CHAPTER VIII.

Frederick Entertains

Frederick found a little mansion at the corner of the Rue Rumfort, and

he bought it along with the brougham, the horse, the furniture, and two

flower-stands which were taken from the Arnoux's house to be placed on

each side of his drawing-room door. In the rear of this apartment were a

bedroom and a closet. The idea occurred to his mind to put up

Deslauriers there. But how could he receive her--_her_, his future

mistress? The presence of a friend would be an obstacle. He knocked down

the partition-wall in order to enlarge the drawing-room, and converted

the closet into a smoking-room.

He bought the works of the poets whom he loved, books of travel,

atlases, and dictionaries, for he had innumerable plans of study. He

hurried on the workmen, rushed about to the different shops, and in his

impatience to enjoy, carried off everything without even holding out for

a bargain beforehand.

From the tradesmen's bills, Frederick ascertained that he would have to

expend very soon forty thousand francs, not including the succession

duties, which would exceed thirty-seven thousand. As his fortune was in

landed property, he wrote to the notary at Havre to sell a portion of it

in order to pay off his debts, and to have some money at his disposal.

Then, anxious to become acquainted at last with that vague entity,

glittering and indefinable, which is known as "society," he sent a note

to the Dambreuses to know whether he might be at liberty to call upon

them. Madame, in reply, said she would expect a visit from him the

following day.

This happened to be their reception-day. Carriages were standing in the

courtyard. Two footmen rushed forward under the marquée, and a third at

the head of the stairs began walking in front of him.

He was conducted through an anteroom, a second room, and then a

drawing-room with high windows and a monumental mantel-shelf supporting

a time-piece in the form of a sphere, and two enormous porcelain vases,

in each of which bristled, like a golden bush, a cluster of sconces.

Pictures in the manner of Espagnolet hung on the walls. The heavy

tapestry portières fell majestically, and the armchairs, the brackets,

the tables, the entire furniture, which was in the style of the Second

Empire, had a certain imposing and diplomatic air.

Frederick smiled with pleasure in spite of himself.

At last he reached an oval apartment wainscoted in cypress-wood, stuffed

with dainty furniture, and letting in the light through a single sheet

of plate-glass, which looked out on a garden. Madame Dambreuse was

seated at the fireside, with a dozen persons gathered round her in a

circle. With a polite greeting, she made a sign to him to take a seat,

without, however, exhibiting any surprise at not having seen him for so

long a time.

Just at the moment when he was entering the room, they had been praising

the eloquence of the Abbé Coeur. Then they deplored the immorality of

servants, a topic suggested by a theft which a _valet-de-chambre_ had

committed, and they began to indulge in tittle-tattle. Old Madame de

Sommery had a cold; Mademoiselle de Turvisot had got married; the

Montcharrons would not return before the end of January; neither would

the Bretancourts, now that people remained in the country till a late

period of the year. And the triviality of the conversation was, so to

speak, intensified by the luxuriousness of the surroundings; but what

they said was less stupid than their way of talking, which was aimless,

disconnected, and utterly devoid of animation. And yet there were

present men versed in life--an ex-minister, the curé of a large parish,

two or three Government officials of high rank. They adhered to the most

hackneyed commonplaces. Some of them resembled weary dowagers; others

had the appearance of horse-jockeys; and old men accompanied their

wives, of whom they were old enough to be the grandfathers.

Madame Dambreuse received all of them graciously. When it was mentioned

that anyone was ill, she knitted her brows with a painful expression on

her face, and when balls or evening parties were discussed, assumed a

joyous air. She would ere long be compelled to deprive herself of these

pleasures, for she was going to take away from a boarding-school a niece

of her husband, an orphan. The guests extolled her devotedness: this was

behaving like a true mother of a family.

Frederick gazed at her attentively. The dull skin of her face looked as

if it had been stretched out, and had a bloom in which there was no

brilliancy; like that of preserved fruit. But her hair, which was in

corkscrew curls, after the English fashion, was finer than silk; her

eyes of a sparkling blue; and all her movements were dainty. Seated at

the lower end of the apartment, on a small sofa, she kept brushing off

the red flock from a Japanese screen, no doubt in order to let her hands

be seen to greater advantage--long narrow hands, a little thin, with

fingers tilting up at the points. She wore a grey moiré gown with a

high-necked body, like a Puritan lady.

Frederick asked her whether she intended to go to La Fortelle this year.

Madame Dambreuse was unable to say. He was sure, however, of one thing,

that one would be bored to death in Nogent.

Then the visitors thronged in more quickly. There was an incessant

rustling of robes on the carpet. Ladies, seated on the edges of chairs,

gave vent to little sneering laughs, articulated two or three words, and

at the end of five minutes left along with their young daughters. It

soon became impossible to follow the conversation, and Frederick

withdrew when Madame Dambreuse said to him:

"Every Wednesday, is it not, Monsieur Moreau?" making up for her

previous display of indifference by these simple words.

He was satisfied. Nevertheless, he took a deep breath when he got out

into the open air; and, needing a less artificial environment, Frederick

recalled to mind that he owed the Maréchale a visit.

The door of the anteroom was open. Two Havanese lapdogs rushed forward.

A voice exclaimed:

"Delphine! Delphine! Is that you, Felix?"

He stood there without advancing a step. The two little dogs kept

yelping continually. At length Rosanette appeared, wrapped up in a sort

of dressing-gown of white muslin trimmed with lace, and with her

stockingless feet in Turkish slippers.

"Ah! excuse me, Monsieur! I thought it was the hairdresser. One minute;

I am coming back!"

And he was left alone in the dining-room. The Venetian blinds were

closed. Frederick, as he cast a glance round, was beginning to recall

the hubbub of the other night, when he noticed on the table, in the

middle of the room, a man's hat, an old felt hat, bruised, greasy,

dirty. To whom did this hat belong? Impudently displaying its torn

lining, it seemed to say:

"I have the laugh, after all! I am the master!"

The Maréchale suddenly reappeared on the scene. She took up the hat,

opened the conservatory, flung it in there, shut the door again (other

doors flew open and closed again at the same moment), and, having

brought Frederick through the kitchen, she introduced him into her

dressing-room.

It could at once be seen that this was the most frequented room in the

house, and, so to speak, its true moral centre. The walls, the

armchairs, and a big divan with a spring were adorned with a chintz

pattern on which was traced a great deal of foliage. On a white marble

table stood two large washhand-basins of fine blue earthenware. Crystal

shelves, forming a whatnot overhead, were laden with phials, brushes,

combs, sticks of cosmetic, and powder-boxes. The fire was reflected in a

high cheval-glass. A sheet was hanging outside a bath, and odours of

almond-paste and of benzoin were exhaled.

"You'll excuse the disorder. I'm dining in the city this evening."

And as she turned on her heel, she was near crushing one of the little

dogs. Frederick declared that they were charming. She lifted up the pair

of them, and raising their black snouts up to her face:

"Come! do a laugh--kiss the gentleman!"

A man dressed in a dirty overcoat with a fur collar here entered

abruptly.

"Felix, my worthy fellow," said she, "you'll have that business of yours

disposed of next Sunday without fail."

The man proceeded to dress her hair. Frederick told her he had heard

news of her friends, Madame de Rochegune, Madame de Saint-Florentin, and

Madame Lombard, every woman being noble, as if it were at the mansion of

the Dambreuses. Then he talked about the theatres. An extraordinary

performance was to be given that evening at the Ambigu.

"Shall you go?"

"Faith, no! I'm staying at home."

Delphine appeared. Her mistress gave her a scolding for having gone out

without permission.

The other vowed that she was just "returning from market."

"Well, bring me your book. You have no objection, isn't that so?"

And, reading the pass-book in a low tone, Rosanette made remarks on

every item. The different sums were not added up correctly.

"Hand me over four sous!"

Delphine handed the amount over to her, and, when she had sent the maid

away:

"Ah! Holy Virgin! could I be more unfortunate than I am with these

creatures?"

Frederick was shocked at this complaint about servants. It recalled the

others too vividly to his mind, and established between the two houses a

kind of vexatious equality.

When Delphine came back again, she drew close to the Maréchale's side in

order to whisper something in her ear.

"Ah, no! I don't want her!"

Delphine presented herself once more.

"Madame, she insists."

"Ah, what a plague! Throw her out!"

At the same moment, an old lady, dressed in black, pushed forward the

door. Frederick heard nothing, saw nothing. Rosanette rushed into her

apartment to meet her.

When she reappeared her cheeks were flushed, and she sat down in one of

the armchairs without saying a word. A tear fell down her face; then,

turning towards the young man, softly:

"What is your Christian name?"

"Frederick."

"Ha! Federico! It doesn't annoy you when I address you in that way?"

And she gazed at him in a coaxing sort of way that was almost amorous.

All of a sudden she uttered an exclamation of delight at the sight of

Mademoiselle Vatnaz.

The lady-artist had no time to lose before presiding at her _table

d'hôte_ at six o'clock sharp; and she was panting for breath, being

completely exhausted. She first took out of her pocket a gold chain in a

paper, then various objects that she had bought.

"You should know that there are in the Rue Joubert splendid Suède gloves

at thirty-six sous. Your dyer wants eight days more. As for the guipure,

I told you that they would dye it again. Bugneaux has got the instalment

you paid. That's all, I think. You owe me a hundred and eighty-five

francs."

Rosanette went to a drawer to get ten napoleons. Neither of the pair had

any money. Frederick offered some.

"I'll pay you back," said the Vatnaz, as she stuffed the fifteen francs

into her handbag. "But you are a naughty boy! I don't love you any

longer--you didn't get me to dance with you even once the other evening!

Ah! my dear, I came across a case of stuffed humming-birds which are

perfect loves at a shop in the Quai Voltaire. If I were in your place, I

would make myself a present of them. Look here! What do you think of

it?"

And she exhibited an old remnant of pink silk which she had purchased at

the Temple to make a mediæval doublet for Delmar.

"He came to-day, didn't he?"

"No."

"That's singular."

And, after a minute's silence:

"Where are you going this evening?"

"To Alphonsine's," said Rosanette, this being the third version given by

her as to the way in which she was going to pass the evening.

