A Second Home...................................................................................................................................................1

The Rue du TourniquetSaintJean, formerly one of the darkest and most tortuous of the streets about the

Hotel de Ville, zigzagged round the little gardens of the Paris Prefecture, and ended at the Rue Martroi,

exactly at the angle of an old wall now pulled down. Here stood the turnstile to which the street owed its

name; it was not removed till 1823, when the Municipality built a ballroom on the garden plot adjoining the

Hotel de Ville, for the fete given in honor of the Duc d'Angouleme on his return from Spain.

The widest part of the Rue du Tourniquet was the end opening into the Rue de la Tixeranderie, and even there

it was less than six feet across. Hence in rainy weather the gutter water was soon deep at the foot of the old

houses, sweeping down with it the dust and refuse deposited at the cornerstones by the residents. As the

dustcarts could not pass through, the inhabitants trusted to storms to wash their always miry alley; for how

could it be clean? When the summer sun shed its perpendicular rays on Paris like a sheet of gold, but as

piercing as the point of a sword, it lighted up the blackness of this street for a few minutes without drying the

permanent damp that rose from the groundfloor to the first story of these dark and silent tenements.

The residents, who lighted their lamps at five o'clock in the month of June, in winter never put them out. To

this day the enterprising wayfarer who should approach the Marais along the quays, past the end of the Rue

du Chaume, the Rues de l'Homme Arme, des Billettes, and des DeuxPortes, all leading to the Rue du

Almost all the streets of old Paris, of which ancient chronicles laud the magnificence, were like this damp and

gloomy labyrinth, where the antiquaries still find historical curiosities to admire. For instance, on the house

then forming the corner where the Rue du Tourniquet joined the Rue de la Tixeranderie, the clamps might

still be seen of two strong iron rings fixed to the wall, the relics of the chains put up every night by the watch

This house, remarkable for its antiquity, had been constructed in a way that bore witness to the unhealthiness

of these old dwellings; for, to preserve the groundfloor from damp, the arches of the cellars rose about two

feet above the soil, and the house was entered up three outside steps. The door was crowned by a closed arch,

of which the keystone bore a female head and some timeeaten arabesques. Three windows, their sills about

five feet from the ground, belonged to a small set of rooms looking out on the Rue du Tourniquet, whence

they derived their light. These windows were protected by strong iron bars, very wide apart, and ending

If any passerby during the day were curious enough to peep into the two rooms forming this little dwelling,

he could see nothing; for only under the sun of July could he discern, in the second room, two beds hung with

green serge, placed side by side under the paneling of an oldfashioned alcove; but in the afternoon, by about

three o'clock, when the candles were lighted, through the pane of the first room an old woman might be seen

sitting on a stool by the fireplace, where she nursed the fire in a brazier, to simmer a stew, such as porters'

wives are expert in. A few kitchen utensils, hung up against the wall, were visible in the twilight.

At that hour an old table on trestles, but bare of linen, was laid with pewterspoons, and the dish concocted

by the old woman. Three wretched chairs were all the furniture of this room, which was at once the kitchen

and the diningroom. Over the chimneypiece were a piece of lookingglass, a tinderbox, three glasses,

some matches, and a large, cracked white jug. Still, the floor, the utensils, the fireplace, all gave a pleasant

sense of the perfect cleanliness and thrift that pervaded the dull and gloomy home.

The old woman's pale, withered face was quite in harmony with the darkness of the street and the mustiness

of the place. As she sat there, motionless, in her chair, it might have been thought that she was as inseparable

from the house as a snail from its brown shell; her face, alert with a vague expression of mischief, was

framed in a flat cap made of net, which barely covered her white hair; her fine, gray eyes were as quiet as the

street, and the many wrinkles in her face might be compared to the cracks in the walls. Whether she had been

born to poverty, or had fallen from some past splendor, she now seemed to have been long resigned to her

From sunrise till dark, excepting when she was getting a meal ready, or, with a basket on her arm, was out

purchasing provisions, the old woman sat in the adjoining room by the further window, opposite a young girl.

