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diff --git a/20646.txt b/20646.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..989fe62 --- /dev/null +++ b/20646.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8834 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Nabob, Volume 1 (of 2), by Alphonse Daudet + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Nabob, Volume 1 (of 2) + +Author: Alphonse Daudet + +Commentator: Brander Matthews + +Translator: George Burnham Ives + +Release Date: February 22, 2007 [EBook #20646] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NABOB, VOLUME 1 (OF 2) *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +[Illustration: "'_Take away your flowers, my dear._'"] + + + + +THE NABOB + + + + +BY + +ALPHONSE DAUDET + + + +TRANSLATED BY + +GEORGE BURNHAM IVES + + + +WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY + +BRANDER MATTHEWS + + + +IN TWO VOLUMES + +VOL. I. + + + +BOSTON +LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY +1902 + + +_Copyright, 1898_, +By Little, Brown, and Company. + +_All rights reserved._ + + +University Press: +John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A. + + + + +PUBLISHER'S NOTE TO FRENCH EDITION + + +We have been informed that at the time of the publication of _The +Nabob_ in serial form, the government of Tunis was offended at the +introduction therein of individuals whom the author dressed in names +and costumes peculiar to that country. We are authorized by M. Alphonse +Daudet to declare that those scenes in the book which relate to Tunis +are entirely imaginary, and that he never intended to introduce any of +the functionaries of that state. + + + + +ALPHONSE DAUDET. + + +Alphonse Daudet is one of the most richly gifted of modern French +novelists and one of the most artistic; he is perhaps the most +delightful; and he is certainly the most fortunate. In his own country +earlier than any of his contemporaries he saw his stories attain to the +very wide circulation that brings both celebrity and wealth. Beyond the +borders of his own language he swiftly won a popularity both with the +broad public and with the professed critics of literature, second only +to that of Victor Hugo and still surpassing that of Balzac, who is only +of late beginning to receive from us the attention he has so long +deserved. + +Daudet has had the rare luck of pleasing partisans of almost every +school; the realists have joyed in his work and so have the romanticists; +his writings have found favor in the eyes of the frank impressionists +and also at the hands of the severer custodians of academic standards. +Mr. Henry James has declared that Daudet is "at the head of his +profession" and has called him "an admirable genius." Mr. Robert Louis +Stevenson thought Daudet "incomparably" the best of the present French +novelists and asserted that "Kings in Exile" comes "very near to being +a masterpiece." M. Jules Lemaitre tells us that Daudet "trails all +hearts after him,--because he has charm, as indefinable in a work of +art as in a woman's face." M. Ferdinand Brunetiere, who has scant +relish for latter-day methods in literature, admits ungrudgingly that +"there are certain corners of the great city and certain aspects of +Parisian manners, there are some physiognomies that perhaps no one has +been able to render so well as Daudet, with that infinitely subtle and +patient art which succeeds in giving even to inanimate things the +appearance of life." + + +I. + +The documents are abundant for an analysis of Daudet such as +Sainte-Beuve would have undertaken with avidity; they are more abundant +indeed than for any other contemporary French man of letters even in +these days of unhesitating self-revelation; and they are also of an +absolutely impregnable authenticity. M. Ernest Daudet has written a +whole volume to tell us all about his brother's boyhood and youth and +early manhood and first steps in literature. M. Leon Daudet has written +another solid tome to tell us all about his father's literary +principles and family life and later years and death. Daudet himself +put forth a pair of pleasant books of personal gossip about himself, +narrating his relations with his fellow authors and recording the +circumstances under which he came to compose each of his earlier +stories. Montaigne--whose "Essays" was Daudet's bedside book and who +may be accepted not unfairly as an authority upon egotism--assures us +that "there is no description so difficult, nor doubtless of so great +utility, as that of one's self." And Daudet's own interest in himself +is not unlike Montaigne's,--it is open, innocent and illuminating. + +Cuvier may have been able to reconstruct an extinct monster from the +inspection of a single bone; but it is a harder task to revive the +figure of a man, even by the aid of these family testimonies, this +self-analysis, the diligence of countless interviewers of all +nationalities, and indiscretion of a friend like Edmond de Goncourt +(who seems to have acted on the theory that it is the whole duty of man +to take notes of the talk of his fellows for prompt publication). Yet +we have ample material to enable us to trace Daudet's heredity, and to +estimate the influence of his environment in the days of his youth, and +to allow for the effect which certain of his own physical peculiarities +must have had upon his exercise of his art. His near-sightedness, for +example,--would not Sainte-Beuve have seized upon this as significant? +Would he not have seen in this a possible source of Daudet's mastery of +description? And the spasms of pain borne bravely and uncomplainingly, +the long agony of his later years, what mark has this left on his work, +how far is it responsible for a modification of his attitude,--for the +change from the careless gaiety of "Tartarin of Tarascon" to the sombre +satire of "Port-Tarascon"? What caused the joyous story-teller of the +"Letters from my Mill" to develop into the bitter iconoclast of the +"Immortal." + +These questions are insistent; and yet, after all, what matters the +answer to any of them? The fact remains that Daudet had his share of +that incommunicable quality which we are agreed to call genius. This +once admitted, we may do our best to weigh it and to resolve it into +its elements, it is at bottom the vital spark that resists all +examination, however scientific we may seek to be. We can test for this +and for that, but in the final analysis genius is inexplicable. It is +what it is, because it is. It might have been different, no doubt, but +it is not. It is its own excuse for being; and, for all that we can say +to the contrary, it is its own cause, sufficient unto itself. Even if +we had Sainte-Beuve's scalpel, we could not surprise the secret. + +Yet an inquiry into the successive stages of Daudet's career, a +consideration of his ancestry, of his parentage, of his birth, of the +circumstances of his boyhood, of his youthful adventures,--these things +are interesting in themselves and they are not without instruction. +They reveal to us the reasons for the transformation that goes so far +to explain Daudet's peculiar position,--the transformation of a young +Provencal poet into a brilliant Parisian veritist. Daudet was a +Provencal who became a Parisian,--and in this translation we may find +the key to his character as a writer of fiction. + +He was from Provence as Maupassant was from Normandy; and Daudet had +the Southern expansiveness and abundance, just as Maupassant had the +Northern reserve and caution. If an author is ever to bring forth fruit +after his kind he must have roots in the soil of his nativity. Daudet +was no orchid, beautiful and scentless; his writings have always the +full flavor of the southern soil. He was able to set Tartarin before us +so sympathetically and to make Numa Roumestan so convincing because he +recognized in himself the possibility of a like exuberance. He could +never take the rigorously impassive attitude which Flaubert taught +Maupassant to assume. Daudet not only feels for his characters, but he +is quite willing that we should be aware of his compassion. + +He is not only incapable of the girding enmity which Taine detected and +detested in Thackeray's treatment of Becky Sharp, but he is also devoid +of the callous detachment with which Flaubert dissected Emma Bovary +under the microscope. Daudet is never flagrantly hostile toward one of +his creatures; and, however contemptible or despicable the characters +he has called into being, he is scrupulously fair to them. Sidonie and +Felicia Ruys severally throw themselves away, but Daudet is never +intolerant. He is inexorable, but he is not insulting. I cannot but +think that it is Provence whence Daudet derived the precious birthright +of sympathy, and that it is Provence again which bestowed on him the +rarer gift of sentiment. It is by his possession of sympathy and of +sentiment that he has escaped the aridity which suffocates us in the +works of so many other Parisian novelists. The South endowed him with +warmth and heartiness and vivacity; and what he learnt from Paris was +the power of self-restraint and the duty of finish. + +He was born in Provence and he died in Paris; he began as a poet and he +ended as a veritist; and in each case there was logical evolution and +not contradiction. The Parisian did not cease to be a Provencal; and +the novelist was a lyrist still. Poet though he was, he had an intense +liking for the actual, the visible, the tangible. He so hungered after +truth that he was ready sometimes to stay his stomach with facts in its +stead,--mere fact being but the outward husk, whereas truth is the rich +kernel concealed within. His son tells us that Daudet might have taken +as a motto the title of Goethe's autobiography, "Dichtung und +Wahrheit,"--Poetry and Truth. And this it is that has set Daudet apart +and that has caused his vogue with readers of all sorts and +conditions,--this unique combination of imagination and verity. "His +originality," M. Jules Lemaitre has acutely remarked, "is closely to +unite observation and fantasy, to extract from the truth all that it +contains of the improbable and the surprising, to satisfy at the same +time the readers of M. Cherbuliez and the readers of M. Zola, to write +novels which are at the same time realistic and romantic, and which +seem romantic only because they are very sincerely and very profoundly +realistic." + + +II. + +Alphonse Daudet was born in 1840, and it was at Nimes that he first +began to observe mankind; and he has described his birthplace and his +boyhood in "Little What's-his-name," a novel even richer in +autobiographical revelation than is "David Copperfield." His father was +a manufacturer whose business was not prosperous and who was forced at +last to remove with the whole family to Lyons in the vain hope of doing +better in the larger town. After reading the account of this parent's +peculiarities in M. Ernest Daudet's book, we are not surprised that the +affairs of the family did not improve, but went from bad to worse. +Alphonse Daudet suffered bitterly in these years of desperate struggle, +but he gained an understanding of the conditions of mercantile life, to +be serviceable later in the composition of "Fromont and Risler." + +When he was sixteen he secured a place as _pion_ in a boarding school +in the Cevennes,--_pion_ is a poor devil of a youth hired to keep watch +on the boys. How painful this position was to the young poet can be +read indirectly in "Little What's-his-name," but more explicitly in the +history of that story, printed now in "Thirty Years of Paris." From +this remote prison he was rescued by his elder brother, Ernest, who was +trying to make his way in Paris and who sent for Alphonse as soon as he +had been engaged to help an old gentleman in writing his memoirs. The +younger brother has described his arrival in Paris, and his first +dress-coat and his earliest literary acquaintances. Ernest's salary was +seventy-five francs a month, and on this the two brothers managed to +live; no doubt fifteen dollars went further in Paris in 1857 than they +will in 1899. + +In those days of privation and ambition Daudet's longing was to make +himself famous as a poet; and when at last, not yet twenty years old, +he began his career as a man of letters it was by the publication of a +volume of verse, just as his fellow-novelists, M. Paul Bourget and +Signor Gabriele d'Annunzio have severally done. Immature as juvenile +lyrics are likely to be, these early rhymes of Daudet's have a flavor +of their own, a faintly recognizable note of individuality. He is more +naturally a poet than most modern literators who possess the +accomplishment of verse as part of their equipment for the literary +life, but who lack a spontaneous impulse toward rhythm. It may even be +suggested that his little poems are less artificial than most French +verse; they are the result of a less obvious effort. He lisped in +numbers; and with him it was rather prose that had to be consciously +acquired. His lyric note, although not keen and not deep, is heard +again and again in his novels, and it sustains some of the most +graceful and tender of his short stories,--"The Death of the Dauphin," +for instance, and the "Sous-prefet in the Fields." + +Daudet extended poetry to include playmaking; and alone or with a +friend he attempted more than one little piece in rhyme--tiny plays of +a type familiar enough at the Odeon. He has told us how the news of the +production of one of these poetic dramas came to him afar in Algiers +whither he had been sent because of a weakness of the lungs, +threatening to become worse in the gray Parisian winter. Other plays of +his, some of them far more important than this early effort, were +produced in the next few years. The most ambitious of these was the +"Woman of Arles," which he had elaborated from a touching short story +and for which Bizet composed incidental music as beautiful and as +overwhelming as that prepared by Mendelssohn for the "Midsummer Night's +Dream." + +No one of Daudet's dramatic attempts was really successful; not the +"Woman of Arles," which is less moving in the theatre than in its +briefer narrative form, not even the latest of them all, the freshest +and the most vigorous, the "Struggle for Life," with its sinister +figure of Paul Astier taken over from the "Immortal." Apparently, with +all his desire to write for the stage, Daudet must have been +inadequately endowed with the dramaturgic faculty, that special gift of +playmaking which many a poet lacks and many a novelist, but which the +humblest playwright must needs have and which all the great dramatists +have possessed abundantly in addition to their poetic power. + +Perhaps it was the unfavorable reception of his successive dramas which +is responsible for the chief of Daudet's lapses from the kindliness +with which he treats the characters that people his stories. He seems +to have kept hot a grudge against the theatre: and he relieves his +feelings by taking it out of the stage-folk he introduces into his +novels. To actors and actresses he is intolerant and harsh. What is +factitious and self-overvaluing in the Provencal type, he understood +and he found it easy to pardon; but what was factitious and +self-overvaluing in the player type, he would not understand and he +refused to pardon. And here he shows in strong contrast with a +successful dramatist, M. Ludovic Halevy, whose knowledge of the +histrionic temperament is at least as wide as Daudet's and whose humor +is as keen, but whose judgment is softened by the grateful memory of +many victories won by the united effort of the author and the actor. + +Through his brother's influence, Alphonse Daudet was appointed by the +Duke de Morny to a semi-sinecure; and he has recorded how he told his +benefactor before accepting the place that he was a Legitimist and how +the Duke smilingly retorted that the Empress was also. Although it was +as a poet that Daudet made his bow in the world of letters, his first +appearance as a dramatist was not long delayed thereafter; and he soon +came forward also as a journalist,--or rather as a contributor to the +papers. While many of the articles he prepared for the daily and weekly +press were of ephemeral interest only, as the necessity of journalism +demands, to be forgotten forty-eight hours after they were printed, not +a few of them were sketches having more than a temporary value. +Parisian newspapers are more hospitable to literature than are the +newspapers of New York or of London; and a goodly proportion of the +young Southerner's journalistic writing proved worthy of preservation. + +It has been preserved for us in three volumes of short stories and +sketches, of fantasies and impressions. Not all the contents of the +"Letters from my Mill," of the "Monday Tales" and of "Artists' Wives," +as we have these collections now, were written in these early years of +Daudet's Parisian career, but many of them saw the light before 1870, +and what has been added since conforms in method to the work of his +'prentice days. No doubt the war with Prussia enlarged his outlook on +life; and there is more depth in the satires this conflict suggested +and more pathos in the pictures it evoked. The "Last Lesson," for +example, that simple vision of the old French schoolmaster taking leave +of his Alsatian pupils, has a symbolic breath not easy to match in the +livelier tales written before the surrender at Sedan; and in the "Siege +of Berlin" there is a vibrant patriotism far more poignant than we can +discover in any of the playful apologues published before the war. He +had had an inside view of the Second Empire, he could not help seeing +its hollowness, and he revolted against the selfishness of its +servants; no single chapter of M. Zola's splendid and terrible +"Downfall" contains a more damning indictment of the leaders of the +imperial army than is to be read in Daudet's "Game of Billiards." + +The short story, whether in prose or in verse, is a literary form in +which the French have ever displayed an easy mastery; and from Daudet's +three volumes it would not be difficult to select half-a-dozen little +masterpieces. The Provencal tales lack only rhymes to stand confessed +as poesy; and many a reader may prefer these first flights before +Daudet set his Pegasus to toil in the mill of realism. The "Pope's +Mule," for instance, is not this a marvel of blended humor and fantasy? +And the "Elixir of Father Gaucher," what could be more naively ironic? +Like a true Southerner, Daudet delights in girding at the Church; and +these tales bristle with jibes at ecclesiastical dignitaries; but his +stroke is never malignant and there is no barb to his shaft nor poison +on the tip. + +Scarcely inferior to the war-stories or to the Provencal sketches are +certain vignettes of the capital, swift silhouettes of Paris, glimpsed +by an unforgetting eye, the "Last Book," for one, in which an unlovely +character is treated with kindly contempt; and for another, the +"Book-keeper," the most Dickens-like of Daudet's shorter pieces, yet +having a literary modesty Dickens never attained. The alleged imitation +of the British novelist by the French may be left for later +consideration; but it is possible now to note that in the earlier +descriptive chapters of the "Letters from my Mill" one may detect a +certain similarity of treatment and attitude, not to Dickens but to two +of the masters on whom Dickens modelled himself, Goldsmith and Irving. +The scene in the diligence, when the baker gently pokes fun at the poor +fellow whose wife is intermittent in her fidelity, is quite in the +manner of the "Sketch Book." + +There is the same freshness and fertility in the collection called +"Artists' Wives" as in the "Letters from my Mill," and the "Monday +Tales," but not the same playfulness and fun. They are severe studies, +all of them; and they all illustrate the truth of Bagehot's saying that +a man's mother might be his misfortune, but his wife was his fault. It +is a rosary of marital infelicities that Daudet has strung for us in +this volume, and in every one of them the husband is expiating his +blunder. With ingenious variety the author rings the changes on one +theme, on the sufferings of the ill-mated poet or painter or sculptor, +despoiled of the sympathy he craves, and shackled even in the exercise +of his art. And the picture is not out of drawing, for Daudet can see +the wife's side of the case also; he can appreciate her bewilderment at +the ugly duckling whom it is so difficult for her to keep in the nest. +The women have made shipwreck of their lives too, and they are +companions in misery, if not helpmeets in understanding. This is +perhaps the saddest of all Daudet's books, the least relieved by humor, +the most devoid of the gaiety which illumines the "Letters from my +Mill" and the first and second "Tartarin" volumes. But it is also one +of the most veracious; it is life itself firmly grasped and honestly +presented. + +It is not matrimonial incongruity at large in all its shifting aspects +that Daudet here considers; it is only the married unhappiness of the +artist, whatever his mode of expression, and whichever of the muses he +has chosen to serve; it is only the wedded life of the man incessantly +in search of the ideal, and never relaxing in the strain of his +struggle with the inflexible material from which he must shape his +vision of existence. Not only in this book, but in many another has +Daudet shown that he perceives the needs of the artistic temperament, +its demands, its limitations and its characteristics. There is a +playwright in "Rose and Ninette;" there is a painter in the "Immortal;" +there is an actor in "Fromont and Risler;" there are a sculptor, a +poet, and a novelist on the roll of the heroine's lovers in "Sapho." +Daudet handles them gently always, unless they happen to belong to the +theatre. Toward the stage-folk he is pitiless; for all other artists he +has abundant appreciation; he is not blind to their little weaknesses, +but these he can forgive even though he refuses to forget; he is at +home with them. He is never patronizing, as Thackeray is, who also +knows them and loves them. Thackeray's attitude is that of a gentleman +born to good society, but glad to visit Bohemia, because he can speak +the language; Daudet's is that of a man of letters who thinks that his +fellow-artists are really the best society. + + +III. + +Not with pictures of artists at home did Daudet conquer his commanding +position in literature, not with short stories, not with plays, not +with verses. These had served to make him known to the inner circle of +lovers of literature who are quick to appreciate whatever is at once +new and true; but they did not help him to break through the crust and +to reach the hearts of the broad body of readers who care little for +the delicacies of the season, but must ever be fed on strong meat. When +the latest of the three volumes of short stories was published, and +when the "Woman of Arles" was produced, the transformation was +complete: the poet had developed into a veritist, without ceasing to be +a poet, and the Provencal had become a Parisian. His wander-years were +at an end, and he had made a happy marriage. Lucky in the risky +adventure of matrimony, as in so many others, he chanced upon a woman +who was congenial, intelligent and devoted, and who became almost a +collaborator in all his subsequent works. + +His art was ready for a larger effort; it was ripe for a richer +fruitage. Already had he made more than one attempt at a long story, +but this was before his powers had matured, and before he had come to a +full knowledge of himself. "Little What's-his-name," as he himself has +confessed, lacks perspective; it was composed too soon after the +personal experiences out of which it was made,--before Time had put the +scenes in proper proportion and before his hand was firm in its stroke. +"Robert Helmont" is the journal of an observer who happens also to be a +poet and a patriot; but it has scarcely substance enough to warrant +calling it a story. Much of the material used in the making of these +books was very good indeed; but the handling was a little uncertain, +and the result is not quite satisfactory, charming as both of them are, +with the seductive grace which is Daudet's birthright and his +trademark. In his brief tales he had shown that he had the +story-telling faculty, the ability to project character, the gift of +arousing interest; but it remained for him to prove that he possessed +also the main strength requisite to carry him through the long labor of +a full-grown novel. It is not by gentle stories like "Robert Helmont" +and "Little What's-his-name" that a novelist is promoted to the front +rank; and after he had written these two books he remained where he was +before, in the position of a promising young author. + +The promise was fulfilled by the publication of "Fromont and +Risler,"--not the best of his novels, but the earliest in which his +full force was displayed. Daudet has told us how this was planned +originally as a play, how the failure of the "Woman of Arles" led him +to relinquish the dramatic form, and how the supposed necessities of +the stage warped the logical structure of the story, turning upon the +intrigues of the young wife the interest which should have been +concentrated upon the partnership, the business rivalry, the mercantile +integrity, whence the novel derived its novelty. The falsifying habit +of thrusting marital infidelity into the foreground of fiction when the +theme itself seems almost to exclude any dwelling on amorous +misadventure, Daudet yielded to only this once; and this is one reason +why a truer view of Parisian life can be found in his pages than in +those of any of his competitors, and why his works are far less +monotonous than theirs. + +He is not squeamish, as every reader of "Sapho" can bear witness; but +he does not wantonly choose a vulgar adultery as the staple of his +stories. French fiction, ever since the tale of "Tristan and Yseult" +was first told, has tended to be a poem of love triumphant over every +obstacle, even over honor; and Daudet is a Frenchman with French ideas +about woman and love and marriage; he is not without his share of +Gallic salt; but he is too keen an observer not to see that there are +other things in life than illicit wooings,--business, for example, and +politics, and religion,--important factors all of them in our +complicated modern existence. At the root of him Daudet had a steadfast +desire to see life as a whole and to tell the truth about it +unhesitatingly; and this is a characteristic he shares only with the +great masters of fiction,--essentially veracious, every one of them. + +Probably Dickens, frequently as he wrenched the facts of life into +conformity with his rather primitive artistic code, believed that he +also was telling the truth. It is in Daudet's paper explaining how he +came to write "Fromont and Risler" that he discusses the accusation +that he was an imitator of Dickens,--an accusation which seems absurd +enough now that the careers of both writers are closed, and that we can +compare their complete works. Daudet records that the charge was +brought against him very early, long before he had read Dickens, and he +explains that any likeness that may exist is due not to copying but to +kinship of spirit. "I have deep in my heart," he says, "the same love +Dickens has for the maimed and the poor, for the children brought up in +all the deprivation of great cities." This pity for the disinherited, +for those that have had no chance in life, is not the only similarity +between the British novelist and the French; there is also the peculiar +combination of sentiment and humor. Daudet is not so bold as Dickens, +not so robust, not so over-mastering; but he is far more discreet, far +truer to nature, far finer in his art; he does not let his humor carry +him into caricature, nor his sentiment slop over into sentimentality. + +Even the minor French novelists strive for beauty of form, and would +be ashamed of the fortuitous scaffolding that satisfies the British +story-tellers. A eulogist of Dickens, Mr. George Gissing, has recently +remarked acutely that "Daudet has a great advantage in his mastery of +construction. Where, as in 'Fromont and Risler,' he constructs too +well, that is to say, on the stage model, we see what a gain it was +to him to have before his eyes the Paris stage of the Second Empire, +instead of that of London in the earlier Victorian time." Where Dickens +emulated the farces and the melodramas of forgotten British +playwrights, Daudet was influenced rather by the virile dramas of Dumas +_fils_ and Augier. But in "Fromont and Risler," not only is the plot a +trifle stagy, but the heroine herself seems almost a refugee of the +footlights; exquisitely presented as Sidonie is, she fails quite to +captivate or convince, perhaps because her sisters have been seen so +often before in this play and in that. And now and again even in his +later novels we discover that Daudet has needlessly achieved the adroit +arrangement of events so useful in the theatre and not requisite in the +library. In "The Nabob," for example, it is the "long arm of +coincidence" that brings Paul de Gery to the inn on the Riviera, and to +the very next room therein at the exact moment when Jenkins catches up +with the fleeing Felicia. + +Yet these lapses into the arbitrary are infrequent after all; and as +"Fromont and Risler" was followed first by one and then by another +novel, the evil influence of theatrical conventionalism disappears. +Daudet occasionally permits himself an underplot; but he acts always on +the principle he once formulated to his son: "every book is an +organism; if it has not its organs in place, it dies, and its corpse is +a scandal." Sometimes, as in "Fromont and Risler," he starts at the +moment when the plot thickens, returning soon to make clear the +antecedents of the characters first shown in action; and sometimes, as +in "Sapho," he begins right at the beginning and goes straight through +to the end. But, whatever his method, there is never any doubt as to +the theme; and the essential unity is always apparent. This severity of +design in no way limits the variety of the successive acts of his +drama. + +While a novel of Balzac's is often no more than an analysis of +character, and while a novel of Zola's is a massive epic of human +endeavor, a novel of Daudet's is a gallery of pictures, brushed in with +the sweep and certainty of a master-hand,--portraits, landscapes with +figures, marines, battlepieces pieces, bits of _genre_, views of Paris. +And the views of Paris outnumber the others, and almost outvalue them +also. Mr. Henry James has noted that "The Nabob" is "full of episodes +which are above all pages of execution, triumphs of translation. The +author has drawn up a list of the Parisian solemnities, and painted the +portrait, or given a summary, of each of them. The opening day at the +Salon, a funeral at Pere la Chaise, a debate in the Chamber of +Deputies, the _premiere_ of a new play at a favorite theatre, furnish +him with so many opportunities for his gymnastics of observation." And +"The Nabob" is only a little more richly decorated than the "Immortal," +and "Numa Roumestan," and "Kings in Exile." + +These pictures, these carefully wrought masterpieces of rendering are +not lugged in, each for its own sake; they are not outside of the +narrative; they are actually part of the substance of the story. Daudet +excels in describing, and every artist is prone to abound in the sense +of his superiority. As the French saying puts it, a man has always the +defects of his qualities; yet Daudet rarely obtrudes his descriptions, +and he generally uses them to explain character and to set off or bring +out the moods of his personages. They are so swift that I am tempted to +call them flash-lights; but photographic is just what they are not, for +they are artistic in their vigorous suppression of the unessentials; +they are never gray or cold or hard; they vibrate with color and tingle +with emotion. + +And just as a painter keeps filling his sketch-books with graphic hints +for elaboration later, so Daudet was indefatigable in note-taking. He +explains his method in his paper of "Fromont and Risler;" how he had +for a score of years made a practice of jotting down in little +note-books not only his remarks and his thoughts, but also a rapid +record of what he had heard with his ears ever on the alert, and what +he had seen with those tireless eyes of his. Yet he never let the dust +of these note-books choke the life out of him. Every one of his novels +was founded on fact,--plot, incidents, characters and scenery. + +He used his imagination to help him to see; he used it also to peer +into and behind the mere facts. All that he needed to invent was a +connecting link now and again; and it may as well be admitted at once +that these mere inventions are sometimes the least satisfactory part of +his stories. The two young men in "The Nabob," for instance, whom Mr. +Henry James found it difficult to tell apart, the sculptor-painter in +the "Immortal," the occasional other characters which we discover to be +made up, lack the individuality and the vitality of figures taken from +real life by a sympathetic effort of interpretative imagination. +Delobelle, Gardinois, "all the personages of 'Fromont' have lived," +Daudet declares; and he adds a regret that in depicting old Gardinois +he gave pain to one he loved, but he "could not suppress this type of +egotist, aged and terrible." + +Since the beginning of the art of story-telling, the narrators must +have gone to actuality to get suggestions for their character-drawing; +and nothing is commoner than the accusation that this or that novelist +has stolen his characters ready-made,--filching them from nature's +shop-window, without so much as a by-your-leave. Daudet is bold in +committing these larcenies from life and frank in confessing them,--far +franker than Dickens, who tried to squirm out of the charge that he had +put Landor and Leigh Hunt unfairly into fiction. Perhaps Dickens was +bolder than Daudet, if it is true that he drew Micawber from his own +father, and Mrs. Nickleby from his own mother. Daudet was taxed with +ingratitude that he had used as the model of Mora, the Duke de Morny, +who had befriended him; and he defended himself by declaring that he +thought the duke would find no fault with the way Mora had been +presented. But a great artist has never copied his models slavishly; he +has utilized them in the effort to realize to his own satisfaction what +he has already imagined. Daudet maintained to his son that those who +were without imagination cannot even observe accurately. Invention +alone, mere invention, an inferior form of mental exercise, suffices to +provide a pretty fair romantic tale, remote from the facts of every-day +life, but only true imagination can sustain a realistic novel where +every reader's experience qualifies him to check off the author's +progress, step by step. + + +IV. + +It would take too long--although the task would be amusing--to call the +roll of Daudet's novels written after "Fromont and Risler" had revealed +to him his own powers, and to discuss what fact of Parisian history had +been the starting point of each of them and what notabilities of Paris +had sat for each of the chief characters. Mr. Henry James, for +instance, has seen it suggested that Felicia Ruys is intended as a +portrait of Mme. Sarah-Bernhardt; M. Zola, on the other hand, denies +that Felicia Ruys is Mme. Sarah-Bernhardt and hints that she is rather +Mme. Judith Gautier. Daudet himself refers to the equally absurd report +that Gambetta was the original of Numa Roumestan,--a report over which +the alleged subject and the real author laughed together. Daudet's own +attitude toward his creations is a little ambiguous or at least a +little inconsistent; in one paper he asserts that every character of +his has had a living original, and in another he admits that Elysee +Meraut, for example, is only in part a certain Therion. + +The admission is more nearly exact than the assertion. Every novelist +whose work is to endure even for a generation must draw from life, +sometimes generalizing broadly and sometimes keeping close to the +single individual, but always free to modify the mere fact as he may +have observed it to conform with the larger truth of the fable he shall +devise. Most story-tellers tend to generalize, and their fictions lack +the sharpness of outline we find in nature. Daudet prefers to retain as +much of the actual individual as he dares without endangering the web +of his composition; and often the transformation is very slight,--Mora, +for instance, who is probably a close copy of Morny, but who stands on +his own feet in "The Nabob," and lives his own life as independently as +though he was a sheer imagination. More rarely the result is not so +satisfactory; J. Tom Levis, for example, for whose authenticity the +author vouches, but who seems out of place in "Kings in Exile," like a +fantastic invention, such as Balzac sometimes permitted himself as a +relief from his rigorous realism. + +For incident as well as for character Daudet goes to real life. The +escape of Colette from under the eyes of her father-in-law,--that +actually happened; but none the less does it fit into "Kings in Exile." +And Colette's cutting off her hair in grief at her husband's +death,--that actually happened also; but it belongs artistically in the +"Immortal." On the other hand, the fact which served as the foundation +of the "Immortal"--the taking in of a _savant_ by a lot of forged +manuscripts--has been falsified by changing the _savant_ from a +mathematician (who might easily be deceived about a matter of +autographs) to a historian (whose duty it is to apply all known tests +of genuineness to papers purporting to shed new light on the past). +This borrowing from the newspaper has its evident advantages, but it +has its dangers also, even in the hands of a poet as adroit as Daudet +and as imaginative. Perhaps the story of his which is most artistic in +its telling, most shapely, most harmonious in its modulations of a +single theme to the inevitable end, developed without haste and without +rest, is "Sapho;" and "Sapho" is the novel of Daudet's in which there +seems to be the least of this stencilling of actual fact, in which the +generalization is the broadest, and in which the observation is least +restricted to single individuals. + +But in "Sapho" the theme itself is narrow, narrower than in "Numa +Roumestan," and far narrower than in either "The Nabob" or "Kings in +Exile;" and this is why "Sapho," fine as it is, and subtle, is perhaps +less satisfactory. No other French novelist of the final half of the +nineteenth century, not Flaubert, not Goncourt, not M. Zola, not +Maupassant, has four novels as solid as these, as varied in incident, +as full of life, as rich in character, as true. They form the +quadrilateral wherein Daudet's fame is secure. + +"Sapho" is a daughter of the "Lady of the Camellias," and a +grand-daughter of "Manon Lescaut,"--Frenchwomen, all of them, and of a +class French authors have greatly affected. But Daudet's book is not a +specimen of what Lowell called "that _corps-de-ballet_ literature in +which the most animal of the passions is made more temptingly naked by +a veil of French gauze." It is at bottom a moral book, much as "Tom +Jones" is moral. Fielding's novel is English, robust, hearty, brutal in +a way, and its morality is none too lofty. Daudet's is French, softer, +more enervating, and with an almost complacent dwelling on the sins of +the flesh. But neither Fielding nor Daudet is guilty of sentimentality, +the one unforgivable crime in art. In his treatment of the relation of +the sexes Daudet was above all things truthful; his veracity is +inexorable. He shows how man is selfish in love and woman also, and how +the egotism of the one is not as the egotism of the other. He shows how +Fanny Legrand slangs her lover with the foul language of the gutter +whence she sprang, and how Jean when he strikes back, refrains from +foul blows. He shows how Jean, weak of will as he was, gets rid of the +millstone about his neck, only because of the weariness of the woman to +whom he has bound himself. He shows us the various aspects of the love +which is not founded on esteem, the Hettema couple, De Potter and Rose, +Dechelette and Alice Dore, all to set off the sorry idyl of Fanny and +Jean. + +In "Numa Roumestan" there is a larger vision of life than in "Sapho," +even if there is no deeper insight. The construction is almost as +severe; and the movement is unbroken from beginning to end, without +excursus or digression. The central figure is masterly,--the kindly and +selfish Southerner, easy-going and soft-spoken, an orator who is so +eloquent that he can even convince himself, a politician who thinks +only when he is talking, a husband who loves his wife as profoundly as +he can love anybody except himself, and who loves his wife more than +his temporary mistress, even during the days of his dalliance. Numa is +a native of the South of France, as was Daudet himself; and it is out +of the fulness of knowledge that the author evolves the character, +brushing in the portrait with bold strokes and unceasingly adding +caressing touches till the man actually lives and moves before our +eyes. The veracity of the picture is destroyed by no final +inconsistency. What Numa is, Numa will be. Daudet never descends at the +end of his novels like a god from the machine to change character in +the twinkling of an eye, and to convert bad men to good thoughts and +good deeds. + +He can give us goodness when he chooses, a human goodness, not +offensively perfect, not preaching, not mawkish, but high-minded and +engaging. There are two such types in "Kings in Exile," the Queen and +Elysee Meraut, essentially honest both of them, thinking little of +self, and sustained by lofty purpose. Naturalistic novelists generally +(and M. Zola in particular), live in a black world peopled mainly by +fools and knaves; from this blunder Daudet is saved by his Southern +temperament, by his lyric fervor, and, at bottom, by his wisdom. He +knows better; he knows that while a weak creature like Christian II. is +common, a resolute soul like Frederique is not so very rare. He knows +that the contrast and the clash of these characters is interesting +matter for the novelist. And no novelist has had a happier inspiration +than that which gave us "Kings in Exile," a splendid subject, +splendidly handled, and lending itself perfectly to the display of +Daudet's best qualities, his poetry, his ability to seize the actual, +and his power of dealing with material such as the elder Dumas would +have delighted in with a restraint and a logic the younger Dumas would +have admired. Plot and counter-plot, bravery, treachery, death,--these +are elements for a romanticist farrago; and in Daudet's hands they are +woven into a tapestry almost as stiff as life itself. The stuff is +romantic enough, but the treatment is unhesitatingly realistic; and +"Kings in Exile," better than any other novel of Daudet's, explains his +vogue with readers of the most divergent tastes. + +In "The Nabob," the romantic element is slighter than in "Kings in +Exile;" the subject is not so striking; and the movement of the story +is less straightforward. But what a panorama of Paris it is that he +unrolls before us in this story of a luckless adventurer in the city of +luxury then under the control of the imperial band of brigands! No +doubt the Joyeuse family is an obtrusion and an artistic blemish, since +they do not logically belong in the scheme of the story; and yet they +(and their fellows in other books of Daudet's) testify to his effort to +get the truth and the whole truth into his picture of Paris life. Mora +and Felicia Ruys and Jenkins, these are the obverse of the medal, +exposed in the shop-windows that every passer-by can see. The Joyeuse +girls and their father are the reverse, to be viewed only by those who +take the trouble to look at the under side of things. They are samples +of the simple, gentle, honest folk, of whom there must be countless +thousands in France and even in its capital, but who fail to interest +most French novelists just because they are not eccentric or wicked or +ugly. Of a truth, Aline Joyeuse is as typically Parisian as Felicia +Ruys herself; both are needed if the census is to be complete; and the +omission of either is a source of error. + +There is irony in Daudet's handling of these humbler figures, but it is +compassionate and almost affectionate. If he laughs at Father Joyeuse +there is no harshness and no hostility in his mirth. For the Joyeuse +daughters he has indulgence and pity; and his humor plays about them +and leaves them scart-free. It never stings them or scorches or sears, +as it does Astier-Rehu and Christian II. and the Prince of Axel, in +spite of his desire to be fair toward all the creatures of his brain. + +Irony is only one of the manifestations of Daudet's humor. Wit he has +also, and satire. And he is doubly fortunate in that he has both humor +and the sense-of-humor--the positive and the negative. It is the +sense-of-humor, so called, that many humorists are without, a +deprivation which allows them to take themselves so seriously that they +become a laughing-stock for the world. It is the sense-of-humor that +makes the master of comedy, that helps him to see things in due +proportion and perspective, that keeps him from exaggeration and +emphasis, from sentimentality and melodrama and bathos. It is the +sense-of-humor that prevents our making fools of ourselves; it is humor +itself that softens our laughter at those who make themselves +ridiculous. In his serious stories Daudet employs this negative humor +chiefly, as though he had in memory La Bruyere's assertion that "he who +makes us laugh rarely is able to win esteem for himself." His positive +humor,--gay, exuberant, contagious,--finds its full field for display +in some of the short stories, and more especially in the Tartarin +series. + +Has any book of our time caused more laughter than "Tartarin of +Tarascon"--unless it be "Tartarin on the Alps"? I can think only of one +rival pair, "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn,"--for Mark Twain and +Alphonse Daudet both achieved the almost impossible feat of writing a +successful sequel to a successful book, of forcing fortune to a +repetition of a happy accident. The abundant laughter the French +humorist excited is like that evoked by the American humorist,--clean, +hearty, healthy, self-respecting; it is in both cases what George Eliot +in one of her letters called "the exquisite laughter that comes from a +gratification of the reasoning faculty." Daudet and Mark Twain are +imaginative realists; their most amusing extravagance is but an +exaggeration of the real thing; and they never let factitious fantasy +sweep their feet off the ground. Tartarin is as typical of Provence as +Colonel Sellers--to take that figure of Mark Twain's which is most +like--is typical of the Mississippi Valley. + +Tartarin is as true as Numa Roumestan; in fact they may almost be said +to be sketched from the same model but in a very different temper. In +"Numa Roumestan" we are shown the sober side of the Southern +temperament, the sorrow it brings in the house though it displays joy +in the street; and in "Tartarin" we behold only the immense comicality +of the incessant incongruity between the word and the deed. Tartarin is +Southern, it is true, and French; but he is very human also. There is a +boaster and a liar in most of us, lying in wait for a chance to rush +out and put us to shame. It is this universality of Daudet's satire +that has given Tartarin its vogue on both sides of the Atlantic. The +ingenuity of Tartarin's misadventures, the variety of them in Algiers +and in Switzerland, the obvious reasonableness of them all, the +delightful probability of these impossibilities, the frank gaiety and +the unflagging high spirits,--these are precious qualities, all of +them; but it is rather the essential humanness of Tartarin himself that +has given him a reputation throughout the world. Very rarely indeed now +or in the past has an author been lucky enough to add a single figure +to the cosmopolitan gallery of fiction. Cervantes, De Foe, Swift, Le +Sage, Dumas, have done it; Fielding and Hawthorne and Turgenef have +not. + +It is no wonder that Daudet takes pride in this. The real joy of the +novelist, he declares, is to create human beings, to put on their feet +types of humanity who thereafter circulate through the world with the +name, the gesture, the grimace he has given them and who are cited and +talked about without reference to their creator and without even any +mention of him. And whenever Daudet heard some puppet of politics or +literature called a Tartarin, a shiver ran through him--"the shiver of +pride of a father, hidden in the crowd that is applauding his son and +wanting all the time to cry out 'That's my boy!'" + + +V. + +The time has not yet come for a final estimate of Daudet's +position,--if a time ever arrives when any estimate can be final. But +already has a selection been made of the masterpieces which survive, +and from which an author is judged by the next generation that will +have time to criticise only the most famous of the works this +generation leaves behind it. We can see also that much of Daudet's +later writing is slight and not up to his own high standard, although +even his briefest trifle had always something of his charm, of his +magic, of his seductive grace. We can see how rare an endowment he has +when we note that he is an acute observer of mankind, and yet without +any taint of misanthropy, and that he combines fidelity of reproduction +with poetic elevation. + +He is--to say once more what has already been said in these pages more +than once--he is a lover of romance with an unfaltering respect for +reality. We all meet with strange experiences once in our lives, with +"things you could put in a story," as the phrase is; but we none of us +have hairbreadth escapes every morning before breakfast. The romantic +is as natural as anything else; it is the excess of the romantic which +is in bad taste. It is the piling up of the agony which is disgusting. +It is the accumulation upon one impossible hero of many exceptional +adventures which is untrue and therefore immoral. Daudet's most +individual peculiarity was his skill in seizing the romantic aspects of +the commonplace. In one of his talks with his son he said that a +novelist must beware of an excess of lyric enthusiasm; he himself +sought for emotion, and emotion escaped when human proportions were +exceeded. Balance, order, reserve, symmetry, sobriety,--these are the +qualities he was ever praising. The real, the truthful, the +sincere,--this is what he sought always to attain. + +Daudet may lack the poignant intensity of Balzac, the lyric sweep of +Hugo, the immense architectural strength of M. Zola, the implacable +disinterestedness of Flaubert, the marvellous concentration of +Maupassant, but he has more humor than any of them and more +charm,--more sympathy than any but Hugo, and more sincerity than +any but Flaubert. His is perhaps a rarer combination than any of +theirs,--the gift of story-telling, the power of character-drawing, +the grasp of emotional situation, the faculty of analysis, the feeling +for form, the sense of style, an unfailing and humane interest in his +fellow-men, and an irresistible desire to tell the truth about life as +he saw it with his own eyes. + +BRANDER MATTHEWS. + +Columbia University, +in the City of New York. + + + + +CONTENTS + + Page + + I. DR. JENKINS' PATIENTS 7 + + II. A BREAKFAST ON PLACE VENDOME 37 + + III. MEMOIRS OF A CLERK.--A CASUAL GLANCE AT + THE "CAISSE TERRITORIALE" 63 + + IV. A DEBUT IN SOCIETY 77 + + V. THE JOYEUSE FAMILY 103 + + VI. FELICIA RUYS 128 + + VII. JANSOULET AT HOME 156 + +VIII. THE WORK OF BETHLEHEM 172 + + IX. GRANDMAMMA 193 + + X. MEMOIRS OF A CLERK.