Gontran's Choice
The burning question now was that of the physicians at Enval. They had
suddenly made themselves the masters of the district, and absorbed all
the attention and all the enthusiasm of the inhabitants. Formerly the
springs flowed under the authority of Doctor Bonnefille alone, in the
midst of the harmless animosities of restless Doctor Latonne and placid
Doctor Honorat.
Now, it was a very different thing. Since the success planned during
the winter by Andermatt had quite taken definite shape, thanks to the
powerful co-operation of Professors Cloche, Mas-Roussel, and Remusot,
who had each brought there a contingent of two or three hundred
patients at least, Doctor Latonne, inspector of the new establishment,
had become a big personage, specially patronized by Professor
Mas-Roussel, whose pupil he had been, and whose deportment and gestures
he imitated.
Doctor Bonnefille was scarcely ever talked about any longer. Furious,
exasperated, railing against Mont Oriol, the old physician remained the
whole day in the old establishment with a few old patients who had kept
faithful to him.
In the minds of some invalids, indeed, he was the only person that
understood the true properties of the waters; he possessed, so to
speak, their secret, since he had officially administered them from the
time the station was first established.
Doctor Honorat barely managed to retain his practice among the natives
of Auvergne. With the moderate income he derived from this source he
contented himself, keeping on good terms with everybody, and consoled
himself by much preferring cards and wine to medicine. He did not,
however, go quite so far as to love his professional brethren.
Doctor Latonne would, therefore, have continued to be the great
soothsayer of Mont Oriol, if one morning there had not appeared a very
small man, nearly a dwarf, whose big head sunk between his shoulders,
big round eyes, and big hands combined to produce a very odd-looking
individual. This new physician, M. Black, introduced into the district
by Professor Remusot immediately excited attention by his excessive
devotion. Nearly every morning, between two visits, he went into a
church for a few minutes, and he received communion nearly every
Sunday. The curé soon got him some patients, old maids, poor people
whom he attended for nothing, pious ladies who asked the advice of
their spiritual director before calling on a man of science, whose
sentiments, reserve, and professional modesty, they wished to know
before everything else.
Then, one day, the arrival of the Princess de Maldebourg, an old
German Highness, was announced--a very fervent Catholic, who on the
very evening when she first appeared in the district, sent for Doctor
Black on the recommendation of a Roman cardinal. From that moment he
was the fashion. It was good taste, good form, the correct thing, to
be attended by him. He was the only doctor, it was said, who was a
perfect gentleman--the only one in whom a woman could repose absolute
confidence.
And from morning till evening this little man with the bulldog's head,
who always spoke in a subdued tone in every corner with everybody,
might be seen rushing from one hotel to the other. He appeared to have
important secrets to confide or to receive, for he could constantly be
met holding long mysterious conferences in the lobbies with the masters
of the hotels, with his patients' chambermaids, with anyone who was
brought into contact with the invalids. As soon as he saw any lady of
his acquaintance in the street, he went straight up to her with his
short, quick step, and immediately began to mumble fresh and minute
directions, after the fashion of a priest at confession.
The old women especially adored him. He would listen to their
stories to the end without interrupting them, took note of all their
observations, all their questions, and all their wishes.
He increased or diminished each day the proportion of water to be
consumed by his patients, which made them feel perfect confidence in
the care taken of them by him.
"We stopped yesterday at two glasses and three-quarters," he would
say; "well, to-day we shall only take two glasses and a half, and
to-morrow three glasses. Don't forget! To-morrow, three glasses. I am
very, very particular about it!"
And all the patients were convinced that he was very particular about
it, indeed.
In order not to forget these figures and fractions of figures, he
wrote them down in a memorandum-book, in order that he might never
make a mistake. For the patient does not pardon a mistake of a single
half-glass. He regulated and modified with equal minuteness the
duration of the daily baths in virtue of principles known only to
himself.
Doctor Latonne, jealous and exasperated, disdainfully shrugged his
shoulders, and declared: "This is a swindler!" His hatred against
Doctor Black had even led him occasionally to run down the mineral
waters. "Since we can scarcely tell how they act, it is quite
impossible to prescribe every day modifications of the dose, which
any therapeutic law cannot regulate. Proceedings of this kind do the
greatest injury to medicine."
Doctor Honorat contented himself with smiling. He always took care to
forget, five minutes after a consultation, the number of glasses which
he had ordered. "Two more or less," said he to Gontran in his hours of
gaiety, "there is only the spring to take notice of it; and yet this
scarcely incommodes it!" The only wicked pleasantry that he permitted
himself on his religious brother-physician consisted in describing
him as "the doctor of the Holy Sitting-Bath." His jealousy was of the
prudent, sly, and tranquil kind.
