were soon a very great help to poor Jean. Ah! I remember his fits of
anger with you at the beginning, for he was never patient, the dear man,
and you were so awkward! Really, Monsieur Emile, you'd have laughed to
hear Jean swear after Monsieur le Comte, as he would after any little
apprentice. And then, after it was over, they would make it up and shake
hands, so that I used to feel like crying. But as we have actually set
about telling you our whole history, instead of just quarrelling among
ourselves, as I intended to do at first, I propose to tell you the rest
of it; for if we let Monsieur Antoine do it, he'll never let me put in a
word."
"Go on, Janille, go on!" cried Monsieur Antoine; "I ask your pardon for
having kept you from talking so long!"
X
A GOOD ACTION
"According to Monsieur Antoine," said Janille, "we were entirely without
means; but if that was the case, it didn't last long. After a few years,
when the Châteaubrun estate had been sold in small lots, the debts
paid, and all that rubbish cleared away, we found that monsieur still
had a little capital left, which, if well invested, would bring him in
about twelve hundred francs a year. Oh! that wasn't to be despised. But,
with monsieur's kindness of heart and generosity, it would probably have
disappeared a little fast. Then it was that my dear Janille, who is
talking to you now, saw that she must take the reins into her hands. It
was she who looked after the investment of the funds, and she didn't
manage so very badly. Then what did she say to monsieur? Do you
remember, monsieur, what I said to you at that time?"
"I remember very well, Janille, for you talked very wisely. Repeat it
yourself."
"I said to you: 'Well, Monsieur Antoine, there's enough for you to live
on with your arms folded. But that would be a burden to you, you've
taken a liking to work. You are still young and well, so you can work
for some years to come. You have a daughter, a real treasure, who bids
fair to be as bright as she is pretty; you must think about giving her
an education. We will take her to Paris, put her at boarding-school, and
you will be a carpenter a few years longer.' Monsieur Antoine asked
nothing better. Oh! I must do him the justice to say that he didn't
complain of his work; but, by associating with these peasants, his ideas
had become a little too countrified to suit me. He said that as he was
destined to become a workingman in the country, it would be wiser to
bring up his daughter in accordance with his position in life, to make
an honest village lass of her, to teach her to read, sew, spin and keep
house; but deuce take me if I looked at it in that light! Could I allow
Mademoiselle de Châteaubrun to fall below her rank and not be brought
up like the nobly-born maid she is? Monsieur yielded, and our Gilberte
was educated at Paris, and nothing was spared to give her wit and
talents. She made the most of it like a little angel, and when she was
about seventeen years old I says one day to monsieur: 'I say, Monsieur
Antoine, don't you want to come and take a little walk with me over
Châteaubrun way?' Monsieur, let me bring him here, but, when we were in
the middle of the ruins, he got very depressed.
"'Why did you bring me here, Janille?' he says with a deep sigh. 'I knew
they had destroyed my poor family nest; I had seen that from a distance,
but I have never had the heart to come in and see all this ruin close. I
hadn't any feeling of pride about the château, but I was fond of it
because I passed my youthful years here; because I was happy here and my
parents died here. If anyone had bought it to live in, if I could see it
in good repair and well kept, I should be half-consoled, for we love
things as we ought to love persons--a little more on their account than
our own. But what pleasure can it give you to show me what speculators
have done to the house of my ancestors?'
"'Monsieur,' I answered, 'it was necessary for us to come and see what
the damage is, so that we can tell how much we have to spend, and how we
must go to work to repair it. Just imagine that your estate was ruined
by a hurricane in one night; with such a character as I know yours to
be, instead of crying over it, you would go right to work to rebuild
it.'
"'But there's no rhyme nor reason in your comparison,' says Monsieur
Antoine. 'I haven't the means to repair the château, and even if I had
I should be no better off, for even this carcass no longer belongs to
me.'
"'Wait a bit,' says I. 'How much did they ask you when you offered to
buy back just the house and the little piece of land next to it, the
orchard, the garden, the hill, and the little meadow on the bank of the
river?'
"'I didn't ask it seriously, Janille, but simply to see how low the
value of a fine estate had fallen. They told me ten thousand francs for
what was left, and I retired, knowing well enough that ten thousand
francs and I would never pass through the same door.'
