TALES OF ALL COUNTRIES.
BY
ANTHONY TROLLOPE,
AUTHOR OF
“THE WEST INDIES AND THE SPANISH MAIN,” “DOCTOR THORNE,”
“ORLEY FARM,” ETC.
LONDON:
CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY.
1867.
[_The right of Translation is reserved._]
CONTENTS.
PAGE
LA MÈRE BAUCHE 1
THE O’CONORS OF CASTLE CONOR 30
JOHN BULL ON THE GUADALQUIVIR 43
MISS SARAH JACK, OF SPANISH TOWN, JAMAICA 70
THE COURTSHIP OF SUSAN BELL 93
RELICS OF GENERAL CHASSÉ 121
AN UNPROTECTED FEMALE AT THE PYRAMIDS 140
THE CHÂTEAU OF PRINCE POLIGNAC 107
AARON TROW 188
MRS. GENERAL TALBOYS 214
THE PARSON’S DAUGHTER OF OXNEY COLNE 235
GEORGE WALKER AT SUEZ 261
THE MISTLETOE BOUGH 278
RETURNING HOME 300
A RIDE ACROSS PALESTINE 320
THE HOUSE OF HEINE BROTHERS, IN MUNICH 354
THE MAN WHO KEPT HIS MONEY IN A BOX 377
_Republished from various Periodicals._
TALES OF ALL COUNTRIES.
LA MÈRE BAUCHE.
The Pyreneean valley in which the baths of Vernet are situated is not
much known to English, or indeed to any travellers. Tourists in search
of good hotels and picturesque beauty combined, do not generally extend
their journeys to the Eastern Pyrenees. They rarely get beyond Luchon;
and in this they are right, as they thus end their peregrinations at the
most lovely spot among these mountains, and are as a rule so deceived,
imposed on, and bewildered by guides, innkeepers, and horse-owners, at
this otherwise delightful place, as to become undesirous of further
travel. Nor do invalids from distant parts frequent Vernet. People of
fashion go to the Eaux Bonnes and to Luchon, and people who are really
ill to Baréges and Cauterets. It is at these places that one meets
crowds of Parisians, and the daughters and wives of rich merchants from
Bordeaux, with an admixture, now by no means inconsiderable, of
Englishmen and Englishwomen. But the Eastern Pyrenees are still
unfrequented. And probably they will remain so; for though there are
among them lovely valleys--and of all such the valley of Vernet is
perhaps the most lovely--they cannot compete with the mountain scenery
of other tourists-loved regions in Europe. At the Port de Venasquez and
the Brèche de Roland in the Western Pyrenees, or rather, to speak more
truly, at spots in the close vicinity of these famous mountain entrances
from France into Spain, one can make comparisons with Switzerland,
Northern Italy, the Tyrol, and Ireland, which will not be injurious to
the scenes then under view. But among the eastern mountains this can
rarely be done. The hills do not stand thickly together so as to group
themselves; the passes from one valley to another, though not wanting in
altitude, are not close pressed together with overhanging rocks, and are
deficient in grandeur as well as loveliness. And then, as a natural
consequence of all this, the hotels--are not quite as good as they
should be.
But there is one mountain among them which can claim to rank with the
Píc du Midi or the Maledetta. No one can pooh-pooh the stern old
Canigou, standing high and solitary, solemn and grand, between the two
roads which run from Perpignan into Spain, the one by Prades and the
other by Le Boulon. Under the Canigou, towards the west, lie the hot
baths of Vernet, in a close secluded valley, which, as I have said
before, is, as far as I know, the sweetest spot in these Eastern
Pyrenees.
The frequenters of these baths were a few years back gathered almost
entirely from towns not very far distant, from Perpignan, Narbonne,
Carcassonne, and Bézières, and the baths were not therefore famous,
expensive, or luxurious; but those who believed in them believed with
great faith; and it was certainly the fact that men and women who went
thither worn with toil, sick with excesses, and nervous through
over-care, came back fresh and strong, fit once more to attack the world
with all its woes. Their character in latter days does not seem to have
changed, though their circle of admirers may perhaps be somewhat
extended.
In those days, by far the most noted and illustrious person in the
village of Vernet was La Mère Bauche. That there had once been a Père
Bauche was known to the world, for there was a Fils Bauche who lived
with his mother; but no one seemed to remember more of him than that he
had once existed. At Vernet he had never been known. La Mère Bauche was
a native of the village, but her married life had been passed away from
it, and she had returned in her early widowhood to become proprietress
and manager, or, as one may say, the heart and soul of the Hôtel Bauche
at Vernet.
This hotel was a large and somewhat rough establishment, intended for
the accommodation of invalids who came to Vernet for their health. It
was built immediately over one of the thermal springs, so that the water
flowed from the bowels of the earth directly into the baths. There was
accommodation for seventy people, and during the summer and autumn
months the place was always full. Not a few also were to be found there
during the winter and spring, for the charges of Madame Bauche were low,
and the accommodation reasonably good.
