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Title: In the Days of My Youth
Author: Amelia Ann Blandford Edwards
Release Date: May 26, 2004 [EBook #12442]
Language: English
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IN THE
DAYS OF MY YOUTH.
A NOVEL.
BY
AMELIA B. EDWARDS
1874
[Illustration]
CAXTON PRESS OF
SHERMAN & CO., PHILADELPHIA.
CHAPTER I.
MY BIRTHPLACE AND PARENTAGE.
Dolce sentier,
Colle, che mi piacesti,
Ov'ancor per usanza amor mi mena!
PETRARCH.
Sweet, secluded, shady Saxonholme! I doubt if our whole England contains
another hamlet so quaint, so picturesquely irregular, so thoroughly
national in all its rustic characteristics. It lies in a warm hollow
environed by hills. Woods, parks and young plantations clothe every
height and slope for miles around, whilst here and there, peeping down
through green vistas, or towering above undulating seas of summer
foliage, stands many a fine old country mansion, turreted and gabled,
and built of that warm red brick that seems to hold the light of the
sunset long after it has faded from the rest of the landscape. A silver
thread of streamlet, swift but shallow, runs noisily through the meadows
beside the town and loses itself in the Chad, about a mile and a half
farther eastward. Many a picturesque old wooden bridge, many a foaming
weir and ruinous water-mill with weedy wheel, may be found scattered up
and down the wooded banks of this little river Chad; while to the brook,
which we call the Gipstream, attaches a vague tradition of trout.
The hamlet itself is clean and old-fashioned, consisting of one long,
straggling street, and a few tributary lanes and passages. The houses
some few years back were mostly long and low-fronted, with projecting
upper stories, and diamond-paned bay-windows bowered in with myrtle and
clematis; but modern improvements have done much of late to sweep away
these antique tenements, and a fine new suburb of Italian and Gothic
villas has sprung up, between the town and the railway station. Besides
this, we have a new church in the mediaeval style, rich in gilding and
colors and thirteenth-century brass-work; and a new cemetery, laid out
like a pleasure-garden; and a new school-house, where the children are
taught upon a system with a foreign name; and a Mechanics' Institute,
where London professors come down at long intervals to expound popular
science, and where agriculturists meet to discuss popular grievances.
At the other extremity of the town, down by Girdlestone Grange, an old
moated residence where the squire's family have resided these four
centuries past, we are full fifty years behind our modern neighbors.
Here stands our famous old "King's-head Inn," a well-known place of
resort so early as the reign of Elizabeth. The great oak beside the
porch is as old as the house itself; and on the windows of a little
disused parlor overlooking the garden may still be seen the names of
Sedley, Rochester and other wits of the Restoration. They scrawled those
autographs after dinner, most likely, with their diamond rings, and went
reeling afterwards, arm-in-arm, along the village street, singing and
swearing, and eager for adventures--as gentlemen were wont to be in
those famous old times when they drank the king's health more freely
than was good for their own.
Not far from the "King's Head," and almost hidden by the trees which
divide it from the road, stands an ancient charitable institution called
the College--quadrangular, mullion-windowed, many-gabled, and colonized
by some twenty aged people of both sexes. At the back of the college,
adjoining a space of waste ground and some ruined cloisters, lies the
churchyard, in the midst of which, surrounded by solemn yews and
mouldering tombs, stands the Priory Church. It is a rare old church,
founded, according to the county history, in the reign of Edward the
Confessor, and entered with a full description in Domesday Book. Its
sculptured monuments and precious brasses, its Norman crypt, carved
stalls and tattered banners drooping over faded scutcheons, tell all of
generations long gone by, of noble families extinct, of gallant deeds
forgotten, of knights and ladies remembered only by the names above
their graves. Amongst these, some two or three modest tablets record the
passing away of several generations of my own predecessors--obscure
professional men for the most part, of whom some few became soldiers and
died abroad.
In close proximity to the church stands the vicarage, once the Priory; a
quaint old rambling building, surrounded by magnificent old trees. Here
for long centuries, a tribe of rooks have held undisputed possession,
filling the boughs with their nests and the air with their voices, and,
like genuine lords of the soil, descending at their own grave will and
pleasure upon the adjacent lands.
Picturesque and mediaeval as all these old buildings and old associations
help to make us, we of Saxonholme pretend to something more. We claim to
be, not only picturesque but historic. Nay, more than this--we are
classical. WE WERE FOUNDED BY THE ROMANS. A great Roman road, well known
to antiquaries, passed transversely through the old churchyard. Roman
coins and relics, and fragments of tesselated pavement, have been found
in and about the town. Roman camps may be traced on most of the heights
around. Above all, we are said to be indebted to the Romans for that
inestimable breed of poultry in right of which we have for years carried
off the leading prizes at every poultry-show in the county, and have
even been enabled to make head against the exaggerated pretensions of
modern Cochin-China interlopers.
Such, briefly sketched, is my native Saxonholme. Born beneath the shade
of its towering trees and overhanging eaves, brought up to reverence its
antiquities, and educated in the love of its natural beauties, what
wonder that I cling to it with every fibre of my heart, and even when
affecting to smile at my own fond prejudice, continue to believe it the
loveliest peacefulest nook in rural England?
My father's name was John Arbuthnot. Sprung from the Arbuthnots of
Montrose, we claim to derive from a common ancestor with the celebrated
author of "Martinus Scriblerus." Indeed, the first of our name who
settled at Saxonholme was one James Arbuthnot, son to a certain
nonjuring parson Arbuthnot, who lived and died abroad, and was own
brother to that famous wit, physician and courtier whose genius, my
father was wont to say, conferred a higher distinction upon our branch
of the family than did those Royal Letters-Patent whereby the elder
stock was ennobled by His most Gracious Majesty King George the Fourth,
on the occasion of his visit to Edinburgh in 1823. From this James
Arbuthnot (who, being born and bred at St. Omer, and married, moreover,
to a French wife, was himself half a Frenchman) we Saxonholme Arbuthnots
were the direct descendants.
Our French ancestress, according to the family tradition, was of no very
exalted origin, being in fact the only daughter and heiress of one
Monsieur Tartine, Perruquier in chief at the Court of Versailles. But
what this lady wanted in birth, she made up in fortune, and the modest
estate which her husband purchased with her dowry came down to us
unimpaired through five generations. In the substantial and somewhat
foreign-looking red-brick house which he built (also, doubtless, with
Madame's Louis d'ors) we, his successors, had lived and died ever since.
His portrait, together with the portraits of his wife, son, and
grandson, hung on the dining-room walls; and of the quaint old
spindle-legged chairs and tables that had adorned our best rooms from
time immemorial, some were supposed to date as far back as the first
founding and furnishing of the house.
It is almost needless to say that the son of the non-juror and his
immediate posterity were staunch Jacobites, one and all. I am not aware
that they ever risked or suffered anything for the cause; but they were
not therefore the less vehement. Many were the signs and tokens of that
dead-and-gone political faith which these loyal Arbuthnots left behind
them. In the bed-rooms there hung prints of King James the Second at the
Battle of the Boyne; of the Royal Martyr with his plumed hat, lace
collar, and melancholy fatal face; of the Old and Young Pretenders; of
the Princess Louisa Teresia, and of the Cardinal York. In the library
were to be found all kinds of books relating to the career of that
unhappy family: "Ye Tragicall History of ye Stuarts, 1697;" "Memoirs of
King James II., writ by his own hand;" "La Stuartide," an unfinished
epic in the French language by one Jean de Schelandre; "The Fate of
Majesty exemplified in the barbarous and disloyal treatment (by
traitorous and undutiful subjects) of the Kings and Queens of the Royal
House of Stuart," genealogies of the Stuarts in English, French and
Latin; a fine copy of "Eikon Basilike," bound in old red morocco, with
the royal arms stamped upon the cover; and many other volumes on the
same subject, the names of which (although as a boy I was wont to pore
over their contents with profound awe and sympathy) I have now for the
most part forgotten.
Most persons, I suppose, have observed how the example of a successful
ancestor is apt to determine the pursuits of his descendants down to the
third and fourth generations, inclining the lads of this house to the
sea, and of that to the bar, according as the great man of the family
achieved his honors on shipboard, or climbed his way to the woolsack.
The Arbuthnots offered no exception to this very natural law of
selection. They could not help remembering how the famous doctor had
excelled in literature as in medicine; how he had been not only
Physician in Ordinary to Queen Anne and Prince George of Denmark, but a
satirist and pamphleteer, a wit and the friend of wits--of such wits as
Pope and Swift, Harley and Bolingbroke. Hence they took, as it were
instinctively, to physic and the _belles lettres_, and were never
without a doctor or an author in the family.
My father, however, like the great Martinus Scriblerus, was both doctor
and author. And he was a John Arbuthnot. And to carry the resemblance
still further, he was gifted with a vein of rough epigrammatic humor, in
which it pleased his independence to indulge without much respect of
persons, times, or places. His tongue, indeed, cost him some friends and
gained him some enemies; but I am not sure that it diminished his
popularity as a physician. People compared him to Abernethy, whereby he
was secretly flattered. Some even went so far as to argue that only a
very clever man could afford to be a bear; and I must say that he pushed
this conclusion to its farthest limit, showing his temper alike to rich
and poor upon no provocation whatever. He cared little, to be sure, for
his connection. He loved the profession theoretically, and from a
scientific point of view; but he disliked the drudgery of country
practice, and stood in no need of its hardly-earned profits. Yet he was
a man who so loved to indulge his humor, no matter at what cost, that I
doubt whether he would have been more courteous had his bread depended
on it. As it was, he practised and grumbled, snarled at his patients,
quarrelled with the rich, bestowed his time and money liberally upon the
poor, and amused his leisure by writing for a variety of scientific
periodicals, both English and foreign.
Our home stood at the corner of a lane towards the eastern extremity of
the town, commanding a view of the Squire's Park, and a glimpse of the
mill-pool and meadows in the valley beyond. This lane led up to
Barnard's Green, a breezy space of high, uneven ground dedicated to
fairs, cricket matches, and travelling circuses, whence the noisy music
of brass bands, and the echoes of alternate laughter and applause, were
wafted past our windows in the summer evenings. We had a large garden at
the back, and a stable up the lane; and though the house was but one
story in height, it covered a considerable space of ground, and
contained more rooms than we ever had occasion to use. Thus it happened
that since my mother's death, which took place when I was a very little
boy, many doors on the upper floor were kept locked, to the undue
development of my natural inquisitiveness by day, and my mortal terror
when sent to bed at night. In one of these her portrait still hung above
the mantelpiece, and her harp stood in its accustomed corner. In
another, which was once her bedroom, everything was left as in her
lifetime, her clothes yet hanging in the wardrobe, her dressing-case
standing upon the toilet, her favorite book upon the table beside the
bed. These things, told to me by the servants with much mystery, took a
powerful hold upon my childish imagination. I trembled as I passed the
closed doors at dusk, and listened fearfully outside when daylight gave
me courage to linger near them. Something of my mother's presence, I
fancied, must yet dwell within--something in her shape still wander from
room to room in the dim moonlight, and echo back the sighing of the
night winds. Alas! I could not remember her. Now and then, as if
recalled by a dream, some broken and shadowy images of a pale face and a
slender hand floated vaguely through my mind; but faded even as I strove
to realize them. Sometimes, too, when I was falling off to sleep in my
little bed, or making out pictures in the fire on a winter evening,
strange fragments of old rhymes seemed to come back upon me, mingled
with the tones of a soft voice and the haunting of a long-forgotten
melody. But these, after all, were yearnings more of the heart than
the memory:--
"I felt a mother-want about the world.
And still went seeking."
To return to my description of my early home:--the two rooms on either
side of the hall, facing the road, were appropriated by my father for
his surgery and consulting-room; while the two corresponding rooms at
the back were fitted up as our general reception-room, and my father's
bed-room. In the former of these, and in the weedy old garden upon which
it opened, were passed all the days of my boyhood.
It was my father's good-will and pleasure to undertake the sole charge
of my education. Fain would I have gone like other lads of my age to
public school and college; but on this point, as on most others, he was
inflexible. Himself an obscure physician in a remote country town, he
brought me up with no other view than to be his own successor. The
profession was not to my liking. Somewhat contemplative and nervous by
nature, there were few pursuits for which I was less fitted. I knew
this, but dared not oppose him. Loving study for its own sake, and
trusting to the future for some lucky turn of destiny, I yielded to that
which seemed inevitable, and strove to make the best of it.
Thus it came to pass that I lived a quiet, hard-working home life, while
other boys of my age were going through the joyous experience of school,
and chose my companions from the dusty shelves of some three or four
gigantic book-cases, instead of from the class and the playground. Not
that I regret it. I believe, on the contrary, that a boy may have worse
companions than books and busts, employments less healthy than the study
of anatomy, and amusements more pernicious than Shakespeare and Horace.
Thank Heaven! I escaped all such; and if, as I have been told, my
boyhood was unboyish, and my youth prematurely cultivated, I am content
to have been spared the dangers in exchange for the pleasures of a
public school.
I do not, however, pretend to say that I did not sometimes pine for the
recreations common to my age. Well do I remember the manifold
attractions of Barnard's Green. What longing glances I used to steal
towards the boisterous cricketers, when going gravely forth upon a
botanical walk with my father! With what eager curiosity have I not
lingered many a time before the entrance to a forbidden booth, and
scanned the scenic advertisement of a travelling show! Alas! how the
charms of study paled before those intervals of brief but bitter
temptation! What, then, was pathology compared to the pig-faced lady, or
the Materia Medica to Smith's Mexican Circus, patronized by all the
sovereigns of Europe? But my father was inexorable. He held that such
places were, to use his own words, "opened by swindlers for the ruin of
fools," and from one never-to-be-forgotten hour, when he caught me in
the very act of taking out my penny-worth at a portable peep-show, he
bound me over by a solemn promise (sealed by a whipping) never to repeat
the offence under any provocation or pretext whatsoever. I was a tiny
fellow in pinafores when this happened, but having once pledged my word,
I kept it faithfully through all the studious years that lay between six
and sixteen.
At sixteen an immense crisis occurred in my life. I fell in love. I had
been in love several times before--chiefly with the elder pupils at the
Miss Andrews' establishment; and once (but that was when I was very
young indeed) with the cook. This, however, was a much more romantic and
desperate affair. The lady was a Columbine by profession, and as
beautiful as an angel. She came down to our neighborhood with a
strolling company, and performed every evening, in a temporary theatre
on the green, for nearly three weeks. I used to steal out after dinner
when my father was taking his nap, and run the whole way, that I might
be in time to see the object of my adoration walking up and down the
platform outside the booth before the performances commenced. This
incomparable creature wore a blue petticoat spangled with tinfoil, and a
wreath of faded poppies. Her age might have been about forty. I thought
her the loveliest of created beings. I wrote sonnets to her--dozens of
them--intending to leave them at the theatre door, but never finding the
courage to do it. I made up bouquets for her, over and over again,
chosen from the best flowers in our neglected garden; but invariably
with the same result. I hated the harlequin who presumed to put his arm
about her waist. I envied the clown, whom she condescended to address as
Mr. Merriman. In short, I was so desperately in love that I even tried
to lie awake at night and lose my appetite; but, I am ashamed to own,
failed signally in both endeavors.
At length I wrote to her. I can even now recall passages out of that
passionate epistle. I well remember how it took me a whole morning to
write it; how I crammed it with quotations from Horace; and how I fondly
compared her to most of the mythological divinities. I then copied it
out on pale pink paper, folded it in the form of a heart, and directed
it to Miss Angelina Lascelles, and left it, about dusk, with the
money-taker at the pit door. I signed myself, if I remember rightly,
Pyramus. What would I not have given that evening to pay my sixpence
like the rest of the audience, and feast my eyes upon her from some
obscure corner! What would I not have given to add my quota to
the applause!
I could hardly sleep that night; I could hardly read or write, or eat my
breakfast the next morning, for thinking of my letter and its probable
effect. It never once occurred to me that my Angelina might possibly
find it difficult to construe Horace. Towards evening, I escaped again,
and flew to Barnard's Green. It wanted nearly an hour to the time of
performance; but the tuning of a violin was audible from within, and the
money-taker was already there with his pipe in his mouth and his hands
in his pockets. I had no courage to address that functionary; but I
lingered in his sight and sighed audibly, and wandered round and round
the canvas walls that hedged my divinity. Presently he took his pipe out
of, his mouth and his hands out of his pockets; surveyed me deliberately
from head to foot, and said:--
"Hollo there! aint you the party that brought a three-cornered letter
here last evening!"
I owned it, falteringly.
He lifted a fold in the canvas, and gave me a gentle shove between the
shoulders.
"Then you're to go in," said he, shortly. "She's there, somewhere.
You're sure to find her."
The canvas dropped behind me, and I found myself inside. My heart beat
so fast that I could scarcely breathe. The booth was almost dark; the
curtain was down; and a gentleman with striped legs was lighting the
footlamps. On the front pit bench next the orchestra, discussing a plate
of bread and meat and the contents of a brown jug, sat a stout man in
shirt-sleeves and a woman in a cotton gown. The woman rose as I made my
appearance, and asked, civilly enough, whom I pleased to want.
I stammered the name of Miss Angelina Lascelles.
"Miss Lascelles!" she repeated. "I am Miss Lascelles," Then, looking at
me more narrowly, "I suppose," she added, "you are the little boy that
brought the letter?"
The little boy that brought the letter! Gracious heavens! And this
middle-aged woman in a cotton gown--was she the Angelina of my dreams!
The booth went round with me, and the lights danced before my eyes.
"If you have come for an answer," she continued, "you may just say to
your Mr. Pyramid that I am a respectable married woman, and he ought to
be ashamed of himself--and, as for his letter, I never read such a heap
of nonsense in my life! There, you can go out by the way you came in,
and if you take my advice, you won't come back again!"
How I looked, what I said, how I made my exit, whether the doorkeeper
spoke to me as I passed, I have no idea to this day. I only know that I
flung myself on the dewy grass under a great tree in the first field I
came to, and shed tears of such shame, disappointment, and wounded
pride, as my eyes had never known before. She had called me a little
boy, and my letter a heap of nonsense! She was elderly--she was
ignorant--she was married! I had been a fool; but that knowledge came
too late, and was not consolatory.
By-and-by, while I was yet sobbing and disconsolate, I heard the
drumming and fifing which heralded the appearance of the _Corps
Dramatique_ on the outer platform. I resolved to see her for the last
time. I pulled my hat over my eyes, went back to the Green, and mingled
with the crowd outside the booth. It was growing dusk. I made my way to
the foot of the ladder, and observed her narrowly. I saw that her ankles
were thick, and her elbows red. The illusion was all over. The spangles
had lost their lustre, and the poppies their glow. I no longer hated the
harlequin, or envied the clown, or felt anything but mortification at my
own folly.
"Miss Angelina Lascelles, indeed!" I said to myself, as I sauntered
moodily home. "Pshaw! I shouldn't wonder if her name was Snooks!"
CHAPTER II.
THE LITTLE CHEVALIER.
A mere anatomy, a mountebank,
A threadbare juggler.
_Comedy of Errors_.
Nay, then, he is a conjuror.
_Henry VI_.
My adventure with Miss Lascelles did me good service, and cured me for
some time, at least, of my leaning towards the tender passion. I
consequently devoted myself more closely than ever to my
studies--indulged in a passing mania for genealogy and heraldry--began a
collection of local geological specimens, all of which I threw away at
the end of the first fortnight--and took to rearing rabbits in an old
tumble-down summer-house at the end of the garden. I believe that from
somewhere about this time I may also date the commencement of a great
epic poem in blank verse, and Heaven knows how many cantos, which was to
be called the Columbiad. It began, I remember, with a description of the
Court of Ferdinand and Isabella, and the departure of Columbus, and was
intended to celebrate the discovery, colonization, and subsequent
history of America. I never got beyond ten or a dozen pages of the first
canto, however, and that Transatlantic epic remains unfinished to
this day.
The great event which I have recorded in the preceding chapter took
place in the early summer. It must, therefore, have been towards the
close of autumn in the same year when my next important adventure
befell. This time the temptation assumed a different shape.
Coming briskly homewards one fine frosty morning after having left a
note at the Vicarage, I saw a bill-sticker at work upon a line of dead
wall which at that time reached from the Red Lion Inn to the corner of
Pitcairn's Lane. His posters were printed in enormous type, and
decorated with a florid bordering in which the signs of the zodiac
conspicuously figured Being somewhat idly disposed, I followed the
example of other passers-by, and lingered to watch the process and read
the advertisement. It ran as follows:----
MAGIC AND MYSTERY! MAGIC AND MYSTERY!
* * * * *
M. LE CHEVALIER ARMAND PROUDHINE, (of Paris) surnamed
THE WIZARD OF THE CAUCASUS,
Has the honor to announce to the Nobility and Gentry of Saxonholme and
its vicinity, that he will, to-morrow evening (October--, 18--),
hold his First
SOIREE FANTASTIQUE
IN
THE LARGE ROOM OF THE RED LION HOTEL.
* * * * *
ADMISSION 1s. RESERVED SEATS 2s. 6d.
_To commence at Seven_.
N.B.--_The performance will include a variety of new and surprising
feats of Legerdemain never before exhibited_.
_A soiree fantastique_! what would I not give to be present at a _soiree
fantastique_! I had read of the Rosicrucians, of Count Cagliostro, and
of Doctor Dee. I had peeped into more than one curious treatise on
Demonology, and I fancied there could be nothing in the world half so
marvellous as that last surviving branch of the Black Art entitled the
Science of Legerdemain.
What if, for this once, I were to ask leave to be present at the
performance? Should I do so with even the remotest chance of success? It
was easier to propound this momentous question than to answer it. My
father, as I have already said, disapproved of public entertainments,
and his prejudices were tolerably inveterate. But then, what could be
more genteel than the programme, or more select than the prices? How
different was an entertainment given in the large room of the Red Lion
Hotel to a three-penny wax-work, or a strolling circus on Barnard's
Green! I had made one of the audience in that very room over and over
again when the Vicar read his celebrated "Discourses to Youth," or Dr.
Dunks came down from Grinstead to deliver an explosive lecture on
chemistry; and I had always seen the reserved seats filled by the best
families in the neighborhood. Fully persuaded of the force of my own
arguments, I made up my mind to prefer this tremendous request on the
first favorable opportunity, and so hurried home, with my head full of
quite other thoughts than usual.
My father was sitting at the table with a mountain of books and papers
before him. He looked up sharply as I entered, jerked his chair round so
as to get the light at his back, put on his spectacles, and
ejaculated:--
"Well, sir!"
This was a bad sign, and one with which I was only too familiar. Nature
had intended my father for a barrister. He was an adept in all the arts
of intimidation, and would have conducted a cross-examination to
perfection. As it was, he indulged in a good deal of amateur practice,
and from the moment when he turned his back to the light and donned the
inexorable spectacles, there was not a soul in the house, from myself
down to the errand-boy, who was not perfectly aware of something
unpleasant to follow.
"Well, sir!" he repeated, rapping impatiently upon the table with his
knuckles.
Having nothing to reply to this greeting, I looked out of the window and
remained silent; whereby, unfortunately. I irritated him still more.
"Confound you, sir!" he exclaimed, "have you nothing to say?"
"Nothing," I replied, doggedly.
"Stand there!" he said, pointing to a particular square in the pattern
of the carpet. "Stand there!"
I obeyed.
"And now, perhaps, you will have the goodness to explain what you have
been about this morning; and why it should have taken you just
thirty-seven minutes by the clock to accomplish a journey which a
tortoise--yes, sir, a tortoise,--might have done in less than ten?"
I gravely compared my watch with the clock before replying.
"Upon my word, sir," I said, "your tortoise would have the advantage of
me."
"The advantage of you! What do you mean by the advantage of you, you
affected puppy?"
"I had no idea," said I, provokingly, "that you were in unusual haste
this morning."
"Haste!" shouted my father. "I never said I was in haste. I never choose
to be in haste. I hate haste!"
"Then why..."
"Because you have been wasting your time and mine, sir," interrupted he.
"Because I will not permit you to go idling and vagabondizing about
the village."
My _sang froid_ was gone directly.
"Idling and vagabondizing!" I repeated angrily. "I have done nothing of
the kind. I defy you to prove it. When have you known me forget that I
am a gentleman?"
"Humph!" growled my father, mollified but sarcastic; "a pretty
gentleman--a gentleman of sixteen!"
"It is true,"' I continued, without heeding the interruption, "that I
lingered for a moment to read a placard by the way; but if you will take
the trouble, sir, to inquire at the Rectory, you will find that I waited
a quarter of an hour before I could send up your letter."
My father grinned and rubbed his hands. If there was one thing in the
world that aggravated him more than another, it was to find his fire
opposed to ice. Let him, however, succeed in igniting his adversary, and
he was in a good humor directly.
"Come, come, Basil," said he, taking off his spectacles, "I never said
you were not a good lad. Go to your books, boy--go to your books; and
this evening I will examine you in vegetable physiology."
Silently, but not sullenly, I drew a chair to the table, and resumed my
work. We were both satisfied, because each in his heart considered
himself the victor. My father was amused at having irritated me, whereas
I was content because he had, in some sort, withdrawn the expressions
that annoyed me. Hence we both became good-tempered, and, according to
our own tacit fashion, continued during the rest of that morning to be
rather more than usually sociable.
Hours passed thus--hours of quiet study, during which the quick
travelling of a pen or the occasional turning of a page alone disturbed
the silence. The warm sunlight which shone in so greenly through the
vine leaves, stole, inch by inch, round the broken vases in the garden
beyond, and touched their brown mosses with a golden bloom. The patient
shadow on the antique sundial wound its way imperceptibly from left to
right, and long slanting threads of light and shadow pierced in time
between the branches of the poplars. Our mornings were long, for we rose
early and dined late; and while my father paid professional visits, I
devoted my hours to study. It rarely happened that he could thus spend a
whole day among his books. Just as the clock struck four, however, there
came a ring at the bell.
My father settled himself obstinately in his chair.
"If that's a gratis patient," said he, between his teeth, "I'll not
stir. From eight to ten are their hours, confound them!"
"If you please, sir," said Mary, peeping in, "if you please, sir, it's a
gentleman."
"A stranger?" asked my father.
Mary nodded, put her hand to her mouth, and burst into an irrepressible
giggle.
"If you please, sir," she began--but could get no farther.
My father was in a towering passion directly.
"Is the girl mad?" he shouted. "What is the meaning of this buffoonery?"
"Oh, sir--if you please, sir," ejaculated Mary, struggling with terror
and laughter together, "it's the gentleman, sir. He--he says, if you
please, sir, that his name is Almond Pudding!"
"Your pardon, Mademoiselle," said a plaintive voice. "Armand
Proudhine--le Chevalier Armand Proudhine, at your service."
Mary disappeared with her apron to her mouth, and subsided into distant
peals of laughter, leaving the Chevalier standing in the doorway.
He was a very little man, with a pinched and melancholy countenance, and
an eye as wistful as a dog's. His threadbare clothes, made in the
fashion of a dozen years before, had been decently mended in many
places. A paste pin in a faded cravat, and a jaunty cane with a
pinchbeck top, betrayed that he was still somewhat of a beau. His scant
gray hair was tied behind with a piece of black ribbon, and he carried
his hat under his arm, after the fashion of Elliston and the Prince
Regent, as one sees them in the colored prints of fifty years ago.
He advanced a step, bowed, and laid his card upon the table.
"I believe," he said in his plaintive voice, and imperfect English,
"that I have the honor to introduce myself to Monsieur Arbuthnot."
"If you want me, sir," said my father, gruffly, "I am Doctor Arbuthnot."
"And I, Monsieur," said the little Frenchman, laying his hand upon his
heart, and bowing again--"I am the Wizard of the Caucasus."
"The what?" exclaimed my father.
"The Wizard of the Caucasus," replied our visitor, impressively.
There was an awkward pause, during which my father looked at me and
touched his forehead significantly with his forefinger; while the
Chevalier, embarrassed between his natural timidity and his desire to
appear of importance, glanced from one face to the other, and waited for
a reply. I hastened to disentangle the situation.
"I think I can explain this gentleman's meaning," I said. "Monsieur le
Chevalier will perform to-morrow evening in the large room of the Red
Lion Hotel. He is a professor of legerdemain."
"Of the marvellous art of legerdemain, Monsieur Arbuthnot," interrupted
the Chevalier eagerly. "Prestidigitateur to the Court of Sachsenhausen,
and successor to Al Hakim, the wise. It is I, Monsieur, that have invent
the famous _tour du pistolet;_ it is I, that have originate the great
and surprising deception of the bottle; it is I whom the world does
surname the Wizard of the Caucasus. _Me voici!_"
Carried away by the force of his own eloquence, the Chevalier fell into
an attitude at the conclusion of his little speech; but remembering
where he was, blushed, and bowed again.
"Pshaw," said my father impatiently, "the man's a conjuror."
The little Frenchman did not hear him. He was at that moment untying a
packet which he carried in his hat, the contents whereof appeared to
consist of a number of very small pink and yellow cards. Selecting a
couple of each color, he deposited his hat carefully upon the floor and
came a few steps nearer to the table.
"Monsieur will give me the hope to see him, with Monsieur _son fils_, at
my Soiree Fantastique, _n'est-ce pas?_" he asked, timidly.
"Sir," said my father shortly, "I never encourage peripatetic
mendicity."
The little Frenchman looked puzzled.
"_Comment_?" said he, and glanced to me for an explanation.
"I am very sorry, Monsieur," I interposed hastily; "but my father
objects to public entertainments."
"_Ah, mon Dieu!_ but not to this," cried the Chevalier, raising his
hands and eyes in deprecating astonishment. "Not to my Soiree
Fantastique! The art of legerdemain, Monsieur, is not immoral. He is
graceful--he is surprising--he is innocent; and, Monsieur, he is
patronized by the Church; he is patronized by your amiable _Cure_,
Monsieur le Docteur Brand."
"Oh, father," I exclaimed, "Dr. Brand has taken tickets!"
"And pray, sir, what's that to me?" growled my father, without looking
up from the book which he had ungraciously resumed. "Let Dr. Brand make
a fool of himself, if he pleases. I'm not bound to do the same."
The Chevalier blushed crimson--not with humility this time, but with
pride. He gathered the cards into his pocket, took up his hat, and
saying stiffly--"_Monsieur, je vous demande pardon._"--moved towards
the door.
On the threshold he paused, and turning towards me with an air of faded
dignity:--"Young gentleman," he said, "_you_ I thank for your
politeness."
He seemed as if he would have said more--hesitated--became suddenly
livid--put his hand to his head, and leaned for support against
the wall.
My father was up and beside him in an instant. We carried rather than
led him to the sofa, untied his cravat, and administered the necessary
restoratives. He was all but insensible for some moments. Then the color
came back to his lips, and he sighed heavily.
"An attack of the nerves," he said, shaking his head feebly. "An attack
of the nerves, Messieurs."
My father looked doubtful.
"Are you often taken in this way?" he asked, with unusual gentleness.
"_Mais oui_, Monsieur," admitted the Frenchman, reluctantly. "He does
often arrive to me. Not--not that he is dangerous. Ah, bah! _Pas
du tout_!"
"Humph!" ejaculated my father, more doubtfully than before. "Let me feel
your pulse."
The Chevalier bowed and submitted, watching the countenance of the
operator all the time with an anxiety that was not lost upon me.
"Do you sleep well?" asked my father, holding the fragile little wrist
between his finger and thumb.
"Passably, Monsieur."
"Dream much?"
"Ye--es, I dream."
"Are you subject to giddiness?"
The Chevalier shrugged his shoulders and looked uneasy.
"_C'est vrai_" he acknowledged, more unwillingly than ever, "_J'ai des
vertiges_."
My father relinquished his hold and scribbled a rapid prescription.
"There, sir," said he, "get that preparation made up, and when you next
feel as you felt just now, drink a wine-glassful. I should recommend you
to keep some always at hand, in case of emergency. You will find further
directions on the other side."
The little Frenchman attempted to get up with his usual vivacity; but
was obliged to balance himself against the back of a chair.
"Monsieur," said he, with another of his profound bows, "I thank you
infinitely. You make me too much attention; but I am grateful. And,
Monsieur, my little girl--my child that is far away across the sea--she
thanks you also. _Elle m'aime, Monsieur--elle m'aime, cette pauvre
petite_! What shall she do if I die?"
Again he raised his hand to his brow. He was unconscious of anything
theatrical in the gesture. He was in sad earnest, and his eyes were wet
with tears, which he made no effort to conceal.
My father shuffled restlessly in his chair.
"No obligation--no obligation at all," he muttered, with a touch of
impatience in his voice. "And now, what about those tickets? I suppose,
Basil, you're dying to see all this tomfoolery?"
"That I am, sir," said I, joyfully. "I should like it above all things!"
The Chevalier glided forward, and laid a couple of little pink cards
upon my father's desk.
"If," said he, timidly, "if Monsieur will make me the honor to
accept...."
"Not for the world, sir--not for the world!" interposed my father. "The
boy shan't go, unless I pay for the tickets."
"But, Monsieur...."
"Nothing of the kind, sir. I cannot hear of it. What are the prices of
the seats?"
Our little visitor looked down and was silent; but I replied for him.
"The reserved seats," I whispered, "are half-a-crown each."
"Then I will take eight reserved," said my father, opening a drawer in
his desk and bringing out a bright, new sovereign.
The little Frenchman started. He could hardly believe in such
munificence.
"When? How much?" stammered he, with a pleasant confusion of adverbs.
"Eight," growled my father, scarcely able to repress a smile.
"Eight? _mon Dieu_, Monsieur, how you are generous! I shall keep for you
all the first row."
"Oblige me by doing nothing of the kind," said my father, very
decisively. "It would displease me extremely."
The Chevalier counted out the eight little pink cards, and ranged them
in a row beside my father's desk.
"Count them, Monsieur, if you please," said he, his eyes wandering
involuntarily towards the sovereign.
My father did so with much gravity, and handed over the money.
The Chevalier consigned it, with trembling fingers, to a small canvas
bag, which looked very empty, and which came from the deepest recesses
of his pocket.
"Monsieur," said he, "my thanks are in my heart. I will not fatigue you
with them. Good-morning."
He bowed again, for perhaps the twentieth time; lingered a moment at the
threshold; and then retired, closing the door softly after him.
My father rubbbed his head all over, and gave a great yawn of
satisfaction.
"I am so much obliged to you, sir," I said, eagerly.
"What for?"
"For having bought those tickets. It was very kind of you."
"Hold your tongue. I hate to be thanked," snarled he, and plunged back
again into his books and papers.
Once more the studious silence in the room--once more the rustling leaf
and scratching pen, which only made the stillness seem more still,
within and without.
"I beg your pardons," murmured the voice of the little Chevalier.
I turned, and saw him peeping through the half-open door. He looked more
wistful than ever, and twisted the handle nervously between his fingers.
My father frowned, and muttered something between his teeth. I fear it
was not very complimentary to the Chevalier.
"One word, Monsieur," pleaded the little man, edging himself round the
door, "one small word!"
"Say it, sir, and have done with it," said my father, savagely.
The Chevalier hesitated.
"I--I--Monsieur le Docteur--that is, I wish...."
"Confound it, sir, what do you wish?"
The Chevalier brushed away a tear.
"_Dites-moi,"_ he said with suppressed agitation. "One word--yes or
no--is he dangerous?"
My father's countenance softened.
"My good friend," he said, gently, "we are none of us safe for even a
day, or an hour; but after all, that which we call danger is merely a
relative position. I have known men in a state more precarious than
yours who lived to a long old age, and I see no reason to doubt that
with good living, good spirits, and precaution, you stand as fair a
chance as another."
The little Frenchman pressed his hands together in token of gratitude,
whispered a broken word or two of thanks, and bowed himself out of
the room.
When he was fairly gone, my father flung a book at my head, and said,
with more brevity than politeness:--
"Boy, bolt the door."
CHAPTER III.
THE EVENTS OF AN EVENING.
"Basil, my boy, if you are going to that place, you must take Collins
with you."
"Won't you go yourself, father?"
"I! Is the boy mad!"
"I hope not, sir; only as you took eight reserved seats, I thought...."
"You've no business to think, sir! Seven of those tickets are in the
fire."
"For fear, then, you should fancy to burn the eighth, I'll wish you
good-evening!"
So away I darted, called to Collins to follow me, and set off at a brisk
pace towards the Red Lion Hotel. Collins was our indoor servant; a
sharp, merry fellow, some ten years older than myself, who desired no
better employment than to escort me upon such an occasion as the
present. The audience had begun to assemble when we arrived. Collins
went into the shilling places, while I ensconced myself in the second
row of reserved seats. I had an excellent view of the stage. There, in
the middle of the platform, stood the conjuror's table--a quaint,
cabalistic-looking piece of furniture with carved black legs and a deep
bordering of green cloth all round the top. A gay pagoda-shaped canopy
of many hues was erected overhead. A long white wand leaned up against
the wall. To the right stood a bench laden with mysterious jars,
glittering bowls, gilded cones, mystical globes, colored glass boxes,
and other properties. To the left stood a large arm-chair covered with
crimson cloth. All this was very exciting, and I waited breathlessly
till the Wizard should appear.
He came at last; but not, surely, our dapper little visitor of
yesterday! A majestic beard of ashen gray fell in patriarchal locks
almost to his knees. Upon his head he wore a high cap of some dark fur;
upon his feet embroidered slippers; and round his waist a glittering
belt patterned with hieroglyphics. A long woollen robe of chocolate and
orange fell about him in heavy folds, and swept behind him, like a
train. I could scarcely believe, at first, that it was the same person;
but, when he spoke, despite the pomp and obscurity of his language. I
recognised the plaintive voice of the little Chevalier.
"_Messieurs et Mesdames_," he began, and took up the wand to emphasize
his discourse; "to read in the stars the events of the future--to
transform into gold the metals inferior--to discover the composition of
that Elixir who, by himself, would perpetuate life, was in past ages the
aim and aspiration of the natural philosopher. But they are gone, those
days--they are displaced, those sciences. The Alchemist and the
Rosicrucian are no more, and of all their race, the professor of
Legerdemain alone survives. Ladies and gentlemen, my magic he is simple.
I retain not familiars. I employ not crucible, nor furnace, nor retort.
I but amuse you with my agility of hand, and for commencement I tell you
that you shall be deceived as well as the Wizard of the Caucasus can
deceive you."
His voice trembled, and the slender wand shivered in his hand. Was this
nervousness? Or was he, in accordance with the quaintness of his costume
and the amplitude of his beard, enacting the feebleness of age?
He advanced to the front of the platform. "Three things I require," he
said. "A watch, a pocket-handkerchief and a hat. Is there here among my
visitors any person so gracious as to lend me these trifles? I will not
injure them, ladies and gentlemen. I will only pound the watch in my
mortar--burn the _mouchoir_ in my lamp, and make a pudding in the
_chapeau_. And, with all this, I engage to return them to their
proprietors, better as new."
There was a pause, and a laugh. Presently a gentleman volunteered his
hat, and a lady her embroidered handkerchief; but no person seemed
willing to submit his watch to the pounding process.
"Shall nobody lend me the watch?" asked the Chevalier; but in a voice
so hoarse that I scarcely recognised it.
A sudden thought struck me, and I rose in my place.
"I shall be happy to do so," I said aloud, and made my way round to the
front of the platform.
At the moment when he took it from me, I spoke to him.
"Monsieur Proudhine," I whispered, "you are ill! What can I do for you?"
"Nothing, _mon enfant_," he answered, in the same low tone. "I suffer;
_mais il faut se resigner_."
"Break off the performance--retire for half an hour."
"Impossible. See, they already observe us!"
And he drew back abruptly. There was a seat vacant in the front row. I
took it, resolved at all events to watch him narrowly.
Not to detail too minutely the events of a performance which since that
time has become sufficiently familiar, I may say that he carried out his
programme with dreadful exactness, and, after appearing to burn the
handkerchief to ashes and mix up a quantity of eggs and flour in the
hat, proceeded very coolly to smash the works of my watch beneath his
ponderous pestle. Notwithstanding my faith, I began to feel seriously
uncomfortable. It was a neat little silver watch of foreign
workmanship--not very valuable, to be sure, but precious to me as the
most precious of repeaters.
"He is very tough, your watch, Monsieur," said the Wizard, pounding away
vigorously. "He--he takes a long time ... _Ah! mon Dieu!_"
He raised his hand to his head, uttered a faint cry, and snatched at the
back of the chair for support.
My first thought was that he had destroyed my watch by mistake--my
second, that he was very ill indeed. Scarcely knowing what I did, and
quite forgetting the audience, I jumped on the platform to his aid.
He shook his head, waved me away with one trembling hand, made a last
effort to articulate, and fell heavily to the ground.
All was confusion in an instant. Everybody crowded to the stage; whilst
I, with a presence of mind which afterwards surprised myself, made my
way out by a side-door and ran to fetch my father. He was fortunately at
home, and in less than ten minutes the Chevalier was under his care. We
found him laid upon a sofa in one of the sitting-rooms of the inn, pale,
rigid, insensible, and surrounded by an idle crowd of lookers-on. They
had taken off his cap and beard, and the landlady was endeavoring to
pour some brandy down his throat; but his teeth were fast set, and his
lips were blue and cold.
"Oh, Doctor Arbuthnot! Doctor Arbuthnot!" cried a dozen voices at once,
"the Conjuror is dying!"
"For which reason, I suppose, you are all trying to smother him!" said
my father angrily. "Mistress Cobbe, I beg you will not trouble yourself
to pour that brandy down the man's throat. He has no more power to
swallow it than my stick. Basil, open the window, and help me to loosen
these things about his throat. Good people, all, I must request you to
leave the room. This man's life is in peril, and I can do nothing while
you remain. Go home--go home. You will see no more conjuring to-night."
My father was peremptory, and the crowd unwillingly dispersed. One by
one they left the room and gathered discontentedly in the passage. When
it came to the last two or three, he took them by the shoulders, closed
the door upon them, and turned the key.
Only the landlady, and elderly woman-servant, and myself remained.
The first thing my father did was to examine the pupil of the patient's
eye, and lay his hand upon his heart. It still fluttered feebly, but the
action of the lungs was suspended, and his hands and feet were cold
as death.
My father shook his head.
"This man must be bled," said he, "but I have little hope of saving
him."
He was bled, and, though still unconscious, became less rigid They then
poured a little wine down his throat, and he fell into a passive but
painless condition, more inanimate than sleep, but less positive than a
state of trance.
A fire was then lighted, a mattress brought down, and the patient laid
upon it, wrapped in many blankets. My father announced his intention of
sitting up with him all night. In vain I begged for leave to share his
vigil. He would hear of no such thing, but turned me out as he had
turned out the others, bade me a brief "Good-night," and desired me to
run home as quickly as I could.
At that stage of my history, to hear was to obey; so I took my way
quietly through the bar of the hotel, and had just reached the door when
a touch on my sleeve arrested me. It was Mr. Cobbe, the landlord--a
portly, red-whiskered Boniface of the old English type.
"Good-evening, Mr. Basil," said he. "Going home, sir?"
"Yes, Mr. Cobbe," I replied. "I can be of no further use here."
"Well, sir, you've been of more use this evening than anybody--let alone
the Doctor--that I must say for you," observed Mr. Cobbe, approvingly.
"I never see such presence o' mind in so young a gen'leman before.
Never, sir. Have a glass of grog and a cigar, sir, before you turn out."
Much as I felt flattered by the supposition that I smoked (which was
more than I could have done to save my life), I declined Mr. Cobbe's
obliging offer and wished him good-night. But the landlord of the Red
Lion was in a gossiping humor, and would not let me go.
"If you won't take spirits, Mr. Basil," said he, "you must have a glass
of negus. I couldn't let you go out without something warm--particular
after the excitement you've gone through. Why, bless you, sir, when they
ran out and told me, I shook like a leaf--and I don't look like a very
nervous subject, do I? And so sudden as it was, too, poor little
gentleman!"
"Very sudden, indeed," I replied, mechanically.
"Does Doctor Arbuthnot think he'll get the better of it, Mr. Basil?"
"I fear he has little hope."
Mr. Cobbe sighed, and shook his head, and smoked in silence.
"To be struck down just when he was playing such tricks as them
conjuring dodges, do seem uncommon awful," said he, after a time. "What
was he after at the minute?--making a pudding, wasn't he, in some
gentleman's hat?"
I uttered a sudden ejaculation, and set down my glass of negus untasted.
Till that moment I had not once thought of my watch.
"Oh, Mr. Cobbe!" I cried, "he was pounding my watch in the mortar!"
"_Your_ watch, Mr. Basil?"
"Yes, mine--and I have not seen it since. What can have become of it?
What shall I do?"
"Do!" echoed the landlord, seizing a candle; "why, go and look for it,
to be sure, Mr. Basil. That's safe enough, you may be sure!"
I followed him to the room where the performance had taken place. It
showed darkly and drearily by the light of one feeble candle. The
benches and chairs were all in disorder. The wand lay where it had
fallen from the hand of the Wizard. The mortar still stood on the table,
with the pestle beside it. It contained only some fragments of
broken glass.
Mr. Cobbe laughed triumphantly.
"Come, sir," said he, "the watch is safe enough, anyhow. Mounseer only
made believe to pound it up, and now all that concerns us is to
find it."
That was indeed all--not only all, but too much. We searched everything.
We looked in all the jars and under all the moveables. We took the cover
off the chair; we cleared the table; but without success. My watch had
totally disappeared, and we at length decided that it must be concealed
about the conjuror's person. Mr. Cobbe was my consoling angel.
"Bless you, sir," said he, "don't never be cast down. My wife shall
look for the watch to-morrow morning, and I'll promise you we'll find
out every pocket he has about him."
"And my father--you won't tell my father?" I said, dolefully.
Mr. Cobbe replied by a mute but expressive piece of pantomime and took
me back to the bar, where the good landlady ratified all that her
husband had promised in her name.
The stars shone brightly as I went home, and there was no moon. The town
was intensely silent, and the road intensely solitary. I met no one on
my way; let myself quietly in, and stole up to my bed-room in the dark.
It was already late; but I was restless and weary--too restless to
sleep, and too weary to read. I could not detach myself from the
impressions of the day; and I longed for the morning, that I might learn
the fate of my watch, and the condition of the Chevalier.
At length, after some hours of wakefulness, I dropped into a profound
and dreamless sleep.
* * * * *
CHAPTER IV.
THE CHEVALIER MAKES HIS LAST EXIT.
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances.
_As You Like It._
I was waked by my father's voice calling to me from the garden, and so
started up with that strange and sudden sense of trouble which most of
us have experienced at some time or other in our lives.
"Nine o'clock, Basil," cried my father. "Nine o'clock--come down
directly, sir!"
I sprang out of bed, and for some seconds could remember nothing of what
had happened; but when I looked out of the window and saw my father in
his dressing-gown and slippers walking up and down the sunny path with
his hands behind his back and his eyes fixed on the ground, it all
flashed suddenly upon me. To plunge into my bath, dress, run down, and
join him in the garden, was the work of but a few minutes.
"Good-morning, sir," I said, breathlessly.
He stopped short in his walk, and looked at me from head to foot.
"Humph!" said he, "you have dressed quickly...."
"Yes, sir; I was startled to find myself so late."
"So quickly," he continued, "that you have forgotten your watch."
I felt my face burn. I had not a word to answer.
"I suppose," said he, "you thought I should not find it out?"
"I had hoped to recover it first," I replied, falteringly; "but...."
"But you may make up your mind to the loss of it, sir; and serve you
rightly, too," interposed my father. "I can tell you, for your
satisfaction, that the man's clothes have been thoroughly examined, and
that your watch has not been found. No doubt it lay somewhere on the
table, and was stolen in the confusion."
I hung my head. I could have wept for vexation.
My father laughed sardonically.
"Well, Master Basil," he said, "the loss is yours, and yours only. You
won't get another watch from me, I promise you."
I retorted angrily, whereat he only laughed the more; and then we went
in to breakfast.
Our morning meal was more unsociable than usual. I was too much annoyed
to speak, and my father too preoccupied. I longed to inquire after the
Chevalier, but not choosing to break the silence, hurried through my
breakfast that I might run round to the Red Lion immediately after.
Before we had left the table, a messenger came to say that "the conjuror
was taken worse," and so my father and I hastened away together.
He had passed from his trance-like sleep into a state of delirium, and
when we entered the room was sitting up, pale and ghost-like, muttering
to himself, and gesticulating as if in the presence of an audience.
"_Pas du tout_," said he fantastically, "_pas du tout, Messieurs_--here
is no deception. You shall see him pass from my hand to the _coffre_,
and yet you shall not find how he does travel."
My father smiled bitterly.
"Conjurer to the last!" said he. "In the face of death, what a mockery
is his trade!"
Wandering as were his wits, he caught the last word and turned fiercely
round; but there was no recognition in his eye.
"Trade, Monsieur!" he echoed. "Trade!--you shall not call him trade! Do
you know who I am, that you dare call him trade? _Dieu des Dieux!
N'est-ce pas que je suis noble, moi?_ Trade!--when did one of my race
embrace a trade? _Canaille!_ I do condescend for my reasons to take your
money, but you shall not call him a trade!"
Exhausted by this sudden burst of passion, he fell back upon his pillow,
muttering and flushed. I bent over him, and caught a scattered phrase
from time to time. He was dreaming of wealth, fancying himself rich and
powerful, poor wretch! and all unconscious of his condition.
"You shall see my Chateaux," he said, "my horses--my carriages.
Listen--it is the ringing of the bells. Aha! _le jour viendra--le jour
viendra_! Conjuror! who speaks of a conjuror? I never was a conjuror! I
deny it: and he lies who says it! _Attendons_! Is the curtain up? Ah! my
table--where is my table? I cannot play till I have my table.
_Scelerats! je suis vole! je l'ai perdu! je l'ai perdu_! Ah, what shall
I do? What shall I do? They have taken my table--they have taken...."
He burst into tears, moaned twice or thrice, closed his eyes, and fell
into a troubled sleep.
The landlady sobbed. Hers was a kind heart, and the little Frenchman's
simple courtesy had won her good-will from the first.
"He had real quality manners," she said, disconsolately. "I do believe,
gentlemen, that he had seen better days. Poor as he was, he never
disputed the price of anything; and he never spoke to me without taking
off his hat."
"Upon my soul, Mistress Cobbe," said my father, "I incline to your
opinion. I do think he is not what he seems."
"And if I only knew where to find his friends, I shouldn't care half so
much!" exclaimed the landlady. "It do seem so hard that he should die
here, and not one of his own blood follow him to the grave! Surely he
has some one who loves him!"
"There was something said the other day about a child," mused my father.
"Have no papers or letters been found about his person?"
"None at all. Why, Doctor, you were here last night when we searched for
Master Basil's watch, and you are witness that he had nothing of the
kind in his possession. As to his luggage, that's only a carpet-bag and
his conjuring things, and we looked through them as carefully as
possible."
The Chevalier moaned again, and tossed his arms feebly in his sleep.
"The proofs," said he. "The proofs! I can do nothing without
the proofs."
My father listened. The landlady shook her head.
"He has been going on like that ever since you left, sir," she said
pitifully; "fancying he's been robbed, and calling out about the
proofs--only ten times more violent. Then, again, he thinks he is going
to act, and asks for his table. It's wonderful how he takes on about
that trumpery table!"
Scarcely had she spoken the words when the Chevalier opened his eyes,
and, by a supreme effort, sat upright in his bed. The cold dew rose upon
his brow; his lips quivered; he strove to speak, and only an
inarticulate cry found utterance. My father flew to his support.
"If you have anything to say," he urged earnestly, "try to say it now!"
The dying man trembled convulsively, and a terrible look of despair came
into his wan face.
"Tell--tell" ... he gasped; but his voice failed him, and he could get
no further.
My father laid him gently down. There came an interval of terrible
suspense--a moment of sharp agony--a deep, deep sigh--and then silence.
My father laid his hand gently upon my shoulder.
"It is all over," he said; "and his secret, if he had one, is in closer
keeping than ours. Come away, boy; this is no place for you."
* * * * *
CHAPTER V.
IN MEMORIAM.
The poor little Chevalier! He died and became famous.
Births, deaths and marriages are the great events of a country town; the
prime novelties of a country newspaper; the salt of conversation, and
the soul of gossip. An individual who furnishes the community with one
or other of these topics, is a benefactor to his species. To be born is
much; to marry is more; to die is to confer a favor on all the old
ladies of the neighborhood. They love a christening and caudle--they
rejoice in a wedding and cake--but they prefer a funeral and black kid
gloves. It is a tragedy played off at the expense of the few for the
gratification of the many--a costly luxury, of which it is pleasanter to
be the spectator than the entertainer.
Occurring, therefore, at a season when the supply of news was
particularly scanty, the death of the little Chevalier was a boon to
Saxonholme. The wildest reports were bandied about, and the most
extraordinary fictions set on foot respecting his origin and station. He
was a Russian spy. He was the unfortunate son of Louis XIV and Marie
Antoinette. He was a pupil of Cagliostro, and the husband of Mlle.
Lenormand. Customers flocked to the tap of the Red Lion as they had
never flocked before, unless in election-time; and good Mrs. Cobbe had
to repeat the story of the conjuror's illness and death till, like many
other reciters, she had told it so often that she began to forget it. As
for her husband, he had enough to do to serve the customers and take the
money, to say nothing of showing the room, which proved a vast
attraction, and remained for more than a week just as it was left on the
evening of the performance, with the table, canopy and paraphernalia of
wizardom still set out upon the platform.
In the midst of these things arose a momentous question--what was the
religion of the deceased, and where should he be buried? As in the old
miracle plays we find good and bad angels contending for the souls of
the dead, so on this occasion did the heads of all the Saxonholme
churches, chapels and meeting-houses contend for the body of the little
Chevalier. He was a Roman Catholic. He was a Dissenter. He was a member
of the Established Church. He must be buried in the new Protestant
Cemetery. He must lie in the churchyard of the Ebenezer Tabernacle. He
must sleep in the far-away "God's Acre" of Father Daly's Chapel, and
have a cross at his head, and masses said for the repose of his soul.
The controversy ran high. The reverend gentlemen convoked a meeting,
quarrelled outrageously, and separated in high dudgeon without having
arrived at any conclusion.
Whereupon arose another question, melancholy, ludicrous, perplexing,
and, withal, as momentous as the first--Would the little Chevalier get
buried at all? Or was he destined to remain, like Mahomet's coffin, for
ever in a state of suspense?
At the last, when Mr. and Mrs. Cobbe despairingly believed that they
were never to be relieved of their troublesome guest, a vestry was
called, and the churchwardens brought the matter to a conclusion. When
he went round with his tickets, the conjuror called first at the
Rectory, and solicited the patronage of Doctor Brand. Would he have paid
that compliment to the cloth had he been other than a member of that
religion "by law established?" Certainly not. The point was clear--could
not be clearer; so orthodoxy and the new Protestant Cemetery
carried the day.
The funeral was a great event--not so far as mutes, feathers and
carriages were concerned, for the Chevalier left but little worldly
gear, and without hard cash even the most deserving must forego "the
trappings and the suits of woe;" but it was a great event, inasmuch as
it celebrated the victory of the Church, and the defeat of all
schismatics. The rector himself, complacent and dignified, preached the
funeral sermon to a crowded congregation, the following Sunday. We
almost forgot, in fact, that the little Chevalier had any concern in the
matter, and regarded it only as the triumph of orthodoxy.
