The ball given by M. and Mme. Lemeunier de Saulvard (of the Institute)
"in their apartment" in the avenue Kléber, on the occasion of the
engagement of their niece, Mlle. Genevieve de Saulvard, to M. Brisset de
Saffry de Lamorneraie, lieutenant of the 21st hussars, had attracted a
large assembly of guests.
The army, the fine arts, literature, science, the upper bourgeoisie, men
of learning, club-men, men of finance and men of the drawing-room--the
full contingent of their acquaintances filled their apartment after 11
o'clock. All the guests, for lack of any other common ground, were at
least agreed on the subject of the party and voted it a success.
As a matter of fact, the Saulvards deserved the praise, for they had
shown themselves far from niggardly. The buffet was sumptuous, covered
with silver plate, viands and piles of sandwiches, ices, sweet-smelling
drinks and spread here and there with dishes of frozen fruit in large
pale pink or green rings like dull-colored silk plaques. And everywhere
there were flowers, in bushes, baskets and garlands. Rows of white
chrysanthemums concealed the upper parts of the windows with their
intricate strands, and chains of delicate winter roses climbed along the
chandeliers, whence fell through the crystal the calm, intense glow of
the electric lights.
The orchestra was made up of gypsies in red coats with heavy gold
braidings. They formed a sort of barbaric guard of honor in front of the
piano. In the interval between the dances people stopped to watch them
cleaning their strange instruments as if they were wild men in a camp.
They began to play their sensuous airs. One couple rose, then two, then
three. Then all at once the reflections made by the lights upon the
empty shiny floor disappeared under the mixed crowd of dancers. Mothers
smiled. Old savants dreamily beat the rhythm with their feet; the heads
of young women were bent backwards and their eyes shone in enamored
glances. The enervating beatitude of that music caused them all to
tremble for an instant in spite of themselves with the same pleasure
that drew them together. At those moments one might have imagined
himself witnessing one of those gatherings where people of the same set
are fused in joyous intimacy and with the feeling of being secure among
themselves.
But the illusion disappeared with the last note. It was like refractory
liquids which, as soon as one ceases to beat them together, separate and
naturally resume their own color and their own place. The whirlwind of
the dancers was broken up; close embraces ceased and steady glances
turned away. Instinctively everyone fell back among his own set,
returned to his caste. Once more between hostile groups the floor in
the center of the room stretched out under the lights a desert of
frightening barrenness.
There were but a few daring young men from the great clubs who ventured
on it; Gerald de Meuze, Tommy Barbier, Patrice de Vernaise, Saint-Pons
and the little prince of Tavarande; they had committed themselves at the
urgent entreaty of Mme. de Saulvard. There were also some brother
officers of the fiancé, in sky-blue coats and red trousers with light
bands, most of them titled or bearing those bourgeois names which, while
not noble, announced at least an ancient worth and a duly established
family.
They walked round the drawing-rooms alone, or by twos, seemingly
meditative, supporting their bent elbows with one hand and curling their
mustaches with the other. They examined the women, one by one,
studiously, as if these had been cattle at a fair. With their heavy,
disdainful eyelids, one could hardly tell whether they were purposely
shrinking their eyes to the dimensions of that small world or whether
they were perhaps tormented by a persistent and rebellious desire to
sneeze.
Saulvard had vainly attempted at first to merge the other elements of
the assembly. He had had to give it up in the face of resistance.
Thus high finance and great industry and their satellites formed a
compact clan in the right-hand corner of the first drawing-room. They
laughed, cackled and chattered, and were sufficient unto themselves;
the minute a stranger dared to break in, seeking a chair or a little
more elbow room, in short, the slightest opening, this group assumed
dark countenances. They had a welcome for none but the representatives
of the aristocracy. The latter, however, were massed a little away from
them; they formed a small élite, had closed their ranks after the
necessary greetings, and henceforth affected to ignore their jovial
neighbors, reserving for each other their cordiality and their smiles.
Apart from a few noblemen whom the smell of blood or the need for
financial advice moved to approach the other clan, the aristocratic
group remained effectively faithful to its principles of separatism and
its arrogant virtuosity.