At any hour of the day the passerby could see the needlewoman seated in an old, red velvet chair, bending

Her mother had a green pillow on her knee, and busied herself with handmade net; but her fingers could

move the bobbin but slowly; her sight was feeble, for on her nose there rested a pair of those antiquated

spectacles which keep their place on the nostrils by the grip of a spring. By night these two hardworking

women set a lamp between them; and the light, concentrated by two globeshaped bottles of water, showed

the elder the fine network made by the threads on her pillow, and the younger the most delicate details of the

pattern she was embroidering. The outward bend of the window had allowed the girl to rest a box of earth on

the windowsill, in which grew some sweet peas, nasturtiums, a sickly little honeysuckle, and some

convolvulus that twined its frail stems up the iron bars. These etiolated plants produced a few pale flowers,

and added a touch of indescribable sadness and sweetness to the picture offered by this window, in which the

The most selfish soul who chanced to see this domestic scene would carry away with him a perfect image of

the life led in Paris by the working class of women, for the embroideress evidently lived by her needle. Many,

as they passed through the turnstile, found themselves wondering how a girl could preserve her color, living

in such a cellar. A student of lively imagination, going that way to cross to the QuartierLatin, would

compare this obscure and vegetative life to that of the ivy that clung to these chill walls, to that of the

peasants born to labor, who are born, toil, and die unknown to the world they have helped to feed. A

houseowner, after studying the house with the eye of a valuer, would have said, "What will become of those

two women if embroidery should go out of fashion?" Among the men who, having some appointment at the

Hotel de Ville or the Palais de Justice, were obliged to go through this street at fixed hours, either on their

way to business or on their return home, there may have been some charitable soul. Some widower or Adonis

of forty, brought so often into the secrets of these sad lives, may perhaps have reckoned on the poverty of this

mother and daughter, and have hoped to become the master at no great cost of the innocent workwoman,

whose nimble and dimpled fingers, youthful figure, and white skina charm due, no doubt, to living in this

sunless streethad excited his admiration. Perhaps, again, some honest clerk, with twelve hundred francs a

year, seeing every day the diligence the girl gave to her needle, and appreciating the purity of her life, was

only waiting for improved prospects to unite one humble life with another, one form of toil to another, and to

bring at any rate a man's arm and a calm affection, palehued like the flowers in the window, to uphold this

Vague hope certainly gave life to the mother's dim, gray eyes. Every morning, after the most frugal breakfast,

she took up her pillow, though chiefly for the look of the thing, for she would lay her spectacles on a little

mahogany worktable as old as herself, and look out of the window from about halfpast eight till ten at the

regular passers in the street; she caught their glances, remarked on their gait, their dress, their countenance,

and almost seemed to be offering her daughter, her gossiping eyes so evidently tried to attract some magnetic

sympathy by manoeuvres worthy of the stage. It was evident that this little review was as good as a play to

The daughter rarely looked up. Modesty, or a painful consciousness of poverty, seemed to keep her eyes

riveted to the workframe; and only some exclamation of surprise from her mother moved her to show her

small features. Then a clerk in a new coat, or who unexpectedly appeared with a woman on his arm, might

catch sight of the girl's slightly upturned nose, her rosy mouth, and gray eyes, always bright and lively in

spite of her fatiguing toil. Her late hours had left a trace on her face by a pale circle marked under each eye

on the fresh rosiness of her cheeks. The poor child looked as if she were made for love and cheerfulnessfor

love, which had drawn two perfect arches above her eyelids, and had given her such a mass of chestnut hair,

that she might have hidden under it as under a tent, impenetrable to the lover's eyefor cheerfulness, which

gave quivering animation to her nostrils, which carved two dimples in her rosy cheeks, and made her quick to

forget her troubles; cheerfulness, the blossom of hope, which gave her strength to look out without

The girl's hair was always carefully dressed. After the manner of Paris needlewomen, her toilet seemed to her

quite complete when she had brushed her hair smooth and tucked up the little short curls that played on each

temple in contrast with the whiteness of her skin. The growth of it on the back of her neck was so pretty, and

the brown line, so clearly traced, gave such a pleasing idea of her youth and charm, that the observer, seeing

her bent over her work, and unmoved by any sound, was inclined to think of her as a coquette. Such inviting

promise had excited the interest of more than one young man, who turned round in the vain hope of seeing

"Caroline, there is a new face that passes regularly by, and not one of the old ones to compare with it."