All was not ended, even here. For some weeks our conjuror continued to
be the hero of every pulpit round about. He was cited as a shining
light, denounced as a vessel of wrath, praised, pitied and calumniated
according to the creed and temper of each declaimer. At length the
controversy languished, died a natural death, and became "alms for
oblivion."
Laid to rest under a young willow, in a quiet corner, with a plain stone
at his head, the little Frenchman was himself in course of time
forgotten:--
"Alas! Poor Yorick!"
* * * * *
CHAPTER VI.
POLONIUS TO LAERTES.
Years went by. I studied; outgrew my jackets; became a young man. It was
time, in short, that I walked the hospitals, and passed my examination.
I had spoken to my father more than once upon the subject--spoken
earnestly and urgently, as one who felt the necessity and justice of his
appeal. But he put me off from time to time; persisted in looking upon
me as a boy long after I had become acquainted with the penalties of the
razor; and counselled me to be patient, till patience was well-nigh
exhausted. The result of this treatment was that I became miserable and
discontented; spent whole days wandering about the woods; and
degenerated into a creature half idler and half misanthrope. I had never
loved the profession of medicine. I should never have chosen it had I
been free to follow my own inclinations: but having diligently fitted
myself to enter it with credit, I felt that my father wronged me in this
delay; and I felt it perhaps all the more bitterly because my labor had
been none of love. Happily for me, however, he saw his error before it
was too late, and repaired it generously.
"Basil," said he, beckoning me one morning into the consulting-room, "I
want to speak to you."
I obeyed sullenly, and stood leaning up against the window, with my
hands in my pockets.
"You've been worrying me, Basil, more than enough these last few
months," he said, rummaging among his papers, and speaking in a low,
constrained voice. "I don't choose to be worried any longer. It is time
you walked the hospitals, and--you may go."
"To London, sir?"
"No. I don't intend you to go to London."
"To Edinburgh, then, I suppose," said I, in a tone of disappointment.
"Nor to Edinburgh. You shall go to Paris."
"To Paris!"
"Yes--the French surgeons are the most skilful in the world, and Cheron
will do everything for you. I know no eminent man in London from whom I
should choose to ask a favor; and Cheron is one of my oldest
friends--nay, the oldest friend I have in the world. If you have but two
ounces of brains, he will make a clever man of you. Under him you will
study French practice; walk the hospitals of Paris; acquire the language
and, I hope, some of the polish of the French people. Are you
satisfied?"
"More than satisfied, sir," I replied, eagerly.
"You shall not want for money, boy; and you may start as soon as you
please. Is the thing settled?"
"Quite, as far as I am concerned."
My father rubbed his head all over with both hands, took off his
spectacles, and walked up and down the room. By these signs he expressed
any unusual degree of satisfaction. All at once he stopped, looked me
full in the face, and said:--
"Understand me, Basil. I require one thing in return."
"If that thing be industry, sir, I think I may promise that you shall
not have cause to complain,"
My father shook his head.
"Not industry," he said; "not industry alone. Keep good company, my boy.
Keep good hours. Never forget that a gentleman must look like a
gentleman, dress like a gentleman, frequent the society of gentlemen. To
be a mere bookworm is to be a drone in the great hive. I hate a
drone--as I hate a sloven."
"I understand you, father," I faltered, blushing. "I know that of late
I--I have not...."
My father laid his hand suddenly over my mouth.
"No confessions--no apologies," he said hastily. "We have both been to
blame in more respects than one, and we shall both know how to be wiser
in the future. Now go, and consider all that you may require for
your journey."
Agitated, delighted, full of hope, I ran up to my own room, locked the
door, and indulged in a delightful reverie. What a prospect had suddenly
opened before me! What novelty! what adventure! To have visited London
would have been to fulfil all my desires; but to be sent to Paris was to
receive a passport for Fairyland!
That day, for the first time in many months, I dressed myself carefully,
and went down to dinner with a light heart, a cheerful face, and an
unexceptionable neckcloth.
As I took my place at the table, my father looked up cheerily and gave
me a pleased nod of recognition.
Our meal passed off very silently. It was my father's maxim that no man
could do more than one thing well at a time--especially at table; so we
had contracted a habit which to strangers would have seemed even more
unsociable than it really was, and gave to all our meals an air more
penitential than convivial. But this day was, in reality, a festive
occasion, and my father was disposed to be more than usually agreeable.
When the cloth was removed, he flung the cellar-key at my head, and
exclaimed, in a burst of unexampled good-humor:--
"Basil, you dog, fetch up a bottle of the particular port!"
Now it is one of my theories that a man's after-dinner talk takes much
of its weight, color, and variety from the quality of his wines. A
generous vintage brings out generous sentiments. Good fellowship,
hospitality, liberal politics, and the milk of human kindness, may be
uncorked simultaneously with a bottle of old Madeira; while a pint of
thin Sauterne is productive only of envy, hatred, malice, and all
uncharitableness. We grow sententious on Burgundy--logical on
Bordeaux--sentimental on Cyprus--maudlin on Lagrima Christi--and witty
on Champagne.
Port was my father's favorite wine. It warmed his heart, cooled his
temper, and made him not only conversational, but expansive. Leaning
back complacently in his easy-chair, with the glass upheld between his
eye and the window, he discoursed to me of my journey, of my prospects
in life, and of all that I should do and avoid, professionally
and morally.
"Work," he said, "is the panacea for every sorrow--the plaster for every
pain--your only universal remedy. Industry, air, and exercise are our
best physicians. Trust to them, boy; but beware how you publish the
prescription, lest you find your occupation gone. Remember, if you wish
to be rich, you must never seem to be poor; and as soon as you stand in
need of your friends, you will find yourself with none left. Be discreet
of speech, and cultivate the art of silence. Above all things, be
truthful. Hold your tongue as long as you please, but never open your
lips to a lie. Show no man the contents of your purse--he would either
despise you for having so little, or try to relieve you of the burden
of carrying so much. Above all, never get into debt, and never fall in
love. The first is disgrace, and the last is the devil! Respect
yourself, if you wish others to respect you; and bear in mind that the
world takes you at your own estimate. To dress well is a duty one owes
to society. The man who neglects his own appearance not only degrades
himself to the level of his inferiors, but puts an affront upon his
friends and acquaintances."
"I trust, sir," I said in some confusion, "that I shall never incur the
last reproach again."
"I hope not, Basil," replied my father, with a smile. "I hope not. Keep
your conscience clean and your boots blacked, and I have no fear of you.
You are no hero, my boy, but it depends upon yourself whether you become
a man of honor or a scamp; a gentleman or a clown. You have, I see,
registered a good resolution to-day. Keep it; and remember that
Pandemonium will get paved without your help. There would be no
industry, boy, if there was no idleness, and all true progress begins
with--Reform."
CHAPTER VII.
AT THE CHEVAL BLANC
My journey, even at this distance of time, appears to me like an
enchanted dream. I observed, yet scarcely remembered, the scenes through
which I passed, so divided was I between the novelty of travelling and
the eagerness of anticipation. Provided with my letters of introduction,
the sum of one hundred guineas, English, and the enthusiasm of twenty
years of age, I fancied myself endowed with an immortality of wealth and
happiness.
The Brighton coach passed through our town once a week; so I started for
Paris without having ever visited London, and took the route by Newhaven
and Dieppe. Having left home on Tuesday morning, I reached Rouen in the
course of the next day but one. At Rouen I stayed to dine and sleep, and
so made my way to the _Cheval Blanc_, a grand hotel on the quay, where I
was received by an aristocratic elderly waiter who sauntered out from a
side office, surveyed me patronizingly, entered my name upon a card for
a seat at the _table d'hote_, and, having rung a feeble little bell,
sank exhausted upon a seat in the hall.
"To number seventeen, Marie," said this majestic personage, handing me
over to a pretty little chambermaid who attended the summons. "And,
Marie, on thy return, my child, bring me an absinthe."
We left this gentleman in a condition of ostentatious languor, and Marie
deposited me in a pretty room overlooking an exquisite little garden set
round with beds of verbena and scarlet geranium, with a fountain
sparkling in the midst. This garden was planted in what had once been
the courtyard, of the building. The trees nodded and whispered, and the
windows at the opposite side of the quadrangle glittered like burnished
gold in the sunlight. I threw open the jalousies, plucked one of the
white roses that clustered outside, and drank in with delight the sunny
perfumed air that played among the leaves, and scattered the waters of
the fountain. I could not long rest thus, however. I longed to be out
and about; so, as it was now no more than half-past three o'clock, and
two good hours of the glorious midsummer afternoon yet remained to me
before the hotel dinner-hour, I took my hat, and went out along the
quays and streets of this beautiful and ancient Norman city.
Under the crumbling archways; through narrow alleys where the upper
stories nearly met overhead, leaving only a bright strip of dazzling sky
between; past quaint old mansions, and sculptured fountains, and stately
churches hidden away in all kinds of strange forgotten nooks and
corners, I wandered, wondering and unwearied. I saw the statue of Jeanne
d'Arc; the chateau of Diane de Poitiers; the archway carved in oak where
the founder of the city still, in rude effigy, presides; the museum
rich in mediaeval relics; the market-place crowded with fruit-sellers and
flower-girls in their high Norman caps. Above all, I saw the rare old
Gothic Cathedral, with its wondrous wealth of antique sculpture; its
iron spire, destined, despite its traceried beauty, to everlasting
incompleteness; its grass-grown buttresses, and crumbling pinnacles, and
portals crowded with images of saints and kings. I went in. All was
gray, shadowy, vast; dusk with the rich gloom of painted windows; and so
silent that I scarcely dared disturb the echoes by my footsteps. There
stood in a corner near the door a triangular iron stand stuck full of
votive tapers that flickered and sputtered and guttered dismally,
shedding showers of penitential grease-drops on the paved floor below;
and there was a very old peasant woman on her knees before the altar. I
sat down on a stone bench and fell into a long study of the stained
oriel, the light o'erarching roof, and the long perspective of the
pillared aisles. Presently the verger came out of the vestry-room,
followed by two gentlemen. He was short and plump, with a loose black
gown, slender black legs, and a pointed nose--like a larger species
of raven.
"_Bon jour, M'sieur_" croaked he, laying his head a little on one side,
and surveying me with one glittering eye. "Will M'sieur be pleased to
see the treasury?"
"The treasury!" I repeated. "What is there to be seen in the treasury?"
"Nothing, sir, worth one son of an Englishman's money," said the taller
of the gentlemen. "Tinsel, paste, and dusty bones--all humbug and
extortion."
Something in the scornful accent and the deep voice aroused the
suspicions of the verger, though the words were spoken in English.
"Our treasury, M'sieur," croaked he, more ravenly than ever, "is
rich--rich in episcopal jewels; in relics--inestimable relics. Tickets
two francs each."
Grateful, however, for the timely caution, I acknowledged my
countryman's courtesy by a bow, declined the proffered investment, and
went out again into the sunny streets.
At five o'clock I found myself installed near the head of an immensely
long dinner-table in the _salle a manger_ of the Cheval Blanc. The
_salle a manger_ was a magnificent temple radiant with mirrors, and
lustres, and panels painted in fresco. The dinner was an imposing rite,
served with solemn ceremonies by ministering waiters. There were about
thirty guests seated round, in august silence, most of them very smartly
dressed, and nearly all English. A stout gentleman, with a little knob
on the top of his bald head, a buff waistcoat, and a shirt amply
frilled, sat opposite to me, flanked on either side by an elderly
daughter in green silk. On my left I was supported by a thin young
gentleman with fair hair, and blue glasses. To my right stood a vacant
chair, the occupant of which had not yet arrived; and at the head of the
table sat a spare pale man dressed all in black, who spoke to no one,
kept his eyes fixed upon his plate, and was served by the waiters with
especial servility. The soup came and went in profound silence. Faint
whispers passed to and fro with the fish. It was not till the roast made
its appearance that anything like conversation broke the sacred silence
of the meal. At this point the owner of the vacant chair arrived, and
took his place beside me. I recognised him immediately. It was the
Englishman whom I had met in the Cathedral. We bowed, and presently he
spoke to me. In the meantime, he had every forgone item of the dinner
served to him as exactly as if he had not been late at table, and sipped
his soup with perfect deliberation while others were busy with the
sweets. Our conversation began, of course, with the weather and
the place.
"Your first visit to Rouen, I suppose?" said he. "Beautiful old city, is
it not? _Garcon_, a pint of Bordeaux-Leoville."
I modestly admitted that it was not only my first visit to Rouen, but my
first to the Continent.
"Ah, you may go farther than Rouen, and fare worse," said he. "Do you
sketch? No? That's a pity, for it's deliciously picturesque--though,
for my own part, I am not enthusiastic about gutters and gables, and I
object to a population composed exclusively of old women. I'm glad, by
the way, that I preserved you from wasting your time among the atrocious
lumber of that so-called treasury."
"The treasury!" exclaimed my slim neighbor with the blue glasses. "Beg
your p--p--pardon, sir, but are you speaking of the Cathedral treasury?
Is it worth v--v--visiting?"
"Singularly so," replied he to my right. "One of the rarest collections
of authentic curiosities in France. They have the snuff-box of Clovis,
the great toe of Saint Helena, and the tongs with which St. Dunstan took
the devil by the nose."
"Up--p--pon my word, now, that's curious," ejaculated the thin tourist,
who had an impediment in his speech. "I must p--p--put that down. Dear
me! the snuff-box of King Clovis! I must see these relics to-morrow."
"Be sure you ask for the great toe of St. Helena," said my right hand
companion, proceeding imperturbably with his dinner. "The saint had but
one leg at the period of her martyrdom, and that great toe is unique."
"G--g--good gracious!" exclaimed the tourist, pulling out a gigantic
note-book, and entering the fact upon the spot. "A saint with one
leg--and a lady, too! Wouldn't m--m--miss that for the world!"
I looked round, puzzled by the gravity of my new acquaintance.
"Is this all true?" I whispered. "You told me the treasury was a
humbug."
"And so it is."
"But the snuff-box of Clovis, and...."
"Pure inventions! The man's a muff, and on muffs I have no mercy. Do you
stay long in Rouen?"
"No, I go on to Paris to-morrow. I wish I could remain longer."
"I am not sure that you would gain more from a long visit than from a
short one. Some places are like some women, charming, _en passant_, but
intolerable upon close acquaintance. It is just so with Rouen. The place
contains no fine galleries, and no places of public entertainment; and
though exquisitely picturesque, is nothing more. One cannot always be
looking at old houses, and admiring old churches. You will be delighted
with Paris."
"B--b--beautiful city," interposed the stammerer, eager to join our
conversation, whenever he could catch a word of it. "I'm going to
P--P--Paris myself."
"Then, sir, I don't doubt you will do ample justice to its attractions,"
observed my right-hand neighbor. "From the size of your note-book, and
the industry with which you accumulate useful information, I should
presume that you are a conscientious observer of all that is recondite
and curious."
"I as--p--pire to be so," replied the other, with a blush and a bow. "I
m--m--mean to exhaust P--P--Paris. I'm going to write a b--b--book about
it, when I get home."'
My friend to the right flashed one glance of silent scorn upon the
future author, drained the last glass of his Bordeaux-Leoville, pushed
his chair impatiently back, and said:--"This place smells like a
kitchen. Will you come out, and have a cigar?"
So we rose, took our hats, and in a few moments were strolling under the
lindens on the Quai de Corneille.
I, of course, had never smoked in my life; and, humiliating though it
was, found myself obliged to decline a "prime Havana," proffered in the
daintiest of embroidered cigar-cases. My companion looked as if he
pitied me. "You'll soon learn," said he. "A man can't live in Paris
without tobacco. Do you stay there many weeks?"
"Two years, at least," I replied, registering an inward resolution to
conquer the difficulties of tobacco without delay. "I am going to study
medicine under an eminent French surgeon."
"Indeed! Well, you could not go to a better school, or embrace a nobler
profession. I used to think a soldier's life the grandest under heaven;
but curing is a finer thing than killing, after all! What a delicious
evening, is it not? If one were only in Paris, now, or Vienna,...."
"What, Oscar Dalrymple!" exclaimed a voice close beside us. "I should as
soon have expected to meet the great Panjandrum himself!"
"--With the little round button at top," added my companion, tossing
away the end of his cigar, and shaking hands heartily with the
new-comer. "By Jove, Frank, I'm glad to see you! What brings you here?"
"Business--confound it! And not pleasant business either. _A proces_
which my father has instituted against a great manufacturing firm here
at Rouen, and of which I have to bear the brunt. And you?"
"And I, my dear fellow? Pshaw! what should I be but an idler in search
of amusement?"
"Is it true that you have sold out of the Enniskillens?"
"Unquestionably. Liberty is sweet; and who cares to carry a sword in
time of peace? Not I, at all events."
While this brief greeting was going forward, I hung somewhat in the
rear, and amused myself by comparing the speakers. The new-comer was
rather below than above the middle height, fair-haired and boyish, with
a smile full of mirth and an eye full of mischief. He looked about two
years my senior. The other was much older--two or three and thirty, at
the least--dark, tall, powerful, finely built; his wavy hair clipped
close about his sun-burnt neck; a thick moustache of unusual length; and
a chest that looked as if it would have withstood the shock of a
battering-ram. Without being at all handsome, there was a look of
brightness, and boldness, and gallantry about him that arrested one's
attention at first sight. I think I should have taken him for a soldier,
had I not already gathered it from the last words of their conversation.
"Who is your friend?" I heard the new-comer whisper.
To which the other replied:--"Haven't the ghost of an idea."
Presently he took out his pocket-book, and handing me a card, said:--
"We are under the mutual disadvantage of all chance acquaintances. My
name is Dalrymple--Oscar Dalrymple, late of the Enniskillen Dragoons. My
friend here is unknown to fame as Mr. Frank Sullivan; a young gentleman
who has the good fortune to be younger partner in a firm of merchant
princes, and the bad taste to dislike his occupation."
How I blushed as I took Captain Dalrymple's card, and stammered out my
own name in return! I had never possessed a card in my life, nor needed
one, till this moment. I rather think that Captain Dalrymple guessed
these facts, for he shook hands with me at once, and put an end to my
embarrassment by proposing that we should take a boat, and pull a mile
or two up the river. The thing was no sooner said than done. There were
plenty of boats below the iron bridge; so we chose one of the cleanest,
and jumped into it without any kind of reference to the owner, whoever
he might be.
"_Batelier, Messieurs? Batelier_?" cried a dozen men at once, rushing
down to the water's edge.
But Dalrymple had already thrown off his coat, and seized the oars.
"_Batelier_, indeed!" laughed he, as with two or three powerful strokes
he carried us right into the middle, of the stream. "Trust an Oxford man
for employing any arms but his own, when a pair of sculls are in
question!"
* * * * *
CHAPTER VIII.
THE ISLAND IN THE RIVER.
It was just eight o'clock when we started, with the twilight coming on.
Our course lay up the river, with a strong current setting against us;
so we made but little way, and enjoyed the tranquil beauty of the
evening. The sky was pale and clear, somewhat greenish overhead and
deepening along the line of the horizon into amber and rose. Behind us
lay the town with every brown spire articulated against the sky and
every vane glittering in the last glow that streamed up from the west.
To our left rose a line of steep chalk cliffs, and before us lay the
river, winding away through meadow lands fringed with willows and
poplars, and interspersed with green islands wooded to the water's edge.
Presently the last flush faded, and one large planet, splendid and
solitary, like the first poet of a dark century, emerged from the
deepening gray.
My companions were in high spirits. They jested; they laughed; they
hummed scraps of songs; they had a greeting for every boat that passed.
By-and-by, we came to an island with a little landing-place where a
score or two of boats were moored against the alders by the water's
edge. A tall flag-staff gay with streamers peeped above the tree-tops,
and a cheerful sound of piping and fiddling, mingled with the hum of
many voices, came and went with the passing breeze. As Dalrymple rested
on his oars to listen, a boat which we had outstripped some minutes
before, shot past us to the landing-place, and its occupants, five in
number, alighted.
"Bet you ten to one that's a bridal party," said Mr. Sullivan.
"Say you so? Then suppose we follow, and have a look at the bride!"
exclaimed his friend. "The place is a public garden."
The proposition was carried unanimously, and we landed, having first
tied the boat to a willow. We found the island laid out very prettily;
intersected by numbers of little paths, with rustic seats here and there
among the trees, and variegated lamps gleaming out amid the grass, like
parti-colored glow-worms. Following one of these paths, we came
presently to an open space, brilliantly lighted and crowded by
holiday-makers. Here were refreshment stalls, and Russian swings, and
queer-looking merry-go-rounds, where each individual sat on a wooden
horse and went gravely round and round with a stick in his hand, trying
to knock off a ring from the top of a pole in the middle. Here, also,
was a band in a gaily decorated orchestra; a circular area roped off
for dancers; a mysterious tent with a fortune-teller inside; a
lottery-stall resplendent with vases and knick-knacks, which nobody was
ever known to win; in short, all kinds of attractions, stale enough, no
doubt, to my companions, but sufficiently novel and amusing to me.
We strolled about for some time among the stalls and promenaders and
amused ourselves by criticising the company, which was composed almost
entirely of peasants, soldiers, artisans in blue blouses and humble
tradespeople. The younger women were mostly handsome, with high Norman
caps, white kerchiefs and massive gold ear-rings. Many, in addition to
the ear-rings, wore a gold cross suspended round the neck by a piece of
black velvet; and some had a brooch to match. Here, sitting round a
table under a tree, we came upon a family group, consisting of a little
plump, bald-headed _bourgeois_ with his wife and two children--the wife
stout and rosy; the children noisy and authoritative. They were
discussing a dish of poached eggs and a bottle of red wine, to the music
of a polka close by.
"I should like to dance," said the little girl, drumming with her feet
against the leg of the table, and eating an egg with her fingers. "I may
dance presently with Phillippe, may I not, papa?"
"I won't dance," said Phillippe sulkily. "I want some oysters."
"Oysters, _mon enfant_! I have told you twice already that no one eats
oysters in July," observed his mother.
"I don't care for that," said Phillippe. "It's my _fete_ day, and Uncle
Jacques said I was to have whatever I fancied; I want some oysters."
"Your Uncle Jacques did not know what an unreasonable boy you are,"
replied the father angrily. "If you say another word about oysters, you
shall not ride in the _manege_ to-night."
Phillippe thrust his fists into his eyes and began to roar--so we walked
away.
In an arbor, a little further on, we saw two young people whispering
earnestly, and conscious of no eyes but each other's.
"A pair of lovers," said Sullivan.
"And a pair that seldom get the chance of meeting, if we may judge by
their untasted omelette," replied Dalrymple. "But where's the
bridal party?"
"Oh, we shall find them presently. You seem interested."
"I am. I mean to dance with the bride and make the bridegroom jealous."
We laughed and passed on, peeping into every arbor, observing every
group, and turning to stare at every pretty girl we met. My own aptitude
in the acquisition of these arts of gallantry astonished myself. Now, we
passed a couple of soldiers playing at dominoes; now a noisy party round
a table in the open air covered with bottles; now an arbor where half a
dozen young men and three or four girls were assembled round a bowl of
blazing punch. The girls were protesting they dare not drink it, but
were drinking it, nevertheless, with exceeding gusto.
"Grisettes and _commis voyageurs!_" said Dalrymple, contemptuously. "Let
us go and look at the dancers."
We went on, and stood in the shelter of some trees near the orchestra.
The players consisted of three violins, a clarionette and a big drum.
The big drum was an enthusiastic performer. He belabored his instrument
as heartily as if it had been his worst enemy, but with so much
independence of character that he never kept the same time as his
fellow-players for two minutes together. They were playing a polka for
the benefit of some twelve or fifteen couples, who were dancing with all
their might in the space before the orchestra. On they came, round and
round and never weary, two at a time--a mechanic and a grisette, a
rustic and a Normandy girl, a tall soldier and a short widow, a fat
tradesman and his wife, a couple of milliners assistants who preferred
dancing together to not dancing at all, and so forth.
"How I wish somebody would ask me, _ma mere_!" said a coquettish
brunette, close by, with a sidelong glance at ourselves."
"You shall dance with your brother Paul, my dear, as soon as he comes,"
replied her mother, a stout _bourgeoise_ with a green fan.
"But it is such dull work to dance with one's brother!" pouted the
brunette. "If it were one's cousin, even, it would be different."
Mr. Frank Sullivan flung away his cigar, and began buttoning up his
gloves.
"I'll take that damsel out immediately," said he. "A girl who objects to
dance with her brother deserves encouragement."
So away he went with his hat inclining jauntily on one side, and, having
obtained the mother's permission, whirled away with the pretty brunette
into the very thickest of the throng.
"There they are!" said Dalrymple, suddenly. "There's the wedding party.
_Per Bacco_! but our little bride is charming!"
"And the bridegroom is a handsome specimen of rusticity."
"Yes--a genuine pastoral pair, like a Dresden china shepherd and
shepherdess. See, the girl is looking up in his face--he shakes his
head. She is urging him to dance, and he refuses! Never mind, _ma
belle_--you shall have your valse, and Corydon may be as cross as
he pleases!"
"Don't flatter yourself that she will displease Corydon to dance with
your lordship!" I said, laughingly.
"Pshaw! she would displease fifty Corydons if I chose to make her do
so," said Dalrymple, with a smile of conscious power.
"True; but not on her wedding-day."
"Wedding-day or not, I beg to observe that in less than half an hour you
will see me whirling along with my arm round little Phillis's dainty
waist. Now come and see how I do it."
He made his way through the crowd, and I, half curious, half abashed,
went with him. The party was five in number, consisting of the bride and
bridegroom, a rosy, middle-aged peasant woman, evidently the mother of
the bride, and an elderly couple who looked like humble townsfolk, and
were probably related to one or other of the newly-married pair.
Dalrymple opened the attack by stumbling against the mother, and then
overwhelming her with elaborate apologies.
"In these crowded places, Madame," said he, in his fluent French, "one
is scarcely responsible for an impoliteness. I beg ten thousand pardons,
however. I hope I have not hurt you?"
"_Ma foi!_ no, M'sieur. It would take more than that to hurt me!"
"Nor injured your dress, I trust, Madame?"
"_Ah, par exemple_! do I wear muslins or gauzes that they should not
bear touching? No, no, no, M'sieur--thanking you all the same."
"You are very amiable, Madame, to say so."
"You are very polite, M'sieur, to think so much of a trifle."
"Nothing is a trifle, Madame, where a lady is concerned. At least, so we
Englishmen consider."
"Bah! M'sieur is not English?"
"Indeed, Madame, I am."
"_Mais, mon Dieu! c'est incroyable_. Suzette--brother Jacques--Andre, do
you hear this? M'sieur, here, swears that he is English, and yet he
speaks French like one of ourselves! Ah, what a fine thing learning is!"
"I may say with truth, Madame, that I never appreciate the advantages of
education so highly, as when they enable me to converse with ladies who
are not my own countrywomen," said Dalrymple, carrying on the
conversation with as much studied politeness as if his interlocutor had
been a duchess. "But--excuse the observation--you are here, I imagine,
upon a happy occasion?"
The mother laughed, and rubbed her hands.
"_Dame_! one may see that," replied she, "with one's eyes shut! Yes,
M'sieur,--yes--their wedding-day, the dear children--their wedding-day!
They've been betrothed these two years."
"The bride is very like you, Madame," said Dalrymple, gravely. "Your
younger sister, I presume?"
"_Ah, quel farceur_! He takes my daughter for my sister! Suzette, do
you hear this? M'sieur is killing me with laughter!"
And the good lady chuckled, and gasped, and wiped her eyes, and dealt
Dalrymple a playful push between the shoulders, which would have upset
the balance of any less heavy dragoon.
"Your daughter, Madame!" said he. "Allow me to congratulate you. May I
also be permitted to congratulate the bride?" And with this he took off
his hat to Suzette and shook hands with Andre, who looked not
overpleased, and proceeded to introduce me as his friend Monsieur Basil
Arbuthnot, "a young English gentleman, _tres distingue_"
The old lady then said her name was Madame Roquet, and that she rented a
small farm about a mile and a half from Rouen; that Suzette was her only
child; and that she had lost her "blessed man" about eight years ago.
She next introduced the elderly couple as her brother Jacques Robineau
and his wife, and informed us that Jacques was a tailor, and had a shop
opposite the church of St. Maclou, "_la bas_."
To judge of Monsieur Robineau's skill by his outward appearance, I
should have said that he was professionally unsuccessful, and supplied
his own wardrobe from the misfits returned by his customers. He wore a
waistcoat which was considerably too long for him, trousers which were
considerably too short, and a green cloth coat with a high velvet collar
which came up nearly to the tops of his ears. In respect of personal
characteristics, Monsieur Robineau and his wife were the most admirable
contrast imaginable. Monsieur Robineau was short; Madame Robineau was
tall. Monsieur Robineau was as plump and rosy as a robin; Madame
Robineau was pale and bony to behold. Monsieur Robineau looked the soul
of good nature, ready to chirrup over his _grog-au-vin,_ to smoke a pipe
with his neighbor, to cut a harmless joke or enjoy a harmless frolic, as
cheerfully as any little tailor that ever lived; Madame Robineau, on the
contrary, preserved a dreadful dignity, and looked as if she could laugh
at nothing on this side of the grave. Not to consider the question too
curiously, I should have said, at first sight, that Monsieur Robineau
stood in no little awe of his wife, and that Madame Robineau was the
very head and front of their domestic establishment.
It was wonderful and delightful to see how Captain Dalrymple placed
himself on the best of terms with all these good people--how he patted
Robineau on the back and complimented Madame, banished the cloud from
Andre's brow, and summoned a smile to the pretty cheek of Suzette. One
would have thought he had known them for years already, so thoroughly
was he at home with every member of the wedding party.
Presently, he asked Suzette to dance. She blushed scarlet, and cast a
pretty appealing look at her husband and her mother. I could almost
guess what she whispered to the former by the motion of her lips.
"Monsieur Andre will, I am sure, spare Madame for one gallop," said
Dalrymple, with that kind of courtesy which accepts no denial. It was
quite another tone, quite another manner. It was no longer the
persuasive suavity of one who is desirous only to please, but the
politeness of a gentleman to au inferior.
The cloud came back upon Andre's brow, and he hesitated; but Madame
Roquet interposed.
"Spare her!" she exclaimed. "_Dame_! I should think so! She has never
left his arm all day. Here, my child, give me your shawl while you
dance, and bake care not to get too warm, for the evening air is
dangerous."
And so Suzette took off her shawl, and Andre was silenced, and
Dalrymple, in less than the half hour, was actually whirling away with
his arm round little Phillis's dainty waist.
I am afraid that I proved a very indifferent _locum tenens_ for my
brilliant friend, and that the good people thought me exceedingly
stupid. I tried to talk to them, but the language tripped me up at every
turn, and the right words never would come when they were wanted.
Besides, I felt uneasy without knowing exactly why. I could not keep
from watching Dalrymple and Suzette. I could not help noticing how
closely he held her; how he never ceased talking to her; and how the
smiles and blushes chased each other over her pretty face. That I should
have wit enough to observe these things proved that my education was
progressing rapidly; but then, to be sure, I was studying under an
accomplished teacher.
They danced for a long time. So long, that Andre became uneasy, and my
available French was quite exhausted. I was heartily glad when Dalrymple
brought back the little bride at last, flushed and panting, and (himself
as cool as a diplomatist) assisted her with her shawl and resigned her
to the protection of her husband.
"Why hast thou danced so long with that big Englishman?" murmured Andre,
discontentedly. "When _I_ asked thee, thou wast too tired, and now...."
"And now I am so happy to be near thee again," whispered Suzette.
Andre softened directly.
"But to dance for twenty minutes...." began he.
"Ah, but he danced so well, and I am so fond of waltzing, Andre!"
The cloud gathered again, and an impatient reply was coming, when
Dalrymple opportunely invited the whole party to a bowl of punch in an
adjoining arbor, and himself led the way with Madame Roquet. The arbor
was vacant, a waiter was placing the chairs, and the punch was blazing
in the bowl. It had evidently been ordered during one of the pauses in
the dance, that it might be ready to the moment--a little attention
which called forth exclamations of pleasure from both Madame Roquet and
Monsieur Robineau, and touched with something like a gleam of
satisfaction even the grim visage of Monsieur Robineau's wife.
Dalrymple took the head of the table, and stirred the punch into leaping
tongues of blue flame till it looked like a miniature Vesuvius.
"What diabolical-looking stuff!" I exclaimed. "You might, to all
appearance, be Lucifer's own cupbearer."
"A proof that it ought to be devilish good," replied Dalrymple, ladling
it out into the glasses. "Allow me, ladies and gentlemen, to propose the
health, happiness, and prosperity of the bride and bridegroom. May they
never die, and may they be remembered for ever after!"
We all laughed as if this was the best joke we had heard in our lives,
and Dalrymple filled the glasses up again.
"What, in the name of all that's mischievous, can have become of
Sullivan?" said he to me. "I have not caught so much as a glimpse of him
for the last hour."
"When I last saw him, he was dancing."
"Yes, with a pretty little dark-eyed girl in a blue dress. By Jove! that
fellow will be getting into trouble if left to himself!"
"But the girl has her mother with her!"
"All the stronger probability of a scrimmage," replied Dalrymple,
sipping his punch with a covert glance of salutation at Suzette.
"Shall I see if they are among the dancers?"
"Do--but make haste; for the punch is disappearing fast."
I left them, and went back to the platform where the indefatigable
public was now engaged in the performance of quadrilles. Never, surely,
were people so industrious in the pursuit of pleasure! They poussetted,
bowed, curtsied, joined hands, and threaded the mysteries of every
figure, as if their very lives depended on their agility.
"Look at Jean Thomas," said a young girl to her still younger companion.
"He dances like an angel!"
The one thus called upon to admire, looked at Jean Thomas, and sighed.
"He never asks me, by any chance," said she, sadly, "although his mother
and mine are good neighbors. I suppose I don't dance well enough--or
dress well enough," she added, glancing at her friend's gay shawl and
coquettish cap.
"He has danced with me twice this evening," said the first speaker
triumphantly; "and he danced with me twice last Sunday at the Jardin
d'Armide. Elise says...."
Her voice dropped to a whisper, and I heard no more. It was a passing
glimpse behind the curtain--a peep at one of the many dramas of real
life that are being played for ever around us. Here were all the
elements of romance--love, admiration, vanity, envy. Here was a hero in
humble life--a lady-killer in his own little sphere. He dances with one,
neglects another, and multiplies his conquests with all the
heartlessness of a gentleman.
I wandered round the platform once or twice, scrutinizing the dancers,
but without success. There was no sign of Sullivan, or of his partner,
or of his partner's mother, the _bourgeoise_ with the green fan. I then
went to the grotto of the fortune-teller, but it was full of noisy
rustics; and thence to the lottery hall, where there were plenty of
players, but not those of whom I was in search.
"Wheel of fortune, Messieurs et Mesdames," said the young lady behind
the counter. "Only fifty centimes each. All prizes, and no blanks--try
your fortune, _monsieur le capitaine!_ Put it once, _monsieur le
capitaine_; once for yourself, and once for madame. Only fifty centimes
each, and the certainty of winning!"
_Monsieur le capitaine_ was a great, rawboned corporal, with a pretty
little maid-servant on his arm. The flattery was not very delicate; but
it succeeded. He threw down a franc. The wheel flew round, the papers
were drawn, and the corporal won a needle-case, and the maid-servant a
cigar-holder. In the midst of the laugh to which this distribution gave
rise, I walked away in the direction of the refreshment stalls. Here
were parties supping substantially, dancers drinking orgeat and
lemonade, and little knots of tradesmen and mechanics sipping beer
ridiculously out of wine-glasses to an accompaniment of cakes and
sweet-biscuits. Still I could see no trace of Mr. Frank Sullivan.
At length I gave up the search in despair, and on my way back
encountered Master Philippe leaning against a tree, and looking
exceedingly helpless and unwell.
"You ate too many eggs, Philippe," said his mother. "I told you so at
the time."
"It--it wasn't the eggs," faltered the wretched Philippe. "It was the
Russian swing."
"And serve you rightly, too," said his father angrily. "I wish with all
my heart that you had had your favorite oysters as well!"
When I came back to the arbor, I found the little party immensely happy,
and a fresh bowl of punch just placed upon the table. Andre was sitting
next to Suzette, as proud as a king. Madame Roquet, volubly convivial,
was talking to every one. Madame Robineau was silently disposing of all
the biscuits and punch that came in her way. Monsieur Robineau, with his
hat a little pushed back and his thumb in the arm-hole of his waistcoat,
was telling a long story to which nobody listened; while Dalrymple,
sitting on the other side of the bride, was gallantly doing the duties
of entertainer.
He looked up--I shook my head, slipped back into my place, and listened
to the tangled threads of conversation going on around me.
"And so," said Monsieur Robineau, proceeding with his story, and staring
down into the bottom of his empty glass, "and so I said to myself,
'Robineau, _mon ami_, take care. One honest man is better than two
rogues; and if thou keepest thine eyes open, the devil himself stands
small chance of cheating thee!' So I buttoned up my coat--this very coat
I have on now, only that I have re-lined and re-cuffed it since then,
and changed the buttons for brass ones; and brass buttons for one's
holiday coat, you know, look so much more _comme il faut_--and said to
the landlord...."
"Another glass of punch, Monsieur Robineau," interrupted Dalrymple.
"Thank you, M'sieur, you are very good; well, as I was saying...."
"Ah, bah, brother Jacques!" exclaimed Madame Roquet, impatiently,
"don't give us that old story of the miller and the gray colt, this
evening! We've all heard it a hundred times already. Sing us a song
instead, _mon ami_!"
"I shall be happy to sing, sister Marie," replied Monsieur Robineau,
with somewhat husky dignity, "when I have finished my story. You may
have heard the story before. So may Andre--so may Suzette--so may my
wife. I admit it. But these gentlemen--these gentlemen who have never
heard it, and who have done me the honor...."
"Not to listen to a word of it," said Madame Robineau, sharply. "There,
you are answered, husband. Drink your punch, and hold your tongue."
Monsieur Robineau waved his hand majestically, and assumed a
Parliamentary air.
"Madame Robineau," he said, getting more and more husky, "be so obliging
as to wait till I ask for your advice. With regard to drinking my punch,
I have drunk it--" and here he again stared down into the bottom of his
glass, which was again empty--"and with regard to holding my tongue,
that is my business, and--and...."
"Monsieur Robineau," said Dalrymple, "allow me to offer you some more
punch."
"Not another drop, Jacques," said Madame, sternly. "You have had too
much already."
Poor Monsieur Robineau, who had put out his glass to be refilled, paused
and looked helplessly at his wife.
"_Mon cher ange_,...." he began; but she shook her head inflexibly, and
Monsieur Robineau submitted with the air of a man who knows that from
the sentence of the supreme court there is no appeal.
"_Dame_!" whispered Madame Roquet, with a confidential attack upon my
ribs that gave me a pain in my side for half an hour after, "my brother
has the heart of a rabbit. He gives way to her in everything--so much
the worse for him. My blessed man, who was a saint of a husband, would
have broken the bowl over my ears if I had dared to interfere between
his glass and his mouth!"
Whereupon Madame Roquet filled her own glass and mine, and Madame
Robineau, less indulgent to her husband than herself, followed
our example.
Just at this moment, a confused hubbub of voices, and other sounds
expressive of a _fracas_, broke out in the direction of the trees behind
the orchestra. The dancers deserted their polka, the musicians stopped
fiddling, the noisy supper-party in the next arbor abandoned their cold
chicken and salad, and everybody ran to the scene of action. Dalrymple
was on his feet in a moment; but Suzette held Andre back with both hands
and implored him to stay.
"Some _mauvais sujets_, no doubt, who refuse to pay the score,"
suggested Madame Roquet.
"Or Sullivan, who has got into one of his infernal scrapes," muttered
Dalrymple, with a determined wrench at his moustache. "Come on, anyhow,
and let us see what is the matter!"
So we snatched up our hats and ran out, just as Monsieur Robineau seized
the opportunity to drink another tumbler of punch when his wife was
not looking.
Following in the direction of the rest, we took one of the paths behind
the orchestra, and came upon a noisy crowd gathered round a wooden
summer-house.
"It's a fight," said one.
"It's a pickpocket," said another.
"Bah! it's only a young fellow who has been making love to a girl,"
exclaimed a third.
We forced our way through, and there we saw Mr. Frank Sullivan with his
hat off, his arms crossed, and his back against the wall, presenting a
dauntless front to the gesticulations and threats of an exceedingly
enraged young man with red hair, who was abusing him furiously. The
amount of temper displayed by this young man was something unparalleled.
He was angry in every one of his limbs. He stamped, he shook his fist,
he shook his head. The very tips of his ears looked scarlet with rage.
Every now and then he faced round to the spectators, and appealed to
them--or to a stout woman with a green fan, who was almost as red and
angry as himself, and who always rushed forward when addressed, and
shook the green fan in Sullivan's face.
"You are an aristocrat!" stormed the young man. "A pampered, insolent
aristocrat! A dog of an Englishman! A _scelerat_! Don't suppose you are
to trample upon us for nothing! We are Frenchmen, you beggarly
islander--Frenchmen, do you hear?"
A growl of sympathetic indignation ran through the crowd, and "_a bas
les aristocrats_--_a bas les Anglais_!" broke out here and there.
"In the devil's name, Sullivan," said Dalrymple, shouldering his way up
to the object of these agreeable menaces, "what have you been after, to
bring this storm about your ears?"
"Pshaw! nothing at all," replied he with a mocking laugh, and a
contemptuous gesture. "I danced with a pretty girl, and treated her to
champagne afterwards. Her mother and brother hunted us out, and spoiled
our flirtation. That's the whole story."
Something in the laugh and gesture--something, too, perhaps in the
language which they could not understand, appeared to give the last
aggravation to both of Sullivan's assailants. I saw the young man raise
his arm to strike--I saw Dalrymple fell him with a blow that would have
stunned an ox--I saw the crowd close in, heard the storm break out on
every side, and, above it all, the deep, strong tones of Dalrymple's
voice, saying:--
"To the boat, boys! Follow me."
In another moment he had flung himself into the crowd, dealt one or two
sounding blows to left and right, cleared a passage for himself and us,
and sped away down one of the narrow walks leading to the river.
Presently, having taken one or two turnings, none of which seemed to
lead to the spot we sought, we came upon an open space full of piled-up
benches, pyramids of empty bottles, boxes, baskets, and all kinds of
lumber. Here we paused to listen and take breath.
We had left the crowd behind us, but they were still within hearing.
"By Jove!" said Dalrymple, "I don't know which way to go. I believe we
are on the wrong side of the island."
"And I believe they are after us," added Sullivan, peering into the
baskets. "By all that's fortunate, here are the fireworks! Has anybody
got a match? We'll take these with us, and go off in a blaze
of triumph!"
The suggestion was no sooner made than adopted. We filled our hats and
pockets with crackers and Catherine-wheels, piled the rest into one
great heap, threw a dozen or so of lighted fusees into the midst of
them, and just as the voices of our pursuers were growing momentarily
louder and nearer, darted away again down a fresh turning, and saw the
river gleaming at the end of it.
"Hurrah! here's a boat," shouted Sullivan, leaping into it, and we after
him.
It was not our boat, but we did not care for that. Ours was at the other
side of the island, far enough away, down by the landing-place. Just as
Dalrymple seized the oars, there burst forth a tremendous explosion. A
column of rockets shot up into the air, and instantly the place was as
light as day. Then a yell of discovery broke forth, and we were seen
almost as soon as we were fairly out of reach. We had secured the only
boat on that side of the island, and three or four of Dalrymple's
powerful strokes had already carried us well into the middle of the
stream. To let off our own store of fireworks--to pitch tokens of our
regard to our friends on the island in the shape of blazing crackers,
which fell sputtering and fizzing into the water half-way between the
boat and the shore--to stand up in the stern and bow politely--finally,
to row away singing "God save the Queen" with all our might, were feats
upon which we prided ourselves very considerably at the time, and the
recollection of which afforded us infinite amusement all the way home.
That evening we all supped together at the Chaval Blane, and of what we
did or said after supper I have but a confused remembrance. I believe
that I tried to smoke a cigar; and it is my impression that I made a
speech, in which I swore eternal friendship to both of my new friends;
but the only circumstance about which I cannot be mistaken is that I
awoke next morning with the worst specimen of headache that had yet come
within the limits of my experience.
* * * * *
CHAPTER IX.
DAMON AND PYTHIAS.
I left Rouen the day after my great adventure on the river, and Captain
Dalrymple went with me to the station.
"You have my Paris address upon my card," he said, as we walked to and
fro upon the platform. "It's just a bachelor's den, you know--and I
shall be there in about a fortnight or three weeks. Come and look
me up."
To which I replied that I was glad to be allowed to do so, and that I
should "look him up" as soon as he came home. And so, with words of
cordial good-will and a hearty shake of the hand, we parted.
Having started late in the evening, I arrived in Paris between four and
five o'clock on a bright midsummer Sunday morning. I was not long
delayed by the customs officers, for I carried but a scant supply of
luggage. Having left this at an hotel, I wandered about till it should
be time for breakfast. After breakfast I meant to dress and call upon
Dr. Cheron.
The morning air was clear and cool. The sun shone brilliantly, and was
reflected back with dazzling vividness from long vistas of high white
houses, innumerable windows, and gilded balconies. Theatres, shops,
cafes, and hotels not yet opened, lined the great thoroughfares.
Triumphal arches, columns, parks, palaces, and churches succeeded one
another in apparently endless succession. I passed a lofty pillar
crowned with a conqueror's statue--a palace tragic in history--a modern
Parthenon surrounded by columns, peopled with sculptured friezes, and
approached by a flight of steps extending the whole width of the
building. I went in, for the doors had just been opened, and a
white-haired Sacristan was preparing the seats for matin service. There
were acolytes decorating the altar with fresh flowers, and early
devotees on their knees before the shrine of the Madonna. The gilded
ornaments, the tapers winking in the morning light, the statues, the
paintings, the faint clinging odors of incense, the hushed atmosphere,
the devotional silence, the marble angels kneeling round the altar, all
united to increase my dream of delight. I gazed and gazed again;
wandered round and round; and at last, worn out with excitement and
fatigue, sank into a chair in a distant corner of the Church, and fell
into a heavy sleep. How long it lasted I know not; but the voices of the
choristers and the deep tones of the organ mingled with my dreams. When
I awoke the last worshippers were departing, the music had died into
silence, the wax-lights were being extinguished, and the service
was ended.
Again I went out into the streets; but all was changed. Where there had
been the silence of early morning there was now the confusion of a great
city. Where there had been closed shutters and deserted thoroughfares,
there was the bustle of life, gayety, business, and pleasure. The shops
blazed with jewels and merchandise; the stonemasons were at work on the
new buildings; the lemonade venders, with their gay reservoirs upon
their backs, were plying a noisy trade; the bill-stickers were papering
boardings and lamp-posts with variegated advertisements; the charlatan,
in his gaudy chariot, was selling pencils and penknives to the
accompaniment of a hand-organ; soldiers were marching to the clangor of
military music; the merchant was in his counting-house, the stock-broker
at the Bourse, and the lounger, whose name is Legion, was sitting in the
open air outside his favorite cafe, drinking chocolate, and yawning over
the _Charivari_.
I thought I must be dreaming. I scarcely believed the evidence of my
eyes. Was this Sunday? Was it possible that in our own little church at
home--in our own little church, where we could hear the birds twittering
outside in every interval of the quiet service--the old familiar faces,
row beyond row, were even now upturned in reverent attention to the
words of the preacher? Prince Bedreddin, transported in his sleep to the
gates of Damascus, could scarcely have opened his eyes upon a foreign
city and a strange people with more incredulous amazement.
I can now scarcely remember how that day of wonders went by. I only know
that I rambled about as in a dream, and am vaguely conscious of having
wandered through the gardens of the Tuilleries; of having found the
Louvre open, and of losing myself among some of the upper galleries; of
lying exhausted upon a bench in the Champs Elysees; of returning by
quays lined with palaces and spanned by noble bridges; of pacing round
and round the enchanted arcades of the Palais Royal; of wondering how
and where I should find my hotel, and of deciding at last that I could
go no farther without dining somehow. Wearied and half stupefied, I
ventured, at length, into one of the large _restaurants_ upon the
Boulevards. Here I found spacious rooms lighted by superb chandeliers
which were again reflected in mirrors that extended from floor to
ceiling. Rows of small tables ran round the rooms, and a double line
down the centre, each laid with its snowy cloth and glittering silver.
It was early when I arrived; so I passed up to the top of the room and
appropriated a small table commanding a view of the great thoroughfare
below. The waiters were slow to serve me; the place filled speedily; and
by the time I had finished my soup, nearly all the tables were occupied.
Here sat a party of officers, bronzed and mustachioed; yonder a group of
laughing girls; a pair of provincials; a family party, children,
governess and all; a stout capitalist, solitary and self content; a
quatuor of rollicking _commis-voyageurs_; an English couple, perplexed
and curious. Amused by the sight of so many faces, listening to the hum
of voices, and watching the flying waiters bearing all kinds of
mysterious dishes, I loitered over my lonely meal, and wished that this
delightful whirl of novelty might last for ever. By and by a gentleman
entered, walked up the whole length of the room in search of a seat,
found my table occupied by only a single person, bowed politely, and
drew his chair opposite mine.
He was a portly man of about forty-five or fifty years of age, with a
broad, calm brow; curling light hair, somewhat worn upon the temples;
and large blue eyes, more keen than tender. His dress was scrupulously
simple, and his hands were immaculately white. He carried an umbrella
little thicker than a walking-stick, and wrote out his list of dishes
with a massive gold pencil. The waiter bowed down before him as if he
were an habitue of the place.
It was not long before we fell into conversation. I do not remember
which spoke first; but we talked of Paris--or rather, I talked and he
listened; for, what with the excitement and fatigue of the day, and what
with the half bottle of champagne which I had magnificently ordered, I
found myself gifted with a sudden flood of words, and ran on, I fear,
not very discreetly.
A few civil rejoinders, a smile, a bow, an assent, a question implied
rather than spoken, sufficed to draw from me the particulars of my
journey. I told everything, from my birthplace and education to my
future plans and prospects; and the stranger, with a frosty humor
twinkling about his eyes, listened politely. He was himself particularly
silent; but he had the art of provoking conversation while quietly
enjoying his own dinner. When this was finished, however, he leaned back
in his chair, sipped his claret, and talked a little more freely.
"And so," said he, in very excellent English, "you have come to Paris to
finish your studies. But have you no fear, young gentleman, that the
attractions of so gay a city may divert your mind from graver subjects?
Do you think that, when every pleasure may be had for the seeking, you
will be content to devote yourself to the dry details of an
uninteresting profession?"
"It is not an uninteresting profession," I replied. "I might perhaps
have preferred the church or the law; but having embarked in the study
of medicine, I shall do my best to succeed in it."
The stranger smiled.
"I am glad," he said, "to see you so ambitious. I do not doubt that you
will become a shining light in the brotherhood of Esculapius."
"I hope so," I replied, boldly. "I have studied closer than most men of
my age, already."
He smiled again, coughed doubtfully, and insisted on filling my glass
from his own bottle.
"I only fear," he said, "that you will be too diffident of your own
merits. Now, when you call upon this Doctor....what did you say was
his name?"
"Cheron," I replied, huskily.
"True, Cheron. Well, when you meet him for the first time you will,
perhaps, be timid, hesitating, and silent. But, believe me, a young man
of your remarkable abilities should be self-possessed. You ought to
inspire him from the beginning with a suitable respect for
your talents."
"That's precisely the line I mean to take," said I, boastfully.
"I'll--I'll astonish him. I'm afraid of nobody--not I!"
The stranger filled my glass again. His claret must have been very
strong or my head very weak, for it seemed to me, as he did so, that all
the chandeliers were in motion.
"Upon my word," observed he, "you are a young man of infinite spirit."
"And you," I replied, making an effort to bring the glass steadily to my
lips, "you are a capital fellow--a clear-sighted, sensible, capital
fellow. We'll be friends."
He bowed, and said, somewhat coldly,
"I have no doubt that we shall become better acquainted."
"Better acquainted, indeed!--we'll be intimate!" I ejaculated,
affectionately. "I'll introduce you to Dalrymple--you'll like him
excessively. Just the fellow to delight you."
"So I should say," observed the stranger, drily.
"And as for you and myself, we'll--we'll be Damon and ... what's the
other one's name?"
"Pythias," replied my new acquaintance, leaning back in his chair, and
surveying me with a peculiar and very deliberate stare. "Exactly
so--Damon and Pythias! A charming arrangement."
"Bravo! Famous! And now we'll have another bottle of wine."
"Not on my account, I beg," said the gentleman firmly. "My head is not
so cool as yours."
Cool, indeed, and the room whirling round and round, like a teetotum!
"Oh, if you won't, I won't," said I confusedly; "but I--I could--drink
my share of another bottle, I assure you, and not--feel the
slightest...."
"I have no doubt on that point," said my neighbor, gravely; "but our
French wines are deceptive, Mr. Arbuthnot, and you might possibly suffer
some inconvenience to-morrow. You, as a medical man, should understand
the evils of dyspepsia."
"Dy--dy--dyspepsia be hanged," I muttered, dreamily. "Tell me,
friend--by the by, I forget your name. Friend what?"
"Friend Pythias," returned the stranger, drily. "You gave me the name
yourself."
"Ay, but your real name?"
He shrugged his shoulders.
"One name is as good as another," said he, lightly. "Let it be Pythias,
for the present. But you were about to ask me some question?"
"About old Cheron," I said, leaning both elbows on the table, and
speaking very confidentially. "Now tell me, have you--have you any
notion of what he is like? Do you--know--know anything about him?"
"I have heard of him," he replied, intent for the moment on the pattern
of his wine-glass.
"Clever?"
"That is a point upon which I could not venture an opinion. You must
ask some more competent judge."
"Come, now," said I, shaking my head, and trying to look knowing;
"you--you know what I mean, well enough. Is he a grim old fellow?
A--a--griffin, you know! Come, is he a gr--r--r--riffin?"
My words had by this time acquired a distressing, self-propelling
tendency, and linked themselves into compounds of twenty and thirty
syllables.
My _vis-a-vis_ smiled, bit his lip, then laughed a dry, short laugh.
"Really," he said, "I am not in a position to reply to your question;
but upon the whole, I should say that Dr. Cheron was not quite a
griffin. The species, you see, is extinct."
I roared with laughter; vowed I had never heard a better joke in my
life; and repeated his last words over and over, like a degraded idiot
as I was. All at once a sense of deadly faintness came upon me. I turned
hot and cold by turns, and lifting my hand to my head, said, or tried
to say:--
"Room's--'bominably--close!"
"We had better go," he replied promptly. "The air will do you good.
Leave me to settle for our dinners, and you shall make it right with me
by-and-by."
He did so, and we left the room. Once out in the open air I found myself
unable to stand. He called a _fiacre_; almost lifted me in; took his
place beside me, and asked the name of my hotel.
I had forgotten it; but I knew that it was opposite the railway station,
and that was enough. When we arrived, I was on the verge of
insensibility. I remember that I was led up-stairs by two waiters, and
that the stranger saw me to my room. Then all was darkness and stupor.
CHAPTER X.
THE NEXT MORNING.
"Oh, my Christian ducats!" _Merchant of Venice_.
Gone!--gone!--both gone!--my new gold watch and my purse full of notes
and Napoleons!
I rang the bell furiously. It was answered by a demure-looking waiter,
with a face like a parroquet.
"Does Monsieur please to require anything?"
