The mother's first thought was of cure, but this hope was reluctantly
abandoned; no cure could be found. At the time of which we are writing,
there existed a pitiless prejudice against those poor creatures whom we
style _deaf mutes_. A few noble spirits, it is true, had protested
against this barbarity. A Spanish monk of the sixteenth century was the
first to devise means of teaching the dumb to speak without words--a
thing until then deemed impossible. His example had been followed at
different times in Italy, England, and France, by Bonnet, Wallis,
Bulwer, and Van Helmont, and a little good had been done here and there.
Still, however, even at Paris, deaf mutes were generally regarded as
beings set apart, marked with the brand of Divine displeasure. Deprived
of speech, the power of thought was denied them, and they inspired more
horror than pity.
A dark shadow crept over the happiness of Camille's parents. A sudden,
silent estrangement--worse than divorce, crueller than death--grew up
between them. For the mother passionately loved her afflicted child,
while the Chevalier, despite all the efforts prompted by his kind heart,
could not overcome the repugnance with which her affliction affected
him.
The mother spoke to her child by signs, and she alone could make herself
understood. Every other inmate of the house, even her father, was a
stranger to Camille. The mother of Madame des Arcis--a woman of no
tact--never ceased to deplore loudly the misfortune that had befallen
her daughter and son-in-law. "Better that she had never been born!" she
exclaimed one day.
"What would you have done, then, had _I_ been thus?" asked Cécile
indignantly.
To Uncle Giraud his great-niece's dumbness seemed no such tremendous
misfortune. "I have had," said he, "such a talkative wife that I regard
everything else as a less evil. This little woman will never speak or
hear bad words, never aggravate the whole household by humming opera
airs, will never quarrel, never awake when her husband coughs, or rises
early to look after his workmen. She will see clearly, for the deaf have
good eyes. She will be pretty and intelligent, and make no noise. Were I
young, I would like to marry her; being old, I will adopt her as my
daughter whenever you are tired of her."
For a moment the sad parents were cheered by Uncle Giraud's bright talk.
But the cloud soon re-descended upon them.