of her for a long time. Aloïse would gladly have saved from her
allowance eight francs a month, in order to make up the louis
required by Janette, but this was impossible; she had lost her new
gloves, and was obliged to buy others; a new pair of prunella shoes
was to be brought home to her on the first of the month, to replace
those she had spoiled by imprudently walking in the mud; besides,
her thimble, her needles, her scissors, her thread, all of which she
was constantly losing through her want of order, formed a source of
considerable expense. Although she was eleven years of age, nothing
had been able to cure her of this want of order, a defect which
resulted from great vivacity, and from the fact, that when once an
idea had taken possession of her mind, it so completely engrossed it
that, for the moment, it was impossible for her to think of anything
else. At present, it was Janette who occupied her thoughts. She
would have been delighted to have had a louis to give her by the
time her rent became due, but she did not dare to ask her parents
for it, for she saw that, without being in any way embarrassed,
they nevertheless lived with a certain degree of economy; besides,
she knew them to be so kind, that if they could do anything, they
would do it without being asked. When she went down to her mother's
room, she spoke of Janette, of her grief for her, and of her desire
to assist her. Twenty times she went over her calculations aloud, in
order to let it be understood that she could not do so out of her
allowance. Twenty times she repeated, "This poor Janette says that
she must die upon straw, if she cannot pay her rent." Her mother,
Madame d'Auvray, was writing, and her father was occupied in looking
over some prints; neither of them appeared to hear her. Aloïse was
in despair, for when she once wished for anything, she had no rest
until she had either obtained it, or forgotten it. She was told that
her drawing-master was waiting for her. Quite taken up with Janette
and her grief, she left, as was almost invariably the case with her,
her work upon the chair, her pincushion under it, her thimble on the
table, and her scissors on the ground. Her mother called her back.
"Aloïse," said she, "will you never put away your work of your own
accord, and without my being obliged to remind you of it?" Aloïse
replied mournfully that she was thinking of something else.
"Of Janette, was it not?" said her father. "Well, then, since you are
so anxious to get her out of trouble, let us make a bargain. Whenever
you put away your work without being reminded of it by your mother, I
will give you ten sous; in forty-eight days, therefore, you will be
able to gain the louis, which will not be required by Janette for
three months."
Oh! how delighted was Aloïse. She threw herself into her father's
arms; her heart was freed from a heavy load.
"But," said M. d'Auvray, "in order that the agreement may be equal,
it is necessary that you should pay something whenever you fail. It
would be just to demand from you ten sous, but," added he, smiling,
"I do not wish to make too hard a bargain for poor Janette; I will,
therefore, only require of you five sous; but mind, I shall show no
mercy, and you must not expect a fraction of the louis, unless you
gain the whole. Here it is," said he, as he took it out of his pocket
and placed it in a drawer of Madame d'Auvray's secretary; "now try to
gain it."
Aloïse promised that it should be hers; her parents seemed to doubt
it. It was, however, agreed, that Madame d'Auvray and Aloïse should
each keep an account, in order to secure accuracy. And Aloïse was
so pleased, and so eager to communicate the arrangement to her
nurse, that she ran out of the room without putting away her work.
Fortunately, she remembered it at the door; she ran back again,
seized upon it, and beheld her father laughing heartily. "At all
events," she exclaimed, "mamma did not remind me of it," and for once
the excuse was admitted.
For some time Aloïse was very exact, and the more so as she had
related the affair to Janette, who without daring to remind her
of it, now and then dropped a word concerning her landlord, who
was a very severe man. During a whole month the work had only been
forgotten six times; thus, in twenty-four days, Aloïse had gained
her ten sous, but as there were six days of negligence, during each
of which she had lost five sous, there remained six times five, or
three times ten sous, to be deducted from what she had gained; she
had, therefore, secured but twenty-one, out of the forty-eight days.
