stupid man makes an excellent husband. I should be glad enough if my
husband was stupid! Then he wouldn't keep flinging little sarcastic
remarks at me when I talk about the state of the market--of the rise or
fall in railway shares. Auguste is clever--yes, very clever. But what
good does it do me to have him clever and agreeable in society? In his
own home, a husband never uses his wit except to make sport of his wife.
Monsieur Anatole de Raincy isn't as rich as the count, but he has a very
good position in society. Where do you expect to find a better match?"
"I expect nothing."
"Why do you refuse these offers, then?"
"Because I do not love either of them."
"Ah! an excellent reason! How absurd you are, my poor Adolphine!
Happiness in wedlock does not consist in love, but in wealth, in luxury,
in the power to buy whatever we please, to have magnificent dresses
which drive other women mad, to go to balls and parties every day, to
have the best boxes at the theatre; not in having to sit sighing by
your husband while you watch the soup-kettle."
"I have told you before that my tastes aren't the same as yours."
"Oh! you say that, but, in reality, you would be very glad to cut as
fine a figure yourself. But you are romantic! perhaps you have a passion
hidden away in your heart. Oh! yes, to refuse two such chances as you
have had, you must be in love with somebody!"
Adolphine blushed, but made haste to reply:
"No, you are mistaken. I never think of any man; it is not right of you
to say that."
"Very well! then, my dear girl, I say again that it was perfectly absurd
of you to refuse those two! Adieu! I am going to select some flowers for
my head, for I am going to a large party to-night, and I propose to
eclipse all the other women."
Some little time after this interview, Adolphine was alone, thinking of
him whose image was always present in her mind; for she had not told her
sister the truth when she said that she never thought of any man; but
there are passions which one does not choose to confide except to a
heart capable of understanding them, and she was well aware that Fanny
would not understand hers.
Madeleine suddenly entered her mistress's room, and said:
"Mamzelle, a young man wants to speak to you."
"To me? He probably has business with my father."
"No, mamzelle; it was you he asked to see--and monsieur your father
isn't at home, either."
"Very well! show him in."
Soon the door opened anew, and Gustave appeared before Adolphine. The
girl uttered an exclamation, for she recognized him at once; and she
was so disturbed that she had to lean upon a chair.
"What! is it you, Monsieur Gustave?" she murmured.
Madeleine retired, for she read in her mistress's eyes that the visit
caused her no displeasure.
"Yes, Mademoiselle Adolphine," Gustave replied; "yes, my dear sister.
Ah! allow me to call you by that name still, as I used, for we have had
no falling-out; you have not spurned me, and I venture to hope that you
still feel for me a little of that sweet friendship which you seemed to
feel in the old days."
Adolphine was so perturbed that she could hardly stammer:
"Of course--yes--I have no reason not to be the same as always with you.
But do sit down, Monsieur Gustave. Mon Dieu!--how strange it is!--it's
only five months since we saw each other--and you seem changed---- Oh!
not for the worse--on the contrary--you have a more serious, more
thoughtful, air than before. Is it the result of your travels?"
Adolphine was right; the five months which Gustave had passed away from
France had wrought a very considerable change in him, to his advantage;
he had lost that bewildered, hare-brained look which people used to
criticise in him; now he was a man--young, no doubt, but whose serious,
sedate, sensible aspect indicated a person who was accustomed to think
before speaking, and to reflect before acting. His face had gained
vastly by the change; his manner was colder, perhaps, but you realized
that you could rely on what he said. Lastly, the faintest shadow of
melancholy that could still be detected on his brow gave an added charm
to the gentle expression of his eyes and to the tone of his voice.
Adolphine saw all this at a glance: that is all a woman needs to draw a
man's portrait. With trembling hand she pointed to a chair, and Gustave
sat down beside her with an ease of manner which covered no hidden
motive.
"I don't know whether my travels have changed me," said the young man;
"they may, perhaps, have matured my mind somewhat; they have made me a
better business man. I realize fully now that I did some things which
lacked common-sense, and I shall not make such a fool of myself again!"
"Oh! you are cured of your love for Fanny?" cried Adolphine, with an
expression of delight which she could not restrain.
