
+
+He stopped a moment, tapping the frame with his fingers to shake off
+the dust. Then he continued:
+
+"At Beaumont they still have a legend about the Hautecoeurs, which my
+mother often related to me when I was a child. . . . A frightful
+plague ravaged the town, and half of the inhabitants had already
+fallen victims to it, when Jean V, he who had rebuilt the fortress,
+perceived that God had given him the power to contend against the
+scourge. Then he went on foot to the houses of the sick, fell on his
+knees, kissed them, and as soon as his lips had touched them, while he
+said, 'If God is willing, I wish it,' the sufferers were healed. And lo!
+that is why these words have remained the device of the Hautecoeurs,
+who all have since that day been able to cure the plague. . . . Ah!
+what a proud race of men! A noble dynasty! Monseigneur himself is
+called Jean XII, and the first name of his son must also be followed
+by a number, like that of a prince."
+
+He stopped. Each one of his words lulled and prolonged the reverie of
+Angelique. She continued, in a half-singing tone: "Oh! what I wish for
+myself! That which I would like above all else----"
+
+Holding the bobbin, without touching the thread, she twisted the gold
+by moving it from left to right alternately on the vellum, fastening
+it at each turn with a stitch in silk. Little by little the great
+golden lily blossomed out.
+
+Soon she continued: "Yes, what I would like above all would be to
+marry a prince--a prince whom I had never seen; who would come towards
+sunset, just before the waning daylight, and would take me by the hand
+and lead me to his palace. And I should wish him to be very handsome,
+as well as very rich! Yes, the most beautiful and the wealthiest man
+that had ever been seen on the earth! He should have superb horses
+that I could hear neighing under my windows, and jewels which he would
+pour in streams into my lap, and gold that would fall from my hands in
+a deluge when I opened them. And what I wish still further is, that
+this prince of mine should love me to distraction, so that I might
+also love him desperately. We would then remain very young, very good,
+and very noble, for ever!"
+
+Hubert, leaving his work, had approached her smilingly; whilst
+Hubertine, in a friendly way, shook her finger at the young girl.
+
+"Oh, what a vain little creature! Ah! ambitious child, you are quite
+incorrigible. Now, you are quite beside yourself with your need of
+being a queen. At all events such a dream is much better than to steal
+sugar and to be impertinent. But really, you must not indulge in such
+fancies. It is the Evil One who prompts them, and it is pride that
+speaks, as well as passion."
+
+Gay and candid, Angelique looked her in the face as she said: "But
+mother, mother mine, what are you saying? Is it, then, a sin to love
+that which is rich and beautiful? I love it because it is rich and
+beautiful, and so cheers my heart and soul. A beautiful object
+brightens everything that is near it, and helps one to live, as the
+sun does. You know very well that I am not selfish. Money? Oh! you
+would see what a good use I would make of it, if only I had it in
+abundance! I would rain it over the town; it should be scattered among
+the miserable. Think what a blessing it would be to have no more
+poverty! In the first place, as for you and my father, I would give
+you everything. You should be dressed in robes and garments of
+brocades, like the lords and ladies of the olden time."
+
+Hubertine shrugged her shoulders and smiled. "It is ridiculous," she
+said. "But, my dear child, you must remember that you are poor, and
+that you have not a penny for your marriage-portion. How can you,
+then, for a moment dream of a prince? Are you, then, so desirous to
+marry a prince?"
+
+"Why should not I wish to marry such a man?" And she looked quite
+amazed, as she continued: "Marry him? Of course I would do so. Since
+he would have plenty of money, what difference would it make if I had
+none? I should owe everything to him, and on that very account I
+should love him all the more deeply."
+
+This victorious reasoning enchanted Hubert, who seemed carried above
+the earth by Angelique's enthusiasm. He would willingly have
+accompanied her on the wings of a cloud to the regions of fancy.
+
+"She is right," he exclaimed.
+
+But his wife glanced at him reprovingly. She became quite stern.
+
+"My child, you will think differently later on, when you know life
+better."
+
+"Life?--but I know it already."
+
+"How is it possible for you to know it? You are too young; you are
+ignorant of evil. Yet evil exists and is very powerful."
+
+"Evil--evil?"
+
+Angelique repeated the word very slowly, as if to penetrate its
+meaning. And in her pure eyes was a look of innocent surprise. Evil?
+She knew all about it, for she had read of it in the "Golden Legend."
+Was not evil Satan himself? And had not she seen how, although he
+constantly reappeared, he was always overthrown? After every battle he
+remained crushed to earth, thoroughly conquered, and in a most
+pitiable state.
+
+"Evil? Ah, mother mine, if you knew how little I fear it! It is only
+necessary once to conquer it and afterwards life is all happiness."
+
+Hubertine appeared troubled and looked anxious.
+
+"You will make me almost regret having brought you up in this house,
+alone with us two, and away from the world as it were. I am really
+afraid that some day we shall regret having kept you in such complete
+ignorance of the realities of life. What Paradise are you looking for?
+What is your idea of the world?"
+
+A look of hope brightened the face of the young girl, while, bending
+forward, she still moved the bobbin back and forth with a continuous,
+even motion.
+
+"You then really think, mother, that I am very foolish, do you not?
+This world is full of brave people. When one is honest and
+industrious, one is always rewarded. I know also that there are some
+bad people, but they do not count. We do not associate with them, and
+they are soon punished for their misdeeds. And then, you see, as for
+the world, it produces on me, from a distance, the effect of a great
+garden; yes, of an immense park, all filled with flowers and with
+sunshine. It is such a blessing to live, and life is so sweet that it
+cannot be bad."
+
+She grew excited, as if intoxicated by the brightness of the silks and
+the gold threads she manipulated so well with her skilful fingers.
+
+"Happiness is a very simple thing. We are happy, are we not? All three
+of us? And why? Simply because we love each other. Then, after all, it
+is no more difficult than that; it is only necessary to love and to be
+loved. So, you see, when the one I expect really comes, we shall
+recognise each other immediately. It is true I have not yet seen him,
+but I know exactly what he ought to be. He will enter here and will
+say: 'I have come in search of you.' And I shall reply: 'I expected
+you, and will go with you.' He will take me with him, and our future
+will be at once decided upon. He will go into a palace, where all the
+furniture will be of gold, encrusted in diamonds. Oh, it is all very
+simple!"
+
+"You are crazy; so do not talk any more," interrupted Hubertine,
+coldly.
+
+And seeing that the young girl was still excited, and ready to
+continue to indulge her fancies, she continued to reprove her.
+
+"I beg you to say no more, for you absolutely make me tremble. Unhappy
+child! When we really marry you to some poor mortal you will be
+crushed, as you fall to earth from these heights of the imagination.
+Happiness, for the greater part of the world, consists in humility and
+obedience."
+
+Angelique continued to smile with an almost obstinate tranquillity.
+
+"I expect him, and he will come."
+
+"But she is right," exclaimed Hubert, again carried away by her
+enthusiasm. "Why need you scold her? She is certainly pretty, and
+dainty enough for a king. Stranger things than that have happened, and
+who knows what may come?"
+
+Sadly Hubertine looked at him with her calm eyes.
+
+"Do not encourage her to do wrong, my dear. You know, better than
+anyone, what it costs to follow too much the impulses of one's heart."
+
+He turned deadly pale, and great tears came to the edge of his
+eyelids. She immediately repented of having reproved him, and rose to
+offer him her hands. But gently disengaging himself, he said,
+stammeringly:
+
+"No, no, my dear; I was wrong. Angelique, do you understand me? You
+must always listen to your mother. She alone is wise, and we are both
+of us very foolish. I am wrong; yes, I acknowledge it."
+
+Too disturbed to sit down, leaving the cope upon which he had been
+working, he occupied himself in pasting a banner that was finished,
+although still in its frame. After having taken the pot of Flemish
+glue from the chest of drawers, he moistened with a brush the
+underside of the material, to make the embroidery firmer. His lips
+still trembled, and he remained quiet.
+
+But if Angelique, in her obedience, was also still, she allowed her
+thoughts to follow their course, and her fancies mounted higher and
+still higher. She showed it in every feature--in her mouth, that
+ecstasy had half opened, as well as in her eyes, where the infinite
+depth of her visions seemed reflected. Now, this dream of a poor girl,
+she wove it into the golden embroidery. It was for this unknown hero
+that, little by little, there seemed to grow on the white satin the
+beautiful great lilies, and the roses, and the monogram of the Blessed
+Virgin. The stems of the lilies had all the gracious pointings of a
+jet of light, whilst the long slender leaves, made of spangles, each
+one being sewed on with gold twist, fell in a shower of stars. In the
+centre, the initials of Mary were like the dazzling of a relief in
+massive gold, a marvellous blending of lacework and of embossing, or
+goffering, which burnt like the glory of a tabernacle in the mystic
+fire of its rays. And the roses of delicately-coloured silks seemed
+real, and the whole chasuble was resplendent in its whiteness of
+satin, which appeared covered almost miraculously with its golden
+blossoms.
+
+After a long silence, Angelique, whose cheeks were flushed by the
+blood which mounted into them from her excitement, raised her head,
+and, looking at Hubertine, said again, a little maliciously:
+
+"I expect him, and he will come."
+
+It was absurd for her thus to give loose reins to her imagination. But
+she was willful. She was convinced in her own mind that everything
+would come to pass, eventually, as she wished it might. Nothing could
+weaken her happy conviction.
+
+"Mother," she added, "why do you not believe me, since I assure you it
+must be as I say?"
+
+Hubertine shrugged her shoulders, and concluded the best thing for her
+to do was to tease her.
+
+"But I thought, my child, that you never intended being married. Your
+saints, who seem to have turned your head, they led single lives.
+Rather than do otherwise they converted their lovers, ran away from
+their homes, and were put to death."
+
+The young girl listened and was confused. But soon she laughed
+merrily. Her perfect health, and all her love of life, rang out in
+this sonorous gaiety. "The histories of the saints! But that was ages
+ago! Times have entirely changed since then. God having so completely
+triumphed, no longer demands that anyone should die for Him."
+
+When reading the Legend, it was the marvels which fascinated her, not
+the contempt of the world and the desire for death. She added: "Most
+certainly I expect to be married; to love and to be loved, and thus be
+very happy."
+
+"Be careful, my dear," said Hubertine, continuing to tease her. "You
+will make your guardian angel, Saint Agnes, weep. Do not you know that
+she refused the son of the Governor, and preferred to die, that she
+might be wedded to Jesus?"
+
+The great clock of the belfry began to strike; numbers of sparrows
+flew down from an enormous ivy-plant which framed one of the windows
+of the apse. In the workroom, Hubert, still silent, had just hung up
+the banner, moist from the glue, that it might dry, on one of the
+great iron hooks fastened to the wall.
+
+The sun in the course of the morning had lightened up different parts
+of the room, and now it shone brightly upon the old tools--the
+diligent, the wicker winder, and the brass chandelier--and as its rays
+fell upon the two workers, the frame at which they were seated seemed
+almost on fire, with its bands polished by use, and with the various
+objects placed upon it, the reels of gold cord, the spangles, and the
+bobbins of silk.
+
+Then, in this soft, charming air of spring, Angelique looked at the
+beautiful symbolic lily she had just finished. Opening wide her
+ingenuous eyes, she replied, with an air of confiding happiness, to
+Hubertine's last remark in regard to the child-martyr, Saint Agnes:
+
+"Ah, yes! But it was Jesus who wished it to be so."
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER V
+
+Notwithstanding her thoroughly cheerful nature, Angelique liked
+solitude; and it was to her the greatest of recreations to be alone in
+her room, morning and evening. There she gave herself up to her
+thoughts; there she indulged to the full scope in her most joyous
+fancies. Sometimes even during the day, when she could go there for a
+moment, she was as happy as if, in full freedom, she had committed
+some childish prank.
+
+The chamber was very large, taking in at least half of the upper
+story, the other half being the garret. It was whitewashed everywhere;
+not only the walls and the beams, but the joists, even to the visible
+copings of the mansard part of the roof; and in this bare whiteness,
+the old oaken furniture seemed almost as black as ebony. At the time
+of the decoration of the sleeping-room below, and the improvements
+made in the parlour, the ancient furniture, which had been bought at
+various epochs, had been carried upstairs. There was a great carved
+chest of the Renaissance period, a table and chairs which dated from
+the reign of Louis XIII, an enormous bedstead, style Louis XIV, and a
+very handsome wardrobe, Louis XV. In the middle of these venerable old
+things a white porcelain stove, and the little toilet-table, covered
+with a pretty oilcloth, seemed out of place and to mar the dull
+harmony. Curtained with an old-fashioned rose-coloured chintz, on
+which were bouquets of heather, so faded that the colour had become a
+scarcely perceptible pink, the enormous bedstead preserved above all
+the majesty of its great age.
+
+But what pleased Angelique more than anything else was the little
+balcony on which the window opened. Of the two original windows, one
+of them, that at the left, had been closed by simply fastening it with
+nails, and the balcony, which formerly extended across the front of
+the building, was now only before the window at the right. As the
+lower beams were still strong, a new floor had been made, and above it
+an iron railing was firmly attached in place of the old worm-eaten
+wooden balustrade. This made a charming little corner, a quiet nook
+under the gable point, the leaden laths of which had been renewed at
+the beginning of the century. By bending over a little, the whole
+garden-front of the house could be seen in a very dilapidated state,
+with its sub-basement of little cut stones, its panels ornamented with
+imitation bricks, and its large bay window, which to-day had been made
+somewhat smaller. The roof of the great porch of the kitchen-door was
+covered with zinc. And above, the interduces of the top, which
+projected three feet or more, were strengthened by large, upright
+pieces of wood, the ends of which rested on the string-course of the
+first floor. All this gave to the balcony an appearance of being in a
+perfect vegetation of timber, as if in the midst of a forest of old
+wood, which was green with wallflowers and moss.
+
+Since she occupied the chamber, Angelique had spent many hours there,
+leaning over the balustrade and simply looking. At first, directly
+under her was the garden, darkened by the eternal shade of the
+evergreen box-trees; in the corner nearest the church, a cluster of
+small lilac-bushes surrounded an old granite bench; while in the
+opposite corner, half hidden by a beautiful ivy which covered the
+whole wall at the end as if with a mantle, was a little door opening
+upon the Clos-Marie, a vast, uncultivated field. This Clos-Marie was
+the old orchard of the monks. A rivulet of purest spring-water crossed
+it, the Chevrotte, where the women who occupied the houses in the
+neighbourhood had the privilege of washing their linen; certain poor
+people sheltered themselves in the ruins of an old tumble-down mill;
+and no other persons inhabited this field, which was connected with
+the Rue Magloire simply by the narrow lane of the Guerdaches, which
+passed between the high walls of the Bishop's Palace and those of the
+Hotel Voincourt. In summer, the centenarian elms of the two parks
+barred with their green-leaved tops the straight, limited horizon
+which in the centre was cut off by the gigantic brow of the Cathedral.
+Thus shut in on all sides, the Clos-Marie slept in the quiet peace of
+its abandonment, overrun with weeds and wild grass, planted with
+poplars and willows sown by the wind. Among the great pebbles the
+Chevrotte leaped, singing as it went, and making a continuous music as
+if of crystal.
+
+Angelique was never weary of this out-of-the-way nook. Yet for seven
+years she had seen there each morning only what she had looked at on
+the previous evening. The trees in the little park of the Hotel
+Voincourt, whose front was on the Grand Rue, were so tufted and bushy
+that it was only in the winter she could occasionally catch a glimpse
+of the daughter of the Countess, Mademoiselle Claire, a young girl of
+her own age.
+
+In the garden of the Bishop was a still more dense thickness of
+branches, and she had often tried in vain to distinguish there the
+violet-coloured cassock of Monseigneur; and the old gate, with its
+Venetian slats above and at the sides, must have been fastened up for
+a very long time, for she never remembered to have seen it opened, not
+even for a gardener to pass through. Besides the washerwomen in the
+Clos, she always saw the same poor, ragged little children playing or
+sleeping in the grass.
+
+The spring this year was unusually mild. She was just sixteen years of
+age, and until now she had been glad to welcome with her eyes alone
+the growing green again of the Clos-Marie under the April sunshine.
+The shooting out of the tender leaves, the transparency of the warm
+evenings, and all the reviving odours of the earth had simply amused
+her heretofore. But this year, at the first bud, her heart seemed to
+beat more quickly. As the grass grew higher and the wind brought to
+her all the strong perfumes of the fresh verdure, there was in her
+whole being an increasing agitation. Sudden inexplicable pain would at
+times seize her throat and almost choke her. One evening she threw
+herself, weeping, into Hubertine's arms, having no cause whatever for
+grief, but, on the contrary, overwhelmed with so great, unknown a
+happiness, that her heart was too full for restraint. In the night her
+dreams were delightful. Shadows seemed to pass before her, and she
+fell into such an ecstatic state that on awakening she did not dare to
+recall them, so confused was she by the angelic visions of bliss.
+Sometimes, in the middle of her great bed, she would rouse herself
+suddenly, her two hands joined and pressed against her breast as if a
+heavy burden were weighing her down and almost suffocating her. She
+would then jump up, rush across the room in her bare feet, and,
+opening the window wide, would stand there, trembling slightly, until
+at last the pure fresh air calmed her. She was continually surprised
+at this great change in herself, as if the knowledge of joys and
+griefs hitherto unknown had been revealed to her in the enchantment of
+dreams, and that her eyes had been opened to natural beauties which
+surrounded her.
+
+What--was it really true that the unseen lilacs and laburnums of the
+Bishop's garden had so sweet an odour that she could no longer breathe
+it without a flush of colour mounting to her cheeks? Never before had
+she perceived this warmth of perfume which now touched her as if with
+a living breath.
+
+And again, why had she never remarked in preceding years a great
+Japanese Paulownia in blossom, which looked like an immense violet
+bouquet as it appeared between two elm-trees in the garden of the
+Voincourts? This year, as soon as she looked at it, her eyes grew
+moist, so much was she affected by the delicate tints of the pale
+purple flowers. She also fancied that the Chevrotte had never
+chattered so gaily over the pebbles among the willows on its banks.
+The river certainly talked; she listened to its vague words,
+constantly repeated, which filled her heart with trouble. Was it,
+then, no longer the field of other days, that everything in it so
+astonished her and affected her senses in so unusual a way? Or,
+rather, was not she herself so changed that, for the first time, she
+appreciated the beauty of the coming into life of trees and plants?
+
+But the Cathedral at her right, the enormous mass which obstructed the
+sky, surprised her yet more. Each morning she seemed to see it for the
+first time; she made constant discoveries in it, and was delighted to
+think that these old stones lived and had lived like herself. She did
+not reason at all on the subject, she had very little knowledge, but
+she gave herself up to the mystic flight of the giant, whose coming
+into existence had demanded three centuries of time, and where were
+placed one above the other the faith and the belief of generations. At
+the foundation, it was kneeling as if crushed by prayer, with the
+Romanesque chapels of the nave, and with the round arched windows,
+plain, unornamented, except by slender columns under the archivolts.
+Then it seemed to rise, lifting its face and hands towards heaven,
+with the pointed windows of its nave, built eighty years later; high,
+delicate windows, divided by mullions on which were broken bows and
+roses. Then again it sprung from the earth as if in ecstasy, erect,
+with the piers and flying buttresses of the choir finished and
+ornamented two centuries after in the fullest flamboyant Gothic,
+charged with its bell-turrets, spires, and pinnacles. A balustrade had
+been added, ornamented with trefoils, bordering the terrace on the
+chapels of the apse. Gargoyles at the foot of the flying buttresses
+carried off the water from the roofs. The top was also decorated with
+flowery emblems. The whole edifice seemed to burst into blossom in
+proportion as it approached the sky in a continual upward flight, as
+if, relieved at being delivered from the ancient sacerdotal terror, it
+was about to lose itself in the bosom of a God of pardon and of love.
+It seemed to have a physical sensation which permeated it, made it
+light and happy, like a sacred hymn it had just heard sung, very pure
+and holy, as it passed into the upper air.
+
+Moreover, the Cathedral was alive. Hundreds of swallows had
+constructed their nests under the borders of trefoil, and even in the
+hollows of the bell-turrets and the pinnacles, and they were
+continually brushing their wings against the flying buttresses and the
+piers which they inhabited. There were also the wood-pigeons of the
+elms in the Bishop's garden, who held themselves up proudly on the
+borders of the terraces, going slowly, as if walking merely to show
+themselves off. Sometimes, half lost in the blue sky, looking scarcely
+larger than a fly, a crow alighted on the point of a spire to smooth
+its wings. The old stones themselves were animated by the quiet
+working of the roots of a whole flora of plants, the lichens and the
+grasses, which pushed themselves through the openings in the walls. On
+very stormy days the entire apse seemed to awake and to grumble under
+the noise of the rain as it beat against the leaden tiles of the roof,
+running off by the gutters of the cornices and rolling from story to
+story with the clamour of an overflowing torrent. Even the terrible
+winds of October and of March gave to it a soul, a double voice of
+anger and of supplication, as they whistled through its forests of
+gables and arcades of roseate ornaments and of little columns. The sun
+also filled it with life from the changing play of its rays; from the
+early morning, which rejuvenated it with a delicate gaiety, even to
+the evening, when, under the slightly lengthened-out shadows, it
+basked in the unknown.
+
+And it had its interior existence. The ceremonies with which it was
+ever vibrating, the constant swinging of its bells, the music of the
+organ, and the chanting of the priests, all these were like the
+pulsation of its veins. There was always a living murmur in it: half-
+lost sounds, like the faint echo of a Low Mass; the rustling of the
+kneeling penitents, a slight, scarcely perceptible shivering, nothing
+but the devout ardour of a prayer said without words and with closed
+lips.
+
+Now, as the days grew longer, Angelique passed more and more time in
+the morning and evening with her elbows on the balustrade of the
+balcony, side by side with her great friend, the Cathedral. She loved
+it the best at night, when she saw the enormous mass detach itself
+like a huge block on the starry skies. The form of the building was
+lost. It was with difficulty that she could even distinguish the
+flying buttresses, which were thrown like bridges into the empty
+space. It was, nevertheless, awake in the darkness, filled with a
+dream of seven centuries, made grand by the multitudes who had hoped
+or despaired before its altars. It was a continual watch, coming from
+the infinite of the past, going to the eternity of the future; the
+mysterious and terrifying wakefulness of a house where God Himself
+never sleeps. And in the dark, motionless, living mass, her looks were
+sure to seek the window of a chapel of the choir, on the level of the
+bushes of the Clos-Marie, the only one which was lighted up, and which
+seemed like an eye which was kept open all the night. Behind it, at
+the corner of a pillar, was an ever-burning altar-lamp. In fact, it
+was the same chapel which the abbots of old had given to Jean V
+d'Hautecoeur, and to his descendants, with the right of being buried
+there, in return for their liberality. Dedicated to Saint George, it
+had a stained-glass window of the twelfth century, on which was
+painted the legend of the saint. From the moment of the coming on of
+twilight, this historic representation came out from the shade,
+lighted up as if it were an apparition, and that was why Angelique was
+fascinated, and loved this particular point, as she gazed at it with
+her dreamy eyes.
+
+The background of the window was blue and the edges red. Upon this
+sombre richness of colouring, the personages, whose flying draperies
+allowed their limbs to be seen, stood out in relief in clear light on
+the glass. Three scenes of the Legend, placed one above the other,
+filled the space quite to the upper arch. At the bottom, the daughter
+of the king, dressed in costly royal robes, on her way from the city
+to be eaten by the dreadful monster, meets Saint George near the pond,
+from which the head of the dragon already appears; and a streamer of
+silk bears these words: "Good Knight, do not run any danger for me, as
+you can neither help me nor deliver me, but will have to perish with
+me." Then in the middle the combat takes place, and the saint, on
+horseback, cuts the beast through and through. This is explained by
+the following words: "George wielded so well his lance that he wounded
+the enemy and threw him upon the earth." At last, at the top, the
+Princess is seen leading back into the city the conquered dragon:
+"George said, 'Tie your scarf around his neck, and do not be afraid of
+anything, oh beautiful maiden, for when you have done so he will
+follow you like a well-trained dog.'"
+
+When the window was new it must have been surmounted in the middle of
+the arch by an ornamental design. But later, when the chapel belonged
+to the Hautecoeurs, they replaced the original work by their family
+coat of arms. And that was why, in the obscure nights, armorial
+bearings of a more recent date shown out above the painted legend.
+They were the old family arms of Hautecoeur, quartered with the well-
+known shield of Jerusalem; the latter being argent, a cross potencee,
+or, between four crosselettes of the same; and those of the family,
+azure, a castle, or, on it a shield, sable, charged with a human
+heart, argent, the whole between three fleurs-de-lys, or; the shield
+was supported on the dexter and sinister sides by two wyverns, or; and
+surmounted by the silver helmet with its blue feathers, embossed in
+gold, placed frontwise, and closed by eleven bars, which belongs only
+to Dukes, Marshals of France, titled Lords and heads of Sovereign
+Corporations. And for motto were these words: "_Si Dieu volt, ie
+vueil_."
+
+Little by little, from having seen him piercing the monster with his
+lance, whilst the king's daughter raised her clasped hands in
+supplication, Angelique became enamoured of Saint George. He was her
+hero. At the distance where she was she could not well distinguish the
+figures, and she looked at them as if in the aggrandisement of a
+dream; the young girl was slight, was a blonde, and, in short, had a
+face not unlike her own, while the saint was frank and noble looking,
+with the beauty of an archangel. It was as if she herself had just
+been saved, and she could have kissed his hands with gratitude. And to
+this adventure, of which she dreamed confusedly, of a meeting on the
+border of a lake and of being rescued from a great danger by a young
+man more beautiful than the day, was added the recollection of her
+excursion to the Chateau of Hautecoeur, and a calling up to view of
+the feudal donjon, in its original state, peopled with the noble lords
+of olden times.
+
+The arms glistened like the stars on summer nights; she knew them
+well, she read them easily, with their sonorous words, for she was so
+in the habit of embroidering heraldic symbols. There was Jean V, who
+stopped from door to door in the town ravaged by the plague, and went
+in to kiss the lips of the dying, and cured them by saying, "_Si Dieu
+volt, ie vueil_." And Felician III, who, forewarned that a severe
+illness prevented Philippe le Bel from going to Palestine, went there
+in his place, barefooted and holding a candle in his hand, and for
+that he had the right of quartering the arms of Jerusalem with his
+own. Other and yet other histories came to her mind, especially those
+of the ladies of Hautecoeur, the "happy dead," as they were called in
+the Legend. In that family the women die young, in the midst of some
+great happiness. Sometimes two or three generations would be spared,
+then suddenly Death would appear, smiling, as with gentle hands he
+carried away the daughter or the wife of a Hautecoeur, the oldest of
+them being scarcely twenty years of age, at the moment when they were
+at the height of earthly love and bliss. For instance, Laurette,
+daughter of Raoul I, on the evening of her betrothal to her cousin
+Richard, who lived in the castle, having seated herself at her window
+in the Tower of David, saw him at his window in the Tower of
+Charlemagne, and, thinking she heard him call her, as at that moment a
+ray of moonlight seemed to throw a bridge between them, she walked
+toward him. But when in the middle she made in her haste a false step
+and overpassed the ray, she fell, and was crushed at the foot of the
+tower. So since that day, each night when the moon is bright and
+clear, she can be seen walking in the air around the Chateau, which is
+bathed in white by the silent touch of her immense robe. Then Balbine,
+wife of Herve VII, thought for six months that her husband had been
+killed in the wars. But, unwilling to give up all hope, she watched
+for him daily from the top of the donjon, and when at last she saw him
+one morning on the highway, returning to his home, she ran down
+quickly to meet him, but was so overcome with joy, that she fell dead
+at the entrance of the castle. Even at this day, notwithstanding the
+ruins, as soon as twilight falls, it is said she still descends the
+steps, runs from story to story, glides through the corridors and the
+rooms, and passes like a phantom through the gaping windows which open
+into the desert void. All return. Isabeau, Gudule, Vonne,
+Austreberthe, all these "happy dead," loved by the stern messenger,
+who spared them from the vicissitudes of life by taking them suddenly
+when, in early youth, they thought only of happiness. On certain
+nights this white-robed band fill the house as if with a flight of
+doves. To their number had lately been added the mother of the son of
+Monseigneur, who was found lifeless on the floor by the cradle of her
+infant, where, although ill, she dragged herself to die, in the
+fullness of her delight at embracing him. These had haunted the
+imagination of Angelique; she spoke of them as if they were facts of
+recent occurrence, which might have happened the day before. She had
+read the names of Laurette and of Balbine on old memorial tablets let
+into the walls of the chapel. Then why should not she also die young
+and very happy, as they had? The armouries would glisten as now, the
+saint would come down from his place in the stained-glass window, and
+she would be carried away to heaven on the sweet breath of a kiss. Why
+not?
+
+The "Golden Legend" had taught her this: Was not it true that the
+miracle is really the common law, and follows the natural course of
+events? It exists, is active, works with an extreme facility on every
+occasion, multiplies itself, spreads itself out, overflows even
+uselessly, as if for the pleasure of contradicting the self-evident
+rules of Nature. Its power seems to be on the same plane as that of
+the Creator. Albrigan, King of Edeese, writes to Jesus, who replies to
+him. Ignatius receives letters from the Blessed Virgin. In all places
+the Mother and the Son appear, disguise themselves, and talk with an
+air of smiling good-nature. When Stephen meets them they are very
+familiar with him. All the virgins are wed to Jesus, and the martyrs
+mount to heaven, where they are to be united to Mary. And as for the
+angels and saints, they are the ordinary companions of men. They come,
+they go, they pass through walls, they appear in dreams, they speak
+from the height of clouds, they assist at births and deaths, they
+support those who are tortured, they deliver those who are in prison,
+and they go on dangerous missions. Following in their footsteps is an
+inexhaustible efflorescence of prodigies. Sylvester binds the mouth of
+a dragon with a thread. The earth rises to make a seat for Hilary,
+whose companions wished to humiliate him. A precious stone falls into
+the chalice of Saint Loup. A tree crushes the enemies of Saint Martin;
+a dog lets loose a hare, and a great fire ceases to burn at his
+command. Mary the Egyptian walks upon the sea; honey-bees fly from the
+mouth of Ambrosius at his birth. Continually saints cure diseases of
+the eye, withered limbs, paralysis, leprosy, and especially the
+plague. There is no disease that resists the sign of the Cross. In a
+crowd, the suffering and the feeble are placed together, that they may
+be cured in a mass, as if by a thunderbolt. Death itself is conquered,
+and resurrections are so frequent that they become quite an everyday
+affair. And when the saints themselves are dead the wonders do not
+cease, but are redoubled, and are like perennial flowers which spring
+from their tombs. It is said that from the head and the feet of
+Nicholas flowed two fountains of oil which cured every ill. When the
+tomb of Saint Cecilia was opened an odour of roses came up from her
+coffin. That of Dorothea was filled with manna. All the bones of
+virgins and of martyrs performed marvels: they confounded liars, they
+forced robbers to give back their stolen goods, they granted the
+prayers of childless wives, they brought the dying back to life.
+Nothing was impossible for them; in fact the Invisible reigned, and
+the only law was the caprice of the supernatural. In the temples the
+sorcerers mix themselves up with the popular idea, and scythes cut the
+grass without being held, brass serpents move, and one hears bronze
+statues laugh and wolves sing. Immediately the saints reply and
+overwhelm them. The Host is changed into living food, sacred Christian
+images shed drops of blood, sticks set upright in the ground blossom
+into flower, springs of pure water appear in dry places, warm loaves
+of bread multiply themselves at the feet of the needy, a tree bows
+down before some holy person, and so on. Then, again, decapitated
+heads speak, broken chalices mend themselves, the rain turns aside
+from a church to submerge a neighbouring palace, the robes of hermits
+never wear out, but renew themselves at each season like the skin of a
+beast. In Armenia at one time the persecutors threw into the sea the
+leaden coffins of five martyrs, and the one containing the body of
+Saint Bartholomew the Apostle took the lead, and the four others
+accompanied it as a guard of honour. So, all together, in regular
+order, like a fine squadron, they floated slowly along, urged by the
+breeze, through the whole length of the sea, until they reached the
+shores of Sicily.
+
+Angelique was a firm believer in miracles. In her ignorance she lived
+surrounded by wonders. The rising of the stars, or the opening of a
+violet; each fact was a surprise to her. It would have appeared to her
+simply ridiculous to have imagined the world so mechanical as to be
+governed by fixed laws. There were so many things far beyond her
+comprehension, she felt herself so weak and helpless in the midst of
+forces whose power it was impossible to measure, that she would not
+even have suspected they existed, had it not been for the great
+questioning breath which at times passed over her face. So, trusting,
+and as thoroughly Christian as if belonging to the primitive Church,
+spiritually fed by her readings from the "Golden Legend," she gave
+herself up entirely into the hands of God, with only the spot of
+original sin to be cleansed from her soul. She had no liberty of
+action or freedom of will; God alone could secure her salvation by
+giving her the gift of His grace. That grace had been already
+manifested by bringing her to the hospitable roof of the Huberts,
+where, under the shadow of the Cathedral, she could lead a life of
+submission, of purity, and of faith. She often heard within her soul
+the grumblings of heredity tendency to evil, and asked herself what
+would have become of her had she been left on her native soil. Without
+doubt she would have been bad; while here, in this blessed corner of
+the earth, she had grown up free from temptation, strong and healthy.
+Was it not grace that had given her this home, where she was
+surrounded by such charming histories she had so easily committed to
+memory, where she had learned such perfect faith in the present and
+hope in the future, and where the invisible and unknown, or the
+miracles of ages, seemed natural to her, and quite on a level with her
+daily life? It had armed her for all combats, as heretofore it had
+armed the martyrs. And she created an imaginary experience for herself
+almost unknowingly. It was, in fact, the inevitable result of a mind
+overcharged and excited by fables; it was increased by her ignorance
+of the life within and about her, as well as from her loneliness. She
+had not had many companions, so all desires went from her only to
+return to her.
+
+Sometimes she was in such a peculiar state that she would put her
+hands over her face, as if doubting her own identity. Was she herself
+only an illusion, and would she suddenly disappear some day and vanish
+into nothingness? Who would tell her the truth?
+
+One evening in the following May, on this same balcony where she had
+spent so much time in vague dreams, she suddenly broke into tears. She
+was not low-spirited in the least, but it seemed to her as if her
+anxiety arose from a vain expectation of a visit from someone. Yet who
+was there to come? It was very dark; the Clos-Marie marked itself out
+like a great black spot under the sky filled with stars, and she could
+but vaguely distinguish the heavy masses of the old elm-trees of the
+Bishop's garden, and of the park of the Hotel Voincourt. Alone the
+window of the chapel sent out a little light. If no one were to come,
+why did her heart beat so rapidly? It was nothing new, this feeling of
+waiting, or of hope, but it was dated from the long ago, from her
+early youth; it was like a desire, a looking forward for something
+which had grown with her growth, and ended in this feverish anxiety of
+her seventeen years. Nothing would have surprised her, as for weeks
+she had heard the sound of voices in this mysterious corner, peopled
+by her imagination. The "Golden Legend" had left there its
+supernatural world of saints and martyrs, and the miracle was all
+ready to appear there. She understood well that everything was
+animated, that the voices came from objects hitherto silent; that the
+leaves of the trees, the waters of the Chevrotte, and the stones of
+the Cathedral spoke to her. But what was it that all these whisperings
+from the Invisible wished to explain? What did these unknown forces
+above and around her wish to do with her as they floated in the air?
+She kept her eyes fixed upon the darkness, as if she were at an
+appointed meeting with she knew not whom, and she waited, still
+waited, until she was overcome with sleep, whilst it seemed to her as
+if some supernatural power were deciding her destiny, irrespective of
+her will or wish.
+
+For four evenings Angelique was nervous, and wept a great deal in the
+darkness. She remained in her usual place and was patient. The
+atmosphere seemed to envelope her, and as it increased in density it
+oppressed her more and more, as if the horizon itself had become
+smaller and was shutting her in. Everything weighed upon her heart.
+Now there was a dull murmuring of voices in her brain; yet she was not
+able to hear them clearly, or to distinguish their meaning. It was as
+if Nature itself had taken possession of her, and the earth, with the
+vast heavens above it, had penetrated into her being. At the least
+sound her hands burned and her eyes tried to pierce the darkness. Was
+the wonderful event about to take place, the prodigy she awaited? No,
+there was nothing yet. It was probably merely the beating of the wings
+of a night bird. And she listened again, attentively, until she could
+distinguish the difference of sound between the leaves of the elms and
+the willows. At least twenty times she trembled violently when a
+little stone rolled in the rivulet, or a prowling animal jumped over
+the wall. She leaned forward; but there was nothing--still nothing.
+
+At last, after some days, when at night a warmer darkness fell from
+the sky where no moon was visible, a change began. She felt it, but it
+was so slight, so almost imperceptible, she feared that she might have
+been mistaken in the little sound she heard, which seemed unlike the
+usual noises she knew so well. She held her breath, as the sound
+seemed very long in returning. At last it came again, louder than
+before, but equally confused. She would have said it came from a great
+distance, that it was a scarcely-defined step, and that the trembling
+of the air announced the approach of something out of sight and out of
+hearing. That which she was expecting came slowly from the invisible
+slight movement of what surrounded her. Little by little it disengaged
+itself from her dream, like a realisation of the vague longings of her
+youth. Was it the Saint George of the chapel window, who had come down
+from his place and was walking on the grass in silence towards her?
+Just then, by chance, the altar-light was dimmed, so that she could
+not distinguish the faintest outline of the figures on the painted
+glass, but all seemed like a blue cloud of vapoury mist. That was all
+she heard or learned at that time of the mystery.
+
+But on the morrow, at the same hour, by a like obscurity, the noise
+increased and approached a little nearer. It was certainly the sound
+of steps, of real steps, which walked upon the earth. They would stop
+for a moment, then recommence here and there, moving up and down,
+without her being able to say precisely where they were. Perhaps they
+came from the garden of the Voincourts, where some night pedestrian
+was lingering under the trees. Or it might be, rather, that they were
+in the tufted masses of the great lilac-bushes of the park of the
+Bishop, whose strong perfume made her almost ill. She might do her
+best to try to penetrate the darkness, it was only by her hearing that
+she was forewarned of the coming events, aided a little by her sense
+of smell, as the perfume of the flowers was increased as if a breath
+were mingled with it. And so for several nights the steps resounded
+under the balcony, and she listened as they came nearer, until they
+reached the walls under her feet. There they stopped, and a long
+silence followed, until she seemed almost to lose consciousness in
+this slow embrace of something of which she was ignorant.
+
+Not long after, she saw one evening the little crescent of the new
+moon appear among the stars. But it soon disappeared behind the brow
+of the Cathedral, like a bright, living eye that the lid re-covers.
+She followed it with regret, and at each nightfall she awaited its
+appearance, watched its growth, and was impatient for this torch which
+would ere long light up the invisible. In fact, little by little, the
+Clos-Marie came out from the obscurity, with the ruins of its old
+mill, its clusters of trees, and its rapid little river. And then, in
+the light, creation continued. That which came from a vision ended in
+being embodied. For at first she only perceived that a dim shadow was
+moving under the moonlight. What was it, then? A branch moved to and
+fro by the wind? Or was it a large bat in constant motion? There were
+moments when everything disappeared, and the field slept in so deathly
+a stillness that she thought her eyes had deceived her. Soon there was
+no longer any doubt possible, for a dark object had certainly just
+crossed the open space and had glided from one willow-tree to another.
+It appeared, then disappeared, without her being able exactly to
+define it.
+
+One evening she thought she distinguished the dim outline of two
+shoulders, and at once she turned her eyes towards the chapel window.
+It had a greyish tint, as if empty, for the moon shining directly upon
+it had deadened the light within. At that moment she noticed that the
+living shadow grew larger, as it approached continually nearer and
+nearer, walking in the grass at the side of the church. In proportion
+as she realised it was a fact that someone was there, she was overcome
+by an indefinable sensation, a nervous feeling that one has on being
+looked at by mysterious unseen eyes.
+
+Certainly someone was there under the trees who was regarding her
+fixedly. She had on her hands and face, as it were, a physical
+impression of those long, ardent, yet timid looks; but she did not
+withdraw herself from them, because she knew they were pure, and came
+from the enchanted world of which she had read in the "Golden Legend";
+and, in the certainty of a promised happiness, her first anxiety was
+quickly changed into a delicious tranquillity.
+
+One night, suddenly, on the ground whitened by the moon's rays, the
+shadow designed itself plainly and clearly. It was indeed that of a
+man whom she could not see, as he was hidden by the willows. As he did
+not move, she was able to look for a long time at his shadow.
+
+From that moment Angelique had a secret. Her bare, whitewashed chamber
+was filled with it. She remained there for hours lying on her great
+bed--where she seemed lost, she was so little--her eyes closed, but
+not asleep, and seeing continually before her, in her waking dreams,
+this motionless shadow upon the earth. When she re-opened her eyes at
+dawn, her looks wandered from the enormous wardrobe to the odd carved
+chest, from the porcelain stove to the little toilet-table, as if
+surprised at not seeing there the mysterious silhouette, which she
+could have so easily and precisely traced from memory. In her sleep
+she had seen it gliding among the pale heather-blossoms on her
+curtains. In her dreams, as in her waking hours, her mind was filled
+with it. It was a companion shadow to her own. She had thus a double
+being, although she was alone with her fancies.