And in this respect, as indeed in all others, Madame Bauche had the
reputation of being an honest woman. She had a certain price, from which
no earthly consideration would induce her to depart; and there were
certain returns for this price in the shape of déjeuners and dinners,
baths and beds, which she never failed to give in accordance with the
dictates of a strict conscience. These were traits in the character of
an hotel-keeper which cannot be praised too highly, and which had met
their due reward in the custom of the public. But nevertheless there
were those who thought that there was occasionally ground for complaint
in the conduct even of Madame Bauche.
In the first place she was deficient in that pleasant smiling softness
which should belong to any keeper of a house of public entertainment. In
her general mode of life she was stern and silent with her guests,
autocratic, authoritative, and sometimes contradictory in her house, and
altogether irrational and unconciliatory when any change even for a day
was proposed to her, or when any shadow of a complaint reached her ears.
Indeed of complaint, as made against the establishment, she was
altogether intolerant. To such she had but one answer. He or she who
complained might leave the place at a moment’s notice if it so pleased
them. There were always others ready to take their places. The power of
making this answer came to her from the lowness of her prices; and it
was a power which was very dear to her.
The baths were taken at different hours according to medical advice, but
the usual time was from five to seven in the morning. The déjeuner or
early meal was at nine o’clock, the dinner was at four. After that, no
eating or drinking was allowed in the Hôtel Bauche. There was a café in
the village, at which ladies and gentlemen could get a cup of coffee or
a glass of eau sucré; but no such accommodation was to be had in the
establishment. Not by any possible bribery or persuasion could any meal
be procured at any other than the authorised hours. A visitor who should
enter the salle à manger more than ten minutes after the last bell would
be looked at very sourly by Madame Bauche, who on all occasions sat at
the top of her own table. Should any one appear as much as half an hour
late, he would receive only his share of what had not been handed round.
But after the last dish had been so handed, it was utterly useless for
any one to enter the room at all.
Her appearance at the period of our tale was perhaps not altogether in
her favour. She was about sixty years of age and was very stout and
short in the neck. She wore her own gray hair, which at dinner was
always tidy enough; but during the whole day previous to that hour she
might be seen with it escaping from under her cap in extreme disorder.
Her eyebrows were large and bushy, but those alone would not have given
to her face that look of indomitable sternness which it possessed. Her
eyebrows were serious in their effect, but not so serious as the pair of
green spectacles which she always wore under them. It was thought by
those who had analysed the subject that the great secret of Madame
Bauche’s power lay in her green spectacles.
Her custom was to move about and through the whole establishment every
day from breakfast till the period came for her to dress for dinner. She
would visit every chamber and every bath, walk once or twice round the
salle à manger, and very repeatedly round the kitchen; she would go into
every hole and corner, and peer into everything through her green
spectacles: and in these walks it was not always thought pleasant to
meet her. Her custom was to move very slowly, with her hands generally
clasped behind her back: she rarely spoke to the guests unless she was
spoken to, and on such occasions she would not often diverge into
general conversation. If any one had aught to say connected with the
business of the establishment, she would listen, and then she would make
her answers,--often not pleasant in the hearing.
And thus she walked her path through the world, a stern, hard, solemn
old woman, not without gusts of passionate explosion; but honest withal,
and not without some inward benevolence and true tenderness of heart.
Children she had had many, some seven or eight. One or two had died,
others had been married; she had sons settled far away from home, and at
the time of which we are now speaking but one was left in any way
subject to maternal authority.
Adolphe Bauche was the only one of her children of whom much was
remembered by the present denizens and hangers-on of the hotel. He was
the youngest of the number, and having been born only very shortly
before the return of Madame Bauche to Vernet, had been altogether reared
there. It was thought by the world of those parts, and rightly thought,
that he was his mother’s darling--more so than had been any of his
brothers and sisters,--the very apple of her eye and gem of her life. At
this time he was about twenty-five years of age, and for the last two
years had been absent from Vernet--for reasons which will shortly be
made to appear. He had been sent to Paris to see something of the world,
and learn to talk French instead of the patois of his valley; and having
left Paris had come down south into Languedoc, and remained there
picking up some agricultural lore which it was thought might prove
useful in the valley farms of Vernet. He was now expected home again
very speedily, much to his mother’s delight.
That she was kind and gracious to her favourite child does not perhaps
give much proof of her benevolence; but she had also been kind and
gracious to the orphan child of a neighbour; nay, to the orphan child of
a rival innkeeper. At Vernet there had been more than one water
establishment, but the proprietor of the second had died some few years
after Madame Bauche had settled herself at the place. His house had not
thrived, and his only child, a little girl, was left altogether without
provision.
This little girl, Marie Clavert, La Mère Bauche had taken into her own
house immediately after the father’s death, although she had most
cordially hated that father. Marie was then an infant, and Madame Bauche
had accepted the charge without much thought, perhaps, as to what might
be the child’s ultimate destiny. But since then she had thoroughly done
the duty of a mother by the little girl, who had become the pet of the
whole establishment, the favourite plaything of Adolphe Bauche,--and at
last of course his early sweetheart.
And then and therefore there had come troubles at Vernet. Of course all
the world of the valley had seen what was taking place and what was
likely to take place, long before Madame Bauche knew anything about it.
