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He +will always be considered the leader of the idealistic school in the +nineteenth century. It is now fifteen years since his death, and the +judgment of posterity is that he had a great imagination, linked to great +analytical power and insight; that his style is neat, pure, and fine, and +at the same time brilliant and concise. He unites suppleness with force, +he combines grace with vigor. + +Octave Feuillet was born at Saint-Lo (Manche), August 11, 1821, his +father occupying the post of Secretary-General of the Prefecture de la +Manche. Pupil at the Lycee Louis le Grand, he received many prizes, and +was entered for the law. But he became early attracted to literature, +and like many of the writers at that period attached himself to the +"romantic school." He collaborated with Alexander Dumas pere and with +Paul Bocage. It can not now be ascertained what share Feuillet may have +had in any of the countless tales of the elder Dumas. Under his own name +he published the novels 'Onesta' and 'Alix', in 1846, his first romances. +He then commenced writing for the stage. We mention 'Echec et Mat' +(Odeon, 1846); 'Palma, ou la Nuit du Vendredi-Saint' (Porte St. Martin, +1847); 'La Vieillesse de Richelieu' (Theatre Francais, 1848); 'York' +(Palais Royal, 1852). Some of them are written in collaboration with +Paul Bocage. They are dramas of the Dumas type, conventional, not +without cleverness, but making no lasting mark. + +Realizing this, Feuillet halted, pondered, abruptly changed front, and +began to follow in the footsteps of Alfred de Musset. 'La Grise' (1854), +'Le Village' (1856), 'Dalila' (1857), 'Le Cheveu Blanc', and other plays +obtained great success, partly in the Gymnase, partly in the Comedie +Francaise. In these works Feuillet revealed himself as an analyst of +feminine character, as one who had spied out all their secrets, and could +pour balm on all their wounds. 'Le Roman d'un Jeune Homme Pauvre' +(Vaudeville, 1858) is probably the best known of all his later dramas; +it was, of course, adapted for the stage from his romance, and is well +known to the American public through Lester Wallack and Pierrepont +Edwards. 'Tentation' was produced in the year 1860, also well known in +this country under the title 'Led Astray'; then followed 'Montjoye' +(1863), etc. The influence of Alfred de Musset is henceforth less +perceptible. Feuillet now became a follower of Dumas fils, especially so +in 'La Belle au Bois Dormant' (Vaudeville, 1865); 'Le Cas de Conscience +(Theatre Francais, 1867); 'Julie' (Theatre Francais 1869). These met +with success, and are still in the repertoire of the Comedie Francaise. + +As a romancer, Feuillet occupies a high place. For thirty years he was +the representative of a noble and tender genre, and was preeminently the +favorite novelist of the brilliant society of the Second Empire. Women +literally devoured him, and his feminine public has always remained +faithful to him. He is the advocate of morality and of the aristocracy +of birth and feeling, though under this disguise he involves his heroes +and heroines in highly romantic complications, whose outcome is often for +a time in doubt. Yet as the accredited painter of the Faubourg Saint- +Germain he contributed an essential element to the development of +realistic fiction. No one has rendered so well as he the high-strung, +neuropathic women of the upper class, who neither understand themselves +nor are wholly comprehensible to others. In 'Monsieur de Camors', +crowned by the Academy, he has yielded to the demands of a stricter +realism. Especially after the fall of the Empire had removed a powerful +motive for gilding the vices of aristocratic society, he painted its hard +and selfish qualities as none of his contemporaries could have done. +Octave Feuillet was elected to the Academie Francaise in 1862 to succeed +Scribe. He died December 29, 1890. + MAXIME DU CAMP + de l'Acadamie Francaise. + + + + + +MONSIEUR DE CAMORS + + +BOOK 1. + + +CHAPTER I + +"THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH" + +Near eleven o'clock, one evening in the month of May, a man about fifty +years of age, well formed, and of noble carriage, stepped from a coupe in +the courtyard of a small hotel in the Rue Barbet-de-Jouy. He ascended, +with the walk of a master, the steps leading to the entrance, to the hall +where several servants awaited him. One of them followed him into an +elegant study on the first floor, which communicated with a handsome +bedroom, separated from it by a curtained arch. The valet arranged the +fire, raised the lamps in both rooms, and was about to retire, when his +master spoke: + +"Has my son returned home?" + +"No, Monsieur le Comte. Monsieur is not ill?" + +"Ill! Why?" + +"Because Monsieur le Comte is so pale." + +"Ah! It is only a slight cold I have taken this evening on the banks of +the lake." + +"Will Monsieur require anything?" + +"Nothing," replied the Count briefly, and the servant retired. Left +alone, his master approached a cabinet curiously carved in the Italian +style, and took from it a long flat ebony box. + +This contained two pistols. He loaded them with great care, adjusting +the caps by pressing them lightly to the nipple with his thumb. That +done, he lighted a cigar, and for half an hour the muffled beat of his +regular tread sounded on the carpet of the gallery. He finished his +cigar, paused a moment in deep thought, and then entered the adjoining +room, taking the pistols with him. + +This room, like the other, was furnished in a style of severe elegance, +relieved by tasteful ornament. It showed some pictures by famous +masters, statues, bronzes, and rare carvings in ivory. The Count threw a +glance of singular interest round the interior of this chamber, which was +his own--on the familiar objects--on the sombre hangings--on the bed, +prepared for sleep. Then he turned toward a table, placed in a recess of +the window, laid the pistols upon it, and dropping his head in his hands, +meditated deeply many minutes. Suddenly he raised his head, and wrote +rapidly as follows: + + "TO MY SON: + + "Life wearies me, my son, and I shall relinquish it. The true + superiority of man over the inert or passive creatures that surround + him, lies in his power to free himself, at will, from those, + pernicious servitudes which are termed the laws of nature. Man, + if he will it, need not grow old: the lion must. Reflect, my son, + upon this text, for all human power lies in it. + + "Science asserts and demonstrates it. Man, intelligent and free, + is an animal wholly unpremeditated upon this planet. Produced by + unexpected combinations and haphazard transformations, in the midst + of a general subordination of matter, he figures as a dissonance and + a revolt! + + "Nature has engendered without having conceived him. The result is + as if a turkey-hen had unconsciously hatched the egg of an eagle. + Terrified at the monster, she has sought to control it, and has + overloaded it with instincts, commonly called duties, and police + regulations known as religion. Each one of these shackles broken, + each one of these servitudes overthrown, marks a step toward the + thorough emancipation of humanity. + + "I must say to you, however, that I die in the faith of my century, + believing in matter uncreated, all-powerful, and eternal--the Nature + of the ancients. There have been in all ages philosophers who have + had conceptions of the truth. But ripe to-day, it has become the + common property of all who are strong enough to stand it--for, in + sooth, this latest religion of humanity is food fit only for the + strong. It carries sadness with it, for it isolates man; but it + also involves grandeur, making man absolutely free, or, as it were, + a very god. It leaves him no actual duties except to himself, and + it opens a superb field to one of brain and courage. + + "The masses still remain, and must ever remain, submissive under the + yoke of old, dead religions, and under the tyranny of instincts. + There will still be seen very much the same condition of things as + at present in Paris; a society the brain of which is atheistic, and + the heart religious. And at bottom there will be no more belief in + Christ than in Jupiter; nevertheless, churches will continue to be + built mechanically. There are no longer even Deists; for the old + chimera of a personal, moral God-witness, sanction, and judge,--is + virtually extinct; and yet hardly a word is said, or a line written, + or a gesture made, in public or private life, which does not ever + affirm that chimera. This may have its uses perchance, but it is + nevertheless despicable. Slip forth from the common herd, my son, + think for yourself, and write your own catechism upon a virgin page. + + "As for myself, my life has been a failure, because I was born many + years too soon. As yet the earth and the heavens were heaped up and + cumbered with ruins, and people did not see. Science, moreover, was + relatively still in its infancy. And, besides, I retained the + prejudices and the repugnance to the doctrines of the new world that + belonged to my name. I was unable to comprehend that there was + anything better to be done than childishly to pout at the conqueror; + that is, I could not recognize that his weapons were good, and that + I should seize and destroy him with them. In short, for want of a + definite principle of action I have drifted at random, my life + without plan--I have been a mere trivial man of pleasure. + + "Your life shall be more complete, if you will only follow my + advice. + + "What, indeed, may not a man of this age become if he have the good + sense and energy to conform his life rigidly to his belief! + + "I merely state the question, you must solve it; I can leave you + only some cursory ideas, which I am satisfied are just, and upon + which you may meditate at your leisure. Only for fools or the weak + does materialism become a debasing dogma; assuredly, in its code + there are none of those precepts of ordinary morals which our + fathers entitled virtue; but I do find there a grand word which may + well counterbalance many others, that is to say, Honor, self-esteem! + Unquestionably a materialist may not be a saint; but he can be a + gentleman, which is something. You have happy gifts, my son, and I + know of but one duty that you have in the world--that of developing + those gifts to the utmost, and through them to enjoy life + unsparingly. Therefore, without scruple, use woman for your + pleasure, man for your advancement; but under no circumstances do + anything ignoble. + + "In order that ennui shall not drive you, like myself, prematurely + from the world so soon as the season for pleasure shall have ended, + you should leave the emotions of ambition and of public life for the + gratification of your riper age. Do not enter into any engagements + with the reigning government, and reserve for yourself to hear its + eulogium made by those who will have subverted it. That is the + French fashion. Each generation must have its own prey. You will + soon feel the impulse of the coming generation. Prepare yourself, + from afar, to take the lead in it. + + "In politics, my son, you are not ignorant that we all take our + principles from our temperament. The bilious are demagogues, the + sanguine, democrats, the nervous, aristocrats. You are both + sanguine and nervous, an excellent constitution, for it gives you a + choice. You may, for example, be an aristocrat in regard to + yourself personally, and, at the same time, a democrat in relation + to others; and in that you will not be exceptional. + + "Make yourself master of every question likely to interest your + contemporaries, but do not become absorbed in any yourself. In + reality, all principles are indifferent--true or false according to + the hour and circumstance. Ideas are mere instruments with which + you should learn to play seasonably, so as to sway men. In that + path, likewise, you will have associates. + + "Know, my son, that having attained my age, weary of all else, you + will have need of strong sensations. The sanguinary diversions of + revolution will then be for you the same as a love-affair at twenty. + + "But I am fatigued, my son, and shall recapitulate. To be loved by + women, to be feared by men, to be as impassive and as imperturbable + as a god before the tears of the one and the blood of the other, and + to end in a whirlwind--such has been the lot in which I have failed, + but which, nevertheless, I bequeath to you. With your great + faculties you, however, are capable of accomplishing it, unless + indeed you should fail through some ingrained weakness of the heart + that I have noticed in you, and which, doubtless, you have imbibed + with your mother's milk. + + "So long as man shall be born of woman, there will be something + faulty and incomplete in his character. In fine, strive to relieve + yourself from all thraldom, from all natural instincts, affections, + and sympathies as from so many fetters upon your liberty, your + strength. + + "Do not marry unless some superior interest shall impel you to do + so. In that event, have no children. + + "Have no intimate friends. Caesar having grown old, had a friend. + It was Brutus! + + "Contempt for men is the beginning of wisdom. + + "Change somewhat your style of fencing, it is altogether too open, + my son. Do not get angry. Rarely laugh, and never weep. Adieu. + + "CAMORS." + + +The feeble rays of dawn had passed through the slats of the blinds. +The matin birds began their song in the chestnut-tree near the window. +M. de Camors raised his head and listened in an absent mood to the sound +which astonished him. Seeing that it was daybreak, he folded in some +haste the pages he had just finished, pressed his seal upon the envelope, +and addressed it, "For the Comte Louis de Camors." Then he rose. + +M. de Camors was a great lover of art, and had carefully preserved a +magnificent ivory carving of the sixteenth century, which had belonged to +his wife. It was a Christ the pallid white relieved by a medallion of +dark velvet. + +His eye, meeting this pale, sad image, was attracted to it for a moment +with strange fascination. Then he smiled bitterly, seized one of the +pistols with a firm hand and pressed it to his temple. + +A shot resounded through the house; the fall of a heavy body shook the +floor-fragments of brains strewed the carpet. The Comte de Camors had +plunged into eternity! + +His last will was clenched in his hand. + +To whom was this document addressed? Upon what kind of soil will these +seeds fall? + +At this time Louis de Camors was twenty-seven years old. His mother had +died young. It did not appear that she had been particularly happy with +her husband; and her son barely remembered her as a young woman, pretty +and pale, and frequently weeping, who used to sing him to sleep in a low, +sweet voice. He had been brought up chiefly by his father's mistress, +who was known as the Vicomtesse d'Oilly, a widow, and a rather good sort +of woman. Her natural sensibility, and the laxity of morals then +reigning at Paris, permitted her to occupy herself at the same time with +the happiness of the father and the education of the son. When the +father deserted her after a time, he left her the child, to comfort her +somewhat by this mark of confidence and affection. She took him out +three times a week; she dressed him and combed him; she fondled him and +took him with her to church, and made him play with a handsome Spaniard, +who had been for some time her secretary. Besides, she neglected no +opportunity of inculcating precepts of sound morality. Thus the child, +being surprised at seeing her one evening press a kiss upon the forehead +of her secretary, cried out, with the blunt candor of his age: + +"Why, Madame, do you kiss a gentleman who is not your husband?" + +"Because, my dear," replied the Countess, "our good Lord commands us to +be charitable and affectionate to the poor, the infirm, and the exile; +and Monsieur Perez is an exile." + +Louis de Camors merited better care, for he was a generous-hearted child; +and his comrades of the college of Louis-le-Grand always remembered the +warm-heartedness and natural grace which made them forgive his successes +during the week, and his varnished boots and lilac gloves on Sunday. +Toward the close of his college course, he became particularly attached +to a poor bursar, by name Lescande, who excelled in mathematics, +but who was very ungraceful, awkwardly shy and timid, with a painful +sensitiveness to the peculiarities of his person. He was nicknamed +"Wolfhead," from the refractory nature of his hair; but the elegant +Camors stopped the scoffers by protecting the young man with his +friendship. Lescande felt this deeply, and adored his friend, to whom he +opened the inmost recesses of his heart, letting out some important +secrets. + +He loved a very young girl who was his cousin, but was as poor as +himself. Still it was a providential thing for him that she was poor, +otherwise he never should have dared to aspire to her. It was a sad +occurrence that had first thrown Lescande with his cousin--the loss of +her father, who was chief of one of the Departments of State. + +After his death she lived with her mother in very straitened +circumstances; and Lescande, on occasion of his last visit, found her +with soiled cuffs. Immediately after he received the following note: + + "Pardon me, dear cousin! Pardon my not wearing white cuffs. But I + must tell you that we can change our cuffs--my mother and I--only + three times a week. As to her, one would never discover it. She is + neat as a bird. I also try to be; but, alas! when I practise the + piano, my cuffs rub. After this explanation, my good Theodore, I + hope you will love me as before. + "JULIETTE." + + +Lescande wept over this note. Luckily he had his prospects as an +architect; and Juliette had promised to wait for him ten years, by which +time he would either be dead, or living deliciously in a humble house +with his cousin. He showed the note, and unfolded his plans to Camors. +"This is the only ambition I have, or which I can have," added Lescande. +"You are different. You are born for great things." + +"Listen, my old Lescande," replied Camors, who had just passed his +rhetoric examination in triumph. "I do not know but that my destiny +may be ordinary; but I am sure my heart can never be. There I feel +transports--passions, which give me sometimes great joy, sometimes +inexpressible suffering. I burn to discover a world--to save a nation-- +to love a queen! I understand nothing but great ambitions and noble +alliances, and as for sentimental love, it troubles me but little. My +activity pants for a nobler and a wider field! + +"I intend to attach myself to one of the great social parties, political +or religious, that agitate the world at this era. Which one I know not +yet, for my opinions are not very fixed. But as soon as I leave college +I shall devote myself to seeking the truth. And truth is easily found. +I shall read all the newspapers. + +"Besides, Paris is an intellectual highway, so brilliantly lighted it is +only necessary to open one's eyes and have good faith and independence, +to find the true road. + +"And I am in excellent case for this, for though born a gentleman, I have +no prejudices. My father, who is himself very enlightened and very +liberal, leaves me free. I have an uncle who is a Republican; an aunt +who is a Legitimist--and what is still more, a saint; and another uncle +who is a Conservative. It is not vanity that leads me to speak of these +things; but only a desire to show you that, having a foot in all parties, +I am quite willing to compare them dispassionately and make a good +choice. Once master of the holy truth, you may be sure, dear old +Lescande, I shall serve it unto death--with my tongue, with my pen, and +with my sword!" + +Such sentiments as these, pronounced with sincere emotion and accompanied +by a warm clasp of the hand, drew tears from the old Lescande, otherwise +called Wolfhead. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +FRUIT FROM THE HOTBED OF PARIS + +Early one morning, about eight years after these high resolves, Louis de +Camors rode out from the 'porte-cochere' of the small hotel he had +occupied with his father. + +Nothing could be gayer than Paris was that morning, at that charming +golden hour of the day when the world seems peopled only with good and +generous spirits who love one another. Paris does not pique herself on +her generosity; but she still takes to herself at this charming hour an +air of innocence, cheerfulness, and amiable cordiality. + +The little carts with bells, that pass one another rapidly, make one +believe the country is covered with roses. The cries of old Paris cut +with their sharp notes the deep murmur of a great city just awaking. + +You see the jolly concierges sweeping the white footpaths; half-dressed +merchants taking down their shutters with great noise; and groups of +ostlers, in Scotch caps, smoking and fraternizing on the hotel steps. + +You hear the questions of the sociable neighborhood; the news proper to +awakening; speculations on the weather bandied across from door to door, +with much interest. + +Young milliners, a little late, walk briskly toward town with elastic +step, making now a short pause before a shop just opened; again taking +wing like a bee just scenting a flower. + +Even the dead in this gay Paris morning seem to go gayly to the cemetery, +with their jovial coachmen grinning and nodding as they pass. + +Superbly aloof from these agreeable impressions, Louis de Camors, +a little pale, with half-closed eyes and a cigar between his teeth, +rode into the Rue de Bourgogne at a walk, broke into a canter on the +Champs Elysees, and galloped thence to the Bois. After a brisk run, he +returned by chance through the Porte Maillot, then not nearly so thickly +inhabited as it is to-day. Already, however, a few pretty houses, with +green lawns in front, peeped out from the bushes of lilac and clematis. +Before the green railings of one of these a gentleman played hoop with a +very young, blond-haired child. His age belonged in that uncertain area +which may range from twenty-five to forty. He wore a white cravat, +spotless as snow; and two triangles of short, thick beard, cut like the +boxwood at Versailles, ornamented his cheeks. If Camors saw this +personage he did not honor him with the slightest notice. He was, +notwithstanding, his former comrade Lescande, who had been lost sight of +for several years by his warmest college friend. Lescande, however, +whose memory seemed better, felt his heart leap with joy at the majestic +appearance of the young cavalier who approached him. He made a movement +to rush forward; a smile covered his good-natured face, but it ended in +a grimace. Evidently he had been forgotten. Camors, now not more than +a couple of feet from him, was passing on, and his handsome countenance +gave not the slightest sign of emotion. Suddenly, without changing +a single line of his face, he drew rein, took the cigar from his lips, +and said, in a tranquil voice: + +"Hello! You have no longer a wolf head!" + +"Ha! Then you know me?" cried Lescande. + +"Know you? Why not?" + +"I thought--I was afraid--on account of my beard--" + +"Bah! your beard does not change you--except that it becomes you. +But what are you doing here?" + +"Doing here! Why, my dear friend, I am at home here. Dismount, I pray +you, and come into my house." + +"Well, why not?" replied Camors, with the same voice and manner of +supreme indifference; and, throwing his bridle to the servant who +followed him, he passed through the gardengate, led, supported, caressed +by the trembling hand of Lescande. + +The garden was small, but beautifully tended and full of rare plants. +At the end, a small villa, in the Italian style, showed its graceful +porch. + +"Ah, that is pretty!" exclaimed Camors, at last. + +"And you recognize my plan, Number Three, do you not?" asked Lescande, +eagerly. + +"Your plan Number Three? Ah, yes, perfectly," replied Camors, absently. +"And your pretty little cousin--is she within?" + +"She is there, my dear friend," answered Lescande, in a low voice--and he +pointed to the closed shutters of a large window of a balcony surmounting +the veranda. "She is there; and this is our son." + +Camors let his hand pass listlessly over the child's hair. "The deuce!" +he said; "but you have not wasted time. And you are happy, my good +fellow?" + +"So happy, my dear friend, that I am sometimes uneasy, for the good God +is too kind to me. It is true, though, I had to work very hard. For +instance, I passed two years in Spain--in the mountains of that infernal +country. There I built a fairy palace for the Marquis of Buena-Vista, +a great nobleman, who had seen my plan at the Exhibition and was +delighted with it. This was the beginning of my fortune; but you must +not imagine that my profession alone has enriched me so quickly. I made +some successful speculations--some unheard of chances in lands; and, I +beg you to believe, honestly, too. Still, I am not a millionaire; but +you know I had nothing, and my wife less; now, my house paid for, we have +ten thousand francs' income left. It is not a fortune for us, living in +this style; but I still work and keep good courage, and my Juliette is +happy in her paradise!" + +"She wears no more soiled cuffs, then?" said Camors. + +"I warrant she does not! Indeed, she has a slight tendency to luxury-- +like all women, you know. But I am delighted to see you remember so well +our college follies. I also, through all my distractions, never forgot +you a moment. I even had a foolish idea of asking you to my wedding, +only I did not dare. You are so brilliant, so petted, with your +establishment and your racers. My wife knows you very well; in fact, we +have talked of you a hundred thousand times. Since she patronizes the +turf and subscribes for 'The Sport', she says to me, 'Your friend's horse +has won again'; and in our family circle we rejoice over your triumphs." + +A flush tinged the cheek of Camors as he answered, quietly, "You are +really too good." + +They walked a moment in silence over the gravel path bordered by grass, +before Lescande spoke again. + +"And yourself, dear friend, I hope that you also are happy." + +"I--happy!" Camors seemed a little astonished. "My happiness is simple +enough, but I believe it is unclouded. I rise in the morning, ride to +the Bois, thence to the club, go to the Bois again, and then back to the +club. If there is a first representation at any theatre, I wish to see +it. Thus, last evening they gave a new piece which was really exquisite. +There was a song in it, beginning: + + 'He was a woodpecker, + A little woodpecker, + A young woodpecker--' + +and the chorus imitated the cry of the woodpecker! Well, it was +charming, and the whole of Paris will sing that song with delight for a +year. I also shall do like the whole of Paris, and I shall be happy." + +"Good heavens! my friend," laughed Lescande, "and that suffices you for +happiness?" + +"That and--the principles of 'eighty-nine," replied Camors, lighting a +fresh cigar from the old one. + +Here their dialogue was broken by the fresh voice of a woman calling from +the blinds of the balcony-- + +"Is that you, Theodore?" + +Camors raised his eyes and saw a white hand, resting on the slats of the +blind, bathed in sunlight. + +"That is my wife. Conceal yourself!" cried Lescande, briskly; and he +pushed Camors behind a clump of catalpas, as he turned to the balcony and +lightly answered: + +"Yes, my dear; do you wish anything?" + +"Maxime is with you?" + +"Yes, mother. I am here," cried the child. "It is a beautiful morning. +Are you quite well?" + +"I hardly know. I have slept too long, I believe." She opened the +shutters, and, shading her eyes from the glare with her hand, appeared on +the balcony. + +She was in the flower of youth, slight, supple, and graceful, and +appeared, in her ample morning-gown of blue cashmere, plumper and taller +than she really was. Bands of the same color interlaced, in the Greek +fashion, her chestnut hair--which nature, art, and the night had +dishevelled--waved and curled to admiration on her small head. + +She rested her elbows on the railing, yawned, showing her white teeth, +and looking at her husband, asked: + +"Why do you look so stupid?" + +At the instant she observed Camors--whom the interest of the moment had +withdrawn from his concealment--gave a startled cry, gathered up her +skirts, and retired within the room. + +Since leaving college up to this hour, Louis de Camors had never formed +any great opinion of the Juliet who had taken Lescande as her Romeo. He +experienced a flash of agreeable surprise on discovering that his friend +was more happy in that respect than he had supposed. + +"I am about to be scolded, my friend," said Lescande, with a hearty +laugh, "and you also must stay for your share. You will stay and +breakfast with us?" + +Camors hesitated; then said, hastily, "No, no! Impossible! I have an +engagement which I must keep." + +Notwithstanding Camors's unwillingness, Lescande detained him until he +had extorted a promise to come and dine with them--that is, with him, +his wife, and his mother-in-law, Madame Mursois--on the following +Tuesday. This acceptance left a cloud on the spirit of Camors until the +appointed day. Besides abhorring family dinners, he objected to being +reminded of the scene of the balcony. The indiscreet kindness of +Lescande both touched and irritated him; for he knew he should play but a +silly part near this pretty woman. He felt sure she was a coquette, +notwithstanding which, the recollections of his youth and the character +of her husband should make her sacred to him. So he was not in the most +agreeable frame of mind when he stepped out of his dog-cart, that Tuesday +evening, before the little villa of the Avenue Maillot. + +At his reception by Madame Lescande and her mother he took heart a +little. They appeared to him what they were, two honest-hearted women, +surrounded by luxury and elegance. The mother--an ex-beauty--had been +left a widow when very young, and to this time had avoided any stain on +her character. With them, innate delicacy held the place of those solid +principles so little tolerated by French society. Like a few other women +of society, Madame had the quality of virtue just as ermine has the +quality of whiteness. Vice was not so repugnant to her as an evil as it +was as a blemish. Her daughter had received from her those instincts of +chastity which are oftener than we imagine hidden under the appearance of +pride. But these amiable women had one unfortunate caprice, not uncommon +at this day among Parisians of their position. Although rather clever, +they bowed down, with the adoration of bourgeoises, before that +aristocracy, more or less pure, that paraded up and down the Champs +Elysees, in the theatres, at the race-course, and on the most frequented +promenades, its frivolous affairs and rival vanities. + +Virtuous themselves, they read with interest the daintiest bits of +scandal and the most equivocal adventures that took place among the +elite. It was their happiness and their glory to learn the smallest +details of the high life of Paris; to follow its feasts, speak in its +slang, copy its toilets, and read its favorite books. So that if not the +rose, they could at least be near the rose and become impregnated with +her colors and her perfumes. Such apparent familiarity heightened them +singularly in their own estimation and in that of their associates. + +Now, although Camors did not yet occupy that bright spot in the heaven of +fashion which was surely to be his one day, still he could here pass for +a demigod, and as such inspire Madame Lescande and her mother with a +sentiment of most violent curiosity. His early intimacy with Lescande +had always connected a peculiar interest with his name: and they knew the +names of his horses--most likely knew the names of his mistresses. + +So it required all their natural tact to conceal from their guest the +flutter of their nerves caused by his sacred presence; but they did +succeed, and so well that Camors was slightly piqued. If not a coxcomb, +he was at least young: he was accustomed to please: he knew the Princess +de Clam-Goritz had lately applied to him her learned definition of an +agreeable man--"He is charming, for one always feels in danger near him!" + +Consequently, it seemed a little strange to him that the simple mother of +the simple wife of simple Lescande should be able to bear his radiance +with such calmness; and this brought him out of his premeditated reserve. + +He took the trouble to be irresistible--not to Madame Lescande, to whom +he was studiously respectful--but to Madame Mursois. The whole evening +he scattered around the mother the social epigrams intended to dazzle the +daughter; Lescande meanwhile sitting with his mouth open, delighted with +the success of his old schoolfellow. + +Next afternoon, Camors, returning from his ride in the Bois, by chance +passed the Avenue Maillot. Madame Lescande was embroidering on the +balcony, by chance, and returned his salute over her tapestry. He +remarked, too, that she saluted very gracefully, by a slight inclination +of the head, followed by a slight movement of her symmetrical, sloping +shoulders. + +When he called upon her two or three days after--as was only his duty-- +Camors reflected on a strong resolution he had made to keep very cool, +and to expatiate to Madame Lescande only on her husband's virtues. This +pious resolve had an unfortunate effect; for Madame, whose virtue had +been piqued, had also reflected; and while an obtrusive devotion had not +failed to frighten her, this course only reassured her. So she gave up +without restraint to the pleasure of receiving in her boudoir one of the +brightest stars from the heaven of her dreams. + +It was now May, and at the races of La Marche--to take place the +following Sunday--Camors was to be one of the riders. Madame Mursois and +her daughter prevailed upon Lescande to take them, while Camors completed +their happiness by admitting them to the weighing-stand. Further, when +they walked past the judge's stand, Madame Mursois, to whom he gave his +arm, had the delight of being escorted in public by a cavalier in an +orange jacket and topboots. Lescande and his wife followed in the wake +of the radiant mother-in-law, partaking of her ecstasy. + +These agreeable relations continued for several weeks, without seeming to +change their character. One day Camors would seat himself by the lady, +before the palace of the Exhibition, and initiate her into the mysteries +of all the fashionables who passed before them. Another time he would +drop into their box at the opera, deign to remain there during an act or +two, and correct their as yet incomplete views of the morals of the +ballet. But in all these interviews he held toward Madame Lescande the +language and manner of a brother: perhaps because he secretly persisted +in his delicate resolve; perhaps because he was not ignorant that every +road leads to Rome--and one as surely as another. + +Madame Lescande reassured herself more and more; and feeling it +unnecessary to be on her guard, as at first, thought she might permit +herself a little levity. No woman is flattered at being loved only as +a sister. + +Camors, a little disquieted by the course things were taking, made some +slight effort to divert it. But, although men in fencing wish to spare +their adversaries, sometimes they find habit too strong for them, and +lunge home in spite of themselves. Besides, he began to be really +interested in Madame Lescande--in her coquettish ways, at once artful and +simple, provoking and timid, suggestive and reticent--in short, charming. + +The same evening that M. de Camors, the elder, returned to his home bent +on suicide, his son, passing up the Avenue Maillot, was stopped by +Lescande on the threshold of his villa. + +"My friend," said the latter, "as you are here you can do me a great +favor. A telegram calls me suddenly to Melun--I must go on the instant. +The ladies will be so lonely, pray stay and dine with them! I can't tell +what the deuce ails my wife. She has been weeping all day over her +tapestry; my mother-in-law has a headache. Your presence will cheer +them. So stay, I beg you." + +Camors refused, hesitated, made objections, and consented. He sent back +his horse, and his friend presented him to the ladies, whom the presence +of the unexpected guest seemed to cheer a little. Lescande stepped into +his carriage and departed, after receiving from his wife an embrace more +fervent than usual. + +The dinner was gay. In the atmosphere was that subtle suggestion of +coming danger of which both Camors and Madame Lescande felt the +exhilarating influence. Their excitement, as yet innocent, employed +itself in those lively sallies--those brilliant combats at the barriers +--that ever precede the more serious conflict. About nine o'clock the +headache of Madame Mursois--perhaps owing to the cigar they had allowed +Camors--became more violent. She declared she could endure it no longer, +and must retire to her chamber. Camors wished to withdraw, but his +carriage had not yet arrived and Madame Mursois insisted that he should +wait for it. + +"Let my daughter amuse you with a little music until then," she added. + +Left alone with her guest, the younger lady seemed embarrassed. "What +shall I play for you?" she asked, in a constrained voice, taking her +seat at the piano. + +"Oh! anything--play a waltz," answered Camors, absently. + +The waltz finished, an awkward silence ensued. To break it she arose +hesitatingly; then clasping her hands together exclaimed, "It seems to me +there is a storm. Do you not think so?" She approached the window, +opened it, and stepped out on the balcony. In a second Camors was at her +side. + +The night was beautifully clear. Before them stretched the sombre shadow +of the wood, while nearer trembling rays of moonlight slept upon the +lawn. + +How still all was! Their trembling hands met and for a moment did not +separate. + +"Juliette!" whispered the young man, in a low, broken voice. She +shuddered, repelled the arm that Camors passed round her, and hastily +reentered the room. + +"Leave me, I pray you!" she cried, with an impetuous gesture of her +hand, as she sank upon the sofa, and buried her face in her hands. + +Of course Camors did not obey. He seated himself by her. + +In a little while Juliette awoke from her trance; but she awoke a lost +woman! + +How bitter was that awakening! She measured at a first glance the depth +of the awful abyss into which she had suddenly plunged. Her husband, her +mother, her infant, whirled like spectres in the mad chaos of her brain. + +Sensible of the anguish of an irreparable wrong, she rose, passed her +hand vacantly across her brow, and muttering, "Oh, God! oh, God!" peered +vainly into the dark for light--hope--refuge! There was none! + +Her tortured soul cast herself utterly on that of her lover. She turned +her swimming eyes on him and said: + +"How you must despise me!" + +Camors, half kneeling on the carpet near her, kissed her hand +indifferently and half raised his shoulders in sign of denial. "Is it +not so?" she repeated. "Answer me, Louis." + +His face wore a strange, cruel smile--"Do not insist on an answer, I pray +you," he said. + +"Then I am right? You do despise me?" + +Camors turned himself abruptly full toward her, looked straight in her +face, and said, in a cold, hard voice, "I do!" + +To this cruel speech the poor child replied by a wild cry that seemed to +rend her, while her eyes dilated as if under the influence of strong +poison. Camors strode across the room, then returned and stood by her as +he said, in a quick, violent tone: + +"You think I am brutal? Perhaps I am, but that can matter little now. +After the irreparable wrong I have done you, there is one service--and +only one which I can now render you. I do it now, and tell you the +truth. Understand me clearly; women who fall do not judge themselves +more harshly than their accomplices judge them. For myself, what would +you have me think of you? + +"To his misfortune and my shame, I have known your husband since his +boyhood. There is not a drop of blood in his veins that does not throb +for you; there is not a thought of his day nor a dream of his night that +is not yours; your every comfort comes from his sacrifices--your every +joy from his exertion! See what he is to you! + +"You have only seen my name in the journals; you have seen me ride by +your window; I have talked a few times with you, and you yield to me in +one moment the whole of his life with your own--the whole of his +happiness with your own. + +"I tell you, woman, every man like me, who abuses your vanity and your +weakness and afterward tells you he esteems you--lies! And if after all +you still believe he loves you, you do yourself fresh injury. No: we +soon learn to hate those irksome ties that become duties where we only +sought pleasures; and the first effort after they are formed is to +shatter them. + +"As for the rest: women like you are not made for unholy love like ours. +Their charm is their purity, and losing that, they lose everything. But +it is a blessing to them to encounter one wretch, like myself, who cares +to say--Forget me, forever! Farewell!" + +He left her, passed from the room with rapid strides, and, slamming the +door behind him, disappeared. Madame Lescande, who had listened, +motionless, and pale as marble, remained in the same lifeless attitude, +her eyes fixed, her hands clenched--yearning from the depths of her heart +that death would summon her. Suddenly a singular noise, seeming to come +from the next room, struck her ear. It was only a convulsive sob, or +violent and smothered laughter. The wildest and most terrible ideas +crowded to the mind of the unhappy woman; the foremost of them, that her +husband had secretly returned, that he knew all--that his brain had given +way, and that the laughter was the gibbering of his madness. + +Feeling her own brain begin to reel, she sprang from the sofa, and +rushing to the door, threw it open. The next apartment was the dining- +room, dimly lighted by a hanging lamp. There she saw Camors, crouched +upon the floor, sobbing furiously and beating his forehead against a +chair which he strained in a convulsive embrace. Her tongue refused its +office; she could find no word, but seating herself near him, gave way to +her emotion, and wept silently. He dragged himself nearer, seized the +hem of her dress and covered it with kisses; his breast heaved +tumultuously, his lips trembled and he gasped the almost inarticulate +words, "Pardon! Oh, pardon me!" + +This was all. Then he rose suddenly, rushed from the house, and the +instant after she heard the rolling of the wheels as his carriage whirled +him away. + +If there were no morals and no remorse, French people would perhaps be +happier. But unfortunately it happens that a young woman, who believes +in little, like Madame Lescande, and a young man who believes in nothing, +like M. de Camors, can not have the pleasures of an independent code of +morals without suffering cruelly afterward. + +A thousand old prejudices, which they think long since buried, start up +suddenly in their consciences; and these revived scruples are nearly +fatal to them. + +Camors rushed toward Paris at the greatest speed of his thoroughbred, +Fitz-Aymon, awakening along the route, by his elegance and style, +sentiments of envy which would have changed to pity were the wounds of +the heart visible. Bitter weariness, disgust of life and disgust for +himself, were no new sensations to this young man; but he never had +experienced them in such poignant intensity as at this cursed hour, +when flying from the dishonored hearth of the friend of his boyhood. +No action of his life had ever thrown such a flood of light on the depths +of his infamy in doing such gross outrage to the friend of his purer +days, to the dear confidant of the generous thoughts and proud +aspirations of his youth. He knew he had trampled all these under foot. +Like Macbeth, he had not only murdered one asleep, but had murdered sleep +itself. + +His reflections became insupportable. He thought successively of +becoming a monk, of enlisting as a soldier, and of getting drunk--ere he +reached the corner of the Rue Royale and the Boulevard. Chance favored +his last design, for as he alighted in front of his club, he found +himself face to face with a pale young man, who smiled as he extended his +hand. Camors recognized the Prince d'Errol. + +"The deuce! You here, my Prince! I thought you in Cairo." + +"I arrived only this morning." + +"Ah, then you are better?--Your chest?" + +"So--so." + +"Bah! you look perfectly well. And isn't Cairo a strange place?" + +"Rather; but I really believe Providence has sent you to me." + +"You really think so, my Prince? But why?" + +"Because--pshaw! I'll tell you by-and-bye; but first I want to hear all +about your quarrel." + +"What quarrel?" + +"Your duel for Sarah." + +"That is to say, against Sarah!" + +"Well, tell me all that passed; I heard of it only vaguely while abroad." + +"Well, I only strove to do a good action, and, according to custom, I was +punished for it. I heard it said that that little imbecile La Brede +borrowed money from his little sister to lavish it upon that Sarah. +This was so unnatural that you may believe it first disgusted, and then +irritated me. One day at the club I could not resist saying, 'You are an +ass, La Bride, to ruin yourself--worse than that, to ruin your sister, +for the sake of a snail, as little sympathetic as Sarah, a girl who +always has a cold in her head, and who has already deceived you.' +'Deceived me!' cried La Brede, waving his long arms. 'Deceived me! +and with whom?'