LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
DE MUSSY MEETING RENÉE AND MAXIME DRIVING IN THE BOIS.
RENÉE WATCHING MAXIME AND LOUISE IN THE LITTLE DRAWING ROOM.
THE DEATH OF ANGÈLE.
RENÉE AND MAXIME MEETING FOR THE FIRST TIME.
MAXIME DISCOVERS HIS FATHER AT THE MAISON DORÉE.
THE EMPEROR AND THE OLD GENERAL OGLING RENÉE AT THE BALL AT THE TUILERIES.
RENÉE AND MAXIME IN THE PRIVATE ROOM AT THE RESTAURANT.
RENÉE AND MAXIME SKATING IN THE BOIS DE BOULOGNE.
MAXIME ASSISTING AT RENÉE'S TOILET FOR THE NIGHT.
THE TABLEAUX VIVANTS AT SACCARD'S MANSION IN THE PARC MONCEAUX.
SACCARD SURPRISES RENÉE AND MAXIME.
THE COMMISSIONERS FOR THE PARIS IMPROVEMENTS INSPECTING THE DEMOLITIONS.
PREFACE.
The public and the press have agreed that "L'Assommoir" is M. Zola's
_chef d'œuvre_. Against this verdict I have no objection to offer.
I believe it will meet with posterity's endorsement. But although
"L'Assommoir" may lift its head the highest, there are many other
volumes in the Rougon-Macquart series which stand on, and speak from
equally lofty platforms of art. In my opinion, these are "La Faute de
l'Abbé Mouret," "La Conquête de Plassans," and "La Curée."
I have spoken before of Zola as an epic poet: he is this more than
he is anything, and as he is more epic in "La Curée" than elsewhere
("L'Assommoir" and "La Faute de l'Abbé Mouret" always excepted), it
follows that it must be one of the best and most characteristic of
his works. The qualities that endow a book with immortality exist
independent of the artist's will, and the process of penetrating,
of animating the whole with life, is accomplished as silently and
unconsciously as the seed-grain germinates in the earth, as the child
quickens with life in the womb. And, doubtless, Zola intended in the
beginning to write merely the passionate love story of a woman who,
oppressed and wearied of luxury, is forced to seek, in violent ways and
fierce fancies, oblivion of golden idleness, of an aimless and satiated
existence. This idea might have been worked out, and adequately worked
out, in the analysis of the mind of a duke's daughter, who, after five
years of husband hunting in London drawing-rooms, runs away and lives
with her groom at Hampstead. And taken out of its setting, M. Zola's
story is quite as simple. Renée is a young girl of the upper middle
classes; she has been seduced; she is enceinte; it is necessary to find
her a husband. Under such circumstances, it would be vain to be too
particular, and an adventurer called Saccard is chosen. He is a genius
who is waiting for a few pounds to make a million. Renée's fortune
enables him to do this; he places her in a magnificent house in the
Parc Monceaux; he gives her everything but an interest in life: to gain
this she falls in love with her stepson, Maxime Saccard. The story of
this incestuous passion becomes the theme of the book; and when Maxime
deserts his stepmother to get married, she dies of consumption. That
is all; but this slight outline soon began to grow, to take gigantic
proportions in Zola's mind; and it was not long before he saw that
his story was an allegory of the Second Empire. Renée became Paris;
her dressmaker--Worms--became the Emperor; her dresses, the material
of which costs sixty, the making-up of which, with the accumulated
interest, costs six hundred, are the boulevards and buildings with
which the city was adorned at ruinous expense. In the clamour of the
fêtes in the Parc Monceaux, the demands of the creditors are silenced,
and when Renée dies her debts are paid by her father--that is to say,
by the Republic of M. Thiers.
Renée is a Venus, but not the Greek Venus--the white-breasted woman
born of the sea foam and heralded by cupids and tritons; she is not
even "the obscure Venus of the hollow Hill" that Baudelaire describes
as having grown diabolic among ages that would not accept her as
divine. Renée is the Venus of the counting house. Her hair is yellow
as pale gold, her drawing-room is hung with yellow draperies, and her
golden head, seen thereon as she leans back in her richly upholstered
chairs, seems like a setting sun that sinks little by little, drowned
in a bath of gold. But, unlike her earlier prototypes, she does not
find the flesh sufficient; her sensualities are not the dark desire of
the animal, but the nervous erethism of a human mind that, satiated
with pleasure, longs and hungers for some strange and acute note
to break the cloying sweetness--the monotonous melody of her life.
Here there is no touch of pagan or mediæval thought. Maxime fears
no god, he knows not remorse nor even desire; he is the son of the
capitalist; he is the weed sprung from, but not the intelligence that
has built up, the gold-heap, and he festers and rots like a weed in an
overpoweringly rich soil. Saccard is Mammon. Nothing exists for him
but gold. Thoughts, dreams, love, have long since disappeared; he is
not even vicious: in the lust of speculation all other passions have
been submerged, have sunk out of sight for ever. Men and things only
suggest to him ideas for the accumulation of wealth; and from the
heights of Montmartre he looks down upon Paris like a wolf upon its
prey. His eyes flash with fierce light, his lips twitch with a wild
mental hunger that manifests itself in physical actions: with his hand
he divides Paris into sections, he sees how he will distribute it into
boulevards, squares, and streets; and he hears in vision the cries of
the huntsmen, and he longs to put himself at the head of the hounds,
and to descend with open jaws upon the splendid quarry that even now
run to death lies panting and bleeding before him.
The book is Paris--Paris as she feasted and flattered under the Second
Empire--a Paris of adventurers, of courtezans--a Paris of debts--a
Paris of women's shoulders, cotillons, champagne, of violins and
pianos--a Paris of opera hats--a Paris of gold pieces, of fraud, of
liars, of speculation, of supper tables--a Paris sonorous and empty as
a wheel of fortune--a Paris of sweetmeats, rendezvous, bank-notes--a
Paris of tresses of false hair forgotten in hackney carriages.
Yes, a Paris of this and of little else. There is the famous scene
of the return from the Bois. Under the pale October sky, in which
towards the Porte de la Muette, there still floats the dim light of an
autumn sunset, the carriages are blocked; and the uncertain rays dance
through the brightly painted wheels, touching with intense splendour
the buckles of the harness, the large buttons on the liveries, and the
burnished cockades. The artificial lake lies still, reflecting in its
crystal clarity the innumerable graces of the poplars and pine trees
that grow down to the very banks of the trim island. The walks are as
bits of grey ribbon lost in the dark foliage. The scene looks like a
newly varnished toy. All Paris is there--courtezans, diplomatists, and
speculators. Renée is there; she is with Maxime, who is pointing out
and telling her about his father's new mistress.
She is the celebrated Laure, to whose house Renée goes with Maxime,
because she is anxious to know what a _cocotte's_ ball is really like.
Afterwards they sup, in a _cabinet particulier_, at the Café Riche.
Renée is sipping a glass of chartreuse; the gas is hissing, the room
has grown hot. They throw open the window. Paris rolls beneath them.
The Boulevard is alive with the flashing lights of carriages, women go
by in hundreds; they pass into the darkness of a traversing street;
they reappear again like shadows thrown by a magic lantern. Groups of
men sit round the tables at the door of the café; some are talking to
women; some sit smoking vacantly, watching the interminable procession
that passes and repasses before them. One woman wears a green silk;
she sits with her legs crossed. Renée feels strangely interested.
By-and-by, wearied of the Boulevard, she examines the looking-glass,
scratched all over with diamond rings; and she asks Maxime questions
concerning the women whose names are scrawled thereon. Maxime pleads
ignorance: putting his cigar aside, he advances towards her; they look
into each other's eyes; she falls into his arms.
There is the ball-room scene. Saccard is on the brink of ruin, but he
gives a fête that costs him four thousand pounds. He is anxious that
his son should marry a little hunchback, who has an immense fortune.
The _tableaux vivants_ are over, and the dancers, in the costumes of
gods and goddesses, are dancing the cotillon. Renée, who is cognizant
of her husband's projects, is wandering about mad with nervous rage and
despair. She pursues Maxime, drags him with her into her bedroom, and
tells him that he must fly with her to America, that she will never
consent to give him up.
And I must not forget that requisite bit of description--ten lines, not
more--which, for rapidity of observation and precision and delicacy of
touch, seems to me unsurpassable; indeed, to find anything that might
be set against it, I should have to turn to that supreme success, that
final vindication of the divine power of words--Flaubert's "L'Éducation
Sentimentale." The passage I allude to is when Renée goes to the great
fête at the Tuileries. She wears a wonderful dress, composed entirely
of white muslin and black velvet. The bodice is in black velvet, the
skirt in white muslin, garnished with a million flounces, and all cut
up and adorned with bows made out of black velvet: no ornament but one
diamond in her fawn-coloured hair. Suddenly the people draw into lines,
and the corpulent Emperor walks down the room on the arm of one of his
generals. Renée shrinks back: but she cannot get away--she is in the
front rank; and, when Napoleon fixes his, all eyes are fixed upon her.
A heaven of lustres is above her head, a velvety carpet beneath her
feet, and she hears the general whisper to the Emperor: "There's a
carnation that would suit our button-holes uncommonly well." The rest
of the fête is lost in this _moment d'âme_;--is an acute note that
vibrates long in the monotonous melody of her life.
Whether "La Curée" is a faithful picture, true to the smallest detail,
of life under the Second Empire, I cannot say. Nor do I care. I am
content to take it for what it seems to me to be--a gorgeous, a golden
poem, born of the author's contemplation of the scenes he describes.
Although a tyrant, Napoleon the Third was a demagogue at heart. When
he came into office Paris was starving. To govern, he saw that he
would have to feed the people, and to do this the ingenious plan
of creating an immense debt, living upon it and giving the city as
security, was adopted. He appeased his enemies by calling new names to
the front, he unchained, and he gave them unlimited means of gratifying
their appetites. In a house of ill-fame politics do not occupy men's
minds--why not turn Paris into a house of ill-fame? But what is true
for individuals is true for nations: Sedan was the suicide of the
prostituted city. This is the view M. Zola takes of the Second Empire.
"La Curée" is but a corner of it, but I do not know any corner more
beautifully finished, more perfectly proportioned. Of course faults may
be urged: it may be said, and I admit with a certain show of reason,
that the characters are more representative of the classes to which
they belong than individual men and women. The same argument may be
used, and with equal effect, against Hamlet, against Orestes, against
every beautiful drawing of Hokousaï and Hokkeï: but when possible
and impossible faults have been found, and all visible and invisible
flaws taken note of, I believe it will be admitted by the blind, the
dumb, and the lame that, when the last page of "La Curée" is read, the
impression left upon the mind is one of intense artistic beauty.
GEORGE MOORE.
THE RUSH FOR THE SPOIL.
_(LA CURÉE.)_
CHAPTER I.
On the return home, the carriage could only move slowly along amidst
the mass of vehicles winding round the lake of the Bois de Boulogne. At
one moment, the block became such that the horses were even brought to
a standstill.
The sun was setting in the faint grey October sky, streaked with
slender clouds on the horizon. A last ray, which came from above the
distant shrubbery of the cascade, streamed across the roadway, bathing
the long line of now stationary carriages in a pale ruddy light. The
golden glimmers, the bright flashes from the wheels, seemed to have
become fixed to the straw-coloured fillets, whilst the dark blue panels
of the carriage reflected portions of the surrounding landscape. And,
higher up, full in the ruddy light which illumined them from behind,
and which gave a sparkle to the brass buttons of their overcoats folded
over the back of the box-seat, the coachman and the footman, dressed in
a livery consisting of dull blue coats, putty-coloured breeches, and
black and yellow-striped waistcoats, sat erect, grave and patient, like
well-trained lackeys, whose temper is above being ruffled by a block
of vehicles. Their hats, embellished with black cockades, gave them a
most dignified appearance. The superb bay horses were alone snorting
impatiently.