The Academicians also kept their distance. The five sections of the
Institute kept to their circle but did not fraternize. They hardly even
exchanged brief amenities or passed chairs to each other in order to
avoid any promiscuity with the Academy of Medicine--intruders who were
signaled to all by a volatile smell of iodoform or phenol brought in
their clothing.
The literary men and their wives had constituted a close circle with the
groups of painters and musicians. But even that brought forth constraint
or reciprocal animosity.
The result was that Saulvard, who stood on duty near the door, assumed
more and more the air of a guardian of a public dancing hall, or the
controller of a casino who checked the entrance of the subscribers and
jollied equally all his diverse classes of patrons.
He was short and bald; his yellow face was framed by two short white
whiskers--the face of a Japanese turned butler; he smiled ceaselessly,
bowed and straightened himself up again; he hopped on his high pointed
heels as if waiting, or thanking for, a tip. He murmured, following them
five or six steps, appropriate flatteries to all his invited guests, as
soon as they reached the doorstep. His glances wandered round, discreet
and confidential. From afar one might have thought that he was showing
the newcomers the way to the cloakroom.
As soon as the Raindal family appeared, he nimbly rose to meet them.
"Ah, my dear colleague!... What joy!... I was almost despairing...."
His two hands caught that of M. Raindal and he went on:
"I have not seen you since your success!... What a triumph!... What a
beautiful book!... Madame.... Mademoiselle...."
He bowed, then, standing on tiptoe so as to reach the ear of M. Raindal,
he whispered:
"You know, our young man is here ... a charming fellow. He will attract
your daughter very much.... No escape.... _Fata volunt_.... This way,
please, come, my dear colleague, and I shall bring you that phenix...."
By an instinctive pressure on the shoulder he shunted Raindal towards a
corner of the drawing-room where the section of the Inscriptions had
disposed its trenches. A few chairs were left unoccupied in the first
and second rows. M. and Mme. Raindal settled down behind and Thérèse sat
in front of them between the two daughters of one of her father's
colleagues. They were thin and small, like the raw-boned hectic teams
that draw the Paris public cabs. They conversed, but furtively inspected
the girl's dress. Thérèse looked up when she heard the voice of Saulvard
who was making his reappearance, followed by a young man of very short
stature.
"My dear friend, dear master," he called over the heads of the girls,
"allow me to introduce one of our young confrères, whose name you surely
know: M. Pierre Boerzell...." Each of the two savants mumbled courteous
expressions which the other could not catch. Then Saulvard added:
"M. Pierre Boerzell ... Mlle. Raindal."
The young man bowed awkwardly. The orchestra was preluding with the slow
harmonies of a waltz. He murmured:
"Mademoiselle, will you give me the pleasure of this waltz?"
Sympathetically Thérèse refused.
"No, Monsieur, thank you.... I don't dance ... but if you wish ... we
might, as one says, I believe, talk it...."
Boerzell stammered a grateful acceptance. The two "hackney horses" had
started immediately for the waltz. He took one of the chairs they had
left empty by the side of Thérèse. The conversation, which she had
cleverly directed at once towards scientific matters, became cordial and
almost familiar.
He was not handsome. His chest was narrow, his nose short; his cheeks
were bloated and flabby, almost falling over a suspicion of a beard. His
eyelids were heavy from night work. His eyes, however, behind the thick
glasses of his pince-nez, shone with a kind and tender light. When he
talked, his voice had those caressing and particular inflections of
intellectual people who enjoy having their words sound like true coin;
and while he spoke his gestures became more alert and vivacious; his
arms relaxed as he grew less embarrassed.
M. Raindal out of curiosity soon brought his chair forward and took part
in the discussion of the two young people. They were flirting over the
interpretation of a tri-lingual inscription recently discovered in
Mesopotamia. Thérèse was defending her interpretation with that
professional assurance, that man's voice, which she always assumed in
the course of scientific discussions.
"Ah, Monsieur!" Boerzell exclaimed in discouragement. "Mademoiselle is
very strong; she knows much more than I.... She has beaten me...."
Smilingly M. Raindal agreed.
"Well, you are not the first!... Often I myself...."