Mademoiselle Vatnaz went on: "And what news about the old man of the

mountain?"

But, with an abrupt wink, the Maréchale bade her hold her tongue; and

she accompanied Frederick out as far as the anteroom to ascertain from

him whether he would soon see Arnoux.

"Pray ask him to come--not before his wife, mind!"

At the top of the stairs an umbrella was placed against the wall near a

pair of goloshes.

"Vatnaz's goloshes," said Rosanette. "What a foot, eh? My little friend

is rather strongly built!"

And, in a melodramatic tone, making the final letter of the word roll:

"Don't tru-us-st her!"

Frederick, emboldened by a confidence of this sort, tried to kiss her on

the neck.

"Oh, do it! It costs nothing!"

He felt rather light-hearted as he left her, having no doubt that ere

long the Maréchale would be his mistress. This desire awakened another

in him; and, in spite of the species of grudge that he owed her, he felt

a longing to see Madame Arnoux.

Besides, he would have to call at her house in order to execute the

commission with which he had been entrusted by Rosanette.

"But now," thought he (it had just struck six), "Arnoux is probably at

home."

So he put off his visit till the following day.

She was seated in the same attitude as on the former day, and was sewing

a little boy's shirt.

The child, at her feet, was playing with a wooden toy menagerie. Marthe,

a short distance away, was writing.

He began by complimenting her on her children. She replied without any

exaggeration of maternal silliness.

The room had a tranquil aspect. A glow of sunshine stole in through the

window-panes, lighting up the angles of the different articles of

furniture, and, as Madame Arnoux sat close beside the window, a large

ray, falling on the curls over the nape of her neck, penetrated with

liquid gold her skin, which assumed the colour of amber.

Then he said:

"This young lady here has grown very tall during the past three years!

Do you remember, Mademoiselle, when you slept on my knees in the

carriage?"

Marthe did not remember.

"One evening, returning from Saint-Cloud?"

There was a look of peculiar sadness in Madame

Arnoux's face. Was it in order to prevent any allusion on his part to

the memories they possessed in common?

Her beautiful black eyes, whose sclerotics were glistening, moved gently

under their somewhat drooping lids, and her pupils revealed in their

depths an inexpressible kindness of heart. He was seized with a love

stronger than ever, a passion that knew no bounds. It enervated him to

contemplate the object of his attachment; however, he shook off this

feeling. How was he to make the most of himself? by what means? And,

having turned the matter over thoroughly in his mind, Frederick could

think of none that seemed more effectual than money.

He began talking about the weather, which was less cold than it had been

at Havre.

"You have been there?"

"Yes; about a family matter--an inheritance."

"Ah! I am very glad," she said, with an air of such genuine pleasure

that he felt quite touched, just as if she had rendered him a great

service.

She asked him what he intended to do, as it was necessary for a man to

occupy himself with something.

He recalled to mind his false position, and said that he hoped to reach

the Council of State with the help of M. Dambreuse, the secretary.

"You are acquainted with him, perhaps?"

"Merely by name."

Then, in a low tone:

"_He_ brought you to the ball the other night, did he not?"

Frederick remained silent.

"That was what I wanted to know; thanks!"

After that she put two or three discreet questions to him about his

family and the part of the country in which he lived. It was very kind

of him not to have forgotten them after having lived so long away from

Paris.

"But could I do so?" he rejoined. "Have you any doubt about it?"

Madame Arnoux arose: "I believe that you entertain towards us a true and

solid affection. _Au revoir!_"

And she extended her hand towards him in a sincere and virile fashion.

Was this not an engagement, a promise? Frederick felt a sense of delight

at merely living; he had to restrain himself to keep from singing. He

wanted to burst out, to do generous deeds, and to give alms. He looked

around him to see if there were anyone near whom he could relieve. No

wretch happened to be passing by; and his desire for self-devotion

evaporated, for he was not a man to go out of his way to find

opportunities for benevolence.

Then he remembered his friends. The first of whom he thought was

Hussonnet, the second, Pellerin. The lowly position of Dussardier

naturally called for consideration. As for Cisy, he was glad to let that

young aristocrat get a slight glimpse as to the extent of his fortune.

He wrote accordingly to all four to come to a housewarming the following

Sunday at eleven o'clock sharp; and he told Deslauriers to bring

Sénécal.

The tutor had been dismissed from the third boarding-school in which he

had been employed for not having given his consent to the distribution

of prizes--a custom which he looked upon as dangerous to equality. He

was now with an engine-builder, and for the past six months had been no

longer living with Deslauriers. There had been nothing painful about

their parting.

Sénécal had been visited by men in blouses--all patriots, all workmen,

all honest fellows, but at the same time men whose society seemed

distasteful to the advocate. Besides, he disliked certain ideas of his

friend, excellent though they might be as weapons of warfare. He held

his tongue on the subject through motives of ambition, deeming it

prudent to pay deference to him in order to exercise control over him,

for he looked forward impatiently to a revolutionary movement, in which

he calculated on making an opening for himself and occupying a prominent

position.

Sénécal's convictions were more disinterested. Every evening, when his

work was finished, he returned to his garret and sought in books for

something that might justify his dreams. He had annotated the _Contrat

Social_; he had crammed himself with the _Revue Indépendante_; he was

acquainted with Mably, Morelly, Fourier, Saint-Simon, Comte, Cabet,

Louis Blanc--the heavy cartload of Socialistic writers--those who claim

for humanity the dead level of barracks, those who would like to amuse

it in a brothel or to bend it over a counter; and from a medley of all

these things he constructed an ideal of virtuous democracy, with the

double aspect of a farm in which the landlord was to receive a share of

the produce, and a spinning-mill, a sort of American Lacedæmon, in which

the individual would only exist for the benefit of society, which was to

be more omnipotent, absolute, infallible, and divine than the Grand

Lamas and the Nebuchadnezzars. He had no doubt as to the approaching

realisation of this ideal; and Sénécal raged against everything that he

considered hostile to it with the reasoning of a geometrician and the

zeal of an Inquisitor. Titles of nobility, crosses, plumes, liveries

above all, and even reputations that were too loud-sounding scandalised

him, his studies as well as his sufferings intensifying every day his

essential hatred of every kind of distinction and every form of social

superiority.

"What do I owe to this gentleman that I should be polite to him? If he

wants me, he can come to me."

Deslauriers, however, forced him to go to Frederick's reunion.

They found their friend in his bedroom. Spring-roller blinds and double

curtains, Venetian mirrors--nothing was wanting there. Frederick, in a

velvet vest, was lying back on an easy-chair, smoking cigarettes of

Turkish tobacco.

Sénécal wore the gloomy look of a bigot arriving in the midst of a

pleasure-party.

Deslauriers gave him a single comprehensive glance; then, with a very

low bow:

"Monseigneur, allow me to pay my respects to you!"

Dussardier leaped on his neck. "So you are a rich man now. Ah! upon my

soul, so much the better!"

Cisy made his appearance with crape on his hat. Since the death of his

grandmother, he was in the enjoyment of a considerable fortune, and was

less bent on amusing himself than on being distinguished from

others--not being the same as everyone else--in short, on "having the

proper stamp." This was his favourite phrase.

However, it was now midday, and they were all yawning.

Frederick was waiting for some one.

At the mention of Arnoux's name, Pellerin made a wry face. He looked on

him as a renegade since he had abandoned the fine arts.

"Suppose we pass over him--what do you say to that?"

They all approved of this suggestion.

The door was opened by a man-servant in long gaiters; and the

dining-room could be seen with its lofty oak plinths relieved with gold,

and its two sideboards laden with plate.

The bottles of wine were heating on the stove; the blades of new knives

were glittering beside oysters. In the milky tint of the enamelled

glasses there was a kind of alluring sweetness; and the table

disappeared from view under its load of game, fruit, and meats of the

rarest quality.

These attentions were lost on Sénécal. He began by asking for household

bread (the hardest that could be got), and in connection with this

subject, spoke of the murders of Buzançais and the crisis arising from

lack of the means of subsistence.

Nothing of this sort could have happened if agriculture had been better

protected, if everything had not been given up to competition, to

anarchy, and to the deplorable maxim of "Let things alone! let things go

their own way!" It was in this way that the feudalism of money was

established--the worst form of feudalism. But let them take care! The

people in the end will get tired of it, and may make the capitalist pay

for their sufferings either by bloody proscriptions or by the plunder of

their houses.

Frederick saw, as if by a lightning-flash, a flood of men with bare arms

invading Madame Dambreuse's drawing-room, and smashing the mirrors with

blows of pikes.

Sénécal went on to say that the workman, owing to the insufficiency of

wages, was more unfortunate than the helot, the negro, and the pariah,

especially if he has children.

"Ought he to get rid of them by asphyxia, as some English doctor, whose

name I don't remember--a disciple of Malthus--advises him?"

And, turning towards Cisy: "Are we to be obliged to follow the advice of

the infamous Malthus?"

Cisy, who was ignorant of the infamy and even of the existence of

Malthus, said by way of reply, that after all, much human misery was

relieved, and that the higher classes----

"Ha! the higher classes!" said the Socialist, with a sneer. "In the

first place, there are no higher classes. 'Tis the heart alone that

makes anyone higher than another. We want no alms, understand! but

equality, the fair division of products."

What he required was that the workman might become a capitalist, just as

the soldier might become a colonel. The trade-wardenships, at least, in

limiting the number of apprentices, prevented workmen from growing

inconveniently numerous, and the sentiment of fraternity was kept up by

means of the fêtes and the banners.

Hussonnet, as a poet, regretted the banners; so did Pellerin, too--a

predilection which had taken possession of him at the Café Dagneaux,

while listening to the Phalansterians talking. He expressed the opinion

that Fourier was a great man.

"Come now!" said Deslauriers. "An old fool who sees in the overthrow of

governments the effects of Divine vengeance. He is just like my lord

Saint-Simon and his church, with his hatred of the French Revolution--a

set of buffoons who would fain re-establish Catholicism."

M. de Cisy, no doubt in order to get information or to make a good

impression, broke in with this remark, which he uttered in a mild tone:

"These two men of science are not, then, of the same way of thinking as

Voltaire?"

