"The way of virtue."
Atala looked at the Baroness with a crafty smile.
"Look at madame," said the Baroness, pointing to the stove-fitter's
wife, "she has been quite happy because she was received into the
bosom of the Church. You married like the beasts that perish."
"I?" said Atala. "Why, if you will give me as much as Daddy Vyder
gives me, I shall be quite happy unmarried again. It is a grind.--Do
you know what it is to--?"
"But when once you are united to a man as you are," the Baroness put
in, "virtue requires you to remain faithful to him."
"Till he dies," said Atala, with a knowing flash. "I shall not have to
wait long. If you only knew how Daddy Vyder coughs and blows.--Poof,
poof," and she imitated the old man.
"Virtue and morality require that the Church, representing God, and
the Mayor, representing the law, should consecrate your marriage,"
Madame Hulot went on. "Look at madame; she is legally married--"
"Will it make it more amusing?" asked the girl.
"You will be happier," said the Baroness, "for no one could then blame
you. You would satisfy God! Ask her if she was married without the
sacrament of marriage!"
Atala looked at the Italian.
"How is she any better than I am?" she asked. "I am prettier than she
is."
"Yes, but I am an honest woman," said the wife, "and you may be called
by a bad name."
"How can you expect God to protect you if you trample every law, human
and divine, under foot?" said the Baroness. "Don't you know that God
has Paradise in store for those who obey the injunctions of His
Church?"
"What is there in Paradise? Are there playhouses?"
"Paradise!" said Adeline, "is every joy you can conceive of. It is
full of angels with white wings. You see God in all His glory, you
share His power, you are happy for every minute of eternity!"
Atala listened to the lady as she might have listened to music; but
Adeline, seeing that she was incapable of understanding her, thought
she had better take another line of action and speak to the old man.
"Go home, then, my child, and I will go to see Monsieur Vyder. Is he a
Frenchman?"
"He is an Alsatian, madame. But he will be quite rich soon. If you
would pay what he owes to that vile Samanon, he would give you back
your money, for in a few months he will be getting six thousand francs
a year, he says, and we are to go to live in the country a long way
off, in the Vosges."
At the word _Vosges_ the Baroness sat lost in reverie. It called up
the vision of her native village. She was roused from her melancholy
meditation by the entrance of the stove-fitter, who came to assure her
of his prosperity.
"In a year's time, madame, I can repay the money you lent us, for it
is God's money, the money of the poor and wretched. If ever I make a
fortune, come to me for what you want, and I will render through you
the help to others which you first brought us."
"Just now," said Madame Hulot, "I do not need your money, but I ask
your assistance in a good work. I have just seen that little Judici,
who is living with an old man, and I mean to see them regularly and
legally married."
"Ah! old Vyder; he is a very worthy old fellow, with plenty of good
sense. The poor old man has already made friends in the neighborhood,
though he has been here but two months. He keeps my accounts for me.
He is, I believe, a brave Colonel who served the Emperor well. And how
he adores Napoleon!--He has some orders, but he never wears them. He
is waiting till he is straight again, for he is in debt, poor old boy!
In fact, I believe he is hiding, threatened by the law--"
"Tell him that I will pay his debts if he will marry the child."
"Oh, that will soon be settled.--Suppose you were to see him, madame;
it is not two steps away, in the Passage du Soleil."
So the lady and the stove-fitter went out.
"This way, madame," said the man, turning down the Rue de la
Pepiniere.
The alley runs, in fact, from the bottom of this street through to the
Rue du Rocher. Halfway down this passage, recently opened through,
where the shops let at a very low rent, the Baroness saw on a window,
screened up to a height with a green, gauze curtain, which excluded
the prying eyes of the passer-by, the words:
"ECRIVAIN PUBLIC"; and on the door the announcement:
BUSINESS TRANSACTED.
_Petitions Drawn Up, Accounts Audited, Etc._
_With Secrecy and Dispatch._
The shop was like one of those little offices where travelers by
omnibus wait the vehicles to take them on to their destination. A
private staircase led up, no doubt, to the living-rooms on the
entresol which were let with the shop. Madame Hulot saw a dirty
writing-table of some light wood, some letter-boxes, and a wretched
second-hand chair. A cap with a peak and a greasy green shade for the
eyes suggested either precautions for disguise, or weak eyes, which
was not unlikely in an old man.
"He is upstairs," said the stove-fitter. "I will go up and tell him to
come down."
Adeline lowered her veil and took a seat. A heavy step made the narrow
stairs creak, and Adeline could not restrain a piercing cry when she
saw her husband, Baron Hulot, in a gray knitted jersey, old gray
flannel trousers, and slippers.