"Hallo!" said Maxime, "there's Laure d'Aurigny over there in that
brougham. Look, Renée."
Renée raised herself slightly, and, blinking her eyes with that
exquisite pout which was caused by the weakness of her sight, said:
"I thought she was travelling. She has changed the colour of her hair,
has she not?"
"Yes," replied Maxime, with a laugh, "her new lover detests everything
red."
Renée, bent forward, her hand resting on the low door of the carriage,
continued looking, awakened from the sad dream which, for an hour past,
had kept her silently reclining on the back seat, as though in an
invalid's easy-chair. Over a mauve dress with an upper skirt and tunic,
and trimmed with broad plaited flounces, she wore a little white cloth
jacket with mauve velvet facings, which gave her a very dashing air.
Her extraordinary pale fawn-coloured hair, the hue of which recalled
that of the finest butter, was scarcely concealed beneath a slender
bonnet adorned with a cluster of crimson roses. She continued to blink
her eyes, in the style of an impertinent boy, her pure brow crossed by
one long wrinkle, her upper lip protruding just like a sulky child's.
Then, as she was unable to distinguish very well, she raised her double
eye-glass, a regular man's eye-glass with a tortoise-shell frame, and
holding it up in her hand without placing it on her nose, she examined
stout Laure d'Aurigny at her ease, in a perfectly calm manner.
The block still continued. Amidst the uniform, dull-coloured patches
caused by the long line of broughams--extremely numerous in the Bois on
that autumn afternoon--the glass of a window, a horse's bit, a plated
lamp-holder, or the gold or silver lace on the livery of some lackey
seated up on high, sparkled in the sun. Here and there an open landau
displayed a glimpse of a dress, some woman's costume in silk or velvet.
Little by little a profound silence had succeeded the hubbub of the
now stationary mass. In the depths of the carriages one could overhear
the remarks of the pedestrians. There was an exchange of speechless
glances from vehicle to vehicle; and all conversation ceased during
this deadlock, the silence of which was only broken by the creaking of
harness and the impatient pawing of some horse. The confused murmurs of
the Bois were dying away in the distance.
In spite of the lateness of the season, all Paris was there: the
Duchess de Sternich, in a chariot; Madame de Lauwerens, in a victoria,
drawn by some very fine cattle; Baroness de Meinhold, in a delicious
dark brown private cab; Countess Vanska, with her piebald ponies;
Madame Daste and her famous black steppers; Madame de Guende and
Madame Teissière, in a brougham; little Sylvia, in a deep blue landau;
and Don Carlos, too, in mourning, with his ancient and solemn-looking
livery; Selim Pasha, with his fez and without his tutor; the Duchess de
Rozan, in her single-seated brougham, and with her powdered lackeys;
Count de Chibray, in a dog-cart; Mr. Simpson, on a well-appointed
mail-coach; the whole of the American colony. Finally, two members of
the Academy in a cab.
The leading carriages were at length released, and the whole line was
soon able to move slowly onwards. It was like an awakening. A thousand
scintillations danced around, rapid flashes played to and fro amidst
the wheels, whilst the harness shaken by the horses emitted a galaxy
of sparks. Along the ground and on the trees were broad reflexions of
fleeting glass. This glistening of harness and of wheels, this blaze of
varnished panels all aglow with the red fire of the setting sun, the
bright touches of the gorgeous liveries perched up on high, and of the
rich costumes bursting from the confined space of the equipages, passed
along in the midst of a hollow, continuous rumbling, timed by the pace
of the thoroughbreds. And the procession continued, accompanied by the
same sounds and the same scintillations, unceasingly and at one spurt,
as though the leading vehicles had been dragging all the others after
them.
Renée had yielded to the slight jolting of the carriage as it once
more started off, and, dropping her eye-glass, she had resumed her
half-reclining posture on the cushions. She shiveringly drew towards
her a corner of the bearskin which filled the interior of the vehicle
with a silky snow-white mass. Her gloved hands became lost amidst the
long soft curly hairs. The north wind was beginning to blow. The warm
October afternoon which, in giving to the Bois an appearance of spring,
had brought out the most fashionable ladies in their open carriages,
threatened to end in an evening of piercing chilliness.
For a while the young woman remained huddled up, enjoying the warmth
of her corner, and abandoning herself to the voluptuous lullaby of all
those wheels turning before her eyes. Then, raising her head towards
Maxime, whose glances were quietly unrobing the women displayed in the
adjoining broughams and landaus, she asked:
"Really now, do you think her pretty, that Laure d'Aurigny? You were
praising her up so much the other day when some one spoke of the sale
of her diamonds! By the way, you have not seen the necklace and the
aigrette that your father bought me at the sale."
"Ah! he does everything well," said Maxime with a spiteful laugh, and
without answering her question. "He manages to pay Laure's debts, and
to make his wife presents of diamonds."
The young woman slightly shrugged her shoulders.
"Rascal!" murmured she with a smile.
But the young man had leant forward, following with his eyes a lady
whose green dress interested him. Renée was resting her head, her eyes
half closed, idly glancing at both sides of the avenue, but without
seeing. On the right were copses and low bushes, with slender branches
and reddened leaves; now and again, on the track reserved for riders,
passed slim built gentlemen whose galloping steeds raised little
clouds of dust. On the left, at the foot of the narrow sloping lawns,
intersected by flower-beds and shrubberies, the lake, as clear as
crystal, reposed without a ripple, as though neatly trimmed all round
by the spades of the gardeners; and, on the opposite side of this
limpid mirror, the two islands, with the connecting bridge forming
a grey bar between them, displayed their pleasant shores, arraying
against the pale sky the theatrical lines of their firs and of their
evergreens, the dark foliage of which, similar to the fringe of
curtains skilfully hung on the very edge of the horizon, was reflected
in the still waters. This corner of nature, having the appearance of
a piece of scenery freshly painted, was bathed in a slight shadow,
in a bluey vapour which finished giving an exquisite charm to the
background, an air of adorable falsity. On the other bank, the Châlet
des Îles, looking freshly varnished, shone like a new toy; and those
gravel contours, those narrow garden walks, which wind in and out of
the lawns and border the lake, and are edged with cast-iron hoops
imitating rustic woodwork, stood out more curiously from the soft green
of the water and of the grass, at this last hour of daylight.
Used to the graces of these skilfully arranged points of view, Renée,
again yielding to her feeling of weariness, had completely lowered
her eyelids, no longer observing aught but her tapering fingers as
she twined around them the long hairs of the bearskin. But there
came a kind of jerk in the even trot of the line of carriages. And,
raising her head, she bowed to two young women reclining side by
side, with amorous languor, in a barouche which was noisily leaving
the road that skirts the lane to turn down one of the lateral
avenues. The Marchioness d'Espanet, whose husband, at that time one
of the emperor's aides-de-camp, had just rallied with a good deal
of fuss to the scandal of the sulking old nobility, was one of the
most illustrious society queens of the Second Empire; the other,
Madame Haffner, had married a famous manufacturer of Colmar, twenty
times millionaire, and whom the Empire was turning into a political
personage. Renée, who had known at school the two inseparables as they
were slyly termed, always called them by their Christian names, Adeline
and Suzanne. As, after greeting them with a smile, she was about to
once more huddle herself up in her wraps, a laugh from Maxime caused
her to turn round.
"No, really now, I feel sad, don't laugh, it's serious," said she
on seeing the young man looking at her mockingly, making fun of her
recumbent posture.
Maxime assumed a ludicrous tone of voice.
"We are very much to be pitied, we are jealous!"
She seemed quite astonished.
"I!" said she. "Jealous! whatever about?"
Then she added, with her disdainful pout, as though suddenly
recollecting:
"Ah! yes, big Laure! She doesn't trouble me much, I can assure you. If
Aristide, as you all wish to make me believe, has paid the creature's
debts and thus saved her the necessity of taking a trip to foreign
parts, it merely shows that he loves money less than I thought he did.
This will make him quite a favourite with the ladies again. The dear
fellow, I never interfere with him."
She smiled, she uttered "the dear fellow," in a tone of voice full of
friendly indifference. And all on a sudden, becoming quite sad again,
and casting around her that despairing glance of women who know not how
to amuse themselves, she murmured:
"Oh! I should be only too delighted--But no, I'm not jealous, not in
the least jealous."
She stopped, hesitating.
"You see, I feel bored," she at length said abruptly.
Then she relapsed into silence, her lips pressed firmly together. The
line of vehicles still wended its way round the lake, with an uniform
trot, and a noise greatly resembling that of some distant cataract.
Now, on the left, between the water and the roadway, rose little clumps
of evergreens with thin straight stems, forming curious clusters of
tiny columns. On the right, the copses and low bushes had come to
an end; the Bois had expanded into large lawns, immense carpets of
turf, with groups of tall trees planted here and there; the greensward
continued, with gentle undulations, as far as the Porte de la Muette,
the low iron gates of which, looking like a piece of black lace drawn
across the ground, could be seen far away in the distance; and, on the
slopes, at the parts where the earth sank in, the grass had quite a
bluey look. Renée gazed with fixed eyes, as though this enlargement
of the horizon, these soft meads, all reeking with the night dew, had
caused her to feel more keenly than ever the emptiness of her existence.
At the end of a pause she repeated, with the accents of subdued anger:
"Oh! I feel bored, I feel bored to death."
"You're not over lively, you know," said Maxime, quietly. "It's your
nerves, I'm sure."
The young woman threw herself back again on her cushions.
"Yes, it's my nerves," retorted she, sharply.
Then she became quite maternal.
"I am growing old, my dear child; I shall soon be thirty. It's
terrible. I take pleasure in nothing. At twenty, you cannot understand
this."
"Did you ask me to come with you to listen to your confession?"
interrupted the young man. "It will be terribly long."
She received this impertinent remark with a feeble smile, as though
dealing with a spoilt child to whom everything is permitted.
"You're a nice one to complain," continued Maxime; "you spend more than
a hundred thousand francs a year on your dress, you live in a splendid
mansion, you possess some superb horses, your caprices become law, and
the newspapers mention every new dress you wear as though they were
relating something of the highest importance; all the women are jealous
of you, every man would give ten years of his life just to kiss the
tips of your fingers. Is it not so?"
She nodded her head affirmatively, but did not otherwise answer. With
eyes cast down, she was again curling the hairs of the bearskin.
"Ah! do not be modest," resumed Maxime; "admit at once that you are one
of the pillars of the Second Empire. Between ourselves, we can speak of
these things. Everywhere, at the Tuileries, at the ministries, at
the mansions of the mere millionaires, over the highest and the lowest,
you reign with sovereign power. There is not a pleasure you have not
partaken of, and if I dared, if the respect I owe you did not restrain
me, I would say--"
He paused for a few seconds, laughing the while; then he cavalierly
finished his sentence.
"I would say that you have tasted of every apple."
She did not wince.
"And yet you feel bored!" continued the young man with ludicrous
vivacity. "But it's downright suicide! What is it you want? whatever is
it you are dreaming of?"
She shrugged her shoulders, by way of saying she did not know. Though
she held her head down, Maxime saw such a serious, such a gloomy look
on her face, that he left off speaking. He watched the line of vehicles
which, on reaching the end of the lake, spread out, and filled the vast
carrefour. The carriages, no longer being so closely packed together,
turned round with a superb grace; whilst the accelerated trot of the
horses resounded loudly on the hard ground.
On going the round to rejoin the line, the carriage oscillated in a way
which filled Maxime with a vague voluptuousness. Then, yielding to a
desire to overwhelm Renée, he resumed:
"Ah! you deserve to never ride in anything better than a cab! It would
serve you right! Why, just look at this crowd returning to Paris, this
crowd ready to fall down and worship you. You are hailed as a queen,
and your dear friend Monsieur de Mussy can scarcely restrain himself
from blowing kisses to you."
[Illustration: DE MUSSY MEETING RENÉE AND MAXIME DRIVING IN THE BOIS.]