--THE SERVANTS 216 + + XI. THE FETES IN HONOR OF THE BEY 238 + + XII. A CORSICAN ELECTION 272 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +"'Take away your flowers, my dear'" _Frontispiece_ + +In Felicia's Studio _Page_ 26 + +"'His Excellency, the Duc de Mora!'" " 88 + + +From drawings by Lucius Rossi. + + + + +THE NABOB. + + +A hundred years ago Le Sage wrote these words at the head of _Gil +Blas_: + + "As there are persons who cannot read a book without making + personal application of the vicious or absurd characters they + find therein, I hereby declare for the benefit of such evil-minded + readers that they will err in making such application of the + portraits in this book. I make public avowal that my only aim + has been to represent the life of mankind as it is." + +Without attempting to draw any comparison between Le Sage's novel and +my own, I may say that I should have liked to place a declaration of +the same nature on the first page of _The Nabob_, at the time of its +publication. Several reasons prevented my doing so. In the first place, +the fear that such an advertisement might seem too much like a bait +thrown out to the public, an attempt to compel its attention. Secondly, +I was far from suspecting that a book written with a purely literary +purpose could acquire at a bound such anecdotal importance, and bring +down upon me such a buzzing swarm of complaints. Indeed, such a thing +was never seen before. Not a line of my work, not one of its heroes, +not even a character of secondary importance, but has become a pretext +for allusions and protestations. To no purpose does the author deny the +imputation, swear by all the gods that there is no key to his +novel--every one forges at least one, with whose assistance he claims +to open that combination lock. It must be that all these types have +lived, bless my soul! that they live to-day, exactly identical from +head to foot. Monpavon is So-and-So, is he not? Jenkins' resemblance is +striking. One man is angry because he is in it, another one because he +is not in it; and, beginning with this eagerness for scandal, there is +nothing, not even chance similarities of name, fatal in the modern +novel, descriptions of streets, numbers of houses selected at random, +that has not served to give identity to beings built of a thousand +pieces and, moreover, absolutely imaginary. + +The author is too modest to take all this outcry to himself. He knows +how great a part the friendly or treacherous indiscretions of the +newspapers have had therein; and without thanking the former more than +is seemly, without too great ill-will to the latter, he resigns himself +to the stormy prospect as something inevitable, and simply deems +himself in duty bound to affirm that he has never, in twenty years of +upright, literary toil, resorted to that element of success, neither on +this occasion nor on any other. As he turned the leaves of his memory, +which it is every novelist's right and duty to do, he recalled a +strange episode that occurred in cosmopolitan Paris some fifteen years +ago. The romance of a dazzling career that shot swiftly across the +Parisian sky like a meteor evidently served as the frame-work of _The +Nabob_, a picture of manners and morals at the close of the Second +Empire. But around that central situation and certain well-known +incidents, which it was every one's right to study and revive, what a +world of fancy, what inventions, what elaboration, and, above all, what +an outlay of that incessant, universal, almost unconscious observation, +without which there could be no imaginative writers. Furthermore, to +obtain an idea of the "crystallizing" labor involved in transporting +the simplest circumstances from reality to fiction, from life to +romance, one need only open the _Moniteur Officiel_ of February, 1864, +and compare a certain session of the Corps Legislatif with the picture +that I give of it in my book. Who could have supposed that, after the +lapse of so many years, this Paris, famous for its short memory, would +recognize the original model in the idealized picture the novelist has +drawn of him, and that voices would be raised to charge with +ingratitude one who most assuredly was not his hero's "assiduous +guest," but simply, in their infrequent meetings, an inquisitive +acquaintance on whose mind the truth is quickly photographed, and who +can never efface from his memory the images that are once imprinted +thereon? + +I knew the "real Nabob" in 1864. I occupied at that time a +semi-official position which forced me to exhibit great reserve in my +visits to that luxurious and hospitable Levantine. Later I was +intimately associated with one of his brothers; but at that time the +poor Nabob was far away, struggling through thickets of cruel brambles, +and he was seen at Paris only occasionally. Moreover, it is very +unpleasant for a courteous man to reckon thus with the dead, and to +say: "You are mistaken. Although he was an agreeable host, I was not +often seen at his table." Let it suffice therefore, for me to declare +that, in speaking of Mere Francoise's son as I have done, it has been +my purpose to represent him in a favorable light, and that the charge +of ingratitude seems to me an absurdity from every standpoint. That +this is true is proved by the fact that many people consider the +portrait too flattering, more interesting than nature. To such people +my reply is very simple: "Jansoulet strikes me as an excellent fellow; +but at all events, if I am wrong, you can blame the newspapers for +telling you his real name. I gave you my novel as a novel, good or bad, +without any guaranty of resemblances." + +As to Mora, that is another matter. Something has been said of +indiscretion, of political defection. Great Heaven! I have never made a +secret of it. At the age of twenty, I was connected with the office of +the high functionary who has served as my model; and my friends of +those days know what a serious political personage I made. The +Department also must have strange recollections of that eccentric clerk +with the Merovingian beard, who was always the last to arrive and the +first to depart, and who never went up to the duke's private office +except to ask leave of absence; of a naturally independent character, +too, with hands unstained by anything like sycophancy, and so little +reconciled to the Empire that, on the day when the duke proposed to him +to enter his service, the future attache deemed it his duty to declare +with touching juvenile solemnity that "he was a Legitimist." + +"So is the Empress," was His Excellency's reply, and he smiled with +calm and impertinent condescension. I always saw him with that smile on +his face, nor had I any need to look through keyholes; and I have drawn +him so, as he loved to appear, in his Richelieu-Brummel attitude. +History will attend to the statesman. I have exhibited him, introducing +him at long range in my fictitious drama, as the worldly creature that +he was and wished to be, being well assured that in his lifetime it +would not have offended him to be so presented. + +This is what I had to say. And now, having made these declarations in +all frankness, let us return to work with all speed. My preface will +seem a little short, and the curious reader will seek in vain therein +the anticipated piquancy. So much the worse for him. Brief as this page +may be, it is three times too long for me. Prefaces have this +disadvantage, that they prevent one from writing books. + +ALPHONSE DAUDET. + + + + +I. + +DOCTOR JENKINS' PATIENTS. + + +Standing on the stoop of his little house on Rue de Lisbonne, freshly +shaved, with sparkling eye, lips slightly parted, long hair tinged with +gray falling over a broad coat-collar, square-shouldered, robust, and +sound as an oak, the illustrious Irish doctor, Robert Jenkins, +chevalier of the Medjidie and of the distinguished order of Charles +III. of Spain, member of several learned and benevolent societies, +founder and president of the Work of Bethlehem,--in a word, Jenkins, +the Jenkins of the Jenkins Arsenical Pills, that is to say, the +fashionable physician of the year 1864, and the busiest man in Paris, +was on the point of entering his carriage, one morning toward the end +of November, when a window on the first floor looking on the inner +courtyard was thrown open, and a woman's voice timidly inquired: + +"Shall you return to breakfast, Robert?" + +Oh! what a bright, affectionate smile it was that suddenly illumined +that handsome, apostle-like face, and how readily one could divine, in +the loving good-morning that his eyes sent up to the warm white +peignoir visible behind the parted hangings, one of those tranquil, +undoubting conjugal passions, which custom binds with its most flexible +and strongest bonds. + +"No, Madame Jenkins"--he loved to give her thus publicly her title of +legitimate wife, as if he felt a secret satisfaction therein, a sort of +salve to his conscience with respect to the woman who made life so +attractive to him--"No, do not expect me this morning. I am to +breakfast on Place Vendome." + +"Ah! yes, the Nabob," said the lovely Madame Jenkins, with a very +marked inflection of respect for that personage out of the _Thousand +and One Nights_, of whom all Paris had been talking for a month; then, +after a moment's hesitation, she whispered between the heavy hangings, +very softly, very lovingly, for the doctor's ear alone: "Be sure and +not forget what you promised me." + +It was probably a promise very difficult to keep, for, at the reminder, +the apostle's brows contracted, his smile froze upon his lips, his +whole face assumed an incredibly harsh expression; but it was a matter +of a moment. The faces of these fashionable physicians become very +expert in lying, by the bedsides of their wealthy patients. With his +most affectionate, most cordial manner, and showing a row of dazzling +teeth, he replied: + +"What I promised shall be done, Madame Jenkins. Now, go in at once and +close your window. The mist is cold this morning." + +Yes, the mist was cold, but white as snow; and, hovering outside the +windows of the comfortable coupe, it lighted up with soft reflections +the newspaper in the doctor's hands. Over yonder in the dark, crowded, +populous quarters, in the Paris of tradesmen and workmen, they know +nothing of the pretty morning mist that loiters on the broad avenues; +the bustle of the waking hours, the passing and repassing of +market-gardeners' wagons, omnibuses, drays loaded with old iron, soon +chop it and rend it and scatter it. Each passer-by carries away a +little of it on a threadbare coat, a worn muffler, or coarse gloves +rubbing against each other. It drenches the shivering blouses, the +waterproofs thrown over working dresses; it blends with all the +breaths, hot with insomnia or alcohol, buries itself in the depths of +empty stomachs, penetrates the shops which are just opening their +doors, dark courtyards, staircases, where it stands on the balusters +and walls, and fireless garrets. That is why so little of it remains +out-of-doors. But in that open, stately portion of Paris where Dr. +Jenkins' patients lived, on those broad tree-lined boulevards, those +deserted quays, the mist soared immaculate, in innumerable waves, as +light and fleecy as down. It was compact, discreet, almost luxurious, +because the sun, slothful in his rising, was beginning to diffuse soft, +purplish tints, which gave to the mist that enveloped everything, even +the roofs of the rows of mansions, the aspect of a sheet of white +muslin spread over scarlet cloth. One would have said that it was a +great curtain sheltering the long, untroubled sleep of wealth, a thick +curtain behind which nothing could be heard save the soft closing of a +porte-cochere, the rattling of the milkmen's tin cans, the bells of a +herd of asses trotting by, followed by the short, panting breath of +their conductor, and the rumbling of Jenkins' coupe beginning its daily +round. + +First of all, to the hotel de Mora. On the Quai d'Orleans, beside the +Spanish embassy, stood a superb palace with its principal entrance on +Rue de Lille, and a door on the riverside, and long terraces which +formed a continuation of those of the embassy. Between two high, +ivy-covered walls, connected by imposing stone arches, the coupe flew +like an arrow, announced by two strokes of a clanging bell, which +aroused Jenkins from the trance in which the perusal of his newspaper +seemed to have plunged him. Then the wheels rolled less noisily over +the gravel of a vast courtyard and stopped, after a graceful sweep, at +the front steps, above which was spread a circular awning. One could +see indistinctly through the mist half a score of carriages in a line, +and the silhouettes of English grooms leading the duke's saddle-horse +up and down an avenue of acacias, all leafless at that season and +standing naked in their bark. Everything revealed well-ordered, +pompous, assured luxury. + +"It makes no difference how early I come, others are always here before +me," said Jenkins, glancing at the line in which his coupe took its +place; but, certain of not being compelled to wait, with head erect and +a tranquil air of authority, he went up the official steps, over which +so many trembling ambitions, so many stumbling anxieties passed every +day. + +Even in the reception-room, high-studded, and resonant as a church, +which two huge fires filled with gleaming life, notwithstanding the +great stoves burning day and night, the magnificence of the +establishment burst upon one in warm and heady puffs. There was a +suggestion of the hot-house and the drying-room as well. Great heat and +abundant light; white wainscoting, white marble statues, immense +windows, nothing confined or close, and yet an equable atmosphere well +fitted to encompass the existence of some delicate, over-refined, +nervous mortal. Jenkins expanded in that factitious sunlight of wealth; +he saluted with a "good-morning, boys," the powdered Swiss with the +broad gilt baldric and the footmen in short clothes and blue and gold +livery, all of whom had risen in his honor, touched lightly with his +finger the great cage of monkeys capering about with shrill cries, and +darted whistling up the white marble stairs covered with a carpet soft +and dense as a lawn, to the duke's apartments. Although he had been +coming to the hotel de Mora for six months, the good doctor had not yet +become hardened to the purely physical impression of cheerfulness and +lightness of heart caused by the atmosphere of that house. + +Although it was the abode of the highest functionary of the Empire, +there was nothing to suggest the departments or their boxes of dusty +documents. The duke had consented to accept the exalted post of +Minister of State and President of the Council only on condition that +he need not leave his house; that he should go to the department only +an hour or two a day, long enough to affix his signatures to documents +that required it, and that he should hold his audiences in his bedroom. +At that moment, although it was so early, the salon was full. There +were serious, anxious faces, provincial prefects with shaven lips and +administrative whiskers, something less arrogant in that reception-room +than in their prefectures; magistrates, stern of manner, dignified of +gesture; deputies full of importance, shining lights of finance, +substantial manufacturers from the country; and among them could be +distinguished, here and there, the thin ambitious face of a deputy +councillor to some prefecture, in the garb of a solicitor, black coat +and white cravat; and one and all, standing or seated, alone or in +groups, silently forced with a glance the lock of that lofty door, +closed upon their destinies, from which they would come forth in a +moment, triumphant or crestfallen. Jenkins walked rapidly through the +crowd, and every one followed with an envious eye this new arrival, +whom the usher, in his chain of office, frigid and correct in his +bearing, seated at a table beside the door, greeted with a smile that +was both respectful and familiar. + +"Who is with him?" the doctor inquired, pointing to the duke's room. + +With the end of his lips, and not without a slightly ironical twinkle +of the eye, the usher murmured a name, which, if they had heard it, +would have angered all those exalted personages who had been waiting an +hour for the _costumier_ of the opera to finish his audience. + +A murmur of voices, a flash of light--Jenkins had entered the duke's +presence; _he_ never waited. + +Standing with his back to the fire, dressed in a blue fur-trimmed +jacket, which heightened by its soft reflection the strength and +haughtiness of his face, the President of the Council was +superintending the drawing of a Pierrette's costume for the duchess to +wear at her next ball, and giving directions with as much gravity as if +he were dictating the draft of a law. + +"Have very fine pleats on the ruff and none at all on the +sleeves.--Good-morning, Jenkins. At your service." + +Jenkins bowed and stepped forward into the enormous room, whose +windows, opening on a garden that extended to the Seine, commanded one +of the loveliest views in all Paris, the bridges, the Tuileries, the +Louvre, interlaced with trees as black as if they were drawn in India +ink on the wavering background of the mist. A broad, very low bed on a +platform a few steps above the floor, two or three small lacquer +screens with vague fanciful decorations in gold, denoting, as did the +double doors and the heavy woollen carpet, a dread of cold carried to +excess, chairs of various styles, long chairs and low chairs, placed at +random, all well-stuffed and of lazy or voluptuous shapes, composed the +furniture of that famous room, where the most momentous and the most +trivial questions were discussed with the same gravity of tone and +manner. There was a beautiful portrait of the duchess on the wall; and +on the mantel a bust of the duke, the work of Felicia Ruys, which had +received the honor of a medal of the first class at the recent Salon. + +"Well, Jenkins, how goes it this morning?" said His Excellency, walking +to meet the doctor, while the costumer was collecting his fashion +plates, which were strewn about over all the chairs. + +"And you, my dear duke? I fancied that you were a little pale last +night at the Varietes." + +"Nonsense! I was never so well. Your pills have a most amazing effect +on me. I feel so lively, so vigorous. When I think how completely +foundered I was six months ago!" + +Jenkins, without speaking, had put his great head against the +minister's jacket, at the spot where the heart beats in the majority of +mankind. He listened a moment while His Excellency continued to talk in +the indolent, listless tone which was one of his chief claims to +distinction. + +"Whom were you with last night, doctor? That great bronzed Tartar who +laughed so loud at the front of your box?" + +"That was the Nabob, Monsieur le Duc. The famous Jansoulet, who is so +much talked about just now." + +"I might have suspected it. The whole audience was looking at him. The +actresses played at him all the time. Do you know him? What sort of a +man is he?" + +"I know him. That is, I am treating him. Thanks, my dear duke, that's +all. Everything is all right there. When he arrived in Paris a month +ago, the change of climate disturbed him a little. He sent for me, and +since then has taken a great fancy to me. All that I know of him is +that he has a colossal fortune, made in Tunis, in the Bey's service, +that he has a loyal heart, a generous mind in which ideas of +humanity--" + +"At Tunis?" the duke interposed, being naturally far from sentimental +and humanitarian. "Then, why the name of Nabob?" + +"Bah! Parisians don't look so deep as that. In their eyes every rich +stranger is a nabob, no matter where he comes from. This one, however, +has just the physique for the part, coppery complexion, eyes like coals +of fire, and in addition a gigantic fortune, of which he makes, I have +no hesitation in saying, a most noble and most intelligent use. I owe +it to him"--here the doctor assumed an air of modesty--"I owe it to him +that I have succeeded at last in inaugurating the Work of Bethlehem for +nursing infants, which a morning newspaper that I was looking over just +now--the _Messager_, I think,--calls 'the great philanthropic idea of +the century.'" + +The duke glanced in an absent-minded way at the sheet the doctor handed +him. He was not the man to be taken in by paid puffs. + +"This Monsieur Jansoulet must be very wealthy," he said coldly. "He is +a partner in Cardailhac's theatre. Monpavon persuades him to pay his +debts, Bois-l'Hery stocks his stable for him and old Schwalbach +furnishes a picture gallery. All that costs money." + +Jenkins began to laugh. + +"What can you expect, my dear duke; you are an object of great interest +to the poor Nabob. Coming to Paris with a firm purpose to become a +Parisian, a man of the world, he has taken you for his model in +everything, and I do not conceal from you that he would be very glad to +study his model at closer quarters." + +"I know, I know, Monpavon has already asked leave to bring him here. +But I prefer to wait and see. One must be on one's guard with these +great fortunes that come from such a distance. _Mon Dieu_, I don't +say, you know, that if I should meet him elsewhere than in my own +house, at the theatre, or in somebody's salon--" + +"It happens that Madame Jenkins intends to give a little party next +month. If you would do us the honor--" + +"I shall be very glad to go to your house, my dear doctor, and if the +Nabob should be there, I should not object to his being presented to +me." + +At that moment the usher opened the door. + +"Monsieur le Ministre de l'Interieur is in the blue salon. He has but a +word to say to Your Excellency. Monsieur le Prefet de Police is still +waiting below, in the gallery." + +"Very good," said the duke, "I will go to him. But I should like to +make a definite arrangement about this costume first. Let us see, +friend What's-your-name, what do we decide about those ruffs? _Au +revoir_, doctor. Nothing to do but keep on with the pearls, is there?" + +"Keep on with the pearls," said Jenkins, bowing; and he took his leave, +radiant over the two bits of good fortune that fell to his lot at the +same time--the honor of entertaining the duke, and the pleasure of +gratifying his dear Nabob. The crowd of petitioners through whom he +passed in the ante-chamber was even greater than when he entered; new +arrivals had joined the patient waiters of the first hour, others were +hurrying upstairs, pale-faced and full of business, and in the +courtyard carriages continued to arrive, to range themselves gravely +and solemnly in a double circle, while the question of ruffed sleeves +was discussed upstairs with no less solemnity. + +"To the club," said Jenkins to his coachman. + + * * * + +The coupe rolled along the quays, recrossed the bridges, and turned +into Place de la Concorde, which already wore a different aspect from +that it had worn a short time before. The mist had lifted in the +direction of the Garde-Meuble and the Greek temple of the Madeleine, +revealing here and there the white spray of a fountain, the arcade of a +palace, the top of a statue, the shrubbery of the Tuileries, shivering +by the gates. The veil, not raised but rent in spots, discovered +patches of blue sky: and, on the avenue leading to the Arc de Triomphe, +one could see breaks driving swiftly along, filled with coachmen and +jockeys, dragoons of the Empress's corps, body-guards in gorgeous +fur-lined coats riding two by two in long lines, with a great clanking +of bits and spurs and neighing of fresh horses, all in the light of a +still invisible sun, emerging from the vague depths of the mist, +plunging into it again in masses, like a swiftly-vanishing vision of +the morning splendor of that quarter. + +Jenkins alighted at the corner of Rue Royale. From roof to cellar of +the great gambling-house servants were bustling about, shaking rugs, +airing the salons where the odor of cigar-smoke still lingered, where +heaps of fine ashes were blowing about in the fireplaces, while on the +green tables, still quivering with the games of the night, the candles +were still burning in silver candelabra, the flame ascending straight +into the pallid light of day. The uproar and the going and coming +ceased on the third floor, where several members of the club had their +apartments. Of the number was the Marquis de Monpavon, to whose door +Jenkins bent his steps. + +"Ah! is it you, doctor? Deuce take it! What time is it, pray? I'm not +at home." + +"Not even to the doctor?" + +"Oh! not to anybody. A question of costume, my dear fellow. Never mind, +come in all the same. Toast your feet a moment while Francois finishes +my hair." + +Jenkins entered the bedroom, which was as prosaic a place as all +furnished apartments are, and approached the fire, where curling-tongs +of all dimensions were heating, while from the adjoining laboratory, +separated from the bedroom by an Algerian curtain, the Marquis de +Monpavon submitted to the manipulations of his valet. Odors of +patchouli, cold cream, burned horn and burned hair escaped from the +restricted quarters; and from time to time, when Francois came out to +take a fresh pair of tongs, Jenkins caught a glimpse of an enormous +dressing-table laden with innumerable little instruments of ivory, +steel, and mother-of-pearl, files, scissors, powder-puffs and brushes, +phials, cups, cosmetics, labelled, arranged in lines, and amid all that +rubbish, petty ironmongery and dolls' playthings, a hand, the hand of +an old man, awkward and trembling, dry and long, with nails as +carefully kept as a Japanese painter's. + +While making up his face, the longest and most complicated of his +matutinal occupations, Monpavon chatted with the doctor, told him of +his aches and pains and of the good effect of the pearls, which were +making him younger, he said. And listening to him thus, at a little +distance, without seeing him, one would have believed he was the Duc de +Mora, he had so faithfully copied his way of speaking. There were the +same unfinished sentences, ending in a _ps_--_ps_--_ps_--uttered +between the teeth. "What's-his-names" and "What-d'ye-call-'ems" at +every turn, a sort of lazy, bored, aristocratic stammer, in which one +divined profound contempt for the vulgar art of speech. In the duke's +circle everybody strove to copy that accent, those disdainful +intonations, in which there was an affectation of simplicity. + +Jenkins, finding the session a little tedious, rose to go. + +"Adieu, I am going. Shall I see you at the Nabob's?" + +"Yes, I expect to breakfast there--promised to take What's-his-name, +Thingumbob, you know, about our great affair--ps--ps--ps. Weren't for +that, I'd stay away--downright menagerie, that house." + +The Irishman, despite his kindly feeling, agreed that the society at +his friend's house was a little mixed. But what of that! they must not +blame him for that. He didn't know any better, poor man. + +"Doesn't know and won't learn," said Monpavon sourly. "Instead of +consulting men of experience--ps--ps--ps--takes the first sycophant +that comes. Did you see the horses Bois-l'Hery bought for him? +Downright swindle, those beasts. And he paid twenty thousand francs for +them. I'll wager Bois-l'Hery got 'em for six thousand." + +"Oh! fie, fie--a gentleman!" said Jenkins, with the indignation of a +noble soul refusing to believe in evil. + +Monpavon went on, as if he did not hear: + +"And all because the horses came from Mora's stable!" + +"To be sure, the dear Nabob's heart is set on the duke. So that I shall +make him very happy when I tell him--" + +The doctor stopped, in some embarrassment. + +"When you tell him what, Jenkins?" + +Jenkins, looking decidedly sheepish, was forced to admit that he had +obtained permission from His Excellency to present his friend +Jansoulet. He had hardly finished his sentence when a tall spectre with +flabby cheeks and multicolored hair and whiskers darted from the +dressing-room into the chamber, holding together with both hands at his +skinny but very straight neck, a dressing-gown of light silk with +violet dots, in which he had enveloped himself like a bonbon in its +paper wrapper. The most salient feature in that heroi-comic countenance +was a great arched nose shining with cold cream, and a keen, piercing +eye, too youthful, too clear for the heavy, wrinkled lid that covered +it. All of Jenkins' patients had that same eye. + +Verily Monpavon must have been deeply moved to show himself thus shorn +of all prestige. In fact it was with white lips and in a changed voice +that he now addressed the doctor, without the affected stammer, +speaking rapidly and without stopping to breathe:-- + +"Come, come, my dear fellow, there's no nonsense between us, is there? +We have met in front of the same porringer; but I let you have your +share and I propose that you shall let me have mine." Jenkins' air of +amazement did not check him. "Let it be understood once for all. I +promised the Nabob that I'd present him to the duke as I presented you +long ago. Don't you interfere in what concerns me and me alone." + +Jenkins, with his hand upon his heart, protested his innocence. He had +never had any such intention. Of course Monpavon was too close a friend +of the duke for any one else to--How could he have imagined such a +thing? + +"I imagine nothing," said the old nobleman, more subdued, but still +very cold. "I simply wanted to have a perfectly frank explanation with +you on this subject." + +The Irishman held out his broad open palm. + +"My dear marquis, explanations are always frank between men of honor." + +"Honor is a great word, Jenkins. Let us say men of good-breeding. That +is sufficient." + +And as that same good-breeding, which he put forward as a supreme guide +of conduct, suddenly reminded him of his absurd plight, the marquis +offered a finger for his friend's demonstrative grasp and passed +hastily behind his curtain, while the other took his leave, in haste to +continue his round of visits. + + * * * + +What a magnificent practice this Jenkins had, to be sure! Nothing but +princely mansions, halls comfortably heated and filled with flowers on +every floor, downy, silk-lined alcoves, wherein disease became quiet +and refined, where nothing suggested the brutal hand that tosses upon a +bed of misery those who cease to work only to die. To tell the truth, +these clients of Dr. Jenkins were not patients at all. They would not +have been received at a hospital. As their organs had not even strength +enough to feel a shock, it was impossible to find the seat of their +trouble, and the physician leaning over them would have listened in +vain for the palpitation of suffering in those bodies which were +already inhabited by the inertia and silence of death. They were +weakened, exhausted, anaemic, consumed by their absurd mode of life, and +yet so attached to it that they strove desperately to prolong it. And +the Jenkins Pearls became famous just because of the lashing they +administered to jaded constitutions. + +"Doctor, I implore you, let me go to the ball this evening!" a young +woman would say, as she lay, utterly prostrated, in her invalid's +chair, her voice hardly more than a breath. + +"You shall go, my dear child." + +And go she would, and look lovelier than ever before. + +"Doctor, at any price, even if it's the death of me, I must be at the +council of ministers to-morrow morning." + +He would be there and would win new triumphs by his eloquence and +ambitious diplomacy. And afterward--oh! afterward, indeed. But no +matter! to their last day Jenkins' patients went about, showed +themselves, deceived the consuming selfishness of the multitude. They +died on their feet, like men and women of the world. + +After innumerable turns on the Chaussee d'Antin and Champs-Elysees, +after visiting all the millionaires and titled personages in Faubourg +Saint-Honore, the doctor drew up at the corner of Cours-la-Reine and +Rue Francois I., before a house with a swell front which stood at +the corner of the quay, and entered an apartment on the ground floor +which in no wise resembled those he had visited since the morning. +Immediately upon entering, the tapestries that covered the walls, the +old stained glass windows intersecting with their lead sashes the soft, +many-hued light, a gigantic saint in carved wood facing a Japanese +monster with bulging eyes and back covered with highly polished scales, +indicated the imaginative and eccentric taste of an artist. The small +servant who opened the door held in leash an Arabian greyhound larger +than himself. + +"Madame Constance is at mass," he said, "and mademoiselle is in the +studio, alone. We have been working since six o'clock this morning," +the child added, with a terrible yawn, which the dog caught on the +wing, and which caused him to open wide his red mouth with its rows of +sharp teeth. + +Jenkins, whom we have seen enter the private apartments of the Minister +of State with such perfect tranquillity, trembled slightly as he raised +the portiere that hid the open doorway of the studio. It was a +magnificent sculptor's workroom, the rounded front being entirely of +glass, with columns at either side: a large bay-window flooded with +light and at that moment tinged with opal by the mist. More ornate than +the majority of these workrooms, to which the daubs of plaster, the +modelling tools, the clay scattered about and the splashes of water +give something of the appearance of a mason's yard, this one blended a +little coquetry with its artistic equipment. Green plants in every +corner, a few good pictures hanging on the bare wall, and here and +there--on oak pedestals--two or three of the works of Sebastien Ruys, +whose very last work, not exhibited until after his death, was covered +with black gauze. + +The mistress of the establishment, Felicia Ruys, daughter of the famous +sculptor, and already known to fame herself by two masterpieces, the +bust of her father and that of the Duc de Mora, stood in the centre of +the studio, at work modelling a figure. Dressed in a blue cloth +riding-habit with long folds, a scarf of China silk twisted around her +neck like a boy's cravat, her fine, black hair, gathered carelessly on +top of her little Grecian head, Felicia was working with extreme zeal, +which added to her beauty by the condensation, so to speak, the +concentration of all her features in a scrutinizing and satisfied +expression. But it changed abruptly on the doctor's arrival. + +"Ah! it's you, is it?" she said brusquely, as if waking from a dream. +"Did you ring? I did not hear." + +And in the ennui, the weariness that suddenly overspread that lovely +face, only the eyes retained their expression and brilliancy, eyes in +which the factitious gleam of the Jenkins Pearls was heightened by a +natural fierceness. + +Oh! how humble and condescending the doctor's voice became, as he +replied: + +"Your work absorbs you completely, does it not, my dear Felicia? Is it +something new that you're doing? I should say that it is very pretty." + +He drew near to the still formless sketch in which a group of two +animals could be vaguely distinguished, one of them, a greyhound, +flying over the ground at a truly extraordinary pace. + +"The idea came to me last night. I began to work by lamplight. My poor +Kadour doesn't find it amusing," said the girl, looking with a +caressing expression of affection at the greyhound, whose paws the +small servant was trying to separate in order to force him into the +proper pose. + +Jenkins observed with a fatherly air that she did wrong to tire herself +so, and added, taking her wrist with ecclesiastical precautions: + +"Let us see, I am sure that you are feverish." + +At the touch of that hand Felicia had a feeling of something very like +repulsion. + +"Let me alone--let me alone--your pearls can do nothing for me. When I +am not working, I am bored, bored to death, so bored that I could kill +myself; my ideas are of the color of that thick, brackish water flowing +yonder. To be just at the beginning of life and to be disgusted with +it! It's hard. I am reduced to the point of envying my poor Constance, +who passes her days in her chair, never opening her mouth, but smiling +all by herself at her memories of the past. I have not even that, not +even any pleasant memories to recall. I have nothing but work--work!" + +[Illustration: _In Felicia's Studio_] + +As she spoke, she worked fiercely, sometimes with the tool, sometimes +with her fingers, which she wiped from time to time on a little sponge +kept on the wooden frame on which the group stood; so that her +complaints, her lamentations, inexplicable in a mouth of twenty years +which had in repose the purity of a Grecian smile, seemed to be uttered +at random, and addressed to no one in particular. And yet Jenkins +seemed anxious and disturbed, notwithstanding the apparent interest he +displayed in the artist's work, or rather in the artist herself, in the +queenly grace of that mere girl, whose style of beauty seemed to have +predestined her to the study of the plastic arts. + +Annoyed by that admiring glance, which she felt like a weight, Felicia +resumed: + +"By the way, do you know that I saw your Nabob? He was pointed out to +me at the Opera, Friday." + +"Were you at the Opera, Friday?" + +"Yes. The duke sent me his box." + +Jenkins changed color. + +"I persuaded Constance to go with me. It was the first time in twenty +years, since her farewell performance, that she had entered the Opera. +It made a great impression on her. During the ballet especially, she +trembled, she beamed, all her former triumphs sparkled in her eyes. How +fortunate one is to have such emotions. A perfect type of his class, +that Nabob. You must bring him to see me. It would amuse me to do his +head." + +"What! why he is frightful! You can't have had a good look at him." + +"Indeed I did, on the contrary. He was opposite us. That white +Ethiopian visage would be superb in marble. And not commonplace, at all +events. Moreover, if he's so ugly as all that, you won't be so unhappy +as you were last year when I was doing Mora's bust. What a wicked face +you had at that time, Jenkins!" + +"Not for ten years of life," muttered Jenkins in a threatening voice, +"would I go through those hours again. But it amuses you to see people +suffer." + +"You know very well that nothing amuses me," she said, shrugging her +shoulders with supreme impertinence. + +Then, without looking at him, without another word, she plunged into +one of those periods of intense activity by means of which true artists +escape from themselves and all their surroundings. + +Jenkins took a few hurried steps, deeply moved, his lip swollen with +avowals that dared not come forth, and began two or three sentences +that met with no reply; at last, feeling that he was dismissed, he took +his hat and walked toward the door. + +"It's understood then, is it? I am to bring him here?" + +"Who, pray?" + +"Why, the Nabob. Only a moment ago you said yourself--" + +"Oh! yes," said the strange creature, whose caprices were not of long +duration, "bring him if you choose; I don't care particularly about +it." + +And her musical, listless voice, in which something seemed to have +broken, the utter indifference of her whole bearing showed that it was +true, that she cared for nothing on earth. + +Jenkins went away in sore perplexity, with clouded brow. But as soon as +he had passed the door he resumed his smiling, cordial manner, being +one of those men who wear a mask on the street. The mist, still visible +in the neighborhood of the Seine, was reduced to a few floating shreds, +which gave an air of vapory unsubstantiality to the houses on the quay, +to the steam-boats of which only the paddle-wheels could be seen, and +to the distant horizon, where the dome of the Invalides hovered like a +gilded balloon, whose netting shed rays of light. The increasing +warmth, the activity in the quarter indicated that noon was not far +away and that it would soon be announced by the ringing of all the +bells. + +Before calling upon the Nabob, however, Jenkins had another call to +make. But it seemed to be a great nuisance to him. However, as he had +promised! So he said, with sudden decision, as he jumped into the +carriage: + +"68 Rue Saint-Ferdinand, aux Ternes." + +Joe, the coachman, was scandalized and made his master repeat the +address; even the horse showed some little hesitation, as if the +valuable beast and the spotless new livery were disgusted at having to +visit a faubourg so far away, outside the restricted but brilliant +circle in which their master's patients were grouped together. They +arrived, however, without hindrance, at the end of an unfinished +provincial street, and at the last of its houses, a five-story +building, which the street seemed to have sent out to reconnoitre and +ascertain if it could safely continue in that direction, isolated as it +was between desolate tracts of land awaiting prospective buildings or +filled with the materials of demolished structures, with blocks of +stone, old blinds with no rooms to shelter, boards with hanging hinges, +a vast boneyard of a whole demolished quarter. + +Innumerable signs swayed in the wind over the door, which was adorned +with a large case of photographs, white with dust, before which Jenkins +paused for a moment. Had the illustrious physician come so far to have +his picture taken? One might have thought so from the interest which +detained him in front of that case, containing fifteen or twenty +photographs representing the same family in different groups and +attitudes and with different expressions: an old gentleman with his +chin supported by a high white stock, and a leather satchel under his +arm, surrounded by a bevy of maidens with their hair arranged in braids +or in curls. Sometimes the old gentleman had sat with only two of his +daughters; or perhaps one of those pretty, graceful figures appeared +alone, her elbow resting on a truncated column, her head bending over a +book, in a natural and unstudied pose. But it was always the same +motive with variations, and there was no other male figure in the case +but the old gentleman in the white cravat, and no other female figures +than those of his numerous daughters. + +"Studios on the fifth floor," said a sign over the case. Jenkins +sighed, measured with his eye the distance from the ground to the +little balcony up among the clouds; then he made up his mind to enter. +In the hall he passed a white cravat and a majestic leather satchel, +evidently the old gentleman of the showcase. Upon being questioned, he +replied that M. Maranne did in fact live on the fifth floor. "But," he +added with an engaging smile, "the floors are not high." With that +encouragement the Irishman started up an entirely new and narrow +staircase, with landings no larger than a stair, a single door on each +floor and windows which afforded glimpses of a melancholy paved +courtyard and other stairways, all empty: one of those horrible modern +houses, built by the dozen by contractors without a son, their greatest +disadvantage consisting in the thinness of the partitions, which forces +all the lodgers to live together as in a Fourierite community. For the +moment that disadvantage was not of serious consequence, only the +fourth and fifth floors being occupied, as if the tenants had fallen +from the sky. + +On the fourth, behind a door bearing a copper plate with the words: M. +JOYEUSE, _Expert in Handwriting_, the doctor heard the sound of fresh, +young laughter and conversation and active footsteps, which accompanied +him to the door of the photographic establishment above. + +These little industries, perching in out-of-the-way corners, and +seeming to have no communication with the outer world, are one of the +surprises of Paris. We wonder how people live who take to them for a +living. What scrupulous providence, for instance, could send customers +to a photographer on a fifth floor among waste lands, at the far end of +Rue Ferdinand, or documents for examination to the expert on the floor +below. Jenkins, as he made that reflection, smiled a pitying smile, +then entered without ceremony as he was invited to do by this +inscription: "Walk in without knocking." Alas! the permission was not +abused.--A tall youth in spectacles, who was writing at a small table, +his legs wrapped in a traveling shawl, rose hurriedly to greet the +visitor, whom his short-sightedness prevented him from recognizing. + +"Good-morning, Andre," said the doctor, extending his hand cordially. + +"Monsieur Jenkins!" + +"I am a good fellow as always, you see. Your conduct to us, your +persistence in living apart from your relatives, commended to my +dignity the utmost reserve in dealing with you; but your mother wept. +And here I am." + +As he was speaking, he glanced about the poor little studio, where the +bare walls, the scanty furniture the brand-new photographic apparatus, +the little fireplace _a la prussienne_, also new, which had never seen +a fire, were disastrously apparent in the bright light that fell from +the glass roof. The drawn features and straggling beard of the young +man, whose very light eyes, high, narrow forehead, and long fair hair +thrown back in disorder gave him the appearance of a visionary, all +were accentuated in the uncompromising light; and so was the dogged +will expressed in that limpid glance which met Jenkins' eye coldly, and +offered in anticipation an unconquerable opposition to all his +arguments, all his protestations. + +But the excellent Jenkins pretended not to notice it. + +"You know how it is, my dear Andre. From the day that I married your +mother, I have looked upon you as my son. I expected to leave you my +office, my practice, to place your foot in a golden stirrup, and I was +overjoyed to see you follow a career devoted to the welfare of mankind. +Suddenly, without a word of explanation, without a thought for the +effect such a rupture might produce in the eyes of the world, you cut +loose from us, you dropped your studies and renounced your future +prospects, to embark in some degrading mode of life, to adopt an absurd +trade, the refuge and the pretext of all those who are shut out from +the society to which they belong." + +"I am working at this trade for a living. It's a means of earning my +bread while I wait." + +"Wait for what?--literary renown?" + +He glanced contemptuously at the papers scattered over the table. + +"But all this does not touch the question; this is what I came here to +say to you: an opportunity is offered you, a door thrown wide open to +the future. The Work of Bethlehem is founded. The noblest of my +humanitarian dreams has taken shape. We have bought a magnificent villa +at Nanterre in which to install our first branch. The superintendence, +the management of that establishment is what it has occurred to me to +offer to you, as to another myself. A princely house to live in, the +salary of a major-general, and the satisfaction of rendering a service +to the great human family. Say the word and I will take you to see the +Nabob, the noble-hearted man who pays the expenses of our undertaking. +Do you accept?" + +"No," said the author, so abruptly that Jenkins was disconcerted. + +"That's it. I expected a refusal when I came here, but I came none the +less. I took for my motto, 'Do what is right, without hope.' And I am +faithful to my motto. So, it's understood, is it--that you prefer a +life dependent on chance, without prospects and without dignity, to the +honorable, dignified, useful life that I offer you?" + +Andre made no reply; but his silence spoke for him. + +"Beware--you know to what this decision of yours will lead, a final +estrangement; but you have always desired it. I need not tell you," +continued Jenkins, "that to break with me is to break with your mother +also. She and I are one." + +The young man turned pale, hesitated a second, then said with an +effort: + +"If my mother cares to come and see me here, I shall certainly be very +happy--but my determination to remain apart from you, to have nothing +in common with you, is irrevocable." + +"At least, you will tell me why?" + +He made a gesture signifying, "no," that he would not tell him. + +For the moment the Irishman was really angry. His whole face assumed a +savage, cunning expression which would have greatly surprised those who +knew only the good-humored, open-hearted Jenkins; but he was careful to +go no farther in the direction of an explanation, which he dreaded +perhaps no less than he desired it. + +"Adieu," he said from the doorway, half turning his head. "Never apply +to us." + +"Never," replied his stepson in a firm voice. + +This time, when the doctor said to Joe: "Place Vendome," the horse, as +if he understood that they were going to call on the Nabob, proudly +shook his shining curb, and the coupe drove away at full speed, +transforming the hub of each of its wheels into a gleaming sun. "To +come such a distance to meet with such a reception! One of the +celebrities of the day treated so by that Bohemian! This comes of +trying to do good!" Jenkins vented his wrath in a long monologue in +that vein; then suddenly exclaimed with a shrug: "Oh! pshaw!" And such +traces of care as remained on his brow soon vanished on the pavement of +Place Vendome. On all sides the clocks were striking twelve in the +sunshine. Emerging from her curtain of mist, fashionable Paris, awake +and on her feet, was beginning her day of giddy pleasure. The +shop-windows on Rue de la Paix shone resplendent. The mansions on the +square seemed to be drawn up proudly in line for the afternoon +receptions; and, at the end of Rue Castiglione with its white arcades, +the Tuileries, in the glorious sunlight of winter, marshalled its +shivering statues, pink with cold, among the leafless quincunxes. + + + + +II. + +A BREAKFAST ON PLACE VENDOME. + + +There were hardly more than a score of persons that morning in the +Nabob's dining-room, a dining-room finished in carved oak, supplied +only the day before from the establishment of some great +house-furnisher, who furnished at the same time the four salons which +could be seen, one beyond the other, through an open door: the +hangings, the objects of art, the chandeliers, even the plate displayed +on the sideboards, even the servants who served the breakfast. It was +the perfect type of the establishment improvised, immediately upon +alighting from the railway train, by a parvenu of colossal wealth, in +great haste to enjoy himself. Although there was no sign of a woman's +dress about the table, no bit of light and airy material to enliven the +scene, it was by no means monotonous, thanks to the incongruity, the +nondescript character of the guests, gathered together from all ranks +of society, specimens of mankind culled from every race in France, in +Europe, in the whole world, from top to bottom of the social scale. +First of all, the master of the house, a sort of giant--sunburned, +swarthy, with his head between his shoulders--to whom his short nose, +lost in the puffiness of the face, his woolly hair massed like an +Astrakhan cap over a low, headstrong forehead, his bristling eyebrows +with eyes like a wild cat's in ambush, gave the ferocious aspect of a +Kalmuk, of a savage on the frontiers of civilization, who lived by war +and marauding. Luckily the lower part of the face, the thick, double +lips which parted readily in a fascinating, good-humored smile, +tempered with a sort of Saint Vincent de Paul expression that uncouth +ugliness, that original countenance, so original that it forgot to be +commonplace. But his inferior extraction betrayed itself in another +direction by his voice, the voice of a Rhone boatman, hoarse and +indistinct, in which the southern accent became rather coarse than +harsh, and by two broad, short hands, with hairy fingers, square at the +ends and with almost no nails, which, as they rested on the white table +cloth, spoke of their past with embarrassing eloquence. Opposite the +host, on the other side of the table, at which he was a regular guest, +was the Marquis de Monpavon, but a Monpavon who in no wise resembled +the mottled spectre whom we saw in the last chapter; a man of superb +physique, in the prime of life, with a long, majestic nose, the haughty +bearing of a great nobleman, displaying a vast breastplate of spotless +linen, which cracked under the continuous efforts of the chest to bend +forward, and swelled out every time with a noise like that made by a +turkey gobbling, or a peacock spreading his tail. His name Monpavon was +well suited to him.[1] + + [1] Paon_, peacock--from Latin pavo, pavonis_. + +Belonging to a great family, with wealthy kindred, the Duc de Mora's +friendship had procured for him a receiver-generalship of the first +class. Unfortunately his health had not permitted him to retain that +fine berth--well-informed persons said that his health had nothing to +do with it--and he had been living in Paris for a year past, waiting +until he should be cured, he said, to return to his post. The same +persons asserted that he would never find it again, and that, were it +not for the patronage of certain exalted personages--Be that as it may, +he was the important guest at the breakfast; one could see that by the +way in which the servants waited upon him, by the way in which the +Nabob consulted him, calling him "Monsieur le Marquis," as they do at +the Comedie Francaise, less from humility than from pride because of +the honor that was reflected on himself. Filled with disdain for his +fellow-guests, Monsieur le Marquis talked little, but with a very lofty +manner, as if he were obliged to stoop to those persons whom he honored +with his conversation. From time to time he tossed at the Nabob, across +the table, sentences that were enigmatical to everybody. + +"I saw the duke yesterday. He talked a good deal about you in +connection with that matter of--you know, What's-his-name, +Thingumbob--Who is the man?" + +"Really! He talked about me?" And the honest Nabob, swelling with +pride, would look about him, nodding his head in a most laughable way, +or would assume the meditative air of a pious woman when she hears the +name of Our Lord. + +"His Excellency would be pleased to have you go into +the--ps--ps--ps--the thing." + +"Did he tell you so?" + +"Ask the governor--he heard it as well as I." + +The person referred to as the governor, Paganetti by name, was an +energetic, gesticulatory little man, tiresome to watch, his face +assumed so many different expressions in a minute. He was manager of +the _Caisse Territoriale_ of Corsica, a vast financial enterprise, and +was present in that house for the first time, brought by Monpavon; he +also occupied a place of honor. On the Nabob's other side was an old +man, buttoned to the chin in a frock-coat without lapels and with a +standing collar, like an oriental tunic, with a face marred by +innumerable little gashes, and a white moustache trimmed in military +fashion. It was Brahim Bey, the most gallant officer of the regency of +Tunis, _aide-de-camp_ to the former bey, who made Jansoulet's fortune. +This warrior's glorious exploits were written in wrinkles, in the scars +of debauchery, on his lower lip which hung down helplessly as if the +spring were broken, and in his inflamed, red eyes, devoid of lashes. +His was one of the faces we see in the felon's dock in cases that are +tried behind closed doors. The other guests had seated themselves +pell-mell, as they arrived, or beside such acquaintances as they +chanced to meet, for the house was open to everybody, and covers were +laid for thirty every morning. + +There was the manager of the theatre in which the Nabob was a sleeping +partner,--Cardailhac, almost as renowned for his wit as for his +failures, that wonderful carver, who would prepare one of his _bons +mots_ as he detached the limbs of a partridge, and deposit it with a +wing in the plate that was handed him. He was a sculptor rather than an +_improvisateur_, and the new way of serving meats, having them carved +beforehand in the Russian fashion, had been fatal to him by depriving +him of all excuse for a preparatory silence. So it was generally said +that he was failing. He was a thorough Parisian, a dandy to his +fingers' ends, and as he himself boasted, "not full to bursting with +superstition," which fact enabled him to give some very piquant details +concerning the women in his theatrical company to Brahim Bey, who +listened to him as one turns the pages of an obscene book, and to talk +theology to his nearest neighbor, a young priest, cure of some little +Southern village, a thin, gaunt fellow, with a complexion as dark +as his cassock, with glowing cheek-bones, pointed nose, all the +characteristics of an ambitious man, who said to Cardailhac, in a very +loud voice, in a tone of condescension, of priestly authority: + +"We are very well satisfied with Monsieur Guizot. He is doing well, +very well--it's a victory for the Church." + +Beside that pontiff with the starched band, old Schwalbach, the famous +dealer in pictures, displayed his prophet's beard, yellow in spots like +a dirty fleece, his three mouldy-looking waistcoats and all the +slovenly, careless attire which people forgave him in the name of art, +and because he had the good taste to have in his employ, at a time when +the mania for galleries kept millions of money in circulation, the one +man who was most expert in negotiating those vainglorious transactions. +Schwalbach did not talk, contenting himself with staring about through +his enormous lens-shaped monocle, and smiling in his beard at the +extraordinary juxtapositions to be observed at that table, which stood +alone in all the world. For instance Monpavon had very near him--and +you should have seen how the disdainful curve of his nose was +accentuated at every glance in his direction--Garrigou the singer, a +countryman of Jansoulet, distinguished as a ventriloquist, who sang +_Figaro_ in the patois of the South and had not his like for imitating +animals. A little farther on, Cabassu, another fellow-countryman, a +short, thick-set man, with a bull-neck, a biceps worthy of Michel +Angelo, who resembled equally a Marseillais hair-dresser and the +Hercules at a country fair, a _masseur_, pedicurist, manicurist and +something of a dentist, rested both elbows on the table with the +assurance of a quack whom one receives in the morning and who knows the +petty weaknesses, the private miseries of the house in which he happens +to be. M. Bompain completed that procession of subalterns, all +classified with reference to some one specialty. Bompain, the +secretary, the steward, the man of confidence, through whose hands all +the business of the establishment passed; and a single glance at that +stupidly solemn face, that vague expression, that Turkish fez poised +awkwardly on that village schoolmaster's head, sufficed to convince one +what manner of man he was to whom interests like the Nabob's had been +entrusted. + +Lastly, to fill the gaps between the figures we have sketched, Turks of +every variety! Tunisians, Moors, Egyptians, Levantines; and, mingled +with that exotic element, a whole multicolored Parisian Bohemia of +decayed gentlemen, squinting tradesmen, penniless journalists, +inventors of strange objects, men from the South landed in Paris +without a sou--all the tempest-tossed vessels to be revictualled, all +the flocks of birds whirling about in the darkness, that were attracted +by that great fortune as by the light of a lighthouse. The Nabob +received that motley crew at his table through kindness of heart, +generosity, weakness, and entire lack of dignity, combined with +absolute ignorance, and partly as a result of the same exile's +melancholy, the same need of expansion that led him to receive, in his +magnificent palace on the Bardo in Tunis, everybody who landed from +France, from the petty tradesman and exporter of small wares, to the +famous pianist on a tour and the consul-general. + +Listening to those different voices, those foreign accents, incisive or +stammering, glancing at those varying types of countenance, some +uncivilized, passionate, unrefined, others over-civilized, faded, of +the type that haunts the boulevards, over-ripe as it were, and +observing the same varieties in the corps of servants, where +"flunkeys," taken the day before from some office, insolent fellows, +with the heads of dentists or bath-attendants, bustled about among the +motionless Ethiopians, who shone like black marble torch-holders,--it +was impossible to say exactly where you were; at all events, you would +never have believed that you were on Place Vendome, at the very heart +and centre of the life of our modern Paris. On the table there was a +similar outlandish collection of foreign dishes, sauces with saffron or +anchovies, elaborately spiced Turkish delicacies, chickens with fried +almonds; all this, taken in conjunction with the commonplace +decorations of the room, the gilded wainscotings and the shrill jangle +of the new bells, gave one the impression of a table-d'hote in some +great hotel in Smyrna or Calcutta, or of the gorgeous saloon of a +trans-Atlantic liner, the _Pereire_ or the _Sinai_. + +It would seem that such a variety of guests--I had almost said of +passengers--would make the repast animated and noisy. Far from it. They +all ate nervously, in silence, watching one another out of the corner +of the eye; and even the most worldly, those who seemed most at ease, +had in their eyes the wandering, distressed expression indicating a +persistent thought, a feverish anxiety which caused them to speak +without answering, to listen without understanding a word of what was +said. + +Suddenly the door of the dining-room was thrown open. + +"Ah! there's Jenkins," exclaimed the Nabob, joyfully. "Hail, doctor, +hail! How are you, my boy?" + +A circular smile, a vigorous handshake for the host, and Jenkins took +his seat opposite him, beside Monpavon and in front of a plate which a +servant brought in hot haste, exactly as at a table-d'hote. Amid those +preoccupied, feverish faces, that one presented a striking contrast +with its good-humor, its expansive smile, and the loquacious, +flattering affability which makes the Irish to a certain extent the +Gascons of Great Britain. And what a robust appetite! with what energy, +what liberty of conscience, he managed his double row of white teeth, +talking all the while. + +"Well, Jansoulet, did you read it?" + +"Read what, pray?" + +"What! don't you know? Haven't you read what the _Messager_ said +about you this morning?" + +Beneath the thick tan on his cheeks the Nabob blushed like a child, and +his eyes sparkled with delight as he replied: + +"Do you mean it? The _Messager_ said something about me?" + +"Two whole columns. How is it that Moessard didn't show it to you?" + +"Oh!" said Moessard modestly, "it wasn't worth the trouble." + +He was a journalist in a small way, fair-haired and spruce, a pretty +fellow enough, but with a face marked by the faded look peculiar to +waiters at all-night restaurants, actors and prostitutes, made up of +conventional grimaces and the sallow reflection of the gas. He was +reputed to be the plighted lover of an exiled queen of very easy +virtue. That rumor was whispered about wherever he went, and gave him +an envied and most contemptible prominence in his circle. + +Jansoulet insisted upon reading the article, being impatient to hear +what was said of him. Unfortunately Jenkins had left his copy at the +duke's. + +"Let some one go at once and get me a _Messager_," said the Nabob +to the servant behind his chair. + +Moessard interposed: + +"That isn't necessary; I must have the thing about me." + +And with the free and easy manner of the tap-room habitue, of the +reporter who scrawls his notes as he sits in front of his mug of beer, +the journalist produced a pocketbook stuffed with memoranda, stamped +papers, newspaper clippings, notes on glossy paper with crests--which +he scattered over the table, pushing his plate away, to look for the +proof of his article. + +"Here it is." He passed it to Jansoulet; but Jenkins cried out: + +"No, no, read it aloud." + +As the whole party echoed the demand, Moessard took back his proof and +began to read aloud the WORK OF BETHLEHEM AND M. BERNARD JANSOULET, a +long deliverance in favor of artificial nursing, written from Jenkins' +notes, which were recognizable by certain grandiloquent phrases of the +sort that the Irishman affected: "the long martyrology of infancy--the +venality of the breast--the goat, the beneficent nurse,"--and +concluding, after a turgid description of the magnificent establishment +at Nanterre, with a eulogy of Jenkins and the glorification of +Jansoulet: "O Bernard Jansoulet, benefactor of infancy!" + +You should have seen the annoyed, scandalized faces of the guests. What +a schemer that Moessard was! What impudent sycophancy! And the same +envious, disdainful smile distorted every mouth. The devil of it was +that they were forced to applaud, to appear enchanted, as their host's +sense of smell was not surfeited by the odor of incense, and as he took +everything very seriously, both the article and the applause that it +called forth. His broad face beamed during the reading. Many and many a +time, far away in Africa, he had dreamed of being thus belauded in the +Parisian papers, of becoming a person of some consequence in that +society, the first of all societies, upon which the whole world has its +eyes fixed as upon a beacon-light. Now that dream was fulfilled. He +gazed at all those men around his table, at that sumptuous dessert, at +that wainscoted dining-room, certainly as high as the church in his +native village; he listened to the dull roar of Paris, rumbling and +tramping beneath his windows, with the unspoken thought that he was +about to become a great wheel in that ever-active, complicated +mechanism. And thereupon, while he sat, enjoying the sense of +well-being that follows a substantial meal, between the lines of that +triumphant apology he evoked, by way of contrast, the panorama of his +own life, his wretched childhood, his haphazard youth, no less +distressing to recall, the days without food, the nights without a +place to lay his head. And suddenly, when the reading was at an end, in +the midst of a veritable overflow of joy, of one of those outbursts of +Southern effusiveness which compel one to think aloud, he cried, +protruding his thick lips toward the guests in his genial smile: + +"Ah! my friends, my dear friends, if you knew how happy I am, how proud +I feel!" + +It was barely six weeks since he landed in France. With the exception +of two or three compatriots, he had known these men whom he called his +friends hardly more than a day, and only from having loaned them money. +Wherefore that sudden expansiveness seemed decidedly strange; but +Jansoulet, too deeply moved to notice anything, continued: + +"After what I have just heard, when I see myself here in this great +city of Paris, surrounded by all the illustrious names and +distinguished minds within its limits, and then recall my father's +peddler's stall! For I was born in a peddler's stall. My father sold +old iron at a street corner in Bourg-Saint-Andeol! It was as much as +ever if we had bread to eat every day, and stew every Sunday. Ask +Cabassu. He knew me in those days. He can tell you if I am lying. Oh! +yes, I have known what poverty is." He raised his head in an outburst +of pride, breathing in the odor of truffles with which the heavy +atmosphere was impregnated. "I have known poverty, genuine poverty too, +and for a long time. I have been cold, I have been hungry, and horribly +hungry, you know, the kind of hunger that makes you stupid, that twists +your stomach, makes your head go round, and prevents you from seeing, +just as if some one had dug out the inside of your eyes with an +oyster-knife. I have passed whole days in bed for lack of a coat to +wear; lucky when I had a bed, which I sometimes hadn't. I have tried to +earn my bread at every trade; and the bread cost me so much suffering, +it was so hard and tough that I still have the bitter, mouldy taste of +it in my mouth. And that's the way it was till I was thirty years old. +Yes, my friends, at thirty--and I'm not fifty yet--I was still a +beggar, without a sou, with no future, with my heart full of remorse +for my poor mother who was dying of hunger in her hovel down in the +provinces, and to whom I could give nothing." + +The faces of the people who surrounded that strange host as he told the +story of his evil days were a curious spectacle. Some seemed disgusted, +especially Monpavon. That display of old rags seemed to him in +execrable taste, and to denote utter lack of breeding. Cardailhac, that +sceptic and man of refined taste, a foe to all emotional scenes, sat +with staring eyes and as if hypnotized, cutting a piece of fruit with +the end of his fork into strips as thin as cigarette papers. The +Governor, on the contrary, went through a pantomime expressive of +perfunctory admiration, with exclamations of horror and compassion; +while, in striking contrast to him, and not far away, Brahim Bey, the +thunderbolt of war, in whom the reading of the article, followed by +discussion after a substantial repast, had induced a refreshing nap, +was sleeping soundly, with his mouth like a round O in his white +moustache, and with the blood congested in his face as a result of the +creeping up of his gorget. But the general expression was indifference +and ennui. What interest had they, I ask you, in Jansoulet's childhood +at Bourg-Saint-Andeol, in what he had suffered, and how he had been +driven from pillar to post? They had not come there for such stuff as +that. So it was that expressions of feigned interest, eyes that counted +the eggs in the ceiling or the crumbs of bread on the table-cloth, lips +tightly compressed to restrain a yawn, betrayed the general impatience +caused by that untimely narrative. But he did not grow weary. He took +pleasure in the recital of his past suffering, as the sailor in a safe +haven delights in recalling his voyages in distant seas, and the +dangers, and the terrible shipwrecks. Next came the tale of his good +luck, the extraordinary accident that suddenly started him on the road +to fortune. "I was wandering about the harbor of Marseille, with a +comrade as out-at-elbows as myself, who also made his fortune in the +Bey's service, and, after being my chum, my partner, became my +bitterest enemy. I can safely tell you his name, _pardi_! He is well +enough known, Hemerlingue. Yes, messieurs, the head of the great +banking-house of Hemerlingue and Son hadn't at that time the money to +buy two sous' worth of crabs on the quay. Intoxicated by the air of +travel that you breathe in those parts, it occurred to us to go and +seek a living in some sunny country, as the foggy countries were so +cruel to us. But where should we go? We did what sailors sometimes do +to decide what den they shall squander their wages in. They stick a bit +of paper on the rim of a hat. Then they twirl the hat on a cane, and +when it stops, they go in the direction in which the paper points. For +us the paper needle pointed to Tunis. A week later I landed at Tunis +with half a louis in my pocket, and I return to-day with twenty-five +millions." + +There was a sort of electric shock around the table, a gleam in every +eye, even in those of the servants. Cardailhac exclaimed: "Mazette!" +Monpavon's nose subsided. + +"Yes, my children, twenty-five millions in available funds, to say +nothing of all that I've left in Tunis, my two palaces on the Bardo, my +vessels in the harbor of La Goulette, my diamonds and my jewels, which +are certainly worth more than twice that. And you know," he added, with +his genial smile, in his hoarse, unmusical voice, "when it's all gone, +there will still be some left." + +The whole table rose, electrified. + +"Bravo! Ah! bravo!" + +"Superb." + +"Very _chic_--very _chic_." + +"Well said." + +"A man like that ought to be in the Chamber." + +"He shall be, _per Bacco!