"What is your business, madame?" said Hulot, with a flourish.
She rose, seized Hulot by the arm, and said in a voice hoarse with
emotion:
"At last--I have found you!"
"Adeline!" exclaimed the Baron in bewilderment, and he locked the shop
door. "Joseph, go out the back way," he added to the stove-fitter.
"My dear!" she said, forgetting everything in her excessive joy, "you
can come home to us all; we are rich. Your son draws a hundred and
sixty thousand francs a year! Your pension is released; there are
fifteen thousand francs of arrears you can get on showing that you are
alive. Valerie is dead, and left you three hundred thousand francs.
"Your name is quite forgotten by this time; you may reappear in the
world, and you will find a fortune awaiting you at your son's house.
Come; our happiness will be complete. For nearly three years I have
been seeking you, and I felt so sure of finding you that a room is
ready waiting for you. Oh! come away from this, come away from the
dreadful state I see you in!"
"I am very willing," said the bewildered Baron, "but can I take the
girl?"
"Hector, give her up! Do that much for your Adeline, who has never
before asked you to make the smallest sacrifice. I promise you I will
give the child a marriage portion; I will see that she marries well,
and has some education. Let it be said of one of the women who have
given you happiness that she too is happy; and do not relapse into
vice, into the mire."
"So it was you," said the Baron, with a smile, "who wanted to see me
married?--Wait a few minutes," he added; "I will go upstairs and
dress; I have some decent clothes in a trunk."
Adeline, left alone, and looking round the squalid shop, melted into
tears.
"He has been living here, and we rolling in wealth!" said she to
herself. "Poor man, he has indeed been punished--he who was elegance
itself."
The stove-fitter returned to make his bow to his benefactress, and she
desired him to fetch a coach. When he came back, she begged him to
give little Atala Judici a home, and to take her away at once.
"And tell her that if she will place herself under the guidance of
Monsieur the Cure of the Madeleine, on the day when she attends her
first Communion I will give her thirty thousand francs and find her a
good husband, some worthy young man."
"My eldest son, then madame! He is two-and-twenty, and he worships the
child."
The Baron now came down; there were tears in his eyes.
"You are forcing me to desert the only creature who had ever begun to
love me at all as you do!" said he in a whisper to his wife. "She is
crying bitterly, and I cannot abandon her so--"
"Be quite easy, Hector. She will find a home with honest people, and I
will answer for her conduct."
"Well, then, I can go with you," said the Baron, escorting his wife to
the cab.
Hector, the Baron d'Ervy once more, had put on a blue coat and
trousers, a white waistcoat, a black stock, and gloves. When the
Baroness had taken her seat in the vehicle, Atala slipped in like an
eel.
"Oh, madame," she said, "let me go with you. I will be so good, so
obedient; I will do whatever you wish; but do not part me from my
Daddy Vyder, my kind Daddy who gives me such nice things. I shall be
beaten--"
"Come, come, Atala," said the Baron, "this lady is my wife--we must
part--"
"She! As old as that! and shaking like a leaf!" said the child. "Look
at her head!" and she laughingly mimicked the Baroness' palsy.
The stove-fitter, who had run after the girl, came to the carriage
door.
"Take her away!" said Adeline. The man put his arms round Atala and
fairly carried her off.
"Thanks for such a sacrifice, my dearest," said Adeline, taking the
Baron's hand and clutching it with delirious joy. "How much you are
altered! you must have suffered so much! What a surprise for Hortense
and for your son!"
Adeline talked as lovers talk who meet after a long absence, of a
hundred things at once.
In ten minutes the Baron and his wife reached the Rue Louis-le-Grand,
and there Adeline found this note awaiting her:--
"MADAME LA BARONNE,--
"Monsieur le Baron Hulot d'Ervy lived for one month in the Rue de
Charonne under the name of Thorec, an anagram of Hector. He is now
in the Passage du Soleil by the name of Vyder. He says he is an
Alsatian, and does writing, and he lives with a girl named Atala
Judici. Be very cautious, madame, for search is on foot; the Baron
is wanted, on what score I know not.
"The actress has kept her word, and remains, as ever,
"Madame la Baronne, your humble servant,
"J. M."
The Baron's return was hailed with such joy as reconciled him to
domestic life. He forgot little Atala Judici, for excesses of
profligacy had reduced him to the volatility of feeling that is
characteristic of childhood. But the happiness of the family was
dashed by the change that had come over him. He had been still hale
when he had gone away from his home; he had come back almost a
hundred, broken, bent, and his expression even debased.