"That fellow! I make you a present of him!"

"How is that? Why, I thought----"

"Oh! no, he did not love the people!"

Then the conversation came down to contemporary events: the Spanish

marriages, the dilapidations of Rochefort, the new chapter-house of

Saint-Denis, which had led to the taxes being doubled. Nevertheless,

according to Sénécal, they were not high enough!

"And why are they paid? My God! to erect the palace for apes at the

Museum, to make showy staff-officers parade along our squares, or to

maintain a Gothic etiquette amongst the flunkeys of the Château!"

"I have read in the _Mode_," said Cisy, "that at the Tuileries ball on

the feast of Saint-Ferdinand, everyone was disguised as a miser."

"How pitiable!" said the Socialist, with a shrug of his shoulders, as if

to indicate his disgust.

"And the Museum of Versailles!" exclaimed Pellerin. "Let us talk about

it! These idiots have foreshortened a Delacroix and lengthened a Gros!

At the Louvre they have so well restored, scratched, and made a jumble

of all the canvases, that in ten years probably not one will be left. As

for the errors in the catalogue, a German has written a whole volume on

the subject. Upon my word, the foreigners are laughing at us."

"Yes, we are the laughing-stock of Europe," said Sénécal.

"'Tis because Art is conveyed in fee-simple to the Crown."

"As long as you haven't universal suffrage----"

"Allow me!"--for the artist, having been rejected at every _salon_ for

the last twenty years, was filled with rage against Power.

"Ah! let them not bother us! As for me, I ask for nothing. Only the

Chambers ought to pass enactments in the interests of Art. A chair of

æsthetics should be established with a professor who, being a practical

man as well as a philosopher, would succeed, I hope, in grouping the

multitude. You would do well, Hussonnet, to touch on this matter with a

word or two in your newspaper?"

"Are the newspapers free? are we ourselves free?" said Deslauriers in an

angry tone. "When one reflects that there might be as many as

twenty-eight different formalities to set up a boat on the river, it

makes me feel a longing to go and live amongst the cannibals! The

Government is eating us up. Everything belongs to it--philosophy, law,

the arts, the very air of heaven; and France, bereft of all energy, lies

under the boot of the gendarme and the cassock of the devil-dodger with

the death-rattle in her throat!"

The future Mirabeau thus poured out his bile in abundance. Finally he

took his glass in his right hand, raised it, and with his other arm

akimbo, and his eyes flashing:

"I drink to the utter destruction of the existing order of things--that

is to say, of everything included in the words Privilege, Monopoly,

Regulation, Hierarchy, Authority, State!"--and in a louder voice--"which

I would like to smash as I do this!" dashing on the table the beautiful

wine-glass, which broke into a thousand pieces.

They all applauded, and especially Dussardier.

The spectacle of injustices made his heart leap up with indignation.

Everything that wore a beard claimed his sympathy. He was one of those

persons who fling themselves under vehicles to relieve the horses who

have fallen. His erudition was limited to two works, one entitled

_Crimes of Kings_, and the other _Mysteries of the Vatican_. He had

listened to the advocate with open-mouthed delight. At length, unable to

stand it any longer:

"For my part, the thing I blame Louis Philippe for is abandoning the

Poles!"

"One moment!" said Hussonnet. "In the first place, Poland has no

existence; 'tis an invention of Lafayette! The Poles, as a general rule,

all belong to the Faubourg Saint-Marceau, the real ones having been

drowned with Poniatowski." In short, "he no longer gave into it;" he had

"got over all that sort of thing; it was just like the sea-serpent, the

revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and that antiquated hum-bug about the

Saint-Bartholomew massacre!"

Sénécal, while he did not defend the Poles, extolled the latest remarks

made by the men of letters. The Popes had been calumniated, inasmuch as

they, at any rate, defended the people, and he called the League "the

aurora of Democracy, a great movement in the direction of equality as

opposed to the individualism of Protestants."

Frederick was a little surprised at these views. They probably bored

Cisy, for he changed the conversation to the _tableaux vivants_ at the

Gymnase, which at that time attracted a great number of people.

Sénécal regarded them with disfavour. Such exhibitions corrupted the

daughters of the proletariat. Then, it was noticeable that they went in

for a display of shameless luxury. Therefore, he approved of the conduct

of the Bavarian students who insulted Lola Montès. In imitation of

Rousseau, he showed more esteem for the wife of a coal-porter than for

the mistress of a king.

"You don't appreciate dainties," retorted Hussonnet in a majestic tone.

And he took up the championship of ladies of this class in order to

praise Rosanette. Then, as he happened to make an allusion to the ball

at her house and to Arnoux's costume, Pellerin remarked:

"People maintain that he is becoming shaky?"

The picture-dealer had just been engaged in a lawsuit with reference to

his grounds at Belleville, and he was actually in a kaolin company in

Lower Brittany with other rogues of the same sort.

Dussardier knew more about him, for his own master, M. Moussinot, having

made enquiries about Arnoux from the banker, Oscar Lefébvre, the latter

had said in reply that he considered him by no means solvent, as he knew

about bills of his that had been renewed.

The dessert was over; they passed into the drawing-room, which was hung,

like that of the Maréchale, in yellow damask in the style of Louis XVI.

Pellerin found fault with Frederick for not having chosen in preference

the Neo-Greek style; Sénécal rubbed matches against the hangings;

Deslauriers did not make any remark.

There was a bookcase set up there, which he called "a little girl's

library." The principal contemporary writers were to be found there. It

was impossible to speak about their works, for Hussonnet immediately

began relating anecdotes with reference to their personal

characteristics, criticising their faces, their habits, their dress,

glorifying fifth-rate intellects and disparaging those of the first; and

all the while making it clear that he deplored modern decadence.

He instanced some village ditty as containing in itself alone more

poetry than all the lyrics of the nineteenth century. He went on to say

that Balzac was overrated, that Byron was effaced, and that Hugo knew

nothing about the stage.

"Why, then," said Sénécal, "have you not got the volumes of the

working-men poets?"

And M. de Cisy, who devoted his attention to literature, was astonished

at not seeing on Frederick's table some of those new physiological

studies--the physiology of the smoker, of the angler, of the man

employed at the barrier.

They went on irritating him to such an extent that he felt a longing to

shove them out by the shoulders.

"But they are making me quite stupid!" And then he drew Dussardier

aside, and wished to know whether he could do him any service.

The honest fellow was moved. He answered that his post of cashier

entirely sufficed for his wants.

After that, Frederick led Deslauriers into his own apartment, and,

taking out of his escritoire two thousand francs:

"Look here, old boy, put this money in your pocket. 'Tis the balance of

my old debts to you."

"But--what about the journal?" said the advocate. "You are, of course,

aware that I spoke about it to Hussonnet."

And, when Frederick replied that he was "a little short of cash just

now," the other smiled in a sinister fashion.

After the liqueurs they drank beer, and after the beer, grog; and then

they lighted their pipes once more. At last they left, at five o'clock

in the evening, and they were walking along at each others' side without

speaking, when Dussardier broke the silence by saying that Frederick had

entertained them in excellent style. They all agreed with him on that

point.

Then Hussonnet remarked that his luncheon was too heavy. Sénécal found

fault with the trivial character of his household arrangements. Cisy

took the same view. It was absolutely devoid of the "proper stamp."

"For my part, I think," said Pellerin, "he might have had the grace to

give me an order for a picture."

Deslauriers held his tongue, as he had the bank-notes that had been

given to him in his breeches' pocket.

Frederick was left by himself. He was thinking about his friends, and it

seemed to him as if a huge ditch surrounded with shade separated him

from them. He had nevertheless held out his hand to them, and they had

not responded to the sincerity of his heart.

He recalled to mind what Pellerin and Dussardier had said about Arnoux.

Undoubtedly it must be an invention, a calumny? But why? And he had a

vision of Madame Arnoux, ruined, weeping, selling her furniture. This

idea tormented him all night long. Next day he presented himself at her

house.

At a loss to find any way of communicating to her what he had heard, he

asked her, as if in casual conversation, whether Arnoux still held

possession of his building grounds at Belleville.

"Yes, he has them still."

"He is now, I believe, a shareholder in a kaolin company in Brittany."

"That's true."

"His earthenware-works are going on very well, are they not?"

"Well--I suppose so----"

And, as he hesitated:

"What is the matter with you? You frighten me!"

He told her the story about the renewals. She hung down her head, and

said:

"I thought so!"

In fact, Arnoux, in order to make a good speculation, had refused to

sell his grounds, had borrowed money extensively on them, and finding no

purchasers, had thought of rehabilitating himself by establishing the

earthenware manufactory. The expense of this had exceeded his

calculations. She knew nothing more about it. He evaded all her

questions, and declared repeatedly that it was going on very well.

Frederick tried to reassure her. These in all probability were mere

temporary embarrassments. However, if he got any information, he would

impart it to her.

"Oh! yes, will you not?" said she, clasping her two hands with an air of

charming supplication.

So then, he had it in his power to be useful to her. He was now entering

into her existence--finding a place in her heart.

Arnoux appeared.

"Ha! how nice of you to come to take me out to dine!"

Frederick was silent on hearing these words.

Arnoux spoke about general topics, then informed his wife that he would

be returning home very late, as he had an appointment with M. Oudry.

"At his house?"

"Why, certainly, at his house."

As they went down the stairs, he confessed that, as the Maréchale had no

engagement at home, they were going on a secret pleasure-party to the

Moulin Rouge; and, as he always needed somebody to be the recipient of

his outpourings, he got Frederick to drive him to the door.

In place of entering, he walked about on the footpath, looking up at the

windows on the second floor. Suddenly the curtains parted.

"Ha! bravo! Père Oudry is no longer there! Good evening!"

Frederick did not know what to think now.

From this day forth, Arnoux was still more cordial than before; he

invited the young man to dine with his mistress; and ere long Frederick

frequented both houses at the same time.