These words, spoken in a low voice by her mother one August morning in 1815, had vanquished the young

needlewoman's indifference, and she looked out on the street; but in vain, the stranger was gone.

"He will come back no doubt at four; I shall see him coming, and will touch your foot with mine. I am sure

he will come back; he has been through the street regularly for the last three days; but his hours vary. The

first day he came by at six o'clock, the day before yesterday it was four, yesterday as early as three. I

remember seeing him occasionally some time ago. He is some clerk in the Prefet's office who has moved to

the Marais.Why!" she exclaimed, after glancing down the street, "our gentleman of the brown coat has

The gentleman of the brown coat was, it would seem, the individual who commonly closed the daily

procession, for the old woman put on her spectacles and took up her work with a sigh, glancing at her

daughter with so strange a look that Lavater himself would have found it difficult to interpret. Admiration,

gratitude, a sort of hope for better days, were mingled with pride at having such a pretty daughter.

At about four in the afternoon the old lady pushed her foot against Caroline's, and the girl looked up quickly

enough to see the new actor, whose regular advent would thenceforth lend variety to the scene. He was tall

and thin, and wore black, a man of about forty, with a certain solemnity of demeanor; as his piercing hazel

eye met the old woman's dull gaze, he made her quake, for she felt as though he had the gift of reading hearts,

or much practice in it, and his presence must surely be as icy as the air of this dank street. Was the dull,

sallow complexion of that ominous face due to excess of work, or the result of delicate health?

The old woman supplied twenty different answers to this question; but Caroline, next day, discerned the lines

of long mental suffering on that brow that was so prompt to frown. The rather hollow cheeks of the Unknown

bore the stamp of the seal which sorrow sets on its victims as if to grant them the consolation of common

recognition and brotherly union for resistance. Though the girl's expression was at first one of lively but

innocent curiosity, it assumed a look of gentle sympathy as the stranger receded from view, like a last relation

The heat of the weather was so great, and the gentleman was so absent minded, that he had taken off his hat

and forgotten to put it on again as he went down the squalid street. Caroline could see the stern look given to

his countenance by the way the hair was brushed from his forehead. The strong impression, devoid of charm,

made on the girl by this man's appearance was totally unlike any sensation produced by the other passengers

who used the street; for the first time in her life she was moved to pity for some one else than herself and her

mother; she made no reply to the absurd conjectures that supplied material for the old woman's provoking

volubility, and drew her long needle in silence through the web of stretched net; she only regretted not having

seen the stranger more closely, and looked forward to the morrow to form a definite opinion of him.

It was the first time, indeed, that a man passing down the street had ever given rise to much thought in her

mind. She generally had nothing but a smile in response to her mother's hypotheses, for the old woman

looked on every passerby as a possible protector for her daughter. And if such suggestions, so crudely

presented, gave rise to no evil thoughts in Caroline's mind, her indifference must be ascribed to the persistent

and unfortunately inevitable toil in which the energies of her sweet youth were being spent, and which would

infallibly mar the clearness of her eyes or steal from her fresh cheeks the bloom that still colored them.

For two months or more the "Black Gentleman"the name they had given himwas erratic in his

movements; he did not always come down the Rue du Tourniquet; the old woman sometimes saw him in the

evening when he had not passed in the morning, and he did not come by at such regular hours as the clerks

who served Madame Crochard instead of a clock; moreover, excepting on the first occasion, when his look

had given the old mother a sense of alarm, his eyes had never once dwelt on the weird picture of these two

female gnomes. With the exception of two carriagegates and a dark ironmonger's shop, there were in the

Rue du Tourniquet only barred windows, giving light to the staircases of the neighboring houses; thus the

stranger's lack of curiosity was not to be accounted for by the presence of dangerous rivals; and Madame

Crochard was greatly piqued to see her "Black Gentleman" always lost in thought, his eyes fixed on the

ground, or straight before him, as though he hoped to read the future in the fog of the Rue du Tourniquet.