But Aloïse did not reckon in this manner. As her carelessness
extended to everything, she sometimes forgot that on the six days on
which she had not put away her work, she had not gained her ten sous;
at other times she forgot that on these days she had lost five also,
so that she never considered that she had lost more than five or
ten sous, on those days on which her negligence had really made her
lose fifteen. At the end of the month, her mother had the greatest
difficulty in the world to make her understand this calculation,
and when she did understand it, she forgot it again. She had begun
to keep her account in writing, and then had neglected it; she
begged her mother to let her examine hers; she did so, at the same
time warning her that it was for the last time. Aloïse recommenced
writing, but lost her paper; she then tried to reckon mentally, but
got confused in her calculations. Unfortunately, also, the hour
for her dancing lesson, which she took in her mother's apartment,
was changed, and now fell at the time that Janette called; she
therefore saw her less frequently, and began to forget her a little:
nevertheless the orderly habits which she had begun to contract were
tolerably well kept up. She often put her work away, but she also
frequently neglected it: still it seemed to her that she had attended
to it so many times, that she felt quite easy on the subject, and
did not even think of examining the day of the month.
One morning she rose extremely happy; she was going to spend a day in
the country. The party had been long arranged, and Aloïse had drawn a
brilliant picture of the pleasure which she anticipated from it. The
weather, too, was delightful. She had just finished dressing, when
a man came to her room in the garb of a workman; he wore a leathern
apron and a woollen cap, which he scarcely raised as he entered. He
appeared very much out of humour, and said in a rough manner to the
nurse, that he had come on account of the woman who had served her
with chickweed for her birds; that he was her landlord; that she
owed him four quarters' rent, which she was unable to pay, and had
entreated him to go and see if any one there could assist her. "It
is not my business," he added in a surly tone, "to go about begging
for my rent. However, I was willing to see if anything was to be got.
If not, let her be prepared; to-morrow, the eighth of July, she must
quit. At all events, her moving will not be a very heavy one!"
Aloïse trembled in every limb, at finding herself in the same room
with this terrible landlord, of whom she had so often heard Janette
speak, and whose manner was not calculated to tranquillize her fears.
Not daring to address him herself, she whispered to her nurse, that
she would go and ask her mamma for the louis.
"But have you gained it?" said the nurse.
"Oh! certainly," said Aloïse, and yet she began to be very much
afraid she had not. She drew herself in as much as possible, in
order to pass between the door and the man who stood beside it, and
who terrified her so much that she would not have dared to ask him to
move. She ran quite flushed and breathless into her mother's room,
and asked for the louis.
"But does it belong to you?" said her mother. "I do not think it
does."
"Oh, mamma," replied Aloïse, turning pale, "I have put away my work
more than forty-eight times."
"Yes, my child, but the days on which you have not put it away?"
"Mamma, I have put it away very often, I assure you."
"We shall see;" and Madame d'Auvray took the account from her
secretary. "You have put it away sixty times," said she to her
daughter.
"You see, mamma!" cried Aloïse, delighted.
"Yes, but you have neglected it thirty-one times, for the month of
May has thirty-one days."
"Oh! mamma, that does not make...."
"My dear! thirty-one days, at five sous a day, make seven livres
fifteen sous, which are to be deducted from the thirty francs that
you have gained. Thus thirty-five sous are still wanting to complete
the louis." Aloïse turned pale and clasped her hands.
"Is it possible," she said, "that for thirty-five sous...."
"My child," said her mother, "you remember your agreement with your
father."
"Oh! mamma! for thirty-five sous! and this poor Janette!"
"You knew very well what would be the consequence," said her mother;
"I can do nothing in the matter."
Aloïse wept bitterly. Her father coming in, asked the reason. Madame
d'Auvray told him, and Aloïse raised her hands towards him with
supplicating looks.
"My child," said M. d'Auvray, "when I make a bargain I keep to it,
and I require that others should act in the same manner towards me.
You have not chosen to fulfil the conditions of this agreement,
therefore let us say no more about it."
When M. d'Auvray had once said a thing, it was settled. Aloïse did
not dare to reply, but she remained weeping. "The horses are ready,"
said M. d'Auvray, "we must set off; come, go and fetch your bonnet."