+
+This secret she confided to no one, not even to Hubertine, to whom,
+until now, she had always told even her thoughts. When the latter,
+surprised at her gaiety, questioned her, she blushed deeply as she
+replied that the early spring had made her very happy. From morning to
+evening she hummed little snatches of song, like a bee intoxicated by
+the heat of the sun's rays. Never before had the chasubles she
+embroidered been so resplendent with silk and gold. The Huberts smiled
+as they watched her, thinking simply that this exuberance of spirits
+came from her state of perfect health. As the day waned she grew more
+excited, she sang at the rising of the moon, and as soon as the hour
+arrived she hurried to her balcony, and waited for the shadow to
+appear. During all the first quarters of the moon she found it exact
+at each rendezvous, erect and silent. But that was all. What was the
+cause of it? Why was it there? Was it, indeed, only a shadow? Was not
+it, perhaps, the saint who had left his window, or the angel who had
+formerly loved Saint Cecilia, and who had now come to love her in her
+turn? Although she was not vain, these thoughts made her proud, and
+were as sweet to her as an invisible caress. Then she grew impatient
+to know more, and her watching recommenced.
+
+The moon, at its full, lighted up the Clos-Marie. When it was at its
+zenith, the trees, under the white rays which fell straight upon them
+in perpendicular lines, cast no more shadows, but were like running
+fountains of silent brightness. The whole garden was bathed and filled
+with a luminous wave as limpid as crystal, and the brilliancy of it
+was so penetrating that everything was clearly seen, even to the fine
+cutting of the willow-leaves. The slightest possible trembling of air
+seemed to wrinkle this lake of rays, sleeping in the universal peace
+among the grand elm-trees of the neighbouring garden and the gigantic
+brow of the Cathedral.
+
+Two more evenings had passed like this, when, on the third night, as
+Angelique was leaning on her elbows and looking out, her heart seemed
+to receive a sudden shock. There, in the clear light, she saw him
+standing before her and looking at her. His shadow, like that of the
+trees, had disappeared under his feet, and he alone was there,
+distinctly seen. At this distance she saw--as if it were full day--
+that he was tall, slight, a blonde, and apparently about twenty years
+of age. He resembled either a Saint George or a superb picture of
+Christ, with his curly hair, his thin beard, his straight nose, rather
+large, and his proudly-smiling black eyes. And she recognised him
+perfectly; never had she seen another like him; it was he, her hero,
+and he was exactly as she expected to find him. The wonder was at last
+accomplished; the slow creation of the invisible had perfected itself
+in this living apparition, and he came out from the unknown, from the
+movement of things, from murmuring voices, from the action of the
+night, from all that had enveloped her, until she almost fainted into
+unconsciousness. She also saw him as if he were lifted above the
+earth, so supernatural appeared to be his coming, whilst the
+miraculous seemed to surround him on every side as it floated over the
+mysterious moon-lake. He had as his escort the entire people of the
+Legend--the saints whose staffs blossomed, the virgins whose wounds
+shed milk--and the stars seemed to pale before this white group of
+perfection.
+
+Angelique continued to look at him. He raised his arms, and held them
+out, wide open. She was not at all afraid, but smiled sweetly.
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI
+
+It was a great affair for the whole household when, every three
+months, Hubertine prepared the "lye" for the wash. A woman was hired
+to aid them, the Mother Gabet, as she was called, and for four days
+all embroidery was laid aside, while Angelique took her part in the
+unusual work, making of it a perfect amusement, as she soaped and
+rinsed the clothes in the clean water of the Chevrotte. The linen when
+taken from the ashes was wheeled to the Clos-Marie, through the little
+gate of communication in the garden. There the days were spent in the
+open air and the sunshine.
+
+"I will do the washing this time, mother, for it is the greatest of
+delights to me."
+
+And gaily laughing, with her sleeves drawn up above her elbows,
+flourishing the beetle, Angelique struck the clothes most heartily in
+the pleasure of such healthy exercise. It was hard work, but she
+thoroughly enjoyed it, and only stopped occasionally to say a few
+words or to show her shiny face covered with foam.
+
+"Look, mother! This makes my arms strong. It does me a world of good."
+
+The Chevrotte crossed the field diagonally, at first drowsily, then
+its stream became very rapid as it was thrown in great bubbles over a
+pebbly descent. It came from the garden of the Bishop, through a
+species of floodgate left at the foot of the wall, and at the other
+end it disappeared under an arched vault at the corner of the Hotel
+Voincourt, where it was swallowed up in the earth, to reappear two
+hundred yards farther on, as it passed along the whole length of the
+Rue Basse to the Ligneul, into which it emptied itself. Therefore it
+was very necessary to watch the linen constantly, for, run as fast as
+possible, every piece that was once let go was almost inevitably lost.
+
+"Mother, wait, wait a little! I will put this heavy stone on the
+napkins. We shall then see if the river can carry them away. The
+little thief!"
+
+She placed the stone firmly, then returned to draw another from the
+old, tumble-down mill, enchanted to move about and to fatigue herself;
+and, although she severely bruised her finger, she merely moistened it
+a little, saying, "Oh! that is nothing."
+
+During the day the poor people who sheltered themselves in the ruins
+went out to ask for charity from the passers-by on the highways. So
+the Clos was quite deserted. It was a delicious, fresh solitude, with
+its clusters of pale-green willows, its high poplar-trees, and
+especially its verdure, its overflowing of deep-rooted wild herbs and
+grasses, so high that they came up to one's shoulders. A quivering
+silence came from the two neighbouring parks, whose great trees barred
+the horizon. After three o'clock in the afternoon the shadow of the
+Cathedral was lengthened out with a calm sweetness and a perfume of
+evaporated incense.
+
+Angelique continued to beat the linen harder still, with all the force
+of her well-shaped white arms.
+
+"Oh, mother dear! You can have no idea how hungry I shall be this
+evening! . . . Ah! you know that you have promised to give me a good
+strawberry-cake."
+
+On the day of the rinsing, Angelique was quite alone. The _mere_
+Gabet, suffering from a sudden, severe attack of sciatica, had not
+been able to come as usual, and Hubertine was kept at home by other
+household cares.
+
+Kneeling in her little box half filled with straw, the young girl took
+the pieces one by one, shook them for a long time in the swiftly-
+rolling stream, until the water was no longer dimmed, but had become
+as clear as crystal. She did not hurry at all, for since the morning
+she had been tormented by a great curiosity, having seen, to her
+astonishment, an old workman in a white blouse, who was putting up a
+light scaffolding before the window of the Chapel Hautecoeur. Could it
+be that they were about to repair the stained-glass panes? There was,
+it must be confessed, great need of doing so. Several pieces were
+wanting in the figure of Saint George, and in other places, where in
+the course of centuries panes that had been broken had been replaced
+by ordinary glass. Still, all this was irritating to her. She was so
+accustomed to the gaps of the saint who was piercing the dragon with
+his sword, and of the royal princess as she led the conquered beast
+along with her scarf, that she already mourned as if one had the
+intention of mutilating them. It was sacrilege to think of changing
+such old, venerable things. But when she returned to the field after
+her lunch, all her angry feelings passed away immediately; for a
+second workman was upon the staging, a young man this time, who also
+wore a white blouse. And she recognised him! It was he! Her hero!
+
+Gaily, without any embarrassment, Angelique resumed her place on her
+knees on the straw of her box. Then, with her wrists bare, she put her
+hands in the deep, clear water, and recommenced shaking the linen back
+and forth.
+
+Yes, it was he--tall, slight, a blonde, with his fine beard and his
+hair curled like that of a god, his complexion as fresh as when she
+had first seen him under the white shadow of the moonlight. Since it
+was he, there was nothing to be feared for the window; were he to
+touch it, he would only embellish it. And it was no disappointment to
+her whatever to find him in this blouse, a workman like herself, a
+painter on glass, no doubt. On the contrary, this fact made her smile,
+so absolutely certain was she of the eventual fulfillment of her dream
+of royal fortune. Now, it was simply an appearance, a beginning. What
+good would it do her to know who he was, from whence he came, or
+whither he was going? Some morning he would prove to be that which she
+expected him to be. A shower of gold would stream from the roof of the
+Cathedral, a triumphal march would break forth in the distant
+rumblings of the organ, and all would come true. She did not stay to
+ask herself how he could always be there, day and night. Yet it was
+evident either that he must live in one of the neighbouring houses, or
+he must pass by the lane des Guerdaches, which ran by the side of the
+Bishop's park to the Rue Magloire.
+
+Then a charming hour passed by. She bent forward, she rinsed her
+linen, her face almost touching the fresh water; but each time she
+took a different piece she raised her head, and cast towards the
+church a look, in which from the agitation of her heart, was a little
+good-natured malice. And he, upon the scaffolding, with an air of
+being closely occupied in examining the state of the window, turned
+towards her, glancing at her sideways, and evidently much disturbed
+whenever she surprised him doing so. It was astonishing how quickly he
+blushed, how dark red his face became. At the slightest emotion,
+whether of anger or interest, all the blood in his veins seemed to
+mount to his face. He had flashing eyes, which showed will; yet he was
+so diffident, that, when he knew he was being criticised, he was
+embarrassed as a little child, did not seem to know what to do with
+his hands, and stammered out his orders to the old man who accompanied
+him.
+
+As for Angelique, that which delighted her most, as she refreshed her
+arms in this turbulent water, was to picture him innocent like
+herself, ignorant of the world, and with an equally intense desire to
+have a taste of life. There was no need of his telling to others who
+he was, for had not invisible messengers and unseen lips made known to
+her that he was to be her own? She looked once more, just as he was
+turning his head; and so the minutes passed, and it was delicious.
+
+Suddenly she saw that he jumped from the staging, then that he walked
+backwards quite a distance through the grass, as if to take a certain
+position from which he could examine the window more easily. But she
+could not help smiling, so evident was it that he simply wished to
+approach her. He had made a firm decision, like a man who risks
+everything, and now it was touching as well as comical to see that he
+remained standing a few steps from her, his back towards her, not
+daring to move, fearing that he had been too hasty in coming as far as
+he had done. For a moment she thought he would go back again to the
+chapel-window as he had come from it, without paying any attention to
+her. However, becoming desperate, at last he turned, and as at that
+moment she was glancing in his direction, their eyes met, and they
+remained gazing fixedly at each other. They were both deeply confused;
+they lost their self-possession, and might never have been able to
+regain it, had not a dramatic incident aroused them.
+
+"Oh dear! Oh dear!" exclaimed the young girl, in distress.
+
+In her excitement, a dressing-sacque, which she had been rinsing
+unconsciously, had just escaped her, and the stream was fast bearing
+it away. Yet another minute and it would disappear round the corner of
+the wall of the Voincourt park, under the arched vault through which
+the Chevrotte passed.
+
+There were several seconds of anxious waiting. He saw at once what had
+happened, and rushed forward. But the current, leaping over the
+pebbles, carried this sacque, which seemed possessed, as it went
+along, much more rapidly than he. He stooped, thinking he had caught
+it, but took up only a handful of soapy foam. Twice he failed. The
+third time he almost fell. Then, quite vexed, with a brave look as if
+doing something at the peril of his life, he went into the water, and
+seized the garment just as it was about being drawn under the ground.
+
+Angelique, who until now had followed the rescue anxiously, quite
+upset, as if threatened by a great misfortune, was so relieved that
+she had an intense desire to laugh. This feeling was partly nervous,
+it is true, but not entirely so. For was not this the adventure of
+which she had so often dreamed? This meeting on the border of a lake;
+the terrible danger from which she was to be saved by a young man,
+more beautiful than the day? Saint George, the tribune, the warrior!
+These were simply united in one, and he was this painter of stained
+glass, this young workman in his white blouse! When she saw him coming
+back, his feet wet through and through, as he held the dripping
+camisole awkwardly in his hand, realising the ridiculous side of the
+energy he had employed in saving it from the waves, she was obliged to
+bite her tongue to check the outburst of gaiety which seemed almost to
+choke her.
+
+He forgot himself as he looked at her. She was like a most adorable
+child in this restrained mirth with which all her youth seemed to
+vibrate. Splashed with water, her arms almost chilled by the stream,
+she seemed to send forth from herself the purity and clearness of
+these living springs which rushed from the mossy woods. She was an
+impersonation of health, joy, and freshness, in the full sunlight. One
+could easily fancy that she might be a careful housekeeper and a queen
+withal as she was there, in her working dress, with her slender waist,
+her regal neck, her oval face, such as one reads of in fairy-tales.
+And he did not know how to give her back the linen, he found her
+exquisite, so perfect a representation of the beauty of the art he
+loved. It enraged him, in spite of himself, that he should have the
+air of an idiot, as he plainly saw the effort she made not to laugh.
+But he was forced to do something, so at last he gave her back the
+sacque.
+
+Then Angelique realised that if she were to open her mouth and try to
+thank him, she would shout. Poor fellow! She sympathised with him and
+pitied him. But it was irresistible; she was happy, and needed to give
+expression to it; she must yield to the gaiety with which her heart
+overflowed. It was such lovely weather, and all life was so beautiful!
+
+At last she thought she might speak, wishing simply to say: "Thank
+you, Monsieur."
+
+But the wish to laugh had returned, and made her stammer, interrupting
+her at each word. It was a loud, cheery laugh, a sonorous outpouring
+of pearly notes, which sang sweetly to the crystalline accompaniment
+of the Chevrotte.
+
+The young man was so disconcerted that he could find nothing to say.
+His usually pale face had become very red, the timid, childlike
+expression of his eyes had changed into a fiery one, like that of an
+eagle, and he moved away quickly. He disappeared with the old workman,
+and even then she continued to laugh as she bent over the water, again
+splashing herself as she shook the clothes hither and thither,
+rejoicing in the brightness of the happy day.
+
+On the morrow he came an hour earlier. But at five o'clock in the
+morning the linen, which had been dripping all night, was spread out
+on the grass. There was a brisk wind, which was excellent for drying.
+But in order that the different articles need not be blown away, they
+were kept in place by putting little pebbles on their four corners.
+The whole wash was there, looking of a dazzling whiteness among the
+green herbage, having a strong odour of plants about it, and making
+the meadow as if it had suddenly blossomed out into a snowy covering
+of daisies.
+
+When Angelique came to look at it after breakfast, she was distressed,
+for so strong had become the gusts of wind that all threatened to be
+carried away. Already a sheet had started, and several napkins had
+gone to fasten themselves to the branches of a willow. She fortunately
+caught them, but then the handkerchiefs began to fly. There was no one
+to help her; she was so frightened that she lost all her presence of
+mind. When she tried to spread out the sheet again, she had a regular
+battle, for she was quite lost in it, as it covered her with a great
+crackling sound.
+
+Through all the noise of the wind she heard a voice saying,
+"Mademoiselle, do you wish me to help you?"
+
+It was he, and immediately she cried to him, with no other thought
+than her pre-occupation as a good housewife:
+
+"Of course I wish it. Come and help me, then. Take the end over there,
+nearest to you. Hold it firm!"
+
+The sheet, which they stretched out with their strong arms, flapped
+backwards and forwards like a sail. At last they succeeded in putting
+it on the ground, and then placed upon it much heavier stones than
+before. And now that, quite conquered, it sank quietly down, neither
+of them thought of leaving their places, but remained on their knees
+at the opposite corners, separated by this great piece of pure white
+linen.
+
+She smiled, but this time without malice. It was a silent message of
+thanks. He became by degrees a little bolder.
+
+"My name is Felicien."
+
+"And mine is Angelique."
+
+"I am a painter on glass, and have been charged to repair the stained-
+glass window of the chapel here."
+
+"I live over there with my father and mother, and I am an embroiderer
+of church vestments."
+
+The wind, which continued to be strong under the clear blue sky,
+carried away their words, lashed them with its purifying breath in the
+midst of the warm sunshine in which they were bathed.
+
+They spoke of things which they already knew, as if simply for the
+pleasure of talking.
+
+"Is the window, then, to be replaced?"
+
+"No! oh no! it will be so well repaired that the new part cannot be
+distinguished from the old. I love it quite as much as you do."
+
+"Oh! it is indeed true that I love it! I have already embroidered a
+Saint George, but it was not so beautiful as this one."
+
+"Oh, not so beautiful! How can you say that? I have seen it, if it is
+the Saint George on the chasuble which the Abbot Cornille wore last
+Sunday. It is a marvellous thing."
+
+She blushed with pleasure, but quickly turned the conversation, as she
+exclaimed:
+
+"Hurry and put another stone on the left corner of the sheet, or the
+wind will carry it away from us again."
+
+He made all possible haste, weighed down the linen, which had been in
+great commotion, like the wings of a great wounded bird trying its
+best to fly away. Finding that this time it would probably keep its
+place, the two young people rose up, and now Angelique went through
+the narrow, green paths between the pieces of linen, glancing at each
+one, while he followed her with an equally busy look, as if
+preoccupied by the possible loss of a dish-towel or an apron. All this
+seemed quite natural to them both. So she continued to chatter away
+freely and artlessly, as she told of her daily life and explained her
+tastes.
+
+"For my part, I always wish that everything should be in its place. In
+the morning I am always awakened at the same hour by the striking of
+the cuckoo-clock in the workroom; and whether it is scarcely daylight
+or not, I dress myself as quickly as possible; my shoes and stockings
+are here, my soap and all articles of toilette there--a true mania for
+order. Yet you may well believe that I was not born so! Oh no! On the
+contrary, I was the most careless person possible. Mother was obliged
+to repeat to me the same words over and over again, that I might not
+leave my things in every corner of the house, for I found it easier to
+scatter them about. And now, when I am at work from morning to
+evening, I can never do anything right if my chair is not in the same
+place, directly opposite the light, Fortunately, I am neither right
+nor left handed, but can use both hands equally well at embroidering,
+which is a great help to me, for it is not everyone who can do that.
+Then, I adore flowers, but I cannot keep a bouquet near me without
+having a terrible headache. Violets alone I can bear, and that is
+surprising. But their odour seems to calm me, and at the least
+indisposition I have only need to smell them and I am at once cured."
+
+He was enraptured while listening to her prattle. He revelled in the
+beautiful ring of her voice, which had an extremely penetrating,
+prolonged charm; and he must have been peculiarly sensitive to this
+human music, for the caressing inflection on certain words moistened
+his eyelids.
+
+Suddenly returning to her household cares she exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, now the shirts will soon be dry!"
+
+Then, in the unconscious and simple need of making herself known, she
+continued her confidences:
+
+"For colouring, the white is always beautiful, is it not? I tire at
+times of blue, of red, and of all other shades; but white is a
+constant joy, of which I am never weary. There is nothing in it to
+trouble you; on the contrary, you would like to lose yourself in it.
+We had a white cat, with yellow spots, which I painted white. It did
+very well for a while, but it did not last long. Listen a minute.
+Mother does not know it, but I keep all the waste bits of white silk,
+and have a drawer full of them, for just nothing except the pleasure
+of looking at them, and smoothing them over from time to time. And I
+have another secret, but this is a very serious one! When I wake up,
+there is every morning near my bed a great, white object, which gently
+flies away."
+
+He did not smile, but appeared firmly to believe her. Was not all she
+said, in her simple way, quite natural? A queen in the magnificence of
+her courtly surroundings could not have conquered him so quickly. She
+had, in the midst of this white linen on the green grass, a charming,
+grand air, happy and supreme, which touched him to the heart, with an
+ever-increasing power. He was completely subdued. She was everything
+to him from this moment. He would follow her to the last day of his
+life, in the worship of her light feet, her delicate hands, of her
+whole being, adorable and perfect as a dream. She continued to walk
+before him, with a short quick step, and he followed her closely,
+suffocated by a thought of the happiness he scarcely dared hope might
+come to him.
+
+But another sudden gust of wind came up, and there was a perfect
+flight into the distance of cambric collars and cuffs, of neckerchiefs
+and chemisettes of muslin, which, as they disappeared, seemed like a
+flock of white birds knocked about by the tempest.
+
+Angelique began to run.
+
+"Oh dear! What shall I do? You will have to come again and help me. Oh
+dear!"
+
+They both rushed forward. She caught a kerchief on the borders of the
+Chevrotte. He had already saved two chemisettes which he found in the
+midst of some high thistles. One by one the cuffs and the collars were
+retaken. But in the course of their running at full speed, the flying
+folds of her skirt had at several different times brushed against him,
+and each time his face became suddenly red, and his heart beat
+violently. In his turn, he touched her face accidentally, as she
+jumped to recover the last fichu, which he had carelessly let go of.
+She was startled and stood quietly, but breathing more quickly. She
+joked no longer; her laugh sounded less clear, and she was not tempted
+to ridicule this great awkward, but most attractive fellow. The
+feminine nature so recently awakened in her softened her almost to
+tears, and with the feeling of inexplicable tenderness, which
+overpowered her, was mingled a half-fear.
+
+What was the matter with her that she was less gay, and that she was
+so overcome by this delicious pang? When he held out the kerchief to
+her, their hands, by chance, touched for a moment. They trembled, as
+they looked at each other inquiringly. Then she drew back quickly, and
+for several seconds seemed not to know what she should do under the
+extraordinary circumstances which had just occurred. At last she
+started. Gathering up all the smaller articles of linen in her arms,
+and leaving the rest, she turned towards her home.
+
+Felicien then wished to speak . . . "Oh, I beg your pardon. . . . I
+pray you to----"
+
+But the wind, which had greatly increased, cut off his words. In
+despair he looked at her as she flew along, as if carried away by the
+blast. She ran and ran, in and out, among the white sheets and
+tablecloths, under the oblique, pale golden rays of the sun. Already
+the shadow of the Cathedral seemed to envelop her, and she was on the
+point of entering her own garden by the little gate which separated it
+from the Clos, without having once glanced behind her. But on the
+threshold she turned quickly, as if seized with a kind impulse, not
+wishing that he should think she was angry, and confused, but smiling,
+she called out:
+
+"Thank you. Thank you very much."
+
+Did she wish to say that she was grateful to him for having helped her
+in recovering the linen? Or was it for something else? She
+disappeared, and the gate was shut after her.
+
+And he remained alone in the middle of the field, under the great
+regular gusts, which continued to rage, although the sky was still
+clear and pure. The elms in the Bishop's garden rustled with a long,
+billowy sound, and a loud voice seemed to clamour through the terraces
+and the flying buttresses of the Cathedral. But he heard only the
+light flapping of a little morning cap, tied to a branch of a lilac
+bush, as if it were a bouquet, and which belonged to her.
+
+From that date, each time that Angelique opened her window she saw
+Felicien over there in the Clos-Marie. He passed days in the field,
+having the chapel window as an excuse for doing so, on which, however,
+the work did not advance the least in the world. For hours he would
+forget himself behind a cluster of bushes, where, stretched out on the
+grass, he watched through the leaves. And it was the greatest of
+pleasures to smile at each other every morning and evening. She was so
+happy that she asked for nothing more. There would not be another
+general washing for three months, so, until then, the little garden-
+gate would seldom be open. But three months would pass very quickly,
+and if they could see each other daily, was not that bliss enough?
+What, indeed, could be more charming than to live in this way,
+thinking during the day of the evening look, and during the night of
+the glance of the early morrow? She existed only in the hope of that
+desired moment; its joy filled her life. Moreover, what good would
+there be in approaching each other and in talking together? Were they
+not constantly becoming better acquainted without meeting? Although at
+a distance, they understood each other perfectly; each penetrated into
+the other's innermost thoughts with the closest intimacy. At last,
+they became so filled one with the other that they could not close
+their eyes without seeing before them, with an astonishing clearness
+of detail, the image of their new friend; so, in reality, they were
+never separated.
+
+It was a constant surprise to Angelique that she had unbosomed herself
+at once to Felicien. At their first meeting she had confided in him,
+had told him everything about her habits, her tastes, and the deepest
+secrets of her heart. He, more silent, was called Felicien, and that
+was all she knew. Perhaps it was quite right that it should be so; the
+woman giving everything, and the man holding himself back as a
+stranger. She had no premature curiosity. She continued to smile at
+the thought of things which would certainly be realised. So for her,
+that of which she was ignorant counted for nothing. The only important
+fact in her mind was the intimacy between them, which united them,
+little by little, apart from the world. She knew nothing about him,
+yet she was so well acquainted with his nature that she could read his
+thoughts in a simple look or smile. He, her hero, had come as she
+always said he would. She had at once recognised him, and they loved
+each other.
+
+So they enjoyed most thoroughly this true possession from a distance.
+They were certainly encouraged by the new discoveries they made. She
+had long, slender hands, roughened a little at the ends of the fingers
+by her constant use of the needle, but he adored them. She noticed
+that his feet were small, and was proud of the fact. Everything about
+him flattered her; she was grateful to him for being so handsome; and
+she was overcome with joy the evening that she found his beard to be
+of a lighter shade than his hair, which fact gave a greater softness
+to his smile. He went away transported when, one morning, as she
+leaned over the balcony, he saw a little red spot on her pretty neck.
+Their hearts being thus laid open, new treasures were daily found.
+Certainly the proud and frank manner in which she opened her window
+showed that, even in her ignorance as a little embroiderer, she had
+the royal bearing of a princess. In the same way she knew that he was
+good, from seeing how lightly he walked over the herbs and the grass.
+Around them was a radiance of virtues and graces from the first hour
+of their meeting. Each interview had its special charm. It seemed to
+them as if their felicity in seeing each other could never be
+exhausted.
+
+Nevertheless, Felicien soon showed certain signs of impatience, and he
+no longer remained for hours concealed behind a bush in the immobility
+of an absolute happiness. As soon as Angelique appeared at her window,
+he was restless, and tried to approach her as he glided from willow to
+willow. At length she was a little disturbed, fearing that someone
+might see him. One day there was almost a quarrel, for he came even to
+the wall of the house, so she was obliged to leave the balcony. It was
+a great shock to him that she should be offended, and he showed in the
+expression of his face so mute a prayer of submission that the next
+day she pardoned him, and opened her window at the usual hour.
+
+But although expectation was delightful, it was not sufficient for
+him, and he began again. Now he seemed to be everywhere at once: he
+filled the Clos-Marie with his restlessness; he came out from behind
+every tree; he appeared above every bunch of brambles. Like the wood-
+pigeons of the great elms in the Bishop's garden, he seemed to have
+his habitation between two branches in the environs. The Chevrotte was
+an excuse for his passing entire days there, on its willowy banks,
+bending over the stream, in which he seemed to be watching the
+floating of the clouds.
+
+One day she saw that he had climbed up on the ruins of the old mill,
+and was standing on the framework of a shed, looking happy to have
+thus approached her a little, in his regret at not being able to fly
+even so far as her shoulder.
+
+Another day she stifled a slight scream as she saw him far above her,
+leaning on an ornamented balustrade of the Cathedral, on the roof of
+the chapels of the choir, which formed a terrace. In what way could he
+have reached this gallery, the door of which was always fastened, and
+whose key no one had a right to touch but the beadle? Then again, a
+little later on, how was it that she should find him up in the air
+among the flying buttresses of the nave and the pinnacles of the
+piers? From these heights he could look into every part of her
+chamber, as the swallows who, flying from point to point among the
+spires, saw everything that was therein, without her having the idea
+of hiding herself from them. But a human eye was different, and from
+that day she shut herself up more, and an ever-increasing trouble came
+to her at the thought that her privacy was being intruded upon, and
+that she was no longer alone in the atmosphere of adoration that
+surrounded her. If she were really not impatient, why was it that her
+heart beat so strongly, like the bell of the clock-tower on great
+festivals?
+
+Three days passed without Angelique showing herself, so alarmed was
+she by the increasing boldness of Felicien. She vowed in her mind that
+she would never see him again, and wound herself up to such a degree
+of resentment, that she thought she hated him. But he had given her
+his feverishness. She could not keep still, and the slightest pretext
+was enough for an excuse to leave the chasuble upon which she was at
+work.
+
+So, having heard that _mere_ Gabet was ill in bed, in the most
+profound poverty, she went to see her every morning. Her room was on
+the Rue des Orfevres, only three doors away from the Huberts. She
+would take her tea, sugar, and soup, then, when necessary, go to buy
+her medicine at the druggist's on the Grand Rue. One day, as she
+returned with her hands full of the little phials, she started at
+seeing Felicien at the bedside of the old sick woman. He turned very
+red, and slipped away awkwardly, after leaving a charitable offering.
+The next day he came in as she was leaving, and she gave him her
+place, very much displeased. Did he really intend to prevent her from
+visiting the poor?
+
+In fact, she had been taken with one of her fits of charity, which
+made her give all she owned that she might overwhelm those who had
+nothing. At the idea of suffering, her whole soul melted into a
+pitiful fraternity. She went often to the _pere_ Mascart's, a blind
+paralytic on the Rue Basse, whom she was obliged to feed herself the
+broth she carried him; then to the Chouteaux, a man and his wife, each
+one over ninety years of age, who lived in a little hut on the Rue
+Magloire, which she had furnished for them with articles taken from
+the attic of her parents. Then there were others and others still whom
+she saw among the wretched populace of the quarter, and whom she
+helped to support from things that were about her, happy in being able
+to surprise them and to see them brighten up for a little while. But
+now, strange to say, wherever she went she encountered Felicien! Never
+before had she seen so much of him; she who had avoided going to her
+window for fear that he might be near. Her trouble increased, and at
+last she was very angry.
+
+But the worst of all in this matter was that Angelique soon despaired
+of her charity. This young man spoilt all her pleasure of giving. In
+other days he might perhaps have been equally generous, but it was not
+among the same people, not her own particular poor, of that she was
+sure. And he must have watched her and followed her very closely to
+know them all and to take them so regularly one after the other.
+
+Now, go when she might with a little basket of provisions to the
+Chouteaux, there was always money on the table. One day, when she went
+to _pere_ Mascart, who was constantly complaining that he had no
+tobacco, she found him very rich, with a shining new louis d'or on his
+table. Strangest of all, once when visiting _mere_ Gabet, the latter
+gave her a hundred franc note to change, and with it she was enabled
+to buy some high-priced medicines, of which the poor woman had long
+been in need, but which she never hoped to obtain, for where could she
+find money to pay for them?
+
+Angelique herself could not distribute much money, as she had none. It
+was heart-breaking to her to realise her powerlessness, when he could
+so easily empty his purse. She was, of course, happy that such a
+windfall had come to the poor, but she felt as if she were greatly
+diminished in her former self-estimation. She no longer had the same
+happiness in giving, but was disturbed and sad that she had so little
+to distribute, while he had so much.
+
+The young man, not understanding her feelings, thinking to conquer her
+esteem by an increase of gifts, redoubled his charity, and thus daily
+made hers seem less.
+
+Was not it exasperating to run against this fellow everywhere; to see
+him give an ox wherever she offered an egg? In addition to all this,
+she was obliged to hear his praises sung by all the needy whom he
+visited: "a young man so good, so kind, and so well brought up." She
+was a mere nothing now. They talked only of him, spreading out his
+gifts as if to shame hers. Notwithstanding her firm determination to
+forget him, she could not refrain from questioning them about him.
+What had he left? What had he said? He was very handsome, was he not?
+Tender and diffident as a woman! Perhaps he might even have spoken of
+her! Ah, yes indeed! That was true, for he always talked of her. Then
+she was very angry; yes, she certainly hated him, for at last she
+realised that he weighed on her breast too heavily.
+
+But matters could not continue in this way for ever, a change must
+take place; and one May evening, at a wondrously beautiful nightfall,
+it came. It was at the home of the Lemballeuse, the family who lived
+in the ruins of the mill. There were only women there; the old
+grandmother, seamed with wrinkles but still active, her daughter, and
+her grandchildren. Of the latter, Tiennette, the elder, was a large,
+wild-looking girl, twenty years of age, and her two little sisters,
+Rose and Jeanne, had already bold, fearless eyes, under their unkempt
+mops of red hair. They all begged during the day on the highway and
+along the moat, coming back at night, their feet worn out from fatigue
+in their old shoes fastened with bits of string. Indeed, that very
+evening Tiennette had been obliged to leave hers among the stones, and
+had returned wounded and with bleeding ankles. Seated before their
+door, in the midst of the high grass of the Clos-Marie, she drew out
+the thorns from her flesh, whilst her mother and the two children
+surrounded her and uttered lamentations.
+
+Just then Angelique arrived, hiding under her apron the bread which
+she had brought them, as she did once every week. She had entered the
+field by the little garden-gate, which she had left open behind her,
+as she intended to go back as quickly as possible. But she stopped on
+seeing all the family in tears.
+
+"What is the matter? Why are you in such distress?"
+
+"Ah, my good lady!" whined the mother Lemballeuse, "do not you see in
+what a terrible state this great foolish girl has put herself?
+To-morrow she will not be able to walk, so that will be a whole day
+lost. She must have some shoes!"
+
+Rose and Jeanne, with their eyes snapping from under their tangled
+hair, redoubled their sobs, as they cried out loudly--
+
+"Yes, yes! She must have some shoes! She must have some shoes!"
+
+Tiennette, half lifting up her thin, dark face, looked round
+furtively. Then, fiercely, without a word, she made one of her feet
+bleed still more, maddened over a long splinter which she had just
+drawn out by the aid of a pin, and which must have pained her
+intensely.
+
+Angelique, quite touched by the scene, offered her the gift.
+
+"See! Here at least is some bread."
+
+"Oh, bread!" said the mother. "No doubt it is necessary to eat. But it
+is not with bread that she will be able to walk again, of that I am
+certain! And we were to go to the fair at Bligny, a fair where, every
+year, she makes at least two francs. Oh, good heavens! What will
+become of us if she cannot go there?"
+
+Pity and embarrassment rendered Angelique mute. She had exactly five
+sous in her pocket. It surely was not with five sous that one could
+buy a pair of shoes, even at an auction sale. As it had often done
+before, her want of money now paralysed her. And that which
+exasperated her still more and made her lose her self-control was that
+at this moment, as she looked behind her, she saw Felicien, standing a
+few feet from her in the darkening shadow. Without doubt he had heard
+all that had been said; perhaps even he had been there for a great
+while, for he always appeared to her in this way when least expected
+without her ever knowing whence he came or whither he was going.
+
+She thought to herself, "He will give the shoes."
+
+Indeed, he had already come forward. The first stars were appearing in
+the pale sky. A sweet, gentle quiet seemed to fall down from on high,
+soothing to sleep the Clos-Marie, whose willows were lost in the dusk.
+The Cathedral itself was only a great black bar in the West.
+
+"Yes, certainly, now he will offer to give the shoes."
+
+And at this probability she was really quite discouraged. Was he
+always, then, to give everything? Could she never, even once, conquer
+him? Never! Her heart beat so rapidly that it pained her. She wished
+that she might be very rich, to show him that she, too, could make
+others happy.
+
+But the Lemballeuse had seen the good gentleman. The mother had rushed
+forward; the two little sisters moaned as they held out their hands
+for alms, whilst the elder one, letting go of her wounded ankles,
+looked at the new-comer inquiringly with her wild eyes.
+
+"Listen, my noisy children," said Felicien. Then, addressing the
+mother, he continued, "You may go to the Grand Rue, at the corner of
+the Rue Basse--"
+
+Angelique had understood immediately, for the shoemaker had his shop
+there. She interrupted him quickly, and was so agitated that she
+stammered her words at random.
+
+"But that is a useless thing to do! What would be the good of it? It
+is much more simple--"
+
+Yet she could not find in her own mind the more simple thing she
+desired. What could she do? What could she invent, so to be before him
+in giving her charity? Never had it seemed to her possible she could
+detest him as she did now.
+
+"You will say from me, that it is I who have sent you," continued
+Felicien. "You will ask--"
+
+Again she interrupted him. The contest lasted a moment longer. She
+repeated in an anxious way:
+
+"It is, indeed, much more simple; it is much easier--"
+
+Suddenly she was calm. She seated herself upon a stone, thoughtfully
+examined her shoes, took them off, and then drew off her stockings,
+saying:
+
+"Look! This is the best thing to do, after all! Why should you have
+any trouble about the matter?"
+
+"Oh, my good young lady! God will reward you!" exclaimed the mother
+Lemballeuse, as she turned over the shoes and found they were not only
+excellent and strong, but almost new. "I will cut them a trifle on the
+top, to make them a little larger--Tiennette, why do you not thank
+her, stupid creature?"
+
+Tiennette snatched from the hands of Rose and Jeanne the stockings
+they were coveting. She did not open her lips; she only gave one long,
+fixed, hard look.
+
+But now Angelique realised that her feet were bare, and that Felicien
+saw them. She blushed deeply, and knew not what to do. She dared not
+move, for, were she to rise to get up, he would only see them all the
+more. Then, frightened, she rose quickly, and without realising what
+she was doing, began to run. In the grass her flying feet were very
+white and small. The darkness of the evening had increased, and the
+Clos-Marie was a lake of shadow between the great trees on one side
+and the Cathedral on the other. And on the ground the only visible
+light came from those same little feet, white and satiny as the wing
+of a dove.
+
+Startled and afraid of the water, Angelique followed the bank of the
+Chevrotte, that she might cross it on a plank which served as a
+bridge. But Felicien had gone a shorter way through the brambles and
+brushwood. Until now he had always been overcome by his timidity, and
+he had turned redder than she as he saw her bare feet, pure and chaste
+as herself. Now, in the overflow of his ignorant youth, passionately
+fond of beauty and desirous for love, he was impatient to cry out and
+tell her of the feeling which had entirely taken possession of him
+since he had first seen her. But yet, when she brushed by him in her
+flight, he could only stammer, with a trembling voice, the
+acknowledgment so long delayed and which burnt his lips:
+
+"I love you."
+
+She stopped in surprise. For an instant she stood still, and, slightly
+trembling, looked at him. Her anger and the hate she thought she had
+for him all vanished at once, and melted into a most delicious
+sentiment of astonishment. What had he said, what was the word he had
+just pronounced, that she should be so overcome by it? She knew that
+he loved her; yet when he said so, the sound of it in her ear
+overwhelmed her with an inexplicable joy. It resounded so deeply
+through her whole being, that her fears came back and were enlarged.
+She never would dare reply to him; it was really more than she could
+bear; she was oppressed.
+
+He, grown more bold, his heart touched and drawn nearer to hers by
+their united deeds of charity, repeated:
+
+"I love you."
+
+And she, fearing the lover, began to run. That was surely the only way
+to escape such a danger; yet it was also a happiness, it was all so
+strange. The Chevrotte was gaily singing, and she plunged into it like
+a startled fawn. Among its pebbles her feet still ran on, under the
+chill of icy water. The garden-gate was at last reached, it closed,
+and she disappeared.
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VII
+
+For two days Angelique was conscience-smitten. As soon as she was
+alone, she sobbed as if she had done something wrong. And this
+question, which she could not answer, came constantly to her mind: Had
+she sinned in listening to this young man? Was she lost, like the
+dreadful women in the Legend, who, having been tempted, had yielded to
+the Devil? Was life to-day as it was centuries ago? The words, so
+softly uttered, "I love you," still resounded with such a tumult in
+her ears, and she was confused, yet pleased by them to such a degree,
+that they must certainly have come from some terrible power hidden in
+the depth of the invisible. But she knew not--in fact, how could she
+have known anything in the ignorance and solitude in which she had
+grown up? Her anguish was redoubled by this mysterious and
+inexplicable struggle within her.
+
+Had she sinned in making the acquaintance of Felicien, and then in
+keeping it a secret? She recalled to her mind, one by one, all the
+details of her daily experience during the past few weeks; she argued
+with her innocent scruples.
+
+What was sin, in short? Was it simply to meet--to talk--and afterwards
+to tell a falsehood to one's parents? But that could not be the extent
+of the evil. Then why was she so oppressed? Why, if not guilty, did
+she suddenly seem to have become quite another person--as agitated as
+if a new soul had been given her? Perhaps it was sin that had made her
+so weak and uncomfortable. Her heart was full of vague, undefined
+longings--so strange a medley of words, and also of acts, in the
+future, that she was frightened by them, without in the least
+understanding them. The blood mounted to her face, and exquisitely
+coloured her cheeks, as she heard again the sweet, yet appalling
+words, "I love you"; and she reasoned no longer, but sobbed again,
+doubting evident facts, fearing the commission of a fault in the
+beyond--in that which had neither name nor form.
+
+But that which especially distressed her now was that she had not made
+a _confidante_ of Hubertine. Could she only have asked her what she
+wished to know, no doubt the latter with a word would have explained
+the whole mystery to her. Then it seemed to her as if the mere fact of
+speaking to someone of her trouble would have cured her. But the
+secret had become too weighty; to reveal it would be more than she
+could bear, for the shame would be too great. She became quite artful
+for the moment, affected an air of calmness, when in the depths of her
+soul a tempest was raging. If asked why she was so pre-occupied, she
+lifted her eyes with a look of surprise as she replied that she was
+thinking of something. Seated before the working-frame, her hands
+mechanically drawing the needle back and forth, very quiet to all
+outward appearance, she was, from morning till evening, distracted by
+one thought. To be loved! To be loved! And for herself, on her side,
+was she in love? This was still an obscure question, to which, in her
+inexperience, she found no answer. She repeated it so constantly that
+at last it made her giddy, the words lost all their usual meaning, and
+everything seemed to be in a whirl, which carried her away. With an
+effort she recovered herself, and realised that, with needle in hand,
+she was still embroidering with her accustomed application, although
+mechanically, as if in a half-dream. Perhaps these strange symptoms
+were a sign that she was about to have a severe illness. One evening
+she had such an attack of shivering when she went to bed that she
+thought she would never be able to recover from it. That idea was at
+the same time both cruel and sweet. She suffered from it as if it were
+too great a joy. Even the next day her heart beat as if it would
+break, and her ears were filled with a singing sound, like the ringing
+of a distant bell. What could it mean? Was she in love, or was she
+about to die? Thinking thus, she smiled sweetly at Hubertine, who, in
+the act of waxing her thread, was looking at her anxiously.