However, one morning, about the middle of September, Caroline Crochard's roguish face stood out so

brightly against the dark background of the room, looking so fresh among the belated flowers and faded

leaves that twined round the windowbars, the daily scene was gay with such contrasts of light and shade, of

pink and white blending with the light material on which the pretty needlewoman was working, and with the

red and brown hues of the chairs, that the stranger gazed very attentively at the effects of this living picture.

In point of fact, the old woman, provoked by her "Black Gentleman's" indifference, had made such a clatter

with her bobbins that the gloomy and pensive passerby was perhaps prompted to look up by the unusual

The stranger merely exchanged glances with Caroline, swift indeed, but enough to effect a certain contact

between their souls, and both were aware that they would think of each other. When the stranger came by

again, at four in the afternoon, Caroline recognized the sound of his step on the echoing pavement; they

looked steadily at each other, and with evident purpose; his eyes had an expression of kindliness which made

him smile, and Caroline colored; the old mother noted them with satisfaction. Ever after that memorable

afternoon, the Gentleman in Black went by twice a day, with rare exceptions, which both the women

observed. They concluded from the irregularity of the hours of his homecoming that he was not released so

All through the first three winter months, twice a day, Caroline and the stranger thus saw each other for so

long as it took him to traverse the piece of road that lay along the length of the door and three windows of the

house. Day after day this brief interview had the hue of friendly sympathy which at last had acquired a sort of

fraternal kindness. Caroline and the stranger seemed to understand each other from the first; and then, by dint

of scrutinizing each other's faces, they learned to know them well. Ere long it came to be, as it were, a visit

that the Unknown owed to Caroline; if by any chance her Gentleman in Black went by without bestowing on

her the halfsmile of his expressive lips, or the cordial glance of his brown eyes, something was missing to

her all day. She felt as an old man does to whom the daily study of a newspaper is such an indispensable

pleasure that on the day after any great holiday he wanders about quite lost, and seeking, as much out of

vagueness as for want of patience, the sheet by which he cheats an hour of life.

But these brief meetings had the charm of intimate friendliness, quite as much for the stranger as for

Caroline. The girl could no more hide a vexation, a grief, or some slight ailment from the keen eye of her

"He must have had some trouble yesterday," was the thought that constantly arose in the embroideress' mind

"Oh, he has been working too hard!" was a reflection due to another shade of expression which Caroline

The stranger, on his part, could guess when the girl had spent Sunday in finishing a dress, and he felt an

interest in the pattern. As quarterday came near he could see that her pretty face was clouded by anxiety,

and he could guess when Caroline had sat up late at work; but above all, he noted how the gloomy thoughts

that dimmed the cheerful and delicate features of her young face gradually vanished by degrees as their

acquaintance ripened. When winter had killed the climbers and plants of her window garden, and the window

was kept closed, it was not without a smile of gentle amusement that the stranger observed the concentration

of the light within, just at the level of Caroline's head. The very small fire and the frosty red of the two

women's faces betrayed the poverty of their home; but if ever his own countenance expressed regretful

Meanwhile the feelings that had arisen in their hearts remained buried there, no incident occurring to reveal

to either of them how deep and strong they were in the other; they had never even heard the sound of each

other's voice. These mute friends were even on their guard against any nearer acquaintance, as though it

meant disaster. Each seemed to fear lest it should bring on the other some grief more serious than those they

felt tempted to share. Was it shyness or friendship that checked them? Was it a dread of meeting with

selfishness, or the odious distrust which sunders all the residents within the walls of a populous city? Did the

voice of conscience warn them of approaching danger? It would be impossible to explain the instinct which

made them as much enemies as friends, at once indifferent and attached, drawn to each other by impulse, and

severed by circumstance. Each perhaps hoped to preserve a cherished illusion. It might almost have been

thought that the stranger feared lest he should hear some vulgar word from those lips as fresh and pure as a

flower, and that Caroline felt herself unworthy of the mysterious personage who was evidently possessed of

As to Madame Crochard, that tender mother, almost angry at her daughter's persistent lack of decisiveness,

now showed a sulky face to the "Black Gentleman," on whom she had hitherto smiled with a sort of

benevolent servility. Never before had she complained so bitterly of being compelled, at her age, to do the

cooking; never had her catarrh and her rheumatism wrung so many groans from her; finally, she could not,

this winter, promise so many ells of net as Caroline had hitherto been able to count on.