Aloïse then knew that all hope was lost, and she could not restrain
her sobs. "Go and get your bonnet," said her father in a firmer tone,
and her mother led her gently to the door. She remained outside the
room, leaning against the wall, unable to move a step, and crying
most bitterly. Her nurse entered softly, and asked whether she had
got the money, as the man was becoming impatient. Indeed Aloïse
heard him in the hall speaking to the servant, in the same surly
ill-tempered tone. He said he had not time to wait; that it was very
disagreeable and inconvenient to be sent there for nothing; and that
Janette might rest assured she would have to be off pretty quickly.
The tears of Aloïse were redoubled; her nurse endeavoured to console
her, and the old servant who was passing at the moment, not knowing
the cause of her grief, told her that she was going to amuse herself
in the country, and would soon forget her trouble.
"To amuse myself!" cried Aloïse, "to amuse myself!" And she
remembered that during this time Janette would be in despair, and
turned into the street with her three children.
"Oh! dear," she exclaimed, "could they not have punished me in some
other manner?"
"Listen," said her nurse, "suppose you were to ask for some other
punishment?"
Aloïse turned towards her a hesitating and frightened look. She
saw very well that she was going to propose to her to give up her
visit to the country; and although she promised herself very little
pleasure from it, she had not the courage to renounce it. But the
servant came to tell her that the man was tired of waiting, and was
going away. And in fact she heard him open the door, saying in a loud
voice, "She shall pay for having made me come here for nothing."
Aloïse with clasped hands, entreated the servant to run after him
and stop him for a moment, and told her nurse to go and beg of her
parents to change her punishment, and instead of it to deprive her
of the pleasure of going into the country. The nurse having done so,
Madame d'Auvray came out immediately and said to her daughter,
"My child, our wish is not to punish you, but to fix in your
mind something of consequence which we have not yet succeeded in
impressing on it. Do you think the regret you will feel in not going
into the country with us, will have sufficient effect upon you, to
make you remember to be a little more orderly in what you do?"
"Oh! mamma," said Aloïse, "I do assure you that the grief I have
had, and that which I shall still have," she added, redoubling her
tears, "in not going into the country, will make me well remember it."
"Very well, then," said Madame d'Auvray, and she gave her the louis,
which Aloïse charged her nurse to carry to the man. As for herself,
she remained leaning against the door, through which her mother had
returned into her room. Her nurse, having ordered the kitchen-maid to
follow the man, and carry the louis to Janette, found her there still
crying; and told her that as she had taken her course, she ought to
show more courage, and dry up her tears, and go and bid farewell to
her parents, who would otherwise think she was sulking, which would
not be proper. Aloïse dried her eyes, and endeavouring to restrain
herself, entered the room. As she approached her father, in order
to kiss him, he took her on his knee, and said, "My dear Aloïse, is
there no way of engraving still more deeply on your memory, that
which you ought not to forget?" Aloïse looked at him. "Would it not
be," he continued, "by taking you with us into the country, relying
upon the promise which you will give us never again to forget to put
your work away?"
"Never!" said Aloïse, with an agitated look; "but if I should forget
it on some occasion?"
"I am sure that you will not do so," replied her mother; "your
promise, the recollection of our indulgence, all this will force you
to remember it."
"But, oh dear! oh dear! if after all I were to forget it!"
"Well," said her father, kissing her, "we wish to force you to
remember it."
Aloïse was greatly affected by all this kindness; but she felt
tormented by the fear of not keeping the promise on which her parents
relied; and whilst her nurse, who had heard what was said, ran
joyfully to fetch her bonnet, she remained pensive, leaning against
the window. At length, turning eagerly to her mother, "Mamma," she
said, "I will beg of God every day in my prayers to give me grace to
keep my promise."
