THE REVOLT.
"Madame," said the princess to Adrienne de Cardoville, in a cold, severe
tone, "I owe it to myself, as well as to these gentlemen, to
recapitulate, in a few words, the events that have taken place for some
time past. Six months ago, at the end of the mourning for your father,
you, being eighteen years old, asked for the management of your fortune,
and for emancipation from control. Unfortunately, I had the weakness to
consent. You quitted the house, and established yourself in the
extension, far from all superintendence. Then began a train of
expenditures, each one more extravagant than the last. Instead of being
satisfied with one or two waiting-women, taken from that class from which
they are generally selected, you chose governesses for lady-companions,
whom you dressed in the most ridiculous and costly fashion. It is true,
that, in the solitude of your pavilion, you yourself chose to wear, one
after another, costumes of different ages. Your foolish fancies and
unreasonable whims have been without end and without limit: not only have
you never fulfilled your religious duties, but you have actually had the
audacity to profane one of your rooms, by rearing in the centre of it a
species of pagan altar, on which is a group in marble representing a
youth and a girl"--the princess uttered these words as if they would burn
her lips--"a work of art, if you will, but a work in the highest degree
unsuitable to a person of your age. You pass whole days entirely secluded
in your pavilion, refusing to see any one; and Dr. Baleinier, the only
one of my friends in whom you seem to have retained some confidence,
having succeeded by much persuasion in gaining admittance, has frequently
found you in so very excited a state, that he has felt seriously uneasy
with regard to your health. You have always insisted on going out alone,
without rendering any account of your actions to any one. You have taken
delight in opposing, in every possible way, your will to my authority. Is
all this true?"
"The picture of my past is not much flattered," said Adrienne; smiling,
"but it is not altogether unlike."
"So you admit, madame," said Abbe d'Aigrigny, laying stress on his words,
"that all the facts stated by your aunt are scrupulously true?"
Every eye was turned towards Adrienne, as if her answer would be of
extreme importance.
"Yes, M. l'Abbe," said she; "I live openly enough to render this question
superfluous."
"These facts are therefore admitted," said Abbe d'Aigrigny, turning
towards the doctor and the baron.
"These facts are completely established," said M. Tripeaud, in a pompous
voice.
"Will you tell me, aunt," asked Adrienne, "what is the good of this long
preamble?"
"This long preamble, madame," resumed the princess with dignity, "exposes
the past in order to justify the future."
"Really, aunt, such mysterious proceedings are a little in the style of
the answers of the Cumaean Sybil. They must be intended to cover
something formidable."
"Perhaps, mademoiselle--for to certain characters nothing is so
formidable as duty and obedience. Your character is one of those inclined
to revolt--"
"I freely acknowledge it, aunt--and it will always be so, until duty and
obedience come to me in a shape that I can respect and love."
"Whether you respect and love my orders or not, madame," said the
princess, in a curt, harsh voice, "you will, from to-day, from this
moment, learn to submit blindly and absolutely to my will. In one word,
you will do nothing without my permission: it is necessary, I insist upon
it, and so I am determined it shall be."
Adrienne looked at her aunt for a second, and then burst into so free and
sonorous a laugh, that it rang for quite a time through the vast
apartment. D'Aigrigny and Baron Tripeaud started in indignation. The
princess looked angrily at her niece. The doctor raised his eyes to
heaven, and clasped his hands over his waistcoat with a sanctimonious
sigh.
"Madame," said Abbe d'Aigrigny, "such fits of laughter are highly
unbecoming. Your aunt's words are serious, and deserve a different
reception."
"Oh, sir!" said Adrienne, recovering herself, "it is not my fault if I
laugh. How can I maintain my gravity, when I hear my aunt talking of
blind submission to her orders? Is the swallow, accustomed to fly upwards
and enjoy the sunshine, fledged to live with the mole in darkness?"
At this answer, D'Aigrigny affected to stare at the other members of this
kind of family council with blank astonishment.
"A swallow? what does she mean?" asked the abbe of the baron making a
sign, which the latter understood.
"I do not know," answered Tripeaud, staring in his turn at the doctor.
"She spoke too of a mole. It 'is quite unheard-of--incomprehensible."
"And so, madame," said the princess, appearing to share in the surprise
of the others, "this is the reply that you make to me?"
"Certainly," answered Adrienne, astonished herself that they should
pretend not to understand the simile of which she had made use,
accustomed as she was to speak in figurative language.
"Come, come, madame," said Dr. Baleinier, smiling good-humoredly, "we
must be indulgent. My dear Mdlle. Adrienne has naturally so uncommon and
excitable a nature! She is really the most charming mad woman I know; I
have told her so a hundred times, in my position of an old friend, which
allows such freedom."