Under these circumstances, and towards the end of December, at the time when bread was dearest, and that

dearth of corn was beginning to be felt which made the year 1816 so hard on the poor, the stranger observed

on the features of the girl whose name was still unknown to him, the painful traces of a secret sorrow which

his kindest smiles could not dispel. Before long he saw in Caroline's eyes the dimness attributed to long hours

at night. One night, towards the end of the month, the Gentleman in Black passed down the Rue du

Tourniquet at the quite unwonted hour of one in the morning. The perfect silence allowed of his hearing

before passing the house the lachrymose voice of the old mother, and Caroline's even sadder tones, mingling

with the swish of a shower of sleet. He crept along as slowly as he could; and then, at the risk of being taken

up by the police, he stood still below the window to hear the mother and daughter, while watching them

through the largest of the holes in the yellow muslin curtains, which were eaten away by wear as a cabbage

leaf is riddled by caterpillars. The inquisitive stranger saw a sheet of paper on the table that stood between the

two workframes, and on which stood the lamp and the globes filled with water. He at once identified it as a

writ. Madame Crochard was weeping, and Caroline's voice was thick, and had lost its sweet, caressing tone.

"Why be so heartbroken, mother? Monsieur Molineux will not sell us up or turn us out before I have finished

"And supposing she keeps you waiting as usual?And will the money for the gown pay the baker too?"

The spectator of this scene had long practice in reading faces; he fancied he could discern that the mother's

grief was as false as the daughter's was genuine; he turned away, and presently came back. When he next

peeped through the hole in the curtain, Madame Crochard was in bed. The young needlewoman, bending over

her frame, was embroidering with indefatigable diligence; on the table, with the writ lay a triangular hunch of

bread, placed there, no doubt, to sustain her in the night and to remind her of the reward of her industry. The

stranger was tremulous with pity and sympathy; he threw his purse in through a cracked pane so that it should

fall at the girl's feet; and then, without waiting to enjoy her surprise, he escaped, his cheeks tingling.

Next morning the shy and melancholy stranger went past with a look of deep preoccupation, but he could not

escape Caroline's gratitude; she had opened her window and affected to be digging in the square window

box buried in snow, a pretext of which the clumsy ingenuity plainly told her benefactor that she had been

resolved not to see him only through the pane. Her eyes were full of tears as she bowed her head, as much as

But the Gentleman in Black affected not to understand the meaning of this sincere gratitude. In the evening,

as he came by, Caroline was busy mending the window with a sheet of paper, and she smiled at him, showing

her row of pearly teeth like a promise. Thenceforth the Stranger went another way, and was no more seen in

It was one day early in the following May that, as Caroline was giving the roots of the honeysuckle a glass of

water, one Saturday morning, she caught sight of a narrow strip of cloudless blue between the black lines of

She had scarcely uttered the words, in a tone of glee, when the Gentleman in Black came by, sadder and more

dejected than ever. Caroline's innocent and ingratiating glance might have been taken for an invitation. And,

in fact, on the following day, when Madame Crochard, dressed in a pelisse of claretcolored merinos, a silk

bonnet, and striped shawl of an imitation Indian pattern, came out to choose seats in a chaise at the corner of

the Rue du Faubourg Saint Denis and the Rue d'Enghien, there she found her Unknown standing like a man

waiting for his wife. A smile of pleasure lighted up the Stranger's face when his eye fell on Caroline, her neat

feet shod in plumcolored prunella gaiters, and her white dress tossed by a breeze that would have been fatal

to an illmade woman, but which displayed her graceful form. Her face, shaded by a ricestraw bonnet lined

with pink silk, seemed to beam with a reflection from heaven; her broad, plumcolored belt set off a waist he