"That will be an excellent means," replied her mother, "make use of
it at once;" and Aloïse raised her eyes to heaven and her heart to
God, and felt encouraged. Nevertheless she preserved throughout the
day, amidst the amusements of the country, something of the emotions
which had agitated her in the morning. At night she did not forget
to renew her prayer; the next morning she thought of it on waking,
and in order not to forget it, she imposed upon herself the rule of
attending to it before she did anything else. She succeeded, by this
means, in impressing upon her mind the duty prescribed to her. Once
only, did she seem on the point of going away without arranging her
work.
"Aloïse," said her mother, "have you said your prayers this morning?"
This question reminded her both of her prayer, which, indeed, for
some time past, she had said with less attention, as she now thought
herself secure, and also of her promise, which she had run the risk
of forgetting; and she was so much terrified that she never again
fell into the same danger. One day when her mother was speaking to
her about the manner in which she had corrected herself, she said
timidly, "But, mamma, in order to correct me, you surely would not
have had the heart to allow poor Janette to be turned out of doors?"
Her mother smiled and said, "You must at all events allow that
you are at present very happy for having been afraid of this."
Aloïse assented. The louis d'or had enabled her to acquire a good
habit, from which she derived more advantages than she had at first
expected; for the money which she saved, by not having constantly to
replace things lost through carelessness, gave her the means of doing
something additional for Janette, for whom also work was found, as
well as various little commissions, so that she and her children were
no longer in danger of dying of hunger, or of being turned out of
their miserable garret.
Here M. de Cideville, being obliged to go out, interrupted his
narrative, deferring its continuation to another day.
CONTINUATION OF THE HISTORY OF A LOUIS D'OR
M. de Cideville having one day, of his own accord, continued the
history of the louis d'or, said to his daughter, You have already
seen, by the several adventures which I have related, of what
importance may be, under certain circumstances, a sum apparently so
trifling as a louis d'or. You will soon see all the advantages which
may be derived from it; but I must first tell you in what manner it
passed out of the hands of the landlord, to whom Janette had given
it in payment of her rent.
This landlord was a shoemaker; his house was very small, very
disagreeable, and very dirty, as may be imagined by the sum paid
by Janette for rent, and he was himself the porter. He was very
avaricious, and would not go to the expense of keeping it in a
moderately decent condition, or even of repairing it, so that it was
occupied only by very poor people, or by those who had been guilty of
bad actions, for, provided his tenants paid him, he did not trouble
himself about their honesty. There was one among them, named Roch,
whom he knew to be a rogue, and who had several times concealed
stolen goods. The shoemaker shut his eyes to this, because on these
occasions he almost always received some little present. One day, as
the shoemaker was looking in the narrow court, which separated his
house from that of his neighbour, for old pieces of linen sometimes
thrown there, and of which, after having washed them, he made use
as linings for his shoes, he stooped down to pick up one of them,
when his pipe, which he had in his mouth, caught in something, and
slipping from him, fell through a grating into his neighbour's
cellar. He would have been glad to have gone and asked for it, but he
did not dare to do so, for misers are always ashamed of those actions
which their avarice leads them to commit. Whilst leaning over the
grating, in the hope that it might have lodged on the slope of the
wall within, and that he should be able to regain it, there suddenly
burst from the opening such a volume of smoke, that he was nearly
stifled. The pipe had fallen upon some straw, recently unpacked, and
which, not having yet imbibed the damp of the cellar, caught fire
almost immediately. The shoemaker knew very well what was likely to
follow, and ran away, in order that he might not be suspected as the
cause of the mischief; but trembling for his own house, to which
the fire might extend, he gave an alarm, saying that he perceived a
strong smell of smoke; and in order that assistance might be promptly
rendered, he guided the people so well in the direction of the fire,
that the truth was immediately suspected.