+
+Moreover, Angelique had made a vow that she would never again see
+Felicien. She no longer ran the risk of meeting him among the brambles
+and wild grasses in the Clos-Marie, and she had even given up her
+daily visits to the poor. Her fear was intense lest, were they to find
+themselves face to face, something terrible might come to pass. In her
+resolution there was mingled, besides a feeling of penitence, a wish
+to punish herself for some fault she might unintentionally have
+committed. So, in her days of rigid humiliation, she condemned herself
+not even to glance once through the window, so sure was she of seeing
+on the banks of the Chevrotte the one whom she dreaded. But, after a
+while, being sorely tempted, she looked out, and if it chanced that he
+were not there, she was sad and low-spirited until the following day.
+
+One morning, when Hubert was arranging a dalmatic, a ring at the door-
+bell obliged him to go downstairs. It must be a customer; no doubt an
+order for some article, as Hubertine and Angelique heard the hum of
+voices which came through the doorway at the head of the stairs, which
+remained open. Then they looked up in great astonishment; for steps
+were mounting, and the embroiderer was bringing someone with him to
+the workroom, a most unusual occurrence. And the young girl was quite
+overcome as she recognised Felicien. He was dressed simply, like a
+journeyman artist, whose hands are white. Since she no longer went to
+him he had come to her, after days of vain expectation and of anxious
+uncertainty, during which he had constantly said to himself that she
+did not yet love him, since she remained hidden from him.
+
+"Look, my dear child, here is something which will be of particular
+interest to you," explained Hubert. "Monsieur wishes to give orders
+for an exceptional piece of work. And, upon my word, that we might
+talk of it at our ease, I preferred that he should come up here at
+once. This is my daughter, sir, to whom you must show your drawing."
+
+Neither he nor Hubertine had the slightest suspicion that this was not
+the first time the young people had met. They approached them only
+from a sentiment of curiosity to see. But Felicien was, like
+Angelique, almost stifled with emotion and timidity. As he unrolled
+the design, his hands trembled, and he was obliged to speak very
+slowly to hide the change in his voice.
+
+"It is to be a mitre for Monseigneur the Bishop. Yes, certain ladies
+in the city who wished to make him this present charged me with the
+drawing of the different parts, as well as with the superintendence of
+its execution. I am a painter of stained glass, but I also occupy
+myself a great deal with ancient art. You will see that I have simply
+reconstituted a Gothic mitre."
+
+Angelique bent over the great sheet of parchment which he had spread
+before her, and started slightly as she exclaimed:
+
+"Oh! it is Saint Agnes."
+
+It was indeed the youthful martyr of but thirteen years of age; the
+naked virgin clothed with her hair, that had grown so long only her
+little hands and feet were seen from under it, just as she was upon
+the pillar at one of the doors of the cathedral; particularly,
+however, as one found her in the interior of the church, in an old
+wooden statue that formerly was painted, but was to-day a light fawn
+colour, all gilded by age. She occupied the entire front of the mitre,
+half floating, as she was carried towards heaven borne by the angels;
+which below her, stretched out into the distance, was a fine delicate
+landscape. The other sides and the lappets were enriched with lance-
+shaped ornaments of an exquisite style.
+
+"These ladies," continued Felicien, "wish to make the present on the
+occasion of the Procession of the Miracle, and naturally I thought it
+my duty to choose Saint Agnes."
+
+"The idea was a most excellent one," interposed Hubert.
+
+And Hubertine added, in her turn:
+
+"Monseigneur will be deeply gratified."
+
+The so-called Procession of the Miracle, which takes place each year
+on July 28, dates from the time of Jean V d'Hautecoeur, who instituted
+it as a thanksgiving to God for the miraculous power He had given to
+him and to his race to save Beaumont from the plague. According to the
+legend, the Hautecoeurs are indebted for this remarkable gift to the
+intervention of Saint Agnes, of whom they were the greatest admirers;
+and since the most ancient time, it has been the custom on the
+anniversary of her fete to take down the old statue of the saint and
+carry it slowly in a solemn procession through the streets of the
+town, in the pious belief that she still continues to disperse and
+drive away all evils.
+
+"Ah," at last murmured Angelique, her eyes on the design, "the
+Procession of the Miracle. But that will come in a few days, and we
+shall not have time enough to finish it."
+
+The Huberts shook their heads. In truth, so delicate a piece of work
+required the most minute care and attention. Yet Hubertine turned
+towards her daughter as she said:
+
+"I could help you, my dear. I might attend to the ornaments, and then
+you will only have the figure to do."
+
+Angelique continued to closely examine the figure of the saint, and
+was deeply troubled. She said to herself, "No, no." She refused; she
+would not give herself the pleasure of accepting. It would be
+inexcusable on her part thus to be an accomplice in a plan, for it was
+evident that Felicien was keeping something back. She was perfectly
+sure that he was not poor, and that he wore a workman's dress simply
+as a disguise; and this affected simplicity, all this history, told
+only that he might approach her, put her on her guard, amused and
+happy though she was, in reality, transfiguring him, seeing in him the
+royal prince that he should be; so thoroughly did she live in the
+absolute certainty of the entire realisation of her dream, sooner or
+later.
+
+"No," she repeated in a half-whisper, "we should not have the needed
+time."
+
+And without lifting her eyes she continued, as if speaking to herself:
+
+"For the saint, we could use neither the close embroidery nor the lace
+openwork. It would not be worthy of her. It should be an embroidery in
+gold, shaded by silk."
+
+"Exactly," said Felicien. "That is what I had already thought of, for
+I knew that Mademoiselle had re-found the secret of making it. There
+is still quite a pretty little fragment of it at the sacristy."
+
+Hubert was quite excited.
+
+"Yes, yes! it was made in the fifteenth century, and the work was done
+by one of my far-off ancestresses. . . . Shaded gold! Ah, Monsieur,
+there was never anything equal to that in the whole world. But,
+unfortunately, it took too much time, it cost altogether too dear,
+and, in addition, only a real artist ever succeeded in it. Think of
+it; it is more than two hundred years since anyone has ever attempted
+such embroidery. And if my daughter refuses, you will be obliged to
+give it up entirely, for she is the only person who is qualified to
+undertake it. I do not know of anyone else who has the delicacy of
+fingers and the clearness of eye necessary for it."
+
+Hubertine, who, since they had spoken of the style of the work,
+realised what a great undertaking it was, said, in a quiet, decided
+tone:
+
+"It would be utterly impossible to do it in a fortnight. It would need
+the patience and skill of a fairy to accomplish it."
+
+But Angelique, who had not ceased studying all the features of the
+beautiful martyr, had ended by making a discovery which delighted her
+beyond expression. Agnes resembled her. In designing from the old
+statue, Felicien certainly thought of her, and this idea--that she was
+in his mind, always present with him, that he saw her everywhere--
+softened her resolution to avoid him. At last she looked up; she
+noticed how eager he was, and his eyes glistened with so earnest a
+supplication that she was conquered. Still, with the intuitive half-
+malice, the love of tormenting, this natural science which comes to
+all young girls, even when they are entirely ignorant of life, she did
+not wish to have the appearance of yielding too readily.
+
+"It is impossible," she repeated. "I could not do it for anyone."
+
+Felicien was in despair. He was sure he understood the hidden meaning
+in her words. It was he whom she had refused, as well as the work. As
+he was about to go out of the room, he said to Hubert:
+
+"As for the pay, you could have asked any price you wished. These
+ladies gave me leave to offer as much as three thousand francs."
+
+The household of the Huberts was in no way a selfish one; yet so great
+a sum startled each member of it. The husband and wife looked at each
+other inquiringly. Was it not a pity to lose so advantageous an offer?
+
+"Three thousand francs," repeated Angelique, with her gentle voice;
+"did you say three thousand francs, Monsieur?"
+
+And she, to whom money was nothing, since she had never known its
+value, kept back a smile, a mocking smile, which scarcely drew the
+corners of her mouth, rejoicing that she need not seem to yield to the
+pleasure of seeing him, and glad to give him a false opinion of
+herself.
+
+"Oh, Monsieur, if you can give three thousand francs for it, then I
+accept. I would not do it for everyone, but from the moment that one
+is willing to pay so well, why, that is different. If it is necessary,
+I can work on it at night, as well as during the day."
+
+Hubert and Hubertine then objected, wishing to refuse in their turn,
+for fear the fatigue might be too great for her.
+
+"No," she replied. "It is never wise to send away money that is
+brought to you. You can depend upon me, Monsieur. Your mitre will be
+ready the evening before the procession."
+
+Felicien left the design and bade them good-day, for he was greatly
+disappointed, and he had no longer the courage to give any new
+explanations in regard to the work, as an excuse for stopping longer.
+What would he gain by doing so? It was certainly true that she did not
+like him, for she had pretended not to recognise him, and had treated
+him as she would any ordinary customer, whose money alone is good to
+take. At first he was angry, as he accused her of being mean-spirited
+and grasping. So much the better! It was ended between them, this
+unspoken romance, and he would never think of her again. Then, as he
+always did think of her, he at last excused her, for was she not
+dependent upon her work to live, and ought she not to gain her bread?
+
+Two days later he was very unhappy, and he began to wander around the
+house, distressed that he could not see her. She no longer went out to
+walk. She did not even go to the balcony, or to the window, as before.
+He was forced to acknowledge that if she cared not for him, if in
+reality she was mercenary, in spite of all, his love for her increased
+daily, as one loves when only twenty years of age, without reasoning,
+following merely the drawing of one's heart, simply for the joy and
+the grief of loving.
+
+One morning he caught a glimpse of her for a moment, and realised that
+he could not give her up. Now she was his chosen one and no other.
+Whatever she might be, bad or good, ugly or pretty, poor or rich, he
+would give up his life rather than not be able to claim her.
+
+The third day his sufferings were so great that, notwithstanding all
+his wise resolves, he returned to the house of the embroiderers.
+
+After having rung the bell, he was received as before, downstairs by
+Hubert, who, on account of the want of clearness in his explanations
+in regard to his visit, concluded the best thing to be done was to
+allow him to go upstairs again.
+
+"My daughter, Monsieur, wishes to speak to you on certain points of
+the work that I do not quite understand."
+
+Then Felicien stammered, "If it would not disturb Mademoiselle too
+much, I would like to see how far--These ladies advised me to
+personally superintend the work--that is, if by doing so I should not
+be in anyone's way."
+
+Angelique's heart beat violently when she saw him come in. She almost
+choked, but, making a great effort, she controlled herself. The blood
+did not even mount her cheeks, and with an appearance of calm
+indifference, she replied:
+
+"Oh, nothing ever disturbs me, Monsieur. I can work equally well
+before anyone. As the design is yours, it is quite natural that you
+should wish to follow the execution of it."
+
+Quite discountenanced by this reception, Felicien would not have dared
+to have taken a seat, had not Hubertine welcomed him cordially, as she
+smiled in her sweet, quiet way at this excellent customer. Almost
+immediately she resumed her work, bending over the frame where she was
+embroidering on the sides of the mitre the Gothic ornaments in
+guipure, or open lacework.
+
+On his side, Hubert had just taken down from the wall a banner which
+was finished, had been stiffened, and for two days past had been hung
+up to dry, and which now he wished to relax. No one spoke; the three
+workers kept at their tasks as if no other person had been in the room
+with them.
+
+In the midst of this charming quiet, the young man little by little
+grew calmer. When the clock struck three, the shadow of the Cathedral
+was already very long, and a delicate half-light entered by the
+window, which was wide open. It was almost like the twilight hour,
+which commenced early in the afternoon for this little house, so fresh
+and green from all the verdure that was about it, as it stood by the
+side of the colossal church. A slight sound of steps was heard on the
+pavement outside; it was a school of young girls being taken to
+Confession.
+
+In the workroom, the tools, the time-stained walls, everything which
+remained there immovable, seemed to sleep in the repose of the
+centuries, and from every corner came freshness and rest. A great
+square of white light, smooth and pure, fell upon the frame over which
+Hubertine and Angelique were bending, with their delicate profiles in
+the fawn-coloured reflection of the gold.
+
+"Mademoiselle," began Felicien, feeling very awkward, as he realised
+that he must give some reason for his visit--"I wish to say,
+Mademoiselle, that for the hair it seems to me it would be better to
+employ gold rather than silk."
+
+She raised her head, and the laughing expression of her eyes clearly
+signified that he need not have taken the trouble of coming if he had
+no other recommendation to make. And she looked down again as she
+replied, in a half-mocking tone:
+
+"There is no doubt about that, Monsieur."
+
+He was indeed ridiculous, for he remarked then for the first time that
+it was exactly what she was doing. Before her was the design he had
+made, but tinted with water-colours, touched up with gold, with all
+the delicacy of an old miniature, a little softened, like what one
+sees in some prayer books of the fifteenth century. And she copied
+this image with the patience and the skill of an artist working with a
+magnifying glass. After having reproduced it with rather heavy strokes
+upon the white silk, tightly stretched and lined with heavy linen, she
+covered this silk with threads of gold carried from the bottom to the
+top, fastened simply at the two ends, so that they were left free and
+close to each other. When using the same threads as a woof, she
+separated them with the point of her needle to find the design below.
+She followed this same drawing, recovered the gold threads with
+stitches of silk across, which she assorted according to the colours
+of the model. In the shaded parts the silk completely hid the gold; in
+the half-lights the stitches of silk were farther and farther apart,
+while the real lights were made by gold alone, entirely uncovered. It
+was thus the shaded gold, that most beautiful of all work, the
+foundation being modified by the silks, making a picture of mellow
+colours as if warmed from beneath by a glory and a mystic light.
+
+"Oh!" suddenly said Hubert, who began to stretch out the banner by
+separating with his fingers the cords of the trellis, "the masterpiece
+of a woman who embroidered in the olden time was always in this
+difficult work. To become a member of the Corporation she had to make,
+as it is written in the statutes, a figure by itself in shaded gold, a
+sixth part as tall as if life-size. You would have been received, my
+Angelique."
+
+Again there was an unbroken silence. Felicien watched her constantly,
+as she stooped forward, absorbed in her task, quite as if she were
+entirely alone. For the hair of the saint, contrary to the general
+rule, she had had the same idea as he; that was, to use no silk, but
+to re-cover gold with gold, and she kept ten needles at work with this
+brilliant thread of all shades, from the dark red of dying embers, to
+the pale, delicate yellow tint of the leaves of the forest trees in
+the autumn. Agnes was thus covered from her neck to her ankles with a
+stream of golden hair. It began at the back of her head, covered her
+body with a thick mantle, flowed in front of her from the shoulders in
+two waves which united under the chin, and fell down to her feet in
+one wavy sheet. It was, indeed, the miraculous hair, a fabulous
+fleece, with heavy twists and curls, a glorious, starry efflorescence,
+the warm and living robe of a saint, perfumed with its pure nudity.
+
+That day Felicien could do nothing but watch Angelique as she
+embroidered the curls, following the exact direction of their rolling
+with her little pointed stitches, and he never wearied of seeing the
+hair grow and radiate under her magic needle. Its weight, and the
+great quivering with which it seemed to be unrolled at one turn,
+disturbed him.
+
+Hubertine, occupied in sewing on spangles, hiding the thread with
+which each one was attached with a tiny round of gold twist, lifted up
+her head from time to time and gave him a calm motherly look, whenever
+she was obliged to throw into the waste-basket a spangle that was not
+well made.
+
+Hubert, who had just taken away the side pieces of wood, that he might
+unstitch the banner from the frame, was about folding it up carefully.
+And at last, Felicien, whose embarrassment was greatly increased by
+this unbroken silence, realised that it was best for him to take
+leave, since as yet he had not been able to think of any of the
+suggestions which he had said he intended to make.
+
+He rose, blushed, and stammered:
+
+"I will return another day. I find that I have so badly succeeded in
+reproducing the charming design of the head of the saint that you may
+perhaps have need of some explanations from me."
+
+Angelique looked him fully in the face with her sweet, great eyes.
+
+"Oh, not at all. But come again, Monsieur. Do not hesitate to do so,
+if you are in the least anxious about the execution of the work."
+
+He went away, happy from the permission given him, but chilled by the
+coldness of manner of the young girl. Yes, he realised that she did
+not now, and never would, love him. That being the case, what use was
+there in seeing her? Yet on the morrow, as well as on the following
+days, he did not fail to go to the little house on the Rue des
+Orfevres. The hours which he could not pass there were sad enough,
+tortured as he was by his uncertainties, distressed by his mental
+struggles. He was never calm, except when he was near her as she sat
+at her frame. Provided that she was by his side, it seemed to him that
+he could resign himself to the acceptance of the fact that he was
+disagreeable to her.
+
+Every morning he arrived at an early hour, spoke of the work, then
+seated himself as if his presence there were absolutely necessary.
+Then he was in a state of enchantment simply to look at her, with her
+finely cut features, her motionless profile, which seemed bathed in
+the liquid golden tints of her hair; and he watched in ecstasy the
+skilful play of her flexible hands, as she moved them up and down in
+the midst of the needlefuls of gold or silk. She had become so
+habituated to his presence that she was quite at her ease, and treated
+him as a comrade. Nevertheless, he always felt that there was between
+them something unexpressed which grieved him to the heart, he knew not
+why. Occasionally she looked up, regarding him with an amused, half-
+mocking air, and with an inquiring, impatient expression in her face.
+Then, finding he was intensely embarrassed she at once became very
+cold and distant.
+
+But Felicien had discovered one way in which he could rouse her, and
+he took advantage of it. It was this--to talk to her of her art, of
+the ancient masterpieces of embroidery he had seen, either preserved
+among the treasures of cathedrals, or copies of which were engraved in
+books. For instance, there were the superb copes: that of Charlemagne,
+in red silk, with the great eagles with unfurled wings; and the cope
+of Sion, which is decorated with a multitude of saintly figures. Then
+the dalmatic, which is said to be the most beautiful piece of
+embroidery in the whole world; the Imperial dalmatic, on which is
+celebrated the glory of Jesus Christ upon the earth and in heaven, the
+Transfiguration, and the Last Judgment, in which the different
+personages are embroidered in silks of various colours, and in silver
+and gold. Also, there is a wonderful tree of Jesse, an orfrey of silk
+upon satin, which is so perfect it seems as if it were detached from a
+window of the fifteenth century; Abraham at the foot, then David,
+Solomon, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and at the very top the Saviour.
+
+Among the admirable chasubles he had seen, one in particular was
+touching in its simplicity. It represented Christ on the Cross, and
+the drops of blood from His side and His feet were made by little
+splashes of red silk on the cloth of gold, while in the foreground was
+Mary, tenderly supported by Saint John.
+
+On another one, which is called the chasuble of Naintre, the Virgin is
+seated in majesty, with richly-wrought sandals on her feet, and
+holding the Infant Jesus on her knees. Others, and still others of
+marvelous workmanship were alluded to, venerable not only from their
+great age and the beautiful faith that they expressed, but from a
+richness unknown in our time, preserving the odour of the incense of
+tabernacles and the mystic light which seemed to come from the
+slightly-faded gold.
+
+"Ah," sighed Angelique, "all those exquisite things are finished now.
+We can only find certain tones to remind us of their perfection."
+
+With feverish hands and sparkling eyes she stopped working when
+Felicien related to her the history of the most noted men and women
+who were embroiderers in the olden time--Simonne de Gaules, Colin
+Jolye, and others whose names have come down to us through the ages.
+Then, after a few moments, she took up her needles again, and made
+them fly vigorously, as she appeared transfigured, and guarded on her
+face the traces of the delight her artist nature had received in
+listening to all these accounts. Never had she seemed to him more
+beautiful, so enthusiastic was she, so maidenly and so pure, seated
+there in the brighter surroundings of so many coloured silks, applying
+herself with unfailing exactitude to her work, into the slightest
+details of which she put her whole soul. When he had left off speaking
+he looked at her earnestly, until roused by the silence, she realised
+the excited state into which all these histories had thrown her, and
+became as embarrassed as if she had done something wrong.
+
+"Oh, dear, look; all my silks are entangled again! Mother, please not
+to move about so much."
+
+Hubertine, who had not stirred at all, was amused, but simply smiled
+without saying anything. At first she had been rather disturbed by the
+constant attentions of the young man, and had talked the matter over
+thoroughly with Hubert one evening in their room. But they could not
+help being drawn towards him, and as in every respect his appearance
+was good and his manners perfectly respectful, they concluded it was
+not necessary to object to interviews from which Angelique derived so
+much happiness. So matters were allowed to take their way, and she
+watched over the young people with a loving air of protection.
+
+Moreover, she herself for many days had been oppressed by the
+lamenting caresses of her husband, who seemed never to weary of asking
+her if he had been forgiven. This month was the anniversary of the
+time when they had lost their child, and each year at this date they
+had the same regrets and the same longings; he, trembling at her feet,
+happy to realise that he was pardoned; she, loving and distressed,
+blaming herself for everything, and despairing that Fate had been
+inexorable to all their prayers. They spoke of all this to no one,
+were the same to outsiders in every way, but this increase of
+tenderness between them came from their room like a silent perfume,
+disengaged itself from their persons at the least movement, by each
+word, and by their way of looking at each other, when it seemed as if
+for the moment they almost exchanged souls. All this was like the
+grave accompaniment, the deep continuous bass, upon which sang in
+clear notes the two hearts of the young couple.
+
+One week had passed, and the work on the mitre advanced. These daily
+meetings had assumed a great and sweet familiarity.
+
+"The forehead should be very high, should it not? Without any trace of
+eyebrows?"
+
+"Yes, very high, and not the slightest shade. Quite like an old
+miniature."
+
+"Will you pass me the white silk?"
+
+"Wait a minute, that I may thread it."
+
+He helped her, and this union of work put them at their ease. It made
+the occupation of each day seem perfectly natural to them both, and
+without a word of love ever having been spoken, without their hands
+having once met by a voluntary touch, the bond between them grew
+stronger each hour, and they were henceforth eternally united one to
+the other. It was sufficient for them to have lived until now.
+
+"Father, what are you doing that we no longer hear you?"
+
+She turned and saw Hubert, who was occupied in winding a long spool,
+as his eyes were fixed abstractedly on his wife.
+
+"I am preparing some gold thread for your mother."
+
+And from the reel taken to his wife, from the mute thanks of
+Hubertine, from the constant little attentions her husband gave her,
+there was a warm, caressing breath which surrounded and enveloped
+Angelique and Felicien as they both bent again over the frame. The
+workroom itself, this ancient hall, as it might almost be called, with
+its old tools and its peace of other ages, was an unconscious
+accomplice in this work of union. It seemed so far away from the noise
+of the street, remote as if in dreamy depths, in this country of good,
+simple souls, where miracles reign, the easy realisation of all joys.
+
+In five days the mitre was to be finished; and Angelique, now sure
+that it would be ready to be delivered, and that she would even have
+twenty-four hours to spare, took a long breath of satisfaction, and
+seemed suddenly astonished at finding Felicien so near her, with his
+elbows on the trestle. Had they really become such intimate friends?
+She no longer attempted to struggle against what she realised was his
+conquering power; her half-malicious smiles ceased at what he tried to
+keep back, and which she so well understood, in spite of his
+subterfuges. What was it, then, that had made her as if asleep, in her
+late restless waiting? And the eternal question returned, the question
+that she asked herself every evening when she went to her room. Did
+she love him? For hours, in the middle of her great bed, she had
+turned over again and again these words, seeking for meanings she
+could not find, and thinking she was too ignorant to explain them. But
+that night, all at once, she felt her heart was softened by some
+inexplicable happiness. She cried nervously, without reason, and hid
+her head in her pillow that no one might hear her.
+
+Yes, now she loved him; she loved him enough to be willing to die for
+him. But why? But how? She could not tell, she never would know;
+simply from her whole heart came the cry that she did indeed love him.
+The light had come to her at last; this new, overpowering joy
+overwhelmed her like the most ardent rays of the sun.
+
+For a long time her tears flowed, but not from sorrow. On the
+contrary, she was filled with an inexplicable confusion of happiness
+that was indefinable, regretting now, more deeply than ever, that she
+had not made a _confidante_ of Hubertine. To-day her secret burdened
+her, and she made an earnest vow to herself that henceforth she would
+be as cold as an icicle towards Felicien, and would suffer everything
+rather than allow him to see her tenderness. He should never know it.
+To love him, merely to love him, without even acknowledging it, that
+was the punishment, the trial she must undergo to pardon her fault. It
+would be to her in reality a delicious suffering. She thought of the
+martyrs of whom she had read in the "Golden Legend," and it seemed to
+her that she was their sister in torturing herself in this way, and
+that her guardian angel, Agnes, would look at her henceforward with
+sadder, sweeter eyes than ever.
+
+The following day Angelique finished the mitre. She had embroidered
+with split silk, light as gossamer, the little hands and feet, which
+were the only points of white, naked flesh that came out from the
+royal mantle of golden hair. She perfected the face with all the
+delicacy of the purest lily, wherein the gold seemed like the blood in
+the veins under the delicate, silken skin. And this face, radiant as
+the sun, was turned heavenward, as the youthful saint was borne upward
+by the angels toward the distant horizon of the blue plain.
+
+When Felicien entered that day, he exclaimed with admiration:
+
+"Oh! how exactly she looks like you."
+
+It was an involuntary expression; an acknowledgment of the resemblance
+he had purposely put in the design. He realised the fact after he had
+spoken, and blushed deeply.
+
+"That is indeed true, my little one; she has the same beautiful eyes
+that you have," said Hubert, who had come forward to examine the work.
+
+Hubertine merely smiled now, having made a similar remark many days
+before, and she was surprised and grieved when she heard Angelique
+reply in a harsh, disagreeable tone of voice, like that she sometimes
+had in her fits of obstinacy years ago:
+
+"My beautiful eyes! Why will you make fun of me in that way? I know as
+well as you do that I am very ugly."
+
+Then, getting up, she shook out her dress, overacting her assumed
+character of a harsh, avaricious girl.
+
+"Ah, at last! It is really finished! I am thankful, for it was too
+much of a task, too heavy a burden on my shoulders. Do you know, I
+would never undertake to make another one for the same price?"
+
+Felicien listened to her in amazement. Could it be that after all she
+still cared only for money? Had he been mistaken when he thought at
+times she was so exquisitely tender, and so passionately devoted to
+her artistic work? Did she in reality wish for the pay her labour
+brought her? And was she so indifferent that she rejoiced at the
+completion of her task, wishing neither to see nor to hear of it
+again? For several days he had been discouraged as he sought in vain
+for some pretext of continuing, later on, visits that gave him such
+pleasure. But, alas! it was plain that she did not care for him in the
+least, and that she never would love him. His suffering was so great
+that he grew very pale and could scarcely speak.
+
+"But, Mademoiselle, will you not make up the mitre?"
+
+"No, mother can do it so much better than I can. I am too happy at the
+thought that I have nothing more to do with it."
+
+"But do you not like the work which you do so well?"
+
+"I? I do not like anything in the world."
+
+Hubertine was obliged to speak to her sternly, and tell her to be
+quiet. She then begged Felicien to be so good as to pardon her nervous
+child, who was a little weary from her long-continued application. She
+added that the mitre would be at his disposal at an early hour on the
+following morning. It was the same as if she had asked him to go away,
+but he could not leave. He stood and looked around him in this old
+workroom, filled with shade and with peace, and it seemed to him as if
+he were being driven from Paradise. He had spent so many sweet hours
+there in the illusion of his brightest fancies, that it was like
+tearing his very heart-strings to think all this was at an end. What
+troubled him the worst was his inability to explain matters, and that
+he could only take with him such a fearful uncertainty. At last he
+said good-day, resolved to risk everything at the first opportunity
+rather than not to know the truth.
+
+Scarcely had he closed the door when Hubert asked:
+
+"What is the matter with you, my dear child? Are you ill?"
+
+"No, indeed. It is simply that I am tired of having that young man
+here. I do not wish to see him again."
+
+Then Hubertine added: "Very well; you will not see him again. But
+nothing should ever prevent one from being polite."
+
+Angelique, making some trivial excuse, hurried up to her room as
+quickly as possible. Then she gave free course to her tears. Ah, how
+intensely happy she was, yet how she suffered! Her poor, dear beloved;
+he was sad enough when he found he must leave her! But she must not
+forget that she had made a vow to the saints, that although she loved
+him better than life, he should never know it.
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII
+
+On the evening of this same day, immediately after leaving the dinner-
+table, Angelique complained of not being at all well, and went up at
+once to her room. The agitation and excitement of the morning, her
+struggles against her true self, had quite exhausted her. She made
+haste to go to bed, and covering her head with the sheet, with a
+desperate feeling of disappearing for ever if she could, again the
+tears came to her relief.
+
+The hours passed slowly, and soon it was night--a warm July night, the
+heavy, oppressive quiet of which entered through the window, which had
+been left wide open. In the dark heavens glistened a multitude of
+stars. It must have been nearly eleven o'clock, and the moon, already
+grown quite thin in its last quarter, would not rise until midnight.
+
+And in the obscure chamber, Angelique still wept nervously a flow of
+inexhaustible tears, seemingly without reason, when a slight noise at
+her door caused her to lift up her head.
+
+There was a short silence, when a voice called her tenderly.
+
+"Angelique! Angelique! My darling child!"
+
+She recognised the voice of Hubertine. Without doubt the latter, in
+her room with her husband, had just heard the distant sound of
+sobbing, and anxious, half-undressed, she had come upstairs to find
+out what was the matter with her daughter.
+
+"Angelique, are you ill, my dear?"
+
+Retaining her breath, the young girl made no answer. She did not wish
+to be unkind, but her one absorbing idea at this moment was of
+solitude. To be alone was the only possible alleviation of her
+trouble. A word of consolation, a caress, even from her mother, would
+have distressed her. She imagined that she saw her standing at the
+other side of the door, and from the delicacy of the rustling movement
+on the tiled floor she thought she must be barefooted. Two or three
+minutes passed, and she knew the kind watcher had not left her place,
+but that, stooping, and holding with her beautiful hands the clothing
+so carelessly thrown over her, she still listened at the keyhole.
+
+Hubertine, hearing nothing more, not even a sigh, did not like to call
+again. She was very sure that she had heard sobs; but if the child had
+at last been able to sleep, what good would it do to awaken her? She
+waited, however, another moment, troubled by the thought of a grief
+which her daughter hid from her, confusedly imagining what it might be
+from the tender emotion with which her heart seemed filled from
+sympathy. At last she concluded to go down as she had come up,
+quietly, her hands being so familiar with every turning that she
+needed no candle, and leaving behind her no other sound than the soft,
+light touch of her bare feet.
+
+Then, sitting up in bed, Angelique in her turn listened. So profound
+was the outward silence that she could clearly distinguish the slight
+pressure of the heel on the edge of each step of the stairway. At the
+foot, the door of the chamber was opened, then closed again;
+afterward, she heard a scarcely-distinct murmur, an affectionate, yet
+sad blending of voices in a half-whisper. No doubt it was what her
+father and mother were saying of her; the fears and the hopes they had
+in regard to her. For a long time that continued, although they must
+have put out their light and gone to bed.
+
+Never before had any night sounds in this old house mounted in this
+way to her ears. Ordinarily, she slept the heavy, tranquil sleep of
+youth; she heard nothing whatever after placing her head upon her
+pillow; whilst now, in the wakefulness caused by the inner combat
+against an almost overpowering sentiment of affection which she was
+determined to conquer, it seemed to her as if the whole house were in
+unison with her, that it was also in love, and mourned like herself.
+Were not the Huberts, too, sad, as they stilled their tears and
+thought of the child they had lost long ago, whose place, alas! had
+never been filled? She knew nothing of this in reality, but she had a
+sensation in this warm night of the watch of her parents below her,
+and of the disappointment in their lives, which they could not forget,
+notwithstanding their great love for each other, which was always as
+fresh as when they were young.
+
+Whilst she was seated in this way, listening in the house that
+trembled and sighed, Angelique lost all self-control, and again the
+tears rolled down her face, silently, but warm and living, as if they
+were her life's blood. One question above all others had troubled her
+since the early morning, and had grieved her deeply. Was she right in
+having sent away Felicien in despair, stabbed to the heart by her
+coldness, and with the thought that she did not love him? She knew
+that she did love him, yet she had willingly caused him to suffer, and
+now in her turn she was suffering intensely. Why should there be so
+much pain connected with love? Did the saints wish for tears? Could it
+be that Agnes, her guardian angel, was angry in the knowledge that she
+was happy? Now, for the first time, she was distracted by a doubt.
+Before this, whenever she thought of the hero she awaited, and who
+must come sooner or later, she had arranged everything much more
+satisfactorily. When the right time arrived he was to enter her very
+room, where she would immediately recognise and welcome him, when they
+would both go away together, to be united for evermore. But how
+different was the reality! He had come, and, instead of what she had
+foreseen, their meeting was most unsatisfactory; they were equally
+unhappy, and were eternally separated. To what purpose? Why had this
+result come to pass? Who had exacted from her so strange a vow, that,
+although he might be very dear to her, she was never to let him know
+it?
+
+But, yet again, Angelique was especially grieved from the fear that
+she might have been bad and done some very wrong thing. Perhaps the
+original sin that was in her had manifested itself again as when she
+was a little girl! She thought over all her acts of pretended
+indifference: the mocking air with which she had received Felicien,
+and the malicious pleasure she took in giving him a false idea of
+herself. And the astonishment at what she had done, added to a cutting
+remorse for her cruelty, increased her distress. Now, her whole heart
+was filled with a deep infinite pity for the suffering she had caused
+him without really meaning to do so.
+
+She saw him constantly before her, as he was when he left the house in
+the morning: the despairing expression of his face, his troubled eyes,
+his trembling lips; and in imagination she followed him through the
+streets, as he went home, pale, utterly desolate, and wounded to the
+heart's core by her. Where was he now? Perhaps at this hour he was
+really ill!
+
+She wrung her hands in agony, distressed that she could not at once
+repair the evil she had done. Ah! how she revolted at the idea of
+having made another suffer, for she had always wished to be good, and
+to render those about her as happy as possible.
+
+Twelve o'clock would ere long ring out from the old church-tower; the
+great elms of the garden of the Bishop's palace hid the moon, which
+was just appearing above the horizon, and the chamber was still dark.
+Then, letting her head fall back upon the pillow, Angelique dwelt no
+longer upon these disturbing questions, as she wished to go to sleep.
+But this she could not do; although she kept her eyes closed, her mind
+was still active; she thought of the flowers which every night during
+the last fortnight she had found when she went upstairs upon the
+balcony before her window. Each evening it was a lovely bouquet of
+violets, which Felicien had certainly thrown there from the Clos-
+Marie. She recollected having told him that flowers generally gave her
+a sick headache, whilst violets alone had the singular virtue of
+calming her, and so he had sent her quiet nights, a perfumed sleep
+refreshed by pleasant dreams. This evening she had placed the bouquet
+by her bedside. All at once she had the happy thought of taking it
+into her bed with her, putting it near her cheek, and, little by
+little, being soothed with its sweet breath. The purple blossoms did
+indeed do her good. Not that she slept, however; but she lay there
+with closed eyes, penetrated by the refreshing odour that came from
+his gift; happy to await events, in a repose and confident abandonment
+of her whole being.
+
+But suddenly she started. It was past midnight. She opened her eyes,
+and was astonished to find her chamber filled with a clear bright
+light. Above the great elms the moon rose slowly, dimming the stars in
+the pale sky. Through the window she saw the apse of the cathedral,
+almost white, and it seemed to her as if it were the reflection of
+this whiteness which entered her room, like the light of the dawn,
+fresh and pure. The whitewashed walls and beams, all this blank nudity
+was increased by it, enlarged, and moved back as if it were unreal as
+a dream.
+
+She still recognised, however, the old, dark, oaken furniture--the
+wardrobe, the chest and the chairs, with the shining edges of their
+elaborate carvings. The bedstead alone--this great square, royal
+couch--seemed new to her, as if she saw it for the first time, with
+its high columns supporting its canopy of old-fashioned, rose-tinted
+cretonne, now bathed with such a sheet of deep moonlight that she half
+thought she was on a cloud in the midst of the heavens, borne along by
+a flight of silent, invisible wings. For a moment she felt the full
+swinging of it; it did not seem at all strange or unnatural to her.
+But her sight soon grew accustomed to the reality; her bed was again
+in its usual corner, and she was in it, not moving her head, her eyes
+alone turning from side to side, as she lay in the midst of this lake
+of beaming rays, with the bouquet of violets upon her lips.
+
+Why was it that she was thus in a state of waiting? Why could she not
+sleep? She was sure that she expected someone. That she had grown
+quite calm was a sign that her hero was about to appear. This
+consoling light, which put to flight the darkness of all bad dreams,
+announced his arrival. He was on his way, and the moon, whose
+brightness almost equalled that of the sun, was simply his forerunner.
+She must be ready to greet him.
+
+The chamber was as if hung with white velvet now, so they could see
+each other well. Then she got up, dressed herself thoroughly, putting
+on a simple white gown of foulard, the same she had worn the day of
+their excursion to the ruins of Hautecoeur. She did not braid her
+hair, but let it hang over her shoulders. She put a pair of slippers
+upon her bare feet, and drawing an armchair in front of the window,
+seated herself, and waited in patience.
+
+Angelique did not pretend to know how he would appear. Without doubt,
+he would not come up the stairs, and it might be that she would simply
+see him over the Clos-Marie, while she leaned from the balcony. Still,
+she kept her place on the threshold of the window, as it seemed to her
+useless to go and watch for him just yet. So vague was her idea of
+real life, so mystic was love, that she did not understand in her
+imaginative nature why he might not pass through the walls, like the
+saints in the legends. Why should not miracles come now, as in the
+olden days, for had not all this been ordained from the beginning?
+
+Not for a moment did she think she was alone to receive him. No,
+indeed! She felt as if she were surrounded by the crowd of virgins who
+had always been near her, since her early youth. They entered on the
+rays of the moonlight, they came from the great dark trees with their
+blue-green tops in the Bishop's garden, from the most intricate
+corners of the entanglement of the stone front of the Cathedral. From
+all the familiar and beloved horizon of the Chevrotte, from the
+willows, the grasses, and bushes, the young girl heard the dreams
+which came back to her, the hopes, the desires, the visions, all that
+which she had put of herself into inanimate objects as she saw them
+daily, and which they now returned to her. Never had the voices of the
+Invisible unknown spoken so clearly. She listened to them as they came
+from afar, recognising particularly in this warm, beautiful night, so
+calm that there was not the slightest movement in the air, the
+delicate sound which she was wont to call the fluttering of the robe
+of Agnes, when her dear guardian angel came to her side. She laughed
+quietly to know that she was now by her, and waiting with the others
+who were near her.
+
+Time passed, but it did not seem long to Angelique. She was quite
+conscious of what was passing around her. It appeared to her perfectly
+natural, and exactly as it had been foretold, when at last she saw
+Felicien striding over the balustrade of the balcony.
+
+His tall figure came out in full relief before the background of the
+white sky; he did not approach the open window, but remained in its
+luminous shadow.
+
+"Do not be afraid. It is I. I have come to see you."
+
+She was not in the slightest way alarmed; she simply thought that he
+was exact to the hour of meeting, and said calmly:
+
+"You mounted by the timber framework, did you not?"
+
+"Yes, by the framework."
+
+The idea of this way made her laugh, and he himself was amused by it.
+He had in fact pulled himself up by the pent-house shed; then,
+climbing along the principal rafters from there, whose ends were
+supported by the string-course of the first story, he had without
+difficulty reached the balcony.
+
+"I was expecting you. Will you not come nearer me?"
+
+Felicien, who had arrived in a state of anger, not knowing how he had
+dared to come, but with many wild ideas in his head, did not move, so
+surprised and delighted was he by this unexpected reception. As he had
+come at last, Angelique was now certain that the saints did not
+prohibit her from loving, for she heard them welcoming him with her by
+a laugh as delicate as a breath of the night. Where in the world had
+she ever found so ridiculous an idea as to think that Agnes would be
+angry with her! On the contrary, Agnes was radiant with a joy that she
+felt as it descended on her shoulders and enveloped her like a caress
+from two great wings. All those who had died for love showed great
+compassion for youthful troubles, and only returned to earth on summer
+nights, that, although invisible, they might watch those young hearts
+who were sorrowful from affection.
+
+"But why do you not come to me? I was waiting for you."
+
+Then, hesitatingly, Felicien approached. He had been so excited, so
+carried away by anger at her indifference, that he had said she should
+be made to love him, and that, were it necessary, he would carry her
+away even against her will. And lo! now finding her so gentle as he
+penetrated almost to the entrance of this chamber, so pure and white,
+he became subdued at once, and as gentle and submissive as a child.
+
+He took three steps forward. But he was afraid, and not daring to go
+farther, he fell on his knees at the end of the balcony.
+
+"Could you but know," he said, "the abominable tortures I have passed
+through. I have never imagined a worse suffering. Really, the only
+true grief is to think that you are not beloved by the person to whom
+you have given your affection. I would willingly give up all else;
+would consent to be poor, dying from hunger, or racked by pain; but I
+will not pass another day with this terrible doubt gnawing at my
+heart, of thinking that you do not love me. Be good, I pray you, and
+pity me."
+
+She listened to him, silent, overcome with compassion, yet very happy
+withal.
+
+"This morning you sent me away in such a dreadful manner! I had
+fancied to myself that you had changed your feelings towards me, and
+that, appreciating my affection, you liked me better. But, alas! I
+found you exactly as you had been on the first day, cold, indifferent,
+treating me as you would have done any other simple customer who
+passed, recalling me harshly to the commonplaces of life. On the
+stairway I staggered. Once outside, I ran, and was afraid I might
+scream aloud. Then, the moment I reached home, it seemed to me I
+should stifle were I to enter the house. So I rushed out into the
+fields, walking by chance first on one side of the road and then on
+another. Evening came, and I was still wandering up and down. But the
+torment of spirit moved faster than ever and devoured me. When one is
+hopelessly in love, it is impossible to escape from the pains
+accompanying one's affection. Listen!" he said, and he touched his
+breast; "it is here that you stabbed me, and the point of the knife
+still continues to penetrate deeper and deeper."