could have spanned; her hair, parted in two brown bands over a forehead as white as snow, gave her an

expression of innocence which no other feature contradicted. Enjoyment seemed to have made Caroline as

light as the straw of her hat; but when she saw the Gentleman in Black, radiant hope suddenly eclipsed her

bright dress and her beauty. The Stranger, who appeared to be in doubt, had not perhaps made up his mind to

be the girl's escort for the day till this revelation of the delight she felt on seeing him. He at once hired a

vehicle with a fairly good horse, to drive to SaintLeuTaverny, and he offered Madame Crochard and her

daughter seats by his side. The mother accepted without ado; but presently, when they were already on the

way to SaintDenis, she was by way of having scruples, and made a few civil speeches as to the possible

"Perhaps, monsieur, you wished to drive alone to SaintLeuTaverny," said she, with affected simplicity.

Before long she complained of the heat, and especially of her cough, which, she said, had hindered her from

closing her eyes all night; and by the time the carriage had reached SaintDenis, Madame Crochard seemed

to be fast asleep. Her snores, indeed, seemed, to the Gentleman in Black, rather doubtfully genuine, and he

"Oh, she is fast asleep," said Caroline quilelessly; "she never ceased coughing all night. She must be very

Her companion made no reply, but he looked at the girl with a smile that seemed to say:

However, in spite of his distrust, as the chaise made its way down the long avenue of poplars leading to

Eaubonne, the Stranger thought that Madame Crochard was really asleep; perhaps he did not care to inquire

how far her slumbers were genuine or feigned. Whether it were that the brilliant sky, the pure country air, and

the heady fragrance of the first green shoots of the poplars, the catkins of willow, and the flowers of the

blackthorn had inclined his heart to open like all the nature around him; or that any long restraint was too

oppressive while Caroline's sparkling eyes responded to his own, the Gentleman in Black entered on a

conversation with his young companion, as aimless as the swaying of the branches in the wind, as devious as

the flitting of the butterflies in the azure air, as illogical as the melodious murmur of the fields, and, like it,

full of mysterious love. At that season is not the rural country as tremulous as a bride that has donned her

marriage robe; does it not invite the coldest soul to be happy? What heart could remain unthawed, and what

lips could keep its secret, on leaving the gloomy streets of the Marais for the first time since the previous

autumn, and entering the smiling and picturesque valley of Montmorency; on seeing it in the morning light,

its endless horizons receding from view; and then lifting a charmed gaze to eyes which expressed no less

The Stranger discovered that Caroline was sprightly rather than witty, affectionate, but ill educated; but while

her laugh was giddy, her words promised genuine feeling. When, in response to her companion's shrewd

questioning, the girl spoke with the heartfelt effusiveness of which the lower classes are lavish, not guarding

it with reticence like people of the world, the Black Gentleman's face brightened, and seemed to renew its

youth. His countenance by degrees lost the sadness that lent sternness to his features, and little by little they

gained a look of handsome youthfulness which made Caroline proud and happy. The pretty needlewoman

guessed that her new friend had been long weaned from tenderness and love, and no longer believed in the

devotion of woman. Finally, some unexpected sally in Caroline's light prattle lifted the last veil that

concealed the real youth and genuine character of the Stranger's physiognomy; he seemed to bid farewell to

the ideas that haunted him, and showed the natural liveliness that lay beneath the solemnity of his expression.

Their conversation had insensibly become so intimate, that by the time when the carriage stopped at the first

houses of the straggling village of SaintLeu, Caroline was calling the gentleman Monsieur Roger. Then for

"Caroline, she has heard everything!" said Roger suspiciously in the girl's ear.

