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@@ -0,0 +1,5966 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Duchesse de Langeais, by Honore de Balzac + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Duchesse de Langeais + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Ellen Marriage + +Release Date: March, 1996 [Etext #469] +Posting Date: February 20, 2010 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DUCHESSE DE LANGEAIS *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + + + + + +THE DUCHESSE OF LANGEAIS + + +By Honore De Balzac + + +Translated by Ellen Marriage + + + +Preparer's Note: + + The Duchesse of Langeais is the second part of a trilogy. Part + one is entitled Ferragus and part three is The Girl with the + Golden Eyes. The three stories are frequently combined under the + title The Thirteen. + + + To Franz Liszt + + + + + +THE DUCHESSE OF LANGEAIS + +In a Spanish city on an island in the Mediterranean, there stands a +convent of the Order of Barefoot Carmelites, where the rule instituted +by St. Theresa is still preserved with all the first rigor of the +reformation brought about by that illustrious woman. Extraordinary as +this may seem, it is none the less true. Almost every religious house +in the Peninsula, or in Europe for that matter, was either destroyed or +disorganized by the outbreak of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic +wars; but as this island was protected through those times by the +English fleet, its wealthy convent and peaceable inhabitants were secure +from the general trouble and spoliation. The storms of many kinds which +shook the first fifteen years of the nineteenth century spent their +force before they reached those cliffs at so short a distance from the +coast of Andalusia. + +If the rumour of the Emperor's name so much as reached the shore of the +island, it is doubtful whether the holy women kneeling in the cloisters +grasped the reality of his dream-like progress of glory, or the majesty +that blazed in flame across kingdom after kingdom during his meteor +life. + +In the minds of the Roman Catholic world, the convent stood out +pre-eminent for a stern discipline which nothing had changed; the purity +of its rule had attracted unhappy women from the furthest parts of +Europe, women deprived of all human ties, sighing after the long suicide +accomplished in the breast of God. No convent, indeed, was so well +fitted for that complete detachment of the soul from all earthly things, +which is demanded by the religious life, albeit on the continent of +Europe there are many convents magnificently adapted to the purpose +of their existence. Buried away in the loneliest valleys, hanging +in mid-air on the steepest mountainsides, set down on the brink +of precipices, in every place man has sought for the poetry of the +Infinite, the solemn awe of Silence; in every place man has striven to +draw closer to God, seeking Him on mountain peaks, in the depths below +the crags, at the cliff's edge; and everywhere man has found God. But +nowhere, save on this half-European, half-African ledge of rock could +you find so many different harmonies, combining so to raise the soul, +that the sharpest pain comes to be like other memories; the strongest +impressions are dulled, till the sorrows of life are laid to rest in the +depths. + +The convent stands on the highest point of the crags at the uttermost +end of the island. On the side towards the sea the rock was once rent +sheer away in some globe-cataclysm; it rises up a straight wall from +the base where the waves gnaw at the stone below high-water mark. Any +assault is made impossible by the dangerous reefs that stretch far out +to sea, with the sparkling waves of the Mediterranean playing over them. +So, only from the sea can you discern the square mass of the convent +built conformably to the minute rules laid down as to the shape, height, +doors, and windows of monastic buildings. From the side of the town, the +church completely hides the solid structure of the cloisters and their +roofs, covered with broad slabs of stone impervious to sun or storm or +gales of wind. + +The church itself, built by the munificence of a Spanish family, is the +crowning edifice of the town. Its fine, bold front gives an imposing +and picturesque look to the little city in the sea. The sight of such +a city, with its close-huddled roofs, arranged for the most part +amphitheatre-wise above a picturesque harbour, and crowned by a glorious +cathedral front with triple-arched Gothic doorways, belfry towers, and +filigree spires, is a spectacle surely in every way the sublimest on +earth. Religion towering above daily life, to put men continually +in mind of the End and the way, is in truth a thoroughly Spanish +conception. But now surround this picture by the Mediterranean, and a +burning sky, imagine a few palms here and there, a few stunted evergreen +trees mingling their waving leaves with the motionless flowers and +foliage of carved stone; look out over the reef with its white fringes +of foam in contrast to the sapphire sea; and then turn to the city, with +its galleries and terraces whither the townsfolk come to take the air +among their flowers of an evening, above the houses and the tops of the +trees in their little gardens; add a few sails down in the harbour; and +lastly, in the stillness of falling night, listen to the organ music, +the chanting of the services, the wonderful sound of bells pealing out +over the open sea. There is sound and silence everywhere; oftener still +there is silence over all. + +The church is divided within into a sombre mysterious nave and narrow +aisles. For some reason, probably because the winds are so high, the +architect was unable to build the flying buttresses and intervening +chapels which adorn almost all cathedrals, nor are there openings of any +kind in the walls which support the weight of the roof. Outside there +is simply the heavy wall structure, a solid mass of grey stone further +strengthened by huge piers placed at intervals. Inside, the nave and its +little side galleries are lighted entirely by the great stained-glass +rose-window suspended by a miracle of art above the centre doorway; for +upon that side the exposure permits of the display of lacework in stone +and of other beauties peculiar to the style improperly called Gothic. + +The larger part of the nave and aisles was left for the townsfolk, who +came and went and heard mass there. The choir was shut off from the +rest of the church by a grating and thick folds of brown curtain, left +slightly apart in the middle in such a way that nothing of the choir +could be seen from the church except the high altar and the officiating +priest. The grating itself was divided up by the pillars which supported +the organ loft; and this part of the structure, with its carved wooden +columns, completed the line of the arcading in the gallery carried by +the shafts in the nave. If any inquisitive person, therefore, had been +bold enough to climb upon the narrow balustrade in the gallery to look +down into the choir, he could have seen nothing but the tall eight-sided +windows of stained glass beyond the high altar. + +At the time of the French expedition into Spain to establish Ferdinand +VII once more on the throne, a French general came to the island after +the taking of Cadiz, ostensibly to require the recognition of the King's +Government, really to see the convent and to find some means of +entering it. The undertaking was certainly a delicate one; but a man of +passionate temper, whose life had been, as it were, but one series of +poems in action, a man who all his life long had lived romances instead +of writing them, a man pre-eminently a Doer, was sure to be tempted by a +deed which seemed to be impossible. + +To open the doors of a convent of nuns by lawful means! The metropolitan +or the Pope would scarcely have permitted it! And as for force or +stratagem--might not any indiscretion cost him his position, his whole +career as a soldier, and the end in view to boot? The Duc d'Angouleme +was still in Spain; and of all the crimes which a man in favour with the +Commander-in-Chief might commit, this one alone was certain to find him +inexorable. The General had asked for the mission to gratify private +motives of curiosity, though never was curiosity more hopeless. This +final attempt was a matter of conscience. The Carmelite convent on the +island was the only nunnery in Spain which had baffled his search. + +As he crossed from the mainland, scarcely an hour's distance, he felt a +presentiment that his hopes were to be fulfilled; and afterwards, when +as yet he had seen nothing of the convent but its walls, and of the nuns +not so much as their robes; while he had merely heard the chanting of +the service, there were dim auguries under the walls and in the sound of +the voices to justify his frail hope. And, indeed, however faint those +so unaccountable presentiments might be, never was human passion more +vehemently excited than the General's curiosity at that moment. There +are no small events for the heart; the heart exaggerates everything; the +heart weighs the fall of a fourteen-year-old Empire and the dropping of +a woman's glove in the same scales, and the glove is nearly always +the heavier of the two. So here are the facts in all their prosaic +simplicity. The facts first, the emotions will follow. + +An hour after the General landed on the island, the royal authority was +re-established there. Some few Constitutional Spaniards who had found +their way thither after the fall of Cadiz were allowed to charter +a vessel and sail for London. So there was neither resistance nor +reaction. But the change of government could not be effected in the +little town without a mass, at which the two divisions under the +General's command were obliged to be present. Now, it was upon this mass +that the General had built his hopes of gaining some information as +to the sisters in the convent; he was quite unaware how absolutely the +Carmelites were cut off from the world; but he knew that there might be +among them one whom he held dearer than life, dearer than honour. + +His hopes were cruelly dashed at once. Mass, it is true, was celebrated +in state. In honour of such a solemnity, the curtains which always hid +the choir were drawn back to display its riches, its valuable paintings +and shrines so bright with gems that they eclipsed the glories of +the ex-votos of gold and silver hung up by sailors of the port on +the columns in the nave. But all the nuns had taken refuge in the +organ-loft. And yet, in spite of this first check, during this very mass +of thanksgiving, the most intimately thrilling drama that ever set a +man's heart beating opened out widely before him. + +The sister who played the organ aroused such intense enthusiasm, that +not a single man regretted that he had come to the service. Even the men +in the ranks were delighted, and the officers were in ecstasy. As for +the General, he was seemingly calm and indifferent. The sensations +stirred in him as the sister played one piece after another belong to +the small number of things which it is not lawful to utter; words are +powerless to express them; like death, God, eternity, they can only be +realised through their one point of contact with humanity. Strangely +enough, the organ music seemed to belong to the school of Rossini, the +musician who brings most human passion into his art. + +Some day his works, by their number and extent, will receive the +reverence due to the Homer of music. From among all the scores that we +owe to his great genius, the nun seemed to have chosen _Moses in Egypt_ +for special study, doubtless because the spirit of sacred music finds +therein its supreme expression. Perhaps the soul of the great musician, +so gloriously known to Europe, and the soul of this unknown executant +had met in the intuitive apprehension of the same poetry. So at least +thought two dilettanti officers who must have missed the Theatre Favart +in Spain. + +At last in the _Te Deum_ no one could fail to discern a French soul in +the sudden change that came over the music. Joy for the victory of the +Most Christian King evidently stirred this nun's heart to the depths. +She was a Frenchwoman beyond mistake. Soon the love of country shone +out, breaking forth like shafts of light from the fugue, as the sister +introduced variations with all a Parisienne's fastidious taste, and +blended vague suggestions of our grandest national airs with her music. +A Spaniard's fingers would not have brought this warmth into a +graceful tribute paid to the victorious arms of France. The musician's +nationality was revealed. + +"We find France everywhere, it seems," said one of the men. + +The General had left the church during the _Te Deum_; he could not +listen any longer. The nun's music had been a revelation of a woman +loved to frenzy; a woman so carefully hidden from the world's eyes, +so deeply buried in the bosom of the Church, that hitherto the most +ingenious and persistent efforts made by men who brought great influence +and unusual powers to bear upon the search had failed to find her. The +suspicion aroused in the General's heart became all but a certainty with +the vague reminiscence of a sad, delicious melody, the air of _Fleuve +du Tage_. The woman he loved had played the prelude to the ballad in +a boudoir in Paris, how often! and now this nun had chosen the song +to express an exile's longing, amid the joy of those that triumphed. +Terrible sensation! To hope for the resurrection of a lost love, to find +her only to know that she was lost, to catch a mysterious glimpse of her +after five years--five years, in which the pent-up passion, chafing +in an empty life, had grown the mightier for every fruitless effort to +satisfy it! + +Who has not known, at least once in his life, what it is to lose some +precious thing; and after hunting through his papers, ransacking his +memory, and turning his house upside down; after one or two days spent +in vain search, and hope, and despair; after a prodigious expenditure +of the liveliest irritation of soul, who has not known the ineffable +pleasure of finding that all-important nothing which had come to be a +king of monomania? Very good. Now, spread that fury of search over five +years; put a woman, put a heart, put love in the place of the trifle; +transpose the monomania into the key of high passion; and, furthermore, +let the seeker be a man of ardent temper, with a lion's heart and a +leonine head and mane, a man to inspire awe and fear in those who come +in contact with him--realise this, and you may, perhaps, understand why +the General walked abruptly out of the church when the first notes of +a ballad, which he used to hear with a rapture of delight in a +gilt-paneled boudoir, began to vibrate along the aisles of the church in +the sea. + +The General walked away down the steep street which led to the port, and +only stopped when he could not hear the deep notes of the organ. Unable +to think of anything but the love which broke out in volcanic eruption, +filling his heart with fire, he only knew that the _Te Deum_ was over +when the Spanish congregation came pouring out of the church. Feeling +that his behaviour and attitude might seem ridiculous, he went back to +head the procession, telling the alcalde and the governor that, feeling +suddenly faint, he had gone out into the air. Casting about for a plea +for prolonging his stay, it at once occurred to him to make the most of +this excuse, framed on the spur of the moment. He declined, on a plea of +increasing indisposition, to preside at the banquet given by the town +to the French officers, betook himself to his bed, and sent a message to +the Major-General, to the effect that temporary illness obliged him +to leave the Colonel in command of the troops for the time being. +This commonplace but very plausible stratagem relieved him of all +responsibility for the time necessary to carry out his plans. The +General, nothing if not "catholic and monarchical," took occasion to +inform himself of the hours of the services, and manifested the greatest +zeal for the performance of his religious duties, piety which caused no +remark in Spain. + +The very next day, while the division was marching out of the town, the +General went to the convent to be present at vespers. He found an empty +church. The townsfolk, devout though they were, had all gone down to the +quay to watch the embarkation of the troops. He felt glad to be the only +man there. He tramped noisily up the nave, clanking his spurs till the +vaulted roof rang with the sound; he coughed, he talked aloud to himself +to let the nuns know, and more particularly to let the organist know +that if the troops were gone, one Frenchman was left behind. Was this +singular warning heard and understood? He thought so. It seemed to him +that in the _Magnificat_ the organ made response which was borne to him +on the vibrating air. The nun's spirit found wings in music and fled +towards him, throbbing with the rhythmical pulse of the sounds. Then, in +all its might, the music burst forth and filled the church with warmth. +The Song of Joy set apart in the sublime liturgy of Latin Christianity +to express the exaltation of the soul in the presence of the glory of +the ever-living God, became the utterance of a heart almost terrified by +its gladness in the presence of the glory of a mortal love; a love that +yet lived, a love that had risen to trouble her even beyond the grave in +which the nun is laid, that she may rise again as the bride of Christ. + +The organ is in truth the grandest, the most daring, the most +magnificent of all instruments invented by human genius. It is a whole +orchestra in itself. It can express anything in response to a skilled +touch. Surely it is in some sort a pedestal on which the soul poises for +a flight forth into space, essaying on her course to draw picture after +picture in an endless series, to paint human life, to cross the Infinite +that separates heaven from earth? And the longer a dreamer listens to +those giant harmonies, the better he realizes that nothing save this +hundred-voiced choir on earth can fill all the space between kneeling +men, and a God hidden by the blinding light of the Sanctuary. The music +is the one interpreter strong enough to bear up the prayers of humanity +to heaven, prayer in its omnipotent moods, prayer tinged by the +melancholy of many different natures, coloured by meditative ecstasy, +upspringing with the impulse of repentance--blended with the myriad +fancies of every creed. Yes. In those long vaulted aisles the melodies +inspired by the sense of things divine are blended with a grandeur +unknown before, are decked with new glory and might. Out of the dim +daylight, and the deep silence broken by the chanting of the choir in +response to the thunder of the organ, a veil is woven for God, and the +brightness of His attributes shines through it. + +And this wealth of holy things seemed to be flung down like a grain of +incense upon the fragile altar raised to Love beneath the eternal throne +of a jealous and avenging God. Indeed, in the joy of the nun there +was little of that awe and gravity which should harmonize with the +solemnities of the _Magnificat_. She had enriched the music with +graceful variations, earthly gladness throbbing through the rhythm of +each. In such brilliant quivering notes some great singer might strive +to find a voice for her love, her melodies fluttered as a bird flutters +about her mate. There were moments when she seemed to leap back into +the past, to dally there now with laughter, now with tears. Her changing +moods, as it were, ran riot. She was like a woman excited and happy over +her lover's return. + +But at length, after the swaying fugues of delirium, after the +marvellous rendering of a vision of the past, a revulsion swept over the +soul that thus found utterance for itself. With a swift transition from +the major to the minor, the organist told her hearer of her present lot. +She gave the story of long melancholy broodings, of the slow course +of her moral malady. How day by day she deadened the senses, how every +night cut off one more thought, how her heart was slowly reduced +to ashes. The sadness deepened shade after shade through languid +modulations, and in a little while the echoes were pouring out a torrent +of grief. Then on a sudden, high notes rang out like the voices of +angels singing together, as if to tell the lost but not forgotten lover +that their spirits now could only meet in heaven. Pathetic hope! Then +followed the _Amen_. No more joy, no more tears in the air, no sadness, +no regrets. The _Amen_ was the return to God. The final chord was deep, +solemn, even terrible; for the last rumblings of the bass sent a shiver +through the audience that raised the hair on their heads; the nun shook +out her veiling of crepe, and seemed to sink again into the grave from +which she had risen for a moment. Slowly the reverberations died away; +it seemed as if the church, but now so full of light, had returned to +thick darkness. + +The General had been caught up and borne swiftly away by this +strong-winged spirit; he had followed the course of its flight from +beginning to end. He understood to the fullest extent the imagery of +that burning symphony; for him the chords reached deep and far. For +him, as for the sister, the poem meant future, present, and past. Is +not music, and even opera music, a sort of text, which a susceptible +or poetic temper, or a sore and stricken heart, may expand as memories +shall determine? If a musician must needs have the heart of a poet, must +not the listener too be in a manner a poet and a lover to hear all that +lies in great music? Religion, love, and music--what are they but a +threefold expression of the same fact, of that craving for expansion +which stirs in every noble soul. And these three forms of poetry ascend +to God, in whom all passion on earth finds its end. Wherefore the holy +human trinity finds a place amid the infinite glories of God; of God, +whom we always represent surrounded with the fires of love and seistrons +of gold--music and light and harmony. Is not He the Cause and the End of +all our strivings? + +The French General guessed rightly that here in the desert, on this bare +rock in the sea, the nun had seized upon music as an outpouring of the +passion that still consumed her. Was this her manner of offering up her +love as a sacrifice to God? Or was it Love exultant in triumph over God? +The questions were hard to answer. But one thing at least the General +could not mistake--in this heart, dead to the world, the fire of passion +burned as fiercely as in his own. + +Vespers over, he went back to the alcalde with whom he was staying. +In the all-absorbing joy which comes in such full measure when a +satisfaction sought long and painfully is attained at last, he could see +nothing beyond this--he was still loved! In her heart love had grown +in loneliness, even as his love had grown stronger as he surmounted one +barrier after another which this woman had set between them! The glow of +soul came to its natural end. There followed a longing to see her again, +to contend with God for her, to snatch her away--a rash scheme, which +appealed to a daring nature. He went to bed, when the meal was over, to +avoid questions; to be alone and think at his ease; and he lay absorbed +by deep thought till day broke. + +He rose only to go to mass. He went to the church and knelt close to +the screen, with his forehead touching the curtain; he would have torn +a hole in it if he had been alone, but his host had come with him out of +politeness, and the least imprudence might compromise the whole future +of his love, and ruin the new hopes. + +The organ sounded, but it was another player, and not the nun of the +last two days whose hands touched the keys. It was all colorless and +cold for the General. Was the woman he loved prostrated by emotion which +well-nigh overcame a strong man's heart? Had she so fully realised and +shared an unchanged, longed-for love, that now she lay dying on her bed +in her cell? While innumerable thoughts of this kind perplexed his mind, +the voice of the woman he worshipped rang out close beside him; he knew +its clear resonant soprano. It was her voice, with that faint tremor in +it which gave it all the charm that shyness and diffidence gives to a +young girl; her voice, distinct from the mass of singing as a _prima +donna's_ in the chorus of a finale. It was like a golden or silver +thread in dark frieze. + +It was she! There could be no mistake. Parisienne now as ever, she had +not laid coquetry aside when she threw off worldly adornments for the +veil and the Carmelite's coarse serge. She who had affirmed her love +last evening in the praise sent up to God, seemed now to say to her +lover, "Yes, it is I. I am here. My love is unchanged, but I am beyond +the reach of love. You will hear my voice, my soul shall enfold you, +and I shall abide here under the brown shroud in the choir from which no +power on earth can tear me. You shall never see me more!" + +"It is she indeed!" the General said to himself, raising his head. He +had leant his face on his hands, unable at first to bear the intolerable +emotion that surged like a whirlpool in his heart, when that well-known +voice vibrated under the arcading, with the sound of the sea for +accompaniment. + +Storm was without, and calm within the sanctuary. Still that rich voice +poured out all its caressing notes; it fell like balm on the lover's +burning heart; it blossomed upon the air--the air that a man would fain +breathe more deeply to receive the effluence of a soul breathed forth +with love in the words of the prayer. The alcalde coming to join +his guest found him in tears during the elevation, while the nun was +singing, and brought him back to his house. Surprised to find so much +piety in a French military man, the worthy magistrate invited the +confessor of the convent to meet his guest. Never had news given the +General more pleasure; he paid the ecclesiastic a good deal of attention +at supper, and confirmed his Spanish hosts in the high opinion they had +formed of his piety by a not wholly disinterested respect. + +He inquired with gravity how many sisters there were in the convent, and +asked for particulars of its endowment and revenues, as if from +courtesy he wished to hear the good priest discourse on the subject most +interesting to him. He informed himself as to the manner of life led by +the holy women. Were they allowed to go out of the convent, or to see +visitors? + +"Senor," replied the venerable churchman, "the rule is strict. A woman +cannot enter a monastery of the order of St. Bruno without a special +permission from His Holiness, and the rule here is equally stringent. +No man may enter a convent of Barefoot Carmelites unless he is a priest +specially attached to the services of the house by the Archbishop. None +of the nuns may leave the convent; though the great Saint, St. Theresa, +often left her cell. The Visitor or the Mothers Superior can alone give +permission, subject to an authorization from the Archbishop, for a nun +to see a visitor, and then especially in a case of illness. Now we are +one of the principal houses, and consequently we have a Mother Superior +here. Among other foreign sisters there is one Frenchwoman, Sister +Theresa; she it is who directs the music in the chapel." + +"Oh!" said the General, with feigned surprise. "She must have rejoiced +over the victory of the House of Bourbon." + +"I told them the reason of the mass; they are always a little bit +inquisitive." + +"But Sister Theresa may have interests in France. Perhaps she would like +to send some message or to hear news." + +"I do not think so. She would have come to ask me." + +"As a fellow-countryman, I should be quite curious to see her," said the +General. "If it is possible, if the Lady Superior consents, if----" + +"Even at the grating and in the Reverend Mother's presence, an interview +would be quite impossible for anybody whatsoever; but, strict as the +Mother is, for a deliverer of our holy religion and the throne of his +Catholic Majesty, the rule might be relaxed for a moment," said the +confessor, blinking. "I will speak about it." + +"How old is Sister Theresa?" inquired the lover. He dared not ask any +questions of the priest as to the nun's beauty. + +"She does not reckon years now," the good man answered, with a +simplicity that made the General shudder. + +Next day before siesta, the confessor came to inform the French General +that Sister Theresa and the Mother consented to receive him at the +grating in the parlour before vespers. The General spent the siesta in +pacing to and fro along the quay in the noonday heat. Thither the priest +came to find him, and brought him to the convent by way of the gallery +round the cemetery. Fountains, green trees, and rows of arcading +maintained a cool freshness in keeping with the place. + +At the further end of the long gallery the priest led the way into a +large room divided in two by a grating covered with a brown curtain. In +the first, and in some sort of public half of the apartment, where the +confessor left the newcomer, a wooden bench ran round the wall, and two +or three chairs, also of wood, were placed near the grating. The ceiling +consisted of bare unornamented joists and cross-beams of ilex wood. As +the two windows were both on the inner side of the grating, and the dark +surface of the wood was a bad reflector, the light in the place was so +dim that you could scarcely see the great black crucifix, the portrait +of Saint Theresa, and a picture of the Madonna which adorned the grey +parlour walls. Tumultuous as the General's feelings were, they took +something of the melancholy of the place. He grew calm in that homely +quiet. A sense of something vast as the tomb took possession of him +beneath the chill unceiled roof. Here, as in the grave, was there not +eternal silence, deep peace--the sense of the Infinite? And besides this +there was the quiet and the fixed thought of the cloister--a thought +which you felt like a subtle presence in the air, and in the dim dusk +of the room; an all-pervasive thought nowhere definitely expressed, and +looming the larger in the imagination; for in the cloister the great +saying, "Peace in the Lord," enters the least religious soul as a living +force. + +The monk's life is scarcely comprehensible. A man seems confessed a +weakling in a monastery; he was born to act, to live out a life of work; +he is evading a man's destiny in his cell. But what man's strength, +blended with pathetic weakness, is implied by a woman's choice of the +convent life! A man may have any number of motives for burying himself +in a monastery; for him it is the leap over the precipice. A woman +has but one motive--she is a woman still; she betrothes herself to a +Heavenly Bridegroom. Of the monk you may ask, "Why did you not fight +your battle?" But if a woman immures herself in the cloister, is there +not always a sublime battle fought first? + +At length it seemed to the General that that still room, and the lonely +convent in the sea, were full of thoughts of him. Love seldom attains +to solemnity; yet surely a love still faithful in the breast of God was +something solemn, something more than a man had a right to look for +as things are in this nineteenth century? The infinite grandeur of the +situation might well produce an effect upon the General's mind; he had +precisely enough elevation of soul to forget politics, honours, Spain, +and society in Paris, and to rise to the height of this lofty climax. +And what in truth could be more tragic? How much must pass in the souls +of these two lovers, brought together in a place of strangers, on +a ledge of granite in the sea; yet held apart by an intangible, +unsurmountable barrier! Try to imagine the man saying within himself, +"Shall I triumph over God in her heart?" when a faint rustling sound +made him quiver, and the curtain was drawn aside. + +Between him and the light stood a woman. Her face was hidden by the veil +that drooped from the folds upon her head; she was dressed according +to the rule of the order in a gown of the colour become proverbial. Her +bare feet were hidden; if the General could have seen them, he would +have known how appallingly thin she had grown; and yet in spite of the +thick folds of her coarse gown, a mere covering and no ornament, he +could guess how tears, and prayer, and passion, and loneliness had +wasted the woman before him. + +An ice-cold hand, belonging, no doubt, to the Mother Superior, held back +the curtain. The General gave the enforced witness of their interview a +searching glance, and met the dark, inscrutable gaze of an aged recluse. +The Mother might have been a century old, but the bright, youthful eyes +belied the wrinkles that furrowed her pale face. + +"Mme la Duchesse," he began, his voice shaken with emotion, "does your +companion understand French?" The veiled figure bowed her head at the +sound of his voice. + +"There is no duchess here," she replied. "It is Sister Theresa whom you +see before you. She whom you call my companion is my mother in God, my +superior here on earth." + +The words were so meekly spoken by the voice that sounded in other years +amid harmonious surroundings of refined luxury, the voice of a queen of +fashion in Paris. Such words from the lips that once spoke so lightly +and flippantly struck the General dumb with amazement. + +"The Holy Mother only speaks Latin and Spanish," she added. + +"I understand neither. Dear Antoinette, make my excuses to her." + +The light fell full upon the nun's figure; a thrill of deep emotion +betrayed itself in a faint quiver of her veil as she heard her name +softly spoken by the man who had been so hard in the past. + +"My brother," she said, drawing her sleeve under her veil, perhaps to +brush tears away, "I am Sister Theresa." + +Then, turning to the Superior, she spoke in Spanish; the General knew +enough of the language to understand what she said perfectly well; +possibly he could have spoken it had he chosen to do so. + +"Dear Mother, the gentleman presents his respects to you, and begs you +to pardon him if he cannot pay them himself, but he knows neither of the +languages which you speak----" + +The aged nun bent her head slowly, with an expression of angelic +sweetness, enhanced at the same time by the consciousness of her power +and dignity. + +"Do you know this gentleman?" she asked, with a keen glance. + +"Yes, Mother." + +"Go back to your cell, my daughter!" said the Mother imperiously. + +The General slipped aside behind the curtain lest the dreadful tumult +within him should appear in his face; even in the shadow it seemed to +him that he could still see the Superior's piercing eyes. He was afraid +of her; she held his little, frail, hardly-won happiness in her hands; +and he, who had never quailed under a triple row of guns, now trembled +before this nun. The Duchess went towards the door, but she turned back. + +"Mother," she said, with dreadful calmness, "the Frenchman is one of my +brothers." + +"Then stay, my daughter," said the Superior, after a pause. + +The piece of admirable Jesuitry told of such love and regret, that a man +less strongly constituted might have broken down under the keen delight +in the midst of a great and, for him, an entirely novel peril. Oh! how +precious words, looks, and gestures became when love must baffle lynx +eyes and tiger's claws! Sister Theresa came back. + +"You see, my brother, what I have dared to do only to speak to you for +a moment of your salvation and of the prayers that my soul puts up for +your soul daily. I am committing mortal sin. I have told a lie. How many +days of penance must expiate that lie! But I shall endure it for your +sake. My brother, you do not know what happiness it is to love in +heaven; to feel that you can confess love purified by religion, love +transported into the highest heights of all, so that we are permitted +to lose sight of all but the soul. If the doctrine and the spirit of +the Saint to whom we owe this refuge had not raised me above earth's +anguish, and caught me up and set me, far indeed beneath the Sphere +wherein she dwells, yet truly above this world, I should not have +seen you again. But now I can see you, and hear your voice, and remain +calm----" + +The General broke in, "But, Antoinette, let me see you, you whom I love +passionately, desperately, as you could have wished me to love you." + +"Do not call me Antoinette, I implore you. Memories of the past hurt me. +You must see no one here but Sister Theresa, a creature who trusts in +the Divine mercy." She paused for a little, and then added, "You must +control yourself, my brother. Our Mother would separate us without pity +if there is any worldly passion in your face, or if you allow the tears +to fall from your eyes." + +The General bowed his head to regain self-control; when he looked up +again he saw her face beyond the grating--the thin, white, but still +impassioned face of the nun. All the magic charm of youth that once +bloomed there, all the fair contrast of velvet whiteness and the colour +of the Bengal rose, had given place to a burning glow, as of a porcelain +jar with a faint light shining through it. The wonderful hair in which +she took such pride had been shaven; there was a bandage round her +forehead and about her face. An ascetic life had left dark traces about +the eyes, which still sometimes shot out fevered glances; their ordinary +calm expression was but a veil. In a few words, she was but the ghost of +her former self. + +"Ah! you that have come to be my life, you must come out of this tomb! +You were mine; you had no right to give yourself, even to God. Did you +not promise me to give up all at the least command from me? You may +perhaps think me worthy of that promise now when you hear what I have +done for you. I have sought you all through the world. You have been in +my thoughts at every moment for five years; my life has been given to +you. My friends, very powerful friends, as you know, have helped with +all their might to search every convent in France, Italy, Spain, Sicily, +and America. Love burned more brightly for every vain search. Again and +again I made long journeys with a false hope; I have wasted my life and +the heaviest throbbings of my heart in vain under many a dark convent +wall. I am not speaking of a faithfulness that knows no bounds, for what +is it?--nothing compared with the infinite longings of my love. If your +remorse long ago was sincere, you ought not to hesitate to follow me +today." + +"You forget that I am not free." + +"The Duke is dead," he answered quickly. + +Sister Theresa flushed red. + +"May heaven be open to him!" she cried with a quick rush of feeling. "He +was generous to me.