"Require anything!" I exclaimed, in the best French I could muster. "I
have been robbed!"
"Robbed, Monsieur?"
"Yes, of my watch and purse!"
"_Tiens_! Of a watch and purse?" repeated the parroquet, lifting his
eyebrows with an air of well-bred surprise. "_C'est drole."_
"Droll!" I cried, furiously. "Droll, you scoundrel! I'll let you know
whether I think it droll! I'll complain to the authorities! I'll have
the house searched! I'll--I'll...."
I rang the bell again. Two or three more waiters came, and the master of
the hotel. They all treated my communication in the same manner--coolly;
incredulously; but with unruffled politeness.
"Monsieur forgets," urged the master, "that he came back to the hotel
last night in a state of absolute intoxication. Monsieur was accompanied
by a stranger, who was gentlemanly, it it true; but since Monsieur
acknowledges that that stranger was personally unknown to him, Monsieur
may well perceive it would be more reasonable if his suspicions first
pointed in that direction."
Struck by the force of this observation, I flung myself into a chair and
remained silent.
"Has Monsieur no acquaintances in Paris to whom he may apply for
advice?" inquired the landlord.
"None," said I, moodily; "except that I have a letter of introduction
to one Dr. Cheron."
The landlord and his waiters exchanged glances.
"I would respectfully recommend Monsieur to present his letter
immediately," said the former. "Monsieur le Docteur Cheron is a man of
the world--a man of high reputation and sagacity. Monsieur could not do
better than advise with him."
"Call a cab for me," said I, after a long pause. "I will go."
The determination cost me something. Dismayed by the extent of my loss,
racked with headache, languid, pale, and full of remorse for last
night's folly, it needed but this humiliation to complete my misery.
What! appear before my instructor for the first time with such a tale! I
could have bitten my lips through with vexation.
The cab was called. I saw, but would not see, the winks and nods
exchanged behind my back by the grinning waiters. I flung myself into
the vehicle, and soon was once more rattling through the noisy streets.
But those brilliant streets had now lost all their charm for me. I
admired nothing, saw nothing, heard nothing, on the way. I could think
only of my father's anger and the contempt of Dr. Cheron.
Presently the cab stopped before a large wooden gate with two enormous
knockers. One half of this gate was opened by a servant in a sad-colored
livery. I was shown across a broad courtyard, up a flight of lofty
steps, and into a spacious _salon_ plainly furnished.
"Monsieur le Docteur is at present engaged," said the servant, with an
air of profound respect. "Will Monsieur have the goodness to be seated
for a few moments."
I sat down. I rose up. I examined the books upon the table, and the
pictures on the walls. I wished myself "anywhere, anywhere out of the
world," and more than once was on the point of stealing out of the
house, jumping into my cab, and making off without seeing the doctor at
all. One consideration alone prevented me. I had lost all my money, and
had not even a franc left to pay the driver. Presently the door again
opened, the grave footman reappeared, and I heard the dreaded
announcement:--"Monsieur le Docteur will be happy to receive Monsieur in
his consulting-room."
I followed mechanically. We passed through a passage thickly carpeted,
and paused before a green baize door. This door opened noiselessly, and
I found myself in the great man's presence.
"It gives me pleasure to welcome the son of my old friend John
Arbuthnot," said a clear, and not unfamiliar voice.
I started, looked up, grew red and white, hot and cold, and had not a
syllable to utter in reply.
In Doctor Cheron, I recognised--
PYTHIAS!
CHAPTER XI.
MYSTERIOUS PROCEEDINGS.
The doctor pointed to a chair, looked at his watch, and said:--
"I hope you have had a pleasant journey. Arrived this morning?"
There was not the faintest gleam of recognition on his face. Not a
smile; not a glance; nothing but the easy politeness of a stranger to
a stranger.
"N--not exactly," I faltered. "Yesterday morning, sir."
"Ah, indeed! Spent the day in sight-seeing, I dare say. Admire Paris?"
Too much astonished to speak, I took refuge in a bow.
"Not found any lodgings yet, I presume?" asked the doctor, mending a pen
very deliberately.
"N--not yet, sir."
"I concluded so The English do not seek apartments on Sunday. You
observe the day very strictly, no doubt?"
Blushing and confused, I stammered some incoherent words and sat
twirling my hat, the very picture of remorse.
"At what hotel have you put up?" he next inquired, without appearing to
observe my agitation.
"The--the Hotel des Messageries."
"Good, but expensive. You must find a lodging to-day."
I bowed again.
"And, as your father's representative, I must take care that you procure
something suitable, and are not imposed upon. My valet shall go
with you."
He rang the bell, and the sad-colored footman appeared on the threshold.
"Desire Brunet to be in readiness to walk out with this gentleman," he
said, briefly, and the servant retired.
"Brunet," he continued, addressing me again, "is faithful and sagacious.
He will instruct you on certain points indispensable to a resident in
Paris, and will see that you are not ill-accommodated or overcharged. A
young man has few wants, and I should infer that a couple of rooms in
some quiet street will be all that you require?"
"I--I am very grateful."
He waved down my thanks with an air of cold but polite authority; took
out his note-book and pencil; (I could have sworn to that massive gold
pencil!) and proceeded to question me.
"Your age, I think," said he, "is twenty-one?"
"Twenty, sir."
"Ah--twenty. You desire to be entered upon the list of visiting students
at the Hotel Dieu, to be free of the library and lecture-rooms, and to
be admitted into my public classes?"
"Yes, sir."
"Also, to attend here in my house for private instruction."
"Yes, sir."
He filled in a few words upon a printed form, and handed it to me with
his visiting card.
"You will present these, and your passport, to the secretary at the
hospital," said he, "and will receive in return the requisite tickets of
admission. Your fees have already been paid in, and your name has been
entered. You must see to this matter at once, for the _bureau_ closes
at two o'clock. You will then require the rest of the day for
lodging-seeking, moving, and so forth. To-morrow morning, at nine
o'clock, I shall expect you here."
"Indeed, sir," I murmured, "I am more obliged than...."
"Not in the least," he interrupted, decisively; "your father's son has
every claim upon me. I object to thanks. All that I require from you are
habits of industry, punctuality, and respect. Your father speaks well of
you, and I have no doubt I shall find you all that he represents. Can I
do anything more for you this morning?"
I hesitated; could not bring myself to utter one word of that which I
had come to say; and murmured--
"Nothing more, I thank you, sir."
He looked at me piercingly, paused an instant, and then rang the bell.
"I am about to order my carriage," he said; "and, as I am going in that
direction, I will take you as far as the Hotel Dieu."
"But--but I have a cab at the door," I faltered, remembering, with a
sinking heart, that I had not a sou to pay the driver.
The servant appeared again.
"Let the carriage be brought round immediately, and dismiss this
gentleman's cab."
The man retired, and I heaved a sigh of relief. The doctor bent low over
the papers on his desk, and I fancied for the moment that a faint smile
flitted over his face. Then he took up his hat, and pointed to the door.
"Now, my young friend," he said authoritatively, "we must be gone. Time
is gold. After you."
I bowed and preceded him. His very courtesy was sterner than the
displeasure of another, and I already felt towards him a greater degree
of awe than I should have quite cared to confess. The carriage was
waiting in the courtyard. I placed myself with my back to the horses;
Dr. Cheron flung himself upon the opposite seat; a servant out of livery
sprang up beside the coachman; the great gates were flung open; and we
glided away on the easiest of springs and the softest of cushions.
Dr. Cheron took a newspaper from his pocket, and began to read; so
leaving me to my own uncomfortable reflections.
And, indeed, when I came to consider my position I was almost in
despair. Moneyless, what was to become of me? Watchless and moneyless,
with a bill awaiting me at my hotel, and not a stiver in my pocket
wherewith to pay it.... Miserable pupil of a stern master! luckless son
of a savage father! to whom could I turn for help? Not certainly to Dr.
Cheron, whom I had been ready to accuse, half an hour ago, of having
stolen my watch and purse. Petty larceny and Dr. Cheron! how ludicrously
incongruous! And yet, where was my property? Was the Hotel des
Messageries a den of thieves? And again, how was it that this same Dr.
Cheron looked, and spoke, and acted, as if he had never seen me in his
life till this morning? Was I mad, or dreaming, or both?
The carriage stopped and the door opened.
"Hotel Dieu, M'sieur," said the servant, touching his hat.
Dr. Cheron just raised his eyes from the paper.
"This is your first destination," he said. "I would advise you, on
leaving here, to return to your hotel. There may be letters awaiting
you. Good-morning."
With this he resumed his paper, the carriage rolled away, and I found
myself at the Hotel Dieu, with the servant out of livery standing
respectfully behind me.
Go back to my hotel! Why should I go back? Letters there could be none,
unless at the Poste Restante. I thought this a very unnecessary piece of
advice, rejected it in my own mind, and so went into the hospital
_bureau_, and transacted my business. When I came out again, Brunet
took the lead.
He was an elderly man with a solemn countenance and a mysterious voice.
His manner was oppressively respectful; his address diplomatic; his step
stealthy as a courtier's. When we came to a crossing he bowed, stood
aside, and followed me; then took the lead again; and so on, during a
brisk walk of about half an hour. All at once, I found myself at the
Hotel des Messageries.
"Monsieur's hotel," said the doctor's valet, touching his hat.
"You are mistaken," said I, rather impatiently. "I did not ask to be
brought here. My object this morning is to look for apartments."
"Post in at mid-day, Monsieur," he observed, gravely. "Monsieur's
letters may have arrived."
"I expect none, thank you."
"Monsieur will, nevertheless, permit me to inquire," said the
persevering valet, and glided in before my eyes.
The thing was absurd! Both master and servant insisted that I must have
letters, whether I would, or no! To my amazement, however, Brunet came
back with a small sealed box in his hands.
"No letters have arrived for Monsieur," he said; "but this box was left
with the porter about an hour ago."
I weighed it, shook it, examined the seals, and, going into the public
room, desired Brunet to follow me. There I opened it. It contained a
folded paper, a quantity of wadding, my purse, my roll of bank-notes,
and my watch! On the paper, I read the following words:--
"Learn from the events of last night the value of temperance, the wisdom
of silence, and the danger of chance acquaintanceships. Accept the
lesson, and he by whom it is administered will forget the error."
The paper dropped from my hands and fell upon the floor. The
impenetrable Brunet picked it up, and returned it to me.
"Brunet!" I ejaculated.
"Monsieur?" said he, interrogatively, raising his hand to his forehead
by force of habit, although his hat stood beside him on the floor.
There was not a shadow of meaning in his face--not a quiver to denote
that he knew anything of what had passed. To judge by the stolid
indifference of his manner, one might have supposed that the delivery of
caskets full of watches and valuables was an event of daily occurrence
in the house of Dr. Cheron. His coolness silenced me. I drew a long
breath; hastened to put my watch in my pocket, and lock up my money in
my room; and then went to the master of the hotel, and informed him of
the recovery of my property. He smiled and congratulated me; but he did
not seem to be in the least surprised. I fancied, some how, that matters
were not quite so mysterious to him as they had been to me.
I also fancied that I heard a suspicious roar of laughter as I passed
out into the street.
It was not long before I found such apartments as I required, Piloted by
Brunet through some broad thoroughfares and along part of the
Boulevards, I came upon a cluster of narrow streets branching off
through a massive stone gateway from the Rue du Faubourg Montmartre.
This little nook was called the Cite Bergere. The houses were white and
lofty. Some had courtyards, and all were decorated with pretty iron
balconies and delicately-tinted Venetian shutters. Most of them bore the
announcement--"_Apartements a louer_"--suspended above the door. Outside
one of these houses sat two men with a little table between them. They
were playing at dominoes, and wore the common blue blouse of the
mechanic class. A woman stood by, paring celery, with an infant playing
on the mat inside the door and a cat purring at her feet. It was a
pleasant group. The men looked honest, the woman good-tempered, and the
house exquisitely clean; so the diplomatic Brunet went forward to
negotiate, while I walked up and down outside. There were rooms to be
let on the second, third and fifth floors. The fifth was too high, and
the second too expensive; but the third seemed likely to suit me. The
_suite_ consisted of a bed-room, dressing-room, and tiny _salon_, and
was furnished with the elegant uncomfortableness characteristic of our
French neighbors. Here were floors shiny and carpetless; windows that
objected to open, and drawers that refused to shut; mirrors all round
the walls a set of hanging shelves; an ormolu time piece that struck all
kinds of miscellaneous hours at unexpected times; an abundance of vases
filled with faded artificial flowers; insecure chairs of white and gold;
and a round table that had a way of turning over suddenly like a table
in a pantomime, if you ventured to place anything on any part but the
inlaid star in the centre. Above all, there was a balcony big enough for
a couple of chairs, and some flower-pots, overlooking the street.
I was delighted with everything. In imagination I beheld my balcony
already blooming with roses, and my shelves laden with books. I admired
the white and gold chairs with all my heart, and saw myself reflected in
half a dozen mirrors at once with an innocent pride of ownership which
can only be appreciated by those who have tasted the supreme luxury of
going into chambers for the first time.
"Shall I conclude for Monsieur at twenty francs a week?" murmured the
sagacious Brunet.
"Of course," said I, laying the first week's rent upon the table.
And so the thing was done, and, brimful of satisfaction, I went off to
the hotel for my luggage, and moved in immediately.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XII.
BROADCLOTH AND CIVILIZATION.
Allowing for my inexperience in the use of the language, I prospered
better than I had expected, and found, to my satisfaction, that I was by
no means behind my French fellow-students in medical knowledge. I passed
through my preliminary examination with credit, and although Dr. Cheron
was careful not to praise me too soon, I had reason to believe that he
was satisfied with my progress. My life, indeed, was now wholly given up
to my work. My country-breeding had made me timid, and the necessity for
speaking a foreign tongue served only to increase my natural reserve; so
that although I lived and studied day after day in the society of some
two or three hundred young men, I yet lived as solitary a life as
Robinson Crusoe in his island. No one sought to know me. No one took a
liking for me. Gay, noisy, chattering fellows that they were, they
passed me by for a "dull and muddy-pated rogue;" voted me
uncompanionable when I was only shy; and, doubtless, quoted me to each
other as a rare specimen of the silent Englishman. I lived, too, quite
out of the students' colony. To me the _Quartier Latin_ (except as I
went to and fro between the Hotel Dieu and the Ecole de Medicine) was a
land unknown; and the student's life--that wonderful _Vie de Boheme_
which furnishes forth half the fiction of the Paris press--a condition
of being, about which I had never even heard. What wonder, then, that I
never arrived at Dr. Cheron's door five minutes behind time, never
missed a lecture, never forgot an appointment? What wonder that, after
dropping moodily into one or two of the theatres, I settled down quite
quietly in my lodgings; gave up my days to study; sauntered about the
lighted alleys of the Champs Elysees in the sweet spring evenings, and,
going home betimes, spent an hour or two with my books, and kept almost
as early hours as in my father's house at Saxonholme?
After I had been living thus for rather longer than three weeks, I made
up my mind one Sunday morning to call at Dalrymple's rooms, and inquire
if he had yet arrived in Paris. It was about eleven o'clock when I
reached the Chaussee d'Antin, and there learned that he was not only
arrived, but at home. Being by this time in possession of the luxury of
a card, I sent one up, and was immediately admitted. I found breakfast
still upon the table; Dalrymple sitting with an open desk and cash-box
before him; and, standing somewhat back, with his elbow resting on the
chimney-piece, a gentleman smoking a cigar. They both looked up as I was
announced, and Dalrymple, welcoming me with a hearty grasp, introduced
this gentleman as Monsieur de Simoncourt.
M. de Simoncourt bowed, knocked the ash from his cigar, and looked as
if he wished me at the Antipodes. Dalrymple was really glad to see me.
"I have been expecting you, Arbuthnot," said he, "for the last week. If
you had not soon beaten up my quarters, I should have tried, somehow, to
find out yours. What have you been about all this time? Where are you
located? What mischief have you been perpetrating since our expedition
to the _guingette_ on the river? Come, you have a thousand things
to tell me!"
M. de Simoncourt looked at his watch--a magnificent affair, decorated
with a costly chain, and a profusion of pendant trifles--and threw the
last-half of his cigar into the fireplace.
"You must excuse me, _mon cher_" said he. "I have at least a dozen calls
to make before dinner."
Dalrymple rose, readily enough, and took a roll of bank-notes from the
cash-box.
"If you are going," he said, "I may as well hand over the price of that
Tilbury. When will they send it home?"
"To-morrow, undoubtedly."
"And I am to pay fifteen hundred franks for it!"
"Just half its value!" observed M. de Simoncourt, with a shrug of his
shoulders.
Dalrymple smiled, counted the notes, and handed them to his friend.
"Fifteen hundred may be half its cost," said he; "but I doubt if I am
paying much less than its full value. Just see that these are right."
M. de Simoncourt ruffled the papers daintily over, and consigned them to
his pocket-book. As he did so, I could not help observing the whiteness
of his hands and the sparkle of a huge brilliant on his little finger.
He was a pale, slender, olive-hued man, with very dark eyes, and
glittering teeth, and a black moustache inclining superciliously upwards
at each corner; somewhat too _nonchalant_, perhaps, in his manner, and
somewhat too profuse in the article of jewellery; but a very elegant
gentleman, nevertheless.
"_Bon_!" said he. "I am glad you have bought it. I would have taken it
myself, had the thing happened a week or two earlier. Poor Duchesne! To
think that he should have come to this, after all!"
"I am sorry for him," said Dalrymple; "but it is a case of wilful ruin.
He made up his mind to go to the devil, and went accordingly. I am only
surprised that the crash came no sooner."
M. de Simoneourt twitched at the supercilious moustache.
"And you think you would not care to take the black mare with the
Tilbury?" said he, negligently.
"No--I have a capital horse, already."
"Hah I--well--'tis almost a pity. The mare is a dead bargain. Shouldn't
wonder if I buy her, after all."
"And yet you don't want her," said Dalrymple.
"Quite true; but one must have a favorite sin, and horseflesh is mine. I
shall ruin myself by it some day--_mort de ma vie!_ By the way, have you
seen my chestnut in harness? No? Then you will be really pleased. Goes
delightfully with the gray, and manages tandem to perfection. _Parbleu!_
I was forgetting--do we meet to-night?"
"Where?"
"At Chardonnier's."
Dalrymple shook his head, and turned the key in his cash box.
"Not this evening," he replied. I have other engagements."
"Bah! and I promised to go, believing you were sure to be of the party.
St. Pol, I know, will be there, and De Brezy also."
"Chardonnier's parties are charming things in their way," said
Dalrymple, somewhat coldly, "and no man enjoys Burgundy and lansquenet
more heartily than myself; but one might grow to care for nothing else,
and I have no desire to fall into worse habits than those I have
contracted already."
M. de Simoneourt laughed a dry, short laugh, and twitched again at the
supercilious moustache.
"I had no idea you were a philosopher," said he.
"Nor am I. I am a _mauvais sujet_--_mauvais_ enough, already, without
seeking to become worse."
"Well, adieu--I will see to this affair of the Tilbury, and desire them
to let you have it by noon to-morrow."
"A thousand thanks. I am ashamed that you have so much trouble in the
matter. _Au revoir_."
"_Au revoir_."
Whereupon M. de Simoncourt honored me with a passing bow, and took his
departure. Being near the window, I saw him spring into an elegant
cabriolet, and drive off with the showiest of high horses and the
tiniest of tigers.
He was no sooner gone than Dalrymple took me by the shoulders, placed me
in an easy chair, poured out a couple of glasses of hock, and said:--
"Now, then, my young friend, your news or your life! Out with it, every
word, as you hope to be forgiven!"
I had but little to tell, and for that little, found myself, as I had
anticipated, heartily laughed at. My adventure at the restaurant, my
unlucky meeting with Dr. Cheron, and the history of my interview with
him next morning, delighted Dalrymple beyond measure.
Nothing would satisfy him, after this, but to call me Damon, to tease me
continually about Doctor Pythias, and to remind me at every turn of the
desirableness of Arcadian friendships.
"And so, Damon," said he, "you go nowhere, see nothing, and know nobody.
This sort of life will never do for you! I must take you out--introduce
you--get you an _entree_ into society, before I leave Paris."
"I should be heartily glad to visit at one or two private houses," I
replied. "To spend the winter in this place without knowing a soul,
would be something frightful."
Dalrymple looked at me half laughingly, half compassionately.
"Before I do it, however," said he, "you must look a little less like a
savage, and more like a tame Christian. You must have your hair cut, and
learn to tie your cravat properly. Do you possess an evening suit?"
Blushing to the tips of my ears, I not only confessed that I was
destitute of that desirable outfit, but also that I had never yet in all
my life had occasion to wear it.
"I am glad of it; for now you are sure to be well fitted. Your tailor,
depend on it, is your great civilizer, and a well-made suit of clothes
is in itself a liberal education. I'll take you to Michaud--my own
especial purveyor. He is a great artist. With so many yards of superfine
black cloth, he will give you the tone of good society and the exterior
of a gentleman. In short, he will do for you in eight or ten hours more
than I could do in as many years."
"Pray introduce me at once to this illustrious man," I exclaimed
laughingly, "and let me do him homage!"
"You will have to pay heavily for the honor," said Dalrymple. "Of that I
give you notice."
"No matter. I am willing to pay heavily for the tone of good society and
the exterior of a gentleman."
"Very good. Take a book, then, or a cigar, and amuse yourself for five
minutes while I write a note. That done, you may command me for as long
as you please."
I took the first book that came, and finding it to be a history of the
horse, amused myself, instead, by observing the aspect of Dalrymple's
apartment.
Rooms are eloquent biographies. They betray at once if the owner be
careless or orderly, studious or idle, vulgar or refined. Flowers on the
table, engravings on the walls, indicate refinement and taste; while a
well-filled book-case says more in favor of its possessor than the most
elaborate letter of recommendation. Dalrymple's room was a monograph of
himself. Careless, luxurious, disorderly, crammed with all sorts of
costly things, and characterized by a sort of reckless elegance, it
expressed, as I interpreted it, the very history of the man. Rich
hangings; luxurious carpets; walls covered with paintings; cabinets of
bronze and rare porcelain; a statuette of Rachel beside a bust of Homer;
a book-case full of French novels with a sprinkling of Shakespeare and
Horace; a stand of foreign arms; a lamp from Pompeii; a silver casket
full of cigars; tables piled up with newspapers, letters, pipes,
riding-whips, faded bouquets, and all kinds of miscellaneous
rubbish--such were my friend's surroundings; and such, had I speculated
upon them beforehand, I should have expected to find them. Dalrymple, in
the meanwhile, despatched his letter with characteristic rapidity. His
pen rushed over the paper like a dragoon charge, nor was once laid aside
till both letter and address were finished. Just as he was sealing it, a
note was brought to him by his servant--a slender, narrow, perfumed
note, written on creamy paper, and adorned on the envelope with an
elaborate cypher in gold and colors. Had I lived in the world of society
for the last hundred seasons, I could not have interpreted the
appearance of that note more sagaciously.
"It is from a lady," said I to myself. Then seeing Dalrymple tear up his
own letter immediately after reading it, and begin another, I added,
still in my own mind--"And it is from the lady to whom he was writing."
Presently he paused, laid his pen aside, and said:--
"Arbuthnot, would you like to go with me to-morrow evening to one or two
_soirees_?"
"Can your Civilizer provide me with my evening suit in time?"
"He? The great Michaud? Why, he would equip you for this evening, if it
were necessary!"
"In that case, I shall be very glad."
"_Bon!_ I will call for you at ten o'clock; so do not forget to leave me
your address."
Whereupon he resumed his letter. When it was written, he returned to the
subject.
"Then I will take you to-morrow night," said he, "to a reception at
Madame Rachel's. Hers is the most beautiful house in Paris. I know fifty
men who would give their ears to be admitted to her _salons_."
Even in the wilds of Saxonholme I had heard and read of the great
_tragedienne_ whose wealth vied with the Rothschilds, and whose
diamonds might have graced a crown. I had looked forward to the
probability of beholding her from afar off, if she was ever to be seen
on the boards of the Theatre Francais; but to be admitted to her
presence--received in her house--introduced to her in person ... it
seemed ever so much too good to be true!
Dalrymple smiled good-naturedly, and put my thanks aside.
"It is a great sight," said he, "and nothing more. She will bow to
you--she may not even speak; and she would pass you the next morning
without remembering that she had ever seen you in her life. Actresses
are a race apart, my dear fellow, and care for no one who is neither
rich nor famous."
"I never imagined," said I, half annoyed, "that she would take any
notice of me at all. Even a bow from such a woman is an event to be
remembered."
"Having received that bow, then," continued Dalrymple, "and having
enjoyed the ineffable satisfaction of returning it, you can go on with
me to the house of a lady close by, who receives every Monday evening.
At her _soirees_ you will meet pleasant and refined people, and having
been once introduced by me, you will, I have no doubt, find the house
open to you for the future."
"That would, indeed, be a privilege. Who is this lady?"
"Her name," said Dalrymple, with an involuntary glance at the little
note upon his desk, "is Madame de Courcelles. She is a very charming and
accomplished lady."
I decided in my own mind that Madame de Courcelles was the writer of
that note.
"Is she married?" was my next question.
"She is a widow," replied Dalrymple. "Monsieur de Courcelles was many
years older than his wife, and held office as a cabinet minister during
the greater part of the reign of Louis Phillippe. He has been dead these
four or five years."
"Then she is rich?"
"No--not rich; but sufficiently independent."
"And handsome?"
"Not handsome, either; but graceful, and very fascinating."
Graceful, fascinating, independent, and a widow! Coupling these facts
with the correspondence which I believed I had detected, I grouped them
into a little romance, and laid out my friend's future career as
confidently as if it had depended only on myself to marry him out of
hand, and make all parties happy.
Dalrymple sat musing for a moment, with his chin resting on his hands
and his eyes fixed on the desk. Then shaking back his hair as if he
would shake back his thoughts with it, he started suddenly to his feet
and said, laughingly:--
"Now, young Damon, to Michaud's--to Michaud's, with what speed we may!
Farewell to 'Tempe and the vales of Arcady,' and hey for civilization,
and a swallow-tailed coat!"
I noticed, however, that before we left the room, he put the little note
tenderly away in a drawer of his desk, and locked it with a tiny gold
key that hung upon his watch-chain.
CHAPTER XIII.
I MAKE MY DEBUT IN SOCIETY.
At ten o'clock on Monday evening, Dalrymple called for me, and by ten
o'clock, thanks to the great Michaud and other men of genius, I
presented a faultless exterior. My friend walked round me with a candle,
and then sat down and examined me critically.
"By Jove!" said he, "I don't believe I should have known you! You are a
living testimony to the science of tailoring. I shall call on Michaud,
to-morrow, and pay my tribute of admiration."
"I am very uncomfortable," said I, ruefully.
"Uncomfortable! nonsense--Michaud's customers don't know the meaning of
the word."
"But he has not made me a single pocket!"
"And what of that? Do you suppose the great Michaud would spoil the fit
of a masterpiece for your convenience?"
"What am I to do with my pocket-handkerchief?"
"Michaud's customers never need pocket-handkerchiefs."
"And then my trousers..."
"Unreasonable Juvenile, what of the trousers?"
"They are so tight that I dare not sit down in them."
"Barbarian! Michaud's customers never sit down in society."
"And my boots are so small that I can hardly endure them."
"Very becoming to the foot," said Dalyrmple, with exasperating
indifference.
"And my collar is so stiff that it almost cuts my throat."
"Makes you hold your head up," said Dalrymple, "and leaves you no
inducement to commit suicide."
I could not help laughing, despite my discomfort.
"Job himself never had such a comforter!" I exclaimed.
"It would be a downright pleasure to quarrel with you."
"Put on your hat instead, and let us delay no longer," replied my
friend. "My cab is waiting."
So we went down, and in another moment were driving through the lighted
streets. I should hardly have chosen to confess how my heart beat when,
on turning an angle of the Rue Trudon, our cab fell into the rear of
three or four other carriages, passed into a courtyard crowded with
arriving and departing vehicles, and drew up before an open door, whence
a broad stream of light flowed out to meet us. A couple of footmen
received us in a hall lighted by torches and decorated with stands of
antique armor. From the centre of this hall sprang a Gothic staircase,
so light, so richly sculptured, so full of niches and statues, slender
columns, foliated capitals, and delicate ornamentation of every kind,
that it looked a very blossoming of the stone. Following Dalrymple up
this superb staircase and through a vestibule of carved oak, I next
found myself in a room that might have been the scene of Plato's
symposium. Here were walls painted in classic fresco; windows curtained
with draperies of chocolate and amber; chairs and couches of ebony,
carved in antique fashion; Etruscan amphorae; vases and paterae of
terracotta; exquisite lamps, statuettes and candelabra in rare green
bronze; and curious parti-colored busts of philosophers and heroes, in
all kinds of variegated marbles. Powdered footmen serving modern coffee
seemed here like anachronisms in livery. In such a room one should have
been waited on by boys crowned with roses, and have partaken only of
classic dishes--of Venafran olives or oysters from the Lucrine lake,
washed down with Massic, or Chian, or honeyed Falernian.
Some half-dozen gentlemen, chatting over their coffee, bowed to
Dalrymple when we came in. They were talking of the war in Algiers, and
especially of the gallantry of a certain Vicomte de Caylus, in whose
deeds they seemed to take a more than ordinary interest.
"Rode single-handed right through the enemy's camp," said a bronzed,
elderly man, with a short, gray beard.
"And escaped without a scratch," added another, with a tiny red ribbon
at his button-hole.
"He comes of a gallant stock," said a third. "I remember his father at
Austerlitz--literally cut to pieces at the head of his squadron."
"You are speaking of de Caylus," said Dalrymple. "What news of him from
Algiers?"
"This--that having volunteered to carry some important despatches to
head-quarters, he preferred riding by night through Abd-el-Kader's camp,
to taking a _detour_ by the mountains," replied the first speaker.
"A wild piece of boyish daring," said Dalrymple, somewhat drily. "I
presume he did not return by the same road?"
"I should think not. It would have been certain death a second time!"
"And this happened how long since?"
"About a fortnight ago. But we shall soon know all particulars from
himself."
"From himself?"
"Yes, he has obtained leave of absence--is, perhaps, by this time in
Paris."
Dalrymple set down his cup untasted, and turned away.
"Come, Arbuthnot," he said, hastily, "I must introduce you to Madame
Rachel."
We passed through a small antechamber, and into a brilliant _salon_, the
very reverse of antique. Here all was light and color. Here were
hangings of flowered chintz; fantastic divans; lounge-chairs of every
conceivable shape and hue; great Indian jars; richly framed drawings;
stands of exotic plants; Chinese cages, filled with valuable birds from
distant climes; folios of engravings; and, above all, a large cabinet in
marqueterie, crowded with bronzes, Chinese carvings, pastille burners,
fans, medals, Dresden groups, Sevres vases, Venetian glass, Asiatic
idols, and all kinds of precious trifles in tortoise-shall, mother
o'-pearl, malachite, onyx, lapis lazuli, jasper, ivory, and mosaic. In
this room, sitting, standing, turning over engravings, or grouped here
and there on sofas and divans, were some twenty-five or thirty
gentlemen, all busily engaged in conversation. Saluting some of these by
a passing bow, my friend led the way straight through this _salon_ and
into a larger one immediately beyond it.
"This," he said, "is one of the most beautiful rooms in Paris. Look
round and tell me if you recognise, among all her votaries, the
divinity herself."
I looked round, bewildered.
"Recognise!" I echoed. "I should not recognise my own father at this
moment. I feel like Abou Hassan in the palace of the Caliph."
"Or like Christopher Sly, when he wakes in the nobleman's bedchamber,"
said Dalrymple; "though I should ask your pardon for the comparison. But
see what it is to be an actress with forty-two thousand francs of salary
per week. See these panels painted by Muller--this chandelier by
Deniere, of which no copy exists--this bust of Napoleon by Canova--these
hangings of purple and gold--this ceiling all carved and gilded, than
which Versailles contains nothing more elaborate. _Allons donc_! have
you nothing to say in admiration of so much splendor?"
I shook my head.
"What can I say? Is this the house of an actress, or the palace of a
prince? But stay--that pale woman yonder, all in white, with a plain
gold circlet on her head--who is she?"
"Phedre herself," replied Dalrymple. "Follow me, and be introduced."
She was sitting in a large fauteuil of purple velvet. One foot rested on
a stool richly carved and gilt; one arm rested negligently on a table
covered with curious foreign weapons. In her right hand she held a
singular poignard, the blade of which was damascened with gold, while
the handle, made of bronze and exquisitely modelled, represented a tiny
human skeleton. With this ghastly toy she kept playing as she spoke,
apparently unconscious of its grim significance. She was surrounded by
some ten or a dozen distinguished-looking men, most of whom were
profusely _decore_. They made way courteously at our approach. Dalrymple
then presented me. I made my bow, was graciously received, and dropped
modestly into the rear.
"I began to think that Captain Dalrymple had forsworn Paris," said
Rachel, still toying with the skeleton dagger. "It is surely a year
since I last had this pleasure?"
"Nay, Madame, you flatter me," said Dalrymple. "I have been absent only
five months."
"Then, you see, I have measured your absence by my loss."
Dalrymple bowed profoundly.
Rachel turned to a young man behind her chair.
"Monsieur le Prince," said she, "do you know what is rumored in the
_foyer_ of the Francais? That you have offered me your hand!"
"I offer you both my hands, in applause, Madame, every night of your
performance," replied the gentleman so addressed.
She smiled and made a feint at him with the dagger.
"Excellent!" said she. "One is not enough for a tragedian But where is
Alphonse Karr?"
"I have been looking for him all the evening," said a tall man, with an
iron-gray beard. "He told me he was coming; but authors are capricious
beings--the slaves of the pen."
"True; he lives by his pen--others die by it," said Rachel bitterly. "By
the way, has any one seen Scribe's new Vaudeville?"
"I have," replied a bald little gentleman with a red and green ribbon in
his button-hole.
"And your verdict?"
"The plot is not ill-conceived; but Scribe is only godfather to the
piece. It is almost entirely written by Duverger, his _collaborateur_."
"The life of a _collaborateur_," said Rachel, "is one long act of
self-abnegation. Another takes all the honor--he all the labor. Thus
soldiers fall, and their generals reap the glory."
"A _collaborateur_," said a cynical-looking man who had not yet spoken,
"is a hackney vehicle which one hires on the road to fame, and dismisses
at the end of the journey."
"Sometimes without paying the fare," added a gentleman who had till now
been examining, weapon by weapon, all the curious poignards and pistols
on the table. "But what is this singular ornament?"
And he held up what appeared to be a large bone, perforated in several
places.
The bald little man with the red and green ribbon uttered an exclamation
of surprise.
"It is a tibia!" said he, examining it through his double eye-glass.
"And what of that?" laughed Rachel. "Is it so wonderful to find one leg
in a collection of arms? However, not to puzzle you, I may as well
acknowledge that it was brought to me from Rome by a learned Italian,
and is a curious antique. The Romans made flutes of the leg-bones of
their enemies, and this is one of them."
"A melodious barbarism!" exclaimed one.
"Puts a 'stop,' at all events, to the enemy's flight!" said another.
"Almost as good as drinking out of his skull," added a third.
"Or as eating him, _tout de bon_," said Rachel.
"There must be a certain satisfaction in cannibalism," observed the
cynic who had spoken before. "There are people upon whom one would sup
willingly."
"As, for instance, critics, who are our natural enemies," said Rachel.
"_C'est a dire_, if critics were not too sour to be eaten."
"Nay, with the sweet sauce of vengeance!"
"You speak feelingly, Monsieur de Musset. I am almost sorry, for your
sake, that cannibalism is out of fashion!"
"It is one of the penalties of civilization," replied de Musset, with a
shrug. "Besides, one would not wish to be an epicure."
Dalrymple, who had been listening somewhat disdainfully to this skirmish
of words, here touched me on the arm and turned away.
"Don't you hate this sort of high-pressure talk?" he said, impatiently.
"I was just thinking it so brilliant."
"Pshaw!--conversational fireworks--every speaker bent on eclipsing every
other speaker. It's an artificial atmosphere, my dear Damon--a sort of
forcing-house for good things; and I hate forced witticisms, as I hate
forced peas. But have you had enough of it? Or has this feast of reason
taken away your appetite for simpler fare?"
"If you mean, am I ready to go with you to Madame de Courcelles'--yes."
"_A la bonne heure_!"
"But you are not going away without taking leave of Madame Rachel?"
"Unquestionably. Leave-taking is a custom more honored in the breach
than the observance."
"But isn't that very impolite?"
"_Ingenu!_ Do you know that society ignores everything disagreeable? A
leave-taker sets an unpleasant example, disturbs the harmony of things,
and reminds others of their watches. Besides, he suggests unwelcome
possibilities. Perhaps he finds the party dull; or, worse still, he may
be going to one that is pleasanter."
By this time we were again rattling along the Boulevard. The theatres
were ablaze with lights. The road was full of carriages. The _trottoir_
was almost as populous as at noon. The idlers outside the _cafes_ were
still eating their ices and sipping their _eau-sucre_ as though, instead
of being past eleven at night, it was scarcely eleven in the morning. In
a few minutes, we had once more turned aside out of the great
thoroughfare, and stopped at a private house in a quiet street. A
carriage driving off, a cab drawing up behind our own, open windows with
drawn blinds, upon which were profiled passing shadows of the guests
within, and the ringing tones of a soprano voice, accompanied by a
piano, gave sufficient indication of a party, and had served to attract
a little crowd of soldiers and _gamins_ about the doorway.
Having left our over-coats with a servant, we were ushered upstairs,
and, as the song was not yet ended, slipped in unannounced and stationed
ourselves just between two crowded drawing-rooms, where, sheltered by
the folds of a muslin curtain, we could see all that was going on in
both. I observed, at a glance, that I was now in a society altogether
unlike that which I had just left.
At Rachel's there were present only two ladies besides herself, and
those were members of her own family. Here I found at least an equal
proportion of both sexes. At Rachel's a princely magnificence reigned.
Here the rooms were elegant, but simple; the paintings choice but few;
the ornaments costly, but in no unnecessary profusion.
"It is just the difference between taste and display," said Dalrymple.
"Rachel is an actress, and Madame de Courcelles is a lady. Rachel
exhibits her riches as an Indian chief exhibits the scalps of his
victims--Madame de Courcelles adorns her house with no other view than
to make it attractive to her friends."
"As a Greek girl covers her head with sequins to show the amount of her
fortune, and an English girl puts a rose in her hair for grace and
beauty only," said I, fancying that I had made rather a clever
observation. I was therefore considerably disappointed when Dalrymple
merely said, "just so."
The lady in the larger room here finished her song and returned to her
seat, amid a shower of _bravas_.
"She sings exquisitely," said I, following her with my eyes.
"And so she ought," replied my friend. "She is the Countess Rossi, whom
you may have heard of as Mademoiselle Sontag."
"What! the celebrated Sontag?" I exclaimed.
"The same. And the gentleman to whom she is now speaking is no less
famous a person than the author of _Pelham_."
I was as much delighted as a rustic at a menagerie, and Dalrymple,
seeing this, continued to point out one celebrity after another till I
began no longer to remember which was which. Thus Lamartine, Horace
Vernet, Scribe, Baron Humboldt, Miss Bremer, Arago, Auber, and Sir Edwin
Landseer, were successively indicated, and I thought myself one of the
most fortunate fellows in Paris, only to be allowed to look upon them.
"I suppose the spirit of lion-hunting is an original instinct," I said,
presently. "Call it vulgar excitement, if you will; but I must confess
that to see these people, and to be able to write about them to my
father, is just the most delightful thing that has happened to me since
I left home."
"Call things by their right names, Damon," said Dalrymple,
good-naturedly. "If you were a _parvenu_ giving a party, and wanted all
these fine folks to be seen at your house, that would be lion-hunting;
but being whom and what you are, it is hero-worship--a disease peculiar
to the young; wholesome and inevitable, like the measles."
"What have I done," said a charming voice close by, "that Captain
Dalrymple will not even deign to look upon me?"
The charming voice proceeded from the still more charming lips of an
exceedingly pretty brunette in a dress of light green silk, fastened
here and there with bouquets of rosebuds. Plump, rosy, black-haired,
bright-eyed, bewilderingly coquettish, this lady might have been about
thirty years of age, and seemed by no means unconscious of her powers of
fascination.
"I implore a thousand pardons, Madame...." began my friend.
"_Comment_! A thousand pardons for a single offence!" exclaimed the
lady. "What an unreasonable culprit!"
To which she added, quite audibly, though behind the temporary shelter
of her fan:--
"Who is this _beau garcon_ whom you seem to have brought with you?"
I turned aside, affecting not to hear the question; but could not help
listening, nevertheless. Of Dalrymple's reply, however, I caught but
my own name.
"So much the better," observed the lady. "I delight in civilizing
handsome boys. Introduce him."
Dalrymple tapped me on the arm.
"Madame de Marignan permits me to introduce you, _mon ami_," said he.
"Mr. Basil Arbuthnot--Madame de Marignan."
I bowed profoundly--all the more profoundly because I felt myself
blushing to the eyes, and would not for the universe have been suspected
of overhearing the preceding conversation; nor was my timidity
alleviated when Dalrymple announced his intention of going in search of
Madame de Courcelles, and of leaving me in the care of Madame
de Marignan.
"Now, Damon, make the most of your opportunities," whispered he, as he
passed by. "_Vogue la galere_!"
_Vogue la galere_, indeed! As if I had anything to do with the _galere_,
except to sit down in it, the most helpless of galley-slaves, and
blindly submit to the gyves and chains of Madame de Marignan, who,
regarding me as the lawful captive of her bow and spear, carried me off
at once to a vacant _causeuse_ in a distant corner.
To send me in search of a footstool, to make me hold her fan, to
overwhelm me with questions and bewilder me with a thousand coquetries,
were the immediate proceedings of Madame de Marignan. A consummate
tactician, she succeeded, before a quarter of an hour had gone by, in
putting me at my ease, and in drawing from me everything that I had to
tell--all my past; all my prospects for the future; the name and
condition of my father; a description of Saxonholme, and the very date
of my birth. Then she criticized all the ladies in the room, which only
drew my attention more admiringly upon herself; and she quizzed all the
young men, whereby I felt indirectly flattered, without exactly knowing
why; and she praised Dalrymple in terms for which I could have embraced
her on the spot had she been ten times less pretty, and ten times less
fascinating.
I was an easy victim, after all, and scarcely worth the powder and shot
of an experienced _franc-tireur;_ but Madame de Marignan, according to
her own confession, had a taste for civilizing "handsome boys," and as I
may, perhaps, have come under that category a good many years ago, the
little victory amused her! By the time, at all events, that Dalrymple
returned to tell me it was past one o'clock in the morning, and I must
be introduced to the mistress of the house before leaving, my head was
as completely turned as that of old Time himself.
"Past one!" I exclaimed. "Impossible! We cannot have been here half-an
hour."
At which neither Dalrymple nor Madame de Marignan could forbear smiling.
"I hope our acquaintance is not to end here, monsieur," said Madame de
Marignan. "I live in the Rue Castellane, and am at home to my friends
every Wednesday evening."
I bowed almost to my boots.
"And to my intimates, every morning from twelve to two," she added very
softly, with a dimpled smile that went straight to my heart, and set it
beating like the paddle-wheels of a steamer.
I stammered some incoherent thanks, bowed again, nearly upset a servant
with a tray of ices, and, covered with confusion, followed Dalrymple
into the farther room. Here I was introduced to Madame de Courcelles, a
pale, aristocratic woman some few years younger than Madame de Marignan,
and received a gracious invitation to all her Monday receptions. But I
was much less interested in Madame de Courcelles than I should have been
a couple of hours before. I scarcely looked at her, and five minutes
after I was out of her presence, could not have told whether she was
fair or dark, if my life had depended on it!
"What say you to walking home?" said Dalrymple, as we went down stairs.
"It is a superb night, and the fresh air would be delightful after these
hot rooms."
I assented gladly; so we dismissed the cab, and went out, arm-in-arm,
along a labyrinth of quiet streets lighted by gas-lamps few and far
between, and traversed only by a few homeward-bound pedestrians.
Emerging presently at the back of the Madeleine, we paused for a moment
to admire the noble building by moonlight; then struck across the Marche
aux Fleurs and took our way along the Boulevard.
"Are you tired, Damon?" said Dalrymple presently.
"Not in the least," I replied, with my head full of Madame de Marignan.
"Would you like to look in at an artists' club close by here, where I
have the _entree?_--queer place enough, but amusing to a stranger."
"Yes, very much."
"Come along, then; but first button up your overcoat to the throat, and
tie this colored scarf round your neck. See, I do the same. Now take off
your gloves--that's it. And give your hat the least possible inclination
to the left ear. You may turn up the bottoms of your trousers, if you
like--anything to look a little slangy."
"Is that necessary?"
"Indispensable--at all events in the honorable society of _Les
Chicards."_
"_Les Chicards_!" I repeated. "What are they?"
"It is the name of the club, and means--Heaven only knows what! for
Greek or Latin root it has none, and record of it there exists not,
unless in the dictionary of Argot. And yet if you were an old Parisian
and had matriculated for the last dozen years at the Bal de l'Opera, you
would know the illustrious Chicard by sight as familiarly as Punch, or
Paul Pry, or Pierrot. He is a gravely comic personage with a bandage
over one eye, a battered hat considerably inclining to the back of his
head, a coat with a high collar and long tails, and a _tout ensemble_
indescribably seedy--something between a street preacher and a
travelling showman. But here we are. Take care how you come down, and
mind your head."
Having turned aside some few minutes before into the Rue St. Honore, we
had thence diverged down a narrow street with a gutter running along the
middle and no foot-pavements on either side. The houses seemed to be
nearly all shops, some few of which, for the retailing of
_charbonnerie_, stale vegetables, uninviting cooked meats, and so forth,
were still open; but that before which we halted was closely shuttered
up, with only a private door open at the side, lighted by a single
oil-lamp. Following my friend for a couple of yards along the dim
passage within, I became aware of strange sounds, proceeding apparently
from the bowels of the earth, and found myself at the head of a steep
staircase, down which it was necessary to proceed with my body bent
almost double, in consequence of the close proximity of the ceiling and
the steps. At the foot of this staircase came another dim passage and
another oil-lamp over a low door, at which Dalrymple paused a moment
before entering. The sounds which I had heard above now resolved
themselves into their component parts, consisting of roars of laughter,
snatches of songs, clinkings of glasses, and thumpings of bottles upon
tables, to the accompaniment of a deep bass hum of conversation, all of
which prepared me to find a very merry company within.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE HONORABLE SOCIETY OF LES CHICARDS.
"When a set of men find themselves agree in any particular,
though never so trivial, they establish themselves into a
kind of fraternity, and meet once or twice a
week."--_Spectator_.
It was a long, low room lighted by gas, with a table reaching from end
to end. Round about this table, in various stages of conviviality and
conversation, were seated some thirty or forty men, capped, bearded, and
eccentric-looking, with all kinds of queer blouses and wonderful heads
of hair. Dropping into a couple of vacant chairs at the lower end of
this table, we called for a bottle of Chablis, lit our cigars, and fell
in with the general business of the evening. At the top, dimly visible
through a dense fog of tobacco smoke, sat a stout man in a green coat
fastened by a belt round the waist. He was evidently the President, and,
instead of a hammer, had a small bugle lying by his side, which he blew
from time to time to enforce silence.
Somewhat perplexed by the general aspect of the club, I turned to my
companion for an explanation.
"Is it possible," I asked, "that these amazing individuals are all
artists and gentlemen?"
"Artists, every one," replied Dalrymple; "but as to their claim to be
gentlemen, I won't undertake to establish it. After all, the _Chicards_
are not first-rate men."
"What are they, then?"
"Oh, the Helots of the profession--hewers of wood engravings, and
drawers of water-colors, with a sprinkling of daguerreotypists, and
academy students. But hush--somebody is going to sing!"
And now, heralded by a convulsive flourish from the President's bugle, a
young _Chicard_, whose dilapidated outer man sufficiently contradicted
the burthen of his song, shouted with better will than skill, a
_chanson_ of Beranger's, every verse of which ended with:--
"J'ai cinquante ecus,
J'ai cinquante ecus,
J'ai cinquante ecus de rente!"
Having brought this performance to a satisfactory conclusion, the singer
sat down amid great clapping of hands and clattering of glasses, and the
President, with another flourish on the bugle, called upon one Monsieur
Tourterelle. Monsieur Tourterelle was a tall, gaunt, swarthy personage,
who appeared to have cultivated his beard at the expense of his head,
since the former reached nearly to his waist, while the latter was as
bare as a billiard-ball. Preparing himself for the effort with a
wine-glass full of raw cognac, this gentleman leaned back in his chair,
stuck his thumbs into the armholes of his waistcoat, fixed his eyes on
the ceiling, and plunged at once into a doleful ballad about one
Mademoiselle Rosine, and a certain village _aupres de la mer_, which
seemed to be in an indefinite number of verses, and amused no one but
himself. In the midst of this ditty, just as the audience had begun to
testify their impatience by much whispering and shuffling of feet, an
elderly _Chicard_, with a very bald and shiny head, was discovered to
have fallen asleep in the seat next but one to my own; whereupon my
nearest neighbor, a merry-looking young fellow with a profusion of rough
light hair surmounted by a cap of scarlet cloth, forthwith charred a
cork in one of the candles, and decorated the bald head of the sleeper
with a comic countenance and a pair of huge mustachios. An uproarious
burst of laughter was the immediate result, and the singer, interrupted
somewhere about his 18th verse, subsided into offended silence.
"Monsieur Mueller is requested to favor the honorable society with a
song," cried the President, as soon as the tumult had somewhat subsided.
My red-capped neighbor, answering to that name, begged to be excused, on
the score of having pledged his _ut de poitrine_ a week since at the
Mont de Piete, without yet having been able to redeem it. This apology
was received with laughter, hisses, and general incredulity.
"But," he added, "I am willing to relate an adventure that happened to
myself in Rome two winters ago, if my honorable brother _Chicards_ will
be pleased to hear it."
An immense burst of approbation from all but Monsieur Tourterelle and
the bald sleeper, followed this announcement; and so, after a
preliminary _grog au vin_, and another explosive demonstration on the
part of the chairman, Monsieur Mueller thus began:--
THE STUDENT'S STORY.
"When I was in Rome, I lodged in the Via Margutta, which, for the
benefit of those who have not been there, may be described as a street
of studios and stables, crossed at one end by a little roofed gallery
with a single window, like a shabby 'Bridge of Sighs,' A gutter runs
down the middle, interrupted occasionally by heaps of stable-litter; and
the perspective is damaged by rows of linen suspended across the street
at uncertain intervals. The houses in this agreeable thoroughfare are
dingy, dilapidated, and comfortless, and all which are not in use as
stables, are occupied by artists. However, it was a very jolly place,
and I never was happier anywhere in my life. I had but just touched my
little patrimony, and I was acquainted with plenty of pleasant fellows
who used to come down to my rooms at night from the French Academy where
they had been studying all day. Ah, what evenings those were! What
suppers we used to have in from the _Lepre_! What lots of Orvieto we
drank! And what a mountain of empty wicker bottles had to be cleared
away from the little square yard with the solitary lemon-tree at the
back of the house!"
"Come, Mueller--no fond memories!" cried a student in a holland blouse.
"Get on with the story."
"Ay, get on with the story!" echoed several voices.
To which Mueller, who took advantage of the interruption to finish his
_grog au vin_, deigned no reply.
"Well," he continued, "like a good many other fellows who, having
everything to learn and nothing to do, fancy themselves great geniuses
only because they are in Rome, I put a grand brass plate on the door,
testifying to all passers-by that mine was the STUDIO DI HERR FRANZ
MULLER; and, having done this, I believed, of course, that my fortune
was to be made out of hand. Nothing came of it, however. People in
search of Dessoulavy's rooms knocked occasionally to ask their way, and
a few English and Americans dropped in from time to time to stare about
them, after the free-and-easy fashion of foreigners in Rome; but, for
all this, I found no patrons. Thus several months went by, during which
I studied from the life, worked hard at the antique, and relieved the
monotony of study with occasional trips to Frascati, or supper parties
at the Cafe Greco."
"The story! the story!" interrupted a dozen impatient voices.
"All in good time," said Mueller, with provoking indifference. "We are
now coming to it."
And assuming an attitude expressive of mystery, he dropped his voice,
looked round the table, and proceeded:--
"It was on the last evening of the Carnival. It had been raining at
intervals during the day, but held up for a good hour just at dusk, as
if on purpose for the _moccoli_. Scarcely, however, had the guns of St.
Angelo thundered an end to the frolic, when the rain came down again in
torrents, and put out the last tapers that yet lingered along the Corso.
Wet, weary, and splashed from head to foot with mud and tallow, I came
home about seven o'clock, having to dine and dress before going to a
masked-ball in the evening. To light my stove, change my wet clothes,
and make the best of a half-cold _trattore_ dinner, were my first
proceedings; after which, I laid out my costume ready to put on, wrapped
myself in a huge cloak, swallowed a tumbler full of hot cognac and
water, and lay down in front of the fire, determined to have a sound nap
and a thorough warming, before venturing out again that night. I fell
asleep, of course, and never woke till roused by a tremendous peal upon
the studio-bell, about two hours and a half afterwards. More dead than
alive, I started to my feet. The fire had gone out in the stove; the
room was in utter darkness; and the bell still pealed loud enough to
raise the neighborhood.
"'Who's there?' I said, half-opening the door, through which the wind
and rain came rushing. 'And what, in the name of ten thousand devils, do
you want?"
"'I want an artist,' said my visitor, in Italian. 'Are you one?'
"'I flatter myself that I am,' replied I, still holding the door
tolerably close.
"'Can you paint heads?'
"'Heads, figures, landscapes--anything,' said I, with my teeth
chattering like castanets.
"The stranger pushed the door open, walked in without further ceremony,
closed it behind him, and said, in a low, distinct voice:--
"'Could you take the portrait of a dead man?'
"'Of a dead man?' I stammered. 'I--I ... Suppose I strike a light?'
"The stranger laid his hand upon my arm.
"'Not till you have given me an answer,' said he. 'Yes or no? Remember,
you will be paid well for your work.'
"'Well, then--yes,' I replied.
"'And can you do it at once?'
"'At once?'
"'Ay, Signore, will you bring your colors, and come with me this
instant--or must I seek some other painter?'
"I thought of the masked-ball, and sighed; but the promise of good
payment, and, above all, the peculiarity of the adventure determined me.
"'Nay, if it is to be done,' said I, 'one time is as good as another.
Let me strike a light, and I will at once pack up my colors and come
with you.'
"'_Bene_!' said the stranger. 'But be as quick as you can, Signore, for
time presses.'
"I was quick, you may be sure, and yet not so quick but that I found
time to look at my strange visitor. He was a dark, elderly man, dressed
in a suit of plain black, and might have been a clerk, or a tradesman,
or a confidential servant. As soon as I was ready, he took the lead;
conducted me to a carriage which was waiting at the corner of a
neighboring street; took his place respectfully on the opposite seat;
pulled down both the blinds, and gave the word to drive on. I never knew
by what streets we went, or to what part of Rome he took me; but the way
seemed long and intricate. At length, we stopped and alighted. The night
was pitch-dark, and still stormy. I saw before me only the outline of a
large building, indistinct and gloomy, and a small open door dimly
lighted-from within. Hurried across the strip of narrow pavement, and
shut in immediately, I had no time to identify localities--no choice,
except to follow my conductor and blindly pursue the adventure to its
close. Having entered by a back door, we went up and down a labyrinth of
staircases and passages, for the mere purpose, as it seemed, of
bewildering me as much as possible--then paused before an oaken door at
the end of the corridor. Here my conductor signified by a gesture that I
was to precede him.