The waltz had finished and the two cab horses were coming back to their
stand which the young savant had to leave. He asked Thérèse:
"Would you allow me to take you to the buffet with Madame, your mother?"
"With pleasure, monsieur! Will you come, Mother?"
Mme. Raindal took Boerzell's arm and Thérèse followed behind, going
towards the buffet through the crowd of dancers who were returning to
their seats.
M. Raindal watched them go. He was sitting in his favorite position: his
elbows were pressed against his sides, his forearms up, and his hands
hung limp at the end of his wrists like the paws of a "begging" dog.
From his seat through the wide open door he could see without effort
into the dining-room. He perceived the back of his wife; she was bent
over the elaborate table hastily making her choice. Against the high
chimney covered with white blossoms Thérèse stood with Boerzell; they
were sipping out of their spoons a pink fruit-like ice; they stopped at
times and looked at each other laughingly, chatting, their heads close
together, like life-long friends.
If only she could make up her mind! If she would accept that young
man!... No, that would be too fine!... And yet, who knew!... The ebb and
flow of contradictory thoughts caused M. Raindal's lips to stretch in
softened smiles or to purse in bitter grimaces.
Then his colleagues approached and began to congratulate him upon his
new book. More of them joined the first ones. A small, applauding group
surrounded M. Raindal and hid his daughter from his sight. The last
comers tipped their heads to one side, straining their ears to catch the
master's replies. "You are very good...." "I am ashamed, really...." "Be
sure that on my side...." The complimenters vied with each other in
outbidding and protested their sincerity in extravagant praise.
At length the enthusiasm came to an end. They became silent and listened
to M. Raindal, who was recalling memories of his youth and the misery of
his early efforts.
Suddenly the purring voice of Saulvard caused the ranks of the audience
to open.
"Pardon, Gentlemen! Pardon!"
With one hand bent like the prow of a boat, he was making a path for a
dark-haired young woman who hung on his arm; he came to a stop near M.
Raindal.
"My dear friend.... Will you help me satisfy the wishes of one of your
lady admirers who is longing to make your acquaintance?... M. Eusèbe
Raindal ... Mme. Georges Chambannes...."
M. Raindal rose and bowed, one hand resting on the back of his chair.
"Madame, I am delighted...."
Mme. Chambannes protested.
"It is I, on the contrary, Monsieur...."
They stood facing each other in distress as if, in spite of their
mutual good will, they did not know what to say.
Shyly M. Raindal glanced at the young woman. Her little eagle face was
softened by light brown eyes with a languorous expression; the waves of
her black hair, brushed in classic style back towards her neck,
concealed in its rich coils something savage and willful. At length she
spoke again in halting sentences, the words often lacking the precision
which she might have desired.
"Yes, Monsieur, I greatly admire your book.... It is a charming book, a
great masterpiece.... I cannot say how much I was charmed with it, and
how much amused.... Ah! it must be so interesting to write books like
that.... And the style is so delightful, so pleasant to read!..."
"Well, I must leave you!" M. Saulvard interrupted, as he blinked his
slanting eyes.... "My guests.... Excuse me!..."
He disappeared leaving them alone, as the members of the little group
had discreetly vanished one by one.
After a glance of mutual agreement M. Raindal and the young woman sat
down to continue their conversation.
But he noticed the pale blue satin dress of Mme. Chambannes so close to
the black cloth of his trousers that instinctively he withdrew slightly
to one side. Smilingly she piled up her compliments. Then the discomfort
which the master habitually felt when conversing with people of
inferior culture--ignorant people, men or women of society--was
increased by the embarrassment he felt at being so close to the low-cut
dress of his admirer. Despite himself his glances were fastened to it
and followed her full and easy curves. It seemed to him that an
invisible force compelled his eyes to look at that skin, dull and
diaphanous like a piece of fine china, at those perfumed breasts that
rose and fell quietly against the ruffles of the opening without needing
its support for their young firmness. Distractedly, all out of place,
with sudden flights of thought, he answered the exclamations and
multiple queries of Mme. Chambannes. And while he tried to listen to her
he was comparing her to one of Cleopatra's attendants, one of those
dainty Greek slaves whose saucy prettiness provided a setting for the
Queen of Egypt, as nymphs around a goddess.
