THE LOVERS. THE GOSSIPS.
The barber Touquet's shop was as usual filled with a motley crowd of
people of all classes. There were gathered students, shopkeepers, pages,
poets, bachelors, adventurers, and even young noblemen; for the fashion
of the time permitted these amiable libertines to mingle sometimes with
persons in the lower classes of society, whether they sought new
sensations in listening to a language which for them had all the
fascinating charm of novelty, or whether it was for the purpose of
playing tricks on the persons with whom they thus mixed.
Master Touquet's shop was large, and moreover furnished with benches,
which latter conveniences were an almost unheard-of luxury in a time
when people took their diversions standing, and when no one was seated
even at the play. The barber by this means extended his custom; he
attended to everything, answered everybody, and did more himself than
ten hairdressers of today. His hand, which was skilful, nimble and
accurate with scissors or razor, had earned him the reputation of being
one of the best barbers in Paris, and drew to his shop many fops,
because in the middle class one held it an honor to be able to say,
while caressing one's chin, "I've been shaved by Touquet." But those
whom he had served sometimes remained for a long time in conversation
with the persons who were awaiting their turn, the greater part of these
idlers desiring to chat for a moment on the news of the day and the
adventures of the night. Towards ten o'clock in the morning there was
always a numerous gathering at Master Touquet's shop.
There one saw all kinds of toilets; but then, as today, rich garments
did not always betoken rank or fortune in those who wore them. The taste
for luxury was becoming general, because consideration was accorded only
to those who had splendid equipages and magnificent clothing. An
appearance of wealth and power obtained all the honors; true merit
without distinction, without renown, remained forgotten and in poverty.
And one assuredly sees the same thing today.
Access to court was easy. For a parvenu to introduce himself there,
often nothing more was necessary than a costume similar to those worn by
courtiers,--the hat adorned by a feather, a doublet and mantle of satin
or velvet, the sword at the belt, the whole enlivened by trimmings of
gold or silver braid. Each sought to procure for himself the most
splendid personal appearance, and many ruined themselves in order to
appear wealthy.
An attempt was, however, made to arrest this tendency to luxurious
habits, which could not hide the poverty of the time. By an edict of the
month of November of the year 1633, it was forbidden to all subjects to
wear on their shirts, cuffs, head-dresses, or on other linen, all
openwork, embroideries of gold or silver thread, braids, laces or cut
points, manufactured either within or without the realm.
In the following year a second edict appeared, which prohibited the
employment, in habiliments, of any kind of cloth of gold or silver, real
or imitation, and decreed that the richest garments should be of velvet,
satin or taffetas, without other ornament than two bands of silk
embroidery; it also forbade that the liveries of pages, lackeys and
coachmen should be made of any other than woollen stuffs. But these laws
were soon infringed; men will always have the desire to appear more than
they are, and women to hide what they are.
Among the different personages assembled in the barber's shop there was
one who chatted with nobody and seemed to take not the slightest
interest in the relation of the scandalous adventures of the night. This
was a young man who appeared about nineteen years of age or a little
over, endowed with a physiognomy by no means cheerful; for one
ordinarily applies that term to those round, fresh faces, red and plump,
which breathe health and gayety. He had beautiful eyes, but was pale;
noble features, but rather a melancholy expression; finally, he had what
one calls an interesting face, and this sort are in general more
fortunate in love than those of cheerful physiognomy. The young man's
costume was very simple; neither ornament nor embroidery adorned his
gray coat, buttoned just to the knee and cut like our frock coat of
today; his belt was black; no ribbons floated from his knees and his
arms; he neither had a sword nor laces, nor plumes on the broad brim of
his hat.
He had been for a very long time in the barber's shop. On entering, his
eyes had appeared to search for something other than the master of the
place; he had thrown glances towards the back shop, and still continued
to do so. Several times already his turn had come and Touquet had said
to him,--
"Whenever you wish, seigneur bachelor."
The young man's simple costume was, in fact, that which was ordinarily
worn by law students in Paris; but to each invitation of the barber the
bachelor only answered, "I am not pressed for time," and another took
his place.