_ my word for it," exclaimed the Governor, in +a voice of thunder; and, carried away by admiration, not knowing how to +manifest his enthusiasm, he seized the Nabob's great hairy hand and +impulsively put it to his lips. Everybody was standing; they did not +resume their seats. + +Jansoulet, radiant with pleasure, had also risen. + +"Let us have our coffee," he said, throwing down his napkin. + +Immediately the party circulated noisily through the salons, enormous +rooms, in which the light, the decoration, the magnificence consisted +of gold alone. It fell from the ceiling in blinding rays, oozed from +the walls in fillets, window-sashes and frames of all sorts. One +retained a little of it on one's hands after moving a chair or opening +a window; and even the hangings, having been dipped in that Pactolus, +preserved upon their stiff folds the rigidity and sheen of metal. But +there was nothing individual, homelike, dainty. It was the monotonous +splendor of the furnished apartment. And this impression of a flying +camp, of a temporary establishment, was heightened by the idea of +travelling that hovered about that fortune drawn from distant sources, +like a cloud of uncertainty or a threat. + +The coffee was served in the Oriental fashion, with all the grounds, in +small filigreed silver cups, and the guests stood around in groups, +drinking hastily, burning their tongues, watching one another +furtively, and keeping especially close watch on the Nabob, in order to +grasp the favorable moment to jump upon him, drag him into a corner of +one of those huge rooms, and arrange their loan at last. For it was +that for which they had been waiting for two hours, that was the object +of their visit, and the fixed idea that gave them that distraught, +falsely attentive air, during the breakfast. But now there was no more +embarrassment, no more grimacing. Everybody in that strange company +knew that, in the Nabob's crowded existence, the coffee hour alone was +left free for confidential audiences, and as every one wished to take +advantage of it, as they had all come for the purpose of tearing a +handful of wool from that golden fleece which offered itself to them so +good-naturedly, they no longer talked or listened, they attended +strictly to business. + +Honest Jenkins is the one who begins. He has led his friend Jansoulet +into a window-recess and is submitting to him the drawings for the +house at Nanterre. A pretty outlay, by heaven! One hundred and fifty +thousand francs for the property, and, in addition, the very +considerable expense of installation, the staff, the bedding, the goats +for nurses, the manager's carriage, the omnibuses to meet the children +at every train. A great deal of money--But how comfortable the dear +little creatures will be there! what a service to Paris, to mankind! +The Government cannot fail to reward with a bit of red ribbon such +unselfish philanthropy. "The Cross, the 15th of August." With those +magic words Jenkins can obtain whatever he wants. With his hoarse, +cheerful voice, which seems to be hailing a vessel in the fog, the +Nabob calls, "Bompain." The man in the fez, tearing himself away from +the cellaret, crosses the salon majestically, whispers, goes away and +returns with an inkstand and a check-book, the leaves of which come out +and fly away of themselves. What a fine thing is wealth! To sign a +check for two hundred thousand francs on his knee costs Jansoulet no +more than to take a louis from his pocket. + +The others, with their noses in their cups and rage in their hearts, +watch this little scene from afar. And when Jenkins takes his leave, +bright and smiling, and waving his hand to the different groups, +Monpavon seizes the Governor: "Now, it's our turn." And they pounce +together upon the Nabob, lead him to a divan, force him to sit down, +and squeeze him between them with a savage little laugh that seems to +mean: "What are we going to do to him?" Extract money from him, as much +of it as possible. It must be had in order to float the _Caisse +Territorial_, which has been aground for years, buried in sand to her +masthead. A magnificent operation, this of floating her again, if we +are to believe these two gentlemen; for the buried craft is full of +ingots, of valuable merchandise, of the thousand varied treasures of a +new country of which every one is talking and of which no one knows +anything. The aim of Paganetti of Porto-Vecchio in founding that +unrivalled establishment was to monopolize the exploitation of Corsica: +iron mines, sulphur mines, copper mines, marble quarries, chalybeate +and sulphur springs, vast forests of lignum vitae and oak; and to +facilitate that exploitation by building a network of railroads +throughout the island, and establishing a line of steamboats. Such was +the gigantic enterprise to which he has harnessed himself. He has sunk +a large amount of money in it, and the new-comer, the laborer of the +eleventh hour, will reap the whole profit. + +While the Corsican with his Italian accent, his frantic gestures, +enumerates the _splendores_ of the affair, Monpavon, dignified and +haughty, nods his head with an air of conviction, and from time to +time, when he deems the moment propitious, tosses into the conversation +the name of the Duc de Mora, which always produces its effect on the +Nabob. + +"Well, what is it that you need?" + +"Millions," says Monpavon superbly, in the tone of a man who is not +embarrassed by any lack of persons to whom to apply. "Yes, millions. +But it's a magnificent opening. And, as His Excellency said, it would +afford a capitalist an opportunity to attain a lofty position, even a +political position. Just consider a moment! in that penniless country. +One might become a member of the General Council, a Deputy--" The Nabob +starts. And little Paganetti, feeling the bait tremble on his hook, +continues: "Yes, a Deputy; you shall be one when I choose. At a word +from me all Corsica is at your service." Thereupon he launches out on a +bewildering extemporization, counting up the votes at his disposal, the +cantons which will rise at his summons. "You bring me your funds--I +give you a whole people." The affair is carried by storm. + +"Bompain! Bompain!" calls the Nabob in his enthusiasm. He has but one +fear, that the thing will escape him; and to bind Paganetti, who does +not conceal his need of money, he hastens to pour a first instalment +into the _Caisse Territoriale_. Second appearance of the man in the red +cap with the check-book, which he holds solemnly against his breast, +like a choir-boy carrying the Gospel. Second affixture of Jansoulet's +signature to a check, which the Governor stows away with a negligent +air, and which effects a sudden transformation of his whole person. +Paganetti, but now so humble and unobtrusive, walks away with the +self-assurance of a man held in equilibrium by four hundred thousand +francs, while Monpavon, carrying his head even higher than usual, +follows close upon his heels and watches over him with a more than +paternal solicitude. + +"There's a good stroke of business well done," says the Nabob to +himself, "and I'll go and drink my coffee." But ten borrowers are lying +in wait for him. The quickest, the most adroit, is Cardailhac, the +manager, who hooks him and carries him off into an empty salon. "Let us +talk a bit, my good friend. I must set before you the condition of our +theatre." A very complicated condition, no doubt; for here comes +Monsieur Bompain again, and more sky-blue leaves fly away from the +check-book. Now, whose turn is it? The journalist Moessard comes to get +his pay for the article in the _Messager_; the Nabob will learn what it +costs to be called "the benefactor of infancy" in the morning papers. +The provincial cure asks for funds to rebuild his church, and takes +his check by assault with the brutality of a Peter the Hermit. And now +old Schwalbach approaches, with his nose in his beard, winking +mysteriously. "Sh! he has vound ein bearl," for monsieur's gallery, an +Hobbema from the Duc de Mora's collection. But several people have +their eye on it. It will be difficult to obtain. "I must have it at any +price," says the Nabob, allured by the name of Mora. "You understand, +Schwalbach, I must have that _Nobbema_. Twenty thousand francs for you +if you hit it off." + +"I vill do mein best, Monsieur Jansoulet." + +And the old knave, as he turns away, calculates that the Nabob's twenty +thousand, added to the ten thousand the duke has promised him if he +gets rid of his picture, will make a very pretty little profit for him. + +While these fortunate ones succeed one another, others prowl about +frantic with impatience, biting their nails to the quick; for one and +all have come with the same object. From honest Jenkins, who headed the +procession, down to Cabassu, the _masseur_, who closes it, one and +all lead the Nabob aside. But however far away they take him in that +long file of salons, there is always some indiscreet mirror to reflect +the figure of the master of the house, and the pantomime of his broad +back. That back is so eloquent! At times it straightens up indignantly. +"Oh! no, that is too much!" Or else it collapses with comical +resignation. "Very well, if you will have it so." And Bompain's fez +always lurking in some corner of the landscape. + +When these have finished, others arrive; they are the small fish that +follow in the wake of the great sharks in the savage hunting in the +sea. There is constant going and coming through those superb white and +gold salons, a slamming of doors, an unbroken current of insolent +extortion of the most hackneyed type, attracted from the four corners +of Paris and the suburbs by that enormous fortune and that incredible +gullibility. + +For these small sums, this incessant doling out of cash, he did not +have recourse to the checkbook. In one of his salons the Nabob kept a +commode, an ugly little piece of furniture representing the savings of +some concierge; it was the first article Jansoulet bought when he was +in a position to renounce furnished apartments, and he had kept it ever +since like a gambler's fetish; its three drawers always contained two +hundred thousand francs in current funds. He resorted to that +never-failing supply on the days of his great audiences, ostentatiously +plunging his hands in the gold and silver, stuffing it into his pockets +to produce it later with the gesture of a cattle-dealer, a certain +vulgar way of raising the skirts of his coat and sending his hand "down +to the bottom of the pile." A tremendous inroad must have been made +upon the little drawers to-day. + + * * * + +After so many whispered conferences, requests more or less clearly +stated, anxious entrances and triumphant exits, the last client +dismissed, the commode drawers locked, the apartment on Place Vendome +was left in solitude in the fading light of four o'clock, the close of +the November days which are prolonged so far beyond that hour by the +aid of artificial light. The servants removed the coffee cups, the +_raki_ and the open, half-emptied boxes of cigars. The Nabob, thinking +that he was alone, drew a long breath of relief: "Ouf! that's all +over." But no. A figure emerges from a corner already in shadow, and +approaches with a letter in his hand. + +"Another!" + +Thereupon the poor man instinctively repeated his eloquent +horse-dealer's gesture. At that the visitor, also instinctively, +recoiled so quickly and with such an insulted air that the Nabob +realized that he was in error and took the trouble to observe the young +man who stood before him, simply but correctly dressed, with a sallow +complexion, absolutely no beard, regular features, perhaps a little too +serious and determined for his years, which fact, with his extremely +light hair, curling tightly all over his head like a powdered wig, gave +him the aspect of a young deputy of the Tiers Etat under Louis XVI., +the face of a Barnave at twenty. That face, although the Nabob then saw +it for the first time, was not altogether unfamiliar to him. + +"What do you wish, monsieur?" + +Taking the letter the young man handed him, he walked to a window to +read it. + +"Ah!--it's from mamma." + +He said it with such a joyous inflection, the word "mamma" lighted his +whole face with such a youthful, attractive smile, that the visitor, +repelled at first by the parvenu's vulgar appearance, felt in full +sympathy with him. + +The Nabob read in an undertone these few lines written in a coarse, +incorrect, trembling hand, in striking contrast to the fine laid paper +with the words "Chateau de Saint-Romans" at the top. + + "MY DEAR SON,--This letter will be handed to you by the oldest of + Monsieur de Gery's children, the former justice of the peace at + Bourg-Saint-Andeol, who was so kind to us--" + +The Nabob interrupted himself to say: + +"I ought to have known you, Monsieur de Gery. You look like your +father. Take a seat, I beg you." + +Then he finished running through the letter. His mother made no precise +request, but, in the name of the services the de Gery family had +formerly rendered them, she commended Monsieur Paul to him. An orphan, +with his two young brothers to support, he had been admitted to +practice as an advocate in the South and was starting for Paris to seek +his fortune. She implored Jansoulet to assist him, "for he sorely +needed it, poor fellow." And she signed: "Your mother, who is dying +for a sight of you, FRANCOISE." + +That letter from his mother, whom he had not seen for six years, the +Southern forms of expression in which he recognized familiar +intonations, the coarse handwriting which drew for him a beloved face, +all wrinkled and sunburned and furrowed, but smiling still beneath a +peasant's cap, made a profound impression upon the Nabob. During the +six weeks he had been in France, immersed in the eddying whirl of +Paris, of his installation, he had not once thought of the dear old +soul; and now he saw her in every line. He stood for a moment gazing at +the letter, which shook in his fat fingers. + +Then, his emotion having subsided, "Monsieur de Gery," he said, "I am +happy to have the opportunity to repay a little of the kindness your +family has showered upon mine. This very day, if you agree, I take you +into my service. You are well educated, you seem intelligent, you can +be of very great service to me. I have innumerable plans, innumerable +matters in hand. I have been drawn into a multitude of large industrial +undertakings. I need some one to assist me, to take my place at need. +To be sure, I have a secretary, a steward, that excellent Bompain; but +the poor fellow knows nothing of Paris. You will say that you are fresh +from the provinces. But that's of no consequence. Well educated as you +are, a Southerner, open-eyed and adaptable, you will soon get the hang +of the boulevard. At all events, I'll undertake your education in that +direction myself. In a few weeks you shall have a foot as thoroughly +Parisian as mine, I promise you." + +Poor man! It was touching to hear him talk about his _Parisian foot_ +and his experience, when he was fated never to be more than a beginner. + +"Well, it's a bargain, eh? I take you for my secretary. You shall have +a fixed salary which we will agree upon directly; and I will give you a +chance to make your fortune quickly." + +And as de Gery, suddenly relieved of all his anxieties as a new-comer, +a petitioner, a neophyte, did not stir for fear of waking from a dream, +the Nabob added in a softer tone: + +"Now come and sit here by me, and let us talk a little about mamma." + + + + +III. + +MEMOIRS OF A CLERK.--A CASUAL GLANCE AT THE "CAISSE TERRITORIALE." + + +I had just finished my humble morning meal, and, as my custom is, had +bestowed the balance of my provisions in the safe in the directors' +room, a magnificent safe with a secret lock, which has served as my +pantry during the four years, or nearly that, of my employment in the +_Territoriale_; suddenly the Governor enters the office, red as a +turkey-cock, his eyes inflamed as if he were fresh from a feast, +breathing noisily, and says to me in vulgar phrase, with his Italian +accent: + +"There's a horrible smell here, _Moussiou_ Passajon." + +There was not a horrible smell, if you please. But--shall I say it?--I +had sent out for a few onions to put around a bit of knuckle of veal, +brought down to me by Mademoiselle Seraphine, the cook on the second +floor, whose accounts I write up every evening. I tried to explain to +the Governor; but he worked himself into a rage, saying that in his +opinion there was no sense in poisoning offices in that way, and that +it wasn't worth while to pay twelve thousand francs a year for a suite +of rooms with eight windows on the front, in the best part of Boulevard +Malesherbes, to cook onions in. I don't know what he didn't say to me +in his effervescent state. For my part, I was naturally vexed to be +spoken to in that insolent tone. The least one can do is to be polite +to people whom one neglects to pay, deuce take it! So I retorted that +it was too bad, really; but, if the _Caisse Territoriale_ would pay +what they owe me, to wit my arrears of salary for four years, plus +seven thousand francs advanced by me to the Governor to pay for +carriages, newspapers, cigars and American drinks on the days the +council met, I would go and eat like a Christian at the nearest cheap +alehouse, and should not be reduced to cooking for myself, in the +directors' room, a wretched stew which I owed to the public compassion +of cooks. And there you are! + +In speaking thus I gave way to an indignant impulse very excusable in +the eyes of anybody who is acquainted with my position here. However, I +had said nothing unseemly, but had kept within the limits of language +suited to my age and education. (I must have stated somewhere in these +memoirs that I passed more than thirty of my sixty-five years as +apparitor to the Faculty of Letters at Dijon. Hence my taste for +reports and memoirs, and those notions of academic style of which +traces will be found in many passages of this lucubration.) I had, I +repeat, expressed myself to the Governor with the greatest reserve, +refraining from employing any of those insulting words with which every +one here regales him during the day, from our two censors, M. de +Monpavon, who laughingly calls him _Fleur-de-Mazas_, whenever he comes +here, and M. de Bois-l'Hery of the Trompettes Club, who is as vulgar in +his language as a groom, and always says to him by way of adieu: "To +your wooden bed, flea!" From those two down to our cashier, whom I have +heard say to him a hundred times, tapping his ledger: "There's enough +in here to send you to the galleys whenever I choose." And yet, for all +that, my simple observation produced a most extraordinary effect upon +him. The circles around his eyes turned bright yellow, and he said, +trembling with anger, the wicked anger of his country: "Passajon, +you're a blackguard! One word more and I discharge you." I was struck +dumb with amazement. Discharge me--me! And what about my four years' +arrears, and my seven thousand francs of advances! As if he read my +thoughts as they entered my head, the Governor replied that all the +accounts were to be settled, including mine. "By the way," he added, +"just call all the clerks to my office. I have some great news to tell +them." With that he entered his office and slammed the door behind him. + +That devil of a man! No matter how well you may know him, know what a +liar he is and what an actor, he always finds a way to put you off with +his palaver. My account! Why, I was so excited that my legs ran away +with me while I was going about to notify the staff. + +Theoretically there are twelve of us at the _Caisse Territoriale_, +including the Governor and the dandy Moessard, manager of the _Verite +Financiere_; but really there are less than half that number. In the +first place, since the _Verite_ ceased to appear--that was two years +ago--M. Moessard hasn't once set foot inside our doors. It seems that +he is swimming in honors and wealth, that he has for a dear friend a +queen, a real queen, who gives him all the money he wants. Oh! what a +Babylon this Paris is! The others look in occasionally to see if by +chance there is anything new at the _Caisse_; and, as there never is, +weeks pass without our seeing them. Four or five faithful ones, poor +old fellows all, like myself, persist in appearing regularly every +morning, at the same hour, as a matter of habit, because they have +nothing else to do, and are at a loss to know what to turn their hand +to; but they all busy themselves with matters that have no connection +whatever with the office. One must live, there's no doubt of that! And +then a man cannot pass his day lounging from chair to chair, from +window to window, to look out (eight front windows on the boulevard). +So we try to get such work as we can. For my part, I write for +Mademoiselle Seraphine and another cook in the house. Then I write +up my memoirs, which takes no small amount of time. Our receiving +teller--there's a fellow who hasn't a very laborious task with +us--makes netting for a house that deals in fishermen's supplies. One +of our two copyists, who writes a beautiful hand, copies plays for a +dramatic agency; the other makes little toys worth a sou, which are +sold by hucksters at the street corners toward New Year's Day, and in +that way succeeds in keeping himself from starving to death the rest of +the year. Our cashier is the only one who does no outside work. He +would think that he had forfeited his honor. He is a very proud man, +who never complains, and whose only fear is that he may seem to be +short of linen. Locked into his office, he employs his time from +morning till night, making shirt-fronts, collars and cuffs out of +paper. He has attained very great skill, and his linen, always +dazzlingly white, would deceive any one, were it not that, at the +slightest movement, when he walks, when he sits down, it cracks as if +he had a pasteboard box in his stomach. Unluckily all that paper does +not feed him; and he is so thin, he has such a gaunt look, that one +wonders what he can live on. Between ourselves, I suspect him of +sometimes paying a visit to my pantry. That's an easy matter for him; +for, in his capacity of cashier, he has the "word" that opens the +secret lock, and I fancy that, when my back is turned, he does a little +foraging among my supplies. + +Surely this is a most extraordinary, incredible banking-house. And yet +what I am writing is the solemn truth, and Paris is full of financial +establishments of the same sort as ours. Ah! if I ever publish my +memoirs. But let me take up the interrupted thread of my narrative. + +When we were all assembled in his office, the manager said to us with +great solemnity: + +"Messieurs and dear comrades, the time of our trials is at an end. The +_Caisse Territoriale_ is entering upon a new phase of its existence." + +With that he began to tell us about a superb _combinazione_--that is +his favorite word, and he says it in such an insinuating tone!--a +_combinazione_ in which the famous Nabob of whom all the papers are +talking is to have a part. Thus the _Caisse Territoriale_ would be able +to discharge its obligation to its loyal servants, to reward those who +had shown devotion to its service and lop off those who were useless. +This last for me, I imagine. And finally: "Make up your accounts. They +will all be settled to-morrow." Unfortunately he has so often soothed +our feelings with lying words that his discourse produced no effect. +Formerly those fine promises of his always succeeded. On the +announcement of a new _combinazione_, we used to caper about and weep +with joy in the offices, and embrace one another like shipwrecked +sailors at sight of a sail. + +Everyone prepared his account for the next day, as he had told us. But +the next day, no Governor. The next day but one, still no Governor. He +had gone on a little journey. + +At last, when we were all together, exasperated beyond measure, putting +out our tongues, crazy for the water that he had held to our mouths, +the Governor arrived, dropped into a chair, hid his face in his hands, +and, before we had time to speak to him, exclaimed: "Kill me, kill me! +I am a miserable impostor. The _combinazione_ has fallen through. +_Pechero!_ the _combinazione_ has fallen through!" And he cried and +sobbed, threw himself on his knees, tore out his hair by handfuls and +rolled on the carpet; he called us all by our nicknames, begged us to +take his life, spoke of his wife and children, whom he had utterly +ruined. And not one of us had the courage to complain in the face of +such despair. What do I say? We ended by sharing it. No, never since +theatres existed, has there been such an actor. But to-day, it is all +over, our confidence has departed. When he had gone everybody gave a +shrug. I must confess, however, that for a moment I was shaken. The +assurance with which he talked about discharging me, and the name of +the Nabob, who was so wealthy-- + +"Do you believe that?" said the cashier. "Why, you'll always be an +innocent, my poor Passajon. Never you fear! The Nabob's in it just +about as much as Moessard's queen was." + +And he went back to his shirt-fronts. + +His last remark referred back to the time when Moessard was paying +court to his queen and had promised the Governor that, in case he was +successful, he would induce Her Majesty to invest some funds in our +enterprise. All of us in the office were informed of that new prospect +and deeply interested, as you may imagine, in its speedy realization, +since our money depended on it. For two months that fable kept us in +breathless suspense. We were consumed with anxiety, we scrutinized +Moessard's face; we thought that the effects of his association with +the lady were very visible there; and our old cashier, with his proud, +serious air, would reply gravely from behind his grating, when we +questioned him on the subject: "There's nothing new," or: "The affair's +in good shape." With that everybody was content and we said to each +other: "It's coming along, it's coming along," as if it were a matter +in the ordinary course of business. No, upon my word, Paris is the +only place in the world where such things can be seen. It positively +makes one's head spin sometimes. The upshot of it was that, one fine +morning, Moessard stopped coming to the office. He had succeeded, it +seems; but the _Caisse Territoriale_ did not seem to him a sufficiently +advantageous investment for his dear friend's funds. That was +honorable, wasn't it? + +However, the sentiment of honor is so easily lost that one can scarcely +believe it. When I think that I, Passajon, with my white hair, my +venerable appearance, my spotless past--thirty years of academic +service--have accustomed myself to living amid these infamies and base +intrigues like a fish in water! One may well ask what I am doing here, +why I remain here, how I happened to come here. + +How did I happen to come here? Oh! bless your soul, in the simplest way +you can imagine. Nearly four years ago, my wife being dead and my +children married, I had just accepted my retiring pension as apparitor +to the Faculty, when an advertisement in the newspaper happened to +come to my notice. "WANTED, a clerk of mature age at the _Caisse +Territoriale_, 56 Boulevard Malesherbes. Good references." Let me make +a confession at once. The modern Babylon had always tempted me. And +then I felt that I was still vigorous, I could see ten active years +before me, during which I might earn a little money, much perhaps, by +investing my savings in the banking-house I was about to enter. So I +wrote, inclosing my photograph by Crespon, Place De Marche, in which I +am represented with a clean-shaven chin, a bright eye under my heavy +white eyebrows, wearing my steel chain around my neck, my insignia as +an academic official, "with the air of a conscript father on his curule +chair!" as our dean, M. Chalmette, used to say. (Indeed he declared +that I looked very much like the late Louis XVIII., only not so heavy.) + +So I furnished the best of references, the most flattering +recommendations from the gentlemen of the Faculty. By return mail the +Governor answered my letter to the effect that my face pleased him--I +should think so, _parbleu!_ a reception room guarded by an imposing +countenance like mine is a tempting bait to the investor,--and that I +might come when I chose. I ought, you will tell me, to have made +inquiries on my own account. Oh! of course I ought. But I had so much +information to furnish about myself that it never occurred to me to ask +them for any about themselves. Moreover, how could one have a feeling +of distrust after seeing these superb quarters, these lofty ceilings, +these strong-boxes, as large as wardrobes, and these mirrors in which +you can see yourself from head to foot? And then the sonorous +prospectuses, the millions that I heard flying through the air, the +colossal enterprises with fabulous profits. I was dazzled, fascinated. +I must say, also, that at that time the establishment had a very +different look from that it has to-day. Certainly affairs were going +badly--they have always gone badly, have our affairs--and the journal +appeared only at irregular intervals. But one of the Governor's little +_combinazioni_ enabled him to save appearances. + +He had conceived the idea, if you please, of opening a patriotic +subscription to erect a statue to General Paolo Paoli, a great man of +his country. The Corsicans are not rich, but they are as vain as +turkeys. So money poured into the _Territoriale_. But unfortunately it +did not last. In two months the statue was devoured, before it was +erected, and the succession of protests and summonses began again. +To-day I am used to it. But when I first came from my province, the +notices posted by order of the court, the bailiffs at the door, made a +painful impression upon me. Inside, no attention was paid to them. They +knew that at the last moment a Monpavon or a Bois-l'Hery was certain to +turn up to appease the bailiffs; for all those gentlemen, being deeply +involved in the affair, are interested to avoid a failure. That is just +what saves our evil-minded little Governor. The others run after their +money--everyone knows what that means in gambling--and they would not +be pleased to know that all the shares they have in their hands are +worth nothing more than their weight as old paper. + +From the smallest to the greatest, all of us in the house are in that +plight. From the landlord, to whom we owe two years' rent and who keeps +us on for nothing for fear of losing it all, down to us poor clerks, to +myself, who am in for seven thousand francs of savings and my four +years' back pay, we are all running after our money. That is why I +persist in remaining here. + +Doubtless, notwithstanding my advanced age, I might have succeeded, by +favor of my education, my general appearance and the care I have always +taken of my clothes, in getting a place in some other office. There is +a very honorable person of my acquaintance, M. Joyeuse, bookkeeper for +Hemerlingue and Son, the great bankers on Rue Saint-Honore, who never +fails to say to me whenever he meets me: + +"Passajon, my boy, don't stay in that den of thieves. You make a +mistake in staying on there; you'll never get a sou out of it. Come to +Hemerlingue's. I'll undertake to find some little corner for you. You +will earn less, but you'll receive very much more." + +I feel that he is right, the honest fellow. But it's stronger than I +am, I cannot make up my mind to go. And yet this is not a cheerful life +that I lead here in these great cold rooms where no one ever comes, +where every one slinks into a corner without speaking. What would you +have? We know one another too well, that's the whole of it. Up to last +year we had meetings of the council of supervision, meetings of +stockholders, stormy, uproarious meetings, genuine battles of savages, +whose yells could be heard at the Madeleine. And subscribers used to +come too, several times a week, indignant because they had never heard +anything from their money. Those were the times when our Governor came +out strong. I have seen people go into his office, monsieur, as fierce +as wolves thirsty for blood, and come out, after a quarter of an hour, +milder than sheep, satisfied, reassured, and their pockets comforted +with a few bank-notes. For there was the cunning of the thing: to ruin +with money the poor wretches who came to demand it. To-day the +shareholders of the _Caisse Territoriale_ never stir. I think that they +are all dead or resigned to their fate. The council never meets. We +have sessions only on paper; it is my duty to make up a so-called +balance-sheet--always the same--of which I make a fresh copy every +three months. We never see a living soul, except that at rare intervals +some subscriber to the Paoli statue drops down on us from the wilds of +Corsica, anxious to know if the monument is progressing; or perhaps +some devout reader of the _Verite Financiere_, which disappeared more +than two years ago, comes with an air of timidity to renew his +subscription, and requests that it be forwarded a little more +regularly, if possible. There is a confidence which nothing weakens. +When one of those innocent creatures falls in the midst of our +half-starved band, it is something terrible. We surround him, we +embrace him, we try to get his name on one of our lists, and, in case +he resists, if he will subscribe neither to the Paoli monument nor to +the Corsican railways, then those gentry perform what they call--my pen +blushes to write it--what they call "the drayman trick." + +This is how it is done: we always have in the office a package prepared +beforehand, a box tied with stout string which arrives, presumably from +some railway station, while the visitor is there. "Twenty francs cartage," +says the one of us who brings in the package. (Twenty francs, or some +times thirty, according to the victim's appearance.) Every one at once +begins to fumble in his pocket. "Twenty francs cartage! I haven't +it."--"Nor I--What luck!" Some one runs to the counting-room.--Closed! +They look for the cashier. Gone out. And the hoarse voice of the +drayman waxing impatient in the ante-room: "Come, come, make haste." (I +am generally selected for the drayman's part, because of my voice.) +What is to be done? Send back the package? the Governor won't like +that. "Messieurs, I beg you to allow me," the innocent victim ventures +to observe, opening his purse.--"Ah! monsieur, if you would."--He pays +his twenty francs, we escort him to the door, and as soon as his back +is turned we divide the fruit of the crime, laughing like brigands. + +Fie! Monsieur Passajon. Such performances at your time of life! Oh! +_Mon Dieu_! I know all about it. I know that I should honor myself +much more if I left this vile place. But, what then? why, I must +abandon all that I have at stake here. No, it is not possible. It is +urgently necessary that I remain, that I keep a close watch, that I am +always on hand to have the advantage of a windfall, if one should come. +Oh! I swear by my ribbon, by my thirty years of academic service, if +ever an affair like this of the Nabob makes it possible for me to +recoup my losses, I will not wait a moment, I will take myself off in +hot haste to look after my little vineyard near Monbars, cured forever +of my speculative ideas. But alas! that is a very chimerical +hope,--played out, discredited, well known as we are on 'Change, with +our shares no longer quoted at the Bourse, our obligations fast +becoming waste paper, such a wilderness of falsehood and debts, and the +hole that is being dug deeper and deeper. (We owe at this moment three +million five hundred thousand francs. And yet that three millions is +not what embarrasses us. On the other hand it is what keeps us up; but +we owe the concierge a little bill of a hundred and twenty five francs +for postage stamps, gas and the like. That's the dangerous thing.) And +they would have us believe that a man, a great financier like this +Nabob, even though he was just from the Congo or had come from the moon +this very day, is fool enough to put his money in such a trap. +Nonsense! Is it possible? Tell that story elsewhere, my dear Governor. + + + + +IV. + +A DEBUT IN SOCIETY. + + +"Monsieur Bernard Jansoulet!" + +That plebeian name, proudly announced by the liveried footman in a +resounding voice, rang through Jenkins's salons like the clash of +cymbals, like one of the gongs that announce fantastic apparitions in a +fairy play. The candles paled, flames flashed from every eye, at the +dazzling prospect of Oriental treasures, of showers of pearls and +sequins let fall by the magic syllables of that name, but yesterday +unknown. + +Yes, it was he, the Nabob, the richest of the rich, the great Parisian +curiosity, flavored with that spice of adventure that is so alluring to +surfeited multitudes. All heads were turned, all conversation was +interrupted; there was a grand rush for the door, a pushing and +jostling like that of the crowds on the quay at a seaport, to watch the +arrival of a felucca with a cargo of gold. + +Even the hospitable Jenkins, who was standing in the first salon to +receive his guests, despite his usual self-possession abruptly left the +group of men with whom he was talking and bore away to meet the +galleons. + +"A thousand times, a thousand times too kind. Madame Jenkins will be +very happy, very proud. Come and let me take you to her." + +And in his haste, in his vainglorious delight, he dragged Jansoulet +away so quickly that the latter had no time to present his companion, +Paul de Gery, whom he was introducing into society. The young man was +well pleased to be overlooked. He glided into the mass of black coats +which was forced farther and farther back by every new arrival, and was +swallowed up in it, a prey to the foolish terror that every young +provincial feels on his first appearance in a Parisian salon, +especially when he is shrewd and intelligent and does not wear the +imperturbable self-assurance of the bumpkin like a coat of mail beneath +his linen buckler. + +You, Parisians of Paris, who, ever since you were sixteen have +exhibited your youth at the receptions of all classes of society, in +your first black coat with your crush-hat on your hip,--you, I say, +have no conception of that anguish, compounded of vanity, timidity and +recollections of romantic books, which screws our teeth together, +embarrasses our movements, makes us for a whole evening a statue +between two doors, a fixture in a window-recess, a poor, pitiful, +wandering creature, incapable of making his existence manifest +otherwise than by changing his position from time to time, preferring +to die of thirst rather than go near the sideboard, and going away +without having said a word, unless we may have stammered one of those +incoherent absurdities which we remember for months, and which makes +us, when we think of it at night, utter an _ah!_ of frantic shame and +bury our face in the pillow. + +Paul de Gery was a martyr of that type. In his province he had always +lived a very retired life, with a pious, melancholy old aunt, until the +time when, as a student of law, originally destined for a profession in +which his father had left an excellent reputation, he had been induced +to frequent the salons of some of the counsellors of the court, +old-fashioned, gloomy dwellings, with dingy hangings, where he made a +fourth hand at whist with venerable ghosts. Jenkins' evening party was +therefore a debut in society for that provincial, whose very ignorance +and Southern adaptability made him first of all a keen observer. + +From the place where he stood he watched the interesting procession, +still in progress at midnight, of Jenkins' guests, the whole body of +the fashionable physician's patients; the very flower of society, a +large sprinkling of politics and finance, bankers, deputies, a few +artists, all the jaded ones of Parisian high life, pale and wan, with +gleaming eyes, saturated with arsenic like gluttonous mice, but +insatiably greedy of poison and of life. Through the open salon and the +great reception-room, the doors of which had been removed, he could see +the stairway and landing, profusely decorated with flowers along the +sides, where the long trains were duly spread, their silky weight +seeming to force back the decollete busts of their wearers in that +graceful ascending motion which caused them to appear, little by +little, until they burst upon one in the full bloom of their splendor. +As the couples reached the top of the stairs they seemed to make their +entrance on the stage; and that was doubly true, for every one left on +the last step the frowns, the wrinkles of deep thought the air of +weariness and all traces of anger or depression, to display a tranquil +countenance, a smile playing over the placid features. The men +exchanged hearty grasps of the hand, warm fraternal greetings; the +women, thinking only of themselves, with little affected shrugs, with a +charming simper and abundant play of the eyes and shoulders, murmured a +few meaningless words of greeting: + +"Thanks! Oh! thanks--how kind you are." + +Then the couples separated, for an evening party is no longer, as it +used to be, an assemblage of congenial persons, in which the wit of the +women compelled the force of character, the superior knowledge, the +very genius of the men to bow gracefully before it, but a too numerous +mob in which the women, who alone are seated, whisper together like +captives in the harem, and have no other enjoyment than that of being +beautiful or of seeming to be. De Gery, after wandering through the +doctor's library, the conservatory and the billiard room, where there +was smoking, tired of dull, serious conversation, which seemed to him +to be out of keeping in such a festal scene and in the brief hour of +pleasure--some one had asked him carelessly and without looking at him, +what was doing at the Bourse that day--approached the door of the main +salon, which was blockaded by a dense mass of black coats, a surging +sea of heads packed closely together and gazing. + +An enormous room, handsomely furnished, with the artistic taste +characteristic of the master and mistress of the house. A few old +pictures against the light background of the draperies. A monumental +chimney-piece, decorated with a fine marble group, "The Seasons" by +Sebastien Ruys, about which long green stalks, with lacelike edges, or +of the stiffness of carved bronze, bent toward the mirror as toward a +stream of limpid water. On the low chairs groups of women crowded +together, blending the vaporous hues of their dresses, forming an +immense nosegay of living flowers, above which gleamed bare white +shoulders, hair studded with diamonds, drops of water on the brunettes, +glistening reflections on the blondes, and the same intoxicating +perfume, the same confused, pleasant buzzing, made by waves of heat and +intangible wings, that caresses all the flowers in the garden in +summer. At times a little laugh, ascending in that luminous atmosphere, +a quicker breath, made plumes and curls tremble, and attracted +attention to a lovely profile. Such was the aspect of the salon. + +A few men were there, very few, all persons of distinction, laden with +years and decorations, talking on the arm of a divan or leaning over +the back of a chair with the condescending air we assume in conversing +with children. But amid the placid murmur of the private conversations, +one voice rang out, loud and discordant, the voice of the Nabob, who +was threading his way through that social conservatory with the +self-assurance due to his immense fortune and a certain contempt for +woman which he had brought with him from the Orient. + +At that moment, sprawling upon a chair, with his great yellow-gloved +hands awkwardly clasped, he was talking with a very beautiful woman, +whose unusual face--much animation upon features of a severe cast--was +noticeable by reason of its pallor among the surrounding pretty faces, +just as her dress, all white, classic in its draping and moulded to her +graceful, willowy figure, contrasted with much richer costumes, not one +of which had its character of bold simplicity. De Gery, from his +corner, gazed at that smooth, narrow forehead beneath the fringe of +hair brushed low, those long, wide-open eyes of a deep blue, an abysmal +blue, that mouth which ceased to smile only to relax its classic +outline in a weary, spiritless expression. All in all, the somewhat +haughty aspect of an exceptional being. + +Some one near him mentioned her name--Felicia Ruys. Thereupon he +understood the rare attraction of that girl, inheritress of her +father's genius, whose new-born celebrity had reached as far as his +province, with the halo of a reputation for great beauty. While he was +gazing at her, admiring her slightest movement, a little puzzled by the +enigma presented by that beautiful face, he heard a whispered +conversation behind him. + +"Just see how affable she is with the Nabob! Suppose the duke should +come!" + +"Is the Duc de Mora expected?" + +"To be sure. The party is given for him; to have him meet Jansoulet." + +"And you think that the duke and Mademoiselle Ruys--" + +"Where have you come from? It's a liaison known to all Paris. It dates +from the last Salon, for which she did his bust." + +"And what about the duchess?" + +"Pshaw! she has seen many others. Ah! Madame Jenkins is going to sing." + +There was a commotion in the salon, a stronger pressure in the crowd +toward the door, and conversation ceased for a moment. Paul de Gery +drew a long breath. The words he had just overheard had oppressed his +heart. He felt as if he himself were spattered, sullied by the mud +unsparingly thrown upon the ideal he had formed for himself of that +glorious youth, ripened in the sun of art and endowed with such +penetrating charm. He moved away a little, changed his position. He +dreaded to hear some other calumny. Madame Jenkins' voice did him good, +a voice famous in Parisian salons, a voice that, with all its +brilliancy, was in no sense theatrical, but seemed like speech, +thrilling with emotion, striking resonant, unfamiliar chords. The +singer, a woman of from forty to forty-five years of age, had +magnificent hair of the color of ashes, refined, somewhat weak +features, and an expression of great amiability. Still beautiful, she +was dressed with the costly taste of a woman who has not abandoned the +idea of pleasing. Nor had she abandoned it; she and the doctor--she was +then a widow--had been married some ten years, and they seemed still to +be enjoying the first months of their joint happiness. While she sang a +Russian folk-song, as wild and sweet as the smile of a Slav, Jenkins +artlessly manifested his pride without attempt at concealment, his +broad face beamed expansively; and she, every time that she leaned +forward to take breath, turned in his direction a timid, loving glance +which sought him out over the music she held in her hand. And when she +had finished, amid a murmur of delight and admiration, it was touching +to see her secretly press her husband's hand, as if to reserve for +herself a little corner of private happiness amid that great triumph. +Young de Gery was taking comfort in the sight of that happy couple, +when suddenly a voice murmured by his side--it was not the same voice +that had spoken just before: + +"You know what people say--that the Jenkinses are not married." + +"What nonsense!" + +"True, I assure you--it seems that there's a genuine Madame Jenkins +somewhere, but not this one who has been exhibited to us. By the way, +have you noticed--" + +The conversation continued in an undertone. Madame Jenkins approached, +bowing and smiling, while the doctor, stopping a salver as it passed, +brought her a glass of bordeaux with the zeal of a mother, an +impresario, a lover. Slander, slander, ineffaceable stain! Now Jenkins' +attentions seemed overdone to the provincial. He thought that there was +something affected, studied in them, and at the same time he fancied +that he noticed in the thanks she expressed to her husband in a low +tone a dread, a submissiveness derogatory to the dignity of a lawful +wife, happy and proud in an unassailable position. "Why, society is a +hideous thing!" said de Gery to himself in dismay, his hands as cold as +ice. The smiles that encompassed him seemed to him like mere grimacing. +He was ashamed and disgusted. Then suddenly his soul rose in revolt: +"Nonsense! it isn't possible!" And, as if in answer to that +exclamation, the voice of slander behind him continued carelessly: +"After all, you know, I am not sure. I simply repeat what I hear. Look, +there's Baronne Hemerlingue. He has all Paris here, this Jenkins." + +The baroness came forward on the doctor's arm; he had rushed forward to +meet her, and, despite his perfect control over his features, he seemed +a little perturbed and disconcerted. It had occurred to the excellent +Jenkins to take advantage of his party to make peace between his friend +Hemerlingue and his friend Jansoulet, his two wealthiest patients, who +embarrassed him seriously with their internecine warfare. The Nabob +asked nothing better. He bore his former chum no malice. Their rupture +had come about as a result of Hemerlingue's marriage with one of the +favorites of the former bey. "A woman's row, in fact," said Jansoulet; +and he would be very glad to see the end of it, for any sort of +ill-feeling was burdensome to that exuberant nature. But it seemed that +the baron was not anxious for a reconciliation; for, notwithstanding +the promise he had given Jenkins, his wife appeared alone, to the +Irishman's great chagrin. + +She was a tall, thin, fragile personage, with eyebrows like a bird's +feathers, a youthful, frightened manner, thirty years striving to seem +twenty, with a head-dress of grasses and grain drooping over jet black +hair thickly strewn with diamonds. With her long lashes falling over +white cheeks of the wax-like tint of women who have lived long in the +seclusion of a cloister, a little embarrassed in her Parisian garb, she +bore less resemblance to a former occupant of a harem than to a nun who +had renounced her vows and returned to the world. A touch of devotion, +of sanctity in her carriage, a certain ecclesiastical trick of walking +with downcast eyes, elbows close to the sides and hands folded, manners +which she had acquired in the ultra-religious environment in which she +had lived since her conversion and her recent baptism, completed the +resemblance. And you can imagine whether worldly curiosity was rampant +around that ex-odalisque turned fervent Catholic, as she entered the +room, escorted by a sacristan-like figure with a livid face and +spectacles, Maitre Le Merquier, Deputy for Lyon, Hemerlingue's man of +business, who attended the baroness when the baron was "slightly +indisposed," as upon this occasion. + +When they entered the second salon, the Nabob walked forward to meet +her, expecting to descry in her wake the bloated face of his old +comrade, to whom it was agreed that he should offer his hand. The +baroness saw him coming and became whiter than ever. A steely gleam +shot from under her long lashes. Her nostrils dilated, rose and fell, +and as Jansoulet bowed, she quickened her pace, holding her head erect +and rigid, letting fall from her thin lips a word in Arabic which no +one else could understand, but in which the poor Nabob, for his part, +understood the bitter insult; for when he raised his head his swarthy +face was of the color of terra-cotta when it comes from the oven. He +stood for a moment speechless, his great fists clenched, his lips +swollen with anger. Jenkins joined him, and de Gery, who had watched +the whole scene from a distance, saw them talking earnestly together +with a preoccupied air. + +The attempt had miscarried. The reconciliation, so cleverly planned, +would not take place. Hemerlingue did not want it. If only the duke did +not break his word! It was getting late. La Wauters, who was to sing +the "Night" aria from the _Magic Flute_, after the performance at +her theatre, had just arrived all muffled up in her lace hood. + +And the minister did not come. + +But it was a promise and everything was understood. Monpavon was to +take him up at the club. From time to time honest Jenkins drew his +watch, as he tossed an absent-minded _bravo_ to the bouquet of limpid +notes that gushed from La Wauters' fairy lips, a bouquet worth three +thousand francs, and absolutely wasted, in common with the other +expenses of the festivity, if the duke did not come. + +Suddenly both wings of the folding-doors were thrown open: + +"His Excellency the Duc de Mora!" + +A prolonged thrill of excitement greeted him, respectful curiosity +drawn up in a double row, instead of the brutal crowding that had +impeded the passage of the Nabob. + +No one could be more skilled than he in the art of making his +appearance in society, of walking gravely across a salon, ascending the +tribune with smiling face, imparting solemnity to trifles and treating +serious matters lightly; it was a resume of his attitude in life, a +paradoxical distinction. Still handsome, despite his fifty-six +years,--a beauty attributable to refined taste and perfect proportion, +in which the grace of the dandy was intensified by something of a +soldierly character in the figure and the haughty expression of the +face,--he appeared to admirable advantage in the black coat, whereon, +in Jenkins' honor, he had placed a few of his decorations, which he +never displayed except on days of official functions. The sheen of the +linen and the white cravat, the unpolished silver of the decorations, +the softness of the thin, grayish hair, gave added pallor to the face, +the most bloodless of all the bloodless faces assembled that evening +under the Irishman's roof. + +He led such a terrible life! Politics, gambling in every form, on the +Bourse and at baccarat, and the reputation of a lady-killer which he +must maintain at any price. Oh! he was a typical patient of Jenkins, +and he certainly owed that visit in princely state to the inventor of +the mysterious Pearls, which gave to his eyes that glance of flame, to +his whole being that extraordinary pulsing vivacity. + +[Illustration: "'_His Excellency, the Due de Mora!