Caroline's reply was an exquisite smile of disbelief, which dissipated the dark cloud that his fear of some plot

on the old woman's part had brought to this suspicious mortal's brow. Madame Crochard was amazed at

nothing, approved of everything, followed her daughter and Monsieur Roger into the park, where the two

young people had agreed to wander through the smiling meadows and fragrant copses made famous by the

"Good heavens! how lovely!" exclaimed Caroline when standing on the green ridge where the forest of

Montmorency begins, she saw lying at her feet the wide valley with its combes sheltering scattered villages,

its horizon of blue hills, its church towers, its meadows and fields, whence a murmur came up, to die on her

ear like the swell of the ocean. The three wanderers made their way by the bank of an artificial stream and

came to the Swiss valley, where stands a chalet that had more than once given shelter to Hortense and

Napoleon. When Caroline had seated herself with pious reverence on the mossy wooden bench where kings

and princesses and the Emperor had rested, Madame Crochard expressed a wish to have a nearer view of a

bridge that hung across between two rocks at some little distance, and bent her steps towards that rural

curiosity, leaving her daughter in Monsieur Roger's care, though telling them that she would not go out of

"What, poor child!" cried Roger, "have you never longed for wealth and the pleasures of luxury? Have you

"It would not be the truth, Monsieur Roger, if I were to tell you that I never think how happy people must be

who are rich. Oh yes! I often fancy, especially when I am going to sleep, how glad I should be to see my poor

mother no longer compelled to go out, whatever the weather, to buy our little provisions, at her age. I should

like her to have a servant who, every morning before she was up, would bring her up her coffee, nicely

sweetened with white sugar. And she loves reading novels, poor dear soul! Well, and I would rather see her

wearing out her eyes over her favorite books than over twisting her bobbins from morning till night. And

again, she ought to have a little good wine. In short, I should like to see her comfortableshe is so good."

"Oh yes," said the girl, in a tone of conviction. Then, after a short pause, during which the two young people

stood watching Madame Crochard, who had got to the middle of the rustic bridge, and was shaking her finger

"Oh yes, she has been so good to me. What care she took of me when I was little! She sold her last silver

forks to apprentice me to the old maid who taught me to embroider.And my poor father! What did she not

go through to make him end his days in happiness!" The girl shivered at the remembrance, and hid her face in

her hands."Well! come! let us forget past sorrows!" she added, trying to rally her high spirits. She blushed

"He was an operadancer before the Revolution," said she, with an air of perfect simplicity, "and my mother

sang in the chorus. My father, who was leader of the figures on the stage, happened to be present at the siege

of the Bastille. He was recognized by some of the assailants, who asked him whether he could not lead a real

attack, since he was used to leading such enterprises on the boards. My father was brave; he accepted the

post, led the insurgents, and was rewarded by the nomination to the rank of captain in the army of

Sambreet Meuse, where he distinguished himself so far as to rise rapidly to be a colonel. But at Lutzen he

was so badly wounded that, after a year's sufferings, he died in Paris.The Bourbons returned; my mother

could obtain no pension, and we fell into such abject misery that we were compelled to work for our living.

For some time past she has been ailing, poor dear, and I have never known her so little resigned; she

complains a good deal, and, indeed, I cannot wonder, for she has known the pleasures of an easy life. For my

part, I cannot pine for delights I have never known, I have but one thing to wish for."

"That women may continue to wear embroidered net dresses, so that I may never lack work."

The frankness of this confession interested the young man, who looked with less hostile eyes on Madame

"Well, children, have you had a long talk?" said she, with a half laughing, halfindulgent air. "When I think,

Monsieur Roger, that the 'little Corporal' has sat where you are sitting," she went on after a pause. "Poor man!

how my husband worshiped him! Ah! Crochard did well to die, for he could not have borne to think of him

Roger put his finger to his lips, and the good woman went on very gravely, with a shake of her head:

"All right, mouth shut and tongue still! But," added she, unhooking a bit of her bodice, and showing a ribbon

and cross tied round her neck by a piece of black ribbon, "they shall never hinder me from wearing what

On hearing this speech, which at that time was regarded as seditious, Roger interrupted the old lady by rising

suddenly, and they returned to the village through the park walks. The young man left them for a few minutes

while he went to order a meal at the best eatinghouse in Taverny; then, returning to fetch them, he led the

The dinner was cheerful. Roger was no longer the melancholy shade that was wont to pass along the Rue du

Tourniquet; he was not the "Black Gentleman," but rather a confiding young man ready to take life as it

came, like the two hardworking women who, on the morrow, might lack bread; he seemed alive to all the

When, at five o'clock, this happy meal was ended with a few glasses of champagne, Roger was the first to

propose that they should join the village ball under the chestnuts, where he and Caroline danced together.

