Jean, you are going wrong? When we only have one day a week to see
you,--and God knows how long the week is without you!--you get here at
noon on Sunday!"
"Listen, master----"
"I don't want you to call me master."
"What if I choose to call you so? I was your master long enough, and it
would be a bore to me to give orders all the time. Now, I choose to be
your apprentice, for a little change. Come, give me something fresh and
cool to drink, quickly, Janille. I am warm! Not that I am hungry; they
wouldn't let me go after mass, my good friends at Gargilesse! I must
needs stop and chatter a little with Mère Laroze, and you can't keep
your throat from getting dry when you talk without drinking. But I came
fast, because I knew you would be thinking about me here. You see,
Gilberte, since I came back to the old place the Sunday would have to be
forty-eight hours long to allow me to satisfy all the friends who are
glad to see me!"
"Well, my dear Jean, if you are happy, that consoles us a little for
seeing you less often," said Gilberte.
"Happy?" rejoined the carpenter; "there's no happier man than I on the
face of the earth!"
"That's easy to see," said Janille. "See how he has cheered up since he
ceased to be tracked every morning like an old rabbit! And then he
shaves every Sunday now, and he has new clothes that look very well on
him."
"And who was it who spun the wool for this pretty drugget?" said Jean.
"Why, _ma mie_ Janille and the good Lord's child! And who gave the wool?
my master's sheep. And who paid the cost? it is paid in friendship here.
You don't have coats like this, bourgeois. I wouldn't change my fustian
jacket for your black broadcloth swallow-tail."
"I would be satisfied with the spinstress," observed Galuchet, glancing
at Gilberte.
"You?" said Jean, good-humoredly bringing his hand down on Galuchet's
shoulder with force enough to crush an ox; "you have spinstresses like
this one? Why, _ma mie_ Janille is too young for you, my boy; and as for
the other, I would kill her if she should spin a bit of wool as long as
your nose for you!"
Galuchet was wounded by this allusion to his flat nose, and retorted,
rubbing his shoulder:
"Look you, peasant, your manners are _too touching_; joke with your
equals, I have nothing to say to you."
"What's this gentleman's name?" Jean asked Monsieur Antoine. "I can't
remember his devil of a name."
"Come, come, Jean, you go a little too fast, old fellow," replied
Monsieur Antoine. "Don't undertake to tease Monsieur Galuchet; he's a
very worthy young man, and, furthermore, he is my guest."
"Well said, master! Let us make peace, Monsieur Maljuché. Will you have
a pinch of snuff?"
"I don't use it," replied Galuchet, haughtily. "With Monsieur Antoine's
permission, I will leave the table."
"At your pleasure, young man, at your pleasure," said the châtelain.
"Monsieur Emile doesn't enjoy long sessions either, and you can stroll
about a bit. Janille will show you the château, or, if you prefer to go
down to the brook, get your lines ready. We will join you directly, and
take you where you will find good sport."
"Oh! yes," said the carpenter, "he's a fisher of small fry! He does
nothing else every evening at Gargilesse, and when anyone speaks to him
he makes a wry face because it disturbs his fish. Well, we will go
directly and help him to catch something better than his small fry. Look
you, Monsieur Maljuché, if I don't put you in the way of carrying home
a salmon for your supper, I'll agree to change names with you. You don't
need to be in such a hurry. The boat should be in good condition, for I
nailed a plank in its belly not long ago. We'll find an old harpoon
somewhere, and the _Devil's Rock_, where the salmon usually go to take a
nap in the sun, isn't far away. But it's a dangerous place, and you must
not go alone."
"We will all go," said Gilberte, "if Jean manages the boat. It's very
interesting sport, and the place itself is magnificent."
"Oh! if you are coming, Mademoiselle Gilberte, I will await your
pleasure," said Galuchet.
"Hear that! wouldn't anyone think she was going on your account,
paper-scratcher? This youngster is impertinent beyond everything. Is
everybody like that where you come from? Oh! don't put on that indignant
expression and look over your shoulder, for it doesn't frighten me much.