_'"] + +"My dear duke, allow me to present to you--" + +Monpavon, solemn of face, with padded calves, attempted to make the +introduction so anxiously expected; but His Excellency, in his +preoccupation, did not hear and kept on toward the large salon, borne +onward by one of those electric currents that break the monotony of +social life. As he passed, and while he paid his respects to the fair +Madame Jenkins, the women leaned forward with alluring glances, soft +laughter, intent upon making a favorable impression. But he saw only +one, Felicia, who stood in the centre of a group of men, holding forth +as if in her own studio, and tranquilly sipping a sherbet as she +watched the duke's approach. She welcomed him with perfect naturalness. +Those who stood by discreetly withdrew. But, in spite of what de Gery +had overheard concerning their alleged relations, there seemed to be +only a good-fellowship entirely of the mind between them, a playful +familiarity. + +"I called at your house, Mademoiselle, on my way to the Bois." + +"So I understood. You even went into the studio." + +"And I saw the famous group--my group." + +"Well?" + +"It is very fine. The greyhound runs like a mad dog. The fox is +admirably done. But I didn't quite understand. You told me that it was +the story of us two." + +"And so it is! Look carefully. It's a fable that I read in--You don't +read Rabelais, Monsieur le Duc?" + +"Faith, no. He is too vulgar." + +"Well, I have learned to read him. Very ill-bred, you know! Oh! very. +My fable, then, is taken from Rabelais. This is it: Bacchus has made a +wonderful fox that cannot possibly be overtaken. Vulcan, for his part, +has given a dog of his making the power to overtake any animal that he +pursues. 'Now,' as my author says, 'suppose that they meet.' You see +what a wild and interminable race will result. It seems to me, my dear +duke, that destiny has brought us face to face in like manner, endowed +with contrary qualities, you, who have received from the gods the gift +of reaching all hearts, and I, whose heart will never be taken." + +She said this, looking him fairly in the face, almost laughing, but +slim and erect in her white tunic, which seemed to protect her person +against the liberties of his wit. He, the conqueror, the irresistible, +had never met one of that audacious, self-willed race. So he enveloped +her in all the magnetic currents of his seductive charm, while around +them the murmur of the fete, the flute-like laughter, the rustling of +satins and strings of pearls played an accompaniment to that duet of +worldly passion and juvenile irony. + +In a moment he rejoined: + +"But how did the gods extricate themselves from that scrape?" + +"By changing the two coursers to stone." + +"By heaven," said he, "that is a result which I refuse to accept. I +defy the gods to turn my heart to stone." + +A flame darted from his eyes, extinguished instantly at the thought +that people were looking at them. + +In truth many people were looking at them, but no one with such deep +interest as Jenkins, who prowled around them, impatient and chafing, as +if he were angry with Felicia for monopolizing the important guest of +the evening. The girl laughingly remarked upon the fact to the duke: + +"They will say that I am appropriating you." + +She pointed to Monpavon standing expectantly by the Nabob, who, from +afar, bestowed upon His Excellency the submissive, imploring gaze of a +great faithful dog. Thereupon the Minister of State remembered what had +brought him there. He bowed to Felicia and returned to Monpavon, who +was able at last to present "his honorable friend, Monsieur Bernard +Jansoulet." His Excellency bowed; the parvenu humbled himself lower +than the earth; then they conversed for a moment. + +It was an interesting group to watch. Jansoulet, tall and strongly +built, with his vulgar manners, his tanned skin, his broad back, bent +as if it had become rounded for good and all in the salaams of Oriental +sycophancy, his short fat hands bursting through his yellow gloves, his +abundant pantomime, his Southern exuberance causing him to cut off his +words as if with a machine. The other, of noble birth, a thorough man +of the world, elegance itself, graceful in the least of his gestures, +which were very rare by the way, negligently letting fall incomplete +sentences, lighting up his grave face with a half smile, concealing +beneath the most perfect courtesy his boundless contempt for men and +women; and that contempt was the main element of his strength. In an +American parlor the antithesis would have been less offensive. The +Nabob's millions would have established equilibrium and even turned the +scale in his favor. But Paris does not as yet place money above all the +other powers, and, to be convinced of that fact, one had only to see +that stout merchant frisking about with an amiable smile before the +great nobleman, and spreading beneath his feet, like the courtier's +ermine cloak, his dense parvenu's pride. + +From the corner in which he had taken refuge, de Gery was watching the +scene with interest, knowing what importance his friend attached to +this presentation, when chance, which had so cruelly given the lie all +the evening to his artless neophyte's ideas, brought to his ears this +brief dialogue, in that sea of private conversations in which every one +hears just the words that are of interest to him: + +"The least that Monpavon can do is to introduce him to some decent +people. He has introduced him to so many bad ones. You know that he's +just tossed Paganetti and his whole crew into his arms." + +"The poor devil! Why, they'll devour him." + +"Pshaw! it's only fair to make him disgorge a little. He stole so much +down there among the Turks." + +"Really, do you think so?" + +"Do I think so! I have some very precise information on that subject +from Baron Hemerlingue, the banker who negotiated the last Tunisian +loan. He knows some fine stories about this Nabob. Just fancy--" + +And the stream of calumny began to flow. For fifteen years Jansoulet +had plundered the late bey shamefully. They mentioned the names of +contractors and cited divers swindles characterized by admirable +coolness and effrontery; for instance, the story of a musical +frigate--yes, it really played tunes--intended as a dining-room +ornament, which he bought for two hundred thousand francs and sold +again for ten millions; a throne sold to the bey for three millions, +whereas the bill could be seen on the books of a house furnisher of +Faubourg Saint-Honore, and amounted to less than a hundred thousand +francs; and the most comical part of it was that the bey's fancy +changed and the royal seat, having fallen into disgrace before it had +even been unpacked, was still in its packing-case at the custom-house +in Tripoli. + +Furthermore, aside from these outrageous commissions on the sale of the +most trivial playthings, there were other far more serious accusations, +but equally authentic, as they all came from the same source. In +addition to the seraglio there was a harem of European women, admirably +equipped for His Highness by the Nabob, who should be a connoisseur in +such matters, as he had been engaged in the most extraordinary +occupations in Paris before his departure for the Orient: ticket +speculator, manager of a public ball at the barrier, and of a house of +much lower reputation. And the whispering terminated in a stifled +laugh,--the coarse laugh of two men in private conversation. + +The young provincial's first impulse, on hearing those infamous +slanders, was to turn and cry out: + +"You lie!" + +A few hours earlier he would have done it without hesitation, but since +he had been there he had learned to be suspicious, sceptical. He +restrained himself therefore and listened to the end, standing in the +same spot, having in his heart an unconfessed desire to know more of +the man in whose service he was. As for the Nabob, the perfectly +unconscious subject of that ghastly chronicle, he was quietly playing a +game of ecarte with the Due de Mora in a small salon to which the blue +hangings and two shaded lamps imparted a meditative air. + +O wonderful magic of the galleon! The son of the dealer in old iron +alone at a card-table with the first personage of the Empire! Jansoulet +could hardly believe the Venetian mirror in which were reflected his +resplendent, beaming face and that august cranium, divided by a long +bald streak. So it was that, in order to show his appreciation of that +great honor, he strove to lose as many thousand-franc notes as he +decently could, feeling that he was the winner none the less, and proud +as Lucifer to see his money pass into those aristocratic hands, whose +every movement he studied while they were cutting, dealing, or holding +the cards. + +A circle formed around them, but at a respectful distance, the ten +paces required for saluting a prince; that was the audience of the +triumph at which the Nabob was present as if in a dream, intoxicated by +the fairy-like strains slightly muffled in the distance, the songs that +reached his ears in detached phrases, as if they passed over a resonant +sheet of water, the perfume of the flowers that bloom so strangely +toward the close of Parisian balls, when the late hour, confusing all +notions of time, and the weariness of the sleepless night communicate +to brains which have become more buoyant in a more nervous atmosphere a +sort of youthful giddiness. The robust nature of Jansoulet, that +civilized savage, was more susceptible than another to these strange +refinements; and he had to exert all his strength to refrain from +inaugurating with a joyful hurrah an unseasonable out-pouring of words +and gestures, from giving way to the impulse of physical buoyancy which +stirred his whole being; like the great mountain dogs which are thrown +into convulsions of epileptic frenzy by inhaling a single drop of a +certain essence. + + * * * + +"It is a fine night and the sidewalks are dry. If you like, my dear +boy, we will send away the carriage and go home on foot," said +Jansoulet to his companion as they left Jenkins' house. + +De Gery eagerly assented. He needed to walk, to shake off in the sharp +air the infamies and lies of that society comedy which left his heart +cold and oppressed, while all his life-blood had taken refuge in his +temples, of whose swollen veins he could hear the beating. He walked +unsteadily, like a poor creature who has been operated on for cataract +and in the first terror of recovered vision dares not put one foot +before the other. But with what a brutal hand the operation had been +performed! And so that great artist with the glorious name, that pure, +wild beauty, the mere sight of whom had agitated him like a +supernatural apparition, was simply a courtesan. Madame Jenkins, that +imposing creature, whose manner was at once so proud and so sweet, was +not really Madame Jenkins. That illustrious scientist, so frank of +feature and so hospitable, had the impudence to live publicly in +shameless concubinage. And Paris suspected it, yet that did not prevent +Paris from attending their parties. Last of all, this Jansoulet, so +kind-hearted and generous, for whom he felt such a burden of gratitude +in his heart, had to his knowledge fallen into the hands of a crew of +bandits, being himself a bandit, and quite worthy of the scheme devised +to make him disgorge his millions. + +Was it possible; must he believe it? + +A sidelong glance at the Nabob, whose huge frame filled the whole +sidewalk, suddenly revealed to him something low and common that he had +not before noticed in that gait to which the weight of the money in his +pockets gave a decided lurch. Yes, he was the typical adventurer from +the South, moulded of the slime that covers the quays of Marseille, +trodden hard by all the vagabonds who wander from seaport to seaport. +Kind-hearted, generous, forsooth! as prostitutes are, and thieves. And +the gold that flowed into that luxurious and vicious receptacle, +spattering everything, even the walls, seemed to him now to bring with +it all the dregs, all the filth of its impure and slimy source. That +being so, there was but one thing for him, de Gery, to do, and that was +to go, to leave as soon as possible the place where he ran the risk of +compromising his name, all that there was of his patrimony. Of course. +But there were the two little brothers down yonder in the +provinces,--who would pay for their schooling? Who would keep up the +modest home miraculously restored by the handsome salary of the oldest +son, the head of the family? The words "head of the family" cast him at +once into one of those inward combats in which self-interest and +conscience are the contending parties--the one strong, brutal, +attacking fiercely with straight blows, the other retreating, breaking +the measure by suddenly withdrawing its weapon--while honest Jansoulet, +the unconscious cause of the conflict, strode along beside his young +friend, inhaling the fresh air delightedly with the lighted end of his +cigar. + +He had never been so happy that he was alive. And that evening at +Jenkins', his own debut in society as well as Paul's, had left upon him +an impression of arches erected as if for a triumph, of a curious +crowd, of flowers thrown in his path. So true is it that things exist +only through the eyes that see them. What a success! The duke, just as +they parted, urging him to come and see his gallery; which meant that +the doors of the hotel de Mora would be open to him within a week. +Felicia Ruys consenting to make a bust of him, so that at the next +exposition the junk-dealer's son would have his portrait in marble by +the same great artist whose name was appended to that of the Minister +of State. Was not this the gratification of all his childish vanities? + +Revolving thus their thoughts, cheerful or sinister, they walked on +side by side, preoccupied, distraught, so that Place Vendome, silent +and flooded by a cold, blue light, rang beneath their feet before they +had spoken a word. + +"Already!" said the Nabob. "I would have liked to walk a little +farther. What do you say?" And as they walked around the square two or +three times, he emitted in puffs the exuberant joy with which he was +full to overflowing. + +"How fine it is! What pleasure to breathe! God's thunder! I wouldn't +give up my evening for a hundred thousand francs. What a fine fellow +that Jenkins is! Do you like Felicia Ruys' type of beauty? For my part, +I dote on it. And the duke, what a perfect great nobleman! so simple, +so amiable. That is fashionable Paris, eh, my son?" + +"It's too complicated for me--it frightens me," said Paul de Gery in a +low voice. + +"Yes, yes, I understand," rejoined the other, with adorable conceit. +"You aren't used to it yet, but one soon gets into it, you know! See +how perfectly at my ease I am after only a month." + +"That's because you had been in Paris before. You used to live here." + +"I? Never in my life. Who told you that?" + +"Why, I thought so," replied the young man, and added, as a multitude +of thoughts came crowding into his mind: + +"What have you ever done to this Baron Hemerlingue? There seems to be a +deadly hatred between you." + +The Nabob was taken aback for a moment. That name Hemerlingue, suddenly +obtruded upon his joy, reminded him of the only unpleasant episode of +the evening. + +"To him, as to everybody else," he said in a sad voice, "I never did +anything but good. We began life together in a miserable way. We grew +and prospered side by side. When he attempted to fly with his own wings +I always assisted him, supported him as best I could. It was through me +that he had the contract for supplying the fleet and army for ten +years; almost the whole of his fortune comes from that. And then one +fine morning that idiot of a cold-blooded Bearnese must go and fall in +love with an odalisque whom the bey's mother had turned out of the +harem! She was a handsome, ambitious hussy; she made him marry her, and +naturally, after that excellent marriage, Hemerlingue had to leave +Tunis. They had made him believe that I egged the bey on to forbid him +the country. That is not true. On the contrary, I persuaded His +Highness to allow the younger Hemerlingue--his first wife's child--to +remain at Tunis to look after their interests there, while the father +came to Paris to establish his banking-house. But I was well repaid for +my kindness. When my poor Ahmed died and the _mouchir_, his brother, +ascended the throne, the Hemerlingues, being restored to favor, never +ceased to try to injure me in the eyes of the new master. The bey was +always pleasant with me, but my influence was impaired. Ah well! in +spite of all that, in spite of all the tricks Hemerlingue has played on +me and is playing on me still, I was ready to offer him my hand +to-night. Not only did the villain refuse it, but he sent his wife to +insult me,--an uncivilized, vicious beast, who can never forgive me for +refusing to receive her at Tunis. Do you know what she called me there +to-night when she passed me? 'Robber and son of a dog.' The harlot had +the face to call me that. As if I didn't know my Hemerlingue, who's as +cowardly as he is fat. But, after all, let them say what they choose. I +snap my fingers at 'em. What can they do against me? Destroy my credit +with the bey? That makes no difference to me. I have no more business +in Tunis, and I shall get away from there altogether as soon as +possible. There's only one city, one country in the world, and that is +Paris, hospitable, open-hearted Paris, with no false modesty, where any +intelligent man finds room to do great things. And, you see, de Gery, I +propose to do great things. I've had enough of business life. I have +worked twenty years for money; now I am greedy for respect, glory, +renown. I mean to be a personage of some consequence in the history of +my country, and that will be an easy matter for me. With my great +fortune, my knowledge of men and of affairs, with what I feel here in +my head, I can aspire to anything and reach any eminence. So take my +advice, my dear boy, don't leave me,"--one would have said he was +answering his young companion's secret thought,--"stick loyally to my +ship. The spars are stanch and the hold is full of coal. I swear to you +that we will sail far and fast, damme!" + +The artless Southerner thus discharged his plans into the darkness with +an abundance of expressive gestures, and from time to time, as they +paced the vast, deserted square, majestically surrounded by its +tightly-closed silent palaces, he looked up toward the bronze man on +the column, as if calling to witness that great upstart, whose presence +in the heart of Paris justifies the most extravagant ambitions and +renders all chimeras probable. + +There is in youth a warmth of heart, a craving for enthusiasm which are +aroused by the slightest breath. As the Nabob spoke, de Gery felt his +suspicions vanishing and all his sympathy reviving with an infusion of +pity. No, surely that man was no vile knave, but a poor deluded mortal +whose fortune had gone to his head, like a wine too powerful for a +stomach that has long slaked its thirst with water. Alone in the midst +of Paris, surrounded by enemies and sharpers, Jansoulet reminded him of +a pedestrian laden with gold passing through a wood haunted by thieves, +in the dark and unarmed. And he thought that it would be well for the +protege to watch over the patron without seeming to do so, to be the +clear-sighted Telemachus of that blind Mentor, to point out the +pitfalls to him, to defend him against the brigands, in short to assist +him to fight in that swarm of nocturnal ambuscades which he felt to be +lurking savagely about the Nabob and his millions. + + + + +V. + +THE JOYEUSE FAMILY. + + +Every morning in the year, at precisely eight o'clock, a new and almost +uninhabited house in an out-of-the-way quarter of Paris was filled with +shouts and cries and happy laughter that rang clear as crystal in the +desert of the hall. + +"Father, don't forget my music." + +"Father, my embroidery cotton." + +"Father, bring us some rolls." + +And the father's voice calling from below: + +"Yaia, throw down my bag." + +"Well, upon my word! he's forgotten his bag." + +Thereupon there was joyous haste from top to bottom of the house, a +running to and fro of all those pretty faces, heavy-eyed with sleep, of +all those touzled locks which they put in order as they ran, up to the +very moment when a half-dozen of young girls, leaning over the rail, +bade an echoing farewell to a little old gentleman neatly dressed and +well brushed, whose florid face and slight figure disappeared at last +in the convolutions of the staircase. M. Joyeuse had gone to his +office. Thereupon the whole flock of fugitives from the bird-cage ran +quickly up to the fourth floor, and, after locking the door, gathered +at an open window to catch another glimpse of the father. The little +man turned, kisses were exchanged at a distance, then the windows were +closed; the new, deserted house became quiet once more except for the +signs dancing their wild saraband in the wind on the unfinished street, +as if they too were stirred to gayety by all that manoeuvring. A moment +later the photographer on the fifth floor came down to hang his +show-case at the door, always the same, with the old gentleman in the +white cravat surrounded by his daughters in varied groups; then he went +upstairs again in his turn, and the perfect calm succeeding that little +matutinal tumult suggested the thought that "the father" and his young +ladies had returned to the show-case, where they would remain +motionless and smiling, until evening. + +From Rue Saint-Ferdinand to Messieurs Hemerlingue and Son's, his +employers, M. Joyeuse had a walk of three-quarters of an hour. He held +his head erect and stiff, as if he were afraid of disarranging the +lovely bow of his cravat, tied by his daughters, or his hat, put on by +them; and when the oldest, always anxious and prudent, turned up the +collar of his overcoat just as he was going out, to protect him against +the vicious gust of wind at the street corner, M. Joyeuse, even when +the temperature was that of a hothouse, never turned it down until he +reached the office, like the lover fresh from his mistress's embrace, +who dares not stir for fear of losing the intoxicating perfume. + +The excellent man, a widower for some years, lived for his children +alone, thought only of them, went out into the world surrounded by +those little blond heads, which fluttered confusedly around him as in a +painting of the Assumption. All his desires, all his plans related to +"the young ladies" and constantly returned to them, sometimes after +long detours; for M. Joyeuse--doubtless because of his very short neck +and his short figure, in which his bubbling blood had but a short +circuit to make--possessed an astonishingly fertile imagination. Ideas +formed in his mind as rapidly as threshed straw collects around the +hopper. At the office the figures kept his mind fixed by their +unromantic rigidity; but once outside, it took its revenge for that +inexorable profession. The exercise of walking and familiarity with a +route of which he knew by heart the most trivial details, gave entire +liberty to his imaginative faculties, and he invented extraordinary +adventures, ample material for twenty newspaper novels. + +Suppose, for example, that M. Joyeuse were walking through Faubourg +Saint-Honore, on the right hand sidewalk--he always chose that +side--and espied a heavy laundress's cart going along at a smart trot, +driven by a countrywoman whose child, perched on a bundle of linen, was +leaning over the side. + +"The child!" the good man would exclaim in dismay, "look out for the +child!" + +His voice would be lost in the clatter of the wheels and his warning in +the secret design of Providence. The cart would pass on. He would look +after it for a moment, then go his way; but the drama begun in his mind +would go on unfolding itself there with numberless sudden changes. The +child had fallen. The wheels were just about to pass over him. M. +Joyeuse would dart forward, save the little creature on the very brink +of death, but the shaft would strike himself full in the breast, and he +would fall, bathed in his blood. Thereupon he would see himself carried +to the druggist's amid the crowd that had collected. They would place +him on a litter and carry him home, then suddenly he would hear the +heart-rending cry of his daughters, his beloved daughters, upon seeing +him in that condition. And that cry would go so straight to his heart, +he would hear it so distinctly, so vividly: "Papa, dear papa!" that he +would repeat it himself in the street, to the great surprise of the +passers-by, in a hoarse voice which would wake him from his +manufactured nightmare. + +Would you like another instance of the vagaries of that prodigious +imagination? It rains, it hails; beastly weather. M. Joyeuse has taken +the omnibus to go to his office. As he takes his seat opposite a +species of giant, with brutish face and formidable biceps, M. Joyeuse, +an insignificant little creature, with his bag on his knees, draws in +his legs to make room for the enormous pillars that support his +neighbor's monumental trunk. In the jolting of the vehicle and the +pattering of the rain on the windows, M. Joyeuse begins to dream. And +suddenly the colossus opposite, who has a good-natured face enough, is +amazed to see the little man change color and glare at him with fierce, +murderous eyes, gnashing his teeth. Yes, murderous eyes in truth, for +at that moment M. Joyeuse is dreaming a terrible dream. One of his +daughters is sitting there, opposite him, beside that annoying brute, +and the villain is putting his arm around her waist under her cloak. + +"Take your hand away, monsieur," M. Joyeuse has already said twice. The +other simply laughs contemptuously. Now he attempts to embrace Elise. + +"Ah! villain!" + +Lacking strength to defend his daughter, M. Joyeuse, foaming with rage, +feels in his pocket for his knife, stabs the insolent knave in the +breast, and goes away with head erect, strong in the consciousness of +his rights as an outraged father, to make his statement at the nearest +police-station. + +"I have just killed a man in an omnibus!" + +The poor fellow wakes at the sound of his own voice actually uttering +those sinister words, but not at the police-station; he realizes +from the horrified faces of the passengers that he must have spoken +aloud, and speedily avails himself of the conductor's call: +"Saint-Philippe--Pantheon--Bastille," to alight, in dire confusion and +amid general stupefaction. + +That imagination, always on the alert, gave to M. Joyeuse's face a +strangely feverish, haggard expression, in striking contrast to the +faultlessly correct dress and bearing of the petty clerk. He lived +through so many passionate existences in a single day. Such waking +dreamers as he, in whom a too restricted destiny holds in check +unemployed forces, heroic faculties, are more numerous than is +generally supposed. Dreaming is the safety valve through which it all +escapes, with a terrible spluttering, an intensely hot vapor and +floating images which instantly disappear. Some come forth from these +visions radiant, others downcast and abashed, finding themselves once +more on the commonplace level of everyday life. M. Joyeuse was of the +former class, constantly soaring aloft to heights from which one cannot +descend without being a little shaken by the rapidity of the journey. + +Now, one morning when our _Imaginaire_ had left his house at the usual +hour and under the usual circumstances, he started upon one of his +little private romances as he turned out of Rue Saint-Ferdinand. The +end of the year was close at hand, and, perhaps it was the sight of a +board shanty under construction in the neighboring woodyard that made +him think of "New Year's gifts." And thereupon the word _bonus_ +planted itself in his mind, as the first landmark in an exciting story. +In the month of December all Hemerlingue's clerks received double pay, +and in small households, you know, a thousand ambitious or generous +projects are based upon such windfalls,--presents to be given, a piece +of furniture to be replaced, a small sum tucked away in a drawer for +unforeseen emergencies. + +The fact is that M. Joyeuse was not rich. His wife, a Mademoiselle de +Saint-Amand, being tormented with aspirations for worldly grandeur, had +established the little household on a ruinous footing, and in the three +years since her death, although _Grandmamma_ had managed affairs so +prudently, they had not been able as yet to save anything, the burden +of the past was so heavy. Suddenly the excellent man fancied that the +honorarium would be larger than usual that year on account of the +increased work necessitated by the Tunisian loan. That loan was a very +handsome thing for his employers, too handsome indeed, for M. Joyeuse +had taken the liberty to say at the office that on that occasion +"Hemerlingue and Son had shaved the Turk a little too close." + +"Yes, the bonus will certainly be doubled," thought the visionary as he +walked along; and already he saw himself, a month hence, ascending the +staircase leading to Hemerlingue's private office, with his +fellow-clerks, for their New Year's call. The banker announced the good +news; then he detained M. Joyeuse for a private interview. And lo! that +employer, usually so cold, and encased in his yellow fat as in a bale +of raw silk, became affectionate, fatherly, communicative. He wished to +know how many daughters Joyeuse had. + +"I have three--that is to say, four, Monsieur le Baron. I always get +confused about them. The oldest one is such a little woman." + +How old were they? + +"Aline is twenty, Monsieur le Baron. She's the oldest. Then we have +Elise who is eighteen and preparing for her examination, Henriette who +is fourteen, and Zaza or Yaia who is only twelve." + +The pet name Yaia amused Monsieur le Baron immensely; he also inquired +as to the resources of the family. + +"My salary, Monsieur le Baron, nothing but that. I had a little money +laid by, but my poor wife's sickness and the girls' education--" + +"What you earn is not enough, my dear Joyeuse. I raise you to a +thousand francs a month." + +"Oh! Monsieur le Baron, that is too much!" + +But, although he had uttered this last phrase aloud, in the face of a +policeman who watched with a suspicious eye the little man who +gesticulated and shook his head so earnestly, the poor visionary did +not awake. He joyously imagined himself returning home, telling the +news to his daughters, and taking them to the theatre in the evening to +celebrate that happy day. God! how pretty the Joyeuse girls were, +sitting in the front of their box! what a nosegay of rosy cheeks! And +then, on the next day, lo and behold the two oldest are sought in +marriage by--Impossible to say by whom, for M. Joyeuse suddenly found +himself under the porch of the Hemerlingue establishment, in front of a +swing-door surmounted by the words, "Counting Room" in gold letters. + +"I shall always be the same," he said to himself with a little laugh, +wiping his forehead, on which the perspiration stood in beads. + +Put in good humor by his fancy, by the blazing fires in the long line +of offices, with inlaid floors and wire gratings, keeping the secrets +confided to them in the subdued light of the ground floor, where one +could count gold pieces without being dazzled by them, M. Joyeuse bade +the other clerks a cheery good-morning, and donned his working-coat and +black velvet cap. Suddenly there was a whistle from above; and the +cashier, putting his ear to the tube, heard the coarse, gelatinous +voice of Hemerlingue, the only, the genuine Hemerlingue--the other, the +son, was always absent--asking for M. Joyeuse. What! was he still +dreaming? He was greatly excited as he took the little inner stairway, +which he had ascended so jauntily just before, and found himself in the +banker's office, a narrow room with a very high ceiling, and with no +other furniture than green curtains and enormous leather arm-chairs, +proportioned to the formidable bulk of the head of the house. He was +sitting there at his desk, which his paunch prevented him from +approaching, corpulent, puffing, and so yellow that his round face with +its hooked nose, the face of a fat, diseased owl, shone like a beacon +light in that solemn, gloomy office. A coarse, Moorish merchant +mouldering in the dampness of his little courtyard. His eyes gleamed an +instant beneath his heavy slow-moving eyelids when the clerk entered; +he motioned to him to approach, and slowly, coldly, with frequent +breaks in his breathless sentences, instead of: "M. Joyeuse, how many +daughters have you?" he said this: + +"Joyeuse, you have assumed to criticize in our offices our recent +operations on the market in Tunis. No use to deny it. What you said has +been repeated to me word for word. And as I can't allow such things +from one of my clerks, I notify you that with the end of this month you +will cease to be in my employ." + +The blood rushed to the clerk's face, receded, returned, causing each +time a confused buzzing in his ears, a tumult of thoughts and images in +his brain. + +His daughters! + +What would become of them? + +Places are so scarce at that time of year! + +Want stared him in the face, and also the vision of a poor devil +falling at Hemerlingue's feet, imploring him, threatening him, leaping +at his throat in an outburst of desperate frenzy. All this agitation +passed across his face like a gust of wind which wrinkles the surface +of a lake, hollowing out shifting caverns of all shapes therein; but he +stood mute on the same spot, and at a hint from his employer that he +might withdraw, went unsteadily down to resume his task in the +counting-room. + +That evening, on returning to Rue Saint-Ferdinand, M. Joyeuse said +nothing to his daughters. He dared not. The thought of casting a shadow +upon that radiant gayety, which was the whole life of the house, of +dimming with great tears those sparkling eyes, seemed to him +unendurable. Moreover he was timid and weak, one of those who always +say: "Let us wait till to-morrow." So he waited before speaking, in the +first place until the month of November should be at an end, comforting +himself with the vague hope that Hemerlingue might change his mind, as +if he did not know that unyielding will, like the flabby, tenacious +grasp of a mollusk clinging to its gold ingot. Secondly, when his +accounts were settled and another clerk had taken his place at the tall +desk at which he had stood so long, he hoped speedily to find something +else and to repair the disaster before he was obliged to avow it. + +Every morning he pretended to start for the office, allowed himself to +be equipped and escorted to the door as usual, his great leather bag +all ready for the numerous parcels he was to bring home at night. +Although he purposely forgot some of them because of the approach of +the perplexing close of the month, he no longer lacked time in which to +do his daughters' errands. He had his day to himself, an interminable +day, which he passed in running about Paris in search of a place. They +gave him addresses and excellent recommendations. But in that month of +December, when the air is so cold and the days are so short, a month +overburdened with expenses and anxieties, clerks suffer in patience and +employers too. Every one tries to end the year in tranquillity, +postponing to the month of January, when time takes a great leap onward +toward another station, all changes, ameliorations, attempts to lead a +new life. + +Wherever M. Joyeuse called, he saw faces suddenly turn cold as soon as +he explained the purpose of his visit. "What! you are no longer with +Hemerlingue and Son? How does that happen?" He would explain the +condition of affairs as best he could, attributing it to a caprice of +his employer, that violent-tempered Hemerlingue whom all Paris knew; +but he was conscious of a cold, suspicious accent in the uniform reply: +"Come and see us after the holidays." And, timid as he was at best, he +reached a point at which he hardly dared apply anywhere, but would walk +back and forth twenty times in front of the same door, nor would he +ever have crossed the threshold but for the thought of his daughters. +That thought alone would grasp his shoulder, put heart into his legs +and send him to opposite ends of Paris in the same day, to exceedingly +vague addresses given him by comrades, to a great bone-black factory at +Aubervilliers, for instance, where they made him call three days in +succession, and all for nothing. + +Oh! the long walks in the rain and frost, the closed doors, the +employer who has gone out or has visitors, the promises given and +suddenly retracted, the disappointed hopes, the enervating effect of +long suspense, the humiliation in store for every man who asks for +work, as if it were a shameful thing to be without it. M. Joyeuse +experienced all those heartsickening details, and he learned too how +the will becomes weary and discouraged in the face of persistent +ill-luck. And you can imagine whether the bitter martyrdom of "the man +in search of a place" was intensified by the fantasies of his +imagination, by the chimeras which rose before him from the pavements +of Paris, while he pursued his quest in every direction. + +For a whole month he was like one of those pitiful marionettes who +soliloquize and gesticulate on the sidewalks, and from whom the +slightest jostling on the part of the crowd extorts a somnambulistic +ejaculation: "I said as much," or "Don't you doubt it, monsieur." You +pass on, you almost laugh, but you are moved to pity at the +unconsciousness of those poor devils, possessed by a fixed idea, blind +men led by dreams, drawn on by an invisible leash. The terrible feature +of it all was this, that when M. Joyeuse returned home, after those +long, cruel days of inaction and fatigue, he must enact the comedy of +the man returning from work, must describe the events of the day, tell +what he had heard, the gossip of the office, with which he was always +accustomed to entertain the young ladies. + +In humble households there is always one name that comes to the lips +more frequently than others, a name that is invoked on days of +disaster, that plays a part in every wish, in every hope, even in the +play of the children, who are permeated with the idea of its +importance, a name that fills the role of a sub-providence in the +family, or rather of a supernatural household god. It is the name of +the employer, the manager of the factory, the landlord, the minister, +the man, in short, who holds in his powerful hand the welfare, the very +existence of the family. In the Joyeuse household it was Hemerlingue, +always Hemerlingue; ten, twenty times a day the name was mentioned in +the conversation of the girls, who associated it with all their plans, +with the most trivial details of their girlish ambitions: "If +Hemerlingue would consent. It all depends on Hemerlingue." And nothing +could be more delightful than the familiar way in which those children +spoke of the wealthy boor whom they had never seen. + +They asked questions about him. Had their father spoken to him? Was he +in good humor? To think that all of us, however humble we may be, +however cruelly enslaved by destiny, have always below us some poor +creature more humble, more enslaved than ourselves, in whose eyes we +are great, in whose eyes we are gods, and, as gods, indifferent, +scornful or cruel. + +We can fancy M. Joyeuse's torture when he was compelled to invent +incidents, to manufacture anecdotes concerning the villain who had +dismissed him so heartlessly after ten years of faithful service. +However, he played his little comedy in such way as to deceive them all +completely. They had noticed only one thing, and that was that their +father, on returning home at night, always had a hearty appetite for +the evening meal. I should say as much! Since he had lost his place, +the poor man had ceased to eat any luncheon. + +The days passed. M. Joyeuse found nothing. Yes, he was offered a +clerkship at the _Caisse Territoriale_, which he declined, being too +well acquainted with the banking operations, with all the nooks and +corners of financial Bohemia in general and the _Caisse Territoriale_ +in particular, to step foot in that den. + +"But," said Passajon--for it was Passajon, who, happening to meet the +good man and finding that he was unemployed, had spoken to him of +taking service with Paganetti--"but I tell you again that it's all +right. We have plenty of money. We pay our debts. I have been paid; +just see what a dandy I am." + +In truth, the old clerk had a new livery, and his paunch protruded +majestically beneath his tunic with silver buttons. For all that, M. +Joyeuse had withstood the temptation, even after Passajon, opening wide +his bulging eyes, had whispered with emphasis in his ear these words +big with promise: + +"The Nabob is in it." + +Even after that, M. Joyeuse had had the courage to say no. Was it not +better to die of hunger than to enter the service of an unsubstantial +house whose books he might some day be called upon to examine as an +expert before a court of justice? + +So he continued to wander about; but he was discouraged and had +abandoned his search for employment. As it was necessary for him to +remain away from home, he loitered in front of the shop-windows on the +quays, leaned for hours on the parapets, watching the river and the +boats discharging their cargoes. He became one of those idlers whom we +see in the front rank of all street crowds, taking refuge from a shower +under porches, drawing near the stoves on which the asphalters boil +their tar in the open air, to warm themselves, and sinking on benches +along the boulevard when their feet can no longer carry them. + +What an excellent way of lengthening one's days, to do nothing! + +On certain days, however, when M. Joyeuse was too tired or the weather +too inclement, he waited at the end of the street until the young +ladies had closed their window, then went back to the house, hugging +the walls, hurried upstairs, holding his breath as he passed his own +door, and took refuge with the photographer, Andre Maranne, who, being +aware of his catastrophe, offered him the compassionate welcome which +poor devils extend to one another. Customers are rare so near the +barriers. He would sit for many hours in the studio, talking in an +undertone, reading by his friend's side, listening to the rain on the +window-panes or the wind whistling as in mid-ocean, rattling the old +doors and window-frames in the graveyard of demolished buildings below. +On the next floor he heard familiar sounds, full of charm for him, +snatches of song accompanying the work of willing hands, a chorus of +laughter, the piano lesson given by _Grandmamma_, the tic-tac of the +metronome, a delicious domestic hurly-burly that warmed his heart. He +lived with his darlings, who certainly had no idea that they had him so +near at hand. + +Once, while Maranne was out, M. Joyeuse, acting as a faithful custodian +of the studio and its brand-new equipment, heard two little taps on the +ceiling of the fourth floor, two separate, very distinct taps, then a +cautious rumbling like the scampering of a mouse. The intimacy between +the photographer and his neighbors justified this prisoner-like method +of communication, but what did that mean? How should he answer what +seemed like a call? At all hazards he repeated the two taps, the soft +drumming sound, and the interview stopped there. When Andre Maranne +returned, he explained it. It was very simple: sometimes, during the +day, the young ladies, who never saw their neighbor except in the +evening, took that means of inquiring for his health and whether +business was improving. The signal he had heard signified: "Is business +good to-day?" and M. Joyeuse had instinctively but unwittingly replied: +"Not bad for the season." Although young Maranne blushed hotly as he +said it, M. Joyeuse believed him. But the idea of frequent +communication between the two households made him fear lest his secret +should be divulged, and thereafter he abstained from what he called his +"artistic days." However, the time was drawing near when he could no +longer conceal his plight, for the end of the month was at hand, +complicated by the end of the year. + +Paris was already assuming the usual festal aspect of the last weeks of +December. That is about all that is left in the way of national or +popular merrymaking. The revels of the carnival died with Gavarni, the +religious festivals, the music of which we scarcely hear above the din +of the streets, seclude themselves behind the heavy church doors, the +Fifteenth of August has never been aught but the Saint-Charlemagne of +the barracks; but Paris has retained its respect for the first day of +the year. + +Early in December a violent epidemic of childishness is apparent in the +streets. Wagons pass, laden with gilded drums, wooden horses, +playthings by the score. In the manufacturing districts, from top to +bottom of the five-story buildings, former palaces of the Marais, where +the shops have such lofty ceilings and stately double doors, people +work all night, handling gauze, flowers and straw, fastening labels on +satin-covered boxes, sorting out, marking and packing; the innumerable +details of the toy trade, that great industry upon which Paris places +the sign-manual of its refined taste. There is a smell of green wood, +of fresh paint, of glistening varnish, and in the dust of the garrets, +on the rickety stairways where the common people deposit all the mud +through which they have tramped, chips of rosewood are strewn about, +clippings of satin and velvet, bits of tinsel, all the debris of the +treasures employed to dazzle childish eyes. Then the shop-windows array +themselves. Behind the transparent glass the gilt binding of gift-books +ascends like a gleaming wave under the gas-lights, rich stuffs of +kaleidoscopic, tempting hues display their heavy, graceful folds, while +the shop-girls, with their hair piled high upon their heads and ribbons +around their necks, puff their wares with the little finger in the air, +or fill silk bags, into which the bonbons fall like a shower of pearls. + +But face to face with this bourgeois industry, firmly established and +intrenched behind its gorgeous shop fronts, is the ephemeral industry +carried on in the stalls built of plain boards, open to the wind from +the street, standing in a double row which gives the boulevard the +aspect of a foreign market place. There are to be found the real +interest, the poetry of New Year's gifts. Luxurious in the Madeleine +quarter, less ostentatious toward Boulevard Saint-Denis, cheaper and +more tawdry as you approach the Bastille, these little booths change +their character to suit their customers, estimate their chances of +success according to the condition of the purses of the passers-by. +Between them stand tables covered with trifles, miracles of the petty +Parisian trades, made of nothing, fragile and insignificant, but +sometimes whirled away by fashion in one of its fierce gusts, because +of their very lightness. And lastly, along the sidewalks, lost in the +line of vehicles which brush against them as they stroll along, the +orange-women put the final touch to this ambulatory commerce, heaping +up the sun-colored fruit under their red lanterns, and crying: "La +Valence!" in the fog, the uproar, the excessive haste with which Paris +rushes to meet the close of the year. + +Ordinarily M. Joyeuse made a part of the happy crowd that throngs the +streets with a jingling of money in the pockets and packages in every +hand. He would run about with _Grandmamma_ in quest of presents for the +young ladies, stopping in front of the booths of the small shopkeepers +whom the slightest indication of a customer excites beyond measure, for +they are unfamiliar with the art of selling and have based upon that +brief season visions of extraordinary profits. And there would be +consultations and meditations, a never-ending perplexity as to the +final selection in that busy little brain, always in advance of the +present and of the occupation of the moment. + +But that year, alas! there was nothing of the sort. He wandered sadly +through the joyous city, sadder and more discouraged by reason of all +the activity around him, jostled and bumped like all those who impede +the circulation of the industrious, his heart beating with constant +dread, for _Grandmamma_, for several days past, had been making +significant, prophetic remarks at table on the subject of New Year's +gifts. For that reason he avoided being left alone with her and had +forbidden her coming to meet him at the office. But, struggle as he +would, the time was drawing near, he felt it in his bones, when further +mystery would be impossible and his secret would be divulged. Was this +_Grandmamma_ of whom M. Joyeuse stood in such fear such a terrible +creature, pray? _Mon Dieu_, no! A little stern, that was all, with a +sweet smile which promised instant pardon to every culprit. But M. +Joyeuse was naturally cowardly and timid; twenty years of housekeeping +with a masterful woman, "a person of gentle birth," had enslaved him +forever, like those convicts who are subjected to surveillance for a +certain period after their sentences have expired. And he was subjected +to it for life. + +One evening the Joyeuse family was assembled in the small salon, the +last relic of its splendor, where there still were two stuffed +arm-chairs, an abundance of crochet-work, a piano, two Carcel lamps +with little green caps, and a small table covered with trivial +ornaments. + +The true family exists only among the lowly. + +For economy's sake only one fire was lighted for the whole house, and +only one lamp around which all their occupations, all their diversions +were grouped; an honest family lamp, whose old-fashioned shade--with +night scenes, studded with brilliant points--had been the wonder and +the delight of all the girls in their infancy. Emerging gracefully from +the shadow of the rest of the room, four youthful faces, fair or dark, +smiling or engrossed, bent forward in the warm, cheerful rays, which +illumined them to the level of the eyes and seemed to feed the fire of +their glances, the radiant youth beneath their transparent brows, to +watch over them, to shelter them, to protect them from the black cold +wind without, from ghosts, pitfalls, misery and terror, from all the +sinister things that lurk in an out-of-the-way quarter of Paris on a +winter's night. + +Thus assembled in a small room near the top of the deserted house, in +the warmth and security of its neatly kept and comfortable home, the +Joyeuse family resembles a family of birds in a nest at the top of a +tall tree. They sew and read and talk a little. A burst of flame, the +crackling of the fire, are the only sounds to be heard, save for an +occasional exclamation from M. Joyeuse, who sits just outside of his +little circle, hiding in the shadow his anxious brow and all the +vagaries of his imagination. Now he fancies that, in the midst of the +distress by which he is overwhelmed, the absolute necessity of +confessing everything to his children to-night, to-morrow at latest, +unforeseen succor comes to him. Hemerlingue, seized with remorse, sends +to him, to all the others who worked on the Tunisian loan, the +accustomed December bonus. It is brought by a tall footman: "From +Monsieur le Baron." The _Imaginaire_ says this aloud. The pretty faces +turn to look at him; they laugh and move about, and the poor wretch +wakes with a start. + +Oh! how he reviles himself now for his delay in confessing everything, +for the fallacious security which he has encouraged in his home and +which he will have to destroy at one blow. Why need he have criticised +that Tunisian loan? He even blames himself now for having declined a +position at the _Caisse Territoriale_. Had he the right to decline it? +Ah! what a pitiful head of a family, who lacked strength to maintain +or to defend the welfare of his dear ones. And, in presence of the +charming group sitting within the rays of the lamp, whose tranquil +aspect is in such glaring contrast to his inward agitation, he is +seized with remorse, which assails his feeble mind so fiercely that +his secret comes to his lips, is on the point of escaping him in +an outburst of sobs, when a ring at the bell--not an imaginary +ring--startles them all and checks him as he is about to speak. + +Who could have come at that hour? They had lived in seclusion since the +mother's death, receiving almost no visitors. Andre Maranne, when he +came down to pass a few moments with them, knocked familiarly after the +manner of those to whom a door is always open. Profound silence in the +salon, a long colloquy on the landing. At last the old servant--she had +been in the family as long as the lamp--introduced a young man, a +perfect stranger, who stopped suddenly, spellbound, at sight of the +charming picture presented by the four darlings grouped about the +table. He entered with an abashed, somewhat awkward air. However, he +set forth very clearly the purpose of his call. He was recommended to +apply to M. Joyeuse by a worthy man of his acquaintance, old Passajon, +to give him lessons in book-keeping. A friend of his was involved in +some large financial enterprises, a stock company of some size. He was +anxious to be of service to him by keeping an eye upon the employment +of his funds and the rectitude of his associates' operations; but he +was a lawyer, with a very imperfect knowledge of financial matters and +the vernacular of the banking business. Could not M. Joyeuse, in a few +months, with three or four lessons a week--" + +"Why, yes indeed, monsieur, yes indeed," stammered the father, dazed by +this unhoped-for chance; "I will willingly undertake to fit you in a +month or two for this work of examining accounts. Where shall we have +the lessons?" + +"Here, if you please," said the young man, "for I am anxious that +nobody should know that I am working at it. But I shall be very sorry +if I am to put everybody to flight every time I appear, as I seem to +have done this evening." + +It was a fact that, as soon as the visitor opened his mouth, the four +curly heads had disappeared, with much whispering and rustling of +skirts, and the salon appeared very bare now that the great circle of +white light was empty. + +Always quick to take alarm where his daughters were concerned, M. +Joyeuse replied that "the young ladies always retired early," in a +short, sharp tone which said as plainly as could be: "Let us confine +our conversation to our lessons, young man, I beg." + +Thereupon they agreed upon the days and the hours in the evening. + +As for the terms, that would be for monsieur to determine. + +Monsieur named a figure. + +The clerk turned scarlet; it was what he earned at Hemerlingue's. + +"Oh! no, that is too much." + +But the other would not listen; he hemmed and hawed and rolled his +tongue around as if he were trying to say something that it was very +difficult to say; then with sudden resolution: + +"Here is your first month's pay." + +"But, monsieur--" + +The young man insisted. He was a stranger. It was fair that he should +pay in advance. Evidently Passajon had told him. M. Joyeuse understood +and said, beneath his breath: "Thanks, oh! thanks!" so deeply moved +that words failed him. Life, it meant life for a few months, time to +turn around, to find a situation. His darlings would be deprived of +nothing. They would have their New Year's gifts. O Providence! + +"Until Wednesday, then, Monsieur Joyeuse." + +"Until Wednesday, Monsieur--?" + +"De Gery--Paul de Gery." + +They parted, equally dazzled, enchanted, one by the appearance of that +unexpected saviour, the other by the lovely tableau of which he had +caught a glimpse, all those maidens grouped around the table covered +with books and papers and skeins, with an air of purity, of +hard-working probity. That sight opened up to de Gery a whole new +Paris, brave, domestic, very different from that with which he was +already familiar, a Paris of which the writers of feuilletons and the +reporters never speak, and which reminded him of his province, with an +additional element, namely, the charm which the surrounding hurly-burly +and turmoil impart to the peaceful shelter that they do not reach. + + + + +VI. + +FELICIA RUYS. + + +"By the way, what have you done with your son, Jenkins? Why do we never +see him at your house now? He was an attractive boy." + +As she said this in the tone of disdainful acerbity in which she always +addressed the Irishman, Felicia was at work on the bust of the Nabob +which she had just begun, adjusting her model, taking up and putting +down the modelling tool, wiping her hands with a quick movement on the +little sponge, while the light and peace of a lovely Sunday afternoon +flooded the circular glass-walled studio. Felicia "received" every +Sunday, if receiving consisted in leaving her door open and allowing +people to come and go and sit down a moment, without stirring from her +work for them, or even breaking off a discussion she might have begun, +to welcome new arrivals. There were artists with shapely heads and +bright red beards, and here and there the white poll of an old man, +sentimental friends of the elder Ruys; then there were connoisseurs, +men of the world, bankers, brokers, and some young swells who came +rather to see the fair sculptress than her sculpture, so that they +would have the right to say that evening at the club: "I was at +Felicia's to-day." Among them Paul de Gery, silent, engrossed by an +admiration which sank a little deeper in his heart day by day, strove +to comprehend the beautiful sphinx, arrayed in purple cashmere and +unbleached lace, who worked bravely away in the midst of her clay, a +burnisher's apron--reaching nearly to the neck--leaving naught visible +save the proud little face with those transparent tones, those gleams +as of veiled rays with which intellect and inspiration give animation +to the features. Paul never forgot what had been said of her in his +presence, he tried to form an opinion for himself, was beset by doubt +and perplexity, yet fascinated; vowed every time that he would never +come again, yet never missed a Sunday. There was another fixture, +always in the same spot, a little woman with gray, powdered hair and a +lace handkerchief around her pink face; a pastel somewhat worn by +years, who smiled sweetly in the discreet light of a window recess, her +hands lying idly upon her lap, in fakir-like immobility. Jenkins, +always in good humor, with his beaming face, his black eyes, and his +apostolic air, went about from one to another, known and loved by all. +He too never missed one of Felicia's days; and in very truth he +displayed great patience, for all the sharp words of the artist and of +the pretty woman as well were reserved for him alone. Without seeming +to notice it, with the same smiling indulgent serenity, he continued to +court the society of the daughter of his old friend Ruys, of whom he +had been so fond and whom he had attended until his last breath. + +On this occasion, however, the question that Felicia propounded to him +on the subject of his son seemed to him extremely disagreeable; and +there was a frown upon his face, a genuine expression of ill-humor, as +he replied: + +"Faith, I know no more than you as to what has become of him. He has +turned his back upon us altogether. He was bored with us. He cares for +nothing but his Bohemia--" + +Felicia gave a bound which made them all start, and with flashing eye +and quivering nostril retorted: + +"That is too much. Look you, Jenkins, what do you call Bohemia? A +charming word, by the way, which should evoke visions of long wandering +jaunts in the sunlight, halting in shady nooks, the first taste of +luscious fruits and sparkling fountains, taken at random on the +highroads. But since you have made of the word with all the charm +attaching to it a stigma and an insult, to whom do you apply it? To +certain poor long-haired devils, in love with freedom in rags and +tatters, who starve to death on fifth floors, looking at the sky at too +close quarters, or seeking rhymes under tiles through which the rain +drips; to those idiots, fewer and fewer in number, who in their horror +of the conventional, the traditional, of the dense stupidity of life, +have taken a standing jump over the edge. But that's the way it used to +be, I tell you. That's the Bohemia of Murger, with the hospital at the +end, the terror of children, the comfort of kindred, Little Red Riding +Hood eaten by the wolf. That state of things came to an end a long +while ago. To-day you know perfectly well that artists are the most +well-behaved people on earth, that they earn money, pay their debts and +do their best to resemble the ordinary man. There is no lack of genuine +Bohemians, however; our society is made up of them, but they are found +more particularly in your circle. _Parbleu!