He added sometimes: "Oh, as for him, he knows the patient thoroughly;
and this is often better than to know the disease!"
But lo! there arrived one morning at the hotel of Mont Oriol a noble
Spanish family, the Duke and Duchess of Ramas-Aldavarra, who brought
with her her own physician, an Italian, Doctor Mazelli from Milan. He
was a man of thirty, a tall, thin, very handsome young fellow, wearing
only mustaches. From the first evening, he made a conquest of the
_table d'hôte_, for the Duke, a melancholy man, attacked with monstrous
obesity, had a horror of isolation, and desired to take his meals in
the same dining-room as the other patients. Doctor Mazelli already knew
by their names almost all the frequenters of the hotel; he had a kindly
word for every man, a compliment for every woman, a smile even for
every servant.
Placed at the right-hand side of the Duchess, a beautiful woman of
between thirty-five and forty, with a pale complexion, black eyes,
blue-black hair, he would say to her as each dish came round:
"Very little," or else, "No, not this," or else, "Yes, take some of
that." And he would himself pour out the liquid which she was to drink
with very great care, measuring exactly the proportions of wine and
water which he mingled.
He also regulated the Duke's food, but with visible carelessness. The
patient, however, took no heed of his advice, devoured everything with
bestial voracity, drank at every meal two decanters of pure wine, then
went tumbling about in a chaise for air in front of the hotel, and
began whining with pain and groaning over his bad digestion.
After the first dinner, Doctor Mazelli, who had judged and weighed all
around him with a single glance, went to join Gontran, who was smoking
a cigar on the terrace of the Casino, told his name, and began to chat.
At the end of an hour, they were on intimate terms. Next day, he got
himself introduced to Christiane just as she was leaving the bath,
won her good-will after ten minutes' conversation, and brought her
that very day into contact with the Duchess, who no longer cared for
solitude.
He kept watch over everything in the abode of the Spaniards, gave
excellent advice to the chef about cooking, excellent hints to the
chambermaid on the hygiene of the head in order to preserve in her
mistress's hair its luster, its superb shade, and its abundance, very
useful information to the coachman about veterinary medicine; and he
knew how to make the hours swift and light, to invent distractions,
and to pick up in the hotels casual acquaintances but always prudently
chosen.
The Duchess said to Christiane, when speaking of him: "He is a
wonderful man, dear Madame. He knows everything; he does everything. It
is to him that I owe my figure."
"How, your figure?"
"Yes, I was beginning to grow fat, and he saved me with his regimen and
his liqueurs."
Moreover, Mazelli knew how to make medicine itself interesting; he
spoke about it with such ease, with such gaiety, and with a sort
of light scepticism which helped to convince his listeners of his
superiority.
"'Tis very simple," said he; "I don't believe in remedies--or rather I
hardly believe in them. The old-fashioned medicine started with this
principle--that there is a remedy for everything. God, they believe,
in His divine bounty, has created drugs for all maladies, only He
has left to men, through malice, perhaps, the trouble of discovering
these drugs. Now, men have discovered an incalculable number of them
without ever knowing exactly what disease each of them is suited
for. In reality there are no remedies; there are only maladies. When
a malady declares itself, it is necessary to interrupt its course,
according to some, to precipitate it, according to others, by some
means or another. Each school extols its own method. In the same case,
we see the most antagonistic systems employed, and the most opposed
kinds of medicine--ice by one and extreme heat by the other, dieting by
this doctor and forced nourishment by that. I am not speaking of the
innumerable poisonous products extracted from minerals or vegetables,
which chemistry procures for us. All this acts, 'tis true, but nobody
knows how. Sometimes it succeeds, and sometimes it kills."
And, with much liveliness, he pointed out the impossibility of
certainty, the absence of all scientific basis as long as organic
chemistry, biological chemistry had not become the starting-point of a
new medicine. He related anecdotes, monstrous errors of the greatest
physicians, and proved the insanity and the falsity of their pretended
science.
"Make the body discharge its functions," said he. "Make the skin, the
muscles, all the organs, and, above all, the stomach, which is the
foster-father of the entire machine, its regulator and life-warehouse,
discharge their functions."
He asserted that, if he liked, by nothing save regimen, he could make
people gay or sad, capable of physical work or intellectual work,
according to the nature of the diet which he imposed on them. He could
even act on the faculties of the brain, on the memory, the imagination,
on all the manifestations of intelligence. And he ended jocosely with
these words:
"For my part, I nurse my patients with massage and curaçoa."