"I can conceive that your attachment makes you indulgent--but it is not
the less true, doctor," said D'Aigrigny, as if reproaching him for taking
the part of Mdlle. de Cardoville, "that such answers to serious questions
are most extravagant."
"The evil is, that mademoiselle does not seem to comprehend the serious
nature of this conference," said the princess, harshly. "She will perhaps
understand it better when I have given her my orders."
"Let us hear these orders, aunt," replied Adrienne as, seated on the
other side of the table, opposite to the princess, she leaned her small,
dimpled chin in the hollow of her pretty hand, with an air of graceful
mockery, charming to behold.
"From to-morrow forward," resumed the princess, "you will quit the
summer-house which you at present inhabit, you will discharge your women,
and come and occupy two rooms in this house, to which there will be no
access except through my apartment. You will never go out alone. You will
accompany me to the services of the church. Your emancipation terminates,
in consequence of your prodigality duly proven. I will take charge of all
your expenses, even to the ordering of your clothes, so that you may be
properly and modestly dressed. Until your majority (which will be
indefinitely postponed, by means of the intervention of a
family-council), you will have no money at your own disposal. Such is my
resolution."
"And certainly your resolution can only be applauded, madame," said Baron
Tripeaud; "we can but encourage you to show the greatest firmness, for
such disorders must have an end."
"It is more than time to put a stop to such scandal," added the abbe.
"Eccentricity and exaltation of temperament--may excuse many things,"
ventured to observe the smooth-tongued doctor.
"No doubt," replied the princess dryly to Baleinier, who played his part
to perfection; "but then, doctor, the requisite measures must be taken
with such characters."
Madame de Saint-Dizier had expressed herself in a firm and precise
manner; she appeared convinced of the possibility of putting her threats
into execution. M. Tripeaud and D'Aigrigny had just now given their full
consent to the words of the princess. Adrienne began to perceive that
something very serious was in contemplation, and her gayety was at once
replaced by an air of bitter irony and offended independence.
She rose abruptly, and colored a little; her rosy nostrils dilated, her
eyes flashed fire, and, as she raised her head, she gently shook the
fine, wavy golden hair, with a movement of pride that was natural to her.
After a moment's silence, she said to her aunt in a cutting tone: "You
have spoken of the past, madame; I also will speak a few words concerning
it, since you force me to do so, though I may regret the necessity. I
quitted your dwelling, because it was impossible for me to live longer in
this atmosphere of dark hypocrisy and black treachery."
"Madame," said D'Aigrigny, "such words are as violent as they are
unreasonable."
"Since you interrupt me, sir," said Adrienne, hastily, as she fixed her
eyes on the abbe, "tell me what examples did I meet with in my aunt's
house?"
"Excellent, examples, madame."
"Excellent, sir? Was it because I saw there, every day, her conversion
keep pace with your own?"
"Madame, you forget yourself!" cried the princess, becoming pale with
rage.
"Madame, I do not forget--I remember, like other people; that is all. I
had no relation of whom I could ask an asylum. I wished to live alone. I
wished to enjoy my revenues--because I chose rather to spend them myself,
than to see them wasted by M. Tripeaud."
"Madame," cried the baron, "I cannot imagine how you can presume--"
"Sir!" said Adrienne, reducing him to silence by a gesture of
overwhelming lordliness, "I speak of you--not to you. I wished to spend
my income," she continued, "according to my own tastes. I embellished the
retreat that I had chosen. Instead of ugly, ill-taught servants, I
selected girls, pretty and well brought up, though poor. Their education
forbade their being subjected to any humiliating servitude, though I have
endeavored to make their situation easy and agreeable. They do not serve
me, but render me service--I pay them, but I am obliged to them--nice
distinctions that your highness will not understand, I know. Instead of
seeing them badly or ungracefully dressed, I have given them clothes that
suit their charming faces well, because I like whatever is young and
fair. Whether I dress myself one way or the other, concerns only my
looking-glass. I go out alone, because I like to follow my fancy. I do
not go to mass--but, if I had still a mother, I would explain to her my
devotions, and she would kiss me none the less tenderly. It is true, that
I have raised a pagan altar to youth and beauty, because I adore God in
all that He has made fair and good, noble and grand--because, morn and
evening, my heart repeats the fervent and sincere prayer: 'Thanks, my
Creator! thanks!'--Your highness says that M. Baleinier has often found
me in my solitude, a prey to a strange excitement: yes, it is true; for
it is then that, escaping in thought from all that renders the present
odious and painful to me, I find refuge in the future--it is then that
magical horizons spread far before me--it is then that such splendid
visions appear to me, as make me feel myself rapt in a sublime and
heavenly ecstasy, as if I no longer appertained to earth!"