_ they are not labelled +on the outside, and no one distrusts them; but so far as the +uncertainty of existence and lack of order are concerned, they have no +reason to envy those whom they so disdainfully call 'irregulars.' Ah! +if one knew all the baseness, all the unheard-of, monstrous experiences +that may be masked by a black coat, the most correct of your horrible +modern garments! Jenkins, at your house the other evening, I amused +myself counting all those adventurers of high--" + +The little old lady, pink-cheeked and powdered, said to her softly from +her seat: + +"Felicia--take care--" + +But she went on without listening to her: + +"Who is this Monpavon, Doctor? And Bois-l'Hery? And Mora himself? +And--" + +She was on the point of saying, "And the Nabob?" but checked herself. + +"And how many others! Oh! really, I advise you to speak contemptuously +of Bohemia. Why, your clientage as a fashionable physician, O sublime +Jenkins, is made up of nothing else. Bohemia of manufacturing, of +finance, of politics; fallen stars, the tainted of all castes, and the +higher you go the more of them there are, because high rank gives +impunity and wealth closes many mouths." + +She spoke with great animation, harshly, her lip curling in fierce +disdain. The other laughed a false laugh and assumed an airy, +condescending tone. "Ah! madcap! madcap!" And his glance, anxious and +imploring, rested upon the Nabob, as if to beseech his forgiveness for +that flood of impertinent paradoxes. + +But Jansoulet, far from appearing to be vexed,--he who was so proud to +pose for that lovely artist, so puffed up by the honor conferred upon +him--nodded his head approvingly. + +"She is right, Jenkins," he said, "she is right. We are the real +Bohemia. Look at me, for instance, and Hemerlingue, two of the greatest +handlers of money in Paris. When I think where we started from, all the +trades that we tried our hands at! Hemerlingue, an old regimental +sutler; and myself, who carried bags of grain on the wharves at +Marseille for a living. And then the strokes of luck by which our +fortunes were made, as indeed all fortunes are made nowadays. Bless my +soul! Just look under the peristyle at the Bourse from three to five. +But I beg your pardon, mademoiselle, with my mania for gesticulating +when I talk, I've spoiled my pose--let's see, will this do?" + +"It's of no use," said Felicia, throwing down her modelling-tool with +the gesture of a spoiled child. "I can do nothing more to-day." + +She was a strange girl, this Felicia. A true child of an artist, a +genial and dissipated artist, according to the romantic tradition, such +as Sebastien Ruys was. She had never known her mother, being the fruit +of one of those ephemeral passions which suddenly enter a sculptor's +bachelor life, as swallows enter a house of which the door is always +open, and go out again at once, because they cannot build nests there. + +On that occasion the lady, on taking flight, had left with the great +artist, then in the neighborhood of forty, a beautiful child whom he +had acknowledged and reared, and who became the joy and passion of his +life. Felicia had remained with her father until she was thirteen, +importing a childish, refining element into that studio crowded with +idlers, models, and huge greyhounds lying at full length on divans. +There was a corner set aside for her, for her attempts at sculpture, a +complete equipment on a microscopic scale, a tripod and wax; and old +Ruys would say to all who came in: + +"Don't go over there. Don't disturb anything. That's the little one's +corner." + +The result was that at ten years of age she hardly knew how to read and +handled the modelling-tool with marvellous skill. Ruys would have liked +to keep the child, who never annoyed him in any way, with him +permanently, a tiny member of the great brotherhood. But it was a +pitiful thing to see the little maid exposed to the free and easy +manners of the habitues of the house, the incessant going and coming of +models, the discussions concerning an art that is purely physical, so +to speak; and at the uproarious Sunday dinner-table, too, sitting in +the midst of five or six women, with all of whom her father was on the +most intimate terms, actresses, dancers, singers, who, when dinner was +at an end, smoked with the rest, their elbows on the table, revelling +in the salacious anecdotes so relished by the master of the house. +Luckily, childhood is protected by the resistant power of innocence, a +polished surface over which all forms of pollution glide harmlessly. +Felicia was noisy, uproarious, badly brought up, but was untainted by +all that passed over her little mind because it was so near the ground. + +Every summer she went to pass a few days with her godmother, Constance +Crenmitz, the elder Crenmitz, who was for so long a time called by all +Europe the "illustrious dancer," and who was living quietly in +seclusion at Fontainebleau. + +The arrival of the "little devil" introduced into the old lady's life, +for a time, an element of excitement from which she had the whole year +to recover. The frights that the child caused her with her audacious +exploits in leaping and riding, the passionate outbreaks of that +untamed nature, made the visit both a delight and a terrible trial to +her,--a delight, because she worshipped Felicia, the only domestic tie +left the poor old salamander, retired after thirty years of _battus_ in +the glare of the footlights; a trial, because the demon pitilessly +pillaged the ex-dancer's apartments, which were as dainty and neat and +sweet-smelling as her dressing-room at the Opera, and embellished with +a museum of souvenirs dated from all the theatres in the world. + +Constance Crenmitz was the sole feminine element in Felicia's +childhood. Frivolous, shallow, having all her life kept her mind +enveloped in pink swaddling-clothes, she had at all events a dainty +knack at housekeeping, and agile fingers clever at sewing, +embroidering, arranging furniture, and leaving the trace of their deft, +painstaking touch in every corner of a room. She alone undertook to +train that wild young plant, and to awaken with care the womanly +instincts in that strange creature, on whose figure cloaks and furs, +all the elegant inventions of fashion, fell in folds too stiff, or +performed other strange antics. + +It was the dancer again--surely the little Ruys must not be +abandoned--who, triumphing over the paternal selfishness, compelled the +sculptor to assent to a necessary separation, when Felicia was twelve +or thirteen years old; furthermore, she assumed the responsibility of +finding a suitable boarding school, and purposely selected a very rich +but very bourgeois establishment, pleasantly situated in a +sparsely-settled faubourg, in a huge old-fashioned mansion, surrounded +by high walls and tall trees,--a sort of convent, minus the restraint +and contempt for serious studies. + +Indeed, a great deal of hard work was done at Madame Belin's +establishment, with no opportunities to go out except on great +festivals, and no communication with the outside world except a visit +from one's relatives on Thursday, in a little garden of flowering +shrubs, or in the vast parlor with the carved and gilded panels above +the doors. Felicia's first appearance in that almost monastic +institution caused considerable commotion; her costume, selected by the +Austrian ballet-dancer, her curly hair falling to the waist, her +ungainly, boyish bearing, gave rise to some ill-natured remarks; but +she was a Parisian and readily adapted herself to all situations, to +all localities. In a few days she wore more gracefully than any of the +others the little black apron, to which the most coquettish attached +their watches, the straight skirt--a stern and cruel requirement at +that period, when the prevailing fashion enlarged the circumference of +woman with an infinite number of ruffles and flounces--and the +prescribed arrangement of the hair, in two braids fastened together +well down on the neck, after the fashion of Roman peasants. + +Strangely enough, the assiduous work of the classes, their tranquil +regularity, suited Felicia's nature, all intelligence and animation, in +which a taste for study was enlivened by an overflow of childish +spirits in the hours of recreation. Every one loved her. Among those +children of great manufacturers, Parisian notaries and gentleman-farmers, +a substantial little world by themselves, somewhat inclined to +stiffness and formality, the well-known name of old Ruys, and the +respect which is universally manifested in Paris for a high reputation +as an artist, gave to Felicia a position apart from the rest and +greatly envied; a position made even more brilliant by her success in +her studies, by a genuine talent for drawing, and by her beauty, that +element of superiority which produces its effect even upon very young +girls. + +In the purer atmosphere of the boarding-school, she felt the keenest +pleasure in making herself womanly, in resuming her true sex, in +learning order, regularity, in a different sense from that inculcated +by the amiable dancer, whose kisses always retained a taste of rouge, +and whose embraces always left an impression of unnaturally round arms. +Pere Ruys was enchanted, every time that he went to see his daughter, +to find her more of a young lady, able to enter and walk about and +leave a room with the pretty courtesy that made all of Madame Belin's +boarders long for the _frou-frou_ of a long train. + +At first he came often, then, as he lacked time for all the commissions +accepted and undertaken, the advances upon which helped to pay for the +disorder and heedlessness of his life, he was seen less frequently in +the parlor. At last disease took a hand. Brought to earth by hopeless +anaemia, for weeks he did not leave the house, nor work. He insisted +upon seeing his daughter; and from the peaceful, health-giving shadow +of the boarding-school Felicia returned to her father's studio, still +haunted by the same cronies, the parasites that cling to every +celebrity, among whom sickness had introduced a new figure in the +person of Dr. Jenkins. + +That handsome, open face, the air of frankness and serenity diffused +over the whole person of that already well known physician, who talked +of his art so freely, yet performed miraculous cures, and his assiduous +attentions to her father, made a deep impression on the girl. Jenkins +soon became the friend, the confidant, a vigilant and gentle guardian. +Sometimes in the studio, when some one--the father himself most +frequently--made a too equivocal remark or a ribald jest, the Irishman +would frown and make a little noise with his lips, or else would divert +Felicia's attention. He often took her to pass the day with Madame +Jenkins, exerting himself to prevent her from becoming once more the +wild creature of the ante-boarding school days, or indeed the something +worse than that which she threatened to become, in the moral +abandonment, the saddest of all forms of abandonment, in which she was +left. + +But the girl had a more powerful protector than the irreproachable but +worldly example of the fair Madame Jenkins: the art which she adored, +the enthusiasm it aroused in her essentially open nature, the sentiment +of beauty, of truth, which passed from her thoughtful brain, teeming +with ideas, into her fingers with a little quiver of the nerves, a +longing to see the thing done, the image realized. All day she worked +at her sculpture, gave shape to her reveries, with the happy tact of +instinct-guided youth, which imparts so much charm to first works; that +prevented her from regretting too keenly the austere regime of the +Belin institution, which was as perfect a safeguard and as light as the +veil of a novice who has not taken her vows; and it also shielded her +from perilous conversations to which in her one absorbing preoccupation +she paid no heed. + +Ruys was proud of the talent springing up by his side. As he grew +weaker from day to day, having already reached the stage at which the +artist regrets his vanishing powers, he followed Felicia's progress as +a consolation for the close of his own career. The modelling-tool, +which trembled in his hand, was seized at his side with virile firmness +and self-assurance, tempered by all of the innate refinement of her +being that a woman can apply to the realization of her ideal of an art. +A curious sensation is that twofold paternity, that survival of genius, +which abandons the one who is going away to pass into the one who is +coming, like the lovely domestic birds which, on the eve of a death, +desert the threatened roof for a more cheerful dwelling. + +In the last days of her father's life, Felicia--a great artist, and +still a child--did half of her father's work for him, and nothing could +be more touching than that collaboration of the father and daughter, in +the same studio, sculptors of the same group. Things did not always run +smoothly. Although she was her father's pupil, Felicia's individuality +was already inclined to rebel against any arbitrary guidance. She had +the audacity of beginners, the presentiment of a great future felt only +by youthful geniuses, and, in opposition to the romantic traditions of +Sebastien Ruys, a tendency toward modern realism, a feeling that she +must plant that glorious old flag upon some new monument. + +Then there would be terrible scenes, disputes from which the father +would come forth vanquished, annihilated by his daughter's logic, +amazed at the rapid progress children make on the highroads, while +their elders, who have opened the gates for them, remain stationary at +the point of departure. When she was working for him Felicia yielded +more readily; but concerning her own work she was intractable. For +instance, the _Joueur de Boules_, her first exhibited work, which +made such a tremendous hit at the Salon of 1862, was the occasion of +violent disputes between the two artists, of such fierce controversy +that Jenkins had to intervene and to superintend the removal of the +figure, which Ruys had threatened to break. + +Aside from these little dramas, which had no effect upon the love of +their hearts, those two worshipped each other, with the presentiment +and, as the days passed, the cruel certainty of an impending +separation; when suddenly there came a horrible episode in Felicia's +life. One day Jenkins took her home to dinner with him, as he often +did. Madame Jenkins and her son were away for two days; but the +doctor's years, his semi-paternal intimacy, justified him in inviting +to his house, even in his wife's absence, a girl whose fifteen years, +the fifteen years of an Eastern Jewess resplendent with premature +beauty, left her still almost a child. + +The dinner was very lively, Jenkins cordial and agreeable as always. +Then they went into the doctor's office; and suddenly, as they sat on +the divan, talking in the most intimate and friendly way concerning her +father, his health and their joint work, Felicia had a feeling as of +the cold blast from an abyss between herself and that man, followed by +the brutal embrace of a satyr's claw. She saw a Jenkins totally unknown +to her, wild-eyed, stammering, with brutish laugh and insulting hands. +In the surprise, the unexpectedness of that outbreak of the animal +instinct, any other than Felicia, any child of her years, but genuinely +innocent, would have been lost. The thing that saved her, poor child, +was her knowledge. She had heard so many stories at her father's table! +And then her art, her life at the studio. She was no _ingenue_. She at +once understood what that embrace meant, she squirmed and struggled, +then, finding that she was not strong enough, screamed. He was +frightened, released her, and suddenly she found herself on her feet, +free, with the man at her knees, weeping and imploring forgiveness. He +had yielded to an attack of frenzy. She was so lovely, he loved her so +dearly. He had struggled for months. But now it was all over--never +again, oh! never again. He would not even touch the hem of her dress. +She did not reply, but tremblingly rearranged her hair and her clothes +with frenzied fingers. Go, she must go at once, alone. He sent a +servant with her, and whispered, as she entered the carriage: "Above +all things, not a word of this at home. It would kill your father." He +knew her so well, he was so sure of closing her mouth by that thought, +the villain, that he came the next day as if nothing had happened, +effusive as always and with the same ingenuous face. She never did +mention the incident to her father or to anybody else. But from that +day a change took place in her, as if the springs of her pride were +relaxed. She became capricious, had fits of lassitude, a curl of +disgust in her smile, and sometimes she yielded to sudden outbursts of +wrath against her father, and cast scornful glances upon him, rebuking +him for his failure to watch over her. + +"What is the matter with her?" Pere Ruys would ask; and Jenkins, with +the authority of a physician, would attribute it to her age and a +physical trouble. He himself avoided speaking to the girl, relying upon +time to efface the sinister impression, and not despairing of obtaining +what he desired, for he desired more eagerly than ever, being in the +grasp of the insane passion of a man of forty-seven, the incurable +passion of maturity; and that was the hypocrite's punishment. His +daughter's strange state caused the sculptor genuine distress; but it +was of brief duration. Ruys suddenly expired, fell to pieces all at +once, like all those whom Jenkins attended. His last words were: + +"Jenkins, I place my daughter in your care." + +The words were so ironical in all their mournfulness that Jenkins, who +was present at the last, could not avoid turning pale. + +Felicia was even more stupefied than sorrowful. To the feeling of +amazement at death, which she had never seen before, and which appeared +in a guise so dear to her, was added the feeling of a terrible +loneliness surrounded by darkness and perils. + +Several friends of the sculptor assembled in a family council to +deliberate concerning the future of the unfortunate, penniless orphan. +They had found fifty francs in the catch-all in which Sebastien kept +his money on a little commode in the studio, well known to his needy +friends, who had recourse to it without scruple. No other patrimony, in +cash at all events; only a most superb collection of artistic objects +and curios, a few valuable pictures and some scattered outstanding +claims hardly sufficient to cover his innumerable debts. They talked of +a sale at auction. Felicia, on being consulted, replied that it was a +matter of indifference to her whether they sold all or none, but that +she begged them, for God's sake, to leave her in peace. + +The sale did not take place, however, thanks to the godmother, the +excellent Crenmitz, who suddenly made her appearance, as tranquil and +gentle as always: + +"Don't listen to them, my child, sell nothing. Your old Constance has +fifteen thousand francs a year which were intended for you. You shall +have the benefit of them now, that's all. We will live together here. I +will not be in the way, you will see. You can work at your sculpture, +while I keep the house. Does that suit you?" + +It was said so affectionately, in the childish accent of foreigners +expressing themselves in French, that the girl was deeply moved. Her +stony heart opened, a burning flood poured from her eyes and she threw +herself, buried herself in the ex-dancer's arms: "Oh! godmother, how +good you are! Yes, yes; don't leave me again--stay with me always. Life +frightens and disgusts me. I see so much hypocrisy and lying!" And when +the old woman had made herself a silky, embroidered nest in the house, +which resembled a traveller's camp filled with the treasures of all +lands, those two widely different natures took up their life together. + +It was no small sacrifice that Constance had made to the little demon, +to leave her retreat at Fontainebleau for Paris, which she held in +horror. From the day when the ballet-dancer, once famous for her +extravagant caprices, who squandered princely fortunes between her five +parted fingers, had descended from the realm of apotheoses with a last +remnant of their dazzling glare still lingering in her eyes, and had +tried to resume the life of ordinary mortals, to administer her little +income and her modest household, she had been subjected to a multitude +of unblushing attempts at extortion and schemes which were readily +successful in view of the ignorance of that poor butterfly, who was +afraid of reality and constantly coming in contact with all its unknown +difficulties. In Felicia's house the responsibility became far more +serious, because of the extravagant methods long ago inaugurated by the +father and continued by the daughter, both artists having the utmost +contempt for economy. She had other difficulties, too, to overcome. She +could not endure the studio, with its permanent odor of tobacco smoke, +with the cloud, impenetrable to her, in which artistic discussions and +ideas, expressed in their baldest form, were confounded in vague eddies +of glowing vapor which invariably gave her the sick headache. The +_blague_ was especially terrifying to her. Being a foreigner, a former +divinity of the ballet greenroom, fed upon superannuated compliments, +gallantries _a la Dorat_ she was unable to understand it, and was +dismayed at the wild exaggerations, the paradoxes of those Parisians +whose wits were sharpened by the liberty of the studio. + +She whose wit had consisted entirely in the agility of her feet was +awed by her new surroundings and relegated to the position of a simple +companion; and to see that amiable old creature, silent and smiling, +sitting in the bright light of the rounded window, her knitting on her +knees, like one of Chardin's bourgeoises, or walking quickly up the +long Rue de Chaillot where the nearest market was situated, with her +cook at her side, one would never have dreamed that the worthy woman +had once held kings, princes, all the susceptible portion of the +nobility and the world of finance, subject to the whim of her toes and +her gauze skirts. + +Paris is full of these extinct stars which have fallen back into the +crowd. + +Some of these celebrities, these conquerors of a former time, retain a +gnawing rage in their hearts; others, on the contrary, dwell blissfully +upon the past, ruminate in ineffable content all their glorious, bygone +joys, seeking only repose, silence and obscurity, wherein they may +remember and meditate, so that, when they die, we are amazed to learn +that they were still living. + +Constance Crenmitz was one of those happy mortals. But what a strange +artists' household was that of those two women, equally childlike, +contributing to the common stock inexperience and ambition, the +tranquillity of an accomplished destiny and the feverish activity of a +life in its prime, all the differences indeed that were indicated by +the contrast between that blonde, white as a withered rose, who seemed +to be dressed, beneath her fair complexion, in a remnant of Bengal +fire, and that brunette, with the regular features, who almost +invariably enveloped her beauty in dark stuffs, simply made, as if with +a semblance of masculinity. + +Unforeseen emergencies, caprice, ignorance of even the most trivial +things, led to extreme confusion in the management of the household, +from which they were sometimes unable to extricate themselves except by +enforced privations, by dismissing servants, by reforms laughable in +their exaggeration. During one of those crises Jenkins made delicate, +carefully veiled offers of assistance which were repelled with scorn by +Felicia. + +"It isn't right," said Constance, "to be so rude to that poor doctor. +After all, there was nothing insulting in what he said. An old friend +of your father's." + +"That man, anybody's friend! Oh! what a superb Tartuffe!" + +And Felicia, hardly able to contain herself, twisted her wrath into +irony, mimicked Jenkins, the affected gestures, the hand on the heart; +then, puffing out her cheeks, said in a hoarse, whistling voice, full +of false effusiveness: + +"We must be kind, we must be humane. To do good without hope of +reward!--that is the secret." + +Constance laughed, in spite of herself, till the tears ran down her +cheeks, the resemblance was so perfect. + +"Never mind, you were too harsh--you will end by driving him away." + +"Oh! indeed!" said a shake of the girl's head. + +In truth, he continued to come to the house, always affable and sweet, +dissembling his passion, which was visible only when he became jealous +of new-comers, overwhelming with attentions the ex-ballet-dancer, to +whom his pleasant manners were gratifying in spite of everything, and +who recognized in him a man of her own time, of the time when men paid +their respects to women by kissing their hand, with a complimentary +remark as to their appearance. + + * * * + +One morning, Jenkins, having looked in during his round of visits, +found Constance alone and unoccupied in the reception room. + +"I am mounting guard, Doctor, as you see," she said calmly. + +"How does that happen?" + +"Why, Felicia's at work. She doesn't want to be disturbed and the +servants are so stupid. I am carrying out her orders myself." + +Then, as she saw the Irishman walk toward the studio, she added: + +"No, no, don't go there. She gave me strict orders not to let any one +go in." + +"Very good, but I--" + +"I beg you not--you will get me a scolding." + +Jenkins was about to withdraw, when a peal of laughter from Felicia +reached their ears through the portiere and made him raise his head. + +"So she isn't alone?" + +"No. The Nabob is with her. They are having a sitting--for the bust." + +"But why this mystery? It's very strange." + +He strode back and forth, raging inwardly, but holding himself back. + +At last he broke out. + +It was improper beyond expression to allow a girl to be closeted in +that way with a man. + +He was astonished that so serious-minded, so devout a person as +Constance--What did it look like? + +The old lady gazed at him in stupefaction. As if Felicia were like +other girls! And then, what danger could there be with the Nabob, such +a serious man and so ugly? Moreover, Jenkins ought to know well enough +that Felicia never consulted anybody, that she did only what she chose. + +"No, no, it's impossible; I cannot allow this," exclaimed the Irishman. + +And, paying no further heed to the dancer, who threw up her arms to +call heaven to witness what was taking place, he walked toward the +studio; but, instead of entering at once, he opened the door gently and +raised a corner of the hanging, so that a part of the room, just that +part where the Nabob was posing, was visible to him, although at a +considerable distance. + +Jansoulet was seated, without a cravat, with his waistcoat thrown open, +talking excitedly, in an undertone. Felicia answered in laughing +whispers. The sitting was very animated. Then there was a pause, a +rustling of skirts, and the artist, going up to her model, turned his +linen collar back all the way around, with a familiar gesture, letting +her hand run lightly over the tanned skin. + +That Ethiopian face, in which the muscles quivered with the +intoxication of supreme content, with its great eyelids lowered like +those of a sleeping beast being tickled with a straw, the bold outline +of the girl as she leaned over that outlandish face to verify its +proportions, and then a violent, irresistible gesture, seizing the +slender hand as it passed and pressing it to two thick, trembling +lips,--Jenkins saw all this in a red glare. + +The noise that he made in entering caused the two to resume their +respective positions, and in the bright light which dazzled his prying, +catlike eyes, he saw the girl standing before him, indignant, +dumfounded: "What is this? Who has dared?" and the Nabob on his +platform, with his collar turned back, petrified, monumental. + +Jenkins, somewhat abashed, dismayed by his own audacity, stammered some +words of apology. He had something very urgent to say to M. Jansoulet, +very important information which could not be delayed. He knew from a +reliable source that there would be a distribution of crosses on March +16th. The Nabob's face, momentarily contracted, at once relaxed. + +"Ah! really?" + +He abandoned his pose. The matter was well worth considering, deuce +take it! M. de La Perriere, one of the Empress's secretaries, had been +directed by her to visit the shelter of Bethlehem. Jenkins had come to +take the Nabob to the secretary's office at the Tuileries and make +inquiries. That visit to Bethlehem meant a cross for him. + +"Come, let us be off; I am with you, my dear doctor." + +He bore Jenkins no ill-will for disturbing him, and he feverishly tied +his cravat, forgetting under the stress of his new emotion the +agitation of a moment before, for with him ambition took precedence of +everything. + +While the two men talked together in undertones, Felicia, standing +before them, with quivering nostrils and lip curling in scorn, watched +them as if to say: "Well! I am waiting." + +Jansoulet apologized for being obliged to interrupt the sitting; but a +visit of the utmost importance--She smiled pityingly. + +"Go, go. At the point where we are now, I can work without you." + +"Oh! yes," said the doctor, "the bust is almost finished. It's a fine +piece of work," he added, with the air of a connoisseur. + +And, relying on the compliment to cover his retreat, he was slinking +away, crestfallen; but Felicia fiercely called him back: + +"Stay, you. I have something to say to you." + +He saw by her expression that he must comply, under pain of an +outbreak. + +"With your permission, my friend? Mademoiselle has a word to say to me. +My coupe is at the door. Get in, I will be with you in a moment." + +When the studio door closed upon those heavy departing footsteps, they +looked each other in the face. + +"You must be either drunk or mad to venture to do such a thing. What! +you presume to enter my studio when I do not choose to receive? Why +this violence? By what right?" + +"By the right that desperate, unconquerable passion gives." + +"Be quiet, Jenkins; those are words that I do not wish to hear. I let +you come here through pity, through habit, because my father was fond +of you. But never speak to me again of your--love"--she said the word +very low, as if it were a disgrace--"or you will see me no more, even +though I should be driven to die in order to escape you for good and +all." + +A child taken in fault does not bend his head more humbly than Jenkins +as he replied: + +"True--I was wrong. A moment of madness, of blindness. But why do you +take pleasure in tearing my heart as you do?" + +"As if I were thinking of you!" + +"Whether you are thinking of me or not, I am here, I see what is going +on, and your coquetry pains me terribly." + +A slight flush rose in her cheeks at that reproach. + +"I, a coquette! With whom?" + +"With him," said the Irishman, pointing to the superb apelike bust. + +She tried to laugh. + +"The Nabob. What nonsense!" + +"Do not lie. Do you think I am blind, that I don't understand all your +manoeuvres? You stay alone with him a long while. I was at the door +just now. I saw you." He lowered his voice as if his breath had failed +him. "What are you after, in heaven's name, you strange, heartless +child? I have seen you repel the handsomest, the noblest, the greatest. +That little de Gery devours you with his eyes, but you pay no heed to +him. Even the Duc de Mora has not succeeded in reaching your heart. And +this man, a shocking, vulgar creature, who isn't thinking of you, who +has something very different from love in his head--you saw how he went +away just now! What are you aiming at? What do you expect from him?" + +"I intend--I intend that he shall marry me. There." + +Coolly, in a softer tone, as if the confession had drawn her nearer to +the man she despised so bitterly, she set forth her reasons. She had +luxurious, extravagant tastes, unmethodical habits which nothing could +overcome and which would infallibly lead her to poverty and +destitution, and good Crenmitz too, who allowed herself to be ruined +without a word. In three years, four years at most, it would be all +over. And then would come debts and desperate expedients, the ragged +gowns and old shoes of poor artists' households. Or else the lover, the +keeper, that is to say slavery and degradation. + +"Nonsense," said Jenkins. "What of me, am I not here?" + +"Anything rather than you," she said, drawing herself up. "No, what I +must have, what I will have, is a husband to protect me from others and +from myself, to keep me from a mass of black things of which I am +afraid when life becomes a bore to me, from abysses into which I feel +that I may plunge,--some one who will love me while I work, and will +relieve my poor old exhausted fairy from doing sentry duty. That man +suits me and I have had my eye on him ever since I first saw him. He is +ugly to look at, but he seems kind; and then he is absurdly rich, and +wealth, in that degree, must be amusing. Oh! I know all about it. There +probably is some black spot in his life which has brought him good +luck. All that gold can't have been honestly come by. But tell me +truly, Jenkins, with your hand on that heart which you invoke so often, +do you think that I am a very tempting wife for an honest man? +Consider: of all these young men who ask as a favor to be allowed to +come here, what one has ever thought of asking for my hand? Never a +single one. De Gery no more than the rest. I charm, but I terrify. That +is easily understood. What can anyone expect of a girl brought up as I +was, with no mother or family, tossed in a heap with my father's models +and mistresses? Such mistresses, great God! And Jenkins for my only +protector. Oh! when I think of it! When I think of it!" + +And, with the memory of that already distant episode, thoughts came to +her mind which inflamed her wrath. "Oh! yes, I am a child of chance, +and this adventurer is just the husband for me."[2] + + [2] Je suis une fille _d'aventure_, et cet _aventurier_ est bien + le mari qu'il me faut. + +"At least you will wait until he's a widower," retorted Jenkins +tranquilly. "And in that case you may have to wait a long while, for +his Levantine looks to be in excellent health." + +Felicia Ruys became livid. + +"He is married?" + +"Married, why, to be sure, and father of a lot of children. The whole +outfit landed here two days ago." + +She stood for a moment, speechless, her cheeks quivering. + +In front of her the Nabob's broad visage, in shining clay, with its +flat nose, its sensual good-humored mouth, seemed to cry aloud in its +fidelity to life. She gazed at it a moment, then stepped toward it, and +with a gesture of disgust overturned the high, wooden stand and the +gleaming, greasy block itself, which fell to the floor a shapeless mass +of mud. + + + + +VII. + +JANSOULET AT HOME. + + +Married he had been for twelve years, but had never mentioned the fact +to any one of his Parisian acquaintances, by virtue of an acquired +Oriental habit, the habit that Oriental peoples have of maintaining +silence concerning their female relations. Suddenly it was learned that +Madame was coming, that apartments must be made ready for her, her +children and her women. The Nabob hired the whole second floor of the +house on Place Vendome, the previous tenant being sacrificed to Nabob +prices. The stables were increased in size, the staff of servants was +doubled; and then, one day, coachmen and carriages went to the Lyon +station to fetch Madame, who arrived with a retinue of negresses, +little negroes and gazelles, completely filling a long train that had +been heated expressly for her all the way from Marseille. + +She alighted in a terrible state of prostration, exhausted and +bewildered by her long railroad journey, the first in her life, for she +had been taken to Tunis as a child and had never left it. Two negroes +carried her from the carriage to her apartments in an armchair, which +was always kept in the vestibule thereafter, ready for that difficult +transportation. Madame Jansoulet could not walk upstairs, for it made +her dizzy; she would not have an elevator because her weight made it +squeak; besides, she never walked. An enormous creature, so bloated +that it was impossible to assign her an age, but somewhere between +twenty-five and forty, with rather a pretty face, but features all +deformed by fat, lifeless eyes beneath drooping lids grooved like +shells, trussed up in exported gowns, loaded with diamonds and jewels +like a Hindoo idol, she was a most perfect specimen of the transplanted +Europeans who are called Levantines. A strange race of obese Creoles, +connected with our society by naught save language and dress, but +enveloped by the Orient in its stupefying atmosphere, the subtle +poisons of its opium-laden air, in which everything becomes limp and +nerveless, from the tissues of the skin to the girdle around the waist, +ay, even to the mind itself and the thought. + +She was the daughter of an enormously wealthy Belgian, a dealer in +coral at Tunis, in whose establishment Jansoulet had been employed for +several months on his first arrival in the country. Mademoiselle +Afchin, at that time a fascinating doll, with dazzling complexion and +hair, and perfect health, came often to the counting-room for her +father, in the great chariot drawn by mules which conveyed them to +their beautiful villa of La Marse in the outskirts of Tunis. The child, +always _decollete_, with gleaming white shoulders seen for a moment in +a luxurious frame, dazzled the adventurer; and years after, when he had +become rich, the favorite of the bey, and thought of settling down, his +mind reverted to her. The child had changed into a stout, heavy, sallow +girl. Her intellect, never of a high order, had become still more +obtuse in the torpor of such a life as dormice lead, in the neglect of +a father whose whole time and thought were given to business, and in +the use of tobacco saturated with opium and of sweetmeats,--the torpor +of her Flemish blood conjoined with Oriental indolence; and with all +the rest, ill-bred, gluttonous, sensual, arrogant, a Levantine trinket +brought to perfection. + +But Jansoulet saw nothing of all that. + +In his eyes she was then, she was always, down to the time of her +arrival in Paris, a superior being, a person of the highest refinement, +a Demoiselle Afchin; he spoke to her with respect, maintained a +slightly humble and timid attitude toward her, gave her money without +counting it, indulged her most extravagant caprices, her wildest whims, +all the strange conceits of a Levantine's brain distracted by ennui and +idleness. A single word justified everything; she was a Demoiselle +Afchin. And yet they had nothing in common; he was always at the Kasbah +or the Bardo, in attendance on the bey, paying his court to him, or +else in his counting-room; she passed her day in bed, on her head a +diadem of pearls worth three hundred thousand francs, which she never +laid aside, brutalizing herself by smoking, living as in a harem, +admiring herself in the mirror, arraying herself in fine clothes, in +company with several other Levantines, whose greatest joy consisted in +measuring with their necklaces the girth of arms and legs which +rivalled one another in corpulency, bringing forth children with whom +she never concerned herself, whom she never saw, who had never even +caused her suffering, for she was delivered under the influence of +chloroform. A "bale" of white flesh perfumed with musk. And Jansoulet +would say with pride: "I married a Demoiselle Afchin!" + +Under Parisian skies and in the cold light of the capital, his +disillusionment began. Having determined to set up a regular +establishment, to receive, to give entertainments, the Nabob had sent +for his wife, in order to place her at the head of his house. But when +he saw that mass of stiff, crackling dry-goods, of Palais-Royal finery, +alight at his door, and all the extraordinary outfit that followed her, +he had a vague impression of a Queen Pomare in exile. The difficulty +was that he had seen some genuine women of fashion and he made +comparisons. He had planned a grand ball to celebrate her arrival, but +he prudently abstained. Indeed Madame Jansoulet refused to receive any +one. Her natural indolence was augmented by the homesickness which the +cold yellow fog and the pouring rain had brought upon her as soon as +she landed. She passed several days in bed, crying aloud like a child, +declaring that they had brought her to Paris to kill her, and even +rejecting the slightest attentions from her women. She lay there +roaring among her lace pillows, her hair in a tangled mass around her +diadem, the windows closed and curtains tightly drawn, lamps lighted +day and night, crying out that she wanted to go away--ay, to go +away--ay; and it was a pitiful thing to see, in that tomb-like +darkness, the half-filled trunks scattered over the carpet, the +frightened gazelles, the negresses crouching around their hysterical +mistress, groaning in unison, with haggard eyes, like the dogs of +travellers in polar countries which go mad when they cannot see the +sun. + +The Irish doctor, upon being admitted to that distressing scene, had no +success with his fatherly ways, his fine superficial phrases. Not at +any price would the Levantine take the pearls with arsenical base, to +give tone to her system. The Nabob was horrified. What was he to do? +Send her back to Tunis with the children? That was hardly possible. He +was definitively in disgrace there. The Hemerlingues had triumphed. A +last insult had filled the measure to overflowing: on Jansoulet's +departure the bey had commissioned him to have several millions of gold +coined after a new pattern at the Paris Mint; then the commission had +been abruptly withdrawn and given to Hemerlingue. Jansoulet, being +publicly insulted, retorted with a public manifesto, offering all his +property for sale, his palace on the Bardo presented to him by the +former bey, his villas at La Marse, all of white marble, surrounded by +magnificent gardens, his counting rooms, the most commodious and most +sumptuously furnished in the city, and instructing the intelligent +Bompain to bring his wife and children to Paris in order to put the +seal of finality to his departure. After such a display, it would be +hard to return; that is what he tried to make Mademoiselle Afchin +understand, but she replied only by prolonged groans. He strove to +comfort her, to amuse her, but what form of distraction could be made +to appeal to that abnormally apathetic nature? And then, could he +change the skies of Paris, give back to the wretched Levantine her +marble-tiled _patio_, where she used to pass long hours in a cool, +delicious state of drowsiness, listening to the plashing of the water +in the great alabaster fountain with three basins one above the other, +and her gilded boat, covered with a purple awning and rowed by eight +supple, muscular Tripolitan oarsmen over the lovely lake of El-Baheira, +when the sun was setting? Sumptuous as were the apartments on Place +Vendome, they could not supply the place of those lost treasures. And +she plunged deeper than ever in her despair. One habitue of the house +succeeded, however, in drawing her out of it, Cabassu, who styled +himself on his cards "professor of massage;" a stout dark thick-set +man, redolent of garlic and hair-oil, square-shouldered, covered with +hair to his eyes, who knew stories of Parisian seraglios, trivial +anecdotes within the limited range of Madame's intellect. He came once +to rub her, and she wished to see him again, detained him. He was +obliged to abandon all his other customers and to become the _masseur_ +of that able-bodied creature, at a salary equal to that of a senator, +her page, her reader, her body-guard. Jansoulet, overjoyed to see that +his wife was contented, was not conscious of the disgusting absurdity +of the intimacy. + +Cabassu was seen in the Bois, in the enormous and sumptuous caleche +beside the favorite gazelle, at the back of the theatre boxes which the +Levantine hired, for she went abroad now, revivified by her masseur's +treatment and determined to be amused. She liked the theatre, +especially farces or melodramas. The apathy of her unwieldy body was +minimized in the false glare of the footlights. But she enjoyed +Cardailhac's theatre most of all. There the Nabob was at home. From the +first manager down to the last box-opener, the whole staff belonged to +him. He had a key to the door leading from the corridor to the stage; +and the salon attached to his box, decorated in Oriental fashion, with +the ceiling hollowed out like a bee-hive, divans upholstered in camel's +hair, the gas-jet enclosed in a little Moorish lantern, was admirably +adapted for a nap during the tedious _entr'actes_: a delicate +compliment from the manager to his partner's wife. Nor had that monkey +of a Cardailhac stopped at that: detecting Mademoiselle Afchin's liking +for the stage, he had succeeded in persuading her that she possessed an +intuitive knowledge of all things pertaining to it, and had ended by +asking her to cast a glance in her leisure moments, the glance of an +expert, upon such pieces as he sent to her. An excellent way of binding +the partnership more firmly. + +Poor manuscripts in blue or yellow covers, which hope has tied with +slender ribbons, ye who take flight swelling with ambition and with +dreams, who knows what hands will open you, turn your leaves, what +prying fingers will deflower your unknown charm, that shining dust +stored up by every new idea? Who passes judgment on you, and who +condemns you? Sometimes, before going out to dinner, Jansoulet, on +going up to his wife's room, would find her smoking in her easy-chair, +with her head thrown back and piles of manuscript by her side, and +Cabassu, armed with a blue pencil, reading in his hoarse voice and with +his Bourg-Saint-Andeol intonation some dramatic lucubration which he +cut and slashed remorselessly at the slightest word of criticism from +the lady. "Don't disturb yourselves," the good Nabob's wave of the hand +would say, as he entered the room on tiptoe. He would listen and nod +his head admiringly as he looked at his wife. "She's an astonishing +creature," he would say to himself, for he knew nothing of literature, +and in that direction at all events he recognized Mademoiselle Afchin's +superiority. + +"She had the theatrical instinct," as Cardailhac said; but as an +offset, the maternal instinct was entirely lacking. She never gave a +thought to her children, abandoning them to the hands of strangers, +and, when they were brought to her once a month, contenting herself +with giving them the flabby, lifeless flesh of her cheeks to kiss, +between two puffs of a cigarette, and never making inquiries concerning +the details of care and health which perpetuate the physical bond of +motherhood, and make the true mother's heart bleed in sympathy with her +child's slightest suffering. + +They were three stout, heavy, apathetic boys, of eleven, nine, and +seven years, with the Levantine's sallow complexion and premature +bloated appearance, and their father's velvety, kindly eyes. They were +as ignorant as young noblemen of the Middle Ages; in Tunis M. Bompain +had charge of their studies, but in Paris the Nabob, intent upon giving +them the benefit of a Parisian education, had placed them in the most +stylish and most expensive boarding school, the College Bourdaloue, +conducted by excellent Fathers, who aimed less at teaching their pupils +than at moulding them into well-bred, reflecting men of the world, and +who succeeded in producing little monstrosities, affected and +ridiculous, scornful of play, absolutely ignorant, with no trace of +spontaneity or childishness, and despairingly pert and forward. The +little Jansoulets did not enjoy themselves overmuch in that hothouse +for early fruits, notwithstanding the special privileges accorded to +their immense wealth; they were really too neglected. Even the Creoles +in the institution had correspondents and visitors; but they were never +called to the parlor, nor was any relative of theirs known to the +school authorities; from time to time they received baskets of +sweetmeats or windfalls of cake, and that was all. The Nabob, as he +drove through Paris, would strip a confectioner's shop-window for their +benefit and send the contents to the college with that affectionate +impulsiveness blended with negro-like ostentation which characterized +all his acts. It was the same with their toys, always too fine, too +elaborate, of no earthly use, the toys which are made only for show and +which the Parisian never buys. But the thing to which above all others +the little Jansoulets owed the respectful consideration of pupils and +masters was their well-filled purse, always ready for collections, for +professorial entertainments, and for the charitable visits, the famous +visits inaugurated by the College Bourdaloue, one of the tempting items +on the programme of the institution, the admiration of impressionable +minds. + +Twice a month, turn and turn about, the pupils belonging to the little +Society of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, established at the college on the +model of the great society of that name, went in small detachments, +unattended, like grown men, to carry succor and consolation to the +farthest corners of the thickly-peopled faubourgs. In that way it was +sought to teach them charity by experience, the art of finding out the +wretchedness, the necessities of the people and of dressing their +sores, always more or less repulsive, with a balsam of kind words and +ecclesiastical maxims. To console, to convert the masses by the aid of +childhood, to disarm religious incredulity by the youth and innocence +of the apostles; such was the purpose of that little society, a purpose +that failed absolutely of realization, by the way. The children, +well-dressed, well-fed, in excellent health, went only to addresses +designated beforehand and found respectable poor people, sometimes a +little ailing, but far too clean, already enrolled and relieved by the +rich charitable organizations of the Church. They never happened upon +one of those loathsome homes, where hunger, mourning, abject poverty, +all forms of misery, physical and moral, are written in filth on the +walls, in indelible wrinkles on the faces. Their visit was arranged in +advance like that of the sovereign to the guard-house to taste the +soldier's soup; the guard-house is notified and the soup seasoned for +the royal palate. Have you seen those pictures in religious books, +where a little communicant, with his bow on his arm and his taper in +his hand, all combed and curled, goes to assist a poor old man lying on +his wretched pallet with the whites of his eyes turned up to the sky? +These charitable visits had the same conventional stage-setting and +accent. The machine-like gestures of the little preachers with arms too +short for the work, were answered by words learned by rote, so false as +to set one's teeth on edge. The comical words of encouragement, the +"consolation lavishly poured forth" in prize-book phrases by voices +suggestive of young roosters with the influenza, called forth emotional +blessings, the whining, sickening mummery of a church porch after +vespers. And as soon as the young visitors' backs were turned, what an +explosion of laughter and shouting in the garret, what a dancing around +the offerings brought, what an overturning of armchairs in which they +have been feigning illness, what a pouring of boluses into the fire, a +fire of ashes, very artistically arranged! When the little Jansoulets +went to visit their parents, they were placed in charge of the man with +the red fez, Bompain the indispensable. It was Bompain who took them to +the Champs-Elysees, arrayed in English jackets, silk hats of the latest +style--at seven years!--and with little canes dangling from the ends of +their dogskin gloves. It was Bompain who superintended the victualling +of the break on which he went with the children to the races, +race-cards stuck in their hats around which green veils were twisted, +wonderfully like the characters in lilliputian pantomimes whose +comicality consists solely in the size of their heads compared with +their short legs and dwarfish movements. They smoked and drank +outrageously. Sometimes the man in the fez, himself hardly able to +stand, brought them home horribly ill. And yet Jansoulet loved his +little ones, especially the youngest, who, with his long hair and his +doll-like aspect, reminded him of little Afchin in her carriage. But +they were still at the age when children belong to the mother, when +neither a stylish tailor nor accomplished masters nor a fashionable +boarding-school nor the ponies saddled for the little men in the +stable, when nothing in short takes the place of the watchful and +attentive hand, the warmth and gayety of the nest. The father was +unable to give them that in any event; and then he was so busy! + +A thousand matters, the _Caisse Territoriale_, the arrangement of +the picture gallery, races at Tattersall's with Bois-l'Hery, some +gimcrack to go and see, here or there, at the houses of collectors to +whom Schwalbach recommended him, hours passed with trainers, jockeys, +dealers in curiosities, the occupied, varied existence of a bourgeois +gentleman in modern Paris. In all this going and coming he succeeded in +Parisianizing himself a little more each day, was admitted to +Monpavon's club, made welcome in the green-room at the ballet, behind +the scenes at the theatre, and continued to preside at his famous +bachelor breakfasts, the only entertainments possible in his +establishment. His existence was really very full, and yet de Gery +relieved him from the most difficult part of it, the complicated +department of solicitations and contributions. + +The young man was now a witness, as he sat at his desk, of all the +audacious and burlesque inventions, all the heroi-comic schemes of that +mendicancy of a great city, organized like a ministerial department and +in numbers like an army, which subscribes to the newspapers and knows +its _Bottin_ by heart. It was his business to receive the fair-haired +lady, young, brazen-faced and already faded, who asks for only a +hundred louis, threatening to throw herself into the water immediately +upon leaving the house if they are not forthcoming, and the stout +matron, with affable, unceremonious manners, who says on entering the +room: "Monsieur, you do not know me. Nor have I the honor of knowing +you; but we shall soon know each other. Be kind enough to sit down and +let us talk." The tradesman in difficulties, on the brink of +insolvency--it is sometimes true--who comes to entreat you to save his +honor, with a pistol all ready for suicide bulging out the pocket of +his coat--sometimes it is only the bowl of his pipe. And oftentimes +cases of genuine distress, prolix and tiresome, of people who do not +even know how to tell how unfitted they are to earn their living. +Besides such instances of avowed mendicancy, there were others in +disguise: charity, philanthropy, good works, encouragement of artists, +house-to-house collections for children's hospitals, parish churches, +penitentiaries, benevolent societies or district libraries. And lastly +those that array themselves in a worldly mask: tickets to concerts, +benefit performances, tickets of all colors, "platform, front row, +reserved sections." The Nabob's orders were that no one should be +refused, and it was a decided gain that he no longer attended to such +matters in person. For a long time he had deluged all this hypocritical +scheming with gold, with lordly indifference, paying five hundred +francs for a ticket to a concert by some Wurtemberg zither-player, or +Languedocian flutist, which would have been quoted at ten francs at the +Tuileries or the Due de Mora's. On some days young de Gery went out +from these sessions actually nauseated. All his youthful honesty rose +in revolt; he attempted to induce the Nabob to institute some reforms; +but he, at the first word, assumed the bored expression characteristic +of weak natures when called upon to give an opinion, or else replied +with a shrug of his great shoulders: "Why this is Paris, my dear child. +Don't you be alarmed, but just let me alone. I know where I'm going and +what I want." + +He wanted two things at that time,--a seat in the Chamber of Deputies +and the cross of the Legion of Honor. In his view those were the first +two stages of the long ascent which his ambition impelled him to +undertake. He certainly would be chosen a deputy through the _Caisse +Territoriale_, at the head of which he was. Paganetti from +Porto-Vecchio often said to him: + +"When the day comes, the island will rise as one man and vote for you." + +But electors were not the only thing it was necessary to have; there +must be a vacant seat in the Chamber, and the delegation from Corsica +was full. One member, however, old Popolasca, being infirm and in no +condition to perform his duties, might be willing to resign on certain +conditions. It was a delicate matter to negotiate, but quite +practicable, for the good man had a large family, estates which +produced almost nothing, a ruined palace at Bastia, where his children +lived on _polenta_, and an apartment at Paris, in a furnished +lodging-house of the eighteenth order. By not haggling over one or two +hundred thousand francs, they might come to terms with that famished +legislator who, when sounded by Paganetti, did not say yes or no, being +allured by the magnitude of the sum but held back by the vainglory of +his office. The affair was in that condition and might be decided any +day. + +With regard to the Cross, the prospect was even brighter. The Work of +Bethlehem had certainly created a great sensation at the Tuileries. +Nothing was now wanting but M. de La Perriere's visit and his report, +which could not fail to be favorable, to ensure the appearance on the +list of March 16th, the date of an imperial anniversary, of the +glorious name of Jansoulet. The 16th of March, that is to say, within a +month. What would old Hemerlingue say to that signal distinction?