The next day early, Cousin George, my son Jacob, and myself, after
having eaten a crust of bread and taken a glass of wine standing,
harnessed our horses, and put them into our two carts to go and fetch
my cousin's wife and furniture at the Luetzelbourg station.
Before coming into our country, George had ordered his house to be
whitewashed and painted from top to bottom; he had laid new floors, and
replaced the old shingle roof with tiles. Now the paint was dry, the
doors and windows stood open day and night; the house could not be
robbed, for there was nothing in it. My cousin, seeing that all was
right, had just written to his wife that she might bring their goods
and chattels with her.
So we started about six in the morning; upon the road the people of
Hangeviller, of Metting, and Vechem, and those who were going to market
in the town, were singing and shouting "Vive l'Empereur!"
Everywhere they had voted "Yes," for peace. It was the greatest fraud
that had ever been perpetrated: by the way in which the Ministers, the
prefects, and the Government newspapers had explained the Plebiscite,
everybody had imagined that he had really voted peace.
Cousin George hearing this, said, "Oh, you poor country folks, how I
pity you for being such imbeciles! How I pity you for believing what
these pickpockets tell you!"
That was how he styled the Emperor's government, and naturally I felt
my indignation rise; but Catherine's sound advice came back into my
mind, and I thought, "Hold your tongue, Christian; don't say a
word--that's your best plan."
All along the road we saw the same spectacle; the soldiers of the 84th,
garrisoned at Phalsbourg, looked as pleased as men who have won the
first prize in a lottery; the colonel declared that the men who did not
vote "Yes" would be unworthy of being called Frenchmen. Every man had
voted "Yes;" for a good soldier knows nothing but his orders.
So having passed before the gate of France, we came down to the
Baraques, and then reached Luetzelbourg. The train from Paris had
passed a few minutes before; the whistle could yet be heard under the
Saverne tunnel.
My cousin's wife, with whom I was not yet acquainted, was standing by
her luggage on the platform; and seeing George coming up, she joyfully
cried, "Ah! is that you? and here is cousin."
She kissed us both heartily, gazing at us, however, with some surprise,
perhaps on account of our blouses and our great wide-brimmed black
hats. But no! it could not be that; for Marie Anne Finck was a native
of Wasselonne, in Alsace, and the Alsacians have always worn the blouse
and wide-brimmed hat as long as I can remember. But this tall, thin
woman, with her large brown eyes, as bustling, quick, and active as
gunpowder, after having passed thirty years at Paris, having first been
cook at Krantheimer's, at a place called the Barriere de Montmartre,
and then in five or six other inns in that great city, might well be
somewhat astonished at seeing such simple people as we were; and no
doubt it also gave her pleasure.
That is my idea.
"The carts are there, wife," cried George, in high spirits. "We will
load the biggest with as much furniture as we can, and put the rest
upon the smaller one. You will sit in front. There--look up
there--that's the Castle of Luetzelbourg, and that pretty little wooden
house close by, covered all over with vine, that is a chalet, Father
Hoffman-Forty's chalet, the distiller of cordials, you know the cordial
of Phalsbourg."
He showed her everything.
Then we began to load; that big Yeri, who takes the tickets at the gate
and who carries the parcels to Monsieur Andre's omnibus, comes to lend
us a hand. The two carts being loaded about twelve o'clock, and my
cousin's wife seated in front of the foremost one upon a truss of
straw, we started at a quiet pace for the village, where we arrived
about three o'clock. But I remember one thing, which I will not omit
to mention. As we were coming out of Luetzelbourg, a heavy wagon-load
of coal was coming down the hill, a lad of sixteen or seventeen leading
the horse by the bridle; at the door of the last house, a little child
of five years old, sitting on the ground, was looking at our carts
passing by; he was out of the road, he could not be in any one's way,
and was sitting there perfectly quiet, when the boy, without any
reason, gave him a lash with his whip, which made the child cry aloud.
My cousin's wife saw that.
"Why did that boy strike the child?" she inquired.
"That's a coal-heaver," George answered. "He comes from Sarrebrueck.
He is a Prussian. He struck the child because he is a French child."