"No, dear Adolphine, no, that is not what I meant!" replied Gustave,
sadly; "do what I will, I haven't yet been able to drive that love from
my heart. But I meant simply that that unhappy passion will not lead me
into doing any more such absurd, unreasonable things as I once did. I
have become a man; if I suffer, I can at least conceal my suffering. I
have learned to respect the happiness of other people--the desire to
disturb it is very far from my thoughts! I realize, in short, that I
ought, above all things, to avoid the presence of her who cannot, should
not, sympathize with the pain she causes me."
Adolphine turned her head away to conceal the tears which filled her
eyes, murmuring:
"Mon Dieu! do you still love her as dearly as ever?"
"I don't know whether it is less or more--I don't know how much I love
her; and I would give anything in the world to cease thinking of her!
But I cannot--do what I will, her image is always here. I forget that
she flirted with me--that she pretended to love me, only to throw me
over the next minute. I say to myself that all women try to please, and
that they cannot love all the men they have fascinated. I say to myself
that this Monsieur Auguste Monleard offered her a brilliant fortune, and
all the pleasures, all the enjoyment, all the luxury, in which, to a
young woman, the happiness of life consists.--I say all this to myself,
and I understand perfectly how she could have refused the poor clerk's
hand to accept that of the man who was wealthy and distinguished. So
that, if I am unhappy, I can blame nothing but fortune--and Fanny is so
pretty, so fascinating, so well worthy to shine in society! She will
never be mine, and yet I love her--yes, I still love her! They say that
men don't know the meaning of constancy; but you see that that isn't
true, Adolphine; you see that there are some who can love
faithfully--and, unluckily, they are the ones who are not loved."
Adolphine did not reply for some time; she was suffocating, she could
not keep back the tears which dimmed her sight. Gustave saw them; he
seized her hand and pressed it, crying:
"You weep--dear sister!--my unhappiness makes you shed tears. Oh!
forgive me for coming here and grieving you by the story of my
suffering."
"Yes--it does grieve me to know that you are unhappy! But, after all, it
seems to me that you ought to try--that you do not make enough effort to
divert your thoughts; you see, when one has no hope, one ought to
forget."
"Oh! that makes no difference at all."
"Yes, it is possible.--How long since you returned to Paris?"
"Only last evening; and, as you see, I came to you at once this
morning."
"Yes--to talk to me about her!"
"I admit it--but to see you, too,--you who have always shown me so much
affection, and whom I am so happy to call my sister still!"
"Oh! of course--because that was the name you gave me when you were to
marry Fanny! But you don't know--I have not dared to tell you that
father says that you must not come to our house any more!"
"Not come here any more! Why not, pray?"
"Why, because of that unfortunate duel----"
"Duel! What do you mean? What duel?"
"What! you don't know? Hasn't your uncle told you about it?"
"I told you that I only arrived last night; my uncle talked about
nothing but matters of business, which are of much more importance in
his eyes than anything else. Tell me what duel you are talking about?"
"Do you remember the man who dined with you on the day of my sister's
wedding?"
"Yes, a curious creature whom I happened to meet--and who took pity on
the state of frenzy I was in at that time."
"Was he a friend of yours?"
"As I tell you, I had known him only a few hours; but I had lost my head
that day; you know that better than anybody, dear Adolphine, for you
found time, even on that day, to come to me and say a few comforting
words.--But what about that man?"
"Well, at night, when my sister went away from the ball with her
husband, he was standing near, just as they were entering their
carriage. That man--he was drunk, no doubt, but still he insulted my
sister."
"The villain! He dared----"
"Yes, he said: 'There goes the faithless Fanny!'--My sister, who heard
the words plainly, told me herself. Was that an insult? Tell me frankly,
Monsieur Gustave, hadn't you yourself applied that name to my sister
more than once that day?"
"It is quite possible; but I was out of my head, I didn't know what I
was saying. That did not give that fellow, whose very name I don't
remember, the right to repeat my words."
"Auguste heard him, and the next day he fought a duel with the man."
"And what was the result?"
"A sword-thrust in my brother-in-law's forearm, which forced him to
carry his arm in a sling at least six weeks."
"Mon Dieu! that incident may well have occasioned unfortunate scenes
between the husband and wife; it may have disturbed the domestic
happiness of--your sister. She probably accused me of being the original
cause of the duel! This is maddening!"