As Adrienne pronounced these last words with enthusiasm, her countenance
appeared transfigured, so resplendent did it become. In that moment, she
had lost sight of all that surrounded her.
"It is then," she resumed, with spirit soaring higher and higher, "that I
breathe a pure air, reviving and free--yes, free--above all, free--and so
salubrious, so grateful to the soul!--Yes, instead of seeing my sisters
painfully submit to a selfish, humiliating, brutal dominion, which
entails upon them the seductive vices of slavery, the graceful fraud, the
enchanting perfidy, the caressing falsehood, the contemptuous
resignation, the hateful obedience--I behold them, my noble sisters!
worthy and sincere because they are free, faithful and devoted because
they have liberty to choose--neither imperious not base, because they
have no master to govern or to flatter--cherished and respected, because
they can withdraw from a disloyal hand their hand, loyally bestowed. Oh,
my sisters! my sisters! I feel it. These are not merely consoling
visions--they are sacred hopes."
Carried away, in spite of herself, by the excitement of her feelings,
Adrienne paused for a moment, in order to return to earth; she did not
perceive that the other actors in this scene were looking at each other
with an air of delight.
"What she says there is excellent," murmured the doctor in the princess's
ear, next to whom he was seated; "were she in league with us, she would
not speak differently."
"It is only by excessive harshness," added D'Aigrigny, "that we shall
bring her to the desired point."
But it seemed as if the vexed emotion of Adrienne had been dissipated by
the contact of the generous sentiments she had just uttered. Addressing
Baleinier with a smile, she said: "I must own, doctor, that there is
nothing more ridiculous, than to yield to the current of certain
thoughts, in the presence of persons incapable of understanding them.
This would give you a fine opportunity to make game of that exaltation of
mind for which you sometimes reproach me. To let myself be carried away
by transports at so serious a moment!--for, verily, the matter in hand
seems to be serious. But you see, good M. Baleinier, when an idea comes
into my head, I can no more help following it out, than I could refrain
from running after butterflies when I was a little girl."
"And heaven only knows whither these brilliant butterflies of all
colors," said M. Baleinier, smiling with an air of paternal indulgence,
"that are passing through your brain, are likely to lead you. Oh, madcap,
when will she be as reasonable as she is charming?"
"This very instant, my good doctor," replied Adrienne. "I am about to
cast off my reveries for realities, and speak plain and positive
language, as you shall hear."
Upon which, addressing her aunt, she continued: "You have imparted to me
your resolution, madame; I will now tell you mine. Within a week, I shall
quit the pavilion that I inhabit, for a house which I have arranged to my
taste, where I shall live after my own fashion. I have neither father nor
mother, and I owe no account of my actions to any but myself."
"Upon my word, mademoiselle," said the princess, shrugging her shoulders,
"you talk nonsense. You forget that society has inalienable moral rights,
which we are bound to enforce. And we shall not neglect them, depend upon
it."
"So madame, it is you, and M. d'Aigrigny, and M. Tripeaud, that represent
the morality of society! This appears to me very fine. Is it because M.
Tripeaud has considered (I must acknowledge it) my fortune as his own? Is
it because--"
"Now, really, madame," began Tripeaud.
"In good time, madame," said Adrienne to her aunt, without noticing the
baron, "as the occasion offers, I shall have to ask you for explanations
with regard to certain interests, which have hitherto, I think, been
concealed from me."
These words of Adrienne made D'Aigrigny and the princess start, and then
rapidly exchange a glance of uneasiness and anxiety. Adrienne did not
seem to perceive it, but thus continued: "To have done with your demands,
madame, here is my final resolve. I shall live where and how I please. I
think that, if I were a man, no one would impose on me, at my age, the
harsh and humiliating guardianship you have in view, for living as I have
lived till now--honestly, freely, and generously, in the sight of all."
"This idea is absurd! is madness!" cried the princess. "To wish to live
thus alone, is to carry immorality and immodesty to their utmost limits."
"If so, madame," said Adrienne, "what opinion must you entertain of so
many poor girls, orphans like myself, who live alone and free, as I wish
to live? They have not received, as I have, a refined education,
calculated to raise the soul, and purify the heart. They have not wealth,
as I have, to protect them from the evil temptations of misery; and yet
they live honestly and proudly in their distress."
"Vice and virtue do not exist for such tag-rag vermin!" cried Baron
Tripeaud, with an expression of anger and hideous disdain.