A splendid dinner, improvised by Celestine, reminded the old man of
the singer's banquets; he was dazzled by the splendor of his home.
"A feast in honor of the return of the prodigal father?" said he in a
murmur to Adeline.
"Hush!" said she, "all is forgotten."
"And Lisbeth?" he asked, not seeing the old maid.
"I am sorry to say that she is in bed," replied Hortense. "She can
never get up, and we shall have the grief of losing her ere long. She
hopes to see you after dinner."
At daybreak next morning Victorin Hulot was informed by the porter's
wife that soldiers of the municipal guard were posted all round the
premises; the police demanded Baron Hulot. The bailiff, who had
followed the woman, laid a summons in due form before the lawyer, and
asked him whether he meant to pay his father's debts. The claim was
for ten thousand francs at the suit of an usurer named Samanon, who
had probably lent the Baron two or three thousand at most. Victorin
desired the bailiff to dismiss his men, and paid.
"But is it the last?" he anxiously wondered.
Lisbeth, miserable already at seeing the family so prosperous, could
not survive this happy event. She grew so rapidly worse that Bianchon
gave her but a week to live, conquered at last in the long struggle in
which she had scored so many victories.
She kept the secret of her hatred even through a painful death from
pulmonary consumption. And, indeed, she had the supreme satisfaction
of seeing Adeline, Hortense, Hulot, Victorin, Steinbock, Celestine,
and their children standing in tears round her bed and mourning for
her as the angel of the family.
Baron Hulot, enjoying a course of solid food such as he had not known
for nearly three years, recovered flesh and strength, and was almost
himself again. This improvement was such a joy to Adeline that her
nervous trembling perceptibly diminished.
"She will be happy after all," said Lisbeth to herself on the day
before she died, as she saw the veneration with which the Baron
regarded his wife, of whose sufferings he had heard from Hortense and
Victorin.
And vindictiveness hastened Cousin Betty's end. The family followed
her, weeping, to the grave.
The Baron and Baroness, having reached the age which looks for perfect
rest, gave up the handsome rooms on the first floor to the Count and
Countess Steinbock, and took those above. The Baron by his son's
exertions found an official position in the management of a railroad,
in 1845, with a salary of six thousand francs, which, added to the six
thousand of his pension and the money left to him by Madame Crevel,
secured him an income of twenty-four thousand francs. Hortense having
enjoyed her independent income during the three years of separation
from Wenceslas, Victorin now invested the two hundred thousand francs
he had in trust, in his sister's name and he allowed her twelve
thousand francs.
Wenceslas, as the husband of a rich woman, was not unfaithful, but he
was an idler; he could not make up his mind to begin any work, however
trifling. Once more he became the artist _in partibus_; he was popular
in society, and consulted by amateurs; in short, he became a critic,
like all the feeble folk who fall below their promise.
Thus each household, though living as one family, had its own fortune.
The Baroness, taught by bitter experience, left the management of
matters to her son, and the Baron was thus reduced to his salary, in
hope that the smallness of his income would prevent his relapsing into
mischief. And by some singular good fortune, on which neither the
mother nor the son had reckoned, Hulot seemed to have foresworn the
fair sex. His subdued behaviour, ascribed to the course of nature, so
completely reassured the family, that they enjoyed to the full his
recovered amiability and delightful qualities. He was unfailingly
attentive to his wife and children, escorted them to the play,
reappeared in society, and did the honors to his son's house with
exquisite grace. In short, this reclaimed prodigal was the joy of his
family.
He was a most agreeable old man, a ruin, but full of wit, having
retained no more of his vice than made it an added social grace.
Of course, everybody was quite satisfied and easy. The young people
and the Baroness lauded the model father to the skies, forgetting the
death of the two uncles. Life cannot go on without much forgetting!
Madame Victorin, who managed this enormous household with great skill,
due, no doubt, to Lisbeth's training, had found it necessary to have a
man-cook. This again necessitated a kitchen-maid. Kitchen-maids are in
these days ambitious creatures, eager to detect the _chef's_ secrets,
and to become cooks as soon as they have learnt to stir a sauce.
Consequently, the kitchen-maid is liable to frequent change.
At the beginning of 1845 Celestine engaged as kitchen-maid a sturdy
Normandy peasant come from Isigny--short-waisted, with strong red
arms, a common face, as dull as an "occasional piece" at the play, and
hardly to be persuaded out of wearing the classical linen cap peculiar
to the women of Lower Normandy. This girl, as buxom as a wet-nurse,
looked as if she would burst the blue cotton check in which she
clothed her person. Her florid face might have been hewn out of stone,
so hard were its tawny outlines.
