THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF BÉLISAIRE.
One afternoon, when D’Argenton and Charlotte had gone to drive, Jack,
who was alone with Mother Archambauld, saw that he must relinquish his
usual excursion to the forest on account of a storm that was coming up.
The July sky was heavy with black clouds, copper-colored on the edges;
distant rumblings of thunder were heard, and the valley had that air of
expectation which often precedes a storm.
Fatigued by the child’s restlessness, the forester’s wife looked out at
the weather, and said to Jack,—
“Come, Master Jack, it does not rain; and it would be very kind of you
to go and get me a little grass for my rabbits.”
The child, enchanted at being of use, took a basket and went gayly off
to search in a ditch for the food the rabbits liked.
The white road stretched before him, the rising wind blew the dust in
clouds, when suddenly Jack heard a voice crying, “Hats! Hats to sell!
Nice Panamas!”
Jack looked over the edge of the ditch, and saw a pedler carrying on
his shoulders an enormous basket piled with straw hats. He walked as if
he were footsore and weary.
Have you ever thought how dismal the life of an itinerant salesman must
be? He knows not where he will sleep at night, or even that he can
obtain the shelter of a barn; for the average peasant always regards a
pedler, or any stranger, indeed, as an adventurer, and watches him with
distrustful eyes.
“Hats! Hats to sell!” For whose ears did he intend this repetition of
his monotonous cry? There was not a person in sight, nor a house. Was
it for the benefit of the birds, who, feeling the coming of the storm,
had taken shelter in the trees? The man took a seat on a pile of
stones, while Jack, on the other side of the road, examined him with
much curiosity. His face was forbidding to a certain extent, but
expressed so much suffering in the heavy features, that Jack’s kind
heart was filled with pity. At that moment a thunder-clap was heard;
the man looked up at the skies anxiously, and then called to Jack to
ask how far off the village was.
“Half a mile exactly,” answered the child.
“And the shower will be here in a few moments,” said the pedler,
despairingly. “All my hats will be wet, and I shall be ruined.”
The child thought of his own memorable journey, and he wished to do a
kind act.
“You can come to our house,” he said, “and then your hats will not be
injured.” The pedler grasped eagerly at this permission, for his
merchandise was so delicate. The two hurried on as fast as possible;
the man walking, however, as if he were treading on hot iron.
“Are you in pain?” asked the child.
“Yes, indeed, I am; my shoes are too small for me; you see my feet are
so big that I can never find anything large enough for them. O, if I
should ever be rich, I would have a pair of shoes made to measure!”
They reached Aulnettes. The pedler deposited in the hall his scaffold
of hats, and stood there humbly enough. But Jack led him into the
dining-room, saying, “You must have a glass of wine and a bit of
bread.”
Mother Archambauld frowned, but nevertheless put on the table a big
loaf and a pot of wine.
“Now a slice of ham,” said Jack, in a tone of command.
“But the master does not wish any one to touch the ham,” said the old
woman, grumbling. In fact, D’Argenton was something of a glutton, and
there were always some dainties in the pantry preserved for his
especial enjoyment.
“Never mind! bring it out!” said the child, delighted at playing the
part of host.
The good woman obeyed reluctantly. The pedler’s appetite was of the
most formidable description, and while he supped he told his simple
story. His name was Bélisaire, and he was the eldest of a large family,
and spent the summer wandering from town to town.—A violent
thunder-clap shook the house, the rain fell in torrents, and the noise
was terrific. At that moment some one knocked. Jack turned pale. “They
have come!” he said with a gasp.
It was D’Argenton who entered, accompanied by Charlotte. They were not
to have returned until late, but seeing the approach of the storm, they
had given up their plan. They were, however, wet to the skin, and the
poet was in a fearful rage with himself and every one else. “A fire in
the parlor,” he said, in a tone of command.
But while they were taking off their wraps in the hall; D’Argenton
perceived the formidable pile of hats.
“What is that?” he asked. Ah! if Jack could but have sunk a hundred
feet under ground with his stranger guest and the littered table! The
poet entered the room, looked about, and understood everything. The
child stammered a word or two of apology, but the other did not listen.
“Come here, Charlotte. Master Jack receives his friends to-day, it
seems.”
“O, Jack! Jack!” cried the mother in a horrified tone of reproach.
“Do not scold him, madame,” stammered Bélisaire. “I only am in fault!”
Here D’Argenton, out of all patience, threw open the door with a most
imposing gesture. “Go at once,” he said, violently; “how dare you come
into this house?”