"'Well, monsieur,' says I, 'it's no longer a matter of ten thousand
francs, but only four thousand at this moment. They thought that you
couldn't resist the temptation, and that you would spend what capital
you had left in re-establishing yourself in the ruins of your domain.
That's why they fixed the price at ten thousand francs on a place that
isn't worth the half of it, and that no one but you would ever want; but
since you gave up buying it back they have grown more modest. I have
been bargaining secretly, without your knowledge and under an assumed
name. Say the word, and to-morrow you shall be lord of Châteaubrun.'
"'But what good would it do me, my dear Janille? What could I do with
this pile of stone and these three or four fragments of wall with no
doors or windows?'"
"With that I pointed out to monsieur that the square pavilion was still
in very good condition, that the arches were well preserved, the rooms
perfectly dry inside, and that we should only have to cover it with
tiles, repair the woodwork and furnish it simply--a matter of five
hundred francs at most. At that monsieur cried out: 'Don't put such
ideas into my head, Janille; I should think you were trying to disgust
me with my present condition and feed me on illusions. I haven't ten, or
five, or four thousand francs, and it would require ten more years of
privation to save them. We had much better remain as we are.'"
"'And how do you know, monsieur,' says I, 'that you haven't six thousand
francs, yes, sixty-five hundred? Do you know how much you have? I'll
wager that you know nothing about it.'"
At this point Monsieur Antoine interrupted Janille. "It is true," he
said, "that I knew nothing about it; that I know nothing about it yet;
and that I never shall know how, with an income of twelve hundred
francs, after paying for my daughter's schooling at Paris for six years,
and living at Gargilesse, as a workingman to be sure, but very
comfortably none the less, in a little house which Janille managed
herself--and, I may add that, although she held the purse-strings, she
allowed me to spend two or three francs on Sundays with my friends. No,
I shall never understand how I could have saved six thousand francs! As
it is altogether impossible, I am forced to explain this miracle to
Monsieur Emile Cardonnet, unless he has already guessed its solution."
"Yes, monsieur le comte, I have guessed it," said Emile; "Mademoiselle
Janille had saved money in your service when you were rich, or else she
had some money of her own, and it was she who----"
"No, monsieur," interposed Janille hastily, "nothing of the sort; you
forget that monsieur earned his living at his carpentering, and you can
well believe that mademoiselle's boarding-school wasn't one of the
dearest in Paris, although it was a good school, I flatter myself."
"Nonsense," said Gilberte, kissing her; "you lie very coolly, Mère
Janille; but you will never make my father and me believe that
Châteaubrun was not bought with your money, that it does not really
belong to you, and that we are not living in your house, although you
bought it in our name."
"Not at all, not at all, mademoiselle," replied the noble-hearted
Janille, that strange little woman who liked to boast on every occasion
and to make herself heard on every subject, but who, to maintain the
dignity of her masters' rank, of which she was more careful than they
were themselves, energetically denied the noblest action of her whole
life;--"not at all, I tell you, I had nothing to do with it. Is it my
fault if your papa doesn't know how to count five and if you are as
careless as he? Bah! A lot you know about your receipts and your
expenses, both of you! Leave you to yourselves, and we'll see what will
become of you! I tell you that you are in your own house, and that if
there is anything for me to boast of, it is that I managed your affairs
with so much good sense and economy that monsieur found himself one fine
morning richer than he thought.
"Now," continued Janille, "I will go on and finish our story for
Monsieur Emile. We bought back the château. Jean Jappeloup and Monsieur
Antoine themselves did all the carpentering and cabinet making in this
pavilion, and while they were finishing the work, which lasted hardly
six months, I went to Paris to fetch our child, and happy and proud I
was to bring her back to the château of her ancestors, which she hardly
remembered that she had lived in when she was a baby, poor child! Since
then we have been very happy here, and when I hear Monsieur Antoine
complain of anything, I can't help blaming him; for what man was ever
more blessed than he after all?"
"But I don't complain of anything," rejoined Monsieur Antoine, "and your
reproach is unjust."
"Oh! you sometimes look as if you'd like to say that you don't cut as
good a figure here as you used to do, and in that you are wrong. Come,
were you really any richer when you had thirty thousand francs a year?
People robbed you and cheated you and you knew nothing about it. To-day
you have the necessaries of life, and you need have no fear of thieves;
everybody knows that you have no rolls of gold pieces hidden in your
straw bed. You had ten servants, each a greater glutton and sot and
sluggard than the rest; Parisian servants, that tells the whole story.