--old +Hemerlingue, who had had to be content with the Nisham for so long. And +the bey, who had been made to believe that Jansoulet was under the ban +of Parisian society, and the old mother, down at Saint-Romans, who was +always so happy over her son's successes! Was not all that worth a few +millions judiciously distributed and strewn by that road leading to +renown, along which the Nabob walked like a child, with no fear of +being devoured at the end? And was there not in these external joys, +these honors, this dearly bought consideration, a measure of +compensation for all the chagrins of that Oriental won back to European +life, who longed for a home and had naught but a caravansary, who +sought a wife and found naught but a Levantine? + + + + +VIII. + +THE WORK OF BETHLEHEM. + + +Bethlehem! Why did that legendary name, sweet to the ear, warm as the +straw in the miraculous stable, give you such a cold shudder when you +saw it in gilt letters over that iron gateway? The feeling was due +perhaps to the melancholy landscape, the vast, desolate plain that +stretches from Nanterre to Saint-Cloud, broken only by an occasional +clump of trees or the smoke from some factory chimney. Perhaps, too, in +a measure, to the disproportion between the humble hamlet of Judaea and +that grandiose structure, that villa in the style of Louis XIII., built +of small stones and mortar, and showing pink through the leafless +branches of the park, where there were several large ponds with a +coating of green slime. Certain it is that on passing the place one's +heart contracted. When one entered the grounds it was much worse. An +oppressive, inexplicable silence hovered about the house, where the +faces at the windows had a depressing aspect behind the small +old-fashioned, greenish panes. The she-goats, straying along the paths, +languidly cropped the first shoots of grass, with occasional "baas" in +the direction of their keeper, who seemed as bored as they, and +followed visitors with a listless eye. There was an air of mourning, +the deserted, terrified aspect of a plague-stricken spot. Yet that had +once been an attractive, cheerful property, and there had been much +feasting and revelry there not long before. It had been laid out for +the famous singer who had sold it to Jenkins, and it exhibited traces +of the imaginative genius peculiar to the operatic stage, in the bridge +across the pond, where there was a sunken wherry filled with +water-soaked leaves, and in its summer-house, all of rockwork, covered +with climbing ivy. It had seen some droll sights, had that +summer-house, in the singer's time, and now it saw some sad ones, for +the infirmary was located there. + +To tell the truth, the whole establishment was simply one huge +infirmary. The children fell sick as soon as they arrived, languished +and finally died unless their parents speedily removed them to the safe +shelter of their homes. The cure of Nanterre went so often to Bethlehem +with his black vestments and his silver crucifix, the undertaker had so +many orders for coffins for the house, that it was talked about in the +neighborhood, and indignant mothers shook their fists at the model +nursery, but only at a safe distance if they happened to have in their +arms a little pink and white morsel of humanity to shelter from all the +contagions of that spot. That was what gave the miserable place such a +heart-rending look. A house where children die cannot be cheerful; it +is impossible for the trees to bloom there, or the birds to nest, or +the water to flow in laughing ripples of foam. + +The institution seemed to be fairly inaugurated. Jenkins' idea, +excellent in theory, was extremely difficult, almost impracticable, in +practice. And yet God knows that the affair had been carried through +with an excess of zeal as to every detail, even the most trifling, and +that all the money and attendants necessary were forthcoming. At the +head of the establishment was one of the most skilful men in the +profession, M. Pondevez, a graduate of the Paris hospitals; and +associated with him, to take more direct charge of the children, a +trustworthy woman, Madame Polge. Then there were maids and seamstresses +and nurses. And how perfectly everything was arranged and systematized, +from the distribution of the water through fifty faucets, to the +omnibus with its driver in the Bethlehem livery, going to the station +at Rueil to meet every train, with a great jingling of bells. And the +magnificent goats, goats from Thibet, with long silky coats and +bursting udders. Everything was beyond praise in the organization of +the establishment; but there was one point at which everything went to +pieces. This artificial nursing, so belauded in the prospectus, did not +agree with the children. It was a strange obstinacy, as if they +conspired together with a glance, the poor little creatures, for they +were too young to speak--most of them were destined never to speak--"If +you say so, we won't suck the goats." And they did not, they preferred +to die one after another rather than to suck them. Was Jesus of +Bethlehem nursed by a goat in his stable? Did he not, on the contrary, +nestle against a woman's breast, soft and full, on which he fell asleep +when his thirst was satisfied? Who ever saw a goat among the legendary +oxen and asses on that night when the beasts spoke? In that case, why +lie, why call it Bethlehem? + +The manager was touched at first by so many deaths. This Pondevez, a +waif and estray of the life of the Quarter, a twentieth year student +well known in all the fruit-shops of Boulevard Saint-Michel under the +name of Pompon, was not a bad man. When he realized the failure of +artificial nursing, he simply hired four or five buxom nurses in the +neighborhood, and nothing more was needed to revive the children's +appetites. That humane impulse was near costing him his place. + +"Nurses at Bethlehem," said Jenkins in a rage, when he came to pay his +weekly visit. "Are you mad? Upon my word! why the goats then, and the +lawns to feed them, and my idea, and the pamphlets about my idea? What +becomes of all these? Why, you're going against my system, you're +stealing the founder's money." + +"But, my dear master," the student tried to reply, passing his hands +through his long red beard, "but--as they don't like that food--" + +"Very well! let them go hungry, but let the principle of artificial +nursing be respected. Everything depends on that. I don't wish to have +to tell you so again. Send away those horrible nurses. For bringing up +our children we have goat's milk and cow's milk in a great emergency; +but I can't concede anything beyond that." + +He added, with his apostolic air: + +"We are here to demonstrate a grand philanthropic idea. It must +triumph, even at the cost of some sacrifices. Look to it." + +Pondevez did not insist. After all, it was a good place, near enough to +Paris to permit descents upon Nanterre from the Quarter on Sunday, or a +visit by the manager to his favorite breweries. Madame Polge--whom +Jenkins always called "our intelligent overseer," and whom he had in +fact placed there to oversee everything, the manager first of all--was +not so austere as her duties would lead one to believe, and readily +yielded to the charm of a _petit verre_ or two of "right cognac," or +to a game of bezique for fifteen hundred points. So he dismissed the +nurses and tried to harden himself against whatever might happen. What +did happen? A genuine Massacre of the Innocents. So that the few +parents who were possessed of any means at all, mechanics or tradesmen +of the faubourgs, who had been tempted by the advertisements to part +with their children, speedily took them away, and there remained in the +establishment only the wretched little creatures picked up under +porches or in the fields, or sent by the hospitals, and doomed from +their birth to all manner of ills. As the mortality constantly +increased, even that source of supply failed, and the omnibus that had +departed at full speed for the railway station returned as light and +springy as an empty hearse. How could that state of affairs last? How +long would it take to kill off the twenty-five or thirty little ones +who were left? That is what the manager, or, as he had christened +himself, the register of deaths, Pondevez, was wondering one morning +after breakfast, as he sat opposite Madame Polge's venerable curls, +taking a hand at that lady's favorite game. + +"Yes, my dear Madame Polge, what is to become of us? Things cannot go +on long like this. Jenkins won't give in, the children are as obstinate +as mules. There's no gainsaying it, they'll all pass out of our hands. +There's that little Wallachian--I mark the king, Madame Polge--who may +die any minute. Poor little brat, just think, it's three days since +anything went into his stomach. I don't care what Jenkins says; you +can't improve children, like snails, by starving them. It's a +distressing thing not to be able to save a single one. The infirmary +hasn't unlimited capacity. In all earnestness this is a pitiful +business. Bezique, forty." + +Two strokes of the bell at the main entrance interrupted his monologue. +The omnibus was returning from the station and its wheels ground into +the gravel in unaccustomed fashion. + +"What an astonishing thing!" said Pondevez, "the carriage isn't empty." + +In truth the vehicle drew up at the steps with a certain pride, and the +man who alighted crossed the threshold at a bound. It was an express +from Jenkins with important news; the doctor would be there in two +hours to inspect the asylum, with the Nabob and a gentleman from the +Tuileries. He gave strict injunctions that everything should be ready +for their reception. The plan was formed so suddenly that he had not +had time to write; but he relied on M. Pondevez to make the necessary +arrangements. + +"Deuce take him and his necessary arrangements! muttered Pondevez in +dismay. It was a critical situation. That momentous visit came at the +worst possible moment, when the system was rapidly going to pieces. +Poor Pompon, in dire perplexity, tugged at his beard and gnawed the +ends of it. + +"Come, come," he said abruptly to Madame Polge, whose long face had +grown still longer between her false curls. "There is only one thing +for us to do. We must clear out the infirmary, carry all the sick ones +into the dormitory. They'll be no better nor worse for spending half a +day there. As for the scrofulous ones, we'll just put them out of +sight. They're too ugly, we won't show them. Come, off we go! all hands +on deck!" + +The dinner-bell rang the alarm and everybody hurried to the spot. +Seamstresses, nurses, maid-servants, came running from every side, +jostling one another in the corridors, hurrying across the yards. +Orders flew hither and thither, and there was a great calling and +shouting; but above all the other noises soared the noise of a grand +scrubbing, of rushing water, as if Bethlehem had been surprised by a +conflagration. And the wailing of sick children torn from their warm +beds, all the whimpering little bundles carried through the damp park, +with a fluttering of bedclothes among the branches, strengthened the +impression of a fire. In two hours, thanks to the prodigious activity +displayed, the whole house from top to bottom was ready for the +impending visit, all the members of the staff at their posts, the fire +lighted in the stove, the goats scattered picturesquely through the +park. Madame Polge had put on her green dress, the manager's attire was +a little less slovenly than usual, but so simple as to exclude any idea +of premeditation. Let the Empress's secretary come! + +And here he is. + +He alights with Jenkins and Jansoulet from a magnificent carriage with +the Nabob's red and gold livery. Feigning the utmost astonishment, +Pondevez rushes forward to meet his visitors. + +"Ah! Monsieur Jenkins, what an honor! What a surprise!" + +Salutations are exchanged on the stoop, reverences, handshakings, +introductions. Jenkins, his coat thrown back from his loyal breast, +indulges in his heartiest, most engaging smile; but a meaning furrow +lies across his brow. He is anxious concerning the surprises that the +establishment may have in store, for he knows its demoralized +condition. If only Pondevez has taken proper precautions! It begins +well, however. The somewhat theatrical aspect of the approach to the +house, the white fleeces gambolling among the shrubbery, have enchanted +M. de La Perriere, who, with his innocent eyes, his straggling white +beard and the constant nodding of his head, is not himself unlike a +goat escaped from its tether. + +"First of all, messieurs, the most important room in the house, the +Nursery," says the manager, opening a massive door at the end of the +reception-room. The gentlemen follow him, descend a few steps and find +themselves in an enormous basement room, with tiled floor, formerly the +kitchen of the chateau. The thing that impresses one on entering is a +huge, high fireplace of the old pattern, in red brick, with two stone +benches facing each other under the mantel, and the singer's crest--an +immense lyre with a roll of music--carved on the monumental pediment. +The effect was striking; but there came from it a terrible blast of +air, which, added to the cold of the floor, to the pale light falling +through the windows on a level with the ground, made one shudder for +the well-being of the children. What would you have? They were obliged +to use that unhealthy apartment for the Nursery because of the +capricious, country-bred nurses who were accustomed to the +unconstrained manners of the stable; one had only to see the pools of +milk, the great reddish spots drying on the floor, to inhale the acrid +odor that assailed your nostrils as you entered, mingled with whey and +moist hair and many other things, to be convinced of that absolute +necessity. + +The dark walls of the room were so high that at first the visitors +thought that the Nursery was deserted. They distinguished, however, at +the farther end, a bleating, whining, restless group. Two countrywomen, +with surly, brutish, dirty faces, two "dry-nurses," who well deserved +their name, were sitting on mats with their nurslings in their arms, +each having a large goat before her, with legs apart and distended +udders. The manager seemed to be agreeably surprised: + +"On my word, messieurs, this is a lucky chance. Two of our children are +having a little lunch. We will see how nurses and nurslings agree." + +"What's the matter with the man? He is mad," said Jenkins to himself, +in dire dismay. + +But the manager was very clear-headed, on the contrary, and had himself +shrewdly arranged the scene, selecting two patient, good-natured +beasts, and two exceptional subjects, two little idiots who were +determined to live at any price, and opened their mouths to nourishment +of any sort, like little birds still in the nest. + +"Come, messieurs, and see for yourselves." + +The cherubs were really nursing. One of them, cuddled under the goat's +belly, went at it so heartily that you could hear the _glou-glou_ of +the warm milk as it went down, down into his little legs, which +quivered with satisfaction. The other, more calm, lay indolently in his +Auvergnat nurse's lap, and required some little encouragement from her. + +"Come, suck, I tell you, suck, _bougri_!" + +At last, as if he had formed a sudden resolution, he began to drink so +greedily that the woman, surprised by his abnormal appetite, leaned +over him and exclaimed, with a laugh; + +"Ah! the scamp, what a mischievous trick! it's his thumb he's sucking +instead of the goat." + +He had thought of that expedient, the angel, to induce them to leave +him in peace. The incident produced no ill effect; on the contrary, M. +de La Perriere was much amused at the nurse's idea that the child had +tried to play a trick on them. He left the Nursery highly delighted. +"Positively de-de-delighted," he repeated as they ascended the grand +echoing staircase, decorated with stags' antlers, which led to the +dormitory. + +Very light and airy was that great room, occupying the whole of one +side of the house, with numerous windows, cradles at equal intervals, +with curtains as white and fleecy as clouds. Women were passing to and +fro in the broad passage-way in the centre, with piles of linen in +their arms, keys in their hands, overseers or "movers." Here they had +tried to do too much, and the first impression of the visitors was +unfavorable. All that white muslin, that waxed floor, in which the +light shone without blending, the clean window-panes reflecting the +sky, which wore a gloomy look at sight of such things, brought out more +distinctly the thinness, the sickly pallor of those little +shroud-colored, moribund creatures. Alas! the oldest were but six +months, the youngest barely a fortnight, and already, upon all those +faces, those embryotic faces, there was an expression of disgust, an +oldish, dogged look, a precocity born of suffering, visible in the +numberless wrinkles on those little bald heads, confined in linen caps +edged with tawdry hospital lace. From what did they suffer? What +disease had they? They had everything, everything that one can have; +diseases of children and diseases of adults. Offspring of poverty and +vice, they brought into the world when they were born ghastly phenomena +of heredity. One had a cleft palate, another great copper-colored +blotches on his forehead, and all were covered with humor. And then +they were starving to death. Notwithstanding the spoonfuls of milk and +sugared water that were forced into their mouths, and the +sucking-bottle that was used more or less in spite of the prohibition, +they were dying of inanition. Those poor creatures, exhausted before +they were born, needed the freshest, the most strengthening food; the +goats might perhaps have supplied it, but they had sworn not to suck +the goats. And that was what made the dormitory lugubrious and silent, +without any of the little outbursts of anger emphasized by clenched +fists, without any of the shrieks that show the even red gums, whereby +the child makes trial of his strength and of his lungs; only an +occasional plaintive groan, as if the soul were tossing and turning +restlessly in a little diseased body, unable to find a place to rest. + +Jenkins and the manager, noticing the unfavorable impression produced +upon their guests by the visit to the dormitory, tried to enliven the +situation by talking very loud, with a good-humored, frank, +well-satisfied manner. Jenkins shook hands warmly with the overseer. + +"Well, Madame Polge, are our little pupils getting on?" + +"As you see, Monsieur le Docteur," she replied, pointing to the beds. + +Very funereal in her green dress was tall Madame Polge, the ideal of +dry nurses; she completed the picture. + +But where had the Empress's secretary gone? He was standing by a +cradle, which he was scrutinizing sadly, shaking his head. + +"_Bigre de Bigre!_" whispered Pompon to Madame Polge. "It's the +Wallachian." + +The little blue card, hanging above the cradle as in hospitals, set +forth the nationality of the child within: "Moldo-Wallachian." What +cursed luck that Monsieur le Secretaire's eye should happen to light +upon him! Oh! the poor little head lying on the pillow, with cap all +awry, nostrils contracted, lips parted by a short, panting breath, the +breath of those who are just born and of those who are about to die. + +"Is he ill?" the secretary softly asked the manager, who had drawn +near. + +"Not in the least," replied the audacious Pompon, and he walked to the +cradle, poked the little one playfully with his finger, rearranged the +pillow, and said in a hearty, affectionate voice, albeit a little +roughly: "Well, old fellow?" Roused from his stupor, emerging from the +torpor which already enveloped him, the little fellow opened his eyes +and looked at the faces bending over him, with sullen indifference, +then, returning to his dream which he deemed more attractive, clenched +his little wrinkled hands and heaved an inaudible sigh. Oh! mystery! +Who can say for what purpose that child was born? To suffer two months +and to go away without seeing or understanding anything, before anyone +had heard the sound of his voice! + +"How pale he is!" muttered M. de La Perriere, himself as pale as death. +The Nabob, too, was as white as a sheet. A cold breath had passed over +them. The manager assumed an indifferent air. + +"It's the reflection. We all look green." + +"To be sure--to be sure," said Jenkins, "it's the reflection of the +pond. Just come and look, Monsieur le Secretaire." And he led him to +the window to point out the great sheet of water in which the willows +dipped their branches, while Madame Polge hastily closed the curtains +of his cradle upon the little Wallachian's never-ending dream. + +They must proceed quickly to inspect other portions of the +establishment in order to do away with that unfortunate impression. + +First they show M. de La Perriere the magnificent laundry, with +presses, drying machines, thermometers, huge closets of polished walnut +full of caps and nightgowns, tied together and labelled by dozens. When +the linen was well warmed the laundress passed it out through a little +wicket in exchange for the number passed in by the nurse. As you see, +the system was perfect, and everything, even to the strong smell of +lye, combined to give the room a healthy, country-like aspect. There +were garments enough there to clothe five hundred children. That was +the capacity of Bethlehem, and everything was provided on that basis: +the vast dispensary, gleaming with glass jars and Latin inscriptions, +with marble pestles in every corner; the hydropathic arrangements with +the great stone tanks, the shining tubs, the immense apparatus +traversed by pipes of all lengths for the ascending and descending +_douches_, in showers, in jets, and in whip-like streams; and the +kitchens fitted out with superb graduated copper kettles, with +economical coal and gas ovens. Jenkins had determined to make it a +model establishment; and it was an easy matter for him, for he had +worked on a grand scale, as one works when funds are abundant. One +could feel everywhere, too, the experience and the iron hand of "our +intelligent overseer," to whom the manager could not forbear to do +public homage. That was the signal for general congratulations. M. de +La Perriere, delighted with the equipment of the establishment, +congratulated Dr. Jenkins upon his noble creation, Jenkins +congratulated his friend Pondevez, who in his turn thanked the +secretary for having condescended to honor Bethlehem with a visit. The +good Nabob chimed in with that concert of laudation and had a pleasant +word for every one, but was somewhat astonished all the same that no +one congratulated him too, while they were about it. To be sure, the +best of all congratulations awaited him on the 16th of March at the +head of the _Journal Officiel_, in a decree which gleamed before his +eyes in anticipation and made him squint in the direction of his +buttonhole. + +These pleasant words were exchanged as they walked through a long +corridor where their sententious phrases were repeated by the echoes; +but suddenly a horrible uproar arrested their conversation and their +footsteps. It was like the miaouwing of frantic cats, the bellowing of +wild bulls, the howling of savages dancing the war-dance--a frightful +tempest of human yells, repeated and increased in volume and prolonged +by the high, resonant arches. It rose and fell, stopped suddenly, then +began again with extraordinary intensity. The manager was disturbed, +and started to make inquiries. Jenkins' eyes were inflamed with rage. + +"Let us go on," said the manager, really alarmed this time; "I know +what it is." + +He did know what it was; but M. de La Perriere proposed to know, too, +and before Pondevez could raise his hand, he pushed open the heavy door +of the room whence that fearful concert proceeded. + +In a vile kennel which the grand scouring had passed by, for they had +no idea of exhibiting it, some half score little monstrosities lay +stretched on mattresses laid side by side on the floor, under the +guardianship of a chair unoccupied save by an unfinished piece of +knitting, and a little cracked kettle, full of hot wine, boiling over a +smoking wood fire. They were the leprous, the scrofulous, the outcasts +of Bethlehem, who had been hidden away in that retired corner--with +injunctions to their dry nurse to amuse them, to pacify them, to sit on +them if necessary, so that they should not cry--but whom that stupid, +inquisitive countrywoman had left to themselves while she went to look +at the fine carriage standing in the courtyard. When her back was +turned the urchins soon wearied of their horizontal position; and all +the little, red-faced, blotched _croute-leves_ lifted up their robust +voices in concert, for they, by some miracle, were in good health, +their very disease saved and nourished them. As wild and squirming as +cockchafers thrown on their backs, struggling to rise with the aid of +knees and elbows,--some unable to recover their equilibrium after +falling on their sides, others sitting erect, bewildered, their little +legs wrapped in swaddling-clothes, they spontaneously ceased their +writhings and their cries when they saw the door open; but M. de La +Perriere's shaking beard reassured them, encouraged them to fresh +efforts, and in the renewed uproar the manager's explanation was almost +inaudible: "Children that are kept secluded--contagion--skin diseases." +Monsieur le Secretaire inquired no farther; less heroic than Bonaparte +when he visited the plague-stricken wretches at Jaffa, he rushed to the +door, and in his confusion and alarm, anxious to say something and +unable to think of anything appropriate, he murmured, with an ineffable +smile: "They are cha-arming." + +The inspection concluded, they all assembled in the salon on the ground +floor, where Madame Polge had prepared a little collation. The cellars +of Bethlehem were well stocked. The sharp air of the high land, the +going upstairs and downstairs had given the old gentleman from the +Tuileries such an appetite as he had not had for many a day, so that he +talked and laughed with true rustic good-fellowship, and when they were +all standing, the visitors being about to depart, he raised his glass, +shaking his head the while, to drink this toast: "To Be-Be-Bethlehem!" + +The others were much affected, there was a clinking of glasses, and +then the carriage bore the party swiftly along the avenue of lindens, +where a cold, red, rayless sun was setting. Behind them the park +relapsed into its gloomy silence. Great dark shadows gathered at the +foot of the hedges, invaded the house, crept stealthily along the paths +and across their intersections. Soon everything was in darkness save +the ironical letters over the entrance gate, and, at a window on the +ground-floor, a flickering red glimmer, the flame of a taper burning by +the pillow of the dead child. + + "_By decree of March 12, 1865, promulgated at the recommendation + of the Minister of the Interior, Monsieur le Docteur Jenkins, + founder and president of the Work of Bethlehem, is appointed + chevalier of the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honor. Exemplary + devotion to the cause of humanity._" + +When he read these lines on the first page of the _Journal Officiel_, +on the morning of the 16th, the poor Nabob had an attack of vertigo. + +Was it possible? + +Jenkins decorated and not he! + +He read the announcement twice, thinking that his eyes must have +deceived him. There was a buzzing in his ears. The letters, two of +each, danced before his eyes with the red circles caused by looking at +the sun. He had been so certain of seeing his name in that place; and +Jenkins--only the day before--had said to him so confidently: "It is +all settled!" that it still seemed to him that he must be mistaken. But +no, it was really Jenkins. It was a deep, heart-sickening, prophetic +blow, like a first warning from destiny, and was the more keenly felt +because, for years past, the man had been unaccustomed to +disappointments, had lived above humanity. All the good that there was +in him learned at that moment to be distrustful. + +"Well," he said to de Gery, entering his room, as he did every morning, +and surprising him with the paper in his hand and evidently deeply +moved, "I suppose you have seen,--my name is not in the _Officiel_?" + +He tried to smile, his features distorted like those of a child +struggling to restrain his tears. Then, suddenly, with the frankness +that was so attractive in him, he added: "This makes me feel very +badly,--I expected too much." + +As he spoke, the door opened and Jenkins rushed into the room, +breathless, panting, intensely agitated. + +"It's an outrage--a horrible outrage. It cannot, shall not be." + +The words rushed tumultuously to his lips, all trying to come out at +once; then he seemed to abandon the attempt to express his thoughts and +threw upon the table a little shagreen box and a large envelope, both +bearing the stamp of the chancellor's office. + +"There are my cross and my letters patent," he said. "They are yours, +my friend, I cannot keep them." + +In reality that did not mean much. Jansoulet arraying himself in +Jenkins' ribbon would speedily be punished for unlawfully wearing a +decoration. But a _coup de theatre_ is not necessarily logical; this +particular one led to an effusion of sentiment, embraces, a generous +combat between the two men, the result being that Jenkins restored the +objects to his pocket, talking about protests, letters to the +newspapers. The Nabob was obliged to stop him again. + +"Do nothing of the kind, you rascal. In the first place, it would +stand in my way another time. Who knows? perhaps on the 15th of next +August--" + +"Oh! I never thought of that," cried Jenkins, jumping at the idea. He +put forth his arm, as in David's _Serment_: "I swear it by my sacred +honor!" + +The subject dropped there. At breakfast the Nabob did not refer to it +and was as cheerful as usual. His good humor lasted through the day; +and de Gery, to whom that scene had been a revelation of the real +Jenkins, an explanation of the satirical remarks and restrained wrath +of Felicia Ruys when she spoke of the doctor, asked himself to no +purpose how he could open his dear master's eyes concerning that +scheming hypocrite. He should have known, however, that the men of the +South, all effusiveness on the surface, are never so utterly blind, so +deluded as to resist the wise results of reflection. That evening the +Nabob opened a shabby little portfolio, badly worn at the corners, in +which for ten years past he had manoeuvred his millions, minuting his +profits and his expenses in hieroglyphics comprehensible to himself +alone. He calculated for a moment, then turned to de Gery. + +"Do you know what I am doing, my dear Paul?" he asked. + +"No, monsieur." + +"I have just been reckoning"--and his mocking glance, eloquent of his +Southern origin, belied his good-humored smile--"I have just been +reckoning that I have spent four hundred and thirty thousand francs to +obtain that decoration for Jenkins." + +Four hundred and thirty thousand francs! And the end was not yet. + + + + +IX. + +GRANDMAMMA. + + +Three times a week, in the evening, Paul de Gery appeared to take his +lesson in bookkeeping in the Joyeuse dining-room, not far from the +small salon where the little family had burst upon him at his first +visit; so that, while he was being initiated into all the mysteries of +"debit and credit," with his eyes fixed on his white-cravated +instructor, he listened in spite of himself to the faint sounds of the +toilsome evening on the other side of the door, longing for the vision +of all those pretty heads bending over around the lamp. M. Joyeuse +never mentioned his daughters. As jealous of their charms as a dragon +standing guard over lovely princesses in a tower, aroused to vigilance +by the fanciful imaginings of his doting affection, he replied dryly +enough to his pupil's questions concerning "the young ladies," so that +the young man ceased to mention them to him. He was surprised, however, +that he never happened to see this "Grandmamma" whose name recurred +constantly in M. Joyeuse's conversation upon every subject, in the most +trivial details of his existence, hovering over the house like the +symbol of its perfect orderliness and tranquillity. + +Such extreme reserve, on the part of a venerable lady, who in all +probability had passed the age at which the adventurous spirit of a +young man is to be feared, seemed to him exaggerated. But the lessons +were very practical, given in very clear language, and the professor +had an excellent method of demonstration, marred by a single fault, a +habit of relapsing into fits of silence, broken by starts and +interjections that went off like bombs. Outside of that he was the best +of masters, intelligent, patient and faithful. Paul learned to find his +way through the complicated labyrinth of books of account and resigned +himself to the necessity of asking nothing further. + +One evening, about nine o'clock, as the young man rose to go, M. +Joyeuse asked him if he would do him the honor to take a cup of tea +_en famille_, a custom of the time of Madame Joyeuse, born Saint-Amand, +who used to receive her friends on Thursdays. Since her death, and the +change in their financial position, their friends had scattered; but +they had retained that little "weekly extra." Paul having accepted, the +good man opened the door and called: + +"Grandmamma." + +A light step in the hall and a face of twenty years, surrounded by a +nimbus of abundant, fluffy brown hair, abruptly made its appearance. De +Gery looked at M. Joyeuse with an air of stupefaction: + +"Grandmamma?" + +"Yes, it's a name we gave her when she was a little girl. With her +frilled cap, and her authoritative older-sister expression, she had a +funny little face, so wise-looking. We thought that she looked like her +grandmother. The name has clung to her." + +From the worthy man's tone, it was evident that to him it was the most +natural thing in the world, that grandmotherly title bestowed upon such +attractive youth. Every one in the household thought as he did, and the +other Joyeuse girls, who ran to their father and grouped themselves +about him somewhat as in the show-case on the ground-floor, and the old +servant, who brought and placed upon the table in the salon, whither +they had adjourned, a magnificent tea-service, a relic of the former +splendor of the establishment, all called the girl "Grandmamma," nor +did she once seem to be annoyed by it, for the influence of that +blessed name imparted to the affection of them all a touch of deference +that flattered her and gave to her imaginary authority a singular +attractiveness, as of a protecting hand. + +It may have been because of that title, which he had learned to cherish +in his infancy, but de Gery found an indescribable fascination in the +girl. It did not resemble the sudden blow he had received from another, +full in the heart, the perturbation mingled with a longing to fly, to +escape an obsession, and the persistent melancholy peculiar to the day +after a fete, extinguished candles, refrains that have died away, +perfumes vanished in the darkness. No, in the presence of that young +girl, as she stood looking over the family table, making sure that +nothing was lacking, letting her loving, sparkling eyes rest upon her +children, her little children, he was assailed by a temptation to know +her, to be to her as an old friend, to confide to her things that he +confessed to none but himself; and when she offered him his cup, with +no worldly airs, no society affectations, he would have liked to say +like the others a "Thanks, Grandmamma," in which he might put his whole +heart. + +Suddenly a cheery, vigorous knock made everybody jump. + +"Ah! there's Monsieur Andre. Quick, Elise, a cup. Yaia, the little +cakes." Meanwhile, Mademoiselle Henriette, the third of the Joyeuse +girls,--who had inherited from her mother, born Saint-Amand, a certain +worldly side,--in view of the crowded condition of the salons that +evening, rushed to light the two candles on the piano. + +"My fifth act is done," cried the newcomer, as he entered the room; then +he stopped short. "Ah! excuse me," and his face took on a discomfited +expression at sight of the stranger. M. Joyeuse introduced them to +each other: "Monsieur Paul de Gery--Monsieur Andre Maranne,"--not +without a certain solemnity of manner. He remembered his wife's +receptions long ago; and the vases on the mantel, the two great lamps, +the work-table, the armchairs arranged in a circle, seemed to share +the illusion, to shine brighter as if rejuvenated by that unusual +throng. + +"So your play is finished?" + +"Finished, Monsieur Joyeuse, and I mean to read it to you one of these +days." + +"Oh! yes, Monsieur Andre. Oh! yes," said all the girls in chorus. + +Their neighbor wrote for the stage and no one of them entertained a +doubt of his success. Photography held out less promise of profit, you +know. Customers were very rare, the passers-by disinclined to patronize +him. To keep his hand in and get his new apparatus into working order, +Monsieur Andre was taking his friends again every Sunday, the family +lending themselves for his experiments with unequalled good-humor, for +the prosperity of that inchoate, suburban industry was a matter of +pride to them all, arousing, even in the girls, that touching sentiment +of fraternity which presses the humblest destinies together as closely +as sparrows on the edge of a roof. But Andre Maranne, with the +inexhaustible resources of his high forehead, stored with illusions, +explained without bitterness the indifference of the public. Either the +weather was unfavorable or else every one complained of the wretched +condition of business, and he ended always with the same consoling +refrain: "Wait until _Revolte_ has been acted!" _Revolte_ was the title +of his play. + +"It's a surprising thing," said the fourth of the Joyeuse girls, a +child of twelve with her hair in a pigtail, "it's a surprising thing +that you do so little business with such a splendid balcony!" + +"And then there's a great deal of passing through the quarter," added +Elise confidently. Grandmamma smilingly reminded her that there was +even more on Boulevard des Italiens. + +"Ah! if it were Boulevard des Italiens--" said M. Joyeuse dreamily, +and away he went on his chimera, which was suddenly brought to a +stand-still by a gesture and these words, uttered in a piteous tone: +"closed because of failure." In an instant the terrible _Imaginaire_ +had installed his friend in a splendid apartment on the boulevard, +where he earned an enormous amount of money, increasing his expenses +at the same time so disproportionately, that a loud "_pouf_" swallowed +up photographer and photography in a few months. They laughed heartily +when he gave that explanation; but they all agreed that Rue +Saint-Ferdinand, although less showy, was much more reliable than +Boulevard des Italiens. Moreover, it was very near the Bois de +Boulogne, and if the fashionable world should once begin to pass that +way--That fashionable society which her mother so affected was +Mademoiselle Henriette's fixed idea; and she was amazed that the +thought of receiving _high-life_ in his little fifth-floor studio, +about as large as a diving-bell, should make their neighbor laugh. Why, +only a week or two before, a carriage came there with servants in +livery. Sometimes, too, he had had a "very swell" visitor. + +"Oh! a real great lady," Grandmamma chimed in. "We were at the window +waiting for father. We saw her leave the carriage and look at the +frame; we thought surely she came to see you." + +"She did come to see me," said Andre, a little embarrassed. + +"For a moment we were afraid she would go on as so many others do, on +account of your five flights. So we all four did our best to stop her, +to magnetize her with our four pairs of wide-open eyes. We pulled her +very gently by the feathers in her hat and the lace on her cape. 'Come +upstairs, pray, madame, pray come upstairs,' and finally she came. +There is so much magnetism in eyes that want a thing very much!" + +Surely she had magnetism enough, the dear creature, not only in her +eyes, which were of uncertain hue, veiled or laughing like the sky of +her Paris, but in her voice, in the folds of her dress, in everything, +even to the long curl that shaded her straight, graceful statue-like +neck and attracted you by its tapering shaded point, deftly curled over +a supple finger. + +The tea being duly served, while the gentlemen continued their talking +and drinking--Pere Joyeuse was always very slow in everything that he +did, because of his abrupt excursions into the moon--the girls resumed +their work, the table was covered with wicker baskets, embroidery, +pretty wools whose brilliant coloring brightened the faded flowers in +the old carpet, and the group of the other evening was formed anew in +the luminous circle of the lamp shade, to the great satisfaction of +Paul de Gery. It was the first evening of that sort he had passed in +Paris; it reminded him of other far-away evenings, cradled by the same +innocent mirth, the pleasant sound of scissors laid upon the table, of +the needle piercing the cotton, or the rustling of the leaves of a book +as they are turned, and dear faces, vanished forever, clustered in the +same way around the family lamp, alas! so suddenly extinguished. + +Once admitted into that charming domestic circle, he was not excluded +from it again, but took his lessons among the girls, and made bold to +talk with them when the good man closed his ledger. There everything +tended to give him grateful repose from the seething life in which the +Nabob's luxurious worldliness involved him; he bathed in that +atmosphere of honesty and simplicity, and strove to cure there the +wounds with which a hand more indifferent than cruel was mercilessly +riddling his heart. + + * * * + +"Women have hated me, other women have loved me. She who did me the +most harm never had either love or hate for me." Paul had fallen in, +with the woman of whom Heinrich Heine speaks. Felicia was very +hospitable and cordial to him. There was no one whom she welcomed more +graciously. She reserved for him a special smile, in which there was +the pleased expression of an artist's eye resting upon a type which +attracts it, and the satisfaction of a _blase_ mind which is amused by +anything new, however simple it may seem to be. She liked that reserve, +most alluring in a Southerner, the straightforwardness of that +judgment, entirely free from artistic or worldly formulas and enlivened +by a touch of local accent. It was a change for her from the zigzag +movement of the thumb, drawing flattery in outline with the gestures of +a studio fag, from the congratulations of comrades on the way in which +she silenced some poor fellow, and from the affected admiration, the +"chawming--veay pretty," with which the young dandies honored her as +they sucked the handles of their canes. He, at all events, said nothing +of that sort to her. She had nicknamed him Minerva, because of his +apparent tranquillity and the regularity of his profile; and as soon as +he appeared, she would say: "Ah! there's Minerva. Hail, lovely Minerva. +Take off your helmet and let us have a talk." + +But that familiar, almost fraternal, tone convinced the young man of +the hopelessness of his love. He realized that he could not hope to +make any further progress in that feminine good-fellowship in which +affection was lacking, and that he should lose something every day of +his charm as an unfamiliar type in the eyes of that creature who was +born bored, and who seemed to have lived her life already and to find +the insipidity of repetition in everything that she heard or saw. +Felicia was suffering from ennui. Only her art had the power to divert +her, to take her out of herself, to transport her to a fairyland of +dazzling beauty from which she returned all bruised and sore, always +surprised at the awakening, which resembled a fall. She compared +herself to the jelly-fish, whose transparent brilliancy in the coolness +and constant movement of the waves, vanishes on the shore in little +gelatinous pools. During those intervals of idleness, when the absence +of thought leaves the hand inert upon the modelling tool, Felicia, +deprived of the sole moral nerve of her intellect, became savage, +unapproachable, sullen beyond endurance,--the revenge of paltry human +qualities upon great tired brains. After she had brought tears to the +eyes of all those whom she loved, had striven to evoke painful memories +or paralyzing anxieties, and had reached the brutal, murderous climax +of her fatigue,--as it was always necessary, where she was concerned, +that something ridiculous should be mingled even with the saddest +things, she would blow away the remains of her ennui with a cry like +that of a dazed wild beast, a sort of yawning roar which she called +"the cry of the jackal in the desert," and which would drive the blood +from the excellent Crenmitz's cheeks, taking her by surprise in her +torpid placidity. + +Poor Felicia! Her life was in very truth a ghastly desert when her art +did not enliven it with its visions, a dismal, unrelieved desert, where +everything was crushed and flattened beneath the same monotonous +immensity, the ingenuous love of a boy of twenty and the caprice of an +amorous duke, where everything was covered with dry sand blown about by +the scorching winds of destiny. Paul was conscious of that void, he +tried to escape from it; but something detained him, like a weight +which unwinds a chain, and, notwithstanding the evil things he heard, +notwithstanding the strange creature's peculiarities, he hovered about +her with a delicious sense of enjoyment, under pain of carrying naught +away from that long amorous contemplation save the despair of a +believer reduced to the adoration of images. + +The place of refuge was in yonder out-of-the-way quarter, where the +wind blew so hard without preventing the flame from burning white and +straight,--it was in the domestic circle presided over by Grandmamma. +Oh! she did not suffer from ennui, she never uttered "the cry of the +jackal in the desert." Her life was too well filled: the father to +comfort and encourage, the children to teach, all the material cares of +a household in which the mother was lacking, the engrossing thoughts +which wake with the dawn and which the night puts to sleep, unless it +renews them in dreams--one of those instances of indefatigable but +apparently effortless devotion, very convenient for poor human +selfishness, because it dispenses with all gratitude and hardly makes +itself felt, its touch is so light. She was not one of the courageous +girls who work to support their parents, give lessons from morning to +night and forget the annoyances of the household in the excitement of +an engrossing occupation. No, she had formed a different conception of +her duty, she was a sedentary bee confining her labors to the hive, +with no buzzing around outside in the fresh air and among the flowers. +A thousand and one functions to perform: tailor, milliner, mender, +keeper of accounts as well,--for M. Joyeuse, being incapable of any +sort of responsibility, left the disposition of the family funds +absolutely in her hands,--teacher and music mistress. + +As is often the case in families which were originally in comfortable +circumstances, Aline, being the eldest, had been educated in one of the +best boarding-schools in Paris, Elise had remained there two years with +her; but the two younger ones, having come too late, had been sent to +little day-schools in the quarter and had all their studies to +complete; and it was no easy matter, for the youngest laughed on every +pretext, an exuberant, healthy, youthful laugh, like the warbling of a +lark drunken on green wheat, and flew away out of sight of desk and +symbols, while Mademoiselle Henriette, always haunted by her ideas of +grandeur, her love of "the substantial," was none too eager for study. +That young person of fifteen, to whom her father had bequeathed +something of his imaginative faculty, was already arranging her life in +anticipation, and declared formally that she should marry some one of +birth and should never have more than three children: "A boy for the +name, and two little girls--so that I can dress them alike." + +"Yes, that's right," Grandmamma would say, "you shall dress them alike. +Meanwhile, let us see about our participles." + +But the most troublesome of all was Elise with her thrice unsuccessful +examination in history, always rejected and preparing herself anew, +subject to attacks of profound terror and self-distrust which led her +to carry that unfortunate handbook of French history with her wherever +she went, and to open it at every instant, in the omnibus, in the +street, even at the breakfast table; but, being already a young woman +and very pretty, she no longer had the mechanical memory of childhood +in which dates and events are incrusted forever. Amid her other +preoccupations the lesson would fly away in a moment, despite the +pupil's apparent application, her long lashes concealing her eyes, her +curls sweeping the page, and her rosy mouth twitching slightly at the +corners as she repeated again and again: "Louis le Hutin, 1314-1316. +Philippe V, le Long, 1316-1322--1322.--Oh! Grandmamma, I am lost. I +shall never learn them." Thereupon Grandmamma would take a hand, help +her to fix her attention, to store away some of those barbarous dates +in the Middle Ages, as sharp-pointed as the helmets of the warriors of +those days. And in the intervals of those manifold tasks, of that +general and constant superintendence, she found time to make pretty +things, to take from her work-basket some piece of knitting or +embroidery, which clung to her as steadfastly as young Elise to her +history of France. Even when she was talking, her fingers were never +unemployed for one moment. + +"Do you never rest?" de Gery asked her while she counted in a whisper +the stitches of her embroidery, "three, four, five," in order to vary +the shades. + +"Why, this work is rest," she replied. "You men have no idea how useful +needlework is to a woman's mind. It regularizes the thought, fixes with +a stitch the passing moment and what it carries with it. And think of +the sorrows that are soothed, the anxieties forgotten by the help of +this purely physical attention, this constant repetition of the same +movement, in which you find--and find very quickly, whether you will or +no--that your equilibrium is entirely restored. It does not prevent me +from hearing all that is said in my neighborhood, from listening to you +even more attentively than I should if I were idle--three, four, five." + +Oh! yes, she listened. That was plain from the animation of her face, +from the way in which she would suddenly straighten herself up, with +her needle in the air and the thread stretched over her raised little +finger. Then she would suddenly resume her work, sometimes interjecting +a shrewd, thoughtful word, which as a general rule agreed with what +friend Paul thought. A similarity in their natures and in their +responsibilities and duties brought those two young people together, +made them mutually interested each in those things that the other had +most at heart. She knew the names of his two brothers, Pierre and +Louis, and his plans for their future when they should leave school. +Pierre wanted to be a sailor. "Oh! no, not a sailor," said Grandmamma, +"it would be much better for him to come to Paris with you." And when +he admitted that he was afraid of Paris for them, she laughed at his +fears, called him a provincial, for she was full of affection for the +city where she was born, where she had grown chastely to womanhood, and +which gave her in return the vivacity, the natural refinement, the +sprightly good-humor which make one think that Paris, with its rains, +its fogs, its sky which is no sky, is the true fatherland of woman, +whose nerves it spares and whose patient and intelligent qualities it +develops. + +Each day Paul de Gery appreciated Mademoiselle Aline more +thoroughly--he was the only one in the house who called her by that +name--and, strangely enough, it was Felicia who finally cemented their +intimacy. What connection could there be between that artist's +daughter, fairly launched in the most exalted spheres, and that +bourgeois maiden lost to sight in the depths of a suburb? Connections +of childhood and friendship, common memories, the great courtyard of +the Belin establishment, where they had played together for three +years. Such meetings are very common in Paris. A name mentioned at +random in conversation suddenly calls forth the amazed question: + +"What! do you know her?" + +"Do I know Felicia? Why we sat at adjoining desks in the first class. +We had the same garden. Such a dear, lovely, clever girl!" + +And, noticing how pleased he was to listen to her, Aline recalled the +days, still so near, which already formed part of the past to her, +fascinating and melancholy like all pasts. She was quite alone in life, +was little Felicia. On Thursday, when they called out the names in the +parlor, there was never any one for her; except now and then an old +woman, a nice old woman, if she was a little ridiculous, a former +ballet-dancer it was said, whom Felicia called the Fairy. She had pet +names like that for everybody of whom she was fond, and she transformed +them all in her imagination. They used to see each other during the +vacations. Madame Joyeuse, although she refused to send Aline to M. +Ruys's studio, invited Felicia for whole days,--very short days, made +up of work and music, of joint dreams and unrestrained youthful +chatter. "Oh! when she talked to me about her art, with the ardor which +she put into everything, how delighted I was to hear her! How many +things she enabled me to understand of which I never should have had +the slightest idea! Even now, when we go to the Louvre with papa, or to +the Exhibition of the first of May, the peculiar emotion that one feels +at the sight of a beautiful bit of sculpture or a fine painting, makes +me think instantly of Felicia. In my young days she represented art, +and it went well with her beauty, her somewhat reckless but so kindly +nature, in which I was conscious of something superior to myself, which +carried me away to a great height without frightening me. Suddenly we +ceased to see each other. I wrote to her--no reply. Then fame came to +her, great sorrow and engrossing duties to me. And of all that +friendship, and very deep-rooted it must have been, for I cannot speak +of it without--three, four, five--nothing is left but old memories to +be poked over like dead ashes." + +Leaning over her work, the brave girl hastily counted her stitches, +concealing her grief in the fanciful designs of her embroidery, while +de Gery, deeply moved to hear the testimony of those pure lips in +contradiction of the calumnies of a few disappointed dandies or jealous +rivals, felt relieved of a weight and once more proud of his love. The +sensation was so sweet to him that he came very often to seek to renew +it, not only on lesson evenings, but on other evenings as well, and +almost forgot to go and see Felicia for the pleasure of hearing Aline +speak of her. + +One evening, when he left the Joyeuse apartment, he found waiting for +him on the landing M. Andre, the neighbor, who took his arm feverishly. + +"Monsieur de Gery," he said, in a trembling voice, his eyes flashing +fire behind their spectacles, the only part of his face one could see +at night, "I have an explanation to demand at your hands. Will you come +up to my room a moment?" + +Between that young man and himself there had been only the usual +relations of two frequent visitors at the same house, who are attached +by no bond, who seem indeed to be separated by a certain antipathy +between their natures and their modes of life. What could there be for +them to explain? Sorely puzzled, he followed Andre. + +The sight of the little studio, cold and cheerless under its glass +ceiling, the empty fireplace, the wind blowing as it blows outside, and +making the candle flicker, the only light that shone upon that vigil of +a penniless recluse, reflected upon scattered sheets all covered with +writing,--in a word, that atmosphere of inhabited cells wherein the +very soul of the inhabitants exhales,--enabled de Gery to comprehend at +once the impassioned Andre Maranne, his long hair thrown back and +flying in the wind, his somewhat eccentric appearance, very excusable +when one pays for it with a life of suffering and privations; and his +sympathy instantly went out to the courageous youth, whose militant +pride he fully divined at a single glance. But the other was too +excited to notice this transition. As soon as the door was closed, he +said, with the accent of a stage hero addressing the perjured seducer: + +"Monsieur de Gery, I am not a Cassandra yet." And, as he observed his +interlocutor's unbounded amazement, he added: "Yes, yes, we understand +each other. I see perfectly clearly what attracts you to M. Joyeuse's, +nor has the warm welcome you receive there escaped me. You are rich, +you are of noble birth, no one can hesitate between you and the poor +poet who carries on an absurd trade in order to gain time to attain +success, which will never come perhaps. But I won't allow my happiness +to be stolen from me. We will fight, monsieur, we will fight," he +repeated, excited by his rival's unruffled tranquillity. "I have loved +Mademoiselle Joyeuse a long while. That love is the aim, the joy, and +the strength of a very hard life, painful in many respects. I have +nothing but that in the world, and I should prefer to die rather than +to renounce it." + +What a strange combination is the human heart! Paul was not in love +with the charming Aline. His whole heart belonged to another. He +thought of her simply as a friend, the most adorable of friends. And +yet the idea that Maranne was thinking of her, that she undoubtedly +responded to his lover-like attentions, caused him a thrill of jealous +anger, and his tone was very sharp when he asked if Mademoiselle +Joyeuse were aware of this feeling of Andre's and had in any way +authorized him to proclaim his rights. + +"Yes, monsieur, Mademoiselle Elise knows that I love her, and before +your frequent visits--" + +"Elise--is it Elise you're talking about?" + +"Why, who should it be, pray? The other two are too young." + +He entered thoroughly into the traditions of the family. In his eyes +Grandmamma's twenty years, her triumphant charm, were concealed by a +respectful _sobriquet_ and by her providential qualities. + +A very brief explanation having allayed Andre Maranne's excitement, he +offered his apologies to de Gery, invited him to take a seat in the +carved wooden armchair in which his customers posed, and their +conversation speedily assumed an intimate and confidential character, +attributable to the earnest avowal with which it began. Paul confessed +that he too was in love, and that his only purpose in coming so often +to M. Joyeuse's was to talk about his beloved with Grandmamma, who had +known her long before. + +"It's the same with me," said Andre. "Grandmamma knows all my secrets; +but we have not dared say anything to her father yet. My position is +too uncertain. Ah! when _Revolte_ has been brought out!" + +Thereupon they talked about _Revolte_! the famous drama on which he had +been at work day and night for six months, which had kept him warm all +through the winter, a very hard winter, whose rigor was tempered, +however, by the magic power of composition in the little garret, which +it completely transformed. There, in that confined space, all the +heroes of his play had appeared to the poet, like familiar sprites +falling through the roof or riding on the moonbeams, and with them the +high-warp tapestries, the gleaming chandeliers, the vast parks with +gateways flooded with light, all the usual magnificence of stage-setting, +as well as the glorious uproar of the first performance, the applause +being represented by the rain beating on the windows and the signs +flapping against the door, while the wind, whistling through the +melancholy lumber-yard below with a vague murmur of voices brought from +afar and carried far, resembled the murmur from the boxes opening into +the lobby, allowing his triumph to circulate amid the chattering and +confusion of the audience. It was not simply the renown and the money +that that blessed play were to bring to him, but something far more +precious. How carefully, therefore, did he turn the pages of the +manuscript contained in five great books in blue covers, such books as +the Levantine spread out upon the divan on which she took her siestas, +and marked with her managerial pencil. + +Paul having drawn near the table in his turn, in order to examine the +masterpiece, his eyes were attracted by a portrait of a woman in a +handsome frame, which seemed, being so near the artist's work, to have +been stationed there to stand guard over it. Elise, of course? Oh! no, +Andre had no right as yet to take his young friend's photograph away +from its protecting environment. It was a woman of about forty, fair, +with a sweet expression, and dressed in the height of fashion. When he +saw the face, de Gery could not restrain an exclamation. + +"Do you know her?" said Andre Maranne. + +"Why, yes--Madame Jenkins, the Irish doctor's wife. I took supper with +them last winter." + +"She is my mother." And the young man added in a lower tone: + +"Madame Maranne married Dr. Jenkins for her second husband. You are +surprised, are you not, to find me in such destitution when my parents +are living in luxury? But, as you know, chance sometimes brings very +antipathetic natures together in the same family. My father-in-law and +I could not agree. He wanted to make a doctor of me, whereas I had no +taste for anything but writing. At last, in order to avoid the constant +disputes, which were a source of pain to my mother, I preferred to +leave the house and dig my furrow all alone, without assistance from +any one. It was a hard task! money was lacking. All the property is in +the hands of that--of M. Jenkins. It was a question of earning my +living, and you know what a difficult matter that is for persons like +ourselves, well brought up as it is termed. To think that, with all the +knowledge included in what it is fashionable to call a thorough +education, I could find nothing but this child's play which gave me any +hope of being able to earn my bread! Some little savings from my +allowance as a young man sufficed to buy my first outfit, and I opened +a studio far away, at the very end of Paris, in order not to annoy my +parents. Between ourselves, I fancy that I shall never make my fortune +in photography. The first weeks especially were very hard. No one came, +or if by any chance some poor devil did toil up the stairs, I missed +him, I spread him out on my plate in a faint, blurred mixture like a +ghost. One day, very early in my experience, there came a wedding +party, the bride all in white, the husband with a waistcoat--oh! such a +waistcoat! And all the guests in white gloves which they insisted upon +having included in the photograph, because of the rarity of the +sensation. Really, I thought I should go mad. Those black faces, the +great white daubs for the dress, the gloves and the orange flowers, the +unfortunate bride in the guise of a Zulu queen, under her wreath which +melted into her hair! And all so overflowing with good-nature, with +encouragement for the artist. I tried them at least twenty times, kept +them until five o'clock at night. They left me only when it was dark, +to go and dine! Fancy that wedding-day passed in a photograph gallery!" + +While Andre thus jocosely narrated the melancholy incidents of his +life, Paul recalled Felicia's outburst on the subject of Bohemians, and +all that she said to Jenkins concerning their exalted courage, their +thirst for privations and trials. He thought also of Aline's passionate +fondness for her dear Paris, of which he knew nothing but the unhealthy +eccentricities, whereas the great city concealed so much unknown +heroism, so many noble illusions in its folds. The sensation he had +previously felt in the circle of the Joyeuses' great lamp, he was even +more keenly conscious of in that less warm, less peaceful spot, whither +art brought its desperate or glorious uncertainty; and it was with a +melting heart that he listened while Andre Maranne talked to him of +Elise, of the examination she was so long in passing, of the difficult +trade of photography, of all the unforeseen hardships of his life, +which would surely come to an end "when _Revolte_ should have been +brought out," a fascinating smile playing about the poet's lips as they +gave utterance to that hope, so often expressed, which he made haste to +ridicule himself, as if to deprive others of the right to ridicule it. + + + + +X. + +MEMOIRS OF A CLERK.