--But I did not mean such ties; it was one of my sins +that I was ready to break them all without scruple--for you." + +"Are you speaking of your vows?" the General asked, frowning. "I did not +think that anything weighed heavier with your heart than love. But do +not think twice of it, Antoinette; the Holy Father himself shall absolve +you of your oath. I will surely go to Rome, I will entreat all the +powers of earth; if God could come down from heaven, I would----" + +"Do not blaspheme." + +"So do not fear the anger of God. Ah! I would far rather hear that +you would leave your prison for me; that this very night you would let +yourself down into a boat at the foot of the cliffs. And we would go +away to be happy somewhere at the world's end, I know not where. And +with me at your side, you should come back to life and health under the +wings of love." + +"You must not talk like this," said Sister Theresa; "you do not know +what you are to me now. I love you far better than I ever loved you +before. Every day I pray for you; I see you with other eyes. Armand, if +you but knew the happiness of giving yourself up, without shame, to a +pure friendship which God watches over! You do not know what joy it is +to me to pray for heaven's blessing on you. I never pray for myself: God +will do with me according to His will; but, at the price of my soul, I +wish I could be sure that you are happy here on earth, and that you +will be happy hereafter throughout all ages. My eternal life is all that +trouble has left me to offer up to you. I am old now with weeping; I am +neither young nor fair; and in any case, you could not respect the +nun who became a wife; no love, not even motherhood, could give me +absolution.... What can you say to outweigh the uncounted thoughts that +have gathered in my heart during the past five years, thoughts that have +changed, and worn, and blighted it? I ought to have given a heart less +sorrowful to God." + +"What can I say? Dear Antoinette, I will say this, that I love you; that +affection, love, a great love, the joy of living in another heart that +is ours, utterly and wholly ours, is so rare a thing and so hard to +find, that I doubted you, and put you to sharp proof; but now, today, I +love you, Antoinette, with all my soul's strength.... If you will follow +me into solitude, I will hear no voice but yours, I will see no other +face." + +"Hush, Armand! You are shortening the little time that we may be +together here on earth." + +"Antoinette, will you come with me?" + +"I am never away from you. My life is in your heart, not through the +selfish ties of earthly happiness, or vanity, or enjoyment; pale and +withered as I am, I live here for you, in the breast of God. As God is +just, you shall be happy----" + +"Words, words all of it! Pale and withered? How if I want you? How if I +cannot be happy without you? Do you still think of nothing but duty with +your lover before you? Is he never to come first and above all things +else in your heart? In time past you put social success, yourself, +heaven knows what, before him; now it is God, it is the welfare of my +soul! In Sister Theresa I find the Duchess over again, ignorant of +the happiness of love, insensible as ever, beneath the semblance of +sensibility. You do not love me; you have never loved me----" + +"Oh, my brother----!" + +"You do not wish to leave this tomb. You love my soul, do you say? +Very well, through you it will be lost forever. I shall make away with +myself----" + +"Mother!" Sister Theresa called aloud in Spanish, "I have lied to you; +this man is my lover!" + +The curtain fell at once. The General, in his stupor, scarcely heard the +doors within as they clanged. + +"Ah! she loves me still!" he cried, understanding all the sublimity of +that cry of hers. "She loves me still. She must be carried off...." + + + +The General left the island, returned to headquarters, pleaded +ill-health, asked for leave of absence, and forthwith took his departure +for France. + +And now for the incidents which brought the two personages in this Scene +into their present relation to each other. + + + +The thing known in France as the Faubourg Saint-Germain is neither a +Quarter, nor a sect, nor an institution, nor anything else that admits +of a precise definition. There are great houses in the Place Royale, the +Faubourg Saint-Honore, and the Chaussee d'Antin, in any one of which you +may breathe the same atmosphere of Faubourg Saint-Germain. So, to begin +with, the whole Faubourg is not within the Faubourg. There are men and +women born far enough away from its influences who respond to them and +take their place in the circle; and again there are others, born within +its limits, who may yet be driven forth forever. For the last forty +years the manners, and customs, and speech, in a word, the tradition of +the Faubourg Saint-Germain, has been to Paris what the Court used to be +in other times; it is what the Hotel Saint-Paul was to the fourteenth +century; the Louvre to the fifteenth; the Palais, the Hotel Rambouillet, +and the Place Royale to the sixteenth; and lastly, as Versailles was to +the seventeenth and the eighteenth. + +Just as the ordinary workaday Paris will always centre about some point; +so, through all periods of history, the Paris of the nobles and +the upper classes converges towards some particular spot. It is a +periodically recurrent phenomenon which presents ample matter for +reflection to those who are fain to observe or describe the various +social zones; and possibly an enquiry into the causes that bring about +this centralization may do more than merely justify the probability of +this episode; it may be of service to serious interests which some +day will be more deeply rooted in the commonwealth, unless, indeed, +experience is as meaningless for political parties as it is for youth. + +In every age the great nobles, and the rich who always ape the great +nobles, build their houses as far as possible from crowded streets. When +the Duc d'Uzes built his splendid hotel in the Rue Montmartre in +the reign of Louis XIV, and set the fountain at his gates--for which +beneficent action, to say nothing of his other virtues, he was held in +such veneration that the whole quarter turned out in a body to follow +his funeral--when the Duke, I say, chose this site for his house, he +did so because that part of Paris was almost deserted in those days. But +when the fortifications were pulled down, and the market gardens beyond +the line of the boulevards began to fill with houses, then the d'Uzes +family left their fine mansion, and in our time it was occupied by a +banker. Later still, the noblesse began to find themselves out of their +element among shopkeepers, left the Place Royale and the centre of +Paris for good, and crossed the river to breathe freely in the Faubourg +Saint-Germain, where palaces were reared already about the great +hotel built by Louis XIV for the Duc de Maine--the Benjamin among his +legitimated offspring. And indeed, for people accustomed to a stately +life, can there be more unseemly surroundings than the bustle, the mud, +the street cries, the bad smells, and narrow thoroughfares of a populous +quarter? The very habits of life in a mercantile or manufacturing +district are completely at variance with the lives of nobles. The +shopkeeper and artisan are just going to bed when the great world is +thinking of dinner; and the noisy stir of life begins among the former +when the latter have gone to rest. Their day's calculations never +coincide; the one class represents the expenditure, the other the +receipts. Consequently their manners and customs are diametrically +opposed. + +Nothing contemptuous is intended by this statement. An aristocracy is in +a manner the intellect of the social system, as the middle classes and +the proletariat may be said to be its organizing and working power. It +naturally follows that these forces are differently situated; and of +their antagonism there is bred a seeming antipathy produced by the +performance of different functions, all of them, however, existing for +one common end. + +Such social dissonances are so inevitably the outcome of any charter +of the constitution, that however much a Liberal may be disposed to +complain of them, as of treason against those sublime ideas with which +the ambitious plebeian is apt to cover his designs, he would none the +less think it a preposterous notion that M. le Prince de Montmorency, +for instance, should continue to live in the Rue Saint-Martin at the +corner of the street which bears that nobleman's name; or that M. le Duc +de Fitz-James, descendant of the royal house of Scotland, should have +his hotel at the angle of the Rue Marie Stuart and the Rue Montorgueil. +_Sint ut sunt, aut non sint_, the grand words of the Jesuit, might be +taken as a motto by the great in all countries. These social differences +are patent in all ages; the fact is always accepted by the people; its +"reasons of state" are self-evident; it is at once cause and effect, a +principle and a law. The common sense of the masses never deserts them +until demagogues stir them up to gain ends of their own; that common +sense is based on the verities of social order; and the social order is +the same everywhere, in Moscow as in London, in Geneva as in Calcutta. +Given a certain number of families of unequal fortune in any given +space, you will see an aristocracy forming under your eyes; there will +be the patricians, the upper classes, and yet other ranks below them. +Equality may be a _right_, but no power on earth can convert it into +_fact_. It would be a good thing for France if this idea could be +popularized. The benefits of political harmony are obvious to the least +intelligent classes. Harmony is, as it were, the poetry of order, and +order is a matter of vital importance to the working population. And +what is order, reduced to its simplest expression, but the agreement +of things among themselves--unity, in short? Architecture, music, and +poetry, everything in France, and in France more than in any other +country, is based upon this principle; it is written upon the very +foundations of her clear accurate language, and a language must always +be the most infallible index of national character. In the same way +you may note that the French popular airs are those most calculated to +strike the imagination, the best-modulated melodies are taken over by +the people; clearness of thought, the intellectual simplicity of an idea +attracts them; they like the incisive sayings that hold the greatest +number of ideas. France is the one country in the world where a little +phrase may bring about a great revolution. Whenever the masses have +risen, it has been to bring men, affairs, and principles into agreement. +No nation has a clearer conception of that idea of unity which should +permeate the life of an aristocracy; possibly no other nation has so +intelligent a comprehension of a political necessity; history will never +find her behind the time. France has been led astray many a time, but +she is deluded, woman-like, by generous ideas, by a glow of enthusiasm +which at first outstrips sober reason. + +So, to begin with, the most striking characteristic of the Faubourg +is the splendour of its great mansions, its great gardens, and a +surrounding quiet in keeping with princely revenues drawn from great +estates. And what is this distance set between a class and a whole +metropolis but visible and outward expression of the widely different +attitude of mind which must inevitably keep them apart? The position of +the head is well defined in every organism. If by any chance a nation +allows its head to fall at its feet, it is pretty sure sooner or later +to discover that this is a suicidal measure; and since nations have no +desire to perish, they set to work at once to grow a new head. If they +lack the strength for this, they perish as Rome perished, and Venice, +and so many other states. + +This distinction between the upper and lower spheres of social activity, +emphasized by differences in their manner of living, necessarily +implies that in the highest aristocracy there is real worth and some +distinguishing merit. In any state, no matter what form of "government" +is affected, so soon as the patrician class fails to maintain that +complete superiority which is the condition of its existence, it ceases +to be a force, and is pulled down at once by the populace. The people +always wish to see money, power, and initiative in their leaders, hands, +hearts, and heads; they must be the spokesmen, they must represent the +intelligence and the glory of the nation. Nations, like women, love +strength in those who rule them; they cannot give love without respect; +they refuse utterly to obey those of whom they do not stand in awe. +An aristocracy fallen into contempt is a _roi faineant_, a husband in +petticoats; first it ceases to be itself, and then it ceases to be. + +And in this way the isolation of the great, the sharply marked +distinction in their manner of life, or in a word, the general custom +of the patrician caste is at once the sign of a real power, and their +destruction so soon as that power is lost. The Faubourg Saint-Germain +failed to recognise the conditions of its being, while it would still +have been easy to perpetuate its existence, and therefore was brought +low for a time. The Faubourg should have looked the facts fairly in the +face, as the English aristocracy did before them; they should have seen +that every institution has its climacteric periods, when words lose +their old meanings, and ideas reappear in a new guise, and the whole +conditions of politics wear a changed aspect, while the underlying +realities undergo no essential alteration. + +These ideas demand further development which form an essential part of +this episode; they are given here both as a succinct statement of the +causes, and an explanation of the things which happen in the course of +the story. + +The stateliness of the castles and palaces where nobles dwell; the +luxury of the details; the constantly maintained sumptuousness of the +furniture; the "atmosphere" in which the fortunate owner of landed +estates (a rich man before he was born) lives and moves easily and +without friction; the habit of mind which never descends to calculate +the petty workaday gains of existence; the leisure; the higher education +attainable at a much earlier age; and lastly, the aristocratic tradition +that makes of him a social force, for which his opponents, by dint +of study and a strong will and tenacity of vocation, are scarcely a +match-all these things should contribute to form a lofty spirit in a +man, possessed of such privileges from his youth up; they should +stamp his character with that high self-respect, of which the least +consequence is a nobleness of heart in harmony with the noble name that +he bears. And in some few families all this is realised. There are +noble characters here and there in the Faubourg, but they are marked +exceptions to a general rule of egoism which has been the ruin of this +world within a world. The privileges above enumerated are the birthright +of the French noblesse, as of every patrician efflorescence ever formed +on the surface of a nation; and will continue to be theirs so long as +their existence is based upon real estate, or money; _domaine-sol_ and +_domaine-argent_ alike, the only solid bases of an organized society; +but such privileges are held upon the understanding that the patricians +must continue to justify their existence. There is a sort of moral +_fief_ held on a tenure of service rendered to the sovereign, and here +in France the people are undoubtedly the sovereigns nowadays. The times +are changed, and so are the weapons. The knight-banneret of old wore +a coat of chain armor and a hauberk; he could handle a lance well and +display his pennon, and no more was required of him; today he is bound +to give proof of his intelligence. A stout heart was enough in the days +of old; in our days he is required to have a capacious brain-pan. Skill +and knowledge and capital--these three points mark out a social triangle +on which the scutcheon of power is blazoned; our modern aristocracy must +take its stand on these. + +A fine theorem is as good as a great name. The Rothschilds, the Fuggers +of the nineteenth century, are princes _de facto_. A great artist is in +reality an oligarch; he represents a whole century, and almost always he +is a law to others. And the art of words, the high pressure machinery +of the writer, the poet's genius, the merchant's steady endurance, +the strong will of the statesman who concentrates a thousand dazzling +qualities in himself, the general's sword--all these victories, in +short, which a single individual will win, that he may tower above the +rest of the world, the patrician class is now bound to win and keep +exclusively. They must head the new forces as they once headed the +material forces; how should they keep the position unless they are +worthy of it? How, unless they are the soul and brain of a nation, +shall they set its hands moving? How lead a people without the power of +command? And what is the marshal's baton without the innate power of +the captain in the man who wields it? The Faubourg Saint-Germain took to +playing with batons, and fancied that all the power was in its hands. +It inverted the terms of the proposition which called it into existence. +And instead of flinging away the insignia which offended the people, +and quietly grasping the power, it allowed the bourgeoisie to seize the +authority, clung with fatal obstinacy to its shadow, and over and over +again forgot the laws which a minority must observe if it would live. +When an aristocracy is scarce a thousandth part of the body social, it +is bound today, as of old, to multiply its points of action, so as to +counterbalance the weight of the masses in a great crisis. And in our +days those means of action must be living forces, and not historical +memories. + +In France, unluckily, the noblesse were still so puffed up with the +notion of their vanished power, that it was difficult to contend against +a kind of innate presumption in themselves. Perhaps this is a national +defect. The Frenchman is less given than anyone else to undervalue +himself; it comes natural to him to go from his degree to the one above +it; and while it is a rare thing for him to pity the unfortunates +over whose heads he rises, he always groans in spirit to see so many +fortunate people above him. He is very far from heartless, but too +often he prefers to listen to his intellect. The national instinct which +brings the Frenchman to the front, the vanity that wastes his substance, +is as much a dominant passion as thrift in the Dutch. For three +centuries it swayed the noblesse, who, in this respect, were certainly +pre-eminently French. The scion of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, beholding +his material superiority, was fully persuaded of his intellectual +superiority. And everything contributed to confirm him in his belief; +for ever since the Faubourg Saint-Germain existed at all--which is +to say, ever since Versailles ceased to be the royal residence--the +Faubourg, with some few gaps in continuity, was always backed up by the +central power, which in France seldom fails to support that side. Thence +its downfall in 1830. + +At that time the party of the Faubourg Saint-Germain was rather like +an army without a base of operation. It had utterly failed to take +advantage of the peace to plant itself in the heart of the nation. +It sinned for want of learning its lesson, and through an utter +incapability of regarding its interests as a whole. A future certainty +was sacrificed to a doubtful present gain. This blunder in policy may +perhaps be attributed to the following cause. + +The class-isolation so strenuously kept up by the noblesse brought about +fatal results during the last forty years; even caste-patriotism was +extinguished by it, and rivalry fostered among themselves. When the +French noblesse of other times were rich and powerful, the nobles +(_gentilhommes_) could choose their chiefs and obey them in the hour +of danger. As their power diminished, they grew less amenable to +discipline; and as in the last days of the Byzantine Empire, everyone +wished to be emperor. They mistook their uniform weakness for uniform +strength. + +Each family ruined by the Revolution and the abolition of the law of +primogeniture thought only of itself, and not at all of the great family +of the noblesse. It seemed to them that as each individual grew rich, +the party as a whole would gain in strength. And herein lay their +mistake. Money, likewise, is only the outward and visible sign of +power. All these families were made up of persons who preserved a high +tradition of courtesy, of true graciousness of life, of refined speech, +with a family pride, and a squeamish sense of _noblesse oblige_ which +suited well with the kind of life they led; a life wholly filled with +occupations which become contemptible so soon as they cease to be +accessories and take the chief place in existence. There was a certain +intrinsic merit in all these people, but the merit was on the surface, +and none of them were worth their face-value. + +Not a single one among those families had courage to ask itself the +question, "Are we strong enough for the responsibility of power?" They +were cast on the top, like the lawyers of 1830; and instead of taking +the patron's place, like a great man, the Faubourg Saint-Germain showed +itself greedy as an upstart. The most intelligent nation in the world +perceived clearly that the restored nobles were organizing everything +for their own particular benefit. From that day the noblesse was doomed. +The Faubourg Saint-Germain tried to be an aristocracy when it could +only be an oligarchy--two very different systems, as any man may see +for himself if he gives an intelligent perusal to the list of the +patronymics of the House of Peers. + +The King's Government certainly meant well; but the maxim that the +people must be made to _will_ everything, even their own welfare, was +pretty constantly forgotten, nor did they bear in mind that La France is +a woman and capricious, and must be happy or chastised at her own good +pleasure. If there had been many dukes like the Duc de Laval, whose +modesty made him worthy of the name he bore, the elder branch would have +been as securely seated on the throne as the House of Hanover at this +day. + +In 1814 the noblesse of France were called upon to assert their +superiority over the most aristocratic bourgeoisie in the most feminine +of all countries, to take the lead in the most highly educated epoch the +world had yet seen. And this was even more notably the case in 1820. The +Faubourg Saint-Germain might very easily have led and amused the middle +classes in days when people's heads were turned with distinctions, and +art and science were all the rage. But the narrow-minded leaders of +a time of great intellectual progress all of them detested art and +science. They had not even the wit to present religion in attractive +colours, though they needed its support. While Lamartine, Lamennais, +Montalembert, and other writers were putting new life and elevation into +men's ideas of religion, and gilding it with poetry, these bunglers in +the Government chose to make the harshness of their creed felt all over +the country. Never was nation in a more tractable humour; La France, +like a tired woman, was ready to agree to anything; never was +mismanagement so clumsy; and La France, like a woman, would have +forgiven wrongs more easily than bungling. + +If the noblesse meant to reinstate themselves, the better to found a +strong oligarchy, they should have honestly and diligently searched +their Houses for men of the stamp that Napoleon used; they should +have turned themselves inside out to see if peradventure there was a +Constitutionalist Richelieu lurking in the entrails of the Faubourg; and +if that genius was not forthcoming from among them, they should have set +out to find him, even in the fireless garret where he might happen to +be perishing of cold; they should have assimilated him, as the English +House of Lords continually assimilates aristocrats made by chance; and +finally ordered him to be ruthless, to lop away the old wood, and cut +the tree down to the living shoots. But, in the first place, the great +system of English Toryism was far too large for narrow minds; the +importation required time, and in France a tardy success is no better +than a fiasco. So far, moreover, from adopting a policy of redemption, +and looking for new forces where God puts them, these petty great folk +took a dislike to any capacity that did not issue from their midst; and, +lastly, instead of growing young again, the Faubourg Saint-Germain grew +positively older. + +Etiquette, not an institution of primary necessity, might have been +maintained if it had appeared only on state occasions, but as it was, +there was a daily wrangle over precedence; it ceased to be a matter of +art or court ceremonial, it became a question of power. And if from +the outset the Crown lacked an adviser equal to so great a crisis, the +aristocracy was still more lacking in a sense of its wider interests, an +instinct which might have supplied the deficiency. They stood nice about +M. de Talleyrand's marriage, when M. de Talleyrand was the one man among +them with the steel-encompassed brains that can forge a new political +system and begin a new career of glory for a nation. The Faubourg +scoffed at a minister if he was not gently born, and produced no one of +gentle birth that was fit to be a minister. There were plenty of nobles +fitted to serve their country by raising the dignity of justices of +the peace, by improving the land, by opening out roads and canals, and +taking an active and leading part as country gentlemen; but these had +sold their estates to gamble on the Stock Exchange. Again the Faubourg +might have absorbed the energetic men among the bourgeoisie, and opened +their ranks to the ambition which was undermining authority; they +preferred instead to fight, and to fight unarmed, for of all that +they once possessed there was nothing left but tradition. For their +misfortune there was just precisely enough of their former wealth left +them as a class to keep up their bitter pride. They were content with +their past. Not one of them seriously thought of bidding the son of the +house take up arms from the pile of weapons which the nineteenth century +flings down in the market-place. Young men, shut out from office, were +dancing at Madame's balls, while they should have been doing the +work done under the Republic and the Empire by young, conscientious, +harmlessly employed energies. It was their place to carry out at Paris +the programme which their seniors should have been following in the +country. The heads of houses might have won back recognition of their +titles by unremitting attention to local interests, by falling in with +the spirit of the age, by recasting their order to suit the taste of the +times. + +But, pent up together in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, where the spirit of +the ancient court and traditions of bygone feuds between the nobles and +the Crown still lingered on, the aristocracy was not whole-hearted in +its allegiance to the Tuileries, and so much the more easily defeated +because it was concentrated in the Chamber of Peers, and badly organized +even there. If the noblesse had woven themselves into a network over +the country, they could have held their own; but cooped up in their +Faubourg, with their backs against the Chateau, or spread at full length +over the Budget, a single blow cut the thread of a fast-expiring life, +and a petty, smug-faced lawyer came forward with the axe. In spite of M. +Royer-Collard's admirable discourse, the hereditary peerage and law of +entail fell before the lampoons of a man who made it a boast that he had +adroitly argued some few heads out of the executioner's clutches, and +now forsooth must clumsily proceed to the slaying of old institutions. + +There are examples and lessons for the future in all this. For if there +were not still a future before the French aristocracy, there would be +no need to do more than find a suitable sarcophagus; it were something +pitilessly cruel to burn the dead body of it with fire of Tophet. But +though the surgeon's scalpel is ruthless, it sometimes gives back life +to a dying man; and the Faubourg Saint-Germain may wax more powerful +under persecution than in its day of triumph, if it but chooses to +organize itself under a leader. + +And now it is easy to give a summary of this semi-political survey. The +wish to re-establish a large fortune was uppermost in everyone's mind; +a lack of broad views, and a mass of small defects, a real need of +religion as a political factor, combined with a thirst for pleasure +which damaged the cause of religion and necessitated a good deal of +hypocrisy; a certain attitude of protest on the part of loftier and +clearer-sighted men who set their faces against Court jealousies; and +the disaffection of the provincial families, who often came of +purer descent than the nobles of the Court which alienated them from +itself--all these things combined to bring about a most discordant state +of things in the Faubourg Saint-Germain. It was neither compact in its +organisation, nor consequent in its action; neither completely moral, +nor frankly dissolute; it did not corrupt, nor was it corrupted; it +would neither wholly abandon the disputed points which damaged its +cause, nor yet adopt the policy that might have saved it. In short, +however effete individuals might be, the party as a whole was none +the less armed with all the great principles which lie at the roots of +national existence. What was there in the Faubourg that it should perish +in its strength? + +It was very hard to please in the choice of candidates; the Faubourg +had good taste, it was scornfully fastidious, yet there was nothing very +glorious nor chivalrous truly about its fall. + +In the Emigration of 1789 there were some traces of a loftier feeling; +but in the Emigration of 1830 from Paris into the country there was +nothing discernible but self-interest. A few famous men of letters, a +few oratorical triumphs in the Chambers, M. de Talleyrand's attitude +in the Congress, the taking of Algiers, and not a few names that found +their way from the battlefield into the pages of history--all these +things were so many examples set before the French noblesse to show that +it was still open to them to take their part in the national existence, +and to win recognition of their claims, if, indeed, they could +condescend thus far. In every living organism the work of bringing +the whole into harmony within itself is always going on. If a man is +indolent, the indolence shows itself in everything that he does; and, +in the same manner, the general spirit of a class is pretty plainly +manifested in the face it turns on the world, and the soul informs the +body. + +The women of the Restoration displayed neither the proud disregard +of public opinion shown by the court ladies of olden time in their +wantonness, nor yet the simple grandeur of the tardy virtues by which +they expiated their sins and shed so bright a glory about their names. +There was nothing either very frivolous or very serious about the woman +of the Restoration. She was hypocritical as a rule in her passion, and +compounded, so to speak, with its pleasures. Some few families led +the domestic life of the Duchesse d'Orleans, whose connubial couch was +exhibited so absurdly to visitors at the Palais Royal. Two or three kept +up the traditions of the Regency, filling cleverer women with something +like disgust. The great lady of the new school exercised no influence at +all over the manners of the time; and yet she might have done much. +She might, at worst, have presented as dignified a spectacle as +English-women of the same rank. But she hesitated feebly among old +precedents, became a bigot by force of circumstances, and allowed +nothing of herself to appear, not even her better qualities. + +Not one among the Frenchwomen of that day had the ability to create a +salon whither leaders of fashion might come to take lessons in taste and +elegance. Their voices, which once laid down the law to literature, that +living expression of a time, now counted absolutely for nought. Now +when a literature lacks a general system, it fails to shape a body for +itself, and dies out with its period. + +When in a nation at any time there is a people apart thus constituted, +the historian is pretty certain to find some representative figure, +some central personage who embodies the qualities and the defects of the +whole party to which he belongs; there is Coligny, for instance, among +the Huguenots, the Coadjuteur in the time of the Fronde, the Marechal de +Richelieu under Louis XV, Danton during the Terror. It is in the nature +of things that the man should be identified with the company in which +history finds him. How is it possible to lead a party without conforming +to its ideas? or to shine in any epoch unless a man represents the ideas +of his time? The wise and prudent head of a party is continually obliged +to bow to the prejudices and follies of its rear; and this is the +cause of actions for which he is afterwards criticised by this or that +historian sitting at a safer distance from terrific popular explosions, +coolly judging the passion and ferment without which the great struggles +of the world could not be carried on at all. And if this is true of +the Historical Comedy of the Centuries, it is equally true in a more +restricted sphere in the detached scenes of the national drama known as +the _Manners of the Age_. + + + +At the beginning of that ephemeral life led by the Faubourg +Saint-Germain under the Restoration, to which, if there is any truth in +the above reflections, they failed to give stability, the most perfect +type of the aristocratic caste in its weakness and strength, its +greatness and littleness, might have been found for a brief space in a +young married woman who belonged to it. This was a woman artificially +educated, but in reality ignorant; a woman whose instincts and feelings +were lofty while the thought which should have controlled them was +wanting. She squandered the wealth of her nature in obedience to social +conventions; she was ready to brave society, yet she hesitated till her +scruples degenerated into artifice. With more wilfulness than real force +of character, impressionable rather than enthusiastic, gifted with more +brain than heart; she was supremely a woman, supremely a coquette, +and above all things a Parisienne, loving a brilliant life and gaiety, +reflecting never, or too late; imprudent to the verge of poetry, and +humble in the depths of her heart, in spite of her charming insolence. +Like some straight-growing reed, she made a show of independence; yet, +like the reed, she was ready to bend to a strong hand. She talked much +of religion, and had it not at heart, though she was prepared to find in +it a solution of her life. How explain a creature so complex? Capable +of heroism, yet sinking unconsciously from heroic heights to utter a +spiteful word; young and sweet-natured, not so much old at heart as +aged by the maxims of those about her; versed in a selfish philosophy in +which she was all unpractised, she had all the vices of a courtier, all +the nobleness of developing womanhood. She trusted nothing and no one, +yet there were times when she quitted her sceptical attitude for a +submissive credulity. + +How should any portrait be anything but incomplete of her, in whom the +play of swiftly-changing colour made discord only to produce a poetic +confusion? For in her there shone a divine brightness, a radiance of +youth that blended all her bewildering characteristics in a certain +completeness and unity informed by her charm. Nothing was feigned. The +passion or semi-passion, the ineffectual high aspirations, the actual +pettiness, the coolness of sentiment and warmth of impulse, were all +spontaneous and unaffected, and as much the outcome of her own position +as of the position of the aristocracy to which she belonged. She was +wholly self-contained; she put herself proudly above the world and +beneath the shelter of her name. There was something of the egoism of +Medea in her life, as in the life of the aristocracy that lay a-dying, +and would not so much as raise itself or stretch out a hand to any +political physician; so well aware of its feebleness, or so conscious +that it was already dust, that it refused to touch or be touched. + +The Duchesse de Langeais (for that was her name) had been married for +about four years when the Restoration was finally consummated, which is +to say, in 1816. By that time the revolution of the Hundred Days had let +in the light on the mind of Louis XVIII. In spite of his surroundings, +he comprehended the situation and the age in which he was living; and it +was only later, when this Louis XI, without the axe, lay stricken down +by disease, that those about him got the upper hand. The Duchesse de +Langeais, a Navarreins by birth, came of a ducal house which had made +a point of never marrying below its rank since the reign of Louis XIV. +Every daughter of the house must sooner or later take a _tabouret_ at +Court. So, Antoinette de Navarreins, at the age of eighteen, came out of +the profound solitude in which her girlhood had been spent to marry the +Duc de Langeais' eldest son. The two families at that time were living +quite out of the world; but after the invasion of France, the return +of the Bourbons seemed to every Royalist mind the only possible way of +putting an end to the miseries of the war. + +The Ducs de Navarreins and de Langeais had been faithful throughout to +the exiled Princes, nobly resisting all the temptations of glory under +the Empire. Under the circumstances they naturally followed out the old +family policy; and Mlle Antoinette, a beautiful and portionless girl, +was married to M. le Marquis de Langeais only a few months before the +death of the Duke his father. + +After the return of the Bourbons, the families resumed their rank, +offices, and dignity at Court; once more they entered public life, from +which hitherto they held aloof, and took their place high on the sunlit +summits of the new political world. In that time of general baseness and +sham political conversions, the public conscience was glad to recognise +the unstained loyalty of the two houses, and a consistency in political +and private life for which all parties involuntarily respected them. +But, unfortunately, as so often happens in a time of transition, the +most disinterested persons, the men whose loftiness of view and wise +principles would have gained the confidence of the French nation and led +them to believe in the generosity of a novel and spirited policy--these +men, to repeat, were taken out of