To-day you have Monsieur Sylvain Charasson, also a glutton and a
sluggard, I agree." As she said this, Janille raised her voice, so that
Sylvain could hear in the kitchen; then added in a lower tone: "But his
stupidity makes you laugh, and when he breaks something, you are not
sorry to find that you're not the most awkward member of the household.
You had ten horses, always badly kept, and unfit to be used because they
weren't properly taken care of; to-day you have your old _Lanterne_, the
best animal in the world, always well-groomed, full of courage and
sober--you should see her eat dry leaves and rushes, just like a goat!
And speaking of goats, where will you find finer ones? Just like two
deer, excellent milkers, and always amusing you with their pretty
antics, climbing over the ruins for your evening entertainment! And what
about your cellar? You had one that was well supplied, but your rascally
flunkeys baptized themselves with wine as they pleased, and you drank
only what was left. Now you drink your light native wine, which you have
always liked, and which is healthy and refreshing. When I take a hand in
making it, it's as clear as water from the rock and doesn't heat your
stomach. And aren't you satisfied with your clothes? You used to have a
wardrobe that was eaten up by the moths, and your waistcoats went out of
fashion before you had worn them; for you never cared for dress. To-day
you have just what you need to keep cool in summer and warm in winter;
the village tailor fits you beautifully and doesn't make your clothes
too tight at the joints. Come, monsieur, confess that everything is for
the best, that you never had less care, and that you are the luckiest of
men; for I have said nothing yet of the privilege of having a lovely
daughter who is happy with you-----"
"And an incomparable Janille who is intent wholly upon other people's
happiness!" cried Monsieur Antoine with deep emotion mingled with
gayety. "Well! you are right, Janille, and I was persuaded of it
beforehand. _Vive Dieu_! you insult me by doubting it, for I feel that I
am in very truth the spoiled child of Providence, and except for a
secret trouble, of which you are well aware and which you did well not
to mention, there is absolutely nothing which I would change. I drink to
your health, Janille! you have talked like a book! Your health too,
Monsieur Emile! You are young and rich, you are well educated and a
thinking man; therefore you have no reason to envy other people; but I
wish you as pleasant an old age as mine and as tender affections in your
heart. But we have talked enough of ourselves," he added, putting his
glass on the table, "and we mustn't forget our other friends. Let us
talk about the best of them all, after Janille; let us talk about old
Jean Jappeloup and his affairs."
"Yes, let us talk about him!" cried a loud voice which made everybody
start; and Monsieur Antoine, turning his head, saw Jean Jappeloup in the
doorway.
"What! Jean in broad daylight!" he cried, in utter amazement.
"Yes, I have come in broad daylight and through the main gateway too,"
replied the carpenter wiping his forehead. "Oh! but I have run! Give me
a glass of wine, Mère Janille, for I am choked with the heat."
"Poor Jean!" cried Gilberte, running to the door to close it; "were you
pursued? We'll see about hiding you. Perhaps they will come and look for
you here."
"No, no," said Jean, "no, my good girl, leave the doors open, nobody is
following me. I bring you good news and that is why I hurried so. I am
free, I am happy, I am saved!"
"_Mon Dieu_!" cried Gilberte, taking the old peasant's dusty head in her
lovely hands, "so my prayer has been granted! I prayed so earnestly for
you last night!"
"Dear soul from heaven, you brought me good luck," replied Jean, who was
quite unable to return the caresses and answer the questions of Antoine
and Janille.
"But tell us who has given you back your liberty and peace of mind?"
continued Gilberte, when the carpenter had swallowed a large glassful of
wine.
"Oh! some one whom you would never guess, who became my surety at once,
and will pay my fines. Come, I give you a hundred guesses."
"Perhaps it's the curé of Cuzion?" said Janille. "He's such a good man,
although his sermons are a little confused! but he isn't rich enough."
"Who do you think it is, Gilberte?" said Jean.
"I would guess the good curé's sister, Madame Rose, who has such a big
heart--except that she is no richer than her brother."
"No, no! that wouldn't be possible! Your turn, Monsieur Antoine."
"I can't imagine," replied the châtelain. "Tell us quickly; you're
torturing us."