And indeed, a rider was at that moment bowing to Renée. Maxime had been
speaking in a hypocritically mocking way. But Renée scarcely turned
round, and contented herself by shrugging her shoulders. This time, the
young man made a despairing gesture.
"Really," said he, "is it as bad as all that? But, good heavens! you
have everything, what more do you want?"
Renée raised her head. Her eyes had a warm bright look, the ardent
desire of unsatiated curiosity.
"I want something else," replied she in a low voice.
"But you have everything," resumed Maxime laughing, "something else is
no answer. What is the something else you want?"
"Ah! what!" repeated she.
And she said nothing further. She had turned completely round, and was
contemplating the strange picture which was disappearing behind her.
It was now almost dark; dusk was gradually enveloping all like a fine
dust. The lake, when looked at front ways, in the pale light which
still hovered over it, seemed to become rounder, and had the appearance
of an immense plate of brass; on either side, the plantations of
evergreens, the slim straight stems of which looked as though they
issued from the still water, assumed at this hour the aspect of violet
tinted colonnades, describing with their regular architecture the
elaborate curves of the shores; then, right at the back, rose groups
of shrubs and trees, confused masses of foliage, broad black patches
closing the horizon. Behind these patches there shone a bright glimmer,
an expiring sunset which merely lit up a very small portion of the
grey immensity. Above this motionless lake and these low copses, this
point of view so peculiarly flat, the vault of heaven opened infinite,
deeper and more expanded still. This great extent of sky over this tiny
corner of nature caused a shudder, an undefinable sadness; and there
descended from these pale altitudes such an autumnal melancholy, so
sweet and yet so heartbreaking a darkness, that the Bois, enveloped
little by little in a veil of obscurity, lost its worldly graces, and
breaking its bounds became filled with all the powerful charm of a
forest. The rumble of the vehicles, the bright colours of which became
lost in the dim light, sounded like the distant murmurs of leaves and
water-courses. Everything had an expiring air. In the centre of the
lake, amidst the universal evanescence, the Latin sail of the large
pleasure boat stood out, vigorously defined, against the last glow of
the sunset. And one could no longer distinguish anything but this sail,
this triangle of yellow canvas, inordinately enlarged.
In the midst of her satiety, Renée experienced a singular sensation
of unavowable desires at the sight of this landscape she no longer
recognised, of this bit of nature so artistically worldly, and which
by its great shivering darkness seemed changed into some sacred wood,
one of those ideal glades in whose recesses the gods of antiquity used
to hide their giant loves, their divine adulteries and incests. And as
the carriage drove away, it seemed to her that the twilight carried off
behind her, hidden in its trembling veil, the land of her dreams, the
shameful and unearthly alcove where she might at last have swaged her
suffering heart, her wearied flesh.
When the lake and the copses, rapidly vanishing in the shades of night,
merely appeared as a black bar against the sky, the young woman turned
abruptly round, and, in a voice full of tears of vexation, she resumed
her interrupted sentence:
"What? why something else, of course! I want something else. How can I
tell what? If I only knew--But, you see, I'm sick of balls, of supper
parties, of merry-makings. It's always the same thing over again. It's
mortal. Men are unbearable, oh! yes, unbearable."
Maxime burst out laughing. Ardent desires pierced through the
fashionable beauty's aristocratic bearing. She no longer blinked her
eyes; the wrinkle on her forehead became more harshly accentuated; her
lip, like a sulky child's, stood out, full of passion, in quest of
those enjoyments for which she longed though unable to name them. She
beheld her companion laughing, but she was too transported to stop;
half reclining and swayed by the motion of the carriage, she continued
in short jerky sentences:
"Yes, really, you are unbearable. I don't say that for you, Maxime; you
are too young. But if I only told you how Aristide wearied me in the
early days! And the others too! those who have loved me. You know, we
are two good friends, I don't stand on ceremony with you; well! really,
there are days when I am so tired of living my life of a rich, adored
and honoured woman, that I should like to be a Laure d'Aurigny, one of
those ladies who live like men."
And as Maxime laughed louder than ever, she laid more stress upon her
words:
"Yes, a Laure d'Aurigny. It would surely be less insipid, not so much
always the same thing."
She kept silent a few minutes, as though she were conjuring up the
life she would lead, were she Laure. Then, she resumed in a tone of
discouragement:
"After all, those ladies must have their troubles also. There is
decidedly nothing really amusing. It's enough to make one sick of life.
I was right when I said there was something else wanting; I can't guess
what, you know; but something else, something which does not happen to
every one, which one does not meet with every day, which would give a
rare, an unknown enjoyment."
Her voice had softened. She uttered these last words as though she
were seeking something, gradually falling into a deep reverie. The
carriage was then ascending the avenue which leads to the way out of
the Bois. The darkness increased; the undergrowth, on either side,
flew past them like two grey walls; the yellow painted iron chairs, on
which the holiday-making citizens lounge on fine evenings, sped along
the side-walks, unoccupied, and wrapt in that black melancholy peculiar
to garden furniture overtaken by winter; and the rumble, the dull and
cadenced sound of the returning vehicles, was wafted over the deserted
way like some sad wail.
No doubt Maxime felt all the bad form there was in finding life
amusing. If he was still young enough to yield to an outburst of
delighted admiration, he possessed an egotism too vast, an indifference
too scoffing, he already felt too much real weariness, to do other than
declare himself sick of everything, satiated, done for. He was usually
in the habit of glorifying in this avowal.
He stretched himself out like Renée, and assumed a doleful tone of
voice.
"Really now! you're right," said he; "it's enough to kill one. Ah! I
don't amuse myself any more than you, you may be sure; I too have often
dreamed of something else. Nothing is stupider than travelling. As for
making money, I prefer far more to spend it, though that is not always
as amusing as one would fancy at first. Then there's love-making, being
loved, one soon has more than enough of it, is it not so? ah yes, one
soon has more than enough of it!"
As the young woman did not answer, he continued, washing to astonish
her by something grossly impious:
"I should like to be loved by a nun. Eh! perhaps there would be some
amusement in that! Have you never dreamed of loving a man of whom you
could never think without committing a crime?"
But she remained gloomy, and Maxime, seeing that she still kept silent,
thought that she was not listening to him. With the nape of her neck
leaning against the padded edge of the carriage, she seemed sleeping
with her eyes open. She was wrapt in thought, inert, full of the dreams
which kept her thus depressed, and, at times, a nervous twinge passed
over her lips. She was softly overcome by the shadow of the twilight;
all that this shadow contained of undefined sadness, of discreet
voluptuousness, of unavowed hope, penetrated her, bathed her in a
sort of languid and morbid atmosphere. Whilst looking fixedly at the
round back of the footman on the box-seat, she was thinking no doubt
of those joys of former days, of those parties she now found so dull,
and for which she no longer cared; she looked back on her past life,
the immediate satisfaction of every whim, the fulsomeness of luxury,
the crushing monotony of similar affections and similar betrayals.
Then, like a hope, there arose in her, as she quivered with desire,
the thought of this "something else" which her overwrought mind was
unable to fix upon. There, her reverie wandered. She made effort upon
effort, but each time the sought-for word disappeared in the gathering
night, became lost in the continuous rumble of the vehicles. The gentle
motion of the carriage was a hesitation the more which prevented her
formulating her desire. And an immense temptation ascended from out
of this vagueness, from these copses slumbering in the shadows on
either side of the avenue, from this noise of wheels and from this soft
oscillation which filled her with a delicious torpor. A thousand little
thrills passed over her flesh: unfinished dreams, nameless ecstasies,
confused wishes, all the grace and monstrosity which a return from the
Bois, at the hour when the heavens assume a pallid hue, can introduce
into the wearied heart of a woman. She kept her hands buried in the
bearskin, she felt quite hot in her white cloth jacket with mauve
velvet facings. On thrusting out her foot as she stretched herself with
bodily enjoyment her ankle rubbed against Maxime's warm leg, but he did
not even notice the contact of her flesh. A jerk roused her from her
lethargy. She raised her head, and her grey eyes looked in a bewildered
sort of way at the young man who was seated in the most elegant
attitude.
At this moment, the carriage left the Bois. The Avenue de l'Impératrice
extended in a straight line in the twilight, with the two green borders
of wooden fence which seemed to meet at the horizon. In the distance,
a white horse, on the side-path reserved for riders, appeared like
a bright speck in the midst of the grey shadow. Here and there, on
the opposite side of the roadway, were groups of black dots, belated
pedestrians, slowly wending their steps towards Paris. And, right at
the top, at the end of the mixed and moving line of vehicles, the
Arc-de-Triomphe, placed sideways, stood out all white against a vast
stretch of sky the colour of soot.
Whilst the carriage ascended at a faster pace, Maxime, charmed with
the English appearance of the landscape, examined the whimsically
designed villas on either side of the avenue, with their lawns sloping
down to the footpaths; Renée, still wrapt in reverie, amused herself
by watching at the edge of the horizon the gas-lamps of the Place de
l'Étoile as they were lighted up one by one; and as fast as their
bright glimmers speckled the expiring light with little yellow flames,
she fancied she could hear secret calls, it seemed to her that the
flaring Paris of a winter's night was being illuminated on her account,
and was preparing for her the unknown enjoyment after which her
satiated body hankered.
The carriage turned down the Avenue de la Reine-Hortense, and drew
up at the end of the Rue Monceaux, a few steps from the Boulevard
Malesherbes, in front of a grand mansion situated between a courtyard
and a garden. The two iron gates loaded with gilt ornaments, which
gave admittance to the courtyard, were each flanked by a pair of
lamps, shaped like urns and also covered with gilding, in which flared
great flames of gas. Between the two gates, the doorkeeper occupied an
elegant lodge which vaguely resembled a little Greek temple.
At the moment the carriage was about to enter the courtyard, Maxime
jumped nimbly out.
"You know," said Renée, as she caught hold of his hand to detain him,
"we dine at half-past seven. You have more than an hour to dress in.
Don't keep us waiting."
And she added with a smile:
"We are expecting the Mareuils. Your father wishes you to be very
attentive to Louise."
Maxime shrugged his shoulders.
"What a bore!" murmured he in a sullen tone of voice. "I don't mind
marrying, but as for courting, it's too stupid. Ah! it would be so nice
of you, Renée, if you would deliver me from Louise this evening."
He put on his most comical look, mimicking the grimace and the accent
of the actor Lassouche, as he did every time he was about to make one
of his funny remarks.
"Will you, my pretty darling mamma?"
Renée shook hands with him as with a comrade. And rapidly, with an
audacity full of a nervous raillery, she answered:
"Ah! if I had not married your father, I really believe you would court
me."
This idea must have struck the young man as highly comical, for he
had turned the corner of the Boulevard Malesherbes before he had done
laughing.
The carriage entered and drew up at the foot of the steps.
These steps, which were broad and low, were sheltered by a vast glass
verandah edged with a scallop imitating golden fringe and tassels. The
two storeys of the mansion rose above the domestic offices, the square
windows of which, glazed with ground glass, appeared almost on a level
with the soil. At the top of the steps, the hall-door stood out flanked
by slender columns fixed in the wall, forming thus a kind of fore-part
pierced at each floor by a round bay, and ascending as high as the roof
where it terminated in a point. On either side, each storey had five
windows, placed at regular intervals along the façade, and surrounded
by a simple stone border. The roof, with its attic windows, was square
shaped, with broad sides almost perpendicular.
But the façade on the garden side was far more sumptuous. A regal
flight of steps led to a narrow terrace which extended the whole length
of the ground floor; the balustrade of this terrace, in the style of
the railings of the Parc Monceaux, was even more covered with gilt
than the verandah and the lamps of the courtyard. Above this rose the
mansion with a wing at either end, like two towers half inserted in the
body of the building, and which contained rooms of circular shape. In
the centre, another tower, even deeper inserted still, formed a slight
curve. The windows, tall and narrow in the wings, wider apart and
almost square on the flat portions of the façade, had stone balustrades
on the ground floor, and gilded wrought-iron handrails at the upper
storeys. It was a display, a profusion, a superabundance of riches.