Nevertheless the lady's flow of praise was ceasing. Her smooth little
brow, framed by the two flat curls, was furrowed by a searching frown.
She found no more chapters or passages in which to plant her "so
charming" and her "so pretty" like equal good marks of alternate colors.
Suddenly her graceful face smiled again and her wide nostrils palpitated
with mischief. She teased M. Raindal with the challenge that he could
not guess her last reason for liking his book so much.
The master pretended to search. Finally he declared with modesty:
"I don't know."
"Well, think a moment," commanded Mme. Chambannes familiarly, rolling
her r's.
M. Raindal was not trying to find the answer but thought to himself.
"She is very attractive but somewhat silly!"
What he said aloud, imitating her tone, was:
"No, I really can't think what it is."
Then she resigned herself and voiced her secret, her final surprise, and
indeed her pretext for further acquaintanceship, her supreme bait. Well!
precisely, next winter, she intended to travel with her husband, to go
to Cairo, Alexandria and the Nile. M. Raindal's book had come in most
handy, at the precise moment when she was beginning to study the
Egyptian antiquities in view of that expected trip and naturally....
"My dear lady," a guttural voice interrupted them. "Forgive me.... Would
you be kind enough to introduce me to Monsieur...."
"Why, of course!"
Then she made the presentations.
"Monsieur le Marquis de Meuze ... one of our best friends ... and one
who adores your book."
He was a powerful old man with a majestic waistband and an aristocratic
carriage. His white whiskers and curled up white mustache gave him the
air of an Austrian general, for his was one of those heads which one
readily fancies wearing a gold-braided cocked hat ornamented with a
panache of green feathers. At the time of the financial smash of 1882,
he had suffered from an attack of facial paralysis which had deprived
him of the use of his left eyelid. It hung gray and lifeless and hid
three quarters of his eye--this infirmity completed, like a glorious
wound, his resemblance to an old warrior.
He multiplied protests of admiration. Then, following the immutable rule
which prompts most people to conclude their compliments with an apology,
he broached the true cause that had brought him to the master. He had
once possessed a collection of cameos, a quite remarkable and
exceptional collection. (As to the quality of the different pieces of
which it had been composed, M. Raindal could consult several of his
colleagues: the Count de Lastreins, of the Academy of Inscriptions;
Baron Grollet, unattached member of the Beaux Arts, or the Viscount de
Sernhac, of the Académie Française, all good friends or old comrades of
the Marquis.) Well, one of the gems of that collection had been a cameo
of Cleopatra. Alas! M. de Meuze had had to part with it, following
financial losses. But he knew where it had gone; into the hands of a
Jewish stock broker, a M. Stralhaus, and, if M. Raindal so desired, the
Marquis fancied that he could obtain permission to examine that piece.
The master neither accepted nor refused. The conversation circled around
the art of cameo-making, with a few comments on the closely-related
subject of numismatics, of which the marquis was not altogether
ignorant. Out of her element Mme. Chambannes piped softly at intervals
her "very prettys" and "very charmings." M. Chambannes, a tall,
fair-haired man, with a faded complexion, a weak eye and fine and scanty
hair, had joined her in the meantime. His thick cylindrical mustache was
like a hinged cover, so closely did it fit his lips. Taken as a whole,
his tired appearance might have been either that of a flabby scoundrel
or of a pleasant young man worn out by his excesses.
All three surrounded M. Raindal, who replied to their chatter with
assenting but weary smiles. He would have reproached himself had he
rebuffed ever so slightly strangers who were so courteous for all their
stupidity. Nevertheless, after a while he grew impatient with this
strained politeness, the end of which he could not foresee. He was now
equally bored by that old marquis with his verbose chatter, which was
worthy of a second-hand dealer, his stories about cameos, sales, and
bargains, and his quotations from catalogues.
At last reinforcements arrived to rescue him. Mme. Raindal returned with
Thérèse and Boerzell. Then began new introductions. Immediately Mme.
Chambannes briefly repeated her compliments. Mme. Raindal, blushing
continually, stammered replies that were like so many apologies. Thérèse
observed in silence; her virile glance judged it all mercilessly. Then
Mme. Chambannes asked what their receiving day was and if she might have
permission to call. There came a period of quiet when they merely
talked for the sake of talking, of the ball, the orchestra and the
dances. Of a sudden Mme. Chambannes called the marquis.