But at last it broke upon her senses that her son, Adolphe Bauche, the
heir to all her virtues and all her riches, the first young man in that
or any neighbouring valley, was absolutely contemplating the idea of
marrying that poor little orphan, Marie Clavert!
That any one should ever fall in love with Marie Clavert had never
occurred to Madame Bauche. She had always regarded the child as a child,
as the object of her charity, and as a little thing to be looked on as
poor Marie by all the world. She, looking through her green spectacles,
had never seen that Marie Clavert was a beautiful creature, full of
ripening charms, such as young men love to look on. Marie was of
infinite daily use to Madame Bauche in a hundred little things about the
house, and the old lady thoroughly recognised and appreciated her
ability. But for this very reason she had never taught herself to regard
Marie otherwise than as a useful drudge. She was very fond of her
protégée--so much so that she would listen to her in affairs about the
house when she would listen to no one else;--but Marie’s prettiness and
grace and sweetness as a girl had all been thrown away upon Maman
Bauche, as Marie used to call her.
But unluckily it had not been thrown away upon Adolphe. He had
appreciated, as it was natural that he should do, all that had been so
utterly indifferent to his mother; and consequently had fallen in love.
Consequently also he had told his love; and consequently also Marie had
returned his love.
Adolphe had been hitherto contradicted but in few things, and thought
that all difficulty would be prevented by his informing his mother that
he wished to marry Marie Clavert. But Marie, with a woman’s instinct,
had known better. She had trembled and almost crouched with fear when
she confessed her love; and had absolutely hid herself from sight when
Adolphe went forth, prepared to ask his mother’s consent to his
marriage.
The indignation and passionate wrath of Madame Bauche were past and gone
two years before the date of this story, and I need not therefore much
enlarge upon that subject. She was at first abusive and bitter, which
was bad for Marie; and afterwards bitter and silent, which was worse. It
was of course determined that poor Marie should be sent away to some
asylum for orphans or penniless paupers--in short anywhere out of the
way. What mattered her outlook into the world, her happiness, or indeed
her very existence? The outlook and happiness of Adolphe Bauche,--was
not that to be considered as everything at Vernet?
But this terrible sharp aspect of affairs did not last very long. In the
first place La Mère Bauche had under those green spectacles a heart that
in truth was tender and affectionate, and after the first two days of
anger she admitted that something must be done for Marie Clavert; and
after the fourth day she acknowledged that the world of the hotel, her
world, would not go as well without Marie Clavert as it would with her.
And in the next place Madame Bauche had a friend whose advice in grave
matters she would sometimes take. This friend had told her that it would
be much better to send away Adolphe, since it was so necessary that
there should be a sending away of some one; that he would be much
benefited by passing some months of his life away from his native
valley; and that an absence of a year or two would teach him to forget
Marie, even if it did not teach Marie to forget him.
And we must say a word or two about this friend. At Vernet he was
usually called M. le Capitaine, though in fact he had never reached that
rank. He had been in the army, and having been wounded in the leg while
still a sous-lieutenant, had been pensioned, and had thus been
interdicted from treading any further the thorny path that leads to
glory. For the last fifteen years he had resided under the roof of
Madame Bauche, at first as a casual visitor, going and coming, but now
for many years as constant there as she was herself.
He was so constantly called Le Capitaine that his real name was seldom
heard. It may however as well be known to us that this was Theodore
Campan. He was a tall, well-looking man; always dressed in black
garments, of a coarse description certainly, but scrupulously clean and
well brushed; of perhaps fifty years of age, and conspicuous for the
rigid uprightness of his back--and for a black wooden leg.
This wooden leg was perhaps the most remarkable trait in his character.
It was always jet black, being painted, or polished, or japanned, as
occasion might require, by the hands of the capitaine himself. It was
longer than ordinary wooden legs, as indeed the capitaine was longer
than ordinary men; but nevertheless it never seemed in any way to impede
the rigid punctilious propriety of his movements. It was never in his
way as wooden legs usually are in the way of their wearers. And then to
render it more illustrious it had round its middle, round the calf of
the leg we may so say, a band of bright brass which shone like burnished
gold.
It had been the capitaine’s custom, now for some years past, to retire
every evening at about seven o’clock into the sanctum sanctorum of
Madame Bauche’s habitation, the dark little private sitting-room in
which she made out her bills and calculated her profits, and there
regale himself in her presence--and indeed at her expense, for the items
never appeared in the bill--with coffee and cognac. I have said that
there was never eating or drinking at the establishment after the
regular dinner-hours; but in so saying I spoke of the world at large.
Nothing further was allowed in the way of trade; but in the way of
friendship so much was now-a-days always allowed to the capitaine.
It was at these moments that Madame Bauche discussed her private
affairs, and asked for and received advice. For even Madame Bauche was
mortal; nor could her green spectacles without other aid carry her
through all the troubles of life. It was now five years since the world
of Vernet discovered that La Mère Bauche was going to marry the
capitaine; and for eighteen months the world of Vernet had been full of
this matter: but any amount of patience is at last exhausted, and as no
further steps in that direction were ever taken beyond the daily cup of
coffee, that subject died away--very much unheeded by La Mère Bauche.