Then my cousin's wife wanted to get down to fall upon the Prussian; she
cried to him, "You great coward, you lazy dog, you wicked wretch, come
and hit me." And the boy would have come to settle her, if we had not
been there to receive him; but he would not trust himself to us, and
lashed his horses to get out of our reach, making all haste to pass the
bridge, and turning his head round toward us, for fear of being
followed.
I thought at the time that Cousin George was wrong in saying this boy
had a spite against the French because he was a Prussian; but I learned
afterward that he was right, and that the Germans have borne ill-will
against us for years without letting us see it--like a set of sulky
fellows waiting for a good opportunity to make us feel it.
"It is our _good man_ that we have to thank for this," said George.
"The Germans fancy that we have named him Emperor to begin his uncle's
tricks again; and now they look upon our Plebiscite as a declaration of
war. The joy of our sous-prefets, our mayors, and our cures, and of
all those excellent people who only prosper upon the miseries of
mankind, proves that they are not very far out."
"Yes, indeed," cried his wife; "but to beat a child, that is cowardly."
"Bah! don't let us think about it," said George. "We shall see much
worse things than this; and we shall have deserved it, through our own
folly. God grant that I may be mistaken!"
Talking so, we arrived home.
My wife had prepared dinner; there was kissing all round, the
acquaintance was made; we all sat round the table, and dined with
excellent appetites. Marie Anne was gay; she had already seen their
house on her way, and the garden behind it with its rows of gooseberry
bushes and the plum-trees full of blossom. The two carts, the horses
having been taken out, were standing before their door; and from our
windows might be seen the village people examining the furniture with
great interest, hovering round and gazing with curiosity upon the great
heavy boxes, feeling the bedding, and talking together about this great
quantity of goods, just as if it was their own business.
They were remarking no doubt that our cousin George Weber and his wife
were rich people, who deserved the respectful consideration of the
whole country round; and I myself, before seeing these great chests,
should never have dreamed that they could have so much belonging
entirely to themselves.
This proved to me that my wife was perfectly right in continuing to pay
every respect to my cousin; she had also cautioned our daughter Gredel:
as for Jacob, he is a most sensible lad, who thinks of everything and
needs not to be told what to do.
But what astonished us a great deal more, was to see arriving about
half-past three two other large wagons from the direction of Wechem,
and hearing my cousin cry, "Here comes my wine from Barr!"
Before coming to Rothalp he had himself gone to Barr, in Alsace, to
taste the wine and to make his own bargains.
"Come, Christian," said he, rising, "we have no time to lose if we mean
to unload before nightfall. Take your pincers and your mallet; you
will also fetch ropes and a ladder to let the casks down into the
cellar."
Jacob ran to fetch what was wanted, and we all came out together--my
wife, my daughter, cousin, and everybody. My man Frantz remained alone
at the mill, and immediately they began to undo the boxes, to carry the
furniture into the house: chests of drawers, wardrobes, bedsteads, and
quantities of plates, dishes, soup-tureens, etc., which were carried
straight into the kitchen.
My cousin gave his orders: "Put this down in a corner; set that in
another corner."
The neighbors helped us too, out of curiosity. Everything went on
admirably.
And then arrived the wagons from Barr; but they were obliged to be kept
waiting till seven o'clock. Our wives had already set up the beds and
put away the linen in the wardrobes.
About seven o'clock everything was in order in the house. We now
thought of resting till to-morrow, when George said to us, turning up
his sleeves, "Now, my friend, here comes the biggest part of the work.
I always strike the iron while it's hot. Let all the men who are
willing help me to unload the casks, for the drivers want to get back
to town, and I believe they are right."
Immediately the cellar was opened, the ladder set up against the first
wagon, the lanterns lighted, the planks set leaning in their places,
and until eleven o'clock we did nothing but unload wine, roll down
casks, let them down with my ropes, and put them in their places.
Never had I worked as I did on that day!
Not before eleven o'clock did Cousin George, seeing everything settled
to his satisfaction, seem pleased; he tapped the first cask, filled a
jug with wine, and said, "Now, mates, come up; we will have a good
draught, and then we will get to bed."
The cellar was shut up, so we drank in the large parlor, and then all,
one after another, went home to bed, upon the stroke of midnight.
