This morning Count de Saulnac, who was lunching here, told us a terrible
story of a rape, for which a man is to be tried in a few days.
A charming girl of eighteen grew languid, and became so pale and morose,
her cheeks were so wax-like, her eyes so sunken and she had altogether
such a look of anemia, that her parents grew uneasy and took her to a
doctor who lived near them. He examined her carefully, said vaguely what
was the matter with her, spoke of an illness that required assiduous
care and attention, and advised the worthy couple to bring the poor girl
to him every day for a month.
As they were not well off enough to keep a servant, and each had their
work to attend to, the husband as an employee in a public office and his
wife as cashier in a milliner's shop, and did not dream of any evil, and
were further reassured by the charitable, unctuous and austere looks of
the doctor, they allowed their daughter to go and consult him by
herself.
The old man made much of her, tried to make her get over her shyness,
adroitly made her tell him all about her usual life, took a long time in
sounding her chest, helped her to dress and undress, in a very paternal
way, gave her a potion and was so thoughtful and caressing, that the
poor girl blushed and felt quite uncomfortable at it all. He soon saw
that he should obtain nothing from her innocence, but that she would
resist his slightest attempts at improper familiarity, and as he was
extremely taken with the delicate and amusing girl, and with her
charming person, the wretch sent her to sleep with a few magnetic
passes, and outraged her.
She awoke without being conscious of what had happened, and only felt
rather more listless than usual, like she used to do when there was
thunder in the air. From that time, the doctor put longer intervals
between her visits, and soon, after having prescribed insignificant
remedies for her, he told her that she was quite cured, and that there
was no occasion for her to come and see him any more. Two months passed,
and the girl, who at first had seemed much better and more lively,
relapsed into a state of prostration which had so alarmed them, dragged
herself about more than she walked, and seemed to be succumbing under
some heavy burden.
As they had not paid the old doctor's bill, and as they were afraid that
he would ask them for it if they went to see him again, her father took
the girl to Beaujon, and they thought that he should have gone mad with
despair and shame when one of the house-surgeons, without mincing his
words, told them in a chaffing manner, that she was in the family way.
_In the family way!_ What did he mean by that? And by whom?
They were small, thoroughly respectable and upright shopkeepers, and
this made them cruel. They tormented the poor girl, to make her
acknowledge her fault and tell them the name of her seducer. It was of
no use for her to bemoan herself, to throw herself at their feet, to
tear her hair in desperation, and to swear that no man in the world had
ever touched her lips; in vain, did she exclaim indignantly that it was
impossible that such a dreadful thing could be; that the man had made a
mistake or was joking with them. In vain, did she try to calm them, and
to soften them by her entreaties; they turned away their heads, and had
only one reply to make:
"His name, his name!"
When she saw that her figure was altering, she was at length undeceived,
and became like an imprisoned animal, did not speak and cowered
motionless in the darkest corners, and did not even rebel at the blows,
which marked her pale, passive face. She carefully thought over every
minute in the past few months, and did her utmost to fill up the voids
in her memory, and at last she guessed who the guilty person was.
Then, in despair, she scribbled on a scrap of paper:
"I swear to you, my dear parents, that I have nothing to reproach myself
with. The old doctor treated me so strangely, that I often felt inclined
to run out of the consulting room. One day he put me to sleep, and
perhaps it was he who...."
And not having the courage to finish the lamentable sentence, she went
and drowned herself, and the parents had the doctor, who had forgotten
all about that old story, arrested, and in his examination he confessed
the crime....
With an evil look on her face, such as I have never seen before, and
with vibrating nostrils, Elaine exclaimed in a hard voice:
"To think that such a monster was not sent to the guillotine!"
_Can she also have suffered the same thing?_