The flames quickly spread to a heap of faggots, thence to a quantity
of goods which were near, and before there was time to suppress them,
they had injured the building. The landlord entered a process against
the shoemaker, in order to make him pay the damages, saying that it
was he who had set the place on fire, which, indeed, there was every
reason for suspecting. It was known that he was in the habit of
searching in the court for rags, and suchlike things, that happened
to be thrown from the windows. There had also been found in the ashes
underneath the grating and on the spot occupied by the heap of straw,
the remains of a pipe which had not been consumed. It was observed
that when the shoemaker gave the information, he was without his
pipe, a thing quite extraordinary for him. He was also known to have
bought a new one on the same day, and every one was aware that he was
not a man to buy a new pipe if he had an old one in his possession.
It was then more than probable that it was his pipe which had fallen
into the cellar, and set it on fire. Besides, two persons believed
that they had seen him, from a distance, going out of the court.
The shoemaker had nothing to oppose to these charges, but the
assertion that he was not on the spot when the place took fire; but
in order to have this assertion received, he must find witnesses who
would consent to give a false testimony. He thought Roch might do
him this service, and he reminded him of all the indulgence which
he had granted to him. Roch made no objections; he was so great a
knave, that he seemed to take a pleasure in doing what was wrong. He
simply demanded, as the reward of this service, that the shoemaker
should introduce and recommend him, as a servant, to M. de la Fère,
a gentleman for whom the shoemaker worked, and who at that time was
in want of a servant. Roch was very desirous of getting this place,
but quite at a loss as to the means of doing so, as he could find no
one willing to give him a character. The shoemaker consented; for we
can never ask others to do what is wrong for us without being obliged
to do at least as much for them in return. But two witnesses were
requisite. Roch undertook to procure another, on condition that the
shoemaker should give him a louis d'or.
The latter, at first, made many objections; for he valued his money
more than his conscience, but there was no alternative in the case.
He therefore gave him the very louis d'or that Janette had paid him,
and Roch and his comrade both affirmed on oath, that the shoemaker
was returning home in their company, at the time that he perceived
from the street the smell of the smoke then issuing from the court.
They also affirmed, that during their walk, a porter had knocked
against him so roughly, that his pipe was thrown out of his mouth,
and that in stepping forward to gain his balance, he had trodden upon
it, and crushed it. To give their assertions a greater appearance
of truth, they repeated the remarks which they pretended to have
made upon the occasion. The shoemaker gained his cause. Roch kept
the louis, giving only twelve francs to his comrade, and entered the
service of M. de la Fère, who was on the point of leaving France,
where, like many others, he did not consider himself in safety; for
it was the close of the year 1792. Neither his man-servant nor his
wife's maid was willing to accompany them; so that being in a great
hurry to leave, they were compelled to take Roch without inquiry, and
upon the sole recommendation of the shoemaker, whom they believed
to be an honest man. They were desirous of obtaining gold for their
journey, as being more convenient than silver, and at that time the
value of the louis d'or was high, for it was much in request, as many
families were leaving France for the same cause as M. de la Fère.
Roch therefore sold to his master the louis which he had received
from the shoemaker. It thus came into the possession of M. de la
Fère, and you shall see presently all that it produced. As for Roch,
before his departure with M. de la Fère, he defrauded the shoemaker
out of the amount of a rather heavy bill which his master had ordered
him to pay. He produced a false receipt, and kept the money. The
shoemaker did not become aware of his departure till several days
afterwards, and thus found himself punished for recommending a
rogue. We must now see what the louis produced in the hands of its
new possessor.
THE WEEK.
It was at the commencement of the year 1793, that M. de la Fère,
accompanied by his wife, his son Raymond, a lad of fifteen, and his
daughter Juliette, who was thirteen, his servant Roch, and his wife's
new maid, left France, to establish themselves in a small town in
Germany. They had brought with them sufficient money to enable them,
if necessary, to remain away for several years, and the more easily,
as having chosen a town in which no French had as yet arrived, and
where they were not acquainted with any Germans, they hoped to lead
the kind of life which suited them, without being obliged to incur
greater expenses than they wished. Thus they hoped, by means of a
reasonable, but not inconvenient economy, to pass the period of
trouble in comfort and tranquillity, attending to the education of
their children, who, delighted with the change of scene, thought only
of enjoying the various new objects which their journey presented to
them.