thing, for heaven’s sake, a thing for which it is necessary to make so
much fuss? Every day pretty women receive declarations addressed to them
in jest, to which they attach no more importance than they deserve. But
you take fright at a word! a simple compliment seems to you an attempt
at seduction! you shouldn’t take things so! But I know you: you don’t
like--more than that, you detest Dufresne. For a long time you have been
trying to ruin him in my estimation, and you seize this pretext for
accomplishing your purpose; but I warn you, madame, that you will not
succeed.”
“Is it possible, monsieur? do you accuse me, do you suspect me of being
capable of deceiving you?”
“Or of being deceived? How do you know that Dufresne did not talk all
that nonsense to you to make sport of you, and to be revenged for your
hatred, which he perceives very plainly?”
“Was it for that purpose too that he tried to carry his audacity so far
as to kiss me?”
“Kiss you! Well, I admit that he was wrong to kiss you against your
will, and I shall scold him for it. But a kiss is not a thing which
should irritate you to this point!”
“You do not intend then, monsieur, to cease to receive Monsieur Dufresne
in your house?”
“Most assuredly, madame, I do not intend to make myself unhappy, to make
myself ridiculous, and to cause people to point their fingers at me as a
jealous husband, simply because somebody ventured to embrace you in
jest! That would be utterly absurd! But calm yourself, I will forbid
Dufresne to mention his passion to you again!”
“What, Edouard, you laugh! You think so little of what I have told you?”
“I do what it is my duty to do, and I know how to behave.”
“Alas! you no longer love me, I see. Formerly you were more jealous.”
“One may love without being jealous; and besides--but it is getting
late, and I have business that I must attend to.”
“What about that rich shipowner for whom you gave the party?”
“He was not able to come.”
“So all your expense was useless?”
“Useless! No, indeed; I was very warmly congratulated on my party. It
will do me a great deal of good in the sequel, and I am delighted that I
gave it.--I must leave you, for I have not a moment of my own.”
Edouard hurried away to Dufresne. That gentleman seemed a little
disturbed at sight of him, but he soon recovered himself; it was not to
talk about what his wife had told him that Murville was so eager to be
with him, but to talk about the lovely woman with whom he had played
écarté the night before, to find out who she was and what position she
held in society; in a word, it was to dilate without reserve upon
desires and hopes which he did not shrink from disclosing to his friend.
Dufresne gratified Edouard’s curiosity by informing him that Madame de
Géran was the widow of a general, that she was absolutely her own
mistress, that she had some means but possessed the art of spending
money rapidly, because she was exceedingly fond of pleasure. Dufresne
took pains to add that many men paid court to the young widow, but that
she received their homage with indifference, treated love as a joke and
made sport of the flames she kindled, and that her conquest seemed to
be difficult of accomplishment.
All that he learned added to Edouard’s newly-born passion. What joy to
carry off the palm from so many rivals,--and Madame de Géran had looked
at him and treated him in such a way as to justify him in forming hopes.
The fact was that she had turned his head; and Dufresne, who had no
difficulty in reading the weak and fickle Murville’s heart, seized the
opportunity to broach the subject of his interview with Adeline, taking
pains to represent the thing as a mere pleasantry, which he did not
expect would be so severely reprehended.
“Yes, yes, I know,” said Edouard; “my wife spoke to me about it this
morning.”
“Ah! she told you----”
“That you were a monster, a villain, a false friend!”
“Indeed!”
“And much more too! for I warn you that she is furiously angry with you.
But never fear--I will pacify her; she will see that she took the thing
in the wrong way when she learns that you mentioned it first.”
“I am truly sorry that I amused myself by--But after all, your wife is a
very strange woman!”
“It’s her mother, Madame Germeuil, who has stuffed her head with
romantic ideas.”
“Certainly no one would ever think that she was educated in Paris.”
“Oh! she will have to form herself in good society. Would you believe
that she expressed a purpose not to receive you again?”
“If my presence is unpleasant to Madame Murville, I shall be careful to
avoid her.”
“Nonsense! that is just what I don’t propose to have, or I shall be
angry with you. I mean that you shall come to the house more than ever;
that is my desire and it must suffice. Are you not friendly enough to me
to overlook my wife’s eccentric character?”
“Oh! my attachment to you has no bounds!”