He attributed marvelous results to massage, and spoke of the Dutchman
Hamstrang as of a god performing miracles. Then, showing his delicate
white hands:
"With those, you might resuscitate the dead."
And the Duchess added: "The fact is that he performs massage to
perfection."
He also lauded alcoholic beverages, in small proportions to excite
the stomach at certain moments; and he composed mixtures, cleverly
prepared, which the Duchess had to drink, at fixed hours, either before
or after her meals.
He might have been seen each morning entering the Casino Café about
half past nine and asking for his bottles. They were brought to him
fastened with little silver locks of which he had the key. He would
pour out a little of one, a little of another, slowly into a very
pretty blue glass, which a very correct footman held up respectfully.
Then the doctor would give directions: "See! Bring this to the Duchess
in her bath, to drink it, before she dresses herself, when coming out
of the water."
And when anyone asked him through curiosity: "What have you put into
it?" he would answer: "Nothing but refined aniseed-cordial, very pure
curaçoa, and excellent bitters."
This handsome doctor, in a few days, became the center of attraction
for all the invalids. And every sort of device was resorted to, in
order to attract a few opinions from him.
When he was passing along through the walks in the park, at the hour
of promenade, one heard nothing but that exclamation of "Doctor" on
all the chairs where sat the beautiful women, the young women, who
were resting themselves a little between two glasses of the Christiane
Spring. Then, when he stopped with a smile on his lip, they would draw
him aside for some minutes into the little path beside the river.
At first, they talked about one thing or another; then discreetly,
skillfully, coquettishly, they came to the question of health, but in
an indifferent fashion as if they were touching on sundry topics.
For this medical man was not at the disposal of the public. He was not
paid by them, and people could not get him to visit them at their own
houses. He belonged to the Duchess, only to the Duchess. This situation
even stimulated people's efforts, and provoked their desires. And, as
it was whispered positively that the Duchess was jealous, very jealous,
there was a desperate struggle between all these ladies to get advice
from the handsome Italian doctor. He gave it without forcing them to
entreat him very strenuously.
Then, among the women whom he had favored with his advice arose an
interchange of intimate confidences, in order to give clear proof of
his solicitude.
"Oh! my dear, he asked me questions--but such questions!"
"Very indiscreet?"
"Oh! indiscreet! Say frightful. I actually did not know what answers to
give him. He wanted to know things--but such things!"
"It was the same way with me. He questioned me a great deal about my
husband!"
"And me, also--together with details so--so personal! These questions
are very embarrassing. However, we understand perfectly well that it is
necessary to ask them."
"Oh! of course. Health depends on these minute details. As for me, he
promised to perform massage on me at Paris this winter. I have great
need of it to supplement the treatment here."
"Tell me, my dear, what do you intend to do in return? He cannot take
fees."
"Good heavens! my idea was to present him with a scarf-pin. He must be
fond of them, for he has already two or three very nice ones."
"Oh! how you embarrass me! The same notion was in my head. In that case
I'll give him a ring."
And they concocted surprises in order to please him, thought of
ingenious presents in order to touch him, graceful pleasantries in
order to fascinate him. He became the "talk of the day," the great
subject of conversation, the sole object of public attention, till the
news spread that Count Gontran de Ravenel was paying his addresses to
Charlotte Oriol with a view to marrying her. And this at once led to a
fresh outburst of deafening clamor in Enval.
Since the evening when he had opened with her the inaugural ball at
the Casino, Gontran had tied himself to the young girl's skirts. He
publicly showed her all those little attentions of men who want to
please without hiding their object; and their ordinary relations
assumed at the same time a character of gallantry, playful and natural,
which seemed likely to lead to love.
They saw one another nearly every day, for the two girls had conceived
feelings of strong friendship toward Christiane, into which, no
doubt, there entered a considerable element of gratified vanity.
Gontran suddenly showed a disposition to remain constantly at his
sister's side; and he began to organize parties for the morning and
entertainments for the evening, which greatly astonished Christiane and
Paul. Then they noticed that he was devoting himself to Charlotte; he
gaily teased her, paid her compliments without appearing to do so, and
manifested toward her in a thousand ways that tender care which tends
to unite two beings in bonds of affection. The young girl, already
accustomed to the free and familiar manners of this gay Parisian youth,
did not at first see anything remarkable in these attentions; and,
abandoning herself to the impulses of her honest and confiding heart,
she began to laugh and enjoy herself with him as she might have done
with a brother.
