"Suppose I don't choose to tell you?"
"It shall be exactly as you choose."
"I was joking. I live on Faubourg Saint-Denis, corner of Rue Chabrol."
"The deuce! that's well up in the faubourg! And you go back there alone,
at night, when you leave your work?"
"To be sure!"
"And you're not afraid?"
"What should I be afraid of? Besides, I always have body-guards, men who
follow me and protect me. But, speaking of that, monsieur, who was that
lady who came to see you while we were polking? and who stayed there
after I went, and looked at me as if she meant to count my eyelashes?"
"That lady is a friend of mine."
"I understand: she's your mistress!"
"I assure you that she is not. If she were, I should have no reason to
conceal the fact."
"Oh! I don't know. There are some ladies who don't want to be given
away--when they're married, for instance."
"Once more, I assure you that she is a friend, and nothing more."
"Oh! a friend! I know what that means! So she's an old one, eh?"
"Neither old nor new. Do you suppose that, if that lady were my
mistress, she would be obliging enough, when she found me dancing with
you, to sit down at the piano and be our orchestra?"
"Oh! but she played the polka fast enough to spoil our wind in a second.
It was no use for me to call out: 'A little slower, please, madame!' she
didn't listen to me, but banged and banged away! It was a sly trick to
wind us both. Oh! I'm not so stupid as you think!"
"But I have never thought that you were stupid; far from it!"
"Really! tell me, do you think I am bright?"
"I think you are charming."
"That's no answer; I might be charming, and still be stupid. However, I
don't care; as long as I please you, and you love me a little--I mean
much; I want to be loved much--that's all I ask."
She said all this with an abandon, a vivacity, which proved, at all
events, that she did not stop to pick her words.
We arrived at the restaurant; I need not say that I had taken my
conquest to an establishment where there were cosily furnished private
dining-rooms. I also think it needless to add that I began by dismissing
the waiter, who attempted to insist upon serving us at once, by telling
him that I would prepare my order and ring for him when we wanted to
dine. I was very glad to have an interview with Mademoiselle Rosette,
uninterrupted by the constant going and coming of a waiter.
At last we were left alone. I was able to converse at my ease with my
pretty workgirl, to whom our conversation was equally agreeable and who
sustained her part excellently. I was enchanted with Mademoiselle
Rosette! Long live the women who do not make a thousand and one grimaces
before coming to what they have never intended to refuse! Ah! if only
one could believe that they did have that intention, and yielded to the
power of sentiment, to the ascendency of our passion alone! But it is
impossible to believe that. Whenever a woman agrees to go to a private
dining-room with a man, it means that she does not propose to be severe.
In due course, we dined; we had the most voracious appetites. We were as
gay as larks; embarrassment and reserve had vanished. There is nothing
superior to a little tender conversation for putting us in a good humor
at once, and putting to flight that indefinable constraint which takes
wing only when a woman has ceased to keep us at any distance.
Rosette and I were like people who had known each other for six months.
She ate like an ogre and drank like a porter. She was a model grisette!
a table companion of the sort that puts you on your mettle and excites
you! Don't talk to me of the women who never have any appetite, who
barely nibble at their food, and leave untouched all that you put on
their plate. They call everything bad, and end by preventing you from
eating. What depressing companions! With them, you spend quite as
much--yes, more; for you never know what to order to stir them up, and
you always dine wretchedly.
But with Rosette how different it was! how we made the oysters
disappear, and the soup, and the beef-steak; the fish and game and
vegetables and sweetmeats and dessert! She ate the last dish with as
much gusto as the first. Oh! fascinating girl, I admired thee! I revered
thee! I would have erected a column to thee, had I been Lucullus! But
thou wert as well pleased with a charlotte russe! And thou wert right:
columns remain, but charlotte russes pass away; and that was what we
wanted.
We drank chablis, pomard, madeira, and came at last to champagne.
Rosette confessed that she adored that wine; as for the others, I was
pleased to see that she had a friendly feeling for them as well. She
laughingly emptied her glass, saying:
"I'd have you know that I never get tipsy."
A moment later, she cried:
"Oh! but I say, I am drinking too much; I'm beginning to be dizzy!"
In another instant, she assumed a sentimental expression.
"O my friend!" she said; "if I should be drunk, what would you say to
me? You might not love me any more! That would make me very unhappy!"
But I kissed her and drank with her, and her fears were succeeded by
bursts of merriment.