affairs, and public business was +allowed to fall into the hands of others, who found it to their interest +to push principles to their extreme consequences by way of proving their +devotion. + +The families of Langeais and Navarreins remained about the Court, +condemned to perform the duties required by Court ceremonial amid the +reproaches and sneers of the Liberal party. They were accused of gorging +themselves with riches and honours, and all the while their family +estates were no larger than before, and liberal allowances from the +civil list were wholly expended in keeping up the state necessary for +any European government, even if it be a Republic. + +In 1818, M. le Duc de Langeais commanded a division of the army, and the +Duchess held a post about one of the Princesses, in virtue of which she +was free to live in Paris and apart from her husband without scandal. +The Duke, moreover, besides his military duties, had a place at Court, +to which he came during his term of waiting, leaving his major-general +in command. The Duke and Duchess were leading lives entirely apart, the +world none the wiser. Their marriage of convention shared the fate +of nearly all family arrangements of the kind. Two more antipathetic +dispositions could not well have been found; they were brought together; +they jarred upon each other; there was soreness on either side; then +they were divided once for all. Then they went their separate ways, +with a due regard for appearances. The Duc de Langeais, by nature +as methodical as the Chevalier de Folard himself, gave himself up +methodically to his own tastes and amusements, and left his wife at +liberty to do as she pleased so soon as he felt sure of her character. +He recognised in her a spirit pre-eminently proud, a cold heart, a +profound submissiveness to the usages of the world, and a youthful +loyalty. Under the eyes of great relations, with the light of a prudish +and bigoted Court turned full upon the Duchess, his honour was safe. + +So the Duke calmly did as the _grands seigneurs_ of the eighteenth +century did before him, and left a young wife of two-and-twenty to her +own devices. He had deeply offended that wife, and in her nature there +was one appalling characteristic--she would never forgive an offence +when woman's vanity and self-love, with all that was best in her nature +perhaps, had been slighted, wounded in secret. Insult and injury in the +face of the world a woman loves to forget; there is a way open to her of +showing herself great; she is a woman in her forgiveness; but a secret +offence women never pardon; for secret baseness, as for hidden virtues +and hidden love, they have no kindness. + +This was Mme la Duchesse de Langeais' real position, unknown to the +world. She herself did not reflect upon it. It was the time of the +rejoicings over the Duc de Berri's marriage. The Court and the Faubourg +roused itself from its listlessness and reserve. This was the real +beginning of that unheard-of splendour which the Government of the +Restoration carried too far. At that time the Duchess, whether for +reasons of her own, or from vanity, never appeared in public without a +following of women equally distinguished by name and fortune. As queen +of fashion she had her _dames d'atours_, her ladies, who modeled their +manner and their wit on hers. They had been cleverly chosen. None of her +satellites belonged to the inmost Court circle, nor to the highest +level of the Faubourg Saint-Germain; but they had set their minds upon +admission to those inner sanctuaries. Being as yet simple denominations, +they wished to rise to the neighbourhood of the throne, and mingle with +the seraphic powers in the high sphere known as _le petit chateau_. Thus +surrounded, the Duchess's position was stronger and more commanding and +secure. Her "ladies" defended her character and helped her to play her +detestable part of a woman of fashion. She could laugh at men at her +ease, play with fire, receive the homage on which the feminine nature is +nourished, and remain mistress of herself. + +At Paris, in the highest society of all, a woman is a woman still; she +lives on incense, adulation, and honours. No beauty, however undoubted, +no face, however fair, is anything without admiration. Flattery and +a lover are proofs of power. And what is power without recognition? +Nothing. If the prettiest of women were left alone in a corner of a +drawing-room, she would droop. Put her in the very centre and summit of +social grandeur, she will at once aspire to reign over all hearts--often +because it is out of her power to be the happy queen of one. Dress and +manner and coquetry are all meant to please one of the poorest creatures +extant--the brainless coxcomb, whose handsome face is his sole merit; +it was for such as these that women threw themselves away. The gilded +wooden idols of the Restoration, for they were neither more nor less, +had neither the antecedents of the _petits maitres_ of the time of the +Fronde, nor the rough sterling worth of Napoleon's heroes, not the wit +and fine manners of their grandsires; but something of all three they +meant to be without any trouble to themselves. Brave they were, like +all young Frenchmen; ability they possessed, no doubt, if they had had +a chance of proving it, but their places were filled up by the old +worn-out men, who kept them in leading strings. It was a day of +small things, a cold prosaic era. Perhaps it takes a long time for a +Restoration to become a Monarchy. + +For the past eighteen months the Duchesse de Langeais had been leading +this empty life, filled with balls and subsequent visits, objectless +triumphs, and the transient loves that spring up and die in an evening's +space. All eyes were turned on her when she entered a room; she reaped +her harvest of flatteries and some few words of warmer admiration, which +she encouraged by a gesture or a glance, but never suffered to penetrate +deeper than the skin. Her tone and bearing and everything else about her +imposed her will upon others. Her life was a sort of fever of vanity +and perpetual enjoyment, which turned her head. She was daring enough in +conversation; she would listen to anything, corrupting the surface, as +it were, of her heart. Yet when she returned home, she often blushed at +the story that had made her laugh; at the scandalous tale that supplied +the details, on the strength of which she analyzed the love that she had +never known, and marked the subtle distinctions of modern passion, not +with comment on the part of complacent hypocrites. For women know how +to say everything among themselves, and more of them are ruined by each +other than corrupted by men. + +There came a moment when she discerned that not until a woman is loved +will the world fully recognise her beauty and her wit. What does a +husband prove? Simply that a girl or woman was endowed with wealth, or +well brought up; that her mother managed cleverly that in some way she +satisfied a man's ambitions. A lover constantly bears witness to her +personal perfections. Then followed the discovery still in Mme de +Langeais' early womanhood, that it was possible to be loved without +committing herself, without permission, without vouchsafing any +satisfaction beyond the most meagre dues. There was more than one demure +feminine hypocrite to instruct her in the art of playing such dangerous +comedies. + +So the Duchess had her court, and the number of her adorers and +courtiers guaranteed her virtue. She was amiable and fascinating; she +flirted till the ball or the evening's gaiety was at an end. Then the +curtain dropped. She was cold, indifferent, self-contained again till +the next day brought its renewed sensations, superficial as before. Two +or three men were completely deceived, and fell in love in earnest. +She laughed at them, she was utterly insensible. "I am loved!" she told +herself. "He loves me!" The certainty sufficed her. It is enough for the +miser to know that his every whim might be fulfilled if he chose; so it +was with the Duchess, and perhaps she did not even go so far as to form +a wish. + +One evening she chanced to be at the house of an intimate friend Mme la +Vicomtesse de Fontaine, one of the humble rivals who cordially detested +her, and went with her everywhere. In a "friendship" of this sort both +sides are on their guard, and never lay their armor aside; confidences +are ingeniously indiscreet, and not unfrequently treacherous. Mme de +Langeais had distributed her little patronizing, friendly, or freezing +bows, with the air natural to a woman who knows the worth of her smiles, +when her eyes fell upon a total stranger. Something in the man's large +gravity of aspect startled her, and, with a feeling almost like dread, +she turned to Mme de Maufrigneuse with, "Who is the newcomer, dear?" + +"Someone that you have heard of, no doubt. The Marquis de Montriveau." + +"Oh! is it he?" + +She took up her eyeglass and submitted him to a very insolent scrutiny, +as if he had been a picture meant to receive glances, not to return +them. + +"Do introduce him; he ought to be interesting." + +"Nobody more tiresome and dull, dear. But he is the fashion." + +M. Armand de Montriveau, at that moment all unwittingly the object of +general curiosity, better deserved attention than any of the idols that +Paris needs must set up to worship for a brief space, for the city is +vexed by periodical fits of craving, a passion for _engouement_ and sham +enthusiasm, which must be satisfied. The Marquis was the only son of +General de Montriveau, one of the _ci-devants_ who served the Republic +nobly, and fell by Joubert's side at Novi. Bonaparte had placed his son +at the school at Chalons, with the orphans of other generals who fell +on the battlefield, leaving their children under the protection of the +Republic. Armand de Montriveau left school with his way to make, entered +the artillery, and had only reached a major's rank at the time of the +Fontainebleau disaster. In his section of the service the chances of +advancement were not many. There are fewer officers, in the first place, +among the gunners than in any other corps; and in the second place, the +feeling in the artillery was decidedly Liberal, not to say Republican; +and the Emperor, feeling little confidence in a body of highly educated +men who were apt to think for themselves, gave promotion grudgingly in +the service. In the artillery, accordingly, the general rule of the +army did not apply; the commanding officers were not invariably the most +remarkable men in their department, because there was less to be feared +from mediocrities. The artillery was a separate corps in those days, and +only came under Napoleon in action. + +Besides these general causes, other reasons, inherent in Armand de +Montriveau's character, were sufficient in themselves to account for his +tardy promotion. He was alone in the world. He had been thrown at +the age of twenty into the whirlwind of men directed by Napoleon; his +interests were bounded by himself, any day he might lose his life; it +became a habit of mind with him to live by his own self-respect and +the consciousness that he had done his duty. Like all shy men, he was +habitually silent; but his shyness sprang by no means from timidity; +it was a kind of modesty in him; he found any demonstration of vanity +intolerable. There was no sort of swagger about his fearlessness in +action; nothing escaped his eyes; he could give sensible advice to his +chums with unshaken coolness; he could go under fire, and duck upon +occasion to avoid bullets. He was kindly; but his expression was haughty +and stern, and his face gained him this character. In everything he was +rigorous as arithmetic; he never permitted the slightest deviation from +duty on any plausible pretext, nor blinked the consequences of a fact. +He would lend himself to nothing of which he was ashamed; he never asked +anything for himself; in short, Armand de Montriveau was one of many +great men unknown to fame, and philosophical enough to despise it; +living without attaching themselves to life, because they have not found +their opportunity of developing to the full their power to do and feel. + +People were afraid of Montriveau; they respected him, but he was not +very popular. Men may indeed allow you to rise above them, but to +decline to descend as low as they can do is the one unpardonable sin. +In their feeling towards loftier natures, there is a trace of hate and +fear. Too much honour with them implies censure of themselves, a thing +forgiven neither to the living nor to the dead. + +After the Emperor's farewells at Fontainebleau, Montriveau, noble though +he was, was put on half-pay. Perhaps the heads of the War Office took +fright at uncompromising uprightness worthy of antiquity, or perhaps it +was known that he felt bound by his oath to the Imperial Eagle. During +the Hundred Days he was made a Colonel of the Guard, and left on the +field of Waterloo. His wounds kept him in Belgium he was not present +at the disbanding of the Army of the Loire, but the King's government +declined to recognise promotion made during the Hundred Days, and Armand +de Montriveau left France. + +An adventurous spirit, a loftiness of thought hitherto satisfied by +the hazards of war, drove him on an exploring expedition through Upper +Egypt; his sanity or impulse directed his enthusiasm to a project of +great importance, he turned his attention to that unexplored Central +Africa which occupies the learned of today. The scientific expedition +was long and unfortunate. He had made a valuable collection of notes +bearing on various geographical and commercial problems, of which +solutions are still eagerly sought; and succeeded, after surmounting +many obstacles, in reaching the heart of the continent, when he was +betrayed into the hands of a hostile native tribe. Then, stripped of all +that he had, for two years he led a wandering life in the desert, +the slave of savages, threatened with death at every moment, and more +cruelly treated than a dumb animal in the power of pitiless children. +Physical strength, and a mind braced to endurance, enabled him to +survive the horrors of that captivity; but his miraculous escape +well-nigh exhausted his energies. When he reached the French colony at +Senegal, a half-dead fugitive covered with rags, his memories of his +former life were dim and shapeless. The great sacrifices made in his +travels were all forgotten like his studies of African dialects, his +discoveries, and observations. One story will give an idea of all that +he passed through. Once for several days the children of the sheikh of +the tribe amused themselves by putting him up for a mark and flinging +horses' knuckle-bones at his head. + +Montriveau came back to Paris in 1818 a ruined man. He had no interest, +and wished for none. He would have died twenty times over sooner than +ask a favour of anyone; he would not even press the recognition of his +claims. Adversity and hardship had developed his energy even in trifles, +while the habit of preserving his self-respect before that spiritual +self which we call conscience led him to attach consequence to the most +apparently trivial actions. His merits and adventures became known, +however, through his acquaintances, among the principal men of science +in Paris, and some few well-read military men. The incidents of his +slavery and subsequent escape bore witness to a courage, intelligence, +and coolness which won him celebrity without his knowledge, and that +transient fame of which Paris salons are lavish, though the artist that +fain would keep it must make untold efforts. + +Montriveau's position suddenly changed towards the end of that year. He +had been a poor man, he was now rich; or, externally at any rate, he had +all the advantages of wealth. The King's government, trying to attach +capable men to itself and to strengthen the army, made concessions +about that time to Napoleon's old officers if their known loyalty and +character offered guarantees of fidelity. M. de Montriveau's name once +more appeared in the army list with the rank of colonel; he received his +arrears of pay and passed into the Guards. All these favours, one +after another, came to seek the Marquis de Montriveau; he had asked +for nothing however small. Friends had taken the steps for him which he +would have refused to take for himself. + +After this, his habits were modified all at once; contrary to his +custom, he went into society. He was well received, everywhere he met +with great deference and respect. He seemed to have found some end +in life; but everything passed within the man, there were no external +signs; in society he was silent and cold, and wore a grave, reserved +face. His social success was great, precisely because he stood out in +such strong contrast to the conventional faces which line the walls +of Paris salons. He was, indeed, something quite new there. Terse +of speech, like a hermit or a savage, his shyness was thought to be +haughtiness, and people were greatly taken with it. He was something +strange and great. Women generally were so much the more smitten +with this original person because he was not to be caught by their +flatteries, however adroit, nor by the wiles with which they circumvent +the strongest men and corrode the steel temper. Their Parisian's +grimaces were lost upon M. de Montriveau; his nature only responded to +the sonorous vibration of lofty thought and feeling. And he would very +promptly have been dropped but for the romance that hung about his +adventures and his life; but for the men who cried him up behind his +back; but for a woman who looked for a triumph for her vanity, the woman +who was to fill his thoughts. + +For these reasons the Duchesse de Langeais' curiosity was no less lively +than natural. Chance had so ordered it that her interest in the man +before her had been aroused only the day before, when she heard the +story of one of M. de Montriveau's adventures, a story calculated to +make the strongest impression upon a woman's ever-changing fancy. + +During M. de Montriveau's voyage of discovery to the sources of the +Nile, he had had an argument with one of his guides, surely the most +extraordinary debate in the annals of travel. The district that he +wished to explore could only be reached on foot across a tract of +desert. Only one of his guides knew the way; no traveller had penetrated +before into that part of the country, where the undaunted officer hoped +to find a solution of several scientific problems. In spite of the +representations made to him by the guide and the older men of the place, +he started upon the formidable journey. Summoning up courage, already +highly strung by the prospect of dreadful difficulties, he set out in +the morning. + +The loose sand shifted under his feet at every step; and when, at the +end of a long day's march, he lay down to sleep on the ground, he had +never been so tired in his life. He knew, however, that he must be up +and on his way before dawn next day, and his guide assured him that they +should reach the end of their journey towards noon. That promise kept +up his courage and gave him new strength. In spite of his sufferings, +he continued his march, with some blasphemings against science; he was +ashamed to complain to his guide, and kept his pain to himself. After +marching for a third of the day, he felt his strength failing, his feet +were bleeding, he asked if they should reach the place soon. "In an +hour's time," said the guide. Armand braced himself for another hour's +march, and they went on. + +The hour slipped by; he could not so much as see against the sky the +palm-trees and crests of hill that should tell of the end of the journey +near at hand; the horizon line of sand was vast as the circle of the +open sea. + +He came to a stand, refused to go farther, and threatened the guide--he +had deceived him, murdered him; tears of rage and weariness flowed over +his fevered cheeks; he was bowed down with fatigue upon fatigue, his +throat seemed to be glued by the desert thirst. The guide meanwhile +stood motionless, listening to these complaints with an ironical +expression, studying the while, with the apparent indifference of an +Oriental, the scarcely perceptible indications in the lie of the sands, +which looked almost black, like burnished gold. + +"I have made a mistake," he remarked coolly. "I could not make out the +track, it is so long since I came this way; we are surely on it now, but +we must push on for two hours." + +"The man is right," thought M. de Montriveau. + +So he went on again, struggling to follow the pitiless native. It seemed +as if he were bound to his guide by some thread like the invisible tie +between the condemned man and the headsman. But the two hours went by, +Montriveau had spent his last drops of energy, and the skyline was a +blank, there were no palm-trees, no hills. He could neither cry out +nor groan, he lay down on the sand to die, but his eyes would have +frightened the boldest; something in his face seemed to say that he +would not die alone. His guide, like a very fiend, gave him back a cool +glance like a man that knows his power, left him to lie there, and kept +at a safe distance out of reach of his desperate victim. At last M. +Montriveau recovered strength enough for a last curse. The guide came +nearer, silenced him with a steady look, and said, "Was it not your own +will to go where I am taking you, in spite of us all? You say that I +have lied to you. If I had not, you would not be even here. Do you want +the truth? Here it is. _We have still another five hours' march before +us, and we cannot go back_. Sound yourself; if you have not courage +enough, here is my dagger." + +Startled by this dreadful knowledge of pain and human strength, M. +de Montriveau would not be behind a savage; he drew a fresh stock of +courage from his pride as a European, rose to his feet, and followed +his guide. The five hours were at an end, and still M. de Montriveau +saw nothing, he turned his failing eyes upon his guide; but the Nubian +hoisted him on his shoulders, and showed him a wide pool of water with +greenness all about it, and a noble forest lighted up by the sunset. It +lay only a hundred paces away; a vast ledge of granite hid the glorious +landscape. It seemed to Armand that he had taken a new lease of life. +His guide, that giant in courage and intelligence, finished his work of +devotion by carrying him across the hot, slippery, scarcely discernible +track on the granite. Behind him lay the hell of burning sand, before +him the earthly paradise of the most beautiful oasis in the desert. + +The Duchess, struck from the first by the appearance of this romantic +figure, was even more impressed when she learned that this was that +Marquis de Montriveau of whom she had dreamed during the night. She had +been with him among the hot desert sands, he had been the companion of +her nightmare wanderings; for such a woman was not this a delightful +presage of a new interest in her life? And never was a man's exterior +a better exponent of his character; never were curious glances so well +justified. The principal characteristic of his great, square-hewn head +was the thick, luxuriant black hair which framed his face, and gave him +a strikingly close resemblance to General Kleber; and the likeness still +held good in the vigorous forehead, in the outlines of his face, the +quiet fearlessness of his eyes, and a kind of fiery vehemence expressed +by strongly marked features. He was short, deep-chested, and muscular +as a lion. There was something of the despot about him, and an +indescribable suggestion of the security of strength in his gait, +bearing, and slightest movements. He seemed to know that his will was +irresistible, perhaps because he wished for nothing unjust. And yet, +like all really strong men, he was mild of speech, simple in his +manners, and kindly natured; although it seemed as if, in the stress of +a great crisis, all these finer qualities must disappear, and the man +would show himself implacable, unshaken in his resolve, terrific in +action. There was a certain drawing in of the inner line of the lips +which, to a close observer, indicated an ironical bent. + +The Duchesse de Langeais, realising that a fleeting glory was to be +won by such a conquest, made up her mind to gain a lover in Armand de +Montriveau during the brief interval before the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse +brought him to be introduced. She would prefer him above the others; she +would attach him to herself, display all her powers of coquetry for him. +It was a fancy, such a merest Duchess's whim as furnished a Lope or a +Calderon with the plot of the _Dog in the Manger_. She would not suffer +another woman to engross him; but she had not the remotest intention of +being his. + +Nature had given the Duchess every qualification for the part of +coquette, and education had perfected her. Women envied her, and men +fell in love with her, not without reason. Nothing that can inspire +love, justify it, and give it lasting empire was wanting in her. Her +style of beauty, her manner, her voice, her bearing, all combined to +give her that instinctive coquetry which seems to be the consciousness +of power. Her shape was graceful; perhaps there was a trace of +self-consciousness in her changes of movement, the one affectation that +could be laid to her charge; but everything about her was a part of her +personality, from her least little gesture to the peculiar turn of her +phrases, the demure glance of her eyes. Her great lady's grace, her +most striking characteristic, had not destroyed the very French quick +mobility of her person. There was an extraordinary fascination in her +swift, incessant changes of attitude. She seemed as if she surely would +be a most delicious mistress when her corset and the encumbering costume +of her part were laid aside. All the rapture of love surely was latent +in the freedom of her expressive glances, in her caressing tones, in the +charm of her words. She gave glimpses of the high-born courtesan within +her, vainly protesting against the creeds of the duchess. + +You might sit near her through an evening, she would be gay and +melancholy in turn, and her gaiety, like her sadness, seemed +spontaneous. She could be gracious, disdainful, insolent, or confiding +at will. Her apparent good nature was real; she had no temptation to +descend to malignity. But at each moment her mood changed; she was full +of confidence or craft; her moving tenderness would give place to a +heart-breaking hardness and insensibility. Yet how paint her as she +was, without bringing together all the extremes of feminine nature? In +a word, the Duchess was anything that she wished to be or to seem. +Her face was slightly too long. There was a grace in it, and a certain +thinness and fineness that recalled the portraits of the Middle Ages. +Her skin was white, with a faint rose tint. Everything about her erred, +as it were, by an excess of delicacy. + +M. de Montriveau willingly consented to be introduced to the Duchesse +de Langeais; and she, after the manner of persons whose sensitive taste +leads them to avoid banalities, refrained from overwhelming him with +questions and compliments. She received him with a gracious deference +which could not fail to flatter a man of more than ordinary powers, +for the fact that a man rises above the ordinary level implies that +he possesses something of that tact which makes women quick to read +feeling. If the Duchess showed any curiosity, it was by her glances; +her compliments were conveyed in her manner; there was a winning grace +displayed in her words, a subtle suggestion of a desire to please which +she of all women knew the art of manifesting. Yet her whole conversation +was but, in a manner, the body of the letter; the postscript with the +principal thought in it was still to come. After half an hour spent in +ordinary talk, in which the words gained all their value from her tone +and smiles, M. de Montriveau was about to retire discreetly, when the +Duchess stopped him with an expressive gesture. + +"I do not know, monsieur, whether these few minutes during which I have +had the pleasure of talking to you proved so sufficiently attractive, +that I may venture to ask you to call upon me; I am afraid that it may +be very selfish of me to wish to have you all to myself. If I should +be so fortunate as to find that my house is agreeable to you, you will +always find me at home in the evening until ten o'clock." + +The invitation was given with such irresistible grace, that M. de +Montriveau could not refuse to accept it. When he fell back again among +the groups of men gathered at a distance from the women, his +friends congratulated him, half laughingly, half in earnest, on the +extraordinary reception vouchsafed him by the Duchesse de Langeais. The +difficult and brilliant conquest had been made beyond a doubt, and the +glory of it was reserved for the Artillery of the Guard. It is easy to +imagine the jests, good and bad, when this topic had once been started; +the world of Paris salons is so eager for amusement, and a joke lasts +for such a short time, that everyone is eager to make the most of it +while it is fresh. + +All unconsciously, the General felt flattered by this nonsense. From his +place where he had taken his stand, his eyes were drawn again and again +to the Duchess by countless wavering reflections. He could not help +admitting to himself that of all the women whose beauty had captivated +his eyes, not one had seemed to be a more exquisite embodiment of faults +and fair qualities blended in a completeness that might realise the +dreams of earliest manhood. Is there a man in any rank of life that has +not felt indefinable rapture in his secret soul over the woman singled +out (if only in his dreams) to be his own; when she, in body, soul, and +social aspects, satisfies his every requirement, a thrice perfect woman? +And if this threefold perfection that flatters his pride is no argument +for loving her, it is beyond cavil one of the great inducements to the +sentiment. Love would soon be convalescent, as the eighteenth century +moralist remarked, were it not for vanity. And it is certainly true +that for everyone, man or woman, there is a wealth of pleasure in +the superiority of the beloved. Is she set so high by birth that a +contemptuous glance can never wound her? is she wealthy enough to +surround herself with state which falls nothing short of royalty, of +kings, of finance during their short reign of splendour? is she so +ready-witted that a keen-edged jest never brings her into confusion? +beautiful enough to rival any woman?--Is it such a small thing to know +that your self-love will never suffer through her? A man makes these +reflections in the twinkling of an eye. And how if, in the future opened +out by early ripened passion, he catches glimpses of the changeful +delight of her charm, the frank innocence of a maiden soul, the perils +of love's voyage, the thousand folds of the veil of coquetry? Is not +this enough to move the coldest man's heart? + +This, therefore, was M. de Montriveau's position with regard to woman; +his past life in some measure explaining the extraordinary fact. He +had been thrown, when little more than a boy, into the hurricane of +Napoleon's wars; his life had been spent on fields of battle. Of women +he knew just so much as a traveller knows of a country when he travels +across it in haste from one inn to another. The verdict which Voltaire +passed upon his eighty years of life might, perhaps, have been applied +by Montriveau to his own thirty-seven years of existence; had he not +thirty-seven follies with which to reproach himself? At his age he was +as much a novice in love as the lad that has just been furtively reading +_Faublas_. Of women he had nothing to learn; of love he knew nothing; +and thus, desires, quite unknown before, sprang from this virginity of +feeling. + +There are men here and there as much engrossed in the work demanded of +them by poverty or ambition, art or science, as M. de Montriveau by war +and a life of adventure--these know what it is to be in this unusual +position if they very seldom confess to it. Every man in Paris is +supposed to have been in love. No woman in Paris cares to take what +other women have passed over. The dread of being taken for a fool is the +source of the coxcomb's bragging so common in France; for in France to +have the reputation of a fool is to be a foreigner in one's own country. +Vehement desire seized on M. de Montriveau, desire that had gathered +strength from the heat of the desert and the first stirrings of a heart +unknown as yet in its suppressed turbulence. + +A strong man, and violent as he was strong, he could keep mastery over +himself; but as he talked of indifferent things, he retired within +himself, and swore to possess this woman, for through that thought lay +the only way to love for him. Desire became a solemn compact made with +himself, an oath after the manner of the Arabs among whom he had lived; +for among them a vow is a kind of contract made with Destiny a man's +whole future is solemnly pledged to fulfil it, and everything even his +own death, is regarded simply as a means to the one end. + +A younger man would have said to himself, "I should very much like to +have the Duchess for my mistress!" or, "If the Duchesse de Langeais +cared for a man, he would be a very lucky rascal!" But the General said, +"I will have Mme de Langeais for my mistress." And if a man takes such +an idea into his head when his heart has never been touched before, and +love begins to be a kind of religion with him, he little knows in what a +hell he has set his foot. + +Armand de Montriveau suddenly took flight and went home in the first hot +fever-fit of the first love that he had known. When a man has kept all +his boyish beliefs, illusions, frankness, and impetuosity into middle +age, his first impulse is, as it were, to stretch out a hand to take the +thing that he desires; a little later he realizes that there is a gulf +set between them, and that it is all but impossible to cross it. A sort +of childish impatience seizes him, he wants the thing the more, +and trembles or cries. Wherefore, the next day, after the stormiest +reflections that had yet perturbed his mind, Armand de Montriveau +discovered that he was under the yoke of the senses, and his bondage +made the heavier by his love. + +The woman so cavalierly treated in his thoughts of yesterday had become +a most sacred and dreadful power. She was to be his world, his life, +from this time forth. The greatest joy, the keenest anguish, that he +had yet known grew colorless before the bare recollection of the least +sensation stirred in him by her. The swiftest revolutions in a man's +outward life only touch his interests, while passion brings a complete +revulsion of feeling. And so in those who live by feeling, rather than +by self-interest, the doers rather than the reasoners, the sanguine +rather than the lymphatic temperaments, love works a complete +revolution. In a flash, with one single reflection, Armand de Montriveau +wiped out his whole past life. + +A score of times he asked himself, like a boy, "Shall I go, or shall I +not?" and then at last he dressed, came to the Hotel de Langeais +towards eight o'clock that evening, and was admitted. He was to see the +woman--ah! not the woman--the idol that he had seen yesterday, among +lights, a fresh innocent girl in gauze and silken lace and veiling. +He burst in upon her to declare his love, as if it were a question of +firing the first shot on a field of battle. + +Poor novice! He found his ethereal sylphide shrouded in a brown cashmere +dressing-gown ingeniously befrilled, lying languidly stretched out upon +a sofa in a dimly lighted boudoir. Mme de Langeais did not so much as +rise, nothing was visible of her but her face, her hair was loose but +confined by a scarf. A hand indicated a seat, a hand that seemed white +as marble to Montriveau by the flickering light of a single candle at +the further side of the room, and a voice as soft as the light said: + +"If it had been anyone else, M. le Marquis, a friend with whom I could +dispense with ceremony, or a mere acquaintance in whom I felt but slight +interest, I should have closed my door. I am exceedingly unwell." + +"I will go," Armand said to himself. + +"But I do not know how it is," she continued (and the simple warrior +attributed the shining of her eyes to fever), "perhaps it was a +presentiment of your kind visit (and no one can be more sensible of the +prompt attention than I), but the vapors have left my head." + +"Then may I stay?" + +"Oh, I should be very sorry to allow you to go. I told myself this +morning that it was impossible that I should have made the slightest +impression on your mind, and that in all probability you took my request +for one of the commonplaces of which Parisians are lavish on every +occasion. And I forgave your ingratitude in advance. An explorer +from the deserts is not supposed to know how exclusive we are in our +friendships in the Faubourg." + +The gracious, half-murmured words dropped one by one, as if they had +been weighted with the gladness that apparently brought them to her +lips. The Duchess meant to have the full benefit of her headache, and +her speculation was fully successful. The General, poor man, was really +distressed by the lady's simulated distress. Like Crillon listening to +the story of the Crucifixion, he was ready to draw his sword against the +vapors. How could a man dare to speak just then to this suffering woman +of the love that she inspired? Armand had already felt that it would be +absurd to fire off a declaration of love point-blank at one so far above +other women. With a single thought came understanding of the delicacies +of feeling, of the soul's requirements. To love: what was that but to +know how to plead, to beg for alms, to wait? And as for the love that +he felt, must he not prove it? His tongue was mute, it was frozen by the +conventions of the noble Faubourg, the majesty of a sick headache, the +bashfulness of love. But no power on earth could veil his glances; the +heat and the Infinite of the desert blazed in eyes calm as a panther's, +beneath the lids that fell so seldom. The Duchess enjoyed the steady +gaze that enveloped her in light and warmth. + +"Mme la Duchesse," he answered, "I am afraid I express my gratitude for +your goodness very badly. At this moment I have but one desire--I wish +it were in my power to cure the pain." + +"Permit me to throw this off, I feel too warm now," she said, gracefully +tossing aside a cushion that covered her feet. + +"Madame, in Asia your feet would be worth some ten thousand sequins. + +"A traveler's compliment!" smiled she. + +It pleased the sprightly lady to involve a rough soldier in a labyrinth +of nonsense, commonplaces, and meaningless talk, in which he manoeuvred, +in military language, as Prince Charles might have done at close +quarters with Napoleon. She took a mischievous amusement in +reconnoitring the extent of his infatuation by the number of foolish +speeches extracted from a novice whom she led step by step into a +hopeless maze, meaning to leave him there in confusion. She began by +laughing at him, but nevertheless it pleased her to make him forget how +time went. + +The length of a first visit is frequently a compliment, but Armand was +innocent of any such intent. The famous explorer spent an hour in chat +on all sorts of subjects, said nothing that he meant to say, and was +feeling that he was only an instrument on whom this woman played, when +she rose, sat upright, drew the scarf from her hair, and wrapped it +about her throat, leant her elbow on the cushions, did him the honour +of a complete cure, and rang for lights. The most graceful movement +succeeded to complete repose. She turned to M. de Montriveau, from whom +she had just extracted a confidence which seemed to interest her deeply, +and said: + +"You wish to make game of me by trying to make me believe that you +have never loved. It is a man's great pretension with us. And we always +believe it! Out of pure politeness. Do we not know what to expect +from it for ourselves? Where is the man that has found but a single +opportunity of losing his heart? But you love to deceive us, and we +submit to be deceived, poor foolish creatures that we are; for your +hypocrisy is, after all, a homage paid to the superiority of our +sentiments, which are all purity." + +The last words were spoken with a disdainful pride that made the novice +in love feel like a worthless bale flung into the deep, while the +Duchess was an angel soaring back to her particular heaven. + +"Confound it!" thought Armand de Montriveau, "how am I to tell this wild +thing that I love her?" + +He had told her already a score of times; or rather, the Duchess had +a score of times read his secret in his eyes; and the passion in this +unmistakably great man promised her amusement, and an interest in her +empty life. So she prepared with no little dexterity to raise a certain +number of redoubts for him to carry by storm before he should gain an +entrance into her heart. Montriveau should overleap one difficulty after +another; he should be a plaything for her caprice, just as an insect +teased by children is made to jump from one finger to another, and in +spite of all its pains is kept in the same place by its mischievous +tormentor. And yet it gave the Duchess inexpressible happiness to see +that this strong man had told her the truth. Armand had never loved, as +he had said. He was about to go, in a bad humour with himself, and still +more out of humour with her; but it delighted her to see a sullenness +that she could conjure away with a word, a glance, or a gesture. + +"Will you come tomorrow evening?" she asked. "I am going to a ball, but +I shall stay at home for you until ten o'clock." + +Montriveau spent most of the next day in smoking an indeterminate +quantity of cigars in his study window, and so got through the hours +till he could dress and go to the Hotel de Langeais. To anyone who had +known the magnificent worth of the man, it would have been grievous to +see him grown so small, so distrustful of himself; the mind that might +have shed light over undiscovered worlds shrunk to the proportions of +a she-coxcomb's boudoir. Even he himself felt that he had fallen so low +already in his happiness that to save his life he could not have told +his love to one of his closest friends. Is there not always a trace +of shame in the lover's bashfulness, and perhaps in woman a certain +exultation over diminished masculine stature? Indeed, but for a host of +motives of this kind, how explain why women are nearly always the first +to betray the secret?