"But I will wager that I have guessed," said Emile; "I guess my father!
for I have talked with him, and I know that he intended----"
"Excuse me, young man," said the carpenter, interrupting him; "I don't
know what your father intended, but I know well enough what I never
intend, and that is to owe him anything, to accept any favor from the
man who began by having me put in prison to force me to accept his
pretended benefactions and his hard terms. Thanks! I esteem you, but as
to your father, let's say no more about him; let's never talk about him
again. Come, come, haven't any of you guessed? Well, what would you say
if I should tell you it was Monsieur de Boisguilbault?"
That name, which Emile had heard before, for somebody had mentioned it
in his presence at Gargilesse as that of one of the richest landed
proprietors in the neighborhood, produced the effect of an electric
shock on the inhabitants of Châteaubrun: Gilberte jumped; Antoine and
Janille stared at each other, unable to utter a word.
"That surprises you a little, does it?" continued the carpenter.
"It seems impossible," replied Janille. "Are you joking? Monsieur de
Boisguilbault, the enemy of all of us?"
"Why say so?" said Monsieur Antoine. "That man is nobody's enemy
intentionally; he has always done good, never harm."
"For my part," said Gilberte, "I was sure that he was capable of a good
action. What did I tell you, dear little mother? he's an unhappy man,
anybody can see that on his face; but----"
"But you don't know him," rejoined Janille, "and you can't say anything
about him. Come, Jean, tell us by what miracle you succeeded in
approaching that cold, stern, haughty man."
"Chance, or rather the good Lord did it all," replied the carpenter. "I
was going through the little wood that skirts his park, and is separated
from it at that point only by a hedge and a narrow ditch. I glanced over
the hedge to see how beautiful and neat and well-kept everything was. I
was thinking, a little sadly, that I had once been perfectly at home in
that park and that château; that I had worked there for twenty years,
and that I had been fond of monsieur le marquis, although he was never
very amiable. Still he had his kind days in those times; and yet, for
another twenty years I hadn't put my foot on his land, and I shouldn't
dare to ask him for shelter after what had taken place between him and
me.
"As I was thinking of all this, I heard two horses trotting, and the
next moment I saw two gendarmes riding straight toward me. They hadn't
seen me then; but if I crossed their road they couldn't fail to see me,
and they knew my face so well! I had no time for reflection. I plunged
into the hedge, ran through it like a fox, and found myself in
Boisguilbault park, where I quietly lay down against the fence, while my
friends the gendarmes rode by without so much as turning their heads in
my direction. When they had gone some little distance, I stood up and
was preparing to go out as I had come, when suddenly I felt a hand on my
shoulder and turned, to find myself face to face with Monsieur de
Boisguilbault, who said to me with his sad face and his sepulchral
voice: 'What are you doing here?'
"'Faith, as you see, monsieur le marquis, I am hiding.'
"'Why are you hiding?'
"'Because there are gendarmes within two yards.'
"'Have you committed a crime, then?'
"'Yes, I snared two rabbits and killed a hare.'
"Thereupon, as I saw that he would not ask me many more questions, I
hastily told him my misfortunes in as few words as possible, for you
know that he's a man who always has something in his mind different from
what you're talking about. You never know whether he hears you; he
always looks as if he wasn't bothering himself to listen to you. It's
many a year since I saw him close, for he lives shut up in his park like
a mole in its hole, and I no longer have access to his house. He seemed
to me to have grown very old and very feeble, although he is still as
straight as a poplar; but he is so thin you can see through him, and his
beard is as white as an old goat's. It made me feel badly, and yet, I
was even more vexed than sorry when I saw him all the time I was talking
to him walk along digging up all the weeds in the path with the little
hoe he always has in his hand. I followed him step by step, talking all
the time, telling him about my troubles, not to beg for his help--I
never thought of such a thing--but to see if he still had a little
friendship for me.
"At last he turned toward me and said, without looking at me: 'Why
didn't you ask some rich man at your village to be your surety?'
"'The devil!' said I; 'there aren't many rich men in Gargilesse.'
"'Isn't there a Monsieur Cardonnet who has come there recently?'
"'Yes, but he's mayor, and it was he who tried to have me arrested.'
"He didn't say anything more for two or three minutes. I thought he had
forgotten that I was there, and I was just going away, when he said:
'Why didn't you come to me?'
"'Why!' said I, 'you know very well why I didn't.'
"'No!'
"'What, no? Why, don't you remember that, after employing me a long
while and never once finding fault with me--I don't think I deserved to
be found fault with, by the way,--you called me into your study one fine
morning and said: "Here's your pay for these last days; off with you!"