+
+He gave a long sigh at the keen recollection of his torture.
+
+"I found myself at last in a thicket, overcome by my distress, like a
+tree that has been drawn up by the roots. To me, the only thing that
+existed in life, in the future, was you. The thought that you might
+never be mine was more than I could bear. Already my feet were so
+weary that they would no longer support me. I felt that my hands were
+growing icy cold, and my head was filled with the strangest fancies.
+And that is why I am here. I do not know at all how I came, or where I
+found the necessary strength to bring me to you. You must try to
+forgive me; but had I been forced to do so, I would have broken open
+doors with my fists, I would have clambered up to this balcony in
+broad daylight, for my will was no longer under my control, and I was
+quite wild. Now, will you not pardon me?"
+
+She was a little in the shadow, and he, on his knees in the full
+moonlight, could not see that she had grown very pale in her tender
+repentance, and was too touched by his story to be able to speak. He
+thought that she was still insensible to his pleadings, and he joined
+his hands together most beseechingly.
+
+"All my interest in you commenced long ago. It was one night when I
+saw you for the first time, here at your window. You were only a
+vague, white shadow; I could scarcely distinguish one of your
+features, yet I saw you and imagined you just as you are in reality.
+But I was timid and afraid, so for several days I wandered about here,
+never daring to try to meet you in the open day. And, in addition,
+since this is a confession, I must tell you everything; you pleased me
+particularly in this half mystery; it would have disturbed me to have
+you come out from it, for my great happiness was to dream of you as if
+you were an apparition, or an unknown something to be worshipped from
+afar, without ever hoping to become acquainted with you. Later on, I
+knew who you were, for after all it is difficult to resist the
+temptation to know what may be the realisation of one's dream. It was
+then that my restlessness commenced. It has increased at each meeting.
+Do you recollect the first time that we spoke to each other in the
+field near by, on that forenoon when I was examining the painted
+window? Never in my life did I feel so awkward as then, and it was not
+strange that you ridiculed me so. Afterwards I frightened you, and
+realised that I continued to be very unfortunate in following you,
+even in the visits you made to the poor people. Already I ceased to be
+master of my own actions, and did things that astonished me beyond
+measure, and which, under usual circumstances, I would not have dared
+attempt. For instance, when I presented myself here with the order for
+a mitre, I was pushed forward by an involuntary force, as, personally,
+I dared not do it, knowing that I might make you angry. But at present
+I cannot regain my old self, I can only obey my impulses. I know that
+you do not like me, and yet, as you see, in spite of it all I have
+come back to you, that I may hear you tell me so. If you would but try
+to understand how miserable I am. Do not love me if it is not in your
+heart to do so. I must accept my fate. But at least allow me to love
+you. Be as cold as you please, be hateful if you will--I shall adore
+you whatever you may choose to be. I only ask to be able to see you,
+even without any hope; merely for the joy of living thus at your
+feet."
+
+Felicien stopped, disheartened, losing all courage as he thought he
+would never find any way of touching her heart. And he did not see
+that Angelique smiled, half hidden as she was by the open window-sash.
+It was an invincible smile, that, little by little, spread over her
+whole face. Ah! the dear fellow! How simple and trusting he was as he
+outpoured the prayer of his heart, filled with new longings and love,
+in bowing before her, as before the highest ideal of all his youthful
+dreams.
+
+To think that she had ever been so foolish as at first to try to avoid
+all meetings with him, and then, later on, had determined that
+although she could not help loving him, he should never know it! Such
+folly on her part was quite inexplicable. Since love is right, and is
+the fate of all, what good could be gained by making martyrs of them
+both?
+
+A complete silence ensued, and in her enthusiastic, imaginative,
+nervous state, she heard, louder than ever, in the quiet of the warm
+night, the voices of the saints about her, who said love was never
+forbidden when it was so ardent and true as this. Behind her back a
+bright flash of light had suddenly appeared; scarcely a breath, but a
+delicate wave from the moon upon the chamber floor. An invisible
+finger, no doubt that of her guardian angel, was placed upon her
+mouth, as if to unseal her lips and relieve her from her vow.
+Henceforth she could freely unburden herself and tell the truth. All
+that which was powerful and tender in her surroundings now whispered
+to her words which seemed to come from the infinite unknown.
+
+Then, at last, Angelique spoke.
+
+"Ah! yes, I recollect--I recollect it all."
+
+And Felicien was at once carried away with delight by the music of
+this voice, whose extreme charm was so great over him that his love
+seemed to increase simply from listening to it.
+
+"Yes, I remember well when you came in the night. You were so far away
+those first evenings that the little sound you made in walking left me
+in quite an uncertain state. At last I realised perfectly that it was
+you who approached me, and a little later I recognised your shadow. At
+length, one evening you showed yourself boldly, on a beautiful, bright
+night like this, in the full white light of the moon. You came out so
+slowly from the inanimate objects near you, like a creation from all
+the mysteries that surrounded me, exactly as I had expected to see you
+for a long time, and punctual to the meeting.
+
+"I have never forgotten the great desire to laugh, which I kept back,
+but which broke forth in spite of me, when you saved the linen that was
+being carried away by the Chevrotte. I recollect my anger when you
+robbed me of my poor people, by giving them so much money, and thus
+making me appear as a miser. I can still recall my fear on the evening
+when you forced me to run so fast through the grass with my bare feet.
+Oh, yes, I have not forgotten anything--not the slightest thing."
+
+At this last sentence her voice, pure and crystalline, was a little
+broken by the thought of those magic words of the young man, the power
+of which she felt so deeply when he said, "I love you," and a deep
+blush passed over her face. And he--he listened to her with delight.
+
+"It is indeed true that I did wrong to tease you. When one is
+ignorant, one is often so foolish. One does many things which seem
+necessary, simply from the fear of being found fault with if following
+the impulses of the heart. But my remorse for all this was deep, and
+my sufferings, in consequence, were as great as yours. Were I to try
+to explain all this to you, it would be quite impossible for me to do
+so. When you came to us with your drawing of Saint Agnes, oh! I could
+have cried out, 'Thank you, thank you!' I was perfectly enchanted to
+work for you, as I thought you would certainly make us a daily visit.
+And yet, think of it! I pretended to be indifferent, as if I had taken
+upon myself the task of doing all in my power to drive you from the
+house. Has one ever the need of being willfully unhappy? Whilst in
+reality I longed to welcome you and to receive you with open hands,
+there seemed to be in the depths of my nature another woman than
+myself, who revolted, who was afraid of and mistrusted you--whose
+delight it was to torture you with uncertainty, in the vague idea of
+setting up a quarrel, the cause of which, in a time long passed, had
+been quite forgotten. I am not always good; often in my soul things
+seem to creep up that I cannot explain or account for. The worst of it
+was that I dared to speak to you of money. Fancy it, then! Of money!
+I, who have never thought of it, who would accept chariots of it, only
+for the pleasure of making it rain down as I wished, among the needy!
+What a malicious amusement I gave myself in this calumniating my
+character. Will you ever forgive me?"
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IX
+
+Felicien was at her feet. Until now he had kept his place in the
+remote corner of the balcony. But in the intense happiness she gave
+him in thus unfolding the innermost secrets of her soul he had drawn
+himself on his knees towards her, as he approached the window. This
+great, illimitable joy was so unlooked for, that he yielded to it in
+all the infinitude of its hopes of the future.
+
+He half whispered:
+
+"Ah, dear soul, pure, kind, and beautiful, your wonderful goodness has
+cured me as with a breath! I know not now if I have ever suffered.
+And, in your turn, you will now have to pardon me, for I have an
+acknowledgment to make to you. I must tell you who I am."
+
+He was troubled at the thought he could no longer disguise himself or
+his position, since she had confided so freely and entirely in him. It
+would be disloyal in the highest degree to do so. Yet he hesitated,
+lest he might, after all, lose her, were she to be anxious about the
+future when at last she knew the facts.
+
+And she waited for him to speak again, a little malicious in spite of
+herself.
+
+In a very low voice he continued:
+
+"I have told a falsehood to your parents."
+
+"Yes, I know it," she said as she smiled.
+
+"No, you do not know it; you could not possibly know it, for all that
+happened too long ago. I only paint on glass for my own pleasure, and
+as a simple amusement; you really ought to be told of that."
+
+Then, with a quick movement, she put her hand on his mouth, as if she
+wished to prevent this explanation.
+
+"I do not care to hear any more. I have been expecting you. I knew
+that sooner or later you would come, and you have done so. That is
+all-sufficient."
+
+They talked no longer for a while. That little hand over his lips
+seemed almost too great a happiness for him.
+
+"When the right time comes, then I shall know all. Yet I assure you
+that I am ignorant of nothing connected with you, for everything had
+been revealed to me before our first meeting. You were to be, and can
+be, only the handsomest, the richest, and the most noble of men, the
+one above all others; for that has ever been my dream, and in the sure
+certainty of its full accomplishment I wait calmly. You are the chosen
+hero who it was ordained should come, and I am yours."
+
+A second time she interrupted herself in the tremor of the words she
+pronounced. She did not appear to say them by herself alone; they came
+to her as if sent by the beautiful night from the great white heavens,
+from the old trees, and the aged stones sleeping outside and dreaming
+aloud the fancies of the young girl. From behind her voices also
+whispered them to her, the voices of her friends in the "Golden
+Legend," with whom she had peopled the air and the space around her.
+In this atmosphere she had ever lived--mysticism, in which she
+revelled until it seemed fact on one side, and the daily work of life
+on the other. Nothing seemed strange to her.
+
+Now but one word remained to be said--that which would express all the
+long waiting, the slow creation of affection, the constantly
+increasing fever of restlessness. It escaped from her lips like a cry
+from a distance, from the white flight of a bird mounting upward in
+the light of the early dawn, in the pure whiteness of the chamber
+behind her.
+
+"I love you."
+
+Angelique, her two hands spread out, bent forward towards Felicien.
+And he recalled to himself the evening when she ran barefooted through
+the grass, making so adorable a picture that he pursued her in order
+to stammer in her ear these same words: "I love you." He knew that now
+she was simply replying to him with the same cry of affection, the
+eternal cry, which at last came from her freely-opened heart.
+
+"Yes, I love you. I am yours. Lead the way, and I will follow you
+wherever it may be."
+
+In this surrender of her soul she gave herself to him fully and
+entirely. It was the hereditary flame relighted within her--the pride
+and the passion she thought had been conquered, but which awoke at the
+wish of her beloved. He trembled before this innocence, so ardent and
+so ingenuous. He took her hands gently, and crossed them upon her
+breast. For a moment he looked at her, radiant with the intense
+happiness her confession had given him, unwilling to wound her
+delicacy in the slightest degree, and not thinking of yielding to the
+temptation of even kissing her hair.
+
+"You love me, and you know that I love you! Ah! what bliss there is in
+such knowledge."
+
+But they were suddenly drawn from their ecstatic state by a change
+about them. What did it all mean? They realised that now they were
+looking at each other under a great white light. It seemed to them as
+if the brightness of the moon had been increased, and was as
+resplendent as that of the sun. It was in reality the daybreak, a
+slight shade of which already tinged with purple the tops of the elm-
+trees in the neighbouring gardens. What? It could not be possible that
+the dawn had come? They were astonished by it, for they did not
+realise so long a time had passed since they began to talk together on
+the balcony. She had as yet told him nothing, and he had so many
+things he wished to say!
+
+"Oh, stay one minute more, only one minute!" he exclaimed.
+
+The daylight advanced still faster--the smiling morning, already warm,
+of what was to be a hot day in summer. One by one the stars were
+extinguished, and with them fled the wandering visions, and all the
+host of invisible friends seemed to mount upward and to glide away on
+the moon's rays.
+
+Now, in the full, clear light, the room behind them had only its
+ordinary whiteness of walls and ceiling, and seemed quite empty with
+its old-fashioned furniture of dark oak. The velvet hangings were no
+longer there, and the bedstead had resumed its original shape, as it
+stood half hidden by the falling of one of its curtains.
+
+"Do stay! Let me be near you only one minute more!"
+
+Angelique, having risen, refused, and begged Felicien to leave
+immediately. Since the day had come, she had grown confused and
+anxious. The reality was now here. At her right hand, she seemed to
+hear a delicate movement of wings, whilst her hair was gently blown,
+although there was not the slightest breath of wind. Was it not Saint
+Agnes, who, having remained until the last, was now forced to leave,
+driven away by the sun?
+
+"No, leave me, I beg of you. I am unwilling you should stay longer."
+
+Then Felicien, obedient, withdrew.
+
+To know that he was beloved was enough for him, and satisfied him.
+Still, before leaving the balcony, he turned, and looked at her again
+fixedly, as if he wished to carry away with him an indelible
+remembrance of her. They both smiled at each other as they stood thus,
+bathed with light, in this long caressing look.
+
+At last he said:
+
+"I love you."
+
+And she gently replied:
+
+"I love you."
+
+That was all, and he had in a moment, with the agility of a bird, gone
+down the woodwork of the corner of the building, while she, remaining
+on the balcony, leaned on the balustrade and watched him, with her
+tender, beautiful eyes. She had taken the bouquet of violets and
+breathed the perfume to cool her feverishness. When, in crossing the
+Clos-Marie, he lifted his head, he saw that she was kissing the
+flowers.
+
+Scarcely had Felicien disappeared behind the willows, when Angelique
+was disturbed by hearing below the opening of the house-door. Four
+o'clock had just struck, and no one was in the habit of getting up
+until two hours later. Her surprise increased when she recognised
+Hubertine, as it was always Hubert who went down the first. She saw
+her follow slowly the walks of the narrow garden, her arms hanging
+listlessly at her sides, as if, after a restless, sleepless night, a
+feeling of suffocating, a need of breathing the fresh air, had made
+her leave her room so early. And Hubertine was really very beautiful,
+with her clothes so hastily put on; and she seemed very weary--happy,
+but in the deepest grief.
+
+The morning of the next day, on waking from a sound sleep of eight
+hours, one of those sweet, deep, refreshing sleeps that come after
+some great happiness, Angelique ran to her window. The sky was clear,
+the air pure, and the fine weather had returned after a heavy shower
+of the previous evening. Delighted, she called out joyously to Hubert,
+who was just opening the blinds below her:
+
+"Father! Father! Do look at the beautiful sunlight. Oh, how glad I am,
+for the procession will be superb!"
+
+Dressing herself as quickly as possible, she hurried to go downstairs.
+It was on that day, July 28, that the Procession of the Miracle would
+pass through the streets of the upper town. Every summer at this date
+it was also a festival for the embroiderers; all work was put aside,
+no needles were threaded, but the day was passed in ornamenting the
+house, after a traditional arrangement that had been transmitted from
+mother to daughter for four hundred years.
+
+All the while that she was taking her coffee, Angelique talked of the
+hangings.
+
+"Mother, we must look at them at once, to see if they are in good
+order."
+
+"We have plenty of time before us, my dear," replied Hubertine, in her
+quiet way. "We shall not put them up until afternoon."
+
+The decorations in question consisted of three large panels of the
+most admirable ancient embroidery, which the Huberts guarded with the
+greatest care as a sacred family relic, and which they brought out
+once a year on the occasion of the passing of this special procession.
+
+The previous evening, according to a time-honoured custom, the Master
+of the Ceremonies, the good Abbe Cornille, had gone from door to door
+to notify the inhabitants of the route which would be taken by the
+bearers of the statue of Saint Agnes, accompanied by Monseigneur the
+Bishop, carrying the Holy Sacrament. For more than five centuries this
+route had been the same. The departure was made from the portal of
+Saint Agnes, then by the Rue des Orfevres to the Grand Rue, to the Rue
+Basse, and after having gone through the whole of the lower town, it
+returned by the Rue Magloire and the Place du Cloitre, to reappear
+again at the great front entrance of the Church. And the dwellers on
+all these streets, vying with each other in their zeal, decorated
+their windows, hung upon their walls their richest possessions in
+silks, satins, velvets, or tapestry, and strewed the pavements with
+flowers, particularly with the leaves of roses and carnations.
+
+Angelique was very impatient until permission had been given her to
+take from the drawers, where they had been quietly resting for the
+past twelve months, the three pieces of embroidery.
+
+"They are in perfect order, mother. Nothing has happened to them," she
+said, as she looked at them, enraptured.
+
+She had with the greatest care removed the mass of silk paper that
+protected them from the dust, and they now appeared in all their
+beauty. The three were consecrated to Mary. The Blessed Virgin
+receiving the visit of the Angel of the Annunciation; the Virgin
+Mother at the foot of the Cross; and the Assumption of the Virgin.
+They were made in the fifteenth century, of brightly coloured silks
+wrought on a golden background, and were wonderfully well preserved.
+The family had always refused to sell them, although very large sums
+had been offered by different churches, and they were justly proud of
+their possessions.
+
+"Mother, dear, may I not hang them up to-day?"
+
+All these preparations required a great deal of time. Hubert was
+occupied the whole forenoon in cleaning the front of the old building.
+He fastened a broom to the end of a long stick, that he might dust all
+the wooden panels decorated with bricks, as far as the framework of
+the roof; then with a sponge he washed all the sub-basement of stone,
+and all the parts of the stairway tower that he could reach. When that
+was finished, the three superb pieces of embroidery were put in their
+places. Angelique attached them, by their rings, to venerable nails
+that were in the walls; the Annunciation below the window at the left,
+the Assumption below the window at the right, while for the Calvary,
+the nails for that were above the great window of the first story, and
+she was obliged to use a step-ladder that she might hang it there in
+its turn. She had already embellished the window with flowers, so that
+the ancient dwelling seemed to have gone back to the far-away time of
+its youth, with its embroideries of gold and of silk glistening in the
+beautiful sunshine of this festive day.
+
+After the noon breakfast the activity increased in every direction,
+and the whole Rue des Orfevres was now in excitement. To avoid the
+great heat, the procession would not move until five o'clock, but
+after twelve the town began to be decorated. Opposite the Huberts',
+the silversmith dressed his shop with draperies of an exquisite light
+blue, bordered with a silver fringe; while the wax-chandler, who was
+next to him, made use of his window-curtains of red cotton, which
+looked more brilliant than ever in the broad light of day. At each
+house there were different colours; a prodigality of stuffs,
+everything that people owned, even to rugs of all descriptions, were
+blowing about in the weary air of this hot summer afternoon. The
+street now seemed clothed, sparkling, and almost trembling with
+gaiety, as if changed into a gallery of fete open to the sky. All its
+inhabitants were rushing to and fro, pushing against each other;
+speaking loud, as if in their own homes; some of them carrying their
+arms full of objects, others climbing, driving nails, and calling
+vociferously. In addition to all this was the _reposoir_, or altar,
+that was being prepared at the corner of the Grand Rue, the
+arrangements for which called for the services of all the women of the
+neighbourhood, who eagerly offered their vases and candlesticks.
+
+Angelique ran down to carry the two candelabra, of the style of the
+Empire, which they had on the mantel-shelf of their parlour. She had
+not taken a moment's rest since the early morning, but had shown no
+signs of fatigue, being, on the contrary, supported and carried above
+herself by her great inward happiness. And as she came back from her
+errand, her hair blown all about her face by the wind, Hubert began to
+tease her as she seated herself to strip off the leaves of the roses,
+and to put them in a great basket.
+
+"You could not do any more than you have done were it your wedding-
+day, my dear. Is it, then, that you are really to be married now?"
+
+"But yes! oh, yes! Why not?" she answered gaily.
+
+Hubertine smiled in her turn.
+
+"While waiting, my daughter, since the house is so satisfactorily
+arranged, the best thing for us to do is to go upstairs and dress."
+
+"In a minute, mother. Look at my full basket."
+
+She had finished taking the leaves from the roses which she had
+reserved to throw before Monseigneur. The petals rained from her
+slender fingers; the basket was running over with its light, perfumed
+contents. Then, as she disappeared on the narrow stairway of the
+tower, she said, while laughing heartily:
+
+"We will be quick. I will make myself beautiful as a star!"
+
+The afternoon advanced. Now the feverish movement in Beaumont-l'Eglise
+was calmed; a peculiar air of expectation seemed to fill the streets,
+which were all ready, and where everyone spoke softly, in hushed,
+whispering voices. The heat had diminished, as the sun's rays grew
+oblique, and between the houses, so closely pressed the one against
+the others, there fell from the pale sky only a warm, fine shadow of a
+gentle, serene nature. The air of meditation was profound, as if the
+old town had become simply a continuation of the Cathedral; the only
+sound of carriages that could be heard came up from Beaumont-la-Ville,
+the new town on the banks of the Ligneul, where many of the factories
+were not closed, as the proprietors disdained taking part in this
+ancient religious ceremony.
+
+Soon after four o'clock the great bell of the northern tower, the one
+whose swinging stirred the house of the Huberts, began to ring; and it
+was at that very moment that Hubertine and Angelique reappeared. The
+former had put on a dress of pale buff linen, trimmed with a simple
+thread lace, but her figure was so slight and youthful in its delicate
+roundness that she looked as if she were the sister of her adopted
+daughter. Angelique wore her dress of white foulard, with its soft
+ruchings at the neck and wrists, and nothing else; neither earrings
+nor bracelets, only her bare wrists and throat, soft in their satiny
+whiteness as they came out from the delicate material, light as the
+opening of a flower. An invisible comb, put in place hastily, scarcely
+held the curls of her golden hair, which was carelessly dressed. She
+was artless and proud, of a most touching simplicity, and, indeed,
+"beautiful as a star."
+
+"Ah!" she said, "the bell! That is to show that Monseigneur has left
+his palace."
+
+The bell continued to sound loud and clear in the great purity of the
+atmosphere. The Huberts installed themselves at the wide-opened window
+of the first story, the mother and daughter being in front, with their
+elbows resting on the bar of support, and the husband and father
+standing behind them. These were their accustomed places; they could
+not possibly have found better, as they would be the very first to see
+the procession as it came from the farther end of the church, without
+missing even a single candle of the marching-past.
+
+"Where is my basket?" asked Angelique.
+
+Hubert was obliged to take and pass to her the basket of rose-leaves,
+which she held between her arms, pressed against her breast.
+
+"Oh, that bell!" she at last murmured; "it seems as if it would lull
+us to sleep!"
+
+And still the waiting continued in the little vibrating house,
+sonorous with the musical movement; the street and the great square
+waited, subdued by this great trembling, whist the hangings on every
+side blew about more quietly in the air of the coming evening. The
+perfume of roses was very sweet.
+
+Another half-hour passed. Then at the same moment the two halves of
+the portal of Saint Agnes were opened, and they perceived the very
+depths of the church, dark in reality, but dotted with little bright
+spots from the tapers. First the bearer of the Cross appeared, a sub-
+deacon in a tunic, accompanied by the acolytes, each one of whom held
+a lighted candle in his hand. Behind them hurried along the Master of
+the Ceremonies, the good Abbe Cornille, who after having assured
+himself that everything was in perfect order in the street, stopped
+under the porch, and assisted a moment at the passing out, in order to
+be sure that the places assigned to each section had been rightly
+taken. The various societies of laymen opened the march: the
+charitable associations, schools, by rank of seniority, and numerous
+public organisations. There were a great many children: little girls
+all in white, like brides, and little bareheaded boys, with curly
+hair, dressed in their best, like princes, already looking in every
+direction to find where their mothers were. A splendid fellow, nine
+years of age, walked by himself in the middle, clad like Saint John
+the Baptist, with a sheepskin over his thin, bare shoulders. Four
+little girls, covered with pink ribbons, bore a shield on which was a
+sheaf of ripe wheat. Then there were young girls grouped around a
+banner of the Blessed Virgin; ladies in black, who also had their
+special banner of crimson silk, on which was embroidered a portrait of
+Saint Joseph. There were other and still other banners, in velvet or
+in satin, balanced at the end of gilded batons. The brotherhoods of
+men were no less numerous; penitents of all colours, but especially
+the grey penitents in dark linen suits, wearing cowls, and whose
+emblems made a great sensation--a large cross, with a wheel, to which
+were attached the instruments of the Passion.
+
+Angelique exclaimed with tenderness when the children came by:
+
+"Oh, the blessed darlings! Do look at them all!"
+
+One, no higher than a boot, scarcely three years of age, proudly
+tottered along on his little feet, and looked so comical that she
+plunged her hands into her basket and literally covered him with
+flowers. He quite disappeared under them for an instant; he had roses
+in his hair and on his shoulders. The exquisite little laughing shout
+he uttered was enjoyed on every side, and flowers rained down from all
+the windows as the cherub passed. In the humming silence of the street
+one could now only hear the deafened sound of the regular movement of
+feet in the procession, while flowers by the handful still continued
+to fall silently upon the pavement. Very soon there were heaps of
+them.
+
+But now, reassured upon the good order of the laymen, the Abbe
+Cornille grew impatient and disturbed, inasmuch as the procession had
+been stationary for nearly two minutes, and he walked quickly towards
+the head of it, bowing and smiling at the Huberts as he passed.
+
+"What has happened? What can prevent them from continuing?" said
+Angelique, all feverish from excitement, as if she were waiting for
+some expected happiness that was to come to her from the other end
+that was still in the church.
+
+Hubertine answered her gently, as usual:
+
+"There is no reason why they should run."
+
+"There is some obstruction evidently; perhaps it is a _reposoir_ that
+is still unfinished," Hubert added.
+
+The young girls of the Society of the Blessed Virgin, the "daughters
+of Mary," as they are called, had already commenced singing a
+canticle, and their clear voices rose in the air, pure as crystal.
+Nearer and nearer the double ranks caught the movement and recommenced
+their march.
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER X
+
+After the civilians, the clergy began to leave the church, the lower
+orders coming first. All, in surplices, covered their heads with their
+caps, under the porch; and each one held a large, lighted wax taper;
+those at the right in their right hand, and those at the left in their
+left hand, outside the rank, so there was a double row of flame,
+almost deadened by the brightness of the day. First were
+representatives from the great seminaries, the parishes, and then
+collegiate churches; then came the beneficed clergymen and clerks of
+the Cathedral, followed by the canons in white pluvials. In their
+midst were the choristers, in capes of red silk, who chanted the
+anthem in full voice, and to whom all the clergy replied in lower
+notes. The hymn, "Pange Lingua," was grandly given. The street was now
+filled with a rustling of muslin from the flying winged sleeves of the
+surplices, which seemed pierced all over with tiny stars of pale gold
+from the flames of the candles.
+
+"Oh!" at last Angelique half sighed, "there is Saint Agnes!"
+
+She smiled at the saint, borne by four clerks in white surplices, on a
+platform of white velvet heavily ornamented with lace. Each year it
+was like a new surprise to her, as she saw her guardian angel thus
+brought out from the shadows where she had been growing old for
+centuries, quite like another person under the brilliant sunshine, as
+if she were timid and blushing in her robe of long, golden hair. She
+was really so old, yet still very young, with her small hands, her
+little slender feet, her delicate, girlish face, blackened by time.
+
+But Monseigneur was to follow her. Already the swinging of the censers
+could be heard coming from the depths of the church.
+
+There was a slight murmuring of voices as Angelique repeated:
+
+"Monseigneur, Monseigneur," and with her eyes still upon the saint who
+was going by, she recalled to mind at this moment the old histories.
+The noble Marquesses d'Hautecoeur delivering Beaumont from the plague,
+thanks to the intervention of Agnes, then Jean V and all those of his
+race coming to kneel before her image, to pay their devotions to the
+saint, and she seemed to see them all, the lords of the miracle,
+coming one by one like a line of princes.
+
+A large space had been left empty. Then the chaplain charged with the
+care of the crozier advanced, holding it erect, the curved part being
+towards him. Afterward came two censer-bearers, who walked backwards
+and swung the censers gently from side to side, each one having near
+him an acolyte charged with the incense-box. There was a little
+difficulty before they succeeded in passing by one of the divisions of
+the door the great canopy of royal scarlet velvet, decorated with a
+heavy fringe of gold. But the delay was short, order was quickly
+re-established, and the designated officials took the supports in
+hand. Underneath, between his deacons of honour, Monseigneur walked,
+bareheaded, his shoulders covered with a white scarf, the two ends of
+which enveloped his hands, which bore the Holy Sacrament as high as
+possible, and without touching it.
+
+Immediately the incense-bearers resumed their places, and the censers
+sent out in haste, fell back again in unison with the little silvery
+sound of their chains.
+
+But Angelique started as she thought, where had she ever seen anyone
+who looked like Monseigneur? She certainly knew his face before, but
+had never been struck by it as to-day! All heads were bowed in solemn
+devotion. But she was so uneasy, she simply bent down and looked at
+him. He was tall, slight, and noble-looking; superb in his physical
+strength, notwithstanding his sixty years. His eyes were piercing as
+those of an eagle; his nose, a little prominent, only seemed to
+increase the sovereign authority of his face, which was somewhat
+softened by his white hair, that was thick and curly. She noticed the
+pallor of his complexion, and it seemed to her as if he suddenly
+flushed from some unknown reason. Perhaps, however, it was simply a
+reflection from the great golden-rayed sun which he carried in his
+covered hands, and which placed him in a radiance of mystic light.
+
+Certainly, he to-day made her think of someone, but of whom? As soon
+as he left the church, Monseigneur had commenced a psalm, which he
+recited in a low voice, alternating the verses thereof with his
+deacons. And Angelique trembled when she saw him turn his eyes towards
+their window, for he seemed to her so severe, so haughty, and so cold,
+as if he were condemning the vanity of all earthly affection. He
+turned his face towards the three bands of ancient embroidery--Mary
+and the Angel, Mary at the foot of the Cross, Mary being borne to
+Heaven--and his face brightened. Then he lowered his eyes and fixed
+them upon her, but she was so disturbed she could not tell whether his
+glance was harsh or gentle; at all events it was only for a moment,
+for quickly regarding the Holy Sacrament, his expression was lost in
+the light which came from the great golden vessel. The censers still
+swung back and forth with a measured rhythm, while a little blue cloud
+mounted in the air.
+
+But Angelique's heart now beat so rapidly she could scarcely keep
+still. Behind the canopy she had just seen a chaplain, his fingers
+covered with a scarf, who was carrying the mitre as devoutly as if it
+were a sacred object, Saint Agnes flying heavenward with the two
+angels, the work of her hands, and into each stitch of which she had
+put such deep love. Then, among the laymen who followed, in the midst
+of functionaries, of officers, of magistrates, she recognised Felicien
+in the front rank, slight and graceful, with his curly hair, his
+rather large but straight nose, and his black eyes, the expression of
+which was at the same time proud and gentle. She expected him; she was
+not at all surprised to find him transformed into a prince; her heart
+simply was overflowing with joy. To the anxious look which he gave
+her, as of imploring forgiveness for his falsehood, she replied by a
+lovely smile.
+
+"But look!" exclaimed Hubertine, astonished at what she saw, "is not
+that the young man who came to our house about the mitre?"
+
+She had also recognised him, and was much disturbed when, turning
+towards the young girl, she saw the latter transfigured, in ecstacy,
+avoiding a reply.
+
+"Then he did not tell us the truth about himself? But why? Do you know
+the reason? Tell me, my dear, do you know who this young man is?"
+
+Yes, perhaps in reality she did know. An inner voice answered all
+these questions. But she dared not speak; she was unwilling to ask
+herself anything. At the right time and at the proper place the truth
+would be made clear. She thought it was approaching, and felt an
+increase of pride of spirit, and of great love.
+
+"But what is it? What has happened?" asked Hubert, as he bent forward
+and touched the shoulder of his wife.
+
+He was never present at the moment of an occurrence, but always
+appeared to come from a reverie to the realisation of what passed
+about him. When the young man was pointed out to him, he did not
+recognise him at all.
+
+"Is it he? I think not. No, you must be mistaken; it is not he."
+
+Then Hubertine acknowledged that she was not quite sure. At all
+events, it was as well to talk no more about it, but she would inform
+herself later on. But the procession, which had stopped again in order
+that Monseigneur might incense the Holy Sacrament, which was placed
+among the verdure of a temporary altar at the corner of the street,
+was now about to move on again; and Angelique, whose hands seemed lost
+in the basket on her lap, suddenly, in her delight and confusion, made
+a quick movement, and carelessly threw out a great quantity of the
+perfumed petals. At that instant Felicien approached. The leaves fell
+like a little shower, and at last two of them fluttered, balanced
+themselves, then quietly settled down on his hair.
+
+It was over. The canopy had disappeared round the corner of the Grand
+Rue, the end of the cortege went by, leaving the pavements deserted,
+hushed as if quieted by a dreamy faith, in the rather strong
+exhalation of crushed roses. Yet one could still hear in the distance,
+growing weaker and weaker by degrees, the silvery sound of the little
+chains of the swinging censers.
+
+"Oh mother!" said Angelique, pleadingly, "do let us go into the
+church, so as to see them all as they come back."
+
+Hubertine's first impulse was to refuse. But she, for her own part,
+was very anxious to ascertain what she could about Felicien, so she
+replied:
+
+"Yes, after a while, if you really wish to do so."
+
+But they must, of course, wait a little. Angelique, after going to her
+room for her hat, could not keep still. She returned every minute to
+the great window, which was still wide open. She looked to the end of
+the street inquiringly, then she lifted her eyes as if seeking
+something in space itself; and so nervous was she that she spoke
+aloud, as she mentally followed the procession step by step.
+
+"Now they are going down the Rue Basse. Ah! see, they must be turning
+on the square before the Sous Prefecture. There is no end to all the
+long streets in Beaumont-la-Ville. What pleasure can they take in
+seeing Saint Agnes, I would like to know. All these petty tradesmen!"
+
+Above them, in the heavens, was a delicately rose-tinted cloud, with a
+band of white and gold around it, and it seemed as if from it there
+came a devotional peace and a hush of religious expectation. In the
+immobility of the air one realised that all civil life was suspended,
+as if God had left His house, and everyone was awaiting His return
+before resuming their daily occupations. Opposite them the blue
+draperies of the silversmith, and the red curtains of the wax-
+chandler, still barred the interior of their shops and hid the
+contents from view. The streets seemed empty; there was no
+reverberation from one to the other, except that of the slow march of
+the clergy, whose progress could easily be realised from every corner
+of the town.
+
+"Mother! mother! I assure you that now they are at the corner of the
+Rue Magloire. They will soon come up the hill."
+
+She was mistaken, for it was only half-past six, and the procession
+never came back before a quarter-past seven. She should have known
+well, had she not been over-impatient, that the canopy must be only at
+the lower wharf of the Ligneul. But she was too excited to think.
+
+"Oh! mother dear! _do_ hurry, or we may not find any places."
+
+"Come, make haste then, little one," at last Hubertine said, smiling
+in spite of herself. "We shall certainly be obliged to wait a great
+while, but never mind."
+
+"As for me, I will remain at home," said Hubert. "I can take down and
+put away the embroidered panels, and then I will set the table for
+dinner."
+
+The church seemed empty to them, as the Blessed Sacrament was no
+longer there. All the doors were wide open, like those of a house in
+complete disorder, where one is awaiting the return of the master.
+Very few persons came in; the great altar alone, a sarcophagus of
+severe Romanesque style, glittered as if burning at the end of the
+nave, covered as it was with stars from the flame of many candles; all
+the rest of the enormous building--the aisles, the chapels, and the
+arches--seemed filled with shadow under the coming-on of the evening
+darkness.
+
+Slowly, in order to gain a little patience, Angelique and Hubertine
+walked round the edifice. Low down, it seemed as if crushed, thickset
+columns supported the semicircular arches of the side-aisles. They
+walked the whole length of the dark chapels, which were buried almost
+as if they were crypts. Then, when they crossed over, before the great
+entrance portal, under the triforium of the organ, they had a feeling
+of deliverance as they raised their eyes towards the high, Gothic
+windows of the nave, which shot up so gracefully above the heavy
+Romanesque coursed work. But they continued by the southern side-
+aisle, and the feeling of suffocation returned again. At the cross of
+the transept four enormous pillars made the four corners, and rose to
+a great height, then struck off to support the roof. There was still
+to be found a delicate purple-tinted light, the farewell of the day,
+through the rose windows of the side fronts. They had crossed the
+three steps which led to the choir, then they turned by the
+circumference of the apse, which was the very oldest part of the
+building, and seemed most sepulchral. They stopped one moment and
+leaned against the ancient grating, which entirely surrounded the
+choir, and which was most elaborately wrought, that they might look at
+the flaming altar, where each separate light was reflected in the old
+polished oak of the stalls, most marvellous stalls, covered with rare
+sculptures. So at last they came back to the point from which they
+started, lifting up their heads as if they breathed more freely from
+the heights of the nave, which the growing shades at night drove
+farther away, and enlarged the old walls, on which were faint remains
+of paintings and of gold.
+
+"I know perfectly well that we are altogether too early," said
+Hubertine.
+
+Angelique, without replying, said, as if to herself:
+
+"How grand it is!"
+
+It really seemed to her as if she had never known the church before,
+but that she had just seen it for the first time. Her eyes wandered
+over the motionless sea of chairs, then went to the depth of the
+chapels, where she could only imagine were tombs and old funereal
+stones, on account of the increased darkness therein. But she saw at
+last the Chapel Hautecoeur, where she recognised the window that had
+been repaired, with its Saint George, that now looked vague as a
+dream, in the dusk. She was unusually happy.
+
+At last there was a gentle shaking through the whole building, and the
+great clock struck. Then the bell began to ring.
+
+"Ah! now," she said, "look, for they are really coming up the Rue
+Magloire."
+
+This time it was indeed so. A crowd invaded the church, the aisles
+were soon filled, and one realised that each minute the procession
+approached nearer and nearer. The noise increased with the pealing of
+the bells, with a certain rushing movement of air by the great
+entrance, the portal of which was wide open.
+
+Angelique, leaning on Hubertine's shoulder, made herself as tall as
+possible by standing upon the points of her feet, as she looked
+towards this arched open space, the roundness of whose top was
+perfectly defined in the pale twilight of the Place du Cloitre. The
+first to appear was, of course, the bearer of the Cross, accompanied
+by his two acolytes with their candelabra; and behind them the Master
+of the Ceremonies hurried along--the good Abbe Cornille, who now
+seemed quite out of breath and overcome by fatigue. At the threshold
+of the door, the silhouette of each new arrival was thrown out for a
+second, clear and strong, then passed quickly away in the darkness of
+the interior. There were the laymen, the schools, the associations,
+the fraternities, whose banners, like sails, wavered for an instant,
+then suddenly vanished in the shade. One saw again the pale "daughters
+of Mary," who, as they entered, still sang with their voices like
+those of seraphim.
+
+The Cathedral had room for all. The nave was slowly filled, the men
+being at the right and the women at the left. But night had come. The
+whole place outside was dotted with bright points, hundreds of moving
+lights, and soon it was the turn for the clergy, the tapers that were
+held outside the ranks making a double yellow cord as they passed
+through the door. The tapers seemed endless as they succeeded each
+other and multiplied themselves; the great seminary, the parishes, and
+the Cathedral; the choristers still singing the anthem, and the canons
+in their white pluvials. Then little by little the church became
+lighted up, seemed inhabited, illuminated, overpowered by hundreds of
+stars, like a summer sky.
+
+Two chairs being unoccupied, Angelique stood upon one of them.
+
+"Get down, my dear," whispered Hubertine, "for that is forbidden."
+
+But she tranquilly remained there, and did not move.
+
+"Why is it forbidden? I must see, at all events. Oh! how exquisite all
+this is!"
+
+At last she prevailed upon her mother to get upon the other chair.
+
+Now the whole Cathedral was glowing with a reddish yellow light. This
+billow of candles which crossed it illuminated the lower arches of the
+side-aisles, the depth of the chapels, and glittered upon the glass of
+some shrine or upon the gold of some tabernacle. The rays even
+penetrated into the apse, and the sepulchral crypts were brightened up
+by them. The choir was a mass of flame, with its altar on fire, its
+glistening stalls, and its old railing, whose ornamentation stood out
+boldly. And the flight of the nave was stronger marked than ever, with
+the heavy curved pillars below, supporting the round arches, while
+above, the numbers of little columns grew smaller and smaller as they
+burst forth among the broken arches of the ogives, like an
+inexpressible declaration of faith and love which seemed to come from
+the lights. In the centre, under the roof, along the ribs of the nave,
+there was a yellow cloud, a thick colour of wax, from the multitude of
+little tapers.
+
+But now, above the sound of feet and the moving of chairs, one heard
+again the falling of the chains of the censers. Then the organ pealed
+forth majestically, a glorious burst of music that filled to
+overflowing the highest arches as if with the rumbling of thunder. It
+was at this instant that Monseigneur arrived on the Place du Cloitre.
+The statue of Saint Agnes had reached the apse, still borne by the
+surpliced clerks, and her face looked very calm under the light, as if
+she were more than happy to return to her dreams of four centuries. At
+last, preceded by the crosier, and followed by the mitre, Monseigneur
+entered with his deacons under the canopy, still having his two hands
+covered with a white scarf, and holding the Blessed Sacrament in the
+same position as at first. The canopy, which was borne down the
+central aisle, was stopped at the railing of the choir, and there, on
+account of a certain unavoidable confusion, the Bishop was for a
+moment made to approach the persons who formed his suite. Since
+Felicien had reappeared, Angelique had looked at him constantly. It so
+happened that on account of the pressure he was placed a little at the
+right of the canopy, and at that moment she saw very near together the
+white head of Monseigneur and the blonde head of the young man. That
+glance was a revelation; a sudden light came to her eyes; she joined
+her hands together as she said aloud:
+
+"Oh! Monseigneur, the son of Monseigneur!"