Rosanette's abode furnished him with amusement. He used to call there of

an evening on his way back from the club or the play. He would take a

cup of tea there, or play a game of loto. On Sundays they played

charades; Rosanette, more noisy than the rest, made herself conspicuous

by funny tricks, such as running on all-fours or muffling her head in a

cotton cap. In order to watch the passers-by through the window, she had

a hat of waxed leather; she smoked chibouks; she sang Tyrolese airs. In

the afternoon, to kill time, she cut out flowers in a piece of chintz

and pasted them against the window-panes, smeared her two little dogs

with varnish, burned pastilles, or drew cards to tell her fortune.

Incapable of resisting a desire, she became infatuated about some

trinket which she happened to see, and could not sleep till she had gone

and bought it, then bartered it for another, sold costly dresses for

little or nothing, lost her jewellery, squandered money, and would have

sold her chemise for a stage-box at the theatre. Often she asked

Frederick to explain to her some word she came across when reading a

book, but did not pay any attention to his answer, for she jumped

quickly to another idea, while heaping questions on top of each other.

After spasms of gaiety came childish outbursts of rage, or else she sat

on the ground dreaming before the fire with her head down and her hands

clasping her knees, more inert than a torpid adder. Without minding it,

she made her toilet in his presence, drew on her silk stockings, then

washed her face with great splashes of water, throwing back her figure

as if she were a shivering naiad; and her laughing white teeth, her

sparkling eyes, her beauty, her gaiety, dazzled Frederick, and made his

nerves tingle under the lash of desire.

Nearly always he found Madame Arnoux teaching her little boy how to

read, or standing behind Marthe's chair while she played her scales on

the piano. When she was doing a piece of sewing, it was a great source

of delight to him to pick up her scissors now and then. In all her

movements there was a tranquil majesty. Her little hands seemed made to

scatter alms and to wipe away tears, and her voice, naturally rather

hollow, had caressing intonations and a sort of breezy lightness.

She did not display much enthusiasm about literature; but her

intelligence exercised a charm by the use of a few simple and

penetrating words. She loved travelling, the sound of the wind in the

woods, and a walk with uncovered head under the rain.

Frederick listened to these confidences with rapture, fancying that he

saw in them the beginning of a certain self-abandonment on her part.

His association with these two women made, as it were, two different

strains of music in his life, the one playful, passionate, diverting,

the other grave and almost religious, and vibrating both at the same

time, they always increased in volume and gradually blended with one

another; for if Madame Arnoux happened merely to touch him with her

finger, the image of the other immediately presented itself to him as an

object of desire, because from that quarter a better opportunity was

thrown in his way, and, when his heart happened to be touched while in

Rosanette's company, he was immediately reminded of the woman for whom

he felt such a consuming passion.

This confusion was, in some measure, due to a similarity which existed

between the interiors of the two houses. One of the trunks which was

formerly to be seen in the Boulevard Montmartre now adorned Rosanette's

dining-room. The same courses were served up for dinner in both places,

and even the same velvet cap was to be found trailing over the

easy-chairs; then, a heap of little presents--screens, boxes, fans--went

to the mistress's house from the wife's and returned again, for Arnoux,

without the slightest embarrassment, often took back from the one what

he had given to her in order to make a present of it to the other.

The Maréchale laughed with Frederick at the utter disregard for

propriety which his habits exhibited. One Sunday, after dinner, she led

him behind the door, and showed him in the pocket of Arnoux's overcoat a

bag of cakes which he had just pilfered from the table, in order, no

doubt, to regale his little family with it at home. M. Arnoux gave

himself up to some rogueries which bordered on vileness. It seemed to

him a duty to practise fraud with regard to the city dues; he never paid

when he went to the theatre, or if he took a ticket for the second seats

always tried to make his way into the first; and he used to relate as

an excellent joke that it was a custom of his at the cold baths to put

into the waiters' collection-box a breeches' button instead of a

ten-sous piece--and this did not prevent the Maréchale from loving him.

One day, however, she said, while talking about him:

"Ah! he's making himself a nuisance to me, at last! I've had enough of

him! Faith, so much the better--I'll find another instead!"

Frederick believed that the other had already been found, and that his

name was M. Oudry.

"Well," said Rosanette, "what does that signify?"

Then, in a voice choked with rising tears:

"I ask very little from him, however, and he won't give me that."

He had even promised a fourth of his profits in the famous kaolin mines.

No profit made its appearance any more than the cashmere with which he

had been luring her on for the last six months.

Frederick immediately thought of making her a present. Arnoux might

regard it as a lesson for himself, and be annoyed at it.

For all that, he was good-natured, his wife herself said so, but so

foolish! Instead of bringing people to dine every day at his house, he

now entertained his acquaintances at a restaurant. He bought things that

were utterly useless, such as gold chains, timepieces, and household

articles. Madame Arnoux even pointed out to Frederick in the lobby an

enormous supply of tea-kettles, foot-warmers, and samovars. Finally, she

one day confessed that a certain matter caused her much anxiety. Arnoux

had made her sign a promissory note payable to M. Dambreuse.

Meanwhile Frederick still cherished his literary projects as if it were

a point of honour with himself to do so. He wished to write a history of

æsthetics, a result of his conversations with Pellerin; next, to write

dramas dealing with different epochs of the French Revolution, and to

compose a great comedy, an idea traceable to the indirect influence of

Deslauriers and Hussonnet. In the midst of his work her face or that of

the other passed before his mental vision. He struggled against the

longing to see her, but was not long ere he yielded to it; and he felt

sadder as he came back from Madame Arnoux's house.

One morning, while he was brooding over his melancholy thoughts by the

fireside, Deslauriers came in. The incendiary speeches of Sénécal had

filled his master with uneasiness, and once more he found himself

without resources.

"What do you want me to do?" said Frederick.

"Nothing! I know you have no money. But it will not be much trouble for

you to get him a post either through M. Dambreuse or else through

Arnoux. The latter ought to have need of engineers in his

establishment."

Frederick had an inspiration. Sénécal would be able to let him know when

the husband was away, carry letters for him and assist him on a thousand

occasions when opportunities presented themselves. Services of this sort

are always rendered between man and man. Besides, he would find means of

employing him without arousing any suspicion on his part. Chance offered

him an auxiliary; it was a circumstance that omened well for the future,

and he hastened to take advantage of it; and, with an affectation of

indifference, he replied that the thing was feasible perhaps, and that

he would devote attention to it.

And he did so at once. Arnoux took a great deal of pains with his

earthenware works. He was endeavouring to discover the copper-red of the

Chinese, but his colours evaporated in the process of baking. In order

to avoid cracks in his ware, he mixed lime with his potter's clay; but

the articles got broken for the most part; the enamel of his paintings

on the raw material boiled away; his large plates became bulged; and,

attributing these mischances to the inferior plant of his manufactory,

he was anxious to start other grinding-mills and other drying-rooms.

Frederick recalled some of these things to mind, and, when he met

Arnoux, said that he had discovered a very able man, who would be

capable of finding his famous red. Arnoux gave a jump; then, having

listened to what the young man had to tell him, replied that he wanted

assistance from nobody.

Frederick spoke in a very laudatory style about Sénécal's prodigious

attainments, pointing out that he was at the same time an engineer, a

chemist, and an accountant, being a mathematician of the first rank.

The earthenware-dealer consented to see him.

But they squabbled over the emoluments. Frederick interposed, and, at

the end of a week, succeeded in getting them to come to an agreement.

But as the works were situated at Creil, Sénécal could not assist him in

any way. This thought alone was enough to make his courage flag, as if

he had met with some misfortune. His notion was that the more Arnoux

would be kept apart from his wife the better would be his own chance

with her. Then he proceeded to make repeated apologies for Rosanette.

He referred to all the wrongs she had sustained at the other's hands,

referred to the vague threats which she had uttered a few days before,

and even spoke about the cashmere without concealing the fact that she

had accused Arnoux of avarice.

Arnoux, nettled at the word (and, furthermore, feeling some uneasiness),

brought Rosanette the cashmere, but scolded her for having made any

complaint to Frederick. When she told him that she had reminded him a

hundred times of his promise, he pretended that, owing to pressure of

business, he had forgotten all about it.

The next day Frederick presented himself at her abode, and found the

Maréchale still in bed, though it was two o'clock, with Delmar beside

her finishing a _pâté de foie gras_ at a little round table. Before he

had advanced many paces, she broke out into a cry of delight, saying: "I

have him! I have him!" Then she seized him by the ears, kissed him on

the forehead, thanked him effusively, "thee'd" and "thou'd" him, and

even wanted to make him sit down on the bed. Her fine eyes, full of

tender emotion, were sparkling with pleasure. There was a smile on her

humid mouth. Her two round arms emerged through the sleeveless opening

of her night-dress, and, from time to time, he could feel through the

cambric the well-rounded outlines of her form.

[Illustration: Then she seized him by the ears and kissed him.]

All this time Delmar kept rolling his eyeballs about.

"But really, my dear, my own pet..."

It was the same way on the occasion when he saw her next. As soon as

Frederick entered, she sat up on a cushion in order to embrace him with

more ease, called him a darling, a "dearie," put a flower in his

button-hole, and settled his cravat. These delicate attentions were

redoubled when Delmar happened to be there. Were they advances on her

part? So it seemed to Frederick.

As for deceiving a friend, Arnoux, in his place, would not have had many

scruples on that score, and he had every right not to adhere to rigidly

virtuous principles with regard to this man's mistress, seeing that his

relations with the wife had been strictly honourable, for so he

thought--or rather he would have liked Arnoux to think so, in any event,

as a sort of justification of his own prodigious cowardice. Nevertheless

he felt somewhat bewildered; and presently he made up his mind to lay

siege boldly to the Maréchale.

So, one afternoon, just as she was stooping down in front of her chest

of drawers, he came across to her, and repeated his overtures without a

pause.

Thereupon, she began to cry, saying that she was very unfortunate, but

that people should not despise her on that account.

He only made fresh advances. She now adopted a different plan, namely,

to laugh at his attempts without stopping. He thought it a clever thing

to answer her sarcasms with repartees in the same strain, in which there

was even a touch of exaggeration. But he made too great a display of

gaiety to convince her that he was in earnest; and their comradeship was

an impediment to any outpouring of serious feeling. At last, when she

said one day, in reply to his amorous whispers, that she would not take

another woman's leavings, he answered.