After a time the loiterers and gossips departed and the young man found
himself alone with Touquet, to whom his conduct began to appear
singular.
"Now you can no longer yield your turn to anybody," said the barber,
offering a chair to the stranger. "In truth I cannot shave you; you have
not enough on your chin; but without doubt you came for something, and
I am at your service, monsieur."
"Yes," said the young man with an embarrassed air, turning his eyes
towards the back shop, "I should like--my hair is too long, and--"
"Seat yourself here, seigneur bachelor; you will find that I am skilful;
my hand is as well accustomed to the scissors as to the razor."
The young man decided at last to intrust his head to the barber, but as
soon as the latter paused for a moment he profited by it to turn and
look into the back shop.
"Are you looking for anything, monsieur?" said Touquet, whom this trick
did not escape.
"No--no. I was only looking to see if you were alone here."
"Yes, monsieur; you see I have no need of anybody to help me in order to
satisfy my customers."
"Indeed, someone told me you were extremely skilful."
"And monsieur has had time to judge of my talent, he has been nearly two
hours in my shop."
"I had nothing pressing to do; and then, I wished to obtain some
information of you. Tell me, my friend, who occupies the first story of
this house."
"I do, monsieur," said Touquet, after a moment's hesitation.
The young man seemed vexed then that he had asked the question.
"May I learn, monsieur, how that interests you?" resumed Touquet,
looking at the unknown attentively.
"Ah, it is that I am looking for a lodging--in this quarter. One chamber
would suffice me. Do you not take lodgers, and could you give me a room
if this house belongs to you?"
"This house does belong to me; in fact, monsieur, I cannot grant your
request. For a long time I have let no lodgings, and I have no room in
the house, which is not very large."
"What! you cannot let me a single chamber, a closet even? I repeat to
you, I wish to have one in this neighborhood; I often have business in
the Louvre. I will pay you anything that you ask."
"Anything?" said the barber, glancing ironically at the young man's
simple garments. "You are getting on, perhaps, a little, monsieur
student. All the same, your desires cannot be gratified, and I advise
you to renounce your plans."
Touquet dwelt on this last phrase, and the young man's face reddened a
little; but the barber had finished his ministrations, and the former
had no way of prolonging his stay with a man who did not appear to wish
to continue the conversation, and to whom he feared he had said too
much. The bachelor rose, paid, and at last left the shop, but not
without looking up at the windows of the house.
"That's a lover," said Touquet, as soon as the young man had taken his
departure. "Yes, his uneasiness, his looks, his questions--oh, I
understand it all. I have served too many lovers ever to be deceived
about that. Curse it! this is just what I feared. What vexations I
foresee! What anxieties are about to assail me! He must have seen
Blanche, but where? when? how? She never leaves the house without me,
and that very rarely; however, this young man is in love with her, I'll
bet a hundred pieces of gold. Halloo there, Marguerite! Marguerite!"
The old servant had heard her master's loud voice; she mentally invoked
her patron saint and went down to the shop.
"How long is it since Blanche went out without my knowing it?" said the
barber suddenly.
"Went out? Mademoiselle Blanche?" said Marguerite, looking at her master
in surprise.
"Yes,--went out with you. Why don't you answer?"
"Blessed Holy Virgin! that hasn't happened for two years; then
Mademoiselle Blanche was still a child, and you sometimes allowed her to
go with me to take a turn in the big Pre-aux-Clercs. But since that time
the poor little thing has not been out, I believe, except twice with
you, and that was at night, and Mademoiselle Blanche had a very thick
veil."
"I didn't ask you if she had been out with me. And has any young man
been here in my absence who has asked you about her, or who has sought
to be introduced to her?"
"Indeed, I would have given him a warm reception. Monsieur doesn't know
me. Except the Chevalier Chaudoreille, mademoiselle has seen no one; as
to the latter, he came this morning to give her a music lesson."
"Oh, Chaudoreille isn't dangerous; but if some student, some young page,
should come in my absence and seek to see Blanche, remember to send such
heedless fellows away promptly."