--'With me.' As he knew I never lied, he panted for my +life. Luckily my life is a tough one." + +"You put him in bed for three months, I hear." + +"Almost as long as that, yes. And now, my friend, do me a service. I am +a bear, a savage, a ghost! Assist me to return to life. Let us go and +sup with some sprightly people whose virtue is extraordinary." + +"Agreed! That is recommended by my physician." + +"From Cairo? Nothing could be better, my Prince." + +Half an hour later Louis de Camors, the Prince d'Errol, and a half-dozen +guests of both sexes, took possession of an apartment, the closed doors +of which we must respect. + +Next morning, at gray dawn, the party was about to disperse; and at the +moment a ragpicker, with a gray beard, was wandering up and down before +the restaurant, raking with his hook in the refuse that awaited the +public sweepers. In closing his purse, with an unsteady hand, Camors let +fall a shining louis d'or, which rolled into the mud on the sidewalk. +The ragpicker looked up with a timid smile. + +"Ah! Monsieur," he said, "what falls into the trench should belong to +the soldier." + +"Pick it up with your teeth, then," answered Camors, laughing, "and it is +yours." + +The man hesitated, flushed under his sunburned cheeks, and threw a look +of deadly hatred upon the laughing group round him. Then he knelt, +buried his chest in the mire, and sprang up next moment with the coin +clenched between his sharp white teeth. The spectators applauded. The +chiffonnier smiled a dark smile, and turned away. + +"Hello, my friend!" cried Camors, touching his arm, "would you like to +earn five Louis? If so, give me a knock-down blow. That will give you +pleasure and do me good." + +The man turned, looked him steadily in the eye, then suddenly dealt him +such a blow in the face that he reeled against the opposite wall. The +young men standing by made a movement to fall upon the graybeard. + +"Let no one harm him!" cried Camors. "Here, my man, are your hundred +francs." + +"Keep them," replied the other, "I am paid;" and walked away. + +"Bravo, Belisarius!" laughed Camors. "Faith, gentlemen, I do not know +whether you agree with me, but I am really charmed with this little +episode. I must go dream upon it. By-bye, young ladies! Good-day, +Prince!" + +An early cab was passing, he jumped in, and was driven rapidly to his +hotel, on the Rue Babet-de-Jouy. + +The door of the courtyard was open, but being still under the influence +of the wine he had drunk, he failed to notice a confused group of +servants and neighbors standing before the stable-doors. Upon seeing +him, these people became suddenly silent, and exchanged looks of sympathy +and compassion. Camors occupied the second floor of the hotel; and +ascending the stairs, found himself suddenly facing his father's valet. +The man was very pale, and held a sealed paper, which he extended with a +trembling hand. + +"What is it, Joseph?" asked Camors. + +"A letter which--which Monsieur le Comte wrote for you before he left." + +"Before he left! my father is gone, then? But--where--how? What, the +devil! why do you weep?" + +Unable to speak, the servant handed him the paper. Camors seized it and +tore it open. + +"Good God! there is blood! what is this!" He read the first words-- +"My son, life is a burden to me. I leave it--" and fell fainting to the +floor. + +The poor lad loved his father, notwithstanding the past. + +They carried him to his chamber. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +DEBRIS FROM THE REVOLUTION + +De Camors, on leaving college had entered upon life with a heart swelling +with the virtues of youth--confidence, enthusiasm, sympathy. The +horrible neglect of his early education had not corrupted in his veins +those germs of weakness which, as his father declared, his mother's milk +had deposited there; for that father, by shutting him up in a college to +get rid of him for twelve years, had rendered him the greatest service in +his power. + +Those classic prisons surely do good. The healthy discipline of the +school; the daily contact of young, fresh hearts; the long familiarity +with the best works, powerful intellects, and great souls of the +ancients--all these perhaps may not inspire a very rigid morality, but +they do inspire a certain sentimental ideal of life and of duty which has +its value. + +The vague heroism which Camors first conceived he brought away with him. +He demanded nothing, as you may remember, but the practical formula for +the time and country in which he was destined to live. He found, +doubtless, that the task he set himself was more difficult than he had +imagined; that the truth to which he would devote himself--but which he +must first draw from the bottom of its well--did not stand upon many +compliments. But he failed no preparation to serve her valiantly as a +man might, as soon as she answered his appeal. He had the advantage of +several years of opposing to the excitements of his age and of an opulent +life the austere meditations of the poor student. + +During that period of ardent, laborious youth, he faithfully shut himself +up in libraries, attended public lectures, and gave himself a solid +foundation of learning, which sometimes awakened surprise when discovered +under the elegant frivolity of the gay turfman. But while arming himself +for the battle of life, he lost, little by little, what was more +essential than the best weapons-true courage. + +In proportion as he followed Truth day by day, she flew before and eluded +him, taking, like an unpleasant vision, the form of the thousand-headed +Chimera. + +About the middle of the last century, Paris was so covered with political +and religious ruins, that the most piercing vision could scarcely +distinguish the outlines of the fresh structures of the future. +One could, see that everything was overthrown; but one could not see any +power that was to raise the ruins. Over the confused wrecks and remains +of the Past, the powerful intellectual life of the Present-Progress--the +collision of ideas--the flame of French wit, criticism and the sciences-- +threw a brilliant light, which, like the sun of earlier ages, illuminated +the chaos without making it productive. The phenomena of Life and of +Death were commingled in one huge fermentation, in which everything +decomposed and whence nothing seemed to spring up again. + +At no period of history, perhaps, has Truth been less simple, more +enveloped in complications; for it seemed that all essential notions of +humanity had been fused in a great furnace, and none had come out whole. + +The spectacle is grand; but it troubles profoundly all souls--or at least +those that interest and curiosity do not suffice to fill; which is to +say, nearly all. To disengage from this bubbling chaos one pure +religious moral, one positive social idea, one fixed political creed, +were an enterprise worthy of the most sincere. This should not be beyond +the strength of a man of good intentions; and Louis de Camors might have +accomplished the task had he been aided by better instruction and +guidance. + +It is the common misfortune of those just entering life to find in it +less than their ideal. But in this respect Camors was born under a +particularly unfortunate star, for he found in his surroundings--in his +own family even--only the worst side of human nature; and, in some +respects, of those very opinions to which he was tempted to adhere. + +The Camors were originally from Brittany, where they had held, in the +eighteenth century, large possessions, particularly some extensive +forests, which still bear their name. The grandfather of Louis, the +Comte Herve de Camors, had, on his return from the emigration, bought +back a small part of the hereditary demesne. There he established +himself in the old-fashioned style, and nourished until his death +incurable prejudices against the French Revolution and against Louis +XVIII. + +Count Herve had four children, two boys and two girls, and, feeling it +his duty to protest against the levelling influences of the Civil Code, +he established during his life, by a legal subterfuge, a sort of entail +in favor of his eldest son, Charles-Henri, to the prejudice of Robert- +Sosthene, Eleanore-Jeanne and Louise-Elizabeth, his other heirs. +Eleanore-Jeanne and Louise-Elizabeth accepted with apparent willingness +the act that benefited their brother at their expense--notwithstanding +which they never forgave him. But Robert-Sosthene, who, in his position +as representative of the younger branch, affected Liberal leanings and +was besides loaded with debt, rebelled against the paternal procedure. +He burned his visiting-cards, ornamented with the family crest and his +name "Chevalier Lange d'Ardennes"--and had others printed, simply +"Dardennes, junior (du Morbihan)." + +Of these he sent a specimen to his father, and from that hour became a +declared Republican. + +There are people who attach themselves to a party by their virtues; +others, again, by their vices. No recognized political party exists +which does not contain some true principle; which does not respond to +some legitimate aspiration of human society. At the same time, there is +not one which can not serve as a pretext, as a refuge, and as a hope, for +the basest passions of our nature. + +The most advanced portion of the Liberal party of France is composed of +generous spirits, ardent and absolute, who torture a really elevated +ideal; that of a society of manhood, constituted with a sort of +philosophic perfection; her own mistress each day and each hour; +delegating few of her powers, and yielding none; living, not without +laws, but without rulers; and, in short, developing her activity, her +well-being, her genius, with that fulness of justice, of independence, +and of dignity, which republicanism alone gives to all and to each one. + +Every other system appears to them to preserve some of the slaveries and +iniquities of former ages; and it also appears open to the suspicion of +generating diverse interests--and often hostile ones--between the +governors and the governed. They claim for all that political system +which, without doubt, holds humanity in the most esteem; and however one +may despise the practical working of their theory, the grandeur of its +principles can not be despised. + +They are in reality a proud race, great-hearted and high-spirited. They +have had in their age their heroes and their martyrs; but they have had, +on the other hand, their hypocrites, their adventurers, and their +radicals--their greatest enemies. + +Young Dardennes, to obtain grace for the equivocal origin of his +convictions, placed himself in the front rank of these last. + +Until he left college Louis de Camors never knew his uncle, who had +remained on bad terms with his father; but he entertained for him, in +secret; an enthusiastic admiration, attributing to him all the virtues of +that principle of which he seemed the exponent. + +The Republic of '48 soon died: his uncle was among the vanquished; and +this, to the young man, had but an additional attraction. Without his +father's knowledge, he went to see him, as if on a pilgrimage to a holy +shrine; and he was well received. + +He found his uncle exasperated--not so much against his enemies as +against his own party, to which he attributed all the disasters of the +cause. + +"They never can make revolutions with gloves on," he said in a solemn, +dogmatic tone. "The men of 'ninety-three did not wear them. You can not +make an omelette without first breaking the eggs. + +"The pioneers of the future should march on, axe in hand! + +"The chrysalis of the people is not hatched upon roses! + +"Liberty is a goddess who demands great holocausts. Had they made a +Reign of Terror in 'forty-eight, they would now be masters!" + +These high-flown maxims astonished Louis de Camors. In his youthful +simplicity he had an infinite respect for the men who had governed his +country in her darkest hour; not more that they had given up power as +poor as when they assumed it, than that they left it with their hands +unstained with blood: To this praise--which will be accorded them in +history, which redresses many contemporary injustices--he added a +reproach which he could not reconcile with the strange regrets of his +uncle. He reproached them with not having more boldly separated the New +Republic, in its management and minor details, from the memories of the +old one. Far from agreeing with his uncle that a revival of the horrors +of 'ninety-three would have assured the triumph of the New Republic, he +believed it had sunk under the bloody shadow of its predecessor. He +believed that, owing to this boasted Terror, France had been for +centuries the only country in which the dangers of liberty outweighed its +benefits. + +It is useless to dwell longer on the relations of Louis de Camors with +his uncle Dardennes. It is enough that he was doubtful and discouraged, +and made the error of holding the cause responsible for the violence of +its lesser apostles, and that he adopted the fatal error, too common in +France at that period, of confounding progress with discord, liberty with +license, and revolution with terrorism! + +The natural result of irritation and disenchantment on this ardent spirit +was to swing it rapidly around to the opposite pole of opinion. After +all, Camors argued, his birth, his name, his family ties all pointed out +his true course, which was to combat the cruel and despotic doctrines +which he believed he detected under these democratic theories. Another +thing in the habitual language of his uncle also shocked and repelled +him--the profession of an absolute atheism. He had within him, in +default of a formal creed, a fund of general belief and respect for holy +things--that kind of religious sensibility which was shocked by impious +cynicism. Further he could not comprehend then, or ever afterward, how +principles alone, without faith in some higher sanction, could sustain +themselves by their own strength in the human conscience. + +God--or no principles! This was the dilemma from which no German +philosophy could rescue him. + +This reaction in his mind drew him closer to those other branches of his +family which he had hitherto neglected. His two aunts, living at Paris, +had been compelled, in consequence of their small fortunes, to make some +sacrifices to enter into the blessed state of matrimony. The elder, +Eleanore-Jeanne, had married, during her father's life, the Comte de la +Roche-Jugan--a man long past fifty, but still well worthy of being loved. +Nevertheless, his wife did not love him. Their views on many essential +points differed widely. M. de la Roche-Jugan was one of those who had +served the Government of the Restoration with an unshaken but hopeless +devotion. In his youth he had been attached to the person and to the +ministry of the Duc de Richelieu; and he had preserved the memory of that +illustrious man--of the elevated moderation of his sentiments--of the +warmth of his patriotism and of his constancy. He saw the pitfalls +ahead, pointed them out to his prince--displeased him by so doing, but +still followed his fortunes. Once more retired to private life with but +small means, he guarded his political principles rather like a religion +than a hope. His hopes, his vivacity, his love of right--all these he +turned toward God. + +His piety, as enlightened as profound, ranked him among the choicest +spirits who then endeavored to reconcile the national faith of the past +with the inexorable liberty of thought of the present. Like his +colaborers in this work, he experienced only a mortal sadness under which +he sank. True, his wife contributed no little to hasten his end by the +intemperance of her zeal and the acrimony of her bigotry. + +She had little heart and great pride, and made her God subserve her +passions, as Dardennes made liberty subserve his malice. + +No sooner had she become a widow than she purified her salons. +Thenceforth figured there only parishioners more orthodox than their +bishops, French priests who denied Bossuet; consequently she believed +that religion was saved in France. Louis de Camors, admitted to this +choice circle by title both of relative and convert, found there the +devotion of Louis XI and the charity of Catherine de Medicis; and he +there lost very soon the little faith that remained to him. + +He asked himself sadly whether there was no middle ground between Terror +and Inquisition; whether in this world one must be a fanatic or nothing. +He sought a middle course, possessing the force and cohesion of a party; +but he sought in vain. It seemed to him that the whole world of politics +and religion rushed to extremes; and that what was not extreme was inert +and indifferent--dragging out, day by day, an existence without faith and +without principle. + +Thus at least appeared to him those whom the sad changes of his life +showed him as types of modern politics. + +His younger aunt, Louise-Elizabeth, who enjoyed to the full all the +pleasures of modern life, had already profited by her father's death to +make a rich misalliance. She married the Baron Tonnelier, whose father, +although the son of a miller, had shown ability and honesty enough to +fill high positions under the First Empire. + +The Baron Tonnelier had a large fortune, increasing every day by +successful speculation. In his youth he had been a good horseman, +a Voltairian, and a Liberal. + +In time--though he remained a Voltairian--he renounced horsemanship, +and Liberalism. Although he was a simple deputy, he had a twinge of +democracy now and then; but after he was invested with the peerage, he +felt sure from that moment that the human species had no more progress to +make. + +The French Revolution was ended; its giddiest height attained. No longer +could any one walk, talk, write, or rise. That perplexed him. Had he +been sincere, he would have avowed that he could not comprehend that +there could be storms, or thunder-clouds in the heavens--that the world +was not perfectly happy and tranquil, while he himself was so. When his +nephew was old enough to comprehend him, Baron Tonnelier was no longer +peer of France; but being one who does himself no hurt--and sometimes +much good by a fall, he filled a high office under the new government. +He endeavored to discharge its duties conscientiously, as he had those of +the preceding reign. + +He spoke with peculiar ease of suppressing this or that journal--such an +orator, such a book; of suppressing everything, in short, except himself. +In his view, France had been in the wrong road since 1789, and he sought +to lead her back from that fatal date. + +Nevertheless, he never spoke of returning, in his proper person, to his +grandfather's mill; which, to say the least, was inconsistent. Had +Liberty been mother to this old gentleman, and had he met her in a clump +of woods, he would have strangled her. We regret to add that he had the +habit of terming "old duffers" such ministers as he suspected of liberal +views, and especially such as were in favor of popular education. A more +hurtful counsellor never approached a throne; but luckily, while near it +in office, he was far from it in influence. + +He was still a charming man, gallant and fresh--more gallant, however, +than fresh. Consequently his habits were not too good, and he haunted +the greenroom of the opera. He had two daughters, recently married, +before whom he repeated the most piquant witticisms of Voltaire, and the +most improper stories of Tallemant de Reaux; and consequently both +promised to afford the scandalmongers a series of racy anecdotes, as +their mother had before them. + +While Louis de Camors was learning rapidly, by the association and +example of the collateral branches of his family, to defy equally all +principles and all convictions, his terrible father finished the task. + +Worldling to the last extreme, depraved to his very core; past-master in +the art of Parisian high life; an unbridled egotist, thinking himself +superior to everything because he abased everything to himself; and, +finally, flattering himself for despising all duties, which he had all +his life prided himself on dispensing with--such was his father. But for +all this, he was the pride of his circle, with a pleasing presence and an +indefinable charm of manner. + +The father and son saw little of each other. M. de Camors was too proud +to entangle his son in his own debaucheries; but the course of every-day +life sometimes brought them together at meal-time. He would then listen +with cool mockery to the enthusiastic or despondent speeches of the +youth. He never deigned to argue seriously, but responded in a few +bitter words, that fell like drops of sleet on the few sparks still +glowing in the son's heart. + +Becoming gradually discouraged, the latter lost all taste for work, and +gave himself up, more and more, to the idle pleasures of his position. +Abandoning himself wholly to these, he threw into them all the seductions +of his person, all the generosity of his character--but at the same time +a sadness always gloomy, sometimes desperate. + +The bitter malice he displayed, however, did not prevent his being loved +by women and renowned among men. And the latter imitated him. + +He aided materially in founding a charming school of youth without +smiles. His air of ennui and lassitude, which with him at least had the +excuse of a serious foundation, was servilely copied by the youth around +him, who never knew any greater distress than an overloaded stomach, but +whom it pleased, nevertheless, to appear faded in their flower and +contemptuous of human nature. + +We have seen Camors in this phase of his existence. But in reality +nothing was more foreign to him than the mask of careless disdain that +the young man assumed. Upon falling into the common ditch, he, perhaps, +had one advantage over his fellows: he did not make his bed with base +resignation; he tried persistently to raise himself from it by a violent +struggle, only to be hurled upon it once more. + +Strong souls do not sleep easily: indifference weighs them down. + +They demand a mission--a motive for action--and faith. + +Louis de Camors was yet to find his. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A NEW ACTRESS IN A NOVEL ROLE + +Louis de Camor's father had not I told him all in that last letter. + +Instead of leaving him a fortune, he left him only embarrassments, for he +was three fourths ruined. The disorder of his affairs had begun a long +time before, and it was to repair them that he had married; a process +that had not proved successful. A large inheritance on which he had +relied as coming to his wife went elsewhere--to endow a charity hospital. +The Comte de Camors began a suit to recover it before the tribunal of the +Council of State, but compromised it for an annuity of thirty thousand +francs. This stopped at his death. He enjoyed, besides, several fat +sinecures, which his name, his social rank, and his personal address +secured him from some of the great insurance companies. But these +resources did not survive him; he only rented the house he had occupied; +and the young Comte de Camors found himself suddenly reduced to the +provision of his mother's dowry--a bare pittance to a man of his habits +and rank. + +His father had often assured him he could leave him nothing, so the son +was accustomed to look forward to this situation. Therefore, when he +realized it, he was neither surprised nor revolted by the improvident +egotism of which he was the victim. His reverence for his father +continued unabated, and he did not read with the less respect or +confidence the singular missive which figures at the beginning of this +story. The moral theories which this letter advanced were not new to +him. They were a part of the very atmosphere around him; he had often +revolved them in his feverish brain; yet, never before had they appeared +to him in the condensed form of a dogma, with the clear precision of a +practical code; nor as now, with the authorization of such a voice and of +such an example. + +One incident gave powerful aid in confirming the impression of these last +pages on his mind. Eight days after his father's death, he was reclining +on the lounge in his smoking-room, his face dark as night and as his +thoughts, when a servant entered and handed him a card. He took it +listlessly, and read" Lescande, architect." Two red spots rose to his +pale cheeks--"I do not see any one," he said. + +"So I told this gentleman," replied the servant, "but he insists in such +an extraordinary manner--" + +"In an extraordinary manner?" + +"Yes, sir; as if he had something very serious to communicate." + +"Something serious--aha! Then let him in." Camors rose and paced the +chamber, a smile of bitter mockery wreathing his lips. "And must I now +kill him?" he muttered between his teeth. + +Lescande entered, and his first act dissipated the apprehension his +conduct had caused. He rushed to the young Count and seized him by both +hands, while Camors remarked that his face was troubled and his lips +trembled. "Sit down and be calm," he said. + +"My friend," said the other, after a pause, "I come late to see you, for +which I crave pardon; but--I am myself so miserable! See, I am in +mourning!" + +Camors felt a chill run to his very marrow. "In mourning! and why?" he +asked, mechanically. + +"Juliette is dead!" sobbed Lescande, and covered his eyes with his great +hands. + +"Great God!" cried Camors in a hollow voice. He listened a moment to +Lescande's bitter sobs, then made a movement to take his hand, but dared +not do it. "Great God! is it possible?" he repeated. + +"It was so sudden!" sobbed Lescande, brokenly. "It seems like a dream-- +a frightful dream! You know the last time you visited us she was not +well. You remember I told you she had wept all day. Poor child! The +morning of my return she was seized with congestion--of the lungs--of the +brain--I don't know!--but she is dead! And so good!--so gentle, so +loving! to the last moment! Oh, my friend! my friend! A few moments +before she died, she called me to her side. 'Oh, I love you so! I love +you so!' she said. 'I never loved any but you--you only! Pardon me!-- +oh, pardon me!' Pardon her, poor child! My God, for what? for dying? +--for she never gave me a moment's grief before in this world. Oh, God +of mercy!" + +"I beseech you, my friend--" + +"Yes, yes, I do wrong. You also have your griefs. + +"But we are all selfish, you know. However, it was not of that that I +came to speak. Tell me--I know not whether a report I hear is correct. +Pardon me if I mistake, for you know I never would dream of offending +you; but they say that you have been left in very bad circumstances. If +this is indeed so, my friend--" + +"It is not," interrupted Camors, abruptly. + +"Well, if it were--I do not intend keeping my little house. Why should +I, now? My little son can wait while I work for him. Then, after +selling my house, I shall have two hundred thousand francs. Half of this +is yours--return it when you can!" + +"I thank you, my unselfish friend," replied Camors, much moved, "but I +need nothing. My affairs are disordered, it is true; but I shall still +remain richer than you." + +"Yes, but with your tastes--" + +"Well?" + +"At all events, you know where to find me. I may count upon you--may I +not?" + +"You may." + +"Adieu, my friend! I can do you no good now; but I shall see you again +--shall I not?" + +"Yes--another time." + +Lescande departed, and the young Count remained immovable, with his +features convulsed and his eyes fixed on vacancy. + +This moment decided his whole future. + +Sometimes a man feels a sudden, unaccountable impulse to smother in +himself all human love and sympathy. + + +In the presence of this unhappy man, so unworthily treated, so broken- +spirited, so confiding, Camors--if there be any truth in old spiritual +laws--should have seen himself guilty of an atrocious act, which should +have condemned him to a remorse almost unbearable. + +But if it were true that the human herd was but the product of material +forces in nature, producing, haphazard, strong beings and weak ones-- +lambs and lions--he had played only the lion's part in destroying his +companion. He said to himself, with his father's letter beneath his +eyes, that this was the fact; and the reflection calmed him. + +The more he thought, that day and the next, in depth of the retreat in +which he had buried himself, the more was he persuaded that this doctrine +was that very truth which he had sought, and which his father had +bequeathed to him as the whole rule of his life. His cold and barren +heart opened with a voluptuous pleasure under this new flame that filled +and warmed it. + +From this moment he possessed a faith--a principle of action--a plan of +life--all that he needed; and was no longer oppressed by doubts, +agitation, and remorse. This doctrine, if not the most elevated, was at +least above the level of the most of mankind. It satisfied his pride and +justified his scorn. + +To preserve his self-esteem, it was only necessary for him to preserve +his honor, to do nothing low, as his father had said; and he determined +never to do anything which, in his eyes, partook of that character. +Moreover, were there not men he himself had met thoroughly steeped in +materialism, who were yet regarded as the most honorable men of their +day? + +Perhaps he might have asked himself whether this incontestable fact might +not, in part, have been attributed rather to the individual than to the +doctrine; and whether men's beliefs did not always influence their +actions. However that might have been, from the date of this crisis +Louis de Camors made his father's will the rule of his life. + +To develop in all their strength the physical and intellectual gifts +which he possessed; to make of himself the polished type of the +civilization of the times; to charm women and control men; to revel in +all the joys of intellect, of the senses, and of rank; to subdue as +servile instincts all natural sentiments; to scorn, as chimeras and +hypocrisies, all vulgar beliefs; to love nothing, fear nothing, respect +nothing, save honor--such, in fine, were the duties which he recognized, +and the rights which he arrogated to himself. + +It was with these redoubtable weapons, and strengthened by a keen +intelligence and vigorous will, that he would return to the world--his +brow calm and grave, his eye caressing while unyielding, a smile upon his +lips, as men had known him. + +From this moment there was no cloud either upon his mind or upon his +face, which wore the aspect of perpetual youth. He determined, above +all, not to retrench, but to preserve, despite the narrowness of his +present fortune, those habits of elegant luxury in which he still might +indulge for several years, by the expenditure of his principal. + +Both pride and policy gave him this council in an equal degree. He was +not ignorant that the world is as cold toward the needy as it is warm to +those not needing its countenance. Had he been thus ignorant, the +attitude of his family, just after the death of his father, would have +opened his eyes to the fact. + +His aunt de la Roche-Jugan and his uncle Tonnelier manifested toward him +the cold circumspection of people who suspected they were dealing with a +ruined man. They had even, for greater security, left Paris, and +neglected to notify the young Count in what retreat they had chosen to +hide their grief. Nevertheless he was soon to learn it, for while he was +busied in settling his father's affairs and organizing his own projects +of fortune and ambition, one fine morning in August he met with a lively +surprise. + +He counted among his relatives one of the richest landed proprietors of +France, General the Marquis de Campvallon d'Armignes, celebrated for his +fearful outbursts in the Corps Legislatif. He had a voice of thunder, +and when he rolled out, "Bah! Enough! Stop this order of the day!" the +senate trembled, and the government commissioners bounced on their +chairs. Yet he was the best fellow in the world, although he had killed +two fellow-creatures in duels--but then he had his reasons for that. + +Camors knew him but slightly, paid him the necessary respect that +politeness demanded toward a relative; met him sometimes at the club, +over a game of whist, and that was all. + +Two years before, the General had lost a nephew, the direct heir to his +name and fortune. Consequently he was hunted by an eager pack of cousins +and relatives; and Madame de la Roche-Jugan and the Baroness Tonnelier +gave tongue in their foremost rank. + +Camors was indifferent, and had, since that event, been particularly +reserved in his intercourse with the General. Therefore he was +considerably astonished when he received the following letter: + + "DEAR KINSMAN: + + "Your two aunts and their families are with me in the country. + When it is agreeable to you to join them, I shall always feel happy + to give a cordial greeting to the son of an old friend and + companion-in-arms. + + "I presented myself at your house before leaving Paris, but you were + not visible. + + "Believe me, I comprehend your grief: that you have experienced an + irreparable loss, in which I sympathize with you most sincerely. + + "Receive, my dear kinsman, the best wishes of + GENERAL, THE MARQUIS DE CAMPVALLON D'ARMIGNES. + + "CHATEAU DE CAMPVALLON, Voie de l'ouest. + + "P.S.--It is probable, my young cousin, that I may have something of + interest to communicate to you!" + + +This last sentence, and the exclamation mark that followed it, failed +not to shake slightly the impassive calm that Camors was at that moment +cultivating. He could not help seeing, as in a mirror, under the veil +of the mysterious postscript, the reflection of seven hundred thousand +francs of ground-rent which made the splendid income of the General. +He recalled that his father, who had served some time in Africa, had been +attached to the staff of M. de Campvallon as aide-de-camp, and that he +had besides rendered him a great service of a different nature. + +Notwithstanding that he felt the absurdity of these dreams, and wished to +keep his heart free from them, he left the next day for Campvallon. +After enjoying for seven or eight hours all the comforts and luxuries the +Western line is reputed to afford its guests, Camors arrived in the +evening at the station, where the General's carriage awaited him. The +seignorial pile of the Chateau Campvallon soon appeared to him on a +height, of which the sides were covered with magnificent woods, sloping +down nearly to the plain, there spreading out widely. + +It was almost the dinner-hour; and the young man, after arranging his +toilet, immediately descended to the drawing-room, where his presence +seemed to throw a wet blanket over the assembled circle. To make up for +this, the General gave him the warmest welcome; only--as he had a short +memory or little imagination--he found nothing better to say than to +repeat the expressions of his letter, while squeezing his hand almost to +the point of fracture. + +"The son of my old friend and companion-in-arms," he cried; and the words +rang out in such a sonorous voice they seemed to impress even himself-- +for it was noticeable that after a remark, the General always seemed +astonished, as if startled by the words that came out of his mouth--and +that seemed suddenly to expand the compass of his ideas and the depth of +his sentiments. + +To complete his portrait: he was of medium size, square, and stout; +panting when he ascended stairs, or even walking on level ground; a face +massive and broad as a mask, and reminding one of those fabled beings who +blew fire from their nostrils; a huge moustache, white and grizzly; small +gray eyes, always fixed, like those of a doll, but still terrible. He +marched toward a man slowly, imposingly, with eyes fixed, as if beginning +a duel to the death, and demanded of him imperatively--the time of day! + +Camors well knew this innocent weakness of his host, but, +notwithstanding, was its dupe for one instant during the evening. + +They had left the dining-table, and he was standing carelessly in the +alcove of a window, holding a cup of coffee, when the General approached +him from the extreme end of the room with a severe yet confidential +expression, which seemed to preface an announcement of the greatest +importance. + +The postscript rose before him. He felt he was to have an immediate +explanation. + +The General approached, seized him by the buttonhole, and withdrawing him +from the depth of the recess, looked into his eyes as if he wished to +penetrate his very soul. Suddenly he spoke, in his thunderous voice. +He said: + +"What do you take in the morning, young man?" + +"Tea, General." + +"Aha! Then give your orders to Pierre--just as if you were at home;" +and, turning on his heel and joining the ladies, he left Camors to digest +his little comedy as he might. + +Eight days passed. Twice the General made his guest the object of his +formidable advance. The first time, having put him out of countenance, +he contented himself with exclaiming: + +"Well, young man!" and turned on his heel. + +The next time he bore down upon Camors, he said not a word, and retired +in silence. + +Evidently the General had not the slightest recollection of the +postscript. Camors tried to be contented, but would continually ask +himself why he had come to Campvallon, in the midst of his family, +of whom he was not overfond, and in the depths of the country, which he +execrated. Luckily, the castle boasted a library well stocked with works +on civil and international law, jurisprudence, and political economy. +He took advantage of it; and, resuming the thread of those serious +studies which had been broken off during his period of hopelessness, +plunged into those recondite themes that pleased his active intelligence +and his awakened ambition. Thus he waited patiently until politeness +would permit him to bring to an explanation the former friend and +companion-in-arms of his father. In the morning he rode on horseback; +gave a lesson in fencing to his cousin Sigismund, the son of Madame de la +Roche-Jugan; then shut himself up in the library until the evening, which +he passed at bezique with the General. Meantime he viewed with the eye +of a philosopher the strife of the covetous relatives who hovered around +their rich prey. + +Madame de la Roche-Jugan had invented an original way of making herself +agreeable to the General, which was to persuade him he had disease of the +heart. She continually felt his pulse with her plump hand, sometimes +reassuring him, and at others inspiring him with a salutary terror, +although he denied it. + +"Good heavens! my dear cousin!" he would exclaim, "let me alone. I +know I am mortal like everybody else. What of that? But I see your aim- +it is to convert me! Ta-ta!" + +She not only wished to convert him, but to marry him, and bury him +besides. + +She based her hopes in this respect chiefly on her son Sigismund; knowing +that the General bitterly regretted having no one to inherit his name. +He had but to marry Madame de la Roche-Jugan and adopt her son to banish +this care. Without a single allusion to this fact, the Countess failed +not to turn the thoughts of the General toward it with all the tact of an +accomplished intrigante, with all the ardor of a mother, and with all the +piety of an unctuous devotee. + +Her sister, the Baroness Tonnelier, bitterly confessed her own +disadvantage. She was not a widow. And she had no son. But she had two +daughters, both of them graceful, very elegant and sparkling. One was +Madame Bacquiere, the wife of a broker; the other, Madame Van-Cuyp, wife +of a young Hollander, doing business at Paris. + +Both interpreted life and marriage gayly; both floated from one year into +another dancing, riding, hunting, coquetting, and singing recklessly the +most risque songs of the minor theatres. Formerly, Camors, in his +pensive mood, had taken an aversion to these little examples of modern +feminine frivolity. Since he had changed his views of life he did them +more justice. He said, calmly: + +"They are pretty little animals that follow their instincts." + +Mesdames Bacquiere and Van-Cuyp, instigated by their mother, applied +themselves assiduously to making the General feel all the sacred joys +that cluster round the domestic hearth. They enlivened his household, +exercised his horses, killed his game, and tortured his piano. They +seemed to think that the General, once accustomed to their sweetness and +animation, could not do without it, and that their society would become +indispensable to him. They mingled, too, with their adroit manoeuvres, +familiar and delicate attentions, likely to touch an old man. They sat +on his knees like children, played gently with his moustache, and +arranged in the latest style the military knot of his cravat. + +Madame de la Roche-Jugan never ceased to deplore confidentially to the +General the unfortunate education of her nieces; while the Baroness, on +her side, lost no opportunity of holding up in bold relief the emptiness, +impertinence, and sulkiness of young Count Sigismund. + +In the midst of these honorable conflicts one person, who took no part in +them, attracted the greatest share of Camors's interest; first for her +beauty and afterward for her qualities. This was an orphan of excellent +family, but very poor, of whom Madame de la Roche-Jugan and Madame +Tonnelier had taken joint charge. Mademoiselle Charlotte de Luc +d'Estrelles passed six months of each year with the Countess and six with +the Baroness. She was twenty-five years of age, tall and blonde, with +deep-set eyes under the shadow of sweeping, black lashes. Thick masses +of hair framed her sad but splendid brow; and she was badly, or rather +poorly dressed, never condescending to wear the cast-off clothes of her +relatives, but preferring gowns of simplest material made by her own +hands. These draperies gave her the appearance of an antique statue. + +Her Tonnelier cousins nicknamed her "the goddess." They hated her; she +despised them. The name they gave her, however, was marvellously +suitable. + +When she walked, you would have imagined she had descended from a +pedestal; the pose of her head was like that of the Greek Venus; her +delicate, dilating nostrils seemed carved by a cunning chisel from +transparent ivory. She had a startled, wild air, such as one sees in +pictures of huntress nymphs. She used a naturally fine voice with great +effect; and had already cultivated, so far as she could, a taste for art. + +She was naturally so taciturn one was compelled to guess her thoughts; +and long since Camors had reflected as to what was passing in that self- +centred soul. Inspired by his innate generosity, as well as his secret +admiration, he took pleasure in heaping upon this poor cousin the +attentions he might have paid a queen; but she always seemed as +indifferent to them as she was to the opposite course of her involuntary +benefactress. Her position at Campvallon was very odd. After Camors's +arrival, she was more taciturn than ever; absorbed, estranged, as if +meditating some deep design, she would suddenly raise the long lashes of +her blue eyes, dart a rapid glance here and there, and finally fix it on +Camors, who would feel himself tremble under it. + +One afternoon, when he was seated in the library, he heard a gentle tap +at the door, and Mademoiselle entered, looking very pale. Somewhat +astonished, he rose and saluted her. + +"I wish to speak with you, cousin," she said. The accent was pure and +grave, but slightly touched with evident emotion. Camors stared at her, +showed her to a divan, and took a chair facing her. + +"You know very little of me, cousin," she continued, "but I am frank and +courageous. I will come at once to the object that brings me here. Is +it true that you are ruined?" + +"Why do you ask, Mademoiselle?" + +"You always have been very good to me--you only. I am very grateful to +you; and I also--" She stopped, dropped her eyes, and a bright flush +suffused her cheeks. Then she bent her head, smiling like one who has +regained courage under difficulty. "Well, then," she resumed, "I am +ready to devote my life to you. You will deem me very romantic, but I +have wrought out of our united poverty a very charming picture, I +believe. I am sure I should make an excellent wife for the husband I +loved. If you must leave France, as they tell me you must, I will follow +you--I will be your brave and faithful helpmate. Pardon me, one word +more, Monsieur de Camors. My proposition would be immodest if it +concealed any afterthought. It conceals none. I am poor. I have but +fifteen hundred francs' income. If you are richer than I, consider I +have said nothing; for nothing in the world would then induce me to marry +you!" + +She paused; and with a manner of mingled yearning, candor, and anguish, +fixed on him her large eyes full of fire. + +There was a solemn pause. Between these strange natures, both high and +noble, a terrible destiny seemed pending at this moment, and both felt +it. + +At length Camors responded in a grave, calm voice: "It is impossible, +Mademoiselle, that you can appreciate the trial to which you expose me; +but I have searched my heart, and I there find nothing worthy of you. +Do me the justice to believe that my decision is based neither upon your +fortune nor upon my own: but I am resolved never to marry." She sighed +deeply, and rose. "Adieu, cousin," she said. + +"I beg--I pray you to remain one moment," cried the young man, reseating +her with gentle force upon the sofa. He walked half across the room to +repress his agitation; then leaning on a table near the young girl, said: + +"Mademoiselle Charlotte, you are unhappy; are you not?" + +"A little, perhaps," she answered. + +"I do not mean at this moment, but always?" + +"Always!" + +"Aunt de la Roche-Jugan treats you harshly?" + +"Undoubtedly; she dreads that I may entrap her son. Good heavens!" + +"The little Tonneliers are jealous of you, and Uncle Tonnelier torments +you?" + +"Basely!" she said; and two tears swam on her eyelashes, then glistened +like diamonds on her cheek. + +"And what do you believe of the religion of our aunt?" + +"What would you have me believe of religion that bestows no virtue-- +restrains no vice?" + +"Then you are a non-believer?" + +"One may believe in God and the Gospel without believing in the religion +of our aunt." + +"But she will drive you into a convent. Why, then, do you not enter +one?" + +"I love life," the girl said. + +He looked at her silently a moment, then continued "Yes, you love life-- +the sunlight, the thoughts, the arts, the luxuries--everything that is +beautiful, like yourself. Then, Mademoiselle Charlotte, all these are in +your hands; why do you not grasp them?" + +"How?" she queried, surprised and somewhat startled. + +"If you have, as I believe you have, as much strength of soul as +intelligence and beauty, you can escape at once and forever the miserable +servitude fate has imposed upon you. Richly endowed as you are, you +might become to-morrow a great artiste, independent, feted, rich, adored +--the mistress of Paris and of the world!" + +"And yours also?