And when I asked you when I should come again, your answer was _never_!
And when I was dissatisfied with that kind of treatment, and asked you
wherein I had failed to do my duty to you, you pointed to the door,
without condescending to open your lips? That was twenty years ago, and
it may be that you have forgotten it. But it has always remained on my
heart, and I consider that you were very hard and unjust to a poor
mechanic who worked as he could and was no more awkward than the
average. I thought at first that you had a mad fit and would get over
it; but I waited in vain, you have never sent for me since. I was too
proud to come and ask you for work; besides I had no lack of it, I have
always had all that I wanted; and at this moment, if I wasn't driven to
hide in the woods, I should have plenty of customers; but what hurt me,
you see, was being turned out like a dog--worse than that, like an idler
or a thief, and your not even giving me a chance to justify myself. I
thought that I must have some enemy in your house and that they had told
you lies about me. But I could never guess who it could be, for I have
never known any other enemies than constables and excisemen. I held my
tongue; I never complained of you, but I pitied you for being quick to
believe evil, and as I was somewhat attached to you, I was sorry to find
that you had faults.'"
"Monsieur de Boisguilbault seemed all the time not to be listening to
me, but when I had finished, he asked me in an indifferent tone:
"'How much is your fine?'
"'The whole business amounts to a thousand francs, besides the costs.'
"'Very well; go and tell the mayor of your village--Monsieur Cardonnet,
isn't it?--to send some trustworthy person to me with whom I can settle
your affairs. Tell him that my health is bad and I don't go out, and
that I request him to do me this favor.'
"'Do you offer to be my surety?'
"'No, I will pay your fine. You can go.'
"'And when shall I come and work for you to pay off my debt?'
"'I have no work; don't come at all.'
"'Do you propose to give me alms?'
"'No, but to do you a very small favor, which costs me little. That's
enough, leave me.'
"'And suppose I don't choose to accept it?'
"'You will make a mistake.'
"'And you don't want me to thank you?'
"'It's useless.'
"Thereupon he fairly turned his back on me and went away for good and
all; but I followed him, and, knowing that long-winded compliments were
not to his taste, I said like this: 'Monsieur de Boisguilbault, shake
hands, if you please!'"
"What! you dared to say that to him?" cried Janille.
"Well, why shouldn't I dare? what more straightforward thing can you say
to a man?"
"And what answer did he make? what did he do?" queried Gilberte.
"He took my hand abruptly, without hesitation; and he pressed it quite
hard, although his hand was as cold and stiff as a piece of ice."
"And what did he say?" inquired Monsieur Antoine, who had listened to
this tale with repressed excitement.
"He said 'be off,'" replied the carpenter; "apparently that phrase
denotes friendship with him, and he almost ran away to avoid me, as far
as his poor thin long legs would enable him to run. And I, for my part,
ran here to tell you all this."
"And I," said Emile, "will run to my father to tell him of Monsieur de
Boisguilbault's intentions, so that he may send some one to him at once,
as he requests."
"That hardly sets my mind at rest," replied the carpenter. "Your father
has a grudge against me; he cannot help recognizing the fact that I am
clear of my fine; but he won't want to let me off without the
imprisonment; for he can punish me for being a vagabond and shut me up,
if it's only for a few days--and that would be too much for me."
"Oh!" cried Gilberte, "I know that Jean could never submit to being
taken to prison by the gendarmes: he would do some other mad thing.
Don't let him be exposed to it, Monsieur Emile; speak to monsieur your
father, entreat him, tell him that----"
"Oh! mademoiselle," replied Emile warmly, "do not share Jean's bad
opinion of my father: it is unjust. I am sure that my father would have
done for him to-night or to-morrow what Monsieur de Boisguilbault has
done. And as for prosecuting him as a vagabond, I will answer for it
with my head that----"
"If you will answer for it with your head," interposed Jean, "why not go
at once to Monsieur de Boisguilbault? his house is close at hand. When
you have arranged matters with him, I shall feel more at ease, for I
have confidence in you, and I confess that a single night in prison
would drive me mad. The good Lord's child told you so," he said, looking
at Gilberte, "and she knows me!"
"I will go at once," rejoined Emile, rising, and bestowing upon Gilberte
a glance alight with zeal and devotion. "Will you show me the way?"