Now, she had returned home with her elder sister, after an evening
party at which Gontran had several times attempted to kiss her in
consequence of forfeits due by her in a game of "fly-pigeon," when
Louise, who had appeared anxious and nervous for some time past, said
to her in an abrupt tone:
"You would do well to be a little careful about your deportment. M.
Gontran is not a suitable companion for you."
"Not a suitable companion? What has he done?"
"You know well what I mean--don't play the ninny! In the way you're
going on, you would soon compromise yourself; and if you don't know how
to watch over your conduct, it is my business to see after it."
Charlotte, confused, and filled with shame, faltered: "But I don't
know--I assure you--I have seen nothing----"
Her sister sharply interrupted her: "Listen! Things must not go on this
way. If he wants to marry you, it is for papa--for papa to consider the
matter and to give an answer; but, if he only wants to trifle with you,
he must desist at once!"
Then, suddenly, Charlotte got annoyed without knowing why or with what.
She was indignant at her sister having taken it on herself to direct
her actions and to reprimand her; and, in a trembling voice, and with
tears in her eyes, she told her that she should not have interfered in
what did not concern her. She stammered in her exasperation, divining
by a vague but unerring instinct the jealousy that had been aroused in
the embittered heart of Louise.
They parted without embracing one another, and Charlotte wept when she
got into bed, as she thought over things that she had never foreseen or
suspected.
Gradually her tears ceased to flow, and she began to reflect. It was
true, nevertheless, that Gontran's demeanor toward her had altered.
She had enjoyed his acquaintance hitherto without understanding him.
She understood him now. At every turn he kept repeating to her pretty
compliments full of delicate flattery. On one occasion he had kissed
her hand. What were his intentions? She pleased him, but to what
extent? Was it possible by any chance that he desired to marry her? And
all at once she imagined that she could hear somewhere in the air, in
the silent night through whose empty spaces her dreams were flitting, a
voice exclaiming, "Comtesse de Ravenel."
The emotion was so vivid that she sat up in the bed; then, with her
naked feet, she felt for her slippers under the chair over which
she had thrown her clothes, and she went to open the window without
consciousness of what she was doing, in order to find space for her
hopes. She could hear what they were saying in the room below stairs,
and Colosse's voice was raised: "Let it alone! let it alone! There will
be time enough to see to it. Father will arrange that. There is no harm
up to this. 'Tis father that will do the thing."
She noticed that the window in front of the house, just below that at
which she was standing, was still lighted up. She asked herself: "Who
is there now? What are they talking about?" A shadow passed over the
luminous wall. It was her sister. So then, she had not yet gone to bed.
Why? But the light was presently extinguished; and Charlotte began to
think about other things that were agitating her heart.
She could not go to sleep now. Did he love her? Oh! no; not yet. But he
might love her, since she had caught his fancy. And if he came to love
her much, desperately, as people love in society, he would certainly
marry her.
Born in a house of vinedressers, she had preserved, although educated
in the young ladies' convent at Clermont, the modesty and humility of a
peasant girl. She used to think that she might marry a notary, perhaps,
or a barrister or a doctor; but the ambition to become a real lady of
high social position, with a title of nobility attached to her name had
never entered her mind. Even when she had just finished the perusal of
some love-story, and was musing over the glimpse presented to her of
such a charming prospect for a few minutes, it would speedily Vanish
from her soul just as chimeras vanish. Now, here was this unforeseen,
inconceivable thing, which had been suddenly conjured up by some words
of her sister, apparently drawing near her after the fashion of a
ship's sail driven onward by the wind.
Every time she drew breath, she kept repeating with her lips:
"Comtesse de Ravenel." And the shades of her dark eyelashes, as they
closed in the night, were illuminated with visions. She saw beautiful
drawing-rooms brilliantly lighted up, beautiful women greeting her with
smiles, beautiful carriages waiting before the steps of a château, and
grand servants in livery bowing as she passed.
She felt heated in her bed; her heart was beating. She rose up a second
time in order to drink a glass of water, and to remain standing in her
bare feet for a few moments on the cold floor of her apartment.
Then, somewhat calmed, she ended by falling asleep. But she awakened at
dawn, so much had the agitation of her heart passed into her veins.
She felt ashamed of her little room with its white walls, washed
with water by a rustic glazier, her poor cotton curtains, and some
straw-chairs which never quitted their place at the two corners of her
chest of drawers.