"It was a large, panelled chamber, richly furnished. A wood fire
smouldered on the hearth--a curtained alcove to the left partly
concealed a bed--a corresponding alcove to the right, fitted with altar
and crucifix, served as an oratory. In the centre of the room stood a
table covered with a cloth. It needed no second glance to tell me what
object lay beneath that cloth, uplifting it in ghastly outline! My
conductor pointed to the table, and asked if there was anything I
needed. To this I replied that I must have more light and more fire, and
so proceeded to disembarrass myself of my cloak, and prepare my palette.
In the meantime, he threw on a log and some pine-cones, and went to
fetch an additional lamp.
"Left alone with the body and impelled by an irresistible impulse, I
rolled back the cloth and saw before me the corpse of a young man in
fancy dress--a magnificent fellow cast in the very mould of strength and
grace, and measuring his six feet, if an inch. The features were
singularly handsome; the brow open and resolute; the hair dark, and
crisp with curls. Looking more closely, I saw that a lock had been
lately cut from the right temple, and found one of the severed hairs
upon the cheek, where it had fallen. The dress was that of a jester of
the middle ages, half scarlet and half white, with a rich belt round the
waist. In this belt, as if in horrible mockery of the dead, was stuck a
tiny baton surmounted by a fool's cap, and hung with silver bells.
Looking down thus upon the body--so young, so beautiful, so evidently
unprepared for death--a conviction of foul play flashed upon me with all
the suddenness and certainty of revelation. Here were no appearances of
disease and no signs of strife. The expression was not that of a man who
had fallen weapon in hand. Neither, however, was it that of one who had
died in the agony of poison. The longer I looked, the more mysterious it
seemed; yet the more I felt assured that there was guilt at the bottom
of the mystery.
"While I was yet under the first confused and shuddering impression of
this doubt, my guide came back with a powerful solar lamp, and, seeing
me stand beside the body, said sharply:--
"'Well, Signore, you look as if you had never seen a dead man before in
all your life!'
"'I have seen plenty,' I replied, 'but never one so young, and so
handsome.'
"'He dropped down quite suddenly,' said he, volunteering the
information, 'and died in a few minutes. 'Then finding that I remained
silent, added:--
"'But I am told that it is always so in cases of heart-disease.'
"'I turned away without replying, and, having placed the lamp to my
satisfaction, began rapidly sketching in my subject. My instructions
were simple. I was to give the head only; to produce as rapid an effect
with as little labor as possible; to alter nothing; to add nothing; and,
above all, to be ready to leave the house before daybreak. So I set
steadily to work, and my conductor, establishing himself in an
easy-chair by the fire, watched my progress for some time, and then, as
the night advanced, fell profoundly asleep. Thus, hour after hour went
by, and, absorbed in my work, I painted on, unconscious of fatigue--
might almost say with something of a morbid pleasure in the task before
me. The silence within; the raving of the wind and rain without; the
solemn mystery of death, and the still more solemn mystery of crime
which, as I followed out train after train of wild conjectures, grew to
still deeper conviction, had each and all their own gloomy fascination.
Was it not possible, I asked myself, by mere force of will to penetrate
the secret? Was it not possible to study that dead face till the springs
of thought so lately stilled within the stricken brain should vibrate
once more, if only for an instant, as wire vibrates to wire, and sound
to sound! Could I not, by long studying of the passive mouth, compel
some sympathetic revelation of the last word that it uttered, though
that revelation took no outward form, and were communicable to the
apprehension only? Pondering thus, I lost myself in a labyrinth of
fantastic reveries, till the hand and the brain worked independently of
each other--the one swiftly reproducing upon canvas the outer lineaments
of the dead; the other laboring to retrace foregone facts of which no
palpable evidence remained. Thus my work progressed; thus the night
waned; thus the sleeper by the fireside stirred from time to time, or
moaned at intervals in his dreams.
"At length, when many hours had gone by, and I began to be conscious of
the first languor of sleeplessness, I heard, or fancied I heard, a light
sound in the corridor without. I held my breath, and listened. As I
listened, it ceased--was renewed--drew nearer--paused outside the door.
Involuntarily, I rose and looked round for some means of defence, in
case of need. Was I brought here to perpetuate the record of a crime,
and was I, when my task was done, to be silenced in a dungeon, or a
grave? This thought flashed upon me almost before I was conscious of the
horror it involved. At the same moment, I saw the handle of the door
turned slowly and cautiously--then held back--and then, after a brief
pause, the door itself gradually opening."
Here the student paused as if overcome by the recollection of that
moment, and passed his hand nervously across his brow. I took the
liberty of pushing our bottle of Chablis towards him, for which he
thanked me with a nod and a smile, and filled his glass to the brim.
"Well?" cried two or three voices eagerly; my own being one of them.
"The door opened--what then?"
"And a lady entered," he continued. "A lady dressed in black from head
to foot, with a small lamp in her hand. Seeing me, she laid her finger
significantly on her lip, closed the door as cautiously as she had
opened it, and, with the faltering, uncertain steps of one just risen
from a sick-bed, came over to where I had been sitting, and leaned for
support against my chair. She was very pale, very calm, very young and
beautiful, with just that look of passive despair in her face that one
sees in Guido's portrait of Beatrice Cenci. Standing thus, I observed
that she kept her eyes turned from the corpse, and her attention
concentrated on the portrait. So several minutes passed, and neither of
us spoke nor stirred. Then, slowly, shudderingly, she turned, grasped me
by the arm, pointed to the dead form stretched upon the table, and less
with her breath than by the motion of her lips, shaped out the one
word:--'_Murdered_!'
"Stunned by this confirmation of my doubts, I could only clasp my hands
in mute horror, and stare helplessly from the lady to the corpse, from
the corpse to the sleeper. Wildly, feverishly, with all her calmness
turned to eager haste, she then bent over the body, tore open the rich
doublet, turned back the shirt, and, without uttering one syllable,
pointed to a tiny puncture just above the region of the heart--a spot so
small, so insignificant, such a mere speck upon the marble, that but for
the pale violet discoloration which spread round it like a halo, I could
scarcely have believed it to be the cause of death. The wound had
evidently bled inwardly, and, being inflicted with some singularly
slender weapon, had closed again so completely as to leave an aperture
no larger than might have been caused by the prick of a needle. While I
was yet examining it, the fire fell together, and my conductor stirred
uneasily in his sleep. To cover the body hastily with the cloth and
resume my seat, was, with me, the instinctive work of a moment; but he
was quiet again the next instant, and breathing heavily. With trembling
hands, my visitor next re-closed the shirt and doublet, replaced the
outer covering, and bending down till her lips almost touched my ear,
whispered:--
"'You have seen it. If called upon to do so, will you swear it?'
"I promised.
"'You will not let yourself be intimidated by threats? nor bribed by
gold? nor lured by promises?
"'Never, so help me Heaven!'
"She looked into my eyes, as if she would read my very soul; then,
before I knew what she was about to do, seized my hand, and pressed it
to her lip.
"'I believe you,' she said. 'I believe, and I thank you. Not a word to
him that you have seen me'--here she pointed to the sleeper by the fire.
'He is faithful; but not to my interests alone. I dare tell you no
more--at all events, not now. Heaven bless and reward you. In this
portrait you give me the only treasure--the only consolation of my
future life!'
"So saying, she took a ring from her finger, pressed it, without another
word, into my unwilling hand; and, with the same passive dreary look
that her face had worn on first entering took up her lamp again, and
glided from the room.
"How the next hour, or half hour, went by, I know not--except that I sat
before the canvas like one dreaming. Now and then I added a few touches;
but mechanically, and, as it were, in a trance of wonder and dismay. I
had, however, made such good progress before being interrupted, that
when my companion woke and told me it would soon be day and I must make
haste to be gone, the portrait was even more finished than I had myself
hoped to make it in the time. So I packed up my colors and palette
again, and, while I was doing so, observed that he not only drew the
cloth once more over the features of the dead, but concealed the
likeness behind the altar in the oratory, and even restored the chairs
to their old positions against the wall. This done, he extinguished the
solar lamp; put it out of sight; desired me once more to follow him; and
led the way back along the same labyrinth of staircases and corridors by
which he brought me. It was gray dawn as he hurried me into the coach.
The blinds were already down--the door was instantly closed--again we
seemed to be going through an infinite number of streets--again we
stopped, and I found myself at the corner of the Via Margutta.
"'Alight, Signore,' said the stranger, speaking for the first time since
we started. 'Alight--you are but a few yards from your own door. Here
are a hundred scudi; and all that you have now to do, is to forget your
night's work, as if it had never been.'
"With this he closed the carriage-door, the horses dashed on again, and,
before I had time even to see if any arms were blazoned on the panels,
the whole equipage had disappeared.
"And here, strange to say, the adventure ended. I never was called upon
for evidence. I never saw anything more of the stranger, or the lady. I
never heard of any sudden death, or accident, or disappearance having
taken place about that time; and I never even obtained any clue to the
neighborhood of the house in which these things took place. Often and
often afterwards, when I was strolling by night along the streets of
Rome, I lingered before some old palazzo, and fancied that I recognised
the gloomy outline that caught my eye in that hurried transit from the
carriage to the house. Often and often I paused and started, thinking
that I had found at last the very side-door by which I entered. But
these were mere guesses after all. Perhaps that house stood in some
remote quarter of the city where my footsteps never went again--perhaps
in some neighboring street or piazza, where I passed it every day! At
all events, the whole thing vanished like a dream, and, but for the ring
and the hundred scudi, a dream I should by this time believe it to have
been. The scudi, I am sorry to say, were spent within a month--the ring
I have never parted from, and here it is."
Hereupon the student took from his finger a superb ruby set between two
brilliants of inferior size, and allowed it to pass from hand to hand,
all round the table. Exclamations of surprise and admiration,
accompanied by all sorts of conjectures and comments, broke from
every lip.
"The dead man was the lady's lover," said one. "That is why she wanted
his portrait."
"Of course, and her husband had murdered him," said another.
"Who, then, was the man in black?" asked a third.
"A servant, to be sure. She said, if you remember, that he was faithful;
but not devoted to her interests alone. That meant that he would obey to
the extent of procuring for her the portrait of her lover; but that he
did not choose to betray his master, even though his master was a
murderer."
"But if so, where was the master?" said the first speaker. "Is it likely
that he would have neglected to conceal the body during all
these hours?"
"Certainly. Nothing more likely, if he were a man of the world, and knew
how to play his game out boldly to the end. Have we not been told that
it was the last night of the Carnival, and what better could he do, to
avert suspicion, than show himself at as many balls as he could visit in
the course of the evening? But really, this ring is magnificent!"
"Superb. The ruby alone must be worth a thousand francs."
"To say nothing of the diamonds, and the setting," observed the next to
whom it was handed.
At length, after having gone nearly the round of the table, the ring
came to a little dark, sagacious-looking man, just one seat beyond
Dalrymple's, who peered at it suspiciously on every side, breathed upon
it, rubbed it bright again upon his coat-sleeve, and, finally, held the
stones up sideways between his eyes and the light.
"Bah!" said he, sending it on with a contemptuous fillip of the
forefinger and thumb. "Glass and paste, _mon ami_. Not worth five francs
of anybody's money."
Mueller, who had been eyeing him all the time with an odd smile lurking
about the corners of his mouth, emptied his last drop of Chablis, turned
the glass over on the table, bottom upwards, and said very coolly:--
"Well, I'm sorry for that; because I gave seven francs for it myself
this morning, in the Palais Royal."
"You!"
"Seven francs!"
"Bought in the Palais Royal!"
"What does he mean?"
"Mean?" echoed the student, in reply to this chorus of exclamations. "I
mean that I bought it this morning, and gave seven francs for it. It is
not every morning of my life, let me tell you, that I have seven francs
to throw away on my personal appearance."
"But then the ring that the lady took from her finger?"
"And the murder?"
"And the servant in black?"
"And the hundred scudi?"
"One great invention from beginning to end, Messieurs les Chicards, and
being got up expressly for your amusement, I hope you liked it.
_Garcon?_--another _grog au vin_, and sweeter than the last!"
It would be difficult to say whether the Chicards were most disappointed
or delighted at this _denoument_--disappointed at its want of fact, or
delighted with the story-weaving power of Herr Franz Mueller. They
expressed themselves, at all events, with a tumultuous burst of
applause, in the midst of which we rose and left the room. When we once
more came out into the open air, the stars had disappeared and the air
was heavy with the damps of approaching daybreak. Fortunately, we caught
an empty _fiacre_ in the next street and, as we were nearer the Rue du
Faubourg Montmartre than the Chaussee d' Antin, Dalrymple set me
down first.
"Adieu, Damon," he said, laughingly, as we shook hands through the
window. "If we don't meet before, come and dine with me next Sunday at
seven o'clock--and don't dream of dreadful murders, if you can help it!"
I did not dream of dreadful murders. I dreamt, instead, of Madame de
Marignan, and never woke the next morning till eleven o'clock, just two
hours later than the time at which I should have presented myself at
Dr. Cheron's.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XV.
WHAT IT IS TO BE A CAVALIERE SERVENTE.
"Everye white will have its blacke,
And everye sweet its sowere."
_Old Ballad_.
Neither the example of Oscar Dalrymple nor the broadcloth of the great
Michaud, achieved half so much for my education as did the
apprenticeship I was destined to serve to Madame de Marignan. Having
once made up her mind to civilize me, she spared no pains for the
accomplishment of that end, cost what it might to herself--or me. Before
I had been for one week her subject, she taught me how to bow; how to
pick up a pocket-handkerchief; how to present a bouquet; how to hold a
fan; how to pay a compliment; how to turn over the leaves of a
music-book--in short, how to obey and anticipate every imperious wish;
and how to fetch and carry, like a dog. My vassalage began from the very
day when I first ventured to call upon her. Her house was small, but
very elegant, and she received me in a delicious little room overlooking
the Champs Elysees--a very nest of flowers, books, and birds. Before I
had breathed the air of that fatal boudoir for one quarter of an hour, I
was as abjectly her slave as the poodle with the rose-colored collar
which lay curled upon a velvet cushion at her feet.
"I shall elect you my _cavaliere servente_," said she, after I had twice
nervously risen to take my leave within the first half hour, and twice
been desired to remain a little longer. "Will you accept the office?"
I thought it the greatest privilege under heaven. Perhaps I said so.
"The duties of the situation are onerous," added she, "and I ought not
to accept your allegiance without setting them before you. In the first
place, you will have to bring me every new novel of George Sand,
Flaubert, or About, on the day of publication."
"I will move heaven and earth to get them the day before, if that be
all!" I exclaimed.
Madame de Marignan nodded approvingly, and went on telling off my
duties, one by one, upon her pretty fingers.
"You will have to accompany me to the Opera at least twice a week, on
which occasions you will bring me a bouquet--camellias being my
favorite flowers."
"Were they the flowers that bloom but once in a century," said I, with
more enthusiasm than sense, "they should be yours!"
Madame de Marignan smiled and nodded again.
"When I drive in the Bois, you will sometimes take a seat in my
carriage, and sometimes ride beside it, like an attentive cavalier."
I was just about to avow that I had no horse, when I remembered that I
could borrow Dalrymple's, or hire one, if necessary; so I checked
myself, and bowed.
"When I go to an exhibition," said Madame de Marignan, "it will be your
business to look out the pictures in the catalogue--when I walk, you
will carry my parasol--when I go into a shop, you will take care of my
dog--when I embroider, you will wind off my silks, and look for my
scissors--when I want amusement, you must make me laugh--and when I am
sleepy, you must read to me. In short, my _cavaliere servente_ must be
my shadow."
"Then, like your shadow, Madame," said I, "his place is ever at your
feet, and that is all I desire!"
Madame de Marignan laughed outright, and showed the loveliest little
double row of pearls in all the world.
"Admirable!" said she. "Quite an elegant compliment, and worthy of an
accomplished lady-killer! _Allons_! you are a promising scholar."
"In all that I have dared to say, Madame, I am, at least, sincere," I
added, abashed by the kind of praise.
"Sincere? Of course you are sincere. Who ever doubted it? Nay, to blush
like that is enough to spoil the finest compliment in the world.
There--it is three o'clock, and at half-past I have an engagement, for
which I must now make my _toilette_. Come to-morrow evening to my box at
the _Italiens_, and so adieu. Stay--being my _cavaliere_, I permit you,
at parting, to kiss my hand."
Trembling, breathless, scarcely daring to touch it with mine, I lifted
the soft little hand to my lips, stammered something which was, no
doubt, sufficiently foolish, and hurried away, as if I were treading on
air and breathing sunshine.
All the rest of that day went by in a kind of agreeable delirium. I
walked about, almost without knowledge where I went. I talked, without
exactly knowing what I said. I have some recollection of marching to and
fro among the side-alleys of the Bois de Boulogne, which at that time
was really a woody park, and not a pleasure-garden--of lying under a
tree, and listening to the birds overhead, and indulging myself in some
idiotic romance about love, and solitude, and Madame de Marignan--of
wandering into a _restaurant_ somewhere about seven o'clock, and sitting
down to a dinner for which I had no appetite--of going back, sometime
during the evening, to the Rue Castellane, and walking to and fro on the
opposite side of the way, looking up for ever so long at the darkened
windows where my divinity did not show herself--of coming back to my
lodgings, weary, dusty, and not a bit more sober, somewhere about
eleven o'clock at night, driven to-bed by sheer fatigue, and, even then,
too much in love to go to sleep!
The next day I went through my duties at Dr. Cheron's, and attended an
afternoon lecture at the hospital; but mechanically, like one dreaming.
In the evening I presented myself at the Opera, where Madame de Marignan
received me very graciously, and deigned to accept a superb bouquet for
which I had paid sixteen francs. I found her surrounded by elegant men,
who looked upon me as nobody, and treated me accordingly. Driven to the
back of the box where I could neither speak to her, nor see the stage,
nor achieve even a glimpse of the house, I spent an evening which
certainly fell short of my anticipations. I had, however, the
gratification of seeing my bouquet thrown to Grisi at the end of the
second act, and was permitted the privilege of going in search of Madame
de Marignan's carriage, while somebody else handed her downstairs, and
assisted her with her cloak. A whispered word of thanks, a tiny pressure
of the hand, and the words "come early to-morrow," compensated me,
nevertheless, for every disappointment, and sent me home as blindly
happy as ever.
The next day I called upon her, according to command, and was
transported to the seventh heaven by receiving permission to accompany
her to a morning concert, whereby I missed two lectures, and spent
ten francs.
On the Sunday, having hired a good horse for the occasion, I had the
honor of riding beside her carriage till some better-mounted
acquaintance came to usurp my place and her attention; after which I was
forced to drop behind and bear the eclipse of my glory as
philosophically as I could.
Thus day after day went by, and, for the delusive sake of Madame de
Marignan's bright eyes, I neglected my studies, spent my money, wasted
my time, and incurred the displeasure of Dr. Cheron. Led on from folly
to folly, I was perpetually buoyed up by coquetries which meant nothing,
and as perpetually mortified, disappointed, and neglected. I hoped; I
feared; I fretted; I lost my sleep and my appetite; I felt dissatisfied
with all the world, sometimes blaming myself, and sometimes her--yet
ready to excuse and forgive her at a moment's notice. A boy in
experience even more than in years, I loved with a boy's headlong
passion, and suffered with all a boy's acute susceptibility. I was
intensely sensitive--abashed by a slight, humbled by a glance, and so
easily wounded that there were often times when, seeing myself
forgotten, I could with difficulty drive back the tears that kept rising
to my eyes. On the other hand, I was as easily elated. A kind word, an
encouraging smile, a lingering touch upon my sleeve, was enough at any
time to make me forget all my foregone troubles. How often the mere gift
of a flower sent me home rejoicing! How the tiniest show of preference
set my heart beating! How proud I was if mine was the arm chosen to lead
her to her carriage! How more than happy, if allowed for even one
half-hour in the whole evening to occupy the seat beside her own! To
dangle after her the whole day long--to traverse all Paris on her
errands--to wait upon her pleasure like a slave, and this, too, without
even expecting to be thanked for my devotion, seemed the most natural
thing in the world. She was capricious; but caprice became her. She was
exacting; but her exactions were so coquettish and attractive, that one
would not have wished her more reasonable. She was, at least, ten or
twelve years my senior; but boys proverbially fall in love with women
older than themselves, and this one was in all respects so charming,
that I do not, even now, wonder at my infatuation.
After all, there are few things under heaven more beautiful, or more
touching, than a boy's first love.
Passionate is it as a man's--pure as a woman's--trusting
as a child's--timid, through the very excess of its
unselfishness--chivalrous, as though handed down direct from the days of
old romance--poetical beyond the utterances of the poet. To the
boy-lover, his mistress is only something less than a divinity. He
believes in her truth as in his own; in her purity, as in the sun at
noon. Her practised arts of voice and manner are, in his eyes, the
unstudied graces that spring as naturally from her beauty as the scent
from the flower. Single-hearted himself, it seems impossible that she
whom he adores should trifle with the most sacred sentiment he has ever
known. Conscious of his own devotion, he cannot conceive that his wealth
is poured forth in vain, and that he is but the plaything of her idle
hours. Yet it is so. The boy's first love is almost always misplaced;
seldom rated at its true value; hardly ever productive of anything but
disappointment. Aspirant of the highest mysteries of the soul, he passes
through the ordeal of fire and tears, happy if he keep his faith
unshaken and his heart pure, for the wiser worship hereafter. We all
know this; and few know it better than myself. Yet, with all its
suffering, which of us would choose to obliterate all record of his
first romance? Which of us would be without the memory of its smiles and
tears, its sunshine and its clouds? Not I for one.
CHAPTER XVI.
A CONTRETEMPS IN A CARRIAGE.
My slavery lasted somewhat longer than three weeks, and less than a
month; and was brought, oddly enough, to an abrupt conclusion. This was
how it happened.
I had, as usual, attended Madame de Marignan one evening to the Opera,
and found myself, also as usual, neglected for a host of others. There
was one man in particular whom I hated, and whom (perhaps because I
hated him) she distinguished rather more than the rest. His name was
Delaroche, and he called himself Monsieur le Comte Delaroche. Most
likely he was a Count---I have no reason to doubt his title; but I chose
to doubt it for mere spite, and because he was loud and conceited, and
wore a little red and green ribbon in his button-hole. He had, besides,
an offensive sense of my youth and his own superiority, which I have
never forgiven to this day. On the particular occasion of which I am
now speaking, this person had made his appearance in Madame de
Marignan's box at the close of the first act, established himself in the
seat behind hers, and there held the lists against all comers during the
remainder of the evening. Everything he said, everything he did,
aggravated me. When he looked through her lorgnette, I loathed him. When
he admired her fan, I longed to thrust it down his throat. When he held
her bouquet to his odious nose (the bouquet that I had given her!) I
felt it would have been justifiable manslaughter to take him up bodily,
and pitch him over into the pit.
At length the performance came to a close, and M. Delaroche, having
taken upon himself to arrange Madame de Marignan's cloak, carry Madame
de Marignan's fan, and put Madame de Marignan's opera-glass into its
morocco case, completed his officiousness by offering his arm and
conducting her into the lobby, whilst I, outwardly indifferent but
inwardly boiling, dropped behind, and consigned him silently to all the
torments of the seven circles.
It was an oppressive autumnal night without a star in the sky, and so
still that one might have carried a lighted taper through the streets.
Finding it thus warm, Madame de Marignan proposed walking down the line
of carriages, instead of waiting till her own came up; and so she and M.
Delaroche led the way and I followed. Having found the carriage, he
assisted her in, placed her fan and bouquet on the opposite seat,
lingered a moment at the open door, and had the unparalleled audacity to
raise her hand to his lips at parting. As for me, I stood proudly back,
and lifted my hat.
"_Comment_!" she said, holding out her hand--the pretty, ungloved hand
that had just been kissed--"is that your good night?"
I bowed over the hand, I would not have touched it with my lips at that
moment for all the wealth of Paris.
"You are coming to me to-morrow morning at twelve?" she murmured
tenderly.
"If Madame desires it."
"Of course I desire it. I am going to Auteuil, to look at a house for a
friend--and to Pignot's for some flowers--and to Lubin's for some
scent--and to a host of places. What should I do without you? Nay, why
that grave face? Have I done anything to offend you?"
"Madame, I--I confess that--"
"That you are jealous of that absurd Delaroche, who is so much in love
with himself that he has no place in his heart for any one else! _Fi
donc!_ I am ashamed of you. There--adieu, twelve to-morrow!"
And with this she laughed, waved her hand, gave the signal to drive on,
and left me looking after the carriage, still irritated but already
half consoled.
I then sauntered moodily on, thinking of my tyrant, and her caprices,
and her beauty. Her smile, for instance; surely it was the sweetest
smile in the world--if only she were less lavish of it! Then, what a
delicious little hand--if mine were the only lips permitted to kiss it!
Why was she so charming?--or why, being so charming, need she prize the
attentions of every _flaneur_ who had only enough wit to admire her? Was
I not a fool to believe that she cared more for my devotion than for
another's! Did I believe it? Yes ... no ... sometimes. But then that
"sometimes" was only when under the immediate influence of her presence.
She fascinated me; but she would fascinate a hundred others in precisely
the same way. It was true that she accepted from me more devotion, more
worship, more time, more outward and visible homage than from any other.
Was I not her _Cavaliere servente?_ Did she not accept my bouquets? Did
she not say the other day, when I gave her that volume of Tennyson, that
she loved all that was English for my sake? Surely, I was worse than
ungrateful, when, having so much, I was still dissatisfied! Why was I
not the happiest fellow in Paris? Why .....
My meditations were here interrupted by a sudden flash of very vivid
lightning, followed by a low muttering of distant thunder. I paused, and
looked round. The sky was darker than ever, and though the air was
singularly stagnant, I could hear among the uppermost leaves of the tall
trees that stealthy rustling that generally precedes a storm.
Unfortunately for myself, I had not felt disposed to go home at once on
leaving the theatre; but, being restless alike in mind and body, had
struck down through the Place Vendome and up the Rue de Rivoli,
intending to come home by a circuitous route. At this precise moment I
found myself in the middle of the Place de la Concorde, with Cleopatra's
needle towering above my head, the lamps in the Champs Elysees twinkling
in long chains of light through the blank darkness before me, and no
vehicle anywhere in sight. To be caught in a heavy shower, was not,
certainly, an agreeable prospect for one who had just emerged from the
opera in the thinnest of boots and the lightest of folding hats, with
neither umbrella nor paletot of proof; so, having given a hasty glance
in every direction from which a cab might be expected, I took valiantly
to my heels, and made straight for the Madeleine.
Long before I had accomplished half the distance, however, another flash
announced the quick coming of the tempest, and the first premonitory
drops began to plash down heavily upon the pavement. Still I ran on,
thinking that I should find a cab in the Place de la Madeleine; but the
Place de la Madeleine was empty. Even the cafe at the corner was closed.
Even the omnibus office was shut up, and the red lamp above the door
extinguished.
What was I to do now? Panting and breathless, I leaned up against a
doorway, and resigned myself to fate. Stay, what was that file of
carriages, dimly seen through the rain which was now coming down in
earnest? It was in a private street opening off at the back of the
Madeleine--a street in which I could remember no public stand. Perhaps
there was an evening party at one of the large houses lower down, and,
if so, I might surely find a not wholly incorruptible cabman, who would
consent for a liberal _pourboire_ to drive me home and keep his fare
waiting, if need were, for one little half-hour! At all events it was
worth trying for; so away I darted again, with the wind whistling about
my ears, and the rain driving in my face.
But my troubles were not to be so speedily ended. Among the ten or
fifteen equipages which I found drawn up in file, there was not one
hackney vehicle. They were private carriages, and all, therefore,
inaccessible.
Did I say inaccessible?
A bold idea occurred to me. The rain was so heavy that it could scarcely
be expected to last many minutes. The carriage at the very end of the
line was not likely to be the first called; and, even if it were, one
could spring out in a moment, if necessary. In short, the very daring of
the deed was as attractive as the shelter! I made my way swiftly down
the line. The last carriage was a neat little brougham, and the
coachman, with his hat pulled down over his eyes, and his collar drawn
up about his ears, was too much absorbed in taking care of himself and
his horses to pay much attention to a foot-passenger. I passed boldly
by--doubled back stealthily on my own steps--looked round
cautiously--opened the door, and glided in.
It was a delightfully comfortable little vehicle--cushioned, soft,
yielding, and pervaded by a delicate perfume of eglantine. Wondering who
the owner might be--if she was young--if she was pretty--if she was
married, or single, or a widow--I settled myself in the darkest corner
of the carriage, intending only to remain there till the rain had
abated. Thus I fell, as fate would have it--first into a profound
reverie, and then into a still profounder sleep. How long this sleep may
have lasted I know not. I only remember becoming slowly conscious of a
gentle movement, which, without awaking, partly roused me; of a check to
that movement, which brought my thoughts suddenly to the surface; of a
stream of light--of an open door--a crowded hall--a lady waiting to come
out, and a little crowd of attentive beaux surrounding her!
I comprehended my position in an instant, and the impossibility of
extricating myself from it. To get out next the house was to brave
detection; whilst at the other side I found myself blocked in by
carriages. Escape was now hopeless! I turned hot and cold; I shrank
back; I would have gone through the bottom of the carriage, if I could.
At this moment, to my horror, the footman opened the door. I gave myself
up for lost, and, in a sudden access of desperation, was on the point of
rushing out _coute que coute_, when the lady ran forward; sprang lightly
in; recoiled; and uttered a little breathless cry of surprise and
apprehension!
"_Mon Dieu_, Madame! what is it? Are you hurt?" cried two or three of
the gentlemen, running out, bareheaded, to her assistance.
But, to my amazement, she unfastened her cloak, and threw it over me in
such a manner as to leave me completely hidden beneath the folds.
"Oh, nothing, thank you!--I only caught my foot in my cloak. I am really
quite ashamed to have alarmed you! A thousand thanks--good-night."
And so, with something of a slight tremor in her voice, the lady drew up
the window. The next instant the carriage moved on.
And now, what was to be done? I blessed the accident which rendered me
invisible; but, at the same time, asked myself how it was to end.
Should I wait till she reached her own door, and then, still feigning
sleep, allow myself to be discovered? Or should I take the bull by the
horns, and reveal myself? If the latter, would she scream, or faint, or
go into hysterics? Then, again, supposing she resumed her cloak ... a
cold damp broke out upon my forehead at the mere thought! All at once,
just as these questions flashed across my mind, the lady drew the mantle
aside, and said:--
"How imprudent of you to hide in my carriage?"
I could not believe my ears.
"Suppose any of those people had caught sight of you ... why, it would
have been all over Paris to-morrow! Happily, I had the presence of mind
to cover you with my cloak; otherwise ... but there, Monsieur, I have a
great mind to be very angry with you!"
It was now clear that I was mistaken for some one else. Fortunately the
carriage-lamps were unlit, the windows still blurred with rain, and the
night intensely dark; so, feeling like a wretch reprieved on the
scaffold, I shrank farther and farther into the corner, glad to favor a
mistake which promised some hope of escape.
"_Eh bien_!" said the lady, half tenderly, half reproachfully; "have you
nothing to say to me?"
Say to her, indeed! What could I say to her? Would not my voice betray
me directly?
"Ah," she continued, without waiting for a reply; "you are ashamed of
the cruel scene of this morning! Well, since you have not allowed the
night to pass without seeking a reconciliation, I suppose I must
forgive you!"
I thought, at this point, that I could not do better than press her
hand, which was exquisitely soft and small--softer and smaller than even
Madame de Marignan's.
"Naughty Hippolyte!" murmured my companion. "Confess, now, that you were
unreasonable."
I sighed heavily, and caressed the little hand with both of mine.
"And are you very penitent?"
I expressed my penitence by another prodigious sigh, and ventured, this
time, to kiss the tips of the dainty fingers.
"_Ciel_!" exclaimed the lady. "You have shaved off your beard! What can
have induced you to do such a thing?"
My beard, indeed! Alas! I would have given any money for even a
moustache! However, the fatal moment was come when I must speak.
"_Mon cher ange_," I began, trying a hoarse whisper, "I--I--the fact
is--a bet--"
"A bet indeed! The idea of sacrificing such a handsome beard for a mere
bet! I never heard of anything so foolish. But how hoarse you are,
Hippolyte!"
"All within the last hour," whispered I. "I was caught in the storm,
just now, and ..."
"And have taken cold, for my sake! Alas! my poor, dear friend, why did
you wait to speak to me? Why did you not go home at once, and change
your clothes? Your sleeve, I declare, is still quite damp! Hippolyte, if
you fall ill, I shall never forgive myself!"
I kissed her hand again. It was much pleasanter than whispering, and
expressed all that was necessary.
"But you have not once asked after poor Bibi!" exclaimed my companion,
after a momentary silence. "Poor, dear Bibi, who has been suffering from
a martyrdom with her cough all the afternoon!"
Now, who the deuce was Bibi? She might be a baby. Or--who could
tell?--she might be a poodle? On this point, however, I was left
uninformed; for my unknown friend, who, luckily, seemed fond of talking
and had a great deal to say, launched off into another topic
immediately.
"After all," said she, "I should have been wrong not to go to the party!
My uncle was evidently pleased with my compliance; and it is not wise to
vex one's rich uncles, if one can help it--is it, Hippolyte!"
I pressed her hand again.
"Besides, Monsieur Delaroche was not there. He was not even invited; so
you see how far they were from laying matchmaking plots, and how
groundless were all your fears and reproaches!"
Monsieur Delaroche! Could this be the Delaroche of my special aversion?
I pressed her hand again, more closely, more tenderly, and listened for
what might come next.
"Well, it is all over now! And will you promise _never, never, never_ to
be jealous again? Then, to be jealous of such a creature as that
ridiculous Delaroche--a man who knows nothing--who can think and talk
only of his own absurd self!--a man who has not even wit enough to see
that every one laughs at him!"
I was delighted. I longed to embrace her on the spot! Was there ever
such a charming, sensible, lively creature?
"Besides, the coxcomb is just now devoting himself, body and soul (such
as they are!) to that insufferable little _intriguante_, Madame de
Marignan. He is to be seen with her in every drawing-room and theatre
throughout Paris. For my part, I am amazed that a woman of the world
should suffer herself to be compromised to that extent--especially one
so experienced in these _affaires du coeur_."
Madame de Marignan! Compromised--experienced--_intriguante_! I felt as
if I were choking.
"To be sure, there is that poor English lad whom she drags about with
her, to play propriety," continued she; "but do you suppose the world is
blinded by so shallow an artifice?"
"What English lad?" I asked, startled out of all sense of precaution,
and desperately resolved to know the worst.
"What English lad? Why, Hippolyte, you are more stupid than ever! I
pointed him out to you the other night at the Comedie Francaise--a pale,
handsome boy, of about nineteen or twenty, with brown curling hair, and
very fine eyes, which were riveted on Madame de Marignan the whole
evening. Poor fellow! I cannot help pitying him."
"Then--then, you think she really does not love him?" I said. And this
time my voice was hoarse enough, without any need of feigning.
"Love him! Ridiculous! What does such a woman understand by love?
Certainly neither the sentiment nor the poetry of it! Tush, Hippolyte! I
do not wish to be censorious; but every one knows that ever since M. de
Marignan has been away in Algiers, that woman has had, not one devoted
admirer, but a dozen; and now that her husband is coming back...."
"Coming back! ... her husband!" I echoed, half rising in my place, and
falling back again, as if stunned. "Good heavens! is she not a widow?"
It was now the lady's turn to be startled.
"A widow!" she repeated. "Why, you know as well as I that--_Dieu_! To
whom I am speaking?"
"Madame," I said, as steadily as my agitation would let me, "I beg you
not to be alarmed. I am not, it is true, the person whom you have
supposed; but--Nay, I implore you...."
She here uttered a quick cry, and darted forward for the check-string.
Arresting her hand half way, respectfully but firmly, I went on:--
"How I came here, I will explain presently. I am a gentleman; and upon
the word of a gentleman, Madame, am innocent of any desire to offend or
alarm you. Can you--will you--hear me for one moment?"
"I appear, sir, to have no alternative," replied she, trembling like a
caged bird.
"I might have left you undeceived, Madame. I might have extricated
myself from, this painful position undiscovered--but for some words
which just escaped your lips; some words so nearly concerning the--the
honor and happiness of--of.... in short, I lost my presence of mind. I
now implore you to tell me if all that you have just been saying of
Madame de Marignan is strictly true."
"Who are you, sir, that you should dare to surprise confidences intended
for another, and by what right do you question me?" said the lady,
haughtily.
"By no right, Madame," I replied, fairly breaking into sobs, and burying
my face in my hands. "I can only appeal to your compassion. I am that
Englishman whom--whom...."
For a moment there was silence. My companion was the first to speak.
"Poor boy!" she said; and her voice, now, was gentle and compassionate.
"You have been rudely undeceived. Did Madame de Marignan pass herself
off upon you for a widow?"
"She never named her husband to me--I believed that she was free. I
fancied he had been dead for years. She knew that was my impression."
"And you would have married her--actually married her?"
"I--I--hardly dared to hope...."
"_Ciel_! it is almost beyond belief. And you never inquired into her
past history?"
"Never. Why should I?"
"Monsieur de Marignan holds a government appointment in Algiers, and has
been absent more than four years. He is, I understand, expected back
shortly, on leave of absence."
I conquered my agitation by a supreme effort.
"Madame," I said, "I thank you. It now only remains for me to explain my
intrusion. I can do so in half a dozen words. Caught in the storm and
unable to find a conveyance, I sought shelter in this carriage, which
being the last on the file, offered the only refuge of which I could
avail myself unobserved. While waiting for the tempest to abate, I fell
asleep; and but for the chance which led you to mistake me for another,
I must have been discovered when you entered the carriage."
"Then, finding yourself so mistaken, Monsieur, would it not have been
more honorable to undeceive me than to usurp a conversation which...."
"Madame, I dared not. I feared to alarm you--I hoped to find some means
of escape, and...."
"_Mon Dieu_! what means? How are you to escape as it is? How leave the
carriage without being seen by my servants?"
I had not thought of this, nor of the dilemma in which my presence must
place her.
"I can open the door softly," said I, "and jump out unperceived."
"Impossible, at the pace we are going! You would break your neck."
I shook my head, and laughed bitterly.
"Have no fear of that, Madame," I said. "Those who least value their
necks never happen to break them. See, I can spring out as we pass the
next turning, and be out of sight in a moment."
"Indeed, I will not permit it. Oh, dear! we have already reached the
Faubourg St. Germain. Stay--I have an idea I Do you know what o'clock
it is?"
"I don't know how long I may have slept; but I think it must be quite
three."
"_Bien_! The Countess de Blois has a ball to-night, and her visitors are
sure not to disperse before four or five. My sister is there. I will
send in to ask if she has yet gone home, and when the carriage stops you
can slip out. Here is the Rue de Bac, and the door of her hotel is yet
surrounded with equipages."
And with this, she let down a front window, desired the coachman to
stop, leaned forward so as to hide me completely, and sent in her
footman with the message. When the man had fairly entered the hall, she
turned to me and said:--
"Now, Monsieur, fly! It is your only chance."
"I go, Madame; but before going, suffer me to assure you that I know
neither your name, nor that of the person for whom you mistook me--that
I have no idea of your place of residence--that I should not know you if
I saw you again to-morrow--in short, that you are to me as entirely a
stranger as if this adventure had never happened."
"Monsieur, I thank you for the assurance; but I see the servant
returning. Pray, begone!"
I sprang out without another word, and, never once looking back, darted
down a neighboring street and waited in the shadow of a doorway till I
thought the carriage must be out of sight.
The night was now fine, the moon was up, and the sky was full of stars.
But I heeded nothing, save my own perplexed and painful thoughts.
Absorbed in these, I followed the course of the Rue du Bac till I came
to the Pont National. There my steps were arrested by the sight of the
eddying river, the long gleaming front of the Louvre, the quaint,
glistening gables of the Tuilleries, the far-reaching trees of the
Champs Elysees all silvered in the soft, uncertain moonlight. It was a
most calm and beautiful picture; and I stood for a long time leaning
against the parapet of the bridge, and looking dreamily at the scene
before me. Then I heard the quarters chime from belfry to belfry all
over the quiet city, and found that it was half-past three o'clock.
Presently a patrol of _gendarmes_ went by, and, finding that they paused
and looked at me suspiciously, I turned away, and bent my steps
homewards.
By the time I reached the Cite Bergere it was past four, and the early
market-carts were already rumbling along the Rue du Faubourg Montmartre.
Going up wearily to my apartments, I found a note waiting for me in
Dalrymple's handwriting. It ran thus:--
"MY DEAR DAMON:--
"Do you know that it is nearly a month since I last saw you? Do you know
that I have called twice at your lodgings without finding you at home? I
hear of you as having been constantly seen, of late, in the society of a
very pretty woman of our acquaintance; but I confess that I do not
desire to see you go to the devil entirely without the friendly
assistance of
"Yours faithfully,
"OSCAR DALRYMPLE."
I read the note twice. I could scarcely believe that I had so neglected
my only friend. Had I been mad? Or a fool?--or both? Too anxious and
unhappy to sleep, and too tired to sit up, I lit my lamp, threw myself
upon the bed, and there lay repenting my wasted hours, my misplaced love
and my egregious folly, till morning came with its sunshine and its
traffic, and found me a "wiser," if not a "better man."
"Half-past seven!" exclaimed I to myself, as I jumped up and plunged my
head into a basin of cold water. "Dr. Cheron shall see me before nine
this morning. I'll call on Dalrymple at luncheon time; at three, I must
get back for the afternoon lecture; and in the evening--in the evening,
by Jove! Madame de Marignan must be content with her adorable Delaroche,
for the deuce a bit of her humble servant will she ever see again!"
And away I went presently along the sunny streets, humming to myself
those saucy and wholesome lines of good Sir Walter Raleigh's:--
"Shall I like a hermit dwell
On a rock, or in a cell,
Calling home the smallest part
That is missing of my heart,
To bestow it where I may
Meet a rival every day?
If she undervalues me,
What care I how fair she be?"
CHAPTER XVII.
THE WIDOW OF A MINISTER OF FINANCE.
"You are just in time, Arbuthnot, to do me a service," said Dalrymple,
looking up from his desk as I went in, and reaching out his hand to me
over a barricade of books and papers.
"Then I am very glad I have come," I replied. "But what confusion is
this? Are you going anywhere?"
"Yes--to perdition. There, kick that rubbish out of your way and sit
down."
Never very orderly, Dalrymple's rooms were this time in as terrible a
litter as can well be conceived. The table was piled high with bills,
old letters, books, cigars, gloves, card-cases, and pamphlets. The
carpet was strewn with portmanteaus, hat-cases, travelling-straps, old
luggage labels, railway wrappers, and the like. The chairs and sofas
were laden with wearing apparel. As for Dalrymple himself, he looked
haggard and weary, as though the last four weeks had laid four years
upon his shoulders.
"You look ill," I said clearing a corner of the sofa for my own
accommodation; "or _ennuye_, which is much the same thing. What is the
matter? And what can I do for you?"
"The matter is that I am going abroad," said he, with his chin resting
moodily in his two palms and his elbows on the table.
"Going abroad! Where?"
"I don't know--
'Anywhere, anywhere, out of the world.'
It's of very little consequence whether I betake myself to the East or
to the West; eat rice in the tropics, or drink train-oil at the Pole."
"But have you no settled projects?"
"None whatever."
"And don't care what becomes of you?"
"Not in the least."
"Then, in Heaven's name, what has happened?"
"The very thing that, three weeks ago, would have made me the happiest
fellow in Christendom. What are you going to do to-morrow?"
"Nothing, beyond my ordinary routine of medical study."
"Humph! Could you get a whole holiday, for once?"
I remembered how many I had taken of late, and felt ashamed of the
readiness with which I replied:--
"Oh yes! easily."
"Well, then, I want you to spend the day with me. It will be, perhaps,
my last in Paris for many a month, or even many a year. I ... Pshaw! I
may as well say it, and have done with it. I am going to be married."
"Married!" I exclaimed, in blank amazement; for it was the last thing I
should have guessed.
Dalrymple tugged away at his moustache with both hands, as was his habit
when perplexed or troubled, and nodded gloomily. "To whom?"
"To Madame de Courcelles."
"And are you not very happy?"
"Happy! I am the most miserable dog unhanged?"
I was more at fault now than ever.
"I ... judging from trifles which some would perhaps scarcely have
observed," I said, hesitatingly, "I--I thought you were interested in
Madame de Courcelles?"
"Interested!" cried he, pushing back his chair and springing to his
feet, as if the word had stung him. "By heaven! I love that woman as I
never loved in my life."
"Then why ..."
"I'll tell you why--or, at least, I will tell you as much as I may--as I
can; for the affair is hers, and not mine. She has a cousin--curse
him!--to whom she was betrothed from childhood. His estates adjoined
hers; family interests were concerned in their union; and the parents on
both sides arranged matters. When, however, Monsieur de Courcelles fell
in love with her--a man much older than herself, but possessed of great
wealth and immense political influence--her father did not hesitate to
send the cousin to the deuce and marry his daughter to the Minister of
Finance. The cousin, it seems, was then a wild young fellow; not
particularly in love with her himself; and not at all inconsolable for
her loss. When, however, Monsieur de Courcelles was good enough to die
(which he had the bad taste to do very hastily, and without making, by
any means, the splendid provision for his widow which he had promised),
our friend, the cousin, comes forward again. By this time he is enough
man of the world to appreciate the value of land--more especially as he
has sold, mortgaged, played the mischief with nearly every acre of his
own. He pleads the old engagement, and, as he is pleased to call it, the
old love. Madame de Courcelles is a young widow, very solitary, with no
one to love, no object to live for, and no experience of the world. Her
pity is easily awaked; and the result is that she not only accepts the
cousin, but lends him large sums of money; suffers the title-deeds of
her estates to go into the hands of his lawyer; and is formally
betrothed to him before the eyes of all Paris!"
"Who is this man? Where is he?" I asked, eagerly.
"He is an officer of Chasseurs, now serving with his regiment in
Algiers--a daring, dashing, reckless fellow; heartless and dissipated
enough; but a splendid soldier. However, having committed her property
to his hands, and suffered her name to be associated publicly with his,
Madame de Courcelles, during his absence in Algiers, has done me the
honor to prefer me. I have the first real love of her life, and the
short and long of it is, that we are to be privately married to-morrow."
"And why privately?"
"Ah, there's the pity of it! There's the disappointment and the
bitterness!"
"Can't Madame de Courcelles write and tell this man that she loves
somebody else better?"
"Confound it! no. The fellow has her too much in his power, and, if he
chose to be dishonest, could half ruin her. At all events she is afraid
of him; and I ... I am as helpless as a child in the matter. If I were a
rich man, I would snap my fingers at him; but how can I, with a paltry
eight hundred a year, provide for that woman? Pshaw! If I could but
settle it with a pair of hair-triggers and twenty paces of turf, I'd
leave little work for the lawyers!"
"Well, then, what is to be done?"
"Only this," replied he, striding impatiently to and fro, like a caged
lion; "I must just bear with my helplessness, and leave the remedy to
those who can oppose skill to skill, and lawyer to lawyer."
"At all events, you marry the lady."
"Ay--I marry the lady; but I start to-morrow night for Berlin, _en
route_ for anywhere that chance may lead me."
"Without her?"
"Without her. Do you suppose that I would stay in Paris--her
husband--and live apart from her? Meet her, like an ordinary
acquaintance? See others admiring her? Be content to lounge in and out
of her _soirees_, or ride beside her carriage now and then, as you or
fifty others might do? Perhaps, have even to endure the presence of De
Caylus himself? _Merci_! Any number of miles, whether of land or sea,
were better than a martyrdom like that!"
"De Caylus!" I repeated. "Where have I heard that name?"
"You may have heard of it in a hundred places," replied my friend. "As I
said before, the man is a gallant soldier, and does gallant things. But
to return to the present question--may I depend on you to-morrow? For we
must have a witness, and our witness must be both discreet and silent."
"On my silence and discretion you may rely absolutely."
"And you can be here by nine?"
"By daybreak, if you please."
"I won't tax you to that extent. Nine will do quite well."
"Adieu, then, till nine."
"Adieu, and thank you."
With this I left him, somewhat relieved to find that I had escaped all
cross-examination on the score of Madame Marignan.
"De Caylus!" I again repeated to myself, as I took my rapid way to the
Hotel Dieu. "De Caylus! why, surely, it must have been that evening at
Madame de Courcelles'...."
And then I recollected that De Caylus was the name of that officer who
was said to have ridden by night, and single-handed, through the heart
of the enemy's camp, somewhere in Algiers.
CHAPTER XVIII.
A MARRIAGE NOT "A LA MODE."
The marriage took place in a little out-of-the-way Protestant chapel
beyond the barriers, at about a quarter before ten o'clock the next
morning. Dalrymple and I were there first; and Madame de Courcelles,
having, in order to avoid observation, come part of the distance in a
cab and part on foot, arrived a few minutes later. She was very pale,
and looked almost like a _religieuse_, with her black veil tied closely
under her chin, and a dark violet dress, which might have passed for
mourning. She gave her hand to Dalrymple without speaking; then knelt
down at the communion-table, and so remained till we had all taken our
places. As for Dalrymple, he had even less color than she, but held his
head up haughtily, and betrayed no sign of the conflict within.
It was a melancholy little chapel, dusty and neglected, full of black
and white funereal tablets, and damp as a vault. We shivered as we stood
about the altar; the clergyman's teeth chattered as he began the
marriage service; and the echoes of our responses reverberated forlornly
up among the gothic rafters overhead. Even the sunbeams struggled sadly
and palely down the upper windows, and the chill wind whistled in when
the door was opened, bringing with it a moan of coming rain.
The ceremony over, the books signed in the vestry, and the clergyman,
clerk, and pew-opener duly remunerated for their services, we prepared
to be gone. For a couple of moments, Dalrymple and his bride stood apart
in the shadow of the porch. I saw him take the hand on which he had just
placed the ring, and look down upon it tenderly, wistfully--I saw him
bend lower, and lower, whispering what no other ears might hear--saw
their lips meet for one brief instant. Then the lady's veil was lowered;
she turned hastily away; and Dalrymple was left standing in the
doorway alone.
"By Heaven!" said he, grasping my hand as though he would crush it.
"This is hard to bear."
I but returned the pressure of his hand; for I knew not with what words
to comfort him. Thus we lingered for some minutes in silence, till the
clergyman, having put off his surplice, passed us with a bow and went
out; and the pew-opener, after pretending to polish the door-handle with
her apron, and otherwise waiting about with an air of fidgety
politeness, dropped a civil curtsey, and begged to remind us that the
chapel must now be closed.
Dalrymple started and shook himself like a water-dog, as if he would so
shake off "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune."
"_Rex est qui metuit nihil_!" said he; "but I am a sovereign in bad
circumstances, for all that. Heigho! Care will kill a cat. What shall we
do with ourselves, old fellow, for the rest of the day?"
"I hardly know. Would you like to go into the country?"
"Nothing better. The air perhaps would exorcise some of these
blue-devils."
"What say you to St. Germains? It looks as if it must rain before night;
yet there is the forest and...."
"Excellent! We can do as we like, with nobody to stare at us; and I am
in a horribly uncivilized frame of mind this morning."
With this, we turned once more toward Paris, and, jumping into the first
cab that came by, were driven to the station. It happened that a train
was then about to start; so we were off immediately.
There were no other passengers in the carriage, so Dalrymple infringed
the company's mandate by lighting a cigar, and I, finding him
disinclined for talk, did the same thing, and watched the passing
country. Flat and uninteresting at first, it consisted of a mere sandy
plain, treeless, hedgeless, and imperfectly cultivated with struggling
strips of corn and vegetables. By and by came a line of stunted
pollards, a hamlet, and a little dreary cemetery. Then the landscape
improved. The straight line of the horizon broke into gentle
undulations; the Seine, studded with islets, wound through the
meadow-land at our feet; and a lofty viaduct carried us from height to
height across the eddying river. Then we passed into the close green
shade of a forest, which opened every here and there into long vistas,
yielding glimpses of
"--verdurous glooms, and winding mossy ways."
Through this wood the line continued to run till we reached our
destination. Here our first few steps brought us out upon the Place,
directly facing the old red and black chateau of St. Germain-en-Laye.
Leaving this and the little dull town behind us, we loitered for some
time about the broad walks of the park, and then passed on into the
forest. Although it was neither Sunday nor a fete-day, there were
pleasure parties gipseying under trees--Parisian cockneys riding
raw-boned steeds--pony-chaises full of laughing grisettes dashing up and
down the broad roads that pierce the wood in various directions--old
women selling cakes and lemonade--workmen gambling with half-pence on
the smooth turf by the wayside--_bonnes_, comely and important, with
their little charges playing round them, and their busy fingers plying
the knitting-needles as they walked--young ladies sketching trees, and
prudent governesses reading novels close by; in short, all the life and
variety of a favorite suburban resort on an ordinarily fine day about
the beginning of autumn.
Leaving the frequented routes to the right, we turned into one of the
many hundred tracks that diverge in every direction from the beaten
roads, and wandered deeper and deeper into the green shades and
solitudes of the forest. Pausing, presently, to rest, Dalrymple threw
himself at full length on the mossy ground, with his hands clasping the
back of his head, and his hat over his eyes; whilst I found a luxurious
arm-chair in the gnarled roots of a lichen-tufted elm. Thus we remained
for a considerable time puffing away at our cigars in that sociable
silence which may almost claim to be an unique privilege of masculine
friendship. Women cannot sit together for long without talking; men can
enjoy each other's companionship for hours with scarcely the interchange
of an idea.
Meanwhile, I watched the squirrels up in the beech-trees and the dancing
of the green leaves against the sky; and thought dreamily of home, of my
father, of the far past, and the possible future. I asked myself how,
when my term of study came to an end, I should ever again endure the old
home-life at Saxonholme? How settle down for life as my father's
partner, conforming myself to his prejudices, obeying all the demands of
his imperious temper, and accepting for evermore the monotonous routine
of a provincial practice! It was an intolerable prospect, but no less
inevitable than intolerable. Pondering thus, I sighed heavily, and the
sigh roused Dalrymple's attention.
"Why, Damon," said he, turning over on his elbow, and pushing up his
hat to the level of his eyes, "what's the matter with you?"
"Oh, nothing--at least, nothing new."
"Well, new or old, what is it? A man must be either in debt, or in love,
when he sighs in that way. You look as melancholy as Werter redivivus!"
"I--I ought not to be melancholy, I suppose; for I was thinking of
home."
Dalrymple's face and voice softened immediately.
"Poor boy!" he said, throwing away the end of his cigar, "yours is not a
bright home, I fear. You told me, I think, that you had lost
your mother?"
"From infancy."
"And you have no sisters?"
"None. I am an only child."
"Your father, however, is living?"
"Yes, my father lives. He is a rough-tempered, eccentric man;
misanthropic, but clever; kind enough, and generous enough, in his own
strange way. Still--"
"Still what?"
--"I dread the life that lies before me! I dread the life without
society, without ambition, without change--the dull house--the bounded
sphere of action--the bondage.... But of what use is it to trouble you
with these things?"