+
+Her secret escaped her. It was an involuntary cry, the certainty which
+revealed itself in this sudden fact of their resemblance. Perhaps, in
+the depths of her mind, she already knew it, but she would never have
+dared to have said so; whilst now it was self-evident, a fact of which
+there could be no denial. From everything around her, from her own
+soul, from inanimate objects, from past recollections, her cry seemed
+repeated.
+
+Hubertine, quite overcome, said in a whisper, "This young man is the
+son of Monseigneur?"
+
+Around these two the crowd had gradually accumulated. They were well
+known and were greatly admired; the mother still adorable in her
+simple toilette of linen, the daughter with the angelic grace of a
+cherubim, in her gown of white foulard, as light as a feather. They
+were so handsome and in such full view, as they stood upon their
+chairs, that from every direction eyes were turned towards them, and
+admiring glances given them.
+
+"But yes, indeed, my good lady," said the _mere_ Lemballeuse, who
+chanced to be in the group; "but yes, he is the son of Monseigneur.
+But how does it happen that you have not already heard of it? And not
+only that, but he is a wonderfully handsome young man, and so rich!
+Rich! Yes indeed, he could buy the whole town if he wished to do so.
+He has millions and millions!"
+
+Hubertine turned very pale as she listened.
+
+"You must have heard his history spoken of?" continued the beggar-
+woman. "His mother died soon after his birth, and it was on that
+account that Monseigneur concluded to become a clergyman. Now,
+however, after all these years, he sent for his son to join him. He
+is, in fact, Felicien VII d'Hautecoeur, with a title as if he were a
+real prince."
+
+Then Hubertine was intensely grieved. But Angelique beamed with joy
+before the commencement of the realisation of her dream. She was not
+in the slightest degree astonished, for she had always known that he
+would be the richest, the noblest, and the handsomest of men. So her
+joy was intense and perfect, without the slightest anxiety for the
+future, or suspicion of any obstacle that could possibly come between
+them. In short, he would in his turn now make himself known, and would
+tell everything. As she had fancied, gold would stream down with the
+little flickering flames of the candles. The organs would send forth
+their most glorious music on the occasion of their betrothal. The line
+of the Hautecoeurs would continue royally from the beginning of the
+legend--Norbert I, Jean V, Felicien III, Jean XII, then the last,
+Felicien VII, who just turned towards her his noble face. He was the
+descendant of the cousins of the Virgin, the master, the superb son,
+showing himself in all his beauty at the side of his father.
+
+Just then Felicien smiled sweetly at her, and she did not see the
+angry look of Monseigneur, who had remarked her standing on the chair,
+above the crowd, blushing in her pride and love.
+
+"Oh, my poor dear child!" sighed Hubertine.
+
+But the chaplain and the acolytes were ranged on the right and the
+left, and the first deacon having taken the Holy Sacrament from the
+hands of Monseigneur, he placed it on the altar. It was the final
+Benediction--the _Tantum ergo_ sung loudly by the choristers, the
+incenses of the boxes burning in the censers, the strange, brusque
+silence during the prayer--and in the midst of the lighted church,
+overflowing with clergy and with people, under the high, springing
+arches, Monseigneur remounted to the altar, took again in his two
+hands the great golden sun, which he waved back and forth in the air
+three times, with a slow sign of the Cross.
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XI
+
+That same evening, on returning from church, Angelique thought to
+herself, "I shall see him again very soon, for he will certainly be in
+the Clos-Marie, and I will go there to meet him."
+
+Without having exchanged a word with each other, they appeared to have
+silently arranged this interview. The family dined as usual in the
+kitchen, but it was eight o'clock before they were seated at the
+table. Hubert, quite excited by this day of recreation and of fete,
+was the only one who had anything to say. Hubertine, unusually quiet,
+scarcely replied to her husband, but kept her looks fixed upon the
+young girl, who ate heartily and with a good appetite, although she
+scarcely seemed to pay any attention to the food, or to know that she
+put her fork to her mouth, so absorbed was she by her fancies. And
+under this candid forehead, as under the crystal of the purest water,
+Hubertine read her thoughts clearly, and followed them as they formed
+themselves in her mind one by one.
+
+At nine o'clock they were greatly surprised by a ringing of the door-
+bell. It proved to be the Abbe Cornille, who, notwithstanding his
+great fatigue, had come to tell them that Monseigneur the Bishop had
+greatly admired the three old panels of marvellous embroidery.
+
+"Yes, indeed! And he spoke of them so enthusiastically to me that I
+was sure it would please you to know it."
+
+Angelique, who had roused up on hearing the name of Monseigneur, fell
+back again into her reveries as soon as the conversation turned to the
+procession. Then after a few minutes she got up.
+
+"But where are you going, dear?" asked Hubertine.
+
+The question startled her, as if she herself knew not why she had left
+her seat.
+
+"I am going upstairs, mother, for I am very tired."
+
+In spite of this plausible excuse, Hubertine imagined the true reason
+that influenced her. It was the need of being by herself, the haste of
+communing alone with her great happiness.
+
+When she held her in her arms pressed against her breast, she felt
+that she was trembling. She almost seemed to avoid her usual evening
+kiss. Looking anxiously in her face, Hubertine read in her eyes the
+feverish expectation connected with the hoped-for meeting. It was all
+so evident to her that she promised herself to keep a close watch.
+
+"Be good, dear, and sleep well."
+
+But already, after a hurried good-night to Hubert and to the Abbe
+Cornille, Angelique was halfway up the stairs, quite disturbed, as she
+realised that her secret had almost escaped her. Had her mother held
+her against her heart one second longer, she would have told her
+everything. When she had shut herself in her own room, and doubly
+locked her door, the light troubled her, and she blew out her candle.
+The moon, which rose later and later, had not yet appeared above the
+horizon, and the night was very dark. Without undressing, she seated
+herself before the open window, looked out into the deep shade, and
+waited patiently for the hours to pass. The minutes went by rapidly,
+as she was fully occupied with the one idea that as soon as the clock
+struck for midnight she would go down to find Felicien. As it would be
+the most natural thing in the world to do, she traced out her way,
+step by step, and every movement she would make with the most perfect
+composure.
+
+It was not very late when she heard the Abbe Cornille take his leave.
+Soon after, the Huberts, in their turn, came upstairs. Then it seemed
+to her as if someone came out of their chamber, and with furtive steps
+moved cautiously as far as the foot of the stairway, then stopped, as
+if listening for a moment before returning. Then the house soon sank,
+as if in the quiet of a deep sleep.
+
+When the great church clock struck twelve, Angelique left her seat.
+"Now I must go, for he is waiting for me." She unlocked the door, and,
+passing out, neglected closing it after her. Going down the first
+flight of stairs, she stopped as she approached the room of the
+Huberts, but heard nothing--nothing but the indefinable quivering of
+silence. Moreover, she was neither in a hurry, nor had she any fear,
+for being totally unconscious of any wrong intentions, she felt at
+perfect ease. It would have been quite impossible for her not to have
+gone down. An inward power directed and led her, and it all seemed so
+simple and right; she would have smiled at the idea of a hidden
+danger. Once in the lower rooms, she passed through the kitchen to go
+out into the garden, and again forgot to fasten the shutters. Then she
+walked rapidly towards the little gate of the Clos-Marie, which she
+also left wide open after her. Notwithstanding the obscurity and the
+dense shadows in the field, she did not hesitate an instant, but went
+direct to the little plank which served as a bridge to the Chevrotte,
+crossed it, guiding herself by feeling the way, as if in a familiar
+place, where every tree and bush were well known to her. Turning to
+the right, under a great willow-tree, she had only to put out her
+hands to have them earnestly grasped by Felicien, whom she knew would
+be there in waiting for her.
+
+For a minute, without speaking, Angelique pressed Felicien's hands in
+hers. They could not see each other, for the sky was covered with a
+misty cloud of heat, and the pale moon which had just risen, had not
+yet lighted it up. At length she spoke in the darkness, her heart
+filled to overflowing with her great happiness:
+
+"Oh, my dear seigneur, how I love you, and how grateful I am to you!"
+
+She laughed aloud at the realisation of the fact that at last she knew
+him; she thanked him for being younger, more beautiful, and richer
+even than she had expected him to be. Her gaiety was charming; it was
+a cry of astonishment and of gratitude before this present of love,
+this fulfillment of her dreams.
+
+"You are the king. You are my master; and lo! here am I, your slave. I
+belong to you henceforth, and my only regret is that I am of so little
+worth. But I am proud of being yours; it is sufficient for you to love
+me, and that I may be in my turn a queen. It was indeed well that I
+knew you were to come, and so waited for you; my heart is overflowing
+with joy since finding that you are so great, so far above me. Ah! my
+dear seigneur, how I thank you, and how I love you."
+
+Gently he put his arm around her as he said:
+
+"Come and see where I live."
+
+He made her cross the Clos-Marie, among the wild grass and herbs, and
+then she understood for the first time in what way he had come every
+night into the field from the park of the Bishop's Palace. It was
+through an old gate, that had been unused for a long time, and which
+this evening he had left half open. Taking Angelique's hand, he led
+her in that way into the great garden of the Monseigneur.
+
+The rising moon was half-hidden in the sky, under a veil of warm mist,
+and its rays fell down upon them with a white, mysterious light. There
+were no stars visible, but the whole vault of heaven was filled with a
+dim lustre, which quietly penetrated everything in this serene night.
+Slowly they walked along on the borders of the Chevrotte, which
+crossed the park; but it was no longer the rapid rivulet rushing over
+a pebbly descent--it was a quiet, languid brook, gliding along through
+clumps of trees. Under this mass of luminous vapour, between the
+bushes which seemed to bathe and float therein, it was like an Elysian
+stream which unfolded itself before them.
+
+Angelique soon resumed her gay chattering.
+
+"I am so proud and so happy to be here on your arm."
+
+Felicien, touched by such artless, frank simplicity, listened with
+delight as she talked unrestrainedly, concealing nothing, but telling
+all her inmost thoughts, as she opened her heart to him. Why should
+she even think of keeping anything back? She had never harmed anyone,
+so she had only good things to say.
+
+"Ah, my dear child, it is I who ought to be exceedingly grateful to
+you, inasmuch as you are willing to love me a little in so sweet a
+way. Tell me once more how much you love me. Tell me exactly what you
+thought when you found out at last who I really was."
+
+But with a pretty, impatient movement she interrupted him.
+
+"No, no; let us talk of you, only of you. Am I really of any
+consequence? At all events, what matters it who I am or what I think!
+For the moment you are the only one of importance."
+
+And keeping as near him as possible, going more slowly along the sides
+of the enchanted river, she questioned him incessantly, wishing to
+learn everything about him, of his childhood, his youth, and the
+twenty years he had passed away from his father. "I already know that
+your mother died when you were an infant, and that you grew up under
+the care of an uncle who is a clergyman. I also know that Monseigneur
+refused to see you again."
+
+Then Felicien answered, speaking in a very low tone, with a voice that
+seemed as if it came from the far-away past.
+
+"Yes, my father idolised my mother, and it seemed to him as if I were
+guilty, since my birth had cost her her life. My uncle brought me up
+in entire ignorance of my family, harshly too, as if I had been a poor
+child confided to his care. I had no idea of my true position until
+very recently. It is scarcely two years, in fact, since it was
+revealed to me. But I was not at all surprised in hearing the truth;
+it seemed as if I had always half-realised that a great fortune
+belonged to me. All regular work wearied me; I was good for nothing
+except to run about the fields and amuse myself. At last I took a
+great fancy for the painted windows of our little church." Angelique
+interrupted him by laughing gaily, and he joined her in her mirth for
+a moment.
+
+"I became a workman like yourself. I had fully decided to earn my
+living by painting on glass, and was studying for that purpose, when
+all this fortune poured down upon me. My father was intensely
+disappointed when my uncle wrote him that I was a good-for-nothing
+fellow, and that I would never consent to enter into the service of
+the Church. It had been his expressed wish that I should become a
+clergyman; perhaps he had an idea that in so doing I could atone for
+the death of my mother. He became, however, reconciled at last, and
+wished for me to be here and remain near him. Ah! how good it is to
+live, simply to live," he exclaimed. "Yes, to live, to love, and to be
+loved in return."
+
+This trembling cry, which resounded in the clear night air, vibrated
+with the earnest feeling of his healthy youth. It was full of passion,
+of sympathy for his dead mother, and of the intense ardour he had
+thrown into this, his first love, born of mystery. It filled all his
+spirit, his beauty, his loyalty, his ignorance, and his earnest desire
+of life.
+
+"Like you," he continued, "I was, indeed, expecting the unknown, and
+the evening when you first appeared at the window I also recognised
+you at once. Tell me all that you have ever thought, and what you were
+in the habit of doing in the days that have passed." But again she
+refused, saying gently:
+
+"No; speak only of yourself. I am eager to know every petty incident
+of your life, so please keep nothing back. In that way I shall realise
+that you belong to me, and that I love you in the past as well as in
+the present."
+
+She never would have been fatigued in listening to him as he talked of
+his life, but was in a state of joyous ecstasy in thus becoming
+thoroughly acquainted with him, adoring him like a little child at the
+feet of some saint. Neither of them wearied of repeating the same
+things: how much they loved each other and how dearly they were
+beloved in return. The same words returned constantly to their lips,
+but they always seemed new, as they assumed unforeseen, immeasurable
+depths of meaning. Their happiness increased as they thus made known
+the secrets of their hearts, and lingered over the music of the words
+that passed their lips. He confessed to her the charm her voice had
+always been to him, so much so that as soon as he heard it he became
+at once her devoted slave. She acknowledged the delicious fear she
+always had at seeing his pale face flush at the slightest anger or
+displeasure.
+
+They had now left the misty banks of the Chevrotte, and arm-in-arm
+they entered under the shadows of the great elm-trees.
+
+"Oh! this beautiful garden," whispered Angelique, happy to breathe in
+the freshness which fell from the trees. "For years I have wished to
+enter it; and now I am here with you--yes, I am here."
+
+It did not occur to her to ask him where he was leading her, but she
+gave herself up to his guidance, under the darkness of these
+centenarian trees. The ground was soft under their feet; the archway
+of leaves above them was high, like the vaulted ceiling of a church.
+There was neither sound nor breath, only the beating of their own
+hearts.
+
+At length he pushed open the door of a little pavilion, and said to
+her: "Go in; this is my home."
+
+It was there that his father had seen fit to install him all by
+himself, in this distant corner of the park. On the first floor there
+was a hall, and one very large room, which was now lighted by a great
+lamp. Above was a complete little apartment.
+
+"You can see for yourself," he continued smilingly, "that you are at
+the house of an artisan. This is my shop."
+
+It was a working-room indeed; the caprice of a wealthy young man, who
+amused himself in his leisure hours by painting on glass. He had
+re-found the ancient methods of the thirteenth century, so that he
+could fancy himself as being one of the primitive glass-workers,
+producing masterpieces with the poor, unfinished means of the older
+time. An ancient table answered all his purposes. It was coated with
+moist, powdered chalk, upon which he drew his designs in red, and
+where he cut the panes with heated irons, disdaining the modern use of
+a diamond point. The muffle, a little furnace made after the fashion
+of an old model, was just now quite heated; the baking of some picture
+was going on, which was to be used in repairing another stained window
+in the Cathedral; and in cases on every side were glasses of all
+colours which he had ordered to be made expressly for him, in blue,
+yellow, green, and red, in many lighter tints, marbled, smoked,
+shaded, pearl-coloured, and black. But the walls of the room were hung
+with admirable stuffs, and the working materials disappeared in the
+midst of a marvellous luxury of furniture. In one corner, on an old
+tabernacle which served as a pedestal, a great gilded statue of the
+Blessed Virgin seemed to smile upon them.
+
+"So you can work--you really can work," repeated Angelique with
+childish joy.
+
+She was very much amused with the little furnace, and insisted upon it
+that he should explain to her everything connected with his labour.
+Why he contented himself with the examples of the old masters, who
+used glass coloured in the making, which he shaded simply with black;
+the reason he limited himself to little, distinct figures, to the
+gestures and draperies of which he gave a decided character; his ideas
+upon the art of the glass-workers, which in reality declined as soon
+as they began to design better, to paint, and to enamel it; and his
+final opinion that a stained-glass window should be simply a
+transparent mosaic, in which the brightest colours should be arranged
+in the most harmonious order, so as to make a delicate, shaded
+bouquet. But at this moment little did she care for the art in itself.
+These things had but one interest for her now--that they were
+connected with him, that they seemed to bring her nearer to him and to
+strengthen the tie between them.
+
+"Oh!" she exclaimed, "how happy we shall be together. You will paint,
+while I embroider."
+
+He had just retaken her hands, in the centre of this great room, in
+the luxury of which she was quite at her ease, as it seemed to be her
+natural surrounding, where her grace would be fully developed. Both of
+them remained silent for a moment. Then she was, as usual, the first
+to speak.
+
+"Now everything is decided upon, is it not?"
+
+"What?" he smilingly asked, "what do you mean?"
+
+"Our marriage."
+
+He hesitated an instant. His face, which had been very pale, flushed
+quickly. She was disturbed at such a change.
+
+"Have I made you angry in any way?"
+
+But he had already conquered himself, and pressed her hands tenderly,
+with a grasp that seemed to cover everything.
+
+"Yes, it is decided upon, and it is sufficient for you to wish for a
+thing that it should be done, no matter how many obstacles may oppose
+it. Henceforward my one great desire in life will be to obey you."
+
+Then her face beamed with perfect happiness and delight.
+
+She did not have a single doubt. All seemed to her quite natural, to
+be so well-arranged that it could be finished on the morrow with the
+same ease as in many of the miracles of the "Golden Legend." The idea
+never occurred to her that there should be the slightest hindrance or
+the least delay. Since they really loved each other, why should they
+be any longer separated? It was the most simple thing in the world for
+two persons who loved each other to be married. She was so secure in
+her happiness that she was perfectly calm.
+
+"Since it is agreed upon," she said jokingly, "give me your hand."
+
+He took her little hand and kissed it, as he said:
+
+"It is all arranged."
+
+She then hastened to go away, in the fear of being surprised by the
+dawn, and also impatient to relieve her mind of her secret. He wished
+to accompany her.
+
+"No, no," she replied. "We should not get back before daylight. I can
+easily find the way. Good-bye until to-morrow."
+
+"Until to-morrow, then."
+
+Felicien obeyed, and watched Angelique as she ran, first under the
+shady elms, then along the banks of the Chevrotte, which were now
+bathed in light. Soon she closed the gate of the park, then darted
+across the Clos-Marie, through the high grass. While on her way, she
+thought it would be impossible to wait until sunrise, but that she
+would rap at the door of the Huberts' room as soon as she reached
+home, that she might wake them up and tell them everything. She was in
+such an expansion of happiness, such a turmoil of sincerity, that she
+realised that she was incapable of keeping five minutes longer this
+great secret which had been hers for so long a time. She entered into
+their garden and closed the gate.
+
+And there, near the Cathedral, Angelique saw Hubertine, who waited for
+her in the night, seated upon the stone bench, which was surrounded by
+a small cluster of lilac-bushes. Awakened, warned by some
+inexpressible feeling, she had gone upstairs, then down again, and on
+finding all the doors open, that of the chamber as well as that of the
+house, she had understood what had happened. So, uncertain what it was
+best to do, or where to go, in the fear lest she might aggravate
+matters, she sat down anxiously.
+
+Angelique immediately ran to her, without embarrassment, kissed her
+repeatedly, her heart beating with joy as she laughed merrily at the
+thought that she had no longer need of hiding anything from her.
+
+"Oh, mother mine, everything is arranged! We are to be married very
+soon, and I am so happy."
+
+Before replying, Hubertine examined her closely. But her fears
+vanished instantly before the limpid eyes and the pure lips of this
+exquisite young girl. Yet she was deeply troubled, and great tears
+rolled down her cheeks.
+
+"My poor, dear child," she whispered, as she had done the previous
+evening in church.
+
+Astonished to see her in such a way, she who was always so equable,
+who never wept, Angelique exclaimed:
+
+"But what is the matter, mother? It is, indeed, true that I have not
+done right, inasmuch as I have not made you my confidante. But you
+would pardon me if you knew how much I have suffered from it, and how
+keen my remorse has been. Since at first I did not speak, later on I
+did not dare to break the silence. Will you forgive me?"
+
+She had seated herself near her mother, and had placed her arm
+caressingly around her waist. The old bench seemed almost hidden in
+this moss-covered corner of the Cathedral. Above their heads the
+lilacs made a little shade, while near them was the bush of eglantine
+which the young girl had set out in the hope that it might bear roses;
+but, having been neglected for some time, it simply vegetated, and had
+returned to its natural state.
+
+"Mother, let me tell you everything now. Come, listen to me, please."
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XII
+
+Then, in a low tone, Angelique began her story. She related in a flow
+of inexhaustible words all that had happened, calling up the most
+minute details, growing more and more excited at the recollection of
+them. She omitted nothing, but searched her memory as if it were for a
+confession. She was not at all embarrassed, although her cheeks grew
+very red and her eyes sparkled with flashes of pride; yet she did not
+raise her voice, but continued to talk earnestly in a half-whisper.
+
+At length Hubertine interrupted her, speaking also very low:
+
+"Ah, my dear! Now you are too excited. You have indeed to correct
+yourself, for you are carried away by your feelings, as if by a great
+wind. Ah, my vain, my headstrong child, you are always the same little
+girl who refused to wash up the kitchen floor, and who kissed her own
+hands."
+
+Angelique could not prevent herself from laughing.
+
+"No, do not laugh. It may be that by-and-by you will not have tears
+enough to weep. My poor darling, this marriage can never take place."
+
+Again her gaiety burst out in a long musical laugh.
+
+"But mother, mother, what are you saying? Do you wish to punish me by
+teasing me? It is a very simple matter. This evening Felicien is to
+talk of it with his father. To-morrow he will come to arrange
+everything with you."
+
+Could it be true that she believed all this? Hubertine was distressed,
+and knew not what to do. At last she concluded it was best to be
+pitiless and tell her; that it would be impossible for a little
+embroiderer without money and without name to marry Felicien
+d'Hautecoeur. A young man who was worth so many millions! The last
+descendant of one of the oldest families of France! No, that could
+never be.
+
+But at each new obstacle Angelique tranquilly replied: "But why not?"
+It would be a real scandal, a marriage beyond all ordinary conditions
+of happiness. Did she hope, then, to contend against all the world?
+"But why not?" Monseigneur is called very strict and very haughty,
+proud of his name, and severe in his criticisms in regard to all marks
+of affection. Could she dare to expect to bend him?
+
+"But why not?" And, unshakable in her faith, in her firm, ingenuous
+manner she said: "It is very odd, dear mother, that you should think
+people all so bad! Especially when I have just assured you that
+everything is well under way, and is sure to come out all right. Do
+you not recollect that only two months ago you scolded me, and
+ridiculed my plans? Yet I was right, and everything that I expected
+has come to pass."
+
+"But, unhappy child, wait for the end!"
+
+Hubertine now thought of the past, and was angry with herself, as she
+now reflected, more bitterly than ever before, that Angelique had been
+brought up in such ignorance. Again she predicted to her the hard
+lessons of the reality of life, and she would have liked to have
+explained to her some of the cruelties and abominations of the world,
+but, greatly embarrassed, she could not find the necessary words. What
+a grief it would be to her if some day she were forced to accuse
+herself of having brought about the unhappiness of this child, who had
+been kept alone as a recluse, and allowed to dwell in the continued
+falsehood of imagination and dreams!
+
+"Listen to me, dearest. You certainly would not wish to marry this
+young man against the wish of us all, and without the consent of his
+father?"
+
+Angelique had grown very serious. She looked her mother in the face,
+and in a serious tone replied:
+
+"Why should I not do so? I love him, and he loves me."
+
+With a pang of anguish, Hubertine took her again in her arms, clasped
+her tenderly, but convulsively, and looked at her earnestly, but
+without speaking. The pale moon had disappeared from sight behind the
+Cathedral, and the flying, misty clouds were now delicately coloured
+in the heavens by the approach of the dawn. They were both of them
+enveloped in this purity of the early morn, in the great fresh
+silence, which was alone disturbed by the little chirping of the just-
+awakening birds.
+
+"But alas! my dear child, happiness is only found in obedience and in
+humility. For one little hour of passion, or of pride, we sometimes
+are obliged to suffer all our lives. If you wish to be contented on
+this earth, be submissive, be ready to renounce and give up
+everything."
+
+But feeling that she was still rebellious under her embrace, that
+which she had never said to anyone, that which she still hesitated to
+speak of, almost involuntarily escaped from her lips:
+
+"Listen to me once more, my dear child. You think that we are happy,
+do you not, your father and I. We should indeed be so had not our
+lives been embittered by a great vexation."
+
+She lowered her voice still more, as she related with a trembling
+breath their history. The marriage without the consent of her mother,
+the death of their infant, and their vain desire to have another
+child, which was evidently the punishment of their fault. Still, they
+adored each other. They had lived by working, had wanted for nothing;
+but their regret for the child they had lost was so ever-present that
+they would have been wretchedly unhappy, would have quarrelled, and
+perhaps even have been separated, had it not been that her husband was
+so thoroughly good, while for herself she had always tried to be just
+and reasonable.
+
+"Reflect, my daughter. Do not put any stumbling-block in your path
+which will make you suffer later on. Be humble, obey, check the
+impulse of your heart as much as possible."
+
+Subdued at last, Angelique restrained her tears, but grew very pale as
+she listened, and interrupted her by saying:
+
+"Mother, you pain me terribly. I love him, and I am sure that he loves
+me."
+
+Then she allowed her tears to flow. She was quite overcome by all she
+had listened to, softened, and with an expression in her eyes as if
+deeply wounded by the glimpse given her of the probable truth of the
+case. Yet she could suffer, and would willingly die, if need be, for
+her love.
+
+Then Hubertine decided to continue.
+
+"I do not wish to pain you too deeply at once, yet it is absolutely
+necessary that you should know the whole truth. Last evening, after
+you had gone upstairs, I had quite a talk with the Abbe Cornille, and
+he explained to me why Monseigneur, after great hesitation, had at
+last decided to call his son to Beaumont. One of his greatest troubles
+was the impetuosity of the young man, the uncontrollable haste which
+he manifested to plunge into the excitement of life, without listening
+to the advice of his elders. After having with pain renounced all hope
+of making him a priest, his father found that he could not establish
+him in any occupation suitable to his rank and his fortune. He would
+never be anything but a headstrong fellow, restless, wandering,
+yielding to his artistic tastes when so inclined. He was alarmed at
+seeing in his son traits of character like those from which he himself
+had so cruelly suffered. At last, from fear that he might take some
+foolish step, and fall in love with someone beneath him in position,
+he wished to have him here, that he might be married at once."
+
+"Very well," said Angelique, who did not yet understand.
+
+"Such a marriage had been proposed even before his arrival, and all
+preliminaries were settled yesterday, so that the Abbe Cornille
+formally announced that in the autumn Felicien would wed Mademoiselle
+Claire de Voincourt. You know very well the Hotel de Voincourt there,
+close to the Bishop's Palace. The family are very intimate with
+Monseigneur. On both sides, nothing better could be hoped for, either
+in the way of name or of fortune. The Abbe himself highly approves of
+the union."
+
+The young girl no longer listened to these reasons of the fitness of
+things. Suddenly an image appeared to come before her eyes--that of
+Claire. She saw her, as she had occasionally had a glimpse of her in
+the alleys of the Park during the winter, or as she had seen her on
+fete days in the Cathedral. A tall young lady, a brunette, very
+handsome, of a much more striking beauty than her own, and with a
+royal bearing and appearance. Notwithstanding her haughty air, she was
+said to be very good and kind.
+
+"So he is to marry this elegant young lady, who is not only beautiful
+but very rich," she murmured.
+
+Then, as if suddenly pierced by a sharp agony, she exclaimed:
+
+"He uttered a falsehood! He did not tell me this!"
+
+She recollected now the momentary hesitation of Felicien, the rush of
+blood which had coloured his cheeks when she spoke to him of their
+marriage. The shock was so great that she turned deadly pale, and her
+head fell heavily on her mother's shoulders.
+
+"My darling, my dear darling! This is, indeed, a cruel thing; I know
+it well. But it would have been still worse had you waited. Take
+courage, then, and draw at once the knife from the wound. Repeat to
+yourself, whenever the thought of this young man comes to you, that
+never would Monseigneur, the terrible Jean XII, whose intractable
+pride, it appears, is still recollected by all the world, give his
+son, the last of his race, to a little embroiderer, found under a
+gateway and adopted by poor people like ourselves."
+
+In her weakness, Angelique heard all this without making any
+objection. What was it she felt pass over her face? A cold breath
+coming from a distance, from far above the roofs of the houses, seemed
+to freeze her blood. Was it true that her mother was telling her of
+this misery of the world, this sad reality, in the same way that
+parents relate the story of the wolf to unreasonable children? She
+would never forget the shock and the grief of this first experience of
+a bitter disappointment. Yet, however, she already excused Felicien.
+He had told no falsehood; he simply had been silent. Were his father
+to wish him to marry this young girl, no doubt he would refuse to do
+so. But as yet he had not dared to rebel. As he had not said anything
+to her of the matter, perhaps it was because he had just made up his
+mind as to what it was best for him to do. Before this sudden
+vanishing away of her air-castles, pale and weak from the rude touch
+of the actual life, she still kept her faith, and trusted, in spite of
+all, in the future realisation of her dream. Eventually the fair
+promises for the future would come to pass, even although now her
+pride was crushed and she sank down into a state of humiliation and
+resignation.
+
+"Mother, it is true I have done wrong, but I will never sin again. I
+promise you that I will be patient, and submit myself without a murmur
+of revolt to whatever Heaven wishes me to be."
+
+It was true grace which spoke within her. The trial was great, but she
+was able to conquer, from the effects of the education she had
+received and the excellent example of the home life in which she had
+grown up. Why should she doubt the morrow, when until this present
+moment everyone near her had been so generous and so tender towards
+her? She prayed that she might be able to have the wisdom of
+Catherine, the meekness of Elizabeth, the chastity of Agnes; and
+re-comforted by the aid of the saints, she was sure that they alone
+would help her to triumph over every trouble. Was it not true that her
+old friends the Cathedral, the Clos-Marie, and the Chevrotte, the
+little fresh house of the Huberts, the Huberts themselves, all who
+loved her, would defend her, without her being obliged to do anything,
+except to be obedient and good?
+
+"Then, dear child, you promise me that you will never act contrary to
+our wishes, and above all against those of Monseigneur?"
+
+"Yes, mother, I promise."
+
+"You also promise me not to see this young man again, and no longer to
+indulge in the foolish idea of marrying him?"
+
+At this question her courage failed her. She almost felt the spirit of
+rebellion rise again within her, as she thought of the depth of her
+love. But in a moment she bowed her head and was definitely conquered.
+
+"I promise to do nothing to bring about a meeting with him, and to
+take no steps towards our marriage."
+
+Hubertine, touched to the heart, pressed the young girl most
+affectionately in her arms as she thanked her for her obedience. Oh!
+what a dreadful thing it was, when wishing to do good to the child she
+so tenderly loved, she was forced to make her suffer so intensely. She
+was exhausted, and rose up hastily, surprised that daylight had come.
+The little cry of the birds had increased in every direction, although
+as yet none were to be seen in flight. In the sky the clouds, delicate
+as gauze, seemed to float away in the limpid blueness of the
+atmosphere.
+
+Then Angelique, whose look had mechanically fallen upon her wild rose-
+bush, at last noticed it with its puny leaves. She smiled sadly as she
+said:
+
+"You were right, mother dear; it will never be in blossom."
+
+At seven o'clock in the morning Angelique was at her work as usual.
+The days followed each other, and every forenoon found her seated
+before the chasuble she had left on the previous evening. Nothing
+appeared to be changed outwardly; she kept strictly her promise, shut
+herself up, and made no attempt whatever to see Felicien. This did not
+seem to depress her at all, but she kept her bright, youthful look,
+smiling sweetly at Hubertine when occasionally she saw her eyes fixed
+upon her as if astonished. However, in this enforced silence she
+thought only of him; he was always in her mind.
+
+Her hope remained firm, and she was sure that in spite of all
+obstacles everything would come out all right in the end. In fact, it
+was this feeling of certainty that gave her such an air of courage, of
+haughty rectitude, and of justice.
+
+Hubert from time to time scolded her.
+
+"You are over-doing, my dear; you are really growing pale. I hope at
+least that you sleep well at night."
+
+"Oh yes, father! Like a log! Never in my life did I feel better than
+now."
+
+But Hubertine, becoming anxious in her turn, proposed that they should
+take a little vacation, and said:
+
+"If you would like it, my child, we will shut up the house, and we
+will go, all three of us, to Paris for a while."
+
+"Oh! mother mine, of what are you thinking? What would become of all
+our orders for work? You know I am never in better health than when
+closely occupied."
+
+In reality, Angelique simply awaited a miracle, some manifestation of
+the Invisible which would give her to Felicien. In addition to the
+fact that she had promised to do nothing, what need was there of her
+striving, since in the beyond some unknown power was always working
+for her? So, in her voluntary inaction, while feigning indifference,
+she was continually on the watch, listening to the voices of all that
+quivered around her, and to the little familiar sounds of this circle
+in which she lived and which would assuredly help her. Something must
+eventually come from necessity. As she leaned over her embroidery-
+frame, not far from the open window, she lost not a trembling of the
+leaves, not a murmur of the Chevrotte. The slightest sighs from the
+Cathedral came to her, magnified tenfold by the eagerness of her
+attention; she even heard the slippers of the beadle as he walked
+round the altar when putting out the tapers. Again at her side she
+felt the light touch of mysterious wings; she knew that she was aided
+by the unknown, and at times she even turned suddenly, thinking that a
+phantom had whispered in her ear the way of gaining the hoped-for
+victory. But days passed and no change came.
+
+At night, that she need not break her word, Angelique at first did not
+go out upon the balcony, for fear of being tempted to rejoin Felicien,
+were she to see him below her. She remained quietly waiting in her
+chamber. Then, as the leaves even scarcely stirred, but seemed to
+sleep, she ventured out, and began to question the dark shadows as
+before.
+
+From whence would the miracle come? Without doubt, in the Bishop's
+garden would be seen a flaming hand, which would beckon to her to
+approach.
+
+Or, perhaps, the sign would appear in the Cathedral, the great organs
+of which would peal forth, and would call her to the altar.
+
+Nothing would have surprised her: neither the doves of the "Golden
+Legend" bringing the words of benediction, nor the intervention of
+saints, who would enter through the walls, to tell her that
+Monseigneur wished to see her. The only thing at which she wondered
+was the slowness of the working of the marvel. Like the day, the
+nights succeeded nights, yet nothing, nothing manifested itself.
+
+At the close of the second week, that which astonished Angelique above
+all was that she had not seen Felicien. She, it was true, had pledged
+herself to take no steps towards meeting him, yet, without having said
+so to anyone, she thought he would do all in his power to find her.
+But the Clos-Marie remained deserted, and he no longer walked among
+the wild grasses therein. Not once during the past fortnight had she
+had a glimpse of him by day, or even seen his shadow in the evening.
+Still her faith remained unshaken; that he did not come was simply
+that he was occupied in making his preparations to rejoin her.
+However, as her surprise increased there was at length mingled with it
+a beginning of anxiety.
+
+At last, one evening the dinner was sad at the embroiderer's, and as
+soon as it was over Hubert went out, under the pretext of having an
+important commission to attend to, so Hubertine remained alone with
+Angelique in the kitchen. She looked at her for a long time with
+moistened eyes, touched by such courage. During the past fortnight not
+one word had been exchanged between them in reference to those things
+with which their hearts were full, and she was deeply moved by the
+strength of character and loyalty her daughter displayed in thus
+keeping her promise. A sudden feeling of deep tenderness made her open
+her arms, and the young girl threw herself upon her breast, and in
+silence they clasped each other in a loving embrace.
+
+Then, when Hubertine was able to speak, she said:
+
+"Ah! my poor child, I have been impatient to be alone with you, for
+you must know that now all is at an end; yes, quite at an end."
+
+Startled, Angelique rose quickly, exclaiming:
+
+"What! Is Felicien dead?"
+
+"No! oh no!"
+
+"If he will never come again, it is only that he is dead."
+
+So Hubertine was obliged to explain to her that the day after the
+procession she had been to see him, and had made him also promise that
+he would keep way from them until he had the full authorisation of
+Monseigneur to do otherwise. It was thus a definite leave-taking, for
+she knew a marriage would be utterly impossible. She had made him
+almost distracted as she explained to him how wrongly he had done in
+thus compromising a young, ignorant, confiding child, whom he would
+not be allowed to make his wife; and then he had assured her, that if
+he could not see her again, he would die from grief, rather than be
+disloyal.
+
+That same evening he confessed everything to his father.
+
+"You see, my dear," continued Hubertine, "you are so courageous that I
+can repeat to you all I know without hesitation. Oh! if you realised,
+my darling, how I pity you, and what admiration I have for you since I
+have found you so strong, so brave in keeping silent and in appearing
+gay when your heart was heavily burdened. But you will have need of
+even more firmness; yes, much more, my dear. This afternoon I have
+seen the Abbe Cornille, and he gives me no encouragement whatever.
+Monseigneur refuses to listen to the subject, so there is no more
+hope."
+
+She expected a flood of fears, and she was astonished to see her
+daughter reseat herself tranquilly, although she had turned very pale.
+The old oaken table had been cleared, and a lamp lighted up this
+ancient servants' hall, the quiet of which was only disturbed by the
+humming of the boiler.
+
+"Mother, dear, the end has not yet come. Tell me everything, I beg of
+you. Have I not a right to know all, since I am the one above all
+others most deeply interested in the matter?"
+
+And she listened attentively to what Hubertine thought best to tell
+her of what she had learned from the Abbe, keeping back only certain
+details of the life which was as yet an unknown thing to this innocent
+child.
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XIII
+
+Since the return of his son to him Monseigneur's days had been full of
+trouble. After having banished him from his presence almost
+immediately upon the death of his wife, and remaining without seeing
+him for twenty years, lo! he had now come back to him in the plenitude
+and lustre of youth, the living portrait of the one he had so mourned,
+with the same delicate grace and beauty. This long exile, this
+resentment against a child whose life had cost that of the mother, was
+also an act of prudence. He realised it doubly now, and regretted that
+he had changed his determination of not seeing him again. Age, twenty
+years of prayer, his life as clergyman, had not subdued the
+unregenerate man within him. It was simply necessary that this son of
+his, this child of the wife he had so adored, should appear with his
+laughing blue eyes, to make the blood circulate so rapidly in his
+veins as if it would burst them, as he seemed to think that the dead
+had been brought to life again. He struck his breast, he sobbed
+bitterly in penitence, as he remembered that the joys of married life
+and the ties springing therefrom were prohibited to the priesthood.
+The good Abbe Cornille had spoken of all this to Hubertine in a low
+voice and with trembling lips. Mysterious sounds had been heard, and
+it was whispered that Monseigneur shut himself up after twilight, and
+passed nights of combat, of tears and of cries, the violence of which,
+although partly stifled by the hangings of his room, yet frightened
+the members of his household. He thought that he had forgotten; that
+he had conquered passion; but it reappeared with the violence of a
+tempest, reminding him of the terrible man he had been formerly--the
+bold adventurer, the descendant of brave, legendary chieftains. Each
+evening on his knees he flayed his skin with haircloth, he tried to
+banish the phantom of the regretted wife by calling from its coffin
+the skeleton which must now be there. But she constantly appeared
+before him, living, in the delicious freshness of youth, such as she
+was when very young he had first met her and loved her with the
+devoted affection of maturity. The torture then recommenced as keen
+and intense as on the day after her death: he mourned her, he longed
+for her with the same revolt against God Who had taken her from him;
+he was unable to calm himself until the break of day, when quite
+exhausted by contempt of himself and disgust of all the world. Oh!
+Divine love! When he went out of his room Monseigneur resumed his
+severe attitude, his expression was calm and haughty, and his face was
+only slightly pale. The morning when Felicien had made his confession
+he listened to him without interruption, controlling himself with so
+great an effort that not a fibre of his body quivered, and he looked
+earnestly at him, distressed beyond measure to see him, so young, so
+handsome, so eager, and so like himself in this folly of impetuous
+love. It was no longer with bitterness, but it was his absolute will,
+his hard duty to save his son from the ills which had caused him so
+much suffering, and he would destroy the passion in his child as he
+wished to kill it in himself. This romantic history ended by giving
+him great anxiety. Could it be true that a poor girl--a child without
+a name, a little embroiderer, first seen under a pale ray of
+moonlight, had been transfigured into a delicate Virgin of the
+Legends, and adored with a fervent love as if in a dream? At each new
+acknowledgment he thought his anger was increased, as his heart beat
+with such an inordinate emotion, and he redoubled his attempts at
+self-control, knowing not what cry might come to his lips. He had
+finished by replying with a single word, "Never!" Then Felicien threw
+himself on his knees before him, implored him, and pleaded his cause
+as well as that of Angelique, in the trembling of respect and of
+terror with which the sight of his father always filled him. Until
+then he had approached him only with fear. He besought him not to
+oppose his happiness, without even daring to lift his eyes towards his
+saintly personage. With a submissive voice he offered to go away, no
+matter where; to leave all his great fortune to the Church, and to
+take his wife so far from there that they would never be seen again.
+He only wished to love and to be loved, unknown. Monseigneur shook
+from trembling as he repeated severely the word, "Never!" He had
+pledged himself to the Voincourts, and he would never break his
+engagement with them. Then Felicien, quite discouraged, realising that
+he was very angry, went away, fearing lest the rush of blood, which
+empurpled his cheeks, might make him commit the sacrilege of an open
+revolt against paternal authority.