She realized that she was a peasant in the midst of these rude articles
of furniture which bespoke her origin. She felt herself lowly, unworthy
of this handsome, mocking young fellow, whose fair hair and laughing
face had floated before her eyes, had disappeared from her vision and
then come back, had gradually engrossed her thoughts, and had already
found a place in her heart.
Then she jumped out of bed and ran to look for her glass, her little
toilette-glass, as large as the center of a plate; after that, she got
into bed again, her mirror between her hands; and she looked at her
face surrounded by her hair which hung loose on the white background of
the pillow.
Presently she laid down on the bedclothes the little piece of glass
which reflected her lineaments, and she thought how difficult it would
be for such an alliance to take place, so great was the distance
between them. Thereupon a feeling of vexation seized her by the throat.
But immediately afterward she gazed at her image, once more smiling at
herself in order to look nice, and, as she considered herself pretty,
the difficulties disappeared.
When she went down to breakfast, her sister, who wore a look of
irritation, asked her:
"What do you propose to do to-day?"
Charlotte replied unhesitatingly: "Are we not going in the carriage to
Royat with Madame Andermatt?"
Louise returned: "You are going alone, then; but you might do something
better, after what I said to you last night."
The younger sister interrupted her: "I don't ask for your advice--mind
your own business!"
And they did not speak to one another again.
Père Oriol and Jacques came in, and took their seats at the table. The
old man asked almost immediately: "What are you doing to-day, girls?"
Charlotte said without giving her sister time to answer: "As for me, I
am going to Royat with Madame Andermatt."
The two men eyed her with an air of satisfaction; and the father
muttered with that engaging smile which he could put on when discussing
any business of a profitable character: "That's good! that's good!"
She was more surprised at this secret complacency which she observed in
their entire bearing than at the visible anger of Louise; and she asked
herself, in a somewhat disturbed frame of mind: "Can they have been
talking this over all together?"
As soon as the meal was over, she went up again to her room, put on her
hat, seized her parasol, threw a light cloak over her arm, and she went
off in the direction of the hotel, for they were to start at half past
one.
Christiane expressed her astonishment at finding that Louise had not
come.
Charlotte felt herself flushing as she replied: "She is a little
fatigued; I believe she has a headache."
And they stepped into the landau, the big landau with six seats, which
they always used. The Marquis and his daughter remained at the lower
end, while the Oriol girl found herself seated at the opposite side
between the two young men.
They passed in front of Tournoel; they proceeded along the foot of
the mountain, by a beautiful winding road, under the walnut and
chestnut-trees. Charlotte several times felt conscious that Gontran was
pressing close up to her, but was too prudent to take offense at it.
As he sat at her right-hand side, he spoke with his face close to her
cheek; and she did not venture to turn round to answer him, through
fear of touching his mouth, which she felt already on her lips, and
also through fear of his eyes, whose glance would have unnerved her.
He whispered in her ear gallant absurdities, laughable fooleries,
agreeable and well-turned compliments.
Christiane scarcely uttered a word, heavy and sick from her pregnancy.
And Paul appeared sad, preoccupied. The Marquis alone chatted without
unrest or anxiety, in the sprightly, graceful style of a selfish old
nobleman.
They got down at the park of Royat to listen to the music, and Gontran,
offering Charlotte his arm, set forth with her in front. The army of
bathers, on the chairs, around the kiosk, where the leader of the
orchestra was keeping time with the brass instruments and the violins,
watched the promenaders filing past. The women exhibited their dresses
by stretching out their legs as far as the bars of the chairs in
front of them, and their dainty summer head-gear made them look more
fascinating.
Charlotte and Gontran sauntered through the midst of the people who
occupied the seats, looking out for faces of a comic type to find
materials for their pleasantries.
Every moment he heard some one saying behind them: "Look there! what a
pretty girl!" He felt flattered, and asked himself whether they took
her for his sister, his wife, or his mistress.
Christiane, seated between her father and Paul, saw them passing
several times, and thinking they exhibited too much youthful frivolity,
she called them over to her to soberize them. But they paid no
attention to her, and went on vagabondizing through the crowd, enjoying
themselves with their whole hearts.
She said in a whisper to Paul Bretigny: "He will finish by compromising
her. It will be necessary that we should speak to him this evening when
he comes back."
Paul replied: "I had already thought about it. You are quite right."
They went to dine in one of the restaurants of Clermont-Ferrand, those
of Royat being no good, according to the Marquis, who was a gourmand,
and they returned at nightfall.