--a secret of which, perhaps, they soon weary. + +"Mme la Duchesse cannot see visitors, monsieur," said the man; "she is +dressing, she begs you to wait for her here." + +Armand walked up and down the drawing-room, studying her taste in the +least details. He admired Mme de Langeais herself in the objects of her +choosing; they revealed her life before he could grasp her personality +and ideas. About an hour later the Duchess came noiselessly out of her +chamber. Montriveau turned, saw her flit like a shadow across the room, +and trembled. She came up to him, not with a bourgeoise's enquiry, "How +do I look?" She was sure of herself; her steady eyes said plainly, "I am +adorned to please you." + +No one surely, save the old fairy godmother of some princess in +disguise, could have wound a cloud of gauze about the dainty throat, so +that the dazzling satin skin beneath should gleam through the gleaming +folds. The Duchess was dazzling. The pale blue colour of her gown, +repeated in the flowers in her hair, appeared by the richness of its hue +to lend substance to a fragile form grown too wholly ethereal; for as +she glided towards Armand, the loose ends of her scarf floated about +her, putting that valiant warrior in mind of the bright damosel flies +that hover now over water, now over the flowers with which they seem to +mingle and blend. + +"I have kept you waiting," she said, with the tone that a woman can +always bring into her voice for the man whom she wishes to please. + +"I would wait patiently through an eternity," said he, "if I were sure +of finding a divinity so fair; but it is no compliment to speak of your +beauty to you; nothing save worship could touch you. Suffer me only to +kiss your scarf." + +"Oh, fie!" she said, with a commanding gesture, "I esteem you enough to +give you my hand." + +She held it out for his kiss. A woman's hand, still moist from the +scented bath, has a soft freshness, a velvet smoothness that sends a +tingling thrill from the lips to the soul. And if a man is attracted to +a woman, and his senses are as quick to feel pleasure as his heart is +full of love, such a kiss, though chaste in appearance, may conjure up a +terrific storm. + +"Will you always give it me like this?" the General asked humbly when he +had pressed that dangerous hand respectfully to his lips. + +"Yes, but there we must stop," she said, smiling. She sat down, +and seemed very slow over putting on her gloves, trying to slip the +unstretched kid over all her fingers at once, while she watched M. +de Montriveau; and he was lost in admiration of the Duchess and those +repeated graceful movements of hers. + +"Ah! you were punctual," she said; "that is right. I like punctuality. +It is the courtesy of kings, His Majesty says; but to my thinking, from +you men it is the most respectful flattery of all. Now, is it not? Just +tell me." + +Again she gave him a side glance to express her insidious friendship, +for he was dumb with happiness sheer happiness through such nothings +as these! Oh, the Duchess understood _son metier de femme_--the art +and mystery of being a woman--most marvelously well; she knew, to +admiration, how to raise a man in his own esteem as he humbled himself +to her; how to reward every step of the descent to sentimental folly +with hollow flatteries. + +"You will never forget to come at nine o'clock." + +"No; but are you going to a ball every night?" + +"Do I know?" she answered, with a little childlike shrug of the +shoulders; the gesture was meant to say that she was nothing if not +capricious, and that a lover must take her as she was.--"Besides," she +added, "what is that to you? You shall be my escort." + +"That would be difficult tonight," he objected; "I am not properly +dressed." + +"It seems to me," she returned loftily, "that if anyone has a right +to complain of your costume, it is I. Know, therefore, _monsieur le +voyageur_, that if I accept a man's arm, he is forthwith above the laws +of fashion, nobody would venture to criticise him. You do not know the +world, I see; I like you the better for it." + +And even as she spoke she swept him into the pettiness of that world by +the attempt to initiate him into the vanities of a woman of fashion. + +"If she chooses to do a foolish thing for me, I should be a simpleton to +prevent her," said Armand to himself. "She has a liking for me beyond a +doubt; and as for the world, she cannot despise it more than I do. So, +now for the ball if she likes." + +The Duchess probably thought that if the General came with her and +appeared in a ballroom in boots and a black tie, nobody would hesitate +to believe that he was violently in love with her. And the General was +well pleased that the queen of fashion should think of compromising +herself for him; hope gave him wit. He had gained confidence, he brought +out his thoughts and views; he felt nothing of the restraint that +weighed on his spirits yesterday. His talk was interesting and animated, +and full of those first confidences so sweet to make and to receive. + +Was Mme de Langeais really carried away by his talk, or had she +devised this charming piece of coquetry? At any rate, she looked up +mischievously as the clock struck twelve. + +"Ah! you have made me too late for the ball!" she exclaimed, surprised +and vexed that she had forgotten how time was going. + +The next moment she approved the exchange of pleasures with a smile that +made Armand's heart give a sudden leap. + +"I certainly promised Mme de Beauseant," she added. "They are all +expecting me." + +"Very well--go." + +"No--go on. I will stay. Your Eastern adventures fascinate me. Tell +me the whole story of your life. I love to share in a brave man's +hardships, and I feel them all, indeed I do!" + +She was playing with her scarf, twisting it and pulling it to +pieces, with jerky, impatient movements that seemed to tell of inward +dissatisfaction and deep reflection. + +"_We_ are fit for nothing," she went on. "Ah! we are contemptible, +selfish, frivolous creatures. We can bore ourselves with amusements, +and that is all we can do. Not one of us that understands that she has +a part to play in life. In old days in France, women were beneficent +lights; they lived to comfort those that mourned, to encourage high +virtues, to reward artists and stir new life with noble thoughts. If the +world has grown so petty, ours is the fault. You make me loathe the ball +and this world in which I live. No, I am not giving up much for you." + +She had plucked her scarf to pieces, as a child plays with a flower, +pulling away all the petals one by one; and now she crushed it into a +ball, and flung it away. She could show her swan's neck. + +She rang the bell. "I shall not go out tonight," she told the footman. +Her long, blue eyes turned timidly to Armand; and by the look of +misgiving in them, he knew that he was meant to take the order for a +confession, for a first and great favour. There was a pause, filled with +many thoughts, before she spoke with that tenderness which is often in +women's voices, and not so often in their hearts. "You have had a hard +life," she said. + +"No," returned Armand. "Until today I did not know what happiness was." + +"Then you know it now?" she asked, looking at him with a demure, keen +glance. + +"What is happiness for me henceforth but this--to see you, to hear +you?... Until now I have only known privation; now I know that I can be +unhappy----" + +"That will do, that will do," she said. "You must go; it is past +midnight. Let us regard appearances. People must not talk about us. I +do not know quite what I shall say; but the headache is a good-natured +friend, and tells no tales." + +"Is there to be a ball tomorrow night?" + +"You would grow accustomed to the life, I think. Very well. Yes, we will +go again tomorrow night." + +There was not a happier man in the world than Armand when he went out +from her. Every evening he came to Mme de Langeais' at the hour kept for +him by a tacit understanding. + +It would be tedious, and, for the many young men who carry a redundance +of such sweet memories in their hearts, it were superfluous to follow +the story step by step--the progress of a romance growing in those hours +spent together, a romance controlled entirely by a woman's will. If +sentiment went too fast, she would raise a quarrel over a word, or when +words flagged behind her thoughts, she appealed to the feelings. Perhaps +the only way of following such Penelope's progress is by marking its +outward and visible signs. + +As, for instance, within a few days of their first meeting, the +assiduous General had won and kept the right to kiss his lady's +insatiable hands. Wherever Mme de Langeais went, M. de Montriveau +was certain to be seen, till people jokingly called him "Her Grace's +orderly." And already he had made enemies; others were jealous, and +envied him his position. Mme de Langeais had attained her end. The +Marquis de Montriveau was among her numerous train of adorers, and a +means of humiliating those who boasted of their progress in her good +graces, for she publicly gave him preference over them all. + +"Decidedly, M. de Montriveau is the man for whom the Duchess shows a +preference," pronounced Mme de Serizy. + +And who in Paris does not know what it means when a woman "shows a +preference?" All went on therefore according to prescribed rule. The +anecdotes which people were pleased to circulate concerning the General +put that warrior in so formidable a light, that the more adroit quietly +dropped their pretensions to the Duchess, and remained in her train +merely to turn the position to account, and to use her name and +personality to make better terms for themselves with certain stars of +the second magnitude. And those lesser powers were delighted to take a +lover away from Mme de Langeais. The Duchess was keen-sighted enough to +see these desertions and treaties with the enemy; and her pride would +not suffer her to be the dupe of them. As M. de Talleyrand, one of her +great admirers, said, she knew how to take a second edition of revenge, +laying the two-edged blade of a sarcasm between the pairs in these +"morganatic" unions. Her mocking disdain contributed not a little to +increase her reputation as an extremely clever woman and a person to +be feared. Her character for virtue was consolidated while she amused +herself with other people's secrets, and kept her own to herself. Yet, +after two months of assiduities, she saw with a vague dread in the +depths of her soul that M. de Montriveau understood nothing of the +subtleties of flirtation after the manner of the Faubourg Saint-Germain; +he was taking a Parisienne's coquetry in earnest. + +"You will not tame _him_, dear Duchess," the old Vidame de Pamiers had +said. "'Tis a first cousin to the eagle; he will carry you off to his +eyrie if you do not take care." + +Then Mme de Langeais felt afraid. The shrewd old noble's words sounded +like a prophecy. The next day she tried to turn love to hate. She was +harsh, exacting, irritable, unbearable; Montriveau disarmed her with +angelic sweetness. She so little knew the great generosity of a large +nature, that the kindly jests with which her first complaints were met +went to her heart. She sought a quarrel, and found proofs of affection. +She persisted. + +"When a man idolizes you, how can he have vexed you?" asked Armand. + +"You do not vex me," she answered, suddenly grown gentle and submissive. +"But why do you wish to compromise me? For me you ought to be nothing +but a _friend_. Do you not know it? I wish I could see that you had the +instincts, the delicacy of real friendship, so that I might lose neither +your respect nor the pleasure that your presence gives me." + +"Nothing but your _friend_!" he cried out. The terrible word sent an +electric shock through his brain. "On the faith of these happy hours +that you grant me, I sleep and wake in your heart. And now today, for no +reason, you are pleased to destroy all the secret hopes by which I live. +You have required promises of such constancy in me, you have said so +much of your horror of women made up of nothing but caprice; and now do +you wish me to understand that, like other women here in Paris, you have +passions, and know nothing of love? If so, why did you ask my life of +me? why did you accept it?" + +"I was wrong, my friend. Oh, it is wrong of a woman to yield to such +intoxication when she must not and cannot make any return." + +"I understand. You have merely been coquetting with me, and----" + +"Coquetting?" she repeated. "I detest coquetry. A coquette Armand, makes +promises to many, and gives herself to none; and a woman who keeps such +promises is a libertine. This much I believed I had grasped of our code. +But to be melancholy with humorists, gay with the frivolous, and politic +with ambitious souls; to listen to a babbler with every appearance +of admiration, to talk of war with a soldier, wax enthusiastic with +philanthropists over the good of the nation, and to give to each one his +little dole of flattery--it seems to me that this is as much a matter of +necessity as dress, diamonds, and gloves, or flowers in one's hair. Such +talk is the moral counterpart of the toilette. You take it up and lay it +aside with the plumed head-dress. Do you call this coquetry? Why, I have +never treated you as I treat everyone else. With you, my friend, I am +sincere. Have I not always shared your views, and when you convinced me +after a discussion, was I not always perfectly glad? In short, I love +you, but only as a devout and pure woman may love. I have thought it +over. I am a married woman, Armand. My way of life with M. de Langeais +gives me liberty to bestow my heart; but law and custom leave me no +right to dispose of my person. If a woman loses her honour, she is +an outcast in any rank of life; and I have yet to meet with a single +example of a man that realizes all that our sacrifices demand of him in +such a case. Quite otherwise. Anyone can foresee the rupture between Mme +de Beauseant and M. d'Ajuda (for he is going to marry Mlle de Rochefide, +it seems), that affair made it clear to my mind that these very +sacrifices on the woman's part are almost always the cause of the man's +desertion. If you had loved me sincerely, you would have kept away for a +time.--Now, I will lay aside all vanity for you; is not that something? +What will not people say of a woman to whom no man attaches himself? +Oh, she is heartless, brainless, soulless; and what is more, devoid +of charm! Coquettes will not spare me. They will rob me of the very +qualities that mortify them. So long as my reputation is safe, what do I +care if my rivals deny my merits? They certainly will not inherit them. +Come, my friend; give up something for her who sacrifices so much for +you. Do not come quite so often; I shall love you none the less." + +"Ah!" said Armand, with the profound irony of a wounded heart in his +words and tone. "Love, so the scribblers say, only feeds on illusions. +Nothing could be truer, I see; I am expected to imagine that I am loved. +But, there!--there are some thoughts like wounds, from which there is no +recovery. My belief in you was one of the last left to me, and now I see +that there is nothing left to believe in this earth." + +She began to smile. + +"Yes," Montriveau went on in an unsteady voice, "this Catholic faith to +which you wish to convert me is a lie that men make for themselves; hope +is a lie at the expense of the future; pride, a lie between us and our +fellows; and pity, and prudence, and terror are cunning lies. And now +my happiness is to be one more lying delusion; I am expected to delude +myself, to be willing to give gold coin for silver to the end. If you +can so easily dispense with my visits; if you can confess me neither +as your friend nor your lover, you do not care for me! And I, poor fool +that I am, tell myself this, and know it, and love you!" + +"But, dear me, poor Armand, you are flying into a passion!" + +"I flying into a passion?" + +"Yes. You think that the whole question is opened because I ask you to +be careful." + +In her heart of hearts she was delighted with the anger that leapt out +in her lover's eyes. Even as she tortured him, she was criticising +him, watching every slightest change that passed over his face. If +the General had been so unluckily inspired as to show himself generous +without discussion (as happens occasionally with some artless souls), +he would have been a banished man forever, accused and convicted of not +knowing how to love. Most women are not displeased to have their code of +right and wrong broken through. Do they not flatter themselves that they +never yield except to force? But Armand was not learned enough in this +kind of lore to see the snare ingeniously spread for him by the Duchess. +So much of the child was there in the strong man in love. + +"If all you want is to preserve appearances," he began in his +simplicity, "I am willing to----" + +"Simply to preserve appearances!" the lady broke in; "why, what idea can +you have of me? Have I given you the slightest reason to suppose that I +can be yours?" + +"Why, what else are we talking about?" demanded Montriveau. + +"Monsieur, you frighten me!... No, pardon me. Thank you," she added, +coldly; "thank you, Armand. You have given me timely warning of +imprudence; committed quite unconsciously, believe it, my friend. You +know how to endure, you say. I also know how to endure. We will not +see each other for a time; and then, when both of us have contrived to +recover calmness to some extent, we will think about arrangements for +a happiness sanctioned by the world. I am young, Armand; a man with no +delicacy might tempt a woman of four-and-twenty to do many foolish, wild +things for his sake. But _you_! You will be my friend, promise me that +you will?" + +"The woman of four-and-twenty," returned he, "knows what she is about." + +He sat down on the sofa in the boudoir, and leant his head on his hands. + +"Do you love me, madame?" he asked at length, raising his head, and +turning a face full of resolution upon her. "Say it straight out; Yes or +No!" + +His direct question dismayed the Duchess more than a threat of suicide +could have done; indeed, the woman of the nineteenth century is not to +be frightened by that stale stratagem, the sword has ceased to be part +of the masculine costume. But in the effect of eyelids and lashes, in +the contraction of the gaze, in the twitching of the lips, is there not +some influence that communicates the terror which they express with such +vivid magnetic power? + +"Ah, if I were free, if----" + +"Oh! is it only your husband that stands in the way?" the General +exclaimed joyfully, as he strode to and fro in the boudoir. "Dear +Antoinette, I wield a more absolute power than the Autocrat of all the +Russias. I have a compact with Fate; I can advance or retard destiny, +so far as men are concerned, at my fancy, as you alter the hands of a +watch. If you can direct the course of fate in our political machinery, +it simply means (does it not?) that you understand the ins and outs of +it. You shall be free before very long, and then you must remember your +promise." + +"Armand!" she cried. "What do you mean? Great heavens! Can you imagine +that I am to be the prize of a crime? Do you want to kill me? Why! you +cannot have any religion in you! For my own part, I fear God. M. de +Langeais may have given me reason to hate him, but I wish him no manner +of harm." + +M. de Montriveau beat a tattoo on the marble chimney-piece, and only +looked composedly at the lady. + +"Dear," continued she, "respect him. He does not love me, he is not kind +to me, but I have duties to fulfil with regard to him. What would I not +do to avert the calamities with which you threaten him?--Listen," she +continued after a pause, "I will not say another word about separation; +you shall come here as in the past, and I will still give you my +forehead to kiss. If I refused once or twice, it was pure coquetry, +indeed it was. But let us understand each other," she added as he came +closer. "You will permit me to add to the number of my satellites; to +receive even more visitors in the morning than heretofore; I mean to be +twice as frivolous; I mean to use you to all appearance very badly; +to feign a rupture; you must come not quite so often, and then, +afterwards----" + +While she spoke, she had allowed him to put an arm about her waist, +Montriveau was holding her tightly to him, and she seemed to feel the +exceeding pleasure that women usually feel in that close contact, an +earnest of the bliss of a closer union. And then, doubtless she meant to +elicit some confidence, for she raised herself on tiptoe, and laid her +forehead against Armand's burning lips. + +"And then," Montriveau finished her sentence for her, "you shall not +speak to me of your husband. You ought not to think of him again." + +Mme de Langeais was silent awhile. + +"At least," she said, after a significant pause, "at least you will do +all that I wish without grumbling, you will not be naughty; tell me so, +my friend? You wanted to frighten me, did you not? Come, now, confess +it?... You are too good ever to think of crimes. But is it possible that +you can have secrets that I do not know? How can you control Fate?" + +"Now, when you confirm the gift of the heart that you have already given +me, I am far too happy to know exactly how to answer you. I can trust +you, Antoinette; I shall have no suspicion, no unfounded jealousy of +you. But if accident should set you free, we shall be one----" + +"Accident, Armand?" (With that little dainty turn of the head that seems +to say so many things, a gesture that such women as the Duchess can use +on light occasions, as a great singer can act with her voice.) "Pure +accident," she repeated. "Mind that. If anything should happen to M. de +Langeais by your fault, I should never be yours." + +And so they parted, mutually content. The Duchess had made a pact +that left her free to prove to the world by words and deeds that M. de +Montriveau was no lover of hers. And as for him, the wily Duchess +vowed to tire him out. He should have nothing of her beyond the little +concessions snatched in the course of contests that she could stop +at her pleasure. She had so pretty an art of revoking the grant +of yesterday, she was so much in earnest in her purpose to remain +technically virtuous, that she felt that there was not the slightest +danger for her in preliminaries fraught with peril for a woman less sure +of her self-command. After all, the Duchess was practically separated +from her husband; a marriage long since annulled was no great sacrifice +to make to her love. + +Montriveau on his side was quite happy to win the vaguest promise, glad +once for all to sweep aside, with all scruples of conjugal fidelity, her +stock of excuses for refusing herself to his love. He had gained ground +a little, and congratulated himself. And so for a time he took unfair +advantage of the rights so hardly won. More a boy than he had ever been +in his life, he gave himself up to all the childishness that makes first +love the flower of life. He was a child again as he poured out all +his soul, all the thwarted forces that passion had given him, upon her +hands, upon the dazzling forehead that looked so pure to his eyes; upon +her fair hair; on the tufted curls where his lips were pressed. And the +Duchess, on whom his love was poured like a flood, was vanquished by +the magnetic influence of her lover's warmth; she hesitated to begin +the quarrel that must part them forever. She was more a woman than she +thought, this slight creature, in her effort to reconcile the demands +of religion with the ever-new sensations of vanity, the semblance of +pleasure which turns a Parisienne's head. Every Sunday she went to Mass; +she never missed a service; then, when evening came, she was steeped in +the intoxicating bliss of repressed desire. Armand and Mme de Langeais, +like Hindoo fakirs, found the reward of their continence in the +temptations to which it gave rise. Possibly, the Duchess had ended by +resolving love into fraternal caresses, harmless enough, as it might +have seemed to the rest of the world, while they borrowed extremes +of degradation from the license of her thoughts. How else explain the +incomprehensible mystery of her continual fluctuations? Every morning +she proposed to herself to shut her door on the Marquis de Montriveau; +every evening, at the appointed hour, she fell under the charm of his +presence. There was a languid defence; then she grew less unkind. Her +words were sweet and soothing. They were lovers--lovers only could have +been thus. For him the Duchess would display her most sparkling wit, her +most captivating wiles; and when at last she had wrought upon his senses +and his soul, she might submit herself passively to his fierce caresses, +but she had her _nec plus ultra_ of passion; and when once it was +reached, she grew angry if he lost the mastery of himself and made +as though he would pass beyond. No woman on earth can brave the +consequences of refusal without some motive; nothing is more natural +than to yield to love; wherefore Mme de Langeais promptly raised a +second line of fortification, a stronghold less easy to carry than +the first. She evoked the terrors of religion. Never did Father of +the Church, however eloquent, plead the cause of God better than the +Duchess. Never was the wrath of the Most High better justified than +by her voice. She used no preacher's commonplaces, no rhetorical +amplifications. No. She had a "pulpit-tremor" of her own. To Armand's +most passionate entreaty, she replied with a tearful gaze, and a gesture +in which a terrible plenitude of emotion found expression. She stopped +his mouth with an appeal for mercy. She would not hear another word; if +she did, she must succumb; and better death than criminal happiness. + +"Is it nothing to disobey God?" she asked him, recovering a voice grown +faint in the crises of inward struggles, through which the fair +actress appeared to find it hard to preserve her self-control. "I would +sacrifice society, I would give up the whole world for you, gladly; but +it is very selfish of you to ask my whole after-life of me for a moment +of pleasure. Come, now! are you not happy?" she added, holding out her +hand; and certainly in her careless toilette the sight of her afforded +consolations to her lover, who made the most of them. + +Sometimes from policy, to keep her hold on a man whose ardent passion +gave her emotions unknown before, sometimes in weakness, she suffered +him to snatch a swift kiss; and immediately, in feigned terror, she +flushed red and exiled Armand from the sofa so soon as the sofa became +dangerous ground. + +"Your joys are sins for me to expiate, Armand; they are paid for by +penitence and remorse," she cried. + +And Montriveau, now at two chairs' distance from that aristocratic +petticoat, betook himself to blasphemy and railed against Providence. +The Duchess grew angry at such times. + +"My friend," she said drily, "I do not understand why you decline to +believe in God, for it is impossible to believe in man. Hush, do not +talk like that. You have too great a nature to take up their Liberal +nonsense with its pretension to abolish God." + +Theological and political disputes acted like a cold douche on +Montriveau; he calmed down; he could not return to love when the Duchess +stirred up his wrath by suddenly setting him down a thousand miles away +from the boudoir, discussing theories of absolute monarchy, which she +defended to admiration. Few women venture to be democrats; the attitude +of democratic champion is scarcely compatible with tyrannous feminine +sway. But often, on the other hand, the General shook out his mane, +dropped politics with a leonine growling and lashing of the flanks, and +sprang upon his prey; he was no longer capable of carrying a heart and +brain at such variance for very far; he came back, terrible with love, +to his mistress. And she, if she felt the prick of fancy stimulated to +a dangerous point, knew that it was time to leave her boudoir; she came +out of the atmosphere surcharged with desires that she drew in with +her breath, sat down to the piano, and sang the most exquisite songs +of modern music, and so baffled the physical attraction which at times +showed her no mercy, though she was strong enough to fight it down. + +At such times she was something sublime in Armand's eyes; she was not +acting, she was genuine; the unhappy lover was convinced that she loved +him. Her egoistic resistance deluded him into a belief that she was a +pure and sainted woman; he resigned himself; he talked of Platonic love, +did this artillery officer! + +When Mme de Langeais had played with religion sufficiently to suit her +own purposes, she played with it again for Armand's benefit. She wanted +to bring him back to a Christian frame of mind; she brought out her +edition of _Le Genie du Christianisme_, adapted for the use of military +men. Montriveau chafed; his yoke was heavy. Oh! at that, possessed by +the spirit of contradiction, she dinned religion into his ears, to see +whether God might not rid her of this suitor, for the man's persistence +was beginning to frighten her. And in any case she was glad to prolong +any quarrel, if it bade fair to keep the dispute on moral grounds for +an indefinite period; the material struggle which followed it was more +dangerous. + +But if the time of her opposition on the ground of the marriage law +might be said to be the _epoque civile_ of this sentimental warfare, the +ensuing phase which might be taken to constitute the _epoque religieuse_ +had also its crisis and consequent decline of severity. + +Armand happening to come in very early one evening, found M. l'Abbe +Gondrand, the Duchess's spiritual director, established in an armchair +by the fireside, looking as a spiritual director might be expected to +look while digesting his dinner and the charming sins of his penitent. +In the ecclesiastic's bearing there was a stateliness befitting a +dignitary of the Church; and the episcopal violet hue already appeared +in his dress. At sight of his fresh, well-preserved complexion, smooth +forehead, and ascetic's mouth, Montriveau's countenance grew uncommonly +dark; he said not a word under the malicious scrutiny of the other's +gaze, and greeted neither the lady nor the priest. The lover apart, +Montriveau was not wanting in tact; so a few glances exchanged with the +bishop-designate told him that here was the real forger of the Duchess's +armory of scruples. + +That an ambitious abbe should control the happiness of a man of +Montriveau's temper, and by underhand ways! The thought burst in a +furious tide over his face, clenched his fists, and set him chafing and +pacing to and fro; but when he came back to his place intending to make +a scene, a single look from the Duchess was enough. He was quiet. + +Any other woman would have been put out by her lover's gloomy silence; +it was quite otherwise with Mme de Langeais. She continued her +conversation with M. de Gondrand on the necessity of re-establishing the +Church in its ancient splendour. And she talked brilliantly. + +The Church, she maintained, ought to be a temporal as well as a +spiritual power, stating her case better than the Abbe had done, and +regretting that the Chamber of Peers, unlike the English House of Lords, +had no bench of bishops. Nevertheless, the Abbe rose, yielded his place +to the General, and took his leave, knowing that in Lent he could play a +return game. As for the Duchess, Montriveau's behaviour had excited +her curiosity to such a pitch that she scarcely rose to return her +director's low bow. + +"What is the matter with you, my friend?" + +"Why, I cannot stomach that Abbe of yours." + +"Why did you not take a book?" she asked, careless whether the Abbe, +then closing the door, heard her or no. + +The General paused, for the gesture which accompanied the Duchess's +speech further increased the exceeding insolence of her words. + +"My dear Antoinette, thank you for giving love precedence of the Church; +but, for pity's sake, allow me to ask one question." + +"Oh! you are questioning me! I am quite willing. You are my friend, are +you not? I certainly can open the bottom of my heart to you; you will +see only one image there." + +"Do you talk about our love to that man?" + +"He is my confessor." + +"Does he know that I love you?" + +"M. de Montriveau, you cannot claim, I think, to penetrate the secrets +of the confessional?" + +"Does that man know all about our quarrels and my love for you?" + +"That man, monsieur; say God!" + +"God again! _I_ ought to be alone in your heart. But leave God alone +where He is, for the love of God and me. Madame, you _shall not_ go to +confession again, or----" + +"Or?" she repeated sweetly. + +"Or I will never come back here." + +"Then go, Armand. Good-bye, good-bye forever." + +She rose and went to her boudoir without so much as a glance at Armand, +as he stood with his hand on the back of a chair. How long he stood +there motionless he himself never knew. The soul within has the +mysterious power of expanding as of contracting space. + +He opened the door of the boudoir. It was dark within. A faint voice was +raised to say sharply: + +"I did not ring. What made you come in without orders? Go away, +Suzette." + +"Then you are ill," exclaimed Montriveau. + +"Stand up, monsieur, and go out of the room for a minute at any rate," +she said, ringing the bell. + +"Mme la Duchesse rang for lights?" said the footman, coming in with the +candles. When the lovers were alone together, Mme de Langeais still lay +on her couch; she was just as silent and motionless as if Montriveau had +not been there. + +"Dear, I was wrong," he began, a note of pain and a sublime kindness in +his voice. "Indeed, I would not have you without religion----" + +"It is fortunate that you can recognise the necessity of a conscience," +she said in a hard voice, without looking at him. "I thank you in God's +name." + +The General was broken down by her harshness; this woman seemed as +if she could be at will a sister or a stranger to him. He made one +despairing stride towards the door. He would leave her forever without +another word. He was wretched; and the Duchess was laughing within +herself over mental anguish far more cruel than the old judicial +torture. But as for going away, it was not in his power to do it. In any +sort of crisis, a woman is, as it were, bursting with a certain quantity +of things to say; so long as she has not delivered herself of them, +she experiences the sensation which we are apt to feel at the sight of +something incomplete. Mme de Langeais had not said all that was in her +mind. She took up her parable and said: + +"We have not the same convictions, General, I am pained to think. It +would be dreadful if a woman could not believe in a religion which +permits us to love beyond the grave. I set Christian sentiments aside; +you cannot understand them. Let me simply speak to you of expediency. +Would you forbid a woman at court the table of the Lord when it is +customary to take the sacrament at Easter? People must certainly do +something for their party. The Liberals, whatever they may wish to do, +will never destroy the religious instinct. Religion will always be +a political necessity. Would you undertake to govern a nation of +logic-choppers? Napoleon was afraid to try; he persecuted ideologists. +If you want to keep people from reasoning, you must give them something +to feel. So let us accept the Roman Catholic Church with all its +consequences. And if we would have France go to mass, ought we not to +begin by going ourselves? Religion, you see, Armand, is a bond uniting +all the conservative principles which enable the rich to live in +tranquillity. Religion and the rights of property are intimately +connected. It is certainly a finer thing to lead a nation by ideas of +morality than by fear of the scaffold, as in the time of the Terror--the +one method by which your odious Revolution could enforce obedience. +The priest and the king--that means you, and me, and the Princess +my neighbour; and, in a word, the interests of all honest people +personified. There, my friend, just be so good as to belong to your +party, you that might be its Scylla if you had the slightest ambition +that way. I know nothing about politics myself; I argue from my own +feelings; but still I know enough to guess that society would +be overturned if people were always calling its foundations in +question----" + +"If that is how your Court and your Government think, I am sorry for +you," broke in Montriveau. "The Restoration, madam, ought to say, like +Catherine de Medici, when she heard that the battle of Dreux was lost, +'Very well; now we will go to the meeting-house.' Now 1815 was your +battle of Dreux. Like the royal power of those days, you won in +fact, while you lost in right. Political Protestantism has gained an +ascendancy over people's minds. If you have no mind to issue your Edict +of Nantes; or if, when it is issued, you publish a Revocation; if you +should one day be accused and convicted of repudiating the Charter, +which is simply a pledge given to maintain the interests established +under the Republic, then the Revolution will rise again, terrible in her +strength, and strike but a single blow. It will not be the Revolution +that will go into exile; she is the very soil of France. Men die, but +people's interests do not die. ... Eh, great Heavens! what are France +and the crown and rightful sovereigns, and the whole world besides, to +us? Idle words compared with my happiness. Let them reign or be hurled +from the throne, little do I care. Where am I now?" + +"In the Duchesse de Langeais' boudoir, my friend." + +"No, no. No more of the Duchess, no more of Langeais; I am with my dear +Antoinette." + +"Will you do me the pleasure to stay where you are," she said, laughing +and pushing him back, gently however. + +"So you have never loved me," he retorted, and anger flashed in +lightning from his eyes. + +"No, dear"; but the "No" was equivalent to "Yes." + +"I am a great ass," he said, kissing her hands. The terrible queen was a +woman once more.