All the villagers were astonished to see how these Parisians worked:
they were all the talk. At one time it was how cousin had bought up
all the manure at the gendarmerie; then how he had made a contract to
have all his land drained in the autumn; and then how he was going to
build a stable and a laundry at the back of his house, and a distillery
at the end of his yard: he was enlarging his cellars, already the
finest in the country. What a quantity of money he must have!
If he had not paid his architect, the carpenters, and the masons cash
down, it would have been declared that he was ruining himself. But he
never wanted a penny; and his solicitor always addressed him with a
smiling face, raising his hat from afar off, and calling him "my dear
Monsieur Weber."
One single thing vexed George: he had requested at the prefecture, as
soon as he arrived, a license to open his public-house at the sign of
"The Pineapple." He had even written three letters to Sarrebourg, but
had received no answer. Morning and evening, seeing me pass by with my
carts of grain and flour, he called to me through the window, "Hallo,
Christian, this way just a minute!"
He never talked of anything else; he even came to tease me at the
mayoralty-house, to indorse and seal his letters with attestations as
to his good life and character; and yet no answer came.
One evening, as I was busy signing the registration of the reports
drawn up in the week by the school-master, he came in and said,
"Nothing yet?"
"Cousin, I don't know the meaning of it."
"Very well," said he, sitting before my desk. "Give me some paper.
Let me write for once, and then we will see."
He was pale with excitement, and began to write, reading it as he went
on:
"MONSIEUR LE SOUS-PREFET,--I have requested of you a license to open a
public-house at Rothalp. I have even had the honor of writing you
three letters upon the subject, and you have given me no answer.
Answer me--yes or no! When people are paid, and well paid, they ought
to fulfil their duty.
"Monsieur le Sous-prefet, I have the honor to salute you.
"GEORGE WEBER,
"_Late Sergeant of Marines._"
Hearing this letter, my hair positively stood on end.
"Cousin, don't send that," said I; "the sous-prefet would very likely
put you under arrest."
"Pooh!" said he, "you country people, you seem to look upon these folks
as if they were demi-gods; yet they live upon our money. It is we who
pay them: they are for our service, and nothing more. Here, Christian,
will you put your seal to that?"
Then, in spite of all that my wife might say, I replied, "George, for
the love of Heaven, don't ask me that. I should most assuredly lose my
place."
"What place? Your place as mayor," said he, "in which you receive the
commands of the sous-prefet, who receives the commands of the prefet,
who receives the orders of a Minister, who does everything that our
_honest man_ bids him. I had rather be a ragman than fill such a
place."
The school-master, who happened to be there, seemed as if he had
suddenly dropped from the clouds; his arms hung down the sides of his
chair, and he gazed at my cousin with big eyes, just as a man stares at
a dangerous lunatic.
I, too, was sitting upon thorns on hearing such words as these in the
mayoralty-house; but at last I told him I had rather go myself to
Sarrebourg and ask for the permission than seal that letter.
"Then we will go together," said he.
But I felt sure that if he spoke after this fashion to Monsieur le
Sous-prefet, he would lay hands upon both of us; and I said that I
should go alone, because his presence would put a constraint upon me.
"Very well," he said; "but you will tell me everything that the
sous-prefet has been saying to you."
He tore up his letter, and we went out together.
I don't remember that I ever passed a worse night than that. My wife
kept repeating to me that our Cousin George had the precedence over the
sous-prefet, who only laughed at us; that the Emperor, too, had
cousins, who wanted to inherit everything from him, and that everybody
ought to stick to their own belongings.
Next day, when I left for Sarrebourg, my head was in a whirl of
confusion, and I thought that my cousin and his wife would have done
well to have stayed in Paris rather than come and trouble us when we
were at peace, when every man paid his own rates and taxes, when
everybody voted as they liked at the prefecture. I could say that
never was a loud word spoken at the public-house; that people attended
with regularity both mass and vespers; that the gendarmes never visited
our village more than once a week to preserve order; and that I myself
was treated with consideration and respect: when I spoke but a word,
honest men said, "That's the truth; that's the opinion of Monsieur le
Maire!"
Yes, all these things and many more passed through my mind, and I
should have liked to see Cousin George at Jericho.