"What other woman?"

"Ah! yes, go and meet Madame Arnoux again!"

For Frederick used to talk about her often. Arnoux, on his side, had the

same mania. At last she lost patience at always hearing this woman's

praises sung, and her insinuation was a kind of revenge.

Frederick resented it. However, Rosanette was beginning to excite his

love to an unusual degree. Sometimes, assuming the attitude of a woman

of experience, she spoke ill of love with a sceptical smile that made

him feel inclined to box her ears. A quarter of an hour afterwards, it

was the only thing of any consequence in the world, and, with her arms

crossed over her breast, as if she were clasping some one close to her:

"Oh, yes, 'tis good! 'tis good!" and her eyelids would quiver in a kind

of rapturous swoon. It was impossible to understand her, to know, for

instance, whether she loved Arnoux, for she made fun of him, and yet

seemed jealous of him. So likewise with the Vatnaz, whom she would

sometimes call a wretch, and at other times her best friend. In short,

there was about her entire person, even to the very arrangement of her

chignon over her head, an inexpressible something, which seemed like a

challenge; and he desired her for the satisfaction, above all, of

conquering her and being her master.

How was he to accomplish this? for she often sent him away

unceremoniously, appearing only for a moment between two doors in order

to say in a subdued voice, "I'm engaged--for the evening;" or else he

found her surrounded by a dozen persons; and when they were alone, so

many impediments presented themselves one after the other, that one

would have sworn there was a bet to keep matters from going any further.

He invited her to dinner; as a rule, she declined the invitation. On one

occasion, she accepted it, but did not come.

A Machiavellian idea arose in his brain.

Having heard from Dussardier about Pellerin's complaints against

himself, he thought of giving the artist an order to paint the

Maréchale's portrait, a life-sized portrait, which would necessitate a

good number of sittings. He would not fail to be present at all of them.

The habitual incorrectness of the painter would facilitate their private

conversations. So then he would urge Rosanette to get the picture

executed in order to make a present of her face to her dear Arnoux. She

consented, for she saw herself in the midst of the Grand Salon in the

most prominent position with a crowd of people staring at her picture,

and the newspapers would all talk about it, which at once would set her

afloat.

As for Pellerin, he eagerly snatched at the offer. This portrait ought

to place him in the position of a great man; it ought to be a

masterpiece. He passed in review in his memory all the portraits by

great masters with which he was acquainted, and decided finally in

favour of a Titian, which would be set off with ornaments in the style

of Veronese. Therefore, he would carry out his design without artificial

backgrounds in a bold light, which would illuminate the flesh-tints with

a single tone, and which would make the accessories glitter.

"Suppose I were to put on her," he thought, "a pink silk dress with an

Oriental bournous? Oh, no! the bournous is only a rascally thing! Or

suppose, rather, I were to make her wear blue velvet with a grey

background, richly coloured? We might likewise give her a white guipure

collar with a black fan and a scarlet curtain behind." And thus, seeking

for ideas, he enlarged his conception, and regarded it with admiration.

He felt his heart beating when Rosanette, accompanied by Frederick,

called at his house for the first sitting. He placed her standing up on

a sort of platform in the midst of the apartment, and, finding fault

with the light and expressing regret at the loss of his former studio,

he first made her lean on her elbow against a pedestal, then sit down in

an armchair, and, drawing away from her and coming near her again by

turns in order to adjust with a fillip the folds of her dress, he

watched her with eyelids half-closed, and appealed to Frederick's taste

with a passing word.

"Well, no," he exclaimed; "I return to my own idea. I will set you up in

the Venetian style."

She would have a poppy-coloured velvet gown with a jewelled girdle; and

her wide sleeve lined with ermine would afford a glimpse of her bare

arm, which was to touch the balustrade of a staircase rising behind her.

At her left, a large column would mount as far as the top of the canvas

to meet certain structures so as to form an arch. Underneath one would

vaguely distinguish groups of orange-trees almost black, through which

the blue sky, with its streaks of white cloud, would seem cut into

fragments. On the baluster, covered with a carpet, there would be, on a

silver dish, a bouquet of flowers, a chaplet of amber, a poniard, and a

little chest of antique ivory, rather yellow with age, which would

appear to be disgorging gold sequins. Some of them, falling on the

ground here and there, would form brilliant splashes, as it were, in

such a way as to direct one's glance towards the tip of her foot, for

she would be standing on the last step but one in a natural position, as

if in the act of moving under the glow of the broad sunlight.

He went to look for a picture-case, which he laid on the platform to

represent the step. Then he arranged as accessories, on a stool by way

of balustrade, his pea-jacket, a buckler, a sardine-box, a bundle of

pens, and a knife; and when he had flung in front of Rosanette a dozen

big sous, he made her assume the attitude he required.

"Just try to imagine that these things are riches, magnificent presents.

The head a little on one side! Perfect! and don't stir! This majestic

posture exactly suits your style of beauty."

She wore a plaid dress and carried a big muff, and only kept from

laughing outright by an effort of self-control.

"As regards the head-dress, we will mingle with it a circle of pearls.

It always produces a striking effect with red hair."

The Maréchale burst out into an exclamation, remarking that she had not

red hair.

"Nonsense! The red of painters is not that of ordinary people."

He began to sketch the position of the masses; and he was so much

preoccupied with the great artists of the Renaissance that he kept

talking about them persistently. For a whole hour he went on musing

aloud on those splendid lives, full of genius, glory, and sumptuous

displays, with triumphal entries into the cities, and galas by

torchlight among half-naked women, beautiful as goddesses.

"You were made to live in those days. A creature of your calibre would

have deserved a monseigneur."

Rosanette thought the compliments he paid her very pretty. The day was

fixed for the next sitting. Frederick took it on himself to bring the

accessories.

As the heat of the stove had stupefied her a little, they went home on

foot through the Rue du Bac, and reached the Pont Royal.

It was fine weather, piercingly bright and warm. Some windows of houses

in the city shone in the distance, like plates of gold, whilst behind

them at the right the turrets of Nôtre Dame showed their outlines in

black against the blue sky, softly bathed at the horizon in grey

vapours.

The wind began to swell; and Rosanette, having declared that she felt

hungry, they entered the "Patisserie Anglaise."

Young women with their children stood eating in front of the marble

buffet, where plates of little cakes had glass covers pressed down on

them. Rosanette swallowed two cream-tarts. The powdered sugar formed

moustaches at the sides of her mouth. From time to time, in order to

wipe it, she drew out her handkerchief from her muff, and her face,

under her green silk hood, resembled a full-blown rose in the midst of

its leaves.

They resumed their walk. In the Rue de la Paix she stood before a

goldsmith's shop to look at a bracelet. Frederick wished to make her a

present of it.

"No!" said she; "keep your money!"

He was hurt by these words.

"What's the matter now with the ducky? We are melancholy?"

And, the conversation having been renewed, he began making the same

protestations of love to her as usual.

"You know well 'tis impossible!"

"Why?"

"Ah! because----"

They went on side by side, she leaning on his arm, and the flounces of

her gown kept flapping against his legs. Then, he recalled to mind one

winter twilight when on the same footpath Madame Arnoux walked thus by

his side, and he became so much absorbed in this recollection that he no

longer saw Rosanette, and did not bestow a thought upon her.

She kept looking straight before her in a careless fashion, lagging a

little, like a lazy child. It was the hour when people had just come

back from their promenade, and equipages were making their way at a

quick trot over the hard pavement.

Pellerin's flatteries having probably recurred to her mind, she heaved a

sigh.

"Ah! there are some lucky women in the world. Decidedly, I was made for

a rich man!"

He replied, with a certain brutality in his tone:

"You have one, in the meantime!" for M. Oudry was looked upon as a man

that could count a million three times over.

She asked for nothing better than to get free from him.

"What prevents you from doing so?" And he gave utterance to bitter jests

about this old bewigged citizen, pointing out to her that such an

intrigue was unworthy of her, and that she ought to break it off.

"Yes," replied the Maréchale, as if talking to herself. "'Tis what I

shall end by doing, no doubt!"

Frederick was charmed by this disinterestedness. She slackened her pace,

and he fancied that she was fatigued. She obstinately refused to let him

take a cab, and she parted with him at her door, sending him a kiss with

her finger-tips.

"Ah! what a pity! and to think that imbeciles take me for a man of

wealth!"

He reached home in a gloomy frame of mind.

Hussonnet and Deslauriers were awaiting him. The Bohemian, seated before

the table, made sketches of Turks' heads; and the advocate, in dirty

boots, lay asleep on the sofa.

"Ha! at last," he exclaimed. "But how sullen you look! Will you listen

to me?"

His vogue as a tutor had fallen off, for he crammed his pupils with

theories unfavourable for their examinations. He had appeared in two or

three cases in which he had been unsuccessful, and each new

disappointment flung him back with greater force on the dream of his

earlier days--a journal in which he could show himself off, avenge

himself, and spit forth his bile and his opinions. Fortune and

reputation, moreover, would follow as a necessary consequence. It was in

this hope that he had got round the Bohemian, Hussonnet happening to be

the possessor of a press.

At present, he printed it on pink paper. He invented hoaxes, composed

rebuses, tried to engage in polemics, and even intended, in spite of the

situation of the premises, to get up concerts. A year's subscription was

to give a right to a place in the orchestra in one of the principal

theatres of Paris. Besides, the board of management took on itself to

furnish foreigners with all necessary information, artistic and

otherwise. But the printer gave vent to threats; there were three

quarters' rent due to the landlord. All sorts of embarrassments arose;

and Hussonnet would have allowed _L'Art_ to perish, were it not for the

exhortations of the advocate, who kept every day exciting his mind. He

had brought the other with him, in order to give more weight to the

application he was now making.

"We've come about the journal," said he.

"What! are you still thinking about that?" said Frederick, in an absent

tone.

"Certainly, I am thinking about it!"

And he explained his plan anew. By means of the Bourse returns, they

would get into communication with financiers, and would thus obtain the

hundred thousand francs indispensable as security. But, in order that

the print might be transformed into a political journal, it was

necessary beforehand to have a large _clientèle_, and for that purpose

to make up their minds to go to some expense--so much for the cost of

paper and printing, and for outlay at the office; in short, a sum of

about fifteen thousand francs.