--"Antoinette," he went on, laying his head on her feet, +"you are too chastely tender to speak of our happiness to anyone in this +world." + +"Oh!" she cried, rising to her feet with a swift, graceful spring, +"you are a great simpleton." And without another word she fled into the +drawing-room. + +"What is it now?" wondered the General, little knowing that the touch of +his burning forehead had sent a swift electric thrill through her from +foot to head. + +In hot wrath he followed her to the drawing-room, only to hear divinely +sweet chords. The Duchess was at the piano. If the man of science or the +poet can at once enjoy and comprehend, bringing his intelligence to bear +upon his enjoyment without loss of delight, he is conscious that the +alphabet and phraseology of music are but cunning instruments for +the composer, like the wood and copper wire under the hands of the +executant. For the poet and the man of science there is a music existing +apart, underlying the double expression of this language of the spirit +and senses. _Andiamo mio ben_ can draw tears of joy or pitying laughter +at the will of the singer; and not unfrequently one here and there in +the world, some girl unable to live and bear the heavy burden of an +unguessed pain, some man whose soul vibrates with the throb of passion, +may take up a musical theme, and lo! heaven is opened for them, or they +find a language for themselves in some sublime melody, some song lost to +the world. + +The General was listening now to such a song; a mysterious music unknown +to all other ears, as the solitary plaint of some mateless bird dying +alone in a virgin forest. + +"Great Heavens! what are you playing there?" he asked in an unsteady +voice. + +"The prelude of a ballad, called, I believe, _Fleuve du Tage_." + +"I did not know that there was such music in a piano," he returned. + +"Ah!" she said, and for the first time she looked at him as a woman +looks at the man she loves, "nor do you know, my friend, that I love +you, and that you cause me horrible suffering; and that I feel that I +must utter my cry of pain without putting it too plainly into words. If +I did not, I should yield----But you see nothing." + +"And you will not make me happy!" + +"Armand, I should die of sorrow the next day." + +The General turned abruptly from her and went. But out in the street he +brushed away the tears that he would not let fall. + +The religious phase lasted for three months. At the end of that time the +Duchess grew weary of vain repetitions; the Deity, bound hand and foot, +was delivered up to her lover. Possibly she may have feared that by +sheer dint of talking of eternity she might perpetuate his love in this +world and the next. For her own sake, it must be believed that no man +had touched her heart, or her conduct would be inexcusable. She was +young; the time when men and women feel that they cannot afford to lose +time or to quibble over their joys was still far off. She, no doubt, was +on the verge not of first love, but of her first experience of the bliss +of love. And from inexperience, for want of the painful lessons which +would have taught her to value the treasure poured out at her feet, she +was playing with it. Knowing nothing of the glory and rapture of the +light, she was fain to stay in the shadow. + +Armand was just beginning to understand this strange situation; he put +his hope in the first word spoken by nature. Every evening, as he came +away from Mme de Langeais', he told himself that no woman would accept +the tenderest, most delicate proofs of a man's love during seven months, +nor yield passively to the slighter demands of passion, only to cheat +love at the last. He was waiting patiently for the sun to gain power, +not doubting but that he should receive the earliest fruits. The married +woman's hesitations and the religious scruples he could quite well +understand. He even rejoiced over those battles. He mistook the +Duchess's heartless coquetry for modesty; and he would not have had her +otherwise. So he had loved to see her devising obstacles; was he not +gradually triumphing over them? Did not every victory won swell the +meagre sum of lovers' intimacies long denied, and at last conceded with +every sign of love? Still, he had had such leisure to taste the full +sweetness of every small successive conquest on which a lover feeds +his love, that these had come to be matters of use and wont. So far as +obstacles went, there were none now save his own awe of her; nothing +else left between him and his desire save the whims of her who allowed +him to call her Antoinette. So he made up his mind to demand more, to +demand all. Embarrassed like a young lover who cannot dare to believe +that his idol can stoop so low, he hesitated for a long time. He passed +through the experience of terrible reactions within himself. A set +purpose was annihilated by a word, and definite resolves died within him +on the threshold. He despised himself for his weakness, and still his +desire remained unuttered. Nevertheless, one evening, after sitting +in gloomy melancholy, he brought out a fierce demand for his illegally +legitimate rights. The Duchess had not to wait for her bond-slave's +request to guess his desire. When was a man's desire a secret? And have +not women an intuitive knowledge of the meaning of certain changes of +countenance? + +"What! you wish to be my friend no longer?" she broke in at the first +words, and a divine red surging like new blood under the transparent +skin, lent brightness to her eyes. "As a reward for my generosity, you +would dishonor me? Just reflect a little. I myself have thought much +over this; and I think always for us _both_. There is such a thing as +a woman's loyalty, and we can no more fail in it than you can fail in +honour. _I_ cannot blind myself. If I am yours, how, in any sense, can +I be M. de Langeais' wife? Can you require the sacrifice of my position, +my rank, my whole life in return for a doubtful love that could not wait +patiently for seven months? What! already you would rob me of my right +to dispose of myself? No, no; you must not talk like this again. No, not +another word. I will not, I cannot listen to you." + +Mme de Langeais raised both hands to her head to push back the tufted +curls from her hot forehead; she seemed very much excited. + +"You come to a weak woman with your purpose definitely planned out. You +say--'For a certain length of time she will talk to me of her husband, +then of God, and then of the inevitable consequences. But I will use +and abuse the ascendancy I shall gain over her; I will make myself +indispensable; all the bonds of habit, all the misconstructions of +outsiders, will make for me; and at length, when our _liaison_ is taken +for granted by all the world, I shall be this woman's master.'--Now, be +frank; these are your thoughts! Oh! you calculate, and you say that you +love. Shame on you! You are enamoured? Ah! that I well believe! You +wish to possess me, to have me for your mistress, that is all! Very well +then, No! The _Duchesse de Langeais_ will not descend so far. Simple +_bourgeoises_ may be the victims of your treachery--I, never! Nothing +gives me assurance of your love. You speak of my beauty; I may lose +every trace of it in six months, like the dear Princess, my neighbour. +You are captivated by my wit, my grace. Great Heavens! you would soon +grow used to them and to the pleasures of possession. Have not the +little concessions that I was weak enough to make come to be a matter of +course in the last few months? Some day, when ruin comes, you will give +me no reason for the change in you beyond a curt, 'I have ceased to +care for you.'--Then, rank and fortune and honour and all that was the +Duchesse de Langeais will be swallowed up in one disappointed hope. +I shall have children to bear witness to my shame, and----" With an +involuntary gesture she interrupted herself, and continued: "But I am +too good-natured to explain all this to you when you know it better than +I. Come! let us stay as we are. I am only too fortunate in that I can +still break these bonds which you think so strong. Is there anything so +very heroic in coming to the Hotel de Langeais to spend an evening +with a woman whose prattle amuses you?--a woman whom you take for a +plaything? Why, half a dozen young coxcombs come here just as regularly +every afternoon between three and five. They, too, are very generous, I +am to suppose? I make fun of them; they stand my petulance and insolence +pretty quietly, and make me laugh; but as for you, I give all the +treasures of my soul to you, and you wish to ruin me, you try my +patience in endless ways. Hush, that will do, that will do," she +continued, seeing that he was about to speak, "you have no heart, +no soul, no delicacy. I know what you want to tell me. Very well, +then--yes. I would rather you should take me for a cold, insensible +woman, with no devotion in her composition, no heart even, than be +taken by everybody else for a vulgar person, and be condemned to your +so-called pleasures, of which you would most certainly tire, and to +everlasting punishment for it afterwards. Your selfish love is not worth +so many sacrifices...." + +The words give but a very inadequate idea of the discourse which the +Duchess trilled out with the quick volubility of a bird-organ. Nor, +truly, was there anything to prevent her from talking on for some time +to come, for poor Armand's only reply to the torrent of flute notes was +a silence filled with cruelly painful thoughts. He was just beginning to +see that this woman was playing with him; he divined instinctively +that a devoted love, a responsive love, does not reason and count +the consequences in this way. Then, as he heard her reproach him with +detestable motives, he felt something like shame as he remembered that +unconsciously he had made those very calculations. With angelic honesty +of purpose, he looked within, and self-examination found nothing but +selfishness in all his thoughts and motives, in the answers which he +framed and could not utter. He was self-convicted. In his despair +he longed to fling himself from the window. The egoism of it was +intolerable. + +What indeed can a man say when a woman will not believe in love?--Let me +prove how much I love you.--The _I_ is always there. + +The heroes of the boudoir, in such circumstances, can follow the example +of the primitive logician who preceded the Pyrrhonists and denied +movement. Montriveau was not equal to this feat. With all his audacity, +he lacked this precise kind which never deserts an adept in the formulas +of feminine algebra. If so many women, and even the best of women, fall +a prey to a kind of expert to whom the vulgar give a grosser name, it is +perhaps because the said experts are great _provers_, and love, in spite +of its delicious poetry of sentiment, requires a little more geometry +than people are wont to think. + +Now the Duchess and Montriveau were alike in this--they were both +equally unversed in love lore. The lady's knowledge of theory was but +scanty; in practice she knew nothing whatever; she felt nothing, and +reflected over everything. Montriveau had had but little experience, was +absolutely ignorant of theory, and felt too much to reflect at all. Both +therefore were enduring the consequences of the singular situation. +At that supreme moment the myriad thoughts in his mind might have +been reduced to the formula--"Submit to be mine----" words which seem +horribly selfish to a woman for whom they awaken no memories, recall no +ideas. Something nevertheless he must say. And what was more, though her +barbed shafts had set his blood tingling, though the short phrases that +she discharged at him one by one were very keen and sharp and cold, he +must control himself lest he should lose all by an outbreak of anger. + +"Mme la Duchesse, I am in despair that God should have invented no way +for a woman to confirm the gift of her heart save by adding the gift of +her person. The high value which you yourself put upon the gift teaches +me that I cannot attach less importance to it. If you have given me +your inmost self and your whole heart, as you tell me, what can the rest +matter? And besides, if my happiness means so painful a sacrifice, let +us say no more about it. But you must pardon a man of spirit if he feels +humiliated at being taken for a spaniel." + +The tone in which the last remark was uttered might perhaps have +frightened another woman; but when the wearer of a petticoat has allowed +herself to be addressed as a Divinity, and thereby set herself above all +other mortals, no power on earth can be so haughty. + +"M. le Marquis, I am in despair that God should not have invented +some nobler way for a man to confirm the gift of his heart than by the +manifestation of prodigiously vulgar desires. We become bond-slaves +when we give ourselves body and soul, but a man is bound to nothing by +accepting the gift. Who will assure me that love will last? The very +love that I might show for you at every moment, the better to keep your +love, might serve you as a reason for deserting me. I have no wish to be +a second edition of Mme de Beauseant. Who can ever know what it is that +keeps you beside us? Our persistent coldness of heart is the cause of +an unfailing passion in some of you; other men ask for an untiring +devotion, to be idolized at every moment; some for gentleness, others +for tyranny. No woman in this world as yet has really read the riddle of +man's heart." + +There was a pause. When she spoke again it was in a different tone. + +"After all, my friend, you cannot prevent a woman from trembling at the +question, 'Will this love last always?' Hard though my words may be, +the dread of losing you puts them into my mouth. Oh, me! it is not I +who speaks, dear, it is reason; and how should anyone so mad as I be +reasonable? In truth, I am nothing of the sort." + +The poignant irony of her answer had changed before the end into the +most musical accents in which a woman could find utterance for ingenuous +love. To listen to her words was to pass in a moment from martyrdom to +heaven. Montriveau grew pale; and for the first time in his life, he +fell on his knees before a woman. He kissed the Duchess's skirt hem, her +knees, her feet; but for the credit of the Faubourg Saint-Germain it is +necessary to respect the mysteries of its boudoirs, where many are fain +to take the utmost that Love can give without giving proof of love in +return. + +The Duchess thought herself generous when she suffered herself to be +adored. But Montriveau was in a wild frenzy of joy over her complete +surrender of the position. + +"Dear Antoinette," he cried. "Yes, you are right; I will not have you +doubt any longer. I too am trembling at this moment--lest the angel of +my life should leave me; I wish I could invent some tie that might bind +us to each other irrevocably." + +"Ah!" she said, under her breath, "so I was right, you see." + +"Let me say all that I have to say; I will scatter all your fears with +a word. Listen! if I deserted you, I should deserve to die a thousand +deaths. Be wholly mine, and I will give you the right to kill me if I +am false. I myself will write a letter explaining certain reasons for +taking my own life; I will make my final arrangements, in short. You +shall have the letter in your keeping; in the eye of the law it will be +a sufficient explanation of my death. You can avenge yourself, and fear +nothing from God or men." + +"What good would the letter be to me? What would life be if I had lost +your love? If I wished to kill you, should I not be ready to follow? No; +thank you for the thought, but I do not want the letter. Should I not +begin to dread that you were faithful to me through fear? And if a man +knows that he must risk his life for a stolen pleasure, might it not +seem more tempting? Armand, the thing I ask of you is the one hard thing +to do." + +"Then what is it that you wish?" + +"Your obedience and my liberty." + +"Ah, God!" cried he, "I am a child." + +"A wayward, much spoilt child," she said, stroking the thick hair, +for his head still lay on her knee. "Ah! and loved far more than he +believes, and yet he is very disobedient. Why not stay as we are? Why +not sacrifice to me the desires that hurt me? Why not take what I can +give, when it is all that I can honestly grant? Are you not happy?" + +"Oh yes, I am happy when I have not a doubt left. Antoinette, doubt in +love is a kind of death, is it not?" + +In a moment he showed himself as he was, as all men are under the +influence of that hot fever; he grew eloquent, insinuating. And the +Duchess tasted the pleasures which she reconciled with her conscience +by some private, Jesuitical ukase of her own; Armand's love gave her a +thrill of cerebral excitement which custom made as necessary to her as +society, or the Opera. To feel that she was adored by this man, who rose +above other men, whose character frightened her; to treat him like a +child; to play with him as Poppaea played with Nero--many women, like +the wives of King Henry VIII, have paid for such a perilous delight with +all the blood in their veins. Grim presentiment! Even as she surrendered +the delicate, pale, gold curls to his touch, and felt the close pressure +of his hand, the little hand of a man whose greatness she could not +mistake; even as she herself played with his dark, thick locks, in that +boudoir where she reigned a queen, the Duchess would say to herself: + +"This man is capable of killing me if he once finds out that I am +playing with him." + +Armand de Montriveau stayed with her till two o'clock in the morning. +From that moment this woman, whom he loved, was neither a duchess nor a +Navarreins; Antoinette, in her disguises, had gone so far as to appear +to be a woman. On that most blissful evening, the sweetest prelude ever +played by a Parisienne to what the world calls "a slip"; in spite of all +her affectations of a coyness which she did not feel, the General saw +all maidenly beauty in her. He had some excuse for believing that so +many storms of caprice had been but clouds covering a heavenly soul; +that these must be lifted one by one like the veils that hid her divine +loveliness. The Duchess became, for him, the most simple and girlish +mistress; she was the one woman in the world for him; and he went away +quite happy in that at last he had brought her to give him such pledges +of love, that it seemed to him impossible but that he should be but her +husband henceforth in secret, her choice sanctioned by Heaven. + +Armand went slowly home, turning this thought in his mind with the +impartiality of a man who is conscious of all the responsibilities that +love lays on him while he tastes the sweetness of its joys. He went +along the Quais to see the widest possible space of sky; his heart had +grown in him; he would fain have had the bounds of the firmament and of +earth enlarged. It seemed to him that his lungs drew an ampler breath. +In the course of his self-examination, as he walked, he vowed to love +this woman so devoutly, that every day of her life she should find +absolution for her sins against society in unfailing happiness. Sweet +stirrings of life when life is at the full! The man that is strong +enough to steep his soul in the colour of one emotion, feels infinite +joy as glimpses open out for him of an ardent lifetime that knows no +diminution of passion to the end; even so it is permitted to certain +mystics, in ecstasy, to behold the Light of God. Love would be naught +without the belief that it would last forever; love grows great +through constancy. It was thus that, wholly absorbed by his happiness, +Montriveau understood passion. + +"We belong to each other forever!" + +The thought was like a talisman fulfilling the wishes of his life. He +did not ask whether the Duchess might not change, whether her love might +not last. No, for he had faith. Without that virtue there is no future +for Christianity, and perhaps it is even more necessary to society. +A conception of life as feeling occurred to him for the first time; +hitherto he had lived by action, the most strenuous exertion of human +energies, the physical devotion, as it may be called, of the soldier. + +Next day M. de Montriveau went early in the direction of the Faubourg +Saint-Germain. He had made an appointment at a house not far from the +Hotel de Langeais; and the business over, he went thither as if to his +own home. The General's companion chanced to be a man for whom he felt +a kind of repulsion whenever he met him in other houses. This was the +Marquis de Ronquerolles, whose reputation had grown so great in Paris +boudoirs. He was witty, clever, and what was more--courageous; he set +the fashion to all the young men in Paris. As a man of gallantry, his +success and experience were equally matters of envy; and neither fortune +nor birth was wanting in his case, qualifications which add such lustre +in Paris to a reputation as a leader of fashion. + +"Where are you going?" asked M. de Ronquerolles. + +"To Mme de Langeais'." + +"Ah, true. I forgot that you had allowed her to lime(sp) you. You are +wasting your affections on her when they might be much better employed +elsewhere. I could have told you of half a score of women in the +financial world, any one of them a thousand times better worth your +while than that titled courtesan, who does with her brains what less +artificial women do with----" + +"What is this, my dear fellow?" Armand broke in. "The Duchess is an +angel of innocence." + +Ronquerolles began to laugh. + +"Things being thus, dear boy," said he, "it is my duty to enlighten you. +Just a word; there is no harm in it between ourselves. Has the Duchess +surrendered? If so, I have nothing more to say. Come, give me your +confidence. There is no occasion to waste your time in grafting +your great nature on that unthankful stock, when all your hopes and +cultivation will come to nothing." + +Armand ingenuously made a kind of general report of his position, +enumerating with much minuteness the slender rights so hardly won. +Ronquerolles burst into a peal of laughter so heartless, that it would +have cost any other man his life. But from their manner of speaking and +looking at each other during that colloquy beneath the wall, in a corner +almost as remote from intrusion as the desert itself, it was easy to +imagine the friendship between the two men knew no bounds, and that no +power on earth could estrange them. + +"My dear Armand, why did you not tell me that the Duchess was a puzzle +to you? I would have given you a little advice which might have brought +your flirtation properly through. You must know, to begin with, that the +women of our Faubourg, like any other women, love to steep themselves in +love; but they have a mind to possess and not to be possessed. They have +made a sort of compromise with human nature. The code of their parish +gives them a pretty wide latitude short of the last transgression. The +sweets enjoyed by this fair Duchess of yours are so many venial sins +to be washed away in the waters of penitence. But if you had the +impertinence to ask in earnest for the moral sin to which naturally +you are sure to attach the highest importance, you would see the deep +disdain with which the door of the boudoir and the house would be +incontinently shut upon you. The tender Antoinette would dismiss +everything from her memory; you would be less than a cipher for her. +She would wipe away your kisses, my dear friend, as indifferently as she +would perform her ablutions. She would sponge love from her cheeks as +she washes off rouge. We know women of that sort--the thorough-bred +Parisienne. Have you ever noticed a grisette tripping along the street? +Her face is as good as a picture. A pretty cap, fresh cheeks, trim hair, +a guileful smile, and the rest of her almost neglected. Is not this true +to the life? Well, that is the Parisienne. She knows that her face is +all that will be seen, so she devotes all her care, finery, and vanity +to her head. The Duchess is the same; the head is everything with her. +She can only feel through her intellect, her heart lies in her brain, +she is a sort of intellectual epicure, she has a head-voice. We call +that kind of poor creature a Lais of the intellect. You have been taken +in like a boy. If you doubt it, you can have proof of it tonight, this +morning, this instant. Go up to her, try the demand as an experiment, +insist peremptorily if it is refused. You might set about it like the +late Marechal de Richelieu, and get nothing for your pains." + +Armand was dumb with amazement. + +"Has your desire reached the point of infatuation?" + +"I want her at any cost!" Montriveau cried out despairingly. + +"Very well. Now, look here. Be as inexorable as she is herself. Try to +humiliate her, to sting her vanity. Do _not_ try to move her heart, +nor her soul, but the woman's nerves and temperament, for she is both +nervous and lymphatic. If you can once awaken desire in her, you are +safe. But you must drop these romantic boyish notions of yours. If when +once you have her in your eagle's talons you yield a point or draw back, +if you so much as stir an eyelid, if she thinks that she can regain her +ascendancy over you, she will slip out of your clutches like a fish, and +you will never catch her again. Be as inflexible as law. Show no more +charity than the headsman. Hit hard, and then hit again. Strike and keep +on striking as if you were giving her the knout. Duchesses are made of +hard stuff, my dear Armand; there is a sort of feminine nature that is +only softened by repeated blows; and as suffering develops a heart in +women of that sort, so it is a work of charity not to spare the rod. +Do you persevere. Ah! when pain has thoroughly relaxed those nerves and +softened the fibres that you take to be so pliant and yielding; when +a shriveled heart has learned to expand and contract and to beat under +this discipline; when the brain has capitulated--then, perhaps, passion +may enter among the steel springs of this machinery that turns out tears +and affectations and languors and melting phrases; then you shall see a +most magnificent conflagration (always supposing that the chimney takes +fire). The steel feminine system will glow red-hot like iron in the +forge; that kind of heat lasts longer than any other, and the glow of it +may possibly turn to love. + +"Still," he continued, "I have my doubts. And, after all, is it worth +while to take so much trouble with the Duchess? Between ourselves a man +of my stamp ought first to take her in hand and break her in; I would +make a charming woman of her; she is a thoroughbred; whereas, you two +left to yourselves will never get beyond the A B C. But you are in love +with her, and just now you might not perhaps share my views on this +subject----. A pleasant time to you, my children," added Ronquerolles, +after a pause. Then with a laugh: "I have decided myself for facile +beauties; they are tender, at any rate, the natural woman appears in +their love without any of your social seasonings. A woman that haggles +over herself, my poor boy, and only means to inspire love! Well, have +her like an extra horse--for show. The match between the sofa and +confessional, black and white, queen and knight, conscientious scruples +and pleasure, is an uncommonly amusing game of chess. And if a man knows +the game, let him be never so little of a rake, he wins in three moves. +Now, if I undertook a woman of that sort, I should start with the +deliberate purpose of----" His voice sank to a whisper over the last +words in Armand's ear, and he went before there was time to reply. + +As for Montriveau, he sprang at a bound across the courtyard of the +Hotel de Langeais, went unannounced up the stairs straight to the +Duchess's bedroom. + +"This is an unheard-of thing," she said, hastily wrapping her +dressing-gown about her. "Armand! this is abominable of you! Come, leave +the room, I beg. Just go out of the room, and go at once. Wait for me in +the drawing-room.--Come now!" + +"Dear angel, has a plighted lover no privilege whatsoever?" + +"But, monsieur, it is in the worst possible taste of a plighted lover or +a wedded husband to break in like this upon his wife." + +He came up to the Duchess, took her in his arms, and held her tightly to +him. + +"Forgive, dear Antoinette; but a host of horrid doubts are fermenting in +my heart." + +"_Doubts_? Fie!--Oh, fie on you!" + +"Doubts all but justified. If you loved me, would you make this quarrel? +Would you not be glad to see me? Would you not have felt a something +stir in your heart? For I, that am not a woman, feel a thrill in my +inmost self at the mere sound of your voice. Often in a ballroom a +longing has come upon me to spring to your side and put my arms about +your neck." + +"Oh! if you have doubts of me so long as I am not ready to spring to +your arms before all the world, I shall be doubted all my life long, I +suppose. Why, Othello was a mere child compared with you!" + +"Ah!" he cried despairingly, "you have no love for me----" + +"Admit, at any rate, that at this moment you are not lovable." + +"Then I have still to find favour in your sight?" + +"Oh, I should think so. Come," added she, "with a little imperious air, +go out of the room, leave me. I am not like you; I wish always to find +favour in your eyes." + +Never woman better understood the art of putting charm into insolence, +and does not the charm double the effect? is it not enough to infuriate +the coolest of men? There was a sort of untrammeled freedom about Mme +de Langeais; a something in her eyes, her voice, her attitude, which is +never seen in a woman who loves when she stands face to face with him at +the mere sight of whom her heart must needs begin to beat. The Marquis +de Ronquerolles' counsels had cured Armand of sheepishness; and further, +there came to his aid that rapid power of intuition which passion will +develop at moments in the least wise among mortals, while a great man +at such a time possesses it to the full. He guessed the terrible truth +revealed by the Duchess's nonchalance, and his heart swelled with the +storm like a lake rising in flood. + +"If you told me the truth yesterday, be mine, dear Antoinette," he +cried; "you shall----" + +"In the first place," said she composedly, thrusting him back as he +came nearer--"in the first place, you are not to compromise me. My woman +might overhear you. Respect me, I beg of you. Your familiarity is all +very well in my boudoir in an evening; here it is quite different. +Besides, what may your 'you shall' mean? 