If you choose to be agreeable, I will be, too; but if, just because you
are dressed in black like a notary, you think you can leave the table
when I remain, you are much mistaken. Sit down, sit down, Maljuché! I
haven't finished drinking, and you are going to drink with me."
"I have had enough," said Galuchet, resisting. "I tell you I have had
enough!"
But the carpenter would have broken him in two like a lath rather than
let him go. He forced him to sit down again on the bench and swallow
several more bumpers, Galuchet striving to show a bold front to
evil-fortune, and Monsieur Antoine shielding him ineffectually against
his old friend's malicious shafts, although he did not share the
antipathy which the secretary's face and manners aroused in the rest of
the family.
Emile had slowly followed Gilberte and Janille into the courtyard, and,
despite the little old woman's jealous watchfulness, he had succeeded in
telling his sweetheart that he had obeyed her orders zealously, and that
he found his father in such a favorable frame of mind that he could
safely risk some overture in the following week. But Gilberte thought
that the risk would be too great, and urged him to persevere in that
sedentary, laborious life. Courage seemed easy to them both. Now that
Emile was sure that he was loved, he was so happy that he thought that
he could demand nothing more of fortune for a long while. There was a
divine tranquillity in the depths of his heart. Gilberte's clear and
searching glance said so many things to him now!
There is, in the dawn of a lover's happiness, a moment of tranquil
beatitude, when the most penetrating observer would have difficulty in
detecting the secret on the surface. The desire to see and speak to each
other every hour seems to disappear with the anxious longing to reach an
understanding. When their hearts are bound together by a mutual avowal,
neither witnesses nor separation can embarrass them or part them in
reality. Thus the clear-sighted Janille was deceived by their peaceful
merriment and by the prudence which comes only when suffering and doubt
are at an end. The perturbation which Janille had often noticed in young
Cardonnet, the sudden flush that rose to Gilberte's cheeks at certain
words of which she alone had grasped the meaning, her sadness and her
ill-designed agitation when he was late in coming, all had vanished
since the trip to Crozant, and Janille was amazed that an incident the
consequences of which she had dreaded had caused a favorable change in
the state of affairs.
"I was mistaken," she said to herself. "My girl is not thinking too much
about him; and if he thinks of her, he will know enough to say nothing,
and draw back little by little, rather than endanger our repose. He is
behaving well, and it would be a pity to hurt his feelings, since he
understood me with half a word, and is carrying out my wishes of his own
accord."
If Jean Jappeloup had conspired with Emile to take vengeance on Galuchet
for his pretensions, he could have done no better than he did; for
during more than an hour, while the lovers were strolling about with
Janille in the neighborhood of the pavilion, he employed sometimes
cunning raillery, sometimes open force to keep him at the table and make
him drink, _willy-nilly_. In this test, which was beyond his strength,
Galuchet soon lost the little good sense with which nature had endowed
him. He was much scandalized at first by the châtelain's habits and
conceived a profound contempt for him whom he regarded as the count's
companion in debauchery. In a word, Galuchet, who had no trace of
elevation in his feelings or his ideas, and who was not worth a single
hair from the heads of those two rough-spoken worthies, deemed himself
degraded, and promised himself that he would, in his report to his
master, depict in startling colors the painful task he had undertaken.
But, as he drank, his wits went astray altogether, his vulgar instincts
gained the upper hand of his secret vanity, and he began to laugh, to
pound on the table, to talk loud, to boast of innumerable feats of
valor, and to make such a pitiful exhibition of himself, that Jappeloup,
who was as refined as his manners were abrupt, took compassion on him
and gave him a severe lecture with a cold and serious air.
"You don't know how to drink, my friend," he said; "you are ugly when
you laugh and you are stupid when you try to be witty. If I ventured to
give Monsieur Antoine a piece of advice, it would be to give you a glass
of water when you come to breakfast with him, otherwise you might make
remarks before his daughter that would force me to put you out of doors.
You thought, when you saw us all so merry and so unceremonious with one
another, that we were vulgar folk and that you must become vulgar to
descend to our level. You made a mistake. Whoever has nothing evil in
his heart or unclean in his mind can let himself go; and even if I
should be so drunk that I couldn't stand, I shouldn't be afraid that I
could be made to blush the next day for anything I had said. It seems
that it's not the same with you; that is why you do well to dress in
black from head to foot and make people who don't know you think you're
a gentleman; for if there is a peasant here, you are the man!"