--THE SERVANTS. + + +Really the wheel of fortune in Paris revolves in a way to make one's +head swim! + +To have seen the _Caisse Territoriale_ as I have seen it, fireless +rooms, never swept, covered with the dust of the desert, notices of +protest piled high on the desks, a notice of sale on execution at the +door every week, and my ragout diffusing the odor of a poor man's +kitchen over it all; and to witness now the rehabilitation of our +Society in its newly-furnished salons, where it is my duty to light +ministerial fires, in the midst of a busy throng, with whistles, +electric bells, piles of gold pieces so high that they topple over--it +borders on the miraculous. To convince myself that it is all true, I +have to look at myself in the glass, to gaze at my iron-gray coat +trimmed with silver, my white cravat, my usher's chain such as I used +to wear at the Faculty on council days. And to think that, to effect +this transformation, to bring back to our brows the gayety that is the +mother of concord, to restore to our paper its value ten times over and +to our dear Governor the esteem and confidence of which he was so +unjustly deprived, it only needed one man, that supernatural Croesus +whom the hundred voices of fame designate by the name of the Nabob. + +Oh! the first time that he came into the offices, with his fine +presence, his face, a little wrinkled perhaps but so distinguished, the +manners of an habitue of courts, on familiar terms with all the princes +of the Orient, in a word with the indescribable touch of +self-confidence and grandeur that great fortune gives, I felt my heart +swell in my waistcoat with its double row of buttons. They may say all +they choose about their equality and fraternity, there are some men who +are so much above others, that you feel like falling on your face +before them and inventing new formulae of adoration to compel them to +pay some attention to you. Let me hasten to add that I had no need of +anything of the sort to attract the attention of the Nabob. When I rose +as he passed--deeply moved but dignified: you can always trust +Passajon--he looked at me with a smile and said in an undertone to the +young man who accompanied him: "What a fine head, like--" then a word +that I did not hear, a word ending in _ard_, like leopard. But no, +it could not be that, for I am not conscious of having a head like a +leopard. Perhaps he said like Jean-Bart, although I do not see the +connection. However, he said: "What a fine head, like--" and his +condescension made me proud. By the way, all the gentlemen are very +kind, very polite to me. It seems that there has been a discussion in +regard to me, whether they should keep me or send me away like our +cashier, that crabbed creature who was always talking about sending +everybody to the galleys, and whom they requested to go and make his +economical shirt-fronts somewhere else. Well done! That will teach him +to use vulgar language to people. + +When it came to me, the Governor was kind enough to forget my rather +hasty words in consideration of my certificates of service at the +_Territoriale_ and elsewhere; and after the council meeting he said to +me with his musical accent: "Passajon, you are to stay on with us." You +can imagine whether I was happy, whether I lost myself in expressions +of gratitude. Just consider! I should have gone away with my few sous, +with no hope of ever earning any more, obliged to go and cultivate my +little vineyard at Montbars, a very narrow field for a man who has +lived among all the financial aristocracy of Paris and the bold strokes +of financiering that make fortunes. Instead of that, here I am +established all anew in a superb position, my wardrobe replenished, and +my savings, which I actually held in my hand for a whole day, intrusted +to the fostering care of the Governor, who has undertaken to make them +yield a handsome return. I rather think that he is the man who knows +how to do it. And not the slightest occasion for anxiety. All +apprehensions vanish before the word that is all the fashion at this +moment in all administrative councils, at all meetings of the +shareholders, on the Bourse, on the boulevards, everywhere: "The Nabob +is in the thing." That is to say, we are running over with cash, the +worst _combinazioni_ are in excellent shape. + +That man is so rich! + +Rich to such a degree that one cannot believe it. Why, he has just +loaned fifteen millions off-hand to the Bey of Tunis. Fifteen millions, +I say! That was rather a neat trick on Hemerlingue, who tried to make +trouble between him and that monarch and to cut the grass from under +his feet in those lovely Oriental countries, where it grows tall and +thick and golden-colored. It was an old Turk of my acquaintance, +Colonel Brahim, one of our council at the _Territoriale_, who arranged +the loan. Naturally the bey, who was very short of pocket money, it +seems, was greatly touched by the Nabob's zeal to accommodate him, and +he sent him by Brahim a letter of acknowledgment in which he told him +that on his next trip to Vichy he would pass two days with him at the +magnificent Chateau de Saint-Romans, which the former bey, this one's +brother, once honored with a visit. Just think what an honor! To +receive a reigning prince! The Hemerlingues are in a frenzy. They had +manoeuvred so skilfully, the son in Tunis, the father in Paris, to +bring the Nabob into disfavor. To be sure, fifteen millions is a large +sum of money. But do not say: "Passajon is gulling us." The person who +told me the story had in his hands the paper sent by the bey in a green +silk envelope stamped with the royal seal. His only reason for not +reading it was that it was written in Arabic; otherwise he would have +taken cognizance of it as he does of all the Nabob's correspondence. +That person is his valet de chambre, M. Noel, to whom I had the honor +to be presented last Friday at a small party of persons in service, +which he gave to some of his friends. I insert a description of that +festivity in my memoirs, as one of the most interesting things I have +seen during my four years' residence in Paris. + +I supposed at first, when M. Francis, Monpavon's valet de chambre, +mentioned the affair to me, that it was to be one of the little +clandestine junkets such as they sometimes have in the attic rooms on +our boulevard, with the leavings sent up by Mademoiselle Seraphine and +the other cooks in the house, where they drink stolen wine and stuff +themselves, sitting on trunks, trembling with fear, by the light of two +candles which they put out at the slightest noise in the corridors. +Such underhand performances are repugnant to my character. But when I +received an invitation on pink paper, written in a very fine hand, as +if for a ball given by the people of the house: + + _M. Noel pri M.--de se randre a sa soire du 25 couran._ + + _On soupra._[3] + + [3] M. Noel requests the pleasure of M. ----'s company on the + evening of the 25th instant. Supper. + +I saw, notwithstanding the defective orthography, that it was a +serious, authoritative function; so I arrayed myself in my newest frock +coat and my finest linen, and betook myself to Place Vendome, to the +address indicated by the invitation. + +M. Noel had selected for his party the evening of a first performance +at the Opera, which society attended _en masse_, so that the whole +household had the bit in their teeth until midnight, and the entire +house at their disposal. Nevertheless, our host had preferred to +receive us in his room in the upper part of the house, and I strongly +approved his judgment, being therein of the opinion of the good man who +said: + + Fi du plaisir + Que la crainte peut corrompre![4] + + [4] + + A fig for the pleasure + Which fear can destroy! + +But talk to me about the attics on Place Vendome! A thick carpet on the +floor, the bed out of sight in an alcove, Algerian curtains with red +stripes, a green marble clock, the whole lighted by patent +self-regulating lamps. Our dean, M. Chalmette, at Dijon had no better +quarters than that. I arrived about nine o'clock with Monpavon's old +Francis, and I must confess that my appearance created a sensation, +preceded as I was by the fame of my academic past, by my reputation for +refined manners and great learning. My fine bearing did the rest, for I +must say that I know how to carry myself. M. Noel, very dark skinned, +with mutton-chop whiskers, and dressed in a black coat, came forward to +meet us. + +"Welcome, Monsieur Passajon," he said; and taking my cap with silver +ornaments, which, as I entered the room, I held in my right hand +according to custom, he handed it to an enormous negro in red and gold +livery. + +"Here, Lakdar, take this--and this," he said, by way of jest, giving +him a kick in a certain portion of the back. + +There was much laughter at that sally, and we began to converse most +amicably. An excellent fellow, that M. Noel, with his Southern accent, +his determined bearing, the frankness and simplicity of his manners. He +reminded me of the Nabob, minus his master's distinguished mien, +however. Indeed, I noticed that evening that such resemblances are of +common occurrence in valets de chambre, who, as they live on intimate +terms with their masters, by whom they are always a little dazzled, end +by adopting their peculiarities and their mannerisms. For instance, M. +Francis has a certain habit of drawing himself up and displaying his +linen shirtfront, a mania for raising his arms to pull down his cuffs, +which is Monpavon to the life. But there is one who does not resemble +his master in the least, that is Joe, Dr. Jenkins' coachman. I call him +Joe, but at the party everybody called him Jenkins; for in that circle +the stable folk among themselves call one another by their employers' +names, plain Bois-l'Hery, Monpavon and Jenkins. Is it to debase the +superiors, to exalt the servant class? Every country has its customs; +nobody but a fool ought to be astonished by them. To return to Joe +Jenkins--how can the doctor, who is such an amiable man, so perfect in +every respect, keep in his service that _gin_ and _porter_-soaked +brute, who sits silent for hours at a time, and then, the instant that +the liquor goes to his head, begins to roar and wants to box +everybody--witness the scandalous scene that had just taken place when +we arrived. + +The marquis's little tiger, Tom Bois-l'Hery, as they call him here, +undertook to joke with that Irish beast, who--at some Parisian gamin's +jest--retorted by a terrible Belfast knock-down blow in the middle of +the face. + +"Come on, Humpty-Dumpty! Come on, Humpty-Dumpty!" roared the coachman, +choking with rage, while they carried his innocent victim into the +adjoining room, where the ladies, young and old, were engaged in +bandaging his nose. The excitement was soon allayed, thanks to our +arrival, thanks also to the judicious words of M. Barreau, a man of +mature years, sedate and majestic, of my own type. He is the Nabob's +cook, formerly _chef_ at the Cafe Anglais, and M. Cardailhac, manager +of the Nouveautes, secured him for his friend. To see him in his black +coat and white cravat, with his handsome, full, clean-shaven face, you +would take him for one of the great functionaries of the Empire. To be +sure, a cook in a house where the table is set for thirty people every +morning, in addition to Madame's table, and where everyone is fed on +the best and the extra best, is no ordinary cook-shop artist. He +receives a colonel's salary, with board and lodging, and then the +perquisites! No one has any idea of what the perquisites amount to in a +place like that. So every one addressed him with great respect, with +the consideration due to a man of his importance: "Monsieur Barreau" +here, "my dear Monsieur Barreau" there. You must not imagine that the +servants in a house are all chums and social equals. Nowhere is the +hierarchy more strictly observed than among them. For instance, I +noticed at M. Noel's party that the coachmen did not fraternize with +their grooms, nor the valets de chambre with the footmen and +out-riders, any more than the steward and butler mingled with the +scullions; and when M. Barreau cracked a little joke, no matter what it +was, it was a pleasure to see how amused his underlings seemed to be. I +have no fault to find with these things. Quite the contrary. As our +dean used to say: "A society without a hierarchy is a house without a +stairway." But the fact seemed to me worth noting in these memoirs. + +The party, I need not say, lacked something of its brilliancy until the +return of its fairest ornaments, the ladies who had gone to look after +little Tom; ladies' maids with glossy, well-oiled hair, housekeepers in +beribboned caps, negresses, governesses, among whom I at once acquired +much prestige, thanks to my respectable appearance and the nickname "my +uncle" which the youngest of those attractive females were pleased to +bestow upon me. I tell you there was no lack of second-hand finery, +silk and lace, even much faded velvet, eight-button gloves cleaned +several times and perfumery picked up on Madame's toilet-table; but +their faces were happy, their minds given over to gayety, and I had no +difficulty in forming a very lively little party in one corner--always +perfectly proper, of course--that goes without saying--and entirely +befitting a person in my position. But that was the general tone of the +occasion. Not until toward the close of the collation did I hear any of +the unseemly remarks, any of the scandalous anecdotes that amuse the +gentlemen of our council so highly; and it gives me pleasure to state +that Bois-l'Hery the coachman, to cite no other instance, is very +differently brought up from Bois-l'Hery the master. + +M. Noel alone, by his familiar tone and the freedom of his repartees, +overstepped the limit. There's a man who does not scruple to call +things by their names. For instance, he said to M. Francis, so loud +that he could be heard from one end of the salon to the other: "I say, +Francis, your old sharper played still another trick on us last week." +And as the other threw out his chest with a dignified air, M. Noel +began to laugh. "No offence, old girl. The strong box is full. You'll +never get to the bottom of it." And it was then that he told us about +the loan of fifteen millions I mentioned above. + +Meanwhile I was surprised to see no signs of preparation for the supper +mentioned on the invitations, and I expressed my anxiety in an +undertone to one of my lovely nieces, who replied: + +"We are waiting for M. Louis." + +"M. Louis?" + +"What! Don't you know M. Louis, the Duc de Mora's valet de chambre?" + +Thereupon I was enlightened on the subject of that influential +personage, whose good offices are sought by prefects, senators, even by +ministers, and who evidently makes them pay roundly for them, for, with +his salary of twelve hundred francs from the duke, he has saved enough +to have an income of twenty-five thousand francs, has his daughters at +the boarding-school of the Sacred Heart, his son at Bourdaloue College, +and a chalet in Switzerland to which the whole family go for the +vacation. + +At that juncture the personage in question arrived; but there was +nothing in his appearance that would have led me to guess his position, +which has not its like in Paris. No majesty in his bearing, a waistcoat +buttoned to the chin, a mean, insolent manner, and a fashion of +speaking without opening his lips, very unpleasant to those who are +listening to him. + +He saluted the company with a slight nod, offered a finger to M. Noel, +and there we sat, staring at each other, congealed by his grand +manners, when a door was thrown open at the end of the room and the +supper made its appearance--all kinds of cold meats, pyramids of fruit, +bottles of every shape, beneath the glare of two candelabra. + +"Now, messieurs, escort the ladies." + +In a moment we were in our places, the ladies seated, with the oldest +or most important of us men, the others standing, passing dishes, +chattering, drinking out of all the glasses, picking a mouthful from +every plate. I had M. Francis for my neighbor, and I was obliged to +listen to his spiteful remarks against M. Louis, of whom he is jealous +because he has such a fine situation in comparison with that he himself +holds in his played-out nobleman's household. + +"He's a parvenu," he said to me in an undertone. "He owes his fortune +to his wife, to Madame Paul." + +It seems that this Madame Paul is a housekeeper who has been twenty +years in the duke's service, and who understands, as no one else does, +how to make a certain pomade for certain infirmities that he has. Mora +cannot do without her. Remarking that fact, M. Louis paid his court to +the old woman, married her, although he is much younger than she; and, +in order not to lose his nurse _aux pommades_, His Excellency took +the husband for his valet de chambre. In my heart, notwithstanding what +I may have said to M. Francis, I considered that marriage perfectly +proper and in conformity with the healthiest morality, as both the +mayor and the cure had a hand in it. Moreover, that excellent repast, +consisting of choice and very expensive dishes which I did not even +know by name, had disposed my mind to indulgence and good humor. But +everybody was not in the same mood, for I heard M. Barreau's baritone +voice on the other side of the table, grumbling: + +"Why does he meddle? Do I stick my nose into his business? In the first +place, it's a matter that concerns Bompain, not him. And what does it +amount to? What is it that he finds fault with me for? The butcher +sends me five baskets of meat every morning. I use only two and sell +the other three. Where's the chef who doesn't do that? As if he +wouldn't do better to keep an eye on the big leakage above stairs, +instead of coming and spying about my basement. When I think that the +first-floor clique has smoked twenty-eight thousand francs' worth of +cigars in three months! Twenty-eight thousand francs! Ask Noel if I +lie. And on the second floor, in Madame's apartments, there's a fine +mess of linen, dresses thrown aside after one wearing, jewels by the +handful, and pearls so thick that you crush 'em as you walk. Oh! you +just wait a bit, and I'll take a twist on that little fellow." + +I understood that he was talking about M. de Gery, the Nabob's young +secretary, who often comes to the _Territoriale_, where he does +nothing but rummage among the books. Very polite certainly, but a very +proud youngster who does not know how to make the most of himself. +There was nothing but a chorus of maledictions against him around the +table. Even M. Louis delivered himself on that subject, with his high +and mighty air: + +"Our cook, my dear Monsieur Barreau, has recently had an experience +similar to yours with His Excellency's chief secretary, who presumed to +indulge in some observations concerning the household expenses. The +cook ran up to the duke's study post-haste, in his professional +costume, and said, with his hand on his apron string: 'Your Excellency +may choose between Monsieur and me.' The duke did not hesitate. One can +find as many secretaries as one wants; whereas the good cooks are all +known. There are just four in Paris. I include you, my dear Barreau. We +dismissed our chief secretary, giving him a prefecture of the first +class as a consolation; but we kept our chief cook." + +"Ah! that's the talk," said M. Barreau, who was delighted to hear that +anecdote. "That's what it is to be in a great nobleman's service. But +parvenus are parvenus, what do you expect?" + +"And Jansoulet is nothing more than that," added M. Francis, pulling +down his cuffs. "A man who was once a porter at Marseille." + +At that M. Noel bristled up. + +"I say there, old Francis, you're glad enough to have the porter of La +Cannebiere pay for your roastings at _bouillotte_ all the same. You +won't find many parvenus like us, who loan millions to kings, and whom +great noblemen like Mora don't blush to receive at their table." + +"Oh! in the country," sneered M. Francis, showing his old fangs. + +The other rose, red as fire, on the point of losing his temper, but +M. Louis made a sign with his hand that he had something to say, and +M. Noel at once sat down, putting his hand to his ear, like the rest +of us, in order to lose none of the august words. + +"It is true," said the great personage, speaking with the ends of +his lips and sipping his wine slowly; "it is true that we received +the Nabob at Grandbois some weeks ago. Indeed, a very amusing +thing happened there. We have a great many mushrooms in the +second park, and His Excellency sometimes amuses himself by picking +them. At dinner a great dish of mushrooms was served. There was +What-d'ye-call-him--Thingamy--What's-his-name--Marigny, the Minister +of the Interior, Monpavon, and your master, my dear Noel. The +mushrooms made the round of the table,--they looked very inviting, +and the gentlemen filled their plates, all except Monsieur le Duc, +who can't digest them and thought that politeness required him to say +to his guests: 'Oh! it isn't that I am afraid of them, you know. They +are all right,--I picked them with my own hand.' + +"'_Sapristi!_' said Monpavon, laughingly, 'in that case, my dear +Auguste, excuse me if I don't taste them,' Marigny, being less at home, +looked askance at his plate. + +"'Why, Monpavon, upon my word, these mushrooms look very healthy. I am +really sorry that I am no longer hungry.' + +"The duke remained perfectly serious. + +"'Come, Monsieur Jansoulet, I trust that you won't insult me as they +have done. Mush-rooms selected by myself!' + +"'Oh! your Excellency, the idea! Why, I would eat them with my eyes +closed.' + +"I leave it to you, if that wasn't great luck for the poor Nabob, the +first time that he ate a meal with us. Duperron, who was waiting +opposite him, told us about it in the butler's pantry. It seems that it +was the most comical thing in the world to see Jansoulet stuff himself +with mushrooms, rolling his eyes in terror, while the others watched +him curiously without touching their plates. It made him sweat, poor +devil! And the best part of it was that he took a second portion; he +had the courage to take more. But he poured down bumpers of wine +between every two mouthfuls. Well! shall I tell you what I think? That +was a very shrewd move on his part, and I am no longer surprised that +that fat ox-driver has been the favorite of sovereigns. He knows how to +flatter them, in the little things that they don't talk about. In fact, +the duke has doted on him since that day." + +That little story caused much hilarity, and scattered the clouds +collected by a few imprudent words. And thereupon, as the wine had +loosened all our tongues, and as we all knew one another better, we +rested our elbows on the table and began to talk about masters and +places where we had worked, and the amusing things we had seen. Ah! I +heard some fine stories and had a glimpse at some domestic scenes! +Naturally, I produced my little effect with the story of my pantry at +the _Territoriale_, of the time when I used to put my ragout in the +empty safe, which did not prevent our cashier, a great stickler for +routine, from changing the combination every two days, as if it +contained all the treasures of the Bank of France. M. Louis seemed to +enjoy my story. But the most astonishing thing was what little +Bois-l'Hery, with his Parisian street-arab's accent, told us of the +home life of his employers. + +Marquis and Marquise de Bois-l'Hery, second floor, Boulevard Haussmann. +Furniture like the Tuileries, blue satin on all the walls, pictures, +mantel ornaments, curiosities, a genuine museum, I tell you! +overflowing on to the landings. Service very stylish: six servants, +chestnut-colored livery in winter, nankeen livery in summer. You see +those people everywhere,--at the small Monday parties, at the races, at +first nights, at ambassadors' balls, and their names always in the +newspapers, with remarks as to Madame's fine toilets and Monsieur's +amazing _chic_. Well! all that is nothing but flim-flam, veneer, +outside show, and if the marquis needed a hundred sous, no one would +loan them to him on his worldly possessions. The furniture is hired by +the fortnight from Fitily, the cocottes' upholsterer. The curiosities, +the pictures, belong to old Schwalbach, who sends his customers there +and makes them pay double price, because a man doesn't haggle when +he thinks he is buying from a marquis, an amateur. As for the +marchioness's dresses, the milliner and dress-maker furnish her with +them for exhibition every season, make her wear the new styles, a +little ridiculous sometimes, but instantly adopted by society, because +Madame is still a very beautiful woman, and of high repute in the +matter of fashion; she is what is called a _lanceuse_. And the +servants! Provisional like all the rest, changed every week at the +pleasure of the intelligence office, which sends them there to give +them practice before taking serious positions. They may have neither +sponsors nor certificates; they may have just come from prison or +elsewhere. Glanard, the great place-broker on Rue de la Paix, supplies +Boulevard Haussmann. The servants stay there one week, two weeks, long +enough to purchase recommendations from the marquis, who, mark you, +pays nothing and barely feeds them; for in that house the kitchen ovens +are cold most of the time, as Monsieur and Madame dine out almost every +evening, or attend balls at which supper is served. It is a positive +fact that there are people in Paris who take the buffet seriously, and +eat their first meal of the day after midnight. The Bois-l'Herys are +well posted as to houses where there is a buffet. They will tell you +that you get a very good supper at the Austrian embassy, that the +Spanish embassy is a little careless in the matter of wines, and that +the Minister of Foreign Affairs gives you the best _chaud-froid de +volailles_. Such is the life of that curious household. Nothing of all +they have is sewn on; everything is basted or pinned. A gust of wind, +and away it all goes. But at all events they are sure of losing +nothing. That is what gives the marquis that _blagueur_, Pere +Tranquille air, as he looks you in the face with both hands in his +pockets, as much as to say: "Well, what then? What can you do to me?" + +And the little tiger, in the aforesaid attitude, with his prematurely +old, vicious child's face, copied his master so perfectly that it +seemed to me as if I were looking at the man himself sitting in our +administrative council, facing the Governor, and overwhelming him with +his cynical jests. After all, we must agree that Paris is a wonderful +great city, for any one to be able to live here in that way for fifteen +years, twenty years of tricks and dodges and throwing dust in people's +eyes, without everybody finding him out, and to go on making a +triumphant entry into salons in the wake of a footman shouting his name +at the top of his voice: "Monsieur le Marquis de Bois-l'Hery." + +You see, you must have been to a servants' party before you can believe +all that one learns there, and what a curious thing Parisian society is +when you look at it thus from below, from the basement. For instance, +happening to be between M. Francis and M. Louis, I caught this scrap of +confidential conversation concerning Sire de Monpavon. M. Louis said: + +"You are doing wrong, Francis, you are in funds just now. You ought to +take advantage of it to return that money to the Treasury." + +"What can you expect?" replied M. Francis, disconsolately. "Play is +consuming us." + +"Yes, I know. But beware. We shall not always be at hand. We may die or +go out of the government. In that case you will be called to account +over yonder. It will be a terrible time." + +I had often heard a whisper of the marquis's forced loan of two hundred +thousand francs from the State, at the time when he was +receiver-general; but the testimony of his valet de chambre was the +worst of all. Ah! if the masters suspected what the servants know, all +that they tell in their quarters, if they could hear their names +dragged about in the sweepings of the salons and the kitchen refuse, +they would never again dare to say so much as: "Close the door," or +"Order the carriage." There's Dr. Jenkins, for example, with the +richest practice in Paris, has lived ten years with a magnificent wife, +who is eagerly welcomed everywhere; he has done everything he could to +conceal his real position, announced his marriage in the newspapers in +the English style, and hired only foreign servants who know barely +three words of French, but all to no purpose. With these few words, +seasoned with faubourg oaths and blows on the table, his coachman Joe, +who detests him, told us his whole history while we were at supper. + +"She's going to croak, his Irishwoman, his real wife. Now we'll see if +he'll marry the other one. Forty-five years old Mistress Maranne is, +and not a shilling. You ought to see how afraid she is that he'll turn +her out. Marry her, not marry her--_kss-kss_--what a laugh we'll have." +And the more they gave him to drink, the more he told, speaking of his +unfortunate mistress as the lowest of the low. For my part, I confess +that she excited my interest, that false Madame Jenkins, who weeps in +every corner, implores her husband as if he were the headsman, and is +in danger of being sent about her business when all society believes +her to be married, respectable, established for life. The others did +nothing but laugh, especially the women. _Dame!_ it is amusing when one +is in service to see that these ladies of the upper ten have their +affronts too, and tormenting cares which keep them awake. + +At that moment our party presented a most animated aspect, a circle of +merry faces turned toward the Irishman, who carried off the palm by his +anecdote. That aroused envy; every one rummaged his memory and dragged +out whatever he could find there of old scandals, adventures of +betrayed husbands, all the domestic secrets that are poured out on the +kitchen table with the remains of dishes and the dregs of bottles. The +champagne was beginning to lay hold of its victims among the guests. +Joe insisted on dancing a jig on the cloth. The ladies, at the +slightest suggestion that was a trifle broad, threw themselves back +with the piercing laughter of a person who is being tickled, letting +their embroidered skirts drag under the table, which was piled with +broken victuals, and covered with grease. M. Louis had prudently +withdrawn. The glasses were filled before they were emptied; a +chambermaid dipped a handkerchief in hers, which was full of water, and +bathed her forehead with it because her head was going round, she said. +It was time that it should end; in fact, an electric bell, ringing +loudly in the hall, warned us that the footman on duty at the theatre +had called the coachmen. Thereupon Monpavon proposed a toast to the +master of the house, thanking him for his little party. M. Noel +announced that he would repeat it at Saint-Romans, during the +festivities in honor of the bey, to which most of those present would +probably be invited. And I was about to rise in my turn, being +sufficiently familiar with banquets to know that on such occasions the +oldest of the party is expected to propose a toast to the ladies, when +the door was suddenly thrown open and a tall footman, all muddy, +breathless and perspiring, with a dripping umbrella in his hand, roared +at us, with no respect for the guests: + +"Come, get out of here, you pack of cads; what are you doing here? +Don't I tell you it's done!" + + + + +XI. + +THE FETES IN HONOR OF THE BEY. + + +In the regions of the South, of the civilization of long ago, the +historic chateaux still standing are very few. At rare intervals some +old abbey rears its tottering and dismantled facade on a hillside, +pierced with holes which once were windows, which see naught now but +the sky,--monuments of dust, baked by the sun, dating from the days of +the Crusades or of Courts of Love, without a trace of man among their +stones, where even the ivy has ceased to climb, and the acanthus, but +where the dried lavender and the _ferigoule_ perfume the air. Amid +all these ruins the chateau de Saint-Romans stands forth a glorious +exception. If you have travelled in the South you have seen it, and you +shall see it again in a moment. It is between Valence and Montelimart, +in a neighborhood where the railroad runs straight along the Rhone, at +the base of the hills of Beaume, Rancoule and Mercurol, the whole +glowing vintage of the Hermitage, spread out over five leagues of vines +growing in close, straight lines in the vineyards, which seem to the +eye like fields of fleece, and extend to the very brink of the river, +as green and full of islands at that spot as the Rhine near Bale, but +with such a flood of sunshine as the Rhine never had. Saint-Romans is +opposite, on the other bank; and, notwithstanding the swiftness of the +vision, the headlong rush of the railway carriages, which seem +determined at every curve to plunge madly into the Rhone, the chateau +is so huge, extends so far along the neighboring slope, that it seems +to follow the wild race of the train and fixes in your eyes forever the +memory of its flights of steps, its balcony-rails, its Italian +architecture, two rather low stones surmounted by a terrace with little +pillars, flanked by two wings with slated roofs, and overlooking the +sloping banks, where the water from the cascades rushes down to the +river, the network of gravelled paths, the vista formed by hedges of +great height with a white statue at the end sharply outlined against +the blue sky as against the luminous background of a stained-glass +window. Far up, among the vast lawns whose brilliant verdure defies the +blazing climate, a gigantic cedar rears, terrace-like, its masses of +green foliage, with its swaying dark shadows,--an exotic figure, which +makes one think, as he stands before that sometime abode of a +farmer-general of the epoch of Louis XIV., of a tall negro carrying a +courtier's umbrella. + +From Valence to Marseille, throughout the valley of the Rhone, +Saint-Romans de Bellaigue is as famous as a fairy palace; and a genuine +fairyland in those regions, scorched by the mistral, is that oasis of +verdure and of lovely, gushing water. + +"When I am rich, mamma," Jansoulet, when he was a mere urchin, used to +say to his mother whom he adored, "I'll give you Saint-Romans de +Bellaigue." + +And as that man's life seemed the realization of a tale of the +_Thousand and One Nights_, as all his wishes were gratified, even +the most unconscionable, as his wildest chimeras took definite shape +before him, and licked his hands like docile pet spaniels, he had +purchased Saint-Romans in order to present it to his mother, newly +furnished and gorgeously restored. Although ten years had passed since +then, the good woman was not yet accustomed to that magnificent +establishment. "Why, you have given me Queen Jeanne's palace, my dear +Bernard," she wrote to her son; "I shall never dare to live in it." As +a matter of fact she never had lived in it, having installed herself in +the steward's house, a wing of modern construction at the end of the +main buildings, conveniently situated for overlooking the servants' +quarters and the farm, the sheepfolds and the oil-presses, with their +rustic outlook of grain in stacks, of olive-trees and vines stretching +out over the fields as far as the eye could see. In the great chateau +she would have fancied herself a prisoner in one of those enchanted +dwellings where sleep seizes you in the fulness of your joy and does +not leave you for a hundred years. Here at all events the peasant +woman, who had never been able to accustom herself to that colossal +fortune, which had come too late, from too great a distance and like a +thunderbolt, felt in touch with real life by virtue of the going and +coming of the laborers, the departure and return of the cattle, their +visits to the watering-place, all the details of pastoral life, which +awakened her with the familiar crowing of the roosters, the shrill +cries of the peacocks, and sent her down the winding staircase before +daybreak. She deemed herself simply a trustee of that magnificent +property, of which she had charge for her son's benefit, and which she +proposed to turn over to him in good condition on the day when, +considering himself wealthy enough and weary of living among the +_Turs_, he should come, as he had promised, and live with her +beneath the shade of Saint-Romans. + +Imagine then her untiring, all-pervading watchfulness. + +In the twilight of early dawn, the farm servants heard her hoarse, +husky voice: + +"Olivier--Peyrol--Audibert--Come! It's four o'clock." Then a dive into +the huge kitchen, where the maids, heavy with sleep, were warming the +soup over the bright, crackling peat fire. They gave her her little +plate of red Marseille earthenware, filled with boiled chestnuts, the +frugal breakfast of an earlier time which nothing could induce her to +change. Off she went at once with long strides, the keys jingling on +the great silver key-ring fastened to her belt, her plate in her hand, +held in equilibrium by the distaff which she held under her arm as if +ready for battle, for she spun all day long, and did not stop even to +eat her chestnuts. A glance, as she passed, at the stable, still dark, +where the horses were sluggishly moving about, at the stifling +cow-shed, filled with heads impatiently stretched toward the door; and +the first rays of dawn, stealing over the courses of stone that +supported the embankment of the park, fell upon the old woman running +through the dew with the agility of a girl, despite her seventy years, +verifying exactly each morning all the treasures of the estate, anxious +to ascertain whether the night had stolen the statues and urns, +uprooted the centenary trees, dried up the sparkling fountains that +plashed noisily in their bowls. Then the bright southern sun, humming +and vibrating, outlined upon the gravel of a path, or against the white +supporting wall of a terrace, that tall old woman's figure, slender and +straight as her distaff, picking up pieces of dead wood, breaking off a +branch from a shrub that was out of line, heedless of the scorching +reflection which affected her tough skin no more than an old stone +bench. About that hour another promenader appeared in the park, less +active, less bustling, dragging himself along rather than walking, +leaning on the walls and railings, a poor bent, palsied creature, with +a lifeless face to which one could assign no age, who, when he was +tired, uttered a faint, plaintive cry to call the servant, who was +always at hand to assist him to sit down, to huddle himself up on some +step, where he would remain for hours, motionless and silent, his mouth +half-open, blinking his eyes, soothed by the strident monotony of the +locusts, a human blot on the face of the superb landscape. + +He was the _oldest_, Bernard's brother, the cherished darling of the +Jansoulets, father and mother, the hope and the glory of the family of +the junk-dealer, who, faithful like so many more in the South to the +superstition concerning the right of primogeniture, had made every +conceivable sacrifice to send that handsome, ambitious youth to Paris; +and he had started with four or five marshals' batons in his trunk, the +admiration of all the girls in the village; but Paris--after it had +beaten and twisted and squeezed that brilliant Southern rag in its +great vat for ten years, burned him in all its acids, rolled him in all +its mire--relegated him at last to the state of battered flotsam and +jetsam, embruted, paralyzed, which had killed his father with grief and +compelled his mother to sell everything in her house and to live by +domestic service in the well-to-do families of the neighborhood. +Luckily, just about the time that that relic of Parisian hospitals, +sent back to his home by public charity, appeared in Bourg-Saint-Andeol, +Bernard,--who was called Cadet, as in all the half-Arab Southern +families, where the eldest son always takes the family name and the +last comer the name of Cadet,--Bernard was already in Tunis, in process +of making his fortune, and sending money home regularly. But what +remorse it caused the poor mother to owe everything, even life itself, +and the comfort of the wretched invalid, to the brave, energetic lad, +of whom his father and she had always been fond, but without genuine +tenderness, and whom, from the time he was five years old, they had +been accustomed to treat as a day-laborer, because he was very strong +and hairy and ugly, and was already shrewder than any one else in the +house in the matter of dealing in old iron. Ah! how she would have +liked to have her Cadet with her, to repay him a little of all he was +doing for her, to pay in one sum all the arrears of affection, of +motherly cosseting that she owed him. + +But, you see, these kingly fortunes have the burdens, the vexations of +kingly existences. Poor Mother Jansoulet, in her dazzling surroundings, +was much like a genuine queen, having undergone the long banishments, +the cruel separations and trials which atone for earthly grandeur; one +of her sons in a state of stupid lethargy for all time, the other far +away, writing little, engrossed by his great interests, always saying, +"I will come," and never coming. In twelve years she had seen him but +once, in the confusion of the bey's visit at Saint-Romans: a bewildering +succession of horses, carriages, fireworks, and festivities. Then he +had whirled away again behind his sovereign, having had hardly time to +embrace his old mother, who had retained naught of that great joy, so +impatiently awaited, save a few newspaper pictures, in which Bernard +Jansoulet was exhibited arriving at the chateau with Ahmed and +presenting his aged mother to him,--is not that the way in which kings +and queens have their family reunions illustrated in the journals?--plus +a cedar of Lebanon, brought from the end of the world,--a great +_caramantran_ of a tree, which was as costly to move and as much in the +way as the obelisk--being hoisted and planted by force of men and money +and horses; a tree which had wrought confusion among the shrubbery as +the price of setting up a souvenir commemorative of the royal visit. On +his present trip to France, at least, knowing that he had come for +several months, perhaps forever, she hoped to have her Bernard all to +herself. And lo! he swooped down upon her one fine evening, enveloped +in the same triumphant splendor, in the same official pomp, surrounded +by a multitude of counts, marquises, fine gentlemen from Paris, who +with their servants filled the two great breaks she had sent to meet +them at the little station of Giffas, on the other side of the Rhone. + +"Come, come, embrace me, my dear mamma. There's no shame in hugging +your boy, whom you haven't seen for years, close to your heart. +Besides, all these gentlemen are friends of ours. This is Monsieur le +Marquis de Monpavon, and Monsieur le Marquis de Bois-l'Hery. Ah! the +time has gone by when I used to bring you to eat bean soup with us, +little Cabassu and Bompain Jean-Baptiste. You know Monsieur de +Gery--he, with my old friend Cardailhac, whom I introduce to you, make +up the first batch. But others are coming. Prepare for a terrible +how-d'ye-do. We receive the bey in four days." + +"The bey again!" said the good woman in dismay. "I thought he was +dead." + +Jansoulet and his guests could but laugh at her comical alarm, +heightened by her Southern accent. + +"But there's another, mamma. There are always beys--luckily for me, +_sapristi_! But don't you be afraid. You won't have so much trouble on +your hands. Friend Cardailhac has undertaken to look after things. +We're going to have some superb fetes. Meanwhile give us some dinner +quick, and show us our rooms. Our Parisian friends are tired out." + +"Everything is ready, my son," said the old woman simply, standing +stiffly erect in her cap of Cambrai linen, with points yellowed by age, +which she never laid aside even on great occasions. Wealth had not +changed _her_. She was the typical peasant of the Rhone valley, +independent and proud, with none of the cunning humility of the rustics +described by Balzac, too simple, too, to be puffed up by wealth. Her +only pride was to show her son with what painstaking zeal she had +acquitted herself of her duties as care-taker. Not an atom of dust, not +a trace of dampness on the walls. The whole magnificent ground-floor, +the salons with the silk draperies and upholstery of changing hue, +taken at the last moment from their coverings; the long summer +galleries, with cool, resonant inlaid floors, which the Louis XV. +couches, with cane seats and backs upholstered with flowered stuffs, +furnished with summer-like coquetry; the enormous dining-hall, +decorated with flowers and branches; even the billiard-room, with its +rows of gleaming balls, its chandeliers and cue-racks,--the whole vast +extent of the chateau, seen through the long door-windows, wide open +upon the broad seignorial porch, displayed its splendor to the +admiration of the visitors, and reflected the beauty of that marvellous +landscape, lying serene and peaceful in the setting sun, in the +mirrors, the waxed or varnished wainscoting, with the same fidelity +with which the poplars bowing gracefully to each other, and the swans, +placidly swimming, were reproduced on the mirror-like surface of the +ponds. The frame was so beautiful, the general outlook so superb, that +the obtrusive, tasteless luxury melted away, disappeared even to the +most sensitive eye. + +"There's something to work with," said Cardailhac the manager, with his +monocle at his eye, his hat on one side, already planning his +stage-setting. + +And the haughty mien of Monpavon, who had been somewhat offended at +first by the old lady's head-dress when she received them on the porch, +gave place to a condescending smile. Certainly there was something to +work with, and their friend Jansoulet, under the guidance of men of +taste, could give his Maugrabin Highness a very handsome reception. +They talked about nothing else all the evening. Sitting in the +sumptuous dining-room, with their elbows on the table, warmed by wine +and with full stomachs, they planned and discussed. Cardailhac, whose +views were broad, had his plan all formed. + +"Carte blanche, of course, eh, Nabob?" + +"Carte blanche, old fellow. And let old Hemerlingue burst with rage." + +Thereupon the manager detailed his plans, the festivities to be divided +by days, as at Vaux when Fouquet entertained Louis XIV.; one day a +play, another day Provencal fetes, _farandoles_, bull-fights, local +music; the third day--And, in his mania for management, he was already +outlining programmes, posters, while Bois-l'Hery, with both hands in +his pockets, lying back in his chair, slept peacefully with his cigar +stuck in the corner of his sneering mouth, and the Marquis de Monpavon, +always on parade, drew up his breastplate every moment, to keep himself +awake. + +De Gery had left them early. He had gone to take refuge with the old +lady--who had known him, and his brothers, too, when they were +children--in the modest parlor in the wing, with the white curtains and +light wall-paper covered with figures, where the Nabob's mother tried +to revive her past as an artisan, with the aid of some relics saved +from the wreck. + +Paul talked softly, sitting opposite the handsome old woman with the +severe and regular features, the white hair piled on top of her head +like the flax on her distaff, who sat erect upon her chair, her flat +bust wrapped in a little green shawl;--never in her life had she rested +her back against the back of a chair or sat in an armchair. He called +her Francoise and she called him Monsieur Paul. They were old friends. +And what do you suppose they were talking about? Of her grandchildren, +_pardi!_ of Bernard's three boys whom she did not know, whom she would +have loved so dearly to know. + +"Ah! Monsieur Paul, if you knew how I long for them! I should have been +so happy if he had brought me my three little ones instead of all these +fine gentlemen. Just think, I have never seen them, except in those +pictures yonder. Their mother frightens me a bit, she's a great lady +out-and-out, a Demoiselle Afchin. But the children, I'm sure they're +not little coxcombs, but would be very fond of their old _granny_. +It would seem to me as if it was their father a little boy again, and +I'd give them what I didn't give the father--for, you see, Monsieur +Paul, parents aren't always just. They have favorites. But God is just. +You ought to see how He deals with the faces that you paint and fix up +the best, to the injury of the others. And the favoritism of the old +people often does harm to the young." + +She sighed as she glanced in the direction of the great alcove, from +which, through the high lambrequins and falling draperies, issued at +intervals a long, shuddering breath like the moan of a sleeping child +who has been whipped and has cried bitterly. + +A heavy step on the stairs, an unmelodious but gentle voice, saying in +a low tone: "It's I--don't move,"--and Jansoulet appeared. As everybody +had gone to bed at the chateau, he, knowing his mother's habits and +that hers was always the last light to be extinguished in the house, +had come to see her, to talk with her a little, to exchange the real +greeting of the heart which they had been unable to exchange in the +presence of others. "Oh! stay, my dear Paul; we don't mind you." And, +becoming a child once more in his mother's presence, he threw his whole +long body on the floor at her feet, with cajoling words and gestures +really touching to behold. She was very happy too to have him by her +side, but she was a little embarrassed none the less, looking upon him +as an all-powerful, strange being, exalting him in her artless +innocence to the level of an Olympian encompassed by thunder-bolts and +lightning-flashes, possessing the gift of omnipotence. She talked to +him, inquired if he was still satisfied with his friends, with the +condition of his affairs, but did not dare to ask the question she had +asked de Gery: "Why didn't you bring me my little grandsons?"--But he +broached the subject himself. + +"They're at boarding-school, mamma; as soon as the vacation comes, I'll +send them to you with Bompain. You remember him, don't you, Bompain +Jean-Baptiste? And you shall keep them two whole months. They'll come +to you to have you tell them fine stories, they'll go to sleep with +their heads on your apron, like this--" + +And he himself, placing his curly head, heavy as lead, on the old +woman's knees, recalling the happy evenings of his childhood when he +went to sleep that way if he were allowed to do so, if his older +brother's head did not take up all the room--he enjoyed, for the first +time since his return to France, a few moments of blissful repose, +outside of his tumultuous artificial life, pressed against that old +motherly heart which he could hear beating regularly, like the pendulum +of the century-old clock standing in a corner of the room, in the +profound silence of the night, which one can feel in the country, +hovering over the boundless expanse. Suddenly the same long sigh, as of +a child who has fallen asleep sobbing, was repeated at the farther end +of the room. + +"Is that--?" + +"Yes," she said, "I have him sleep here. He might need me in the +night." + +"I should like to see him, to embrace him." + +"Come." + +The old woman rose, took her lamp, led the way gravely to the alcove, +where she softly drew aside the long curtain and motioned to her son to +come, without making a noise. + +He was asleep. And it was certain that something lived in him that was +not there the day before, for, instead of the flaccid immobility in +which he was mired all day, he was shaken at that moment by violent +tremors, and on his expressionless, dead face there was a wrinkle of +suffering life, a contraction as of pain. Jansoulet, profoundly moved, +gazed at that thin, wasted, earth-colored face, on which the beard, +having appropriated all the vitality of the body, grew with surprising +vigor; then he stooped, placed his lips on the forehead moist with +perspiration, and, feeling that he started, he said in a low tone, +gravely, respectfully, as one addresses the head of the family: + +"Good-evening, Aine." + +Perhaps the imprisoned mind heard him in the depths of its dark, +degrading purgatory. But the lips moved and a long groan made answer; a +far-off wail, a despairing appeal caused the glance Francoise and her +son exchanged to overflow with impotent tears, and drew from them both +a simultaneous cry in which their sorrows met: _Pecaire!_ the local +word expressive of all pity, all affection. + + * * * + +Early the next morning the uproar began with the arrival of the actors +and actresses, an avalanche of caps, chignons, high boots, short +petticoats, affected screams, veils floating over the fresh coats of +rouge; the women were in a large majority, Cardailhac having reflected +that, where a bey was concerned, the performance was of little +consequence, that one need only emit false notes from pretty lips, show +lovely arms and well-turned legs in the free-and-easy neglige of the +operetta. All the plastic celebrities of his theatre were on hand, +therefore, Amy Ferat at their head, a hussy who had already tried her +eye-teeth on the gold of several crowns; also two or three famous comic +actors, whose pallid faces produced the same effect of chalky, spectral +blotches amid the bright green of the hedgerows as was produced by the +plaster statuettes. All that motley crew, enlivened by the journey, the +unfamiliar fresh air, and the copious hospitality, as well as by the +hope of hooking something in that procession of beys, nabobs, and other +purse-bearers, asked nothing better than to caper and sing and make +merry, with the vulgar enthusiasm of a crowd of Seine boatmen ashore on +a lark. But Cardailhac did not propose to have it so. As soon as they +had arrived, made their toilets and eaten their first breakfast, out +came the books; we must rehearse!