The mansion disappeared beneath the carvings. Around the windows,
along the cornices, were scrolls of flowers and branches; there were
balconies resembling masses of verdure supported by great nude women
with strained hips and protruding breasts; then, here and there, were
fantastical escutcheons, bunches of fruit, roses, every blossom it
is possible to represent in stone or marble. As fast as one's glance
ascended, the building seemed to bloom the more. Around the roof was
a balustrade, bearing at equal distances urns on which burnt flames
of stone. And there, between the oval windows of the attics, which
opened amidst an incredible medley of fruits and foliage, expanded the
crowning portions of this amazing ornamentation, the pediments of the
two wings in the centre of which reappeared the great nude women,
playing with apples and standing in every conceivable posture amongst
sheaves of reeds. The roof, loaded with these ornaments, surmounted
besides with galleries of carved lead, with two lightning conductors
and with four enormous symmetrical chimney stacks sculptured like
all the rest, seemed to be the final flare up of this architectural
firework.
To the right was a vast conservatory, fixed to the side of the mansion,
and communicating with the ground floor by means of a French window
opening out of a little drawing-room. The garden, separated from the
Parc Monceaux by a low iron railing hidden by a hedge, sloped rather
sharply. Too small for the house, and so narrow that a lawn and a few
clumps of evergreens occupied the entire space, it simply formed a
kind of knoll, a verdant pedestal, on which the mansion was proudly
planted decked out in its gayest attire. Seen from the park, towering
above the bright grass and the shining foliage of the shrubs, this
great building, looking still new and quite sickly, had the sallow
complexion, the stupid and moneyed importance of some female upstart,
with its heavy head-dress of slates, its gilded balustrades, and
its flood of sculpture. It was a reproduction of the new Louvre on
a smaller scale, one of the most characteristic specimens of the
style of the Second Empire, that opulent bastard of every style. On
summer evenings, when the last rays of the sun lit up the gilt of
the balustrades against the white façade, the strollers in the park
would stop to look at the red silk curtains hanging at the ground
floor windows; and, through panes so large and clear that they seemed,
like those of the great modern emporiums, placed there to display the
interior wealth to the outer world, these families of modest citizens
would catch glimpses of articles of furniture, of portions of hangings,
and of corners of ceilings of dazzling splendour, the sight of which
would root them to the spot with admiration and envy right in the
centre of the pathways.
But, at this hour, the trees cast their shadows over the façade which
was wrapt in gloom. In the courtyard on the other side, the footman had
respectfully assisted Renée to alight from the carriage. The stables,
with red brick dressings, opened on the right their wide doors of
polished oak, at the end of a glass-roofed yard. On the left, as though
to counterbalance, was a richly ornamented recess in the wall of the
adjoining house, with a fountain of water perpetually flowing from a
shell which two cupids supported in their outstretched arms. The young
woman stood a moment at the foot of the steps, gently tapping her skirt
to get it to hang right. The courtyard, through which the noise of the
return had just passed, resumed its solitude, its aristocratic silence,
broken by the eternal sing-song of the dripping water. And as yet,
amidst the great black mass of the mansion--the chandeliers of which
were so soon to be illuminated on the occasion of the first of the
grand dinner parties of the autumn--only the lower windows were lighted
up, all aglow and casting the bright reflection of a conflagration on
the small paving-stones of the courtyard, as neat and regular as a
draught-board.
As Renée pushed open the hall door, she found herself face to face
with her husband's valet, who was on his way to the servants' quarters
and carrying a silver kettle. Dressed all in black, tall, strong,
pale-faced, this man looked superb, with the whiskers of an English
diplomatist, and the grave and dignified air of a magistrate.
"Baptiste," inquired the young woman, "has your master come in?"
"Yes, madame, he is dressing," replied the valet with a bow worthy of a
prince acknowledging the plaudits of the crowd.
Renée slowly ascended the staircase, withdrawing her gloves the while.
The hall was fitted up most luxuriously. On entering, one experienced
a slightly suffocating sensation. The thick carpets, which covered the
floor and the stairs, the broad red velvet hangings which hid the walls
and the doors, made the atmosphere heavy with the silence and the warm
fragrance of a chapel. The draperies hung from on high, and the lofty
ceiling was ornamented with salient arabesques on a golden trellis.
The staircase, with its double balustrade of white marble and handrail
covered with red velvet, opened out into two slightly winding branches
between which was placed the entrance to the grand drawing-room right
at the back. An immense mirror covered the whole of the wall on the
first landing. Down below, at the foot of the branching staircase,
two bronze gilt female figures, on marble pedestals and nude down to
the waist, supported gigantic lamp-posts carrying five burners, the
brilliant light from which was softened by ground glass globes. And
on either side was a row of splendid vases in majolica ware in which
blossomed the rarest plants.
Renée ascended, and at each step she took her reflection in the mirror
increased in size; she was asking herself, with that doubt entertained
by the most popular actresses, whether she were really delicious, as
every one told her.
Then, when she had reached her apartment, which was on the first floor,
and overlooked the Parc Monceaux, she rang for Céleste, her maid, and
had herself dressed for dinner. This operation lasted a good three
quarters of an hour. When the last pin had been fixed, she opened the
window as the room was very close, and leaning out remained there wrapt
in thought. Behind her, Céleste was moving discreetly about, tidying
the room.
Down below, the park was immersed in a sea of shadow. The inky coloured
masses of the tall trees, shaken by sudden gusts of wind, swayed to
and fro like the tide, with that rustling of dead leaves which recalls
the breaking of the waves on a shingly strand. Piercing now and again
this ebb and flow of darkness, the two yellow eyes of a carriage
would appear and vanish between the shrubberies bordering the road
which connects the Avenue de la Reine-Hortense with the Boulevard
Malesherbes. In the face of all this autumnal melancholy Renée's
sad thoughts returned. She fancied herself once more a child in her
father's house, in that silent mansion of the Île Saint-Louis, where
for two centuries past the Béraud Du Châtels had sheltered their gloomy
magisterial gravity. Then her thoughts turned to her sudden marriage,
to that widower who sold himself to become her husband, and who had
trucked his name of Rougon for that of Saccard, the two sharp syllables
of which had sounded in her ears, when first pronounced before her,
with all the brutality of two rakes gathering up gold; he took her, and
cast her into this life of turmoil amidst which her poor brain became a
little more cracked every day. Then she set to dreaming with a childish
joy of the happy games at battledore and shuttlecock she had played in
the old times with her young sister Christine. And, some morning, she
would awake from the dream of enjoyment she had been indulging for ten
years past, crazy, and befouled by one of her husband's speculations,
in which he himself would also sink. This passed before her like a
rapid presentiment. The trees were lamenting in a louder tone. Troubled
by these thoughts of shame and punishment, Renée yielded to the old and
worthy middle-class instincts slumbering within her; she promised the
black night she would reform, that she would no longer spend so much
on her dress, and that she would seek some innocent occupation to amuse
her, like in the happy school days, when she and her playmates sang
beneath the plane-trees and danced in a ring.
At this moment, Céleste, who had been downstairs, returned and murmured
in her mistress's ear:
"Master would be glad if madame would go down. There are already
several persons in the drawing-room."
Renée started. She had not felt the chilly air which was freezing her
shoulders. As she passed before her looking-glass, she stopped and
glanced at herself mechanically. With an involuntary smile she went
down.
And, indeed, most of the guests had arrived. There were her sister
Christine, a young lady of twenty, very simply dressed in white muslin;
her aunt Élisabeth, the widow of the notary Aubertot, in black satin, a
little old woman of sixty, of most exquisite amiability; her husband's
sister, Sidonie Rougon, a gentle, scraggy woman, of no particular
age, with a face like soft wax, and whose dull-coloured dress effaced
still further; then the Mareuils, the father, Monsieur de Mareuil,
who had just gone out of mourning for his wife, a tall handsome man,
empty-headed and serious, bearing a striking resemblance to the valet
Baptiste; and the daughter, that poor Louise as people called her, a
young girl of seventeen, puny and slightly hump-backed, who wore with a
sickly grace a soft white silk dress with red spots; then quite a group
of serious men, gentlemen wearing many decorations, official personages
with pale and solemn faces; and, farther off, another group, young
men with an air of vice about them, and wearing low cut waistcoats,
surrounding five or six ladies of the greatest elegance, amongst whom
throned the inseparables, the little Marchioness d'Espanet, in yellow,
and the fair Madame Haffner, in violet. Monsieur de Mussy, the cavalier
whose bow Renée had ignored, was also there, with the uneasy look of
a lover expecting to receive his dismissal. And, in the midst of the
long trains spread out over the carpet, two contractors, masons who had
made their fortunes, named Mignon and Charrier, with whom Saccard had
some business to settle on the morrow, were moving heavily about on
their big feet, holding their hands behind their backs and feeling most
uncomfortable in their dress suits.
Standing near the door, Aristide Saccard managed to greet each new
arrival, whilst holding forth to the group of serious men with all his
southern animation and snuffling. He shook the guest's hand and spoke
a few amiable words. Short, and pitiful-looking, he bobbed up and down
like a puppet; and of all his puny, dark and crafty person, the most
prominent object was the red bow of his ribbon of the Legion of Honour
which he wore very large.
When Renée entered, there rose a murmur of admiration. She was truly
divine. Over a lower skirt of tulle, trimmed behind with a mass of
flounces, she wore a tunic of pale green satin, edged with a broad
border of English lace, and gathered up and fastened by large bunches
of violets; a single flounce adorned the front of the skirt over which
was a light muslin drapery kept in its place by more bunches of violets
joined together by garlands of ivy. The gracefulness of the head and
bust were adorable, above this skirt of royal amplitude and slightly
overdone richness. Uncovered at the neck as low as the breast, her
arms bare with tufts of violets on her shoulders, the young woman
seemed to be emerging all naked from her sheath of tulle and satin,
similar to one of those nymphs whose busts issue from the sacred oaks;
and her white neck, her supple frame, appeared so delighted with this
semi-freedom, that one expected at every moment to see the bodice and
the skirts slip down like the costume of a bather in love with her
flesh. Her tall head-dress, her fine yellow hair gathered up in the
form of a helmet, and amidst which twined a sprig of ivy held in its
place by a bunch of violets, increased still more her air of nudity
by displaying the nape of her neck, slightly shaded by little downy
hairs resembling threads of gold. Round her neck she wore a diamond
necklace with pendants of the first water, and on her brow an aigrette
formed of stems of silver set with the same precious stones. And she
stood thus for a few seconds on the threshold of the room, erect in
this magnificent costume, her shoulders shining in the warm glow. As
she had come down quickly she was rather out of breath. Her eyes, which
the darkness of the Parc Monceaux had filled with shadow, blinked
in that sudden flood of light, and gave her that hesitating air of
short-sighted people, which with her was full of gracefulness.
On perceiving her, the little marchioness rose hastily from her seat,
and running up to her, seized hold of her hands; whilst examining her
from her head down to her feet she murmured in a fluty tone of voice:
"Ah! pretty darling, pretty darling."
Then there was considerable commotion, all the guests came to pay
their respects to the beautiful Madame Saccard, as Renée was called
in society. She shook hands with nearly all the men. After which she
embraced Christine, and inquired after her father who never visited the
mansion in the Parc Monceaux. And she remained standing, smiling and
still bowing, with her arms held indolently open, before the circle of
ladies who were examining with curious eyes the diamond necklace and
aigrette.
Fair Madame Haffner could not resist the temptation; she drew nearer,
and after looking a long while at the jewels, said in a jealous tone of
voice:
"They are the necklace and the aigrette, are they not?"