"M. de Meuze...."
"Madame?"
"A little secret. Will you permit me, ladies?"
Behind her spread-out fan she whispered a few words to M. de Meuze, who
listened, bent towards her, his eyebrows arched in deep attention.
"Do you think so?... I don't know whether he will.... Well, I shall take
a chance!"
He stepped uncertainly towards the next room, holding aloft his proud
field-marshal's head and searching the groups with his one small green
eye. At the door of the buffet he promptly turned to one side, his hand
stretched out like a hook to catch someone who was walking away from
him.
Thérèse could distinguish nothing but the square shoulders and the brown
neck above the shining white collar of the tall young man whom the
marquis had caught. No doubt M. de Meuze must be asking something absurd
and impracticable, for she could see that brown neck shaken in indignant
denials; the young man was apparently asserting that they were mad or
playing a trick upon him.... But suddenly she saw the neck assent and
the tall man turned right about, shrugging his shoulders. The heart of
Thérèse was suddenly twisted like a wounded serpent.
It was almost Albârt. An older Albârt, more refined, more fashionable,
of a superior class, but himself: the same big eyes of the color of a
dark agate, the same black mustache with its impertinent tips, the same
swaying of the body over two straight legs. He was coming towards her
preceded by the marquis, his eyes awake as if to reconnoitre from afar
and see what enemy it was against whom he was led.
Thérèse bent her head down; her back was strained against her chair; she
was gathered upon herself with fright. No longer did she see her parents
nor the Chambannes, nor Boerzell, nor the couples that were beginning to
dance, nor the people near her, nor those beyond. She saw nothing but
the long patent leather shoes, the long narrow feet of the young man,
and they were coming nearer, nearer still.
When they were quite close to her the marquis effaced himself and bowed.
"Mademoiselle, may I introduce my son, M. Gerald de Meuze...."
The young count was slightly swaying before her.
"Mademoiselle, will you please grant me the end of this dance?"
Unconsciously, in the tone of a schoolgirl, Thérèse replied:
"Monsieur, I cannot dance.... I do not know how."
"What does it matter? It all depends on your partner...."
He gave Mme. Chambannes a quick wink, either friendly or ironical, as if
he were winning a bet.
"No danger, Mademoiselle, I guarantee the waltz...."
Sharply, in a sudden need to see him well, to take in all his features,
Thérèse looked at him fixedly. She could not resist. Perspiration ran
down her back. She was dominated by the desire to be in those arms, as
once she had been in others so very much like them. She rose shortly,
her voice almost harsh in spite of the smile with which she tried to
correct it, and said:
"Very well, monsieur, let us try."
Gerald put one arm round her and they began to whirl. At the first steps
she stumbled out of ignorance and fear of losing the rhythm. Then he
lifted her as if she were a child and carried her off gently among the
dancers. Her feet no longer touched the floor. Couples brushed lightly
against her. She had the impression of sliding in rhythms upon clouds
with a robust lover. She closed her eyes. Voluptuous sobs choked her
throat. He thought she was out of breath and stopped.
"Well, mademoiselle.... What did I say?... It goes beautifully...."
Thérèse approved with a nod; her thin lips were pale with pleasure. The
count went on paternally:
"Dancing is like swimming!... You must throw yourself blindly into
it.... Music pushes you along like waves.... Then, after that, you have
nothing to do but let yourself go...."
In order to avoid an impolite silence he continued his theory and his
comparisons.
Thérèse gave him only half answers, in indistinct monosyllables. She was
regaining control of herself as she did upon awaking from those guilty
dreams when Albârt sometimes came in the night so gently to press her.
What! She, Thérèse Raindal, giving way as if she were a perverse child,
a boarding-school girl, in the arms of this insipid male! She was
disgusted with herself. In order to hide her chagrin she applied herself
to watching the leader of the gypsies, a big, olive-skinned man who
played with serious expression. The long movements of his bow tore from
his violin these panting melodies and his fat scarlet-coated chest
swayed with the effort; he had the listening eye and his eyelids
trembled. Thérèse envied his bestiality and the unthinking joy which
animated that man's dark face. Why was she not like that, a thoughtless
brute, without subtlety, one who lived only by his senses, which
supported him even in his art?... A movement from Gerald brought her
back.