--There was no time to lose. The +rehearsals took place in the small salon near the summer gallery, where +they were already beginning to build the stage; and the noise of the +hammers, the humming of the refrains, the thin voices supported by the +squeaking of the orchestra leader's violin, mingled with the loud +trumpet-calls of the peacocks on their perches, were blown to shreds in +the mistral, which, failing to recognize the frantic chirping of its +grasshoppers, contemptuously whisked it all away on the whirling tips +of its wings. + +Sitting in the centre of the porch, as if it were the proscenium of his +theatre, Cardailhac, while superintending the rehearsals, issued his +commands to a multitude of workmen and gardeners, ordered trees to be +felled which obstructed the view, drew sketches of the triumphal +arches, sent despatches and messengers to mayors, to sub-prefects, to +Arles to procure a deputation of girls of the province in the national +costume, to Barbantane, where the most skilful dancers of the +_farandole_ are to be found, to Faraman renowned for its herds of wild +bulls and Camarguese horses; and as Jansoulet's name blazed forth at +the foot of all these despatches, as the name of the Bey of Tunis also +figured in them, everybody acquiesced with the utmost eagerness, the +telegraphic messages arrived in an endless stream, and that little +Sardanapalus from Porte-Saint-Martin, who was called Cardailhac, was +forever repeating: "There is something to work with;" delighted to +throw gold about like handfuls of seed, to have a stage fifty leagues +in circumference to arrange, all Provence, of which country that +fanatical Parisian was a native, and thoroughly familiar with its +resources in the direction of the picturesque. + +Dispossessed of her functions, the old lady seldom appeared, gave her +attention solely to the farm and her invalid, terrified by that crowd +of visitors, those insolent servants whom one could not distinguish +from their masters, those women with brazen, coquettish manners, those +closely-shaven old villains who resembled wicked priests, all those mad +creatures who chased one another through the halls at night with much +throwing of pillows, wet sponges, and curtain tassels which they tore +off to use as projectiles. She no longer had her son in the evening, +for he was obliged to remain with his guests, whose number increased as +the time for the fetes drew near; nor had she even the resource of +talking about her grandsons with "Monsieur Paul," whom Jansoulet, +always the kindest of men, being a little awed by his friend's +seriousness of manner, had sent away to pass a few days with his +brothers. And the careful housekeeper, to whom some one came every +moment and seized her keys to get spare linen or silverware, to open +another room, thinking of the throwing open of her stores of treasures, +of the plundering of her wardrobes and her sideboards, remembering the +condition in which the visit of the former bey had left the chateau, +devastated as by a cyclone, said in her patois, feverishly moistening +the thread of her distaff: + +"May God's fire devour all beys and all future beys!" + +At last the day arrived, the famous day of which people still talk +throughout the whole province. Oh! about three o'clock in the +afternoon, after a sumptuous breakfast presided over by the old mother +with a new Cambrai cap on her head,--a breakfast at which, side by side +with Parisian celebrities, prefects were present and deputies, all in +full dress, with swords at their sides, mayors in their scarfs of +office, honest cures cleanly shaven,--when Jansoulet, in black coat and +white cravat, surrounded by his guests, went out upon the stoop and +saw, framed in that magnificent landscape, amid flags and arches and +ensigns, that swarm of heads, that sea of brilliant costumes rising +tier above tier on the slopes and thronging the paths; here, grouped +in a nosegay on the lawn, the prettiest girls of Arles, whose little +white faces peeped sweetly forth from lace neckerchiefs; below, the +_farandole_ from Barbantane, its eight tambourines in a line, ready for +the word, hand in hand, ribbons fluttering in the wind, hats over one +ear, the red _taillote_ about the loins; still lower, in the succession +of terraces, the choral societies drawn up in line, all black beneath +their bright-hued caps, the banner-bearer in advance, serious and +resolved, with clenched teeth, holding aloft his carved staff; lower +still, on an immense _rond-point_, black bulls in shackles, and +Camargue gauchos on their little horses with long white manes, their +leggings above their knees, brandishing their spears; and after them +more flags and helmets and bayonets, reaching to the triumphal arch at +the entrance; then, as far as the eye could see on the other side of +the Rhone,--over which two gangs of workmen had just thrown a bridge of +boats, so that they could drive from the station to Saint-Romans in a +straight line,--was an immense crowd, whole villages pouring down from +all the hills, overflowing on the Giffas road in a wilderness of noise +and dust, seated on the edge of the ditches, swarming among the elms, +piled upon wagons, a formidable living lane for the procession to pass +through; and over it all a huge white sun whose arrows a capricious +breeze sent in every direction, from the copper of a tambourine to the +point of a spear and the fringe of a banner, while the mighty Rhone, +high-spirited and free, bore away to the ocean the shifting tableaux of +that royal fete. In presence of those marvels, in which all the gold in +his coffers shone resplendent, the Nabob felt a thrill of admiration +and pride. + +"It is fine," he said, turning pale, and his mother, standing behind +him, as pale as he, but from indescribable terror, murmured: + +"It is too fine for any man. One would think that God was coming." + +The feeling of the devout old peasant woman was much the same as that +vaguely experienced by all those people who had assembled on the roads +as if to watch the passage of a colossal procession on Corpus Christi, +and who were reminded by that visit of an Oriental prince to a child of +the province, of the legends of the Magian kings, the arrival of +Gaspard the Moor bringing to the carpenter's son the myrrh and the +crown. + +Amid the heartfelt congratulations that were showered on Jansoulet, +Cardailhac, who had not been seen since morning, suddenly appeared, +triumphant and perspiring. + +"Didn't I tell you that there was something to work with! Eh? Isn't +this _chic_? There's a grouping for you! I fancy our Parisians would +pay something handsome to attend a first performance like this." + +He lowered his voice because the mother was close by: + +"Have you seen our Arles girls? No, look at them more carefully--the +first one, the one standing in front to offer the bouquet." + +"Why, that's Amy Ferat!" + +"_Parbleu!_ you can see yourself, my dear fellow, that if the bey +throws his handkerchief into that bevy of pretty girls, there must be +at least one who knows enough to pick it up. Those innocent creatures +wouldn't know what it meant! Oh! I have thought of everything, you'll +see. It's all mounted and arranged as if it were on the stage. Farm +side, garden side." + +At that point, to give an idea of the perfectness of his organization, +the manager raised his cane; his gesture was instantly repeated from +end to end of the park, with the result that all the musical societies, +all the trumpets, all the tambourines burst forth in unison in the +majestic strains of the familiar song of the South: _Grand Soleil de +la Provence_. The voices, the brazen notes ascended into the light, +swelling the folds of the banners, giving the signal to the dancers of +the _farandole_, who began to sway back and forth, to go through their +first antics where they stood, while, on the other side of the river, a +murmur ran through the crowd like a breeze, caused doubtless by the +fear that the bey had arrived unexpectedly from another direction. A +second gesture from the manager and the great orchestra subsided, more +gradually, with _rallentando_ passages and meteoric showers of notes +scattered among the foliage; but nothing better could be expected from +a company of three thousand persons. + +Just then the carriages appeared, the state carriages which had figured +in the festivities in honor of the former bey, two great pink and gold +chariots _a la mode de Tunis_, which Mother Jansoulet had taken care of +as precious relics, and which came forth from the carriage-house with +their varnished panels, their hangings and gold fringe as bright and +fresh as when they were new. There again Cardailhac's ingenuity had +exerted itself freely, and instead of horses, which were a little heavy +for those fragile-looking, daintily decorated vehicles, the white reins +guided eight mules with ribbons, plumes, and silver bells upon their +heads, and caparisoned from head to foot with those marvellous +_sparteries_, of which Provence seems to have borrowed the secret +from the Moors and to have perfected the cunning art of manufacturing. +If the bey were not satisfied with that! + +The Nabob, Monpavon, the prefect and one of their generals entered the +first carriage, the others took their places in the second and +following ones. The cures and mayors, all excited by the wine they had +drunk, ran to place themselves at the head of the singing societies of +their respective parishes, which were to go to meet the procession; and +the whole multitude set forth on the Giffas road. + +It was a superbly clear day, but warm and oppressive, three months in +advance of the season, as often happens in those impetuous regions +where everything is in a hurry, where everything arrives before its +time. Although there was not a cloud to be seen, the deathlike +stillness of the atmosphere, the wind having fallen suddenly as one +lowers a veil, the dazzling expanse, heated white-hot, a solemn silence +hovering over the landscape, all indicated that a storm was brewing in +some corner of the horizon. The extraordinary torpidity of the +surrounding objects gradually affected the persons. Naught could be +heard save the tinkling bells of the mules as they ambled slowly along, +the measured, heavy tread, through the burning dust, of the bands of +singers whom Cardailhac stationed at intervals in the procession, and +from time to time, in the double, swarming line of human beings that +bordered the road as far as the eye could see, a call, the voices of +children, the cry of a peddler of fresh water, the inevitable +accompaniment of all open-air fetes in the South. + +"For heaven's sake, open the window on your side, General, it's +stifling," said Monpavon, with crimson face, fearing for his paint; and +the lowered sashes afforded the worthy populace a view of those exalted +functionaries mopping their august faces, which were terribly flushed +and wore the same agonized expression of anticipation,--anticipation of +the bey's arrival, of the storm, of something. + +Another triumphal arch. Giffas and its long stony street strewn with +green palm leaves, its old, dirty houses covered with flowers and +decorations. Outside of the village the station, a square white +structure, planted like a die at the side of the track, a genuine type +of the little country station lost among vineyards, its only room +always empty, except for an occasional old woman with a quantity of +parcels, waiting in a corner, three hours too early for her train. + +In the bey's honor the little building was decked with flags and +banners, furnished with rugs and divans and a splendid buffet, on which +was a light lunch and water ices all ready for his Highness. When he +had arrived and alighted from his carriage, the Nabob shook off the +species of haunting disquiet which had oppressed him for a moment past, +without his knowing why. Prefects, generals, deputies, black coats and +embroidered military coats stood on the broad inner platform, in +impressive, solemn groups, with the pursed lips, the shifting from one +foot to the other, the self-conscious starts of a public functionary +who feels that he is being stared at. And you can imagine whether noses +were flattened against window-panes in order to obtain a glimpse of +those hierarchic embroideries, of Monpavon's breastplate, which +expanded and rose like an omelette soufflee, of Cardailhac gasping for +breath as he issued his final orders, and of the beaming face of +Jansoulet, their Jansoulet, whose eyes, sparkling between the bloated, +sunburned cheeks, resembled two great gilt nails in a piece of Cordova +leather. Suddenly the electric bells began to ring. The station-agent +rushed frantically out to the track: "The train is signalled, +messieurs. It will be here in eight minutes." Everybody started. Then a +general instinctive impulse caused every watch to be drawn from its +fob. Only six minutes more. Thereupon, in the profound silence, some +one exclaimed: "Look there!" On the right, in the direction from which +the train was to come, two high vine-covered hills formed a tunnel into +which the track plunged and disappeared, as if swallowed up. At that +moment the whole sky in that direction was as black as ink, obscured by +an enormous cloud, a threatening wall cutting the blue as with a knife, +rearing palisades, lofty cliffs of basalt on which the light broke like +white foam with the pallid gleam of moonlight. In the solemn silence of +the deserted track, along that line of rails where one felt that +everything, so far as the eye could see, stood aside for the passage of +his Highness, that aerial cliff was a terrifying spectacle as it +advanced, casting its shadow before it with that illusion of +perspective which gave to the cloud a slow, majestic movement and to +its shadow the rapid pace of a galloping horse. "What a storm we are +going to have directly!" That was the thought that came to them all; +but they had not time to express it, for an ear-piercing whistle was +heard and the train appeared in the depths of the dark tunnel. A +typical royal train, short and travelling fast, decorated with French +and Tunisian flags, its groaning, puffing locomotive, with an enormous +bouquet of roses on its breast, representing the maid of honor at a +wedding of Leviathans. + +It came rushing on at full speed, but slackened its pace as it drew +near. The functionaries formed a group, drawing themselves up, +arranging their swords, adjusting their false collars, while Jansoulet +walked along the track toward the train, the obsequious smile on his +lips and his back already bent for the "Salem alek!" The train +continued to move, very slowly. Jansoulet thought that it had stopped, +and placed his hand on the door of the royal carriage glittering with +gold under the black sky; but the headway was too great, doubtless, for +the train still went forward, the Nabob walking beside it, trying to +open that infernal door which resisted all his efforts, and with the +other hand making a sign of command to the machine. But the machine did +not obey. "Stop, I tell you!" It did not stop. Impatient at the delay, +he sprang upon the velvet-covered step, and with the somewhat +presumptuous impetuosity, which used to please the former bey so much, +he cried out, thrusting his great curly head in at the window: + +"Station for Saint-Romans, your Highness!" + +You know that sort of vague light peculiar to dreams, that colorless, +empty atmosphere, in which everything assumes a ghostly aspect? well, +Jansoulet was suddenly enveloped, made prisoner, paralyzed by it. He +tried to speak, but the words would not come; his nerveless fingers +clung so feebly to their support that he nearly fell backward. In +heaven's name, what had he seen? Half reclining on a divan which +extended across one end of the car, his fine head with its dead-white +complexion and its long, silky black beard resting on his hand, the +bey, buttoned to the chin in his Oriental frock-coat, without other +ornament than the broad ribbon of the Legion of Honor across his breast +and the diamond clasp in his cap, was fanning himself impassively with +a little fan of _spartum_, embroidered with gold. Two aides-de-camp +were standing near him and an engineer of the French company. Opposite +him, upon another divan, in a respectful attitude, but one indicating +high favor, as they alone remained seated in presence of the bey, both +as yellow as saffron, their long whiskers falling over their white +cravats, sat two owls, one fat, the other thin. They were the +Hemerlingues, father and son, who had reconquered his Highness and were +carrying him in triumph to Paris. A ghastly dream! All those people, +although they knew Jansoulet well, stared coolly at him as if his face +conveyed no idea to them. Pitiably pale, with the perspiration standing +on his brow, he stammered: "But, your Highness, do you not mean to +leave--" A livid flash, like that of a sabre stroke, followed by a +frightful peal of thunder, cut him short. But the flash that shot from +the monarch's eyes seemed far more terrible to him. Rising to his feet +and stretching out his arm, the bey crushed him with these words, +prepared in advance and uttered slowly in a rather guttural voice +accustomed to the harsh Arabic syllables, but in very pure French: + +"You may return home, Mercanti. The foot goes where the heart leads it, +mine shall never enter the door of the man who has robbed my country." + +Jansoulet tried to say a word. The bey waved his hand: "Begone!" And +the engineer having pressed the button of an electric bell, to which a +whistle replied, the train, which had not come to a full stop, +stretched and strained its iron muscles and started ahead under full +steam, waving its flags in the wind of the storm amid whirling clouds +of dense smoke and sinister flashes. + +He stood by the track, dazed, staggering, crushed, watching his fortune +recede and disappear, heedless of the great drops of rain that began to +fall upon his bare head. Then, when the others rushed toward him, +surrounded him and overwhelmed him with questions: "Isn't the Bey going +to stop?" he stammered a few incoherent words: "Court intrigues--infamous +machinations." And suddenly, shaking his fist at the train which had +already disappeared, with bloodshot eyes and the foam of fierce wrath +on his lips, he cried with the roar of a wild beast: + +"Vile curs!" + +"Courage, Jansoulet, courage." + +You can guess who said that, and who, passing his arm through the +Nabob's, tried to straighten him up, to make him throw out his breast +as he did, led him to the carriages amid the stupefied silence of the +braided coats, and helped him to enter, crushed and bewildered, as a +relative of the deceased is hoisted into a mourning carriage at the +close of the lugubrious ceremony. The rain was beginning to fall, the +peals of thunder followed one another rapidly. They crowded into the +carriages, which started hurriedly homeward. Thereupon a heart-rending, +yet comical thing took place, one of those cruel tricks which cowardly +destiny plays upon its victims when they are down. In the fading light, +the increasing obscurity caused by the squall, the crowd that filled +all the approaches to the station believed that it could distinguish a +Royal Highness amid such a profusion of gold lace, and as soon as the +wheels began to revolve, a tremendous uproar, an appalling outcry which +had been brewing in all those throats for an hour past, arose and +filled the air, rebounded from hill to hill and echoed through the +valley: "Vive le Bey!" Warned by that signal, the first flourishes rang +out, the singing societies struck up in their turn, and as the noise +increased from point to point, the road from Giffas to Saint-Romans was +naught but one long, unbroken wave of sound. In vain did Cardailhac, +all the gentlemen, Jansoulet himself, lean out of the windows and make +desperate signs: "Enough! enough!" Their gestures were lost in the +confusion, in the darkness; what was seen of them seemed an +encouragement to shout louder. And I give you my word that it was in no +wise needed. All those Southerners, whose enthusiasm had been kept at +fever heat since morning, excited still more by the tedium of the long +wait and by the storm, gave all that they had of voice, of breath, of +noisy energy, blending with the national hymn of Provence that +oft-repeated cry, which broke in upon it like a refrain: "Vive le Bey!" +The majority had no sort of idea what a bey might be, did not even +picture him to themselves, and gave a most extraordinary pronunciation +to the unfamiliar title, as if it had three _b's_ and ten _y's_. But no +matter, they worked themselves into a frenzy over it, threw up their +hands, waved their hats, and waxed excited over their own antics. +Women, deeply affected, wiped their eyes; and suddenly the piercing cry +of a child came from the topmost branches of an elm: "Mamma, mamma, I +see him!" He saw him! They all saw him for that matter; to this day +they would all take their oath that they saw him. + +Confronted with such delirious excitement, finding it impossible to +impose silence and tranquillity upon that mob, there was but one course +for the people in the carriages to pursue: to let them alone, raise the +windows and drive at full speed in order to abridge that unpleasant +martyrdom as much as possible. Then it was terrible. Seeing the cortege +quicken its pace, the whole road began to run with it. The _farandoleurs_ +of Barbantane, hand-in-hand, bounded from side to side, to the muffled +wheezing of their tambourines, forming a human garland around the +carriage doors. The singing societies, unable to sing at that breathless +pace, but howling none the less, dragged their banner-bearers along, +the banners thrown over their shoulders; and the stout, red-faced +cures, panting, pushing their huge overburdened paunches before them, +still found strength to shout in the mules' ears, in sympathetic, +effusive tones: "Vive notre bon Bey!" And with it all, the rain, the +rain falling in bucketfuls, in sheets, soiling the pink carriages, +increasing the confusion, giving to that triumphal return the aspect of +a rout, but a laughable rout, compounded of songs, laughter, blasphemy, +frantic embraces and infernal oaths, something like the return from a +Corpus Christi procession in the storm, with cassocks tucked up, +surplices thrown over the head, and the good Lord hastily housed under +a porch. + +A dull rumbling announced to the poor Nabob, sitting silent and +motionless in a corner of his carriage, that they were crossing the +bridge of boats. They had arrived. + +"At last!" he said, looking out through the dripping windows at the +foam-tipped waves of the Rhone, where the storm seemed to him like +repose after that through which he had passed. But, when the first +carriage reached the triumphal arch at the end of the bridge, bombs +were exploded, the drums beat, saluting the monarch's arrival upon his +faithful subject's domain, and the climax of irony was reached when, in +the half light, a blaze of gas suddenly illuminated the roof of the +chateau with letters of fire, over which the rain and wind caused great +shadows to run to and fro, but which still displayed very legibly the +legend: "Viv' L' B'Y M'H'MED." + +"That's the bouquet," said the unhappy Nabob, unable to restrain a +smile, a very pitiful, very bitter smile. But no, he was mistaken. The +bouquet awaited him at the door of the chateau; and it was Amy Ferat +who came forward to present it to him, stepping out of the group of +maidens from Arles, who were sheltering their watered silk skirts and +figured velvet caps under the marquee, awaiting the first carriage. Her +bunch of flowers in her hand, modestly, with downcast eyes and roguish +ankle, the pretty actress darted to the door and stood almost kneeling +in an attitude of salutation, which she had been rehearsing for a week. +Instead of the bey, Jansoulet stepped out, excited, stiffly erect, and +passed her by without even looking at her. And as she stood there, her +nosegay in her hand, with the stupid expression of a balked fairy, +Cardailhac said to her with the _blague_ of a Parisian who speedily +makes the best of things: + +"Take away your flowers, my dear, your affair has fallen through. The +Bey isn't coming--he forgot his handkerchief, and as that's what he +uses to talk to ladies, why, you understand--" + + * * * + +Now, it is night. Everybody is asleep at Saint-Romans after the +tremendous hurly-burly of the day. The rain is still falling in +torrents, the banners feebly wave their drenched carcasses, one can +hear the water rushing down the stone steps, transformed into cascades. +Everything is streaming and dripping. A sound of water, a deafening +sound of water. Alone in his magnificently furnished chamber with its +seignorial bed and its curtains of Chinese silk with purple stripes, +the Nabob is still stirring, striding back and forth, revolving bitter +thoughts. His mind is no longer intent upon the affront to himself, the +public affront in the presence of thirty thousand persons, nor upon the +murderous insult that the Bey addressed to him in presence of his +mortal enemies. No, that Southerner with his wholly physical +sensations, swift as the action of new weapons, has already cast away +all the venom of his spleen. Moreover court favorites are always +prepared, by many celebrated precedents, for such overwhelming falls +from grace. What terrifies him is what he can see behind that insult. +He reflects that all his property is over yonder, houses, +counting-rooms, vessels, at the mercy of the bey, in that lawless +Orient, the land of arbitrary power. And, pressing his burning brow +against the streaming glass, with the perspiration standing on his +back, and hands cold as ice, he stares vacantly out into the night, no +darker, no more impenetrable than his own destiny. + +Suddenly he hears footsteps, hurried footsteps, at his door. + +"Who's there?" + +"Monsieur," says Noel, entering the room half-dressed, "a very urgent +despatch sent from the telegraph office by special messenger." + +"A despatch!--What is the next thing?" + +He takes the blue paper and opens it with trembling hand. The god, +having already been wounded twice, is beginning to feel that he is +vulnerable, to lose his assurance; he experiences the apprehensions, +the nervous tremors of other men. The signature first. _Mora!_ Is it +possible? The duke, the duke telegraph to him! Yes, there is no doubt +about it. _M-o-r-a._ + +And above: + + _Popolasca is dead. Election in Corsica soon. You are official + candidate._ + +A deputy! That means salvation. With that he has nothing to fear. A +representative of the great French nation is not to be treated like a +simple _mercanti_. Down with the Hemerlingues! + +"O my duke, my noble duke!" + +He was so excited that he could not sign the receipt. + +"Where's the man who brought this despatch?" he asked abruptly. + +"Here, Monsieur Jansoulet," replied a hearty voice from the hall, in +the familiar Southern dialect. + +He was a lucky dog, that messenger. + +"Come in," said the Nabob. + +And, after handing him his receipt, he plunged his hands into his +pockets, which were always full, grasped as many gold pieces as he +could hold and threw them into the poor devil's cap as he stood there +stammering, bewildered, dazzled by the fortune that had befallen him in +the darkness of that enchanted palace. + + + + +XII. + +A CORSICAN ELECTION. + + + "POZZONEGRO, near Sartene. + + "I am able at last to write you of my movements, my dear Monsieur + Joyeuse. In the five days that we have been in Corsica we have + travelled about so much, talked so much, changed carriages and + steeds so often, riding sometimes on mules, sometimes on asses, and + sometimes even on men's backs to cross streams, have written so + many letters, made notes on so many petitions, given away so many + chasubles and altar-cloths, propped up so many tottering church + steeples, founded so many asylums, proposed and drunk so many + toasts, absorbed so much talk and Talano wine and white cheese, + that I have found no time to send an affectionate word to the + little family circle around the big table, from which I have been + missing for two weeks. Luckily my absence will not last much + longer, for we expect to leave day after to-morrow and travel + straight through to Paris. So far as the election is concerned, I + fancy that our trip has been successful. Corsica is a wonderful + country, indolent and poor, a mixture of poverty and of pride which + makes both the noble and bourgeois families keep up a certain + appearance of opulence even at the price of the most painful + privations. They talk here in all seriousness of the great wealth + of Popolasca, the indigent deputy whom death robbed of the hundred + thousand francs his resignation in the Nabob's favor would have + brought him. All these people have, moreover, a frenzied longing + for offices, an administrative mania, a craving to wear a uniform + of some sort and a flat cap on which they can write: "Government + clerk." If you should give a Corsican peasant his choice between + the richest farm in Beauce and the baldric of the humblest + forest-warden, he would not hesitate a moment, he would choose the + baldric. Under such circumstances you can judge whether a candidate + with a large fortune and governmental favors at his disposal has a + good chance of being elected. Elected M. Jansoulet will be, + therefore, especially if he succeeds in the move which he is making + at this moment and which has brought us to the only inn of a small + village called Pozzonegro (Black Well), a genuine well, all black + with verdure, fifty cottages built of red stone clustered around a + church of the Italian type, in the bottom of a ravine surrounded by + steep hills, by cliffs of bright-colored sandstone, scaled by vast + forests of larches and junipers. Through my open window, at which I + am writing, I can see a bit of blue sky overhead, the orifice of + the black well; below, on the little square, shaded by an enormous + walnut tree, as if the shadows were not dense enough already, two + shepherds dressed in skins are playing cards on the stone curb of a + fountain. Gambling is the disease of this country of sloth, where + the crops are harvested by men from Lucca. The two poor devils + before me could not find a sou in their pockets; one stakes his + knife, the other a cheese wrapped in vine leaves, the two stakes + being placed beside them on the stone. A little cure is watching + them, smoking his cigar, and apparently taking the liveliest + interest in their game. + + "And that is all--not a sound anywhere except the regular dropping + of the water on the stone, the exclamations of one of the gamblers, + who swears by the _sango del seminario_; and in the common-room of + the inn, under my chamber, our friend's earnest voice, mingled with + the buzzing of the illustrious Paganetti, who acts as interpreter + in his conversation with the no less illustrious Piedigriggio. + + "M. Piedigriggio (Grayfoot) is a local celebrity. He is a tall old + man of seventy-five, still very erect in his short cloak over which + his long white beard falls, his brown woollen Catalan cap on his + hair, which is also white, a pair of scissors in his belt, which he + uses to cut the great leaves of green tobacco in the hollow of his + hand; a venerable old fellow in fact, and when he crossed the + square and shook hands with the cure, with a patronizing smile at + the two gamblers, I never would have believed that I had before me + the famous brigand Piedigriggio, who, from 1840 to 1860, _held the + thickets_ in Monte-Rotondo, tired out gendarmes and troops of the + line, and who to-day, his seven or eight murders with the rifle or + the knife being outlawed by lapse of time, goes his way in peace + throughout the region that saw his crimes, and is a man of + considerable importance. This is the explanation: Piedigriggio has + two sons, who, following nobly in his footsteps, have toyed with + the rifle and now hold the thickets in their turn. Impossible to + lay hands upon or to find, as their father was for twenty years, + informed by the shepherds of the movements of the gendarmerie, as + soon as the gendarmes leave a village, the brigands appear there. + The older of the two, Scipion, came last Sunday to Pozzonegro to + hear mass. To say that people are fond of them, and that the grasp + of the bloodstained hand of these villains is agreeable to all + those who receive it, would be to calumniate the pacific + inhabitants of this commune; but they fear them, and their will is + law. + + "Now it appears that the Piedigriggios have taken it into their + heads to espouse the cause of our rival in the election, a + formidable alliance, which may cause two whole cantons to vote + against us, for the knaves have legs as long, in proportion, as the + range of their guns. Naturally we have the gendarmes with us, but + the brigands are much more powerful. As our host said to us this + morning: 'The gendarmes, they go, but the banditti, they stay.' In + the face of that very logical reasoning, we realized that there was + but one thing to do, to treat with the Piedigriggios, and make a + bargain with them. The mayor said a word to the old man, who + consulted his sons, and they are discussing the terms of the treaty + downstairs. I can hear the Governor's voice from here: 'Nonsense, + my dear fellow, I'm an old Corsican myself, you know.' And then the + other's tranquil reply, cut simultaneously with his tobacco by the + grating noise of the great scissors. The 'dear fellow' does not + seem to have faith; and I am inclined to think that matters will + not progress until the gold pieces ring on the table. + + "The trouble is that Paganetti is well known in his native country. + The value of his word is written on the public square at Corte + which still awaits the monument to Paoli, in the vast crop of + humbuggery that he has succeeded in planting in this sterile + Ithacan island, and in the flabby, empty pocket-books of all the + wretched village cures, petty bourgeois, petty noblemen, whose + slender savings he has filched by dangling chimerical _combinazioni_ + before their eyes. Upon my word, he needed all his phenomenal + assurance, together with the financial resources he now has at his + command to satisfy all demands, to venture to show his face here + again. + + "After all, how much truth is there in these fabulous works + undertaken by the _Caisse Territoriale_? + + "None at all. + + "Mines which do not yield, which will never yield, as they exist + only on paper; quarries which as yet know not pickaxe or powder; + untilled, sandy moors, which they survey with a gesture, saying, + 'We begin here, and we go way over yonder, to the devil.' It's the + same with the forests,--one whole densely wooded slope of + Monte-Rotondo, which belongs to us, it seems, but which it is not + practicable to cut unless aeronauts should do duty as woodcutters. + So as to the mineral baths, of which this wretched hamlet of + Pozzonegro is one of the most important, with its fountain, whose + amazing ferruginous properties Paganetti is constantly vaunting. Of + packet-boats, not a trace. Yes, there is an old, half-ruined + Genoese tower, on the shore of the Bay of Ajaccio, with this + inscription on a tarnished panel over its hermetically closed door: + 'Paganetti Agency, Maritime Company, Bureau of Information.' The + bureau is kept by fat gray lizards in company with a screech-owl. + As for the railroads, I noticed that all the excellent Corsicans to + whom I mentioned them, replied with cunning smiles, disconnected + phrases, full of mystery; and not until this morning did I obtain + the exceedingly farcical explanation of all this reticence. + + "I had read among the documents which the Governor waves before our + eyes from time to time, like a fan to inflate his _blague_, a deed + of a marble quarry at a place called Taverna, two hours from + Pozzonegro. Availing myself of our visit to this place, I jumped on + a mule this morning, without a word to any one, and, guided by a + tall rascal, with the legs of a deer,--a perfect specimen of the + Corsican poacher or smuggler, with his great red pipe between his + teeth,--I betook myself to Taverna. After a horrible journey among + cliffs intersected by crevasses, bogs, and abysses of immeasurable + depth, where my mule maliciously amused himself by walking close to + the edge, as if he were measuring it with his shoes, we descended + an almost perpendicular surface to our destination,--a vast desert + of rocks, absolutely bare, all white with the droppings of gulls + and mews; for the sea is just below, very near, and the silence of + the place was broken only by the beating of the waves and the + shrill cries of flocks of birds flying in circles. My guide, who + has a holy horror of customs officers and gendarmes, remained at + the top of the cliff, because of a small custom-house station on + the shore, while I bent my steps toward a tall red building which + reared its three stories aloft in that blazing solitude, the + windows broken, the roof-tiles in confusion, and over the rotting + door an immense sign: '_Caisse Territoriale. Carr--bre--54._' The + wind and sun and rain have destroyed the rest. + + "Certainly there has been at some time an attempt made to work the + mine, for there is a large, square, yawning hole, with cleanly-cut + edges and patches of red streaked with brown, like leprous spots, + along its sterile walls; and among the nettles at the bottom + enormous blocks of marble of the variety known in commerce as + _griotte_, condemned blocks of which no use can be made for lack of + a proper road leading to the quarry, or a harbor which would enable + boats to approach the hill; and, more than all else, for lack of + sufficient funds to supply either of those needs. So the quarry, + although within a few cable-lengths of the shore, is abandoned, + useless, and a nuisance, like Robinson Crusoe's boat, with the same + drawbacks as to availability. These details of the distressing + history of our only territorial possession were furnished me by an + unhappy survivor, shivering with fever, whom I found in the + basement of the yellow house trying to cook a piece of kid over the + acrid smoke of a fire of mastic branches. + + "That man, who comprises the whole staff of the _Caisse + Territoriale_ in Corsica, is Paganetti's foster-father, an + ex-lighthouse-keeper who does not mind loneliness. The Governor + leaves him there partly from charity, and also because an + occasional letter from the Taverna quarry produces a good effect at + meetings of shareholders. I had great difficulty in extorting any + information from that three-fourths wild man, who gazed at me + suspiciously, in ambush behind his goat-skin _pelone_; he did + tell me, however, unintentionally, what the Corsicans understand by + the term railroad, and why they assume this mysterious manner when + they mention it. While I was trying to find out whether he knew + anything of the scheme for an iron road in the island, the old + fellow did not put on the cunning smile I had observed in his + compatriots, but said to me quite naturally, in very good French, + but in a voice as rusty and stiff as an old lock that is seldom + used: + + "'Oh! moussiou, no need of railroads here--' + + "'But they are very valuable, very useful to make communication + easier.' + + "'I don't say that ain't true; but with the gendarmes we don't need + anything more.' + + "'The gendarmes?' + + "'To be sure.' + + "The misunderstanding lasted fully five minutes, before I finally + comprehended that the secret police are known here as the + 'railroads.' As there are many Corsican police officials on the + Continent, they make use of an honest euphemism to describe their + degrading occupation in their family circle. You ask the kinsmen of + one of them, 'Where's your brother Ambrosini?' 'What is your Uncle + Barbicaglia doing?' They will answer, with a little wink: 'He has a + place on the railroad;' and everybody knows what that means. Among + the lower classes, the peasants, who have never seen a railroad and + have no idea what it is, there is a perfectly serious belief that + the great department of the secret imperial police has no other + name than that. Our principal agent in the island shares that + touching innocence; this will give you an idea of the condition of + the _Line from Ajaccio to Bastia via Bonifacio, Porto Vecchio, + etc._, which figures on the great books with green backs in the + Paganetti establishment. In a word, all the assets of the + territorial bank are comprised in a few desks and two old + hovels--the whole hardly worthy of a place in the rubbish-yard on + Rue Saint-Ferdinand, where I hear the weathercocks creaking and the + old doors slamming every night as I fall asleep. + + "But in that case what has been done, what is being done with the + enormous sums that M. Jansoulet has poured into the treasury in the + last five months, to say nothing of what has come from other + sources attracted by that magic name? I fully agreed with you that + all these soundings and borings and purchases of land, which appear + on the books in a fine round hand, were immeasurably exaggerated. + But how could any one suspect such infernal impudence? That is why + M. le Gouverneur was so disgusted at the idea of taking me on this + electoral trip. I have not thought it best to have an explanation + on the spot. My poor Nabob has enough on his mind with his + election. But, as soon as we have returned, I shall place all the + details of my long investigation before his eyes; and I will + extricate him from this den of thieves by persuasion or by force. + They have finished their negotiations downstairs. Old Piedigriggio + is crossing the square, playing with his long peasant's purse, + which looks to me to be well-filled. The bargain is concluded, I + suppose. A hasty adieu, my dear Monsieur Joyeuse; remember me to + the young ladies, and bid them keep a tiny place for me at the + work-table. + + "PAUL DE GERY." + +The electoral cyclone in which they had been enveloped in Corsica +crossed the sea in their wake like the blast of a sirocco, followed +them to Paris and blew madly through the apartments on Place Vendome, +which were thronged from morning till night by the usual crowd, +increased by the constant arrival of little men as dark as carob-beans, +with regular, bearded faces, some noisy, buzzing and chattering, others +silent, self-contained and dogmatic, the two types of the race in which +the same climate produces different results. All those famished +islanders made appointments, in the wilds of their uncivilized +fatherland, to meet one another at the Nabob's table, and his house had +become a tavern, a restaurant, a market-place. In the dining-room, +where the table was always set, there was always some Corsican, newly +arrived, in the act of taking a bite, with the bewildered and greedy +expression of a relation from the country. + +The noisy, blatant breed of election agents is the same everywhere; but +these men were distinguished by something more of ardor, a more +impassioned zeal, a turkey-cock vanity heated white-hot. The most +insignificant clerk, inspector, mayor's secretary, or village +schoolmaster talked as if he had a whole canton behind him and the +pockets of his threadbare coat stuffed full of ballots. And it is a +fact, which Jansoulet had had abundant opportunity to verify, that in +the Corsican villages the families are so ancient, of such humble +origin, with so many ramifications, that a poor devil who breaks stones +on the high road finds some way to work out his relationship to the +greatest personages on the island, and in that way wields a serious +influence. As the national temperament, proud, cunning, intriguing, +revengeful, intensifies these complications, the result is that great +care must be taken as to where one puts his foot among the snares that +are spread from one end of the island to the other. + +The most dangerous part of it was that all those people were jealous of +one another, detested one another, quarrelled openly at the table on +the subject of the election, exchanging black glances, grasping the +hilts of their knives at the slightest dispute, talking very loud and +all together, some in the harsh, resonant Genoese patois, others in the +most comical French, choking with restrained insults, throwing at one +another's heads the names of unknown villages, dates of local history +which suddenly placed two centuries of family feuds upon the table +between two covers. The Nabob was afraid that his breakfasts would end +tragically, and tried to calm all those violent natures with his +kindly, conciliatory smile. But Paganetti reassured him. According to +him, the vendetta, although still kept alive in Corsica, very rarely +employs the stiletto and the firearm in these days. The anonymous +letter has taken their place. Indeed, unsigned letters were received +every day at Place Vendome, after the style of this one:-- + + "You are so generous, Monsieur Jansoulet, that I can do no less + than point out to you Sieur Bornalinco (Ange-Marie) as a traitor + who has gone over to your enemies; I have a very different story to + tell of his cousin Bornalinco (Louis-Thomas), who is devoted to the + good cause," etc. + +Or else: + + "Monsieur Jansoulet, I fear that your election will be badly + managed and will come to nothing if you continue to employ Castirla + (Josue) of the canton of Odessa, while his kinsman, Luciani, is the + very man you need." + +Although he finally gave up reading such missives, the poor candidate +was shaken by all those doubts, by all those passions, being caught in +a network of petty intrigues, his mind full of terror and distrust, +anxious, excited, nervous, feeling keenly the truth of the Corsican +proverb: + +"If you are very ill-disposed to your enemy, pray that he may have an +election in his family." + +We can imagine that the check-book and the three great drawers in the +mahogany commode were not spared by that cloud of devouring locusts +that swooped down upon "Moussiou Jansoulet's" salons. Nothing could be +more comical than the overbearing way in which those worthy islanders +negotiated their loans, abruptly and with an air of defiance. And yet +they were not the most terrible, except in the matter of boxes of +cigars, which vanished in their pockets so rapidly as to make one think +they proposed to open a _Civette_ on their return to the island. But +just as wounds grow red and inflamed on very hot days, so the election +had caused an amazing recrudescence in the systematic pillage that +reigned in the house. The expenses of advertising were considerable: +Moessard's articles, sent to Corsica in packages of twenty thousand, +thirty thousand copies, with portraits, biographies, pamphlets, all the +printed clamor that it is possible to raise around a name. And then +there was no diminution in the ordinary consumption of the panting +pumps established around the reservoir of millions. On one side the +Work of Bethlehem, a powerful machine, pumping at regular intervals, +with tremendous energy; the _Caisse Territoriale_, with marvellous +power of suction, indefatigable in its operation, with triple and +quadruple action, of several thousand horse-power; and the Schwalbach +pump, and the Bois-l'Hery pump, and how many more; some of enormous +size, making a great noise, with audacious pistons, others more quiet +and reserved, with tiny valves, bearings skilfully oiled--toy-pumps as +delicately constructed as the probosces of insects whose thirst causes +stings, and which deposit poison on the spot from which they suck their +life; but all working with the same unanimity, and fatally certain to +cause, if not an absolute drought, at all events a serious lowering of +the level. + +Already unfavorable reports, vague as yet, were in circulation on the +Bourse. Was it a manoeuvre of the enemy, of that Hemerlingue against +whom Jansoulet was waging ruthless financial war, trying to defeat all +his operations, and losing very considerable sums at the game, because +he had against him his own excitable nature, his adversary's +cool-headedness and the bungling of Paganetti, whom he used as a man of +straw? In any event, the star of gold had turned pale. Paul de Gery +learned as much from Pere Joyeuse, who had entered the employ of a +broker as book-keeper, and was thoroughly posted on matters connected +with the Bourse; but what alarmed him more than all else was the +Nabob's strange agitation, the craving for excitement which had +succeeded the admirable calmness of conscious strength, of serenity, +the disappearance of his Southern sobriety, the way in which he +stimulated himself before eating by great draughts of _raki_, talking +loud and laughing uproariously like a common sailor during his watch on +deck. One felt that the man was tiring himself out to escape some +absorbing thought, which was visible nevertheless in the sudden +contraction of all the muscles of his face when it passed through his +mind, or when he was feverishly turning over the pages of his tarnished +little memorandum-book. The serious interview, the decisive explanation +that Paul was so desirous to have with him, Jansoulet would not have at +any price. He passed his evenings at the club, his mornings in bed, and +as soon as he was awake had his bedroom full of people, who talked to +him while he was dressing, and to whom he replied with his face in his +wash-bowl. If, by any miracle, de Gery caught him for a second, he +would run away or cut him short with a: "Not now, I beg you." At last +the young man resorted to heroic measures. + +One morning about five o'clock, Jansoulet, on returning from his club, +found on the table beside his bed a little note which he took at first +for one of the anonymous denunciations which he received every day. It +was a denunciation, in very truth, but signed, written with the utmost +frankness, breathing the loyalty and youthful seriousness of the man +who wrote it. De Gery set before him very clearly all the infamous +schemes, all the speculations by which he was surrounded. He called the +rascals by their names, without circumlocution. There was not one among +the ordinary habitues of the house who was not a suspicious character, +not one who came there for any other purpose than to steal or lie. From +attic to cellar, pillage and waste. Bois-l'Hery's horses were unsound, +the Schwalbach gallery a fraud, Moessard's articles notorious +blackmail. De Gery had drawn up a long detailed list of those impudent +frauds, with proofs in support of his allegations; but he commended +especially to Jansoulet's attention the matter of the _Caisse +Territoriale_, as the really dangerous element in his situation. In the +other matters money alone was at risk; in this, honor was involved. +Attracted by the Nabob's name, by his title of president of the +council, hundreds of stockholders had walked into that infamous trap, +seeking gold in the footsteps of that lucky miner. That fact imposed a +terrible responsibility upon him which he would understand by reading +the memorandum relating to the concern, which was falsehood and fraud, +pure and simple, from beginning to end. + +"You will find the memorandum to which I refer," said Paul de Gery in +conclusion, "in the first drawer in my desk. Various receipts are +affixed to it. I have not put it in your room, because I am distrustful +of Noel as of all the rest. To-night, when I go away, I will hand you +the key. For I am going away, my dear friend and benefactor, I am going +away, overflowing with gratitude for the benefits you have conferred on +me, and in despair because your blind confidence has prevented me from +repaying them in part. My conscience as a man of honor would reproach +me were I to remain longer useless at my post. I am looking on at a +terrible disaster, the pillage of a Summer Palace, which I am powerless +to check; but my heart rises in revolt at all that I see. I exchange +grasps of the hand which dishonor me. I am your friend, and I seem to +be their confederate. And who knows whether, by living on in such an +atmosphere, I might not become so?" + +This letter, which he read slowly, thoroughly, even to the spaces +between the words and the lines, made such a keen impression on the +Nabob that, instead of going to bed, he went at once to his young +secretary. Paul occupied a study at the end of the suite of salons, +where he slept on a couch, a provisional arrangement which he had never +cared to change. The whole house was still asleep. As he walked through +the long line of great salons, which were not used for evening +receptions, so that the curtains were always open and at that moment +admitted the uncertain light of a Parisian dawn, the Nabob paused, +impressed by the melancholy aspect that his magnificent surroundings +presented. In the heavy odor of tobacco and various liquors that filled +the rooms, the furniture, the wainscotings, the decorations seemed +faded yet still new. Stains on the crumpled satin, ashes soiling the +beautiful marbles, marks of boots on the carpet reminded him of a huge +first-class railway carriage, bearing the marks of the indolence, +impatience and ennui of a long journey, with the destructive contempt +of the public for a luxury for which it has paid. Amid that stage +scenery, all in position and still warm from the ghastly comedy that +was played there every day, his own image, reflected in twenty cold, +pale mirrors, rose before him, at once ominous and comical, ill-at-ease +in his fashionable clothes, with bloated cheeks and face inflamed and +dirty. + +What an inevitable and disenchanting morrow to the insane life he was +leading! + +He lost himself for a moment in gloomy thoughts; then, with the +vigorous shrug of the shoulders which was so familiar in him, that +packman's gesture with which he threw off any too painful +preoccupation, he resumed the burden which every man carries with him, +and which causes the back to bend more or less, according to his +courage or his strength, and entered de Gery's room, where he found him +already dressed and standing in front of his open desk, arranging +papers. + +"First of all, my boy," said Jansoulet, closing the door softly on +their interview, "answer me this question frankly. Are the motives set +forth in your letter your real motives for resolving to leave me? Isn't +there underneath it all one of these infamous stories that I know are +being circulated against me in Paris? I am sure you would be frank +enough to tell me, and to give me a chance to--to set myself right in +your eyes." + +Paul assured him that he had no other reasons for going, but that those +he had mentioned were surely sufficient, as it was a matter of +conscience. + +"Listen to me then, my child, and I am sure that I shall be able to +keep you. Your letter, eloquent as it was with honesty and sincerity, +told me nothing new, nothing that I had not been convinced of for three +months. Yes, my dear Paul, you were right; Paris is more complicated +than I thought. What I lacked when I arrived here was an honest, +disinterested cicerone to put me on my guard against persons and +things. I found none but people who wanted to make money out of me. All +the degraded scoundrels in the city have left the mud from their boots +on my carpets. I was looking at those poor salons of mine just now. +They need a good thorough sweeping; and I promise you that they shall +have, _jour de Dieu!_ and from no light hand. But I am waiting until I +am a deputy. All these rascals are of service to me in my election; and +the election is too necessary to me for me to throw away the slightest +chance. This is the situation in two words. Not only does the bey not +intend to repay the money I loaned him a month ago; he has met my claim +with a counter-claim for twenty-four millions, the figure at which he +estimates the sums I obtained from his brother. That is infernal +robbery, an impudent slander. My fortune is my own, honestly my own. I +made it in my dealings as a contractor. I enjoyed Ahmed's favor; he +himself furnished me with opportunities for making money. It is very +possible that I have screwed the vise a little hard sometimes. But the +matter must not be judged with the eyes of a European. The enormous +profits that the Levantines make are a well-known and recognized thing +over yonder; they are the ransom of the savages whom we introduce to +western comforts. This wretched Hemerlingue, who is suggesting all this +persecution of me to the bey, has done very much worse things. But +what's the use of arguing? I am in the wolf's jaws. Pending my +appearance to justify myself before his courts--I know all about +justice in the Orient--the bey has begun by putting an embargo on all +my property, ships, palaces and their contents. The affair has been +carried on quite regularly, in pursuance of a decree of the Supreme +Council. I can feel the claw of Hemerlingue Junior under it all. If I +am chosen deputy, it is all a jest. The Council revokes its decree and +my treasures are returned with all sorts of excuses. If I am not +elected, I lose everything, sixty, eighty millions, even the possible +opportunity of making another fortune; it means ruin, disgrace, the +bottomless pit. And now, my son, do you propose to abandon me at such a +crisis? Remember that I have nobody in the world but you. My wife? you +have seen her, you know how much support, how much good advice she +gives her husband. My children? It's as if I had none. I never see +them, they would hardly know me in the street. My ghastly magnificence +has made an empty void around me, so far as affections are concerned, +has replaced them by shameless selfish interests. I have no one to love +but my mother, who is far away, and you, who come to me from my mother. +No, you shall not leave me alone among all the slanders that are +crawling around me. It is horrible--if you only knew! At the club, at +the theatre, wherever I go, I see Baroness Hemerlingue's little snake's +head, I hear the echo of her hissing, I feel the venom of her hatred. +Everywhere I am conscious of mocking glances, conversations broken off +when I appear, smiles that lie, or kindness in which there is a +mingling of pity. And then the defections, the people who move away as +if a catastrophe were coming. For instance, here is Felicia Ruys, with +my bust just finished, alleging some accident or other as an excuse for +not sending it to the Salon. I said nothing, I pretended to believe it. +But I understood that there was some infamy on foot in that quarter, +too,--and it's a great disappointment to me. In emergencies as grave as +that I am passing through, everything has its importance. My bust at +the Exhibition, signed by that famous name, would have been of great +benefit to me in Paris. But no, everything is breaking, everything is +failing me. Surely you see that you must not fail me." + + +END OF VOL. I. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Nabob, Volume 1 (of 2), by Alphonse Daudet + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NABOB, VOLUME 1 (OF 2) *** + +***** This file should be named 20646.txt or 20646.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/6/4/20646/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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