--No!" said this strange girl. + +"Pardon, Mademoiselle Charlotte. I did not suspect you of any improper +idea, when you offered to share my uncertain fortunes. Render me, I pray +you, the same justice at this moment. My moral principles are very lax, +it is true, but I am as proud as yourself. I never shall reach my aim by +any subterfuge. No; strive to study art. I find you beautiful and +seductive, but I am governed by sentiments superior to personal +interests. I was profoundly touched by your sympathetic leaning toward +me, and have sought to testify my gratitude by friendly counsel. Since, +however, you now suspect me of striving to corrupt you for my own ends, I +am silent, Mademoiselle, and permit you to depart." + +"Pray proceed, Monsieur de Camors." + +"You will then listen to me with confidence?" + +"I will do so." + +"Well, then, Mademoiselle, you have seen little of the world, but you +have seen enough to judge and to be certain of the value of its esteem. +The world! That is your family and mine: Monsieur and Madame Tonnelier, +Monsieur and Madame de la Roche-Jugan, and the little Sigismund!" + +"Well, then, Mademoiselle Charlotte, the day that you become a great +artiste, rich, triumphant, idolized, wealthy--drinking, in deep draughts, +all the joys of life--that day Uncle Tonnelier will invoke outraged +morals, our aunt will swoon with prudery in the arms of her old lovers, +and Madame de la Roche-Jugan will groan and turn her yellow eyes to +heaven! But what will all that matter to you?" + +"Then, Monsieur, you advise me to lead an immoral life." + +"By no manner of means. I only urge you, in defiance of public opinion, +to become an actress, as the only sure road to independence, fame, and +fortune. And besides, there is no law preventing an actress marrying and +being 'honorable,' as the world understands the word. You have heard of +more than one example of this." + +"Without mother, family, or protector, it would be an extraordinary thing +for me to do! I can not fail to see that sooner or later I should be a +lost girl." + +Camors remained silent. "Why do you not answer?" she asked. + +"Heavens! Mademoiselle, because this is so delicate a subject, and our +ideas are so different about it. I can not change mine; I must leave you +yours. As for me, I am a very pagan." + +"How? Are good and bad indifferent to you?" + +"No; but to me it seems bad to fear the opinion of people one despises, +to practise what one does not believe, and to yield before prejudices and +phantoms of which one knows the unreality. It is bad to be a slave or a +hypocrite, as are three fourths of the world. Evil is ugliness, +ignorance, folly, and baseness. Good is beauty, talent, ability, and +courage! That is all." + +"And God?" the girl cried. He did not reply. She looked fixedly at him +a moment without catching the eyes he kept turned from her. Her head +drooped heavily; then raising it suddenly, she said: "There are +sentiments men can not understand. In my bitter hours I have often +dreamed of this free life you now advise; but I have always recoiled +before one thought--only one." + +"And that?" + +"Perhaps the sentiment is not peculiar to me--perhaps it is excessive +pride, but I have a great regard for myself--my person is sacred to me. +Should I come to believe in nothing, like you--and I am far from that +yet, thank God!--I should even then remain honest and true--faithful to +one love, simply from pride. I should prefer," she added, in a voice +deep and sustained, but somewhat strained, "I should prefer to desecrate +an altar rather than myself!" + +Saying these words, she rose, made a haughty movement of the head in sign +of an adieu, and left the room. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE COUNT LOSES A LADY AND FINDS A MISSION + +Camors sat for some time plunged in thought. + +He was astonished at the depths he had discovered in her character; he +was displeased with himself without well knowing why; and, above all, he +was much struck by his cousin. + +However, as he had but a slight opinion of the sincerity of women, he +persuaded himself that Mademoiselle de Luc d'Estrelles, when she came to +offer him her heart and hand, nevertheless knew he was not altogether a +despicable match for her. He said to himself that a few years back he +might have been duped by her apparent sincerity, and congratulated +himself on not having fallen into this attractive snare--on not having +listened to the first promptings of credulity and sincere emotion. + +He might have spared himself these compliments. Mademoiselle de Luc +d'Estrelles, as he was soon to discover, had been in that perfectly +frank, generous, and disinterested state of mind in which women sometimes +are. + +Only, would it happen to him to find her so in the future? That was +doubtful, thanks to M. de Camors. It often happens that by despising men +too much, we degrade them; in suspecting women too much, we lose them. + +About an hour passed; there was another rap at the library door. Camors +felt a slight palpitation and a secret wish that it should prove +Mademoiselle Charlotte. + +It was the General who entered. He advanced with measured stride, puffed +like some sea-monster, and seized Camors by the lapel of his coat. Then +he said, impressively: + +"Well, young gentleman!" + +"Well, General." + +"What are you doing in here?" + +"Oh, I am at work." + +"At work? Um! Sit down there--sit down, sit down!" He threw himself on +the sofa where Mademoiselle had been, which rather changed the +perspective for Camors. + +"Well, well!" he repeated, after a long pause. + +"But what then, General?" + +"What then? The deuce! Why, have you not noticed that I have been for +some days extraordinarily agitated?" + +"No, General, I have not noticed it." + +"You are not very observing! I am extraordinarily agitated--enough to +fatigue the eyes. So agitated, upon my word of honor, that there are +moments when I am tempted to believe your aunt is right: that I have +disease of the heart!" + +"Bah, General! My aunt is dreaming; you have the pulse of an infant." + +"You believe so, really? I do not fear death; but it is always annoying +to think of it. But I am too much agitated--it is necessary to put a +stop to it. You understand?" + +"Perfectly; but how can it concern me?" + +"Concern you? You are about to hear. You are my cousin, are you not?" + +"Truly, General, I have that honor." + +"But very distant, eh? I have thirty-six cousins as near as you, and-- +the devil! To speak plainly, I owe you nothing." + +"And I have never demanded payment even of that, General." + +"Ah, I know that! Well, you are my cousin, very far removed! But you +are more than that. Your father saved my life in the Atlas. He has +related it all to you--No? Well, that does not astonish me; for he was +no braggart, that father of yours; he was a man! Had he not quitted the +army, a brilliant career was before him. People talk a great deal of +Pelissier, of Canrobert, of MacMahon, and of others. I say nothing +against them; they are good men doubtless--at least I hear so; but your +father would have eclipsed them all had he taken the trouble. But he +didn't take the trouble! + +"Well, for the story: We were crossing a gorge of the Atlas; we were in +retreat; I had lost my command; I was following as a volunteer. It is +useless to weary you with details; we were in retreat; a shower of stones +and bullets poured upon us, as if from the moon. Our column was slightly +disordered; I was in the rearguard--whack! my horse was down, and I +under him! + +We were in a narrow gorge with sloping sides some fifteen feet high; five +dirty guerillas slid down the sides and fell upon me and on the beast-- +forty devils! I can see them now! Just here the gorge took a sudden +turn, so no one could see my trouble; or no one wished to see it, which +comes to the same thing. + +"I have told you things were in much disorder; and I beg you to remember +that with a dead horse and five live Arabs on top of me, I was not very +comfortable. I was suffocating; in fact, I was devilish far from +comfortable. + +"Just then your father ran to my assistance, like the noble fellow he +was! He drew me from under my horse; he fell upon the Arabs. When I was +up, I aided him a little--but that is nothing to the point--I never shall +forget him!" + +There was a pause, when the General added: + +"Let us understand each other, and speak plainly. Would it be very +repugnant to your feelings to have seven hundred thousand francs a year, +and to be called, after me, Marquis de Campvallon d'Armignes? Come, +speak up, and give me an answer." + +The young Count reddened slightly. + +"My name is Camors," he said, gently. + +"What! You would not wish me to adopt you? You refuse to become the +heir of my name and of my fortune?" + +"Yes, General." + +"Do you not wish time to reflect upon it?" + +"No, General. I am sincerely grateful for your goodness; your generous +intentions toward me touch me deeply, but in a question of honor I never +reflect or hesitate." + +The General puffed fiercely, like a locomotive blowing off steam. Then +he rose and took two or three turns up and down the gallery, shuffling +his feet, his chest heaving. Then he returned and reseated himself. + +"What are your plans for the future?" he asked, abruptly. + +"I shall try, in the first place, General, to repair my fortune, which is +much shattered. I am not so great a stranger to business as people +suppose, and my father's connections and my own will give me a footing in +some great financial or industrial enterprise. Once there, I shall +succeed by force of will and steady work. Besides, I shall fit myself +for public life, and aspire, when circumstances permit me, to become a +deputy." + +"Well, well, a man must do something. Idleness is the parent of all +vices. See; like yourself, I am fond of the horse--a noble animal. +I approve of racing; it improves the breed of horses, and aids in +mounting our cavalry efficiently. But sport should be an amusement, not +a profession. Hem! so you aspire to become a deputy?" + +"Assuredly." + +"Then I can help you in that, at least. When you are ready I will send +in my resignation, and recommend to my brave and faithful constituents +that you take my place. Will that suit you?" + +"Admirably, General; and I am truly grateful. But why should you +resign?" + +"Why? Well, to be useful to you in the first place; in the second, I am +sick of it. I shall not be sorry to give personally a little lesson to +the government, which I trust will profit by it. You know me--I am no +Jacobin; at first I thought that would succeed. But when I see what is +going on!" + +"What is going on, General?" + +"When I see a Tonnelier a great dignitary! It makes me long for the pen +of Tacitus, on my word. When I was retired in 'forty-eight, under a mean +and cruel injustice they did me, I had not reached the age of exemption. +I was still capable of good and loyal service; but probably I could have +waited until an amendment. I found it at least in the confidence of my +brave and faithful constituents. But, my young friend, one tires of +everything. The Assemblies at the Luxembourg--I mean the Palace of the +Bourbons--fatigue me. In short, whatever regret I may feel at parting +from my honorable colleagues, and from my faithful constituents, I shall +abdicate my functions whenever you are ready and willing to accept them. +Have you not some property in this district?" + +"Yes, General, a little property which belonged to my mother; a small +manor, with a little land round it, called Reuilly." + +"Reuilly! Not two steps from Des Rameures! Certainly--certainly! Well, +that is one foot in the stirrup." + +"But then there is one difficulty; I am obliged to sell it." + +"The devil! And why?" + +"It is all that is left to me, and it only brings me eleven thousand +francs a year; and to embark in business I need capital--a beginning. +I prefer not to borrow." + +The General rose, and once more his military tramp shook the gallery. +Then he threw himself back on the sofa. + +"You must not sell that property! I owe you nothing, 'tis true, but I +have an affection for you. You refuse to be my adopted son. Well, I +regret this, and must have recourse to other projects to aid you. I warn +you I shall try other projects. You must not sell your lands if you wish +to become a deputy, for the country people--especially those of Des +Rameures--will not hear of it. Meantime you will need funds. Permit me +to offer you three hundred thousand francs. You may return them when you +can, without interest, and if you never return them you will confer a +very great favor upon me." + +"But in truth, General--" + +"Come, come! Accept it as from a relative--from a friend--from your +father's friend--on any ground you please, so you accept. If not, you +will wound me seriously." + +Camors rose, took the General's hand, and pressing it with emotion, said, +briefly: + +"I accept, sir. I thank you!" + +The General sprang up at these words like a furious lion, his moustache +bristling, his nostrils dilating, his chest heaving. Staring at the +young Count with real ferocity, he suddenly drew him to his breast and +embraced him with great fervor. Then he strode to the door with his +usual solemnity, and quickly brushing a tear from his cheek, left the +room. + +The General was a good man; but, like many good people, he had not been +happy. You might smile at his oddities: you never could reproach him +with vices. + +He was a small man, but he had a great soul. Timid at heart, especially +with women, he was delicate, passionate, and chaste. He had loved but +little, and never had been loved at all. He declared that he had retired +from all friendship with women, because of a wrong that he had suffered. +At forty years of age he had married the daughter of a poor colonel who +had been killed by the enemy. Not long after, his wife had deceived him +with one of his aides-de-camp. + +The treachery was revealed to him by a rival, who played on this occasion +the infamous role of Iago. Campvallon laid aside his starred epaulettes, +and in two successive duels, still remembered in Africa, killed on two +successive days the guilty one and his betrayer. His wife died shortly +after, and he was left more lonely than ever. He was not the man to +console himself with venal love; a gross remark made him blush; the corps +de ballet inspired him with terror. He did not dare to avow it, but the +dream of his old age, with his fierce moustache and his grim countenance, +was the devoted love of some young girl, at whose feet he might pour out, +without shame, without distrust even, all the tenderness of his simple +and heroic heart. + +On the evening of the day which had been marked for Camors by these two +interesting episodes, Mademoiselle de Luc d'Estrelles did not come down +to dinner, but sent word she had a headache. This message was received +with a general murmur, and with some sharp remarks from Madame de la +Roche-Jugan, which implied Mademoiselle was not in a position which +justified her in having a headache. The dinner, however, was not less +gay than usual, thanks to Mesdames Bacquiere and Van-Cuyp, and to their +husbands, who had arrived from Paris to pass Sunday with them. + +To celebrate this happy meeting, they drank very freely of champagne, +talked slang, and imitated actors, causing much amusement to the +servants. Returning to the drawing-room, these innocent young things +thought it very funny to take their husbands' hats, put their feet in +them, and, thus shod, to run a steeplechase across the room. Meantime +Madame de la Roche-Jagan felt the General's pulse frequently, and found +it variable. + +Next morning at breakfast all the General's guests assembled, except +Mademoiselle d'Estrelles, whose headache apparently was no better. They +remarked also the absence of the General, who was the embodiment of +politeness and punctuality. A sense of uneasiness was beginning to creep +over all, when suddenly the door opened and the General appeared leading +Mademoiselle d'Estrelles by the hand. + +The young girl's eyes were red; her face was very pale. The General's +face was scarlet. He advanced a few steps, like an actor about to +address his audience; cast fierce glances on all sides of him, and +cleared his throat with a sound that echoed like the bass notes of a +grand piano. Then he spoke in a voice of thunder: + +"My dear guests and friends, permit me to present to you the Marquise de +Campvallon d'Armignes!" + +An iceberg at the North Pole is not colder than was the General's salon +at this announcement. + +He held the young lady by the hand, and retaining his position in the +centre of the room, launched out fierce glances. Then his eyes began to +wander and roll convulsively in their sockets, as if he was himself +astonished at the effect his announcement had produced. + +Camors was the first to come to the rescue, and taking his hand, said: +"Accept, my dear General, my congratulations. I am extremely happy, and +rejoice at your good fortune; the more so, as I feel the lady is so well +worthy of you." Then, bowing to Mademoiselle d'Estrelles with a grave +grace, he pressed her hand, and turning away, was struck dumb at seeing +Madame de la Roche-Jugan in the arms of the General. She passed from his +into those of Mademoiselle d'Estrelles, who feared at first, from the +violence of the caresses, that there was a secret design to strangle her. + +"General," said Madame de la Roche-Jugan in a plaintive voice, "you +remember I always recommended her to you. I always spoke well of her. +She is my daughter--my second child. Sigismund, embrace your sister! +You permit it, General? Ah, we never know how much we love these +children until we lose them! I always spoke well of her; did I not--Ge-- +General?" And here Madame de la Roche-Jugan burst into tears. + +The General, who began to entertain a high opinion of the Countess's +heart, declared that Mademoiselle d'Estrelles would find in him a friend +and father. After which flattering assurance, Madame de la Roche-Jugan +seated herself in a solitary corner, behind a curtain, whence they heard +sobs and moans issue for a whole hour. She could not even breakfast; +happiness had taken away her appetite. + +The ice once broken, all tried to make themselves agreeable. The +Tonneliers did not behave, however, with the same warmth as the tender +Countess, and it was easy to see that Mesdames Bacquiere and VanCuyp +could not picture to themselves, without envy, the shower of gold and +diamonds about to fall into the lap of their cousin. Messrs. Bacquiere +and Van-Cuyp were naturally the first sufferers, and their charming wives +made them understand, at intervals during the day, that they thoroughly +despised them. It was a bitter Sunday for those poor fellows. The +Tonnelier family also felt that little more was to be done there, and +left the next morning with a very cold adieu. + +The conduct of the Countess was more noble. She declared she would wait +upon her dearly beloved Charlotte from the altar to the very threshold of +the nuptial chamber; that she would arrange her trousseau, and that the +marriage should take place from her house. + +"Deuce take me, my dear Countess!" cried the General, "I must declare +one thing--you astonish me. I was unjust, cruelly unjust, toward you. +I reproach myself, on my faith! I believed you worldly, interested, not +open-hearted. But you are none of these; you are an excellent woman-- +a heart of gold--a noble soul! My dear friend, you have found the best +way to convert me. I have always believed the religion of honor was +sufficient for a man--eh, Camors? But I am not an unbeliever, my dear +Countess, and, on my sacred word, when I see a perfect creature like you, +I desire to believe everything she believes, if only to be pleasant to +her!" + +When Camors, who was not quite so innocent, asked himself what was the +secret of his aunt's politic conduct, but little effort was necessary to +understand it. + +Madame de la Roche-Jugan, who had finally convinced herself that the +General had an aneurism, flattered herself that the cares of matrimony +would hasten the doom of her old friend. In any event, he was past +seventy years of age. But Charlotte was young, and so also was +Sigismund. Sigismund could become tender; if necessary, could quietly +court the young Marquise until the day when he could marry her, with all +her appurtenances, over the mausoleum of the General. It was for this +that Madame de la Roche-Jugan, crushed for a moment under the unexpected +blow that ruined her hopes, had modified her tactics and drawn her +batteries, so to speak, under cover of the enemy. This was what she was +contriving while she was weeping behind the curtain. + +Camors's personal feelings at the announcement of this marriage were not +of the most agreeable description. First, he was obliged to acknowledge +that he had unjustly judged Mademoiselle d'Estrelles, and that at the +moment of his accusing her of speculating on his small fortune, she was +offering to sacrifice for him the annual seven hundred thousand francs of +the General. + +He felt his vanity injured, that he had not had the best part of this +affair. Besides, he felt obliged to stifle from this moment the secret +passion with which the beautiful and singular girl had inspired him. +Wife or widow of the General, it was clear that Mademoiselle d'Estrelles +had forever escaped him. To seduce the wife of this good old man from +whom he accepted such favors, or even to marry her, widowed and rich, +after refusing her when poor, were equal unworthiness and baseness that +honor forbade in the same degree and with the same rigor as if this +honor, which he made the only law of his life, were not a mockery and an +empty word. + +Camors, however, did not fail to comprehend the position in this light, +and he resigned himself to it. + +During the four or five days he remained at Campvallon his conduct was +perfect. The delicate and reserved attentions with which he surrounded +Mademoiselle d'Estrelles were tinged with a melancholy that showed her at +the same time his gratitude, his respect, and his regrets. + +M. de Campvallon