The more one drinks, the more one talks, unless one happens to be
melancholy in one's cups, and my grisette was not so constituted.
While we dined, she told me her whole history; I knew her family as well
as if I were her cousin. She was an orphan, but her seven aunts took
care of her. It seemed to me that their watchfulness resembled that of
the Seven Sleepers. That is one of the inconveniences of having too many
aunts: each of them probably relied on the others to keep an eye on
Rosette.
Now her aunts wanted her to marry, and each one had a match in view for
her; the result being that there were seven aspirants for the hand of my
friend, who reminded me of the Seven Children of Lara. Thus
Mademoiselle Rosette had only too many to choose from, to say nothing of
the fact that she had several young men who were paying court to her,
for the good motive, without the knowledge of her aunts.
"Perhaps you don't believe me! But I'll show you; I always have letters
from some of my suitors in my pocket. I want you to read them; they'll
make you laugh."
And Rosette set about emptying her pockets, which led us to the
disclosure of a multitude of things, such as scissors, skeins of cotton,
crusts of bread, visiting cards, copper coins, barley sugar, ribbons,
braid, chalk, specimens of dry goods, orange peel, etc., etc. I told her
that she should empty her pockets on the boulevard and shout:
"Here's what's left from the sale! Come, messieurs and mesdames, take
your choice; this is what's left from the sale!"
Rosette insisted that I should read her letters from her adorers. I
found in them the following sentiments:
"Ah! mademoiselle, what a sudden spasm I felt throughout my being when I
saw your shadow on the curtain!"
Or this: "Fatality collects and heaps up like a block of granite on my
breast the circumstances that compel me to idolize you."
I soon had enough of that; I refused to read any more and returned the
scrawls to Rosette, saying:
"I'll wager that your lovers have long, flying hair, uncombed beards,
and artist's hats?"
"That is true! How did you guess that?"
"My dear love, when a man writes in that style, he doesn't dress like
other people."
The hour arrived when we must think of returning. The time had passed
very quickly; that is the greatest praise one can give a tête-à-tête.
I put Mademoiselle Rosette in a cab again--she was slightly
exhilarated--and said:
"I will escort you to Faubourg Saint-Denis."
She seemed to consider.
"Aren't you going home?" I continued.
"How stupid you are! Where do you suppose I'm going? But, you see, I
have quite a choice; I can go and sleep at another one of my aunts', if
I choose--it doesn't matter which, I have a bed with each of them; I
might sleep in the Marais, for I have an aunt on Rue Pont-aux-Choux."
"Pardieu! that's convenient, isn't it? So, when you want to pass the
night with your lover, you tell one aunt that you've been with another
one, and so on. Oh! fortunate niece! I have known lots of nieces, but
very few in so pleasant a position as you occupy."
"Oh! come, don't laugh at me! Let me tell you, monsieur, that my aunts
see each other very often; and so, if I should lie and say I had passed
the night with one of them when I hadn't, they'd soon find it out, and I
shouldn't have a very nice time."
"Forgive me, dear love! I didn't mean to offend you!"
"Kiss me. When shall I see you again?"
"When you are willing."
"I'll come to see you Thursday, about two. Will you wait for me?"
"Most certainly."
"And you'll take care that your friend don't come and disturb us; if she
does, I'll make a scene with her. I'm very jealous, let me tell you. You
love me, don't you? Ah! you've made me tipsy, you see, and I don't know
what I'm saying."
I reassured Rosette and left her on Faubourg Saint-Denis, where she had
finally decided to go. She was a very attractive girl, her conversation
was amusing, and her person most alluring. But I was sorry that she had
a tent pitched in every quarter of Paris; one could never be sure where
she had gone into camp.
XXXVI
A SCENE
I had known Rosette a month, and thus far had had no reason to repent. I
had observed, to be sure, that the young woman did not always tell me
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; but, after all, a
lover should not act toward his mistress in the capacity of a juryman.
Moreover, Rosette herself had told me, in a moment of effusiveness, that
she lied a great deal and lied very well. It seemed to me that, after
that, I was not justified in losing my temper when she told me a
falsehood; for she might reply:
"I gave you fair warning!"
I often took Rosette to dine in a private dining-room. Knowing as I did
what justice she could do to a hearty meal, it would really have been a
pity not to give her an opportunity for practice; and as I myself am
endowed with a lusty appetite, our little parties always afforded us
pleasure: when love went to sleep, the stomach woke, and _vice versa_.