“Dear Dufresne!--Look you, to prove how much confidence I have in you,
and how little heed I pay to my wife’s fairy tales, I am going to
confide a secret to you, and I rely on your friendship to help me in the
matter.”
“I am entirely devoted to you--speak.”
“My friend, I love, I adore, I am mad over Madame de Géran.”
“Is it possible? Why, you have only known her since last night.”
“That is long enough to make me love her.--What would you have--we
cannot control those things. It’s a caprice, a weakness, whatever you
choose to call it! But I have lost my head.”
“You, Murville--such a reasonable man! and married, too!”
“Oh! my dear fellow, are married men any more virtuous than bachelors?
You know very well that the contrary is true; a man can’t stick to his
wife forever.”
“If your wife should think as you do!”
“Oh! so far as that is concerned, I am not alarmed; my wife is virtue
personified, and she does no more than her duty; for a woman--that’s a
very different matter.”
“As to the consequences, yes; but morally, and even according to the law
of nature, I consider that the fault is absolutely identical.”
“You are joking! At all events, aren’t the consequences everything? Is
the absurdity of it the same? Will any one ever laugh at a wife whose
husband has mistresses? No, nothing is ever said then, because it is
considered a very common occurrence; but if a wife makes her husband a
cuckold----”
“That is a very common occurrence too.”
“For all that, people laugh at the poor husband and point their fingers
at him!--Besides, what harm can come of the husband’s infidelity? None
at all. The fair ones who have yielded to him won’t go about boasting of
it! With a woman it is just the opposite; her lovers always ruin her
reputation, either by their words, or by their actions, which never
escape the eyes of curiosity and calumny. In fact, a woman who finds her
husband in another woman’s arms can only complain and weep; while a man
who surprises his wife in _flagrante delicto_ has a right to punish the
culprit; so you see, my dear fellow, that the offence is not the same,
as the punishment is different.”
“I see that it was we men who made the laws, and that we treated
ourselves very well.”
“Are you going to preach to me too? Really, Dufresne, you are almost as
savagely virtuous as my wife.”
“No, my dear fellow, you don’t know me yet. But before assisting you, I
wanted to find out whether you had fully weighed the consequences of
this intrigue.”
“I have weighed and calculated everything. I love Madame de Géran, and I
wish to be loved in return. I feel that there is no sacrifice of which I
am not capable to attain my object. Do you understand?”
“Oh! very well. Since your mind is made up, I will second you; but of
course you won’t reproach me for leading you on.”
“No, no! On the contrary, I beg you to assist me, and to help me to
conceal this intrigue from my wife’s eyes.”
“Don’t be alarmed--leave all that to me. I will answer for all. When
will you call on Madame de Géran?”
“This evening. They play cards there, of course?”
“Yes, and for rather high stakes.”
“The devil! The fact is that I haven’t any money. That party drained me
dry.”
“It is very easy to obtain some. Consols are at a very high premium.
Sell. They cannot fail to drop before long; then, as we shall have
speculated in something else, and you will probably be in funds, you can
buy in again. You see, it is a good thing to do from a business
standpoint.”
“True, you are right. But the consols are in my wife’s name.”
“Can’t you get her to sign by telling her that you are engaged in a
magnificent operation?”
“Oh, yes! she will sign, I am sure; she’ll sign whatever I want her to.”
“Take advantage of her compliant disposition to sell your consols; I
tell you again, they are on the point of falling, and in a few days you
will be able to buy the same amount with much less money. If it will be
any more convenient for you, I will see to the business for you.”
“You will confer a great favor on me, for I am still rather a bungler in
business, and but for you I should often be embarrassed.”
“Don’t be afraid. Act boldly. I assure you that your party last night
added immensely to your credit. If you needed thirty thousand francs,
you could easily obtain them.”
“You delight me. I will go back to my wife. Wait for me at the café; I
will be there very soon with the papers in question.”
“I will go there. Be on your guard with your wife.”
“Do you take me for a child?--I won’t say adieu, my dear Dufresne.”
Edouard hastened home and went up to Adeline’s apartment, where he found
her with her child in her arms. At sight of her husband, who was not
accustomed to come home during the day, a soothing hope made her heart
beat fast; she thought that it was love that led him back to her, and a
smile of happiness embellished her lovely features.