"This use, that it does you good to tell, and me to listen. Sympathy,
like mercy, blesseth him that gives and him that takes; and if I cannot
actually help you, I am, at all events, thankful to be taken out of
myself. Go on--tell me more of your prospects. Have you no acquaintance
at Saxonholme whose society will make the place pleasant to you? No
boyish friends? No pretty cousins? No first-loves, from amongst whom to
choose a wife in time to come?"
I shook my head sadly.
"Did I not tell you that my father was a misanthrope? He visits no one,
unless professionally. We have no friends and no relations."
"Humph! that's awkward. However, it leaves you free to choose your own
friends, when you go back. A medical man need never be without a
visiting connection. His very profession puts a thousand opportunities
in his way."
"That is true; but--"
"But what?"
"I am not fond of the profession. I have never liked it. I would give
much to relinquish it altogether."
Dalrymple gave utterance to a prolonged and very dismal whistle.
"This," said he gravely, "is the most serious part of the business. To
live in a dull place is bad enough--to live with dull people is bad
enough; but to have one's thoughts perpetually occupied with an
uncongenial subject, and one's energies devoted to an uncongenial
pursuit, is just misery, and nothing short of it! In fact 'tis a moral
injustice, and one that no man should be required to endure."
"Yet I must endure it."
"Why?"
"Because it is too late to do otherwise."
"It is never too late to repair an evil, or an error."
"Unless the repairing of it involved a worse evil, or a more fatal
error! No--I must not dream now of turning aside from the path that has
been chosen for me. Too much time and too much money have been given to
the thing for that;--I must let it take its course. There's no help
for it!"
"But, confound it, lad! you'd better follow the fife and drum, or go
before the mast, than give up your life to a profession you hate!"
"Hate is a strong word," I replied. "I do not actually hate it--at all
events I must try to make the best of it, if only for my father's sake.
His heart is set on making a physician of me, and I dare not
disappoint him."
Dalrymple looked at me fixedly, and then fell back into his old
position.
"Heigho!" he said, pulling his hat once more over his eyes, "I was a
disobedient son. My father intended me for the Church; I was expelled
from College for fighting a duel before I was twenty, and then, sooner
than go home disgraced, enlisted as a private soldier in a cavalry corps
bound for foreign service. Luckily, they found me out before the ship
sailed, and made the best of a bad bargain by purchasing me a cornetcy
in a dragoon regiment. I would not advise you to be disobedient, Damon.
My experience in that line has been bitter enough,"
"How so? You escaped a profession for which you were disinclined, and
entered one for which you had every qualification."
"Ay; but think of the cursed _esclandre_--first the duel, then the
expulsion, then my disappearance for two months ... My mother was in bad
health at the time, too; and I, her favorite son--I--in short, the
anxiety was too much for her. She--she died before I had been six weeks
in the regiment. There! we won't talk of it. It's the one subject
that ..."
His voice faltered, and he broke off abruptly.
"I wish you were going with me to Berlin," said he, after a long silence
which I had not attempted to interrupt.
"I wish with all my heart that I were!"
"And yet," he added, "I am glad on--on her account, that you remain in
Paris. You will call upon her sometimes, Arbuthnot?"
"If Madame De Cour.... I mean, if Mrs. Dalrymple will permit me."
An involuntary smile flitted across his lips--the first I had seen there
all the day.
"She will be glad--grateful. She knows that I value you, and she has
proof that I trust you. You are the only possessor of our secret."
"It is as safe with me," I said, "as if I were dead, and in my grave."
"I know it, old fellow. Well--you will see her sometimes. You will write
to me, and tell me how she is looking. If--if she were to fall ill, you
would not conceal it from me? and in case of any emergency--any
annoyance arising from De Caylus ..."
"Were she my own sister," I said, earnestly, "she would not find me
readier to assist or defend her. Of this, Dalrymple, be assured."
"Thank you," he said, and stretched up his hand to me. "I do believe you
are true--though there are few men, and still fewer women, of whom I
should like to say as much. By the way, Arbuthnot, beware of that little
flirt, Madame de Marignan. She has charming eyes, but no more heart than
a vampire. Besides, an entanglement with a married woman!... _cela ne se
peut pas, mon cher_. You are too young to venture on such dangerous
ground, and too inexperienced."
I smiled--perhaps somewhat bitterly--for the wound was still fresh, and
I could not help wincing when any hand came near it.
"You are right," I replied. "Madame de Marignan is a dangerous woman;
but dangerous for me no longer. However, I have paid rather dearly for
my safety."
And with this, I told him the whole story from beginning to end,
confessing all my follies without reservation. Surprised, amused,
sometimes unable to repress a smile, sometimes genuinely compassionate,
he heard my narrative through, accompanying it from time to time with
muttered comments and ejaculations, none of which were very flattering
to Madame de Marignan. When I had done, he sprang to his feet, laid his
hand heavily upon my shoulder, and said:--
"Damon, there are a great many disagreeable things in life which wise
people say are good for us, and for which they tell us we ought to be
grateful in proportion to our discomfort. For my own part, however, I am
no optimist. I am not fond of mortifying the flesh, and the eloquence of
Socrates would fail to persuade me that a carbuncle was a cheerful
companion, or the gout an ailment to be ardently desired. Yet, for all
this, I cannot say that I look upon your adventure in the light of a
misfortune. You have lost time, spent money, and endured a considerable
amount of aggravation; but you have, on the other hand, acquired ease
of manner, facility of conversation, and just that necessary polish
which fits a man for society. Come! you have received a valuable lesson
both in morals and manners; so farewell to Madame de Marignan, and let
us write _Pour acquit_ against the score!"
Willing enough to accept this cheerful view, I flourished an imaginary
autograph upon the air with the end of my cane, and laughingly dismissed
the subject.
We then strolled back through the wood, treading the soft moss under our
feet, startling the brown lizards from our path and the squirrels from
the lower branches of the great trees, and, now and then, surprising a
plump little green frog, which went skipping away into the long grass,
like an animated emerald. Coming back to the gardens, we next lingered
for some time upon the terrace, admiring the superb panorama of
undulating woodland and cultivated champaign, which, seen through the
golden haze of afternoon, stretched out in glory to the remotest
horizon. To our right stood the prison-like chateau, flinging back the
sunset from its innumerable casements, and seeming to drink in the warm
glow at every pore of its old, red bricks. To our left, all lighted up
against the sky, rose the lofty tree-tops of the forest which we had
just quitted. Our shadows stretched behind us across the level terrace,
like the shadows of giants. Involuntarily, we dropped our voices. It
would have seemed almost like profanity to speak aloud while the first
influence of that scene was upon us.
Going on presently towards the verge of the terrace, we came upon an
artist who, with his camp-stool under his arm, and his portfolio at his
feet, was, like ourselves, taking a last look at the sunset before going
away. As we approached, he turned and recognised us. It was Herr Franz
Mueller, the story-telling student of the _Chicards_ club.
"Good-afternoon, gentlemen," said he, lifting his red cap, and letting
it fall back again a little on one side. "We do not see many such
sunsets in the course of the summer."
"Indeed, no," replied Dalrymple; "and ere long the autumn tints will be
creeping over the landscape, and the whole scene will assume a different
character. Have you been sketching in the forest?"
"No--I have been making a study of the chateau and terrace from this
point, with the landscape beyond. It is for an historical subject which
I have laid out for my winter's work."
And with this, he good-naturedly opened his folio and took out the
sketch, which was a tolerably large one, and represented the scene under
much the same conditions of light as we now saw it.
"I shall have a group of figures here," he said, pointing to a spot on
the terrace, "and a more distant one there; with a sprinkling of dogs
and, perhaps, a head or two at an open window of the chateau. I shall
also add a flag flying on the turret, yonder."
"A scene, I suppose, from the life of Louis the Thirteenth," I
suggested.
"No--I mean it for the exiled court of James the Second," replied he.
"And I shall bring in the King, and Mary of Modena, and the Prince their
son, who was afterwards the Pretender."
"It is a good subject," said Dalrymple. "You will of course find
excellent portraits of all these people at Versailles; and a lively
description of their court, mode of life, and so forth, if my memory
serves me correctly, in the tales of Anthony, Count Hamilton. But with
all this, I dare say, you are better acquainted than I."
"_Parbleu!_ not I," said the student, shouldering his camp-stool as if
it were a musket, and slinging his portfolio by a strap across his back;
"therefore, I am all the more obliged to you for the information. My
reading is neither very extensive nor very useful; and as for my
library, I could pack it all into a hat-case any day, and find room for
a few other trifles at the same time. Here is the author I chiefly
study. He is my constant companion, and, like myself, looks somewhat the
worse for wear."
Saying which, he produced from one of his pockets a little, greasy,
dog-eared volume of Beranger, about the size of a small snuff-box, and
began singing aloud, to a very cheerful air, a song of which a certain
faithless Mademoiselle Lisette was the heroine, and of which the refrain
was always:--
"_Lisette! ma Lisette,
Tu m'as trompe toujours;
Je veux, Lisette,
Boire a nos amours_."
To this accompaniment we walked back through the gardens to the railway
station, where, being a quarter of an hour too soon, our companion
amused himself by "chaffing," questioning, contradicting, and otherwise
ingeniously tormenting the check-takers and porters of the
establishment. One pompous official, in particular, became so helplessly
indignant that he retired into a little office overlooking the platform,
and was heard to swear fluently, all by himself, for several minutes.
The time having expired and the doors being opened, we passed out with
the rest of the home-going Parisians, and were about to take our places,
when Mueller, climbing like a cat to the roof-seats on the top of the
second-class carriages, beckoned us to follow.
"Who would be shut up with ten fat people and a baby, when fresh air can
be breathed, and tobacco smoked, for precisely the same fare?" asked he.
"You don't mean to say that you came down to St. Germains in one of the
dens below?"
"Yes, we did," I replied; "but we had it to ourselves."
"So much the worse. Man is a gregarious animal, and woman also--which
proves Zimmerman to have been neither, and accounts for the brotherhood
of _Les Chicards_. Would you like to see how that old gentleman looks
when he is angry?"
"Which? The one in the opposite corner?"
"The same."
"Well, that depends on circumstances. Why do you ask?"
"Because I'll engage to satisfy your curiosity in less than ten
minutes."
"Oh, no, don't affront him," said I. "We shall only have a scene."
"I won't affront him. I promise not to utter a syllable, either
offensive or defensive."
"Leave him alone, then, poor devil!"
"Nonsense! If he chooses to be annoyed, that's his business, and not
mine. Now, you'll see."
And Mueller, alert for mischief, stared fixedly at the old gentleman in
the opposite corner for some minutes--then sighed--roused himself as if
from a profound reverie--seized his portfolio--took out a pencil and
sketch-book--mended the pencil with an elaborate show of fastidiousness
and deliberation--stared again--drew a deep breath--turned somewhat
aside, as if anxious to conceal his object, and began sketching rapidly.
Now and then he paused; stole a furtive glance over his shoulder; bit
his lip; rubbed out; corrected; glanced again; and then went on rapidly
as before.
In the meanwhile the old gentleman, who was somewhat red and irascible,
began to get seriously uncomfortable. He frowned, fidgeted, coughed,
buttoned and unbuttoned his coat, and jealously watched every proceeding
of his tormentor. A general smile dawned upon the faces of the rest of
the travellers. The priest over the way pinched his lips together, and
looked down demurely. The two girls, next to the priest, tittered behind
their handkerchiefs. The young man with the blue cravat sucked the top
of his cane, and winked openly at his companions, both of whom were
cracking nuts, and flinging the shells down the embankment. Presently
Mueller threw his head back, held the drawing off, still studiously
keeping the back of it towards the rest of the passengers; looked at it
with half-closed eyes; stole another exceedingly cautious glance at his
victim; and then, affecting for the first time to find himself observed,
made a vast show of pretending to sketch the country through which we
were passing.
The old gentleman could stand it no longer.
"Monsieur," said he, angrily. "Monsieur, I will thank you not to take my
portrait. I object to it. Monsieur."
"Charming distance," said Mueller, addressing himself to me "Wants
interest, however, in the foreground. That's a picturesque tree yonder,
is it not?"
The old gentleman struck his umbrella sharply on the floor.
"It's of no use, Monsieur," he exclaimed, getting more red and excited.
"You are taking my portrait, and I object to it. I know you are taking
my portrait."
Mueller looked up dreamily.
"I beg your pardon, Monsieur," said he. "Did you speak?'
"Yes, Monsieur. I did speak. I repeat that you shall not take my
portrait."
"Your portrait, Monsieur?"
"Yes, my portrait!"
"But, Monsieur," remonstrated the artist, with an air of mingled candor
and surprise, "I never dreamed of taking your portrait!"
"_Sacre non_!" shouted the old gentleman, with another rap of the
umbrella. "I saw you do it! Everybody saw you do It!"
"Nay, if Monsieur will but do me the honor to believe that I was simply
sketching from nature, as the train...."
"An impudent subterfuge, sir!" interrupted the old gentleman. "An
impudent subterfuge, and nothing less!"
Mueller drew himself up with immense dignity.
"Monsieur," he said, haughtily, "that is an expression which I must
request you to retract. I have already assured you, on the word of a
gentleman...."
"A gentleman, indeed! A pretty gentleman! He takes my portrait, and...."
"I have not taken your portrait, Monsieur."
"Good heavens!" cried the old gentleman, looking round, "was ever such
assurance! Did not every one present see him in the act? I appeal to
every one--to you, Monsieur--to you, Mesdames,--to you, reverend
father,--did you not all see this person taking my portrait?"
"Nay, then, if it must come to this," said Mueller, "let the sketch be
evidence, and let these ladies and gentlemen decide whether it is really
the portrait of Monsieur--and if they think it like?"
Saying which, he held up the book, and displayed a head, sketched, it is
true, with admirable spirit and cleverness, but--the head of an ass,
with a thistle in its mouth!
A simultaneous explosion of mirth followed. Even the priest laughed till
the tears ran down his cheeks, and Dalrymple, heavy-hearted as he was,
could not help joining in the general shout. As for the old gentleman,
the victim of this elaborate practical joke, he glared at us all round,
swore that it was a premeditated insult from beginning to end, and,
swelling with suppressed rage, flung himself back into his corner, and
looked resolutely in the opposite direction.
By this time we were half-way to Paris, and the student, satisfied with
his success, packed up his folio, brought out a great meerschaum with a
snaky tube, and smoked like a factory-chimney.
When we alighted, it was nearly five o'clock.
"What shall we do next?" said Dalrymple, pulling drearily at his
moustache. "I am so deuced dull to-day that I am ashamed to ask anybody
to do me the charity to dine with me--especially a _bon garcon_ like
Herr Mueller."
"Don't be ashamed," said the student, laughingly, "I would dine with
Pluto himself, if the dishes were good and my appetite as sharp
as to-day."
"_Allons_, then! Where shall we go; to the _Trois Freres_, or the
_Moulin Rouge_, or the _Maison Doree_?"
"The _Trois Freres_" said Mueller, with the air of one who deliberates on
the fate of nations, "has the disadvantage of being situated in the
Palais Royal, where the band still continues to play at half-past five
every afternoon. Now, music should come on with the sweets and the
champagne. It is not appropriate with soup or fish, and it distracts
one's attention if injudiciously administered with the made dishes,"
"True. Then shall we try the _Moulin Rouge_?"
Mueller shook his head.
"At the _Moulin Rouge_" said he, gravely, "one can breakfast well; but
their dinners are stereotyped. For the last ten years they have not
added a new dish to their _carte_; and the discovery of a new dish, says
Brillat Savarin, is of more importance to the human race than the
discovery of a new planet. No--I should not vote for the
_Moulin Rouge_."
"Well, then, Vefours, Very's, the Cafe Anglais?"
"Vefours is traditional; the Cafe Anglais is infested with English; and
at Very's, which is otherwise a meritorious establishment, one's
digestion is disturbed by the sight of omnivorous provincials, who drink
champagne with the _roti_, and eat melon at dessert."
Dalrymple laughed outright.
"At this rate," said he, "we shall get no dinner at all! What is to
become of us, if neither Very's, nor the _Trois Freres_, nor the _Moulin
Rouge_, nor the _Maison Doree_...."
"_Halte-la!"_ interrupted the student, theatrically; "for by my halidom,
sirs, I said not a syllable in disparagement of the house yelept Doree!
Is it not there that we eat of the crab of Bordeaux, succulent and
roseate? Is it not there that we drink of Veuve Cliquot the costly, and
of that Johannisberger, to which all other hocks are vinegar and water?
Never let it be said that Franz Mueller, being of sound mind and body,
did less than justice to the reputation of the _Maison Doree_."
"To the _Maison Doree_, then," said Dalrymple, "with what speed and
appetite we may! By Jove! Herr Franz, you are a _connoisseur_ in the
matter of dining."
"A man who for twenty-nine days out of every thirty pays his sixty-five
centimes for two dishes at a student's Restaurant in the Quartier Latin,
knows better than most people where to go for a good dinner when he has
the chance," said Mueller, philosophically. "The ragouts of the
Temple--the _arlequins_ of the _Cite_--the fried fish of the Odeon
arcades--the unknown hashes of the _guingettes_, and the 'funeral baked
meats' of the Palais Royal, are all familiar to my pocket and my palate.
I do not scruple to confess that in cases of desperate emergency, I have
even availed myself of the advantages of _Le hasard_."
"_Le hasard_." said I. "What is that?"
"_Le hasard de la fourchette_," replied the student, "is the resort of
the vagabond, the _gamin_, and the _chiffonier_. It lies down by the
river-side, near the Halles, and consists of nothing but a shed, a fire,
and a caldron. In this caldron a seething sea of oleaginous liquid
conceals an infinite variety of animal and vegetable substances. The
arrangements of the establishment are beautifully simple. The votary
pays his five centimes and is armed by the presiding genius of the place
with a huge two-pronged iron fork. This fork he plunges in once;--he may
get a calf's foot, or a potato, or a sheep's head, or a carrot, or a
cabbage, or nothing, as fate and the fork direct. All men are gamblers
in some way or another, and _Le hasard_ is a game of gastronomic chance.
But from the ridiculous to the sublime, it is but a step--and while
talking of _Le hasard_ behold, we have arrived at the _Maison Doree_."
CHAPTER XIX.
A DINNER AT THE MAISON DOREE AND AN EVENING PARTY IN THE QUARTIER LATIN.
The most genial of companions was our new acquaintance, Franz Mueller,
the art-student. Light-hearted, buoyant, unassuming, he gave his animal
spirits full play, and was the life of our little dinner. He had more
natural gayety than generally belongs to the German character, and his
good-temper was inexhaustible. He enjoyed everything; he made the best
of everything; he saw food for laughter in everything. He was always
amused, and therefore was always amusing. Above all, there was a
spontaneity in his mirth which acted upon others as a perpetual
stimulant. He was in short, what the French call a _bon garcon_, and the
English a capital fellow; easy without assurance, comic without
vulgarity, and, as Sydney Smith wittily hath it--"a great number of
other things without a great number of other things."
Upon Dalrymple, who had been all day silent, abstracted, and unlike his
usual self, this joyous influence acted like a tonic. As entertainer, he
was bound to exert himself, and the exertion did him good. He threw off
his melancholy; and with the help, possibly, of somewhat more than his
usual quantity of wine, entered thoroughly into the passing joyousness
of the hour. What a _recherche_, luxurious extravagant little dinner it
was, that evening at the Maison Doree! We had a charming little room
overlooking the Boulevard, furnished with as much looking-glass,
crimson-velvet, gilding, and arabesque painting as could be got together
within the space of twelve-feet by eight. Our wine came to table in a
silver cooler that Cellini might have wrought. Our meats were served
upon porcelain that would have driven Palissy to despair. We had nothing
that was in season, except game, and everything that was out; which,
by-the-way, appears to be our modern criterion of excellence with
respect to a dinner. Finally, we were waited upon by the most imposing
of waiters--a waiter whose imperturbable gravity was not to be shaken by
any amount of provocation, and whose neckcloth alone was sufficient to
qualify him for the church.
How merry we were! How Mueller tormented that diplomatic waiter! What
stories we told! what puns we made! What brilliant things we said, or
fancied we said, over our Chambertin and Johannisberger! Mueller knew
nothing of the substratum of sadness underlying all that jollity. He
little thought how heavy Dalrymple's strong heart had been that morning.
He had no idea that my friend and I were to part on the morrow, for
months or years, as the case might be--he to carry his unrest hither and
thither through distant lands; I to remain alone in a strange city,
pursuing a distasteful study, and toiling onward to a future without
fascination or hope. But, as the glass seals tell us, "such is life." We
are all mysteries to one another. The pleasant fellow whom I invite to
dinner because he amuses me, carries a scar on his soul which it would
frighten me to see; and he in turn, when he praises my claret, little
dreams of the carking care that poisons it upon my palate, and robs it
of all its aroma. Perhaps the laughter-loving painter himself had his
own little tragedy locked up in some secret corner of the heart that
seemed to beat so lightly under that braided blouse of Palais Royal cut
and Quartier Latin fashion! Who could tell? And of what use would it be,
if it were told? Smiles carry one through the world more agreeably than
tears, and if the skeleton is only kept decently out of sight in its own
unsuspected closet, so much the better for you and me, and society
at large.
Dinner over, and the serious waiter dismissed with the dessert and the
empty bottles, we sat by the open window for a long time, sipping our
coffee, smoking our cigars, and watching the busy life of the Boulevard
below. There the shops were all alight and the passers-by more numerous
than by day. Carriages were dashing along, full of opera-goers and
ball-room beauties. On the pavement just under our window were seated
the usual crowd of Boulevard idlers, sipping their _al fresco_ absinthe,
and _grog-au-vin._ In the very next room, divided from us by only a
slender partition, was a noisy party of young men and girls. We could
hear their bursts of merriment, the chinking of their glasses as they
pledged one another, the popping of the champagne corks, and almost the
very jests that passed from lip to lip. Presently a band came and played
at the corner of an adjoining street. All was mirth, all was life, all
was amusement and dissipation both in-doors and out-of-doors, in the
"care-charming" city of Paris on that pleasant September night; and we,
of course, were gay and noisy, like our neighbors. Dalrymple and Mueller
could scarcely be called new acquaintances. They had met some few times
at the _Chicards_, and also, some years before, in Rome. What stories
they told of artists whom they had known! What fun they made of
Academic dons and grave professors high in authority! What pictures they
drew, of life in Rome--in Vienna--in Paris! Though we had no ladies of
our party and were only three in number, I am not sure that the
merry-makers in the next room laughed any louder or oftener than we!
At length the clock on the mantelpiece warned us that it was already
half-past nine, and that we had been three hours at dinner. It was
clearly time to vary the evening's amusement in some way or other, and
the only question was what next to do? Should we go to a billiard-room?
Or to the Salle Valentinois? Or to some of the cheap theatres on the
Boulevard du Temple? Or to the Tableaux Vivants? Or the Cafe des
Aveugles? Or take a drive round by the Champs Elysees in an open fly?
At length Mueller remembered that some fellow-students were giving a
party that evening, and offered to introduce us.
"It is up five pairs of stairs, in the Quartier Latin," said he; "but
thoroughly jolly--all students and grisettes. They'll be delighted
to see us."
This admirable proposition was no sooner made than acted upon; so we
started immediately, and Dalrymple, who seemed to be well acquainted
with the usages of student-life, proposed that we should take with us a
store of sweetmeats for the ladies.
"There subsists," observed he, "a mysterious elective affinity between
the grisette and the chocolate bon-bon. He who can skilfully exhibit the
latter, is almost certain to win the heart of the former. Where the
chocolate fails, however, the _marron glace_ is an infallible specific.
I recommend that we lay in a liberal supply of both weapons."
"Carried by acclamation," said Mueller. "We can buy them on our way, in
the Rue Vivienne. A capital shop; but one that I never patronize--they
give no credit."
Chatting thus, and laughing, we made our way across the Boulevard and
through a net-work of by-streets into the Rue Vivienne, where we laid
siege to a great bon-bon shop--a gigantic depot for dyspepsia at so
much per kilogramme--and there filled our pockets with sweets of every
imaginable flavor and color. This done, a cab conveyed us in something
less than ten minutes across the Pont Neuf to the Quartier Latin.
Mueller's friends were three in number, and all students--one of art, one
of law, and one of medicine. They lodged at the top of a dingy house
near the Odeon, and being very great friends and very near neighbors
were giving this entertainment conjointly. Their names were Gustave,
Jules, and Adrien. Adrien was the artist, and lived in the garret, just
over the heads of Gustave and Jules, which made it very convenient for a
party, and placed a _suite_ of rooms at the disposal of their visitors.
Long before we had achieved the five pairs of stairs, we heard the sound
of voices and the scraping of a violin, and on the fifth landing were
received by a pretty young lady in a coquettish little cap, whom Mueller
familiarly addressed as Annette, and who piloted us into a very small
bed-room which was already full of hats and coats, bonnets, shawls, and
umbrellas. Having added our own paletots and beavers to the general
stock, and having each received a little bit of pasteboard in exchange
for the same, we were shown into the ball-room by Mademoiselle Annette,
who appeared to fill the position of hostess, usher, and general
superintendent.
It was a good-sized room, somewhat low in the ceiling, and brilliantly
lighted with lots of tallow candles in bottles. The furniture had all
been cleared out for the dancers, except a row of benches round the
walls, and a chest of draws in a recess between the windows which served
as a raised platform for the orchestra. The said orchestra consisted of
a violin and accordion, both played by amateurs, with an occasional
_obligato_ on the common comb. As for the guests, they were, as Mueller
had already told us, all students and grisettes--the former wearing
every strange variety of beard and blouse; the latter in pretty
light-colored muslins and bewitching little caps, with the exception of
two who wore flowers in their hair, and belonged to the opera ballet.
They were in the midst of a tremendous galop when we arrived; so we
stood at the door and looked on, and Dalrymple flirted with Mademoiselle
Annette. As soon as the galop was over, two of our hosts came forward to
welcome us.
"The Duke of Dalrymple and the Marquis of Arbuthnot--Messieurs Jules
Charpentier and Gustave Dubois," said Mueller, with the most _degage_ air
in the world.
Monsieur Jules, a tall young man with an enormous false nose of the
regular carnival pattern, and Monsieur Gustave, who was short and stout,
with a visible high-water mark round his throat and wrists, and curious
leather mosaics in his boots, received us very cordially, and did not
appear to be in the least surprised at the magnificence of the
introduction. On the contrary, they shook hands with us; apologized for
the absence of Adrien, who was preparing the supper upstairs; and
offered to find us partners for the next valse. Dalrymple immediately
proposed for the hand of Mademoiselle Annette. Mueller, declining
adventitious aid, wandered among the ladies, making himself universally
agreeable and trusting for a partner to his own unassisted efforts. For
myself, I was indebted to Monsieur Gustave for an introduction to a very
charming young lady whose name was Josephine, and with whom I fell over
head and ears in love without a moment's warning.
She was somewhat under the middle height, slender, supple, rosy-lipped,
and coquettish to distraction. Her pretty mouth dimpled round with
smiles at every word it uttered. Her very eyes laughed. Her hair, which
was more adorned than concealed by a tiny muslin cap that clung by some
unseen agency to the back of her head, was of a soft, warm, wavy brown,
with a woof of gold threading it here and there. Her voice was perhaps a
little loud; her conversation rather childish; her accent such as would
scarcely have passed current in the Faubourg St. Germain--but what of
that? One would be worse than foolish to expect style and cultivation in
a grisette; and had I not had enough to disgust me with both in Madame
de Marignan? What more charming, after all, than youth, beauty, and
lightheartedness? Were Noel and Chapsal of any importance to a mouth
that could not speak without such a smile as Hebe might have envied?
I was, at all events, in no mood to take exception to these little
defects. I am not sure that I did not even regard them in the light of
additional attractions. That which in another I should have called
_bete_, I set down to the score of _naivete_ in Mademoiselle
Josephine. One is not diffident at twenty--by the way, I was now
twenty-one--especially after dining at the Maison Doree.
Mademoiselle Josephine was frankness itself. Before I had enjoyed the
pleasure of her acquaintance for ten minutes, she told me she was an
artificial florist; that her _patronne_ lived in the Rue Menilmontant;
that she went to her work every morning at nine, and left it every
evening at eight; that she lodged _sous les toits_ at No. 70, Rue
Aubry-le-Boucher; that her relations lived at Juvisy; and that she went
to see them now and then on Sundays, when the weather and her funds
permitted.
"Is the country pretty at Juvisy, Mademoiselle?" I asked, by way of
keeping up the conversation.
"Oh, M'sieur, it is a real paradise. There are trees and fields, and
there is the Seine close by, and a chateau, and a park, and a church on
a hill, ... _ma foi!_ there is nothing in Paris half so pretty; not even
the Jardin des Plantes!"
"And have you been there lately?"
"Not for eight weeks, at the very least, M'sieur. But then it costs
three francs and a half for the return ticket, and since I quarrelled
with Emile...."
"Emile!" said I, quickly. "Who is he?"
"He is a picture-frame maker, M'sieur, and works for a great dealer in
the Rue du Faubourg Montmartre. He was my sweetheart, and he took me out
somewhere every Sunday, till we quarrelled."
"And what did you quarrel about, Mademoiselle?"
My pretty partner laughed and tossed her head.
"Eh, _mon Dieu_! he was jealous."
"Jealous of whom?"
"Of a gentleman--an artist--who wanted to paint me in one of his
pictures. Emile did not like me to go to his _atelier_ so often; and the
gentleman gave me a shawl (such a pretty shawl!) and a canary in a
lovely green and gold cage; and...."
"And Emile objected ?"
"Yes, M'sieur."
"How very unreasonable!"
"That's just what I said, M'sieur."
"And have you never seen him since!"
"Oh, yes--he keeps company now with my cousin Cecile, and she humors him
in everything,"
"And the artist--what of him, Mademoiselle?"
"Oh, I sat to him every day, till his picture was finished. _Il etait
bien gentil_. He took me to the theatre several times, and once to a
fete at Versailles; but that was after Emile and I had broken it off."
"Did you find it tiresome, sitting as a model?"
"_Mais, comme ci, et comme ca_! It was a beautiful dress, and became me
wonderfully. To be sure, it was rather cold!"
"May I ask what character you were supposed to represent, Mademoiselle?"
"He said it was Phryne. I have no idea who she was; but I think she must
have found it very uncomfortable if she always wore sandals, and went
without stockings."
I looked down at her little foot, and thought how pretty it must have
looked in the Greek sandal. I pictured her to myself in the graceful
Greek robe, with a chalice in her hand and her temples crowned with
flowers. What a delicious Phryne! And what a happy fellow Praxiteles
must have been!
"It was a privilege, Mademoiselle, to be allowed to see you in so
charming a costume," I said, pressing her hand tenderly. "I envy that
artist from the bottom of my heart."
Mademoiselle Josephine smiled, and returned the pressure.
"One might borrow it," said she, "for the Bal de l'Opera."
"Ah, Mademoiselle, if I dared only aspire to the honor of conducting
you!"
"_Dame_! it is nearly four months to come!"
"True, but in the meantime, Mademoiselle----"
"In the meantime," said the fair Josephine, anticipating my hopes with
all the unembarrassed straightforwardness imaginable, "I shall be
delighted to improve M'sieur's acquaintance."
"Mademoiselle, you make me happy!"
"Besides, M'sieur is an Englishman, and I like the English so much!"
"I am delighted to hear it, Mademoiselle. I hope I shall never give you
cause to alter your opinion."
"Last galop before supper!" shouted Monsieur Jules through, a brass
speaking-trumpet, in order to make use of which he was obliged to hold
up his nose with one hand. "Gentlemen, choose your partners. All couples
to dance till they drop!"
There were a dozen up immediately, amongst whom Dalrymple and
Mademoiselle Annette, and Mueller with one of the ballet ladies, were the
first to start. As for Josephine, she proved to be a damsel of
forty-galop power. She never wanted to rest, and she never cared to
leave off. She did not even look warm when it was over. I wonder to this
day how it was that I did not die on the spot.
When the galop was ended, we all went upstairs to Monsieur Adrien's
garret, where Monsieur Adrien, who had red hair and wore glasses,
received us in person, and made us welcome. Here we found the supper
elegantly laid out on two doors which had been taken off their hinges
for the purpose; but which, being supported from beneath on divers boxes
and chairs of unequal heights, presented a painfully sloping surface,
thereby causing the jellies to look like leaning towers of Pisa, and the
spongecake (which was already professedly tipsy) to assume an air so
unbecomingly convivial that it might almost have been called drunk.
Nobody thought of sitting down, and, if they did, there were no means of
doing so; for Monsieur Adrien's garret was none of the largest, and, as
in a small villa residence we sometimes see the whole house sacrificed
to a winding staircase, so in this instance had the whole room been
sacrificed to the splendor of the supper. For the inconvenience of
standing, we were compensated, however, by the abundance and excellence
of the fare. There were cold chickens, meat-pies, dishes of sliced ham,
pyramids of little Bologna sausages, huge rolls of bread a yard in
length, lobster salad, and cold punch in abundance.
The flirtations at supper were tremendous. In a bachelor establishment
one cannot expect to find every convenience, and on this occasion the
prevailing deficiencies were among the plates and glasses; so those who
had been partners in the dance now became partners in other matters,
eating off the same plate and drinking out of the same tumbler; but this
only made it so much the merrier. By and by somebody volunteered a song,
and somebody else made a speech, and then we went down again to the
ball-room, and dancing recommenced.
The laughter now became louder, and the legs of the guests more vigorous
than ever. The orchestra, too, received an addition to its strength in
the person of a gentleman who, having drunk more cold punch than was
quite consistent with the preservation of his equilibrium, was still
sober enough to oblige us with a spirited accompaniment on the shovel
and tongs, which, with the violin and accordion, and the comb _obligato_
before mentioned, produced a startling effect, and reminded one of
Turkish marches, Pantomime overtures, and the like barbaric music.
In the midst of the first polka, however, we were interrupted by a
succession of furious double knocks on the floor beneath our feet. We
stopped by involuntary consent--dancers, musicians, and all.
"It's our neighbor on the story below," said Monsieur Jules. "He objects
to the dancing."
"Then we'll dance a little heavier, to teach him better taste," said a
student, who had so little hair on his head and so much on his chin,
that he looked as if his face had been turned upside down. "What is the
name of the ridiculous monster?"
"Monsieur Bobinet."
"Ladies and gentlemen, let us dance for the edification of Monsieur
Bobinet! Orchestra, strike up, in honor of Monsieur Bobinet! One, two,
three, and away!"
Hereupon we uttered a general hurrah, and dashed off again, like a herd
of young elephants. The knocking ceased, and we thought that Monsieur
Bobinet had resigned himself to his fate, when, just as the polka ended
and the dancers were promenading noisily round and round the room, the
bombardment began afresh; and this time against the very door of the
ball-room.
"_Par exemple_!" cries Monsieur Jules. "The enemy dares to attack us in
our own lines!"
"Bolt the door, and let him knock till he's tired," suggested one.
"Open it suddenly, and deluge him with water!" cried another.
"Tar and feather him!" proposed a third.
In the meantime, Monsieur Bobinet, happily ignorant of these agreeable
schemes for his reception, continued to thunder away upon the outer
panels, accompanying the raps with occasional loud coughs, and hems, and
stampings of the feet.
"Hush! do nothing violent," cried Mueller, scenting a practical joke.
"Let us invite him in, and make fun of him. It will be ever so much
more amusing!"
And with this he drove the rest somewhat back and threw open the door,
upon the outer threshold of which, with a stick in one hand and a
bedroom candle in the other, and a flowered dressing-gown tied round his
ample waist by a cord and tassels, stood Monsieur Bobinet.
Mueller received him with a profound bow, and said:--
"Monsieur Bobinet, I believe?"
Monsieur Bobinet, who was very bald, very cross, and very stout, cast
an irritable glance into the room, but, seeing so many people, drew back
and said:--
"Yes, that is my name, Monsieur. I lodge on the fourth floor...."
"But pray walk in, Monsieur Bobinet," said Mueller, opening the door
still wider and bowing still more profoundly.
"Monsieur," returned the fourth-floor lodger, "I--I only come to
complain...."
"Whatever the occasion of this honor, Monsieur," pursued the student,
with increasing politeness, "we cannot suffer you to remain on the
landing. Pray do us the favor to walk in."
"Oh, walk in--pray walk in, Monsieur Bobinet," echoed Jules, Gustave,
and Adrien, all together.
The fourth-floor lodger hesitated; took a step forward; thought,
perhaps, that, since we were all so polite, he would do his best to
conciliate us; and, glancing down nervously at his dressing-gown and
slippers, said:--
"Really, gentlemen, I should have much pleasure, but I am not
prepared...."
"Don't mention it, Monsieur Bobinet," said Mueller. "We are delighted to
receive you. Allow me to disembarrass you of your candle."
"And permit me," said Jules, "to relieve you of your stick."
"Pray, Monsieur Bobinet, do you never dance the polka?" asked Gustave.
"Bring Monsieur Bobinet a glass of cold punch," said Adrien.
"And a plate of lobster salad," added the bearded student.
Monsieur Bobinet, finding the door already closed behind him, looked
round nervously; but encountering only polite and smiling faces,
endeavored to seem at his ease, and to put a good face upon the matter.
"Indeed, gentlemen, I must beg you to excuse me," said he. "I never
drink at night, and I never eat suppers. I only came to request...."
"Nay, Monsieur Bobinet, we cannot suffer you to leave us without taking
a glass of cold punch," pursued Mueller.
"Upon my word," began the lodger, "I dare not...."
"A glass of white wine, then?"
"Or a cup of coffee?"
"Or some home-made lemonade?"
Monsieur Bobinet cast a look of helpless longing towards the door.
"If you really insist, gentlemen," said he, "I will take a cup of
coffee; but indeed...."
"A cup of coffee for Monsieur Bobinet!" shouted Mueller.
"A large cup of coffee for Monsieur Bobinet!" repeated Jules.
"A strong cup of coffee for Monsieur Bobinet!" cried Gustave, following
up the lead of the other two.
The fourth-floor lodger frowned and colored up, beginning to be
suspicious of mischief. Seeing this, Mueller hastened to apologize.
"You must pardon us, Monsieur Bobinet," he said with the most winning
amiability, "if we are all in unusually high spirits to-night. You are
not aware, perhaps, that our friend Monsieur Jules Charpentier was
married this morning, and that we are here in celebration of that happy
event. Allow me to introduce you to the bride."
And turning to one of the ballet ladies, he led her forward with
exceeding gravity, and presented her to Monsieur Bobinet as Madame
Charpentier.
The fourth-floor lodger bowed, and went through the usual
congratulations. In the meantime, some of the others had prepared a mock
sofa by means of two chairs set somewhat wide apart, with a shawl thrown
over the whole to conceal the space between. Upon one of these chairs
sat a certain young lady named Louise, and upon the other Mam'selle
Josephine. As soon as it was ready, Muller, who had been only waiting
for it, affected to observe for the first time that Monsieur Bobinet was
still standing.
"_Mon Dieu_!" he exclaimed, "has no one offered our visitor a chair?
Monsieur Bobinet, I beg a thousand pardons. Pray do us the favor to be
seated. Your coffee will be here immediately, and these ladies on the
sofa will be delighted to make room for you."
"Oh yes, pray be seated, Monsieur Bobinet," cried the two girls. "We
shall be charmed to make room for Monsieur Bobinet!"
More than ever confused and uncomfortable, poor Monsieur Bobinet bowed;
sat down upon the treacherous space between the two chairs; went through
immediately; and presented the soles of his slippers to the company in
the least picturesque manner imaginable. This involuntary performance
was greeted with a shout of wild delight.
"Bravo, Monsieur Bobinet!"
"_Vive_ Monsieur Bobinet!"
"Three cheers for Monsieur Bobinet!"
Scarlet with rage, the fourth-floor lodger sprang to his feet and made a
rush to the door; but he was hemmed in immediately. In vain he stormed;
in vain he swore. We joined hands; we called for music; we danced round
him; we sang; and at last, having fairly bumped and thumped and hustled
him till we were tired, pushed him out on the landing, and left him
to his fate.
After this interlude, the mirth grew fast and furious. _Valse_ succeeded
_valse_, and galop followed galop, till the orchestra declared they
could play no longer, and the gentleman with the shovel and tongs
collapsed in a corner of the room and went to sleep with his head in the
coal-scuttle. Then the ballet-ladies were prevailed upon to favor us
with a _pas de deux_; after which Mueller sang a comic song with a
chorus, in which everybody joined; and then the orchestra was bribed
with hot brandy-and-water, and dancing commenced again. By this time the
visitors began to drop away in twos and threes, and even the fair
Josephine, to whom I had never ceased paying the most devoted attention,
declared she could not stir another step. As for Dalrymple, he had
disappeared during supper, without a word of leave-taking to any one.
Matters being at this pass, I looked at my watch, and found that it was
already half-past six o'clock; so, having bade good-night, or rather
good-morning, to Messieurs Jules, Gustave, and Adrien, and having, with
great difficulty, discovered my own coat and hat among the miscellaneous
collection in the adjoining bed-room, I prepared to escort Mademoiselle
Josephine to her home.
"Going already?" said Mueller, encountering us on the landing, with a
roll in one hand and a Bologna sausage in the other.
"Already! Why, my dear fellow, it is nearly seven o'clock!"
"_Qu'importe_? Come up to the supper-room and have some breakfast!"
"Not for the world!"
"Well, _chacun a son gout_. I am as hungry as a hunter."
"Can I not take you any part of your way?"
"No, thank you. I am a Quartier Latinist, _pur sang_, and lodge only a
street or two off. Stay, here is my address. Come and see me--you can't
think how glad I shall be!"
"Indeed, I will come---and here is my card in exchange. Good-night, Herr
Mueller."
"Good-night, Marquis of Arbuthnot. Mademoiselle Josephine, _au
plaisir_."
So we shook hands and parted, and I saw my innamorata home to her
residence at No. 70, Rue Aubry le Boucher, which opened upon the Marche
des Innocents. She fell asleep upon my shoulder in the cab, and was only
just sufficiently awake when I left her, to accept all the _marrons
glaces_ that yet remained in the pockets of my paletot, and to remind me
that I had promised to take her out next Sunday for a drive in the
country, and a dinner at the Moulin Rouge.
The fountain in the middle of the Marche was now sparkling in the
sunshine like a shower of diamonds, and the business of the market was
already at its height. The shops in the neighboring streets were opening
fast. The "iron tongue" of St. Eustache was calling the devout to early
prayer. Fagged as I was, I felt that a walk through the fresh air would
do me good; so I dismissed the cab, and reached my lodgings just as the
sleepy _concierge_ had turned out to sweep the hall, and open the
establishment for the day. When I came down again two hours later,
after a nap and a bath, I found a _commissionnaire_ waiting for me.
"_Tiens_!" said Madame Bouisse (Madame Bouisse was the wife of the
_concierge_). "_V'la_! here is M'sieur Arbuthnot."
The man touched his cap, and handed me a letter.
"I was told to deliver it into no hands but those of M'sieur himself,"
said he.
The address was in Dalrymple's writing. I tore the envelope open. It
contained only a card, on the back of which, scrawled hastily in pencil,
were the following words:
"To have said good-bye would have made our parting none the lighter. By
the time you decipher this hieroglyphic I shall be some miles on my way:
Address Hotel de Russie, Berlin. Adieu, Damon; God bless you. O.D."
"How long is it since this letter was given to you?" said I, without
taking my eyes from the card.
The _commissionnaire_ made no reply. I repeated the question, looked up
impatiently, and found that the man was already gone.
CHAPTER XX.
THE CHATEAU DE SAINTE AULAIRE.
"Mark yon old mansion frowning through the trees,
Whose hollow turret wooes the whistling breeze."
My acquaintance with Mademoiselle Josephine progressed rapidly;
although, to confess the truth, I soon found myself much less deeply in
love than I had at first supposed. For this disenchantment, fate and
myself were alone to blame. It was not her fault if I had invested her
with a thousand imaginary perfections; nor mine if the spell was broken
as soon as I discovered my mistake.
Too impatient to wait till Sunday, I made my way on Saturday afternoon
to Rue Aubry-le-Boucher. I persuaded myself that I was bound to call on
her, in order to conclude our arrangements for the following day. At all
events, I argued, she might forget the engagement, or believe that I had
forgotten it. So I went, taking with me a magnificent bouquet, and an
embroidered satin bag full of _marrons glaces_.
My divinity lived, as she had told me, _sous les toits_--and _sous les
toits_, up seven flights of very steep and dirty stairs, I found her. It
was a large attic with a sloping roof, overlooking a bristling expanse
of chimney-pots, and commanding the twin towers of Notre Dame. There
were some colored prints of battles and shipwrecks wafered to the walls;
a couple of flower-pots in the narrow space between the window-ledge and
the coping outside; a dingy canary in a wire cage; a rival mechanical
cuckoo in a Dutch clock in the corner; a little bed with striped
hangings; a rush-bottomed _prie-dieu_ chair in front of a plain black
crucifix, over which drooped a faded branch of consecrated palm; and
some few articles of household furniture of the humblest description. In
all this there was nothing vulgar. Under other circumstances I might,
perhaps, have even elicited somewhat of grace and poetry from these
simple materials. But conceive what it was to see them through an
atmosphere of warm white steam that left an objectionable clamminess on
the backs of the chairs and caused even the door-handle to burst into a
tepid perspiration. Conceive what it was to behold my adored one
standing in the middle of the room, up to her elbows in soap-suds,
washing out the very dress in which she was to appear on the morrow....
Good taste defend us! Could anything be more cruelly calculated to
disturb the tender tenor of a lover's dreams? Fancy what Leander would
have felt, if, after swimming across the Hellespont, he had surprised
Hero at the washing-tub! Imagine Romeo's feelings, if he had scaled the
orchard-walls only to find Juliet helping to hang out the family linen!
The worst of it was that my lovely Josephine was not in the least
embarrassed. She evidently regarded the washing-tub as a desirable
piece of furniture, and was not even conscious that the act of "soaping
in," was an unromantic occupation!
Such was the severity of this first blow that I pleaded an engagement,
presented my offerings (how dreadfully inappropriate they seemed!), and
hurried away to a lecture on _materia medica_ at the _Ecole Pratique_;
that being a good, congenial, dismal entertainment for the evening!
Sunday came with the sunrise, and at midday, true as the clock of St.
Eustache, I knocked once more at the door of the _mansarde_ where my
Josephine dwelt. This time, my visit being anticipated, I found her
dressed to receive me. She looked more fresh and charming than ever; and
the lilac muslin which I had seen in the washing-tub some eighteen or
twenty hours before, became her to perfection. So did her pretty green
shawl, pinned closely at the throat and worn as only a French-woman
would have known how to wear it. So did the white camellia and the
moss-rose buds which she had taken out of my bouquet, and fastened at
her waist.
What I was not prepared for, however, was her cap. I had forgotten that
your Parisian grisette[1] would no more dream of wearing a bonnet than
of crowning her head with feathers and adorning her countenance with
war-paint. It had totally escaped me that I, a bashful Englishman of
twenty-one, nervously sensitive to ridicule and gifted by nature with
but little of the spirit of social defiance, must in broad daylight make
my appearance in the streets of Paris, accompanied by a bonnetless
grisette! What should I do, if I met Dr. Cheron? or Madame de
Courcelles? or, worse than all, Madame de Marignan? My obvious resource
was to take her in whatever direction we should be least likely to meet
any of my acquaintances. Where, oh fate! might that obscurity be found
which had suddenly become the dearest object of my desires?
[1] The grisette of twenty years ago, _bien entendu_. I am writing, be
it remembered, of "The days of my youth."
"_Eh bien_, Monsieur Basil," said Josephine, when my first compliments
had been paid. "I am quite ready. Where are we going?"
"We shall dine, _mon cher ange_," said I, absently, "at--let me
see--at...."
"At the Moulin Rouge," interrupted she. "But that is six hours to come.
In the meantime--"
"In the meantime? Ay, in the meantime...what a delightful day for the
time of year!"
"Shall it be Versailles?" suggested Josephine.
"Heaven forbid!"
Josephine opened her large eyes.
"_Mon Dieu!_" said she. "What is there so very dreadful in Versailles?"
I made no reply. I was passing all the suburbs in review before my
mind's eye,--Bellevue, Enghien, Fontenay-aux-Roses, St. Germains,
Sceaux; even Fontainebleau and Compiegne.
The grisette pouted, and glanced at the clock.
"If Monsieur is as slow to start as he is to answer," said she, "we
shall not get beyond the barriers to-day."
At this moment, I remembered to have heard of Montlhery as a place where
there was a forest and a feudal ruin; also, which was more to the
purpose, as lying at least six-and-twenty miles south of Paris.
"My dear Mademoiselle Josephine," I said, "forgive me. I have planned an
excursion which I am sure will please you infinitely better than a mere
common-place trip to Versailles. Versailles, on Sunday, is vulgar. You
have heard, of course, of Montlhery--one of the most interesting places
near Paris."
"I have read a romance called _The Tower of Montlhery"_ said Josephine.
"And that tower--that historical and interesting tower--is still
standing! How delightful to wander among the ruins--to recall the
stirring events which caused it to be besieged in the reign of--of
either Louis the Eleventh, or Louis the Fourteenth; I don't remember
which, and it doesn't signify--to explore the picturesque village, and
ramble through the adjoining woods of St. Genevieve--to visit..."
"I wonder if we shall find any donkeys to ride," interrupted Josephine,
upon whom my eloquence was taking the desired effect.
"Donkeys!" I exclaimed, drawing, I am ashamed to say, upon my
imagination. "Of course--hundreds of them!"
"_Ah, ca_! Then the sooner we go the better. Stay, I must just lock my
door, and leave word with my neighbor on the next floor that I am gone
out for the day,"
So she locked the door and left the message, and we started. I was
fortunate enough to find a close cab at the corner of the _marche_--she
would have preferred an open one, but I overruled that objection on the
score of time--and before very long we were seated in the cushioned
fauteuils of a first-class compartment on the Orleans Railway, and
speeding away towards Montlhery.
It was with no trifling sense of relief that I found the place really
picturesque, when we arrived. We had, it is true, to put up with a
comfortless drive of three or four miles in a primitive, jolting, yellow
omnibus, which crawled at stated hours of the day between the town and
the station; but that was a minor evil, and we made the best of it.
First of all, we strolled through the village--the clean, white, sunny
village, where the people were sitting outside their doors playing at
dominoes, and the cocks and hens were walking about like privileged
inhabitants of the market-place. Then we had luncheon at the _auberge_
of the "Lion d'Or." Then we looked in at the little church (still
smelling of incense from the last service) with its curious old
altar-piece and monumental brasses. Then we peeped through the iron gate
of the melancholy _cimetiere_, which was full of black crosses and
wreaths of _immortelles_. Last of all, we went to see the ruin, which
stood on the summit of a steep and solitary rock in the midst of a vast
level plain. It proved to be a round keep of gigantic strength and
height, approached by two courtyards and surrounded by the weed-grown
and fragmentary traces of an extensive stronghold, nothing of which now
remained save a few broken walls, three or four embrasured loopholes, an
ancient well of incalculable depth, and the rusted teeth of a formidable
portcullis. Here we paused awhile to rest and admire the view; while
Josephine, pleased as a child on a holiday, flung pebbles into the well,
ate sugar-plums, and amused herself with my pocket-telescope.
"_Regardez_!" she cried, "there is the dome of the Pantheon. I am sure
it is the Pantheon--and to the right, far away, I see a town!--little
white houses, and a steeple. And there goes a steamer on the river--and
there is the railway and the railway station, and the long road by which
we came in the omnibus. Oh, how nice it is, Monsieur Basil, to look
through a telescope!"
"Do me the favor, _ma belle_, to accept it--for my sake," said I,
thankful to find her so easily entertained. I was lying in a shady angle
of old wall, puffing away at a cigar, with my hat over my eyes, and the
soles of my boots levelled at the view. It is difficult to smoke and
make love at the same time; and I preferred the tobacco.
Josephine was enchanted, and thanked me in a thousand pretty, foolish
phrases. She declared she saw ever so much farther and clearer with the
glass, now that it was her own. She looked at me through it, and
insisted that I should look at her. She picked out all sorts of
marvellous objects, at all sorts of incredible distances. In short, she
prattled and chattered till I forgot all about the washing-tub, and
again began to think her quite charming. Presently we heard wandering
sounds of music among the trees at the foot of the hill--sounds as of a
violin and bagpipes; now coming with the wind from the west, now dying
away to the north, now bursting out afresh more merrily than ever, and
leading off towards the village.
"_Tiens_! that must be a wedding!" said Josephine, drumming with her
little feet against the side of the old well on which she was sitting.
"A wedding! what connection subsists, pray, between the bonds of
matrimony, and a tune on the bagpipes?"
"I don't know what you mean by bagpipes--I only know that when people
get married in the country, they go about with the musicians playing
before them. What you hear yonder is a violin and a _cornemuse_."
"A _cornemuse!_" I repeated. "What's that?"
"Oh, country music. A thing you blow into with your mouth, and play upon
with your fingers, and squeeze under your arm--like this."
"Then it's the same thing, _ma chere_," said I. "A bagpipes and a
_cornemuse_--a _cornemuse_ and bagpipes. Both of them national, popular,
and frightful."
"I'm so fond of music," said Josephine.
Not wishing to object to her tastes, and believing that this observation
related to the music then audible, I made no reply.
"And I have never been to an opera," added she.
I was still silent, though from another motive.
"You will take me one night to the Italiens, or the Opera Comique, will
you not, Monsieur Basil?" pursued she, determined not to lose her
opportunity.
I had now no resource but to promise; which I did, very reluctantly.
"You would enjoy the Opera Comique far more than the Italiens," said I,
remembering that Madame de Marignan had a box at the Italiens, and
rapidly weighing the chances for and against the possibility of
recognition. "At the first they sing in French--at the last,
in Italian,"
"Ah, bah! I should prefer the French," replied she, falling at once into
the snare. "When shall it be--this week?"
"Ye--es; one evening this week."
"What evening?"
"Well, let me see--we had better wait, and consult the advertisements."
"_Dame_! never mind the advertisements. Let it be Tuesday."
"Why Tuesday?"
"Because it is soon; and because I can get away early on Tuesdays if I
ask leave."
I had, plainly, no chance of escape.
"You would not prefer to see the great military piece at the Porte St.
Martin?" I suggested. "There are three hundred real soldiers in it, and
they fire real cannon."
"Not I! I have been to the Porte St. Martin, over and over again. Emile
knew one of the scene-painter's assistants, and used to get tickets two
or three times a month."
"Then it shall be the Opera Comique," said I, with a sigh.
"And on Tuesday evening next."
"On Tuesday evening next."
At this moment the piping and fiddling broke out afresh, and Josephine,
who had scarcely taken the little telescope from her eye all the time,
exclaimed that she saw the wedding party going through the market-place
of the town.
"There they are--the musicians first; the bride and bridegroom next; and
eight friends, all two and two! There will be a dance, depend on it! Let
us go down to the town, and hear all about it! Perhaps they might invite
us to join them--who knows?"
"But you would not dance before dinner?"
"_Eh, mon Dieu_! I would dance before breakfast, if I had the chance.
Come along. If we do not make haste, we may miss them."
I rose, feeling, and I daresay, looking, like a martyr; and we went down
again into the town.
There we inquired of the first person who seemed likely to know--he was
a dapper hairdresser, standing at his shop-door with his hands in his
apron pockets and a comb behind his ear--and were told that the
wedding-party had just passed through the village, on their way to the
Chateau of Saint Aulaire.