"Yes, monsieur, yes. Oh, you may be easy. Besides, hasn't the beautiful
child always about her a precious talisman which will preserve her from
all danger? I defy ten gallants to turn her head so long as she carries
it, and I will see that she does not leave it off."
"Watch, rather, that she does not open her window; that will be better.
If that should happen, I should be obliged to give her the little room
which opens on the court."
"Ah, monsieur, Mademoiselle Blanche would die there of weariness; there
one can barely see the light, and the poor little thing does not go out,
and could only work during the daytime with a candle."
"Unless she opens her window, it will be a long time before she occupies
it," said Touquet in a low voice, making a sign to the servant to leave
him, which the latter did, saying,--
"What a misfortune not to have faith in talismans! If monsieur believed
in them, he would not deprive that poor little thing of every
amusement."
The barber had not been mistaken in judging that the young man, who had
had so much difficulty in tearing himself away from the shop, was a
lover.
The Italian's song had so captivated Blanche's ears that the young girl
had stood close to her casement, and had not budged from it during the
time that her music master had made his variations on the villanelle. At
the same moment Urbain was passing, and he had stopped to listen to the
music, and while listening his glance was carried to Blanche's window.
At first he had seen nothing but some very small panes; but at last,
through these panes, his eyes could distinguish a face so pretty, eyes
so blue and so full of the pleasure that Blanche was experiencing, that
the young man had remained motionless, his looks fixed upon that window,
near which the charming apparition remained. When the music ceased the
pretty face disappeared, and the young man had said to himself,--
"I was not in error; there is an angel, a divinity, in that house."
And as that angel, that divinity, lived in the modest house of a barber,
the bachelor had believed he should penetrate into the third heaven in
entering Master Touquet's shop; but he returned to ideas more
terrestrial on seeing nothing but men who had come to be shaved, who had
about them nothing divine, despite all the essences with which their
chins were besmeared. Urbain had glanced towards the back shop, hoping
to perceive the pretty figure of the first floor, and had prolonged as
much as possible his stay in the barber's shop. We have witnessed the
result of his conversation with the barber.
The young man departed, very much out of sorts; he perceived that he had
made a blunder in questioning the barber, who was probably his adored
one's father; for the young men of that time were inflamed with love as
quickly as those of today. He felt that before going into the shop he
should have obtained some information in the neighborhood, and he
decided to finish as he should have begun. In all times the bakers have
had very correct ideas about their neighbors, because the neighbors are
all obliged to go or to send to the baker's. Urbain went into a shop at
a little distance, and while paying for some rolls entered into
conversation with the woman who was behind the counter,--a conversation
in which all the servants who arrived at that moment took part.
"Do you know a barber in this street?"
"A barber? Yes, my good monsieur; down there at the corner of the Rue
Saint-Honore,--Master Touquet. Has monsieur some business with him? Oh,
he's a very skilful man at his trade, and has made lots of money, by
shaving beards, or in some other way. What that is I won't pretend to
tell you. That's so--isn't it, Madame Ledoux?"
"It is true," said Madame Ledoux, resting a basket of vegetables on the
counter, "that Touquet has not always enjoyed an excellent reputation. I
have lived in the neighborhood for eight years and, thank God, I know
everything that has passed here,--all that everybody has done here, and
all that everybody is still doing; and that reminds me that yesterday
evening I saw Madame Grippart come home at ten o'clock with a young man,
who left her in front of the grocer's shop after having held her hand in
his for more than two hours, while that poor Grippart was peacefully
slumbering, for he goes to bed at nine o'clock. That doesn't trouble
him; he well deserves it, for he went about everywhere saying that his
wife had a strong breath, and those things need not be said.--But to
return to Master Touquet. Oh, that's a sly blade, a crafty, cunning
fellow. I've known him since he settled in this street; he's been here
nearly fifteen years. He rented the house which belonged to M. Richard.
You know, my neighbor, the old cloth merchant?"