had not less reason to congratulate himself on the +conduct of the young Count. He entered into the folly of his host with +affectionate grace. He spoke to him little of the beauty of his fiancee: +much of her high moral qualities; and let him see his most flattering +confidence in the future of this union. + +On the eve of his departure Camors was summoned into the General's study. +Handing his young relative a check for three hundred thousand francs, the +General said: + +"My dear young friend, I ought to tell you, for the peace of your +conscience, that I have informed Mademoiselle d'Estrelles of this little +service I render you. She has a great deal of love and affection for +you, my dear young friend; be sure of that. + +"She therefore received my communication with sincere pleasure. I also +informed her that I did not intend taking any receipt for this sum, and +that no reclamation of it should be made at any time, on any account. + +"Now, my dear Camors, do me one favor. To tell you my inmost thought, I +shall be most happy to see you carry into execution your project of +laudable ambition. My own new position, my age, my tastes, and those I +perceive in the Marquise, claim all my leisure--all my liberty of action. +Consequently, I desire as soon as possible to present you to my generous +and faithful constituents, as well for the Corps Legislatif as for the +General Council. You had better make your preliminary arrangements as +soon as possible. Why should you defer it? You are very well +cultivated--very capable. Well, let us go ahead--let us begin at once. +What do you say?" + +"I should prefer, General, to be more mature; but it would be both folly +and ingratitude in me not to accede to your kind wish. What shall I do +first?" + +"Well, my young friend, instead of leaving tomorrow for Paris, you must +go to your estate at Reuilly: go there and conquer Des Rameures." + +"And who are the Des Rameures, General?" + +"You do not know the Des Rameures? The deuce! no; you can not know +them! That is unfortunate, too. + +"Des Rameures is a clever fellow, a very clever fellow, and all-powerful +in his neighborhood. He is an original, as you will see; and with him +lives his niece, a charming woman. I tell you, my boy, you must please +them, for Des Rameures is the master of the county. He protects me, or +else, upon my honor, I should be stopped on the road!" + +"But, General, what shall I do to please this Des Rameures?" + +"You will see him. He is, as I tell you, a great oddity. He has not +been in Paris since 1825; he has a horror of Paris and Parisians. Very +well, it only needs a little tact to flatter his views on that point. We +always need a little tact in this world, young man." + +"But his niece, General?" + +"Ah, the deuce! You must please the niece also. He adores her, and she +manages him completely, although he grumbles a little sometimes." + +"And what sort of woman is she?" + +"Oh, a respectable woman--a perfectly respectable woman. A widow; +somewhat a devotee, but very well informed. A woman of great merit." + +"But what course must I take to please this lady?" + +"What course? By my faith, young man, you ask a great many questions. +I never yet learned to please a woman. I am green as a goose with them +always. It is a thing I can not understand; but as for you, my young +comrade, you have little need to be instructed in that matter. You can't +fail to please her; you have only to make yourself agreeable. But you +will know how to do it--you will conduct yourself like an angel, I am +sure." + +"Captivate Des Rameures and his niece--this is your advice!" + +Early next morning Camors left the Chateau de Campvallon, armed with +these imperfect instructions; and, further, with a letter from the +General to Des Rameures. + +He went in a hired carriage to his own domain of Reuilly, which lay ten +leagues off. While making this transit he reflected that the path of +ambition was not one of roses; and that it was hard for him, at the +outset of his enterprise, to by compelled to encounter two faces likely +to be as disquieting as those of Des Rameures and his niece. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE OLD DOMAIN OF REUILLY + +The domain of Reuilly consisted of two farms and of a house of some +pretension, inhabited formerly by the maternal family of M. de Camors. +He had never before seen this property when he reached it on the evening +of a beautiful summer day. A long and gloomy avenue of elms, interlacing +their thick branches, led to the dwelling-house, which was quite unequal +to the imposing approach to it; for it was but an inferior construction +of the past century, ornamented simply by a gable and a bull's-eye, but +flanked by a lordly dovecote. + +It derived a certain air of dignity from two small terraces, one above +the other, in front of it, while the triple flight of steps was supported +by balusters of granite. Two animals, which had once, perhaps, resembled +lions, were placed one upon each side of the balustrade at the platform +of the highest terrace; and they had been staring there for more than a +hundred and fifty years. Behind the house stretched the garden; and in +its midst, mounted on a stone arch, stood a dismal sun-dial with hearts +and spades painted between its figures; while the trees around it were +trimmed into the shapes of confessionals and chess-pawns. To the right, +a labyrinth of young trees, similarly clipped in the fashion of the time, +led by a thousand devious turns to a mysterious valley, where one heard +continually a low, sad murmur. This proceeded from a nymph in terra- +cotta, from whose urn dripped, day and night, a thin rill of water into a +small fishpond, bordered by grand old poplars, whose shadows threw upon +its surface, even at mid-day, the blackness of Acheron. + +Camors's first reflection at viewing this prospect was an exceedingly +painful one; and the second was even more so. + +At another time he would doubtless have taken an interest in searching +through these souvenirs of the past for traces of an infant nurtured +there, who had a mother, and who had perhaps loved these old relics. But +his system did not admit of sentiment, so he crushed the ideas that +crowded to his mind, and, after a rapid glance around him, called for his +dinner. + +The old steward and his wife--who for thirty years had been the sole +inhabitants of Reuilly--had been informed of his coming. They had spent +the day in cleaning and airing the house; an operation which added to the +discomfort they sought to remove, and irritated the old residents of the +walls, while it disturbed the sleep of hoary spiders in their dusty webs. +A mixed odor of the cellar, of the sepulchre, and of an old coach, struck +Camors when he penetrated into the principal room, where his dinner was +to be served. + +Taking up one or two flickering candles, the like of which he had never +seen before, Camors proceeded to inspect the quaint portraits of his +ancestors, who seemed to stare at him in great surprise from their +cracked canvases. They were a dilapidated set of old nobles, one having +lost a nose, another an arm, others again sections of their faces. One +of them--a chevalier of St. Louis--had received a bayonet thrust through +the centre in the riotous times of the Revolution; but he still smiled at +Camors, and sniffed at a flower, despite the daylight shining through +him. + +Camors finished his inspection, thinking to himself they were a highly +respectable set of ancestors, but not worth fifteen francs apiece. The +housekeeper had passed half the previous night in slaughtering various +dwellers in the poultry-yard; and the results of the sacrifice now +successively appeared, swimming in butter. Happily, however, the +fatherly kindness of the General had despatched a hamper of provisions +from Campvallon, and a few slices of pate, accompanied by sundry glasses +of Chateau-Yquem helped the Count to combat the dreary sadness with which +his change of residence, solitude, the night, and the smoke of his +candles, all conspired to oppress him. + +Regaining his usual good spirits, which had deserted him for a moment, he +tried to draw out the old steward, who was waiting on him. He strove to +glean from him some information of the Des Rameures; but the old servant, +like every Norman peasant, held it as a tenet of faith that he who gave a +plain answer to any question was a dishonored man. With all possible +respect he let Camors understand plainly that he was not to be deceived +by his affected ignorance into any belief that M. le Comte did not know a +great deal better than he who and what M. des Rameures was--where he +lived, and what he did; that M. le Comte was his master, and as such was +entitled to his respect, but that he was nevertheless a Parisian, and-- +as M. des Rameures said--all Parisians were jesters. + +Camors, who had taken an oath never to get angry, kept it now; drew from +the General's old cognac a fresh supply of patience, lighted a cigar, and +left the room. + +For a few moments he leaned over the balustrade of the terrace and looked +around. The night, clear and beautiful, enveloped in its shadowy veil +the widestretching fields, and a solemn stillness, strange to Parisian +ears, reigned around him, broken only at intervals by the distant bay of +a hound, rising suddenly, and dying into peace again. His eyes becoming +accustomed to the darkness, Camors descended the terrace stairs and +passed into the old avenue, which was darker and more solemn than a +cathedral-aisle at midnight, and thence into an open road into which it +led by chance. + +Strictly speaking, Camors had never, until now, been out of Paris; for +wherever he had previously gone, he had carried its bustle, worldly and +artificial life, play, and the races with him; and the watering-places +and the seaside had never shown him true country, or provincial life. +It gave him a sensation for the first time; but the sensation was an +odious one. + +As he advanced up this silent road, without houses or lights, it seemed +to him he was wandering amid the desolation of some lunar region. This +part of Normandy recalled to him the least cultivated parts of Brittany. +It was rustic and savage, with its dense shrubbery, tufted grass, dark +valleys, and rough roads. + +Some dreamers love this sweet but severe nature, even at night; they love +the very things that grated most upon the pampered senses of Camors, who +strode on in deep disgust, flattering himself, however, that he should +soon reach the Boulevard de Madeleine. But he found, instead, peasants' +huts scattered along the side of the road, their low, mossy roofs seeming +to spring from the rich soil like an enormous fungus growth. Two or +three of the dwellers in these huts were taking the fresh evening air on +their thresholds, and Camors could distinguish through the gloom their +heavy figures and limbs, roughened by coarse toil in the fields, as they +stood mute, motionless, and ruminating in the darkness like tired beasts. + +Camors, like all men possessed by a dominant idea, had, ever since he +adopted the religion of his father as his rule of life, taken the pains +to analyze every impression and every thought. He now said to himself, +that between these countrymen and a refined man like himself there was +doubtless a greater difference than between them and their beasts of +burden; and this reflection was as balm to the scornful aristocracy that +was the cornerstone of his theory. Wandering on to an eminence, his +discouraged eye swept but a fresh horizon of apple-trees and heads of +barley, and he was about to turn back when a strange sound suddenly +arrested his steps. It was a concert of voice and instruments, which in +this lost solitude seemed to him like a dream, or a miracle. The music +was good-even excellent. He recognized a prelude of Bach, arranged by +Gounod. Robinson Crusoe, on discovering the footprint in the sand, was +not more astonished than Camors at finding in this desert so lively a +symptom of civilization. + +Filled with curiosity, and led by the melody he heard, he descended +cautiously the little hill, like a king's son in search of the enchanted +princess. The palace he found in the middle of the path, in the shape of +the high back wall of a dwelling, fronting on another road. One of the +upper windows on this side, however, was open; a bright light streamed +from it, and thence he doubted not the sweet sounds came. + +To an accompaniment of the piano and stringed instruments rose a fresh, +flexible woman's voice, chanting the mystic words of the master with such +expression and power as would have given even him delight. Camors, +himself a musician, was capable of appreciating the masterly execution of +the piece; and was so much struck by it that he felt an irresistible +desire to see the performers, especially the singer. With this impulse +he climbed the little hedge bordering the road, placed himself on the +top, and found himself several feet above the level of the lighted +window. He did not hesitate to use his skill as a gymnast to raise +himself to one of the branches of an old oak stretching across the lawn; +but during the ascent he could not disguise from himself that his was +scarcely a dignified position for the future deputy of the district. He +almost laughed aloud at the idea of being surprised in this position by +the terrible Des Rameures, or his niece. + +He established himself on a large, leafy branch, directly in front of the +interesting window; and notwithstanding that he was at a respectful +distance, his glance could readily penetrate into the chamber where the +concert was taking place. A dozen persons, as he judged, were there +assembled; several women, of different ages, were seated at a table +working; a young man appeared to be drawing; while other persons lounged +on comfortable seats around the room. Around the piano was a group which +chiefly attracted the attention of the young Count. At the instrument +was seated a grave young girl of about twelve years; immediately behind +her stood an old man, remarkable for his great height, his head bald, +with a crown of white hair, and his bushy black eyebrows. He played the +violin with priestly dignity. Seated near him was a man of about fifty, +in the dress of an ecclesiastic, and wearing a huge pair of silver-rimmed +spectacles, who played the violincello with great apparent gusto. + +Between them stood the singer. She was a pale brunette, slight and +graceful, and apparently not more than twenty-five years of age. The +somewhat severe oval of her face was relieved by a pair of bright black +eyes that seemed to grow larger as she sang. One hand rested gently on +the shoulder of the girl at the piano, and with this she seemed to keep +time, pressing gently on the shoulder of the performer to stimulate her +zeal. And that hand was delicious! + +A hymn by Palestrina had succeeded the Bach prelude. It was a quartette, +to which two new voices lent their aid. The old priest laid aside his +violoncello, stood up, took off his spectacles, and his deep bass +completed the full measure of the melody. + +After the quartette followed a few moments of general conversation, +during which--after embracing the child pianist, who immediately left the +room--the songstress walked to the window. She leaned out as if to +breathe the fresh air, and her profile was sharply relieved against the +bright light behind her, in which the others formed a group around the +priest, who once more donned his spectacles, and drew from his pocket a +paper that appeared to be a manuscript. + +The lady leaned from the window, gently fanning herself, as she looked +now at the sky, now at the dark landscape. Camors imagined he could +distinguish her gentle breathing above the sound of the fan; and leaning +eagerly forward for a better view, he caused the leaves to rustle +slightly. She started at the sound, then remained immovable, and the +fixed position of her head showed that her gaze was fastened upon the oak +in which he was concealed. + +He felt the awkwardness of his position, but could not judge whether or +not he was visible to her; but, under the danger of her fixed regard, he +passed the most painful moments of his life. + +She turned into the room and said, in a calm voice, a few words which +brought three or four of her friends to the window; and among them Camors +recognized the old man with the violin. + +The moment was a trying one. He could do nothing but lie still in his +leafy retreat--silent and immovable as a statue. The conduct of those at +the window went far to reassure him, for their eyes wandered over the +gloom with evident uncertainty, convincing him that his presence was only +suspected, not discovered. But they exchanged animated observations, to +which the hidden Count lent an attentive ear. Suddenly a strong voice-- +which he recognized as belonging to him of the violin-rose over them all +in the pleasing order: "Loose the dog!" + +This was sufficient for Camors. He was not a coward; he would not have +budged an inch before an enraged tiger; but he would have travelled a +hundred miles on foot to avoid the shadow of ridicule. Profiting by the +warning and a moment when he seemed unobserved, he slid from the tree, +jumped into the next field, and entered the wood at a point somewhat +farther down than the spot where he had scaled the hedge. This done, he +resumed his walk with the assured tread of a man who had a right to be +there. He had gone but a few steps, when he heard behind him the wild +barking of the dog, which proved his retreat had been opportune. + +Some of the peasants he had noticed as he passed before, were still +standing at their doors. Stopping before one of them he asked: + +"My friend, to whom does that large house below there, facing the other +road, belong? and whence comes that music?" + +"You probably know that as well as I," replied the man, stolidly. + +"Had I known, I should hardly have asked you," said Camors. + +The peasant did not deign further reply. His wife stood near him; and +Camors had remarked that in all classes of society women have more wit +and goodhumor than their husbands. Therefore he turned to her and said: + +"You see, my good woman, I am a stranger here. To whom does that house +belong? Probably to Monsieur des Rameures?" + +"No, no," replied the woman, "Monsieur des Rameures lives much farther +on." + +"Ah! Then who lives here?" + +"Why, Monsieur de Tecle, of course!" + +"Ah, Monsieur de Tecle! But tell me, he does not live alone? There is a +lady who sings--his wife?--his sister? Who is she?" + +"Ah, that is his daughter-in-law, Madame de Tecle Madame Elise, who--" + +"Ah! thank you, thank you, my good woman! You have children? Buy them +sabots with this," and drop ping a gold piece in the lap of the obliging +peasant, Camors walked rapidly away. Returning home the road seemed less +gloomy and far shorter than when he came. As he strode on, humming the +Bach prelude, the moon rose, the country looked more beautiful, and, in +short, when he perceived, at the end of its gloomy avenue, his chateau +bathed in the white light, he found the spectacle rather enjoyable than +otherwise. And when he had once more ensconced himself in the maternal +domicile, and inhaled the odor of damp paper and mouldy trees that +constituted its atmosphere, he found great consolation in the reflection +that there existed not very far away from him a young woman who possessed +a charming face, a delicious voice, and a pretty name. + +Next morning, after plunging into a cold bath, to the profound +astonishment of the old steward and his wife, the Comte de Camors went to +inspect his farms. He found the buildings very similar in construction +to the dams of beavers, though far less comfortable; but he was amazed to +hear his farmers arguing, in their patois, on the various modes of +culture and crops, like men who were no strangers to all modern +improvements in agriculture. The name of Des Rameures frequently +occurred in the conversation as confirmation of their own theories, or +experiments. M. des Rameures gave preference to this manure, to this +machine for winnowing; this breed of animals was introduced by him. M. +des Rameures did this, M. des Rameures did that, and the farmers did like +him, and found it to their advantage. Camors found the General had not +exaggerated the local importance of this personage, and that it was most +essential to conciliate him. Resolving therefore to call on him during +the day, he went to breakfast. + +This duty toward himself fulfilled, the young Count lounged on the +terrace, as he had the evening before, and smoked his cigar. Though it +was near midday, it was doubtful to him whether the solitude and silence +appeared less complete and oppressive than on the preceding night. A +hushed cackling of fowls, the drowsy hum of bees, and the muffled chime +of a distant bell--these were all the sounds to be heard. + +Camors lounged on the terrace, dreaming of his club, of the noisy Paris +crowd, of the rumbling omnibuses, of the playbill of the little kiosk, +of the scent of heated asphalt--and the memory of the least of these +enchantments brought infinite peace to his soul. The inhabitant of Paris +has one great blessing, which he does not take into account until he +suffers from its loss--one great half of his existence is filled up +without the least trouble to himself. The all-potent vitality which +ceaselessly envelops him takes away from him in a vast degree the +exertion of amusing himself. The roar of the city, rising like a great +bass around him, fills up the gaps in his thoughts, and never leaves that +disagreeable sensation--a void. + +There is no Parisian who is not happy in the belief that he makes all the +noise he hears, writes all the books he reads, edits all the journals on +which he breakfasts, writes all the vaudevilles on which he sups, and +invents all the 'bon mots' he repeats. + +But this flattering allusion vanishes the moment chance takes him a mile +away from the Rue Vivienne. The proof confounds him, for he is bored +terribly, and becomes sick of himself. Perhaps his secret soul, weakened +and unnerved, may even be assailed by the suspicion that he is a feeble +human creature after all! But no! He returns to Paris; the collective +electricity again inspires him; he rebounds; he recovers; he is busy, +keen to discern, active, and recognizes once more, to his intense +satisfaction, that he is after all one of the elect of God's creatures-- +momentarily degraded, it may be, by contact with the inferior beings who +people the departments. + +Camors had within himself more resources than most men to conquer the +blue-devils; but in these early hours of his experience in country life, +deprived of his club, his horses, and his cook, banished from all his old +haunts and habits, he began to feel terribly the weight of time. He, +therefore, experienced a delicious sensation when suddenly he heard that +regular beat of hoofs upon the road which to his trained ear announced +the approach of several riding-horses. The next moment he saw advancing +up his shaded avenue two ladies on horseback, followed by a groom with a +black cockade. + +Though quite amazed at this charming spectacle, Camors remembered his +duty as a gentleman and descended the steps of the terrace. But the two +ladies, at sight of him, appeared as surprised as himself, suddenly drew +rein and conferred hastily. Then, recovering, they continued their way, +traversed the lower court below the terraces, and disappeared in the +direction of the lake. + +As they passed the lower balustrade Camors bowed low, and they returned +his salutation by a slight inclination; but he was quite sure, in spite +of the veils that floated from their riding-hats, that he recognized the +black-eyed singer and the young pianist. After a moment he called to his +old steward + +"Monsieur Leonard," he said, "is this a public way?" + +"It certainly is not a public way, Monsieur le Comte," replied Leonard. + +"Then what do these ladies mean by using this road?" + +"Bless me, Monsieur le Comte, it is so long since any of the owners have +been at Reuilly! These ladies mean no harm by passing through your +woods; and sometimes they even stop at the chateau while my wife gives +them fresh milk. Shall I tell them that this displeases Monsieur le +Comte?" + +"My good Leonard, why the deuce do you suppose it displeases me? I only +asked for information. And now who are the ladies?" + +"Oh! Monsieur, they are quite respectable ladies; Madame de Tecle, and +her daughter, Mademoiselle Marie." + +"So? And the husband of Madame, Monsieur de Tecle, never rides out with +them?" + +"Heavens! no, Monsieur. He never rides with them." And the old steward +smiled a dry smile. "He has been among the dead men for a long time, as +Monsieur le Comte well knows." + +"Granting that I know it, Monsieur Leonard, I wish it understood these +ladies are not to be interfered with. You comprehend?" + +Leonard seemed pleased that he was not to be the bearer of any +disagreeable message; and Camors, suddenly conceiving that his stay at +Reuilly might be prolonged for some time, reentered the chateau and +examined the different rooms, arranging with the steward the best plan of +making the house habitable. The little town of I------, but two leagues +distant, afforded all the means, and M. Leonard proposed going there at +once to confer with the architect. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +ELISE DE TECLE + +Meantime Camors directed his steps toward the residence of M. des +Rameures, of which he at last obtained correct information. He took the +same road as the preceding evening, passed the monastic-looking building +that held Madame de Tecle, glanced at the old oak that had served him for +an observatory, and about a mile farther on he discovered the small house +with towers that he sought. + +It could only be compared to those imaginary edifices of which we have +all read in childhood's happy days in taking text, under an attractive +picture: "The castle of M. de Valmont was agreeably situated at the +summit of a pretty hill." It had a really picturesque surrounding of +fields sloping away, green as emerald, dotted here and there with great +bouquets of trees, or cut by walks adorned with huge roses or white +bridges thrown over rivulets. Cattle and sheep were resting here and +there, which might have figured at the Opera Comique, so shining were the +skins of the cows and so white the wool of the sheep. Camors swung open +the gate, took the first road he saw, and reached the top of the hill +amid trees and flowers. An old servant slept on a bench before the door, +smiling in his dreams. + +Camors waked him, inquired for the master of the house, and was ushered +into a vestibule. Thence he entered a charming apartment, where a young +lady in a short skirt and round hat was arranging bouquets in Chinese +vases. + +She turned at the noise of the opening door, and Camors saw--Madame de +Tecle! + +As he saluted her with an air of astonishment and doubt, she looked +fixedly at him with her large eyes. He spoke first, with more of +hesitation than usual. + +"Pardon me, Madame, but I inquired for Monsieur des Rameures." + +"He is at the farm, but will soon return. Be kind enough to wait." + +She pointed to a chair, and seated herself, pushing away with her foot +the branches that strewed the floor. + +"But, Madame, in the absence of Monsieur des Rameures may I have the +honor of speaking with his niece?" + +The shadow of a smile flitted over Madame de Tecle's brown but charming +face. "His niece?" she said: "I am his niece." + +"You I Pardon me, Madame, but I thought--they said--I expected to find an +elderly--a--person--that is, a respectable" he hesitated, then added +simply" and I find I am in error." + +Madame de Tecle seemed completely unmoved by this compliment. + +"Will you be kind enough, Monsieur," she said, "to let me know whom I +have the honor of receiving?" + +"I am Monsieur de Camors." + +"Ah! Then I have excuses also to make. It was probably you whom we saw +this morning. We have been very rude--my daughter and I--but we were +ignorant of your arrival; and Reuilly has been so long deserted." + +"I sincerely hope, Madame, that your daughter and yourself will make no +change in your rides." + +Madame de Tecle replied by a movement of the hand that implied certainly +she appreciated the offer, and certainly she should not accept it. Then +there was a pause long enough to embarrass Camors, during which his eye +fell upon the piano, and his lips almost formed the original remark-- +"You are a musician, Madame." Suddenly recollecting his tree, however, +he feared to betray himself by the allusion, and was silent. + +"You come from Paris, Monsieur de Camors?" Madame de Tecle at length +asked. + +"No, Madame, I have been passing several weeks with my kinsman, General +de Campvallon, who has also the honor, I believe, to be a friend of +yours; and who has requested me to call upon you." + +"We are delighted that you have done so; and what an excellent man the +General is!" + +"Excellent indeed, Madame." There was another pause. + +"If you do not object to a short walk in the sun," said Madame de Tecle +at length, "let us walk to meet my uncle. We are almost sure to meet +him." Camors bowed. Madame de Tecle rose and rang the bell: "Ask +Mademoiselle Marie," she said to the servant, "to be kind enough to put +on her hat and join us." + +A moment after, Mademoiselle Marie entered, cast on the stranger the +steady, frank look of an inquisitive child, bowed slightly to him, and +they all left the room by a door opening on the lawn. + +Madame de Tecle, while responding courteously to the graceful speeches of +Camors, walked on with a light and rapid step, her fairy-like little +shoes leaving their impression on the smooth fine sand of the path. + +She walked with indescribable, unconscious grace; with that supple, +elastic undulation which would have been coquettish had it not been +undeniably natural. Reaching the wall that enclosed the right side of +the park, she opened a wicket that led into a narrow path through a large +field of ripe corn. She passed into this path, followed in single file +by Mademoiselle Marie and by Camors. Until now the child had been very +quiet, but the rich golden corn-tassels, entangled with bright daisies, +red poppies, and hollyhocks, and the humming concert of myriads of flies- +blue, yellow, and reddishbrownwhich sported amid the sweets, excited her +beyond self-control. Stopping here and there to pluck a flower, she +would turn and cry, "Pardon, Monsieur;" until, at length, on an apple- +tree growing near the path she descried on a low branch a green apple, no +larger than her finger. This temptation proved irresistible, and with +one spring into the midst of the corn, she essayed to reach the prize, if +Providence would permit. Madame de Tecle, however, would not permit. +She seemed much displeased, and said, sharply: + +"Marie, my child! In the midst of the corn! Are you crazy!" + +The child returned promptly to the path, but unable to conquer her wish +for the apple, turned an imploring eye to Camors and said, softly: +"Pardon, Monsieur, but that apple would make my bouquet complete." + +Camors had only to reach up, stretch out his hand, and detach the branch +from the tree. + +"A thousand thanks!" cried the child, and adding this crowning glory to +her bouquet, she placed the whole inside the ribbon around her hat and +walked on with an air of proud satisfaction. + +As they approached the fence running across the end of the field, Madame +de Tecle suddenly said: "My uncle, Monsieur;" and Camors, raising his +head, saw a very tall man looking at them over the fence and shading his +eyes with his hand. His robust limbs were clad in gaiters of yellow +leather with steel buttons, and he wore a loose coat of maroon velvet and +a soft felt hat. Camors immediately recognized the white hair and heavy +black eyebrows as the same he had seen bending over the violin the night +before. + +"Uncle," said Madame de Tecle, introducing the young Count by a wave of +the hand: "This is Monsieur de Camors." + +"Monsieur de Camors," repeated the old man, in a deep and sonorous voice, +"you are most welcome;" and opening the gate he gave his guest a soft, +brown hand, as he continued: "I knew your mother intimately, and am +charmed to have her son under my roof. Your mother was a most amiable +person, Monsieur, and certainly merited--" The old man hesitated, and +finished his sentence by a sonorous "Hem!" that resounded and rumbled +in his chest as if in the vault of a church. + +Then he took the letter Camors handed to him, held it a long distance +from his eyes, and began reading it. The General had told the Count it +would be impolite to break suddenly to M. des Rameures the plan they had +concocted. The latter, therefore, found the note only a very warm +introduction of Camors. The postscript gave him the announcement of the +marriage. + +"The devil!" he cried. "Did you know this, Elise? Campvallon is to be +married!" + +All women, widows, matrons, or maids, are deeply interested in matters +pertaining to marriage. + +"What, uncle! The General! Can it be? Are you sure?" + +"Um--rather. He writes the news himself. Do you know the lady, Monsieur +le Comte?" + +"Mademoiselle de Luc d'Estrelles is my cousin," Camors replied. + +"Ah! That is right; and she is of a certain age?" + +"She is about twenty-five." + +M. des Rameures received this intelligence with one of the resonant +coughs peculiar to him. + +"May I ask, without indiscretion, whether she is endowed with a pleasing +person?" + +"She is exceedingly beautiful," was the reply. + +"Hem! So much the better. It seems to me the General is a little old +for her: but every one is the best judge of his own affairs: Hem! the +best judge of his own affairs. Elise, my dear, whenever you are ready we +will follow you. Pardon me, Monsieur le Comte, for receiving you in this +rustic attire, but I am a laborer. Agricola--a mere herdsman--'custos +gregis', as the poet says. Walk before me, Monsieur le Comte, I beg you. +Marie, child, respect my corn! + +"And can we hope, Monsieur de Camors, that you have the happy idea of +quitting the great Babylon to install yourself among your rural +possessions? It will be a good example, Monsieur--an excellent example! +For unhappily today more than ever we can say with the poet: + + 'Non ullus aratro + + Dignus honos; squalent abductis arva colonis, + Et--et--' + +"And, by gracious! I've forgotten the rest--poor memory! Ah, young sir, +never grow old-never grow old!" + + "'Et curvae rigidum falces conflantur in ensem,"' + +said Camors, continuing the broken quotation. + +"Ah! you quote Virgil. You read the classics. I am charmed, really +charmed. That is not the characteristic of our rising generation, for +modern youth has an idea it is bad taste to quote the ancients. But that +is not my idea, young sir--not in the least. Our fathers quoted freely +because they were familiar with them. And Virgil is my poet. Not that I +approve of all his theories of cultivation. With all the respect I +accord him, there is a great deal to be said on that point; and his plan +of breeding in particular will never do--never do! Still, he is +delicious, eh? Very well, Monsieur Camors, now you see my little domain +--'mea paupera regna'--the retreat of the sage. Here I live, and live +happily, like an old shepherd in the golden age--loved by my neighbors, +which is not easy; and venerating the gods, which is perhaps easier. Ah, +young sir, as you read Virgil, you will excuse me once more. It was for +me he wrote: + + 'Fortunate senex, hic inter flumina nota, + Et fontes sacros frigus captabis opacum.' + +And this as well: + + 'Fortunatus et ille deos qui novit agrestes, + Panaque, Silvanumque senem!'" + +"Nymphasque sorores!" finished Camors, smiling and moving his head +slightly in the direction of Madame de Tecle and her daughter, who +preceded them. + +"Quite to the point. That is pure truth!" cried M. des Rameures, gayly. +"Did you hear that, niece?" + +"Yes, uncle." + +"And did you understand it, niece?" + +"No, uncle." + +"I do not believe you, my dear! I do not believe you!" The old man +laughed heartily. "Do not believe her, Monsieur de Camors; women have +the faculty of understanding compliments in every language." + +This conversation brought them to the chateau, where they sat down on a +bench before the drawing-room windows to enjoy the view. + +Camors praised judiciously the well-kept park, accepted an invitation to +dinner the next week, and then discreetly retired, flattering himself +that his introduction had made a favorable impression upon M. des +Rameures, but regretting his apparent want of progress with the fairy- +footed niece. + +He was in error. + +"This youth," said M. des Rameures, when he was left alone with Madame de +Tecle, "has some touch of the ancients, which is something; but he still +resembles his father, who was vicious as sin itself. His eyes and his +smile recall some traits of his admirable mother; but positively, my dear +Elise, he is the portrait of his father, whose manners and whose +principles they say he has inherited." + +"Who says so, uncle?" + +"Current rumor, niece." + +"Current rumor, my dear uncle, is often mistaken, and always exaggerates. +For my part, I like the young man, who seems thoroughly refined and at +his ease." + +"Bah! I suppose because he compared you to a nymph in the fable." + +"If he compared me to a nymph in the fable he was wrong; but he never +addressed to me a word in French that was not in good taste. Before we +condemn him, uncle, let us see for ourselves. It is a habit you have +always recommended to me, you know." + +"You can not deny, niece," said the old man with irritation, "that he +exhales the most decided and disagreeable odor of Paris! He is too +polite--too studied! Not a shadow of enthusiasm--no fire of youth! +He never laughs as I should wish to see a man of his age laugh; a young +man should roar to split his waistband!" + +"What! you would see him merry so soon after losing his father in such a +tragic manner, and he himself nearly ruined! Why, uncle, what can you +mean?" + +"Well, well, perhaps you are right. I retract all I have said against +him. If he be half ruined I will offer him my advice--and my purse if he +need it--for the sake of the memory of his mother, whom you resemble. +Ah, 'tis thus we end all our disputes, naughty child! I grumble; I am +passionate; I act like a Tartar. Then you speak with your good sense and +sweetness, my darling, and the tiger becomes a lamb. All unhappy beings +whom you approach in the same way submit to your subtle charm. And that +is the reason why my old friend, La Fontaine, said of you: + + 'Sur differentes fleurs l'abeille se repose, + Et fait du miel de toute chose!'" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +A DISH OF POLITICS + +Elise de Tecle was thirty years of age, but appeared much younger. At +seventeen she had married, under peculiar conditions, her cousin Roland +de Tecle. She had been left an orphan at an early age and educated by +her mother's brother, M. des Rameures. Roland lived very near her +Everything brought them together--the wishes of the family, compatibility +of fortune, their relations as neighbors, and a personal sympathy. They +were both charming; they were destined for each other from infancy, and +the time fixed for their marriage was the nineteenth birthday of Elise. +In anticipation of this happy event the. Comte de Tecle rebuilt almost +entirely one wing of his castle for the exclusive use of the young pair. +Roland was continually present, superintending and urging on the work +with all the ardor of a lover. + +One morning loud and alarming cries from the new wing roused all the +inhabitants of the castle; the Count burned to the spot, and found his +son stunned and bleeding in the arms of one of the workmen. He had +fallen from a high scaffolding to the pavement. For several months the +unfortunate young man hovered between life and death; but in the +paroxysms of fever he never ceased calling for his cousin--his betrothed; +and they were obliged to admit the young girl to his bedside. Slowly he +recovered, but was ever after disfigured and lame; and the first time +they allowed him to look in a glass he had a fainting-fit that proved +almost fatal. + +But he was a youth of high principle and true courage. On recovering +from his swoon he wept a flood of bitter tears, which would not, however, +wash the scars from his disfigured face. He prayed long and earnestly; +then shut himself up with his father. Each wrote a letter, the one to M. +des Rameures, the other to Elise. M. des Rameures and his niece were +then in Germany. The excitement and fatigue consequent upon nursing her +cousin had so broken her health that the physicians urged a trial of the +baths of Ems. There she received these letters; they released her from +her engagement and gave her absolute liberty. + +Roland and his father implored her not to return in haste; explained that +their intention was to leave the country in a few weeks' time and +establish themselves at Paris; and added that they expected no answer, +and that their resolution--impelled by simple justice to her--was +irrevocable. + +Their wishes were complied with. No answer came. + +Roland, his sacrifice once made, seemed calm and resigned; but he fell +into a sort of languor, which made fearful progress and hinted at a +speedy and fatal termination, for which in fact he seemed to long. One +evening they had taken him to the lime-tree terrace at the foot of the +garden. He gazed with absent eye on the tints with which the setting sun +purpled the glades of the wood, while his father paced the terrace with +long strides-smiling as he passed him and hastily brushing away a tear as +he turned his back. + +Suddenly Elise de Tecle appeared before them, like an angel dropped from +heaven. She knelt before the crippled youth, kissed his hand, and, +brightening him with the rays of her beautiful eyes, told him she never +had loved him half so well before. He felt she spoke truly; he accepted +her devotion, and they were married soon after. + +Madame de Tecle was happy--but she alone was so. Her husband, +notwithstanding the tenderness with which she treated him-- +notwithstanding the happiness which he could not fail to read in her +tranquil glance--notwithstanding the birth of a daughter--seemed never to +console himself. Even with her he was always possessed by a cold +constraint; some secret sorrow consumed him, of which they found the key +only on the day of his death. + +"My darling," he then said to his young wife--"my darling, may God reward +you for your infinite goodness! Pardon me, if I never have told you how +entirely I love you. With a face like mine, how could I speak of love to +one like you! But my poor heart has been brimming over with it all the +while. Oh, Elise! how I have suffered when I thought of what I was +before--how much more worthy of you! But we shall be reunited, dearest-- +shall we not?