"The Chateau of St. Aulaire!" said Josephine. "What are they going to do
there? What is there to see?"
"It is an ancient mansion, Mademoiselle, much visited by strangers,"
replied the hairdresser with exceeding politeness. "Worthy of
Mademoiselle's distinguished attention--and Monsieur's. Contains old
furniture, old paintings, old china--stands in an extensive park--one of
the lions of this neighborhood, Mademoiselle--also Monsieur."
"To whom does it belong?" I asked, somewhat interested in this account.
"That, Monsieur, is a question difficult to answer," replied the fluent
hairdresser, running his fingers through his locks and dispersing a
gentle odor of rose-oil. "It was formerly the property of the ancient
family of Saint Aulaire. The last Marquis de Saint Aulaire, with his
wife and family, were guillotined in 1793. Some say that the young heir
was saved; and an individual asserting himself to be that heir did
actually put forward a claim to the estate, some twenty, or
five-and-twenty years ago, but lost his cause for want of sufficient
proof. In the meantime, it had passed into the hands of a wealthy
republican family, descended, it is said, from General Dumouriez. This
family held it till within the last four years, when two or three fresh
claimants came forward; so that it is now the object of a lawsuit which
may last till every brick of it falls to ruin, and every tree about it
withers away. At present, a man and his wife have charge of the place,
and visitors are permitted to see it any day between twelve and four."
"I should like to see the old place," said I.
"And I should like to see how the bride is dressed," said Josephine,
"and if the bridegroom is handsome."
"Well, let us go--not forgetting to thank Monsieur _le Perruquier_ for
his polite information."
Monsieur _le Perruquier_ fell into what dancing-masters call the first
position, and bowed elaborately.
"Most welcome, Mademoiselle--and Monsieur," said he. "Straight up the
road--past the orchard about a quarter of a mile--old iron gates--can't
miss it. Good-afternoon, Mademoiselle--also Monsieur."
Following his directions, we came presently to the gates, which were
rusty and broken-hinged, with traces of old gilding still showing
faintly here and there upon their battered scrolls and bosses. One of
them was standing open, and had evidently been standing so for years;
while the other had as evidently been long closed, so that the deep
grass had grown rankly all about it, and the very bolt was crusted over
with a yellow lichen. Between the two, an ordinary wooden hurdle had
been put up, and this hurdle was opened for us by a little blue-bloused
urchin in a pair of huge _sabots_, who, thinking we belonged to the
bridal party, pointed up the dusky avenue, and said, with a grin:--
"_Tout droit, M'sieur--ils sont passes par la!_"
_Par la_, "under the shade of melancholy boughs," we went accordingly.
Far away on either side stretched dim vistas of neglected park-land,
deep with coarse grass and weeds and, where the trees stood thickest,
all choked with a brambly undergrowth. After about a quarter of a mile
of this dreary avenue, we came to a broad area of several acres laid out
in the Italian style with fountains and terraces, at the upper end of
which stood the house--a feudal, _moyen-age_ French chateau, with
irregular wings, steep slated roofings, innumerable windows, and
fantastic steeple-topped turrets sheeted with lead and capped with
grotesque gilded weathercocks. The principal front had been repaired in
the style of the Renaissance and decorated with little foliated
entablatures above the doors and windows; whilst a double flight of
steps leading up to a grand entrance on the level of the first story,
like the famous double staircase of Fontainebleau, had been patched on
in the very centre, to the manifest disfigurement of the building. Most
of the windows were shuttered up, and as we drew nearer, the general
evidences of desolation became more apparent. The steps of the terraces
were covered with patches of brown and golden moss. The stone urns were
some of them fallen in the deep grass, and some broken. There were gaps
in the rich balustrade here and there; and the two great fountains on
either side of the lower terrace had long since ceased to fling up
their feathery columns towards the sun. In the middle of one a broken
Pan, noseless and armless, turned up a stony face of mute appeal, as if
imploring us to free him from the parasitic jungle of aquatic plants
which flourished rankly round him in the basin. In the other, a stalwart
river-god with his finger on his lip, seemed listening for the music of
those waters which now scarcely stirred amid the tangled weeds that
clustered at his feet.
Passing all these, passing also the flower-beds choked with brambles and
long waving grasses, and the once quaintly-clipped myrtle and box-trees,
all flinging out fantastic arms of later growth, we came to the upper
terrace, which was paved in curious patterns of stars and arabesques,
with stones alternately round and flat. Here a good-humored, cleanly
peasant woman came clattering out in her _sabots_ from a side-door, key
in hand, preceded us up the double flight of steps, unlocked the great
door, and admitted us.
The interior, like the front, had been modernized about a hundred and
fifty years before, and resembled a little formal Versailles or
miniature Fontainebleau. Dismantled halls paved with white marble;
panelled ante-chambers an inch deep in dust; dismal _salons_ adorned
with Renaissance arabesques and huge looking-glasses, cracked and
mildewed, and mended with pasted seams of blue paper; boudoirs with
faded Watteau panellings; corridors with painted ceilings where
mythological divinities, marvellously foreshortened on a sky-blue
ground, were seen surrounded by rose-colored Cupids and garlanded with
ribbons and flowers; innumerable bed-rooms, some containing grim
catafalques of beds with gilded cornices and funereal plumes, some
empty, some full of stored-up furniture fast going to decay--all these
in endless number we traversed, conducted by the good-tempered
_concierge_, whose heavy _sabots_ awakened ghostly echoes from floor
to floor.
At length, through an ante-chamber lined with a double file of grim old
family portraits--some so blackened with age and dust as to be totally
indistinguishable, and others bulging hideously out of their frames--we
came to the library, a really noble room, lofty, panelled with walnut
wood, floored with polished oak, and looking over a wide expanse of
level country. Long ranges of empty book-shelves fenced in with broken
wire-work ran round the walls. The painted ceiling represented, as
usual, the heavens and some pagan divinities. A dumb old time-piece,
originally constructed to tell the months, the days of the year, and the
hours, stood on a massive corner bracket near the door. Long antique
mirrors in heavy black frames reached from floor to ceiling between each
of the windows; and in the centre of the room, piled all together and
festooned with a thick drapery of cobwebs, stood a dozen or so of old
carved chairs, screens, and foot-stools, rich with velvet, brocade, and
gilded leather, but now looking as if a touch would crumble them to
dust. Over the great carved fireplace, however, hung a painting upon
which my attention became riveted as soon as I entered the room--a
painting yellow with age; covered with those minute cracks which are
like wrinkles on the face of antique art, coated with dust, and yet so
singularly attractive that, having once noticed it, I looked at
nothing else.
It was the half-length portrait of a young lady in the costume of the
reign of Louis XVI. One hand rested on a stone urn; the other was raised
to her bosom, holding a thin blue scarf that seemed to flutter in the
wind. Her dress was of white satin, cut low and square, with a stomacher
of lace and pearls. She also wore pearls in her hair, on her white arms,
and on her whiter neck. Thus much for the mere adjuncts; as for the
face--ah, how can I ever describe that pale, perfect, tender face, with
its waving brown hair and soft brown eyes, and that steadfast perpetual
smile that seemed to light the eyes from within, and to dwell in the
corners of the lips without parting or moving them? It was like a face
seen in a dream, or the imperfect image which seems to come between us
and the page when we read of Imogen asleep.
"Who was this lady?" I asked, eagerly.
The _concierge_ nodded and rubbed her hands.
"Aha! M'sieur," said she, "'tis the best painting in the chateau, as
folks tell me. M'sieur is a connoisseur."
"But do you know whose portrait it is?"
"To be sure I do, M'sieur. It's the portrait of the last Marquise--the
one who was guillotined, poor soul, with her husband, in--let me
see--in 1793!"
"What an exquisite creature! Look, Josephine, did you ever see anything
so beautiful?"
"Beautiful!" repeated the grisette, with a sidelong glance at one of the
mirrors. "Beautiful, with such a coiffure and such a bodice! _Ciel!_ how
tastes differ!"
"But her face, Josephine!"
"What of her face? I'm sure it's plain enough."
"Plain! Good heavens! what..."
But it was not worth while to argue upon it. I pulled out one of the old
chairs, and so climbed near enough to dust the surface of the painting
with my handkerchief.
"I wish I could buy it!" I exclaimed.
Josephine burst into a loud laugh.
"_Grand Dieu_!" said she, half pettishly, "if you are so much in love
with it as all that, I dare say it would not be difficult!"
The _concierge_ shook her head.
"Everything on this estate is locked up," said she. "Nothing can be
sold, nothing given away, nothing even repaired, till the _proces_
is ended."
I sighed, and came down reluctantly from my perch. Josephine was visibly
impatient. She had seen the wedding-party going down one of the walks at
the back of the house; and the _concierge_ was waiting to let us out. I
drew her aside, and slipped a liberal gratuity into her hand.
"If I were to come down here some day with a friend of mine who is a
painter," I whispered, "would you have any objection, Madame, to allow
him to make a little sketch of that portrait?"
The _concierge_ looked into her palm, and seeing the value of the coin,
smiled, hesitated, put her finger to her lip, and said:--
"_Ma foi_, M'sieur, I believe I have no business to allow it; but--to
oblige a gentleman like you--if there was nobody about--"
I nodded. We understood each other sufficiently, and no more was needed.
Once out of the house, Medemoiselle Josephine pouted, and took upon
herself to be sulky--a disposition which was by no means lessened when,
after traversing the park in various directions in search of the bridal
company, we found that they had gone out long ago by a gate at the other
side of the estate, and were by this time piping, most probably, in the
adjoining parish.
It was now five o'clock; so we hastened back through the village, cast a
last glance at the grim old tower on its steep solitude, consigned
ourselves to the yellow omnibus, and in due time were once more flying
along the iron road towards Paris. The rapid motion, the dignity of
occupying a first-class seat, and, above all, the prospects of an
excellent dinner, soon brought my fair companion round again, and by the
time we reached the Moulin Rouge, she was all vivacity and good temper.
The less I say about that dinner the better. I am humiliated when I
recall all that I suffered, and all that she did. I blush even now when
I remember how she blew upon her soup, put her knife in her mouth, and
picked her teeth with her shawl-pin. What possessed her that she would
persist in calling the waiter "Monsieur?" And why, in Heaven's name,
need she have clapped her hands when I ordered the champagne? To say
that I had no appetite--that I wished myself at the antipodes--that I
longed to sink into my boots, to smother the waiter, or to do anything
equally desperate and unreasonable, is to express but a tithe of the
anguish I endured. I bore it, however, in silence, little dreaming what
a much heavier trial was yet in store for me.
CHAPTER XXI.
I FALL A SACRIFICE TO MRS. GRUNDY.
"A word with you, if you please, Basil Arbuthnot," said Dr. Cheron,
"when you have finished copying those prescriptions."
Dr. Cheron was standing with his feet firmly planted in the tiger-skin
rug and his back to the fireplace. I was busy writing at the study
table, and glancing anxiously from time to time at the skeleton clock
upon the chimney-piece; for it was getting on fast towards five, and at
half-past six I was to take Josephine to the Opera Comique. As perverse
fortune would have it, the Doctor had this afternoon given me more
desk-work than usual, and I began to doubt whether I should be able to
dine, dress, and reach the theatre in time if he detained me
much longer.
"But you need be in no haste," he added, looking at his watch. "That is
to say, upon my account."
I bowed nervously--I was always nervous in his presence--and tried to
write faster than ever; but, feeling his cold blue eye upon me, made a
blot, smeared it with my sleeve, left one word out, wrote another twice
over, and was continually tripped up by my pen, which sputtered
hideously and covered the page with florid passages in little round
spots, which only needed tails to become crotchets and quavers. At
length, just as the clock struck the hour, I finished my task and laid
aside my pen.
Dr. Cheron coughed preparatorily.
"It is some time," said he, "since you have given me any news of your
father. Do you often hear from him?"
"Not very often, sir," I replied. "About once in every three weeks. He
dislikes letter-writing."
Dr. Cheron took a packet of papers from his breast-pocket, and ruffling
them over, said, somewhat indifferently:--
"Very true--very true. His notes are brief and few; but always to the
purpose. I heard from him this morning."
"Indeed, sir?"
"Yes--here is his letter. It encloses a remittance of seventy-five
pounds; fifty of which are for you. The remaining twenty-five being
reserved for the defrayal of your expenses at the Ecole de Medecine and
the Ecole Pratique."
I was delighted.
"Both are made payable through my banker," continued Dr. Cheron, "and I
am to take charge of your share till you require it; which cannot be
just yet, as I understand from this letter that your father supplied you
with the sum of one hundred and five pounds on leaving England."
My delight went down to zero.
"Does my father say that I am not to have it now, sir?" I asked,
hesitatingly.
"He says, as I have already told you, that it is to be yours when you
require it."
"And if I require it very shortly, sir--in fact, if I require it now?"
"You ought not to require it now," replied the Doctor, with a cold,
scrutinizing stare. "You ought not to have spent one hundred and five
pounds in five months."
I looked down in silence. I had more than spent it long since; and I had
to thank Madame de Marignan for the facility with which it had flown. It
was not to be denied that my course of lessons in practical politeness
had been somewhat expensive.
"How have you spent it?" asked Dr. Cheron, never removing his eyes from
my face.
I might have answered, in bouquets, opera stalls, and riding horses; in
dress coats, tight boots, and white kid gloves; in new books, new music,
bon-bons, cabs, perfumery, and the like inexcusable follies. But I held
my tongue instead, and said nothing.
Dr. Cheron looked again at his watch.
"Have you kept any entries of your expenses since you came to Paris?"
said he.
"Not with--with any regularity, sir," I replied.
He took out his pencil-case and pocket-book.
"Let us try, then," said he, "to make an average calculation of what
they might be in five months."
I began to feel very uncomfortable.
"I believe your father paid your travelling expenses?"
I bowed affirmatively.
"Leaving you the clear sum of one hundred and five pounds." I bowed
again.
"Allowing, then, for your rent--which is, I believe, twenty francs per
week," said he, entering the figures as he went on, "there will be four
hundred francs spent in five months. For your living, say thirty francs
per week, which makes six hundred. For your clothing, seventy-five per
month, which makes three hundred and seventy-five, and ought to be quite
enough for a young man of moderate tastes. For your washing and
firewood, perhaps forty per month, which makes two hundred--and for your
incidental expenses, say fifteen per week, which makes three hundred. We
thus arrive at a total of one thousand eight hundred and seventy-five
francs, which, reduced to English money at the average standard of
twenty-five francs to the sovereign, represents the exact sum of
seventy-five pounds. Do I make myself understood?"
I bowed for the third time.
"Of the original one hundred and five pounds, we now have thirty not
accounted for. May I ask how much of that surplus you have left?"
"About--not more than--than a hundred and twenty francs," I replied,
stripping the feathers off all the pens in succession, without
knowing it.
"Have you any debts?"
"A--a few."
"Tailors' bills?"
"Yes, sir."
"What others?"
"A--a couple of months' rent, I believe, sir."
"Is that all?"
"N--not quite."
Dr. Cheron frowned, and looked again at his watch.
"Be good enough, Mr. Arbuthnot," he said, "to spare me this amount of
useless interrogation by at once stating the nature and amount of
the rest."
"I--I cannot positively state the amount, sir," I said, absurdly trying
to get the paper-weight into my waistcoat pocket, and then putting it
down in great confusion. "I--I have an account at Monceau's in the Rue
Duphot, and..."
"I beg your pardon," interrupted Dr. Cheron: "but who is Monceau?"
"Monceau's--Monceau's livery-stables, sir."
Dr. Cheron slightly raised his eye-brows, and entered the name.
"And at Lavoisier's, on the Boulevard Poissonniere--"
"What is sold, pray, at Lavoisier's?"
"Gloves, perfumes, hosiery, ready-made linen..."
"Enough--you can proceed."
"I have also a bill at--at Barbet's, in the Passage de l'Opera."
"And Barbet is--?"
"A--a florist!" I replied, very reluctantly.
"Humph!--a florist!" observed Dr. Cheron, again transfixing me with the
cold, blue eye. "To what amount do you suppose you are indebted to
Monsieur Barbet?"
I looked down, and became utterly unintelligible.
"Fifty francs?"
"I--I fear, more than--than--"
"A hundred? A hundred and fifty? Two hundred?"
"About two hundred, I suppose, sir," I said desperately.
"Two hundred francs--that is to say, eight pounds English--to your
florist! Really, Mr. Arbuthnot, you must be singularly fond of flowers!"
I looked down in silence.
"Have you a conservatory attached to your rooms?"
The skeleton clock struck the half hour.
"Excuse me, sir," I said, driven now to the last extremity, "but--but I
have an engagement which--in short, I will, if you please, make out a
list of--of these items, ascertaining the correct amount of each; and
when once paid, I will endeavor--I mean, it is my earnest desire, to--to
limit my expenditure strictly to--in short, to study economy for the
future. If, in the meantime, you will have the goodness to
excuse me...."
"One word, young man. Will the fifty pounds cover your debts?"
"Quite, sir, I am confident."
"And leave you something in hand for your current expenses?"
"Indeed, I fear very little."
"In that case what will you do?"
This was a terrible question, and one for which I could find no answer.
"Write to your father for another remittance--eh?"
"I--upon my word, I dare not, sir," I faltered.
"Then you would go in debt again?"
"I really fear--even with the strictest economy--I--"
"Be so obliging as to let me have your seat," said Dr. Cheron, thrusting
the obnoxious note-book into his pocket and taking my place at the desk,
from which he brought out a couple of cards, and a printed paper.
"This ticket," said he, "admits the holder to the anatomical course for
the term now beginning, and this to the lectures at the Ecole Pratique.
Both are in my gift. The first is worth two hundred francs, and the
second two hundred and fifty. I ought, perhaps, in strict justice, to
bestow them upon some needy and deserving individual: however, to save
you from debt, or a very unpleasant alternative, I will fill them in
with your name, and, when you bring me all your bills receipted, I will
transfer to your account the four hundred and fifty francs which I must,
otherwise, have paid for your courses out of the remittance forwarded by
your father for that purpose. Understand, however, that I must first
have the receipts, and that I expect you, on the word of a gentleman,
to commit no more follies, and to contract no more debts."
"Oh, sir!" I exclaimed, "how can I ever--"
"No thanks, I beg," interposed Dr. Cheron. "Prove your gratitude by your
conduct; do not trouble yourself to talk about it."
"Indeed, sir, you may depend--"
"And no promises either, if you please. I attach no kind of value to
them. Stay--here is my check for the fifty pounds forwarded by your
father. With that sum extricate yourself from debt. You know the rest."
Hereupon Dr. Cheron replaced the cards and the printed form,
double-locked his desk, and, with a slight gesture of the hand, frigidly
dismissed me.
I left the house quite chopfallen. I was relieved, it is true, from the
incubus of debt; but then how small a figure I had cut in the eyes of
Dr. Cheron! Besides, I was small for the second time--reproved for the
second time--lectured, helped, put down, and poohpoohed, for the second
time! Could I have peeped at myself just then through the wrong end of a
telescope, I vow I could not have looked smaller in my own eyes.
I had no time to dine; so I despatched a cup of coffee and a roll on my
way home, and went hungry to the theatre.
Josephine was got up with immense splendor for this occasion; greatly to
her own satisfaction and my disappointment. Having hired a small private
box in the least conspicuous part of the theatre, I had committed the
cowardly mistake of endeavoring to transform my grisette into a woman of
fashion. I had bought her a pink and white opera cloak, a pretty little
fan, a pair of white kid gloves, and a bouquet. With these she wore a
decent white muslin dress furnished out of the limited resources of her
own wardrobe, and a wreath of pink roses, the work of her own clever
fingers. Thus equipped, she was far less pretty than in her coquettish
little every-day cap, and looked, I regret to say, more like an
_ouvriere_ than ever. Aggravating above all else, however, was her own
undisguised delight in her appearance.
"Are my flowers all right? Is my dress tumbled? Is the hood of my cloak
in the middle of my back?" were the questions she addressed to me every
moment. In the ante-room she took advantage of each mirror we passed. In
the lobby I caught her trying to look at her own back. When we reached
our box she pulled her chair to the very centre of it, and sat there as
if she expected to be admired by the whole audience.
"My dear Josephine," I remonstrated, "sit back here, facing the stage.
You will see much better--besides, it is your proper seat, being the
only lady in the box."
"Ah, _mon Dieu!_ then I cannot see the house--and how pretty it is! Ever
so much prettier than the Gaiete, or the Porte St. Martin!"
"You can see the house by peeping behind the curtain."
"As if I were ashamed to be seen! _Par exemple_!"
"Nay, as you please. I only advise you according to custom and fashion."
Josephine pouted, and unwillingly conceded a couple of inches.
"I wish I had brought the little telescope you gave me last Sunday,"
said she, presently. "There is a gentleman with one down there in
the stalls."
"A telescope at the opera--the gods forbid! Here, however, is my
opera-glass, if you like to use it."
Josephine turned it over curiously, and peeped first through one tube
and then through the other.
"Which ought I to look through?" asked she.
"Both, of course."
"Both! How can I?"
"Why thus--as you look through a pair of spectacles."
"_Ciel!_ I can't manage that! I can never look through anything without
covering up one eye with my hand."
"Then I think you had better be contented with your own charming eyes,
_ma belle_" said I, nervously. "How do you like your bouquet?"
Josephine sniffed at it as if she were taking snuff, and pronounced it
perfect. Just then the opera began. I withdrew into the shade, and
Josephine was silenced for a while in admiration of the scenery and the
dresses. By and by, she began to yawn.
"Ah, _mon Dieu!_" said she, "when will they have done singing? I have
not heard a word all this time."
"But everything is sung, _ma chere_, in an opera."
"What do you mean? Is there no play?"
"This is the play; only instead of speaking their words, they sing
them."
Josephine shrugged her shoulders.
"Ah, bah!" said she. "How stupid! I had rather have seen the _Closerie
des Genets_ at the Graiete, if that is to be the case the whole evening.
Oh, dear! there is such a pretty lady come into the opposite box, in
such a beautiful blue _glace_, trimmed with black velvet and lace!"
"Hush! you must not talk while they are singing!"
"_Tiens!_ it is no pleasure to come out and be dumb. But do just see the
lady in the opposite box! She looks exactly as if she had walked out of
a fashion-book."
"My dear child, I don't care one pin to look at her," said I, preferring
to keep as much out of sight as possible. "To admire your pretty face is
enough for me."
Josephine squeezed my hand affectionately.
"That is just as Emile used to talk to me," said she.
I felt by no means flattered.
"_Regardez done!_" said she, pulling me by the sleeve, just as I was
standing up, a little behind her chair, looking at the stage. "That lady
in the blue _glace_ never takes her eyes from our box! She points us out
to the gentleman who is with her--do look!"
I turned my glass in the direction to which she pointed, and recognised
Madame de Marignan!
I turned hot and cold, red and white, all in one moment, and shrank back
like a snail that has been touched, or a sea-anemone at the first dig of
the naturalist.
"Does she know you?" asked Josephine.
"I--I--probably--that is to say--I have met her in society."
"And who is the gentleman?"
That was just what I was wondering. It was not Delaroche. It was no one
whom I had ever seen before. It was a short, fat, pale man, with a bald
head, and a ribbon in his button-hole.
"Is he her husband?" pursued Josephine.
The suggestion flashed upon me like a revelation. Had I not heard that
M. de Marignan was coming home from Algiers? Of course it was he. No
doubt of it. A little vulgar, fat, bald man.... Pshaw, just the sort of
a husband that she deserved!
"How she looks at me!" said Josephine.
I felt myself blush, so to speak, from head to foot.
"Good Heavens! my dear girl," I exclaimed, "take your elbows off the
front of the box!"
Josephine complied, with a pettish little grimace.
"And, for mercy's sake, don't hold your head as if you feared it would
tumble off!"
"It is the flowers," said she. "They tickle the back of my neck,
whenever I move my head. I am much more comfortable in my cap."
"Never mind. Make the best of it, and listen to this song."
It was the great tenor ballad of the evening. The house was profoundly
silent; the first wandering chords of a harp were heard behind the
scenes; and Duprez began. In the very midst of one of his finest and
tenderest _sostenuto_ passages, Josephine sneezed--and such a sneeze!
you might have heard it out in the lobbies. An audible titter ran round
the house. I saw Madame de Marignan cover her face with her
handkerchief, and yield to an irrepressible fit of laughter. As for the
tenor, he cast a withering glance up at the box, and made a marked pause
before resuming his song. Merciful powers! what crime had I committed
that I should be visited with such a punishment as this?
"Wretched girl!" I exclaimed, savagely, "what have you done?"
"Done, _mon ami!_" said Josephine, innocently. "Why, I fear I have taken
cold."
I groaned aloud.
"Taken cold!" I muttered to myself. "Would to Heaven you had taken
prussic acid!"
"_Qu'est ce que c'est?"_ asked she.
But it was not worth while to reply. I gave myself up to my fate. I
determined to remonstrate no more. I flung myself on a seat at the back
of the box, and made up my mind to bear all that might yet be in store
for me. When she openly ate a stick of _sucre d'orge_ after this, I said
nothing. When she applauded with both hands, I endured in silence. At
length the performance came to a close and the curtain fell. Madame de
Marignan had left before the last act, so I ran no danger of
encountering her on the way out; but I was profoundly miserable,
nevertheless. As for Josephine, she, poor child, had not enjoyed her
evening at all, and was naturally out of temper. We quarrelled
tremendously in the cab, and parted without having made it up. It was
all my own fault. How could I be such a fool as to suppose that, with a
few shreds and patches of finery, I could make a fine lady of
a grisette?
* * * * *
CHAPTER XXII.
HIGH ART IN THE QUARTIER LATIN.
"But, my dear fellow, what else could you have expected? You took
Mam'selle Josephine to the _Opera Comique. Eh bien!_ you might as well
have taken an oyster up Mount Vesuvius. Our fair friend was out of her
element. _Voila tout_."
"Confound her and her element!" I exclaimed with a groan. "What the
deuce _is_ her element--the Quartier Latin?"
"The Quartier Latin is to some extent her habitat--but then Mam'selle
Josephine belongs to a genus of which you, _cher_ Monsieur Arbuthnot,
are deplorably ignorant--the genus grisette. The grisette from a certain
point of view is the _chef-d'oeuvre_ of Parisian industry; the bouquet
of Parisian civilization. She is indigenous to the _mansarde_ and the
_pave_--bears no transplantation--flourishes in _the premiere balconie_,
the suburban _guingette_, and the Salle Valentinois; but degenerates at
a higher elevation. To improve her is to spoil her. In her white cap and
muslin gown, the Parisian grisette is simply delicious. In a smart
bonnet, a Cashmere and a brougham, she is simply detestable. Fine
clothes vulgarize her. Fine surroundings demoralize her. Lodged on the
sixth story, rich in the possession of a cuckoo-clock, a canary, half a
dozen pots of mignonette, and some bits of cheap furniture in imitation
mahogany, she has every virtue and every fault that is charming in
woman--childlike gaiety; coquetry; thoughtless generosity; the readiest
laugh, the readiest tear, and the warmest heart in the world. Transplant
her to the Chaussee d'Antin, instil the taste for diamonds, truffles,
and Veuve Clicquot, and you poison her whole nature. She becomes false,
cruel, greedy, prodigal of your money, parsimonious of her own--a
vampire--a ghoul--the hideous thing we call in polite parlance a _Fille
de Marbre."_
Thus, with much gravity and emphasis, spoke Herr Franz Mueller, lying on
his back upon a very ricketty sofa, and smoking like a steam-engine. A
cup of half-cold coffee, and a bottle of rum three parts emptied stood
beside him on the floor. These were the remains of his breakfast; for it
was yet early in the morning of the day following my great misadventure
at the Opera Comique, and I had sought him out at his lodgings in the
Rue Clovis at an hour when the Quartier Latin was for the most part
in bed.
"Josephine, at all events, is not of the stuff that _Filles de Marbre_
are made of," I said, smiling.
"Perhaps not--_mais, que voulez-vous?_ We are what we are. A grisette
makes a bad fine lady. A fine lady would make a still worse grisette.
The Archbishopric of Paris is a most repectable and desirable
preferment; but your humble servant, for instance, would hardly suit
the place,"
"And the moral of this learned and perspicuous discourse?"
"_Tiens_! the moral, is--keep our fair friend in her place. Remember
that a dinner at thirty sous in the Palais Royal, or a fete with
fireworks at Mabille, will give her ten times more pleasure than the
daintiest repast you could order at the Maison Doree, or the choicest
night of the season at either opera house. And how should it be
otherwise? One must understand a thing to be able to enjoy it; and I'll
be sworn Mam'selle Josephine was infinitely more bored last night than
yourself."
Our conversation, or rather his monologue, was here interrupted by the
ringing of the outer bell.
The artist sat up, took his pipe from his lips, and looked considerably
disturbed.
"_Mille tonnerres_!" said he in a low tone. "Who can it be?... so early
in the day ... not yet ten o'clock ... it is very mysterious."
"It is only mysterious," said I, "as long as you don't open the door.
Shall I answer the bell?"
"No--yes--wait a moment ... suppose it is that demon, my landlord, or
that archfiend, my tailor--then you must say ... holy St. Nicholas! you
must say I am in bed with small-pox, or that I've broken out suddenly
into homicidal delirium, and you're my keeper."
"Unfortunately I should not know either of your princes of darkness at
first sight."
"True--and it might be Dupont, who owes me thirty francs, and swore by
the bones of his aunt (an excellent person, who keeps an estaminet in
the Place St. Sulpice) that he would pay me this week. _Diable_! there
goes the bell again."
"It would perhaps be safest," I suggested, "to let M. or N. ring on till
he is tired of the exercise."
"But conceive the horrid possibility of letting thirty francs ring
themselves out of patience! No, _mon ami_--I will dare the worst that
may happen. Wait here for me--I will answer the door myself,"
Now it should be explained that Mueller's apartments consisted of three
rooms. First, a small outer chamber which he dignified with the title of
Salle d'Attente, but which, as it was mainly furnished with old boots,
umbrellas and walking-sticks, and contained, by way of accommodation for
visitors only a three-legged stool and a door-mat, would have been more
fitly designated as the hall. Between this Salle d'Attente and the den
in which he slept, ate, smoked, and received his friends, lay the
studio--once a stately salon, now a wilderness of litter and
dilapidation. On one side you beheld three windows closely boarded up,
with strips of newspaper pasted over the cracks to exclude every gleam
of day. Overhead yawned a huge, dusty skylight, to make way for which a
fine old painted ceiling had been ruthlessly knocked away. On the walls
were pinned and pasted all sorts of rough sketches and studies in color
and crayon. In one corner lolled a despondent-looking lay-figure in a
moth-eaten Spanish cloak; in another lay a heap of plaster-casts,
gigantic hands and feet, broken-nosed masks of the Apollo, the Laocoon,
the Hercules Farnese, and other foreigners of distinction. Upon the
chimney-piece were displayed a pair of foils, a lute, a skull, an
antique German drinking-mug, and several very modern empty bottles. In
the middle of the room stood two large easels, a divan, a round table,
and three or four chairs; while the floor was thickly strewn with empty
color-tubes, bits of painting-rag, corks, cigar-ends, and all kinds of
miscellaneous litter.
All these things I had observed as I passed in; for this, be it
remembered, was my first visit to Mueller in his own territory.
I heard him go through the studio and close the door behind him, and
then I heard him open the door upon the public staircase. Presently he
came back, shutting the door behind him as before.
"My dear fellow," he exclaimed, breathlessly, "you have brought luck
with you! What do you think? A sitter--positively, a sitter! Wants to be
sketched in at once--_Vive la France_!"
"Man or woman? Young or old? Plain or pretty?"
"Elderly half-length, feminine gender--Madame Tapotte. They are both
there, Monsieur and Madame Excellent couple--redolent of the
country--husband bucolic, adipose, auriferous--wife arrayed in all her
glory, like the Queen of Sheba. I left them in the Salle d'Attente--told
them I had a sitter--time immensely occupied--half-lengths furiously in
demand ... _Will_ you oblige me by performing the part for a few
minutes, just to carry out the idea?"
"What part?"
"The part of sitter."
"Oh, with pleasure," I replied, laughing. "Do with me what you please,"
"You don't mind? Come! you are the best fellow in the world. Now, if
you'll sit in that arm-chair facing the light--head a little thrown
back, arms folded, chin up ... Capital! You don't know what an effect
this will have upon the provincial mind!"
"But you're not going to let them in! You have no portrait of me to be
at work upon!"
"My dear fellow, I've dozens of half-finished studies, any one of which
will answer the purpose. _Voila_! here is the very thing."
And snatching up a canvas that had been standing till now with its face
to the wall, he flourished it triumphantly before my eyes, and placed it
on the easel.
"Heavens and earth!" I exclaimed, "that's a copy of the Titian in the
Louvre--the 'Young Man with the Glove!'"
"What of that? Our Tapottes will never find out the difference. By the
way, I told them you were a great English Milord, so please keep up the
character."
"I will try to do credit to the peerage."
"And if you would not mind throwing in a word of English every now and
then ... a little Goddam, for instance.. . Eh?"
I laughed and shook my head.
"I will pose for you as Milord with all the pleasure in life," I said;
"only I cannot undertake to pose for the traditional Milord of the
Bouffes Parisiens! However, I will speak some English, and, if you like,
I'll know no French."
"No, no--_diable_! you must know a little, or I can't exchange a word
with you. But very little--the less the better. And now I'll let
them in."
They came; Madame first--tall, buxom, large-featured, fresh-colored,
radiant in flowers, lace, and Palais Royal jewelry; then
Monsieur--short, fat, bald, rosy and smiling, with a huge frill to his
shirt-front and a nankeen waistcoat.
Mueller introduced them with much ceremony and many apologies.
"Permit me, milord," he said, "to present Monsieur and Madame
Tapotte--Monsieur and Madame Tapotte; Milord Smithfield."
I rose and bowed with the gravity becoming my rank.
"I have explained to milord," continued Mueller, addressing himself
partly to the new-comers, partly to me, and chiefly to the study on the
easel, "that having no second room in which to invite Monsieur and
Madame to repose themselves, I am compelled to ask them into the
studio--where, however, his lordship is so very kind as to say that they
are welcome." (Hereupon Madame Tapotte curtsied again, and Monsieur
ducked his bald head, and I returned their salutations with the same
dignity as before.) "If Monsieur and Madame will be pleased to take
seats, however, his lordship's sitting will be ended in about ten
minutes. _Mille pardons_, the face, milord, a little more to the right.
Thank you--thank you very much. And if you will do me the favor to look
at me ... for the expression of the eye--just so--thank you! A most
important point, milord, is the expression of the eye. When I say the
expression, I mean the fire, the sparkle, the liquidity ... _enfin_ the
expression!"
Here he affected to put in some touches with immense delicacy--then
retreated a couple of yards, the better to contemplate his work--pursed
up his mouth--ran his fingers through his hair--shaded his eyes with his
hand--went back and put in another touch--again retreated--again put in
a touch; and so on some three or four times successively.
Meanwhile Monsieur and Madame Tapotte were fidgeting upon their chairs
in respectful silence. Every now and then they exchanged glances of
wonder and admiration. They were evidently dying to compare my august
features with my portrait, but dared not take the liberty of rising. At
length the lady's curiosity could hold out no longer.
"_Ah, mon Dieu_!" she said; "but it must be very fatiguing to sit so
long in the same position. And to paint.... _Oiel!_ what practice! what
perseverance! what patience! _Avec permission_, M'sieur..."
And with this she sidled up to Mueller's elbow, leaving Monsieur Tapotte
thunderstruck at her audacity.
Then for a moment she stood silent; but during that moment the eager,
apologetic smile vanished suddenly out of her face, and was succeeded by
an expression of blank disappointment.
"_Tiens_!" she said bluntly. "I don't see one bit of likeness."
I turned hot from head to foot, but Mueller's serene effrontery was equal
to the occasion.
"I dare say not, Madame," he replied, coolly. "I dare say not. This
portrait is not intended to be like."
Madame Tapotte's eyes and mouth opened simultaneously.
"_Comment_!" she exclaimed.
"I should be extremely sorry," continued Mueller, loftily, "and his
lordship would be extremely sorry, if there were too much resemblance."
"But a--a likeness--it seems to me, should at all events be--like,"
stammered Madame Tapotte, utterly bewildered.
"And if M'sieur is to paint my wife," added Monsieur Tapotte, who had by
this time joined the group at the easel, "I--I..._Dame_! it must be a
good deal more like than this."
Mueller drew himself up with an air of great dignity.
"Sir," he said, "if Madame does me the honor to sit to me for her
portrait--for her _own_ portrait, observe--I flatter myself the
resemblance will be overwhelming. But you must permit me to inform you
that Milord Smithfield is not sitting for his own portrait."
The Tapottes looked at each other in a state bordering on stupefaction.
"His lordship," continued Mueller, "is sitting for the portrait of one of
his illustrious ancestors--a nobleman of the period of Queen Elizabeth."
Tapotte _mari_ scratched his head, and smiled feebly.
"_Parbleu_!" said he, "_mais c'est bien drole, ca_!"
The artist shrugged his shoulders.
"It so happens," said he, "that his lordship's gallery at Smithfield
Castle has unhappily been more than half destroyed by fire. Two
centuries of family portraits reduced to ashes! Terrible misfortune!
Only one way of repairing the loss--that is of partially repairing it. I
do my best. I read the family records--I study the history of the
period--his lordship sits to me daily--I endeavor to give a certain
amount of family likeness; sometimes more, you observe, sometimes less
... enormous responsibility, Monsieur Tapotte!"
"Oh, enormous!"
"The taste for family portraits," continued Mueller, still touching up
the Titian, "is a very natural one--and is on the increase. Many
gentlemen of--of somewhat recent wealth, come to me for their
ancestors."
"No!"
"_Foi d'honneur_. Few persons, however, are as conscientious as his
lordship in the matter of family resemblance. They mostly buy up their
forefathers ready-made--adopt them, christen them, and ask no
questions."
Monsieur and Madame Tapotte exchanged glances.
"_Tiens, mon ami_, why should we not have an ancestor or two, as well
as other folks," suggested the lady, in a very audible whisper.
Monsieur shook his head, and muttered something about the expense.
"There is no harm, at all events," urged madame, "in asking the price."
"My charge for gallery portraits, madame, varies from sixty to a hundred
francs," said Mueller.
"Heavens! how dear! Why, my own portrait is to be only fifty."
"Sixty, Madame, if we put in the hands and the jewelry," said Mueller,
blandly.
"_Eh bien_!--sixty. But for these other things.... bah! _ils sont
fierement chers_."
"_Pardon_, madame! The elegancies and superfluities of life are, by a
just rule of political economy, expensive. It is right that they should
be so; as it is right that the necessaries of life should be within the
reach of the poorest. Bread, for instance, is strictly necessary, and
should be cheap. A great-grandfather, on the contrary, is an elegant
superfluity, and may be put up at a high figure."
"There is some truth in that," murmured Monsieur Tapotte.
"Besides, in the present instance, one also pays for antiquity."
"_C'est juste--C'est juste_."
"At the same time," continued Mueller, "if Monsieur Tapotte were to honor
me with a commission for, say, half a dozen family portraits, I would
endeavor to put them in at forty francs apiece--including, at that very
low price, a Revolutionary Deputy, a beauty of the Louis Quinze period,
and a Marshal of France."
"_Tiens_! that's a fair offer enough," said madame. "What say you, _mon
ami_?"
But Monsieur Tapotte, being a cautious man, would say nothing hastily.
He coughed, looked doubtful, declined to commit himself to an opinion,
and presently drew off into a corner for the purpose of holding a
whispered consultation with his wife.
Meanwhile Mueller laid aside his brushes and palette, informed me with a
profound bow that my lordship had honored him by sitting as long as was
strictly necessary, and requested my opinion upon the progress of
the work.
I praised it rapturously. You would have thought, to hear me, that for
drawing, breadth, finish, color, composition, chiaroscuro, and every
other merit that a painting could possess, this particular
_chef-d'oeuvre_ excelled all the masterpieces of Europe.
Mueller bowed, and bowed, and bowed, like a Chinaman at a visit of
ceremony; He was more than proud; he was overwhelmed, _accable_, et
caetera, et caetera.
The Tapottes left off whispering, and listened breathlessly.
"He is evidently a great painter, _not' jeune homme_!" said Madame in
one of her large whispers.
To which Monsieur replied as audibly:--"_Ca se voit, ma femme--sacre nom
d'une pipe_!"
"Milford will do me the favor to sit again on Friday?" said Mueller, as I
took up my hat and gloves.
I replied with infinite condescension that I would endeavor to do so. I
then made the stiffest of stiff bows to the excellent Tapottes, and,
ushered to the door by Mueller, took my departure majestically in the
character of Lord Smithfield.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE QUARTIER LATIN.
The dear old Quartier Latin of my time--the Quartier Latin of Balzac, of
Beranger, of Henry Murger---the Quartier Latin where Franz Mueller had
his studio; where Messieurs Gustave; Jules, and Adrien gave their
unparalleled _soirees dansantes_; where I first met my ex-flame
Josephine--exists no longer. It has been improved off the face of the
earth, and with it such a gay bizarre, improvident world of youth and
folly as shall never again be met together on the banks of the Seine.
Ah me! how well I remember that dingy, delightful Arcadia--the Rue de la
Vieille Boucherie, narrow, noisy, crowded, with projecting upper stories
and Gothic pent-house roofs--the Rue de la Parcheminerie, unchanged
since the Middle Ages--the Rue St. Jacques, steep, interminable,
dilapidated; with its dingy cabarets, its brasseries, its cheap
restaurants, its grimy shop windows filled with colored prints, with
cooked meats, with tobacco, old books, and old clothes; its ancient
colleges and hospitals, time-worn and weather-beaten, frowning down upon
the busy thoroughfare and breaking the squalid line of shops; its grim
old hotels swarming with lodgers, floor above floor, from the cobblers
in the cellars to the grisettes in the attics! Then again, the gloomy
old Place St. Michel, its abundant fountain ever flowing, ever
surrounded by water-carts and water-carriers, by women with pails, and
bare-footed street urchins, and thirsty drovers drinking out of iron
cups chained to the wall. And then, too, the Rue de la Harpe....
I close my eyes, and the strange, precipitous, picturesque, decrepit old
street, with its busy, surging crowd, its street-cries, its
street-music, and its indescribable union of gloom and gayety, rises
from its ashes. Here, grand old dilapidated mansions with shattered
stone-carvings, delicate wrought-iron balconies all rust-eaten and
broken, and windows in which every other pane is cracked or patched,
alternate with more modern but still more ruinous houses, some leaning
this way, some that, some with bulging upper stories, some with doorways
sunk below the level of the pavement. Yonder, gloomy and grim, stands
the College of Saint Louis. Dark alleys open off here and there from the
main thoroughfare, and narrow side streets, steep as flights of steps.
Low sheds and open stalls cling, limpet-like, to every available nook
and corner. An endless procession of trucks, wagons, water-carts, and
fiacres rumbles perpetually by. Here people live at their windows and in
the doorways--the women talking from balcony to balcony, the men
smoking, reading, playing at dominoes. Here too are more cafes and
cabarets, open-air stalls for the sale of fried fish, and cheap
restaurants for workmen and students, where, for a sum equivalent to
sevenpence half-penny English, the Quartier Latin regales itself upon
meats and drinks of dark and enigmatical origin. Close at hand is the
Place and College of the Sorbonne--silent in the midst of noisy life,
solitary in the heart of the most crowded quarter of Paris. A sombre
mediaeval gloom pervades that ancient quadrangle; scant tufts of sickly
grass grow here and there in the interstices of the pavement; the dust
of centuries crust those long rows of windows never opened. A little
further on is the Rue des Gres, narrow, crowded, picturesque, one
uninterrupted perspective of bookstalls and bookshops from end to end.
Here the bookseller occasionally pursues a two-fold calling, and retails
not only literature but a cellar of_ petit vin bleu_; and here,
overnight, the thirsty student exchanges for a bottle of Macon the "Code
Civile" that he must perforce buy back again at second-hand in
the morning.
A little farther on, and we come to the College Saint Louis, once the
old College Narbonne; and yet a few yards more, and we are at the doors
of the Theatre du Pantheon, once upon a time the Church of St. Benoit,
where the stage occupies the site of the altar, and an orchestra stall
in what was once the nave, may be had for seventy-five centimes. Here,
too, might be seen the shop of the immortal Lesage, renowned throughout
the Quartier for the manufacture of a certain kind of transcendental
ham-patty, peculiarly beloved by student and grisette; and here,
clustering within a stone's throw of each other, were to be found those
famous restaurants, Pompon, Viot, Flicoteaux, and the "Boeuf Enrage,"
where, on gala days, many an Alphonse and Fifine, many a Theophile and
Cerisette, were wont to hold high feast and festival--terms sevenpence
half-penny each, bread at discretion, water gratis, wine and
toothpicks extra.
But it was in the side streets, courts, and _impasses_ that branched off
to the left and right of the main arteries, that one came upon the very
heart of the old Pays Latin; for the Rue St. Jacques, the Rue de la
Harpe, the Rue des Gres, narrow, steep, dilapidated though they might
be, were in truth the leading thoroughfares--the Boulevards, so to
speak--of the Student Quartier. In most of the side alleys, however,
some of which dated back as far, and farther, than the fifteenth
century, there was no footway for passengers, and barely space for one
wheeled vehicle at a time. A filthy gutter invariably flowed down the
middle of the street. The pavement, as it peeped out here and there
through a _moraine_ of superimposed mud and offal, was seen to consist
of small oblong stones, like petrified kidney potatoes. The houses, some
leaning this way, some that, with projecting upper stories and
overhanging gable-roofs, nodded together overhead, leaving but a narrow
strip of sky down which the sunlight strove in vain to struggle. Long
poles upon which were suspended old clothes hung out to air, and ragged
linen to dry, stood out like tattered banners from the attic windows.
Here, too, every ground-floor was a shop, open, unglazed, cavernous,
where the dealer lay _perdu_ in the gloom of midday, like a spider in
the midst of his web, surrounded by piles of old bottles, old iron, old
clothes, old furniture, or whatever else his stock in trade might
consist of.
Of such streets--less like streets, indeed, than narrow, overhanging
gorges and ravines of damp and mouldering stone--of such streets, I say,
intricate, winding, ill-lighted, unventilated, pervaded by an atmosphere
compounded of the fumes of fried fish, tobacco, old leather, mildew and
dirt, there were hundreds in the Quartier Latin of my time:--streets to
the last degree unattractive as places of human habitation, but rich,
nevertheless, in historic associations, in picturesque detail, and in
archaeological interest. Such a street, for instance, was the Rue du
Fouarre (scarcely a feature of which has been modernized to this day),
where Dante, when a student of theology in Paris, attended the lectures
of one Sigebert, a learned monk of Gemblours, who discoursed to his
scholars in the open air, they sitting round him the while upon fresh
straw strewn upon the pavement. Such a street was the Rue des Cordiers,
close adjoining the Rue des Gres, where Rousseau lived and wrote; and
the Rue du Dragon, where might then be seen the house of Bernard
Palissy; and the Rue des Macons, where Racine lived; and the Rue des
Marais, where Adrienne Lecouvreur--poor, beautiful, generous, ill-fated
Adrienne Lecouvreur!--died. Here, too, in a blind alley opening off the
Rue St. Jacques, yet stands part of that Carmelite Convent in which, for
thirty years, Madame de la Valliere expiated the solitary frailty of her
life. And so at every turn! Not a gloomy by-street, not a dilapidated
fountain, not a grim old college facade but had its history, or its
legend. Here the voice of Abelard thundered new truths, and Rabelais
jested, and Petrarch discoursed with the doctors. Here, in the Rue de
l'Ancienne Comedie, walked the shades of Racine, of Moliere, of
Corneille, of Voltaire. Dear, venerable, immortal old Quartier Latin!
Thy streets were narrow, but they were the arteries through which,
century after century, circulated all the wisdom and poetry, all the
art, and science, and learning of France! Their gloom, their squalor,
their very dirt was sacred. Could I have had my will, not a stone of the
old place should have been touched, not a pavement widened, not a
landmark effaced.
Then beside, yet not apart from, all that was mediaeval and historic in
the Pays Latin, ran the gay, effervescent, laughing current of the life
of the _jeunessed' aujour d'hui._ Here beat the very heart of that rare,
that immortal, that unparalleled _vie de Boheme_, the vagabond poetry of
which possesses such an inexhaustible charm for even the soberest
imagination. What brick and mortar idylls, what romances _au cinquieme_,
what joyous epithalamiums, what gay improvident _menages_, what kisses,
what laughter, what tears, what lightly-spoken and lightly-broken vows
those old walls could have told of!
Here, apparelled in all sorts of unimaginable tailoring, in jaunty
colored cap or flapped sombrero, his pipe dangling from his button-hole,
his hair and beard displaying every eccentricity under heaven, the Paris
student, the _Pays Latiniste pur sang_, lived and had his being. Poring
over the bookstalls in the Place du Pantheon or the Rue des
Gres--hurrying along towards this or that college with a huge volume
under each arm, about nine o'clock in the morning--haunting the cafes at
midday and the restaurants at six--swinging his legs out of
upper windows and smoking in his shirt-sleeves in the summer
evenings--crowding the pit of the Odeon and every part of the Theatre du
Pantheon--playing wind instruments at dead of night to the torment of
his neighbors, or, in vocal mood, traversing the Quartier with a society
of musical friends about the small hours of the morning--getting into
scuffles with the gendarmes--flirting, dancing, playing billiards and
the deuce; falling in love and in debt; dividing his time between
Aristotle and Mademoiselle Mimi Pinson ... here, and here only, in all
his phases, at every hour of the day and night, he swarmed, ubiquitous.
And here, too (a necessary sequence), flourished the fair and frail
grisette. Her race, alas! is now all but extinct--the race of Fretillon,
of Francine, of Lisette, Musette, Rosette, and all the rest of that too
fascinating terminology--the race immortalized again and again by
Beranger, Gavarni, Balzac, De Musset; sketched by a hundred pencils and
described by a hundred pens; celebrated in all manner of metres and set
to all manner of melodies; now caricatured and now canonized; now
painted wholly _en noir_ and now all _couleur de rose_; yet, however
often described, however skilfully analyzed, remaining for ever
indescribable, and for ever defying analysis!
"De tous les produits Parisiens," says Monsieur Jules Janin (himself the
quintessence of everything most Parisian), "le produit le plus Parisien,
sans contredit, c'est la grisette." True; but our epigrammatist should
have gone a step farther. He should have added that the grisette _pur
sang_ is to be found nowhere except in Paris; and (still a step farther)
nowhere in Paris save between the Pont Neuf and the Barriere d'Enfer.
There she reigns; there (ah! let me use the delicious present tense--let
me believe that I still live in Arcadia!)--there she lights up the old
streets with her smile; makes the old walls ring with her laughter;
flits over the crossings like a fairy; wears the most coquettish of
little caps and the daintiest of little shoes; rises to her work with
the dawn; keeps a pet canary; trains a nasturtium round her window;
loves as heartily as she laughs, and almost as readily; owes not a sou,
saves not a centime; sews on Adolphe's buttons, like a good neighbor; is
never so happy as when Adolphe in return takes her to Tivoli or the
Jardin Turc; adores _galette, sucre d'orge_, and Frederick Lemaitre; and
looks upon a masked ball and a debardeur dress as the summit of
human felicity.
_Vive la grisette_! Shall I not follow many an illustrious example and
sing my modest paean in her praise? Frown not, august Britannia! Look
not so severely askance upon my poor little heroine of the Quartier
Latin! Thinkest thou because thou art so eminently virtuous that she who
has many a serviceable virtue of her own, shall be debarred from her
share in this world's cakes and ale?
_Vive la grisette_! Let us think and speak no evil of her. "Elle ne
tient au vice que par un rayon, et s'en eloigne par les mille autres
points de la circonference sociale." The world sees only her follies,
and sees them at first sight; her good qualities lie hidden in the
shade. Is she not busy as a bee, joyous as a lark, helpful, pitiful,
unselfish, industrious, contented? How often has she not slipped her
last coin into the alms-box at the hospital gate, and gone supperless to
bed? How often sat up all night, after a long day's toil in a crowded
work-room, to nurse Victorine in the fever? How often pawned her Sunday
gown and shawl, to redeem that coat without which Adolphe cannot appear
before the examiners to-morrow morning? Granted, if you will, that she
has an insatiable appetite for sweets, cigarettes, and theatrical
admissions--shall she not be welcome to her tastes? And is it her fault
if her capacity in the way of miscellaneous refreshments partakes of the
nature of the miraculous--somewhat to the inconvenience of Adolphe, who
has overspent his allowance? Supposing even that she may now and then
indulge (among friends) in a very modified can-can at the
Chaumiere--what does that prove, except that her heels are as light as
her heart, and that her early education has been somewhat neglected?
But I am writing of a world that has vanished as completely as the lost
Pleiad. The Quartier Latin of my time is no more. The Chaumiere is no
more. The grisette is fast dying out. Of the Rue de la Harpe not a
recognisable feature is left. The old Place St. Michel, the fountain,
the Theatre du Pantheon, are gone as if they had never been. Whole
streets, I might say whole parishes, have been swept away--whole
chapters of mediaeval history erased for ever.
Well, I love to close my eyes from time to time, and evoke the dear old
haunts from their ruins; to descend once more the perilous steeps of the
Rue St. Jacques, and to thread the labyrinthine by-streets that surround
the Ecole de Medecine. I see them all so plainly! I look in at the
familiar print-shops--I meet many a long-forgotten face--I hear many a
long-forgotten voice--I am twenty years of age and a student again!
Ah me! what a pleasant time, and what a land of enchantment! Dingy,
dilapidated, decrepit as it was, that graceless old Quartier Latin,
believe me, was paved with roses and lighted with laughing gas.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE FETE AT COURBEVOIE.
"_Halte la_! I thought I should catch you about this time! They've been
giving you unconscionable good measure to-day, though, haven't they? I
thought Bollinet's lecture was always over by three; and here I've been
moralizing on the flight of Time for more than twenty minutes."
So saying, Mueller, having stopped me as I was coming down the steps of
the Hotel Dieu, linked his arm in mine, drew me into a shady angle under
the lee of Notre Dame, and, without leaving me time to reply, went on
pouring out his light, eager chatter as readily as a mountain-spring
bubbles out its waters.
"I thought you'd like to know about the Tapottes, you see--and I was
dying to tell you. I went to your rooms last night between eight and
nine, and you were out; so I thought the only sure way was to come
here--I know you never miss Bollinet's Lectures. Well, as I was saying,
the Tapottes.... Oh, _mon cher_! I am your debtor for life in that
matter of Milord Smithfield. It has been the making of me. What do you
think? Tapotte is not only going to sit for a companion half-length to
Madame's portrait, but he has given me a commission for half-a-dozen
ancestors. Fancy--half-a-dozen illustrious dead-and-done Tapottes! What
a scope for the imagination! What a bewildering vista of _billets de
banque_! I feel--ah, _mon ami_! I feel that the wildest visions of my
youth are about to be realized, and that I shall see my tailor's bill
receipted before I die!"
"I'm delighted," said I, "that Tapotte has turned up a trump card."
"A trump card? Say a California--a Pactolus--a Golden Calf. Nay, hath
not Tapotte two golden calves? Is he not of the precious metal all
compact? Stands he not, in the amiable ripeness of his years, a living
representative of the Golden Age? _'O bella eta dell' oro_!'"