But she, though she thought of no matrimony for herself, thought much of
matrimony for other people; and over most of those cups of evening
coffee and cognac a matrimonial project was discussed in these latter
days. It has been seen that the capitaine pleaded in Marie’s favour when
the fury of Madame Bauche’s indignation broke forth; and that ultimately
Marie was kept at home, and Adolphe sent away by his advice.
“But Adolphe cannot always stay away,” Madame Bauche had pleaded in her
difficulty. The truth of this the capitaine had admitted; but Marie, he
said, might be married to some one else before two years were over. And
so the matter had commenced.
But to whom should she be married? To this question the capitaine had
answered in perfect innocence of heart, that La Mère Bauche would be
much better able to make such a choice than himself. He did not know how
Marie might stand with regard to money. If madame would give some little
“dot,” the affair, the capitaine thought, would be more easily arranged.
All these things took months to say, during which period Marie went on
with her work in melancholy listlessness. One comfort she had. Adolphe,
before he went, had promised to her, holding in his hand as he did so a
little cross which she had given him, that no earthly consideration
should sever them;--that sooner or later he would certainly be her
husband. Marie felt that her limbs could not work nor her tongue speak
were it not for this one drop of water in her cup.
And then, deeply meditating, La Mère Bauche hit upon a plan, and herself
communicated it to the capitaine over a second cup of coffee into which
she poured a full teaspoonful more than the usual allowance of cognac.
Why should not he, the capitaine himself, be the man to marry Marie
Clavert?
It was a very startling proposal, the idea of matrimony for himself
never having as yet entered into the capitaine’s head at any period of
his life; but La Mère Bauche did contrive to make it not altogether
unacceptable. As to that matter of dowry she was prepared to be more
than generous. She did love Marie well, and could find it in her heart
to give her anything--anything except her son, her own Adolphe. What she
proposed was this. Adolphe, himself, would never keep the baths. If the
capitaine would take Marie for his wife, Marie, Madame Bauche declared,
should be the mistress after her death; subject of course to certain
settlements as to Adolphe’s pecuniary interests.
The plan was discussed a thousand times, and at last so for brought to
bear that Marie was made acquainted with it--having been called in to
sit in presence with La Mère Bauche and her future proposed husband. The
poor girl manifested no disgust to the stiff ungainly lover whom they
assigned to her,--who through his whole frame was in appearance almost
as wooden as his own leg. On the whole, indeed, Marie liked the
capitaine, and felt that he was her friend; and in her country such
marriages were not uncommon. The capitaine was perhaps a little beyond
the age at which a man might usually be thought justified in demanding
the services of a young girl as his nurse and wife, but then Marie of
herself had so little to give--except her youth, and beauty, and
goodness.
But yet she could not absolutely consent; for was she not absolutely
pledged to her own Adolphe? And therefore, when the great pecuniary
advantages were, one by one, displayed before her, and when La Mère
Bauche, as a last argument, informed her that as wife of the capitaine
she would be regarded as second mistress in the establishment and not as
a servant, she could only burst out into tears, and say that she did not
know.
“I will be very kind to you,” said the capitaine; “as kind as a man can
be.”
Marie took his hard withered hand and kissed it; and then looked up into
his face with beseeching eyes which were not without avail upon his
heart.
“We will not press her now,” said the capitaine. “There is time enough.”
But let his heart be touched ever so much, one thing was certain. It
could not be permitted that she should marry Adolphe. To that view of
the matter he had given in his unrestricted adhesion; nor could he by
any means withdraw it without losing altogether his position in the
establishment of Madame Bauche. Nor indeed did his conscience tell him
that such a marriage should be permitted. That would be too much. If
every pretty girl were allowed to marry the first young man that might
fall in love with her, what would the world come to?
And it soon appeared that there was not time enough--that the time was
growing very scant. In three months Adolphe would be back. And if
everything was not arranged by that time, matters might still go astray.
And then Madame Bauche asked her final question: “You do not think, do
you, that you can ever marry Adolphe?” And as she asked it the
accustomed terror of her green spectacles magnified itself tenfold.
Marie could only answer by another burst of tears.
The affair was at last settled among them. Marie said that she would
consent to marry the capitaine when she should hear from Adolphe’s own
mouth that he, Adolphe, loved her no longer. She declared with many
tears that her vows and pledges prevented her from promising more than
this. It was not her fault, at any rate not now, that she loved her
lover. It was not her fault--not now at least--that she was bound by
these pledges. When she heard from his own mouth that he had discarded
her, then she would marry the capitaine--or indeed sacrifice herself in
any other way that La Mère Bauche might desire. What would anything
signify then?
Madame Bauche’s spectacles remained unmoved; but not her heart. Marie,
she told the capitaine, should be equal to herself in the establishment,
when once she was entitled to be called Madame Campan, and she should be
to her quite as a daughter. She should have her cup of coffee every
evening, and dine at the big table, and wear a silk gown at church, and
the servants should all call her Madame; a great career should be open
to her, if she would only give up her foolish girlish childish love for
Adolphe. And all these great promises were repeated to Marie by the
capitaine.