This is just how we were in our village, and I don't know even yet by
what means other people had made such fools of us. In the end, we have
had to pay dearly for it; and our children ought to learn wisdom by it.
At Sarrebourg, I had to wait two hours before I could see Monsieur le
Sous-prefet, who was breakfasting with messieurs the councillors of the
arrondissement, in honor of the Plebiscite. Five or six mayors of the
neighborhood were waiting like myself; we saw filing down the passage
great dishes of fish and game, notwithstanding that the fishing and
shooting seasons were over; and then baskets of wine; and we could hear
our councillors laughing, "Ha! ha! ha!" They were enjoying themselves
mightily.
At last Monsieur le Sous-prefet came out; he had had an excellent
breakfast.
"Ha! is that you, gentlemen?" said he; "come in, come into the office."
And for another quarter of an hour we were left standing in the office.
Then came Monsieur le Sous-prefet to get rid of the mayors, who wanted
different things for their villages. He looked delighted, and granted
everything. At last, having despatched the rest, he said to me, "Oh!
Monsieur le Maire, I know the object of your coming. You are come to
ask, for the person called George Weber, authorization to open a
public-house at Rothalp. Well, it's out of the question. That George
Weber is a Republican; he has already offered opposition to the
Plebiscite. You ought to have notified this to me: you have screened
him because he is your cousin. Authorizations to keep public-houses
are granted to steady men, devoted to his Majesty the Emperor, and who
keep a watch over their customers; but they are never granted to men
who require watching themselves. You should be aware of that."
Then I perceived that my rascally deputy, that miserable Placiard, had
denounced us. That old dry-bones did nothing but draw up perpetual
petitions, begging for places, pensions, tobacco excise offices,
decorations for himself and his honorable family; speaking incessantly
of his services, his devotion to the dynasty, and his claims. His
claims were the denunciations, the informations which he laid before
the sous-prefecture; and, to tell the truth, in those days these were
the most valid claims of all.
I was indignant, but I said nothing; I simply added a few words in
favor of Cousin George, assuring Monsieur le Sous-prefet that lies had
been told about him, that one should not believe everything, etc. He
half concealed a weary yawn; and as the councillors of the
arrondissement were laughing in the garden, he rose and said politely,
"Monsieur le Maire, you have your answer. Besides, you already have
two public-houses in your village; three would be too many."
It was useless to stay after that, so I made a bow, at which he seemed
pleased, and returned quietly to Rothalp. The same evening I went to
repeat to George, word for word, the answer of the sous-prefet.
Instead of getting angry, as I expected, my cousin listened calmly.
His wife only cried out against that bad lot--she spoke of all the
sous-prefets in the most disrespectful manner. But my cousin, smoking
his pipe after supper, took it all very easily.
"Just listen to me, Christian," said he. "In the first place, I am
much obliged to you for the trouble you have taken. All that you tell
me I knew beforehand; but I am not sorry to know it for certain. Yet I
could wish that the sous-prefet had had my letter. As it is, since I
am refused a license to sell a few glasses of wine retail, I will sell
wine wholesale. I have already a stock of white wine, and no later
than to-morrow I am off to Nancy. I buy a light cart and a good horse;
thence I drive to Thiancourt, where I lay in a stock of red wine.
After that I rove right and left all over the country, and I sell my
wine by the cask or the quarter-cask, according to the solvency of my
customers: instead of having one public-house, I will have twenty. I
must keep moving. With an inn, Marie Anne would still have been
obliged to cook; she has quite enough to do without that."
"Oh! yes," she said; "for thirty years I have been cooking dishes of
sauerkraut and sausage at Krantheimer's, at Montmartre, and at Auber's,
in the cloister St. Benoit."
"Exactly so," said George; "and now you shall cook no longer; but you
shall look after the crops, the stacking of the hay, the storage of
fruit and potatoes. We shall get in our dividends, and I will trot
round the country with my little pony from village to village.
Monsieur le Sous-prefet shall know that George Weber can live without
him."
Hearing this, I learned that they had money in the funds, besides all
the rest; and I reflected that my cousin was quite right to laugh at
all the sous-prefets in the world.