Rosette came to my rooms once or twice a week, and sometimes unheralded.
When I was absent, she went into my chamber; I had told Pomponne that
she was to be admitted at any time. When she had come and failed to find
me, I always discovered it instantly, for she turned everything in the
apartment topsy-turvy. She tossed about papers, books, combs, brushes,
and soap; looked through all the drawers, and left nothing in its place;
even the chairs I always found in the middle of the room.
"Couldn't you have put my room to rights a little?" I would say to
Pomponne.
And Monsieur Pomponne would reply, with his sly smile:
"It was Mademoiselle Rosette who arranged monsieur's bedroom like that;
I shouldn't venture to touch anything."
I had not seen Frédérique since the day she played for us to dance. She
had not called upon me again. I had been several times to see her, but
had not found her. Could it be that her friendship was really jealous of
my love for a grisette? That would be absurd. Friendship should be
indulgent to our weaknesses, and, after all, I had not promised
Frédérique to be virtuous.
I could not understand her conduct in the least, but I was deeply
grieved by it. I missed her; my follies with Rosette were simply
transitory gleams of pleasure, while my delightful interviews with
Frédérique filled my heart with a joy which had a morrow.
I was sitting one day, absorbed in serious reflections, when Frédérique
entered my room. I cannot describe my sensation of pleasure. I ran to
meet her, took her hands, and cried:
"Ah! here you are at last! I am very glad! I thought that you had
forgotten me altogether."
She looked at me and smiled, as she rejoined:
"So you are glad to see me?"
"Unkind Frédérique! can you ask such a question? Why, I have been to see
you several times!"
"I know it; my people told me."
"But you are never at home! What sort of life are you leading, pray,
madame?"
"I go out a good deal, it is true."
"Have you been ill? it seems to me that you are a little pale."
"I am never very red. The women you see are so fresh and rosy, that you
are struck by the difference."
"Ah! madame, I see no woman whom it gives me so much pleasure to look at
as you."
"Really?"
She uttered that word with an accent that came from her heart. I made
her sit down beside me. She looked all about the room, murmuring:
"Are you alone?"
"To be sure!"
"And I do not intrude?"
"Once more, I tell you that you never intrude."
"Oh! _never_ is too strong. What if she were with you?"
"Who, pray?"
"Mon Dieu! you know well enough: your dancing damsel--your Rosette."
"Oh! my Rosette!"
"_Dame!_ I think that I may fairly say _your_ Rosette, for she must
surely have become yours since the day---- To be sure, she may be others'
also, and in that case the possessive pronoun would be of doubtful
propriety."
"Call her what you will, Frédérique; I attach little importance to that.
But I am surprised to find that my liaison with that girl displeases
you. Why is it so? I can't understand. You are too intelligent to
believe that such amourettes can impair the pure friendship I have sworn
to you."
Frédérique put her hand over her eyes and turned her face away.
"But you are mistaken!" she exclaimed. "It is not true! Your liaison
with this grisette doesn't displease me at all. Upon my word! why should
it, pray?--But I would have liked you to know five or six at the same
time; that would be more amusing; I should enjoy that immensely."
At that moment I heard voices outside, and recognized Pomponne's.
"Monsieur is having a consultation with someone," he said.
"I don't care a hang for his consultation; I can go in any time, I can!"
was the reply.
And an instant later, Mademoiselle Rosette opened the door and appeared
before us. Frédérique turned pale, but she did not stir. I was annoyed
that Rosette should have come just then. However, I had no reason for
letting her see it; so I went to meet her, smiling as usual. But my
grisette had assumed a furious expression, and she drew back from me,
crying:
"Don't put yourself out, monsieur, I beg; you were so comfortable with
madame! You weren't polking, to be sure, but you were engaged in
something more interesting; anybody could see that."
I saw that Rosette was on the point of saying things most unseemly, and
perhaps worse than that, to Madame Dauberny, and I felt my blood begin
to boil. Frédérique, on the contrary, remained quite calm.
"Mademoiselle," I said, "I cannot believe that it is your intention to
insult those persons whom you may chance to meet on my premises; I tell
you at once that that does not meet my views at all, and that I will not
endure it."
"Really? Perhaps I'll have to put on mittens when I speak to the
princesses I find in monsieur's room! I guess not much! Humbug!"
"O Rosette! Rosette!"