But nevertheless there was but one thing in the world which in Marie’s
eyes was of any value; and that one thing was the heart of Adolphe
Bauche. Without that she would be nothing; with that,--with that
assured, she could wait patiently till doomsday.
Letters were written to Adolphe during all these eventful doings; and a
letter came from him saying that he greatly valued Marie’s love, but
that as it had been clearly proved to him that their marriage would be
neither for her advantage, nor for his, he was willing to give it up. He
consented to her marriage with the capitaine, and expressed his
gratitude to his mother for the pecuniary advantages which she had held
out to him. Oh, Adolphe, Adolphe! But, alas, alas! is not such the way
of most men’s hearts--and of the hearts of some women?
This letter was read to Marie, but it had no more effect upon her than
would have had some dry legal document. In those days and in those
places men and women did not depend much upon letters; nor when they
were written, was there expressed in them much of heart or of feeling.
Marie would understand, as she was well aware, the glance of Adolphe’s
eye and the tone of Adolphe’s voice; she would perceive at once from
them what her lover really meant, what he wished, what in the innermost
corner of his heart he really desired that she should do. But from that
stiff constrained written document she could understand nothing.
It was agreed therefore that Adolphe should return, and that she would
accept her fate from his mouth. The capitaine, who knew more of human
nature than poor Marie, felt tolerably sure of his bride. Adolphe, who
had seen something of the world, would not care very much for the girl
of his own valley. Money and pleasure, and some little position in the
world, would soon wean him from his love; and then Marie would accept
her destiny--as other girls in the same position had done since the
French world began.
And now it was the evening before Adolphe’s expected arrival. La Mère
Bauche was discussing the matter with the capitaine over the usual cup
of coffee. Madame Bauche had of late become rather nervous on the
matter, thinking that they had been somewhat rash in acceding so much to
Marie. It seemed to her that it was absolutely now left to the two young
lovers to say whether or no they would have each other or not. Now
nothing on earth could be further from Madame Bauche’s intention than
this. Her decree and resolve was to heap down blessings on all persons
concerned--provided always that she could have her own way; but,
provided she did not have her own way, to heap down,--anything but
blessings. She had her code of morality in this matter. She would do
good if possible to everybody around her. But she would not on any score
be induced to consent that Adolphe should marry Marie Clavert. Should
that be in the wind she would rid the house of Marie, of the capitaine,
and even of Adolphe himself.
She had become therefore somewhat querulous, and self-opinionated in her
discussions with her friend.
“I don’t know,” she said on the evening in question; “I don’t know. It
may be all right; but if Adolphe turns against me, what are we to do
then?”
“Mère Bauche,” said the capitaine, sipping his coffee and puffing out
the smoke of his cigar, “Adolphe will not turn against us.” It had been
somewhat remarked by many that the capitaine was more at home in the
house, and somewhat freer in his manner of talking with Madame Bauche,
since this matrimonial alliance had been on the tapis than he had ever
been before. La Mère herself observed it, and did not quite like it; but
how could she prevent it now? When the capitaine was once married she
would make him know his place, in spite of all her promises to Marie.
“But if he says he likes the girl?” continued Madame Bauche.
“My friend, you may be sure that he will say nothing of the kind. He has
not been away two years without seeing girls as pretty as Marie. And
then you have his letter.”
“That is nothing, capitaine; he would eat his letter as quick as you
would eat an omelet aux fines herbes.” Now the capitaine was especially
quick over an omelet aux fines herbes.
“And, Mère Bauche, you also have the purse; he will know that he cannot
eat that, except with your good will.”
“Ah!” exclaimed Madame Bauche, “poor lad! He has not a sous in the world
unless I give it to him.” But it did not seem that this reflection was
in itself displeasing to her.
“Adolphe will now be a man of the world,” continued the capitaine. “He
will know that it does not do to throw away everything for a pair of red
lips. That is the folly of a boy, and Adolphe will be no longer a boy.
Believe me, Mère Bauche, things will be right enough.”
“And then we shall have Marie sick and ill and half dying on our hands,”
said Madame Bauche.
This was not flattering to the capitaine, and so he felt it. “Perhaps
so, perhaps not,” he said. “But at any rate she will get over it. It is
a malady which rarely kills young women--especially when another
alliance awaits them.”
“Bah!” said Madame Bauche; and in saying that word she avenged herself
for the too great liberty which the capitaine had lately taken. He
shrugged his shoulders, took a pinch of snuff, and uninvited helped
himself to a teaspoonful of cognac. Then the conference ended, and on
the next morning before breakfast Adolphe Bauche arrived.
On that morning poor Marie hardly knew how to bear herself. A month or
two back, and even up to the last day or two, she had felt a sort of
confidence that Adolphe would be true to her; but the nearer came that
fatal day the less strong was the confidence of the poor girl. She knew
that those two long-headed, aged counsellors were plotting against her
happiness, and she felt that she could hardly dare hope for success
with such terrible foes opposed to her. On the evening before the day
Madame Bauche had met her in the passages, and kissed her as she wished
her good night. Marie knew little about sacrifices, but she felt that it
was a sacrificial kiss.