"I have no funds," said Frederick.

"And what are we to do, then?" said Deslauriers, with folded arms.

Frederick, hurt by the attitude which Deslauriers was assuming, replied:

"Is that my fault?"

"Ah! very fine. A man has wood in his fire, truffles on his table, a

good bed, a library, a carriage, every kind of comfort. But let another

man shiver under the slates, dine at twenty sous, work like a convict,

and sprawl through want in the mire--is it the rich man's fault?"

And he repeated, "Is it the rich man's fault?" with a Ciceronian irony

which smacked of the law-courts.

Frederick tried to speak.

"However, I understand one has certain wants--aristocratic wants; for,

no doubt, some woman----"

"Well, even if that were so? Am I not free----?"

"Oh! quite free!"

And, after a minute's silence:

"Promises are so convenient!"

"Good God! I don't deny that I gave them!" said Frederick.

The advocate went on:

"At college we take oaths; we are going to set up a phalanx; we are

going to imitate Balzac's Thirteen. Then, on meeting a friend after a

separation: 'Good night, old fellow! Go about your business!' For he who

might help the other carefully keeps everything for himself alone."

"How is that?"

"Yes, you have not even introduced me to the Dambreuses."

Frederick cast a scrutinising glance at him. With his shabby frock-coat,

his spectacles of rough glass, and his sallow face, that advocate seemed

to him such a typical specimen of the penniless pedant that he could not

prevent his lips from curling with a disdainful smile.

Deslauriers perceived this, and reddened.

He had already taken his hat to leave. Hussonnet, filled with

uneasiness, tried to mollify him with appealing looks, and, as Frederick

was turning his back on him:

"Look here, my boy, become my Mæcenas! Protect the arts!"

Frederick, with an abrupt movement of resignation, took a sheet of

paper, and, having scrawled some lines on it, handed it to him. The

Bohemian's face lighted up.

Then, passing across the sheet of paper to Deslauriers:

"Apologise, my fine fellow!"

Their friend begged his notary to send him fifteen thousand francs as

quickly as possible.

"Ah! I recognise you in that," said Deslauriers.

"On the faith of a gentleman," added the Bohemian, "you are a noble

fellow, you'll be placed in the gallery of useful men!"

The advocate remarked:

"You'll lose nothing by it, 'tis an excellent speculation."

"Faith," exclaimed Hussonnet, "I'd stake my head at the scaffold on its

success!"

And he said so many foolish things, and promised so many wonderful

things, in which perhaps he believed, that Frederick did not know

whether he did this in order to laugh at others or at himself.

The same evening he received a letter from his mother. She expressed

astonishment at not seeing him yet a minister, while indulging in a

little banter at his expense. Then she spoke of her health, and informed

him that M. Roque had now become one of her visitors.

"Since he is a widower, I thought there would be no objection to

inviting him to the house. Louise is greatly changed for the better."

And in a postscript: "You have told me nothing about your fine

acquaintance, M. Dambreuse; if I were you, I would make use of him."

Why not? His intellectual ambitions had left him, and his fortune (he

saw it clearly) was insufficient, for when his debts had been paid, and

the sum agreed on remitted to the others, his income would be diminished

by four thousand at least! Moreover, he felt the need of giving up this

sort of life, and attaching himself to some pursuit. So, next day, when

dining at Madame Arnoux's, he said that his mother was tormenting him in

order to make him take up a profession.

"But I was under the impression," she said, "that M. Dambreuse was going

to get you into the Council of State? That would suit you very well."

So, then, she wished him to take this course. He regarded her wish as a

command.

The banker, as on the first occasion, was seated at his desk, and, with

a gesture, intimated that he desired Frederick to wait a few minutes;

for a gentleman who was standing at the door with his back turned had

been discussing some serious topic with him.

The subject of their conversation was the proposed amalgamation of the

different coal-mining companies.

On each side of the glass hung portraits of General Foy and Louis

Philippe. Cardboard shelves rose along the panels up to the ceiling, and

there were six straw chairs, M. Dambreuse not requiring a more

fashionably-furnished apartment for the transaction of business. It

resembled those gloomy kitchens in which great banquets are prepared.

Frederick noticed particularly two chests of prodigious size which stood

in the corners. He asked himself how many millions they might contain.

The banker unlocked one of them, and as the iron plate revolved, it

disclosed to view nothing inside but blue paper books full of entries.

At last, the person who had been talking to M. Dambreuse passed in front

of Frederick. It was Père Oudry. The two saluted one another, their

faces colouring--a circumstance which surprised M. Dambreuse. However,

he exhibited the utmost affability, observing that nothing would be

easier than to recommend the young man to the Keeper of the Seals. They

would be too happy to have him, he added, concluding his polite

attentions by inviting him to an evening party which he would be giving

in a few days.

Frederick was stepping into a brougham on his way to this party when a

note from the Maréchale reached him. By the light of the carriage-lamps

he read:

"Darling, I have followed your advice: I have just expelled my savage.

After to-morrow evening, liberty! Say whether I am not brave!"

Nothing more. But it was clearly an invitation to him to take the vacant

place. He uttered an exclamation, squeezed the note into his pocket, and

set forth.

Two municipal guards on horseback were stationed in the street. A row of

lamps burned on the two front gates, and some servants were calling out

in the courtyard to have the carriages brought up to the end of the

steps before the house under the marquée.

Then suddenly the noise in the vestibule ceased.

Large trees filled up the space in front of the staircase. The porcelain

globes shed a light which waved like white moiré satin on the walls.

Frederick rushed up the steps in a joyous frame of mind. An usher

announced his name. M. Dambreuse extended his hand. Almost at the very

same moment, Madame Dambreuse appeared. She wore a mauve dress trimmed

with lace. The ringlets of her hair were more abundant than usual, and

not a single jewel did she display.

She complained of his coming to visit them so rarely, and seized the

opportunity to exchange a few confidential words with him.

The guests began to arrive. In their mode of bowing they twisted their

bodies on one side or bent in two, or merely lowered their heads a

little. Then, a married pair, a family passed in, and all scattered

themselves about the drawing-room, which was already filled. Under the

chandelier in the centre, an enormous ottoman-seat supported a stand,

the flowers of which, bending forward, like plumes of feathers, hung

over the heads of the ladies seated all around in a ring, while others

occupied the easy-chairs, which formed two straight lines symmetrically

interrupted by the large velvet curtains of the windows and the lofty

bays of the doors with their gilded lintels.

The crowd of men who remained standing on the floor with their hats in

their hands seemed, at some distance, like one black mass, into which

the ribbons in the button-holes introduced red points here and there,

and rendered all the more dull the monotonous whiteness of their

cravats. With the exception of the very young men with the down on their

faces, all appeared to be bored. Some dandies, with an expression of

sullenness on their countenances, were swinging on their heels. There

were numbers of men with grey hair or wigs. Here and there glistened a

bald pate; and the visages of many of these men, either purple or

exceedingly pale, showed in their worn aspect the traces of immense

fatigues: for they were persons who devoted themselves either to

political or commercial pursuits. M. Dambreuse had also invited a number

of scholars and magistrates, two or three celebrated doctors, and he

deprecated with an air of humility the eulogies which they pronounced on

his entertainment and the allusions to his wealth.

An immense number of men-servants, with fine gold-laced livery, kept

moving about on every side. The large branched candlesticks, like

bouquets of flame, threw a glow over the hangings. They were reflected

in the mirrors; and at the bottom of the dining-room, which was adorned

with a jessamine treillage, the side-board resembled the high altar of a

cathedral or an exhibition of jewellery, there were so many dishes,

bells, knives and forks, silver and silver-gilt spoons in the midst of

crystal ware glittering with iridescence.

The three other reception-rooms overflowed with artistic

objects--landscapes by great masters on the walls, ivory and porcelain

at the sides of the tables, and Chinese ornaments on the brackets.

Lacquered screens were displayed in front of the windows, clusters of

camelias rose above the mantel-shelves, and a light music vibrated in

the distance, like the humming of bees.

The quadrilles were not numerous, and the dancers, judged by the

indifferent fashion in which they dragged their pumps after them, seemed

to be going through the performance of a duty.

Frederick heard some phrases, such as the following:

"Were you at the last charity fête at the Hôtel Lambert, Mademoiselle?"

"No, Monsieur." "It will soon be intolerably warm here." "Oh! yes,

indeed; quite suffocating!" "Whose polka, pray, is this?" "Good heavens,

Madame, I don't know!"

And, behind him, three greybeards, who had posted themselves in the

recess of a window, were whispering some _risqué_ remarks. A sportsman

told a hunting story, while a Legitimist carried on an argument with an

Orléanist. And, wandering about from one group to another, he reached

the card-room, where, in the midst of grave-looking men gathered in a

circle, he recognised Martinon, now attached to the Bar of the capital.

His big face, with its waxen complexion, filled up the space encircled

by his collar-like beard, which was a marvel with its even surface of

black hair; and, observing the golden mean between the elegance which

his age might yearn for and the dignity which his profession exacted

from him, he kept his thumbs stuck under his armpits, according to the

custom of beaux, and then put his hands into his waistcoat pockets after

the manner of learned personages. Though his boots were polished to

excess, he kept his temples shaved in order to have the forehead of a

thinker.

After he had addressed a few chilling words to Frederick, he turned once

more towards those who were chatting around him. A land-owner was

saying: "This is a class of men that dreams of upsetting society."

"They are calling for the organisation of labour," said another: "Can

this be conceived?"

"What could you expect," said a third, "when we see M. de Genoude giving

his assistance to the _Siècle_?"

"And even Conservatives style themselves Progressives. To lead us to

what? To the Republic! as if such a thing were possible in France!"

Everyone declared that the Republic was impossible in France.

"No matter!" remarked one gentleman in a loud tone. "People take too

much interest in the Revolution. A heap of histories, of different kinds

of works, are published concerning it!"

"Without taking into account," said Martinon, "that there are probably

subjects of far more importance which might be studied."