"Do we start again?..."
She was still hoping she might refuse and, constraining herself,
murmured:
"But, monsieur, the dance is nearly over!"
"All the more reason.... One more round."
He had said this without enthusiasm and already his eyes turned to the
place where he had to bring her back. A sudden fear seized her. She saw
herself duly thanked, sitting down again, weaned for the rest of the
evening from these rediscovered delights. In a surge of stronger desire
she said resolutely:
"Well, yes, one more round."
He fell back with her among the dancing couples. His stretched arm gave
the beat in an imperceptible palpitation; at each of these soft passes
Thérèse felt the floor giving way under them. Unwittingly she fastened
herself to Gerald, squeezed herself in his embrace. At this contact the
whole past flew back to her in brutal jerks that maddened her.
She wanted to make a last appeal to her reasoning powers, to her
dignity, to that Mlle. Raindal that she was. But she was dazed,
ravished. She ceased to struggle and, her eyes once more closed,
abandoned herself as a woman who gives in with dread and frenzy.
Gerald guessed nothing at all of this confusion. He smiled at his
comrades. His scornful glances called upon them to witness what a
"wall-flower," what a "package," what a "wood-basket" he had to steer
around. Another great idea they had had, his father and Zozé!...
Moreover that young child was pulling all the skin off his shoulder with
her bony fingers that clung to him to save her from falling. Ah! Well!
This was really too much! A feverish pinching gripped his shoulder. As
he bent down to see if by chance the little one was not losing her head,
he had to hold Thérèse back with his two arms. She had fainted, white
and stiff as a corpse.
"This is the last drop! Just my luck!..."
He swung her rapidly towards the hall, jostling a little the people who
were in his way. He set her upon a bench against a wall and ran out to
warn the family.
In a twinkle the Raindals, the Chambannes, Boerzell and the marquis
jumped to their feet and rushed with him to Thérèse.
Mme. Chambannes pulled out of her pocket a gold bottle of salts, the top
of which was a shining ruby; almost on her knees she brought it to the
young girl's nostrils, but Thérèse made no movement. Only a faint sad
moan escaped from her parted lips which showed her uneven teeth. They
bathed her temples with fresh water but this brought no result either.
As one goes to requisition the firemen on duty, Saulvard had marched
straight to the corner where the Academy of Medicine was encamped in
order to find a doctor. One came, put his ear to the moist skin of
Thérèse and gave his diagnosis.
"The girl is choking.... You must loosen her dress!"
At last she opened her eyes in Mme. Saulvard's room, where her mother
and Mme. Chambannes had taken her.
At once her glance fell with stupefaction upon her opened dress. Then
she recognized Mme. Chambannes bending over her in the pose of a
guardian angel, and her mother praying beside her as if she were at the
bedside of someone on the point of death.
She turned her head away. She saw again all the details of her
accident, the unavoidable intoxication that had made her lose her head
and her ridiculous fall in the middle of a dance. What a double insult
to her pride! She wanted to plunge into nothingness, to destroy with her
own body the memory of it all. Revolt caused her to choke and suddenly
she burst into tears.
"That's right! That's right! Cry! Quiet your nerves!" Mme. Chambannes
encouraged her.
This vulgar solicitude merely exasperated Thérèse. She mastered herself
suddenly, stood up, and in a rage began to fasten her dress again.
In the mirror she shunned the eyes of her mother and of Mme. Chambannes.
A growing anger put fresh speed into her fingers. Yes! They might well
look at her! She had indeed the look of a woman who had just fainted.
She could not have jumped up in worse disorder and less command of
herself had a man seen her thus undressed and disheveled. Her eyes shone
bigger; her eyelids showed a dark shadow as if she had spent a sleepless
night. Perspiration had laid oily tints on the wings of her nostrils and
marked her powdered cheeks with greasy lines. Her bunch of carnations
had fallen down; there was a deep gap in her hair, just over her
forehead, like a dark-edged wound. In her haste she had hooked her
corsage awry and the gauze gaped over her breast, a loose, transparent
cord.
