As soon as the establishment of masters and servants was complete, a
meeting took place at Madame de Guéran's apartments to distribute the
duties which remained to be carried out. Each one, according to his
or her position and means, had a proportionate share of purchases to
make, letters to write, information to obtain, packages to see to,
and excursions to undertake.
The experience of Miss Beatrice Poles was of the utmost value. She
ransacked the shops from morning to night, and bought or ordered a
thousand things of which nobody else would have dreamt. So untiring
and energetic was she, that one evening, when she was recounting her
perigrinations throughout Paris, M, de Morin said to her—
"Of course, to accomplish all this, you took a cab?"
"A cab!" she exclaimed indignantly. "I never set foot in one except I
am absolutely compelled. Any kind of locomotion you like, except
that. I never can bring myself to be shut up in those pill-boxes on
wheels. The inaction you are condemned to in them worries and frets
me to a degree, and would soon wear me out."
"Miss Poles," replied the painter, with a countenance irresistibly
comic in its immobility, "I should like to point out to you that your
pedestrian feats, and your activity generally are also wearing you
out. You are a model of proportion—and I am only too happy to do you
justice in that respect—but, at the same time, on the score of
_embonpoint_, there is, possibly, something to be desired."
"And that," replied Miss Poles, "is entirely due to the life of
inaction I have led in England for the last two years. Luxury does
not suit my temperament at all. In peace and quietness I lose flesh,
to regain it as soon as ever I resume an active existence. At the end
of a month of Africa you will not recognize me, and, even now, by
reason of the life I am leading in Paris, I have gained a pound."
"Whereabouts?" asked M. de Morin, absorbed in contemplation, and in
the futile attempt to discover the exact locality of the vaunted
addition.
Dr. Delange was equally zealous in fulfilling the duties which
devolved upon him. Having given his word of honour to M. de Morin not
to touch a card as long as he remained in Paris, he was anxious to
get out of it as quickly as possible, in order that the series of
_parties_, promised under the contract, might commence. But if the
gambler in him was still unsubdued and burning with an unabated fever
for play, the _savant_ and the doctor combined were equally wide
awake. Committed, in an unforeseen and eccentric fashion, to an
expedition of which, only a fortnight before, he never dreamt, M.
Delange, gambling being out of the question, did not in the least
regret the engagement into which he had entered. The study of
medicine, to a man gifted with intelligence, anxious to learn, and
despising the beaten tracks to knowledge, is a perpetual excursion
into unknown lands—a veritable voyage of discovery. Thus, the young
doctor, who had hitherto made his voyages and carried out his
discoveries in his own study, rejoiced at the idea of exploring on a
large scale, and in a more active fashion.
Thanks to the well-known courtesy of M. Malte-Brun, then the editor
of the "_Annales des Voyages_," and a corresponding member of all the
Geographical Societies of Europe, as well as a friend of all the
great explorers in the world, M. Delange obtained some very valuable
information as to the diseases against which he would have to use his
skill in Africa, the precautions to be taken to steer clear of them,
and the various remedies best suited to the different districts and
climates. He also devoted himself, more seriously than he had
hitherto done, to the study of Natural History, hoping soon to be
able to do good service to that branch of science.
Dr. Desrioux, by way of pleasing Madame de Guéran, placed his
services at the disposal of his _confrère_. He thought of everything,
was ever on the watch, and made many suggestions, the value of which,
later on and in time of peril, was amply proved. Although he could
not leave Paris, he was as deeply interested in everything connected
with the projected expedition, as if he were going to form part of
it—he was, in fact, its soul.
As for Joseph, he had been beside himself with joy ever since the
memorable day when he was informed that he was to take part in the
expedition. At last his dreams were about to be realized—an Arab
name, a bûrnus, a camel! As for the name, he assumed it at once,
without any tender regret for the one he had hitherto borne. At all
the shops where he made his purely personal purchases, he gave as his
address—Mohammed-Abd-el-Gazal. It appeared to him decidedly more
_distingué_ than Joseph, and imbued him with an Eastern tinge.
The camel—well, unfortunately, he would have to wait for that. But
when M. de Morin gave him a holiday to say good-bye to his family,
Joseph allowed his relatives to slide, as the Americans say, and
betook himself to the _Jardin des Plantes_ to gaze on the camels, and
study their habits. He even succeeded in inducing one of the keepers
to let him lay a tenderly caressing hand on one of those noble
coursers of the desert, or as Joseph, ever high-sounding and
figurative, would call them, those placid beasts.
Neither did he lose any time in becoming the proud possessor of the
most correct and ample of bûrnus, this national garment having been
willingly surrendered to him by an Arab servant, whose master was
then staying at the Grand-Hôtel. Joseph was perpetually, night and
day, trying on this bûrnus, and when he had draped it round him he
would solemnly walk up and down his room in the Rue Taitbout. M. de
Morin, who had not been apprized of this new caprice of his servant,
and was, consequently, not prepared for the metamorphosis, thought,
when he returned home one evening, that his rooms were frequented by
ghosts.
The Arab servant, moreover, for a consideration, taught Joseph his
maternal tongue, and the new pupil, studious to excess, practised the
language unremittingly, and was all day long, even whilst in
attendance on his master, giving utterance to the most extraordinary
sounds. When spoken to on the subject by M. de Morin, he replied
emphatically—
"You should not object, sir, seeing that I am preparing to open the
gates of the desert for you."
These philological studies, these struttings in the bûrnus, and the
lengthened investigation into the manners and customs of camels,
rather disturbed the brain of Mohammed-Abd-el-Gazal, and made him at
times somewhat absent. If M. de Morin asked for a glass of water,
Joseph, his mind ever occupied with the expedition, would bring him a
compass or a patent pedometer. One day, at breakfast time, instead of
laying on the table the time-honoured white cloth, he spread out a
huge map of Africa, and on it placed the plates and dishes, and other
paraphernalia. When his mistake was pointed out to him, he said very
plainly that he did not regret it, because, as he told his master, it
was an advantage, instead of having before him a simple piece of
linen, which expressed nothing, to feast his eyes on a splendid
bird's-eye view of mountains, lakes, seas, rivers, and so to
exercise, at one and the same time, his gastronomic and intellectual
abilities.
"_Utile dulci_," added Joseph, who was a classic on occasion.
Sometimes, too, Mohammed would leave the windows open, and light all
the candles, so that, as he said, the insects in the neighbourhood
might be attracted, and that thus he might accustom himself to the
bites of the mosquitoes so prevalent in Africa. In short, he
neglected nothing, and, ever on the look-out for something oriental,
he struck up, during his last days in Paris, a friendship with a
negress of the purest ebony. Hoping to enlist her sympathies, and
recall to her some recollections of her childhood, he expatiated,
without cessation, on the horrors of slavery. Unfortunately for him,
the negress, born at Martinique years after the emancipation of the
slaves, did not understand one word of his conversation.
M. de Morin was at length obliged to beg Joseph to attend a little
more to his legitimate duties, and a little less to Arabs and
negresses, but Mohammed shut him up at once by saying—
"Reassure yourself, sir; I shall be strictly correct in the desert."