"Madame, you would turn away a lackey, that would venture to speak thus
before you," said Adrienne to her aunt, unable to conceal her disgust,
"and yet you oblige me to listen to such speeches!"
The Marquis d'Aigrigny touched M. Tripeaud with his knee under the table,
to remind him that he must not express himself in the princess's parlors
in the same manner as he would in the lobbies of the Exchange. To repair
the baron's coarseness, the abbe thus continued: "There is no comparison,
mademoiselle, between people of the class you name, and a young lady of
your rank."
"For a Catholic priest, M. l'Abbe, that distinction is not very
Christian," replied Adrienne.
"I know the purport of my words, madame," answered the abbe, dryly;
"besides the independent life that you wish to lead, in opposition to all
reason, may tend to very serious consequences for you. Your family may
one day wish to see you married--"
"I will spare my family that trouble, sir, if I marry at all, I will
choose for myself, which also appears to me reasonable enough. But, in
truth, I am very little tempted by that heavy chain, which selfishness
and brutality rivet for ever about our necks."
"It is indecent, madame," said the princess, "to speak so lightly of such
an institution."
"Before you, especially, madame, I beg pardon for having shocked your
highness! You fear that my independent planner of living will frighten
away all wooers; but that is another reason for persisting in my
independence, for I detest wooers. I only hope that they may have the
very worst opinion of me, and there is no better means of effecting that
object, than to appear to live as they live themselves. I rely upon my
whims, my follies, my sweet faults, to preserve me from the annoyance of
any matrimonial hunting."
"You will be quite satisfied on that head," resumed Madame de Saint
Dizier, "if unfortunately the report should gain credit, that you have
carried the forgetfulness of all duty and decency, to such a height, as
to return home at eight o'clock in the morning. So I am told is the case
but I cannot bring myself to believe such an enormity."
"You are wrong, madame, for it is quite true."
"So you confess it?" cried the princess.
"I confess all that I do, madame. I came home this morning at eight
o'clock."
"You hear Gentlemen?" ejaculated the princess.
"Oh!" said M. d'Aigrigny, in a bass voice.
"Ah!" said the baron, in a treble key.
"Oh!" muttered the doctor, with a deep sigh.
On hearing these lamentable exclamations, Adrienne seemed about to speak,
perhaps to justify herself; but her lip speedily assumed a curl of
contempt, which showed that she disdained to stoop to any explanation.
"So it is true," said the princess. "Oh, wretched girl, you had
accustomed me to be astonished at nothing; but, nevertheless, I doubted
the possibility of such conduct. It required your impudent and audacious
reply to convince the of the fact."
"Madame, lying has always appeared to be more impudent than to speak the
truth."
"And where had you been, madame? and for what?"
"Madame," said Adrienne, interrupting her aunt, "I never speak false--but
neither do I speak more than I choose; and then again, it were cowardice
to defend myself from a revolting accusation. Let us say no more about
it: your importunities on this head will be altogether vain. To resume:
you wish to impose upon me a harsh and humiliating restraint; I wish to
quit the house I inhabit, to go and live where I please, at my own fancy.
Which of us two will yield, remains to be seen. Now for another matter:
this mansion belongs to me! As I am about to leave it, I am indifferent
whether you continue to live here or not; but the ground floor is
uninhabited. It contains, besides the reception-rooms, two complete sets
of apartments; I have let them for some time."
"Indeed!" said the princess, looking at D'Aigrigny with intense surprise.
"And to whom," she added ironically, "have you disposed of them?"
"To three members of my family."
"What does all this mean?" said Mme. de Saint-Dizier, more and more
astonished.
"It means, madame, that I wish to offer a generous hospitality to a young
Indian prince, my kinsman on my mother's side. He will arrive in two or
three days, and I wish to have the rooms ready to receive him."
"You hear, gentlemen?" said D'Aigrigny to the doctor and Tripeaud, with
an affectation of profound stupor.
"It surpasses all one could imagine!" exclaimed the baron.
"Alas!" observed the doctor, benignantly, "the impulse is generous in
itself--but the mad little head crops out?"
"Excellent!" said the princes. "I cannot prevent you madame, from
announcing the most extravagant designs but it is presumable that you
will not stop short in so fair a path. Is that all?"
"Not quite, your highness. I learned this morning, that two of my female
relations, also on my mother's side--poor children of fifteen--orphan
daughters of Marshal Simon arrived yesterday from a long journey, and are
now with the wife of the brave soldier who brought them to France from
the depths of Siberia."
At these words from Adrienne, D'Aigrigny and the princess could not help
starting suddenly, and staring at each other with affright, so far were
they from expecting that Mdlle. de Cardoville was informed of the coming
of Marshal Simon's daughters. This discovery was like a thunder-clap to
them.