"Don't be alarmed, Monsieur Gustave! you don't know Fanny! The affair
affected her very little, her happiness wasn't disturbed by it for a
single minute. She goes to some festivity, amuses herself in some way,
every day! Oh! she is happy."
"So much the better! And her husband--he adores her still, I fancy?"
"As to that, I can't answer. If they adore each other, it hardly appears
on the surface!"
"What! Fanny doesn't love her husband?"
"I don't say that she doesn't love him! but my sister isn't capable of
loving like us--like you, I mean. She has so much to take up her time in
the way of gowns, head-dresses, new styles, and so forth! How do you
suppose she can find time to love her husband?"
"However, I am entirely innocent in this matter of the duel."
"Oh! that is what I have always told father, who has only known it a few
days, by the way. For, as you can imagine, they didn't publish it.
Monsieur Monleard's injury was supposed to have been caused by a fall on
the stairs."
"But why doesn't your father want me to come here? It wasn't a crime to
love his elder daughter and to aspire to her hand! It is true, I was
very poor, then; to-day, I could offer her more; my uncle, who is very
well satisfied with the way I attend to business now, said to me at
breakfast this morning: 'From to-day, I give you an interest in my
business, and I guarantee you not less than ten thousand francs a year,
whether there are any profits or not.'"
"Ah! that is very nice, Monsieur Gustave; I am very glad for you."
"Dear little sister! If you knew how indifferently I received the news
of this increase in my income! Ah! that isn't what I look to for
happiness!"
"Nor I, either! But, as so many people think differently, probably we
are wrong."
"I am thinking about your father, who doesn't want me to come here any
more."
"In the first place, he was convinced that there would be no need to say
anything to you about it; that you would never have any desire to come
to our house again."
"Why so, pray?"
"I don't know why; for my part, I didn't think as he did. Something told
me that you would come--to hear about Fanny--to talk about her. I
guessed right, did I not?"
"Yes, yes! you read my heart."
"For I know very well that that was the only reason it occurred to you
to come here."
"Do you think that I am not fond of you--of you and your father?"
"Oh! I don't say that; but my father fears--suppose you should meet my
sister here?"
"I should be able to act with her as with a person who was a total
stranger to me. Does she come to see you often?"
"No, not often. She has so many other calls to make! She knows so many
people now!"
At that moment the bell rang.
"Mon Dieu!" said Adolphine; "if it should be my father!"
"Why, I will go and offer him my hand, and I am sure that he won't
refuse it."
"But if it should be----"
Adolphine had not time to finish her sentence. The door of her chamber
was hastily thrown open, and her sister entered.
XXIX
A WOMAN OF FASHION
Fanny was resplendent in costume, jewels, and style; and it must be said
that, like all women with whom personal adornment is a special study,
she carried her splendor well, and that it added materially to the
attractions she had received from nature.
The young woman was nowise perturbed at sight of Gustave Darlemont; she
honored him with an affable smile, and her vanity seemed flattered that
he whose hand she had refused should see her now in all the glory of her
good-fortune and her magnificent toilet. Adolphine, on the contrary, was
pale and trembling. As for Gustave, he could not conceal the emotion he
felt on seeing Fanny again, and especially in such seductive guise.
"Bonjour, little sister!" said Fanny, kissing Adolphine.--"But, I cannot
be mistaken--this is Monsieur Gustave. I am delighted to see you,
monsieur."
Gustave barely managed to stammer:
"Madame--I confess that I did not expect--to meet you here."
"Why, it seems to me quite natural that I should come to my father's
house. To be sure, it doesn't happen very often: I have so little time
to myself! When one goes much into society, one must make and receive so
many calls, dress, give orders when one entertains. And, by the way, we
give a large party in six days, to inaugurate our winter evenings.--I
came to tell you, Adolphine, so that you may have time to prepare a
bewitching costume, do you hear? I will advise you, of course, for you
don't keep very well abreast of the fashions.--But I thought that you
were abroad, Monsieur Gustave?"
"I have just come from Spain, mademoiselle--I beg your pardon--madame. I
have been away about five months."
"Indeed! then that is why you look so brown; but that doesn't do you any
harm--far from it. Did you enjoy yourself?"
"Enjoy myself? not exactly that, madame; but that wasn't what I went
for."
"They say that the women are very pretty in Spain; that their eyes,
especially, are dazzlingly bright. Is it true, Monsieur Gustave? Did you
see any eyes in that country that excel those of us Frenchwomen?"