Renée nodded her head affirmatively. Then all the women gave vent to
their praise; the jewels were enchanting, divine; then they began to
speak, with an admiration full of envy, of Laure d'Aurigny's sale at
which Saccard had bought them for his wife; they complained that those
frail creatures always secured the best things, there would soon be no
diamonds at all for virtuous women. And out of their complaints pierced
the desire to feel on their bare skin one of those jewels which all
Paris had beheld on the shoulders of some illustrious courtesan, and
which would perhaps whisper in their ear the alcove scandals on which
the thoughts of these grand ladies loved to linger. They knew the high
prices realised, they quoted a superb cashmere, some magnificent lace.
The aigrette had cost fifteen thousand francs, the necklace fifty
thousand. Madame d'Espanet was quite enthusiastic about these figures.
She called Saccard, exclaiming:
"Come and be congratulated! You are a good husband!"
Aristide Saccard went up to the ladies, bowed and did the modest. But
his grimacing features betrayed a great delight. And out of the corner
of his eye he watched the two contractors, the two masons who had
made their fortunes, who were standing a few paces off listening with
visible respect to the mention of such sums as fifteen thousand and
fifty thousand francs.
At this moment, Maxime, who had just entered the room, looking adorable
in his well-cut dress-coat, leant familiarly on his father's shoulder,
and spoke to him in a low tone, as though to a comrade, calling his
attention to the masons with a glance. Saccard smiled discreetly like
an applauded actor.
A few more guests arrived. There were quite thirty persons in the
drawing-room. The conversations were resumed; during the pauses, one
could hear, on the other side of the wall, a jingling of crockery and
plate. At length Baptiste opened the folding doors, and majestically
uttered the sacramental phrase: "Madame is served."
Then, the procession slowly formed. Saccard gave his arm to the little
marchioness; Renée took an old gentleman's, a senator, Baron Gouraud,
before whom everyone bowed down with great humility; as for Maxime,
he was obliged to offer his arm to Louise de Mareuil; then followed
the rest of the guests, in couples, and right at the end the two
contractors swinging their arms.
The dining-room was a vast square apartment with a high dado all round
of stained and varnished pear-tree ornamented with thin fillets of
gold. The four large panels had probably been intended to be filled
with paintings of inanimate objects; but they had remained empty,
the owner of the mansion having no doubt hesitated before a purely
artistical outlay. They had simply been covered over with dark green
velvet. The furniture, the curtains and the door-hangings of the same
material, gave to the room a grave and sober appearance calculated to
concentrate on the table all the splendour of the illumination.
And indeed, at this hour, in the centre of the vast sombre Turkey
carpet which deadened the sound of the footsteps, beneath the glaring
light of the chandelier, the table, surrounded by chairs, the black
backs of which relieved by fillets of gold framed it with a dark line,
appeared like an altar, like some illuminated chapel, as the bright
scintillations of the crystal glass and the silver plate sparkled on
the dazzling whiteness of the cloth. In the floating shadow beyond the
carved chair backs, one could just catch a glimpse of the wainscotting,
of a large low sideboard, and of portions of velvet hangings trailing
about. One's eyes forcibly returned to the table, and became filled
with all this splendour. An admirable unpolished silver epergne
glittering with chased work occupied the centre; it represented a
troop of fauns bearing away some nymphs; and, issuing from an immense
cornucopia above the group, an enormous bouquet of natural flowers
hung down in clusters. At either end of the table were some vases also
containing bunches of flowers; two candelabra matching the centre
group, and each consisting of a satyr in full flight bearing on one
arm a swooning woman, whilst with the other he grasped a ten-branched
candelabrum, added the bright light of their candles to the radiance of
the central chandelier. Between these principal objects the hot dishes,
both large and small, bearing the first course, were symmetrically
arranged in lines, flanked by shells filled with the _hors-d'œuvre_,
and separated by china bowls, crystal vases, flat plates and tall
comports, containing all of the dessert placed upon the table. Along
the line of plates, the army of glasses, the water-bottles, the
decanters, the tiny salt-cellars, in fact the whole of the glass was as
thin and slender as muslin, uncut and so transparent that it did not
cast the least shadow. And the epergne, and the other large ornaments
looked like fountains of fire; the polished sides of the dishes
sparkled; the forks, the spoons, and the knives with mother-of-pearl
handles were so many bars of flame; rainbows illuminated the glasses;
and, in the midst of this shower of sparks, of this incandescent mass,
the decanters of wine cast a ruby glow over the cloth which seemed
heated to a white heat.
On entering, an expression of discreet beatitude overspread the
countenances of the gentlemen who were smiling to the ladies on their
arms. The flowers gave a freshness to the warm atmosphere. Slight
fumes from the dishes hung about and mingled with the perfume of the
roses. And the tart smell of crawfish with the sourish odour of lemons
dominated all.
Then, when everyone had found his name written on the backs of the
bills of fare, there was a noise of chairs, a great rustling of silk
dresses. The bare shoulders studded with diamonds, and flanked by black
dress coats which set off their paleness, added their milky whiteness
to the radiance of the table. The dinner commenced in the midst of
smiles exchanged between neighbours, in a semi-silence as yet only
broken by the gentle rattling of the spoons. Baptiste performed the
duties of butler with the grave manners of a diplomatist; he had under
his orders, besides the two footmen, four assistants whom he engaged
only for the grand dinner parties. At each dish which he took to cut up
on a side-table at the end of the room, three of the servants passed
noiselessly behind the guests, dish in hand, and offering in a low
voice the viands by name. The others poured out the wines, attended
to the bread and the decanters. The _relevés_ and the _entrées_ were
thus slowly discussed and removed, without the ladies' pearly laughter
becoming a whit more shrill.
The guests were too numerous for the conversation to easily become
general. Yet, at the second course, when the roasts and the side-dishes
had replaced the _relevés_ and the _entrées_, and the grand Burgundy
wines, Pomard and Chambertin, had succeeded to the Léoville and
Château-Lafitte, the sound of the voices swelled, and bursts of
laughter caused the slender glasses to tinkle. Renée, seated at the
middle of the table, had Baron Gouraud on her right, and on her left
Monsieur Toutin-Laroche, a retired candle manufacturer, at that time
a municipal councillor, a director of the Crédit Viticole and member
of the board of supervision of the Société Générale of the ports of
Morocco, a scraggy and important individual, whom Saccard, seated
opposite between Madame d'Espanet and Madame Haffner, addressed at one
moment in flattering tones as, "My dear colleague," and at another
as, "Our great administrator." Then came the politicians: Monsieur
Hupel de la Noue, a prefect who spent eight months of the year in
Paris; three deputies, amongst whom Monsieur Haffner displayed his
broad Alsatian countenance; then Monsieur de Saffré, a charming young
man, secretary to a cabinet minister; and Monsieur Michelin, the
head of the commission of public ways; and other heads of department
besides. Monsieur de Mareuil, a perpetual candidate for the Chamber of
Deputies, faced the prefect, at whom he kept casting sheep's-eyes. As
for Monsieur d'Espanet, he never accompanied his wife into society.
The ladies of the family were placed between the most distinguished
of these personages. Saccard had however reserved his sister Sidonie,
whom he had seated farther away, between the two contractors--Monsieur
Charrier being on the right and Monsieur Mignon on the left--as though
at a post of trust where it was a question of vanquishing. Madame
Michelin, the wife of the head of the commission of public ways, a
pretty plump brunette, found herself beside Monsieur de Saffré with
whom she was carrying on an animated conversation in a low voice. Then,
at either end of the table were the young people, auditors attached to
the Council of State, the sons of influential fathers, little sprouting
millionaires, Monsieur de Mussy who kept casting despairing glances
in the direction of Renée, and Maxime who seemed fast succumbing to
Louise de Mareuil seated on his right. Little by little, they had taken
to laughing very loudly. It was from their corner that the first gay
notes were heard.
Meanwhile Monsieur Hupel de la Noue was gallantly inquiring:
"Shall we have the pleasure of seeing his excellency this evening?"
"I'm afraid not," answered Saccard with an important air which hid a
secret annoyance. "My brother is so busy! He has sent us his secretary
to excuse him."
The young secretary, whom Madame Michelin was most decidedly
monopolizing, raised his head on hearing his name uttered, and thinking
some one had spoken to him, exclaimed:
"Yes, yes, there is to be a meeting of the cabinet this evening at nine
o'clock at the residence of the keeper of the seals."
During this time, Monsieur Toutin-Laroche, who had been interrupted,
was continuing gravely, as though he were delivering a speech amidst
the attentive silence of the Municipal Council:
"The results are indeed superb. This city loan will remain as one of
the finest financial operations of the epoch. Ah! gentlemen--"
But here again his voice was smothered by the laughter which suddenly
broke out at one end of the table. In the midst of this outburst of
mirth one could hear Maxime's voice as he concluded some anecdote:
"Wait a bit. I haven't finished yet. The poor rider was picked up by a
road-labourer. It is said she is having him brilliantly educated as she
intends to marry him later on. She will not allow that any other man
than her husband can flatter himself that he has seen a certain brown
mole situated somewhere above her knee."
The laughter redoubled; Louise laughed heartily, louder even than the
men. And noiselessly in the midst of all this mirth, just as though
deaf, a lackey at this moment thrust his pale grave face between the
guests, offering some slices of wild duck in a low tone of voice.
Aristide Saccard was annoyed at the little attention paid to Monsieur
Toutin-Laroche. To show him that he had been listening, he resumed:
"The city loan--"
But Monsieur Toutin-Laroche was not the man to lose the thread of an
idea.
"Ah! gentlemen," continued he when the laughter had subsided,
"yesterday was a great consolation to us whose administration is
exposed to such vile attacks. The council is accused of bringing the
city to ruin, and yet you see, the moment the city opens a loan, every
one brings us their money, even those who cry out."
"You have performed miracles," said Saccard. "Paris has become the
capital of the world."
"Yes, it is really prodigious," interrupted Monsieur Hupel de la Noue.
"Just fancy that I, who am an old Parisian, can no longer find my way
about Paris. I lost myself yesterday when going from the Hôtel de Ville
to the Luxembourg. It is prodigious, prodigious!"
A short pause ensued. All the serious people were listening now.
"The transformation of Paris," continued Monsieur Toutin-Laroche, "will
be the glory of the reign. The lower classes are ungrateful: they
ought to kiss the emperor's feet. I was saying only this morning at
the council, where the great success of the loan was being discussed:
'Gentlemen, let those brawlers of the opposition say what they like, to
upset Paris is to fertilize it.'"
Saccard smiled and closed his eyes, as though the better to relish the
smartness of the dictum. He leant behind Madame d'Espanet's back, and
said to Monsieur Hupel de la Noue, loud enough to be heard:
"He is most adorably witty."
Now that the conversation had turned on the alterations being made in
Paris, Monsieur Charrier was stretching his neck as though to take part
in it. His partner Mignon was fully occupied with Madame Sidonie, who
was giving him plenty to do. Ever since the beginning of the dinner,
Saccard had been watching the two contractors from out of the corner of
his eye.
"The administration," said he, "has met with so much devotion! Every
one has wished to contribute to the great work. Without the rich
companies which came to its assistance, the city would never have done
so well nor so quickly."
He turned round, and added with a sort of brutal flattery:
"Messieurs Mignon and Charrier know something of this, they who have
had their share of labour, and who will have their share of glory."
The two masons who had made their fortune received this compliment
beatifically full in the chest. Mignon, to whom Madame Sidonie was
saying in a lackadaisical manner, "Ah! sir, you flatter me; no, I am
too old to wear pink--" interrupted her in the middle of her sentence,
to reply to Saccard:
"You are too kind; we merely did our business."
But Charrier was more polished. He finished his glass of Pomard and
found means to make an observation.
"The works about Paris," said he, "have enabled the workman to live."
"Say also," resumed Monsieur Toutin-Laroche, "that they have given a
magnificent spurt to all financial and industrial undertakings."