+
+"My child," concluded Hubertine, "you can easily understand that you
+must no longer think of this young man, for you certainly would not
+wish to act in opposition to the wishes of Monseigneur. I knew that
+beforehand, but I preferred that the facts should speak for
+themselves, and that no obstacle should appear to come from me."
+
+Angelique had listened to all this calmly, with her hands listlessly
+clasped in her lap. Scarcely had she even dropped her eyelids from
+time to time, as with fixed looks she saw the scene so vividly
+described--Felicien at the feet of Monseigneur, speaking of her in an
+overflow of tenderness. She did not answer immediately, but continued
+to think seriously, in the dead quiet of the kitchen, where even the
+little bubbling sound of the water in the boiler was no longer heard.
+She lowered her eyes and looked as her hands, which, under the
+lamplight, seemed as if made of beautiful ivory. Then, while the smile
+of perfect confidence came back to her lips, she said simply:
+
+"If Monseigneur refuses, it is because he waits to know me."
+
+That night Angelique slept but little. The idea that to see her would
+enable at once Monseigneur to decide in her favor haunted her. There
+was in it no personal, feminine vanity, but she was under the
+influence of a deep, intense love, and her true affection for Felicien
+was so evident, she was sure that when his father realised it he could
+not be so obstinate as to make them both unhappy. Many times she
+turned restlessly in her bed as she pictured what would happen. Before
+her closed eyes Monseigneur constantly passed in his violet-coloured
+robe. Perhaps it was, indeed, through him, and by him, that the
+expected miracle was to appear. The warm night was sleeping without,
+and she eagerly listened for the voices, trying to know what the
+trees, the Chevrotte, the Cathedral, her chamber itself, peopled with
+such friendly shadows, advised her to do. But there was only an
+indistinct humming, and nothing precise came to her. It seemed,
+however, as if mysterious whispers encouraged her to persevere. At
+last she grew impatient of these too slow certitudes, and as she fell
+asleep she surprised herself by saying:
+
+"To-morrow I will speak to Monseigneur."
+
+When she awoke, her proposed plan seemed not only quite natural but
+necessary. It was ingenuous and brave; born of a proud and great
+purity.
+
+She knew that at five o'clock on every Saturday afternoon Monseigneur
+went to kneel in the Chapel Hautecoeur, where he liked to pray alone,
+giving himself up entirely to the past of his race and to himself,
+seeking a solitude which was respected by all connected with the
+Cathedral. As it fortunately happened, this was a Saturday. She
+quickly came to a decision. At the Bishop's Palace, not only would she
+be apt to find it difficult to be received, but, on the other hand,
+there were always so many people about she would be ill at ease;
+whilst it would be so simple to await him in the chapel, and to
+introduce herself to Monseigneur as soon as he appeared. That day she
+embroidered with her usual application and composure. Firm in her
+wish, sure of doing the right thing, she had no impatient fever of
+expectation. When it was four o'clock she spoke of going to see the
+_mere_ Gabet, and went out, dressed as for an ordinary walk, wearing
+her little garden-hat tied carelessly under her chin. She turned to
+the left, and pushing open the linted, stuffed door of the portal of
+Saint Agnes, let it fall back heavily behind her.
+
+The church was empty; alone, the confessional of Saint Joseph was
+still occupied by a penitent, the edge of whose black dress was just
+seen as one passed. Angelique, who had been perfectly self-possessed
+until now, began to tremble as she entered this sacred, cold solitude,
+where even the little sound of her steps seemed to echo terribly. Why
+was it that her heart grew so oppressed? She had thought she was quite
+strong, and the day had passed most peacefully--she was so sure of
+being right in her desire to be happy. But now that she was ignorant
+of what might happen she turned pale as if guilty, quite frightened at
+thinking that she was to see Monseigneur, and that in truth she had
+come there expressly to speak to him. She went quietly to the Chapel
+Hautecoeur, where she was obliged to remain leaning against the gate.
+
+This chapel was one of the most sunken and dark of the old Romanesque
+apse. Like a cave hewn in a rock, straight and bare, with the simple
+lines of its low, vaulted ceiling, it had but one window, that of
+stained glass, on which was the Legend of St. George, and in whose
+panes the red and blue so predominated that they made a lilac-coloured
+light, as if it were twilight. The altar, in black and white marble,
+was unornamented, and the whole place, with its picture of the
+Crucifixion, and its two chandeliers, seemed like a tomb. The walls
+were covered with commemorative tablets, a collection from top to
+bottom of stones crumbling from age, on which the deeply-cut
+inscriptions could still be read.
+
+Almost stifled, Angelique waited, motionless. A beadle passed, who did
+not even see her, so closely had she pressed herself against the
+interior of the iron railing. She still saw the dress of the penitent
+who was at the confessional near the entrance. Her eyes, gradually
+accustomed to the half-light, were mechanically fixed upon the
+inscriptions, the characters of which she ended by deciphering.
+Certain names struck her, calling back to her memory the legends of
+the Chateau d'Hautecoeur, of Jean V le Grand, of Raoul III, and of
+Herve VII.
+
+She soon found two others, those of Laurette and of Balbine, which
+brought tears to her eyes, so nervous was she from trouble and
+anxiety--Laurette, who fell from a ray of moonlight, on her way to
+rejoin her betrothed, and Balbine, who died from sudden joy at the
+return of her husband, whom she thought had been killed in the war.
+They both of them came back at night and enveloped the Castle with
+their immense, flowing white robes. Had she not seen them herself the
+day of their visit to the ruins, as they floated, towards evening,
+above the towers in the rosy pallor of the dusk? Ah! how willingly she
+would die as they did, although but sixteen years of age, in the
+supreme happiness of the realisation of her dream!
+
+A loud noise which reverberated under the arches made her tremble. It
+was the priest who came out from the confessional of Saint Joseph and
+shut the door after him. She was surprised at no longer seeing the
+penitent, who had already gone. And when in his turn the clergyman
+went out by way of the sacristy, she realised that she was absolutely
+alone in the vast solitude of the Cathedral. At the loud sound of the
+door of the confessional, as it creaked on its hinges, she thought
+that Monseigneur was coming. It was nearly half an hour since she had
+expected him, yet she did not realise it, for her excitement prevented
+her from taking any note of time.
+
+Soon a new name drew her eyes towards the tablets--Felicien III, who
+went to Palestine, carrying a candle in his hand, to fulfil a vow of
+Philippe le Bel. And her heart beat with pride as she saw before her,
+mentally, the youthful Felicien VII, the descendant of all these
+worthies, the fair-haired nobleman whom she adored, and by whom she
+was so tenderly loved. She suddenly became filled with pride and fear.
+Was it possible that she herself was there, in the expectation of
+bringing about a prodigy? Opposite her there was a fresher plaque of
+marble, dating from the last century, the black letters upon which she
+could easily read. Norbert Louis Ogier, Marquis d'Hautecoeur, Prince
+of Mirande and of Rouvres, Count of Ferrieres, of Montegu and of Saint
+Marc, and also of Villemareuil, Chevalier of the four Royal Orders of
+Saint Esprit, Saint Michel, Notre Dame de Carmel and Saint Louis,
+Lieutenant in the Army of the King, Governor of Normandy, holding
+office as Captain-General of the Hunting, and Master of the Hounds.
+All these were the titles of Felicien's grandfather, and yet she had
+come, so simple, with her working-dress and her fingers worn by the
+needle, in hopes of marrying the grandson of this dead dignitary!
+
+There was a slight sound, scarcely a rustling, on the flagstones. She
+turned and saw Monseigneur, and remained motionless at this silent
+approach without the pomp and surroundings she had vaguely expected.
+He entered into the chapel, tall, erect, and noble-looking, dressed in
+purple, with his pale face, his rather large nose, and his superb
+eyes, which still seemed youthful in their expression. At first he did
+not notice her against the black gate. Then, as he was about to kneel
+down, he saw her before him at his feet.
+
+With trembling limbs, overcome by respect and fear, Angelique had
+fallen upon her knees. He seemed to her at this moment like the
+Eternal Father, terrible in aspect and absolute master of her destiny.
+But her heart was still courageous, and she spoke at once.
+
+"Oh! Monseigneur, I have come----"
+
+As for the Bishop, he had risen immediately. He had a vague
+recollection of her; the young girl, seen first at her window on the
+day of the procession, and re-found a little later standing on a chair
+in the church; this little embroiderer, with whom his son was so
+desperately in love. He uttered no word, he made no gesture. He
+waited, stern and stiff.
+
+"Oh! Monseigneur, I have come on purpose that you may see me. You
+have, it is true, refused to accept me, but you do not know me. And
+now, here I am. Please look at me before you repel me again. I am the
+one who loves, and am also beloved, and that is all. Nothing beyond
+this affection. Nothing but a poor child, found at the door of this
+church. You see me at your feet, little, weak, and humble. If I
+trouble you it will be very easy for you to send me away. You have
+only to lift your little finger to crush me. But think of my tears!
+Were you to know how I have suffered, you would be compassionate. I
+wished, Monseigneur, to plead my cause in my turn. I love, and that is
+why I kneel before you, to tell you so. I am ignorant in many ways; I
+only know I love. All my strength and all my pride is centred in that
+fact. Is not that sufficient? It certainly makes one great and good to
+be able to say that one really loves."
+
+She continued with sighs, and in broken phrases, to confess everything
+to him, in an unaffected outpouring of ardent feeling. It was a true
+affection that thus acknowledged itself. She dared to do so because
+she was innocent and pure. Little by little she raised her head.
+
+"We love each other, Monseigneur. Without doubt he has already told
+you how all this came to pass. As for me, I have often asked myself
+the question without being able to reply to it. But we love each
+other, and if it is a crime to do so, pardon it, I beseech you, for it
+came from afar, from everything in short that surrounded us. When I
+realised that I loved him, it was already too late to prevent it. Now,
+is it possible to be angry on that account? You can keep him with you,
+make him marry some other person, but you cannot prevent him from
+giving me his heart. He will die without me, as I shall if obliged to
+part from him. When he is not by my side I feel that he is really near
+me, and that we will never be entirely separated, since we carry each
+other's life with us. I have only to close my eyes to re-see him when
+I wish, so firmly is his image impressed upon my soul. Our whole
+natures are thus closely united for life. And could you wish to draw
+us away from this union? Oh! Monseigneur, it is divine; do not try to
+prevent us loving each other!"
+
+He looked at her in her simple working-dress, so fresh, so
+unpretending, and attractive. He listened to her as she repeated the
+canticle of their love in a voice that both fascinated and troubled
+him, and which grew stronger by degrees. But as her garden-hat fell
+upon her shoulders, her exquisite hair seemed to make a halo around
+her head of fine gold, and she appeared to him, indeed, like one of
+those legendary virgins of the old prayer-books, so frail was she, so
+primitive, so absorbed in her deep feeling of intense and pure
+affection.
+
+"Be good, be merciful, Monseigneur. You are the master. Do allow us to
+be happy!"
+
+She implored him, and finding that he remained unmoved, without
+speaking, she again bowed down her head.
+
+Oh! this unhappy child at his feet; this odour of youth that came up
+from the sweet figure thus bent before him! There he saw, as it were
+again, the beautiful light locks he had so fondly caressed in the days
+gone by. She, whose memory still distressed him after twenty years of
+penitence, had the same fresh youthfulness, the same proud expression,
+and the same lily-like grace. She had re-appeared; it was she herself
+who now sobbed and besought him to be tender and merciful.
+
+Tears had come to Angelique, yet she continued to outpour her heart.
+
+"And, Monseigneur, it is not only that I love him, but I also love the
+nobility of his name, the lustre of his royal fortune. Yes, I know
+well that being nothing, that having nothing, it seems as if I were
+only desirous of his money. In a way, it is true it is also for his
+wealth that I wish to marry him. I tell you this because it is
+necessary that you should know me thoroughly. Ah! to become rich by
+him and with him, to owe all my happiness to him, to live in the
+sweetness and splendour of luxury, to be free in our loving home, and
+to have no more sorrow, no misery around us! That is my ideal! Since
+he has loved me I fancy myself dressed in heavy brocades, as ladies
+wore in olden days; I have on my arms and around my neck strings of
+pearls and precious stones; I have horses and carriages; groves in
+which I take long walks, followed by pages. Whenever I think of him my
+dream recommences, and I say to myself, 'This must all come to pass,
+for it perfects my desire to become a queen.' Is it, then,
+Monseigneur, a bad thing to love him more because he can gratify all
+my childish wishing by showering down miraculous floods of gold upon
+me as in fairy-tales?"
+
+He saw then that she rose up proudly, with a charming, stately air of
+a true princess, in spite of her real simplicity. And she was always
+exactly like the fair maiden of other years, with the same flower-like
+delicacy, the same tender tears, clear as smiles. A species of
+intoxication came from her, the warm breath of which mounted to his
+face--the same shadow of a remembrance which made him at night throw
+himself on his devotional chair, sobbing so deeply that he disturbed
+the sacred silence of the Palace. Until three o'clock in the morning
+of this same day he had contended with himself again, and this long
+history of love, this story of passion, would only revive and excite
+his incurable wound. But behind his impassiveness nothing was seen,
+nothing betrayed his effort at self-control and his attempt to conquer
+the beating of his heart. Were he to lose his life's blood, drop by
+drop, no one should see it flow, and he now simply became paler, was
+silent and immovable.
+
+At last this great persistent silence made Angelique desperate, and
+she redoubled her prayers.
+
+"I put myself in your hands, Monseigneur. Do with me whatever you
+think best; but have pity when deciding my fate."
+
+Still, as he continued silent, he terrified her, and seemed to grow
+taller than ever as he stood before her in his fearful majesty. The
+deserted Cathedral, whose aisles were already dark, with its high
+vaulted arches where the daylight seemed dying, made the agony of this
+silence still harder to bear. In the chapel, where the commemorative
+slabs could no longer be seen, there remained only the Bishop in his
+purple cassock, that now looked black, and his long white face, which
+alone seemed to have absorbed all the light. She saw his bright eyes
+fixed upon her with an ever-increasing depth of expression, and shrunk
+from them, wondering if it were possible that anger made them shine in
+so strange a way.
+
+"Monseigneur, had I not come to-day, I should have eternally
+reproached myself for having brought about the unhappiness of us both
+from my want of courage. Tell me then, oh, tell me that I was right in
+doing so, and that you will give us your consent!"
+
+What use would there be in discussing the matter with this child? He
+had already given his son the reasons for his refusal, and that was
+all-sufficient. That he had not yet spoken was only because he thought
+he had nothing to say. She, no doubt, understood him, and she seemed
+to wish to raise herself up that she might be able to kiss his hands.
+But he threw them behind him violently, and she was startled at seeing
+his white face become suddenly crimson, from a rush of blood to his
+head.
+
+"Monseigneur! Monseigneur!"
+
+At last he opened his lips, to say to her just one word, the same he
+had said to his son:
+
+"Never!"
+
+And without remaining to pray that day, as was his wont, he left the
+chapel, and with slow steps soon disappeared behind the pillars of the
+apse.
+
+Falling on the flagstones, Angelique wept for a long time, sobbing
+deeply in the great peaceful silence of the empty church.
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XIV
+
+That same evening in the kitchen, after they left the dinner-table,
+Angelique confessed everything to Hubert, telling him of her interview
+with the Bishop, and of the latter's refusal. She was very pale, but
+not at all excited.
+
+Hubert was quite overcome. What? Could it be possible that his dear
+child already suffered? That she also had been so deeply wounded in
+her affections? His eyes were filled with tears from his sympathy with
+her, as they were both of that excessively sensitive nature that at
+the least breath they were carried away by their imaginations.
+
+"Ah! my poor darling, why did you not consult me? I would willingly
+have accompanied you, and perhaps I might have persuaded Monseigneur
+to yield to your prayers."
+
+With a look Hubertine stopped him. He was really unreasonable. Was it
+not much better to seize this occasion to put an end at once to all
+ideas of a marriage which would be impossible? She took the young girl
+in her arms, and tenderly kissed her forehead.
+
+"Then, now it is ended, my dear child; all ended?"
+
+Angelique at first did not appear to understand what was said to her.
+Soon the words returned to her as if from a distance. She looked
+fixedly before her, seeming anxious to question the empty space, and
+at last she replied:
+
+"Without doubt, mother."
+
+Indeed, on the morrow she seated herself at the work-frame and
+embroidered as she was wont to do. She took up her usual routine of
+daily work, and did not appear to suffer. Moreover, no allusion was
+made to the past; she no longer looked from time to time out of the
+window into the garden, and gradually losing her paleness, the natural
+colour came back to her cheeks. The sacrifice appeared to have been
+accomplished.
+
+Hubert himself thought it was so, and, convinced of the wisdom of
+Hubertine, did all in his power to keep Felicien at a distance. The
+latter, not daring to openly revolt against his father, grew
+feverishly impatient, to such a degree that he almost broke the
+promise he had made to wait quietly without trying to see Angelique
+again. He wrote to her, and the letters were intercepted. He even went
+to the house one morning, but it was Hubert alone who received him.
+Their explanatory conversation saddened them both to an equal degree,
+so much did the young man appear to suffer when the embroiderer told
+him of his daughter's calmness and her air of forgetfulness. He
+besought him to be loyal, and go to away, that he might not again
+throw the child into the fearful trouble of the last few weeks.
+
+Felicien again pledged himself to be patient, but he violently refused
+to take back his word, for he was still hopeful that he might persuade
+his father in the end. He could wait; he would let affairs remain in
+their present state with the Voincourts, where he dined twice a week,
+doing so simply to avoid a direct act of open rebellion.
+
+And as he left the house he besought Hubert to explain to Angelique
+why he had consented to the torment of not seeing her for the moment;
+he thought only of her, and the sole aim of everything he did was to
+gain her at last.
+
+When her husband repeated this conversation to her, Hubertine grew
+very serious. Then, after a short silence, she asked:
+
+"Shall you tell our daughter what he asked you to say to her?"
+
+"I ought to do so."
+
+She was again silent, but finally added:
+
+"Act according to your conscience. But he is now under a delusion. He
+will eventually be obliged to yield to his father's wishes, and then
+our poor, dear little girl will die in consequence."
+
+Hubert, overcome with grief, hesitated. But after contending with
+himself, he concluded to repeat nothing. Moreover, he became a little
+reassured each day when his wife called his attention to Angelique's
+tranquil appearance.
+
+"You see well that the wound is healing. She is learning to forget."
+
+But she did not forget; she also was simply waiting. All hope of human
+aid having died within her, she now had returned to the idea of some
+wonderful prodigy. There would surely be one, if God wished her to be
+happy. She had only to give herself up entirely into His hands; she
+believed that this new trial had been sent to her as a punishment for
+having attempted to force His will in intruding upon Monseigneur.
+Without true grace mankind was weak, and incapable of success. Her
+need of that grace made her humble, bringing to her as an only hope
+the aid of the Invisible; so that she gave up acting for herself, but
+left everything to the mysterious forces which surrounded her. Each
+evening at lamplight she recommenced her reading of the "Golden
+Legend," being as delighted with it as when she was a young child. She
+doubted none of the miracles related therein, being convinced that the
+power of the Unknown is without limit for the triumph of pure souls.
+
+Just at this time the upholsterer of the Cathedral ordered of the
+Huberts a panel of the very richest embroidery for the throne of
+Monseigneur the Bishop. This panel, one yard and a half in width and
+three yards in length, was to be set in old carved wood, and on it
+were to be represented two angels of life-size, holding a crown, on
+which were to be the arms of the Hautecoeurs. It was necessary that
+the embroidery should be in bas-relief, a work which not only required
+great artistic knowledge, but also needed physical strength, to be
+well done. When proposed to the Huberts, they at first declined the
+offer, being not only fearful of fatiguing Angelique, but especially
+dreading that she would be saddened by the remembrances which would be
+brought to her mind as she wrought thread after thread during the
+several weeks. But she insisted upon accepting the command, and every
+morning applied herself to her task with an extraordinary energy. It
+seemed as if she found her happiness in tiring herself, and that she
+needed to be physically exhausted in order to be calm.
+
+So in the old workroom life continued in the same regular way, as if
+their hearts had not even for a moment beaten more quickly than usual.
+Whilst Hubert occupied himself with arranging the frames, or drew the
+patterns, or stretched or relaxed the materials, Hubertine helped
+Angelique, both of them having their hands terribly tired and bruised
+when evening came. For the angels and the ornaments it had been
+necessary at the beginning to divide each subject into several parts,
+which were treated separately. In order to perfect the most salient
+points, Angelique first took spools of coarse unbleached thread, which
+she re-covered with the strong thread of Brittany in a contrary
+direction; and as the need came, making use of a heavy pair of shears,
+as well as of a roughing-chisel, she modelled these threads, shaped
+the drapery of the angels, and detached the details of the ornaments.
+In all this there was a real work of sculpture. At last, when the
+desired form was obtained, with the aid of Hubertine she threw on
+masses of gold thread, which she fastened down with little stitches of
+silk. Thus there was a bas-relief of gold, incomparably soft and
+bright, shining like a sun in the centre of this dark, smoky room. The
+old tools were arranged in the same lines as they had been for
+centuries--the punches, the awls, the mallets, and the hammers; on the
+work-frame the little donkey waste-basket and the tinsel, the thimbles
+and the needles, moved up and down as usual, while in the different
+corners, where they ended by growing rusty, the diligent, the hand
+spinning-wheel, and the reel for winding, seemed to sleep in the
+peaceful quiet which entered through the open window.
+
+Days passed. Angelique broke many needles between morning and evening,
+so difficult was it to sew down the gold, through the thickness of the
+waxed threads. To have seen her, one would have said she was so
+thoroughly absorbed by her hard work that she could think of nothing
+else. At nine o'clock she was exhausted by fatigue, and, going to bed,
+she sank at once into a heavy, dreamless sleep. When her embroidery
+gave her mind a moment's leisure, she was astonished not to see
+Felicien. Although she took no step towards seeking him, it seemed to
+her that he ought to have tried every possible way to come to her. Yet
+she approved of his wisdom in acting as he did, and would have scolded
+him had he tried to hasten matters. No doubt he also looked for
+something supernatural to happen. It was this expectation upon which
+she now lived, thinking each night that it would certainly come on the
+morrow. Until now she had never rebelled. Still, at times she lifted
+up her head inquiringly, as if asking "What! Has nothing yet come to
+pass?" And then she pricked her finger so deeply that her hand bled,
+and she was obliged to take the pincers to draw the needle out. When
+her needle would break with a sharp little sound, as if of glass, she
+did not even make a movement of impatience.
+
+Hubertine was very anxious on seeing her apply herself so desperately
+to her work, and as the time for the great washing had come again, she
+forced her to leave her panel of embroidery, that she might have four
+good days of active outdoor life in the broad sunlight. The _mere_
+Gabet, now free of her rheumatism, was able to help in the soaping and
+rinsing. It was a regular fete in the Clos-Marie, these last August
+days, in which the weather was splendid, the sky almost cloudless,
+while a delicious fragrance came up from the Chevrotte, the water of
+which as it passed under the willows was almost icy cold. The first
+day Angelique was very gay, as she beat the linen after plunging it in
+the stream; enjoying to the full the river, the elms, the old ruined
+mill, the wild herbs, and all those friendly surroundings, so filled
+with pleasant memories. Was it not there she had become acquainted
+with Felicien, who under the moonlight had at first seemed so
+mysterious a being, and who, later on, had been so adorably awkward
+the morning when he ran after the dressing-sacque that was being
+carried away by the current? As she rinsed each article, she could not
+refrain from glancing at the gateway of the Bishop's garden, which
+until recently had been nailed up. One evening she had passed through
+it on his arm, and who could tell but he might suddenly now open it
+and come to take her as she applied herself to her work in the midst
+of the frothy foam that at times almost covered her.
+
+But the next day, as the _mere_ Gabet brought the last barrow of
+linen, which she spread out on the grass with Angelique, she
+interrupted her interminable chattering upon the gossip of the
+neighbourhood to say maliciously:
+
+"By the way, you know that Monseigneur is to marry his son?"
+
+The young girl, who was just smoothing out a sheet, knelt down in the
+grass, her strength leaving her all at once, from the rudeness of the
+shock.
+
+"Yes, everyone is talking of it. The son of Monseigneur will in the
+autumn marry Mademoiselle de Voincourt. It seems that everything was
+decided upon and arranged yesterday."
+
+She remained on her knees, as a flood of confused ideas passed through
+her brain, and a strange humming was in her ears. She was not at all
+surprised at the news, and she realised it must be true. Her mother
+had already warned her, so she ought to have been prepared for it. She
+did not yet even doubt Felicien's love for her, as that was her faith
+and her strength. But at the present moment, that which weakened her
+so greatly and excited her to the very depths of her being was the
+thought that, trembling before the commands of his father, he could at
+last yield from weariness, and consent to wed one whom he did not
+love. Then he would be lost to her whom he really adored. Never had
+she thought such an act on his part possible; but now she saw him
+obliged by his filial duty and his sense of obedience to make them
+both unhappy for ever. Still motionless, her eyes fixed upon the
+little gate, she at last revolted against the facts, feeling as if she
+must go and shake the bars, force them open with her hands, run to
+Felicien, and, aiding him by her own courage, persuade him not to
+yield. She was surprised to hear herself reply to the _mere_ Gabet, in
+the purely mechanical instinct of hiding her trouble:
+
+"Ah! then he is to marry Mademoiselle Claire. She is not only very
+beautiful, but it is said she is also very good."
+
+Certainly, as soon as the old woman went away, she must go and find
+him. She had waited long enough; she would break her promise of not
+seeing him as if it were a troublesome obstacle. What right had anyone
+to separate them in this way? Everything spoke to her of their
+affection--the Cathedral, the fresh water, and the old elm-trees under
+which they had been so happy. Since their affection had grown on this
+spot, it was there that she wished to find him again, to go with him
+arm-in-arm far away, so far that no one would ever see them.
+
+"That is all," said at last the _mere_ Gabet, as she hung the last
+napkins on a bush. "In two hours they will be dry. Good-night,
+mademoiselle, as you no longer have need of me."
+
+Now, standing in the midst of this efflorescence of linen that shone
+on the green grass, Angelique thought of that other day, when, in the
+tempest of wind, among the flapping of the sheets and tablecloths,
+they unfolded so ingenuously the secrets of their lives to each other.
+Why had he discontinued his visits to her? Why had he not come to meet
+her during her healthy exercise of the past three days? But it would
+not be long before she would run to him, and when he had clasped her
+in his arms, he would know well that he was hers, and hers only. She
+would not even need to reproach him for his apparent weakness; it
+would be enough for her to show herself to make him realise that their
+happiness was in being together.
+
+He would dare everything for her sake when once she had rejoined him.
+
+An hour passed, and Angelique walked slowly between the pieces of
+linen, all white herself from the blinding reflection of the sun; and
+a confused sentiment awoke in her breast, which, growing stronger and
+stronger, prevented her from going over to the gate, as she had wished
+to do. She was frightened before this commencement of a struggle. What
+did it mean? She certainly could act according to her own will. Yet
+something new, inexplicable, thwarted her and changed the simplicity
+of her passion. It was such a simple thing to go to a beloved one; yet
+she could not possibly do so now, being kept back by a tormenting
+doubt. Also, since she had given her promise, perhaps it would be
+wrong to break it. In the evening, when the whole "wash" was dry, and
+Hubertine came to help her to take it to the house, she was still
+undecided what to do, and concluded to reflect upon it during the
+night. With her arms filled to overflowing with linen, white as snow,
+and smelling fresh and clean, she cast an anxious look towards the
+Clos-Marie, already bathed in the twilight, as if it were a friendly
+corner of Nature refusing to be her accomplice.
+
+In the morning Angelique was greatly troubled when she awoke. Several
+other nights passed without her having come to any decision. She could
+not recover her ease of mind until she had the certainty that she was
+still beloved. Were her faith in that unshaken she would be perfectly
+at rest. If loved, she could bear anything. A fit of being charitable
+had again taken possession of her, so that she was touched by the
+slightest suffering, and her eyes were filled with tears ready to
+overflow at any moment. The old man Mascart made her give him tobacco,
+and the Chouarts drew from her everything they wished, even to
+preserved fruits. But the Lemballeuses also profited by her gifts, and
+Tiennette had been seen dancing at the fetes, dressed in one of "the
+good young lady's" gowns. And one day, as she was taking to the
+grandmother some chemises promised her the previous evening, she saw
+from a distance, in the midst of the poor family, Madame de Voincourt
+and her daughter Claire, accompanied by Felicien. The latter, no
+doubt, had taken them there. She did not show herself, but returned
+home at once, chilled to the heart. Two days later she saw the two
+again as they came out from the Chateau; then one morning the old man
+Mascart told her of a visit he had received from the handsome young
+gentleman and two ladies. Then she abandoned her poor people, who
+seemed no longer to have claims upon her, since Felicien had taken
+them and given them to his new friends. She gave up her walks for fear
+she might see them, and thus be so deeply wounded that her sufferings
+would be increased tenfold. She felt as if something were dying within
+her, as if, little by little, her very life was passing away.
+
+One evening, after one of these meetings, when alone in her chamber,
+stifling from anguish, she uttered this cry:
+
+"But he loves me no longer."
+
+She saw before her, mentally, Claire de Voincourt, tall, beautiful,
+with her crown of black hair, and he was at her side, slight, proud,
+and handsome. Were they not really created for each other, of the same
+race, so well mated that one might think they were already married?
+
+"He no longer loves me! Oh! he no longer loves me!"
+
+This exclamation broke from her lips as if it were the ruin of all her
+hopes, and, her faith once shaken, everything gave way without her
+being able to examine the facts of the case or to regard them calmly.
+The previous evening she believed in something, but that had now
+passed by. A breath, coming from she knew not where, had been
+sufficient, and all at once by a single blow she had fallen into the
+greatest despair--that of thinking she was not beloved. He had indeed
+spoken wisely when he told her once that this was the only real grief,
+the one insupportable torture. Now her turn had come. Until then she
+had been resigned, she felt so strong and confident as she awaited the
+miracle. But her strength passed away with her faith; she was
+tormented by her distress like a child; her whole being seemed to be
+only an open wound. And a painful struggle commenced in her soul.
+
+At first she called upon her pride to help her; she was too proud to
+care for him any more. She tried to deceive herself, she pretended to
+be free from all care, as she sang while embroidering the Hautecoeur
+coat of arms, upon which she was at work. But her heart was so full it
+almost stifled her, and she was ashamed to acknowledge to herself that
+she was weak enough to love him still in spite of all, and even to
+love him more than ever. For a week these armorial bearings, as they
+grew thread by thread under her fingers, filled her with a terrible
+sorrow. Quartered one and four, two and three, of Jerusalem and
+d'Hautecoeur; of Jerusalem, which is argent, a cross potence, or,
+between four cross-crosslets of the last; and d'Hautecoeur, azure, on
+a castle, or, a shield, sable, charged with a human heart, argent; the
+whole accompanied by three fleurs-de-lys, or, two at the top and one
+in the point. The enamels were made of twist, the metals of gold and
+silver thread. What misery it was to feel that her hands trembled, and
+to be obliged to lower her head to hide her eyes, that were blinded
+with tears, from all this brightness. She thought only of him; she
+adored him in the lustre of his legendary nobility. And when she
+embroidered the motto of the family, "_Si Dieu veult, je veux_," in
+black silk on a streamer of silver, she realised that she was his
+slave, and that never again could she reclaim him. Then tears
+prevented her from seeing, while mechanically she continued to make
+little stitches in her work.
+
+After this it was indeed pitiable. Angelique loved in despair, fought
+against this hopeless affection, which she could not destroy. She
+still wished to go to Felicien, to reconquer him by throwing her arms
+around his neck; and thus the contest was daily renewed. Sometimes she
+thought she had gained control over her feelings, so great a silence
+appeared to have fallen within and around her. She seemed to see
+herself as if in a vision, a stranger in reality, very little, very
+cold, and kneeling like an obedient child in the humility of
+renunciation. Then it was no longer herself, but a sensible young
+girl, made so by her education and her home life. Soon a rush of blood
+mounted to her face, making her dizzy; her perfect health, the ardent
+feelings of her youth, seemed to gallop like runaway colts, and she
+resaw herself, proud and passionate, in all the reality of her unknown
+origin. Why, then, had she been so obedient? There was no true duty to
+consult, only free-will. Already she had planned her flight, and
+calculated the most favourable hour for forcing open the gate of the
+Bishop's garden. But already, also, the agony, the grave uneasiness,
+the torment of a doubt had come back to her. Were she to yield to evil
+she would suffer eternal remorse in consequence. Hours, most
+abominable hours, passed in this uncertainty as to what part she
+should take under this tempestuous wind, which constantly threw her
+from the revolt of her love to the horror of a fault. And she came out
+of the contest weakened by each victory over her heart.
+
+One evening, as she was about leaving the house to go to join
+Felicien, she suddenly thought of her little book from the Society of
+Aid to Abandoned Children. She was so distressed to find that she no
+longer had strength to resist her pride. She took it from the depths
+of the chest of drawers, turned over its leaves, whispered to herself
+at each page the lowness of her birth, so eager was she in her need of
+humility. Father and mother unknown; no name; nothing but a date and a
+number; a complete neglect, like that of a wild plant that grows by
+the roadside! Then crowds of memories came to her: the rich pastures
+of the Mievre and the cows she had watched there; the flat route of
+Soulanges, where she had so often walked barefooted; and Maman Nini,
+who boxed her ears when she stole apples. Certain pages specially
+attracted her by their painful associations:--those which certified
+every three months to the visits of the under-inspector and of the
+physician, whose signatures were sometimes accompanied by observations
+or information, as, for instance, a severe illness, during which she
+had almost died; a claim from her nurse on the subject of a pair of
+shoes that had been burnt; and bad marks that had been given her for
+her uncontrollable temper. It was, in short, the journal of her
+misery. But one thing disturbed her above all others--the report in
+reference to the breaking of the necklace she had worn until she was
+six years of age. She recollected that she had instinctively hated it,
+this string of beads of bone, cut in the shape of little olives,
+strung on a silken cord, and fastened by a medallion of plaited
+silver, bearing the date of her entrance into the "Home" and her
+number. She considered it as a badge of slavery, and tried several
+times to break it with her little hands, without any fear as to the
+consequences of doing so. Then, when older, she complained that it
+choked her. For a year longer she was obliged to wear it. Great,
+indeed, was her joy when, in the presence of the mayor of the parish,
+the inspector's aid had cut the cord, replacing this sign of
+individuality by a formal description, in which allusion was made to
+her violet-coloured eyes and her fine golden hair. Yet she always
+seemed to feel around her neck this collar, as if she were an animal
+that was marked in order that she might be recognised if she went
+astray; it cut into her flesh and stifled her. When she came to that
+page on this day, her humility came back to her, she was frightened,
+and went up to her chamber, sobbing as if unworthy of being loved. At
+two other times this little book saved her. At last it lost its power,
+and could not help her in checking her rebellious thoughts.
+
+Now, her greatest temptation came to her at night. Before going to
+bed, that her sleep might be calm, she imposed upon herself the task
+of resuming reading the Legends. But, resting her forehead on her
+hands, notwithstanding all her efforts she could understand nothing.
+The miracles stupefied her; she saw only a discoloured flight of
+phantoms. Then in her great bed, after a most intense prostration, she
+started suddenly from her sleep, in agony, in the midst of the
+darkness. She sat upright, distracted; then knelt among the half
+thrown-back clothes, as the perspiration started from her forehead,
+while she trembled from head to foot. Clasping her hands together, she
+stammered in prayer, "Oh! my God! Why have You forsaken me?"
+
+Her great distress was to realise that she was alone in the obscurity
+at such moments. She had dreamed of Felicien, she was eager to dress
+herself and go to join him, before anyone could come to prevent her
+from fleeing. It was as if the Divine grace were leaving her, as if
+God ceased to protect her, and even the elements abandoned her. In
+despair, she called upon the unknown, she listened attentively, hoping
+for some sign from the Invisible. But there was no reply; the air
+seemed empty. There were no more whispering voices, no more mysterious
+rustlings. Everything seemed to be dead--the Clos-Marie, with the
+Chevrotte, the willows, the elm-trees in the Bishop's garden, and the
+Cathedral itself. Nothing remained of the dreams she had placed there;
+the white flight of her friends in passing away left behind them only
+their sepulchre. She was in agony at her powerlessness, disarmed, like
+a Christian of the Primitive Church overcome by original sin, as soon
+as the aid of the supernatural had departed. In the dull silence of
+this protected corner she heard this evil inheritance come back,
+howling triumphant over everything. If in ten minutes more no help
+came to her from figurative forces, if things around her did not rouse
+up and sustain her, she would certainly succumb and go to her ruin.
+"My God! My God! Why have You abandoned me?" Still kneeling on her
+bed, slight and delicate, it seemed to her as if she were dying.
+
+Each time, until now, at the moment of her greatest distress she had
+been sustained by a certain freshness. It was the Eternal Grace which
+had pity upon her, and restored her illusions. She jumped out on to
+the floor with her bare feet, and ran eagerly to the window. Then at
+last she heard the voices rising again; invisible wings brushed
+against her hair, the people of the "Golden Legend" came out from the
+trees and the stones, and crowded around her. Her purity, her
+goodness, all that which resembled her in Nature, returned to her and
+saved her. Now she was no longer afraid, for she knew that she was
+watched over. Agnes had come back with the wandering, gentle virgins,
+and in the air she breathed was a sweet calmness, which,
+notwithstanding her intense sadness, strengthened her in her resolve
+to die rather than fail in her duty or break her promise. At last,
+quite exhausted, she crept back into her bed, falling asleep again
+with the fear of the morrow's trials, constantly tormented by the idea
+that she must succumb in the end, if her weakness thus increased each
+day.
+
+In fact, a languor gained fearfully upon Angelique since she thought
+Felicien no longer loved her. She was deeply wounded and silent,
+uncomplaining; she seemed to be dying hourly. At first it showed
+itself by weariness. She would have an attack of want of breath, when
+she was forced to drop her thread, and for a moment remain with her
+eyes half closed, seeing nothing, although apparently looking straight
+before her. Then she left off eating, scarcely taking even a little
+milk; and she either hid her bread or gave it to the neighbours'
+chickens, that she need not make her parents anxious. A physician
+having been called, found no acute disease, but considering her life
+too solitary, simply recommended a great deal of exercise. It was like
+a gradual fading away of her whole being; a disappearing by slow
+degrees, an obliterating of her physique from its immaterial beauty.
+Her form floated like the swaying of two great wings; a strong light
+seemed to come from her thin face, where the soul was burning. She
+could now come down from her chamber only in tottering steps, as she
+supported herself by putting her two hands against the wall of the
+stairway. But as soon as she realised she was being looked at, she
+made a great effort, and even persisted in wishing to finish the panel
+of heavy embroidery for the Bishop's seat. Her little, slender hands
+had no more strength, and when she broke a needle she could not draw
+it from the work with the pincers.
+
+One morning, when Hubert and Hubertine had been obliged to go out, and
+had left her alone at her work, the embroiderer, coming back first,
+had found her on the floor near the frame, where she had fallen from
+her chair after having fainted away. She had at last succumbed before
+her task, one of the great golden angels being still unfinished.
+Hubert took her in his arms, and tried to place her on her feet. But
+she fell back again, and did not recover consciousness.
+
+"My darling! My darling! Speak to me! Have pity on me!"
+
+At last she opened her eyes and looked at him in despair. Why had he
+wished her to come back to life! She would so gladly die!
+
+"What is the matter with you, my dear child? Have you really deceived
+us? Do you still love him?"
+
+She made no answer, but simply looked at him with intense sadness.
+Then he embraced her gently, took her in his arms, and carried her up
+to her room. Having placed her upon her bed, when he saw how white and
+frail she was he wept that he had had so cruel a task to perform as to
+keep away from her the one whom she so loved.
+
+"But I would have given him to you, my dear! Why did you say nothing
+to me?"
+
+She did not speak; her eyelids closed, and she appeared to fall
+asleep. He remained standing, his looks fixed upon the thin, lily-
+white countenance, his heart bleeding with pity. Then, as her
+breathing had become quiet, he went downstairs, as he heard his wife
+come in.
+
+He explained everything to her in the working-room. Hubertine had just
+taken off her hat and gloves, and he at once told her of his having
+found the child on the floor in a dead faint, that she was now
+sleeping on her bed, overcome with weakness, and almost lifeless.
+
+"We have really been greatly mistaken. She thinks constantly of this
+young man, and it is killing her by inches. Ah! if you knew what a
+shock it gave me, and the remorse which has made me almost distracted,
+since I have realised the truth of the case, and carried her upstairs
+in so pitiable a state. It is our fault. We have separated them by
+falsehoods, and I am not only ashamed, but so angry with myself it
+makes me ill. But what? Will you let her suffer so, without saying
+anything to save her?"
+
+Still Hubertine was as silent as Angelique, and, pale from anxiety,
+looked at him calmly and soothingly. But he, always an excitable man,
+was now so overcome by what he had just seen that, forgetting his
+usual submission, he was almost beside himself, could not keep still,
+but threw his hands up and down in his feverish agitation.
+
+"Very well, then! I will speak, and I will tell her that Felicien
+loves her, and that it is we who have had the cruelty to prevent him
+from returning, in deceiving him also. Now, every tear she sheds cuts
+me to the heart. Were she to die, I should consider myself as having
+been her murderer. I wish her to be happy. Yes! happy at any cost, no
+matter how, but by all possible means."
+
+He had approached his wife, and he dared to cry out in the revolt of
+his tenderness, being doubly irritated by the sad silence she still
+maintained.
+
+"Since they love each other, it is they alone who should be masters of
+the situation. There is surely nothing in the world greater than to
+love and be loved. Yes, happiness is always legitimate."
+
+At length Hubertine, standing motionless, spoke slowly:
+
+"You are willing, then, that he should take her from us, are you not?