Charlotte had become serious, Gontran having strongly pressed her hand,
while presenting her gloves to her, before she quitted the table. Her
young girl's conscience was suddenly troubled. This was an avowal! an
advance! an impropriety! What ought she to do? Speak to him? but about
what? To be offended would be ridiculous. There was need of so much
tact in these circumstances. But by doing nothing, by saying nothing,
she produced the impression of accepting his advances, of becoming his
accomplice, of answering "yes" to this pressure of the hand.
And she weighed the situation, accusing herself of having been too gay
and too familiar at Royat, thinking just now that her sister was right,
that she was compromised, lost! The carriage rolled along the road.
Paul and Gontran smoked in silence; the Marquis slept; Christiane gazed
at the stars; and Charlotte found it hard to keep back her tears--for
she had swallowed three glasses of champagne.
When they had got back, Christiane said to her father: "As it is dark,
you have to see this young girl home."
The Marquis, without delay, offered her his arm, and went off with her.
Paul laid his hands on Gontran's shoulders, and whispered in his ear:
"Come and have five minutes' talk with your sister and myself."
And they went up to the little drawing-room communicating with the
apartments of Andermatt and his wife.
When they were seated, Christiane said: "Listen! M. Paul and I want to
give you a good lecture."
"A good lecture! But about what? I'm as wise as an image for want of
opportunities."
"Don't trifle! You are doing a very imprudent and very dangerous thing
without thinking on it. You are compromising this young girl."
He appeared much astonished. "Who is that? Charlotte?"
"Yes, Charlotte!"
"I'm compromising Charlotte?--I?"
"Yes, you are compromising her. Everyone here is talking about it, and
this evening again in the park at Royat you have been very--very light.
Isn't that so, Bretigny?"
Paul answered: "Yes, Madame, I entirely share your sentiments."
Gontran turned his chair around, bestrode it like a horse, took a fresh
cigar, lighted it, then burst out laughing.
"Ha! so then I am compromising Charlotte Oriol?"
He waited a few seconds to see the effect of his words, then added:
"And who told you I did not intend to marry her?"
Christiane gave a start of amazement.
"Marry her? You? Why, you're mad!"
"Why so?"
"That--that little peasant girl!"
"Tra! la! la! Prejudices! Is it from your husband you learned them?"
As she made no response to this direct argument, he went on, putting
both questions and answers himself:
"Is she pretty?--Yes! Is she well educated?--Yes! And more ingenuous,
more simple, and more honest than girls in good society. She knows as
much as another, for she can speak both English and the language of
Auvergne--that makes two foreign languages. She will be as rich as any
heiress of the Faubourg Saint-Germain--as it was formerly called (they
are now going to christen it Faubourg Sainte-Deche)--and finally, if
she is a peasant's daughter, she'll be only all the more healthy to
present me with fine children. Enough!"
As he had always the appearance of laughing and jesting, Christiane
asked hesitatingly: "Come! are you speaking seriously?"
"Faith, I am! She is charming, this little girl! She has a good heart
and a pretty face, a genial character and a good temper, rosy cheeks,
bright eyes, white teeth, ruby lips, and flowing tresses, glossy,
thick, and full of soft folds. And then her vinedressing father will be
as rich as Croesus, thanks to your husband, my dear sister. What more
do you want? The daughter of a peasant! Well, is not the daughter of a
peasant as good as any of those money-lenders' daughters who pay such
high prices for dukes with doubtful titles, or any of the daughters
born of aristocratic prostitution whom the Empire has given us, or any
of the daughters with double sires whom we meet in society? Why, if I
did marry this girl I should be doing the first wise and rational act
of my life!"
Christiane reflected, then, all of a sudden, convinced, overcome,
delighted, she exclaimed:
"Why, all you have said is true! It is quite true, quite right! So then
you are going to marry her, my little Gontran?"
It was he who now sought to moderate her ardor. "Not so quick--not so
quick--let me reflect in my turn. I only declare that, if I did marry
her, I would be doing the first wise and rational act of my life. That
does not go so far as saying that I will marry her; but I am thinking
over it; I am studying her, I am paying her a little attention to see
if I can like her sufficiently. In short, I don't answer 'yes' or 'no,'
but it is nearer to 'yes' than to 'no.'"
Christiane turned toward Paul: "What do you think of it, Monsieur
Bretigny?"
She called him at one time Monsieur Bretigny, and at another time
Bretigny only.
He, always fascinated by the things in which he imagined he saw an
element of greatness, by unequal matches which seemed to him to exhibit
generosity, by all the sentimental parade in which the human heart
masks itself, replied: "For my part I think he is right in this. If he
likes her, let him marry her; he could not find better."