"And don't forget the artistic side of the question; the new
thoroughfares are majestic," added Monsieur Hupel de la Noue, who
flattered himself on his good taste.
"Yes, yes, it is a fine piece of work," murmured Monsieur de Mareuil,
for the sake of saying something.
"As for the cost," gravely declared the deputy Haffner, who only opened
his mouth on grand occasions, "our children will pay it, and that is
only justice."
And as, when saying that, he looked at Monsieur de Saffré, who had not
seemed to be getting on so well with the pretty Madame Michelin for the
last few minutes, the young secretary, wishing to appear thoroughly
acquainted with what was being said, repeated:
"That is indeed only justice."
Every one had had his say in the group formed by the serious men at the
middle of the table. Monsieur Michelin, the head of department, smiled
and wagged his head; it was his usual way of joining in a conversation;
he had smiles for greeting, for answering, for approving, for thanking,
for wishing good-bye, quite a pretty collection of smiles which
enabled him to dispense almost entirely with the use of his tongue, an
arrangement he no doubt considered far more polite and more favourable
to his own advancement.
Another personage also had remained silent--that was Baron Gouraud,
who was slowly chewing like a drowsy ox. Up till then he had appeared
absorbed in the contemplation of his plate. Renée, full of little
attentions towards him, only obtained faint grunts of satisfaction.
Therefore every one was surprised to see him raise his head and to
hear him observe, as he wiped his greasy lips:
"I am a landlord, and when I do up and re-decorate any apartments, I
raise the rent."
Monsieur Haffner's remark: "Our children will pay," had succeeded in
awakening the senator. They all discreetly applauded, and Monsieur de
Saffré exclaimed:
"Ah! charming, charming! I shall send that to-morrow to the newspapers."
"You are quite right, gentlemen, we live in good times," said the
worthy Mignon by way of conclusion amidst the smiles and the praise
which the baron's observation had called forth. "I know more than one
who have nicely built up their fortunes. Everything is lovely, you see,
when it enables one to make money."
These last words quite froze the grave men. The conversation stopped
short, and each one seemed to avoid looking at his neighbour. The
mason's remark unfortunately might have been applied to all these
gentlemen. Michelin, who was just then looking at Saccard in a most
agreeable manner, suddenly ceased smiling, greatly afraid of having
appeared for a moment to apply the contractor's words to the master
of the house. The latter glanced at Madame Sidonie, who once more
monopolised Mignon, saying: "So you are fond of pink, sir?"--Then
Saccard paid Madame d'Espanet a long compliment; his dark, mean-looking
face almost touched the milky shoulders of the young woman as she leant
back in her chair and laughed.
They had now arrived at the dessert. The lackeys turned more quickly
round the table. There was a slight pause whilst the cloth was being
covered with the rest of the fruit and the sweetmeats. At Maxime's end
the laughter was becoming more silvery; one could hear Louise's shrill
voice saying: "I assure you that Sylvia wore a blue satin dress in her
part of Dindonnette;" and another childish voice added: "Yes, but the
dress was trimmed with white lace." The air was laden with the warm
fumes from the dishes. The faces of the guests had assumed a rosier
hue, and seemed softened by an internal beatitude. Two lackeys made the
round of the table, filling the glasses with Alicant and Tokay.
Ever since the commencement of the dinner, Renée had seemed
absent-minded. She fulfilled her duties as mistress of the house with
a mechanical sort of smile. At each burst of mirth which came from
the end of the table where Maxime and Louise were sitting side-by-side
joking like two comrades, she cast a glistening glance in their
direction. She felt dreadfully bored. The serious men were too much for
her. Madame d'Espanet and Madame Haffner looked at her in despair.
"And the coming elections, how do they promise to turn out?" suddenly
inquired Saccard of Monsieur Hupel de la Noue.
"Very well indeed," replied the latter, smiling; "only as yet no
candidates have been decided upon for my department. The minister is
hesitating, it appears."
Monsieur de Mareuil, who had thanked Saccard with a glance for having
introduced this subject, looked as though he were sitting on red-hot
cinders. He blushed slightly and made a few awkward bows when the
prefect, addressing him, continued:
"I have heard a great deal about you in the country, sir. Your vast
estates have won you a great many friends there, and it is known how
devoted you are to the Emperor. You have every chance in your favour."
"Papa, is it not true that little Sylvia sold cigarettes at Marseilles
in 1849?" cried Maxime at this moment from his end of the table.
And as Aristide Saccard pretended not to hear, the young man continued
in a lower tone of voice:
"My father knew her very intimately."
A few smothered laughs greeted this statement. Whilst Monsieur de
Mareuil was still bowing, Monsieur Haffner had sententiously resumed:
"Devotion to the Emperor is the only virtue, the only patriotism, in
these days of interested democracy. Whosoever loves the Emperor loves
France. We would see Monsieur do Mareuil become our colleague with most
sincere joy."
"You will succeed, sir," said Monsieur Toutin-Laroche in his turn. "All
the great fortunes should gather round the throne."
Renée could stand it no longer. Opposite to her the marchioness was
stifling a yawn. And as Saccard was again about to join in, his wife
said to him with a delightful smile:
"For goodness sake, my dear, take compassion upon us. Do try and forget
your horrid politics."
Then Monsieur Hupel de la Noue, gallant as a prefect should be,
protested, saying that the ladies were right. And he forthwith
commenced the story of a rather smutty affair which had occurred in
the chief town of his department. The marchioness, Madame Haffner and
the other ladies laughed immensely at some of the details. The prefect
related in a very piquant style, interspersed with hints, reticences,
and inflections of the voice, which gave a very naughty meaning to the
most innocent expressions. Then they talked of the duchess's first
Tuesday at home, of a burlesque that had been produced the night
before, of the death of a poet, and of the last of the autumn races.
Monsieur Toutin-Laroche, who at certain times could be very amiable,
compared women to roses, and Monsieur de Mareuil, amidst the confusion
in which his electoral hopes had plunged him, was able to make some
profound remarks respecting the new shape for bonnets. Renée continued
absent-minded.
The guests were no longer eating. A warm breath seemed to have passed
over the cloth, clouding the glasses, scattering the bread, blackening
the fruit parings in the plates, and upsetting all the beautiful
symmetry of the table. The flowers were fading in the great chased
silver cornucopia. And the guests lingered there a moment in presence
of the remnants of the dessert, full of contentment, and lacking the
courage to rise from their seats. One arm on the table, and bending
slightly forward, they had a vacant look in their eyes, and showed the
vague depression of that measured and decent inebriation of fashionable
people who become intoxicated by degrees. The laughter had subsided and
the conversation flagged. A great deal had been eaten and drank, and
that gave a still deeper gravity to the group formed by the decorated
men. In the close atmosphere of the apartment, the ladies felt a
moisture about their necks and temples. They were awaiting the moment
to adjourn to the drawing-room, looking serious and slightly pale, as
though they felt a swimming in their heads. Madame d'Espanet was quite
rosy, whilst Madame Haffner's shoulders had assumed a waxy whiteness.
Monsieur Hupel de la Noue was examining the handle of a knife; Monsieur
Toutin-Laroche was still addressing a few disconnected remarks to
Monsieur Haffner who nodded his head in reply; Monsieur de Mareuil
was musing as he looked at Monsieur Michelin, who was slyly smiling
upon him. As for the pretty Madame Michelin, she had not been talking
for a long while; she was very red in the face, whilst the cloth hung
over one of her hands which Monsieur de Saffré was no doubt holding in
his, for he was leaning awkwardly on the edge of the table, with his
brows knit, and grimacing like a man trying to solve some problem in
algebra. Madame Sidonie also had conquered; the Messieurs Mignon and
Charrier, both turned towards her and with their elbows on the table,
appeared delighted at being taken into her confidence; she was owning
that she had a great liking for milky things, and that she was afraid
of ghosts. And Aristide Saccard himself, with his eyes half closed, and
plunged in that beatitude of the master of a house conscious of having
honestly intoxicated his guests, had no thought of leaving the table;
he was contemplating with respectful affection Baron Gouraud painfully
digesting, with his right hand stretched over the white cloth, a
sensual old man's hand, short and thick, studded with purple blotches
and covered with reddish hairs.
Renée slowly drank up the few drops of Tokay which remained in her
glass. Her face tingled; the little light hairs on her temples and at
the nape of her neck were rebellious and would not remain in their
places, as though moistened by some damp breath. Her lips and her nose
were contracted nervously, her face bore the expression of a child
who has drank pure wine. If good middle-class thoughts had come to
her whilst in the presence of the shadows of the Parc Monceaux, these
thoughts had now succumbed to the excitation of the viands, of the
wines and of the lights, of these disturbing surroundings impregnated
with noisy mirth and warm breaths. She was no longer exchanging quiet
smiles with her sister Christine and her aunt Élisabeth, both of
them modest and retiring, and scarcely uttering a word. With a harsh
look she had forced poor Monsieur de Mussy to lower his eyes. In her
apparent absent-mindedness, though, she was careful to avoid turning
round and remained leaning against the back of her chair, whilst
the satin of her dress body gently crackled, she allowed an almost
imperceptible shudder of the shoulders to escape her each time a
burst of laughter reached her from the corner where Maxime and Louise
were joking, still as loudly as ever, in the expiring buzz of the
conversations.
And behind her, just on the edge of the shadow--his tall person
dominating the satiated guests and the disordered table--stood
Baptiste, looking pale and grave, in the disdainful attitude of a
lackey who has feasted his masters. He alone, in the atmosphere heavy
with drunkenness, beneath the vivid light, now turning to a yellowish
hue, of the chandelier, remained faultless, with his silver chain
around his neck, his cold eyes in which the sight of the women's bare
shoulders did not even kindle a spark, and his air of an eunuch
waiting on some Parisians in the time of their decline and maintaining
his dignity.
At length Renée rose with a nervous movement. Everyone followed her
example. They adjourned to the drawing-room where coffee awaited them.
The principal drawing-room of the mansion was a vast oblong apartment,
a sort of gallery going from one of the wings to the other, and
occupying the whole of the façade on the garden side. A large French
window opened on to the steps. This gallery was resplendent with
gilding. The ceiling which was slightly arched was covered with
fanciful scrolls winding about enormous gilded medallions, which
glittered like shields. Arabesques and dazzling garlands formed the
border; fillets of gold, like jets of molten metal, were scattered
about the walls, framing the panels hung with red silk; clusters of
roses crowned with tufts of full blown blossoms trailed down the sides
of the mirrors. An Aubusson carpet displayed its purple flowers over
the flooring. The furniture upholstered in red damask silk, the door
hangings and the curtains of the same material, the enormous rock-work
clock on the mantle, the China vases standing on the consoles, the
legs of the two long tables ornamented with Florentine mosaics, even
the flowerstands placed in the window recesses, were so to say reeking
and dripping with gold. At the four corners were four great lamps
standing on red marble pedestals to which they were attached by chains
of gilded bronze which hung with symmetrical grace. And from the
ceiling were suspended three crystal lustres streaming with pink and
blue scintillations, and the ardent glare from which was dazzlingly
reflected by all the gilding in the apartment.
The men soon withdrew to the smoking-room. Monsieur de Mussy, who,
though six years older, had known Maxime at college, took him
familiarly by the arm. He led him out on to the terrace, and, after
they had lighted their cigars, he complained bitterly of Renée.
"But, tell me, whatever is the matter with her? When I saw her
yesterday she was most charming. And now to-day she treats me as though
all were over between us. What crime can I have been guilty of? It
would be so kind of you, my dear Maxime, to ask her, and to tell her
how she makes me suffer."
"Not if I know it!" replied Maxime laughing. "Renée's nerves are upset,
I've no wish to receive the brunt of her ill-humour. Settle your
differences between yourselves."
And after slowly puffing out the smoke of his havanna, he added:
"It's a pretty part you want me to play!"
But Monsieur de Mussy talked of his great friendship, and assured the
young man he was only awaiting an opportunity to show him how devoted
he was to him. He was very miserable, he loved Renée so!