A gentleman occupying a ministerial office laid the blame on the

scandals associated with the stage:

"Thus, for instance, this new drama of _La Reine Margot_ really goes

beyond the proper limits. What need was there for telling us about the

Valois? All this exhibits loyalty in an unfavourable light. 'Tis just

like your press! There is no use in talking, the September laws are

altogether too mild. For my part, I would like to have court-martials,

to gag the journalists! At the slightest display of insolence, drag them

before a council of war, and then make an end of the business!"

"Oh, take care, Monsieur! take care!" said a professor. "Don't attack

the precious boons we gained in 1830! Respect our liberties!" It would

be better, he contended, to adopt a policy of decentralisation, and to

distribute the surplus populations of the towns through the country

districts.

"But they are gangrened!" exclaimed a Catholic. "Let religion be more

firmly established!"

Martinon hastened to observe:

"As a matter of fact, it is a restraining force."

All the evil lay in this modern longing to rise above one's class and to

possess luxuries.

"However," urged a manufacturer, "luxury aids commerce. Therefore, I

approve of the Duc de Nemours' action in insisting on having short

breeches at his evening parties."

"M. Thiers came to one of them in a pair of trousers. You know his joke

on the subject?"

"Yes; charming! But he turned round to the demagogues, and his speech on

the question of incompatibilities was not without its influence in

bringing about the attempt of the twelfth of May."

"Oh, pooh!"

"Ay, ay!"

The circle had to make a little opening to give a passage to a

man-servant carrying a tray, who was trying to make his way into the

card-room.

Under the green shades of the wax-lights the tables were covered with

two rows of cards and gold coins. Frederick stopped beside one corner of

the table, lost the fifteen napoleons which he had in his pocket,

whirled lightly about, and found himself on the threshold of the boudoir

in which Madame Dambreuse happened to be at that moment.

It was filled with women sitting close to one another in little groups

on seats without backs. Their long skirts, swelling round them, seemed

like waves, from which their waists emerged; and their breasts were

clearly outlined by the slope of their corsages. Nearly every one of

them had a bouquet of violets in her hand. The dull shade of their

gloves showed off the whiteness of their arms, which formed a contrast

with its human flesh tints. Over the shoulders of some of them hung

fringe or mourning-weeds, and, every now and then, as they quivered with

emotion, it seemed as if their bodices were about to fall down.

But the decorum of their countenances tempered the exciting effect of

their costumes. Several of them had a placidity almost like that of

animals; and this resemblance to the brute creation on the part of

half-nude women made him think of the interior of a harem--indeed, a

grosser comparison suggested itself to the young man's mind.

Every variety of beauty was to be found there--some English ladies, with

the profile familiar in "keepsakes"; an Italian, whose black eyes shot

forth lava-like flashes, like a Vesuvius; three sisters, dressed in

blue; three Normans, fresh as April apples; a tall red-haired girl, with

a set of amethysts. And the bright scintillation of diamonds, which

trembled in aigrettes worn over their hair, the luminous spots of

precious stones laid over their breasts, and the delightful radiance of

pearls which adorned their foreheads mingled with the glitter of gold

rings, as well as with the lace, powder, the feathers, the vermilion of

dainty mouths, and the mother-of-pearl hue of teeth. The ceiling,

rounded like a cupola, gave to the boudoir the form of a flower-basket,

and a current of perfumed air circulated under the flapping of their

fans.

Frederick, planting himself behind them, put up his eyeglass and scanned

their shoulders, not all of which did he consider irreproachable. He

thought about the Maréchale, and this dispelled the temptations that

beset him or consoled him for not yielding to them.

He gazed, however, at Madame Dambreuse, and he considered her charming,

in spite of her mouth being rather large and her nostrils too dilated.

But she was remarkably graceful in appearance. There was, as it were, an

expression of passionate languor in the ringlets of her hair, and her

forehead, which was like agate, seemed to cover a great deal, and

indicated a masterful intelligence.

She had placed beside her her husband's niece, a rather plain-looking

young person. From time to time she left her seat to receive those who

had just come in; and the murmur of feminine voices, made, as it were, a

cackling like that of birds.

They were talking about the Tunisian ambassadors and their costumes. One

lady had been present at the last reception of the Academy. Another

referred to the _Don Juan_ of Molière, which had recently been performed

at the Théâtre Français.

But with a significant glance towards her niece, Madame Dambreuse laid a

finger on her lips, while the smile which escaped from her contradicted

this display of austerity.

Suddenly, Martinon appeared at the door directly in front of her. She

arose at once. He offered her his arm. Frederick, in order to watch the

progress of these gallantries on Martinon's part, walked past the

card-table, and came up with them in the large drawing-room. Madame

Dambreuse very soon quitted her cavalier, and began chatting with

Frederick himself in a very familiar tone.

She understood that he did not play cards, and did not dance.

"Young people have a tendency to be melancholy!" Then, with a single

comprehensive glance around:

"Besides, this sort of thing is not amusing--at least for certain

natures!"

And she drew up in front of the row of armchairs, uttering a few polite

remarks here and there, while some old men with double eyeglasses came

to pay court to her. She introduced Frederick to some of them. M.

Dambreuse touched him lightly on the elbow, and led him out on the

terrace.

He had seen the Minister. The thing was not easy to manage. Before he

could be qualified for the post of auditor to the Council of State, he

should pass an examination. Frederick, seized with an unaccountable

self-confidence, replied that he had a knowledge of the subjects

prescribed for it.

The financier was not surprised at this, after all the eulogies M. Roque

had pronounced on his abilities.

At the mention of this name, a vision of little Louise, her house and

her room, passed through his mind, and he remembered how he had on

nights like this stood at her window listening to the wagoners driving

past. This recollection of his griefs brought back the thought of Madame

Arnoux, and he relapsed into silence as he continued to pace up and down

the terrace. The windows shone amid the darkness like slabs of flame.

The buzz of the ball gradually grew fainter; the carriages were

beginning to leave.

"Why in the world," M. Dambreuse went on, "are you so anxious to be

attached to the Council of State?"

And he declared, in the tone of a man of broad views, that the public

functions led to nothing--he could speak with some authority on that

point--business was much better.

Frederick urged as an objection the difficulty of grappling with all the

details of business.

"Pooh! I could post you up well in them in a very short time."

Would he like to be a partner in any of his own undertakings?

The young man saw, as by a lightning-flash, an enormous fortune coming

into his hands.

"Let us go in again," said the banker. "You are staying for supper with

us, are you not?"

It was three o'clock. They left the terrace.

In the dining-room, a table at which supper was served up awaited the

guests.

M. Dambreuse perceived Martinon, and, drawing near his wife, in a low

tone:

"Is it you who invited him?"

She answered dryly:

"Yes, of course."

The niece was not present.

The guests drank a great deal of wine, and laughed very loudly; and

risky jokes did not give any offence, all present experiencing that

sense of relief which follows a somewhat prolonged period of constraint.

Martinon alone displayed anything like gravity. He refused to drink

champagne, as he thought this good form, and, moreover, he assumed an

air of tact and politeness, for when M. Dambreuse, who had a contracted

chest, complained of an oppression, he made repeated enquiries about

that gentleman's health, and then let his blue eyes wander in the

direction of Madame Dambreuse.

She questioned Frederick in order to find out which of the young ladies

he liked best. He had noticed none of them in particular, and besides,

he preferred the women of thirty.

"There, perhaps, you show your sense," she returned.

Then, as they were putting on their pelisses and paletots, M. Dambreuse

said to him:

"Come and see me one of these mornings and we'll have a chat."

Martinon, at the foot of the stairs, was lighting a cigar, and, as he

puffed it, he presented such a heavy profile that his companion allowed

this remark to escape from him:

"Upon my word, you have a fine head!"

"It has turned a few other heads," replied the young magistrate, with an

air of mingled self-complacency and annoyance.

As soon as Frederick was in bed, he summed up the main features of the

evening party. In the first place, his own toilet (he had looked at

himself several times in the mirrors), from the cut of his coat to the

knot of his pumps left nothing to find fault with. He had spoken to

influential men, and seen wealthy ladies at close quarters. M. Dambreuse

had shown himself to be an admirable type of man, and Madame Dambreuse

an almost bewitching type of woman. He weighed one by one her slightest

words, her looks, a thousand things incapable of being analysed. It

would be a right good thing to have such a mistress. And, after all, why

should he not? He would have as good a chance with her as any other man.

Perhaps she was not so hard to win? Then Martinon came back to his

recollection; and, as he fell asleep, he smiled with pity for this

worthy fellow.

He woke up with the thought of the Maréchale in his mind. Those words of

her note, "After to-morrow evening," were in fact an appointment for the

very same day.

He waited until nine o'clock, and then hurried to her house.

Some one who had been going up the stairs before him shut the door. He

rang the bell; Delphine came out and told him that "Madame" was not

there.

Frederick persisted, begging of her to admit him. He had something of a

very serious nature to communicate to her; only a word would suffice. At

length, the hundred-sous-piece argument proved successful, and the maid

let him into the anteroom.

Rosanette appeared. She was in a negligée, with her hair loose, and,

shaking her head, she waved her arms when she was some paces away from

him to indicate that she could not receive him now.

Frederick descended the stairs slowly. This caprice was worse than any

of the others she had indulged in. He could not understand it at all.

In front of the porter's lodge Mademoiselle Vatnaz stopped him.

"Has she received you?"

"No."

"You've been put out?"

"How do you know that?"

"'Tis quite plain. But come on; let us go away. I am suffocating!"

She made him accompany her along the street; she panted for breath; he

could feel her thin arm trembling on his own. Suddenly, she broke out:

"Ah! the wretch!"

"Who, pray?"

"Why, he--he--Delmar!"

This revelation humiliated Frederick. He next asked:

"Are you quite sure of it?"

"Why, when I tell you I followed him!" exclaimed the Vatnaz. "I saw him

going in! Now do you understand? I ought to have expected it for that

matter--'twas I, in my stupidity, that introduced him to her. And if you

only knew all; my God! Why, I picked him up, supported him, clothed him!

And then all the paragraphs I got into the newspapers about him! I loved

him like a mother!"