But, the Marquis and Andermatt having returned, they had to talk about
other subjects; and the two young men went to the Casino to see whether
the gaming-room was still open.
From that day forth Christiane and Paul appeared to favor Gontran's
open courtship of Charlotte.
The young girl was more frequently invited to the hotel by Christiane,
and was treated in fact as if she were already a member of the family.
She saw all this clearly, understood it, and was quite delighted at
it. Her little head throbbed like a drum, and went building fantastic
castles in Spain. Gontran, in the meantime had said nothing definite
to her; but his demeanor, all his words, the tone that he assumed with
her, his more serious air of gallantry, the caress of his glance seemed
every day to keep repeating to her: "I have chosen you; you are to be
my wife."
And the tone of sweet affection, of discreet self-surrender, of chaste
reserve which she now adopted toward him, seemed to give this answer:
"I know it, and I'll say 'yes' whenever you ask for my hand."
In the young girl's family, the matter was discussed in confidential
whispers. Louise scarcely opened her lips now except to annoy her with
hurtful allusions, with sharp and sarcastic remarks. Père Oriol and
Jacques appeared to be content.
She did not ask herself, all the same, whether she loved this
good-looking suitor, whose wife she was, no doubt, destined to become.
She liked him, she was constantly thinking about him; she considered
him handsome, witty, elegant--she was speculating, above all, on what
she would do when she was married to him.
In Enval people had forgotten the malignant rivalries of the physicians
and the proprietors of springs, the theories as to the supposed
attachment of the Duchess de Ramas for her doctor, all the scandals
that flow along with the waters of thermal stations, in order to occupy
their minds entirely with this extraordinary circumstance--that Count
Gontran de Ravenel was going to marry the younger of the Oriol girls.
When Gontran thought the moment had arrived, taking Andermatt by the
arm, one morning, as they were rising from the breakfast-table, he said
to him: "My dear fellow, strike while the iron is hot! Here is the
exact state of affairs: The little one is waiting for me to propose,
without my having committed myself at all; but, you may be quite
certain she will not refuse me. It is necessary to sound her father
about it in such a way as to promote, at the same time, your interests
and mine."
Andermatt replied: "Make your mind easy. I'll take that on myself. I am
going to sound him this very day without compromising you and without
thrusting you forward; and when the situation is perfectly clear, I'll
talk about it."
"Capital!"
Then, after a few moments' silence, Gontran added: "Hold on! This is
perhaps my last day of bachelorhood. I am going on to Royat, where I
saw some acquaintances of mine the other day. I'll be back to-night,
and I'll tap at your door to know the result."
He saddled his horse, and proceeded along by the mountain, inhaling the
pure, genial air, and sometimes starting into a gallop to feel the keen
caress of the breeze brushing the fresh skin of his cheek and tickling
his mustache.
The evening-party at Royat was a jolly affair. He met some of his
friends there who had brought girls along with them. They lingered a
long time at supper; he returned home at a very late hour. Everyone
had gone to bed in the hotel of Mont Oriol when Gontran went to tap at
Andermatt's door. There was no answer at first; then, as the knocking
became much louder, a hoarse voice, the voice of one disturbed while
asleep, grunted from within:
"Who's there?"
"'Tis I, Gontran."
"Wait--I'm opening the door."
Andermatt appeared in his nightshirt, with puffed-up face, bristling
chin, and a silk handkerchief tied round his head. Then he got back
into bed, sat down in it, and with his hands stretched over the sheets:
"Well, my dear fellow, this won't do me. Here is how matters stand:
I have sounded this old fox Oriol, without mentioning you, referring
merely to a certain friend of mine--I have perhaps allowed him to
suppose that the person I meant was Paul Bretigny--as a suitable match
for one of his daughters, and I asked what dowry he would give her. He
answered me by asking in his turn what were the young man's means; and
I fixed the amount at three hundred thousand francs with expectations."
"But I have nothing," muttered Gontran.
"I am lending you the money, my dear fellow. If we work this business
between us, your lands would yield me enough to reimburse me."
Gontran sneered: "All right. I'll have the woman and you the money."
But Andermatt got quite annoyed. "If I am to interest myself in your
affairs in order that you might insult me, there's an end of it--let us
say no more about it!"
Gontran apologized: "Don't get vexed, my dear fellow, and excuse me!
I know that you are a very honest man of irreproachable loyalty in
matters of business. I would not ask you for the price of a drink if I
were your coachman; but I would intrust my fortune to you if I were a
millionaire."