In those days a sort of diligence with the mails for Olette passed
through Prades early in the morning, and a conveyance was sent from
Vernet to bring Adolphe to the baths. Never was prince or princess
expected with more anxiety. Madame Bauche was up and dressed long before
the hour, and was heard to say five several times that she was sure he
would not come. The capitaine was out and on the high road, moving about
with his wooden leg, as perpendicular as a lamp-post and almost as
black. Marie also was up, but nobody had seen her. She was up and had
been out about the place before any of them were stirring; but now that
the world was on the move she lay hidden like a hare in its form.
And then the old char-à-banc clattered up to the door, and Adolphe
jumped out of it into his mother’s arms. He was fatter and fairer than
she had last seen him, had a larger beard, was more fashionably clothed,
and certainly looked more like a man. Marie also saw him out of her
little window, and she thought that he looked like a god. Was it
probable, she said to herself, that one so godlike would still care for
her?
The mother was delighted with her son, who rattled away quite at his
ease. He shook hands very cordially with the capitaine--of whose
intended alliance with his own sweetheart he had been informed, and then
as he entered the house with his hand under his mother’s arm, he asked
one question about her. “And where is Marie?” said he. “Marie! oh
upstairs; you shall see her after breakfast,” said La Mère Bauche. And
so they entered the house, and went in to breakfast among the guests.
Everybody had heard something of the story, and they were all on the
alert to see the young man whose love or want of love was considered to
be of so much importance.
“You will see that it will be all right,” said the capitaine, carrying
his head very high.
“I think so, I think so,” said La Mére Bauche, who, now that the
capitaine was right, no longer desired to contradict him.
“I know that it will be all right,” said the capitaine. “I told you that
Adolphe would return a man; and he is a man. Look at him; he does not
care this for Marie Clavert;” and the capitaine, with much eloquence in
his motion, pitched over a neighbouring wall a small stone which he held
in his hand.
And then they all went to breakfast with many signs of outward joy. And
not without some inward joy; for Madame Bauche thought she saw that her
son was cured of his love. In the mean time Marie sat up stairs still
afraid to show herself.
“He has come,” said a young girl, a servant in the house, running up to
the door of Marie’s room.
“Yes,” said Marie; “I could see that he has come.”
“And, oh, how beautiful he is!” said the girl, putting her hands
together and looking up to the ceiling. Marie in her heart of hearts
wished that he was not half so beautiful, as then her chance of having
him might be greater.
“And the company are all talking to him as though he were the préfet,”
said the girl.
“Never mind who is talking to him,” said Marie; “go away, and leave
me--you are wanted for your work.” Why before this was he not talking to
her? Why not, if he were really true to her? Alas, it began to fall upon
her mind that he would be false! And what then? What should she do then?
She sat still gloomily, thinking of that other spouse that had been
promised to her.
As speedily after breakfast as was possible Adolphe was invited to a
conference in his mother’s private room. She had much debated in her own
mind whether the capitaine should be invited to this conference or no.
For many reasons she would have wished to exclude him. She did not like
to teach her son that she was unable to manage her own affairs, and she
would have been well pleased to make the capitaine understand that his
assistance was not absolutely necessary to her. But then she had an
inward fear that her green spectacles would not now be as efficacious on
Adolphe, as they had once been, in old days, before he had seen the
world and become a man. It might be necessary that her son, being a man,
should be opposed by a man. So the capitaine was invited to the
conference.
What took place there need not be described at length. The three were
closeted for two hours, at the end of which time they came forth
together. The countenance of Madame Bauche was serene and comfortable;
her hopes of ultimate success ran higher than ever. The face of the
capitaine was masked, as are always the faces of great diplomatists; he
walked placid and upright, raising his wooden leg with an ease and skill
that was absolutely marvellous. But poor Adolphe’s brow was clouded.
Yes, poor Adolphe! for he was poor in spirit. He had pledged himself to
give up Marie, and to accept the liberal allowance which his mother
tendered him; but it remained for him now to communicate these tidings
to Marie herself.
“Could not you tell her?” he had said to his mother, with very little of
that manliness in his face on which his mother now so prided herself.
But La Mère Bauche explained to him that it was a part of the general
agreement that Marie was to hear his decision from his own mouth.
“But you need not regard it,” said the capitaine, with the most
indifferent air in the world. “The girl expects it. Only she has some
childish idea that she is bound till you yourself release her. I don’t
think she will be troublesome.” Adolphe at that moment did feel that he
should have liked to kick the capitaine out of his mother’s house.
And where should the meeting take place? In the hall of the bath-house,
suggested Madame Bauche; because, as she observed, they could walk round
and round, and nobody ever went there at that time of day. But to this
Adolphe objected; it would be so cold and dismal and melancholy.
The capitaine thought that Mère Bauche’s little parlour was the place;
but La Mère herself did not like this. They might be overheard, as she
well knew; and she guessed that the meeting would not conclude without
some sobs that would certainly be bitter and might perhaps be loud.