Bélisaire, to whom no manner of humiliation was new, offered no word of
remonstrance, but snatched up his basket, cast one look of distress at
the tempest out-of-doors, and another of gratitude toward little
Jack—who sighed as he heard the rain falling like hail on the
Panamas,—and hurried down the garden walk. No sooner had the man
reached the highway, than his melancholy voice resumed the cry, “Hats!
Hats to sell!”
In the dining-room profound silence reigned; the servant was kindling a
fire, and Charlotte was shaking the poet’s coat, while he sulkily
strode up and down the room.
As he passed the table he caught sight of the ham on which the pedler’s
knife had made sad havoc. D’Argenton turned pale. Remember that the ham
was sacred, like his wine, his mustard, and mineral water. “What! the
ham, too!” he exclaimed.
Charlotte, utterly stupefied by such audacity, could only mechanically
repeat his words.
“I said, madame, that they ought not to cut the ham, that such pork was
too good for such a vagabond. But the little fellow does not know much
yet, he is so young.”
Jack by this time was quite alarmed at what he had done, and could only
beg pardon in a troubled tone.
“Pardon, indeed!” cried the poet, giving way, as it must be admitted he
rarely did, to his temper, and shaking the boy violently, exclaimed,
“What right had you to touch that ham? You knew it was not yours. You
know that nothing here is yours; for the bed you sleep on, for the food
you eat, you are indebted to my bounty. And why should I care for you?
I know not even your name!” Here an imploring gesture from Charlotte
stopped the torrent of words. Mother Archambauld was still in the room,
and listening with eagerness. The poet turned away suddenly, and rushed
up stairs, banging the door after him.
Jack remained, looking at his mother in consternation. She wrung her
pretty hands, and again implored heaven to tell her what she had done
to merit such a hard fate.
This was her only resource in the serious perplexities of life; and,
naturally, her question remained unanswered.
To add the finishing touch to the discomfort of the house, D’Argenton
was now taken with one of “his attacks,” a form of bilious fever.
Charlotte petted and soothed him, and waited upon him by inches. The
sister-of-charity spirit, that lies in the depths of every womanly
nature, made her love her poet the more because he was suffering. How
tenderly she protected his nerves! She laid a woollen cloth on the
table under the white one to soften the noise of the plates and the
silver. She piled the Henry II. chair with cushions, and had her rolls
of hot flannels and her tisanes in readiness at all hours of the day
and night.
Sometimes the poor little woman was fearfully rebuffed and mortified by
a fretful exclamation from the poet. “Do be quiet, Charlotte; you talk
too much!”
This illness brought the good-natured doctor to the house once more.
Charlotte met him in the hall. “Come quick, doctor, our dear poet is
suffering,” she said, anxiously.
“Nonsense, my dear; he only wants a little amusement.”
In fact, D’Argenton, who greeted the physician in the most languid
tones, soon forgot to keep up the farce in the pleasure of seeing a new
face, which made a pleasant break in his monotonous life, and a few
moments later beheld him launched on some dazzling episode of his
Parisian life. The doctor saw no reason to doubt the truth of these
narrations told in such measured and careful phrases, and was always
pleased with the appearance of the family,—the intellectual husband,
the pretty gay wife, and the amusing child; and no intuition gave him a
hint, as might have been the case with a more delicate organization, of
the peculiarity and bitterness of the ties which bound the household
together.
Often, therefore, on these bright midsummer days, the doctor’s horse
was fastened to the palisades, while the old man drank the cool glass
carefully mixed for him by Charlotte herself, and as he drank, he told
of his wonderful adventures in India. Jack listened with eyes and ears
wide open.
“Jack!” said D’Argenton, peremptorily, and pointed to the door.
“Let him stay, I beg of you; I like to have children around me. I am
quite sure that your boy has discovered that I have a grandchild;” and
the old man talked of his little Cécile, who was two years younger than
Jack.
“Bring her to see us, doctor,” said Charlotte; “the two children would
be so happy together.”
“Thank you, dear madame; but her grandmother would never consent. She
never trusts the child to any one; and she herself never goes anywhere
since our great sorrow.”
This sorrow, of which the old doctor often spoke, was the loss of his
daughter and his son-in-law within a year after their marriage. Some
mystery surrounded this double catastrophe. Even Mother Archambauld,
who knew everything, contented herself with saying, “Yes, poor things!
they have had a great deal of trouble.”
The only prescription given by the doctor was a verbal one, “Keep him
amused, madame; keep him amused!”
How could poor Charlotte do this? They went off together in a little
carriage; breakfast, books, and a butterfly-net accompanied them to the
forest; but he was bored to death. They bought a boat, but a
tête-à-tête in the middle of the Seine was worse than one on shore; and
the little boat soon lay moored at the landing, half full of water and
dead leaves.