"Let me alone; I propose to shriek all I want to, and get mad too! I
don't believe in these _friendships_ between ladies and young men. Bah!
friendship that crawls under your bedclothes!"
"Be careful, mademoiselle!"
"I won't be careful! I'm your mistress, I am, worse luck!--If madame
don't know it, I'm very glad to tell her of it, so that she'll know it
now. Yes, I'm your mistress; but I don't propose to have you have others
at the same time--old ones or new ones;--if you do, I'll raise a deuce
of a row! Ah! you'll see!"
Frédérique, who seemed rather pleased than angry as she listened to
Rosette, rose and said to her in a most affable tone:
"I was quite well aware that you were monsieur's mistress, mademoiselle;
I beg you to believe that I did not doubt it for a moment, when I saw
you in his room. I assure you that you are wrong, altogether wrong, to
be jealous of me, who am not and never have been Monsieur Rochebrune's
mistress. So that I do not deserve your anger--and to prove it, I am
going to take my leave at once and surrender my place to you--which I
would not do, I beg you to believe, if monsieur were my lover. Come!
make your peace; be reconciled! I am distressed to have been the cause
of this scene.--Adieu, Rochebrune; au revoir, my friend! Be sure that I
am not at all offended with you for what has happened."
Frédérique left the room, smiling sweetly at me. I did not try to detain
her, because I did not choose to expose her to fresh abuse from Rosette.
As for my grisette, she threw herself on the divan, crying:
"I don't care! I must admit that she's a good creature, after all. Ah! I
wouldn't have been the one to go! You might have called up a dozen
gendarmes, and I'd just have said: _Zut!_"
I paced the floor without a word; I was vexed and angry. After five
minutes, Rosette exclaimed:
"I say, monsieur, when are you going to stop stalking around your room,
like the Bear of Berne? Why, you ought to have begged my pardon ten
times for the tricks you play on me! For it's a perfect outrage, the way
you treat me!"
"If anyone ought to ask pardon, mademoiselle, you are the one; for,
without any motive or reason, you have insulted a most estimable lady, a
person who should be out of reach of your suspicions and your attacks. I
had told you before that there was nothing in my relations with her to
arouse your jealousy; and because you find her in my room, where she has
not been since the day of the polka, you make a scene, and say things to
her that are worse than unbecoming. It is all wrong, and I am very angry
with you."
"Hoity-toity! You're angry with me, are you? Ah! you're a nice man, you
are! You are annoyed because I caught you in--vicious conversation, as
the bewigged men say! After all, what did I say that was so mortifying
to your fine lady? Nothing at all! Ah! if I had pulled her hair out or
torn her dress, then you might say something!"
"That would have been the last straw! Do you suppose I would have
allowed that?"
"If I'd taken a fancy to do it, you wouldn't have had time to stop
me--my good friend. I wouldn't have asked your leave."
"Mademoiselle Rosette, you are very wrong-headed."
"That may be; but you can take me or leave me."
I said nothing, but continued to pace the floor. After a considerable
time, Mademoiselle Rosette sprang to her feet.
"Well! so that's the way it is, eh?--Bonsoir!"
She rushed from the room, and I heard her slam one door after another
till she was in the hall.
She had gone, and gone in a rage. No matter! I could not allow her to
insult my visitors without the slightest cause. If I should allow it,
with her temperament Mademoiselle Rosette would soon pass from words to
deeds. I said to myself that she would calm down and come back to me. I
did not believe that she was vixenish at heart. Those people who fly
into a rage so quickly do not let the sun go down on their wrath.
XXXVII
ROSETTE'S SEVEN AUNTS
Several days passed and I heard nothing of my grisette. But I went to
see Frédérique, whom I found at home, and who greeted me with evident
pleasure.
I did not mention Rosette; but I saw in her eyes that she was burning to
know the situation of my amour with her. At last, she could contain
herself no longer.
"Well, my friend," she said, "you say nothing of your love affairs. I
trust, however, that I am still your confidante; and you surely must
have been content with my conduct the last time I came to see you."
"I did not speak of that, to avoid recalling unpleasant things; you were
most kind, a thousand times too kind; but that did not surprise me, and
I ask your pardon again for that girl, who didn't know what she was
saying."
"I assure you that she didn't offend me in the least; far from it! her
observations were so amusing, and her expressions so classic! But you
are reconciled, I hope? My departure should have restored peace at
once."
"No; that is where you are mistaken. We did not make peace. Rosette went
away in a rage, and I haven't seen her since."