“Send her up to the grotto, and I will follow her,” said Adolphe. On
this therefore they agreed. Now the grotto was a natural excavation in a
high rock, which stood precipitously upright over the establishment of
the baths. A steep zigzag path with almost never-ending steps had been
made along the face of the rock from a little flower garden attached to
the house which lay immediately under the mountain. Close along the
front of the hotel ran a little brawling river, leaving barely room for
a road between it and the door; over this there was a wooden bridge
leading to the garden, and some two or three hundred yards from the
bridge began the steps by which the ascent was made to the grotto.
When the season was full and the weather perfectly warm the place was
much frequented. There was a green table in it, and four or five deal
chairs; a green garden seat also was there, which however had been
removed into the innermost back corner of the excavation, as its hinder
legs were somewhat at fault. A wall about two feet high ran along the
face of it, guarding its occupants from the precipice. In fact it was
no grotto, but a little chasm in the rock, such as we often see up above
our heads in rocky valleys, and which by means of these steep steps had
been turned into a source of exercise and amusement for the visitors at
the hotel.
Standing at the wall one could look down into the garden, and down also
upon the shining slate roof of Madame Bauche’s house; and to the left
might be seen the sombre, silent, snow-capped top of stern old Canigou,
king of mountains among those Eastern Pyrenees.
And so Madame Bauche undertook to send Marie up to the grotto, and
Adolphe undertook to follow her thither. It was now spring; and though
the winds had fallen and the snow was no longer lying on the lower
peaks, still the air was fresh and cold, and there was no danger that
any of the few guests at the establishment would visit the place.
“Make her put on her cloak, Mère Bauche,” said the capitaine, who did
not wish that his bride should have a cold in her head on their
wedding-day. La Mère Bauche pished and pshawed, as though she were not
minded to pay any attention to recommendations on such subjects from the
capitaine. But nevertheless when Marie was seen slowly to creep across
the little bridge about fifteen minutes after this time, she had a
handkerchief on her head, and was closely wrapped in a dark brown cloak.
Poor Marie herself little heeded the cold fresh air, but she was glad to
avail herself of any means by which she might hide her face. When Madame
Bauche sought her out in her own little room, and with a smiling face
and kind kiss bade her go to the grotto, she knew, or fancied that she
knew that it was all over.
“He will tell you all the truth,--how it all is,” said La Mère. “We will
do all we can, you know, to make you happy, Marie. But you must remember
what Monsieur le Curé told us the other day. In this vale of tears we
cannot have everything; as we shall have some day, when our poor wicked
souls have been purged of all their wickedness. Now go, dear, and take
your cloak.”
“Yes, maman.”
“And Adolphe will come to you. And try and behave well, like a sensible
girl.”
“Yes, maman,”--and so she went, bearing on her brow another sacrificial
kiss--and bearing in her heart such an unutterable load of woe!
Adolphe had gone out of the house before her; but standing in the
stable yard, well within the gate so that she should not see him, he
watched her slowly crossing the bridge and mounting the first flight of
the steps. He had often seen her tripping up those stairs, and had,
almost as often, followed her with his quicker feet. And she, when she
would hear him, would run; and then he would catch her breathless at the
top, and steal kisses from her when all power of refusing them had been
robbed from her by her efforts at escape. There was no such running now,
no such following, no thought of such kisses.
As for him, he would fain have skulked off and shirked the interview had
he dared. But he did not dare; so he waited there, out of heart, for
some ten minutes, speaking a word now and then to the bath-man, who was
standing by, just to show that he was at his ease. But the bath-man knew
that he was not at his ease. Such would-be lies as those rarely achieve
deception;--are rarely believed. And then, at the end of the ten
minutes, with steps as slow as Marie’s had been, he also ascended to the
grotto.
Marie had watched him from the top, but so that she herself should not
be seen. He however had not once lifted up his head to look for her; but
with eyes turned to the ground had plodded his way up to the cave. When
he entered she was standing in the middle, with her eyes downcast and
her hands clasped before her. She had retired some way from the wall, so
that no eyes might possibly see her but those of her false lover. There
she stood when he entered, striving to stand motionless, but trembling
like a leaf in every limb.
It was only when he reached the top step that he made up his mind how he
would behave. Perhaps after all, the capitaine was right; perhaps she
would not mind it.
“Marie,” said he, with a voice that attempted to be cheerful; “this is
an odd place to meet in after such a long absence,” and he held out his
hand to her. But only his hand! He offered her no salute. He did not
even kiss her cheek as a brother would have done! Of the rules of the
outside world it must be remembered that poor Marie knew but little. He
had been a brother to her before he had become her lover.
But Marie took his hand saying, “Yes, it has been very long.”
“And now that I have come back,” he went on to say, “it seems that we
are all in a confusion together. I never knew such a piece of work.
However, it is all for the best, I suppose.”
“Perhaps so,” said Marie, still trembling violently, and still looking
down upon the ground. And then there was silence between, them for a
minute or so.
“I tell you what it is, Marie,” said Adolphe at last, dropping her hand
and making a great effort to get through the work before him. “I am
afraid we two have been very foolish. Don’t you think we have now? It
seems quite clear that we can never get ourselves married. Don’t you see
it in that light?”