'You shall.' No one as yet +has ever used that word to me. It is quite ridiculous, it seems to me, +absolutely ridiculous. + +"Will you surrender nothing to me on this point?" + +"Oh! do you call a woman's right to dispose of herself a 'point?' A +capital point indeed; you will permit me to be entirely my own mistress +on that 'point.'" + +"And how if, believing in your promises to me, I should absolutely +require it?" + +"Oh! then you would prove that I made the greatest possible mistake when +I made you a promise of any kind; and I should beg you to leave me in +peace." + +The General's face grew white; he was about to spring to her side, when +Mme de Langeais rang the bell, the maid appeared, and, smiling with a +mocking grace, the Duchess added, "Be so good as to return when I am +visible." + +Then Montriveau felt the hardness of a woman as cold and keen as a steel +blade; she was crushing in her scorn. In one moment she had snapped +the bonds which held firm only for her lover. She had read Armand's +intention in his face, and held that the moment had come for teaching +the Imperial soldier his lesson. He was to be made to feel that though +duchesses may lend themselves to love, they do not give themselves, and +that the conquest of one of them would prove a harder matter than the +conquest of Europe. + +"Madame," returned Armand, "I have not time to wait. I am a spoilt +child, as you told me yourself. When I seriously resolve to have that of +which we have been speaking, I shall have it." + +"You will have it?" queried she, and there was a trace of surprise in +her loftiness. + +"I shall have it." + +"Oh! you would do me a great pleasure by 'resolving' to have it. For +curiosity's sake, I should be delighted to know how you would set about +it----" + +"I am delighted to put a new interest into your life," interrupted +Montriveau, breaking into a laugh which dismayed the Duchess. "Will you +permit me to take you to the ball tonight?" + +"A thousand thanks. M. de Marsay has been beforehand with you. I gave +him my promise." + +Montriveau bowed gravely and went. + +"So Ronquerolles was right," thought he, "and now for a game of chess." + +Thenceforward he hid his agitation by complete composure. No man is +strong enough to bear such sudden alternations from the height of +happiness to the depths of wretchedness. So he had caught a glimpse of +happy life the better to feel the emptiness of his previous existence? +There was a terrible storm within him; but he had learned to endure, +and bore the shock of tumultuous thoughts as a granite cliff stands out +against the surge of an angry sea. + +"I could say nothing. When I am with her my wits desert me. She does not +know how vile and contemptible she is. Nobody has ventured to bring her +face to face with herself. She has played with many a man, no doubt; I +will avenge them all." + +For the first time, it may be, in a man's heart, revenge and love were +blended so equally that Montriveau himself could not know whether love +or revenge would carry all before it. That very evening he went to the +ball at which he was sure of seeing the Duchesse de Langeais, and almost +despaired of reaching her heart. He inclined to think that there was +something diabolical about this woman, who was gracious to him and +radiant with charming smiles; probably because she had no wish to +allow the world to think that she had compromised herself with M. de +Montriveau. Coolness on both sides is a sign of love; but so long as +the Duchess was the same as ever, while the Marquis looked sullen and +morose, was it not plain that she had conceded nothing? Onlookers know +the rejected lover by various signs and tokens; they never mistake the +genuine symptoms for a coolness such as some women command their adorers +to feign, in the hope of concealing their love. Everyone laughed at +Montriveau; and he, having omitted to consult his cornac, was abstracted +and ill at ease. M. de Ronquerolles would very likely have bidden him +compromise the Duchess by responding to her show of friendliness by +passionate demonstrations; but as it was, Armand de Montriveau came away +from the ball, loathing human nature, and even then scarcely ready to +believe in such complete depravity. + +"If there is no executioner for such crimes," he said, as he looked up +at the lighted windows of the ballroom where the most enchanting women +in Paris were dancing, laughing, and chatting, "I will take you by the +nape of the neck, Mme la Duchesse, and make you feel something that +bites more deeply than the knife in the Place de la Greve. Steel against +steel; we shall see which heart will leave the deeper mark." + +For a week or so Mme de Langeais hoped to see the Marquis de Montriveau +again; but he contented himself with sending his card every morning to +the Hotel de Langeais. The Duchess could not help shuddering each time +that the card was brought in, and a dim foreboding crossed her mind, but +the thought was vague as a presentiment of disaster. When her eyes fell +on the name, it seemed to her that she felt the touch of the implacable +man's strong hand in her hair; sometimes the words seemed like a +prognostication of a vengeance which her lively intellect invented in +the most shocking forms. She had studied him too well not to dread him. +Would he murder her, she wondered? Would that bull-necked man dash out +her vitals by flinging her over his head? Would he trample her body +under his feet? When, where, and how would he get her into his power? +Would he make her suffer very much, and what kind of pain would he +inflict? She repented of her conduct. There were hours when, if he had +come, she would have gone to his arms in complete self-surrender. + +Every night before she slept she saw Montriveau's face; every night it +wore a different aspect. Sometimes she saw his bitter smile, sometimes +the Jovelike knitting of the brows; or his leonine look, or some +disdainful movement of the shoulders made him terrible for her. Next day +the card seemed stained with blood. The name of Montriveau stirred her +now as the presence of the fiery, stubborn, exacting lover had never +done. Her apprehensions gathered strength in the silence. She was +forced, without aid from without, to face the thought of a hideous duel +of which she could not speak. Her proud hard nature was more responsive +to thrills of hate than it had ever been to the caresses of love. Ah! if +the General could but have seen her, as she sat with her forehead +drawn into folds between her brows; immersed in bitter thoughts in that +boudoir where he had enjoyed such happy moments, he might perhaps +have conceived high hopes. Of all human passions, is not pride alone +incapable of engendering anything base? Mme de Langeais kept her +thoughts to herself, but is it not permissible to suppose that M. de +Montriveau was no longer indifferent to her? And has not a man gained +ground immensely when a woman thinks about him? He is bound to make +progress with her either one way or the other afterwards. + +Put any feminine creature under the feet of a furious horse or other +fearsome beast; she will certainly drop on her knees and look for death; +but if the brute shows a milder mood and does not utterly slay her, +she will love the horse, lion, bull, or what not, and will speak of him +quite at her ease. The Duchess felt that she was under the lion's paws; +she quaked, but she did not hate him. + +The man and woman thus singularly placed with regard to each other met +three times in society during the course of that week. Each time, +in reply to coquettish questioning glances, the Duchess received a +respectful bow, and smiles tinged with such savage irony, that all her +apprehensions over the card in the morning were revived at night. +Our lives are simply such as our feelings shape them for us; and the +feelings of these two had hollowed out a great gulf between them. + +The Comtesse de Serizy, the Marquis de Ronquerolles' sister, gave a +great ball at the beginning of the following week, and Mme de Langeais +was sure to go to it. Armand was the first person whom the Duchess saw +when she came into the room, and this time Armand was looking out for +her, or so she thought at least. The two exchanged a look, and suddenly +the woman felt a cold perspiration break from every pore. She had +thought all along that Montriveau was capable of taking reprisals in +some unheard-of way proportioned to their condition, and now the revenge +had been discovered, it was ready, heated, and boiling. Lightnings +flashed from the foiled lover's eyes, his face was radiant with exultant +vengeance. And the Duchess? Her eyes were haggard in spite of her +resolution to be cool and insolent. She went to take her place beside +the Comtesse de Serizy, who could not help exclaiming, "Dear Antoinette! +what is the matter with you? You are enough to frighten one." + +"I shall be all right after a quadrille," she answered, giving a hand to +a young man who came up at that moment. + +Mme de Langeais waltzed that evening with a sort of excitement and +transport which redoubled Montriveau's lowering looks. He stood in front +of the line of spectators, who were amusing themselves by looking on. +Every time that _she_ came past him, his eyes darted down upon her +eddying face; he might have been a tiger with the prey in his grasp. The +waltz came to an end, Mme de Langeais went back to her place beside the +Countess, and Montriveau never took his eyes off her, talking all the +while with a stranger. + +"One of the things that struck me most on the journey," he was saying +(and the Duchess listened with all her ears), "was the remark which the +man makes at Westminster when you are shown the axe with which a man in +a mask cut off Charles the First's head, so they tell you. The King made +it first of all to some inquisitive person, and they repeat it still in +memory of him." + +"What does the man say?" asked Mme de Serizy. + +"'Do not touch the axe!'" replied Montriveau, and there was menace in +the sound of his voice. + +"Really, my Lord Marquis," said Mme de Langeais, "you tell this old +story that everybody knows if they have been to London, and look at my +neck in such a melodramatic way that you seem to me to have an axe in +your hand." + +The Duchess was in a cold sweat, but nevertheless she laughed as she +spoke the last words. + +"But circumstances give the story a quite new application," returned he. + +"How so; pray tell me, for pity's sake?" + +"In this way, madame--you have touched the axe," said Montriveau, +lowering his voice. + +"What an enchanting prophecy!" returned she, smiling with assumed grace. +"And when is my head to fall?" + +"I have no wish to see that pretty head of yours cut off. I only fear +some great misfortune for you. If your head were clipped close, would +you feel no regrets for the dainty golden hair that you turn to such +good account?" + +"There are those for whom a woman would love to make such a sacrifice; +even if, as often happens, it is for the sake of a man who cannot make +allowances for an outbreak of temper." + +"Quite so. Well, and if some wag were to spoil your beauty on a sudden +by some chemical process, and you, who are but eighteen for us, were to +be a hundred years old?" + +"Why, the smallpox is our Battle of Waterloo, monsieur," she +interrupted. "After it is over we find out those who love us sincerely." + +"Would you not regret the lovely face that?" + +"Oh! indeed I should, but less for my own sake than for the sake of +someone else whose delight it might have been. And, after all, if I were +loved, always loved, and truly loved, what would my beauty matter to +me?--What do you say, Clara?" + +"It is a dangerous speculation," replied Mme de Serizy. + +"Is it permissible to ask His Majesty the King of Sorcerers when I made +the mistake of touching the axe, since I have not been to London as +yet?----" + +"_Not so_," he answered in English, with a burst of ironical laughter. + +"And when will the punishment begin?" + +At this Montriveau coolly took out his watch, and ascertained the hour +with a truly appalling air of conviction. + +"A dreadful misfortune will befall you before this day is out." + +"I am not a child to be easily frightened, or rather, I am a child +ignorant of danger," said the Duchess. "I shall dance now without fear +on the edge of the precipice." + +"I am delighted to know that you have so much strength of character," he +answered, as he watched her go to take her place in a square dance. + +But the Duchess, in spite of her apparent contempt for Armand's dark +prophecies, was really frightened. Her late lover's presence weighed +upon her morally and physically with a sense of oppression that scarcely +ceased when he left the ballroom. And yet when she had drawn freer +breath, and enjoyed the relief for a moment, she found herself +regretting the sensation of dread, so greedy of extreme sensations is +the feminine nature. The regret was not love, but it was certainly akin +to other feelings which prepare the way for love. And then--as if the +impression which Montriveau had made upon her were suddenly revived--she +recollected his air of conviction as he took out his watch, and in a +sudden spasm of dread she went out. + +By this time it was about midnight. One of her servants, waiting with +her pelisse, went down to order her carriage. On her way home she fell +naturally enough to musing over M. de Montriveau's prediction. Arrived +in her own courtyard, as she supposed, she entered a vestibule almost +like that of her own hotel, and suddenly saw that the staircase was +different. She was in a strange house. Turning to call her servants, she +was attacked by several men, who rapidly flung a handkerchief over her +mouth, bound her hand and foot, and carried her off. She shrieked aloud. + +"Madame, our orders are to kill you if you scream," a voice said in her +ear. + +So great was the Duchess's terror, that she could never recollect how +nor by whom she was transported. When she came to herself, she was lying +on a couch in a bachelor's lodging, her hands and feet tied with silken +cords. In spite of herself, she shrieked aloud as she looked round and +met Armand de Montriveau's eyes. He was sitting in his dressing-gown, +quietly smoking a cigar in his armchair. + +"Do not cry out, Mme la Duchesse," he said, coolly taking the cigar out +of his mouth; "I have a headache. Besides, I will untie you. But listen +attentively to what I have the honour to say to you." + +Very carefully he untied the knots that bound her feet. + +"What would be the use of calling out? Nobody can hear your cries. +You are too well bred to make any unnecessary fuss. If you do not stay +quietly, if you insist upon a struggle with me, I shall tie your +hands and feet again. All things considered, I think that you have +self-respect enough to stay on this sofa as if you were lying on your +own at home; cold as ever, if you will. You have made me shed many tears +on this couch, tears that I hid from all other eyes." + +While Montriveau was speaking, the Duchess glanced about her; it was +a woman's glance, a stolen look that saw all things and seemed to see +nothing. She was much pleased with the room. It was rather like a +monk's cell. The man's character and thoughts seemed to pervade it. No +decoration of any kind broke the grey painted surface of the walls. +A green carpet covered the floor. A black sofa, a table littered with +papers, two big easy-chairs, a chest of drawers with an alarum clock by +way of ornament, a very low bedstead with a coverlet flung over it--a +red cloth with a black key border--all these things made part of a +whole that told of a life reduced to its simplest terms. A triple +candle-sconce of Egyptian design on the chimney-piece recalled the +vast spaces of the desert and Montriveau's long wanderings; a huge +sphinx-claw stood out beneath the folds of stuff at the bed-foot; +and just beyond, a green curtain with a black and scarlet border was +suspended by large rings from a spear handle above a door near one +corner of the room. The other door by which the band had entered was +likewise curtained, but the drapery hung from an ordinary curtain-rod. +As the Duchess finally noted that the pattern was the same on both, she +saw that the door at the bed-foot stood open; gleams of ruddy light +from the room beyond flickered below the fringed border. Naturally, the +ominous light roused her curiosity; she fancied she could distinguish +strange shapes in the shadows; but as it did not occur to her at the +time that danger could come from that quarter, she tried to gratify a +more ardent curiosity. + +"Monsieur, if it is not indiscreet, may I ask what you mean to do with +me?" The insolence and irony of the tone stung through the words. The +Duchess quite believed that she read extravagant love in Montriveau's +speech. He had carried her off; was not that in itself an acknowledgment +of her power? + +"Nothing whatever, madame," he returned, gracefully puffing the last +whiff of cigar smoke. "You will remain here for a short time. First +of all, I should like to explain to you what you are, and what I am. I +cannot put my thoughts into words whilst you are twisting on the sofa +in your boudoir; and besides, in your own house you take offence at the +slightest hint, you ring the bell, make an outcry, and turn your lover +out at the door as if he were the basest of wretches. Here my mind is +unfettered. Here nobody can turn me out. Here you shall be my victim for +a few seconds, and you are going to be so exceedingly kind as to listen +to me. You need fear nothing. I did not carry you off to insult you, nor +yet to take by force what you refused to grant of your own will to my +unworthiness. I could not stoop so low. You possibly think of outrage; +for myself, I have no such thoughts." + +He flung his cigar coolly into the fire. + +"The smoke is unpleasant to you, no doubt, madame?" he said, and rising +at once, he took a chafing-dish from the hearth, burnt perfumes, and +purified the air. The Duchess's astonishment was only equaled by her +humiliation. She was in this man's power; and he would not abuse his +power. The eyes in which love had once blazed like flame were now quiet +and steady as stars. She trembled. Her dread of Armand was increased by +a nightmare sensation of restlessness and utter inability to move; she +felt as if she were turned to stone. She lay passive in the grip of +fear. She thought she saw the light behind the curtains grow to a blaze, +as if blown up by a pair of bellows; in another moment the gleams of +flame grew brighter, and she fancied that three masked figures suddenly +flashed out; but the terrible vision disappeared so swiftly that she +took it for an optical delusion. + +"Madame," Armand continued with cold contempt, "one minute, just one +minute is enough for me, and you shall feel it afterwards at every +moment throughout your lifetime, the one eternity over which I have +power. I am not God. Listen carefully to me," he continued, pausing to +add solemnity to his words. "Love will always come at your call. You +have boundless power over men: but remember that once you called love, +and love came to you; love as pure and true-hearted as may be on earth, +and as reverent as it was passionate; fond as a devoted woman's, as a +mother's love; a love so great indeed, that it was past the bounds of +reason. You played with it, and you committed a crime. Every woman has a +right to refuse herself to love which she feels she cannot share; and +if a man loves and cannot win love in return, he is not to be pitied, +he has no right to complain. But with a semblance of love to attract +an unfortunate creature cut off from all affection; to teach him to +understand happiness to the full, only to snatch it from him; to rob him +of his future of felicity; to slay his happiness not merely today, +but as long as his life lasts, by poisoning every hour of it and every +thought--this I call a fearful crime!" + +"Monsieur----" + +"I cannot allow you to answer me yet. So listen to me still. In any case +I have rights over you; but I only choose to exercise one--the right of +the judge over the criminal, so that I may arouse your conscience. If +you had no conscience left, I should not reproach you at all; but you +are so young! You must feel some life still in your heart; or so I like +to believe. While I think of you as depraved enough to do a wrong which +the law does not punish, I do not think you so degraded that you cannot +comprehend the full meaning of my words. I resume." + +As he spoke the Duchess heard the smothered sound of a pair of bellows. +Those mysterious figures which she had just seen were blowing up the +fire, no doubt; the glow shone through the curtain. But Montriveau's +lurid face was turned upon her; she could not choose but wait with a +fast-beating heart and eyes fixed in a stare. However curious she felt, +the heat in Armand's words interested her even more than the crackling +of the mysterious flames. + +"Madame," he went on after a pause, "if some poor wretch commits a +murder in Paris, it is the executioner's duty, you know, to lay hands on +him and stretch him on the plank, where murderers pay for their crimes +with their heads. Then the newspapers inform everyone, rich and poor, so +that the former are assured that they may sleep in peace, and the latter +are warned that they must be on the watch if they would live. Well, you +that are religious, and even a little of a bigot, may have masses said +for such a man's soul. You both belong to the same family, but yours is +the elder branch; and the elder branch may occupy high places in peace +and live happily and without cares. Want or anger may drive your brother +the convict to take a man's life; you have taken more, you have taken +the joy out of a man's life, you have killed all that was best in his +life--his dearest beliefs. The murderer simply lay in wait for his +victim, and killed him reluctantly, and in fear of the scaffold; but +_you_ ...! You heaped up every sin that weakness can commit against +strength that suspected no evil; you tamed a passive victim, the better +to gnaw his heart out; you lured him with caresses; you left nothing +undone that could set him dreaming, imagining, longing for the bliss of +love. You asked innumerable sacrifices of him, only to refuse to make +any in return. He should see the light indeed before you put out his +eyes! It is wonderful how you found the heart to do it! Such villainies +demand a display of resource quite above the comprehension of those +bourgeoises whom you laugh at and despise. They can give and forgive; +they know how to love and suffer. The grandeur of their devotion dwarfs +us. Rising higher in the social scale, one finds just as much mud as at +the lower end; but with this difference, at the upper end it is hard and +gilded over. + +"Yes, to find baseness in perfection, you must look for a noble bringing +up, a great name, a fair woman, a duchess. You cannot fall lower than +the lowest unless you are set high above the rest of the world.--I +express my thoughts badly; the wounds you dealt me are too painful as +yet, but do not think that I complain. My words are not the expression +of any hope for myself; there is no trace of bitterness in them. Know +this, madame, for a certainty--I forgive you. My forgiveness is so +complete that you need not feel in the least sorry that you came hither +to find it against your will.... But you might take advantage of other +hearts as child-like as my own, and it is my duty to spare them anguish. +So you have inspired the thought of justice. Expiate your sin here +on earth; God may perhaps forgive you; I wish that He may, but He is +inexorable, and will strike." + +The broken-spirited, broken-hearted woman looked up, her eyes filled +with tears. + +"Why do you cry? Be true to your nature. You could look on indifferently +at the torture of a heart as you broke it. That will do, madame, do not +cry. I cannot bear it any longer. Other men will tell you that you have +given them life; as for myself, I tell you, with rapture, that you have +given me blank extinction. Perhaps you guess that I am not my own, that +I am bound to live for my friends, that from this time forth I must +endure the cold chill of death, as well as the burden of life? Is it +possible that there can be so much kindness in you? Are you like the +desert tigress that licks the wounds she has inflicted?" + +The Duchess burst out sobbing. + +"Pray spare your tears, madame. If I believed in them at all, it would +merely set me on my guard. Is this another of your artifices? or is it +not? You have used so many with me; how can one think that there is any +truth in you? Nothing that you do or say has any power now to move me. +That is all I have to say." + +Mme de Langeais rose to her feet, with a great dignity and humility in +her bearing. + +"You are right to treat me very hardly," she said, holding out a hand to +the man who did not take it; "you have not spoken hardly enough; and I +deserve this punishment." + +"_I_ punish you, madame! A man must love still, to punish, must he not? +From me you must expect no feeling, nothing resembling it. If I chose, I +might be accuser and judge in my cause, and pronounce and carry out the +sentence. But I am about to fulfil a duty, not a desire of vengeance of +any kind. The cruelest revenge of all, I think, is scorn of revenge when +it is in our power to take it. Perhaps I shall be the minister of your +pleasures; who knows? Perhaps from this time forth, as you gracefully +wear the tokens of disgrace by which society marks out the criminal, you +may perforce learn something of the convict's sense of honour. And then, +you will love!" + +The Duchess sat listening; her meekness was unfeigned; it was no +coquettish device. When she spoke at last, it was after a silence. + +"Armand," she began, "it seems to me that when I resisted love, I was +obeying all the instincts of woman's modesty; I should not have looked +for such reproaches from _you_. I was weak; you have turned all my +weaknesses against me, and made so many crimes of them. How could you +fail to understand that the curiosity of love might have carried me +further than I ought to go; and that next morning I might be angry +with myself, and wretched because I had gone too far? Alas! I sinned in +ignorance. I was as sincere in my wrongdoing, I swear to you, as in +my remorse. There was far more love for you in my severity than in my +concessions. And besides, of what do you complain? I gave you my heart; +that was not enough; you demanded, brutally, that I should give my +person----" + +"Brutally?" repeated Montriveau. But to himself he said, "If I once +allow her to dispute over words, I am lost." + +"Yes. You came to me as if I were one of those women. You showed none +of the respect, none of the attentions of love. Had I not reason to +reflect? Very well, I reflected. The unseemliness of your conduct is not +inexcusable; love lay at the source of it; let me think so, and +justify you to myself.--Well, Armand, this evening, even while you were +prophesying evil, I felt convinced that there was happiness in store for +us both. Yes, I put my faith in the noble, proud nature so often tested +and proved." She bent lower. "And I was yours wholly," she murmured in +his ear. "I felt a longing that I cannot express to give happiness to a +man so violently tried by adversity. If I must have a master, my master +should be a great man. As I felt conscious of my height, the less I +cared to descend. I felt I could trust you, I saw a whole lifetime of +love, while you were pointing to death.... Strength and kindness always +go together. My friend, you are so strong, you will not be unkind to +a helpless woman who loves you. If I was wrong, is there no way of +obtaining forgiveness? No way of making reparation? Repentance is the +charm of love; I should like to be very charming for you. How could I, +alone among women, fail to know a woman's doubts and fears, the timidity +that it is so natural to feel when you bind yourself for life, and +know how easily a man snaps such ties? The bourgeoises, with whom you +compared me just now, give themselves, but they struggle first. Very +well--I struggled; but here I am!--Ah! God, he does not hear me!" she +broke off, and wringing her hands, she cried out "But I love you! I am +yours!" and fell at Armand's feet. + +"Yours! yours! my one and only master!" + +Armand tried to raise her. + +"Madame, it is too late! Antoinette cannot save the Duchesse de +Langeais. I cannot believe in either. Today you may give yourself; +tomorrow, you may refuse. No power in earth or heaven can insure me the +sweet constancy of love. All love's pledges lay in the past; and now +nothing of that past exists." + +The light behind the curtain blazed up so brightly, that the Duchess +could not help turning her head; this time she distinctly saw the three +masked figures. + +"Armand," she said, "I would not wish to think ill of you. Why are those +men there? What are you going to do to me?" + +"Those men will be as silent as I myself with regard to the thing which +is about to be done. Think of them simply as my hands and my heart. One +of them is a surgeon----" + +"A surgeon! Armand, my friend, of all things, suspense is the hardest +to bear. Just speak; tell me if you wish for my life; I will give it to +you, you shall not take it----" + +"Then you did not understand me? Did I not speak just now of justice? +To put an end to your misapprehensions," continued he, taking up a small +steel object from the table, "I will now explain what I have decided +with regard to you." + +He held out a Lorraine cross, fastened to the tip of a steel rod. + +"Two of my friends at this very moment are heating another cross, made +on this pattern, red-hot. We are going to stamp it upon your forehead, +here between the eyes, so that there will be no possibility of hiding +the mark with diamonds, and so avoiding people's questions. In short, +you shall bear on your forehead the brand of infamy which your brothers +the convicts wear on their shoulders. The pain is a mere trifle, but I +feared a nervous crisis of some kind, of resistance----" + +"Resistance?" she cried, clapping her hands for joy. "Oh no, no! I would +have the whole world here to see. Ah, my Armand, brand her quickly, +this creature of yours; brand her with your mark as a poor little trifle +belonging to you. You asked for pledges of my love; here they are all in +one. Ah! for me there is nothing but mercy and forgiveness and eternal +happiness in this revenge of yours. When you have marked this woman with +your mark, when you set your crimson brand on her, your slave in soul, +you can never afterwards abandon her, you will be mine for evermore? +When you cut me off from my kind, you make yourself responsible for my +happiness, or you prove yourself base; and I know that you are noble and +great! Why, when a woman loves, the brand of love is burnt into her +soul by her own will.--Come in, gentlemen! come in and brand her, +this Duchesse de Langeais. She is M. de Montriveau's forever! Ah! come +quickly, all of you, my forehead burns hotter than your fire!" + +Armand turned his head sharply away lest he should see the Duchess +kneeling, quivering with the throbbings of her heart. He said some word, +and his three friends vanished. + +The women of Paris salons know how one mirror reflects another. The +Duchess, with every motive for reading the depths of Armand's heart, was +all eyes; and Armand, all unsuspicious of the mirror, brushed away two +tears as they fell. Her whole future lay in those two tears. When he +turned round again to help her to rise, she was standing before him, +sure of love. Her pulses must have throbbed fast when he spoke with the +firmness she had known so well how to use of old while she played with +him. + +"I spare you, madame. All that has taken place shall be as if it had +never been, you may believe me. But now, let us bid each other goodbye. +I like to think that you were sincere in your coquetries on your sofa, +sincere again in this outpouring of your heart. Good-bye. I feel that +there is no faith in you left in me. You would torment me again; you +would always be the Duchess, and----But there, good-bye, we shall never +understand each other. + +"Now, what do you wish?" he continued, taking the tone of a master of +the ceremonies--"to return home, or to go back to Mme de Serizy's +ball? I have done all in my power to prevent any scandal. Neither your +servants nor anyone else can possibly know what has passed between us +in the last quarter of an hour. Your servants have no idea that you have +left the ballroom; your carriage never left Mme de Serizy's courtyard; +your brougham may likewise be found in the court of your own hotel. +Where do you wish to be?" + +"What do you counsel, Armand?" + +"There is no Armand now, Mme la Duchesse. We are strangers to each +other." + +"Then take me to the ball," she said, still curious to put Armand's +power to the test. "Thrust a soul that suffered in the world, and must +always suffer there, if there is no happiness for her now, down into +hell again. And yet, oh my friend, I love you as your bourgeoises love; +I love you so that I could come to you and fling my arms about your neck +before all the world if you asked it off me. The hateful world has not +corrupted me. I am young at least, and I have grown younger still. I am +a child, yes, your child, your new creature. Ah! do not drive me forth +out of my Eden!" + +Armand shook his head. + +"Ah! let me take something with me, if I go, some little thing to wear +tonight on my heart," she said, taking possession of Armand's glove, +which she twisted into her handkerchief. + +"No, I am _not_ like all those depraved women. You do not know the +world, and so you cannot know my worth. You shall know it now! There are +women who sell themselves for money; there are others to be gained by +gifts, it is a vile world! Oh, I wish I were a simple bourgeoise, a +working girl, if you would rather have a woman beneath you than a woman +whose devotion is accompanied by high rank, as men count it. Oh, my +Armand, there are noble, high, and chaste and pure natures among us; +and then they are lovely indeed. I would have all nobleness that I might +offer it all up to you. Misfortune willed that I should be a duchess; +I would I were a royal princess, that my offering might be complete. I +would be a grisette for you, and a queen for everyone besides." + +He listened, damping his cigars with his lips. + +"You will let me know when you wish to go," he said. + +"But I should like to stay----" + +"That is another matter!" + +"Stay, that was badly rolled," she cried, seizing on a cigar and +devouring all that Armand's lips had touched. + +"Do you smoke?" + +"Oh, what would I not do to please you?" + +"Very well. Go, madame." + +"I will obey you," she answered, with tears in her eyes. + +"You must be blindfolded; you must not see a glimpse of the way." + +"I am ready, Armand," she said, bandaging her eyes. + +"Can you see?" + +"No." + +Noiselessly he knelt before her. + +"Ah! I can hear you!" she cried, with a little fond gesture, thinking +that the pretence of harshness was over. + +He made as if he would kiss her lips; she held up her face. + +"You can see, madame." + +"I am just a little bit curious." + +"So you always deceive me?" + +"Ah! take off this handkerchief, sir," she cried out, with the passion +of a great generosity repelled with scorn, "lead me; I will not open my +eyes." + +Armand felt sure of her after that cry. He led the way; the Duchess +nobly true to her word, was blind. But while Montriveau held her hand +as a father might, and led her up and down flights of stairs, he was +studying the throbbing pulses of this woman's heart so suddenly invaded +by Love. Mme de Langeais, rejoicing in this power of speech, was glad to +let him know all; but he was inflexible; his hand was passive in reply +to the questionings of her hand. + +At length, after some journey made together, Armand bade her go forward; +the opening was doubtless narrow, for as she went she felt that his hand +protected her dress. His care touched her; it was a revelation surely +that there was a little love still left; yet it was in some sort a +farewell, for Montriveau left her without a word. The air was warm; the +Duchess, feeling the heat, opened her eyes, and found herself standing +by the fire in the Comtesse de Serizy's boudoir. + +She was alone. Her first thought was for her disordered toilette; in a +moment she had adjusted her dress and restored her picturesque coiffure. + +"Well, dear Antoinette, we have been looking for you everywhere." It was +the Comtesse de Serizy who spoke as she opened the door. + +"I came here to breathe," said the Duchess; "it is unbearably hot in the +rooms." + +"People thought that you had gone; but my brother Ronquerolles told me +that your servants were waiting for you." + +"I am tired out, dear, let me stay and rest here for a minute," and the +Duchess sat down on the sofa. + +"Why, what is the matter with you? You are shaking from head to foot!" + +The Marquis de Ronquerolles came in. + +"Mme la Duchesse, I was afraid that something might have happened. I +have just come across your coachman, the man is as tipsy as all the +Swiss in Switzerland." + +The Duchess made no answer; she was looking round the room, at the +chimney-piece and the tall mirrors, seeking the trace of an opening. +Then with an extraordinary sensation she recollected that she was again +in the midst of the gaiety of the ballroom after that terrific scene +which had changed the whole course of her life. She began to shiver +violently. + +"M. de Montriveau's prophecy has shaken my nerves," she said. "It was +a joke, but still I will see whether his axe from London will haunt me +even in my sleep. So good-bye, dear.--Good-bye, M. le Marquis." + +As she went through the rooms she was beset with inquiries and regrets. +Her world seemed to have dwindled now that she, its queen, had fallen so +low, was so diminished. And what, moreover, were these men compared with +him whom she loved with all her heart; with the man grown great by all +that she had lost in stature? The giant had regained the height that he +had lost for a while, and she exaggerated it perhaps beyond measure. She +looked, in spite of herself, at the servant who had attended her to the +ball. He was fast asleep. + +"Have you been here all the time?" she asked. + +"Yes, madame." + +As she took her seat in her carriage she saw, in fact, that her coachman +was drunk--so drunk, that at any other time she would have been afraid; +but after a great crisis in life, fear loses its appetite for common +food. She reached home, at any rate, without accident; but even there +she felt a change in herself, a new feeling that she could not shake +off. For her, there was now but one man in the world; which is to say +that henceforth she cared to shine for his sake alone. + +While the physiologist can define love promptly by following out natural +laws, the moralist finds a far more perplexing problem before him if +he attempts to consider love in all its developments due to social +conditions. Still, in spite of the heresies of the endless sects that +divide the church of Love, there is one broad and trenchant line of +difference in doctrine, a line that all the discussion in the world can +never deflect. A rigid application of this line explains the nature +of the crisis through which the Duchess, like most women, was to pass. +Passion she knew, but she did not love as yet. + +Love and passion are two different conditions which poets and men of the +world, philosophers and fools, alike continually confound. Love implies +a give and take, a certainty of bliss that nothing can change; it +means so close a clinging of the heart, and an exchange of happiness so +constant, that there is no room left for jealousy. Then possession is a +means and not an end; unfaithfulness may give pain, but the bond is not +less close; the soul is neither more nor less ardent or troubled, but +happy at every moment; in short, the divine breath of desire spreading +from end to end of the immensity of Time steeps it all for us in the +selfsame hue; life takes the tint of the unclouded heaven. But Passion +is the foreshadowing of Love, and of that Infinite to which all +suffering souls aspire. Passion is a hope that may be cheated. Passion +means both suffering and transition. Passion dies out when hope is +dead. Men and women may pass through this experience many times without +dishonor, for it is so natural to spring towards happiness; but there is +only one love in a lifetime. All discussions of sentiment ever +conducted on paper or by word of mouth may therefore be resumed by +two questions--"Is it passion? Is it love?" So, since love comes into +existence only through the intimate experience of the bliss which gives +it lasting life, the Duchess was beneath the yoke of passion as yet; and +as she knew the fierce tumult, the unconscious calculations, the fevered +cravings, and all that is meant by that word _passion_--she suffered. +Through all the trouble of her soul there rose eddying gusts of tempest, +raised by vanity or self-love, or pride or a high spirit; for all these +forms of egoism make common cause together. + +She had said to this man, "I love you; I am yours!" Was it possible that +the Duchesse de Langeais should have uttered those words--in vain? She +must either be loved now or play her part of queen no longer. And then +she felt the loneliness of the luxurious couch where pleasure had never +yet set his glowing feet; and over and over again, while she tossed and +writhed there, she said, "I want to be loved." + +But the belief that she still had in herself gave her hope of success. +The Duchess might be piqued, the vain Parisienne might be humiliated; +but the woman saw glimpses of wedded happiness, and imagination, +avenging the time lost for nature, took a delight in kindling the +inextinguishable fire in her veins. She all but attained to the +sensations of love; for amid her poignant doubt whether she was loved in +return, she felt glad at heart to say to herself, "I love him!" As for +her scruples, religion, and the world she could trample them under foot! +Montriveau was her religion now. She spent the next day in a state +of moral torpor, troubled by a physical unrest, which no words could +express. She wrote letters and tore them all up, and invented a thousand +impossible fancies. + +When M. de Montriveau's usual hour arrived, she tried to think that he +would come, and enjoyed the feeling of expectation. Her whole life was +concentrated in the single sense of hearing. Sometimes she shut her +eyes, straining her ears to listen through space, wishing that she +could annihilate everything that lay between her and her lover, and so +establish that perfect silence which sounds may traverse from afar. In +her tense self-concentration, the ticking of the clock grew hateful +to her; she stopped its ill-omened garrulity. The twelve strokes of +midnight sounded from the drawing-room. + +"Ah, God!" she cried, "to see him here would be happiness. And yet, it +is not so very long since he came here, brought by desire, and the tones +of his voice filled this boudoir. And now there is nothing." + +She remembered the times that she had played the coquette with him, and +how that her coquetry had cost her her lover, and the despairing tears +flowed for long. + +Her woman came at length with, "Mme la Duchesse does not know, perhaps, +that it is two o'clock in the morning; I thought that madame was not +feeling well." + +"Yes, I am going to bed," said the Duchess, drying her eyes. "But +remember, Suzanne, never to come in again without orders; I tell you +this for the last time." + +For a week, Mme de Langeais went to every house where there was a hope +of meeting M. de Montriveau. Contrary to her usual habits, she came +early and went late; gave up dancing, and went to the card-tables. Her +experiments were fruitless. She did not succeed in getting a glimpse of +Armand. She did not dare to utter his name now. One evening, however, in +a fit of despair, she spoke to Mme de Serizy, and asked as carelessly as +she could, "You must have quarreled with M. de Montriveau? He is not to +be seen at your house now." + +The Countess laughed. "So he does not come here either?" she returned. +"He is not to be seen anywhere, for that matter. He is interested in +some woman, no doubt." + +"I used to think that the Marquis de Ronquerolles was one of his +friends----" the Duchess began sweetly. + +"I have never heard my brother say that he was acquainted with him." + +Mme de Langeais did not reply. Mme de Serizy concluded from the +Duchess's silence that she might apply the scourge with impunity to a +discreet friendship which she had seen, with bitterness of soul, for a +long time past. + +"So you miss that melancholy personage, do you? I have heard most +extraordinary things of him. Wound his feelings, he never comes back, +he forgives nothing; and, if you love him, he keeps you in chains. To +everything that I said of him, one of those that praise him sky-high +would always answer, 'He knows how to love!' People are always telling +me that Montriveau would give up all for his friend; that his is a great +nature. Pooh! society does not want such tremendous natures. Men of that +stamp are all very well at home; let them stay there and leave us to our +pleasant littlenesses. What do you say, Antoinette?" + +Woman of the world though she was, the Duchess seemed agitated, yet she +replied in a natural voice that deceived her fair friend: + +"I am sorry to miss him. I took a great interest in him, and promised +to myself to be his sincere friend. I like great natures, dear friend, +ridiculous though you may think it. To give oneself to a fool is a clear +confession, is it not, that one is governed wholly by one's senses?" + +Mme de Serizy's "preferences" had always been for commonplace men; her +lover at the moment, the Marquis d'Aiglemont, was a fine, tall man. + +After this, the Countess soon took her departure, you may be sure Mme +de Langeais saw hope in Armand's withdrawal from the world; she wrote to +him at once; it was a humble, gentle letter, surely it would bring him +if he loved her still. She sent her footman with it next day. On the +servant's return, she asked whether he had given the letter to M. de +Montriveau himself, and could not restrain the movement of joy at the +affirmative answer. Armand was in Paris! He stayed alone in his house; +he did not go out into society! So she was loved! All day long she +waited for an answer that never came. Again and again, when impatience +grew unbearable, Antoinette found reasons for his delay. Armand felt +embarrassed; the reply would come by post; but night came, and she could +not deceive herself any longer. It was a dreadful day, a day of pain +grown sweet, of intolerable heart-throbs, a day when the heart squanders +the very forces of life in riot. + +Next day she sent for an answer. + +"M. le Marquis sent word that he would call on Mme la Duchesse," +reported Julien. + +She fled lest her happiness should be seen in her face, and flung +herself on her couch to devour her first sensations. + +"He is coming!" + +The thought rent her soul. And, in truth, woe unto those for whom +suspense is not the most horrible time of tempest, while it increases +and multiplies the sweetest joys; for they have nothing in them of +that flame which quickens the images of things, giving to them a second +existence, so that we cling as closely to the pure essence as to its +outward and visible manifestation. What is suspense in love but a +constant drawing upon an unfailing hope?