"The one whose wife had two fat, plump twins seven months after they
were married?"
"Who didn't look at all like their father. It's the same. Well, this
Touquet was then barber, bathkeeper and lodging-house keeper, and report
says that beside that he helped young men of family in their love
affairs. He then kept two shop-men, and should have made money; however,
he was for a long time miserably poor, since his shop-men left him
because he did not pay them. Everyone was very much astonished ten years
ago when Touquet kept with him, and began to educate as his own child,
the daughter of a man whom he did not know, who had come to lodge with
him by chance, and who was killed the same night in a fight between some
worthless fellows and the officers of the watch. The poor man! they
found his corpse down there,--Rue Saint-Honore, before the draper's
shop. Do you remember it, Madame Legras?"
Madame Legras, who had just come into the baker's shop, began by
throwing herself on a chair and crying,--
"Good-day, ladies! Good Heavens! how dear the fish is today, nobody can
look at it."
And Urbain sighed, saying, "The fish will take us away from the barber";
but to advance in love one must often have patience, and in the midst of
all this gossip that which concerned Touquet was precious to the young
bachelor.
"I wished to have an eel to feast my husband, but it was impossible."
"Is it his birthday?"
"No; but he took me yesterday for a walk around the Bastile, and one
compliment brings on another. I can say with pride that there are few
households so united as ours. During the four years that I have been
married to my second husband, M. Legras, we have quarrelled only five
times; but that was always for some trifling cause. What were you
talking about, ladies?"
"Of our neighbor Touquet, about whom this gentleman desired some
information."
"Touquet the barber? My word, ladies, you may say whatever you will, but
I don't like that man."
"He's a very handsome man, however."
"Yes, of the same height as M. Legras; but there is something hard and
false and stern in his appearance."
"Yes, for some time past; formerly he was gayer, more open. Now monsieur
never chats; he has grown proud."
"That's not surprising; he has made money."
"Yes, by shaving beards perhaps."
"It's a good deal more likely he has made it by assisting the love
affairs of some great nobleman, in procuring and abducting some beauty."
"Come, ladies, don't be so malicious. As for me, you know I haven't a
bad tongue. Touquet is very skilful at his trade. I know very well that
in order to buy and pay for that house where he now is he must have
shaved a good many faces; but they say now the barber is very steady
and economical."
"When the devil is old--"
"Touquet is not old; he's hardly over forty years."
"Adopting that little girl should have brought him good luck."
"That's what I was telling monsieur. Poor little thing! Nobody knows
anything about her, except that she had a father."
"Well, neighbor, somebody found a letter on him having for an address,
'To Monsieur Moranval, gentleman.'"
"Ah, he was a gentleman?"
"Yes, my dear. Oh, I remember all that as if it were yesterday."
"How fortunate one is in having such a memory! And what did the letter
say?"
"It seemed that there were only a few lines of which nobody could make
much of anything; someone recommended to this Moranval to take great
precautions in the business which brought him to Paris. But what
business? Nobody knows anything about it."
"Did they find nothing else on him?"
"No; there is little doubt that the poor man was robbed after being
murdered."
"Did they go to Touquet's to inquire what he knew about it?"
"Touquet answered the officers of justice that the man had come down to
his house the evening before, and had introduced himself as a gentleman
who was about to remain for some time in Paris; that he had first asked
him to put his little girl to bed, and that later he had gone out,
saying he should be absent for an hour or so. Touquet had waited up for
him a great part of the night, and it was not till the next day that he
learned from public rumor that a man had been found murdered in the Rue
Saint-Honore, a short distance from his house; that, being already
uneasy about his guest, he had gone to see the victim, and had
recognized the man who had arrived at his place the evening before."
"I hope that's a history. Unfortunately, one hears only too many similar
stories. Ours are really cut-throat streets, and it is not well, after
nine o'clock, to be out in them. The gentlemen of the parliament make
decrees often enough, but it doesn't do much good. A little while ago,
it seems a counsellor of the Chamber of Investigation was similarly
murdered. The parliament has just promulgated a new ordinance against
these worthless fellows--haven't they, monsieur?"