Then, with a sneer:

"Ha! Monsieur wants velvet robes! You may be sure 'tis a speculation on

his part. And as for her!--to think that I knew her to earn her living

as a seamstress! If it were not for me, she would have fallen into the

mire twenty times over! But I will plunge her into it yet! I'll see her

dying in a hospital--and everything about her will be known!"

And, like a torrent of dirty water from a vessel full of refuse, her

rage poured out in a tumultuous fashion into Frederick's ear the recital

of her rival's disgraceful acts.

"She lived with Jumillac, with Flacourt, with little Allard, with

Bertinaux, with Saint-Valéry, the pock-marked fellow! No, 'twas the

other! They are two brothers--it makes no difference. And when she was

in difficulties, I settled everything. She is so avaricious! And then,

you will agree with me, 'twas nice and kind of me to go to see her, for

we are not persons of the same grade! Am I a fast woman--I? Do I sell

myself? Without taking into account that she is as stupid as a head of

cabbage. She writes 'category' with a 'th.' After all, they are well

met. They make a precious couple, though he styles himself an artist and

thinks himself a man of genius. But, my God! if he had only

intelligence, he would not have done such an infamous thing! Men don't,

as a rule, leave a superior woman for a hussy! What do I care about him

after all? He is becoming ugly. I hate him! If I met him, mind you, I'd

spit in his face." She spat out as she uttered the words.

"Yes, this is what I think about him now. And Arnoux, eh? Isn't it

abominable? He has forgiven her so often! You can't conceive the

sacrifices he has made for her. She ought to kiss his feet! He is so

generous, so good!"

Frederick was delighted at hearing Delmar disparaged. He had taken sides

with Arnoux. This perfidy on Rosanette's part seemed to him an abnormal

and inexcusable thing; and, infected with this elderly spinster's

emotion, he felt a sort of tenderness towards her. Suddenly he found

himself in front of Arnoux's door. Mademoiselle Vatnaz, without his

attention having been drawn to it, had led him down towards the Rue

Poissonnière.

"Here we are!" said she. "As for me, I can't go up; but you, surely

there is nothing to prevent you?"

"From doing what?"

"From telling him everything, faith!"

Frederick, as if waking up with a start, saw the baseness towards which

she was urging him.

"Well?" she said after a pause.

He raised his eyes towards the second floor. Madame Arnoux's lamp was

burning. In fact there was nothing to prevent him from going up.

"I am going to wait for you here. Go on, then!"

This direction had the effect of chilling him, and he said:

"I shall be a long time up there; you would do better to return home. I

will call on you to-morrow."

"No, no!" replied the Vatnaz, stamping with her foot. "Take him with

you! Bring him there! Let him catch them together!"

"But Delmar will no longer be there."

She hung down her head.

"Yes; that's true, perhaps."

And she remained without speaking in the middle of the street, with

vehicles all around her; then, fixing on him her wild-cat's eyes:

"I may rely on you, may I not? There is now a sacred bond between us. Do

what you say, then; we'll talk about it to-morrow."

Frederick, in passing through the lobby, heard two voices responding to

one another.

Madame Arnoux's voice was saying:

"Don't lie! don't lie, pray!"

He went in. The voices suddenly ceased.

Arnoux was walking from one end of the apartment to the other, and

Madame was seated on the little chair near the fire, extremely pale and

staring straight before her. Frederick stepped back, and was about to

retire, when Arnoux grasped his hand, glad that some one had come to his

rescue.

"But I am afraid----" said Frederick.

"Stay here, I beg of you!" he whispered in his ear.

Madame remarked:

"You must make some allowance for this scene, Monsieur Moreau. Such

things sometimes unfortunately occur in households."

"They do when we introduce them there ourselves," said Arnoux in a jolly

tone. "Women have crotchets, I assure you. This, for instance, is not a

bad one--see! No; quite the contrary. Well, she has been amusing

herself for the last hour by teasing me with a heap of idle stories."

"They are true," retorted Madame Arnoux, losing patience; "for, in fact,

you bought it yourself."

"I?"

"Yes, you yourself, at the Persian House."

"The cashmere," thought Frederick.

He was filled with a consciousness of guilt, and got quite alarmed.

She quickly added:

"It was on Saturday, the fourteenth."

"The fourteenth," said Arnoux, looking up, as if he were searching in

his mind for a date.

"And, furthermore, the clerk who sold it to you was a fair-haired young

man."

"How could I remember what sort of man the clerk was?"

"And yet it was at your dictation he wrote the address, 18 Rue de

Laval."

"How do you know?" said Arnoux in amazement.

She shrugged her shoulders.

"Oh! 'tis very simple: I went to get my cashmere altered, and the

superintendent of the millinery department told me that they had just

sent another of the same sort to Madame Arnoux."

"Is it my fault if there is a Madame Arnoux in the same street?"

"Yes; but not Jacques Arnoux," she returned.

Thereupon, he began to talk in an incoherent fashion, protesting that he

was innocent. It was some misapprehension, some accident, one of those

things that happen in some way that is utterly unaccountable. Men should

not be condemned on mere suspicion, vague probabilities; and he

referred to the case of the unfortunate Lesurques.

"In short, I say you are mistaken. Do you want me to take my oath on

it?"

"'Tis not worth while."

"Why?"

She looked him straight in the face without saying a word, then

stretched out her hand, took down the little silver chest from the

mantelpiece, and handed him a bill which was spread open.

Arnoux coloured up to his ears, and his swollen and distorted features

betrayed his confusion.

"But," he said in faltering tones, "what does this prove?"

"Ah!" she said, with a peculiar ring in her voice, in which sorrow and

irony were blended. "Ah!"

Arnoux held the bill in his hands, and turned it round without removing

his eyes from it, as if he were going to find in it the solution of a

great problem.

"Ah! yes, yes; I remember," said he at length. "'Twas a commission. You

ought to know about that matter, Frederick." Frederick remained silent.

"A commission that Père Oudry entrusted to me."

"And for whom?"

"For his mistress."

"For your own!" exclaimed Madame Arnoux, springing to her feet and

standing erect before him.

"I swear to you!"

"Don't begin over again. I know everything."

"Ha! quite right. So you're spying on me!"

She returned coldly:

"Perhaps that wounds your delicacy?"

"Since you are in a passion," said Arnoux, looking for his hat, "and

can't be reasoned with----"

Then, with a big sigh:

"Don't marry, my poor friend, don't, if you take my advice!"

And he took himself off, finding it absolutely necessary to get into the

open air.

Then there was a deep silence, and it seemed as if everything in the

room had become more motionless than before. A luminous circle above the

lamp whitened the ceiling, while at the corners stretched out bits of

shade resembling pieces of black gauze placed on top of one another. The

ticking of the clock and the crackling of the fire were the only sounds

that disturbed the stillness.

Madame Arnoux had just seated herself in the armchair at the opposite

side of the chimney-piece. She bit her lip and shivered. She drew her

hands up to her face; a sob broke from her, and she began to weep.

He sat down on the little couch, and in the soothing tone in which one

addresses a sick person:

"You don't suspect me of having anything to do with----?"

She made no reply. But, continuing presently to give utterance to her

own thoughts:

"I leave him perfectly free! There was no necessity for lying on his

part!"

"That is quite true," said Frederick. "No doubt," he added, "it was the

result of Arnoux's habits; he had acted thoughtlessly, but perhaps in

matters of a graver character----"

"What do you see, then, that can be graver?"

"Oh, nothing!"

Frederick bent his head with a smile of acquiescence. Nevertheless, he

urged, Arnoux possessed certain good qualities; he was fond of his

children.

"Ay, and he does all he can to ruin them!"

Frederick urged that this was due to an excessively easy-going

disposition, for indeed he was a good fellow.

She exclaimed:

"But what is the meaning of that--a good fellow?"

And he proceeded to defend Arnoux in the vaguest kind of language he

could think of, and, while expressing his sympathy with her, he

rejoiced, he was delighted, at the bottom of his heart. Through

retaliation or need of affection she would fly to him for refuge. His

love was intensified by the hope which had now grown immeasurably

stronger in his breast.

Never had she appeared to him so captivating, so perfectly beautiful.

From time to time a deep breath made her bosom swell. Her two eyes,

gazing fixedly into space, seemed dilated by a vision in the depths of

her consciousness, and her lips were slightly parted, as if to let her

soul escape through them. Sometimes she pressed her handkerchief over

them tightly. He would have liked to be this dainty little piece of

cambric moistened with her tears. In spite of himself, he cast a look at

the bed at the end of the alcove, picturing to himself her head lying on

the pillow, and so vividly did this present itself to his imagination

that he had to restrain himself to keep from clasping her in his arms.

She closed her eyelids, and now she appeared quiescent and languid. Then

he drew closer to her, and, bending over her, he eagerly scanned her

face. At that moment, he heard the noise of boots in the lobby

outside--it was the other. They heard him shutting the door of his own

room. Frederick made a sign to Madame Arnoux to ascertain from her

whether he ought to go there.

She replied "Yes," in the same voiceless fashion; and this mute exchange

of thoughts between them was, as it were, an assent--the preliminary

step in adultery.

Arnoux was just taking off his coat to go to bed.

"Well, how is she going on?"

"Oh! better," said Frederick; "this will pass off."

But Arnoux was in an anxious state of mind.

"You don't know her; she has got hysterical now! Idiot of a clerk! This

is what comes of being too good. If I had not given that cursed shawl to

Rosanette!"

"Don't regret having done so a bit. Nobody could be more grateful to you

than she is."

"Do you really think so?"

Frederick had not a doubt of it. The best proof of it was her dismissal

of Père Oudry.

"Ah! poor little thing!"

And in the excess of his emotion, Arnoux wanted to rush off to her

forthwith.

"'Tisn't worth while. I am calling to see her. She is unwell."

"All the more reason for my going."

He quickly put on his coat again, and took up his candlestick. Frederick

cursed his own stupidity, and pointed out to him that for decency's sake

he ought to remain this night with his wife. He could not leave her; it

would be very nasty.

"I tell you candidly you would be doing wrong. There is no hurry over

there. You will go to-morrow. Come; do this for my sake."

Arnoux put down his candlestick, and, embracing him, said:

"You are a right good fellow!"