He came with me to the door, shaking hands with me; and I said to
myself that it was abominable to have refused a publican's license to
respectable persons, when they gave it to such men as Nicolas Reiter
and Jean Kreps, whom their own wives called their best customers
because they dropped under the table every evening and had to be
carried to bed.
On the other hand, I saw that it was better for me; for if my cousin
had been found infringing the law, I should have had to take
depositions, and there would have been a quarrel with Cousin George.
So that all was for the best; the wholesale business being only the
exciseman's affair.
What George had said, he did next day. At six o'clock he was already
at the station, and in five or six days he had returned from Nancy upon
his own char-a-banc, drawn by a strong horse, five or six years old, in
its prime. The char-a-banc was a new one; a tilt could be put up in
wet weather, which could be raised or lowered when necessary to deliver
the wine or receive back the empty casks.
The wine from Thiancourt followed. George stored it immediately, after
having paid the bill and settled with the carter. I was standing by.
As for telling you how many casks he had then in the house, that would
be difficult without examining his books; but not a wine-merchant in
the neighborhood, not even in town, could boast of such a vault of wine
as he had, for excellence of quality, for variety in price, both red
and white, of Alsace and Lorraine.
About that time, my cousin sent for me and Jacob to make a list of safe
customers. He wrote on, asking us, "How much may I give to So-and-So?"
"So much."
"How much to that man?"
"So much."
In the course of a single afternoon we had passed in review all the
innkeepers and publicans from Droulingen to Quatre Vents, from Quatre
Vents to the Dagsberg. Jacob and I knew what they were worth to the
last penny; for the man who pays readily for his flour, pays well for
his wine; and those who want pulling up by the miller are in no hurry
to open their purses to the others.
That was the way Cousin George conducted his business.
He took a lad from our place, the son of the cooper Gros, to drive; and
he himself was salesman.
From that day he was only seen passing through Rothalp at a quick trot,
his lad loading and unloading.
My cousin, also, had a notion of distilling in the winter. He bought
up a quantity of old second-hand barrels to hold the fruits which he
hoped to secure at a cheap rate in autumn, and laid up a great store of
firewood. Our country people had nothing to do but to look at him to
learn something; but the people down our way all think themselves so
amazingly clever, and that does not help to make folks richer.
Well, it is plain to you that our cousin's prospects were looking very
bright. Every day, returning from his journey to Saverne or to
Phalsbourg, he would stop his cart before my door, and come to see me
in the mill, crying out: "Hallo! good afternoon, Christian. How are
you to-day?"
Then we used to step into the back parlor, on account of the noise and
the dust, and we talked about the price of corn, cattle, provender, and
everything that is interesting to people in our condition.
What astonished him most of all was the number of Germans to be met
with in the mountains and in the plains.
"I see nobody else," said he; "wood-cutters, brewers' men, coopers,
tinkers, photographers, contractors. I will lay a wager, Christian,
that your young man Frantz is a German, too."
"Yes; he comes from the Grand Duchy of Baden."
"How does this happen?" asked George. "What is the meaning of it all?"
"They are good workmen," said I, "and they ask only half the wages."
"And ours--what becomes of them?"
"Ah, you see, Cousin George, that is their business."
"I understand," he said, "that we are making a great mistake. Even in
Paris, this crowd of Germans--crossing-sweepers, shop and warehousemen,
carters, book-keepers, professors of every kind--astonished me; and
since Sadowa, there are twice as many. The more territory they annex,
the farther they extend their view. Where is the advantage of our
being Frenchmen--paying every year heavier taxes; sending our children
to be drawn for the conscription, and paying for their exemption;
bearing all the expenses of the State, all the insults of the prefets,
the sous-prefets, and the police-inspectors, and the annoyances of
common spies and informers, if those fellows, who have nothing at all
to bear, enjoy the same advantages with ourselves, and even greater
ones; since our own people are sent off to make room for these, who by
their great numbers lower the price of hand-labor? This benefits the
manufacturers, the contractors, the bourgeois class, but it is misery
for the mass of the people. I cannot understand it at all. Our
rulers, up there, must be losing their senses. If that goes on, the
working-men will cease to care for their country, since it cares so
little for them; and the Germans who are favored, and who hate us, will
quietly put us out of our own doors."