+That he should marry her notwithstanding our opposition, and without
+the consent of his father? Would you advise them to do so? Do you
+think that they would be happy afterwards, and that love would suffice
+them?"
+
+And without changing her manner she continued in the same heart-broken
+voice:
+
+"On my way home I passed by the cemetery, and an undefinable hope made
+me enter there again. I knelt once more on the spot that is worn by
+our knees, and I prayed there for a long time."
+
+Hubert had turned very pale, and a cold chill replaced the fever of a
+few moments before. Certainly he knew well the tomb of the unforgiving
+mother, where they had so often been in tears and in submission, as
+they accused themselves of their disobedience, and besought the dead
+to send them her pardon from the depths of the earth. They had
+remained there for hours, sure that if the grace they demanded were
+ever granted them they would be cognisant of it at once. That for
+which they pleaded, that for which they hoped, was for another infant,
+a child of pardon, the only sign which would assure them that at last
+they themselves had been forgiven. But all was in vain. The cold, hard
+mother was deaf to all their entreaties, and left them under the
+inexorable punishment of the death of their firstborn, whom she had
+taken and carried away, and whom she refused to restore to them.
+
+"I prayed there for a long time," repeated Hubertine. "I listened
+eagerly to know if there would not be some slight movement."
+
+Hubert questioned her with an anxious look.
+
+"But there was nothing--no! no sound came up to me from the earth, and
+within me there was no feeling of relief. Ah! yes, it is useless to
+hope any longer. It is too late. We brought about our own
+unhappiness."
+
+Then, trembling, he asked:
+
+"Do you accuse me of it?"
+
+"Yes, you are to blame, and I also did wrong in following you. We
+disobeyed in the beginning, and all our life has been spoiled in
+consequence of that one false step."
+
+"But are you not happy?"
+
+"No, I am not happy. A woman who has no child can never be happy. To
+love merely is not enough. That love must be crowned and blest."
+
+He had fallen into a chair, faint and overcome, as tears came to his
+eyes. Never before had she reproached him for the ever-open wound
+which marred their lives, and she who always after having grieved him
+by an involuntary allusion to the past had quickly recovered herself
+and consoled him, this time let him suffer, looking at him as she
+stood near, but making no sign, taking no step towards him. He wept
+bitterly, exclaiming in the midst of his tears:
+
+"Ah! the dear child upstairs--it is she you condemn. You are not
+willing that Felicien should marry her, as I married you, and that she
+should suffer as you have done."
+
+She answered simply by a look: a clear, affectionate glance, in which
+he read the strength and simplicity of her heart.
+
+"But you said yourself, my dear, that our sweet daughter would die of
+grief if matters were not changed. Do you, then, wish for her death?"
+
+"Yes. Her death now would be preferable to an unhappy life."
+
+He left his seat, and clasped her in his arms as they both sobbed
+bitterly. For some minutes they embraced each other. Then he conquered
+himself, and she in her turn was obliged to lean upon his shoulder,
+that he might comfort her and renew her courage. They were indeed
+distressed, but were firm in their decision to keep perfectly silent,
+and, if it were God's will that their child must die in consequence,
+they must accept it submissively, rather than advise her to do wrong.
+
+From that day Angelique was obliged to keep in her room. Her weakness
+increased so rapidly and to such a degree that she could no longer go
+down to the workroom. Did she attempt to walk, her head became dizzy
+at once and her limbs bent under her. At first, by the aid of the
+furniture, she was able to get to the balcony. Later, she was obliged
+to content herself with going from her armchair to her bed. Even that
+distance seemed long to her, and she only tried it in the morning and
+evening, she was so exhausted.
+
+However, she still worked, giving up the embroidery in bas-relief as
+being too difficult, and simply making use of coloured silks. She
+copied flowers after Nature, from a bunch of hydrangeas and
+hollyhocks, which, having no odour, she could keep in her room. The
+bouquet was in full bloom in a large vase, and often she would rest
+for several minutes as she looked at it with pleasure, for even the
+light silks were too heavy for her fingers. In two days she had made
+one flower, which was fresh and bright as it shone upon the satin; but
+this occupation was her life, and she would use her needle until her
+last breath. Softened by suffering, emaciated by the inner fever that
+was consuming her, she seemed now to be but a spirit, a pure and
+beautiful flame that would soon be extinguished.
+
+Why was it necessary to struggle any longer if Felicien did not love
+her? Now she was dying with this conviction; not only had he no love
+for her to-day, but perhaps he had never really cared for her. So long
+as her strength lasted she had contended against her heart, her
+health, and her youth, all of which urged her to go and join him. But
+now that she was unable to move, she must resign herself and accept
+her fate.
+
+One morning, as Hubert placed her in her easy chair, and put a cushion
+under her little, motionless feet, she said, with a smile:
+
+"Ah! I am sure of being good now, and not trying to run away."
+
+Hubert hastened to go downstairs, that she might not see his tears.
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XV
+
+It was impossible for Angelique to sleep that night. A nervous
+wakefulness kept her burning eyelids from closing, and her extreme
+weakness seemed greater than ever. The Huberts had gone to their room,
+and at last, when it was near midnight, so great a fear came over her
+that she would die if she were to remain longer in bed, she preferred
+to get up, notwithstanding the immense effort required to do so.
+
+She was almost stifled. Putting on a dressing-gown and warm slippers,
+she crept along slowly as far as the window, which she opened wide.
+The winter was somewhat rainy, but of a mild dampness; so the air was
+pleasant to breathe. She sank back into her great armchair, after
+having turned up the wick of a lamp which was on a table near her, and
+which was always allowed to be kept burning during the entire night.
+There, by the side of the volume of the "Golden Legend," was the
+bouquet of hydrangeas and hollyhocks which she had begun to copy. That
+she might once more attach herself to the life which she realised was
+fast passing from her she had a sudden fancy to work, and drawing her
+frame forward, she made a few stitches with her trembling fingers. The
+red silk of the rose-tremiere seemed of a deeper hue than ever, in
+contrast with her white hands: it was almost as if it were the blood
+from her veins which was quietly flowing away drop by drop.
+
+But she, who for two hours had turned in vain from side to side in the
+burning bedclothes, yielded almost immediately to sleep as soon as she
+was seated. Her head drooped a little toward her right shoulder, being
+supported by the back of her chair, and the silk remaining in her
+motionless hands, a looker-on would have thought she was still
+embroidering. White as snow, perfectly calm, she slept under the light
+of the lamp in the chamber, still and quiet as a tomb. The faded, rosy
+draperies of the great royal couch were paler than ever in their shady
+corner, and the gloom of the walls of the room was only relieved by
+the great chest of drawers, the wardrobe, and the chairs of old carved
+oak. Minutes passed; her slumber was deep and dreamless.
+
+At last there was a slight sound, and Felicien suddenly appeared on
+the balcony, pale, trembling, and, like herself, looking very worn and
+thin, and his countenance distressed. When he saw her reclining in the
+easy chair, pitiable and yet so beautiful to look at, he rushed at
+once into the chamber, and his heart grew heavy with infinite grief as
+he went forward, and, falling on his knees before her, gazed at her
+with an expression of utter despair. Could it be that she was so
+hopelessly ill? Was it unhappiness that had caused her to be so weak,
+and to have wasted way to such a degree that she appeared to him light
+as air while she lay there, like a feather which the slightest breath
+would blow away? In her sleep, her suffering and her patient
+resignation were clearly seen. He in fact would have known her only by
+her lily-like grace, the delicate outlines of her neck, her drooping
+shoulders, and her oval face, transfigured like that of a youthful
+virgin mounting towards heaven. Her exquisite hair was now only a mass
+of light, and her pure soul shone under the soft transparency of her
+skin. She had all the ethereal beauty of the saints relieved from
+their bodies. He was both dazzled and distressed; the violent shock
+rendered him incapable of moving, and, with hands clasped, he remained
+silent. She did not awake as he continued to watch her.
+
+A little air from the half-closed lips of Felicien must have passed
+across Angelique's face, as all at once she opened her great eyes. Yet
+she did not start, but in her turn looked at him with a smile, as if
+he were a vision. Yes, it was he! She recognised him well, although he
+was greatly changed. But she did not think she was awake, for she
+often saw him thus in her dreams, and her trouble was increased when,
+rousing from her sleep, she realised the truth.
+
+He held his hands out towards her and spoke:
+
+"My dearest, I love you. I was told that you were ill, and came to you
+immediately. Look at me! Here I am, and I love you."
+
+She straightened herself up quickly. She shuddered, as with a
+mechanical movement she passed her fingers over her eyes.
+
+"Doubt no longer, then. See me at your feet, and realise that I love
+you now, as I have ever done."
+
+Then she exclaimed:
+
+"Oh! is it you? I had given up expecting you, and yet you are here."
+
+With her feeble, trembling hands, she had taken his, thus assuring
+herself that he was not a fanciful vision of her sleep.
+
+He continued:
+
+"You have always loved me, and I love you for ever. Yes,
+notwithstanding everything; and more deeply even than I should have
+ever thought it possible to do."
+
+It was an unhoped-for excess of happiness, and in this first minute of
+absolute joy they forgot everything else in the world, giving
+themselves up to the delightful certainty of their mutual affection,
+and their ability to declare it. The sufferings of the past, the
+obstacles of the future, had disappeared as if by magic. They did not
+even think of asking how it was that they had thus come together. But
+there they were, mingling their tears of joy together as they embraced
+each other with the purest of feelings: he was overcome with pity that
+she was so worn by grief and illness that she seemed like a mere
+shadow in his arms. In the enchantment of her surprise she remained
+half-paralysed, trembling from exhaustion, radiant with spiritual
+beauty, as she lay back in her great easy chair, so physically weary
+that she could not raise herself without falling again, but
+intoxicated with this supreme contentment.
+
+"Ah, dear Seigneur, my only remaining wish is gratified. I longed to
+see you before death came."
+
+He lifted up his head, as with a despairing movement, and said:
+
+"Do not speak of dying. It shall not be. I am here, and I love you."
+
+She smiled angelically.
+
+"I am not afraid to die now that you have assured me of your
+affection. The idea no longer terrifies me. I could easily fall asleep
+in this way, while leaning on your shoulders. Tell me once more that
+you love me."
+
+"I love you as deeply to-day as I loved you yesterday, and as I will
+love you on the morrow. Do not doubt it for one moment, for it is for
+eternity! Oh, yes, we will love each other for ever and ever."
+
+Angelique was enraptured, and with vague eyes looked directly before
+her, as if seeing something beyond the cold whiteness of the chamber.
+But evidently she aroused herself, as if just awaking from sleep. In
+the midst of this great felicity which had appeased her, she had now
+had time for reflection. The true facts of the case astonished her.
+
+"You have loved me! Yet why did you not at once come to see me?"
+
+"Your parents said that you cared for me no longer. I also nearly died
+when learning that. At last, I was determined to know the whole truth,
+and was sent away from the house, the door being absolutely closed
+against me, and I was forbidden to return."
+
+"Then they shut the door in your face? Yet my mother told me that you
+did not love me, and I could but believe her, since having seen you
+several times with that young lady, Mademoiselle Claire, I thought
+naturally you were obeying your father."
+
+"No. I was waiting. But it was cowardly on my part thus to tremble
+before him. My great mistake has been to allow the matter to go so
+far; for my duty was to have trusted only in you, to have insisted
+upon seeing you personally, and to have acted with you."
+
+There was a short silence. Angelique sat erect for an instant, as if
+she had received a blow, and her expression grew cold and hard, and
+her forehead was cut by an angry wrinkle.
+
+"So we have both of us been deceived. Falsehoods have been told in
+order to separate us from each other. Notwithstanding our mutual love,
+we have been tortured to such a degree that they have almost killed us
+both. Very well, then! It is abominable, and it frees us from the
+promises we made. We are now at liberty to act as we will."
+
+An intense feeling of contempt so excited her that she stood up on her
+feet. She no longer realised that she was ill, but appeared to have
+regained her strength miraculously in the reawakening of all the
+passion and pride of her nature. To have thought her dream ended, and
+all at once to have re-found it in its full beauty and vitality,
+delighted her. To be able to say that they had done nothing unworthy
+of their love, but that it was other persons who had been the guilty
+ones, was a comfort. This growth of herself, this at last certain
+triumph, exalted her and threw her into a supreme rebellion.
+
+She simply said:
+
+"Come, let us go."
+
+And she walked around the room, brave in the return of her energy and
+her will. She had already selected a mantle to throw over her
+shoulders. A lace scarf would be sufficient for her head.
+
+Felicien uttered one cry of joy as she thus anticipated his desire. He
+had merely thought of this flight, but had not had the boldness to
+dare propose it; and how delightful indeed it would be to go away
+together, to disappear, and thus put an end to all cares, to overcome
+all obstacles. The sooner it was done the better, for then they would
+avoid having to contend with reflection or afterthought.
+
+"Yes, darling, let us go immediately. I was coming to take you. I know
+where we can find a carriage. Before daylight we will be far away: so
+far that no one will ever be able to overtake us."
+
+She opened her drawers, but closed them again violently, without
+taking anything therefrom, as her excitement increased. Could it be
+possible that she had suffered such torture for so many weeks! She had
+done everything in her power to drive him from her mind, to try to
+convince herself that he cared no more for her, until at last she
+thought she had succeeded in doing so. But it was of no use, and all
+this abominable work must be done over again. No! she could never have
+strength sufficient for that. Since they loved each other, the
+simplest thing in the world to do was to be married, and then no power
+on earth could separate them.
+
+"Let me see. What ought I to take? Oh! how foolish I have been with
+all my childish scruples, when I think that others have lowered
+themselves so much as even to tell us falsehoods! Yes! even were I to
+have died, they would not have called you to me. But, tell me, must I
+take linen and dresses? See, here is a warmer gown. What strange
+ideas, what unnumbered obstacles, they put in my head. There was good
+on one side and evil on the other: things which one might do, and
+again that which one should never do; in short, such a complication of
+matters, it was enough to make one wild. They were all falsehoods:
+there was no truth in any of them. The only real happiness is to live
+to love the one who loves you, and to obey the promptings of the
+heart. You are the personification of fortune, of beauty, and of
+youth, my dear Seigneur; my only pleasure is in you. I give myself to
+you freely, and you may do with me what you wish."
+
+She rejoiced in this breaking-out of all the hereditary tendencies of
+her nature, which she thought had died within her. Sounds of distant
+music excited her. She saw as it were their royal departure: this son
+of a prince carrying her away as in a fairy-tale, and making her queen
+of some imaginary realm; and she was ready to follow him with her arms
+clasped around his neck, her head upon his breast, with such a
+trembling from intense feeling that her whole body grew weak from
+happiness. To be alone together, just they two, to abandon themselves
+to the galloping of horses, to flee away, and to disappear in each
+other's arms. What perfect bliss it would be!
+
+"Is it not better for me to take nothing? What good would it do in
+reality?"
+
+He, partaking of her feverishness, was already at the door, as he
+replied:
+
+"No, no! Take nothing whatever. Let us go at once."
+
+"Yes, let us go. That is the best thing to do."
+
+And she rejoined him. But she turned round, wishing to give a last
+look at the chamber. The lamp was burning with the same soft light,
+the bouquet of hydrangeas and hollyhocks was blooming as ever, and in
+her work-frame the unfinished rose, bright and natural as life, seemed
+to be waiting for her. But the room itself especially affected her.
+Never before had it seemed so white and pure to her; the walls, the
+bed, the air even, appeared as if filled with a clear, white breath.
+
+Something within her wavered, and she was obliged to lean heavily
+against the back of a chair that was near her and not far from the
+door.
+
+"What is the matter?" asked Felicien anxiously.
+
+She did not reply, but breathed with great difficulty. Then, seized
+with a trembling, she could no longer bear her weight on her feet, but
+was forced to sit down.
+
+"Do not be anxious; it is nothing. I only want to rest for a minute
+and then we will go."
+
+They were silent. She continued to look round the room as if she had
+forgotten some valuable object there, but could not tell what it was.
+It was a regret, at first slight, but which rapidly increased and
+filled her heart by degrees, until it almost stifled her. She could no
+longer collect her thoughts. Was it this mass of whiteness that kept
+her back? She had always adored white, even to such a degree as to
+collect bits of silk and revel over them in secret.
+
+"One moment, just one moment more, and we will go away, my dear
+Seigneur."
+
+But she did not even make an effort to rise. Very anxious, he again
+knelt before her.
+
+"Are you suffering, my dear? Cannot I do something to make you feel
+better? If you are shivering because you are cold, I will take your
+little feet in my hands, and will so warm them that they will grow
+strong and be able to run."
+
+She shook her head as she replied:
+
+"No, no, I am not cold. I could walk. But please wait a little, just a
+single minute."
+
+He saw well that invisible chains seemed again to have taken
+possession of her limbs, and, little by little, were attaching
+themselves so strongly to her that very soon, perhaps, it would be
+quite impossible for him to draw her away. Yet, if he did not take her
+from there at once, if they did not flee together, he thought of the
+inevitable contest with his father on the morrow, of the distressing
+interview before which he had recoiled for weeks past. Then he became
+pressing, and besought her most ardently.
+
+"Come, dear, the highways are not light at this hour; the carriage
+will bear us away in the darkness, and we will go on and on, cradled
+in each other's arms, sleeping as if warmly covered with down, not
+fearing the night's freshness; and when the day dawns we will continue
+our route in the sunshine, as we go still farther on, until we reach
+the country where people are always happy. No one will know us there;
+we will live by ourselves, lost in some great garden, having no other
+care than to love each other more deeply than ever at the coming of
+each new day. We shall find flowers as large as trees, fruits sweeter
+than honey. And we will live on nothing, for in the midst of this
+eternal spring, dear soul, we will live on our kisses."
+
+She trembled under these burning words, with which he heated her face,
+and her whole being seemed to be fainting away at the representation
+of these promised joys.
+
+"Oh! in a few minutes I will be ready; but wait a little longer."
+
+"Then, if journeying fatigues us, we will come back here. We will
+rebuild the Chateau d'Hautecoeur, and we will pass the rest of our
+lives there. That is my ideal dream. If it is necessary, we will spend
+willingly all our fortune therein. Once more shall its donjon overlook
+from its height the two valleys. We will make our home in the Pavilion
+d'Honneur, between the Tower of David and the Tower of Charlemagne.
+The colossal edifice shall be restored as in the days of its primitive
+power: the galleries, the dwellings, the chapels, shall appear in the
+same barbaric luxury as before. And I shall wish for us to lead the
+life of olden times; you a princess and I a prince, surrounded by a
+large company of armed vassals and of pages. Our walls of fifteen feet
+of thickness will isolate us, and we shall be as our ancestors were,
+of whom it is written in the Legend. When the sun goes down behind the
+hills we will return from hunting, mounted on great white horses,
+greeted respectfully by the peasants as they kneel before us. The horn
+will resound in welcome, the drawbridge will be lowered for us. In the
+evening, kings will dine at our table. At night, our couch will be on
+a platform surmounted by a canopy like a throne. While we sleep
+peacefully in purple and gold, soft music will be played in the
+distance."
+
+Quivering with pride and pleasure, she smiled now, but soon, overcome
+by the great suffering that again took possession of her, her lips
+assumed a mournful expression and the smile disappeared. As with a
+mechanical movement of her hands she drove away the tempting pictures
+he called forth, he redoubled his ardour, and wished to make her his
+by seizing her and carrying her away in his arms.
+
+"Come, dear. Come with me. Let us go, and forget everything but our
+united happiness."
+
+Disengaging herself brusquely, she escaped him, with an instinctive
+rebellion, and trying to stand up, this cry came at last from her:
+
+"No, no! I cannot go. I no longer have the power to do so."
+
+However, again lamenting her fate, still torn by the contest in her
+soul, hesitating and stammering, she again turned towards him
+imploringly.
+
+"I beg you to be good and not hurry me too much, but wait awhile. I
+would so gladly obey you, in order to prove to you my love; I would
+like above all to go away on your arm to that beautiful far-away
+country, where we could live royally in the castle of your dreams. It
+seems to me an easy thing to do, so often have I myself planned our
+flight. Yet now, what shall I say to you? It appears to me quite an
+impossibility; it is as if a door had suddenly been walled up between
+us and prevented me from going out."
+
+He wished to try to fascinate her again, but she quieted him with a
+movement of her hands.
+
+"No; do not say anything more. It is very singular, but in proportion
+as you utter such sweet, such tender words, which ought to convince
+me, fear takes possession of me and chills me to the heart. My God!
+What is the matter with me? It is really that which you say which
+drives me from you. If you continue, I can no longer listen to you;
+you will be obliged to go away. Yet wait--wait a little longer!"
+
+She walked very slowly about the room, anxiously seeking to resume her
+self-control, while he looked at her in despair.
+
+"I thought to have loved you no longer; but it was certainly only a
+feeling of pique, since just now, as soon as I found you again at my
+feet, my heart beat rapidly, and my first impulse was to follow you as
+if I were your slave. Then, if I love you, why am I afraid of you?
+What is it that prevents me from leaving this room, as if invisible
+hands were holding me back by my whole body, and even by each hair of
+my head?"
+
+She had stopped near her bed; then she went as far as the wardrobe,
+then to the different articles of furniture, one after the other. They
+all seemed united to her person by invisible ties. Especially the
+walls of the room, the grand whiteness of the mansard roof, enveloped
+her with a robe of purity, that she could leave behind her only with
+tears; and henceforth all this would be a part of her being; the
+spirit of her surroundings had entered into her. And she realised this
+fact stronger than ever when she found herself opposite her working-
+frame, which was resting at the side of the table under the lamplight.
+Her heart softened as she saw the half-made rose, which she would
+never finish were she to go away in this secret, criminal manner. The
+years of work were brought back to her mind: those quiet, happy years,
+during which life had been one long experience of peace and honesty,
+so that now she rebelled at the thought of committing a fault and of
+thus fleeing in the arms of her lover. Each day in this little, fresh
+house of the embroiderers, the active and pure life she had led there,
+away from all worldly temptations, had, as it were, made over all the
+blood in her veins.
+
+Then Felicien, realising that in some inexplicable way Angelique was
+being reconquered and brought to her better self, felt the necessity
+of hastening their departure. He seized her hands and said:
+
+"Come, dear. Time passes quickly. If we wait much longer it will be
+too late."
+
+She looked at him an instant, and then in a flash realised her true
+position. Freeing herself from his grasp she exclaimed, resolutely and
+frankly:
+
+"It is already too late. You can see for yourself that I am unable now
+to follow you. Once my nature was so proud and passionate that I could
+have thrown my two arms around your neck in order that you might carry
+me away all the more quickly. But now I am no longer the same person.
+I am so changed that I do not recognise myself. Yes, I realise now
+that it is this quiet corner where I have been brought up, and the
+education that has been given me, that has made me what I am at
+present. Do you then yourself hear nothing? Do you not know that
+everything in this chamber calls upon me to stay? And I do not rebel
+in the least against this demand, for my joy at last is to obey."
+
+Without speaking, without attempting to discuss the question with her,
+he tried to take her hands again, and to lead her like an intractable
+child. Again she avoided him and turned slowly toward the window.
+
+"No, I beseech you to leave me. It is not my hand that you wish for,
+it is my heart; and also that, of my own free will, I shall at once go
+away with you. But I tell you plainly that I do not wish to do so. A
+while ago I thought to have been as eager for flight as you are. But
+sure of my true self now, I know it was only the last rebellion, the
+agony of the old nature within me, that has just died. Little by
+little, without my knowledge, the good traits of my character have
+been drawn together and strongly united: humility, duty, and
+renunciation. So at each return of hereditary tendency to excess, the
+struggle has been less severe, and I have triumphed over temptation
+more easily. Now, at last, everything assures me that the supreme
+contest has just taken place; that henceforth it is finished for ever.
+I have conquered myself, and my nature is freed from the evil
+tendencies it had. Ah! dear Seigneur, I love you so much! Do not let
+us do the slightest thing to mar our happiness. To be happy it is
+always necessary to submit."
+
+As he took another step towards her, she was at the threshold of the
+great window, which was now wide open on to the balcony. She had
+stopped him with a half-smile as she said:
+
+"You would not like to force me to throw myself down from here.
+Listen, and understand me when I say to you that everything which
+surrounds me is on my side. I have already told you that for a long
+time objects themselves have spoken to me. I hear voices in all
+directions, and never have they been so distinct as at this moment.
+Hear! It is the whole Clos-Marie that encourages me not to spoil my
+life and yours by giving myself to you without the consent of your
+father. This singing voice is the Chevrotte, so clear and so fresh
+that it seems to have put within me a purity like crystal since I have
+lived so near it. This other voice, like that of a crowd, tender and
+deep, it is that of the entire earth--the grasses, the trees, all the
+peaceable life of this sacred corner which has so constantly worked
+for the good of my soul.
+
+"And there are other voices which come from still farther away, from
+the elms of the garden of Monseigneur, and from this horizon of
+branches, the smallest of which interests itself in me, and wishes for
+me to be victorious.
+
+"Then, again, this great, sovereign voice, it is that of my old
+friend, the Cathedral, who, eternally awake, both day and night, has
+taught me many important things. Each one of the stones in the immense
+building, the little columns in the windows, the bell-towers of its
+piers, the flying buttresses of its apse, all have a murmur which I
+can distinguish, a language which I understand. Listen to what they
+say: that hope remains even in death. When one is really humble, love
+alone remains and triumphs. And at last, look! The air itself is
+filled with the whisperings of spirits. See, here are my invisible
+companions, the virgins, who are ever near me and aid me. Listen,
+listen!"
+
+Smiling, she had lifted up her hand with an air of the deepest
+attention, and her whole being was in ecstasy from the scattered
+breathings she heard. They were the virgins of the "Golden Legend"
+that her imagination called forth, as in her early childhood, and
+whose mystic flight came from the old book with its quaint pictures,
+that was placed on the little table. Agnes was first, clothed with her
+beautiful hair, having on her finger the ring of betrothal to the
+Priest Paulin. Then all the others came in turn. Barbara with her
+tower; Genevieve with her sheep; Cecilia with her viol; Agatha with
+her wounded breast; Elizabeth begging on the highways, and Catherine
+triumphing over the learned doctors. She did not forget the miracle
+that made Lucy so heavy that a thousand men and five yoke of oxen
+could not carry her away: nor the Governor who became blind as he
+tried to embrace Anastasia. Then others who seemed flying through the
+quiet night, still bearing marks of the wounds inflicted upon them by
+their cruel martyrdom, and from which rivers of milk were flowing
+instead of blood. Ah! to die from love like them, to die in the purity
+of youth at the first kiss of a beloved one!
+
+Felicien had approached her.
+
+"I am the one person who really lives, Angelique, and you cannot give
+me up for mere fancies."
+
+"Dreams!--fancies!" she murmured.
+
+"Yes; for if in reality these visions seem to surround you, it is
+simply that you yourself have created them all. Come, dear; no longer
+put a part of your life into objects about you, and they will be
+quiet."
+
+She gave way to a burst of enthusiastic feeling.
+
+"Oh no! Let them speak. Let them call out louder still! They are my
+strength; they give me the courage to resist you. It is a
+manifestation of the Eternal Grace, and never has it overpowered me so
+energetically as now. If it is but a dream, a dream which I have
+placed in my surroundings, and which comes back to me at will, what of
+it? It saves me, it carries me away spotless in the midst of dangers.
+Listen yourself. Yield, and obey like me. I no longer have even a wish
+to follow you."
+
+In spite of her weakness, she made a great effort and stood up,
+resolute and firm.
+
+"But you have been deceived," he said. "Even falsehood has been
+resorted to in order to separate us!"
+
+"The faults of others will not excuse our own."
+
+"Ah! You have withdrawn your heart from me, and you love me no
+longer."
+
+"I love you. I oppose you only on account of our love and for our
+mutual happiness. Obtain the consent of your father; then come for me,
+and I will follow you no matter where."
+
+"My father! You do not know him. God only could ever make him yield.
+Tell me, then, is this really to be the end of everything? If my
+father orders me to marry Claire de Voincourt, must I in that case
+obey him?"
+
+At this last blow Angelique tottered. Was no torture to be spared her?
+She could not restrain this heartbroken cry:
+
+"Oh! that is too much! My sufferings are greater than I can bear. I
+beseech you go away quickly and do not be so cruel. Why did you come
+at all? I was resigned. I had learned to accept the misfortune of
+being no longer loved by you. Yet the moment that I am reassured of
+your affection, all my martyrdom recommences; and how can you expect
+me to live now?"
+
+Felicien, not aware of the depth of her despair, and thinking that she
+had yielded simply to a momentary feeling, repeated his question:
+
+"If my father wishes me to marry her----"
+
+She struggled heroically against her intense suffering; she succeeded
+in standing up, notwithstanding that her heart was crushed, and
+dragging herself slowly towards the table, as if to make room for him
+to pass her, she said:
+
+"Marry her, for it is always necessary to obey."
+
+In his turn he was now before the window, ready to take his departure,
+because she had sent him away from her.
+
+"But it will make you die if I do so."
+
+She had regained her calmness, and, smiling sadly, she replied:
+
+"Oh! that work is nearly done already."
+
+For one moment more he looked at her, so pale, so thin, so wan; light
+as a feather, to be carried away by the faintest breath. Then, with a
+brusque movement of furious resolution, he disappeared in the night.
+
+When he was no longer there, Angelique, leaning against the back of
+her armchair, stretched her hands out in agony towards the darkness,
+and her frail body was shaken by heavy sobs, and cold perspiration
+came out upon her face and neck.
+
+"My God!" This, then, was the end, and she would never see him again.
+All her weakness and pain had come back to her. Her exhausted limbs no
+longer supported her. It was with great difficulty that she could
+regain her bed, upon which she fell helpless, but calm in spirit from
+the assurance that she had done right.
+
+The next morning they found her there, dying. The lamp had just gone
+out of itself, at the dawn of day, and everything in the chamber was
+of a triumphal whiteness.
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVI
+
+Angelique was dying.
+
+It was ten o'clock one cold morning towards the end of the winter, the
+air was sharp, and the clear heavens were brightened up by the
+beautiful sunshine. In her great royal bed, draped with its old,
+faded, rose-coloured chintz, she lay motionless, having been
+unconscious during the whole night. Stretched upon her back, her
+little ivory-like hands carelessly thrown upon the sheet, she no
+longer even opened her eyes, and her finely-cut profile looked more
+delicate than ever under the golden halo of her hair; in fact, anyone
+who had seen her would have thought her already dead, had it not been
+for the slight breathing movement of her lips.
+
+The day before, Angelique, realising that she was very ill, had
+confessed, and partaken of the Communion. Towards three o'clock in the
+afternoon the good Abbe Cornille had brought to her the sacred
+_Viaticum_. Then in the evening, as the chill of death gradually crept
+over her, a great desire came to her to receive the Extreme Unction,
+that celestial remedy, instituted for the cure of both the soul and
+body. Before losing consciousness, her last words, scarcely murmured,
+were understood by Hubertine, as in hesitating sentences she expressed
+her wish for the holy oils. "Yes--oh yes!--as quickly--as possible--
+before it is too late."
+
+But death advanced. They had waited until day, and the Abbe, having
+been notified, was about to come.
+
+Everything was now ready to receive the clergyman. The Huberts had
+just finished arranging the room. Under the gay sunlight, which at
+this early morning hour struck fully upon the window-panes, it looked
+pure as the dawn in the nudity of its great white walls. The table had
+been covered with a fresh damask cloth. At the right and the left of
+the crucifix two large wax-tapers were burning in the silver
+candelabrum which had been brought up from the parlour, and there were
+also there the consecrated wafers, the asperges brush, an ewer of
+water with its basin and a napkin, and two plates of white porcelain,
+one of which was filled with long bits of cotton, and the other with
+little _cornets_ of paper. The greenhouses of the lower town had been
+thoroughly searched, but the only inodorous flowers that had been
+found were the peonies--great white peonies, enormous tufts of which
+adorned the table, like a shimmering of white lace. And in the midst
+of this intense whiteness, Angelique, dying, with closed eyes, still
+breathed gently with a half-perceptible breath.
+
+The doctor, who had made his first morning visit, had said that she
+could not live through the day. She might, indeed, pass away at any
+moment, without even having come to her senses at all. The Huberts,
+resolute and grave, waited in silent despair. Notwithstanding their
+grief and tears, it was evidently necessary that this should be the
+end. If they had ever wished for this death, preferring to lose their
+dear child rather than to have her rebellious, it was evident that God
+also wished it with them, and now, that in this last trying moment
+they were quite powerless, they could only submit themselves to the
+inevitable. They regretted nothing, although their sorrow seemed
+greater than they could bear. Since she, their darling, had been
+there, suffering from her long illness, they had taken the entire care
+of her day and night, refusing all aid offered them from outside. They
+were still there alone in this supreme hour, and they waited.
+
+Hubert, scarcely knowing what he did, walked mechanically to the
+porcelain stove, the door of which he opened, for the gentle roaring
+of the flaming wood sounded to him like a plaintive moan; then there
+was a perfect silence. The peonies seemed even to turn paler in the
+soft heat of the room.
+
+Hubertine, stronger than her husband, and still fully conscious of all
+she did, listened to the sounds of the Cathedral as they came to her
+from behind the walls. During the past moment the old stones had
+vibrated from the swinging of the bell of the great tower. It must
+certainly be the Abbe Cornille leaving the church with the sacred
+oils, she thought; so she went downstairs, that she might receive him
+at the door of the house.
+
+Two minutes later, the narrow stairway of the little tower was filled
+with a great murmuring sound. Then in the warm chamber, Hubert, struck
+with astonishment, suddenly began to tremble, whilst a religious fear,
+mingled with a faint hope, made him fall upon his knees. Instead of
+the old clergyman whom they had expected, it was Monseigneur who
+entered. Yes! Monseigneur, in lace surplice, having the violet stole,
+and carrying the silver vessel in which was the oil for the sick,
+which he himself had blessed on Holy Thursday. His eagle-like eyes
+were fixed, as he looked straight before him; his beautiful pale face
+was really majestic under the thick, curly masses of his white hair.
+Behind him walked the Abbe Cornille, like a simple clerk, carrying in
+one hand a crucifix, and under the other a book of ritual service.
+
+Standing for a moment upon the threshold, the bishop said in a deep,
+grave voice:
+
+"_Pax huic domui_." ("Peace be to this house.")
+
+"_Et omnibus habitantibus in ea_," replied the priest in a lower tone.
+("And to all the inhabitants thereof.")
+
+When they had entered, Hubertine, who had come up the stairs after
+them, she also trembling from surprise and emotion, went and knelt by
+the side of her husband. Both of them prostrated themselves most
+humbly, and prayed fervently from the depths of their souls.
+
+A few hours after his last visit to Angelique, Felicien had had the
+terrible and dreaded explanation with his father. Early in the morning
+of that same day he had found open the doors, he had penetrated even
+into the Oratory, where the Bishop was still at prayer, after one of
+those nights of frightful struggling against the memories of the past,
+which would so constantly reappear before him. In the soul of this
+hitherto always respectful son, until now kept submissive by fear,
+rebellion against authority, so long a time stifled, suddenly broke
+forth, and the collision of these two men of the same blood, with
+natures equally prompt to violence, was intense. The old man had left
+his devotional chair, and with cheeks growing purple by degrees, he
+listened silently as he stood there in his proud obstinacy. The young
+man, with face equally inflamed, poured out everything that was in his
+heart, speaking in a voice that little by little grew louder and
+rebuking. He said that Angelique was not only ill, but dying. He told
+him that in a pressing moment of temptation, overcome by his deep
+affection, he had wished to take her away with him that they might
+flee together, and that she, with the submissive humility of a saint,
+and chaste as a lily, had refused to accompany him. Would it not be a
+most abominable murder to allow this obedient young girl to die,
+because she had been unwilling to accept him unless when offered to
+her by the hand of his father? She loved him so sincerely that she
+could die for him. In fact, she could have had him, with his name and
+his fortune, but she had said "No," and, triumphant over her feelings,
+she had struggled with herself in order to do her duty. Now, after
+such a proof of her goodness, could he permit her to suffer so much
+grief? Like her, he would be willing to give up everything, to die
+even, if it might be, and he realised that he was cowardly. He
+despised himself for not being at her side, that they might pass out
+of life together, by the same breath. Was it possible that anyone
+could be so cruel as to wish to torment them, that they should both
+have so sad a death, when one word, one simple word, would secure them
+such bliss? Ah! the pride of name, the glory of wealth, persistence in
+one's determination: all these were nothing in comparison to the fact
+that by the union of two hearts the eternal happiness of two human
+beings was assured. He joined his hands together, he twisted them
+feverishly, quite beside himself as he demanded his father's consent,
+still supplicating, already almost threatening. But the Bishop, with
+face deeply flushed by the mounting of his blood, with swollen lips,
+with flaming eyes, terrible in his unexpressed anger, at last opened
+his mouth, only to reply by this word of parental authority: "Never!"
+
+Then Felicien, absolutely raving in his rebellion, lost all control
+over himself.
+
+He spoke of his mother, he really threatened his father by the
+remembrance of the dead. It was she who had come back again in the
+shape of her son to vindicate and reclaim the right of affection.
+Could it be that his father had never loved her? Had he even rejoiced
+in her death, since he showed himself so harsh towards those who loved
+each other, and who wished to live? But he might well do all he could
+to become cold in the renunciations demanded by the Church; she would
+come back to haunt and to torture him, because he was willing to
+torture the child they had had, the living witness of their affection
+for each other. She would always be there, so long as their son lived.
+She wished to reappear in the children of their child for ever. And he
+was causing her to die over again, by refusing to her son the
+betrothed of his choice, the one through whom the race was to be
+continued. When a man had once been married to a woman, he should
+never think of wedding the Church. Face to face with his father, who,
+motionless, appeared in his fearful silence to grow taller and taller,
+he uttered unfilial, almost murderous words. Then, shocked at himself,
+he rushed away, shuddering at the extent to which passion had carried
+him.
+
+When once more alone, Monseigneur, as if stabbed in the full breast by
+a sharp weapon, turned back upon himself and struggled deeply with his
+soul, as he knelt upon his prie-Dieu. A half-rattling sound came from
+his throat. Oh! these frightful heart contests, these invincible
+weaknesses of the flesh. This woman, and his beloved dead, who was
+constantly coming back to life, he adored her now, as he did the first
+evening when he kissed her white feet; and this son, he idolised him
+as belonging to her, as a part of her life, which she had left to him.
+And even the young girl, the little working girl whom he had repulsed,
+he loved her also with a tenderness like that of his son for her. Now
+his nights were inexpressibly agitated by all three. Without his
+having been willing to acknowledge it, had she then touched him so
+deeply as he saw her in the great Cathedral, this little embroiderer,
+with her golden hair, her fresh pure neck, in all the perfume of her
+youth? He saw her again; she passed before him, so delicate, so pure
+in her victorious submission. No remorse could have come to him with a
+step more certain or more conquering. He might reject her with a loud
+voice. He knew well that henceforth she held him strongly by the heart
+with her humble hands that bore the signs of work. Whilst Felicien was
+so violently beseeching him, he seemed to see them both behind the
+blonde head of the petitioner--these two idolised women, the one for
+whom his son prayed, and the one who had died for her child. They were
+there in all their physical beauty, in all their loving devotion, and
+he could not tell where he had found strength to resist, so entirely
+did his whole being go out towards them. Overcome, sobbing, not
+knowing how he could again become calm, he demanded from Heaven the
+courage to tear out his heart, since this heart belonged no longer to
+God alone.
+
+Until evening Monseigneur continued at prayer. When he at last
+reappeared he was white as wax, distressed, anxious, but still
+resolute. He could do nothing more, but he repeated to his son the
+terrible word--"Never!" It was God alone who had the right to relieve
+him from his promise; and God, although implored, gave him no sign of
+change. It was necessary to suffer.
+
+Some days had passed. Felicien constantly wandered round the little
+house, wild with grief, eager for news. Each time that he saw anyone
+come out he almost fainted from fear. Thus it happened that on the
+morning when Hubertine ran to the church to ask for the sacred oils,
+he learned that Angelique could not live through the day. The Abbe
+Cornille was not at the Sacristy, and he rushed about the town to find
+him, still having a last hope that through the intervention of the
+good man some Divine aid might come. Then, as he brought back with him
+the sought-for clergyman, his hope left him, and he had a frightful
+attack of doubt and anger. What should he do? In what way could he
+force Heaven to come to his assistance? He went away, hastened to the
+Bishop's palace, the doors of which he again forced open, and before
+his incoherent words his father was for a moment frightened. At last
+he understood. Angelique was dying! She awaited the Extreme Unction,
+and now God alone could save her. The young man had only come to cry
+out all his agony, to break all relations with this cruel, unnatural
+father, and to accuse him to his face of willingly allowing this
+death. But Monseigneur listened to him without anger: upright and very
+serious, his eyes suddenly brightened with a strange clearness, as if
+an inner voice had spoken to him. Motioning to his son to lead the
+way, he followed him, simply saying at last:
+
+"If God wishes it, I also wish it."
+
+Felicien trembled so that he could scarcely move. His father
+consented, freed from his personal vow, to submit himself to the
+goodwill of the hoped-for miracle. Henceforth they, as individuals,
+counted for nothing. God must act for himself. Tears blinded him.
+Whilst in the Sacristy Monseigneur took the sacred oils from the hands
+of the Abbe Cornille. He accompanied them, almost staggering; he did
+not dare to enter into the chamber, but fell upon his knees at the
+threshold of the door, which was open wide.
+
+The voice of the Bishop was firm, as he said:
+
+"_Pax huic domui_."
+
+"_Et omnibus habitantibus in ea_," the priest replied.
