1
On a fine June day Adèle married her Jean in the church of
Notre-Dame-des-Victoires—the shrine of innumerable candles and prayers,
of the bountiful Virgin who bestows many graces. From early dawn the
quiet old house in the Rue Jacob had been in a flutter—Pauline
preparing the déjeuner de noces, Pierre garnishing and sweeping their
sitting-room, and both of them pausing from time to time to embrace the
flushed cheeks of their happy daughter.
Stephen had given the wedding dress, the wedding breakfast and a sum of
money; Mary had given the bride her lace veil, her white satin shoes and
her white silk stockings; David had given a large gilt clock, purchased
for him in the Palais Royal; while Burton’s part was to drive the bride
to the church, and the married pair to the station.
By nine o’clock the whole street was agog, for Pauline and Pierre were
liked by their neighbours; and besides, as the baker remarked to his
wife, from so grand a house it would be a fine business.
‘They are after all generous, these English,’ said he; ‘and if
Mademoiselle Gordon is strange in appearance, one should not forget that
she served la France and must now wear a scar as well as ribbon.’ Then
remembering his four sons slain in the war, he sighed—sons are sons to
a king or a baker.
David, growing excited, rushed up and down stairs with offers to help
which nobody wanted, least of all the flustered and anxious bride at the
moment of putting on tight satin slippers.
‘Va donc! Tu ne peux pas m’aider, mon chou, veux tu te taire, alors!’
implored Adèle.
In the end Mary had had to find collar and lead and tie David up to the
desk in the study, where he brooded and sucked his white satin bow,
deciding that only the four-legged were grateful. But at long last Adèle
was arrayed to be wed, and must show herself shyly to Mary and Stephen.
She looked very appealing with her good, honest face; with her round,
bright eyes like those of a blackbird. Stephen wished her well from the
bottom of her heart, this girl who had waited so long for her mate—had
so patiently and so faithfully waited.
2
In the church were a number of friends and relations; together with
those who will journey for miles in order to attend a funeral or
wedding. Poor Jean looked his worst in a cheap dress suit, and Stephen
could smell the pomade on his hair; very greasy and warm it smelt,
although scented. But his hand was unsteady as he groped for the ring,
because he was feeling both proud and humble; because, loving much, he
must love even more and conceive of himself as entirely unworthy. And
something in that fumbling, unsteady hand, in that sleekly greased hair
and those ill-fitting garments, touched Stephen, so that she longed to
reassure, to tell him how great was the gift he offered—security,
peace, and love with honour.
The young priest gravely repeated the prayers—ancient, primitive
prayers, yet softened through custom. In her mauve silk dress Pauline
wept as she knelt; but Pierre’s handkerchief was spread out on the stool
to preserve the knees of his new grey trousers. Next to Stephen were
sitting Pauline’s two brothers, one in uniform, the other retired and in
mufti, but both wearing medals upon their breasts and thus worthily
representing the army. The baker was there with his wife and three
daughters, and since the latter were still unmarried, their eyes were
more often fixed upon Jean in his shoddy dress suit than upon their
Missals. The greengrocer accompanied the lady whose chickens it was
Pauline’s habit to prod on their breastbones; while the cobbler who
mended Pierre’s boots and shoes, sat ogling the buxom and comely young
laundress.
The Mass drew to its close. The priest asked that a blessing might be
accomplished upon the couple; asked that these two might live to behold,
not only their own but their children’s children, even unto the third
and fourth generation. Then he spoke of their duty to God and to each
other, and finally moistened their bowed young heads with a generous
sprinkling of holy water. And so in the church of
Notre-Dame-des-Victoires—that bountiful Virgin who bestows many
graces—Jean and his Adèle were made one flesh in the eyes of their
church, in the eyes of their God, and as one might confront the world
without flinching.
Arm in arm they passed out through the heavy swing doors and into
Stephen’s waiting motor. Burton smiled above the white favour in his
coat; the crowd, craning their necks, were also smiling. Arrived back at
the house, Stephen, Mary, and Burton must drink the health of the bride
and bridegroom. Then Pierre thanked his employer for all she had done in
giving his daughter so splendid a wedding. But when that employer was no
longer present, when Mary had followed her into the study, the baker’s
wife lifted quizzical eyebrows.
‘Quel type! On dirait plutôt un homme; ce n’est pas celle-là qui
trouvera un mari!’
The guests laughed. ‘Mais oui, elle est joliment bizarre’; and they
started to make little jokes about Stephen.
Pierre flushed as he leaped to Stephen’s defence. ‘She is good, she is
kind, and I greatly respect her and so does my wife—while as for our
daughter, Adèle here has very much cause to be grateful. Moreover she
gained the Croix de Guerre through serving our wounded men in the
trenches.’
The baker nodded. ‘You are quite right, my friend—precisely what I
myself said this morning.’
But Stephen’s appearance was quickly forgotten in the jollification of
so much fine feasting—a feasting for which her money had paid, for
which her thoughtfulness had provided. Jokes there were, but no longer
directed at her—they were harmless, well meant if slightly broad jokes
made at the expense of the bashful bridegroom. Then before even Pauline
had realized the time, there was Burton strolling into the kitchen, and
Adèle must rush off to change her dress, while Jean must change also,
but in the pantry.
Burton glanced at the clock. ‘Faut dépêcher vous, ’urry, if you’re going
to catch that chemin de fer,’ he announced as one having authority.
‘It’s a goodish way to the Guard de Lions.’
3
That evening the old house seemed curiously thoughtful and curiously sad
after all the merry-making. David’s second white bow had come untied and
was hanging in two limp ends from his collar. Pauline had gone to church
to light candles; Pierre, together with Pauline’s niece who would take
Adèle’s place, was preparing dinner. And the sadness of the house flowed
out like a stream to mingle itself with the sadness in Stephen. Adèle
and Jean, the simplicity of it . . . they loved, they married, and after
a while they would care for each other all over again, renewing their
youth and their love in their children. So orderly, placid and safe it
seemed, this social scheme evolved from creation; this guarding of two
young and ardent lives for the sake of the lives that might follow
after. A fruitful and peaceful road it must be. The same road had been
taken by those founders of Morton who had raised up children from father
to son, from father to son until the advent of Stephen; and their blood
was her blood—what they had found good in their day, seemed equally
good to their descendant. Surely never was outlaw more law-abiding at
heart, than this, the last of the Gordons.
So now a great sadness took hold upon her, because she perceived both
dignity and beauty in the coming together of Adèle and Jean, very simply
and in accordance with custom. And this sadness mingling with that of
the house, widened into a flood that compassed Mary and through her
David, and they both went and sat very close to Stephen on the study
divan. As the twilight gradually merged into dusk, these three must
huddle even closer together—David with his head upon Mary’s lap, Mary
with her head against Stephen’s shoulder.