"I saw none, madame, which could be compared to----"
The young man checked himself, and added:
"I saw none which made me forget those of the Parisian women."
"Good! that is very polite! And you are settled in Paris now?"
"I do not know, madame; that will depend on--my uncle."
"Well, monsieur, while you are here, if it will afford you any pleasure
to come to our evenings at home, Monsieur Monleard, I am sure, will be
delighted to see you. At all events, he allows me to invite whom I
choose--and he does the same. I greet his friends courteously, he does
as much for mine; in that way, we always agree. Stay! next Thursday, as
I was saying to my sister, we give a large party; there will be
everything: music, dancing, cards, and supper; it will last all night,
and we shall have lots of fun. You must come. We shall have all
Paris--that is to say, all the best artists, all the celebrities. Will
you come?"
Gustave was struck dumb by this invitation, and especially by the light,
careless tone in which it was offered; he was more distressed than
gratified, and answered, with a low bow:
"No, madame; I shall not have the honor of accepting your invitation."
"Indeed! And why not, may I ask, monsieur?"
"Why, because--at this party--in your husband's house--it seems to me,
madame, that I should be out of place; and I am sure beforehand that I
should take no pleasure in it. Pray receive, madame, my thanks and my
adieux."
Thereupon Gustave went up to Adolphine, who had listened without a word,
and pressed her hand, saying in an undertone:
"Adieu, my only friend! Ah! your father is right: it is much better that
I should not come here again."
Gustave left the room. Adolphine had difficulty in concealing her grief.
Fanny, meanwhile, looked at herself in a mirror, saying:
"What is the matter with Monsieur Gustave, I wonder? He had a very
tragic air as he left us. It wasn't polite of him to refuse my
invitation. And I fancied that it would give him the greatest pleasure!
There are so many young men who would be overjoyed to have the
opportunity to come to my evenings!"
"In your eyes, Monsieur Gustave ought not to be like other young men.
And I cannot conceive how you could have dreamed of urging him to come
to see you," rejoined Adolphine, in a trembling voice.
"Why not, I should like to know? You seem to be surprised at
everything!"
"But after all that happened between you before you were married----"
"All what? Monsieur Gustave was in love with me. Ah! there are many
others who are in love with me to-day--yes, and who pay court to me,
too. But that won't keep them from coming to dance at our ball--quite
the contrary; and they have engaged me beforehand for I don't know how
many contra-dances. But I shall take only those whom I like. I would
have done as much for Gustave; or, rather, I would have given him the
preference--I would have let him have more dances."
"But don't you see that Gustave still loves you? that he can't accustom
himself to seeing you as another man's wife, and that it would be
impossible for him to meet your husband?"
"Do you think that that young man still loves me so much as that?"
"To be sure; he was just telling me so himself when you came."
"Ah! the poor boy! I am sorry for him, but I thought he had grown
reasonable! A constant lover! Why, the fellow is a perfect phoenix!"
"A phoenix that you would have none of!"
"I don't repent. My husband is not a phoenix in love, I admit. At
first, he adored me; then, it suddenly passed away. But I wasn't silly
enough to groan over it. He has continued to lavish on me all the
pleasures and amusements that wealth can procure. What more could I ask?
I consider myself the luckiest woman in Paris. Whereas with that poor
Gustave--that phoenix of constancy!--I should have vegetated; I
should have gone to the play on Sunday, as a treat!"
"Monsieur Gustave is already in a much better position. His uncle is so
well satisfied with him that he gives him ten thousand francs a year
now."
"Ten thousand francs! Well, yes, that is something. One can manage to
live with that. But how far he is still from Auguste's position!"
"And then, too, Fanny, when you invite Monsieur Gustave to your house,
you seem to forget that duel. Your husband knows that it was he who was
in such despair on account of your marriage, and that that was the
cause----"
"Oh! for heaven's sake, let me alone, Adolphine! My husband has
forgotten all about that. He has much more important things in his head.
When a man is intent on making millions, do you suppose he wastes any
time on trifles of that sort? Oh! mon Dieu! chattering here with you, I
forgot that I have to call on my broker."
"You have a broker, Fanny?"