"Very well! it's agreed," said Maxime at length, "I will speak to her;
but, you know, I can promise nothing; she is pretty sure to send me
about my business."
They re-entered the smoking-room, and stretched themselves out in two
capacious easy-chairs. And during a good half hour Monsieur de Mussy
related all his tribulations to Maxime; he told him for the tenth time
how it was he had fallen in love with the young man's stepmother, and
how she had been gracious enough to notice him; and whilst finishing
his cigar Maxime gave him some advice, explaining Renée's nature to
him, and showing him how he should set to work to overcome her.
Saccard having taken a seat a few steps away from the young men,
Monsieur de Mussy lapsed into silence, and Maxime said in conclusion:
"Were I in your place, I would treat her very cavalierly. She likes it."
The smoking-room occupied, at one end of the principal drawing-room,
one of the round apartments formed by the towers. It was fitted up in a
style both very rich and very sober. Papered with a material imitating
Cordovan leather, it had Algerian curtains and door hangings, and a
Wilton carpet of Persian design. The furniture was upholstered with
shagreen leather the colour of wood, and comprised settees, easy-chairs
and a circular divan which went nearly all round the room. The little
chandelier, the ornaments of the table and of the fire-place, were of
pale green Florentine bronze.
There had only remained with the ladies a few young fellows, and some
pale and flabby-faced old men, who held tobacco in horror. In the
smoking-room, there was a great deal of laughing going on and some
very broad jokes were being bandied about. Monsieur Hupel de la Noue
diverted the gentlemen immensely by again relating the story he had
told during dinner, but completing it this time by some most indecent
details. He had a specialty for this sort of thing; he always had
two versions of an anecdote, one for ladies, the other for men. Then,
Aristide Saccard entered and was at once surrounded and complimented;
and as he pretended not to understand what it was all about, Monsieur
de Saffré told him, in a greatly applauded speech, that he had deserved
well of his country for having prevented the beautiful Laure d'Aurigny
from going over to the English.
"No, really, gentlemen, you are mistaken," stammered Saccard with false
modesty.
"Oh! don't try to excuse yourself!" cried Maxime chaffingly. "It's very
meritorious at your age."
The young man who had just thrown away the stump of his cigar returned
to the drawing-room. A great number of visitors had arrived. The
gallery was full of men in evening dress standing up and conversing in
low tones, and of ladies in ample skirts which they spread out on the
couches. Some lackeys were taking round some silver salvers bearing
ices and glasses of punch.
Maxime, who wished to speak to Renée, passed right through the
drawing-room, knowing very well where to find the ladies' favourite
spot. At the opposite end to the smoking-room was another round
apartment adorably fitted up as a boudoir. Its curtains and hangings of
satin, the colour of buttercups, gave it a voluptuous charm, of quite
an original and exquisite taste. The lights of the chandelier, which
was of very delicate workmanship, appeared quite pale amidst all this
sun-like splendour. The effect resembled a flood of the subdued rays
from a sunset on a field of ripe corn. The light expired at one's feet
on an Aubusson carpet strewn with dead leaves. An ebony piano inlaid
with ivory, two little cabinets the glass doors of which displayed a
host of nicknacks, a Louis XVI. table, and a flowerstand holding an
enormous sheaf of flowers, sufficed to furnish the room. The small
couches, the easy-chairs and the settees, were covered with padded
buttercup satin divided at intervals by broad black bands of the same
material embroidered with gay coloured tulips. And there were also
low seats, lounge-chairs, and every variety of stool, both elegant
and fantastical. Not a glimpse of the woodwork of these articles was
visible; the satin and the padding covered all. The backs were so
curved as to be as comfortable as bolsters. They were like so many
discreet beds on which one could sleep and love amidst the down, to
the accompaniment of the sensual symphony of the pale yellow light.
Renée had an especial liking for this little room, one of the French
windows of which opened into the magnificent conservatory fixed to the
side of the mansion. During the day-time she spent most of her leisure
hours there. Instead of softening her light hair, the yellow hangings
gave it a strangely golden hue; her head stood out all pink and
white in the midst of a dawn-like glimmer, like that of a fair Diana
awakening at the break of day; and this was no doubt why she loved this
little room which gave a heavenly setting to her beauty.
At this hour she was there with her intimate friends. Her sister
and her aunt had just departed. There were none but madcaps in the
sanctum. Leaning back in the depths of a sofa, Renée was listening to
the secrets of her friend Adeline, who was whispering in her ear with
feline playfulness and sudden bursts of laughter. Suzanne Haffner was
in great request; she was holding her own against a group of young
men who were pressing her closely, without losing any of her German
languor, her provoking effrontery, as bare and cold as her shoulders.
In a corner, Madame Sidonie was enlightening in a low voice a young
woman with the eyes of a virgin. Farther off, Louise was standing
talking with a big timid fellow who blushed violently; whilst Baron
Gouraud was dozing in an easy-chair full in the light, displaying his
flabby flesh, his pale elephantine form, in the midst of the frail
graces and the silky daintiness of the ladies. And all about the room,
on the stiff satin skirts shining like china, on the milky white
shoulders studded with diamonds, a light of fairy-land fell in a golden
dust. A soft voice, a laugh no louder than the cooing of a dove, had as
limpid a ring as crystal. It was very warm in there. Fans were moving
slowly to and fro like wings, disseminating at each breath in the
sultry atmosphere the musked perfumes of the bodices.
When Maxime appeared in the doorway, Renée, who was listening to the
marchioness in an absent-minded way, rose up hastily, pretending
to have to play her part as mistress of the house. She passed into
the principal drawing-room where the young man followed her. After
smilingly taking a few steps there and shaking hands with different
people, she drew Maxime aside.
"Well!" whispered she ironically, "the task seems an easy one; you
don't appear to find courting as stupid as you imagined."
"I don't understand you," replied the young man, who was about to plead
for Monsieur de Mussy.
"Why I think I did well not to deliver you from Louise. You don't waste
any time, you two."
And she added with a sort of vexation:
"At table, too, it was quite indecent."
Maxime burst out laughing.
"Ah! yes, we were telling each other stories. I did not know her, the
chit. She's very funny. She's just like a boy."
And as Renée's face still bore the irritated look of a prude, the young
man, who had never known her so indignant before, resumed with smiling
familiarity:
"Do you think, pretty mamma, that I pinched her legs under the table?
Hang it all, one knows how to behave towards one's betrothed! I
have something far more serious to tell you. Listen to me--you are
listening, are you not?"
He lowered his voice still more.
"This is what's the matter. Monsieur de Mussy is very miserable; he has
just told me so. You know it's not for me to bring you together again,
if you've had a row. But, you understand, I was at college with him,
and as he really seems to be in despair, I promised him I would speak
to you."
He stopped. Renée was looking at him in a very strange manner.
"You don't answer?" continued he. "Anyhow, I have done what I promised.
Settle the matter between you as you like. But, really now, I cannot
help thinking you cruel. I quite feel for the poor fellow. In your
place I would send him at least a kind message."
Then Renée, who had not taken the bright, fixed look of her eyes off
Maxime, replied:
"Go and tell Monsieur de Mussy that he bores me."
And she resumed her slow walk amidst the groups, smiling, bowing, and
shaking hands. Maxime stood for a moment lost in surprise; then he
quietly laughed to himself.
Not at all desirous of delivering the message to Monsieur de Mussy, he
took a turn round the principal drawing-room. The party was drawing to
a close, marvellous and commonplace like most parties. It was close
upon midnight; the guests were slowly departing. Not wishing to retire
with a feeling of unpleasantness, he decided to seek Louise. He was
passing before the hall door when he caught sight of the pretty Madame
Michelin being wrapt up by her husband in a little pink and blue cloak.
"He was most charming, most charming," the young woman was saying. "We
talked of you the whole of dinner. He will speak to the minister; only,
it is not in his province--"
And as, close to them, a footman was assisting Baron Gouraud on with a
big fur coat:
"That's the old fellow who could settle the matter!" added she in her
husband's ear, whilst he was tying the string of her hood under her
chin. "He does just as he likes at the ministry. At the Mareuils'
to-morrow we must try--"
Monsieur Michelin smiled. He took his wife off with the greatest care,
as though he had on his arm a most fragile and precious object. After
assuring himself by a glance that Louise was not in the hall, Maxime
went straight to the little drawing-room. She was still there, almost
alone, and awaiting her father, who had probably spent the evening
in the smoking-room with the politicians. The marchioness and Madame
Haffner had taken their departure. There only remained Madame Sidonie
telling the wives of some functionaries how much she loved animals.
"Ah! here's my little husband," exclaimed Louise. "Come and sit down
and tell me in what chair my father can have fallen asleep. He must
already be fancying himself in the Chamber."
Maxime answered her in a similar strain, and the two young people were
soon again laughing as loud as during dinner. Seated on a very low
chair at her feet, he ended by taking hold of her hands and by playing
with her, just the same as with a comrade. And in truth, with her
high-made dress of soft white silk studded with red spots, her flat
chest, and her ugly and cunning little urchin's head, she resembled a
boy disguised as a girl. But at times her puny arms, her crooked form,
assumed negligent postures, and gleams of passion would appear in the
depths of her eyes still full of childishness, without her blushing the
least in the world at Maxime's playfulness. And they both laughed away,
just as though they were by themselves, without even noticing Renée,
who was standing half hidden in the centre of the conservatory watching
them from a distance.
A moment ago, as she was crossing a path, the sight of Maxime and
Louise had suddenly brought the young woman to a standstill behind a
shrub. All about her, the warm conservatory, similar to the nave of a
church, and the glass arched roof of which was supported on slender
iron columns, displayed its fertile vegetation, its masses of gigantic
leaves, its clumps of luxuriant verdure.
In the centre, in an oval tank on a level with the ground, lived,
in the mysterious manner of water plants, all the aquatic flora of
the land of the sun. A border of Cyclantheæ raising their tall green
plumes, surrounded with a monumental belt the fountain which resembled
the truncated capital of some Cyclopean column. Then, at either end,
two enormous Tornelias reared their strange-looking bushes above the
water, their dry, bare stems twisted like agonizing serpents, and
emitting aerial roots which had an appearance of fishermen's nets hung
up to dry. Close to the edge, a Pandanus from Java expanded its sheaf
of greenish leaves streaked with white, as thin as swords, prickly and
serrated like Malay daggers. And floating amid the warmth of the gently
heated sheet of slumbering water, some Nymphæa opened their rosy stars,
whilst some Euryale trailed their round and leprous-looking leaves
over the surface, appearing like the backs of so many monstrous toads
covered with pustules.
By way of carpeting, a broad edging of Selaginella surrounded the tank.
This dwarf fern formed a thick moss-like sward of a tender green. And
beyond the wide circular path, four enormous groups of exotic plants
shot right up to the arched roof; the palms, slightly drooping in
their gracefulness, spread out their fan-like leaves, displayed their
rounded heads, hung down their branches like so many oars wearied by
their eternal voyage in the azure of the air; the great bamboos from
India ascended erect, slender and hard, with their fine shower of
leaves falling from on high; a Ravenala, the traveller's tree, held up
its bunch of immense Chinese screens; and, in a corner, a Banana tree
loaded with fruit stretched out in all directions its long, horizontal
leaves, on which two lovers might easily recline providing they kept
pretty close to each other. In the corners were some Euphorbia from
Abyssinia, those prickly, ill-shaped torch-thistles covered with
horrid excrescences and reeking with poison. And the ground beneath
the taller plants was carpeted by dwarf ferns, including the Adiantum
and the Pteris, with fronds as delicate as the finest lace-work. A
taller species, the Alsophilas, tapered upwards with their rows
of symmetrical and sexangular foliage so regular that it had the
appearance of enormous pieces of crockery intended to hold the fruits
of some gigantic dessert. Then an edging of Begonias and Caladiums
surrounded the beds; the Begonias with their twisted leaves superbly
streaked with green and red; the Caladiums, the leaves of which, shaped
like lance heads, white and veined with green, resemble the wings of
some monstrous butterfly; bizarre plants which vegetate strangely with
the sombre or palish glow of noisome flowers.