"Really? You surprise me. And haven't you made any attempt to see that
fascinating grisette again?"
"No, not any."
Frédérique looked at me out of the corner of her eye. To change the
subject, I asked her if her husband had returned.
"Not yet. You seem greatly interested in my husband's movements. I
confess that that puzzles me a good deal."
"I beg you to believe that my interest in him has no connection with
you."
"Oh! I am sure of that."
"Do you know that your husband's friend, he who called himself
Saint-Germain, has lost his place?"
"I did not know it; but that explains why he comes here almost every day
to inquire if Monsieur Dauberny has returned; indeed, he asked to see me
once."
"Do not receive that man, madame; I take the liberty of giving you that
advice."
"I will follow your advice, monsieur, which, by the by, is in perfect
accord with my previous intentions. If I dared to give you advice, in my
turn, I would say----"
"Well?"
"Oh, no! no! I won't say it! I prefer that you should follow the
impulses of your heart; and then, too----"
Frédérique began to laugh, and I was somewhat annoyed; but she refused
to say anything more. I took my leave, almost offended with her; but I
pressed her hand affectionately.
Several more days passed, and still no news of Rosette. I was hurt by
her desertion; she was very pretty, and she loved me, or, at all events,
she pretended to, which often amounts to the same thing. If she was
jealous, was not that a proof of affection? After all, I had let her go
without saying a word, without trying to detain her.
"Come, come!" I said to myself; "no false shame! It is my place to make
advances."
Rosette had said to me:
"If you should happen to have anything important to say to me, go to my
aunt's--whichever one I am staying with--and ask for me. There's no
danger; they won't see anything but smoke."
So I determined to hunt up Rosette, at her various aunts' abodes,
praying that I should have less difficulty than Jason had in his quest
of the Golden Fleece. Rosette, by the way, had not a golden fleece, and
was to be congratulated therefor.
I hired a cab by the hour, and went first to Faubourg Saint-Denis,
corner of Rue Chabrol; that was where Rosette had her legal domicile. I
knew the house, having taken her there quite often. I went in and asked
an old tailor, presumably the concierge, if Mademoiselle Rosette was
with her aunt, Madame Falourdin. I had remembered that aunt's name; as
for the others, I had heard them named; but that conglomeration of more
or less queer and unusual names had escaped my memory.
"Mamzelle Rosette?" replied the tailor, eying the seat of an old pair of
trousers as a cook eyes eggs that are to be served in the shell;
"Mamzelle Rosette? No, monsieur, I don't think she be to her aunt's, or
I'd have seen her going out and coming in more'n once this morning. You
see, monsieur, that girl's just like a worm as has been cut in
two--always wriggling.--_Bigre!_ that place is pretty nigh worn out!"
I saw that Rosette was recognized everywhere as being constantly in
motion.
"So you think she isn't at Madame Falourdin's?" I said.
"I'd put my thimble in the fire on it. Ha! ha! To be sure, it wouldn't
burn, being as it's wrought iron.--Oho! how thin this place is!"
The old fellow was inclined to jest. However, I must find out where to
go in search of Rosette.
"Can you tell me, monsieur, where I shall find Mademoiselle Rosette?"
I added to my question the obligatory accompaniment of a piece of
silver; but to my amazement the old tailor pushed my hand away, saying:
"That would be robbery, for I don't know where she is.--They want me to
make a child's jacket out of this thing, and I couldn't make one
gaiter!"
"But I must speak to that young woman."
"Well, then, go up to the third, Mame Falourdin; she'd ought to know
where her niece is."
He was right; that was my only resource. Rosette had said to me:
"When you ask for me at one of my aunts', you must always say that you
come from Madame Berlingot's finishing shop on Rue Pinon."--I bore that
in mind.
There was but one door on the third floor, so that it was impossible to
make a mistake. I rang. A tall, thin woman opened the door.
"Madame Falourdin?"
"That's me, monsieur. What can I do for you?"
"Is Mademoiselle Rosette with you, madame?"
"No, monsieur; what do you want of her?"
"I have come from Madame Berlingot's finishing----"
"I know, monsieur, I know! About a cashmere shawl, I suppose, that needs
mending and must be mended right away?"
"I think that that's what it is, madame."
"Then, monsieur, you must be kind enough to go to her Aunt Riflot's, Rue
du Pont-aux-Choux, No. 17. That's where Rosette is just now."