Marie’s head turned round and round with her, but she was not of the
fainting order. She took three steps backwards and leant against the
wall of the cave. She also was trying to think how she might best fight
her battle. Was there no chance for her? Could no eloquence, no love
prevail? On her own beauty she counted but little; but might not prayers
do something, and a reference to those old vows which had been so
frequent, so eager, so solemnly pledged between them?
“Never get ourselves married!” she said, repeating his words. “Never,
Adolphe? Can we never be married?”
“Upon my word, my dear girl, I fear not. You see my mother is so dead
against it.”
“But we could wait; could we not?”
“Ah, but that’s just it, Marie. We cannot wait. We must decide
now,--to-day. You see I can do nothing without money from her--and as
for you, you see she won’t even let you stay in the house unless you
marry old Campan at once. He’s a very good sort of fellow though, old as
he is. And if you do marry him, why you see you’ll stay here, and have
it all your own way in everything. As for me, I shall come and see you
all from time to time, and shall be able to push my way as I ought to
do.”
“Then, Adolphe, you wish me to marry the capitaine?”
“Upon my honour I think it is the best thing you can do; I do indeed.”
“Oh, Adolphe!”
“What can I do for you, you know? Suppose I was to go down to my mother
and tell her that I had decided to keep you myself, what would come of
it? Look at it in that light, Marie.”
“She could not turn you out--you her own son!”
“But she would turn you out; and deuced quick, too, I can assure you of
that; I can, upon my honour.”
“I should not care that,” and she made a motion with her hand to show
how indifferent she would be to such treatment as regarded herself. “Not
that--; if I still had the promise of your love.”
“But what would you do?”
“I would work. There are other houses beside that one,” and she pointed
to the slate roof of the Bauche establishment.
“And for me--I should not have a penny in the world,” said the young
man.
She came up to him and took his right hand between both of hers and
pressed it warmly, oh, so warmly. “You would have my love,” said she;
“my deepest, warmest, best heart’s love. I should want nothing more,
nothing on earth, if I could still have yours.” And she leaned against
his shoulder and looked with all her eyes into his face.
“But, Marie, that’s nonsense, you know.”
“No, Adolphe, it is not nonsense. Do not let them teach you so. What
does love mean, if it does not mean that? Oh, Adolphe, you do love me,
you do love me, you do love me?”
“Yes;--I love you,” he said slowly;--as though he would not have said
it, if he could have helped it. And then his arm crept slowly round her
waist, as though in that also he could not help himself.
“And do not I love you?” said the passionate girl. “Oh, I do, so dearly;
with all my heart, with all my soul. Adolphe, I so love you, that I
cannot give you up. Have I not sworn to be yours; sworn, sworn a
thousand times? How can I marry that man! Oh Adolphe, how can you wish
that I should marry him?” And she clung to him, and looked at him, and
besought him with her eyes.
“I shouldn’t wish it;--only--” and then he paused. It was hard to tell
her that he was willing to sacrifice her to the old man because he
wanted money from his mother.
“Only what! But, Adolphe, do not wish it at all! Have you not sworn that
I should be your wife? Look here, look at this;” and she brought out
from her bosom a little charm that he had given her in return for that
cross. “Did you not kiss that when you swore before the figure of the
Virgin that I should be your wife? And do you not remember that I feared
to swear too, because your mother was so angry; and then you made me?
After that, Adolphe! Oh, Adolphe! Tell me that I may have some hope. I
will wait; oh, I will wait so patiently.”
He turned himself away from her and walked backwards and forwards
uneasily through the grotto. He did love her;--love her as such men do
love sweet, pretty girls. The warmth of her hand, the affection of her
touch, the pure bright passion of her tear-laden eye had re-awakened
what power of love there was within him. But what was he to do? Even if
he were willing to give up the immediate golden hopes which his mother
held out to him, how was he to begin, and then how carry out this work
of self-devotion? Marie would be turned away, and he would be left a
victim in the hands of his mother, and of that stiff, wooden-legged
militaire;--a penniless victim, left to mope about the place without a
grain of influence or a morsel of pleasure.
“But what can we do?” he exclaimed again, as he once more met Marie’s
searching eye.
“We can be true and honest, and we can wait,” she said, coming close up
to him and taking hold of his arm. “I do not fear it; and she is not my
mother, Adolphe. You need not fear your own mother.”
“Fear! no, of course I don’t fear. But I don’t see how the very devil we
can manage it.”
“Will you let me tell her that I will not marry the capitaine; that I
will not give up your promises; and then I am ready to leave the house?”
“It would do no good.”
“It would do every good, Adolphe, if I had your promised word once more;
if I could hear from your own voice one more tone of love. Do you not
remember this place? It was here that you forced me to say that I loved
you. It is here also that you will tell me that I have been deceived.”
“It is not I that would deceive you,” he said. “I wonder that you should
be so hard upon me. God knows that I have trouble enough.”
“Well, if I am a trouble to you, be it so. Be it as you wish,” and she
leaned back against the wall of the rock, and crossing her arms upon her
breast looked away from him and fixed her eyes upon the sharp granite
peaks of Canigou.