Then the poet took to building; he planned a new staircase and an
Italian terrace: but even this did not amuse him.
One day a man, who came to tune the pianoforte, extolled the merits of
an AEolian harp. D’Argenton immediately ordered one made on a gigantic
scale, and placed it on his roof. From that moment poor little Jack’s
life was a burden to him. The melancholy wail of the instrument, like a
soul in purgatory, pursued him in his dreams. To the child’s great
relief, the poet was equally disturbed, and the harp was ordered to the
end of the garden; but its shrieks and moans were still heard.
D’Argenton fiercely commanded that the instrument should be buried,
which was done, and the earth heaped upon it as over some mad animal.
All these various occupations failing to amuse her poet, Charlotte
reluctantly decided to invite some of his old friends, but was repaid
for her sacrifice by witnessing D’Argenton’s joy on being told that Dr.
Hirsch and Labassandre were soon to visit them.
When Jack entered the house, a few days later, he heard the voices of
his old professors. The child felt an emotion of sick terror, for the
sounds recalled the memory of so many wretched hours. He slipped
quietly into the garden, there to await the dinner-bell.
“Come, gentlemen,” said Charlotte, smilingly, as she appeared on the
terrace,—her large white apron indicating that as a good housekeeper
she by no means disdained on occasion to lay aside her lace ruffles and
take an active part.
The professors promptly obeyed this summons to dinner, and greeted Jack
as he took his seat with every appearance of cordiality. Two large
doors opened on the lawn, beyond which lay the forest.
“You are a lucky fellow,” said Labassandre. “Tomorrow I shall be in
that hot, dusty town, eating a miserable dinner.”
“It is a good thing to be certain of having even a miserable dinner,”
grumbled Dr. Hirsch.
“Why not remain here for a time?” said D’Argenton, cordially. “There is
a room for each of you; the cellar has some good wine in it—”
“And we can make excursions,” interrupted Charlotte, gayly.
“But what would become of my rehearsals?” said Labassandre.
“But you, Dr. Hirsch,” continued Charlotte, “you are tied down to the
opera-house!”
“Certainly not; and my patients are nearly all in the country at this
season.”
The idea of Dr. Hirsch having any patients was very funny, and yet no
one laughed.
“Well, decide!” cried the poet, “In the first place, you would be doing
me a favor, and could prescribe for me.”
“To be sure. The physician here knows nothing of your constitution,
while I can soon set you on your feet again. I am sick of the Institute
and of Moronval, and never wish to see either more.” Thereupon the
doctor launched forth in a philippic against the school which supported
him. Moronval was a thorough humbug, he never paid anybody, and every
one was giving him up; the affair of Mâdou had done him great injury;
and finally Dr. Hirsch went so far as to compliment Jack on his
energetic departure.
At this moment Dr. Rivals was shown into the dining-room; he was
overjoyed at finding so gay and talkative a circle. “You see, madame, I
was right: our invalid only needed a little excitement.”
“There I differ from you!” cried Dr. Hirsch, fiercely, snuffing the
battle from afar.
Old Rivals examined this singular person with some distrust. “Dr.
Hirsch,” said D’Argenton, “allow me to present you to Dr. Rivals.” They
bowed like two duellists on the field who salute each other before
crossing their swords. The country physician concluded his new
acquaintance to be some famous Parisian practitioner, full of
eccentricities and hobbies. D’Argenton’s illness was the occasion of a
long discussion between the physicians.
It was droll to see the poet’s expression. He was inclined to take
offence that Dr. Rivals should consider him a mere hypochondriac, and
again to be equally annoyed when Dr. Hirsch insisted upon his having a
hundred diseases, each one with a worse name than the others.
Charlotte listened with tears in her eyes.
“But this is utter nonsense,” cried Rivals, who had listened
impatiently; “there are no such diseases, in the first place, and if
there were, our friend has no such symptoms.”
This was too much for Dr. Hirsch, and the battle began in earnest. They
hurled at each other titles of books in every language, names of every
drug known and unknown to the faculty. The scene was more laughable
than terrific, and was very much like one from “Molière.” Jack and his
mother escaped to the piazza, Where Labassandre was already trying his
voice. The winged inhabitants of the forest twittered in terror; the
peacocks in the neighboring château answered by those alarmed cries
with which they greet the approach of a thunder-shower; the neighboring
peasants started from their sleep, and old Mother Archambauld wondered
what was going on in the little house, where the moon shone so whitely
on the legend in gold characters over the door:
PARVA DOMUS, MAGNA QUIES.