+
+Monseigneur had just placed on the white table, between the two wax-
+candles, the sacred oils, making in the air the sign of the cross,
+with the silver vase. Then he took from the hands of the Abbe the
+crucifix, and approached the sufferer that he might make her kiss it.
+But Angelique was still unconscious: her eyes were closed, her mouth
+shut, her hands rigid, and looking like the little stiff figures of
+stone placed upon tombs. He examined her for a moment, and, seeing by
+the slight movement of her chest that she was not dead, he placed upon
+her lips the crucifix. He waited. His face preserved the majesty of a
+minister of penitence, and no signs of emotion were visible when he
+realised that not even a quivering had passed over the exquisite
+profile of the young girl, nor in her beautiful hair. She still lived,
+however, and that was sufficient for the redemption of her sins.
+
+The Abbe then gave to Monseigneur the vessel of holy water and the
+asperges brush, and while he held open before him the ritual book, he
+threw the holy water upon the dying girl, as he read the Latin words,
+_Asperges me, Domine, hyssopo et mundabor: lavabis me, et super nivem
+dealbabor_. ("Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be
+clean: thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.")
+
+The drops sprang forth in every direction, and the whole bed was
+refreshed by them as if sprinkled with dew. It rained upon her hands
+and upon her cheeks; but one by one the drops rolled away as if from
+insensible marble. At last the Bishop turned towards the assistants
+and sprinkled them in their turn. Hubert and Hubertine, kneeling side
+by side, in the full union of their perfect faith, bent humbly under
+the shower of this benediction. Then Monseigneur blessed also the
+chamber, the furniture, the white walls in all their bare purity, and
+as he passed near the door he found himself before his son, who had
+fallen down on the threshold, and was sobbing violently, having
+covered his face with his burning hands. With a slow movement, he
+raised three times the asperges brush, and he purified him with a
+gentle rain. This holy water, spread everywhere, was intended at first
+to drive away all evil spirits, who were flying by crowds, although
+invisible. Just at this moment a pale ray of the winter sun passed
+over the bed, and a multitude of atoms, light specks of dust, seemed
+to be living therein. They were innumerable as they came down from an
+angle of the window, as if to bathe with their warmth the cold hands
+of the dying.
+
+Going again towards the table, Monseigneur repeated the prayer,
+"_Exaudi nos_." ("Give ear to us.")
+
+He made no haste. It was true that death was there, hovering near the
+old, faded chintz curtains, but he knew that it was patient, and that
+it would wait. And although in her state of utter prostration the
+child could not hear him, he addressed her as he asked her:
+
+"Is there nothing upon your conscience which distresses you? Confess
+all your doubts and fears, my daughter; relieve your mind."
+
+She was still in the same position, and she was always silent. When,
+in vain, he had given time for a reply, he commenced the exhortation
+with the same full voice, without appearing to notice that none of his
+words reached her ear.
+
+"Collect your thoughts, meditate, demand from the depths of your soul
+pardon from God. The Sacrament will purify you, and will strengthen
+you anew. Your eyes will become clear, your ears chaste, your nostrils
+fresh, your mouth pure, your hands innocent."
+
+With eyes fixed upon her, he continued reading to the end all that was
+necessary for him to say; while she scarcely breathed, nor did one of
+her closed eyelids move. Then he said:
+
+"Recite the Creed."
+
+And having waited awhile, he repeated it himself:
+
+"_Credo in unum Deum, Patrem omnipotentem_." ("I believe in one God,
+the Father Almighty.")
+
+"Amen," replied the Abbe Cornille.
+
+All this time the heavy sobbing of Felicien was heard, as upon the
+landing-place he wept in the enervation of hope. Hubert and Hubertine
+still prayed fervently, with the same anxious waiting and desire, as
+if they had felt descend upon them all the invisible powers of the
+Unknown. A change now came in the service, from the murmur of half-
+spoken prayers. Then the litanies of the ritual were unfolded, the
+invocation to all the Saints, the flight of the Kyrie Eleison, calling
+Heaven to the aid of miserable humanity, mounting each time with great
+outbursts, like the fume of incense.
+
+Then the voices suddenly fell, and there was a deep silence.
+Monseigneur washed his fingers in the few drops of water that the Abbe
+poured out from the ewer. At length he took the vessel of sacred oil,
+opened the cover thereof, and placed himself before the bed. It was
+the solemn approach of the Sacrament of this last religious ceremony,
+by the efficacy of which are effaced all mortal or venial sins not
+pardoned, which rest in the soul after having received the other
+sacraments, old remains of forgotten sins, sins committed unwittingly,
+sins of languor which prevented one from being firmly re-established
+in the grace of God. The pure white chamber seemed to be like the
+individuals collected therein, motionless, and in a state of surprise
+and expectation. Where could all these sins be found? They must
+certainly come from outside in this great band of sun's rays, filled
+with dancing specks of dust, which appeared to bring germs of life
+even to this great royal couch, so white and cold from the coming of
+death to a pure young maiden.
+
+Monseigneur meditated a moment, fixing his looks again upon Angelique,
+assuring himself that the slight breath had not ceased, struggling
+against all human emotion, as he saw how thin she was, with the beauty
+of an archangel, already immaterial. His voice retained the authority
+of a divine disinterestedness, and his thumb did not tremble when he
+dipped it into the sacred oils as he commenced the unctions on the
+five parts of the body where dwell the senses: the five windows by
+which evil enters into the soul.
+
+First upon the eyes, upon the closed eyelids, the right and then the
+left; and slowly, lightly, he traced with his thumb the sign of the
+Cross.
+
+"_Per istam sanctam unctionem, et suam piissimam misericordiam,
+indulgeat tibi Dominus quidquid per visum deliquisti_." ("By this holy
+anointing and His gracious mercy, the Lord forgive whatever sins thou
+hast committed through _seeing_.")[*]
+
+[*] This formula is repeated with reference to the other senses--
+    hearing, smell, taste, and touch.
+
+And the sins of the sight were redeemed; lascivious looks, immodest
+curiosity, the pride of spectacles, unwholesome readings, tears shed
+for guilty troubles.
+
+And she, dear child, knew no other book than the "Golden Legend," no
+other horizon than the apse of the Cathedral, which hid from view all
+the rest of the world. She had wept only in the struggle of obedience
+and the renunciation of passion.
+
+The Abbe Cornille wiped both her eyes with a bit of cotton, which he
+afterwards put into one of the little cornets of paper.
+
+Then Monseigneur anointed the ears, with their lobes as delicate and
+transparent as pearl, first the right ear, afterwards the left,
+scarcely moistened with the sign of the cross.
+
+"_Per istam sanctam unctionem, et suam piissimam misericordiam,
+indulgeat tibi Dominus quidquid per auditum deliquisti_."
+
+So all the abominations of hearing were atoned for: all the words and
+music which corrupt, the slanders, the calumnies, the blasphemies, the
+sinful propositions listened to with complacency, the falsehoods of
+love which aided the forgetfulness of duty, the profane songs which
+excited the senses, the violins of the orchestra which, as it were,
+wept voluptuously under the brilliant lights.
+
+She in her isolated life, like that of a cloistered nun--she had never
+even heard the free gossip of the neighbours, or the oath of a carman
+as he whips his horses. The only music that had ever entered her ears
+was that of the sacred hymns, the rumblings of the organs, the
+confused murmurings of prayers, with which at times vibrated all this
+fresh little house, so close to the side of the great church.
+
+The Abbe, after having dried the ears with cotton, put that bit also
+into one of the white cornets.
+
+Monseigneur now passed to the nostrils, the right and then the left,
+like two petals of a white rose, which he purified by touching them
+with the sacred oil and making on them the sign of the cross.
+
+"_Per istam sanctam unctionem, et suam piissimam misericordiam,
+indulgeat tibi Dominus quidquid per odoratum deliquisti_."
+
+And the sense of smell returned to its primitive innocence, cleansed
+from all stain: not only from the carnal disgrace of perfumes, from
+the seduction of flowers with breath too sweet, from the scattered
+fragrances of the air which put the soul to sleep; but yet again from
+the faults of the interior sense, the bad examples given to others,
+and the contagious pestilence of scandal. Erect and pure, she had at
+last become a lily among the lilies, a great lily whose perfume
+fortified the weak and delighted the strong. In fact, she was so truly
+delicate that she could never endure the powerful odour of carnations,
+the musk of lilacs, the feverish sweetness of hyacinths, and was only
+at ease with the scentless blossoms, like the marguerites and the
+periwinkles.
+
+Once more the Abbe, with the cotton, dried the anointed parts, and
+slipped the little tuft into another of the cornets.
+
+Then Monseigneur, descending to the closed mouth, through which the
+faint breath was now scarcely perceptible, made upon the lower lip the
+sign of the cross.
+
+"_Per istam sanctam unctionem, et suam piissimam misericordiam,
+indulgeat tibi Dominus quidquid per gustum deliquisti_."
+
+This time it was the pardon for the base gratifications of taste,
+greediness, too great a desire for wine, or for sweets; but especially
+the forgiveness for sins of the tongue, that universally guilty
+member, the provoker, the poisoner, the inventor of quarrels, the
+inciter to wars, which makes one utter words of error and falsehood
+which at length obscure even the heavens. Yet her whole mouth was only
+a chalice of innocence. She had never had the vice of gluttony, for
+she had taught herself, like Elizabeth, to eat whatever was set before
+her, without paying great attention to her food. And if it were true
+that she lived in error, it was the fault of her dream which had
+placed her there, the hope of a beyond, the consolation of what was
+invisible, and all the world of enchantment which her ignorance had
+created and which had made of her a saint.
+
+The Abbe having dried the lips, folded the bit of cotton in the fourth
+white cornet.
+
+At last Monseigneur anointed first the right and then the left palms
+of the two little ivory-like hands, lying open upon the sheet, and
+cleansed them from their sins with the sign of the cross.
+
+"_Per istam sanctam unctionem, et suam piissimam misericordiam,
+indulgeat tibi Dominus quidquid per tactum deliquisti_."
+
+And the whole body was purified, being washed from its last spots--
+those of the touch the most repugnant of all. Pilfering, fighting,
+murder, without counting other sins of the breast, the body, and the
+feet, which were also redeemed by this unction. All which burns in the
+flesh, our anger, our desires, our unruled passions, the snares and
+pitfalls into which we run, and all forbidden joys by which we are
+tempted. Since she had been there, dying from her victory over
+herself, she had conquered her few failings, her pride and her
+passion, as if she had inherited original sin simply for the glory of
+triumphing over it. She knew not, even, that she had had other wishes,
+that love had drawn her towards disobedience, so armed was she with
+the breastplate of ignorance of evil, so pure and white was her soul.
+
+The Abbe wiped the little motionless hands, and putting the last puff
+of cotton in the remaining cornet, he threw the five papers into the
+fire at the back of the stove.
+
+The ceremony was finished. Monseigneur washed his fingers before
+saying the final prayer. He had now only to again exhort the dying, in
+placing in her hand the symbolic taper, to drive away the demons, and
+to show that she had just recovered her baptismal innocence. But she
+remained rigid, her eyes closed, her mouth shut as if dead. The holy
+oils had purified her body, the signs of the cross had left their
+traces on the five windows of the soul, without making the slightest
+wave of colour, or of life, mount to her cheeks.
+
+Although implored and hoped for, the prodigy did not appear, and the
+room was silent and anxious. Hubert and Hubertine, still kneeling side
+by side, no longer prayed, but, with their eyes fixed upon their
+darling, gazed so earnestly that they both seemed motionless for ever,
+like the figures of the _donataires_ who await the Resurrection in a
+corner of an old painted glass window. Felicien had drawn himself up
+on his knees and was now at the door, having ceased from sobbing, as
+with head erect he also might see if God would always remain deaf to
+their prayers. Was it then a mere lure? Would not this holy Sacrament
+bring her back to life?
+
+For the last time Monseigneur approached the bed, followed by the Abbe
+Cornille, who held, already lighted, the wax-taper which was to be
+placed in the hand of the young girl. And the Bishop, not willing to
+acknowledge the state of unconsciousness in which she remained,
+determining to go even to the end of the rite, that God might have
+time in which to work, pronounced the formula:--
+
+"_Accipe lampadem ardentem, custodi unctionem tuam, ut cum Dominus ad
+judicandum venerit, possis occurrere ei cum omnibus sanctis et vivas
+in saecula saeculorum_." ("Receive this light, and keep the unction
+thou hast received, that when the Lord shall come to judgment thou
+mayest meet Him with all His saints, and live with Him for ever and
+ever.")
+
+"Amen," replied the Abbe.
+
+But when they endeavoured to open Angelique's hand and to press it
+round the taper, the hand, powerless, as if already dead, escaped them
+and fell back upon her breast.
+
+Then, little by little, Monseigneur yielded to a great nervous
+trembling. It was the emotion which, for a long time restrained, now
+broke out within him, carrying away with it the last rigidity of
+priesthood. He dearly loved her, this child, from the day when she had
+come to sob at his feet, so innocent, and showing so plainly the pure
+freshness of her youth. Since then, in his nights of distress, he had
+contended chiefly against her, to defend himself from the overwhelming
+tenderness with which she inspired him. At this moment she was worthy
+of pity, with this pallor of death, with an ethereal beauty which
+showed, however, so deep a suffering that he could not look at her
+without his heart being secretly overwhelmed with distress.
+
+He could no longer control himself. His eyelids were swollen by the
+great tears which at last rolled down his cheeks. She must not die in
+this way: he was conquered by her touching charms even in death, and
+all his paternal feelings went out towards her.
+
+Then Monseigneur, recalling to mind the numerous miracles of his race,
+the power which had been given them by Heaven to heal, thought that
+doubtless God awaited his consent as a father. He invoked Saint Agnes,
+before whom all his ancestors had offered up their devotions, and as
+Jean V d'Hautecoeur prayed at the bedside of those smitten by the
+plague and kissed them, so now he prayed and kissed Angelique upon her
+lips.
+
+"If God wishes, I also wish it."
+
+Immediately Angelique opened her eyelids. She looked at the Bishop
+without surprise as she awoke from her long trance, and, her lips
+still warm from the kiss, smiled upon him. These things were not
+strange to her, for they certainly must have been realised sooner or
+later, and it might be that she was coming out of one dream only to
+have another still; but it seemed to her perfectly natural that
+Monseigneur should have come to betroth her to Felicien, since the
+hour for that ceremony had arrived. In a few minutes, unaided, she sat
+up in the middle of her great royal bed.
+
+The Bishop, radiant, showing by his expression his clear appreciation
+of the remarkable prodigy, repeated the formula:--
+
+"_Accipe lampadem ardentem, custodi unctionem tuam, ut cum Dominus ad
+judicandum venerit, possis occurrere ei cum omnibus sanctis et vivas
+in saecula saeculorum_."
+
+"Amen," replied the Abbe.
+
+Angelique had taken the lighted taper, and held it up with a firm
+hand. Life had come back to her, like the flame of the candle, which
+was burning clear and bright, driving away the spirits of the night.
+
+A great cry resounded through the room. Felicien was standing up, as
+if raised by the power of the miracle, while the Huberts, overwhelmed
+by the same feeling, remained upon their knees, with wonder-stricken
+eyes, with delighted countenances, before that which they had seen.
+The bed had appeared to them enveloped with a brilliant light; white
+masses seemed still to be mounting up on the rays of the sunlight, and
+the great walls, the whole room in fact, kept a white lustre, as that
+of snow.
+
+In the midst of all, Angelique, like a refreshed lily, replaced upon
+its branch, appeared in the clear light. Her fine golden hair was like
+a halo of glory around her head, her violet-coloured eyes shone
+divinely, and her pure face beamed with a living splendour.
+
+Felicien, seeing that she was saved, touched by the Divine grace that
+Heaven had vouchsafed them, approached her, and knelt by the side of
+the bed.
+
+"Ah! dear soul, you recognise us now, and you will live. I am yours.
+My father wishes it to be so, since God has desired it."
+
+She bowed her head, smiling sweetly as she said, "Oh! I knew it must
+be so, and waited for it. All that I have foreseen will come to pass."
+
+Monseigneur, who had regained his usual proud serenity, placed the
+crucifix once more on her lips, and this time she kissed it as a
+submissive servant. Then, with a full movement of his hands, through
+the room, above the heads of all present, the Bishop gave the final
+benediction, while the Huberts and the Abbe Cornille wept.
+
+Felicien had taken one of the little hands of Angelique, while in the
+other little hand the taper of innocence burned bright and clear.
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVII
+
+The marriage was fixed for the early part of March. But Angelique
+remained very feeble, notwithstanding the joy which radiated from her
+whole person. She had wished after the first week of her convalescence
+to go down to the workroom, persisting in her determination to finish
+the panel of embroidery in bas-relief which was to be used for the
+Bishop's chair.
+
+"It would be," she said cheerfully, "her last, best piece of work; and
+besides, no one ever leaves," she added, "an order only half-
+completed."
+
+Then exhausted by the effort, she was again forced to keep her
+chamber. She lived there, happy and smiling, without regaining the
+full health of former times, always white and immaterial as the sacred
+sacramental oils; going and coming with a gentle step like that of a
+vision, and after having occasionally made the exertion of walking as
+far as from her table to the window, finding herself obliged to rest
+quietly for hours and give herself up to her sweet thoughts. At length
+they deferred the wedding-day, thinking it better to wait for her
+complete recovery, which must certainly come if she were well nursed
+and cared for.
+
+Every afternoon Felicien went up to see her. Hubert and Hubertine were
+there, and they passed together most delightful hours, during which
+they continually made and re-made the same bright projects. Seated in
+her great chair she laughed gaily, seemed trembling with life and
+vivacity, as she was the first to talk of the days which would be so
+well filled when together they could take long journeys; and of all
+the unknown joys that would come to them after they had restored the
+old Chateau d'Hautecoeur. Anyone, to have seen her then, would have
+considered her saved and regaining her strength in the backward
+spring, the air of which, growing warmer and warmer daily, entered by
+the open window. In fact, she never fell back into the deep gravities
+of her dreams, except when she was entirely alone and was not afraid
+of being seen. In the night, voices still appeared to be near her:
+then it seemed as if the earth were calling to her; and at last the
+truth was clearly revealed to her, so that she fully understood that
+the miracle was being continued only for the realisation of her dream.
+Was she not already dead, having simply the appearance of living,
+thanks to the respite which had been granted her from Divine Grace?
+This idea soothed her with deep gentleness in her hours of solitude,
+and she did not feel a moment's regret at the thought of being called
+away from life in the midst of her happiness, so certain was she of
+always realising to its fullest extent her anticipated joy. The
+cheerfulness she had hitherto shown became simply a little more
+serious; she abandoned herself to it quietly, forgetting her physical
+weakness as she indulged in the pure delights of fancy. It was only
+when she heard the Huberts open the door, or when Felicien came to see
+her, that she was able to sit upright, to bring her thoughts back to
+her surroundings, and to appear as if she were regaining her health,
+laughing pleasantly while she talked of their years of happy
+housekeeping far away, in the days to come.
+
+Towards the end of March Angelique grew very restless and much weaker.
+Twice, when by herself, she had long fainting fits. One morning she
+fell at the foot of her bed, just as Hubert was bringing her up a cup
+of milk; by a great effort of will she conquered herself, and, that
+she might deceive him, she remained on the floor and smiled, as she
+pretended to be looking for a needle that had been dropped. The
+following day she was gayer than usual, and proposed hastening the
+marriage, suggesting that at all events it should not be put off any
+later than the middle of April. All the others exclaimed at this idea,
+asking if it would not be advisable to wait awhile, since she was
+still so delicate. There was no need of being in such a hurry. She,
+however, seemed feverishly nervous, and insisted that the ceremony
+should take place immediately--yes, as soon as possible. Hubertine,
+surprised at the request, having a suspicion as to the true motive of
+this eagerness, looked at her earnestly for a moment, and turned very
+pale as she realised how slight was the cold breath which still
+attached her daughter to life. The dear invalid had already grown
+calm, in her tender need of consoling others and keeping them under an
+illusion, although she knew personally that her case was hopeless.
+Hubert and Felicien, in continual adoration before their idol, had
+neither seen nor felt anything unusual. Then Angelique, exerting
+herself almost supernaturally, rose up, and was more charming than
+ever, as she slowly moved back and forth with the light step of former
+days. She continued to speak of her wish, saying if it were granted
+she would be so happy, and that after the wedding she would certainly
+be cured. Moreover, the question should be left to Monseigneur; he
+alone should decide it. That same evening, when the Bishop was there,
+she explained her desire to him, fixing her eyes on his, regarding him
+steadily and beseechingly, and speaking in her sweet, earnest voice,
+under which there was hidden an ardent supplication, unexpressed in
+words. Monseigneur realised it, and understood the truth, and he
+appointed a day in the middle of April for the ceremony.
+
+Then they lived in great commotion from the necessary bustle attendant
+upon the preparations for the marriage. Notwithstanding his official
+position as guardian, Hubert was obliged to ask permission, or rather
+the consent of the Director of Public Assistance, who always
+represented the family council, Angelique not yet being of age; and
+Monsieur Grandsire, the Justice of the Peace, was charged with all
+legal details, in order to avoid as much as possible the painful side
+of the position to the young girl and to Felicien. But the dear child,
+realising that something was being kept back, asked one day to have
+her little book brought up to her, wishing to put it herself into the
+hands of her betrothed. She was now, and would henceforth remain, in a
+state of such sincere humility that she wished him to know thoroughly
+from what a low position he had drawn her, to elevate her to the glory
+of his well-honoured name and his great fortune. These were her
+parchments, her titles to nobility; her position was explained by this
+official document, this entry on the calendar where there was only a
+date followed by a number. She turned over all the leaves once more,
+then gave it to him without being confused, happy in thinking that in
+herself she was nothing, but that she owed everything to him. So
+deeply touched was he by this act, that he knelt down, kissed her
+hands while tears came to his eyes, as if it were she who had made him
+the one gift, the royal gift of her heart.
+
+For two weeks the preparations occupied all Beaumont, both the upper
+and the lower town being in a state of great excitement therefrom. It
+was said that twenty working-girls were engaged day and night upon the
+trousseau. The wedding-dress alone required three persons to make it,
+and there was to be a _corbeille_, or present from the bridegroom, to
+the value of a million of francs: a fluttering of laces, of velvets,
+of silks and satins, a flood of precious stones--diamonds worthy a
+Queen. But that which excited the people more than all else was the
+great amount given in charity, the bride having wished to distribute
+to the poor as much as she had received herself. So another million
+was showered down upon the country in a rain of gold. At length she
+was able to gratify all her old longings of benevolence, all the
+prodigalities of her most exaggerated dreams, as with open hands she
+let fall upon the wretched and needy a stream of riches, an overflow
+of comforts. In her little, white, bare chamber, confined to her old
+armchair, she laughed with delight when the Abbe Cornille brought to
+her the list of the distributions he had made. "Give more! Give more!"
+she cried, as it seemed to her as if not enough were done. She would,
+in reality, have liked to have seen the Pere Mascart seated for ever
+at a table before a princely banquet; the Chouteaux living in palatial
+luxury; the _mere_ Gabet cured of her rheumatism, and by the aid of
+money to have renewed her youth. As for the Lemballeuse, the mother
+and daughters, she absolutely wished to load them with silk dresses
+and jewellery. The hail of golden pieces redoubled over the town as in
+fairy-tales, far beyond the daily necessities, as if merely for the
+beauty and joy of seeing the triumphal golden glory, thrown from full
+hands, falling into the street and glittering in the great sunlight of
+charity.
+
+At last, on the eve of the happy day, everything was in readiness.
+Felicien had bought a large house on the Rue Magloire, at the back of
+the Bishop's palace, which had been fitted up and furnished most
+luxuriously. There were great rooms hung with admirable tapestries,
+filled with the most beautiful articles imaginable; a salon in old,
+rare pieces of hand embroidery; a boudoir in blue, soft as the early
+morning sky; and a sleeping-room, which was particularly attractive: a
+perfect little corner of white silk and lace--nothing, in short, but
+white, airy, and light--an exquisite shimmering of purity. But
+Angelique had constantly refused to go to see all these wonderful
+things, although a carriage was always ready to convey her there. She
+listened to the recital of that which had been done with an enchanted
+smile, but she gave no orders, and did not appear to wish to occupy
+herself with any of the arrangements. "No, no," she said, for all
+these things seemed so far away in the unknown of that vast world of
+which she was as yet totally ignorant. Since those who loved her had
+prepared for her so tenderly this happiness, she desired to partake
+thereof, and to enter therein like a princess coming from some
+chimerical country, who approaches the real kingdom where she is to
+reign for ever. In the same way she preferred to know nothing, except
+by hearsay, of the _corbeille_, which also was waiting for her--a
+superb gift from her betrothed, the wedding outfit of fine linen,
+embroidered with her cipher as marchioness, the full-dress costumes
+tastefully trimmed, the old family jewels valuable as the richest
+treasures of a cathedral, and the modern jewels in their marvellous
+yet delicate mountings, precious stones of every kind, and diamonds of
+the purest water. It was sufficient to her that her dream had come to
+pass, and that this good future awaited her in her new home, radiant
+in the reality of the new life that was opening before her. The only
+thing she saw was her wedding-dress, which was brought to her on the
+marriage morning.
+
+That day, when she awoke, Angelique, still alone, had in her great bed
+a moment of intense exhaustion, and feared that she would not be able
+to get up at all. She attempted to do so, but her knees bent under
+her; and in contrast to the brave serenity she had shown for weeks
+past, a fearful anguish, the last, perhaps, took utter possession of
+her. Then, as in a few minutes Hubertine came into the room, looking
+unusually happy, she was surprised to find that she could really walk,
+for she certainly did not do so from her own strength, but aid came to
+her from the Invisible, and friendly hands sustained and carried her.
+They dressed her; she no longer seemed to weigh anything, but was so
+slight and frail that her mother was astonished, and laughingly begged
+her not to move any more if she did not wish to fly quite away. During
+all the time of preparing her toilette, the little fresh house of the
+Huberts, so close to the side of the Cathedral, trembled under the
+great breath of the Giant, of that which already was humming therein,
+of the preparations for the ceremony, the nervous activity of the
+clergy, and especially the ringing of the bells, a continuous peal of
+joy, with which the old stones were vibrating.
+
+In the upper town, for over an hour there had been a glorious chiming
+of bells, as on the greatest holy days. The sun had risen in all its
+beauty, and on this limpid April morning a flood of spring rays seemed
+living with the sonorous peals which had called together all the
+inhabitants of the place. The whole of Beaumont was in a state of
+rejoicing on account of the marriage of this little embroiderer, to
+whom their hearts were so deeply attached, and they were touched by
+the fact of her royal good fortune. This bright sunlight, which
+penetrated all the streets, was like the golden rain, the gifts of
+fairy-tales, rolling out from her delicate hands. Under this joyful
+light, the multitude crowded in masses towards the Cathedral, filling
+the side-aisles of the church, and coming out on to the Place du
+Cloitre. There the great front of the building rose up, like a huge
+bouquet of stone, in full blossom, of the most ornamental Gothic,
+above the severe Romanesque of the foundation. In the tower the bells
+still rung, and the whole facade seemed to be like a glorification of
+these nuptials, expressive of the flight of this poor girl through all
+the wonders of the miracle, as it darted up and flamed, with its open
+lace-work ornamentations, the lily-like efflorescence of its little
+columns, its balustrades, and its arches, the niches of saints
+surmounted with canopies, the gable ends hollowed out in trefoil
+points, adorned with crossettes and flowers, immense rose-windows
+opening out in the mystic radiation of their mullions.
+
+At ten o'clock the organs pealed. Angelique and Felicien were there,
+walking with slow steps towards the high altar, between the closely-
+pressed ranks of the crowd. A breath of sincere, touching admiration
+came from every side. He, deeply moved, passed along proud and
+serious, with his blonde beauty of a young god appearing slighter than
+ever from his closely-fitting black dress-coat. But she, above all,
+struck the hearts of the spectators, so exquisite was she, so divinely
+beautiful with a mystic, spiritual charm. Her dress was of white
+watered silk, simply covered with rare old Mechlin lace, which was
+held by pearls, a whole setting of them designing the ruches of the
+waist and the ruffles of the skirt. A veil of old English point was
+fastened to her head by a triple crown of pearls, and falling to her
+feet, quite covered her. That was all--not a flower, not a jewel,
+nothing but this slight vision, this delicate, trembling cloud, which
+seemed to have placed her sweet little face between two white wings,
+like that of the Virgin of the painted glass window, with her violet
+eyes and her golden hair.
+
+Two armchairs, covered with crimson velvet, had been placed for
+Felicien and Angelique before the altar; and directly behind them,
+while the organs increased their phrases of welcome, Hubert and
+Hubertine knelt on the low benches which were destined for the family.
+The day before an intense joy had come to them, from the effects of
+which they had not yet recovered, and they were incapable of
+expressing their deep, heartfelt thanks for their own happiness, which
+was so closely connected with that of their daughter. Hubertine,
+having gone once more to the cemetery, saddened by the thought of
+their loneliness, and the little house, which would seem so empty
+after the departure of the dearly-beloved child, had prayed to her
+mother for a long time; when suddenly she felt within her an
+inexplicable relief and gladness, which convinced her that at last her
+petition had been granted. From the depths of the earth, after more
+than twenty years, the obstinate mother had forgiven them, and sent
+them the child of pardon so ardently desired and longed for. Was this
+the recompense of their charity towards the poor forlorn little
+creature whom they had found one snowy day at the Cathedral entrance,
+and who to-day was to wed a prince with all the show and pomp of the
+greatest ceremony? They remained on their knees, without praying in
+formulated words, enraptured with gratitude, their whole souls
+overflowing with an excess of infinite thanksgiving. And on the other
+side of the nave, seated on his high, official throne, Monseigneur was
+also one of the family group. He seemed filled with the majesty of the
+God whom he represented; he was resplendent in the glory of his sacred
+vestments, and the expression of his countenance was that of a proud
+serenity, as if he were entirely freed from all worldly passions.
+Above his head, on the panel of wonderful embroidery, were two angels
+supporting the brilliant coat of arms of Hautecoeur.
+
+Then the solemn service began. All the clergy connected with the
+cathedral were present to do honour to their Bishop, and priests had
+come from the different parishes to assist them. Among the crowd of
+white surplices which seemed to overflow the grating, shone the golden
+capes of the choristers, and the red robes of the singing-boys. The
+almost eternal night of the side-aisles, crushed down by the weight of
+the heavy Romanesque chapels, was this morning slightly brightened by
+the limpid April sunlight, which struck the painted glass of the
+windows so that they seemed to be a burning of gems, a sacred bursting
+into blossom of luminous flowers. But the background of the nave
+particularly blazed with a swarming of wax-tapers, tapers as
+innumerable as the stars of evening in a summer sky. In the centre,
+the high altar seemed on fire from them, a true "burning bush,"
+symbolic of the flame that consumes souls; and there were also candles
+in large candelabra and in chandeliers, while before the plighted
+couple, two enormous lustres with round branches looked like two suns.
+About them was a garden of masses of green plants and of living
+blossoms, where were in flower great tufts of white azaleas, of white
+camellias, and of lilacs. Away to the back of the apse sparkled bits
+of gold and silver, half-seen skirts of velvet and of silk, a distant
+dazzling of the tabernacle among the sombre surroundings of green
+verdure. Above all this burning the nave sprang out, and the four
+enormous pillars of the transept mounted upward to support the arched
+vaulting, in the trembling movement of these myriads of little flames,
+which almost seemed to pale at times in the full daylight which
+entered by the high Gothic windows.
+
+Angelique had wished to be married by the good Abbe Cornille, and when
+she saw him come forward in his surplice, and with the white stole,
+followed by two clerks, she smiled. This was at last the triumphant
+realisation of her dream--she was wedding fortune, beauty, and power
+far beyond her wildest hopes. The church itself was singing by the
+organs, radiant with its wax-tapers, and alive with the crowd of
+believers and priests, whom she knew to be around her on every side.
+Never had the old building been more brilliant or filled with a more
+regal pomp, enlarged as it were in its holy, sacred luxury, by an
+expansion of happiness. Angelique smiled again in the full knowledge
+that death was at her heart, celebrating its victory over her, in the
+midst of this glorious joy. In entering the Cathedral she had glanced
+at the Chapel d'Hautecoeur, where slept Laurette and Balbine, the
+"Happy Dead," who passed away when very young, in the full happiness
+of their love. At this last hour she was indeed perfect. Victorious
+over herself, reclaimed, renewed, having no longer any feeling of
+passion or of pride at her triumph, resigned at the knowledge that her
+life was fast leaving her, in this beautiful Hosanna of her great
+friend, the blessed old church. When she fell upon her knees, it was
+as a most humble, most submissive servant, entirely free from the
+stain of original sin; and in her renunciation she was thoroughly
+content.
+
+The Abbe Cornille, having mounted to the altar, had just come down
+again. In a loud voice he made the exhortation; he cited as an example
+the marriage which Jesus had contracted with the Church; he spoke of
+the future, of days to come when they would live and govern themselves
+in the true faith; of children whom they must bring up as Christians;
+and then, once more, in face of this hope, Angelique again smiled
+sweetly, while Felicien trembled at the idea of all this happiness,
+which he believed to be assured. Then came the consecrated demands of
+the ritual, the replies which united them together for their entire
+existence, the decisive "Yes"--which she pronounced in a voice filled
+with emotion from the depths of her heart, and which he said in a much
+louder tone, and with a tender earnestness. The irrevocable step was
+taken, the clergyman had placed their right hands together, one
+clasping the other, as he repeated the prescribed formula: "I unite
+you in matrimony, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
+the holy Ghost." But there were still rings to be blessed, the symbols
+of inviolable fidelity, and of the eternity of the union, which is
+lasting. In the silver basin, above the rings of gold, the priest
+shook back and forth the asperges brush, and making the sign of the
+Cross over each one, said, "Bless, O Lord, this ring."
+
+Then he presented them to the young couple, to testify to them that
+the Church sanctified their union; that for the husband henceforth his
+heart was sealed, and no other woman could ever enter therein; and the
+husband was to place the ring upon his wife's finger in order to show
+her, in his turn, that henceforth he alone among all men existed for
+her. This was the strict union, without end, the sign of her
+dependence upon him, which would recall to her constantly the vows she
+had made; it was also the promise of a long series of years, to be
+passed together, as if by this little circle of gold they were
+attached to each other even to the grave.
+
+And while the priest, after the final prayers, exhorted them once
+more, Angelique wore always the sweet expression of renunciation; she,
+the pure soul, who knew the truth.
+
+Then, as the Abbe Cornille withdrew, accompanied by his clerks, the
+organs again burst forth with peals of joy. Monseigneur, motionless
+until now, bent towards the young couple with an expression of great
+mildness in his eagle-like eyes. Still on their knees, the Huberts
+lifted their heads, blinded by their tears of joy. And the enormous
+depths of the organs' peals rolled and lost themselves by degrees in a
+hail of little sharp notes, which were swept away under the high
+arches, like the morning song of the lark. There was a long waving
+movement, a half-hushed sound amongst the reverential crowd, who
+filled to overflowing even the side-aisles and the nave. The church,
+decorated with flowers, glittering with the taper lights, seemed
+beaming with joy from the Sacrament.
+
+Then there were nearly two hours more of solemn pomp; the Mass being
+sung and the incense being burnt.
+
+The officiating clergyman had appeared, dressed in his white chasuble,
+accompanied by the director of the ceremonies, two censer-bearers
+carrying the censer and the vase of incense, and two acolytes bearing
+the great golden candlesticks, in which were lighted tapers.
+
+The presence of Monseigneur complicated the rites, the salutations,
+and the kisses. Every moment there were bowings, or bendings of the
+knee, which kept the wings of the surplices in constant motion. In the
+old stalls, with their backs of carved wood, the whole chapter of
+canons rose; and then again, at other times it was as if a breath from
+heaven prostrated at once the clergy, by whom the whole apse was
+filled. The officiating priest chanted at the altar. When he had
+finished, he went to one side, and took his seat while the choir in
+its turn for a long time continued the solemn phrases of the services
+in the fine, clear notes of the young choristers, light and delicate
+as the flutes of archangels. Among these voices was a very beautiful
+one, unusually pure and crystalline, that of a young girl, and most
+delicious to hear. It was said to be that of Mademoiselle Claire de
+Voincourt, who had wished and obtained permission to sing at this
+marriage, which had been so wonderfully secured by a miracle. The
+organ which accompanied her appeared to sigh in a softened manner,
+with the peaceful calm of a soul at ease and perfectly happy.
+
+There were occasionally short spells of silence. Then the music burst
+out again with formidable rollings, while the master of the ceremonies
+summoned the acolytes with their chandeliers, and conducted the
+censer-bearers to the officiating clergyman, who blessed the incenses
+in the vases. Now there was constantly heard the movements of the
+censer, with the silvery sound of the little chains as they swung back
+and forth in the clear light. There was in the air a bluish, sweet-
+scented cloud, as they incensed the Bishop, the clergy, the altar, the
+Gospel, each person and each thing in its turn, even the close crowd
+of people, making the three movements, to the right, to the left, and
+in front, to mark the Cross.
+
+In the meantime Angelique and Felicien, on their knees, listened
+devoutly to the Mass, which is significant of the mysterious
+consummation of the marriage of Jesus and the Church. There had been
+given into the hands of each a lighted candle, symbol of the purity
+preserved since their baptism. After the Lord's Prayer they had
+remained under the veil, which is a sign of submission, of
+bashfulness, and of modesty; and during this time the priest, standing
+at the right-hand side of the altar, read the prescribed prayers. They
+still held the lighted tapers, which serve also as a sign of
+remembrance of death, even in the joy of a happy marriage. And now it
+was finished, the offering was made, the officiating clergyman went
+away, accompanied by the director of the ceremonies, the incense-
+bearers, and the acolytes, after having prayed God to bless the newly-
+wedded couple, in order that they might live to see and multiply their
+children, even to the third and fourth generation.
+
+At this moment the entire Cathedral seemed living and exulting with
+joy. The March Triumphal was being played upon the organs with such
+thunder-like peals that they made the old edifice fairly tremble. The
+entire crowd of people now rose, quite excited, and straining
+themselves to see everything; women even mounted on the chairs, and
+there were closely-pressed rows of heads as far back as the dark
+chapels of the outer side-aisles. In this vast multitude every face
+was smiling, every heart beat with sympathetic joy. In this final
+adieu the thousands of tapers appeared to burn still higher,
+stretching out their flames like tongues of fire, vacillating under
+the vaulted arches. A last Hosanna from the clergy rose up through the
+flowers and the verdure in the midst of the luxury of the ornaments
+and the sacred vessels. But suddenly the great portal under the organs
+was opened wide, and the sombre walls of the church were marked as if
+by great sheets of daylight. It was the clear April morning, the
+living sun of the spring-tide, the Place du Cloitre, which was now
+seen with its tidy-looking, white houses; and there another crowd,
+still more numerous, awaited the coming of the bride and bridegroom,
+with a more impatient eagerness, which already showed itself by
+gestures and acclamations. The candles had grown paler, and the noises
+of the street were drowned in the music of the organs.
+
+With a slow step, between the double hedge of the worshippers,
+Angelique and Felicien turned towards the entrance-door. After the
+triumphant carrying out of her dream, she was now about to enter into
+the reality of life. This porch of broad sunlight opened into the
+world of which as yet she was entirely ignorant. She retarded her
+steps as she looked earnestly at the rows of houses, at the tumultuous
+crowd, at all which greeted and acclaimed her. Her weakness was so
+intense that her husband was obliged to almost carry her. However, she
+was still able to look pleased, as she thought of the princely house,
+filled with jewels and with queenly toilettes, where the nuptial
+chamber awaited her, all decorated with white silk and lace. Almost
+suffocated, she was obliged to stop when halfway down the aisle; then
+she had sufficient strength to take a few steps more. She glanced at
+her wedding ring, so recently placed upon her finger, and smiled at
+this sign of eternal union. Then, on the threshold of the great door,
+at the top of the steps which went down into the Place du Cloitre, she
+tottered. Had she not really arrived at the summit of her happiness?
+Was not it there that the joy of her life, being perfected, was to
+end? With a last effort she raised herself as much as possible, that
+she might put her lips upon the lips of Felicien. And in that kiss of
+love she passed away for ever.
+
+But her death was without sadness. Monseigneur, with his habitual
+movement of pastoral benediction, aided this pure soul to free itself
+from the frail body. He had regained his calmness, and had once more
+found in the fulfillment of his sacred calling the desired-for peace.
+
+The Huberts, unconscious of what had taken place, were still kneeling,
+grateful for the pardon at last granted them, and feeling as if
+re-entering into existence. For them, as well as for their beloved
+daughter, the dream was accomplished. All the Cathedral and the whole
+town were _en fete_. The organs sounded louder than ever; the bells
+pealed joyously; the multitude waited to greet the loving couple on
+the threshold of the mystic church under the glorious spring sunlight.
+
+It was indeed a beautiful death. Angelique, happy and pure, carried
+away suddenly at the moment of the realisation of her fondest dream,
+taken into the heavenly life from the dark Romanesque chapels with the
+flamboyant, Gothic-vaulted ceiling, from among the gilded decorations
+and paintings of ancient times, in the full Paradise of Golden
+Legends. What more could she have asked for?
+
+Felicien held in his arms simply a soft and tender form, from which
+life had departed; this bridal robe of lace and pearls seemed like the
+light wings of a bird, still warm to the touch. For a long time he had
+well known that he could claim but a shadow. The exquisite vision that
+came from the Invisible had returned to the Invisible.
+
+It was merely a semblance, which effaced itself; the vanishing of an
+illusion.
+
+Everything is only a dream.
+
+And so, at the moment of supreme earthly happiness, Angelique had
+disappeared in the slight breath of a loving kiss.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dream, by Emile Zola
+
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