--a submission to the terrible +scourging of passion, while passion is yet happy, and the disenchantment +of reality has not set in. The constant putting forth of strength and +longing, called suspense, is surely, to the human soul, as fragrance +to the flower that breathes it forth. We soon leave the brilliant, +unsatisfying colours of tulips and coreopsis, but we turn again and +again to drink in the sweetness of orange-blossoms or volkameria-flowers +compared separately, each in its own land, to a betrothed bride, full of +love, made fair by the past and future. + +The Duchess learned the joys of this new life of hers through the +rapture with which she received the scourgings of love. As this change +wrought in her, she saw other destinies before her, and a better +meaning in the things of life. As she hurried to her dressing-room, she +understood what studied adornment and the most minute attention to +her toilet mean when these are undertaken for love's sake and not for +vanity. Even now this making ready helped her to bear the long time of +waiting. A relapse of intense agitation set in when she was dressed; she +passed through nervous paroxysms brought on by the dreadful power which +sets the whole mind in ferment. Perhaps that power is only a disease, +though the pain of it is sweet. The Duchess was dressed and waiting +at two o clock in the afternoon. At half-past eleven that night M. +de Montriveau had not arrived. To try to give an idea of the anguish +endured by a woman who might be said to be the spoilt child of +civilization, would be to attempt to say how many imaginings the heart +can condense into one thought. As well endeavour to measure the forces +expended by the soul in a sigh whenever the bell rang; to estimate the +drain of life when a carriage rolled past without stopping, and left her +prostrate. + +"Can he be playing with me?" she said, as the clocks struck midnight. + +She grew white; her teeth chattered; she struck her hands together and +leapt up and crossed the boudoir, recollecting as she did so how often +he had come thither without a summons. But she resigned herself. Had she +not seen him grow pale, and start up under the stinging barbs of irony? +Then Mme de Langeais felt the horror of the woman's appointed lot; a +man's is the active part, a woman must wait passively when she loves. If +a woman goes beyond her beloved, she makes a mistake which few men can +forgive; almost every man would feel that a woman lowers herself by this +piece of angelic flattery. But Armand's was a great nature; he surely +must be one of the very few who can repay such exceeding love by love +that lasts forever. + +"Well, I will make the advance," she told herself, as she tossed on her +bed and found no sleep there; "I will go to him. I will not weary myself +with holding out a hand to him, but I will hold it out. A man of a +thousand will see a promise of love and constancy in every step that a +woman takes towards him. Yes, the angels must come down from heaven to +reach men; and I wish to be an angel for him." + +Next day she wrote. It was a billet of the kind in which the intellects +of the ten thousand Sevignes that Paris now can number particularly +excel. And yet only a Duchesse de Langeais, brought up by Mme la +Princesse de Blamont-Chauvry, could have written that delicious note; no +other woman could complain without lowering herself; could spread wings +in such a flight without draggling her pinions in humiliation; rise +gracefully in revolt; scold without giving offence; and pardon without +compromising her personal dignity. + +Julien went with the note. Julien, like his kind, was the victim of +love's marches and countermarches. + +"What did M. de Montriveau reply?" she asked, as indifferently as she +could, when the man came back to report himself. + +"M. le Marquis requested me to tell Mme la Duchesse that it was all +right." + +Oh the dreadful reaction of the soul upon herself! To have her heart +stretched on the rack before curious witnesses; yet not to utter a +sound, to be forced to keep silence! One of the countless miseries of +the rich! + +More than three weeks went by. Mme de Langeais wrote again and again, +and no answer came from Montriveau. At last she gave out that she was +ill, to gain a dispensation from attendance on the Princess and from +social duties. She was only at home to her father the Duc de Navarreins, +her aunt the Princesse de Blamont-Chauvry, the old Vidame de Pamiers +(her maternal great-uncle), and to her husband's uncle, the Duc de +Grandlieu. These persons found no difficulty in believing that the +Duchess was ill, seeing that she grew thinner and paler and more +dejected every day. The vague ardour of love, the smart of wounded +pride, the continual prick of the only scorn that could touch her, +the yearnings towards joys that she craved with a vain continual +longing--all these things told upon her, mind and body; all the forces +of her nature were stimulated to no purpose. She was paying the arrears +of her life of make-believe. + +She went out at last to a review. M. de Montriveau was to be there. For +the Duchess, on the balcony of the Tuileries with the Royal Family, +it was one of those festival days that are long remembered. She looked +supremely beautiful in her languor; she was greeted with admiration in +all eyes. It was Montriveau's presence that made her so fair. + +Once or twice they exchanged glances. The General came almost to her +feet in all the glory of that soldier's uniform, which produces an +effect upon the feminine imagination to which the most prudish will +confess. When a woman is very much in love, and has not seen her lover +for two months, such a swift moment must be something like the phase of +a dream when the eyes embrace a world that stretches away forever. +Only women or young men can imagine the dull, frenzied hunger in the +Duchess's eyes. As for older men, if during the paroxysms of early +passion in youth they had experience of such phenomena of nervous power; +at a later day it is so completely forgotten that they deny the very +existence of the luxuriant ecstasy--the only name that can be given to +these wonderful intuitions. Religious ecstasy is the aberration of a +soul that has shaken off its bonds of flesh; whereas in amorous ecstasy +all the forces of soul and body are embraced and blended in one. If +a woman falls a victim to the tyrannous frenzy before which Mme de +Langeais was forced to bend, she will take one decisive resolution +after another so swiftly that it is impossible to give account of them. +Thought after thought rises and flits across her brain, as clouds are +whirled by the wind across the grey veil of mist that shuts out the sun. +Thenceforth the facts reveal all. And the facts are these. + +The day after the review, Mme de Langeais sent her carriage and liveried +servants to wait at the Marquis de Montriveau's door from eight o'clock +in the morning till three in the afternoon. Armand lived in the Rue de +Tournon, a few steps away from the Chamber of Peers, and that very +day the House was sitting; but long before the peers returned to their +palaces, several people had recognised the Duchess's carriage and +liveries. The first of these was the Baron de Maulincour. That young +officer had met with disdain from Mme de Langeais and a better reception +from Mme de Serizy; he betook himself at once therefore to his mistress, +and under seal of secrecy told her of this strange freak. + +In a moment the news was spread with telegraphic speed through all the +coteries in the Faubourg Saint-Germain; it reached the Tuileries and the +Elysee-Bourbon; it was the sensation of the day, the matter of all the +talk from noon till night. Almost everywhere the women denied the facts, +but in such a manner that the report was confirmed; the men one and +all believed it, and manifested a most indulgent interest in Mme de +Langeais. Some among them threw the blame on Armand. + +"That savage of a Montriveau is a man of bronze," said they; "he +insisted on making this scandal, no doubt." + +"Very well, then," others replied, "Mme de Langeais has been guilty of +a most generous piece of imprudence. To renounce the world and rank, and +fortune, and consideration for her lover's sake, and that in the face +of all Paris, is as fine a _coup d'etat_ for a woman as that barber's +knife-thrust, which so affected Canning in a court of assize. Not one +of the women who blame the Duchess would make a declaration worthy of +ancient times. It is heroic of Mme de Langeais to proclaim herself so +frankly. Now there is nothing left to her but to love Montriveau. There +must be something great about a woman if she says, 'I will have but one +passion.'" + +"But what is to become of society, monsieur, if you honour vice in this +way without respect for virtue?" asked the Comtesse de Granville, the +attorney-general's wife. + +While the Chateau, the Faubourg, and the Chaussee d'Antin were +discussing the shipwreck of aristocratic virtue; while excited young men +rushed about on horseback to make sure that the carriage was standing in +the Rue de Tournon, and the Duchess in consequence was beyond a doubt in +M. de Montriveau's rooms, Mme de Langeais, with heavy throbbing pulses, +was lying hidden away in her boudoir. And Armand?--he had been out all +night, and at that moment was walking with M. de Marsay in the Gardens +of the Tuileries. The elder members, of Mme de Langeais' family were +engaged in calling upon one another, arranging to read her a homily +and to hold a consultation as to the best way of putting a stop to the +scandal. + +At three o'clock, therefore, M. le Duc de Navarreins, the Vidame de +Pamiers, the old Princesse de Blamont-Chauvry, and the Duc de Grandlieu +were assembled in Mme la Duchesse de Langeais' drawing-room. To them, as +to all curious inquirers, the servants said that their mistress was not +at home; the Duchess had made no exceptions to her orders. But these +four personages shone conspicuous in that lofty sphere, of which the +revolutions and hereditary pretensions are solemnly recorded year by +year in the _Almanach de Gotha_, wherefore without some slight sketch of +each of them this picture of society were incomplete. + +The Princesse de Blamont-Chauvry, in the feminine world, was a most +poetic wreck of the reign of Louis Quinze. In her beautiful prime, so it +was said, she had done her part to win for that monarch his appellation +of _le Bien-aime_. Of her past charms of feature, little remained save +a remarkably prominent slender nose, curved like a Turkish scimitar, now +the principal ornament of a countenance that put you in mind of an old +white glove. Add a few powdered curls, high-heeled pantoufles, a cap +with upstanding loops of lace, black mittens, and a decided taste for +_ombre_. But to do full justice to the lady, it must be said that she +appeared in low-necked gowns of an evening (so high an opinion of her +ruins had she), wore long gloves, and raddled her cheeks with Martin's +classic rouge. An appalling amiability in her wrinkles, a prodigious +brightness in the old lady's eyes, a profound dignity in her whole +person, together with the triple barbed wit of her tongue, and an +infallible memory in her head, made of her a real power in the land. The +whole Cabinet des Chartes was entered in duplicate on the parchment +of her brain. She knew all the genealogies of every noble house in +Europe--princes, dukes, and counts--and could put her hand on the last +descendants of Charlemagne in the direct line. No usurpation of title +could escape the Princesse de Blamont-Chauvry. + +Young men who wished to stand well at Court, ambitious men, and young +married women paid her assiduous homage. Her salon set the tone of the +Faubourg Saint-Germain. The words of this Talleyrand in petticoats +were taken as final decrees. People came to consult her on questions of +etiquette or usages, or to take lessons in good taste. And, in truth, +no other old woman could put back her snuff-box in her pocket as the +Princess could; while there was a precision and a grace about the +movements of her skirts, when she sat down or crossed her feet, which +drove the finest ladies of the young generation to despair. Her voice +had remained in her head during one-third of her lifetime; but she could +not prevent a descent into the membranes of the nose, which lent to it a +peculiar expressiveness. She still retained a hundred and fifty thousand +livres of her great fortune, for Napoleon had generously returned her +woods to her; so that personally and in the matter of possessions she +was a woman of no little consequence. + +This curious antique, seated in a low chair by the fireside, was +chatting with the Vidame de Pamiers, a contemporary ruin. The Vidame was +a big, tall, and spare man, a seigneur of the old school, and had been +a Commander of the Order of Malta. His neck had always been so tightly +compressed by a strangulation stock, that his cheeks pouched over it a +little, and he held his head high; to many people this would have given +an air of self-sufficiency, but in the Vidame it was justified by a +Voltairean wit. His wide prominent eyes seemed to see everything, and as +a matter of fact there was not much that they had not seen. Altogether, +his person was a perfect model of aristocratic outline, slim and +slender, supple and agreeable. He seemed as if he could be pliant or +rigid at will, and twist and bend, or rear his head like a snake. + +The Duc de Navarreins was pacing up and down the room with the Duc de +Grandlieu. Both were men of fifty-six or thereabouts, and still hale; +both were short, corpulent, flourishing, somewhat florid-complexioned +men with jaded eyes, and lower lips that had begun to hang already. But +for an exquisite refinement of accent, an urbane courtesy, and an ease +of manner that could change in a moment to insolence, a superficial +observer might have taken them for a couple of bankers. Any such mistake +would have been impossible, however, if the listener could have heard +them converse, and seen them on their guard with men whom they feared, +vapid and commonplace with their equals, slippery with the inferiors +whom courtiers and statesmen know how to tame by a tactful word, or to +humiliate with an unexpected phrase. + +Such were the representatives of the great noblesse that determined to +perish rather than submit to any change. It was a noblesse that deserved +praise and blame in equal measure; a noblesse that will never be judged +impartially until some poet shall arise to tell how joyfully the nobles +obeyed the King though their heads fell under a Richelieu's axe, and how +deeply they scorned the guillotine of '89 as a foul revenge. + +Another noticeable trait in all the four was a thin voice that agreed +peculiarly well with their ideas and bearing. Among themselves, at any +rate, they were on terms of perfect equality. None of them betrayed +any sign of annoyance over the Duchess's escapade, but all of them had +learned at Court to hide their feelings. + +And here, lest critics should condemn the puerility of the opening of +the forthcoming scene, it is perhaps as well to remind the reader that +Locke, once happening to be in the company of several great lords, +renowned no less for their wit than for their breeding and political +consistency, wickedly amused himself by taking down their conversation +by some shorthand process of his own; and afterwards, when he read +it over to them to see what they could make of it, they all burst out +laughing. And, in truth, the tinsel jargon which circulates among the +upper ranks in every country yields mighty little gold to the crucible +when washed in the ashes of literature or philosophy. In every rank of +society (some few Parisian salons excepted) the curious observer finds +folly a constant quantity beneath a more or less transparent varnish. +Conversation with any substance in it is a rare exception, and +boeotianism is current coin in every zone. In the higher regions they +must perforce talk more, but to make up for it they think the less. +Thinking is a tiring exercise, and the rich like their lives to flow by +easily and without effort. It is by comparing the fundamental matter of +jests, as you rise in the social scale from the street-boy to the peer +of France, that the observer arrives at a true comprehension of M. de +Talleyrand's maxim, "The manner is everything"; an elegant rendering of +the legal axiom, "The form is of more consequence than the matter." In +the eyes of the poet the advantage rests with the lower classes, for +they seldom fail to give a certain character of rude poetry to their +thoughts. Perhaps also this same observation may explain the sterility +of the salons, their emptiness, their shallowness, and the repugnance +felt by men of ability for bartering their ideas for such pitiful small +change. + +The Duke suddenly stopped as if some bright idea occurred to him, and +remarked to his neighbour: + +"So you have sold Tornthon?" + +"No, he is ill. I am very much afraid I shall lose him, and I should be +uncommonly sorry. He is a very good hunter. Do you know how the Duchesse +de Marigny is?" + +"No. I did not go this morning. I was just going out to call when +you came in to speak about Antoinette. But yesterday she was very ill +indeed; they had given her up, she took the sacrament." + +"Her death will make a change in your cousin's position." + +"Not at all. She gave away her property in her lifetime, only keeping +an annuity. She made over the Guebriant estate to her niece, Mme de +Soulanges, subject to a yearly charge." + +"It will be a great loss for society. She was a kind woman. Her family +will miss her; her experience and advice carried weight. Her son Marigny +is an amiable man; he has a sharp wit, he can talk. He is pleasant, very +pleasant. Pleasant? oh, that no one can deny, but--ill regulated to +the last degree. Well, and yet it is an extraordinary thing, he is +very acute. He was dining at the club the other day with that moneyed +Chaussee-d'Antin set. Your uncle (he always goes there for his game +of cards) found him there to his astonishment, and asked if he was a +member. 'Yes,' said he, 'I don't go into society now; I am living among +the bankers.'--You know why?" added the Marquis, with a meaning smile. + +"No," said the Duke. + +"He is smitten with that little Mme Keller, Gondreville's daughter; she +is only lately married, and has a great vogue, they say, in that set." + +"Well, Antoinette does not find time heavy on her hands, it seems," +remarked the Vidame. + +"My affection for that little woman has driven me to find a singular +pastime," replied the Princess, as she returned her snuff-box to her +pocket. + +"Dear aunt, I am extremely vexed," said the Duke, stopping short in his +walk. "Nobody but one of Bonaparte's men could ask such an indecorous +thing of a woman of fashion. Between ourselves, Antoinette might have +made a better choice." + +"The Montriveaus are a very old family and very well connected, my +dear," replied the Princess; "they are related to all the noblest houses +of Burgundy. If the Dulmen branch of the Arschoot Rivaudoults should +come to an end in Galicia, the Montriveaus would succeed to the Arschoot +title and estates. They inherit through their great-grandfather. + +"Are you sure?" + +"I know it better than this Montriveau's father did. I told him about +it, I used to see a good deal of him; and, Chevalier of several orders +though he was, he only laughed; he was an encyclopaedist. But his +brother turned the relationship to good account during the emigration. +I have heard it said that his northern kinsfolk were most kind in every +way----" + +"Yes, to be sure. The Comte de Montriveau died at St. Petersburg," +said the Vidame. "I met him there. He was a big man with an incredible +passion for oysters." + +"However many did he eat?" asked the Duc de Grandlieu. + +"Ten dozen every day." + +"And did they not disagree with him?" + +"Not the least bit in the world." + +"Why, that is extraordinary! Had he neither the stone nor gout, nor any +other complaint, in consequence?" + +"No; his health was perfectly good, and he died through an accident." + +"By accident! Nature prompted him to eat oysters, so probably he +required them; for up to a certain point our predominant tastes are +conditions of our existence." + +"I am of your opinion," said the Princess, with a smile. + +"Madame, you always put a malicious construction on things," returned +the Marquis. + +"I only want you to understand that these remarks might leave a wrong +impression on a young woman's mind," said she, and interrupted herself +to exclaim, "But this niece, this niece of mine!" + +"Dear aunt, I still refuse to believe that she can have gone to M. de +Montriveau," said the Duc de Navarreins. + +"Bah!" returned the Princess. + +"What do you think, Vidame?" asked the Marquis. + +"If the Duchess were an artless simpleton, I should think that----" + +"But when a woman is in love she becomes an artless simpleton," retorted +the Princess. "Really, my poor Vidame, you must be getting older." + +"After all, what is to be done?" asked the Duke. + +"If my dear niece is wise," said the Princess, "she will go to Court +this evening--fortunately, today is Monday, and reception day--and you +must see that we all rally round her and give the lie to this absurd +rumour. There are hundreds of ways of explaining things; and if the +Marquis de Montriveau is a gentleman, he will come to our assistance. We +will bring these children to listen to reason----" + +"But, dear aunt, it is not easy to tell M. de Montriveau the truth to +his face. He is one of Bonaparte's pupils, and he has a position. Why, +he is one of the great men of the day; he is high up in the Guards, and +very useful there. He has not a spark of ambition. He is just the man to +say, 'Here is my commission, leave me in peace,' if the King should say +a word that he did not like." + +"Then, pray, what are his opinions?" + +"Very unsound." + +"Really," sighed the Princess, "the King is, as he always has been, a +Jacobin under the Lilies of France." + +"Oh! not quite so bad," said the Vidame. + +"Yes; I have known him for a long while. The man that pointed out the +Court to his wife on the occasion of her first state dinner in public +with, 'These are our people,' could only be a black-hearted scoundrel. +I can see Monsieur exactly the same as ever in the King. The bad brother +who voted so wrongly in his department of the Constituent Assembly was +sure to compound with the Liberals and allow them to argue and talk. +This philosophical cant will be just as dangerous now for the younger +brother as it used to be for the elder; this fat man with the little +mind is amusing himself by creating difficulties, and how his successor +is to get out of them I do not know; he holds his younger brother in +abhorrence; he would be glad to think as he lay dying, 'He will not +reign very long----'" + +"Aunt, he is the King, and I have the honour to be in his service----" + +"But does your post take away your right of free speech, my dear? You +come of quite as good a house as the Bourbons. If the Guises had shown a +little more resolution, His Majesty would be a nobody at this day. It is +time I went out of this world, the noblesse is dead. Yes, it is all +over with you, my children," she continued, looking as she spoke at the +Vidame. "What has my niece done that the whole town should be talking +about her? She is in the wrong; I disapprove of her conduct, a useless +scandal is a blunder; that is why I still have my doubts about this want +of regard for appearances; I brought her up, and I know that----" + +Just at that moment the Duchess came out of her boudoir. She had +recognised her aunt's voice and heard the name of Montriveau. She +was still in her loose morning-gown; and even as she came in, M. +de Grandlieu, looking carelessly out of the window, saw his niece's +carriage driving back along the street. The Duke took his daughter's +face in both hands and kissed her on the forehead. + +"So, dear girl," he said, "you do not know what is going on?" + +"Has anything extraordinary happened, father dear?" + +"Why, all Paris believes that you are with M. de Montriveau." + +"My dear Antoinette, you were at home all the time, were you not?" +said the Princess, holding out a hand, which the Duchess kissed with +affectionate respect. + +"Yes, dear mother; I was at home all the time. And," she added, as she +turned to greet the Vidame and the Marquis, "I wished that all Paris +should think that I was with M. de Montriveau." + +The Duke flung up his hands, struck them together in despair, and folded +his arms. + +"Then, cannot you see what will come of this mad freak?" he asked at +last. + +But the aged Princess had suddenly risen, and stood looking steadily +at the Duchess, the younger woman flushed, and her eyes fell. Mme de +Chauvry gently drew her closer, and said, "My little angel, let me kiss +you!" + +She kissed her niece very affectionately on the forehead, and continued +smiling, while she held her hand in a tight clasp. + +"We are not under the Valois now, dear child. You have compromised your +husband and your position. Still, we will arrange to make everything +right." + +"But, dear aunt, I do not wish to make it right at all. It is my wish +that all Paris should say that I was with M. de Montriveau this morning. +If you destroy that belief, however ill grounded it may be, you will do +me a singular disservice." + +"Do you really wish to ruin yourself, child, and to grieve your family?" + +"My family, father, unintentionally condemned me to irreparable +misfortune when they sacrificed me to family considerations. You may, +perhaps, blame me for seeking alleviations, but you will certainly feel +for me." + +"After all the endless pains you take to settle your daughters +suitably!" muttered M. de Navarreins, addressing the Vidame. + +The Princess shook a stray grain of snuff from her skirts. "My dear +little girl," she said, "be happy, if you can. We are not talking of +troubling your felicity, but of reconciling it with social usages. We +all of us here assembled know that marriage is a defective institution +tempered by love. But when you take a lover, is there any need to make +your bed in the Place du Carrousel? See now, just be a bit reasonable, +and hear what we have to say." + +"I am listening." + +"Mme la Duchesse," began the Duc de Grandlieu, "if it were any part of +an uncle's duty to look after his nieces, he ought to have a position; +society would owe him honours and rewards and a salary, exactly as if +he were in the King's service. So I am not here to talk about my nephew, +but of your own interests. Let us look ahead a little. If you persist in +making a scandal--I have seen the animal before, and I own that I have +no great liking for him--Langeais is stingy enough, and he does not care +a rap for anyone but himself; he will have a separation; he will stick +to your money, and leave you poor, and consequently you will be a +nobody. The income of a hundred thousand livres that you have just +inherited from your maternal great-aunt will go to pay for his +mistresses' amusements. You will be bound and gagged by the law; +you will have to say _Amen_ to all these arrangements. Suppose M. de +Montriveau leaves you----dear me! do not let us put ourselves in a +passion, my dear niece; a man does not leave a woman while she is young +and pretty; still, we have seen so many pretty women left disconsolate, +even among princesses, that you will permit the supposition, an all but +impossible supposition I quite wish to believe.----Well, suppose that +he goes, what will become of you without a husband? Keep well with your +husband as you take care of your beauty; for beauty, after all, is a +woman's parachute, and a husband also stands between you and worse. I +am supposing that you are happy and loved to the end, and I am leaving +unpleasant or unfortunate events altogether out of the reckoning. This +being so, fortunately or unfortunately, you may have children. What are +they to be? Montriveaus? Very well; they certainly will not succeed to +their father's whole fortune. You will want to give them all that you +have; he will wish to do the same. Nothing more natural, dear me! +And you will find the law against you. How many times have we +seen heirs-at-law bringing a law-suit to recover the property from +illegitimate children? Every court of law rings with such actions all +over the world. You will create a _fidei commissum_ perhaps; and if the +trustee betrays your confidence, your children have no remedy against +him; and they are ruined. So choose carefully. You see the perplexities +of the position. In every possible way your children will be sacrificed +of necessity to the fancies of your heart; they will have no recognised +status. While they are little they will be charming; but, Lord! some day +they will reproach you for thinking of no one but your two selves. We +old gentlemen know all about it. Little boys grow up into men, and men +are ungrateful beings. When I was in Germany, did I not hear young de +Horn say, after supper, 'If my mother had been an honest woman, I should +be prince-regnant!' _If_?' We have spent our lives in hearing plebeians +say _if_. _If_ brought about the Revolution. When a man cannot lay the +blame on his father or mother, he holds God responsible for his hard +lot. In short, dear child, we are here to open your eyes. I will say all +I have to say in a few words, on which you had better meditate: A woman +ought never to put her husband in the right." + +"Uncle, so long as I cared for nobody, I could calculate; I looked at +interests then, as you do; now, I can only feel." + +"But, my dear little girl," remonstrated the Vidame, "life is simply a +complication of interests and feelings; to be happy, more particularly +in your position, one must try to reconcile one's feelings with +one's interests. A grisette may love according to her fancy, that is +intelligible enough, but you have a pretty fortune, a family, a name and +a place at Court, and you ought not to fling them out of the window. +And what have we been asking you to do to keep them all?