And to my horror, he then and there executed a frantic _pas seul_.
"Gracious powers!" I exclaimed. "Are you mad?"
"Yes--raving mad. Have you any objection?"
"But, my dear fellow--in the face of day--in the streets of Paris! We
shall get taken up by the police!"
"Then suppose we get out of the streets of Paris? I'm tired enough,
Heaven knows, of cultivating the arid soil of the Pave. See, it's a
glorious afternoon. Let's go somewhere."
"With all my heart. Where?"
"_Ah, mon Dieu! ca m'est egal_. Enghien--Vincennes--St.
Cloud--Versailles ... anywhere you like. Most probably there's a fete
going on somewhere, if we only knew where,"
"Can't we find out?"
"Oh, yes--we can drop into a Cafe and look at the _Petites Affiches_;
only that entails an absinthe; or we can go into the nearest Omnibus
Bureau and see the notices on the walls, which will be cheaper."
So we threaded our way along the narrow thoroughfares of the Ile de la
Cite, and came presently to an Omnibus Bureau on the Quai de l'Horloge,
overlooking the Pont Neuf and the river. Here the first thing we saw was
a flaming placard setting forth the pleasures and attractions of the
great annual fete at Courbevoie; a village on the banks of the Seine, a
mile or two beyond Neuilly.
"_Voila, notre affaire_!" said Mueller, gaily. "We can't do better than
steer straight for Courbevoie."
Saying which, he hailed a passing fiacre and bade the coachman drive to
the Embarcadere of the Rive Droite.
"We shall amuse ourselves famously at Courbevoie," he said, as we
rattled over the stones. "We'll dine at the Toison d'Or--an excellent
little restaurant overlooking the river; and if you're fond of angling,
we can hire a punt and catch our own fish for dinner. Then there will be
plenty of fiddling and dancing at the guingettes and gardens in the
evening. By the way, though, I've no money! That is to say, none worth
speaking of--_voila!_... one franc, one piece of fifty centimes, another
of twenty centimes, and some sous. I hope your pockets are better lined
than mine."
"Not much, I fear," I replied, pulling out my porte-monnaie, and
emptying the contents into my hand. They amounted to nine francs and
seventy-five centimes.
"_Parbleu_! we've just eleven francs and a half between us," said
Mueller. "A modest sum-total; but we must make it as elastic as we can.
Let me see, there'll be a franc for the fiacre, four francs for our
return tickets, four for our dinner, and two and a half to spend as we
like in the fair. Well, we can't commit any great extravagance with that
amount of floating capital."
"Better turn back and go to my rooms for some more money?" I exclaimed.
"I've two Napoleons in my desk."
"No, no--we should miss the three-fifty train, and not get another till
between five and six."
"But we shall have no fun if we have no money!"
"I dissent entirely from that proposition, Monsieur Englishman. I have
always had plenty of fun, and I have been short of cash since the hour
of my birth. Come, it shall be my proud task to-day to prove to you the
pleasures of impecuniosity!"
So with our eleven francs and a half we went on to the station, and took
our places for Courbevoie.
We travelled, of course, by third class in the open wagons; and it so
happened that in our compartment we had the company of three pretty
little chattering grisettes, a fat countrywoman with a basket, and a
quiet-looking elderly female with her niece. These last wore bonnets,
and some kind of slight mourning. They belonged evidently to the small
bourgeoise class, and sat very quietly in the corner of the carriage,
speaking to no one. The three grisettes, however, kept up an incessant
fire of small talk and squabble.
"I was on this very line last Sunday," said one. "I went with Julie to
Asnieres, and we were so gay! I wonder if it will be very gay at
Courbevoie."
"_Je m'en doute_," replied another, whom they called Lolotte. "I came to
one of the Courbevoie fetes last spring, and it was not gay at all. But
then, to be sure, I was with Edouard, and he is as dull as the first day
in Lent. Where were you last Sunday, Adele?"
"I did not go beyond the barriers. I went to the Cirque with my cousin,
and we dined in the Palais Royal. We enjoyed ourselves so much! You know
my cousin?"
"Ah! yes--the little fellow with the curly hair and the whiskers, who
waits for you at the corner when we leave the workshop."
"The same--Achille."
"Your Achille is nice-looking," said Mademoiselle Lolotte, with a
somewhat critical air. "It is a pity he squints."
"He does not squint, mam'selle."
"Oh, _ma chere_! I appeal to Caroline."
"I am not sure that he actually squints," said Mam'selle Caroline,
speaking for the first time; "but he certainly has one eye larger than
the other, and of quite a different color."
"_Tiens_, Caroline--it seems to me that you look very closely into the
eyes of young men," exclaims Adele, turning sharply upon this new
assailant.
"At all events you admit that Caroline is right," cries Lolotte,
triumphantly.
"I admit nothing of the kind. I say that you are both very ill-natured,
and that you say what is not true. As for you, Lolotte, I don't believe
you ever had the chance of seeing a young man's eyes turned upon you, or
you would not be so pleased with the attentions of an old one."
"An _old_ one!" shrieked Mam'selle Lolotte. "Ah, _mon Dieu_! Is a man
old at forty-seven? Monsieur Durand is in the prime of life, and there
isn't a girl in the Quartier who would not be proud of his attentions!"
"He's sixty, if an hour," said the injured Adele. "And as for you,
Caroline, who have never had a beau in your life...."
"_Ciel_! what a calumny!--I--never had a ... Holy Saint Genevieve! why,
it was only last Thursday week...."
Here the train stopped at the Asnieres station, and two privates of the
Garde Imperiale got into the carriage. The horizon cleared as if by
magic. The grisettes suddenly forgot their differences, and began to
chat quite amicably. The soldiers twirled their mustachios, listened,
smiled, and essayed to join in the conversation. In a few minutes all
was mirth and flirtation.
Meanwhile Mueller was casting admiring glances on the young girl in the
corner, whilst the fat countrywoman, pursing up her mouth, and watching
the grisettes and soldiers, looked the image of offended virtue.
"Dame! Madame," she said, addressing herself to the old lady in the
bonnet, "girls usen't to be so forward in the days when you and I
were young!"
To which the old lady in the bonnet, blandly smiling, replied:--
"Beautiful, for the time of year."
"Eh? For the time of year? Dame! I don't see that the time of year has
anything to do with it," exclaimed the fat countrywoman.
Here the young girl in the corner, blushing and smiling very sweetly,
interposed with--"Pardon, Madame--my aunt is somewhat deaf. Pray,
excuse her."
Whereupon the old lady, watching the motion of her niece's lips, added--
"Ah, yes--yes! I am a poor, deaf old woman--I don't understand what you
say. Talk to my little Marie, here--she can answer you."
"I, for one, desire nothing better than permission to talk to
Mademoiselle," said Mueller, gallantly.
_"Mais, Monsieur_..."
"Mademoiselle, with Madame her aunt, are going to the fete at
Courbevoie?"
"Yes, Monsieur."
"The river is very pretty thereabouts, and the walks through the meadows
are delightful."
"Indeed, Monsieur!"
"Mademoiselle does not know the place?"
"No, Monsieur."
"Ah, if I might only be permitted to act as guide! I know every foot of
the ground about Courbevoie."
Mademoiselle Marie blushed again, looked down, and made no reply.
"I am a painter," continued Mueller; "and I have sketched all the
windings of the Seine from Neuilly to St. Germains. My friend here is
English--he is a student of medicine, and speaks excellent French."
"What is the gentleman saying, _mon enfant_?" asked the old lady,
somewhat anxiously.
"Monsieur says that the river is very pretty about Courbevoie, _ma
tante_," replied Mademoiselle Marie, raising her voice.
"Ah! ah! and what else?"
"Monsieur is a painter."
"A painter? Ah, dear me! it's an unhealthy occupation. My poor brother
Pierre might have been alive to this day if he had taken to any other
line of business! You must take great care of your lungs, young man. You
look delicate."
Mueller laughed, shook his head, and declared at the top of his voice
that he had never had a day's illness in his life.
Here the pretty niece again interposed.
"Ah, Monsieur," she said, "my aunt does not understand....My--my uncle
Pierre was a house-painter."
"A very respectable occupation, Mademoiselle," replied Mueller, politely.
"For my own part, I would sooner paint the insides of some houses than
the outsides of some people."
At this moment the train began to slacken pace, and the steam was let
off with a demoniac shriek.
"_Tiens, mon enfant_," said the old lady, turning towards her niece with
affectionate anxiety. "I hope you have not taken cold."
The excellent soul believed that it was Mademoiselle Marie who sneezed.
And now the train had stopped--the porters were running along the
platform, shouting "Courbevoie! Courbevoie!"--the passengers were
scrambling out _en masse_--and beyond the barrier one saw a confused
crowd of _charrette_ and omnibus-drivers, touters, fruit-sellers, and
idlers of every description. Mueller handed out the old lady and the
niece; the fat countrywoman scrambled up into a kind of tumbril driven
by a boy in _sabots_; the grisettes and soldiers walked off together;
and the tide of holiday-makers, some on foot, some in hired vehicles,
set towards the village. In the meanwhile, what with the crowd on the
platform and the crowd outside the barrier, and what with the hustling
and pushing at the point where the tickets were taken, we lost sight of
the old lady and her niece.
"What the deuce has become of _ma tante_?" exclaimed Mueller, looking
round.
But neither _ma tante_ nor Mademoiselle Marie were anywhere to be seen.
I suggested that they must have gone on in the omnibus or taken a
_charrette_, and so have passed us unperceived.
"And, after all," I added, "we didn't want to enter upon an indissoluble
union with them for the rest of the day. _Ma tante's_ deafness is not
entertaining, and _la petite_ Marie has nothing to say."
"_La petite_ Marie is uncommonly pretty, though," said Mueller. "I mean
to dance a quadrille with her by-and-by, I promise you."
"_A la bonne heure_! We shall be sure to chance upon them again before
long."
We had come by this time to a group of pretty villa-residences with high
garden walls and little shady side-lanes leading down to the river. Then
came a church and more houses; then an open Place; and suddenly we found
ourselves in the midst of the fair.
It was just like any other of the hundred and one fetes that take place
every summer in the environs of Paris. There was a merry-go-round and a
greasy pole; there was a juggler who swallowed knives and ribbons; there
were fortune-tellers without number; there were dining-booths, and
drinking-booths, and dancing-booths; there were acrobats, organ-boys
with monkeys, and Savoyards with white mice; there were stalls for the
sale of cakes, fruit, sweetmeats, toys, combs, cheap jewelry, glass,
crockery, boots and shoes, holy-water vessels, rosaries, medals, and
little colored prints of saints and martyrs; there were brass bands, and
string bands, and ballad-singers everywhere; and there was an atmosphere
compounded of dust, tobacco-smoke, onions, musk, and every objectionable
perfume under heaven.
"Dine at the Restaurant de l'Empire, Messieurs," shouted a shabby
touter in a blouse, thrusting a greasy card into our faces. "Three
dishes, a dessert, a half-bottle, and a band of music, for one
franc-fifty. The cheapest dinner in the fair!"
"The cheapest dinner in the fair is at the Belle Gabrielle!" cried
another. "We'll give you for the same money soup, fish, two dishes, a
dessert, a half-bottle, and take your photograph into the bargain!"
"Bravo! _mon vieux_--you first poison them with your dinner, and then
provide photographs for the widows and children," retorts touter number
one. "That's justice, anyhow."
Whereupon touter number two shrieks out a torrent of abuse, and we push
on, leaving them to settle their differences after their own fashion.
At the next booth we are accosted by a burly fellow daubed to the eyes
with red and blue paint, and dressed as an Indian chief.
"_Entrez, entrez, Messieurs et Mesdames_" he cries, flourishing a
war-spear some nine feet in length. "Come and see the wonderful Peruvian
maiden of Tanjore, with webbed fingers and toes, her mouth in the back
of her head, and her eyes in the soles of her feet! Only four sous each,
and an opportunity that will never occur again!"
"Only fifty centimes!" shouts another public orator; "the most ingenious
little machine ever invented! Goes into the waistcoat pocket--is wound
up every twenty-four hours--tells the day of the month, the day of the
year, the age of the moon, the state of the Bourse, the bank rate of
discount, the quarter from which the wind is blowing, the price of
new-laid eggs in Paris and the provinces, the rate of mortality in the
Fee-jee islands, and the state of your sweetheart's affections!"
A little further on, by dint of much elbowing, we made our way into a
crowded booth where, for the modest consideration of two sous per head,
might be seen a Boneless Youth and an Ashantee King. The performances
were half over when we went in. The Boneless Youth had gone through his
feats of agility, and was lying on a mat in a corner of the stage, the
picture of limp incapability. The Ashantee monarch was just about to
make his appearance. Meanwhile, a little man in fleshings and a cocked
hat addressed the audience.
"Messieurs and Mesdames--I have the honor to announce that Caraba
Radokala, King of Ashantee, will next appear before you. This terrific
native sovereign was taken captive by that famous Dutch navigator, the
Mynheer Van Dunk, in his last voyage round the globe. Van Dunk, having
brought his prisoner to Europe in an iron cage, sold him to the English
government in 1840; who sold him again to Milord Barnum, the great
American philanthropist, in 1842; who sold him again to Franconi of the
Cirque Olympique; who finally sold him to me. At the time of his
capture, Caraba Radokala was the most treacherous, barbarous, and
sanguinary monster upon record. He had three hundred and sixty-five
wives--a wife, you observe, for every day in the year. He lived
exclusively upon human flesh, and consumed, when in good health, one
baby per diem. His palace in Ashantee was built entirely of the skulls
and leg-bones of his victims. He is now, however, much less ferocious;
and, though he feeds on live pigeons, rabbits, dogs, mice, and the like,
he has not tasted human flesh since his captivity. He is also heavily
ironed. The distinguished company need therefore entertain no
apprehensions. Pierre--draw the bolt, and let his majesty loose!"
A savage roar was now heard, followed by a rattling of chains. Then the
curtains were suddenly drawn back, and the Ashantee king--crowned with a
feather head-dress, loaded with red and blue war-paint, and chained from
ankle to ankle--bounded on the stage.
Seeing the audience before him, he uttered a terrific howl. The front
rows were visibly agitated. Several young women faintly screamed.
The little man in the cocked hat rushed to the front, protesting that
the ladies had no reason to be alarmed. Caraba Radokala, if not wantonly
provoked, was now quite harmless--a little irritable, perhaps, from
being waked too suddenly--would be as gentle as a lamb, if given
something to eat:--"Pierre, quiet his majesty with a pigeon!"
Pierre, a lank lad in motley, hereupon appeared with a live pigeon,
which immediately escaped from his hands and perched on the top of the
proscenium. Caraba Radokala yelled; the little man in the cocked hat
raved; and Pierre, in default of more pigeons, contritely reappeared
with a lump of raw beef, into which his majesty ravenously dug his royal
teeth. The pigeon, meanwhile, dressed its feathers and looked
complacently down, as if used to the incident.
"Having fed, Caraba Radokala will now be quite gentle and good-humored,"
said the showman. "If any lady desires to shake hands with him, she may
do so with perfect safety. Will any lady embrace the opportunity?"
A faint sound of tittering was heard in various parts of the booth; but
no one came forward.
"Will _no_ lady be persuaded? Well, then, is there any gentleman present
who speaks Ashantee?"
Mueller gave me a dig with his elbow, and started to his feet.
"Yes," he replied, loudly. "I do."
Every head was instantly turned in our direction.
The showman collapsed with astonishment. Even the captive, despite his
ignorance of the French tongue, looked considerably startled.
"_Comment_!" stammered the cocked hat. "Monsieur speaks Ashantee?"
"Fluently."
"Is it permitted to inquire how and when monsieur acquired this very
unusual accomplishment?"
"I have spoken Ashantee from my infancy," replied Mueller, with admirable
aplomb. "I was born at sea, brought up in an undiscovered island, twice
kidnapped by hostile tribes before attaining the age of ten years, and
have lived among savage nations all my life."
A murmur of admiration ran through the audience, and Mueller became, for
the time, an object of livelier interest than Caraba Radokala himself.
Seeing this, the indignant monarch executed a warlike _pas_, and rattled
his chains fiercely.
"In that case, monsieur, you had better come upon the stage, and speak
to his majesty," said the showman reluctantly.
"With all the pleasure in life."
"But I warn you that his temper is uncertain."
"Bah!" said Mueller, working his way round through the crowd, "I'm not
afraid of his temper."
"As monsieur pleases--but, if monsieur offends him, _I_ will not be
answerable for the consequences."
"All right--give us a hand up, _mon vieux_!" And Muller, having
clambered upon the stage, made a bow to the audience and a salaam to
his majesty.
"Chickahominy chowdar bang," said he, by way of opening the
conversation.
The ex-king of Ashantee scowled, folded his arms, and maintained a
haughty silence.
"Hic hac horum, high cockalorum," continued Mueller, with exceeding
suavity.
The captive monarch stamped impatiently, ground his teeth, but still
made no reply.
"Monsieur had better not aggravate him," said the showman. "On the
contrary--I am overwhelming him with civilities Now observe--I condole
with him upon his melancholy position. I inquire after his wives and
children; and I remark how uncommonly well he is looking."
And with this, he made another salaam, smiled persuasively, and said--
"Alpha, beta, gamma, delta--chin-chin--Potz tausend!--Erin-go-bragh!"
"Borriobooloobah!" shrieked his majesty, apparently stung to
desperation.
"Rocofoco!" retorted Mueller promptly.
But as if this last was more than any Ashantee temper could bear, Caraba
Rodokala clenched both his fists, set his teeth hard, and charged down
upon Mueller like a wild elephant. Being met, however, by a well-planted
blow between the eyes, he went down like a ninepin--picked himself
up,--rushed in again, and, being forcibly seized and held back by the
cocked hat, Pierre of the pigeons, and a third man who came tumbling up
precipitately from somewhere behind the stage, vented his fury, in a
torrent of very highly civilized French oaths.
"Eh, _sacredieu_!" he cried, shaking his fist in Mueller's face, "I've
not done with you yet, _diable de galerien_!"
Whereupon there burst forth a general roar--a roar like the
"inextinguishable laughter" of Olympus.
"_Tiens_!" said Mueller, "his majesty speaks French almost as well as I
speak Ashantee!"
"_Bourreau! Brigand! Assassin_!" shrieked his Ferocity, as his friends
hustled him off the stage.
The curtains then fell together again; and the audience, still laughing
vociferously, dispersed with cries of "Vive Caraba Rodokala!" "Kind
remembrances to the Queens of Ashantee!" "What's the latest news from
home?" "Borriobooloo-bah--ah--ah!"
Elbowing our way out with the crowd, we now plunged once more into the
press of the fair. Here our old friends the dancing dogs of the Champs
Elysees, and the familiar charlatan of the Place du Chatelet with his
chariot and barrel-organ, transported us from Ashantee to Paris. Next we
came to a temporary shooting-gallery, adorned over the entrance with a
spirited cartoon of a Tyrolean sharpshooter; and then to an exhibition
of cosmoramas; and presently to a weighing machine, in which a great,
rosy-cheeked, laughing Normandy peasant girl, with her high cap, blue
skirt, massive gold cross and heavy ear-rings, was in the act of
being weighed.
"_Tiens! Mam'selle est joliment solide_!" remarks a saucy bystander, as
the owner of the machine piles on weight after weight.
"Perhaps if I had no more brains than m'sieur, I should weigh as light!"
retorts the damsel, with a toss of her high cap.
"_Pardon_! it is not a question of brains--it is a question of hearts,"
interposes an elderly exquisite in a white hat. "Mam'selle has captured
so many that she is completely over weighted."
"Twelve stone six ounces," pronounces the owner of the machine,
adjusting the last weight.
Whereupon there is a burst of ironical applause, and the big _paysanne_,
half laughing, half angry, walks off, exclaiming, "_Eh bien! tant
mieux_! I've no mind to be a scarecrow--_moi_!"
By this time we have both had enough of the fair, and are glad to make
our way out of the crowd and down to the riverside. Here we find lovers
strolling in pairs along the towing-path; family groups pic-nicking in
the shade; boats and punts for hire, and a swimming-match just coming
off, of which all that is visible are two black heads bobbing up and
down along the middle of the stream.
"And now, _mon ami_, what do you vote for?" asks Mueller. "Boating or
fishing? or both? or neither?"
"Both, if you like--but I never caught anything in my life,"
"The pleasure of fishing, I take it," says Mueller, "is not in the fish
you catch, but in the fish you miss. The fish you catch is a poor little
wretch, worth neither the trouble of landing, cooking, nor eating; but
the fish you miss is always the finest fellow you ever saw in
your life!"
"_Allons donc_! I know, then, which of us two will have most of the
pleasure to-day," I reply, laughing. "But how about the expense?"
To which Mueller, with a noble recklessness, answers:--
"Oh, hang the expense! Here, boatman! a boat _a quatre rames_, and some
fishing-tackle--by the hour."
Now it was undoubtedly a fine sentiment this of Mueller's, and had we but
fetched my two Napoleons before starting, I should have applauded it to
the echo; but when I considered that something very nearly approaching
to a franc had already filtered out of our pockets in passing through
the fair, and that the hour of dinner was looming somewhat indefinitely
in the distance, I confess that my soul became disquieted within me.
"Don't forget, for heaven's sake," I said, "that we must keep something
for dinner!"
"My dear fellow," he replied, "I have already a tremendous appetite for
dinner--that _is_ something."
After this, I resigned myself to whatever might happen.
We then rowed up the river for about a mile beyond Courbevoie. moored
our boat to a friendly willow, put our fishing-tackle together, and
composed ourselves for the gentle excitement that waits upon the gudgeon
and the minnow.
"I haven't yet had a single nibble," said Mueller, when we had been
sitting to our work for something less than ten minutes.
"Hush!" I said. "You mustn't speak, you know."
"True--I had forgotten. I'll sing instead. Fishes, I have been told, are
fond of music.
'Fanfan, je vous aimerais bien;
Contre vous je n'ai nul caprice;
Vous etes gentil, j'en convien....'"
"Come, now!" I exclaimed pettishly, "this is really too bad. I had a
bite--a most decided bite--and if you had only kept quiet"....
"Nonsense, my dear fellow! I tell you again--and I have it on the best
authority--fishes like music. Did you never hear of Arion! Have you
forgotten about the Syrens? Believe me, your gudgeon nibbled because I
sang him to the surface--just as the snakes come out for the song of the
snake-charmer. I'll try again!"
And with this he began:--
"Jeannette est une brune
Qui demeure a Pantin,
Ou toute sa fortune
Est un petit jardin!"
"Well, if you go on like that, all I have to say is, that not a fish
will come within half a mile of our bait," said I, with
tranquil despair.
"Alas! _mon cher_, I am grieved to observe in your otherwise estimable
character, a melancholy want of faith," replied Mueller "Without faith,
what is friendship? What is angling? What is matrimony? Now, I tell you
that with regard to the finny tribe, the more I charm them, the more
enthusiastically they will flock to be caught. We shall have a
miraculous draught in a few minutes, if you are but patient."
And then he began again:--
"Mimi Pinson est une blonde,
Une blonde que l'on connait.
Elle n'a qu'une robe au monde,
Landerirette!
Et qu'un bonnet."
I laid aside my rod, folded my arms, and when he had done, applauded
ironically.
"Very good," I said. "I understand the situation. We are here, at
some--indeed, I may say, considering the state of our exchequer, at a
considerable mutual expense; not to catch fish, but to afford Herr
Mueller an opportunity of exercising his extensive memory, and his
limited baritone voice. The entertainment is not without its
_agrements_, but I find it dear at the price."
"_Tiens_, Arbuthnot! let us fish seriously. I promise not to open my
lips again till you have caught something."
"Then, seriously, I believe you would have to be silent the whole night,
and all I should catch would be the rheumatism. I am the worst angler in
the world, and the most unlucky."
"Really and truly?"
"Really and truly. And you?"
"As bad as yourself. If a tolerably large and energetic fish did me the
honor to swallow my bait, the probability is that he would catch me. I
certainly shouldn't know what to do with him."
"Then the present question is--what shall we do with ourselves?"
"I vote that we row up as far as yonder bend in the river, just to see
what lies beyond; and then back to Courbevoie."
"Heaven only grant that by that time we shall have enough money left for
dinner!" I murmured with a sigh.
We rowed up the river as far as the first bend, a distance of about
half a mile; and then we rowed on as far as the next bend. Then we
turned, and, resting on our oars, drifted slowly back with the current.
The evening was indescribably brilliant and serene. The sky was
cloudless, of a greenish blue, and full of light. The river was clear as
glass. We could see the flaccid water-weeds swaying languidly with the
current far below, and now and then a shoal of tiny fish shooting along
half-way between the weeds and the surface. A rich fringe of purple
iris, spear-leaved sagittarius, and tufted meadow-sweet (each blossom a
bouquet on a slender thyrsus) bordered the towing-path and filled the
air with perfume. Here the meadows lay open to the water's edge; a
little farther on, they were shut off by a close rampart of poplars and
willows whose leaves, already yellowed by autumn, were now fiery in the
sunset. Joyous bands of gnats, like wild little intoxicated maenads,
circled and hummed about our heads as we drifted slowly on; while, far
away and mellowed by distance, we heard the brazen music of the fair.
We were both silent. Mueller pulled out a small sketch-book and made a
rapid study of the scene--the reach in the river; the wooded banks; the
green flats traversed by long lines of stunted pollards; the church-tops
and roofs of Courbevoie beyond.
Presently a soft voice, singing, broke upon the silence. Mueller stopped
involuntarily, pencil in hand. I held my breath, and listened. The tune
was flowing and sweet; and as our boat drifted on, the words of the
singer became audible.
"O miroir ondoyant!
Je reve en te voyant
Harmonie et lumiere,
O ma riviere,
O ma belle riviere!
"On voit se reflechir
Dans ses eaux les nuages;
Elle semble dormir
Entre les paturages
Ou paissent les grands boeufs
Et les grasses genisses.
Au patres amoureux
Que ses bords sont propices!"
"A woman's voice," said Mueller. "Dupont's words and music. She must be
young and pretty ... where has she hidden herself?"
The unseen singer, meanwhile, went on with another verse.
"Pres des iris du bord,
Sous une berge haute,
La carpe aux reflets d'or
Ou le barbeau ressaute,
Les goujons font le guet,
L'Ablette qui scintille
Fuit le dent du brochet;
Au fond rampe l'anguille!
"O miroir ondoyant!
Je reve en te voyant
Harmonic et lumiere,
O ma riviere,
O ma belle riviere!"
"Look!" said Mueller. "Do you not see them yonder--two women under the
trees? By Jupiter! it's _ma tante_ and _la petite_ Marie!"
Saying which, he flung himself upon his oars and began pulling
vigorously towards the shore.
CHAPTER XXV.
THAT TERRIBLE MUeLLER.
La petite Marie broke off at the sound of our oars, and blushed a
becoming rose-color.
"Will these ladies do us the honor of letting us row them back to
Courbevoie?" said Mueller, running our boat close in against the sedges,
and pulling off his hat as respectfully as if they were duchesses.
Mademoiselle Marie repeated the invitation to her aunt, who accepted it
at once.
"_Tres volontiers, tres volontiers, messieurs_" she said, smiling and
nodding. "We have rambled out so far--so far! And I am not as young as I
was forty years ago. _Ah, mon Dieu_! how my old bones ache! Give me thy
hand, Marie, and thank the gentlemen for their politeness."
So Mam'selle Marie helped her aunt to rise, and we steadied the boat
close under the bank, at a point where the interlacing roots of a couple
of sallows made a kind of natural step by means of which they could
easily get down.
"Oh, dear! dear! it will not turn over, will it, my dear young man?
_Ciel_! I am slipping ... Ah, _Dieu, merci_!--Marie, _mon cher enfant_,
pray be careful not to jump in, or you will upset us all!"
And _ma tante_, somewhat tremulous from the ordeal of embarking, settled
down in her place, while Mueller lifted Mam'selle Marie into the boat, as
if she had been a child. I then took the oars, leaving him to steer; and
so we pursued our way towards Courbevoie.
"Mam'selle has of course seen the fair?" said Mueller, from behind the
old lady's back.
"No, monsieur,"
"No! Is it possible?"
"There was so much crowd, monsieur, and such a noise ... we were quite
too much afraid to venture in."
"Would you be afraid, mam'selle, to venture with me?"
"I--I do not know, monsieur."
"Ah, mam'selle, you might be very sure that I would take good care of
you!"
"_Mais ... monsieur_"...
"These gentlemen, I see, have been angling," said the old lady,
addressing me very graciously. "Have you caught many fish?"
"None at all, madame!" I replied, loudly.
"_Tiens_! so many as that?"
"_Pardon_, madame," I shouted at the top of my voice. "We have caught
nothing--nothing at all."
_Ma tante_ smiled blandly.
"Ah, yes," she said; "and you will have them cooked presently for
dinner, _n'est-ce pas_? There is no fish so fresh, and so well-flavored,
as the fish of our own catching."
"Will madame and mam'selle do us the honor to taste our fish and share
our modest dinner?" said Mueller, leaning forward in his seat in the
stern, and delivering his invitation close into the old lady's ear.
To which _ma tante_, with a readiness of hearing for which no one would
have given her credit, replied:--
"But--but monsieur is very polite--if we should not be inconveniencing
these gentlemen"....
"We shall be charmed, madame--we shall be honored!"
"_Eh bien!_ with pleasure, then--Marie, my child, thank the gentlemen
for their amiable invitation."
I was thunderstruck. I looked at Mueller to see if he had suddenly gone
out of his senses. Mam'selle Marie, however, was infinitely amused.
"_Fi donc!_ monsieur," she said. "You have no fish. I heard the other
gentleman say so."
"The other gentleman, mam'selle," replied Mueller, "is an Englishman, and
troubled with the spleen. You must not mind anything he says."
Troubled with the spleen! I believe myself to be as even-tempered and as
ready to fall in with a joke as most men; but I should have liked at
that moment to punch Franz Mueller's head. Gracious heavens! into what a
position he had now brought us! What was to be done? How were we to get
out of it? It was now just seven; and we had already been upon the water
for more than an hour. What should we have to pay for the boat? And when
we had paid for the boat, how much money should we have left to pay for
the dinner? Not for our own dinners--ah, no! For _ma tante's_ dinner
(and _ma tante_ had a hungry eye) and for _la petite_ Marie's dinner;
and _la petite_ Marie, plump, rosy, and well-liking, looked as if she
might have a capital appetite upon occasion! Should we have as much as
two and a half francs? I doubted it. And then, in the absence of a
miracle, what could we do with two and a half francs, if we had them? A
miserable sum!--convertible, perhaps, into as much bouilli, bread and
cheese, and thin country wine as might have satisfied our own hunger in
a prosaic and commonplace way; but for four persons, two of
them women!...
And this was not the worst of it. I thought I knew Mueller well enough by
this time to feel that he would entirely dismiss this minor
consideration of ways and means; that he would order the dinner as
recklessly as if we had twenty francs apiece in our pockets; and that he
would not only order it, but eat it and preside at it with all the
gayety and audacity in life.
Then would come the horrible retribution of the bill!
I felt myself turn red and hot at the mere thought of it.
Then a dastardly idea insinuated itself into my mind. I had my
return-ticket in my waistcoat-pocket:--what if I slipped away presently
to the station and went back to Paris by the next train, leaving my
clever friend to improvise his way out of his own scrape as best
he could?
In the meanwhile, as I was rowing with the stream, we soon got back to
Courbevoie.
"_Are_ you mad?" I said, as, having landed the ladies, Mueller and I
delivered up the boat to its owner.
"Didn't I admit it, two or three hours ago?" he replied. "I wonder you
don't get tired, _mon cher_, of asking the same question so often."
"Four francs, fifty centimes, Messieurs," said the boatman, having made
fast his boat to the landing-place.
"Four francs, fifty centimes!" I echoed, in dismay.
Even Mueller looked aghast.
"My good fellow," he said, "do you take us for coiners?"
"Hire of boat, two francs the hour. These gentlemen have been out
nearly one hour and a half--three francs. Hire of bait and
fishing-tackle, one franc fifty. Total, four francs and a half," replied
the boatman, putting out a great brown palm.
Mueller, who was acting as cashier and paymaster, pulled out his purse,
deposited one solitary half-franc in the middle of that brown palm, and
suggested that the boatman and he should toss up for the remaining four
francs--or race for them--or play for them--or fight for them. The
boatman, however, indignantly rejected each successive proposal, and,
being paid at last, retired with a _decrescendo_ of oaths.
"_Tiens_!" said Mueller, reflectively. "We have but one franc left. One
franc, two sous, and a centime. _Vive la France!_"
"And you have actually asked that wretched old woman and her niece to
dinner!"
"And I have actually solicited that excellent and admirable woman,
Madame Marotte, relict of the late lamented Jacques Marotte, umbrella
maker, of number one hundred and two, Rue du Faubourg St. Denis, and her
beautiful and accomplished niece, Mademoiselle Marie Charpentier, to
honor us with their company this evening. _Dis-donc,_ what shall we give
them for dinner?"
"Precisely what you invited them to, I should guess--the fish we caught
this afternoon."
"Agreed. And what else?"
"Say--a dish of invisible greens, and a phoenix _a la Marengo_."
"You are funny, _mon cher_."
"Then, for fear I should become too funny--good afternoon."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that I have no mind to dine first, and be kicked out of doors
afterwards. It is one of those aids to digestion that I can willingly
dispense with."
"But if I guarantee that the dinner shall be paid for--money down!"
"Tra la la!"
"You don't believe me? Well, come and see."
With this, he went up to Madame Marotte, who, with her niece, had sat
down on a bench under a walnut-tree close by, waiting our pleasure.
"Would not these ladies prefer to rest here, while we seek for a
suitable restaurant and order the dinner?" said Mueller insinuatingly.
The old lady looked somewhat blank. She was not too tired to go
on--thought it a pity to bring us all the way back again--would do,
however, as "_ces messieurs_" pleased; and so was left sitting under the
walnut-tree, reluctant and disconsolate.
"_Tiens! mon enfant_" I heard her say as we turned away, "suppose they
don't come back again!"
We had promised to be gone not longer, than twenty minutes, or at most
half an hour. Mueller led the way straight to the _Toison d' Or_.
I took him by the arm as we neared the gate.
"Steady, steady, _mon gaillard_" I said. "We don't order our dinner, you
know, till we've found the money to pay for it."
"True--but suppose I go in here to look for it?"
"Into the restaurant garden?"
"Precisely."
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE PETIT COURIER ILLUSTRE.
THE _Toison d' Or_ was but a modest little establishment as regarded the
house, but it was surrounded on three sides by a good-sized garden
overlooking the river. Here, in the trellised arbors which lined the
lawn on either side, those customers who preferred the open air could
take their dinners, coffees, and absinthes _al fresco_.
The scene when we arrived was at its gayest. There were dinners going on
in every arbor; waiters running distractedly to and fro with trays and
bottles; two women, one with a guitar, the other with a tamborine,
singing under a tree in the middle of the garden; while in the air there
reigned an exhilarating confusion of sounds and smells impossible
to describe.
We went in. Mueller paused, looked round, captured a passing waiter, and
asked for Monsieur le proprietaire. The waiter pointed over his shoulder
towards the house, and breathlessly rushed on his way.
Mueller at once led the way into a salon on the ground-floor looking over
the garden.
Here we found ourselves in a large low room containing some thirty or
forty tables, and fitted up after the universal restaurant pattern, with
cheap-looking glasses, rows of hooks, and spittoons in due number. The
air was heavy with the combined smells of many dinners, and noisy with
the clatter of many tongues. Behind the fruits, cigars, and liqueur
bottles that decorated the _comptoir_ sat a plump, black-eyed little
woman in a gorgeous cap and a red silk dress. This lady welcomed us with
a bewitching smile and a gracious inclination of the head.
"_Ces messieurs_," she said, "will find a vacant table yonder, by the
window."
Mueller bowed majestically.
"Madame," he said, "I wish to see Monsieur le proprietaire."
The dame de comptoir looked very uneasy.
"If Monsieur has any complaint to make," she said, "he can make it to
me."
"Madame, I have none."
"Or if it has reference to the ordering of a dinner...."
Mueller smiled loftily.
"Dinner, Madame," he said, with a disdainful gesture, "is but one of the
accidents common to humanity. A trifle! A trifle always
humiliating--sometimes inconvenient--occasionally impossible. No,
Madame, mine is a serious mission; a mission of the highest importance,
both socially and commercially. May I beg that you will have the
goodness to place my card in the hands of Monsieur le proprietaire, and
say that I request the honor of five minutes' interview."
The little woman's eyes had all this time been getting rounder and
blacker. She was evidently confounded by my friend's grandiloquence.
"_Ah! mon Dieu! M'sieur_," she said, nervously, "my husband is in the
kitchen. It is a busy day with us, you understand--but I will send
for him."
And she forthwith despatched a waiter for "Monsieur Choucru."
Mueller seized me by the arm.
"Heavens!" he exclaimed, in a very audible aside, "did you hear? She is
his wife! She is Madame Choucru?"
"Well, and what of that?"
"What of that, indeed? _Mais, mon ami_, how can you ask the question?
Have you no eyes? Look at her! Such a remarkably handsome woman--such a
_tournure_--such eyes--such a figure for an illustration! Only conceive
the effect of Madame Choucru--in medallion!"
"Oh, magnificent!" I replied. "Magnificent--in medallion."
But I could not, for the life of me, imagine what he was driving at.
"And it would make the fortune of the _Toison d'Or_" he added, solemnly.
To which I replied that it would undoubtedly do so.
Monsieur Choucru now came upon the scene; a short, rosy, round-faced
little man in a white flat cap and bibbed apron--like an elderly cherub
that had taken to cookery. He hung back upon the threshold, wiping his
forehead, and evidently unwilling to show himself in his shirt-sleeves.
"Here, _mon bon_," cried Madame, who was by this time crimson with
gratified vanity, and in a fever of curiosity; "this way--the gentleman
is waiting to speak to you!"
Monsieur, the cook and proprietor, shuffled his feet to and fro in the
doorway, but came no nearer.
"_Parbleu_!" he said, "if M'sieur's business is not urgent."
"It is extremely urgent, Monsieur Choucru," replied Mueller; "and,
moreover, it is not so much my business as it is yours,"
"Ah bah! if it is my business, then, it may stand over till to-morrow,"
replied the little man, impatiently. "To-day I have eighty dinners on
hand, and with M'sieur's permission"....
But Mueller strode to the door and caught him by the shoulder.
"No, Monsieur Choucru," he said sternly, "I will not let you ruin
yourself by putting off till to-morrow what can only be done to-day. I
have come here, Monsieur Choucru, to offer you fame. Fame and fortune,
Monsieur Choucru!--and I will not suffer you, for the sake of a few
miserable dinners, to turn your back upon the most brilliant moment of
your life!"
"_Mais, M'sieur_--explain yourself" ... stammered the proprietaire.
"You know who I am, Monsieur Choucru?"
"No, M'sieur--not in the least."
"I am Mueller--Franz Mueller--landscape painter, portrait painter,
historical painter, caricaturist, artist _en chef_ to the _Petit Courier
Illustre_"
"_Hein! M'sieur est peintre_!"
"Yes, Monsieur Choucru--and I offer you my protection."
Monsieur Choucru scratched his ear, and smiled doubtfully.
"Now listen, Monsieur Choucru--I am here to-day in the interests of the
_Petit Courier Illustre_. I take the Courbevoie fete for my subject. I
sketch the river, the village, the principal features of the-scene; and
on Saturday my designs are in the hands of all Paris. Do you
understand me?"
"I understand that M'sieur is all this time talking to me of his own
business, while mine, _la bas_, is standing still!" exclaimed the
proprietaire, in an agony of impatience. "I have the honor to wish
M'sieur good-day."
But Mueller seized him again, and would not let him escape.
"Not so fast, Monsieur Choucru," he said; "not so fast! Will you answer
me one question before you go?"
"_Eh, mon Dieu_! Monsieur."
"Will you tell me, Monsieur Choucru, what is to prevent me from giving
a view of the best restaurant in Courbevoie?"
Madame Choucru, from behind the _comptoir_, uttered a little scream.
"A design in the _Petit Courier Illustre_, I need scarcely tell you,"
pursued Mueller, with indescribable pomposity, "is in itself sufficient
to make the fortune not only of an establishment, but of a neighborhood.
I am about to make Courbevoie the fashion. The sun of Asnieres, of
Montmorency, of Enghien has set--the sun of Courbevoie is about to rise.
My sketches will produce an unheard-of effect. All Paris will throng to
your fetes next Sunday and Monday--all Paris, with its inexhaustible
appetite for _bifteck aux pommes frites_--all Paris with its
unquenchable thirst for absinthe and Bavarian beer! Now, Monsieur
Choucru, do you begin to understand me?"
"_Mais_, Monsieur, I--I think...."
"You think you do, Monsieur Choucru? Very good. Then will you please to
answer me one more question. What is to prevent me from conferring fame,
fortune, and other benefits too numerous to mention on your excellent
neighbor at the corner of the Place--Monsieur Coquille of the Restaurant
_Croix de Malte_?"
Monsieur Choucru scratched his ear again, stared helplessly at his wife,
and said nothing. Madame looked grave.
"Are we to treat this matter on the footing of a business transaction,
Monsieur!" she asked, somewhat sharply. "Because, if so, let Monsieur at
once name his price for me...."
"'PRICE,' Madame!" interrupted Mueller, with a start of horror. "Gracious
powers! this to me--to Franz Mueller of the _Petit Courier Illustre_!
'No, Madame--you mistake me--you wound me--you touch the honor of the
Fine Arts! Madame, I am incapable of selling my patronage."
Madame clasped her hands; raised her voice; rolled her black eyes; did
everything but burst into tears. She was shocked to have offended
Monsieur! She was profoundly desolated! She implored a thousand pardons!
And then, like a true French-woman of business, she brought back the
conversation to the one important point:--since money was not in
question, upon what consideration would Monsieur accord his preference
to the _Toison d' Or_ instead of to the _Croix de Malte_?
Mueller bowed, laid his hand upon his heart, and said:--
"I will do it, _pour les beaux yeux de Madame_."
And then, in graceful recognition of the little man's rights as owner of
the eyes in question, he bowed to Monsieur Choucru.
Madame was inexpressibly charmed. Monsieur smiled, fidgeted, and cast
longing glances towards the door.
"I have eighty dinners on hand," he began again, "and if M'sieur will
excuse me...."
"One moment more, my dear Monsieur Choucru," said Mueller, slipping his
hand affectionately through the little man's arm. "For myself, as I have
already told you, I can accept nothing--but I am bound in honor not to
neglect the interests of the journal I represent. You will of course
wish to express your sense of the compliment paid to your house by
adding your name to the subscription list of the _Petit Courier
Illustre_?"
"Oh, by--by all means--with pleasure," faltered the proprietaire.
"For how many copies, Monsieur Choucru? Shall we say--six?"
Monsieur looked at Madame. Madame nodded. Mueller took out his
pocket-book, and waited, pencil in hand.
"Eh--_parbleu_!--let it be for six, then," said Monsieur Choucru,
somewhat reluctantly.
Mueller made the entry, shut up the pocket-book, and shook hands
boisterously with his victim.
"My dear Monsieur Choucru," he said, "I cannot tell you how gratifying
this is to my feelings, or with what disinterested satisfaction I shall
make your establishment known to the Parisian public. You shall be
immortalized, my dear fellow--positively immortalized!"
"_Bien oblige, M'sieur--bien oblige_. Will you not let my wife offer you
a glass of liqueure?"
"Liqueure, _mon cher_!" exclaimed Mueller, with an outburst of frank
cordiality--"hang liqueure!--WE'LL DINE WITH YOU!"
"Monsieur shall be heartily welcome to the best dinner the _Toison d'Or_
can send up; and his friend also," said Madame, with her sweetest smile.
"Ah, Madame!"
"And M'sieur Choucru shall make you one of his famous cheese souffles.
_Tiens, mon bon_, go down and prepare a cheese souffle for two."
Mueller smote his forehead distractedly.
"For two!" he cried. "Heavens! I had forgotten my aunt and my cousin!"
Madame looked up inquiringly.
"Monsieur has forgotten something?"
"Two somethings, Madame--two somebodies! My aunt--my excellent and
admirable maternal aunt,--and my cousin. We left them sitting under a
tree by the river-side, more than half an hour ago. But the fault,
Madame, is yours."
"How, Monsieur?"
"Yes; for in your charming society I forget the ties of family and the
laws of politeness. But I hasten to fetch my forgotten relatives. With
what pleasure they will share your amiable hospitality! _Au revoir_,
Madame. In ten minutes we shall be with you again!"
Madame Choucru looked grave. She had not bargained to entertain a party
of four; yet she dared not disoblige the _Petit Courier Illustre_. She
had no time, however, to demur to the arrangement; for Mueller,
ingeniously taking her acquiescence for granted, darted out of the room
without waiting for an answer.
"Miserable man!" I exclaimed, as soon as we were outside the doors,
"what will you do now?"
"Do! Why, fetch my admirable maternal aunt and my interesting cousin, to
be sure."
"But you have raised a dinner under false pretences!"
"I, _mon cher_? Not a bit of it."
"Have you, then, really anything to do with the _Petit Courier
Illustre_?"
"The Editor of the _Petit Courier Illustre_ is one of the best fellows
in the world, and occasionally (when my pockets represent that vacuum
which Nature very properly abhors) he advances me a couple of Napoleons.
I wipe out the score from time to time by furnishing a design for the
paper. Now to-day, you see, I'm in luck. I shall pay off two obligations
at once--to say nothing of Monsieur Choucru's six-fold subscription to
the P.C., on which the publishers will allow me a douceur of thirty
francs. Now, confess that I'm a man of genius!"
In less than a quarter of an hour we were all four established round one
of Madame Choucru's comfortable little dining-tables, in a snug recess
at the farthest end of the salon. Here, being well out of reach of our
hostess's black eyes, Mueller assumed all the airs of a liberal
entertainer. He hung up _ma cousine's_ bonnet; fetched a footstool for
_ma tante_; criticised the sauces; presided over the wine; cut jokes
with the waiter; and pretended to have ordered every dish beforehand.
The stewed kidneys with mushrooms were provided especially for Madame
Marotte; the fricandeau was selected in honor of Mam'selle Marie (had he
not an innate presentiment that she loved fricandeau?); and as for the
soles _au gratin_, he swore, in defiance of probability and all the laws
of nature, that they were the very fish we had just caught in the Seine.
By-and-by came Monsieur Choucru's famous cheese _souffle_; and then,
with a dish of fruit, four cups of coffee, and four glasses of liqueure,
the banquet came to an end.
As we sat at desert, Mueller pulled out his book and pencilled a rapid
but flattering sketch of the dining-room interior, developing a
perspective as long as the Rue de Rivoli, and a _mobilier_ at least
equal in splendor to that of the _Trois Freres_.
At sight of this _chef d'oeuvre_, Madame Choucru was moved almost to
tears. Ah, Heaven! if Monsieur could only figure to himself her
admiration for his _beau talent_! But alas! that was impossible--as
impossible as that Monsieur Choucru should ever repay this unheard-of
obligation!
Mueller laid his hand upon his heart, and bowed profoundly.
"Ah! Madame," he said, "it is not to Monsieur Choucru that I look for
repayment--it is to you."
"To me, Monsieur? _Dieu merci! Monsieur se moque de moi_!"
And the Dame de Comptoir, intrenched behind her fruits and liqueure
bottles, shot a Parthian glance from under her black eye-lashes, and
made believe to blush.
"Yes, Madame, to you. I only ask permission to come again very soon, for
the purpose of executing a little portrait of Madame--a little portrait
which, alas! _must_ fail to render adequate justice to such a multitude
of charms."
And with this choice compliment, Mueller bowed again, took his leave,
bestowed a whole franc upon the astonished waiter, and departed from the
_Toison d'Or_ in an atmosphere of glory.
The fair, or rather that part of the fair where the dancers and diners
most did congregate, was all ablaze with lights, and noisy with brass
bands as we came out. _Ma tante_, who was somewhat tired, and had been
dozing for the last half hour over her coffee and liqueure, was
impatient to get back to Paris. The fair Marie, who was not tired at
all, confessed that she should enjoy a waltz above everything. While
Mueller, who professed to be an animated time-table, swore that we were
just too late for the ten minutes past ten train, and that there would
be no other before eleven forty-five. So Madame Marotte was carried off,
_bon gre, mal gre_, to a dancing-booth, where gentlemen were admitted on
payment of forty centimes per head, and ladies went in free.
Here, despite the noise, the dust, the braying of an abominable band,
the overwhelming smell of lamp-oil, and the clatter, not only of heavy
walking-boots, but even of several pairs of sabots upon an uneven floor
of loosely-joined planks--_ma tante_, being disposed of in a safe
corner, went soundly to sleep.
It was a large booth, somewhat over-full; and the company consisted
mainly of Parisian blue blouses, little foot-soldiers, grisettes (for
there were grisettes in those days, and plenty of them), with a
sprinkling of farm-boys and dairy-maids from the villages round about.
We found this select society caracoling round the booth in a thundering
galop, on first going in. After the galop, the conductor announced a
_valse a deux temps_. The band struck up--one--two--three. Away went
some thirty couples--away went Mueller and the fair Marie--and away went
the chronicler of this modest biography with a pretty little girl in
green boots who waltzed remarkably well, and who deserted him in the
middle of the dance for a hideous little French soldier about four feet
and a half high.
After this rebuff (having learned, notwithstanding my friend's
representations to the contrary, that a train ran from Courbevoie to
Paris every half-hour up till midnight) I slipped away, leaving Mueller
and _ma cousine_ in the midst of a furious flirtation, and Madame
Marotte fast asleep in her corner.
The clocks were just striking twelve as I passed under the archway
leading to the Cite Bergere.
"_Tiens_!" said the fat concierge, as she gave me my key and my candle.
"Monsieur has perhaps been to the theatre this evening? No!--to the
country--to the fete at Courbevoie! Ah, then, I'll be sworn that M'sieur
has had plenty of fun!"
But had I had plenty of fun? That was the question. That Mueller had had
plenty of flirting and plenty of fun was a fact beyond the reach of
doubt. But a flirtation, after all, unless in a one-act comedy, is not
entertaining to the mere looker-on; and oh! must not those bridesmaids
who sometimes accompany a happy couple in their wedding-tour, have a
dreary time of it?
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE ECOLE DE NATATION.
It seemed to me that I had but just closed my eyes, when I was waked by
a hand upon my shoulder, and a voice calling me by my name. I started up
to find the early sunshine pouring in at the window, and Franz Mueller
standing by my bedside.
"_Tiens_!" said he. "How lovely are the slumbers of innocence! I was
hesitating, _mon cher_, whether to wake or sketch you."
I muttered something between a growl and a yawn, to the effect that I
should have been better satisfied if he had left me alone.
"You prefer everything that is basely self-indulgent, young man,"
replied Mueller, making a divan of my bed, and coolly lighting his pipe
under my very nose. "Contrary to all the laws of _bon-camaraderie_, you
stole away last night, leaving your unprotected friend in the hands of
the enemy. And for what?--for the sake of a few hours' ignominious
oblivion! Look at me--I have not been to bed all night, and I am as
lively as a lobster in a lobster-pot."
"How did you get home?" I asked, rubbing my eyes; "and when?"
"I have not got home at all yet," replied my visitor. "I have come to
breakfast with you first."
Just at this moment, the _pendule_ in the adjoining room struck six.
"To breakfast!" I repeated. "At this hour?--you who never breakfast
before midday!"
"True, _mon cher_; but then you see there are reasons. In the first
place, we danced a little too long, and missed the last train, so I was
obliged to bring the dear creatures back to Paris in a fiacre. In the
second place, the driver was drunk, and the horse was groggy, and the
fiacre was in the last stage of dilapidation. The powers below only know
how many hours we were on the road; for we all fell asleep, driver
included, and never woke till we found ourselves at the Barriere de
l'Etoile at the dawn of day."
"Then what have you done with Madame Marotte and Mademoiselle Marie?"
"Deposited them at their own door in the Rue du Faubourg St. Denis, as
was the bounden duty of a _preux chevalier_. But then, _mon cher_, I had
no money; and having no money, I couldn't pay for the fiacre; so I drove
on here--and here I am--and number One Thousand and Eleven is now at the
door, waiting to be paid."
"The deuce he is!"
"So you see, sad as it was to disturb the slumbers of innocence, I
couldn't possibly let you go on sleeping at the rate of two francs
an hour."
"And what is the rate at which you have waked me?"
"Sixteen francs the fare, and something for the driver--say twenty in
all."
"Then, my dear fellow, just open my desk and take one of the two
Napoleons you will see lying inside, and dismiss number One Thousand and
Eleven without loss of time; and then...."
"A thousand thanks! And then what?"
"Will you accept a word of sound advice?"
"Depends on whether it's pleasant to follow, _caro mio_"
"Go home; get three or four hours' rest; and meet me in the Palais Royal
about twelve for breakfast."
"In order that you may turn round and go to sleep again in comfort? No,
young man, I will do nothing of the kind. You shall get up, instead, and
we'll go down to Molino's."
"To Molino's?"
"Yes--don't you know Molino's--the large swimming-school by the Pont
Neuf. It's a glorious morning for a plunge in the Seine."
A plunge in the Seine! Now, given a warm bed, a chilly autumn morning,
and a decided inclination to quote the words of the sluggard, and
"slumber again," could any proposition be more inopportune, savage, and
alarming? I shuddered; I protested; I resisted; but in vain.
"I shall be up again in less time than it will take you to tell your
beads, _mon gaillard_" said Mueller the ferocious, as, having captured my
Napoleon, he prepared to go down and liquidate with number One Thousand
and Eleven. "And it's of no use to bolt me out, because I shall hammer
away till you let me in, and that will wake your fellow-lodgers. So let
me find you up, and ready for the fray."
And then, execrating Mueller, and Molino, and Molino's bath, and Molino's
customers, and all Molino's ancestors from the period of the deluge
downwards, I reluctantly complied.
The air was brisk, the sky cloudless, the sun coldly bright; and the
city wore that strange, breathless, magical look so peculiar to Paris at
early morning. The shops were closed; the pavements deserted; the busy
thoroughfares silent as the avenues of Pere la Chaise. Yet how different
from the early stillness of London! London, before the world is up and
stirring, looks dead, and sullen, and melancholy; but Paris lies all
beautiful, and bright, and mysterious, with a look as of dawning smiles
upon her face; and we know that she will wake presently, like the
Sleeping Beauty, to sudden joyousness and activity.
Our road lay for a little way along the Boulevards, then down the Rue
Vivienne, and through the Palais Royal to the quays; but long ere we
came within sight of the river this magical calm had begun to break up.
The shop-boys in the Palais Royal were already taking down the
shutters--the great book-stall at the end of the Galerie Vitree showed
signs of wakefulness; and in the Place du Louvre there was already a
detachment of brisk little foot-soldiers at drill. By the time we had
reached the open line of the quays, the first omnibuses were on the
road; the water-carriers were driving their carts and blowing their
shrill little bugles; the washer-women, hard at work in their gay,
oriental-looking floating kiosques, were hammering away, mallet in hand,
and chattering like millions of magpies; and the early matin-bell was
ringing to prayers as we passed the doors of St. Germain L'Auxerrois.