Behind the beds a second path, a narrower one, went right round the
conservatory. And there, on stages, half hiding the pipes of the
heating apparatus, bloomed Marantas, as soft to the touch as velvet,
Gloxinias, with their purple bell-shaped flowers, Dracænas, resembling
blades of old lacquer.
But one of the charms of this winter garden consisted in alcoves of
verdure in the four corners, roomy arbours shut in by thick curtains
of tropical creepers. Bits of virgin forests had weaved in these spots
their walls of leaves, their impenetrable medley of stems, of supple
shoots, clinging to the branches, traversing space by a bold leap, and
hanging from the arched roof like the tassels of some rich drapery. A
root of Vanilla, with its ripe pods exhaling a penetrating perfume,
trailed about the arch of a moss-covered porch, whilst the Indian
berry decked the little columns with its round leaves; Bauhinias, with
their red bunches, and the Quisqualis, the flowers of which hung like
necklets of glass beads, glided, twined and entangled themselves like
slender snakes endlessly playing and stretching amidst the depths of
the foliage.
And beneath the arches placed here and there between the beds, and
held by wire chains, hung baskets filled with Orchids, those bizarre
plants of the air, which spread in all directions their stunted and
knotted shoots bent and twisted like crippled limbs. There were
Lady's-slippers, the flowers of which resemble a marvellous shoe
adorned on the heel with the wings of a dragon-fly; Ærides with their
delicate perfume; and Stanhopeas, the pale streaked flowers of which,
like the bitter mouth of some convalescent, exhale to a distance a
strong and acrid breath.
But that which, from every point of view, was the most conspicuous
object, was a great Hibiscus from China, its immense expanse of
flowers and foliage covering the whole side of the mansion to which
the conservatory was fixed. The large purple flowers of this gigantic
mallow are ever being renewed, and live but a few hours. One could
almost fancy them a woman's sensual, opening mouths, the red soft moist
lips of some giant Messalina, bruised by kisses and yet ever reviving
with their eager and bleeding smile.
[Illustration: RENÉE WATCHING MAXIME AND LOUISE IN THE LITTLE DRAWING
ROOM.]
Renée stood near the tank, and shivered in the midst of all these
superb blossoms. Behind her, a great black marble sphinx, squatting
on a block of granite, its head turned towards the water, wore on its
features the wary and cruel smile of a cat; and it looked like the dark
Idol with shining thighs of that land of fire. At this hour ground
glass globes cast a milky light over the surrounding foliage. Statues,
women's heads with the necks thrown back, and swelling with mirth,
stood out white from the recesses of the groups of shrubs, with patches
of shadow which contorted their mad laughter. Strange rays played about
the deep still water of the tank, lighting up vague forms and glaucous
masses resembling rough designs of monsters. Over the smooth leaves of
the Ravenala, on the glossy fans of the Latanias, streamed a flood of
white light; whilst from the lace-work of the ferns fell a gentle rain
of sparks. Up above shone the reflections from the glass roof amongst
the sombre heads of the tall palms. Then, all around, everything was
wrapt in shadow; the arbours, with their drapery of tropical creepers,
became lost in the darkness, like the nests of slumbering reptiles.
And Renée stood musing in the bright light, as she watched Louise
and Maxime in the distance. It was no longer the floating fancies,
the vague temptation of twilight, in the chilly avenues of the Bois.
Her thoughts were no longer lulled and sent to sleep by the trot
of her horses along the fashionable walks, and the glades in which
middle-class families pic-nic on a Sunday. Now it was a definite, a
keen desire which filled her whole being.
An immense love, a need of voluptuousness, floated about this close
nave, full of the ardent sap of the tropics. The young woman was
enveloped in these mighty bridals of the earth, engendering around her
this dark verdure, these colossal stems; and the acrid confinement of
this candent mother, this forest-like growth, this mass of vegetation
all glowing with the entrails which nourished it, surrounded her with
perturbing effluvia of most intoxicating power. At her feet, the tank,
the mass of warm water, thickened by the juices of the floating
roots, steamed and wrapt her shoulders in a mantle of heavy vapour,
a mist which heated her skin like the contact of a hand moist with
voluptuousness. On her head she felt a breath from the palms as the
tall leaves sprinkled their aroma. And more than the close warmth
of the atmosphere, than the bright lights, than the large dazzling
flowers resembling faces laughing or grimacing amongst the foliage, the
odours especially overpowered her. An undefinable perfume, powerful
and exciting, hung about, composed of a thousand others: human
perspiration, women's breaths, the scent of hair; and zephyrs sweet and
insipid almost to faintness, were blended with coarse and pestilential
smells loaded with poison. But amidst this strange amalgamation of
odours, the one which dominated all, stifling the delicateness of
the vanilla and the sharpness of the orchids, was that penetrating,
sensual, human odour, that odour of love which escapes of a morning
from the closed chamber of a young married couple.
Renée had slowly leant against the granite pedestal. In her green
satin dress, with her face and shoulders of a rosy hue and sparkling
with the pure scintillations of her diamonds, she resembled some
great pink and green flower, one of the Nymphæa of the tank, swooning
from the heat. At this hour of clear vision, all her good resolutions
vanished for ever, the intoxication of the dinner regained possession
of her faculties, imperious, triumphant, and rendered mightier than
before by the flames of the conservatory. She no longer remembered
the chill night air which had calmed her, nor those murmuring shadows
of the park, the voices of which had counselled a happy peacefulness.
Her ardent woman's senses, her satiated woman's capriciousness, were
aroused. And, above her, the great black marble sphinx laughed a
mysterious laugh, as though it had read the at length expressed desired
which was galvanizing this dead heart, the desire which had remained so
long elusive, the "something else" so vainly sought by Renée amidst the
oscillating motion of her carriage, in the ashy gloom of the gathering
night, and which had been so abruptly revealed to her beneath the
glaring light of this garden of fire by the sight of Louise and Maxime,
laughing and playing together, hand in hand.
At this moment a sound of voices issued from a neighbouring arbour,
where Aristide Saccard had led the Messieurs Mignon and Charrier.
"No, really, Monsieur Saccard," the latter was saying in a thick voice,
"we cannot take it back from you at more than two hundred francs the
metre."
And Saccard retorted in his shrill tones:
"But in my share you valued it at two hundred and fifty francs."
"Well, listen! we will make it two hundred and twenty-five francs."
And the voices continued, harsh, and ringing strangely beneath the
drooping palms. But they merely traversed Renée's dream like some
vain noise, as there rose before her, conjured up by her delirium, an
unknown enjoyment, hot with crime, and more vehement than all those she
had already exhausted, the last that remained to her to partake of. She
no longer felt weary.
The shrub behind which she remained half hidden was an accursed plant,
a Tanghinia from Madagascar, with broad box-like leaves and whitish
stems, the smallest veins of which distil a poisonous juice. And, at
one moment, as Louise's and Maxime's mirth became louder, in the yellow
reflection, in the sunset of the little drawing-room, Renée, her mind
wandering, her mouth parched and irritated, took between her teeth a
sprig of the Tanghinia, which was on a level with her lips, and closed
them on one of the bitter leaves.
CHAPTER II.
Aristide Rougon swooped down upon Paris on the morrow of the Coup
d'État, with that scent of birds of prey which sniff the field of
carnage from afar. He came from Plassans, a sub-prefecture of the
South, where his father had at length netted in the troubled waters of
events an office of tax collector for which he had long been angling.
As for himself, still young, and having compromised his position like a
fool, with neither glory nor profit, he could only feel very fortunate
in issuing safe and sound from the squabble. He came, with a rush,
enraged at his mistake, cursing the country, speaking of Paris with a
wolf-like greed, and swearing "that he would never be caught napping
again;" and the keen smile with which he accompanied these words
assumed a terrible significance on his thin lips.
He arrived in the early days of 1852. He was accompanied by his wife
Angèle, a fair and insignificant creature, whom he placed in a small
lodging in the Rue Saint-Jacques, like some awkward piece of furniture
he was anxious to be rid of. The young woman had been unwilling to
be separated from her daughter, little Clotilde, a child four years
old, whom the father would willingly have left behind to be taken care
of by his relations. But he had only yielded to his wife's wish on
condition that the college at Plassans should retain their son Maxime,
a youngster of eleven, who would be looked after by the grandmother.
Aristide wished to have his hands free; a woman and a child already
seemed to him a crushing weight to encumber a man decided to overcome
all obstacles, though he grovelled in the mud or perished in the
attempt.
The very evening of his arrival, whilst Angèle was unpacking, he felt
an eager longing to explore Paris, to hear his heavy countryman's boots
striking that burning pavement from which he hoped to cause millions to
spring forth. It was a regular taking of possession. He walked for the
sake of walking, following the footpaths, just as though in a conquered
country. He had a very clear conception of the battle he was about
to offer, and it was not in the least repugnant to his feelings to
compare himself to a skilful picklock who, by artifice or violence, was
about to take his share of the common wealth which had been wickedly
refused him until then. Had he felt the need of an excuse, he would
have invoked his every desire denied him for ten years, his wretched
country existence, his faults especially, for which he held society at
large responsible. But at this moment, in that emotion of a gambler who
at last places his eager hands on the green baize of the gaming-table,
he was filled with joy, a joy of his own, in which blended the
gratification of covetousness and the expectation of an unpunished
rogue. The atmosphere of Paris intoxicated him, he fancied he could
hear, in the rumbling of the vehicles, the voices from "Macbeth"
calling to him: "You will be rich!" During close upon two hours he
wandered thus from street to street, enjoying the voluptuousness of a
man roaming amidst his own vice. He had not been back in Paris since
the happy year he had passed there as a student. Night was falling; his
dream grew in the bright lights which the shops and the cafés cast on
the pavement; he lost himself.
When he raised his eyes, he found himself towards the middle of the
Faubourg Saint-Honoré. One of his brothers, Eugène Rougon, lived in a
street close by, the Rue de Penthièvre. In coming to Paris, Aristide
had especially counted upon Eugène who, after having been one of the
most active agents of the Coup d'État, had now become an occult power,
a lawyer of no particular standing but who was shortly to blossom into
a great political personage. But, superstitious as a gambler, he was
unwilling to knock at his brother's door on that evening. He slowly
retraced his steps to the Rue Saint-Jacques, inwardly envying Eugène's
lot, glancing down at his own shabby clothes still covered with the
dust of the journey, and seeking to console himself by resuming his
dream of riches. Even this dream had become bitter to him. Having
started out through a necessity for expansion, joyfully enlivened by
the busy activity of Paris trade, he returned home irritated at the
happiness which seemed to him to be rampant in the streets, feeling
more ferocious than ever, imagining all kinds of desperate struggles in
which he would take pleasure in defeating and duping that crowd which
had jostled him on the pavement. Never before had he felt so keen and
vast an appetite, so immediate and ardent a necessity for enjoying.
On the morrow he was at his brother's, almost at daybreak. Eugène
occupied two large cold rooms, very barely furnished, and which quite
chilled Aristide. He had expected to find his brother sprawling in the
lap of luxury. The latter was seated working at a little black table.
He merely said in his slow voice, accompanying his words with a smile:
"Ah! it's you, I was expecting your visit."
Aristide was very bitter. He accused Eugène of having left him to
vegetate, of not even having bestowed upon him so much as a word
of advice during the time he had been dabbling about in his native
province. He would never be able to forgive himself for having remained
Republican up to the very day of the Coup d'État; it caused him the
most poignant regret, and filled him with eternal confusion. Eugène had
quietly taken up his pen again. When the other had finished speaking,
he observed:
"Bah! all mistakes can be rectified. You have a fine future before you."