Antoine tried to soften the sermon, and Galuchet tried to get angry.
Jean shrugged his shoulders and left the table to avoid having to give
him a lesson more appropriate to the state of his intellect.
When they left the pavilion Galuchet was still walking straight; but his
head was so heavy and so heated, that he dared not utter a word before
Gilberte, for fear of saying one thing for another.
"Well," said Gilberte to Jappeloup, "are we going to the Devil's Rock?
It's more than a year since I was there; Janille will never let father
take me there because she says it's too dangerous and one can't afford
to be absent-minded there; but she will let me go with you, my good
Jean! Do you feel that your hand is still strong and your eye sure
enough?"
"I?" said Jappeloup, "why, I feel as well equal to the task as if I were
no more than twenty-five."
"And you are not tipsy?" said Janille, taking hold of Jean's sleeve and
standing on tiptoe to look into his eyes.
"Look, look all you please," said he. "If you can do this, I will agree
that I am tipsy!" And he placed on his head a pitcher of water that
Janille was carrying, and ran several yards without upsetting it.
"Very good," said Janille; "I could do as much if I chose, but it's no
use; I am sure of you, and I trust my girl with you. For my part, I
haven't the time to go along. Do you, Monsieur Emile, just keep an eye
on the father, for he is quite capable of trying to step ashore in
mid-stream, if he is busy laughing or talking."
"And who will keep an eye on Maljuché?" queried Jappeloup, pointing to
Galuchet, who had gone ahead with Monsieur Antoine. "I won't be
responsible for him."
"Nor I," said Gilberte.
"Never fear," said Emile, "I will undertake to keep him quiet."
"It's not at all certain that you will succeed," rejoined Jean; "if he
isn't drunk, he's something like it. You can't say that he's downright
_rich_, but he's just _comfortable_. A bed would be better for him than
a boat."
"You can notice how he goes down the mountain," suggested Janille; "and
if there's danger of his sinking you, leave him on the rocks on the
bank."
Galuchet was already in the boat with Monsieur de Châteaubrun when the
others arrived. He was flushed and silent. But when they were in
midstream the swift current made him dizzy and he began to sway so
violently from side to side that Jappeloup, losing patience, took a rope
and bound his body securely to the thwart on which he sat. He fell
asleep in that position.
"You have a delightful secretary there," said Gilberte to Emile. "I
trust, dear papa, that you won't invite him to breakfast again."
"Oh! bless my soul, it's not his fault," replied Monsieur Antoine, "but
Jean's, who made him drink more than he wanted."
"What does a man amount to who can't drink without getting drunk?" said
Jean; "he's worse than nobody."
The boat glided swiftly down-stream to a spot where the rocks on each
side approached so nearly that it was impossible to pass without great
danger. Jean was one of the most powerful men in the province. His
fearless nature and his strong will added tenfold to his physical
strength. He was accustomed to enter into the most trivial undertakings
with as much passionate enthusiasm as if he were setting out to conquer
the world; and yet, notwithstanding this youthful excitability, his
presence of mind was wonderful. He guided the boat in the centre of the
current, and, when they entered the narrow passage, threw her across the
stream and avoided the shock of a collision with the cliff by leaning
out and grasping it with his hand. Emile, who seconded him, gallantly
relieved him from time to time, and, the boat being thus held in place,
they made ready the harpoon and waited in silence for the prey to pass.
Every one knows that the fish always try to swim up against the current,
but they were frightened by the unusual barrier and kept approaching and
retreating. The lookout leaned forward, stretching his arms as far as he
could. Monsieur Antoine and Gilberte, kneeling behind him, watched to
see that the movement he made in throwing the harpoon did not sink the
boat or drag him overboard. Gilberte, when it was the carpenter's turn,
clung to his coat, fearing that he would fall into the water; and when
Emile's turn came, she earnestly urged her father to hold him with all
his strength. But soon, trusting to no one else, she seized his jacket
herself, and more than once he felt the touch of her lovely arms, ready
to embrace him in case of accident.