Thus spoke my cousin, and I knew not what answer to make.
But about this time I had a great trouble, and although this affair is
my private business alone, I must tell you about it.
Since the arrival of George, my daughter Gredel, instead of looking
after our business as she used to do, washing clothes, milking cows,
and so on, was all the blessed day at Marie Anne's. Jacob complained,
and said: "What is she about down there? By and by I shall have to
prepare the clothes for the wash and hang them upon the hedges to dry,
and churn butter. Cannot Gredel do her own work? Does she think we
are her servants?"
He was right. But Gredel never troubled herself. She never has
thought of any one besides herself. She was down there along with
George's wife, who talked to her from morning till night about Paris,
the grand squares, the markets, the price of eggs and of meat, what was
charged at the barrieres; of this, that, and the other: cooking, and
what not.
Marie Anne wanted company. But this did not suit me at all; and the
less because Gredel had had a lover in the village for some time, and
when this is the case, the best thing to be done is always to keep your
daughter at home and watch her closely.
It was only a common clerk at a stone-quarry in Wilsberg, a late
artillery sergeant, Jean Baptiste Werner, who had taken the liberty to
cast his eyes upon our daughter. We had nothing to say against this
young man. He was a fine, tall man, thin, with a bold expression and
brown mustaches, and who did his duty very well at the quarry by Father
Heitz; but he could earn no more than his three francs a day: and any
one may see that the daughter of Christian Weber was not to be thrown
away upon a man who earns three francs a day. No, that would never do.
Nevertheless, I had often seen this Jean Baptiste Werner going in the
morning to his work with his foot-rule under his arm, stopping at the
mill-dam, as if to watch the geese and the ducks paddling about the
sluice or the hens circling around the cock on the dunghill; and at the
same moment Gredel would be slowly combing her hair at her window
before the little looking-glass, leaning her head outside. I had also
noticed that they said good-morning to each other a good way off, and
that that clerk always looked excited and flurried at the sight of my
daughter; and I had even been obliged to give Gredel notice to go and
comb her hair somewhere else when that man passed, or to shut her
window.
This is my case, simply told.
That young man worried me. My wife, too, was on her guard.
You may now understand why I should have preferred to have seen our
daughter at home; but it was not so easy to forbid her to go to my
cousin's. George and his wife might have been angry; and that troubled
us.
Fortunately about that time the eldest son of Father Heitz,* the owner
of the quarry, asked for Gredel in marriage.
* It is usual there for fathers of families to be distinguished as
Father So-and-So.
For a long while, Monsieur Mathias Heitz, junior, had come every Sunday
from Wilsberg to the "Cruchon d'Or," to amuse himself with Jacob, as
young men do when they have intentions with regard to a family. He was
a fine young man, fat, with red cheeks and ears, and always well
dressed, with a flowered velvet waistcoat, and seals to his
watch-chain; in a word, just such a young man as a girl with any good
sense would be glad to have for a husband.
He had property too; he was the eldest of five children. I reckoned
that his own share might be fifteen to twenty thousand francs after the
death of his parents.
Well, this young man demanded Gredel in marriage, and at once Jacob, my
wife, and myself were agreed to accept him.
Only my wife thought that we ought to consult Cousin George and Marie
Anne. Gredel was just there when I went in with Catherine; but behold!
on the first mention of the thing she began to melt into tears, and to
say she would rather die than marry Mathias Heitz. You may imagine how
angry we were. My wife was going to slap her face or box her ears; but
my cousin became angry now, and told us that we ought never to oblige a
girl to marry against her will, because this was the way to make
miserable households. Then he led us out into the passage, telling us
that he took the responsibility of this affair: that he wished to
obtain information, and that we were to tell the young man that we
required a month for reflection.
We could not refuse him that. Gredel would no longer come home; my
cousin's wife begged us not to plague her, and we had to give way to
them; but it was one of the greatest troubles of my life. And I
thought: "Now you cannot give your daughter to whoever you like; is not
this really abominable?"
I felt angry with myself for having listened to my cousin: but,
nevertheless, Gredel stayed with them a whole week, in consequence of
which we were obliged to hire a charwoman; and Jacob exclaimed that
Gredel could not have offered him a worse insult than to refuse his
best comrade, a rich fellow, who boldly paid down his money for ten,
fifteen, and twenty bottles at the club without winking.