And now we were skirting the Quai de l'Ecole, looking down upon the bath
known in those days as Molino's--a hugh, floating quadrangular
structure, surrounded by trellised arcades and rows of dressing-rooms,
with a divan, a cafe restaurant, and a permanent corps of cooks and
hair-dressers on the establishment. For your true Parisian has ever been
wedded to his Seine, as the Venetian to his Adriatic; and the Ecole de
Natation was then, as now, a lounge, a reading-room, an adjunct of the
clubs, and one of the great institutions of the capital.
Some bathers, earlier than ourselves, were already sauntering about the
galleries in every variety of undress, from the simple _calecon_ to the
gaudiest version of Turkish robe and Algerian _kepi_. Some were smoking;
some reading the morning papers; some chatting in little knots; but as
yet, with the exception of two or three school-boys (called, in the
_argot_ of the bath, _moutards_), there were no swimmers in the water.
With some of these loungers Mueller exchanged a nod or a few words as we
passed along the platform; but shook hands cordially with a bronzed,
stalwart man, dressed like a Venetian gondolier in the frontispiece to a
popular ballad, with white trousers, blue jacket, anchor buttons, red
sash, gold ear-rings, and great silver buckles in his shoes. Mueller
introduced this romantic-looking person to me as "Monsieur Barbet."
"My friend, Monsieur Barbet," said he, "is the prince of
swimming-masters. He is more at home in the water than on land, and
knows more about swimming than a fish. He will calculate you the
specific gravity of the heaviest German metaphysician at a glance, and
is capable of floating even the works of Monsieur Thiers, if put to
the test."
"Monsieur can swim?" said the master, addressing me, with a nautical
scrape.
"I think so," I replied.
"Many gentlemen think so," said Monsieur Barbet, "till they find
themselves in the water."
"And many who wish to be thought accomplished swimmers never venture
into it on that account," added Mueller. "You would scarcely suppose," he
continued, turning to me, "that there are men here--regular _habitues_
of the bath--who never go into the water, and yet give themselves all
the airs of practised bathers. That tall man, for instance, with the
black beard and striped _peignoir_, yonder--there's a fellow who comes
once or twice a week all through the season, goes through the ceremony
of undressing, smokes, gossips, criticises, is looked up to as an
authority, and has never yet been seen off the platform. Then there's
that bald man in the white robe--his name's Giroflet--a retired
stockbroker. Well, that fellow robes himself like an ancient Roman, puts
himself in classical attitudes, affects taciturnity, models himself upon
Brutus, and all that sort of thing; but is as careful not to get his
feet wet as a cat. Others, again, come simply to feed. The restaurant is
one of the choicest in Paris, with this advantage over Vefour or the
Trois Freres, that it is the only place where you may eat and drink of
the best in hot weather, with nothing on but the briefest of _calecons_"
Thus chattering, Mueller took me the tour of the bath, which now began to
fill rapidly. We then took possession of two little dressing-rooms no
bigger than sentry-boxes, and were presently in the water.
The scene now became very animated. Hundreds of eccentric figures
crowded the galleries--some absurdly fat, some ludicrously thin; some
old, some young; some bow-legged, some knock-kneed; some short, some
tall; some brown, some yellow; some got up for effect in gorgeous
wrappers; and all more or less hideous.
"An amusing sight, isn't it?" said Mueller, as, having swum several times
round the bath, we sat down for a few moments on one of the flights of
steps leading down to the water.
"It is a sight to disgust one for ever with human-kind," I replied.
"And to fill one with the profoundest respect for one's tailor. After
all, it's broad-cloth makes the man."
"But these are not men--they are caricatures."
"Every man is a caricature of himself when you strip him," said Mueller,
epigrammatically. "Look at that scarecrow just opposite. He passes for
an Adonis, _de par le monde_."
I looked and recognised the Count de Rivarol, a tall young man, an
_elegant_ of the first water, a curled darling of society, a professed
lady-killer, whom I had met many a time in attendance on Madame de
Marignan. He now looked like a monkey:--
.... "long, and lank and brown,
As in the ribb'd sea sand!"
"Gracious heavens!" I exclaimed, "what would become of the world, if
clothes went out of fashion?"
"Humph!--one half of us, my dear fellow, would commit suicide."
At the upper end of the bath was a semicircular platform somewhat
loftier than the rest, called the Amphitheatre. This, I learned, was the
place of honor. Here clustered the _elite_ of the swimmers; here they
discussed the great principles of their art, and passed judgment on the
performances of those less skilful than themselves. To the right of the
Amphitheatre rose a slender spiral staircase, like an openwork pillar of
iron, with a tiny circular platform on the top, half surrounded by a
light iron rail. This conspicuous perch, like the pillar of St. Simeon
Stylites, was every now and then surmounted by the gaunt figure of some
ambitious plunger who, after attitudinizing awhile in the pose of
Napoleon on the column Vendome, would join his hands above his head and
take a tremendous "header" into the gulf below. When this feat was
successfully performed, the _elite_ in the Amphitheatre applauded
graciously.
And now, what with swimming, and lounging, and looking on, some two
hours had slipped by, and we were both hungry and tired, Mueller proposed
that we should breakfast at the Cafe Procope.
"But why not here?" I asked, as a delicious breeze from the buffet came
wafting by "like a steam of rich distilled perfumes."
"Because a breakfast _chez_ Molino costs at least twenty-five francs
per head--BECAUSE I have credit at Procope--BECAUSE I have not a _sou_
in my pocket--and BECAUSE, milord Smithfield, I aspire to the honor of
entertaining your lordship on the present occasion!" replied Mueller,
punctuating each clause of his sentence with a bow.
If Mueller had not a _sou_, I, at all events, had now only one Napoleon;
so the Cafe Procope carried the day.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE RUE DE L'ANCIENNE COMEDIE AND THE CAFE PROCOPE.
The Rue des Fosses-Saint-Germain-des-Pres and the Rue de
l'Ancienne Comedie are one and the same. As the Rue des
Fosses-Saint-Germain-des-Pres, it dates back to somewhere about the
reign of Philippe Auguste; and as the Rue de l'Ancienne Comedie it takes
its name and fame from the year 1689, when the old Theatre Francais was
opened on the 18th of April by the company known as Moliere's
troupe--Moliere being then dead, and Lully having succeeded him at the
Theatre du Palais Royal.
In the same year, 1689, one Francois Procope, a Sicilian, conceived the
happy idea of hiring a house just opposite the new theatre, and there
opening a public refreshment-room, which at once became famous, not only
for the excellence of its coffee (then newly introduced into France),
but also for being the favorite resort of all the wits, dramatists, and
beaux of that brilliant time. Here the latest epigrams were circulated,
the newest scandals discussed, the bitterest literary cabals set on
foot. Here Jean Jacques brooded over his chocolate; and Voltaire drank
his mixed with coffee; and Dorat wrote his love-letters to Mademoiselle
Saunier; and Marmontel wrote praises of Mademoiselle Clairon; and the
Marquis de Bievre made puns innumerable; and Duclos and Mercier wrote
satires, now almost forgotten; and Piron recited those verses which are
at once his shame and his fame; and the Chevalier de St. Georges gave
fencing lessons to his literary friends; and Lamothe, Freron,
D'Alembert, Diderot, Helvetius, and all that wonderful company of wits,
philosophers, encyclopaedists, and poets, that lit up as with a dying
glory the last decades of the old _regime_, met daily, nightly, to
write, to recite, to squabble, to lampoon, and some times to fight.
The year 1770 beheld, in the closing of the Theatre
Francais, the extinction of a great power in the Rue des
Fosses-Saint-Germain-des-Pres--for it was not, in fact, till the theatre
was no more a theatre that the street changed its name, and became the
Rue de L'Ancienne Comedie. A new house (to be on first opening invested
with the time-honored title of Theatre Francais, but afterwards to be
known as the Odeon) was now in progress of erection in the close
neighborhood of the Luxembourg. The actors, meanwhile, repaired to the
little theatre of the Tuilleries. At length, in 1782,[2] the Rue de
L'Ancienne Comedie was one evening awakened from its two years' lethargy
by the echo of many footfalls, the glare of many flambeaux, and the
rattle of many wheels; for all Paris, all the wits and critics of the
Cafe Procope, all the fair shepherdesses and all the beaux seigneurs of
the court of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI., were hastening on foot, in
chairs, and in chariots, to the opening of the new house and the
performance of a new play! And what a play! Surely, not to consider it
too curiously, a play which struck, however sportively, the key-note of
the coming Revolution;--a play which, for the first time, displayed
society literally in a state of _bouleversement_;--a play in which the
greed of the courtier, the venality of the judge, the empty glitter of
the crown, were openly held up to scorn;--a play in which all the wit,
audacity, and success are on the side of the _canaille_;--a play in
which a lady's-maid is the heroine, and a valet canes his master, and a
great nobleman is tricked, outwitted, and covered with ridicule!
[2] 1782 is the date given by M. Hippolyte Lucas. Sainte-Beuve places it
two years later.
This play, produced for the first time under the title of _La Folle
Journee_, was written by one Caron de Beaumarchais--a man of wit, a man
of letters, a man of the people, a man of nothing--and was destined to
achieve immortality under its later title of _Le Mariage de Figaro_.
A few years later, and the Rue de l'Ancienne Comedie echoed daily and
nightly to the dull rumble of Revolutionary tumbrils, and the heavy
tramp of Revolutionary mobs. Danton and Camille Desmoulins must have
passed through it habitually on their way to the Revolutionary Tribunal.
Charlotte Corday (and this is a matter of history) did pass through it
that bright July evening, 1793, on her way to a certain gloomy house
still to be seen in the adjoining Rue de l'Ecole de Medecine, where she
stabbed Marat in his bath.
But throughout every vicissitude of time and politics, though fashion
deserted the Rue de l'Ancienne Comedie, and actors migrated, and fresh
generations of wits and philosophers succeeded each other, the Cafe
Procope still held its ground and maintained its ancient reputation. The
theatre (closed in less than a century) became the studio first of Gros
and then of Gerard, and was finally occupied by a succession of
restaurateurs but the Cafe Procope remained the Cafe Procope, and is the
Cafe Procope to this day.
The old street and all belonging to it--especially and peculiarly the
Cafe Procope---was of the choicest Quartier Latin flavor in the time of
which I write; in the pleasant, careless, impecunious days of my youth.
A cheap and highly popular restaurateur named Pinson rented the old
theatre. A _costumier_ hung out wigs, and masks, and debardeur garments
next door to the restaurateur. Where the fatal tumbril used to labor
past, the frequent omnibus now rattled gayly by; and the pavements
trodden of old by Voltaire, and Beaumarchais, and Charlotte Corday, were
thronged by a merry tide of students and grisettes. Meanwhile the Cafe
Procope, though no longer the resort of great wits and famous
philosophers, received within its hospitable doors, and nourished with
its indifferent refreshments, many a now celebrated author, painter,
barrister, and statesman. It was the general rendezvous for students of
all kinds--poets of the Ecole de Droit, philosophers of the Ecole de
Medecine, critics of the Ecole des Beaux Arts. It must however be
admitted that the poetry and criticism of these future great men was
somewhat too liberally perfumed with tobacco, and that into their
systems of philosophy there entered a considerable element of grisette.
Such, at the time of my first introduction to it, was the famous Cafe
Procope.
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF BREAKFAST.
"Now this, _mon cher_," said Mueller, taking off his hat with a flourish
to the young lady at the _comptoir_, "is the immortal Cafe Procope."
I looked round, and found myself in a dingy, ordinary sort of Cafe, in
no wise differing from any other dingy, ordinary sort of Cafe in that
part of Paris. The decorations were ugly enough to be modern. The
ceiling was as black with gas-fumes and tobacco smoke as any other
ceiling in any other estaminet in the Quartier Latin. The waiters looked
as waiters always look before midday--sleepy, discontented, and
unwashed. A few young men of the regular student type were scattered
about here and there at various tables, reading, smoking, chatting,
breakfasting, and reading the morning papers. In an alcove at the upper
end of the second room (for there were two, one opening from the other)
stood a blackened, broken-nosed, plaster bust of Voltaire, upon the
summit of whose august wig some irreverent customer had perched a
particularly rakish-looking hat. Just in front of this alcove and below
the bust stood a marble-topped table, at one end of which two young men
were playing dominoes to the accompaniment of the matutinal absinthe.
"And this," said Mueller, with another flourish, "is the still more
immortal table of the still more supremely immortal Voltaire. Here he
was wont to rest his sublime elbows and sip his _demi-tasse_. Here, upon
this very table, he wrote that famous letter to Marie Antoinette that
Freron stole, and in revenge for which he wrote the comedy called
_l'Ecossaise_; but of this admirable satire you English, who only know
Voltaire in his Henriade and his history of Charles the Twelfth, have
probably never heard till this moment! _Eh bien_! I'm not much wiser
than you--so never mind. I'll be hanged if I've ever read a line of it.
Anyhow, here is the table, and at this other end of it we'll have our
breakfast."
It was a large, old-fashioned, Louis Quatorze piece of furniture, the
top of which, formed from a single slab of some kind of gray and yellow
marble, was stained all over with the coffee, wine, and ink-splashes of
many generations of customers. It looked as old--nay, older--than the
house itself.
The young men who were playing at dominoes looked up and nodded, as
three or four others had done in the outer room when we passed through.
"_Bonjour, l'ami_," said the one who seemed to be winning. "Hast thou
chanced to see anything of Martial, coming along!"
"I observed a nose defiling round the corner of the Rue de Bussy,"
replied Mueller, "and it looked as if Martial might be somewhere in the
far distance, but I didn't wait to see. Are you expecting him?"
"Confound him--yes! We've been waiting more than half an hour."
"If you have invited him to breakfast," said Mueller, "he is sure to
come."
"On the contrary, he has invited us to breakfast."
"Ah, that alters the case," said Mueller, philosophically. "Then he is
sure _not_ to come." "Garcon!"
A bullet-headed, short-jacketed, long-aproned waiter, who looked as if
he had not been to bed since his early youth, answered the summons,
"M'sieur!"
"What have you that you can especially recommend this morning?"
The waiter, with that nasal volubility peculiar to his race, rapidly ran
over the whole vegetable and animal creation.
Mueller listened with polite incredulity.
"Nothing else?" said he, when the other stopped, apparently from want of
breath.
"_Mais oui, M'sieur_!" and, thus stimulated, the waiter, having
"exhausted worlds and then imagined new," launched forth into a second
and still more impossible catalogue.
Mueller turned to me.
"The resources of this establishment, you observe," he said, very
gravely, "are inexhaustible. One might have a Roc's egg a la Sindbad for
the asking."
The waiter looked puzzled, shuffled his slippered feet, and murmured
something about "_oeufs sur le plat_."
"Unfortunately, however," continued Mueller, "we are but men--not
fortresses provisioning for a siege. Antoine, _mon enfant_, we know thee
to be a fellow of incontestible veracity, and thy list is magnificent;
but we will be content with a _vol-au-vent_ of fish, a _bifteck aux
pommes frites_, an _omelette sucree_, and a bottle of thy 1840 Bordeaux
with the yellow seal. Now vanish!"
The waiter, wearing an expression of intense relief, vanished
accordingly.
Meanwhile more students had come in, and more kept coming. Hats and caps
cropped up rapidly wherever there were pegs to hang them on, and the
talking became fast and furious.
I soon found that everybody knew everybody at the Cafe Procope, and that
the specialty of the establishment was dominoes--just as the specialty
of the Cafe de la Regence is chess. There were games going on before
long at almost every table, and groups of lookers-on gathered about
those who enjoyed the reputation of being skilful players.
Gradually breakfast after breakfast emerged from some mysterious nether
world known only to the waiters, and the war of dominoes languished.
"These are all students, of course," I said presently, "and yet, though
I meet a couple of hundred fellows at our hospital lectures, I don't see
a face I know."
"You would find some by this time, I dare say, in the other room,"
replied Mueller. "I brought you in here that you might sit at Voltaire's
table, and eat your steak under the shadow of Voltaire's bust; but this
salon is chiefly frequented by law-students--the other by medical and
art students. Your place, _mon cher_, as well as mine, is in the outer
sanctuary."
"That infernal Martial!" groaned one of the domino-players at the other
end of the table. "So ends the seventh game, and here we are still.
_Parbleu!_ Horace, hasn't that absinthe given you an inconvenient amount
of appetite?"
"Alas! my friend--don't mention it. And when the absinthe is paid for, I
haven't a sou."
"My own case precisely. What's to be done?"
"Done!" echoed Horace, pathetically. "Shade of Apicius! inspire
me...but, no--he's not listening."
"Hold! I have it. We'll make our wills in one another's favor, and die."
"I should prefer to die when the wind is due East, and the moon at the
full," said Horace, contemplatively.
"True--besides, there is still _la mere_ Gaudissart. Her cutlets are
tough, but her heart is tender. She would not surely refuse to add one
more breakfast to the score!"
Horace shook his head with an air of great despondency.
"There was but one Job," said he, "and he has been dead some time. The
patience of _la mere_ Gaudissart has long since been entirely
exhausted."
"I am not so sure of that. One might appeal to her feelings, you
know--have a presentiment of early death--wipe away a tear... Bah! it is
worth the effort, anyhow."
"It is a forlorn hope, my dear fellow, but, as you say, it is worth the
effort. _Allons donc!_ to the storming of _la mere_ Gaudissart!"
And with this they pushed aside the dominoes, took down their hats,
nodded to Mueller, and went out.
"There go two of the brightest fellows and most improvident scamps in
the whole Quartier," said my companion. "They are both studying for the
bar; both under age; both younger sons of good families; and both
destined, if I am not much mistaken, to rise to eminence by-and-by.
Horace writes for _Figaro_ and the _Petit Journal pour Rire_--Theophile
does _feuilleton_ work--romances, chit-chat, and political
squibs--rubbish, of course; but clever rubbish, and wonderful when one
considers what boys they both are, and what dissipated lives they lead.
The amount of impecuniosity those fellows get through in the course of a
term is something inconceivable. They have often only one decent suit
between them--and sometimes not that. To-day, you see, they are at their
wits' end for a breakfast. They have run their credit dry at Procope and
everywhere else, and are gone now to a miserable little den in the Rue
du Paon, kept by a fat good-natured old soul called _la mere_
Gaudissart. She will perhaps take compassion on their youth and
inexperience, and let them have six sous worth of horsebeef soup, stale
bread, and the day before yesterday's vegetables. Nay, don't look so
pitiful! We poor devils of the Student Quartier hug our Bohemian life,
and exalt it above every other. When we have money, we cannot find
windows enough out of which to fling it--when we have none, we start
upon _la chasse au diner_, and enjoy the pleasures of the chase. We
revel in the extremes of fasting and feasting, and scarcely know which
we prefer."
"I think your friends Horace and Theophile are tolerably clear as to
which _they_ prefer," I remarked, with a smile.
"Bah! they would die of _ennui_ if they had always enough to eat! Think
how it sharpens a man's wits if--given the time, the place, and the
appetite--he has every day to find the credit for his dinners! Show me a
mathematical problem to compare with it as a popular educator of youth!"
"But for young men of genius, like Horace and Theophile..."
"Make yourself quite easy, _mon cher_. A little privation will do them
no kind of harm. They belong to that class of whom it has been said that
'they would borrow money from Harpagon, and find truffles on the raft of
the Medusa.' But hold! we are at the end of our breakfast. What say you?
Shall we take our _demi-tasse_ in the next room, among our
fellow-students of physic and the fine arts?"
CHAPTER XXX.
A MAN WITH A HISTORY.
The society of the outer salon differed essentially from the society of
the inner salon at the Cafe Procope. It was noisier--it was
shabbier--it was smokier. The conversation in the inner salon was of a
general character on the whole, and, as one caught sentences of it here
and there, seemed for the most part to relate to the literature and news
of the day--to the last important paper in the Revue des Deux Mondes, to
the new drama at the Odeon, or to the article on foreign politics in the
_Journal des Debats_. But in the outer salon the talk was to the last
degree shoppy, and overflowed with the argot of the studios. Some few
medical students were clustered, it is true, in a corner near the door;
but they were so outnumbered by the artists at the upper end of the
room, that these latter seemed to hold complete possession, and behaved
more like the members of a recognised club than the casual customers of
a cafe. They talked from table to table. They called the waiters by
their Christian names. They swaggered up and down the middle of the room
with their hats on their heads, their hands in their pockets, and their
pipes in their mouths, as coolly as if it were the broad walk of the
Luxembourg gardens.
And the appearance of these gentlemen was not less remarkable than their
deportment. Their hair, their beards, their clothes, were of the wildest
devising. They seemed one and all to have started from a central idea,
that central idea being to look as unlike their fellow-men as possible;
and thence to have diverged into a variety that was nothing short of
infinite. Each man had evidently modelled himself upon his own ideal,
and no two ideals were alike. Some were picturesque, some were
grotesque; and some, it must be admitted, were rather dirty ideals, into
the realization of which no such paltry considerations as those of soap,
water, or brushes were permitted to enter.
Here, for instance, were Roundhead crops and flowing locks of Cavalier
redundancy--steeple-crowned hats, and Roman cloaks draped
bandit-fashion--moustachios frizzed and brushed up the wrong way in the
style of Louis XIV.--pointed beards and slouched hats, after the manner
of Vandyke---patriarchal beards _a la Barbarossa_--open collars, smooth
chins, and long undulating locks of the Raffaelle type--coats, blouses,
paletots of inconceivable cut, and all kinds of unusual colors--in a
word, every eccentricity of clothing, short of fancy costume, in which
it was practicable for men of the nineteenth century to walk abroad and
meet the light of day.
We had no sooner entered this salon, taken possession of a vacant table,
and called for coffee, than my companion was beset by a storm of
greetings.
"Hola! Mueller, where hast thou been hiding these last few centuries,
_mon gaillard?_"
"_Tiens!_ Mueller risen from the dead!"
"What news from _la bas,_ old fellow?"
To all which ingenious pleasantries my companion replied in
kind--introducing me at the same time to two or three of the nearest
speakers. One of these, a dark young man got up in the style of a
Byzantine Christ, with straight hair parted down the middle, a
bifurcated beard, and a bare throat, was called Eugene Droz.
Another--big, burly, warm-complexioned, with bright open blue eyes,
curling reddish beard and moustache, slouched hat, black velvet blouse,
immaculate linen, and an abundance of rings, chains, and ornaments--was
made up in excellent imitation of the well-known portrait of Rubens.
This gentleman's name, as I presently learned, was Caesar de Lepany.
When we came in, these two young men, Droz and De Lepany, were
discussing, in enthusiastic but somewhat unintelligible language, the
merits of a certain Monsieur Lemonnier, of whom, although till that
moment ignorant of his name and fame, I at once perceived that he must
be some celebrated _chef de cuisine_.
"He will never surpass that last thing of his," said the Byzantine
youth. "Heavens! How smooth it is! How buttery! How pulpy!"
"Ay--and yet with all that lusciousness of quality, he never wants
piquancy," added De Lepany.
"I think his greens are apt to be a little raw," interposed Mueller,
taking part in the conversation.
"Raw!" echoed the first speaker, indignantly. "_Eh, mon Dieu!_ What can
you be thinking of! They are almost too hot!"
"But they were not so always, Eugene," said he of the Rubens make-up,
with an air of reluctant candor. "It must be admitted that Lemonnier's
greens used formerly to be a trifle--just a trifle--raw. Evidently
Monsieur Mueller does not know how much he has taken to warming them up
of late. Even now, perhaps, his olives are a little cold."
"But then, how juicy his oranges are!" exclaimed young Byzantine.
"True--and when you remember that he never washes--!"
"Ah, _sacredie!_ yes--there is the marvel!"
And Monsieur Eugene Droz held up his hands and eyes with all the
reverent admiration of a true believer for a particularly dirty dervish.
"Who, in Heaven's name, is this unclean individual who used to like his
vegetables underdone, and never washes?" whispered I in Mueller's ear.
"What--Lemonnier! You don't mean to say you never heard of Lemonnier?"
"Never, till now. Is he a cook?"
Mueller gave me a dig in the ribs that took my breath away.
"_Goguenard!_" said he. "Lemonnier's an artist--the foremost man of the
water-color school. But I wouldn't be too funny if I were you. Suppose
you were to burst your jocular vein--there'd be a catastrophe!"
Meanwhile the conversation of Messieurs Droz and Lepany had taken a
fresh turn, and attracted a little circle of listeners, among whom I
observed an eccentric-looking young man with a club-foot, an enormously
long neck, and a head of short, stiff, dusty hair, like the bristles of
a blacking-brush.
"Queroulet!" said Lepany, with a contemptuous flourish of his pipe. "Who
spoke of Queroulet? Bah!--a miserable plodder, destitute of ideality--a
fellow who paints only what he sees, and sees only what is
commonplace--a dull, narrow-souled, unimaginative handicraftsman, to
whom a tree is just a tree; and a man, a man; and a straw, a straw, and
nothing more!"
"That's a very low-souled view to take of art, no doubt," croaked in a
grating treble voice the youth with the club-foot; "but if trees and men
and straws are not exactly trees and men and straws, and are not to be
represented as trees and men and straws, may I inquire what else they
are, and how they are to be pictorially treated?"
"They must be ideally treated, Monsieur Valentin," replied Lepany,
majestically.
"No doubt; but what will they be like when they are ideally treated?
Will they still, to the vulgar eye, be recognisable for trees and men
and straws?"
"I should scarcely have supposed that Monsieur Valentin would jest upon
such a subject as a canon of the art he professes," said Lepany,
becoming more and more dignified.
"I am not jesting," croaked Monsieur Valentin; "but when I hear men of
your school talk so much about the Ideal, I (as a realist) always want
to know what they themselves understand by the phrase."
"Are you asking me for my definition of the Ideal, Monsieur Valentin?"
"Well, if it's not giving you too much trouble--yes."
Lepany, who evidently relished every chance of showing off, fell into a
picturesque attitude and prepared to hold forth. Valentin winked at one
or two of his own clique, and lit a cigar.
"You ask me," began Lepany, "to define the Ideal--in other words, to
define the indefinite, which alas! whether from a metaphysical, a
philosophical, or an aesthetic point of view, is a task transcending
immeasurably my circumscribed powers of expression."
"Gracious heavens!" whispered Mueller in my ear. "He must have been
reared from infancy on words of five syllables!"
"What shall I say?" pursued Lepany. "Shall I say that the Ideal is, as
it were, the Real distilled and sublimated in the alembic of the
imagination? Shall I say that the Ideal is an image projected by the
soul of genius upon the background of the universe? That it is that
dazzling, that unimaginable, that incommunicable goal towards which the
suns in their orbits, the stars in their courses, the spheres with all
their harmonies, have been chaotically tending since time began! Ideal,
say you? Call it ideal, soul, mind, matter, art, eternity,... what are
they all but words? What are words but the weak strivings of the
fettered soul that fain would soar to those empyrean heights where
Truth, and Art, and Beauty are one and indivisible? Shall I say
all this..."
"My dear fellow, you have said it already--you needn't say it again,"
interrupted Valentin.
"Ay; but having said it--having expressed myself, perchance with some
obscurity...."
"With the obscurity of Erebus!" said, very deliberately, a fat student
in a blouse.
"Monsieur!" exclaimed De Lepany, measuring the length and breadth of
the fat student with a glance of withering scorn.
The Byzantine was no less indignant.
"Don't heed them, _mon ami_!" he cried, enthusiastically. "Thy
definition is sublime-eloquent!"
"Nay," said Valentin, "we concede that Monsieur de Lepany is sublime; we
recognise with admiration that he is eloquent; but we submit that he is
wholly unintelligible."
And having delivered this parting shot, the club-footed realist slipped
his arm through the arm of the fat student, and went off to a distant
table and a game at dominoes.
Then followed an outburst of offended idealism. His own clique crowded
round Lepany as the champion of their school. They shook hands with him.
They embraced him. They fooled him to the top of his bent. Presently,
being not only as good-natured as he was conceited, but (rare phenomenon
in the Quartier Latin!) a rich fellow into the bargain, De Lepany called
for champagne and treated his admirers all around.
In the midst of the chatter and bustle which this incident occasioned, a
pale, earnest-looking man of about five-and-thirty, coming past our
table on his way out of the Cafe, touched Mueller on the arm, bent down,
and said quietly:--
"Mueller, will you do me a favor!"
"A hundred, Monsieur," replied my companion; half rising, and with an
air of unusual respect and alacrity.
"Thanks, one will be enough. Do you see that man yonder, sitting alone
in the corner, with his back to the light?"
"I do."
"Good--don't look at him again, for fear of attracting his attention. I
have been trying for the last half hour to get a sketch of his head, but
I think he suspected me. Anyhow he moved so often, and so hid his face
with his hands and the newspaper, that I was completely baffled. Now it
is a remarkable head--just the head I have been wanting for my Marshal
Romero--and if, with your rapid pencil and your skill in seizing
expression, you could manage this for me...."
"I will do my best," said Mueller.
"A thousand thanks. I will go now; for when I am gone he will be off his
guard. You will find me in the den up to three o'clock. Adieu."
Saying which, the stranger passed on, and went out.
"That's Flandrin!" said Mueller.
"Really?" I said. "Flandrin! And you know him?"
But in truth I only answered thus to cover my own ignorance; for I knew
little at that time of modern French art, and I had never even heard the
name of Flandrin before.
"Know him!" echoed Mueller. "I should think so. Why, I worked in his
studio for nearly two years."
And then he explained to me that this great painter (great even then,
though as yet appreciated only in certain choice Parisian circles, and
not known out of France) was at work upon a grand historical subject
connected with the Spanish persecutions in the Netherlands--the
execution of Egmont and Horn, in short, in the great square before the
Hotel de Ville in Brussels.
"But the main point now," said Mueller, "is to get the sketch--and how?
Confound the fellow! while he keeps his back to the light and his head
down like that, the thing is impossible. Anyhow I can't do it without an
accomplice. You must help me."
"I! What can I do?"
"Go and sit near him--speak to him--make him look up--keep him, if
possible, for a few minutes in conversation--nothing easier."
"Nothing easier, perhaps, if I were you; but, being only myself, few
things more difficult!"
"Nevertheless, my dear boy, you must try, and at once. Hey
--presto!--away!"
Placed where we were, the stranger was not likely to have observed us;
for we had come into the room from behind the corner in which he was
sitting, and had taken our places at a table which he could not have
seen without shifting his own position. So, thus peremptorily
commanded, I rose; slipped quietly back into the inner salon, made a
pretext of looking at the clock over the door; and came out again, as if
alone and looking for a vacant seat.
The table at which he had placed himself was very small--only just big
enough to stand in a corner and hold a plate and a coffee-cup; but it
was supposed to be large enough for two, and there were evidently two
chairs belonging to it. On one of these, being alone, the stranger had
placed his overcoat and a small black bag. I at once saw and seized my
opportunity.
"Pardon, Monsieur," I said, very civilly, "will you permit me to hang
these things up?"
He looked up, frowned, and said abruptly:--
"Why, Monsieur?"
"That I may occupy this chair."
He glanced round; saw that there was really no other vacant; swept off
the bag and coat with his own hands; hung them on a peg overhead;
dropped back into his former attitude, and went on reading.
"I regret to have given you the trouble, Monsieur," I said, hoping to
pave the way to a conversation.
But a little quick, impatient movement of the hand was his only reply.
He did not even raise his head. He did not even lift his eyes from
the paper.
I called for a demi-tasse and a cigar; then took out a note-book and
pencil, assumed an air of profound abstraction, and affected to become
absorbed in calculations.
In the meanwhile, I could not resist furtively observing the appearance
of this man whom a great artist had selected as his model for one of the
darkest characters of mediaeval history.
He was rather below than above the middle height; spare and sinewy;
square in the shoulders and deep in the chest; with close-clipped hair
and beard; grizzled moustache; high cheek-bones; stern impassive
features, sharply cut; and deep-set restless eyes, quick and glancing as
the eyes of a monkey. His face, throat, and hands were sunburnt to a
deep copper-color, as if cast in bronze. His age might have been from
forty-five to fifty. He wore a thread-bare frock-coat buttoned to the
chin; a stiff black stock revealing no glimpse of shirt-collar; a
well-worn hat pulled low over his eyes; and trousers of dark blue cloth,
worn very white and shiny at the knees, and strapped tightly down over a
pair of much-mended boots.
The more I looked at him, the less I was surprised that Flandrin should
have been struck by his appearance. There was an air of stern poverty
and iron resolution about the man that arrested one's attention at first
sight. The words "_ancien militaire"_ were written in every furrow of
his face; in every seam and on every button of his shabby clothing. That
he had seen service, missed promotion, suffered unmerited neglect (or,
it might be, merited disgrace), seemed also not unlikely.
Watching him as he sat, half turned away, half hidden by the newspaper
he was reading, one elbow resting on the table, one brown, sinewy hand
supporting his chin and partly concealing his mouth, I told myself that
here, at all events, was a man with a history--perhaps with a very dark
history. What were the secrets of his past? What had he done? What had
he endured? I would give much to know.
My coffee and cigar being brought, I asked for the _Figaro_, and holding
the paper somewhat between the stranger and myself, watched him with
increasing interest.
I now began to suspect that he was less interested in his own newspaper
than he appeared to be, and that his profound abstraction, like my own,
was assumed. An indefinable something in the turn of his head seemed to
tell me that his attention was divided between whatever might be going
forward in the room and what he was reading. I cannot describe what that
something was; but it gave me the impression that he was always
listening. When the outer door opened or shut, he stirred uneasily, and
once or twice looked sharply round to see what new-comer entered the
cafe. Was he anxiously expecting some one who did not come? Or was he
dreading the appearance of some one whom he wished to avoid? Might he
not be a political refugee? Might he not be a spy?
"There is nothing of interest in the papers to-day, Monsieur," said,
making another effort to force him into conversation.
He affected not to hear me.
I drew my chair a little nearer, and repeated the observation.
He frowned impatiently, and without looking up, replied:--
"_Eh, mon Dieu_, Monsieur!--when there is a dearth of news!"
"There need not, even so, be a dearth of wit. _Figaro_ is as heavy
to-day as a government leader in the _Moniteur_."
He shrugged his shoulders and moved slightly round, apparently to get a
better light upon what he was reading, but in reality to turn still more
away from me. The gesture of avoidance was so marked, that with the best
will in the world, it would have been impossible for me to address him
again. I therefore relapsed into silence.
Presently I saw a sudden change flash over him.
Now, in turning away from myself, he had faced round towards a narrow
looking-glass panel which reflected part of the opposite side of the
room; and chancing, I suppose, to lift his eyes from the paper, he had
seen something that arrested his attention. His head was still bent; but
I could see that his eyes were riveted upon the mirror. There was
alertness in the tightening of his hand before his mouth--in the
suspension of his breathing.
Then he rose abruptly, brushed past me as if I were not there, and
crossed to where Mueller, sketch-book in hand, was in the very act of
taking his portrait.
I jumped up, almost involuntarily, and followed him. Mueller, with an
unsuccessful effort to conceal his confusion, thrust the book into
his pocket.
"Monsieur," said the stranger, in a low, resolute voice, "I protest
against what you have been doing. You have no right to take my likeness
without my permission."
"Pardon, Monsieur, I--I beg to assure you--" stammered Mueller.
"That you intended no offence? I am willing to suppose so. Give me up
the sketch, and I am content."
"Give up the sketch!" echoed Mueller.
"Precisely, Monsieur."
"Nay--but if, as an artist, I have observed that which leads me to
desire a--a memorandum--let us say of the pose and contour of a certain
head," replied Mueller, recovering his self-possession, "it is not likely
that I shall be disposed to part from my memorandum."
"How, Monsieur! you refuse?"
"I am infinitely sorry, but--"
"But you refuse?"
"I certainly cannot comply with Monsieur's request."
The stranger, for all his bronzing, grew pale with rage.
"Do not compel me, Monsieur, to say what I must think of your conduct,
if you persist in this determination," he said fiercely.
Mueller smiled, but made no reply.
"You absolutely refuse to yield up the sketch?"
"Absolutely."
"Then, Monsieur, _c'est une infamie_--_et vous etes un lache_!"
But the last word had scarcely hissed past his lips before Mueller dashed
his coffee dregs full in the stranger's face.
In one second, the table was upset--blows were exchanged--Mueller, pinned
against the wall with his adversary's hands upon his throat, was
striking out with the desperation of a man whose strength is
overmatched--and the whole room was in a tumult.
In vain I attempted to fling myself between them. In vain the waiters
rushed to and fro, imploring "ces Messieurs" to interpose. In vain a
stout man pushed his way through the bystanders, exclaiming angrily:--
"Desist, Messieurs! Desist, in the name of the law! I am the proprietor
of this establishment--I forbid this brawling--I will have you both
arrested! Messieurs, do you hear?"
Suddenly the flush of rage faded out of Mueller's face. He gasped--became
livid. Lepany, Droz, myself, and one or two others, flew at the stranger
and dragged him forcibly back.
"Assassin!" I cried, "would you murder him?"
He flung us off, as a baited bull flings off a pack of curs. For myself,
though I received only a backhanded blow on the chest, I staggered as if
I had been struck with a sledgehammer.
Mueller, half-fainting, dropped into a chair.
There was a tramp and clatter at the door--a swaying and parting of the
crowd.
"Here are the sergents de ville!" cried a trembling waiter.
"He attacked me first," gasped Mueller. "He has half strangled me."
"_Qu'est ce que ca me fait_!" shouted the enraged proprietor. "You are a
couple of _canaille_! You have made a scandal in my Cafe. Sergents,
arrest both these gentlemen!"
The police--there were two of them, with their big cocked hats on their
heads and their long sabres by their sides--pushed through the circle of
spectators. The first laid his hand on Mueller's shoulder; the second was
about to lay his hand on mine, but I drew back.
"Which is the other?" said he, looking round.
"_Sacredie_!" stammered the proprietor, "he was here--there--not a
moment ago!"
"_Diable_!" said the sergent de ville, stroking his moustache, and
staring fiercely about him. "Did no one see him go?"
There was a chorus of exclamations--a rush to the inner salon--to the
door--to the street. But the stranger was nowhere in sight; and, which
was still more incomprehensible, no one had seen him go!
"_Mais, mon Dieu_!" exclaimed the proprietor, mopping his head and face
violently with his pocket-handkerchief, "was the man a ghost, that he
should vanish into the air?"
"_Parbleu_! a ghost with muscles of iron," said Mueller. "Talk of the
strength of a madman--he has the strength of a whole lunatic asylum!"
"He gave me a most confounded blow in the ribs, anyhow!" said Lepany.
"And nearly broke my arm," added Eugene Droz.
"And has given me a pain in my chest for a week," said I, in chorus.
"If he wasn't a ghost," observed the fat student sententiously, "he must
certainly be the devil."
The sergents de ville grinned.
"Do we, then, arrest this gentleman?" asked the taller and bigger of the
two, his hand still upon my friend's shoulder.
But Mueller laughed and shook his head.
"What!" said he, "arrest a man for resisting the devil? Nonsense, _mes
amis_, you ought to canonize me. What says Monsieur le proprietaire?"
Monsieur the proprietor smiled.
"I am willing to let the matter drop," he replied, "on the understanding
that Monsieur Mueller was not really the first offender."
"_Foi d'honneur_! He insulted me--I threw some coffee in his face--he
flung himself upon me like a tiger, and almost choked me, as all here
witnessed. And for what? Because I did him the honor to make a rough
pencilling of his ugly face ... _Mille tonnerres_!--the fellow has
stolen my sketch-book!"
CHAPTER XXXI.
FANCIES ABOUT FACES.
The sketch-book was undoubtedly gone, and the stranger had undoubtedly
taken it. How he took it, and how he vanished, remained a mystery.
The aspect of affairs, meanwhile, was materially changed. Mueller no
longer stood in the position of a leniently-treated offender. He had
become accuser, and plaintiff. A grave breach of the law had been
committed, and he was the victim of a bold and skilful _tour de main_.
The police shook their heads, twirled their moustaches, and looked wise.
It was a case of premeditated assault--in short, of robbery with
violence. It must be inquired into--reported, of course, at
head-quarters, without loss of time. Would Monsieur be pleased to
describe the stolen sketch-book? An oblong, green volume, secured by an
elastic band; contains sketches in pencil and water-colors; value
uncertain--Good. And the accused ... would Monsieur also be pleased to
describe the person of the accused? His probable age, for instance; his
height; the color of his hair, eyes, and beard? Good again. Lastly,
Monsieur's own name and address, exactly and in full. _Tres-bon._ It
might, perhaps, be necessary for Monsieur to enter a formal deposition
to-morrow morning at the Prefecture of Police, in which case due notice
would be given.
Whereupon he who seemed to be chief of the twain, having entered
Mueller's replies in a greasy pocket-book of stupendous dimensions, which
he seemed to wear like a cuirass under the breast of his uniform,
proceeded to interrogate the proprietor and waiters.
Was the accused an habitual frequenter of the cafe?--No. Did they
remember ever to have seen him there before?--No. Should they recognise
him if they saw him again? To this question the answers were doubtful.
One waiter thought he should recognise the man; another was not sure;
and Monsieur the proprietor admitted that he had himself been too angry
to observe anything or anybody very minutely.
Finally, having made themselves of as much importance and asked as many
questions as possible, the sergents de ville condescended to accept a
couple of-petits verres a-piece, and then, with much lifting of cocked
hats and clattering of sabres, departed.
Most of the students had ere this dropped off by twos and threes, and
were gone to their day's work, or pleasure--to return again in equal
force about five in the afternoon. Of those that remained, some five or
six came up when the police were gone, and began chatting about the
robbery. When they learned that Flandrin had desired to have a sketch of
the man's head; when Mueller described his features, and I his obstinate
reserve and semi-military air, their excitement knew no bounds. Each had
immediately his own conjecture to offer. He was a political spy, and
therefore fearful lest his portrait should be recognised. He was a
conspirator of the Fieschi school. He was Mazzini in person.
In the midst of the discussion, a sudden recollection flashed upon me.
"A clue! a clue!" I shouted triumphantly. "He left his coat and black
bag hanging up in the corner!"
Followed by the others, I ran to the spot where I had been sitting
before the affray began. But my exultation was shortlived. Coat and bag,
like their owner, had disappeared.
Mueller thrust his hands into his pockets, shook his head, and whistled
dismally.
"I shall never see my sketch-book again, _parbleu!_" said he. "The man
who could not only take it out of my breast-pocket, but also in the very
teeth of the police, secure his property and escape unseen, is a master
of his profession. Our friends in the cocked hats have no chance
against him."
"And Flandrin, who is expecting the sketch," said I; "what of him?"
Mueller shrugged his shoulders.
"Next to being beaten," growled he, "there's nothing I hate like
confessing it. However, it has to be done--so the sooner the better.
Would you like to come with me? You'll see his studio."
I was only too glad to accompany him; for to me, as to most of us, there
was ever a nameless charm in the picturesque litter of an artist's
studio. Mueller's own studio, however, was as yet the only one I had
seen. He laughed when I said this.
"If your only notion of a studio is derived from that specimen," said
he, "you will he agreeably surprised by the contrast. He calls his place
a 'den,' but that's a metaphor. Mine is a howling wilderness."
Arriving presently at a large house at the bottom of a courtyard in the
Rue Vaugirard, he knocked at a small side-door bearing a tiny brass
plate not much larger than a visiting-card, on which was
engraved--"Monsieur Flandrin."
The door opened by some invisible means from within, and we entered a
passage dimly lighted by a painted glass door at the farther end. My
companion led the way down this passage, through the door, and into a
small garden containing some three or four old trees, a rustic seat, a
sun-dial on an antique-looking fragment of a broken column, and a little
weed-grown pond about the size of an ordinary drawing-room table,
surrounded by artificial rock-work.
At the farther extremity of this garden, filling the whole space from
wall to wall, and occupying as much ground as must have been equal to
half the original enclosure, stood a large, new, windowless building, in
shape exactly like a barn, lighted from a huge skylight in the roof, and
entered by a small door in one corner. I did not need to be told that
this was the studio.
But if the outside was like a barn, the inside was like a beautiful
mediaeval interior by Cattermole--an interior abounding in rich and
costly detail; in heavy crimson draperies, precious old Italian
cabinets, damascened armor, carved chairs with upright backs and twisted
legs, old paintings in massive Florentine frames, and strange quaint
pieces of Elizabethan furniture, like buffets, with open shelves full of
rare and artistic things--bronzes, ivory carvings, unwieldy Majolica
jars, and lovely goblets of antique Venetian glass laced with spiral
ornaments of blue and crimson and that dark emerald green of which the
secret is now lost for ever.
Then, besides all these things, there were great folios leaning piled
against the walls, one over the other; and Persian rugs of many colors
lying here and there about the floor; and down in one corner I observed
a heap of little models, useful, no doubt, as accessories in
pictures--gondolas, frigates, foreign-looking carts, a tiny sedan chair,
and the like.
But the main interest of the scene concentrated itself in the unfinished
picture, the hired model (a brawny fellow in a close-fitting suit of
black, leaning on a huge two-handed sword), and the artist in his
holland blouse, with the palette and brushes in his hand.
It was a very large picture, and stood on a monster easel, somewhat
towards the end of the studio. The light from above poured full upon the
canvas, while beyond lay a background of shadow. Much of the subject was
as yet only indicated, but enough was already there to tell the tragic
story and display the power of the painter. There, high above the heads
of the mounted guards and the assembled spectators, rose the scaffold,
hung with black. Egmont, wearing a crimson tabard, a short black cloak
embroidered with gold, and a hat ornamented with black and white plumes,
stood in a haughty attitude, as if facing the square and the people. Two
other figures, apparently of an ecclesiastic and a Spanish general,
partly in outline, partly laid in with flat color, were placed to the
right of the principal character. The headsman stood behind, leaning
upon his sword. The slender spire of the Hotel de Ville, surmounted by
its gilded archangel glittering in the morning sun, rose high against a
sky of cloudless blue; while all around was seen the well-known square
with its sculptured gables and decorated facades--every roof, window,
and balcony crowded with spectators.
Unfinished though it was, I saw at once that I was brought face to face
with what would some day be a famous work of art. The figures were
grandly grouped; the heads were noble; the sky was full of air; the
action of the whole scene informed with life and motion.
I stood admiring and silent, while Mueller told his tale, and Flandrin
paused in his work to listen.
"It is horribly unlucky," said he. "I had not been able to find a
portrait of Romero and, _faute de mieux_, have been trying for days
past to invent the right sort of head for him--of course, without
success. You never saw such a heap of failures! But as for that man at
the cafe, if Providence had especially created him for my purpose, he
could not have answered it better."
"I believe I am as sorry as you can possibly be," said Mueller.
"Then you are very sorry indeed," replied the painter; and he looked
even more disappointment than he expressed.
"I'm afraid I can't do it," said Mueller, after a moment's silence; "but
if you'll give me a pencil and a piece of paper, and credit me with the
will in default of the deed, I will try to sketch the head from memory."
"Ah? if you can only do that! Here is a drawing block--choose what
pencils you prefer--or here are crayons, if you like them better."
Mueller took the pencils and block, perched himself on the corner of a
table, and began. Flandrin, breathless with expectation, looked over his
shoulder. Even the model (in the grim character of Egmont's executioner)
laid aside his two-handed sword, and came round for a peep.
"Bravo! that's just his nose and brow," said Flandrin, as Mueller's rapid
hand flew over the paper. "Yes--the likeness comes with every touch ...
and the eyes, so keen and furtive. ... Nay, that eyelid should be a
little more depressed at the corner.... Yes, yes--just so. Admirable!
There!--don't attempt to work it up. The least thing might mar the
likeness. My dear fellow, what a service you have rendered me!"
"_Quatre-vingt mille diables_!" ejaculated the model, his eyes riveted
upon the sketch.
Mueller laughed and looked.
"_Tiens_! Guichet," said he, "is that meant for a compliment?"
"Where did you see him?" asked the model, pointing down at the sketch.
"Why? Do you know him?"
"Where did you see him, I say?" repeated Guichet, impatiently.
He was a rough fellow, and garnished every other sentence with an oath;
but he did not mean to be uncivil.
"At the Cafe Procope."
"When?"
"About an hour ago. But again, I repeat--do you know him?"
"Do I know him? _Tonnerre de Dieu_!"
"Then who and what is he?"
The model stroked his beard; shook his head; declined to answer.
"Bah!" said he, gloomily, "I may have seen him, or I may be mistaken.
'Tis not my affair."
"I suspect Guichet knows something against this interesting stranger,"
laughed Flandrin. "Come, Guichet, out with it! We are among friends."
But Guichet again looked at the drawing, and again shook his head.
"I'm no judge of pictures, messieurs," said he. "I'm only a poor devil
of a model. How can I pretend to know a man from such a _griffonage_
as that?"
And, taking up his big sword again, he retreated to his former post over
against the picture. We all saw that he was resolved to say no more.
Flandrin, delighted with Mueller's sketch, put it, with many thanks and
praises, carefully away in one of the great folios against the wall.
"You have no idea, _mon cher_ Mueller," he said, "of what value it is to
me. I was in despair about the thing till I saw that fellow this morning
in the Cafe; and he looked as if he had stepped out of the Middle Ages
on purpose for me. It is quite a mediaeval face--if you know what I mean
by a mediaeval face."
"I think I do," said Mueller. "You mean that there was a moyen-age type,
as there was a classical type, and as there is a modern type."
"Just so; and therein lies the main difficulty that we historical
painters have to encounter. When we cannot find portraits of our
characters, we are driven to invent faces for them--and who can invent
what he never sees? Invention must be based on some kind of experience;
and to study old portraits is not enough for our purpose, except we
frankly make use of them as portraits. We cannot generalize upon them,
so as to resuscitate a vanished type."
"But then has it really vanished?" said Mueller. "And how can we know for
certain that the mediaeval type did actually differ from the type we see
before us every day?"
"By simple and direct proof--by studying the epochs of portrait
painting. Take Holbein's heads, for instance. Were not the people of his
time grimmer, harder-visaged, altogether more unbeautiful than the
people of ours? Take Petitot's and Sir Peter Lely's. Can you doubt that
the characteristics of their period were entirely different? Do you
suppose that either race would look as we look, if resuscitated and
clothed in the fashion of to-day?"
"I am not at all sure that we should observe any difference," said
Mueller, doubtfully.
"And I feel sure we should observe the greatest," replied Flandrin,
striding up and down the studio, and speaking with great animation. "I
believe, as regards the men and women of Holbein's time, that their
faces were more lined than ours; their eyes, as a rule, smaller--their
mouths wider--their eyebrows more scanty--their ears larger--their
figures more ungainly. And in like manner, I believe the men and women
of the seventeenth century to have been more fleshy than either
Holbein's people or ourselves; to have had rounder cheeks, eyes more
prominent and heavy-lidded, shorter noses, more prominent chins, and
lips of a fuller and more voluptuous mould."
"Still we can't be certain how much of all this may be owing to the mere
mannerisms of successive schools of art," urged Mueller, sticking
manfully to his own opinion. "Where will you find a more decided
mannerist than Holbein? And because he was the first portrait-painter of
his day, was he not reproduced with all his faults of literalness and
dryness by a legion of imitators? So with Sir Peter Lely, with Petitot,
with Vandyck, with every great artist who painted kings and queens and
court beauties. Then, again, a certain style of beauty becomes the rage,
and-a skilful painter flatters each fair sitter in turn by bringing up
her features, or her expression, or the color of her hair, as near as
possible to the fashionable standard. And further, there is the dress of
a period to be taken into account. Think of the family likeness that
pervades the flowing wigs of the courts of Louis Quatorze and Charles
the Second--see what powder did a hundred years ago to equalize
mankind."
Flandrin shook his head.
"Ingenious, _mon garcon_" said he; "ingenious, but unsound The cut of a
fair lady's bodice never yet altered the shape of her nose; neither was
it the fashion of their furred surtouts that made Erasmus and Sir Thomas
More as like as twins. What you call the 'mannerism' of Holbein is only
his way of looking at his fellow-creatures. He and Sir Antonio More were
the most faithful of portrait-painters. They didn't know how to flatter.
They painted exactly what they saw--no more, and no less; so that every
head they have left us is a chapter in the history of the Middle Ages.
The race--depend on't--the race was unbeautiful; and not even the
picturesque dress of the period (which, according to your theory, should
have helped to make the wearers of it more attractive) could soften one
jot of their plainness."
"I can't bring myself to believe that we were all so ugly--French,
English, and Germans alike--only a couple of centuries ago,"
said Mueller.
"That is to say, you prefer to believe that Holbein, and Lucas Cranach,
and Sir Antonio More, and all their school, were mannerists. Nonsense,
my dear fellow--nonsense! _It is Nature who is the mannerist_. She loves
to turn out a certain generation after a particular pattern; and when
she is tired of that pattern, she invents another. Her fancies last, on
the average about, a hundred years. Sometimes she changes the type quite
abruptly; sometimes modifies it by gentle, yet always perceptible,
degrees. And who shall say what her secret processes are? Education,
travel, intermarriage with foreigners, the introduction of new kinds of
food) the adoption of new habits, may each and all have something to do
with these successive changes; but of one point at least we may be
certain--and that is, that we painters are not responsible for her
caprices. Our mission is to interpret Dame Nature more or less
faithfully, according to our powers; but beyond interpretation we cannot
go. And now (for you know I am as full of speculations as an
experimental philosopher) I will tell you another conclusion I have come
to with regard to this subject; and that is that national types were
less distinctive in mediaeval times than in ours. The French, English,
Flemish, and Dutch of the Middle Ages, as we see them in their
portraits, are curiously alike in all outward characteristics. The
courtiers of Francis the First and their (James, and the lords and
ladies of the court of Henry the Eighth, resemble each other as people
of one nation. Their features are, as it were, cast in one mould. So
also with the courts of Louis Quatorze and Charles the Second. As for
the regular French face of to-day, with its broad cheek-bones and high
temples running far up into the hair on either side, that type does not
make its appearance till close upon the advent of the Reign of Terror.
But enough! I shall weary you with theories, and wear out the patience
of our friend Guichet, who is sufficiently tired already with waiting
for a head that never comes to be cut off as it ought. Adieu--adieu.
Come soon again, and see how I get on with Marshal Romero."
Thus dismissed, we took our leave and left the painter to his work.
"An extraordinary man!" said Mueller, as we passed out again through the
neglected garden and paused for a moment to look at some half-dozen fat
gold and silver fish that were swimming lazily about the little pond. "A
man made up of contradictions--abounding in energy, yet at the same time
the dreamiest of speculators. An original thinker, too; but wanting that
basis which alone makes original thinking of any permanent value."
"But," said I, "he is evidently an educated man."
"Yes--educated as most artists are educated; but Flandrin has as strong
a bent for science as for art, and deserved something better. Five years
at a German university would have made of him one of the most remarkable
men of his time. What did you think of his theory of faces?"
"I know nothing of the subject, and cannot form a judgment; but it
sounded as if it might be true."
"Yes--just that. It may be true, and it may not. If true, then for my
own part I should like to pursue his theory a step further, and trace
the operation of these secret processes by means of which
I am, happily, such a much better-looking fellow than my
great-great-great-great-grandfather of two hundred years ago. What, for
instance, has the introduction of the potato done for the noses
of mankind?"
Chatting thus, we walked back as far as the corner of the Rue Racine,
where we parted; I to attend a lecture at the Ecole de Medecine, and
Mueller to go home to his studio in the Rue Clovis.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XXXII.
RETURNED WITH THANKS.
A week or two had thus gone by since the dreadful evening at the Opera
Comique, and all this time I had neither seen nor heard more of the fair
Josephine. My acquaintance with Franz Mueller and the li 
In the Days of My Youth / Edwards, Amelia Ann Blanford, 1831-1892