In this situation, which was dangerous for all, Jean's attention and
Antoine's was completely absorbed by the excitement of fishing, and the
same excitement served the two lovers as a pretext for exchanging
glances and words, which Galuchet, although half awake, was in no
condition to observe. What would Monsieur Cardonnet have thought could
he have seen how well his agent was earning his reward!
At last a salmon was speared, amid frantic shouts from Jean Jappeloup,
and Galuchet, partly aroused by the sight of the capture, tried to take
a hand in landing him. But his clumsiness and obstinacy spoiled
everything, and Jean, beside himself with wrath, turned the boat around,
saying:
"When you want to fish for salmon, you will go with somebody besides me.
Gudgeons of this size aren't in your line, and if we stayed here long, I
should break your head with the shaft of my harpoon."
"God preserve me from coming again with such a boor as you," retorted
Galuchet, sitting on the edge of the boat.
"Don't sit there," said the carpenter; "you are in my way, and you would
do much better to help me pull up against this current, which runs like
a mill-race. Here is Monsieur Emile working like a good fellow, and you,
stout and strong as you are, fold your arms and watch the sweat roll off
us."
"Faith, it's your own fault," retorted Galuchet; "you made me drink and
I am good for nothing."
"Very good, but you are heavy, and as you are not working you can go
ashore. To the bank, to the bank, my little Emile! let us get rid of
bundles that are in the way!"
They headed for the shore; but Galuchet considered the proposed step
insulting, and refused to land, blaspheming in the most reckless way.
"Ten thousand devils!" cried Jappeloup, thoroughly angry, "you have made
me lose a superb salmon, but you shan't make me break my back in your
service!"
And he pushed him out of the boat; but Galuchet, because he resisted,
fell between the boat and the bank, into the water, up to his waist.
"Faith, that's well done," said Jappeloup, "that will put a little water
in your wine."
And he pulled the boat rapidly out of Galuchet's reach, for, in his
rage, he tried to upset her.
"Ah! the miserable fellow!" cried the carpenter, "confess, that if there
are some good beasts, there are many vicious ones. Let him wallow," he
said to his companions, who feared that poor Galuchet, because of his
fuddled condition, might drown, although the water was not dangerously
deep. "If he sinks too far I'll stick my harpoon in his belt and fish
him up like a salmon. Bah! if it were anything of value, we might have
reason to be anxious, but things that are good for nothing, dead cats
and empty bottles, always float."
In a few moments Galuchet jumped up on the bank, shook his fist and
vanished.
This ridiculous incident depressed Gilberte. For the first time she
detected a serious inconvenience in her father's too great good-nature.
His rustic and simple manners, which were those of the people about him
and were the expression of a kindly and innocent nature, began to
terrify her, as not affording such enlightened and judicious protection
as her age and sex demanded.
"I am a poor country girl," she said to herself, "and I can get along
very well with peasants; but on the condition that no ill-bred
semi-bourgeois undertakes to interfere; for then the peasants become a
little too violent in their wrath, and the life I lead does not put me
out of reach of a coward's revenge."
Thereupon she thought of Emile as a protector destined for her by
heaven; but she asked herself amid what surroundings he himself was
compelled to live, and the idea that Monsieur Cardonnet employed people
of the Galuchet species caused her a sort of vague alarm with regard to
his character and habits.
When Jean Jappeloup returned to Gargilesse that evening, he found
Galuchet lying like a dead man in the middle of the road. The poor
devil, sobered momentarily by the bath he had taken, had entered a
wineshop to dry his clothes, and as he was afraid of his health, he had
allowed himself to be persuaded to take a glass of eau-de-vie, which had
finished him. He was returning home literally on all fours. Jean had had
time to forget his anger, nor was he the man to leave a fellow-man in
danger of being trampled upon by horses' feet. He lifted him up,
submitted patiently to his threats and insults, and led him, more than
half carrying him, to the factory; and Galuchet, who did not recognize
him, went in, swearing that he would be revenged on the scoundrel who
had tried to drown him.