However, he never mentioned it to Cousin George, for whom he felt the
greatest respect on account of his expectations from him, and whose
strong language dismayed him.
At last my wife found that Gredel was staying too long away from home;
the people of the village would talk about it; so one evening I went to
see George, to ask him what he had learned about Heitz's son.
It was after supper. Gredel, seeing me come in, slipped out into the
kitchen, and my cousin said to me frankly: "Listen, Christian: here is
the matter in two words--Gredel loves another."
"Whom?"
"Jean Baptiste Werner."
"Father Heitz's clerk? the son of the woodward Werner, who has never
had anything but potatoes to eat? Is she in love with him? Let the
wretch come--let him come and ask her! I'll kick him down the stairs!
And Gredel to grieve me so? Oh! I should never have believed it of
her!"
I could have cried.
"Come, Christian," said my cousin, "you must be reasonable."
"Reasonable! she deserves to have her neck wrung!"
I was in a fury; I wanted to lay hold on her. Happily, she had gone
into the garden, and George held me back. He obliged me to sit down
again, and said: "What is Mathias Heitz? a fat fool who knows nothing
but how to play at cards and drink. He was put to college at
Phalsbourg, at M. Verrot's, like all the other respectable young men in
the district; but he now drives about in a char-a-banc in a flowered
waistcoat, with jingling seals: he could not possibly earn a couple of
pence--and the old man would like to be rid of him by marrying him. I
have obtained information about him. He may come in for from fifteen
to twenty thousand francs some day; but what are fifteen thousand
francs for an ass? He will eat them, he will drink them--perhaps he
has already swallowed half--and if there is a family, what are fifteen
or even twenty thousand francs between five or six children? Formerly,
when girls used to have an outfit for a marriage portion, and the
eldest son succeeded his father, things went on pretty well. It did
not want much talent to carry on a well-established business, or to
follow up a trade from father to son. But at the present day,
mother-wit and good sense stand in the foremost rank. Grandfather
Heitz was an industrious man; he made money; but Father Mathias has
never added a sou to his property, and the son has not a grain of good
sense."
"But the other fellow--why he has nothing at all."
"The other, Jean Baptiste Werner, is a good man, who has done his duty
by Father Heitz; he knows everything, manages everything, takes in
orders, makes all the arrangements for the carriage of stone by carts
or by railway. Heitz puts the money into his pocket, and Werner has
all the work, for want of a little capital to set himself up in
business. He has seen foreign service. I have seen his certificates
of character in Africa, in Mexico: they are excellent. If I were in
your place, I would give Gredel to him."
"Never!" cried I, thumping upon the table; "I had rather drown her."
Half the wine-glasses were shattered on the floor; but my cousin was
not angry.
"Well, Christian," said he, "you are wrong. Think it over. Gredel
will remain here. I will answer for her. You must not take her away
at present. You would be very likely to ill-treat her, and then you
would repent of it."
"Let her stay as long as you like!" said I, taking up my hat; "let her
never darken my doors again." And I rushed out.
Never in my life had I been so angry and so grieved. At home I did not
even dare to say what I had learned; but Jacob suspected it, and one
day, as Werner was stopping in front of the mill, he shook his
pitchfork at him, shouting: "Come on!" But Werner pretended not to
hear him, and went on his way.
I was at last, however, obliged to tell my wife the whole matter. At
first she was near fainting; but she soon recovered, and said to me:
"Well, if Gredel won't have young Mathias, we shall keep our hundred
louis, and we shall have no need to hire a new servant. I should
prefer that, for one cannot trust strange servants in a house."
"Yes; but how can we declare to Mathias Heitz that Gredel refuses his
son?"
"Oh, don't trouble yourself, Christian," said she; "leave me alone, and
don't let us quarrel with Cousin George: that's the principal thing. I
will say that Gredel is too young to be married; that is the proper
thing to say, and nobody can answer that."
Catherine quieted me in this way. But this business was still racking
my brain, when extraordinary things came to pass, which we were far
from expecting, and which were to turn our hair gray, and that of many
others with us.