Edouard was speechless in her presence; he was embarrassed, he was
conscious of a painful sensation; he felt that he was guilty toward her,
but he did not choose to admit it even to himself.
“Is it you, my dear?” said Adeline in the sweetest of tones; “how happy
I am when I see you! It happens so rarely now!--Come and kiss your
daughter.”
Edouard walked mechanically toward them and kissed the child with a
distraught air, heedless of her infantile graces. He stood like one in a
dream, unable to decide how to broach the subject that had brought him
there.
“You seem distressed,” said Adeline; “is anything troubling you? For
heaven’s sake, let me share your trouble--you have no more loving, more
sincere friend than your wife.”
“I know it, my dear Adeline, but nothing is troubling me. No, I am
preoccupied, because I am thinking of a very important transaction in
which I shall make a great deal of money.”
“Always schemes, speculations--and never love, repose and happiness!”
“Oh! when we are rich--why, then--But I have a request to make of you; I
want to ask you to sign a paper--it has to do with an operation that
will be very profitable.”
“Are you certain of that, my dear?”
“Yes, perfectly certain; it was----”
Edouard was going to say that it was Dufresne who gave him that
assurance, but he reflected that that would not be the best way to
convince his wife, and he checked himself. Having taken from his desk
all the papers that he required, he drew up a document by which his wife
assented to the transfer of her consols, and with a trembling hand
presented the pen to Adeline. She, trustful and submissive, signed the
paper which he put before her, without even reading it.
“That is all right,” said Murville as he put the papers in his pocket.
“Now I must hurry to the Bourse, to conclude this important affair.”
He kissed Adeline and hurried from the room. She realized that it was
not to see her that he had come home; but her heart made excuses for
him; she believed him to be entirely engrossed by business.
“He loves nobody but me,” she said to herself; “that is the main thing.
I must forgive this love of work, and this perfectly natural desire to
enrich his wife and children.”
Poor Adeline! she did not know what use her husband proposed to make of
the money that he was in such haste to obtain.
XIX
IT WAS NOT HER FAULT
Edouard returned in triumph to Dufresne; he was the possessor of a
considerable sum of which he could dispose as he pleased, for his wife
would never ask him for an accounting, and his mother-in-law had ceased
to meddle in his affairs. Dufresne was awaiting Murville impatiently; he
was afraid that Adeline would make some objections. But when he saw the
precious papers, a smile of satisfaction played about his lips; a
sentiment which he tried to dissemble gave to his face a peculiar
expression which would have attracted the attention of anybody but
Edouard; but he did not give Dufresne time to speak; he urged him to go
at once and obtain the funds, and Dufresne made haste to gratify him,
fearing that he might change his mind.
Adeline waited in vain for her husband to return; the day passed and he
did not come. She thought that he had probably been invited to dine by
some of his new acquaintances; she tried to reconcile herself to it; but
what grieved her most was her husband’s blindness with respect to
Dufresne, and the indifference with which he had listened to her story
of the outrageous conduct of the man whom he considered his friend.
Dufresne’s threats recurred to Adeline’s memory; she thought of her
husband’s weakness of will, and she could not help shuddering as she
reflected that her happiness, her repose, and her child’s, perhaps, were
in the hands of a wicked man, who seemed to be capable of going all
lengths to gratify his passions.
It was nine o’clock in the evening; Adeline, absorbed in her
reflections, was sadly awaiting her husband’s return, when she heard a
loud knock at the street door. Soon she heard someone coming
upstairs--it was Edouard, of course. She ran to open the door; but it
was not he; one of her servants appeared, bringing a letter which a
stranger had just left at the door with an urgent request that it be
handed to madame at once. The stranger had gone away without waiting for
a reply. The servant handed the letter to his mistress and left the
room.
Adeline broke the seal; the writing was unfamiliar to her; it seemed the
work of a weak and tremulous hand; the letter was signed by Madame
Dolban.
“What can she have to write to me?” thought Adeline; “let me see.”