Of course no attention was paid to the advent in the house of this
girl, whose name was Agathe--an ordinary, wide-awake specimen, such as
is daily imported from the provinces. Agathe had no attractions for
the cook, her tongue was too rough, for she had served in a suburban
inn, waiting on carters; and instead of making a conquest of her chief
and winning from him the secrets of the high art of the kitchen, she
was the object of his great contempt. The _chef's_ attentions were, in
fact, devoted to Louise, the Countess Steinbock's maid. The country
girl, thinking herself ill-used, complained bitterly that she was
always sent out of the way on some pretext when the _chef_ was
finishing a dish or putting the crowning touch to a sauce.
"I am out of luck," said she, "and I shall go to another place."
And yet she stayed though she had twice given notice to quit.
One night, Adeline, roused by some unusual noise, did not see Hector
in the bed he occupied near hers; for they slept side by side in two
beds, as beseemed an old couple. She lay awake an hour, but he did not
return. Seized with a panic, fancying some tragic end had overtaken
him--an apoplectic attack, perhaps--she went upstairs to the floor
occupied by the servants, and then was attracted to the room where
Agathe slept, partly by seeing a light below the door, and partly by
the murmur of voices. She stood still in dismay on recognizing the
voice of her husband, who, a victim to Agathe's charms, to vanquish
this strapping wench's not disinterested resistance, went to the
length of saying:
"My wife has not long to live, and if you like you may be a Baroness."
Adeline gave a cry, dropped her candlestick, and fled.
Three days later the Baroness, who had received the last sacraments,
was dying, surrounded by her weeping family.
Just before she died, she took her husband's hand and pressed it,
murmuring in his ear:
"My dear, I had nothing left to give up to you but my life. In a
minute or two you will be free, and can make another Baronne Hulot."
And, rare sight, tears oozed from her dead eyes.
This desperateness of vice had vanquished the patience of the angel,
who, on the brink of eternity, gave utterance to the only reproach she
had ever spoken in her life.
The Baron left Paris three days after his wife's funeral. Eleven
months after Victorin heard indirectly of his father's marriage to
Mademoiselle Agathe Piquetard, solemnized at Isigny, on the 1st
February 1846.
"Parents may hinder their children's marriage, but children cannot
interfere with the insane acts of their parents in their second
childhood," said Maitre Hulot to Maitre Popinot, the second son of the
Minister of Commerce, who was discussing this marriage.
ADDENDUM
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
Beauvisage, Phileas
The Member for Arcis
Berthier (Parisian notary)
Cousin Pons
Bianchon, Horace
Father Goriot
The Atheist's Mass
Cesar Birotteau
The Commission in Lunacy
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
A Bachelor's Establishment
The Secrets of a Princess
The Government Clerks
Pierrette
A Study of Woman
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
Honorine
The Seamy Side of History
The Magic Skin
A Second Home
A Prince of Bohemia
Letters of Two Brides
The Muse of the Department
The Imaginary Mistress
The Middle Classes
The Country Parson
In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following:
Another Study of Woman
La Grande Breteche
Bixiou, Jean-Jacques
The Purse
A Bachelor's Establishment
The Government Clerks
Modeste Mignon
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Firm of Nucingen
The Muse of the Department
The Member for Arcis
Beatrix
A Man of Business
Gaudissart II.