--where I shall be as perfect as you, and where I may tell +you how much I adore you! Do not weep for me, my own Elise! I am happy +now, for the first time, for I have dared to open my heart to you. Dying +men do not fear ridicule. Farewell, Elise--darling-wife! I love you!" +These tender words were his last. + +After her husband's death, Madame de Tecle lived with her father-in-law, +but passed much of her time with her uncle. She busied herself with the +greatest solicitude in the education of her daughter, and kept house for +both the old men, by both of whom she was equally idolized. + +From the lips of the priest at Reuilly, whom he called on next day, +Camors learned some of these details, while the old man practiced the +violoncello with his heavy spectacles on his nose. Despite his fixed +resolution of preserving universal scorn, Camors could not resist a vague +feeling of respect for Madame de Tecle; but it did not entirely eradicate +the impure sentiment he was disposed to dedicate to her. Fully +determined to make her, if not his victim, at least his ally, he felt +that this enterprise was one of unusual difficulty. But he was +energetic, and did not object to difficulties--especially when they took +such charming shape as in the present instance. + +His meditations on this theme occupied him agreeably the rest of that +week, during which time he overlooked his workmen and conferred with his +architect. Besides, his horses, his books, his domestics, and his +journals arrived successively to dispel ennui. Therefore he looked +remarkably well when he jumped out of his dog-cart the ensuing Monday in +front of M. des Rameures's door under the eyes of Madame de Tecle. As +the latter gently stroked with her white hand the black and smoking +shoulder of the thoroughbred Fitz-Aymon, Camors was for the first time +presented to the Comte de Tecle, a quiet, sad, and taciturn old +gentleman. The cure, the subprefect of the district and his wife, the +tax-collector, the family physician, and the tutor completed, as the +journals say, the list of the guests. + +During dinner Camors, secretly excited by the immediate vicinity of +Madame de Tecle, essayed to triumph over that hostility that the presence +of a stranger invariably excites in the midst of intimacies which it +disturbs. His calm superiority asserted itself so mildly it was pardoned +for its grace. Without a gayety unbecoming his mourning, he nevertheless +made such lively sallies and such amusing jokes about his first mishaps +at Reuilly as to break up the stiffness of the party. He conversed +pleasantly with each one in turn, and, seeming to take the deepest +interest in his affairs, put him at once at his ease. + +He skilfully gave M. des Rameures the opportunity for several happy +quotations; spoke naturally to him of artificial pastures, and +artificially of natural pastures; of breeding and of non-breeding cows; +of Dishley sheep--and of a hundred other matters he had that morning +crammed from an old encyclopaedia and a county almanac. + +To Madame de Tecle directly he spoke little, but he did not speak one +word during the dinner that was not meant for her; and his manner to +women was so caressing, yet so chivalric, as to persuade them, even while +pouring out their wine, that he was ready to die for them. The dear +charmers thought him a good, simple fellow, while he was the exact +reverse. + +On leaving the table they went out of doors to enjoy the starlight +evening, and M. des Rameures--whose natural hospitality was somewhat +heightened by a goblet of his own excellent wine--said to Camors: + +"My dear Count, you eat honestly, you talk admirably, you drink like a +man. On my word, I am disposed to regard you as perfection--as a paragon +of neighbors--if in addition to all the rest you add the crowning one. +Do you love music?" + +"Passionately!" answered Camors, with effusion. + +"Passionately? Bravo! That is the way one should love everything that +is worth loving. I am delighted, for we make here a troupe of fanatical +melomaniacs, as you will presently perceive. As for myself, I scrape +wildly on the violin, as a simple country amateur--'Orpheus in silvis'. +Do not imagine, however, Monsieur le Comte, that we let the worship of +this sweet art absorb all our faculties--all our time-certainly not. +When you take part in our little reunions, which of course you will do, +you will find we disdain no pursuit worthy of thinking beings. We pass +from music to literature--to science--even to philosophy; but we do this +--I pray you to believe--without pedantry and without leaving the tone of +familiar converse. Sometimes we read verses, but we never make them; we +love the ancients and do not fear the moderns: we only fear those who +would lower the mind and debase the heart. We love the past while we +render justice to the present; and flatter ourselves at not seeing many +things that to you appear beautiful, useful, and true. + +"Such are we, my young friend. We call ourselves the 'Colony of +Enthusiasts,' but our malicious neighbors call us the 'Hotel de +Rambouillet.' Envy, you know, is a plant that does not flourish in the +country; but here, by way of exception, we have a few jealous people-- +rather bad for them, but of no consequence to us. + +"We are an odd set, with the most opposite opinions. For me, I am a +Legitimist; then there is Durocher, my physician and friend, who is a +rabid Republican; Hedouin, the tutor, is a parliamentarian; while +Monsieur our sub-prefect is a devotee to the government, as it is his +duty to be. Our cure is a little Roman--I am Gallican--'et sic ceteris'. +Very well--we all agree wonderfully for two reasons: first, because we +are sincere, which is a very rare thing; and then because all opinions +contain at bottom some truth, and because, with some slight mutual +concessions, all really honest people come very near having the same +opinions. + +"Such, my dear Count, are the views that hold in my drawing-room, or +rather in the drawing-room of my niece; for if you would see the divinity +who makes all our happiness--look at her! It is in deference to her good +taste, her good sense, and her moderation, that each of us avoids that +violence and that passion which warps the best intentions. In one word, +to speak truly, it is love that makes our common tie and our mutual +protection. We are all in love with my niece--myself first, of course; +next Durocher, for thirty years; then the subprefect and all the rest of +them. + +"You, too, Cure! you know that you are in love with Elise, in all honor +and all good faith, as we all are, and as Monsieur de Camors shall soon +be, if he is not so already--eh, Monsieur le Comte?" + +Camors protested, with a sinister smile, that he felt very much inclined +to fulfil the prophecy of his host; and they reentered the dining-room to +find the circle increased by the arrival of several visitors. Some of +these rode, others came on foot from the country-seats around. + +M. des Rameures soon seized his violin; while he tuned it, little Marie +seated herself at the piano, and her mother, coming behind her, rested +her hand lightly on her shoulder, as if to beat the measure. + +"The music will be nothing new to you," Camors's host said to him. "It +is simply Schubert's Serenade, which we have arranged, or deranged, after +our own fancy; of which you shall judge. My niece sings, and the curate +and I--'Arcades ambo'--respond successively--he on the bass-viol and I on +my Stradivarius. Come, my dear Cure, let us begin--'incipe, Mopse, +prior." + +In spite of the masterly execution of the old gentleman and of the +delicate science of the cure, it was Madame de Tecle who appeared to +Camors the most remarkable of the three virtuosi. The calm repose of her +features, and the gentle dignity of her attitude, contrasting with the +passionate swell of her voice, he found most attractive. + +In his turn he seated himself at the piano, and played a difficult +accompaniment with real taste; and having a good tenor voice, and a +thorough knowledge of its powers, he exerted them so effectually as to +produce a profound sensation. During the rest of the evening he kept +much in the background in order to observe the company, and was much +astonished thereby. The tone of this little society, as much removed +from vulgar gossip as from affected pedantry, was truly elevated. There +was nothing to remind him of a porter's lodge, as in most provincial +salons; or of the greenroom of a theatre, as in many salons of Paris; nor +yet, as he had feared, of a lecture-room. + +There were five or six women--some pretty, all well bred--who, in +adopting the habit of thinking, had not lost the habit of laughing, nor +the desire to please. But they all seemed subject to the same charm; and +that charm was sovereign. Madame de Tecle, half hidden on her sofa, and +seemingly busied with her embroidery, animated all by a glance, softened +all by a word. The glance was inspiring; the word always appropriate. +Her decision on all points they regarded as final--as that of a judge who +sentences, or of a woman who is beloved. + +No verses were read that evening, and Camors was not bored. In the +intervals of the music, the conversation touched on the new comedy by +Augier; the last work of Madame Sand; the latest poem of Tennyson; or the +news from America. + +"My dear Mopsus," M. des Rameures said to the cure, "you were about to +read us your sermon on superstition last Thursday, when you were +interrupted by that joker who climbed the tree in order to hear you +better. Now is the time to recompense us. Take this seat and we will +all listen to you." + +The worthy cure took the seat, unfolded his manuscript, and began his +discourse, which we shall not here report: profiting by the example of +our friend Sterne, not to mingle the sacred with the profane. + +The sermon met with general approval, though some persons, M. des +Rameures among them, thought it above the comprehension of the humble +class for whom it was intended. M. de Tecle, however, backed by +republican Durocher, insisted that the intelligence of the people was +underrated; that they were frequently debased by those who pretended to +speak only up to their level--and the passages in dispute were retained. + +How they passed from the sermon on superstition to the approaching +marriage of the General, I can not say; but it was only natural after +all, for the whole country, for twenty miles around, was ringing with it. +This theme excited Camors's attention at once, especially when the sub- +prefect intimated with much reserve that the General, busied with his new +surroundings, would probably resign his office as deputy. + +"But that would be embarrassing," exclaimed Des Rameures. "Who the deuce +would replace him? I give you warning, Monsieur Prefect, if you intend +imposing on us some Parisian with a flower in his buttonhole, I shall +pack him back to his club--him, his flower, and his buttonhole! You may +set that down for a sure thing--" + +"Dear uncle!" said Madame de Tecle, indicating Camors with a glance. + +"I understand you, Elise," laughingly rejoined M. des Rameures, "but I +must beg Monsieur de Camors to believe that I do not in any case intend +to offend him. I shall also beg him to tolerate the monomania of an old +man, and some freedom of language with regard to the only subject which +makes him lose his sang froid." + +"And what is that subject, Monsieur?" said Camors, with his habitual +captivating grace of manner. + +"That subject, Monsieur, is the arrogant supremacy assumed by Paris over +all the rest of France. I have not put my foot in the place since 1825, +in order to testify the abhorrence with which it inspires me. You are an +educated, sensible young man, and, I trust, a good Frenchman. Very well! +Is it right, I ask, that Paris shall every morning send out to us our +ideas ready-made, and that all France shall become a mere humble, servile +faubourg to the capital? Do me the favor, I pray you, Monsieur, to +answer that?" + +"There is doubtless, my dear sir," replied Camors, "some excess in this +extreme centralization of France; but all civilized countries must have +their capitals, and a head is just as necessary to a nation as to an +individual." + +"Taking your own image, Monsieur, I shall turn it against you. Yes, +doubtless a head is as necessary to a nation as to an individual; if, +however, the head becomes monstrous and deformed, the seat of +intelligence will be turned into that of idiocy, and in place of a man of +intellect, you have a hydrocephalus. Pray give heed to what Monsieur the +Sub-prefect, may say in answer to what I shall ask him. Now, my dear +Sub-prefect, be frank. If tomorrow, the deputation of this district +should become vacant, can you find within its broad limits, or indeed +within the district, a man likely to fill all functions, good and bad?" + +"Upon my word," answered the official, "if you continue to refuse the +office, I really know of no one else fit for it." + +"I shall persist all my life, Monsieur, for at my age assuredly I shall +not expose myself to the buffoonery of your Parisian jesters." + +"Very well! In that event you will be obliged to take some stranger-- +perhaps, even one of those Parisian jesters." + +"You have heard him, Monsieur de Camors," said M. des Rameures, with +exultation. "This district numbers six hundred thousand souls, and yet +does not contain within it the material for one deputy. There is no +other civilized country, I submit, in which we can find a similar +instance so scandalous. For the people of France this shame is reserved +exclusively, and it is your Paris that has brought it upon us. Paris, +absorbing all the blood, life, thought, and action of the country, has +left a mere geographical skeleton in place of a nation! These are the +benefits of your centralization, since you have pronounced that word, +which is quite as barbarous as the thing itself." + +"But pardon me, uncle," said Madame de Tecle, quietly plying her needle, +"I know nothing of these matters, but it seems to me that I have heard +you say this centralization was the work of the Revolution and of the +First Consul. Why, therefore, do you call Monsieur de Camors to account +for it? That certainly does not seem to me just." + +"Nor does it seem so to me," said Camors, bowing to Madame de Tecle. + +"Nor to me either," rejoined M. des Rameures, smiling. + +"However, Madame," resumed Camors, "I may to some extent be held +responsible in this matter, for though, as you justly suggest, I have not +brought about this centralization, yet I confess I strongly approve the +course of those who did." + +"Bravo! So much the better, Monsieur. I like that. One should have his +own positive opinions, and defend them." + +"Monsieur," said Camors, "I shall make an exception in your honor, for +when I dine out, and especially when I dine well, I always have the same +opinion with my host; but I respect you too highly not to dare to differ +with you. Well, then, I think the revolutionary Assembly, and +subsequently the First Consul, were happily inspired in imposing a +vigorous centralized political administration upon France. I believe, +indeed, that it was indispensable at the time, in order to mold and +harden our social body in its new form, to adjust it in its position, and +fix it firmly under the new laws--that is, to establish and maintain this +powerful French unity which has become our national peculiarity, our +genius and our strength." + +"You speak rightly, sir," exclaimed Durocher. + +"Parbleu I unquestionably you are right," warmly rejoined M. des +Rameures. "Yes, that is quite true. The excessive centralization of +which I complain has had its hour of utility, nay, even of necessity, +I will admit; but, Monsieur, in what human institution do you pretend to +implant the absolute, the eternal? Feudalism, also, my dear sir, was a +benefit and a progress in its day, but that which was a benefit yesterday +may it not become an evil to-morrow--a danger? That which is progress +to-day, may it not one hundred years hence have become mere routine, and +a downright trammel? Is not that the history of the world? And if you +wish to know, Monsieur, by what sign we may recognize the fact that a +social or political system has attained its end, I will tell you: it is +when it is manifest only in its inconveniences and abuses. Then the +machine has finished its work, and should be replaced. Indeed, I declare +that French centralization has reached its critical term, that fatal +point at which, after protecting, it oppresses; at which, after +vivifying, it paralyzes; at which, having saved France, it crushes her." + +"Dear uncle, you are carried away by your subject," said Madame de Tecle. + +"Yes, Elise, I am carried away, I admit, but I am right. Everything +justifies me--the past and the present, I am sure; and so will the +future, I fear. Did I say the past? Be assured, Monsieur de Camors, +I am not a narrow-minded admirer of the past. Though a Legitimist from +personal affections, I am a downright Liberal in principles. You know +that, Durocher? Well, then, in short, formerly between the Alps, the +Rhine, and the Pyrenees, was a great country which lived, thought, and +acted, not exclusively through its capital, but for itself. It had a +head, assuredly; but it had also a heart, muscles, nerves, and veins with +blood in them, and yet the head lost nothing by that. There was then a +France, Monsieur. The province had an existence, subordinate doubtless, +but real, active, and independent. Each government, each office, each +parliamentary centre was a living intellectual focus. The great +provincial institutions and local liberties exercised the intellect on +all sides, tempered the character, and developed men. And now note well, +Durocher! If France had been centralized formerly as to-day, your dear +Revolution never would have occurred--do you understand? Never! because +there would have been no men to make it. For may I not ask, whence came +that prodigious concourse of intelligences all fully armed, and with +heroic hearts, which the great social movement of '78 suddenly brought +upon the scene? Please recall to mind the most illustrious men of that +era--lawyers, orators, soldiers. How many were from Paris? All came +from the provinces, the fruitful womb of France! But to-day we have +simply need of a deputy, peaceful times; and yet, out of six hundred +thousand souls, as we have seen, we can not find one suitable man. Why +is this the case, gentlemen? Because upon the soil of uncentralized +France men grew, while only functionaries germinate in the soil of +centralized France." + +"God bless you, Monsieur!" said the Sub-prefect, with a smile. + +"Pardon me, my dear Sub-prefect, but you, too, should understand that I +really plead your cause as well as my own, when I claim for the +provinces, and for all the functions of provincial life, more +independence, dignity, and grandeur. In the state to which these +functions are reduced at present, the administration and the judiciary +are equally stripped of power, prestige, and patronage. You smile, +Monsieur, but no longer, as formerly, are they the centres of life, of +emulation, and of light, civic schools and manly gymnasiums; they have +become merely simple, passive clockwork; and that is the case with the +rest, Monsieur de Camors. Our municipal institutions are a mere farce, +our provincial assemblies only a name, our local liberties naught! +Consequently, we have not now a man for a deputy. But why should we +complain? Does not Paris undertake to live, to think for us? Does she +not deign to cast to us, as of yore the Roman Senate cast to the suburban +plebeians, our food for the day-bread and vaudevilles--'panem et +circenses'. Yes, Monsieur, let us turn from the past to the present-- +to France of to-day! A nation of forty millions of people who await each +morning from Paris the signal to know whether it is day or night, or +whether, indeed, they shall laugh or weep! A great people, once the +noblest, the cleverest in the world, repeating the same day, at the same +hour, in all the salons, and at all the crossways in the empire, the same +imbecile gabble engendered the evening before in the mire of the +boulevards. I tell you? Monsieur, it is humiliating that all Europe, +once jealous of us, should now shrug her shoulders in our faces.-- +Besides, it is fatal even for Paris, which, permit me to add, drunk with +prosperity in its haughty isolation and self-fetishism, not a little +resembles the Chinese Empire-a focus of warmed-over, corrupt, and +frivolous civilization! As for the future, my dear sir, may God preserve +me from despair, since it concerns my country! This age has already seen +great things, great marvels, in fact; for I beg you to remember I am by +no means an enemy to my time. I approve the Revolution, liberty, +equality, the press, railways, and the telegraph; and as I often say to +Monsieur le Cure, every cause that would live must accommodate itself +cheerfully to the progress of its epoch, and study how to serve itself +by it. Every cause that is in antagonism with its age commits suicide. +Indeed, Monsieur, I trust this century will see one more great event, +the end of this Parisian tyranny, and the resuscitation of provincial +life; for I must repeat, my dear sir, that your centralization, which was +once an excellent remedy, is a detestable regimen! It is a horrible +instrument of oppression and tyranny, ready-made for all hands, suitable +for every despotism, and under it France stifles and wastes away. You +must agree with me yourself, Durocher; in this sense the Revolution +overshot its mark, and placed in jeopardy even its purposes; for you, who +love liberty, and do not wish it merely for yourself alone, as some of +your friends do, but for all the world, surely you can not admire +centralization, which proscribes liberty as manifestly as night obscures +the day. As for my part, gentlemen, there are two things which I love +equally--liberty and France. Well, then, as I believe in God, do I +believe that both must perish in the throes of some convulsive +catastrophe if all the life of the nation shall continue to be +concentrated in the brain, and the great reform for which I call is not +made: if a vast system of local franchise, if provincial institutions, +largely independent and conformable to the modern spirit, are not soon +established to yield fresh blood for our exhausted veins, and to +fertilize our impoverished soil. Undoubtedly the work will be difficult +and complicated; it will demand a firm resolute hand, but the hand that +may accomplish it will have achieved the most patriotic work of the +century. Tell that to your sovereign, Monsieur Sub-prefect; say to him +that if he do that, there is one old French heart that will bless him. +Tell him, also, that he will encounter much passion, much derision, much +danger, peradventure; but that he will have a commensurate recompense +when he shall see France, like Lazarus, delivered from its swathings and +its shroud, rise again, sound and whole, to salute him!" + +These last words the old gentleman had pronounced with fire, emotion, and +extraordinary dignity; and the silence and respect with which he had been +listened to were prolonged after he had ceased to speak. This appeared +to embarrass him, but taking the arm of Camors he said, with a smile, +"'Semel insanivimus omnes.' My dear sir, every one has his madness. I +trust that mine has not offended you. Well, then, prove it to me by +accompanying me on the piano in this song of the sixteenth century." + +Camors complied with his usual good taste; and the song of the sixteenth +century terminated the evening's entertainment; but the young Count, +before leaving, found the means of causing Madame de Tecle the most +profound astonishment. He asked her, in a low voice, and with peculiar +emphasis, whether she would be kind enough, at her leisure, to grant him +the honor of a moment's private conversation. + +Madame de Tecle opened still wider those large eyes of hers, blushed +slightly, and replied that she would be at home the next afternoon at +four o'clock. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Bad to fear the opinion of people one despises +Camors refused, hesitated, made objections, and consented +Confounding progress with discord, liberty with license +Contempt for men is the beginning of wisdom +Cried out, with the blunt candor of his age +Dangers of liberty outweighed its benefits +Demanded of him imperatively--the time of day +Do not get angry. Rarely laugh, and never weep +Every cause that is in antagonism with its age commits suicide +Every one is the best judge of his own affairs +Every road leads to Rome--and one as surely as another +God--or no principles! +He is charming, for one always feels in danger near him +Intemperance of her zeal and the acrimony of her bigotry +Man, if he will it, need not grow old: the lion must +Never can make revolutions with gloves on +Once an excellent remedy, is a detestable regimen +Pleasures of an independent code of morals +Police regulations known as religion +Principles alone, without faith in some higher sanction +Property of all who are strong enough to stand it +Semel insanivimus omnes.' (every one has his madness) +Slip forth from the common herd, my son, think for yourself +Suspicion that he is a feeble human creature after all! +There will be no more belief in Christ than in Jupiter +Ties that become duties where we only sought pleasures +Truth is easily found. I shall read all the newspapers +Whether in this world one must be a fanatic or nothing +Whole world of politics and religion rushed to extremes +With the habit of thinking, had not lost the habit of laughing +You can not make an omelette without first breaking the eggs + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Monsieur de Camors, v1 +by Octave Feuillet + diff --git a/3943.zip b/3943.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f1114ef --- /dev/null +++ b/3943.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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