“Madame:
“I am very ill; I have been unable to leave my room for a long
while, but I am unwilling to delay any longer to give you some most
important advice. I am responsible for all the harm, and it is my
place to try to repair it. I brought a man named Dufresne to your
house. Alas! how bitterly I repent it! but at that time I believed
him to be incapable of doing anything indelicate even. A deplorable
passion had long made me blind, but now it is no longer possible
for me to doubt the ghastly truth. This Dufresne is a miserable
wretch, capable of every villainy. I have only too many proofs of
the infamy of his conduct. He has robbed me of all that I
possessed, but my regret for my money is less than my shame at
having been his dupe. Gambling, debauchery, all sorts of vice are
familiar to him, and he has the art to conceal his shocking
passions. I dare not tell you what I know--but break off instantly
the intimacy he has formed with your husband, or fear the worst for
him from the advice of a monster to whom nothing is sacred.
“WIDOW DOLBAN.”
Adeline shuddered; her heart was oppressed by secret terror; she read
the fatal letter once more, then raised her lovely tear-bedewed eyes
heavenward.
“So this is the man on whose account Edouard fell out with my mother!
this is the sort of man that his adviser, his best friend, is! O heaven!
what misery I foresee in the future! but how am I to avert it? My
husband no longer listens to me; he spurns my advice, he is deaf to my
prayers. But he could not be deaf to my tears. No, Edouard is not
hard-hearted; he loves me still, he will not spurn his Adeline. I will
implore him, in our child’s name, to cease to see a man who will lead
him on to ruin. This letter will be a sufficient proof, I trust; he will
open his eyes and sever all relations with him who has already caused me
so much unhappiness.”
These reflections allayed Adeline’s distress in some measure; fully
determined to show her husband, as soon as he should return, the letter
that she had received, she decided to sit up for him. He could not be
much longer, it was already quite late, and all she needed was a little
courage. Poor woman! if she had known how her husband was occupied,
while she, melancholy and pensive, devoured in silence the torments of
anxiety and jealousy! You who try to read the future,--how you would
deserve to be pitied if your eyes could pierce space, and if your ears
always heard the truth! Illusion was invented for the happiness of
mortals; it does them almost as much good as hope.
The young woman tried to beguile the time by making plans for the
future. She rejoiced in the approach of the season of fine weather; soon
they might return to the pretty little place in the country. She had
been so happy there in the early days of her married life that she
looked forward to finding there once more the happiness that she had not
found in Paris. Edouard would accompany her; he would have forgotten all
his plans, have given up the business that tormented him, and have
broken entirely with the perfidious Dufresne. Then nothing could disturb
their felicity. Her mother would return to live with them; little
Ermance would grow up and be educated under her parents’ eyes, learning
to love and respect them. What a delightful future! How short the time
would seem! how well it would be employed!
Adeline’s heart thrilled with the pleasure caused by the delicious
tableau which her imagination had conjured up. But the clock struck; she
glanced at it and sighed; the image of happiness vanished, the
melancholy reality returned!
Thus do the unfortunate try to deceive their suffering, to conceal their
grief from themselves. He who has lost a beloved sweetheart has her
image constantly in his thoughts; he sees her, speaks to her, lives
again with her in the past; he hears her voice, her sweet accents, her
loving confession which makes his heart beat fast with bliss; he recalls
those delicious interviews of which love bore the whole burden; he
fancies that he holds his loved one’s hands in his; he seeks her burning
lips from which he once stole the sweetest of kisses--but the illusion
vanishes; she is no longer there! Ah! what a ghastly void! what a cruel
return to life!
Adeline was agitated by all these gleams of hope and fear; twenty times
she went to her daughter’s cradle, then returned to her place at the
window and listened anxiously, intently, for the faintest sound; but
only the rumbling of an occasional carriage broke the silence of the
night. Each time that she heard that noise, Adeline’s heart beat faster.
It was her husband returning home; yes, it was he--the carriage was
coming nearer; but it passed on, it did not stop.
Adeline had watched many hours pass; the cold of the night and the
weariness caused by her lonely vigil benumbed her senses. Despite her
desire to wait for her husband, she felt that she could no longer resist
the drowsiness that oppressed her. She decided at last to go to bed; but
she placed Madame Dolban’s letter on her night table, so that she might
have it at hand in order to be able to show it to her husband as soon as
she saw him. From that priceless letter she anticipated peace of mind
and happiness. She lighted the night lamp that she used every night. She
went to bed at last--regretfully--and still tried to fight against
sleep; but fatigue triumphed over anxiety; her eyelids drooped, she fell
into a deep sleep.