"You are no doubt astonished at seeing me so well informed," said
Adrienne; "fortunately, before I have done, I hope to astonish you still
more. But to return to these daughters of Marshal Simon: your highness
will understand, that it is impossible for me to leave them in charge of
the good people who have afforded them a temporary asylum. Though this
family is honest, and hard-working, it is not the place for them. I shall
go and fetch them hither, and lodge them in apartments on the
ground-floor, along with the soldier's wife, who will do very well to
take care of them."
Upon these words, D'Aigrigny and the baron looked at each other, and the
baron exclaimed: "Decidedly, she's out of her head."
Without a word to Tripeaud, Adrienne continued: "Marshal Simon cannot
fail to arrive at Paris shortly. Your highness perceives how pleasant it
will he, to be able to present his daughters to him, and prove that they
have been treated as they deserve. To-morrow morning I shall send for
milliners and mantua makers, so that they may want for nothing. I desire
their surprised father, on his return, to find them every way beautiful.
They are pretty, I am told, as angels--but I will endeavor to make little
Cupids of them."
"At last, madame, you must have finished?" said the princess, in a
sardonic and deeply irritated tone, whilst D'Aigrigny, calm and cold in
appearance, could hardly dissemble his mental anguish.
"Try again!" continued the princess, addressing Adrienne. "Are there no
more relations that you wish to add to this interesting family-group?
Really a queen could not act with more magnificence."
"Right! I wish to give my family a royal reception--such as is due to the
son of a king, and the daughters of the Duke de Ligny. It is well to
unite other luxuries of life with the luxury of the hospitable heart."
"The maxim is assuredly generous," said the princess, becoming more and
more agitated; "it is only a pity that you do not possess the mines of El
Dorado to make it practicable."
"It was on the subject of a mine, said to be a rich one, that I also
wished to speak to your highness. Could I find a better opportunity?
Though my fortune is already considerable, it is nothing to what may come
to our family at any moment. You will perhaps excuse, therefore, what you
are pleased to call my royal prodigalities."
D'Aigrigny's dilemma became momentarily more and more thorny. The affair
of the medals was so important, that he had concealed it even from Dr.
Baleinier, though he had called in his services to forward immense
interests. Neither had Tripeaud been informed of it, for the princess
believed that she had destroyed every vestige of those papers of
Adrienne's father, which might have put him on the scent of this
discovery. The abbe, therefore was not only greatly alarmed that Mdlle.
de Cardoville might be informed of this secret, but he trembled lest she
should divulge it.
The princess, sharing the alarms of D'Aigrigny, interrupted her niece by
exclaiming: "Madame, there are certain family affairs which ought to be
kept secret, and, without exactly understanding to what you allude, I
must request you to change the subject."
"What, madame! are we not here a family party? Is that not sufficiently
evident by the somewhat ungracious things that have been here said?"
"No matter, madame! when affairs of interest are concerned, which are
more or less disputable, it is perfectly useless to speak of them without
the documents laid before every one."
"And of what have we been speaking this hour, madame, if not of affairs
of interest? I really do not understand your surprise and embarrassment."
"I am neither surprised nor embarrassed, madame; but for the last two
hours, you have obliged me to listen to so many new and extravagant
things, that a little amaze is very permissible."
"I beg your highness's pardon, but you are very much embarrassed," said
Adrienne, looking fixedly at her aunt, "and M. d'Aigrigny also--which
confirms certain suspicions that I have not had the time to clear up.
Have I then guessed rightly?" she added, after a pause. "We will see--"
"Madame, I command you to be silent," cried the princess, no longer
mistress of herself.
"Oh, madame!" said Adrienne, "for a person who has in general so much
command of her feelings, you compromise yourself strangely."
Providence (as some will have it) came to the aid of the princess and the
Abbe d'Aigrigny at this critical juncture. A valet entered the room; his
countenance bore such marks of fright and agitation, that the princess
exclaimed as soon as she saw him: "Why, Dubois! what is the matter?"
"I have to beg pardon, your highness, for interrupting you against your
express orders, but a police inspector demands to speak with you
instantly. He is below stairs, and the yard is full of policemen and
soldiers."
Notwithstanding the profound surprise which this new incident occasioned
her, the princess, determining to profit by the opportunity thus
afforded, to concert prompt measures with D'Aigrigny on the subject of
Adrienne's threatened revelations, rose, and said to the abbe: "Will you
be so obliging as to accompany me, M. d'Aigrigny, for I do not know what
the presence of this commissary of police may signify."
D'Aigrigny followed the speaker into the next room.