The Unconscious Humorists
Cousin Pons
Braulard
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Cousin Pons
Bridau, Joseph
The Purse
A Bachelor's Establishment
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
A Start in Life
Modeste Mignon
Another Study of Woman
Pierre Grassou
Letters of Two Brides
The Member for Arcis
Brisetout, Heloise
Cousin Pons
The Middle Classes
Cadine, Jenny
Beatrix
The Unconscious Humorists
The Member for Arcis
Chanor
Cousin Pons
Chocardelle, Mademoiselle
Beatrix
A Prince of Bohemia
A Man of Business
The Member for Arcis
Colleville, Flavie Minoret, Madame
The Government Clerks
The Middle Classes
Collin, Jacqueline
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Unconscious Humorists
Crevel, Celestin
Cesar Birotteau
Cousin Pons
Esgrignon, Victurnien, Comte (then Marquis d')
Jealousies of a Country Town
Letters of Two Brides
A Man of Business
The Secrets of a Princess
Falcon, Jean
The Chouans
The Muse of the Department
Graff, Wolfgang
Cousin Pons
Grassou, Pierre
Pierre Grassou
A Bachelor's Establishment
The Middle Classes
Cousin Pons
Grindot
Cesar Birotteau
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
A Start in Life
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
Beatrix
The Middle Classes
Hannequin, Leopold
Albert Savarus
Beatrix
Cousin Pons
Herouville, Duc d'
The Hated Son
Jealousies of a Country Town
Modeste Mignon
Hulot (Marshal)
The Chouans
The Muse of the Department
Hulot, Victorin
The Member for Arcis
La Bastie la Briere, Madame Ernest de
Modeste Mignon
The Member for Arcis
La Baudraye, Madame Polydore Milaud de
The Muse of the Department
A Prince of Bohemia
La Chanterie, Baronne Henri le Chantre de
The Seamy Side of History
Laginski, Comte Adam Mitgislas
Another Study of Woman
The Imaginary Mistress
La Palferine, Comte de
A Prince of Bohemia
A Man of Business
Beatrix
The Imaginary Mistress
La Roche-Hugon, Martial de
Domestic Peace
The Peasantry
A Daughter of Eve
The Member for Arcis
The Middle Classes
Lebas, Joseph
At the Sign of the Cat and Racket
Cesar Birotteau
Lebas, Madame Joseph (Virginie)
At the Sign of the Cat and Racket
Cesar Birotteau
Lebas
The Muse of the Department
Lefebvre, Robert
The Gondreville Mystery
Lenoncourt-Givry, Duc de
Letters of Two Brides
The Member for Arcis
Lora, Leon de
The Unconscious Humorists
A Bachelor's Establishment
A Start in Life
Pierre Grassou
Honorine
Beatrix
Lousteau, Etienne
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
A Bachelor's Establishment
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
A Daughter of Eve
Beatrix
The Muse of the Department
A Prince of Bohemia
A Man of Business
The Middle Classes
The Unconscious Humorists
Massol
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Magic Skin
A Daughter of Eve
The Unconscious Humorists
Montauran, Marquis de (younger brother of Alphonse de)
The Chouans
The Seamy Side of History
Montcornet, Marechal, Comte de
Domestic Peace
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Peasantry
A Man of Business
Navarreins, Duc de
A Bachelor's Establishment
Colonel Chabert
The Muse of the Department
The Thirteen
Jealousies of a Country Town
The Peasantry
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Country Parson
The Magic Skin
The Gondreville Mystery
The Secrets of a Princess
Nourrisson, Madame
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Unconscious Humorists
Nucingen, Baron Frederic de
The Firm of Nucingen
Father Goriot
Pierrette
Cesar Birotteau
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
Another Study of Woman
The Secrets of a Princess
A Man of Business
The Muse of the Department
The Unconscious Humorists
Paz, Thaddee
The Imaginary Mistress
Popinot, Anselme
Cesar Birotteau
Gaudissart the Great
Cousin Pons
Popinot, Madame Anselme
Cesar Birotteau
A Prince of Bohemia
Cousin Pons
Popinot, Vicomte
Cousin Pons
Rastignac, Eugene de
Father Goriot
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Ball at Sceaux
The Commission in Lunacy
A Study of Woman
Another Study of Woman
The Magic Skin
The Secrets of a Princess
A Daughter of Eve
The Gondreville Mystery
The Firm of Nucingen
The Member for Arcis
The Unconscious Humorists
Rivet, Achille
Cousin Pons
Rochefide, Marquis Arthur de
Beatrix
Ronceret, Madame Fabien du
Beatrix
The Muse of the Department
The Unconscious Humorists
Samanon
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
The Government Clerks
A Man of Business
Sinet, Seraphine
The Unconscious Humorists
Steinbock, Count Wenceslas
The Imaginary Mistress
Stidmann
Modeste Mignon
Beatrix
The Member for Arcis
Cousin Pons
The Unconscious Humorists
Tillet, Ferdinand du
Cesar Birotteau
The Firm of Nucingen
The Middle Classes
A Bachelor's Establishment
Pierrette
Melmoth Reconciled
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
The Secrets of a Princess
A Daughter of Eve
The Member for Arcis
The Unconscious Humorists
Trailles, Comte Maxime de
Cesar Birotteau
Father Goriot
Gobseck
Ursule Mirouet
A Man of Business
The Member for Arcis
The Secrets of a Princess
The Member for Arcis
Beatrix
The Unconscious Humorists
Turquet, Marguerite
The Imaginary Mistress
The Muse of the Department
A Man of Business
Vauvinet
The Unconscious Humorists
Vernisset, Victor de
The Seamy Side of History
Beatrix