"Poor girl!" Mme. Chambannes risked.... "Do you feel better?"
Thérèse coldly replied:
"Much better, madame, thank you."
She turned to her mother and asked in a tone of command:
"Well, mother, are we going?"
"Just as you say, dear," Mme. Raindal replied.
They went to the anteroom where the men were waiting.
As she came in sight, Gerald rushed forward to inquire and Boerzell
imitated him. But Thérèse, with intentional oversight, hurried towards
the cloakroom. When she came back, leaning on her father's arm, they
were gone. Stupefied, M. Raindal, his satin hat curled under his arm,
supported her wearily. Mme. Raindal closed the cortège, her back bent
under her cape as if she had been an aged servant. Saulvard escorted
them to the top of the stairs.
"It is the heat, that damned heat!" he repeated petulantly.
Bending his little form over the ebony banisters, he shouted:
"To-morrow, I shall send for news.... It will be nothing, I hope, my
dear colleague!"
* * * * *
In the cab that took them home M. Raindal had sat opposite them, leaving
the back seat to his wife and daughter. For a long time they were
silent. Dreamily they gazed through the windows dimmed by the steam,
watching the black streets and the gas street-lamps with their yellow
flames flattened in fanshape. Sitting sideways the master lost his
balance at every jump of the wheels. He had to catch himself up with the
help of the strap that hung in front of the windows; the hard leather
cut his hands and the wooden door hurt his bones. A heavier jolt threw
him against his daughter. Thérèse exclaimed impatiently:
"Father, you are very uncomfortable. Come and sit here between us."
"No," M. Raindal replied, "not at all.... Don't you move.... Well, how
are you getting on?"
"Very well, father, thank you."
Silence fell again and once more Thérèse sat motionless.
Through the semi-darkness M. Raindal contemplated her pouting profile
behind which, no doubt, lurked sorrowful thoughts. He mustered all his
energy and gently asked:
"Well, dear?"
She repeated, "Well, what, father?"
A pause. Then M. Raindal spoke.
"Well, this young man.... At the dance." Thérèse started; she looked at
him fiercely and replied with bravado:
"What young man?"
"This M. Boerzell!"
A sigh of relief escaped her. Oh, only that one.... Poor fellow, she had
forgotten him so! She smiled, and her voice firmly uttered:
"No, father, never!"
M. Raindal insisted.
"Why? You seemed to like him...."
"Yes, to talk to, perhaps ... but that's all."
"And so you don't want him?... You have thought it over well? Let me
know at least...."
"You know since I told you.... I don't want him."
She grabbed her father's hand and tenderly bent towards him, offering
her cheek.
M. Raindal kissed her and grunted:
"As you like. I have no right to compel you."
Then cunningly, to make sure, he added, without releasing her hand:
"To be sure, he is not such a good-looking man as the other one."
He paused, feeling the contraction in his daughter's hand.
"Yes, the other one.... Your dancer.... What was his name?... This M. de
Meuze...."
Sharply Thérèse pulled her hand back and said with vexation:
"Oh, father, don't make any comparison, please.... M. Boerzell does not
appeal to me.... I refuse him.... That's enough.... I think I am old
enough, am I not?"
The master did not reply. There was no doubt about it. It was that tall
man, that sort of worldly Dastarac, who had spoiled everything and
ruined the prospects of little Boerzell owing to that advantageous
height of his. A lost attempt! M. Raindal became absorbed in
self-recriminations. Nothing more was heard but the noise of the wheels
on the pavement and the vibrations of the carriage windows in their
frames.
Thérèse, her head bent back, was apparently dozing, and so was Mme.
Raindal in her corner. But she was not asleep. A remorseful torture,
more atrocious than a nightmare, kept her eyes awake under their lids.
With anguish she was estimating the number of hours that would stretch
before the next morning, the blessed moment when she could confess her
recent sins in the peace of the Church. Had she not, prompted by thirst,
or led into temptation, helped herself three times to iced coffee and
twice to _marquise au champagne_, without counting a number of
_petits-fours_ and other dainties?