--To manoeuvre +carefully instead of falling foul of social conventions. Lord! I shall +very soon be eighty years old, and I cannot recollect, under any regime, +a love worth the price that you are willing to pay for the love of this +lucky young man." + +The Duchess silenced the Vidame with a look; if Montriveau could have +seen that glance, he would have forgiven all. + +"It would be very effective on the stage," remarked the Duc de +Grandlieu, "but it all amounts to nothing when your jointure and +position and independence is concerned. You are not grateful, my dear +niece. You will not find many families where the relatives have courage +enough to teach the wisdom gained by experience, and to make rash young +heads listen to reason. Renounce your salvation in two minutes, if it +pleases you to damn yourself; well and good; but reflect well beforehand +when it comes to renouncing your income. I know of no confessor who +remits the pains of poverty. I have a right, I think, to speak in this +way to you; for if you are ruined, I am the one person who can offer you +a refuge. I am almost an uncle to Langeais, and I alone have a right to +put him in the wrong." + +The Duc de Navarreins roused himself from painful reflections. + +"Since you speak of feeling, my child," he said, "let me remind you that +a woman who bears your name ought to be moved by sentiments which do +not touch ordinary people. Can you wish to give an advantage to the +Liberals, to those Jesuits of Robespierre's that are doing all they +can to vilify the noblesse? Some things a Navarreins cannot do +without failing in duty to his house. You would not be alone in your +dishonor----" + +"Come, come!" said the Princess. "Dishonor? Do not make such a fuss +about the journey of an empty carriage, children, and leave me alone +with Antoinette. All three of you come and dine with me. I will +undertake to arrange matters suitably. You men understand nothing; +you are beginning to talk sourly already, and I have no wish to see a +quarrel between you and my dear child. Do me the pleasure to go." + +The three gentlemen probably guessed the Princess's intentions; they +took their leave. M. de Navarreins kissed his daughter on the forehead +with, "Come, be good, dear child. It is not too late yet if you choose." + +"Couldn't we find some good fellow in the family to pick a quarrel with +this Montriveau?" said the Vidame, as they went downstairs. + +When the two women were alone, the Princess beckoned her niece to a +little low chair by her side. + +"My pearl," said she, "in this world below, I know nothing worse +calumniated than God and the eighteenth century; for as I look back over +my own young days, I do not recollect that a single duchess trampled the +proprieties underfoot as you have just done. Novelists and scribblers +brought the reign of Louis XV into disrepute. Do not believe them. The +du Barry, my dear, was quite as good as the Widow Scarron, and the more +agreeable woman of the two. In my time a woman could keep her dignity +among her gallantries. Indiscretion was the ruin of us, and the +beginning of all the mischief. The philosophists--the nobodies whom we +admitted into our salons--had no more gratitude or sense of decency than +to make an inventory of our hearts, to traduce us one and all, and to +rail against the age by way of a return for our kindness. The people are +not in a position to judge of anything whatsoever; they looked at the +facts, not at the form. But the men and women of those times, my heart, +were quite as remarkable as at any other period of the Monarchy. Not one +of your Werthers, none of your notabilities, as they are called, never +a one of your men in yellow kid gloves and trousers that disguise the +poverty of their legs, would cross Europe in the dress of a travelling +hawker to brave the daggers of a Duke of Modena, and to shut himself up +in the dressing-room of the Regent's daughter at the risk of his life. +Not one of your little consumptive patients with their tortoiseshell +eyeglasses would hide himself in a closet for six weeks, like Lauzun, +to keep up his mistress's courage while she was lying in of her child. +There was more passion in M. de Jaucourt's little finger than in +your whole race of higglers that leave a woman to better themselves +elsewhere! Just tell me where to find the page that would be cut in +pieces and buried under the floorboards for one kiss on the Konigsmark's +gloved finger! + +"Really, it would seem today that the roles are exchanged, and women +are expected to show their devotion for men. These modern gentlemen are +worth less, and think more of themselves. Believe me, my dear, all these +adventures that have been made public, and now are turned against our +good Louis XV, were kept quite secret at first. If it had not been for +a pack of poetasters, scribblers, and moralists, who hung about our +waiting-women, and took down their slanders, our epoch would have +appeared in literature as a well-conducted age. I am justifying the +century and not its fringe. Perhaps a hundred women of quality were +lost; but for every one, the rogues set down ten, like the gazettes +after a battle when they count up the losses of the beaten side. And in +any case I do not know that the Revolution and the Empire can reproach +us; they were coarse, dull, licentious times. Faugh! it is revolting. +Those are the brothels of French history. + +"This preamble, my dear child," she continued after a pause, "brings +me to the thing that I have to say. If you care for Montriveau, you are +quite at liberty to love him at your ease, and as much as you can. I +know by experience that, unless you are locked up (but locking people +up is out of fashion now), you will do as you please; I should have done +the same at your age. Only, sweetheart, I should not have given up my +right to be the mother of future Ducs de Langeais. So mind appearances. +The Vidame is right. No man is worth a single one of the sacrifices +which we are foolish enough to make for their love. Put yourself in +such a position that you may still be M. de Langeais' wife, in case you +should have the misfortune to repent. When you are an old woman, you +will be very glad to hear mass said at Court, and not in some provincial +convent. Therein lies the whole question. A single imprudence means an +allowance and a wandering life; it means that you are at the mercy of +your lover; it means that you must put up with insolence from women +that are not so honest, precisely because they have been very vulgarly +sharp-witted. It would be a hundred times better to go to Montriveau's +at night in a cab, and disguised, instead of sending your carriage in +broad daylight. You are a little fool, my dear child! Your carriage +flattered his vanity; your person would have ensnared his heart. All +this that I have said is just and true; but, for my own part, I do not +blame you. You are two centuries behind the times with your false ideas +of greatness. There, leave us to arrange your affairs, and say that +Montriveau made your servants drunk to gratify his vanity and to +compromise you----" + +The Duchess rose to her feet with a spring. "In Heaven's name, aunt, do +not slander him!" + +The old Princess's eyes flashed. + +"Dear child," she said, "I should have liked to spare such of your +illusions as were not fatal. But there must be an end of all illusions +now. You would soften me if I were not so old. Come, now, do not vex +him, or us, or anyone else. I will undertake to satisfy everybody; but +promise me not to permit yourself a single step henceforth until you +have consulted me. Tell me all, and perhaps I may bring it all right +again." + +"Aunt, I promise----" + +"To tell me everything?" + +"Yes, everything. Everything that can be told." + +"But, my sweetheart, it is precisely what cannot be told that I want +to know. Let us understand each other thoroughly. Come, let me put my +withered old lips on your beautiful forehead. No; let me do as I wish. I +forbid you to kiss my bones. Old people have a courtesy of their own.... +There, take me down to my carriage," she added, when she had kissed her +niece. + +"Then may I go to him in disguise, dear aunt?" + +"Why--yes. The story can always be denied," said the old Princess. + +This was the one idea which the Duchess had clearly grasped in the +sermon. When Mme de Chauvry was seated in the corner of her carriage, +Mme de Langeais bade her a graceful adieu and went up to her room. She +was quite happy again. + +"My person would have snared his heart; my aunt is right; a man cannot +surely refuse a pretty woman when she understands how to offer herself." + +That evening, at the Elysee-Bourbon, the Duc de Navarreins, M. de +Pamiers, M. de Marsay, M. de Grandlieu, and the Duc de Maufrigneuse +triumphantly refuted the scandals that were circulating with regard to +the Duchesse de Langeais. So many officers and other persons had seen +Montriveau walking in the Tuileries that morning, that the silly story +was set down to chance, which takes all that is offered. And so, +in spite of the fact that the Duchess's carriage had waited before +Montriveau's door, her character became as clear and as spotless as +Membrino's sword after Sancho had polished it up. + +But, at two o'clock, M. de Ronquerolles passed Montriveau in a deserted +alley, and said with a smile, "She is coming on, is your Duchess. Go on, +keep it up!" he added, and gave a significant cut of the riding whip to +his mare, who sped off like a bullet down the avenue. + +Two days after the fruitless scandal, Mme de Langeais wrote to M. de +Montriveau. That letter, like the preceding ones, remained unanswered. +This time she took her own measures, and bribed M. de Montriveau's man, +Auguste. And so at eight o'clock that evening she was introduced into +Armand's apartment. It was not the room in which that secret scene had +passed; it was entirely different. The Duchess was told that the General +would not be at home that night. Had he two houses? The man would give +no answer. Mme de Langeais had bought the key of the room, but not the +man's whole loyalty. + +When she was left alone she saw her fourteen letters lying on an +old-fashioned stand, all of them uncreased and unopened. He had not +read them. She sank into an easy-chair, and for a while she lost +consciousness. When she came to herself, Auguste was holding vinegar for +her to inhale. + +"A carriage; quick!" she ordered. + +The carriage came. She hastened downstairs with convulsive speed, and +left orders that no one was to be admitted. For twenty-four hours she +lay in bed, and would have no one near her but her woman, who brought +her a cup of orange-flower water from time to time. Suzette heard +her mistress moan once or twice, and caught a glimpse of tears in the +brilliant eyes, now circled with dark shadows. + +The next day, amid despairing tears, Mme de Langeais took her +resolution. Her man of business came for an interview, and no doubt +received instructions of some kind. Afterwards she sent for the +Vidame de Pamiers; and while she waited, she wrote a letter to M. +de Montriveau. The Vidame punctually came towards two o'clock that +afternoon, to find his young cousin looking white and worn, but +resigned; never had her divine loveliness been more poetic than now in +the languor of her agony. + +"You owe this assignation to your eighty-four years, dear cousin," she +said. "Ah! do not smile, I beg of you, when an unhappy woman has reached +the lowest depths of wretchedness. You are a gentleman, and after the +adventures of your youth you must feel some indulgence for women." + +"None whatever," said he. + +"Indeed!" + +"Everything is in their favour." + +"Ah! Well, you are one of the inner family circle; possibly you will be +the last relative, the last friend whose hand I shall press, so I can +ask your good offices. Will you, dear Vidame, do me a service which I +could not ask of my own father, nor of my uncle Grandlieu, nor of any +woman? You cannot fail to understand. I beg of you to do my bidding, and +then to forget what you have done, whatever may come of it. It is this: +Will you take this letter and go to M. de Montriveau? will you see him +yourself, give it into his hands, and ask him, as you men can ask things +between yourselves--for you have a code of honour between man and man +which you do not use with us, and a different way of regarding things +between yourselves--ask him if he will read this letter? Not in +your presence. Certain feelings men hide from each other. I give you +authority to say, if you think it necessary to bring him, that it is a +question of life or death for me. If he deigns----" + +"_Deigns_!" repeated the Vidame. + +"If he deigns to read it," the Duchess continued with dignity, "say one +thing more. You will go to see him about five o'clock, for I know that +he will dine at home today at that time. Very good. By way of answer he +must come to see me. If, three hours afterwards, by eight o'clock, he +does not leave his house, all will be over. The Duchesse de Langeais +will have vanished from the world. I shall not be dead, dear friend, no, +but no human power will ever find me again on this earth. Come and dine +with me; I shall at least have one friend with me in the last agony. +Yes, dear cousin, tonight will decide my fate; and whatever happens to +me, I pass through an ordeal by fire. There! not a word. I will hear +nothing of the nature of comment or advice----Let us chat and laugh +together," she added, holding out a hand, which he kissed. "We will be +like two grey-headed philosophers who have learned how to enjoy life to +the last moment. I will look my best; I will be very enchanting for +you. You perhaps will be the last man to set eyes on the Duchesse de +Langeais." + +The Vicomte bowed, took the letter, and went without a word. At five +o'clock he returned. His cousin had studied to please him, and she +looked lovely indeed. The room was gay with flowers as if for a +festivity; the dinner was exquisite. For the grey-headed Vidame the +Duchess displayed all the brilliancy of her wit; she was more charming +than she had ever been before. At first the Vidame tried to look on +all these preparations as a young woman's jest; but now and again the +attempted illusion faded, the spell of his fair cousin's charm was +broken. He detected a shudder caused by some kind of sudden dread, and +once she seemed to listen during a pause. + +"What is the matter?" he asked. + +"Hush!" she said. + +At seven o'clock the Duchess left him for a few minutes. When she came +back again she was dressed as her maid might have dressed for a journey. +She asked her guest to be her escort, took his arm, sprang into a +hackney coach, and by a quarter to eight they stood outside M. de +Montriveau's door. + +Armand meantime had been reading the following letter:-- + + +"MY FRIEND,--I went to your rooms for a few minutes without your +knowledge; I found my letters there, and took them away. This cannot +be indifference, Armand, between us; and hatred would show itself quite +differently. If you love me, make an end of this cruel play, or you will +kill me, and afterwards, learning how much you were loved, you might be +in despair. If I have not rightly understood you, if you have no feeling +towards me but aversion, which implies both contempt and disgust, then +I give up all hope. A man never recovers from those feelings. You will +have no regrets. Dreadful though that thought may be, it will comfort me +in my long sorrow. Regrets? Oh, my Armand, may I never know of them; if +I thought that I had caused you a single regret----But, no, I will not +tell you what desolation I should feel. I should be living still, and I +could not be your wife; it would be too late! + +"Now that I have given myself wholly to you in thought, to whom else +should I give myself?--to God. The eyes that you loved for a little +while shall never look on another man's face; and may the glory of God +blind them to all besides. I shall never hear human voices more since I +heard yours--so gentle at the first, so terrible yesterday; for it seems +to me that I am still only on the morrow of your vengeance. And now +may the will of God consume me. Between His wrath and yours, my friend, +there will be nothing left for me but a little space for tears and +prayers. + +"Perhaps you wonder why I write to you? Ah! do not think ill of me if I +keep a gleam of hope, and give one last sigh to happy life before I take +leave of it forever. I am in a hideous position. I feel all the inward +serenity that comes when a great resolution has been taken, even while I +hear the last growlings of the storm. When you went out on that terrible +adventure which so drew me to you, Armand, you went from the desert to +the oasis with a good guide to show you the way. Well, I am going out of +the oasis into the desert, and you are a pitiless guide to me. And yet +you only, my friend, can understand how melancholy it is to look back +for the last time on happiness--to you, and you only, I can make moan +without a blush. If you grant my entreaty, I shall be happy; if you are +inexorable, I shall expiate the wrong that I have done. After all, it is +natural, is it not, that a woman should wish to live, invested with all +noble feelings, in her friend's memory? Oh! my one and only love, let +her to whom you gave life go down into the tomb in the belief that she +is great in your eyes. Your harshness led me to reflect; and now that I +love you so, it seems to me that I am less guilty than you think. Listen +to my justification, I owe it to you; and you that are all the world to +me, owe me at least a moment's justice. + +"I have learned by my own anguish all that I made you suffer by my +coquetry; but in those days I was utterly ignorant of love. _You_ know +what the torture is, and you mete it out to me! During those first eight +months that you gave me you never roused any feeling of love in me. Do +you ask why this was so, my friend? I can no more explain it than I can +tell you why I love you now. Oh! certainly it flattered my vanity that I +should be the subject of your passionate talk, and receive those burning +glances of yours; but you left me cold. No, I was not a woman; I had +no conception of womanly devotion and happiness. Who was to blame? You +would have despised me, would you not, if I had given myself without +the impulse of passion? Perhaps it is the highest height to which we +can rise--to give all and receive no joy; perhaps there is no merit in +yielding oneself to bliss that is foreseen and ardently desired. Alas, +my friend, I can say this now; these thoughts came to me when I played +with you; and you seemed to me so great even then that I would not have +you owe the gift to pity----What is this that I have written? + +"I have taken back all my letters; I am flinging them one by one on the +fire; they are burning. You will never know what they confessed--all the +love and the passion and the madness---- + +"I will say no more, Armand; I will stop. I will not say another word of +my feelings. If my prayers have not echoed from my soul through yours, +I also, woman that I am, decline to owe your love to your pity. It is my +wish to be loved, because you cannot choose but love me, or else to +be left without mercy. If you refuse to read this letter, it shall be +burnt. If, after you have read it, you do not come to me within three +hours, to be henceforth forever my husband, the one man in the world for +me; then I shall never blush to know that this letter is in your hands, +the pride of my despair will protect my memory from all insult, and my +end shall be worthy of my love. When you see me no more on earth, albeit +I shall still be alive, you yourself will not think without a shudder +of the woman who, in three hours' time, will live only to overwhelm +you with her tenderness; a woman consumed by a hopeless love, and +faithful--not to memories of past joys--but to a love that was slighted. + +"The Duchesse de la Valliere wept for lost happiness and vanished power; +but the Duchesse de Langeais will be happy that she may weep and be a +power for you still. Yes, you will regret me. I see clearly that I was +not of this world, and I thank you for making it clear to me. + +"Farewell; you will never touch _my_ axe. Yours was the executioner's +axe, mine is God's; yours kills, mine saves. Your love was but mortal, +it could not endure disdain or ridicule; mine can endure all things +without growing weaker, it will last eternally. Ah! I feel a sombre joy +in crushing you that believe yourself so great; in humbling you with the +calm, indulgent smile of one of the least among the angels that lie at +the feet of God, for to them is given the right and the power to protect +and watch over men in His name. You have but felt fleeting desires, +while the poor nun will shed the light of her ceaseless and ardent +prayer about you, she will shelter you all your life long beneath the +wings of a love that has nothing of earth in it. + +"I have a presentiment of your answer; our trysting place shall be--in +heaven. Strength and weakness can both enter there, dear Armand; the +strong and the weak are bound to suffer. This thought soothes the +anguish of my final ordeal. So calm am I that I should fear that I had +ceased to love you if I were not about to leave the world for your sake. + + "ANTOINETTE." + + +"Dear Vidame," said the Duchess as they reached Montriveau's house, "do +me the kindness to ask at the door whether he is at home." The Vidame, +obedient after the manner of the eighteenth century to a woman's wish, +got out, and came back to bring his cousin an affirmative answer that +sent a shudder through her. She grasped his hand tightly in hers, +suffered him to kiss her on either cheek, and begged him to go at once. +He must not watch her movements nor try to protect her. "But the people +passing in the street," he objected. + +"No one can fail in respect to me," she said. It was the last word +spoken by the Duchess and the woman of fashion. + +The Vidame went. Mme de Langeais wrapped herself about in her cloak, +and stood on the doorstep until the clocks struck eight. The last stroke +died away. The unhappy woman waited ten, fifteen minutes; to the last +she tried to see a fresh humiliation in the delay, then her faith ebbed. +She turned to leave the fatal threshold. + +"Oh, God!" the cry broke from her in spite of herself; it was the first +word spoken by the Carmelite. + + + +Montriveau and some of his friends were talking together. He tried to +hasten them to a conclusion, but his clock was slow, and by the time he +started out for the Hotel de Langeais the Duchess was hurrying on foot +through the streets of Paris, goaded by the dull rage in her heart. She +reached the Boulevard d'Enfer, and looked out for the last time through +falling tears on the noisy, smoky city that lay below in a red mist, +lighted up by its own lamps. Then she hailed a cab, and drove away, +never to return. When the Marquis de Montriveau reached the Hotel de +Langeais, and found no trace of his mistress, he thought that he had +been duped. He hurried away at once to the Vidame, and found that worthy +gentleman in the act of slipping on his flowered dressing-gown, thinking +the while of his fair cousin's happiness. + +Montriveau gave him one of the terrific glances that produced the effect +of an electric shock on men and women alike. + +"Is it possible that you have lent yourself to some cruel hoax, +monsieur?" Montriveau exclaimed. "I have just come from Mme de Langeais' +house; the servants say that she is out." + +"Then a great misfortune has happened, no doubt," returned the Vidame, +"and through your fault. I left the Duchess at your door----" + +"When?" + +"At a quarter to eight." + +"Good evening," returned Montriveau, and he hurried home to ask the +porter whether he had seen a lady standing on the doorstep that evening. + +"Yes, my Lord Marquis, a handsome woman, who seemed very much put out. +She was crying like a Magdalen, but she never made a sound, and stood +as upright as a post. Then at last she went, and my wife and I that were +watching her while she could not see us, heard her say, 'Oh, God!' so +that it went to our hearts, asking your pardon, to hear her say it." + +Montriveau, in spite of all his firmness, turned pale at those few +words. He wrote a few lines to Ronquerolles, sent off the message at +once, and went up to his rooms. Ronquerolles came just about midnight. + +Armand gave him the Duchess's letter to read. + +"Well?" asked Ronquerolles. + +"She was here at my door at eight o'clock; at a quarter-past eight she +had gone. I have lost her, and I love her. Oh! if my life were my own, I +could blow my brains out." + +"Pooh, pooh! Keep cool," said Ronquerolles. "Duchesses do not fly off +like wagtails. She cannot travel faster than three leagues an hour, and +tomorrow we will ride six.--Confound it! Mme de Langeais is no ordinary +woman," he continued. "Tomorrow we will all of us mount and ride. +The police will put us on her track during the day. She must have a +carriage; angels of that sort have no wings. We shall find her whether +she is on the road or hidden in Paris. There is the semaphore. We can +stop her. You shall be happy. But, my dear fellow, you have made a +blunder, of which men of your energy are very often guilty. They judge +others by themselves, and do not know the point when human nature gives +way if you strain the cords too tightly. Why did you not say a word +to me sooner? I would have told you to be punctual. Good-bye till +tomorrow," he added, as Montriveau said nothing. "Sleep if you can," he +added, with a grasp of the hand. + +But the greatest resources which society has ever placed at the disposal +of statesmen, kings, ministers, bankers, or any human power, in fact, +were all exhausted in vain. Neither Montriveau nor his friends could +find any trace of the Duchess. It was clear that she had entered a +convent. Montriveau determined to search, or to institute a search, for +her through every convent in the world. He must have her, even at the +cost of all the lives in a town. And in justice to this extraordinary +man, it must be said that his frenzied passion awoke to the same +ardour daily and lasted through five years. Only in 1829 did the Duc de +Navarreins hear by chance that his daughter had travelled to Spain as +Lady Julia Hopwood's maid, that she had left her service at Cadiz, and +that Lady Julia never discovered that Mlle Caroline was the illustrious +duchess whose sudden disappearance filled the minds of the highest +society of Paris. + + + +The feelings of the two lovers when they met again on either side of the +grating in the Carmelite convent should now be comprehended to the full, +and the violence of the passion awakened in either soul will doubtless +explain the catastrophe of the story. + +In 1823 the Duc de Langeais was dead, and his wife was free. Antoinette +de Navarreins was living, consumed by love, on a ledge of rock in +the Mediterranean; but it was in the Pope's power to dissolve Sister +Theresa's vows. The happiness bought by so much love might yet bloom +for the two lovers. These thoughts sent Montriveau flying from Cadiz to +Marseilles, and from Marseilles to Paris. + +A few months after his return to France, a merchant brig, fitted out and +munitioned for active service, set sail from the port of Marseilles for +Spain. The vessel had been chartered by several distinguished men, most +of them Frenchmen, who, smitten with a romantic passion for the East, +wished to make a journey to those lands. Montriveau's familiar knowledge +of Eastern customs made him an invaluable travelling companion, and at +the entreaty of the rest he had joined the expedition; the Minister +of War appointed him lieutenant-general, and put him on the Artillery +Commission to facilitate his departure. + +Twenty-fours hours later the brig lay to off the north-west shore of an +island within sight of the Spanish coast. She had been specially chosen +for her shallow keel and light mastage, so that she might lie at anchor +in safety half a league away from the reefs that secure the island from +approach in this direction. If fishing vessels or the people on the +island caught sight of the brig, they were scarcely likely to feel +suspicious of her at once; and besides, it was easy to give a reason for +her presence without delay. Montriveau hoisted the flag of the United +States before they came in sight of the island, and the crew of the +vessel were all American sailors, who spoke nothing but English. One +of M. de Montriveau's companions took the men ashore in the ship's +longboat, and made them so drunk at an inn in the little town that +they could not talk. Then he gave out that the brig was manned by +treasure-seekers, a gang of men whose hobby was well known in the United +States; indeed, some Spanish writer had written a history of them. The +presence of the brig among the reefs was now sufficiently explained. +The owners of the vessel, according to the self-styled boatswain's mate, +were looking for the wreck of a galleon which foundered thereabouts in +1778 with a cargo of treasure from Mexico. The people at the inn and the +authorities asked no more questions. + +Armand, and the devoted friends who were helping him in his difficult +enterprise, were all from the first of the opinion that there was no +hope of rescuing or carrying off Sister Theresa by force or stratagem +from the side of the little town. Wherefore these bold spirits, with one +accord, determined to take the bull by the horns. They would make a way +to the convent at the most seemingly inaccessible point; like General +Lamarque, at the storming of Capri, they would conquer Nature. The cliff +at the end of the island, a sheer block of granite, afforded even less +hold than the rock of Capri. So it seemed at least to Montriveau, who +had taken part in that incredible exploit, while the nuns in his eyes +were much more redoubtable than Sir Hudson Lowe. To raise a hubbub over +carrying off the Duchess would cover them with confusion. They might as +well set siege to the town and convent, like pirates, and leave not a +single soul to tell of their victory. So for them their expedition wore +but two aspects. There should be a conflagration and a feat of arms +that should dismay all Europe, while the motives of the crime remained +unknown; or, on the other hand, a mysterious, aerial descent which +should persuade the nuns that the Devil himself had paid them a visit. +They had decided upon the latter course in the secret council held +before they left Paris, and subsequently everything had been done to +insure the success of an expedition which promised some real excitement +to jaded spirits weary of Paris and its pleasures. + +An extremely light pirogue, made at Marseilles on a Malayan model, +enabled them to cross the reef, until the rocks rose from out of the +water. Then two cables of iron wire were fastened several feet apart +between one rock and another. These wire ropes slanted upwards and +downwards in opposite directions, so that baskets of iron wire could +travel to and fro along them; and in this manner the rocks were covered +with a system of baskets and wire-cables, not unlike the filaments +which a certain species of spider weaves about a tree. The Chinese, an +essentially imitative people, were the first to take a lesson from the +work of instinct. Fragile as these bridges were, they were always ready +for use; high waves and the caprices of the sea could not throw them +out of working order; the ropes hung just sufficiently slack, so as to +present to the breakers that particular curve discovered by Cachin, the +immortal creator of the harbour at Cherbourg. Against this cunningly +devised line the angry surge is powerless; the law of that curve was +a secret wrested from Nature by that faculty of observation in which +nearly all human genius consists. + +M. de Montriveau's companions were alone on board the vessel, and out of +sight of every human eye. No one from the deck of a passing vessel could +have discovered either the brig hidden among the reefs, or the men at +work among the rocks; they lay below the ordinary range of the most +powerful telescope. Eleven days were spent in preparation, before the +Thirteen, with all their infernal power, could reach the foot of the +cliffs. The body of the rock rose up straight from the sea to a height +of thirty fathoms. Any attempt to climb the sheer wall of granite seemed +impossible; a mouse might as well try to creep up the slippery sides of +a plain china vase. Still there was a cleft, a straight line of fissure +so fortunately placed that large blocks of wood could be wedged firmly +into it at a distance of about a foot apart. Into these blocks the +daring workers drove iron cramps, specially made for the purpose, with +a broad iron bracket at the outer end, through which a hole had been +drilled. Each bracket carried a light deal board which corresponded with +a notch made in a pole that reached to the top of the cliffs, and was +firmly planted in the beach at their feet. With ingenuity worthy of +these men who found nothing impossible, one of their number, a skilled +mathematician, had calculated the angle from which the steps must start; +so that from the middle they rose gradually, like the sticks of a fan, +to the top of the cliff, and descended in the same fashion to its +base. That miraculously light, yet perfectly firm, staircase cost them +twenty-two days of toil. A little tinder and the surf of the sea would +destroy all trace of it forever in a single night. A betrayal of the +secret was impossible; and all search for the violators of the convent +was doomed to failure. + +At the top of the rock there was a platform with sheer precipice on all +sides. The Thirteen, reconnoitring the ground with their glasses from +the masthead, made certain that though the ascent was steep and rough, +there would be no difficulty in gaining the convent garden, where the +trees were thick enough for a hiding-place. After such great efforts +they would not risk the success of their enterprise, and were compelled +to wait till the moon passed out of her last quarter. + +For two nights Montriveau, wrapped in his cloak, lay out on the rock +platform. The singing at vespers and matins filled him with unutterable +joy. He stood under the wall to hear the music of the organ, listening +intently for one voice among the rest. But in spite of the silence, the +confused effect of music was all that reached his ears. In those sweet +harmonies defects of execution are lost; the pure spirit of art comes +into direct communication with the spirit of the hearer, making +no demand on the attention, no strain on the power of listening. +Intolerable memories awoke. All the love within him seemed to break into +blossom again at the breath of that music; he tried to find auguries of +happiness in the air. During the last night he sat with his eyes fixed +upon an ungrated window, for bars were not needed on the side of the +precipice. A light shone there all through the hours; and that instinct +of the heart, which is sometimes true, and as often false, cried within +him, "She is there!" + +"She is certainly there! Tomorrow she will be mine," he said to himself, +and joy blended with the slow tinkling of a bell that began to ring. + +Strange unaccountable workings of the heart! The nun, wasted by yearning +love, worn out with tears and fasting, prayer and vigils; the woman of +nine-and-twenty, who had passed through heavy trials, was loved more +passionately than the lighthearted girl, the woman of four-and-twenty, +the sylphide, had ever been. But is there not, for men of vigorous +character, something attractive in the sublime expression engraven on +women's faces by the impetuous stirrings of thought and misfortunes of +no ignoble kind? Is there not a beauty of suffering which is the most +interesting of all beauty to those men who feel that within them there +is an inexhaustible wealth of tenderness and consoling pity for a +creature so gracious in weakness, so strong with love? It is the +ordinary nature that is attracted by young, smooth, pink-and-white +beauty, or, in one word, by prettiness. In some faces love awakens +amid the wrinkles carved by sorrow and the ruin made by melancholy; +Montriveau could not but feel drawn to these. For cannot a lover, +with the voice of a great longing, call forth a wholly new creature? a +creature athrob with the life but just begun breaks forth for him alone, +from the outward form that is fair for him, and faded for all the world +besides. Does he not love two women?--One of them, as others see her, +is pale and wan and sad; but the other, the unseen love that his heart +knows, is an angel who understands life through feeling, and is adorned +in all her glory only for love's high festivals. + +The General left his post before sunrise, but not before he had heard +voices singing together, sweet voices full of tenderness sounding +faintly from the cell. When he came down to the foot of the cliffs where +his friends were waiting, he told them that never in his life had +he felt such enthralling bliss, and in the few words there was that +unmistakable thrill of repressed strong feeling, that magnificent +utterance which all men respect. + + + +That night eleven of his devoted comrades made the ascent in the +darkness. Each man carried a poniard, a provision of chocolate, and +a set of house-breaking tools. They climbed the outer walls with +scaling-ladders, and crossed the cemetery of the convent. Montriveau +recognised the long, vaulted gallery through which he went to the +parlour, and remembered the windows of the room. His plans were made and +adopted in a moment. They would effect an entrance through one of the +windows in the Carmelite's half of the parlour, find their way along +the corridors, ascertain whether the sister's names were written on the +doors, find Sister Theresa's cell, surprise her as she slept, and carry +her off, bound and gagged. The programme presented no difficulties to +men who combined boldness and a convict's dexterity with the knowledge +peculiar to men of the world, especially as they would not scruple to +give a stab to ensure silence. + +In two hours the bars were sawn through. Three men stood on guard +outside, and two inside the parlour. The rest, barefooted, took up their +posts along the corridor. Young Henri de Marsay, the most dexterous +man among them, disguised by way of precaution in a Carmelite's robe, +exactly like the costume of the convent, led the way, and Montriveau +came immediately behind him. The clock struck three just as the two men +reached the dormitory cells. They soon saw the position. Everything was +perfectly quiet. With the help of a dark lantern they read the names +luckily written on every door, together with the picture of a saint or +saints and the mystical words which every nun takes as a kind of +motto for the beginning of her new life and the revelation of her +last thought. Montriveau reached Sister Theresa's door and read the +inscription, _Sub invocatione sanctae matris Theresae_, and her motto, +_Adoremus in aeternum_. Suddenly his companion laid a hand on his +shoulder. A bright light was streaming through the chinks of the door. +M. de Ronquerolles came up at that moment. + +"All the nuns are in the church," he said; "they are beginning the +Office for the Dead." + +"I will stay here," said Montriveau. "Go back into the parlour, and shut +the door at the end of the passage." + +He threw open the door and rushed in, preceded by his disguised +companion, who let down the veil over his face. + +There before them lay the dead Duchess; her plank bed had been laid on +the floor of the outer room of her cell, between two lighted candles. +Neither Montriveau nor de Marsay spoke a word or uttered a cry; but they +looked into each other's faces. The General's dumb gesture tried to say, +"Let us carry her away!" + +"Quickly" shouted Ronquerolles, "the procession of nuns is leaving the +church. You will be caught!" + +With magical swiftness of movement, prompted by an intense desire, the +dead woman was carried into the convent parlour, passed through the +window, and lowered from the walls before the Abbess, followed by the +nuns, returned to take up Sister Theresa's body. The sister left in +charge had imprudently left her post; there were secrets that she longed +to know; and so busy was she ransacking the inner room, that she heard +nothing, and was horrified when she came back to find that the body was +gone. Before the women, in their blank amazement, could think of making +a search, the Duchess had been lowered by a cord to the foot of the +crags, and Montriveau's companions had destroyed all traces of their +work. By nine o'clock that morning there was not a sign to show that +either staircase or wire-cables had ever existed, and Sister Theresa's +body had been taken on board. The brig came into the port to ship her +crew, and sailed that day. + +Montriveau, down in the cabin, was left alone with Antoinette +de Navarreins. For some hours it seemed as if her dead face was +transfigured for him by that unearthly beauty which the calm of death +gives to the body before it perishes. + +"Look here," said Ronquerolles when Montriveau reappeared on deck, +"_that_ was a woman once, now it is nothing. Let us tie a cannon ball +to both feet and throw the body overboard; and if ever you think of her +again, think of her as of some book that you read as a boy." + +"Yes," assented Montriveau, "it is nothing now but a dream." + +"That is sensible of you. Now, after this, have passions; but as for +love, a man ought to know how to place it wisely; it is only a woman's +last love that can satisfy a man's first love." + + + + +ADDENDUM + +Note: The Duchesse de Langeais is the second part of a trilogy. Part one +is entitled Ferragus and part three is The Girl with the Golden Eyes. In +other addendum references all three stories are usually combined under +the title The Thirteen. + + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + + Blamont-Chauvry, Princesse de + Madame Firmiani + The Lily of the Valley + + Grandlieu, Duc Ferdinand de + The Gondreville Mystery + A Bachelor's Establishment + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + + Granville, Comtesse Angelique de + A Second Home + A Daughter of Eve + + Keller, Madame Francois + Domestic Peace + The Member for Arcis + + Langeais, Duc de + An Episode under the Terror + + Langeais, Duchesse Antoinette de + Father Goriot + Ferragus + + Marsay, Henri de + Ferragus + The Girl with the Golden Eyes + The Unconscious Humorists + Another Study of Woman + The Lily of the Valley + Father Goriot + Jealousies of a Country Town + Ursule Mirouet + A Marriage Settlement + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Letters of Two Brides + The Ball at Sceaux + Modeste Mignon + The Secrets of a Princess + The Gondreville Mystery + A Daughter of Eve + + Montriveau, General Marquis Armand de + Father Goriot + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Another Study of Woman + Pierrette + The Member for Arcis + + Navarreins, Duc de + A Bachelor's Establishment + Colonel Chabert + The Muse of the Department + Jealousies of a Country Town + The Peasantry + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Country Parson + The Magic Skin + The Gondreville Mystery + The Secrets of a Princess + Cousin Betty + + Pamiers, Vidame de + Ferragus + Jealousies of a Country Town + + Ronquerolles, Marquis de + The Imaginary Mistress + The Peasantry + Ursule Mirouet + A Woman of Thirty + Another Study of Woman + Ferragus + The Girl with the Golden Eyes + The Member for Arcis + + Serizy, Comtesse de + A Start in Life + Ferragus + Ursule Mirouet + A Woman of Thirty + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Another Study of Woman + The Imaginary Mistress + + Soulanges, Comtesse Hortense de + Domestic Peace + The Peasantry + + Talleyrand-Perigord, Charles-Maurice de + The Chouans + The Gondreville Mystery + Letters of Two Brides + Gaudissart II + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Duchesse de Langeais, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DUCHESSE DE LANGEAIS *** + +***** This file should be named 469.txt or 469.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/6/469/ + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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