Adeline had been asleep an hour; a loud noise, caused by the fall of a
chair, awoke her with a start; she opened her eyes, but could see
nothing. Her lamp was out; she made a movement to rise, but an arm
passed about her body kept her in bed and two kisses closed her mouth.
Adeline knew that her husband alone had a key to her room, that no other
than he could enter there at night; so that it was Edouard who had
returned and was in her arms.
“Oh! my dear,” she said, “I sat up for you a long, long while; I was so
anxious to see you and speak to you. If you knew! I have had a letter
from Madame Dolban, poor woman! she is very unhappy! You will find that
I was not mistaken about Dufresne--the monster! It is he who has ruined
her; he has every failing, every vice. My dear Edouard, I implore you,
do not continue your intimacy with that man--he will be your ruin! You
won’t tell me any more that my ideas are chimeras. The letter is here,
on my night table; if the lamp had not gone out, I would read it to you
now.”
Adeline was on the point of rising to light the lamp, but love detained
her in her bed. The most loving caresses, the most ardent kisses were
lavished upon her; she had recovered her husband; she yielded to his
desires, she abandoned herself to his love, shared the intense ardor
with which he was inflamed; her past sorrows were nothing more than a
dream which the most blissful ecstasy dispelled.
Pleasure is always followed by desire to rest; drunk with love and joy,
Adeline fell asleep in the arms of him who had shared her delirium. A
ray of light was shining through the window when she opened her eyes;
her heart was still palpitating with the pleasure she had enjoyed. She
turned her head to look at her sleeping husband. A shriek of horror
escaped her; she trembled, she could hardly breathe, her eyes assumed a
glassy stare, her heart ceased to beat. It was Dufresne who was by her
side; it was his breast upon which her head had rested; it was he upon
whom she had lavished her caresses; it was in his arms that she had
tasted the ecstasy, the transports of love.
The young woman’s shriek awoke Dufresne; he looked at Adeline, and a
treacherous smile, an expression of savage joy, gleamed in the eyes that
he fastened upon his victim. She seemed bereft of the power to act; she
was completely crushed. Dufresne determined to make the most of the
little time that remained; he moved nearer to her and attempted to
renew his hateful caresses. Adeline came to life again; she recovered
her strength, pushed the monster away with all her might, leaped out of
bed and wrapped her dress about her; and her resolute and haughty
expression seemed to defy him to commit a fresh outrage.
Dufresne stopped, gazed at her a moment in silence, then said with a
sneering laugh:
“What, madame! more resistance--more affectation of prudery? Really, you
must agree that, after what has taken place between us during the night,
this is mere childishness. Your pride is sadly misplaced now! Come, take
my advice; let us make peace. I assure you that your husband shall know
nothing about it. A little more or a little less will make him no more
of a cuckold! Indeed, I may as well tell you that he too is in the arms
of another; so you will have nothing to reproach yourself for.”
Dufresne walked toward Adeline, and she recoiled from him in horror. He
reached her side and attempted to satisfy his desires again. Adeline
struggled; she seemed endowed with fresh strength, and her voice,
calling Edouard’s name, rang through the apartment. Dufresne stopped and
released her; he realized that the young woman’s shrieks might be heard;
the servants might come, and that would upset all his plans. So that he
had no choice but to leave Adeline; but fierce anger blazed in the
glances that he cast at her. He ran to the table, seized Madame Dolban’s
letter and brandished it in the face of the woman who defied his wrath
and defeated his renewed attempts to outrage her.
“Here it is,” he said with an ironical smile; “here is the document of
which you hoped to make such good use. You despise, you spurn my love;
tremble before the effects of my hatred and of the revenge I will have
for your contempt. Adieu! I take with me Madame Dolban’s letter; she
will not write you any more.”
XX
THE PASSIONS TRAVEL FAST WHEN ONE DOES NOT RESIST THEM
Edouard had received from Dufresne the sum of one hundred thousand
francs; that amount was only one-half of the proceeds of the sale of the
consols; but Dufresne, who was very glad of an opportunity to retain the
other half, told Edouard that he had not sold them all, because he hoped
to dispose of the rest within a few days at a better price; and the
credulous Murville, trusting absolutely in the good faith of the man
whom he believed to be his friend, told him to complete the transaction
whenever he thought best.