"Yes," said Urbain; "the public prosecutor has just complained of
murders, assassinations and robberies, which take place every day, as
many upon the highways as in the city or the suburbs, by armed persons
who forcibly break into houses, and that through the negligence of the
police officers who do not properly perform their duty. Parliament
yesterday passed a new decree, ordering that vagabonds, men of bad
character, and robbers, should vacate the city and the faubourgs of
Paris within twenty-four hours."
"Well, you'll see, tonight we shall hear a bigger rumpus than ever."
"And the barber Touquet is not married?" resumed Urbain, who wished to
return to the subject of conversation which was interesting to him.
"No, he's a bachelor," said Madame Ledoux.
"And this young girl that lodges with him--"
"She's the little one whom he adopted."
"She had no other protectors?"
"What could you expect, since nobody knew her parents? Touquet has, they
say, taken very good care of her; I will do him the justice to say that.
He has taken into his house, to wait on the little one, a servant, old
Marguerite, a gossip, who is always seeking for preservatives against
the wind, the thunder, the sorcerers, or even for talismans to guard her
dear Blanche against the snares of the gallants."
"Blanche, then, is the name of the young girl?"
"Yes; that is her name."
"And this old woman is the only one about her?"
"Mercy! isn't that enough? Besides, the little one never goes out, and
no one ever sees her even put her nose out of the window."
"Tell me, ladies, don't you think, with me, that the barber has brought
up this pretty child for himself, and that he would not take so much
care of her unless he was in love with her?"
"Indeed, that might very well be possible. Touquet is still young, and
perhaps wishes to marry her."
"Nonsense! I don't believe that; and besides, they say that the young
person is not good-looking. I have heard it said by an ugly little thin
man, with a long sword, who is often at the barber's shop, that the
orphan is very ugly."
"Ugly!" cried Urbain quickly. "That's a frightful lie!"
"Ah, monsieur has seen her, then?" immediately said the gossips, looking
at the young man with a mischievous air.
The latter felt that he had committed an imprudence; but having nothing
more to learn from these dames, he made them a low bow and left the
shop, leaving the gossips to talk among themselves.
"Well, if he hasn't gone, and he didn't tell us what he wanted with
Touquet."
But Urbain had learned enough; and while directing his steps toward the
Rue Montmartre, where he dwelt, our lover cogitated thus:--
"She's not the barber's daughter; he has stood to her in place of a
father, but he has no rights over her except those accorded to a
benefactor by a grateful heart. She's the daughter of a gentleman,
which is much better; my father was a gentleman also, who valiantly
fought under King Henry. The old soldiers still remember Captain
Dorgeville, and the name which he has transmitted to me is pure and
without stain. I am alone in the world; I am my own master. Like her I
have no parents, for a year ago death deprived me of my good mother. My
fortune is very moderate,--twelve hundred livres income and a little
house by the seaside. That is all my father left me; but she has nothing
more, and by working I could render her happy. I am about to take my
bachelor's degree, but I shall now leave this unfruitful career; science
brings fortune too slowly. I don't know, however, if I could please her.
Yes, that's the first task with which I should occupy myself. If she
loves me, I will ask her hand of the barber. He will wish to assure her
happiness; he could not refuse me unless he himself---- If these women said
rightly he is in love with her. The hard tone with which he answered me
this morning, his refusal to lodge me in his house, make me believe it.
And that wretch who dared to say that she was ugly!--when object more
enchanting never met my eyes. Ah, it wasn't of her he was speaking. If
such a thing could happen, I should like to see her, to tell her of the
love which she has inspired; and, if I could manage to please her,
nothing then could prevent me from becoming her husband."
These were, somebody will say, very foolish plans concerning a young
girl whose face one had only perceived through some very dim
window-panes; and it was on the possession of this almost ideal object
that Urbain already based the happiness of his life. But let us look
back on our own lives. We were hardly more reasonable,--happy if between
us and the chimeras which enchanted us there was nothing thicker than a
pane of glass.