"To be sure. I speculate on the Bourse, too--just to amuse myself a
little, you know. But I do not intrust my affairs to my husband, because
he would ridicule me. Adieu, little sister! Make your preparations for
our grand party on Thursday. Oh! we shall have much sport. I am going to
have a ravishing gown."
Madame Monleard took her leave; whereupon Adolphine sank into a chair,
saying to herself:
"Now I can cry at my ease, for he said that he should not come here any
more!"
XXX
THE SECOND MEETING
On leaving Monsieur Gerbault's house, Gustave did not return at once to
his uncle's office; he felt that he must be by himself, in the open air,
and, although it was winter, he had no fear of the cold; on the
contrary, it seemed to him that the keen north wind would cool his blood
and tranquillize his mind, which the sight of Fanny had overturned anew.
Having her before his eyes, more bewitching than ever, Gustave had
realized how dearly he still loved her who had refused to be his wife.
And he had already found, in the depths of his heart, innumerable
reasons to excuse her conduct; in his eyes, she was rather frivolous
than guilty.
Now that he had seen Fanny again, that she had talked with him as
pleasantly as before her marriage, and had urged him to call upon her,
Gustave did not know what to believe, what to think, what to conjecture,
from it all. He asked himself why she wanted to see him. Whether it was
because she still felt some affection for him, whether she derived any
pleasure from his presence, whether she sympathized secretly with his
grief; or was it simply for the purpose of flaunting in his face her
brilliant social position, her superb gowns, and the homage that was
paid to her?
Gustave walked a long time at random on the boulevard, where he met very
few people, on account of the cold.
"No," he said to himself; "I will not go to her house! Have I courage to
be a witness of her husband's happiness? Moreover, her husband hasn't
invited me; it seems to me that he is sure to receive me very coldly.
That's what I would do in his place. But Fanny didn't think of what she
was saying; she invited me thoughtlessly--or else from simple courtesy.
Ah! she is very pretty still; she's a hundred times more fascinating
than ever! I did very wrong to go to Monsieur Gerbault's!"
Suddenly the melancholy lover was roused from his reflections by someone
who threw his arms about him, embraced him, and kissed him on the cheek,
crying:
"Ah! here he is! it is he! At last I have found him--my dear, good
Gustave! Victory! Castor has found Pollux! I have my cue!
"'And since I've found my faithful friend,
My luck will take a different trend!'"
Gustave struggled to free himself, in order to see the face of the
individual who was so lavish of tokens of affection, and he finally
recognized his impromptu friend of Fanny's wedding day, the man with
whom he had dined at Deffieux's.
Cherami was the same as always. But his costume seemed even shabbier in
the cold weather then prevailing than in summer; for his frock-coat,
more threadbare than ever, was drawn so tightly across his shoulders
that one could see that there was nothing under it; his plaid trousers,
worn thinner than ever, evidently afforded his legs very little
protection against the sharp north wind; and the Courbichon hat, by dint
of being planted on the side of his head, was beginning to resemble the
one it had replaced. But all this did not prevent the ci-devant Beau
Arthur from holding himself erect and eying everybody he met from top to
toe.
"Why, it is Monsieur----"
"Arthur Cherami. Yes, my dear fellow; it is I, your faithful friend,
your Pylades, who has been seeking you over hill and dale, and who even
called to inquire for you at your uncle's,--Grandcourt, the
banker,--who, I am bound to say, did not receive me with all the
consideration I deserve! But uncles are not very amiable, as a general
rule. He told me that you were in Spain."
"He told the truth; I returned only last night."
"And I have been scouring the four quarters of Paris every day, saying
to myself: 'If Gustave has returned, I cannot help meeting him.'--And
here you are, my dear friend, whose absence seemed so long! Well! don't
we propose to shake hands with our intimate friend, on whose bosom we
poured out our woes?"
But Gustave hesitated to give his hand to Cherami, and replied in a
serious tone:
"Before shaking hands with you, monsieur, I must have an explanation
with you. You fought a duel with Monsieur Auguste Monleard, and you made
that duel inevitable by addressing an insulting remark to his bride. By
what right did you take that step? Why did you do it? for what object?
Come, answer me."
"Ah! par la sambleu! this is a cross-examination which I was far from
expecting! I fight in a friend's cause, I wound his fortunate rival--I
didn't kill him, to be sure; but still, I might have killed him. Then,
your charmer would have been a widow, and you would have married her!"