William, less excited, rejoined: "We'll return presently to that
subject. Let us first dispose of the principal question. The old man
was not taken in by my wiles, and said to me in reply: 'It depends
on which of them is the girl you're talking about. If 'tis Louise,
the elder one, here's her dowry.' And he enumerated for me all the
lands that are around the establishment, those which are between the
baths and the hotel and between the hotel and the Casino, all those,
in short, which are indispensable to us, those which have for me an
inestimable value. He gives, on the contrary, to the younger girl the
other side of the mountain, which will be worth as much money later on,
no doubt, but which is worth nothing to me. I tried in every possible
way to make him modify their partition and invert the lots. I was only
knocking my head against the obstinacy of a mule. He will not change;
he has fixed his resolution. Reflect--what do you think of it?"
Gontran, much troubled, much perplexed, replied: "What do you think
of it yourself? Do you believe that he was thinking of me in thus
distributing the shares in the land?"
"I haven't a doubt of it. The clown said to himself: 'As he likes
the younger one, let us take care of the bag.' He hopes to give
you his daughter while keeping his best lands. And again perhaps
his object is to give the advantage to the elder girl. He prefers
her--who knows?--she is more like himself--she is more cunning--more
artful--more practical. I believe she is a strapping lass, this
one--for my part, if I were in your place, I would change my stick from
one shoulder to the other."
But Gontran, stunned, began muttering: "The devil! the devil! the
devil! And Charlotte's lands--you don't want them?"
Andermatt exclaimed: "I--no--a thousand times, no! I want those which
are close to my baths, my hotel, and my Casino. It is very simple, I
wouldn't give anything for the others, which could only be sold, at a
later period, in small lots to private individuals."
Gontran kept still repeating: "The devil! the devil! the devil! here's
a plaguy business! So then you advise me?"
"I don't advise you at all. I think you would do well to reflect before
deciding between the two sisters."
"Yes--yes--that's true--I will reflect--I am going to sleep first--that
brings counsel."
He rose up; Andermatt held him back.
"Excuse me, my dear boy!--a word or two on another matter. I may not
appear to understand, but I understand very well the allusions with
which you sting me incessantly, and I don't want any more of them.
You reproach me with being a Jew--that is to say, with making money,
with being avaricious, with being a speculator, so as to come close to
sheer swindling. Now, my friend, I spend my life in lending you this
money that I make--not without trouble--or rather in giving it to you.
However, let that be! But there is one point that I don't admit! No,
I am not avaricious. The proof of it is that I have made presents to
your sister, presents of twenty thousand francs at a time, that I gave
your father a Theodore Rousseau worth ten thousand francs, to which he
took a fancy, and that I presented you, when you were coming here, with
the horse on which you rode a little while ago to Royat. In what then
am I avaricious? In not letting myself be robbed. And we are all like
that among my race, and we are right, Monsieur. I want to say it to
you once for all. We are regarded as misers because we know the exact
value of things. For you a piano is a piano, a chair is a chair, a pair
of trousers is a pair of trousers. For us also, but it represents, at
the same time, a value, a mercantile value appreciable and precise,
which a practical man should estimate with a single glance, not through
stinginess, but in order not to countenance fraud. What would you say
if a tobacconist asked you four sous for a postage-stamp or for a box
of wax-matches? You would go to look for a policeman, Monsieur, for
one sou, yes, for one sou--so indignant would you be! And that because
you knew, by chance, the value of these two articles. Well, as for
me, I know the value of all salable articles; and that indignation
which would take possession of you, if you were asked four sous for
a postage-stamp, I experience when I am asked twenty francs for an
umbrella which is worth fifteen! I protest against the established
theft, ceaseless and abominable, of merchants, servants, and coachmen.
I protest against the commercial dishonesty of all your race which
despises us. I give the price of a drink which I am bound to give for a
service rendered, and not that which as the result of a whim you fling
away without knowing why, and which ranges from five to a hundred sous
according to the caprice of your temper! Do you understand?"
Gontran had risen by this time, and smiling with that refined irony
which came happily from his lips:
"Yes, my dear fellow, I understand, and you are perfectly right, and
so much the more right because my grandfather, the old Marquis de
Ravenel, scarcely left anything to my poor father in consequence of the
bad habit which he had of never picking up the change handed to him
by the shopkeepers when he was paying for any article whatsoever. He
thought that unworthy of a gentleman, and always gave the round sum and
the entire coin."
And Gontran went out with a self-satisfied air.