Their hands met with sympathetic pressure, their hearts beat with the same hopes; and under the blue sky and

the slanting, rosy beams of sunset, their eyes sparkled with fires which, to them, made the glory of the

heavens pale. How strange is the power of an idea, of a desire! To these two nothing seemed impossible. In

such magic moments, when enjoyment sheds its reflections on the future, the soul foresees nothing but

happiness. This sweet day had created memories for these two to which nothing could be compared in all

their past existence. Would the source prove to be more beautiful than the river, the desire more enchanting

than its gratification, the thing hoped for more delightful than the thing possessed?

"So the day is already at an end!" On hearing this exclamation from her unknown friend when the dance was

over, Caroline looked at him compassionately, as his face assumed once more a faint shade of sadness.

"Why should you not be as happy in Paris as you are here?" she asked. "Is happiness to be found only at

Roger was struck by these words, spoken with the glad unrestraint that always carries a woman further than

she intended, just as prudery often lends her greater cruelty than she feels. For the first time since that glance,

which had, in a way, been the beginning of their friendship, Caroline and Roger had the same idea; though

they did not express it, they felt it at the same instant, as a result of a common impression like that of a

comforting fire cheering both under the frost of winter; then, as if frightened by each other's silence, they

made their way to the spot where the carriage was waiting. But before getting into it, they playfully took

hands and ran together down the dark avenue in front of Madame Crochard. When they could no longer see

the white net cap, which showed as a speck through the leaves where the old woman was"Caroline!" said

The girl was startled, and drew back a few steps, understanding the invitation this question conveyed;

however, she held out her hand, which was passionately kissed, but which she hastily withdrew, for by

Madame Crochard affected blindness, as if, with a reminiscence of her old parts, she was only required to

The adventures of these two young people were not continued in the Rue du Tourniquet. To see Roger and

Caroline once more, we must leap into the heart of modern Paris, where, in some of the newlybuilt houses,

there are apartments that seem made on purpose for newlymarried couples to spend their honeymoon in.

There the paper and paint are as fresh as the bride and bridegroom, and the decorations are in blossom like

Halfway down the Rue Taitbout, in a house whose stone walls were still white, where the columns of the

hall and the doorway were as yet spotless, and the inner walls shone with the neat painting which our recent

intimacy with English ways had brought into fashion, there was, on the second floor, a small set of rooms

fitted by the architect as though he had known what their use would be. A simple airy anteroom, with a

stucco dado, formed an entrance into a drawingroom and dining room. Out of the drawingroom opened a

pretty bedroom, with a bathroom beyond. Every chimneyshelf had over it a fine mirror elegantly framed.

The doors were crowded with arabesques in good taste, and the cornices were in the best style. Any amateur

would have discerned there the sense of distinction and decorative fitness which mark the work of modern

For above a month Caroline had been at home in this apartment, furnished by an upholsterer who submitted

to an artist's guidance. A short description of the principal room will suffice to give us an idea of the wonders

it offered to Caroline's delighted eyes when Roger installed her there. Hangings of gray stuff trimmed with

green silk adorned the walls of her bedroom; the seats, covered with light colored woolen sateen, were of

easy and comfortable shapes, and in the latest fashion; a chest of drawers of some simple wood, inlaid with

lines of a darker hue, contained the treasures of the toilet; a writingtable to match served for inditing

loveletters on scented paper; the bed, with antique draperies, could not fail to suggest thoughts of love by its

soft hangings of elegant muslin; the window curtains, of drab silk with green fringe, were always half drawn

to subdue the light; a bronze clock represented Love crowning Psyche; and a carpet of Gothic design on a red

ground set off the other accessories of this delightful retreat. There was a small dressing table in front of a

long glass, and here the needlewoman sat, out of patience with Plaisir, the famous hairdresser.

Caroline could not help smiling. The man's flattery had no doubt revived in her mind the memory of the

passionate praises lavished by her lover on the beauty of her hair, which he delighted in.

The hairdresser having done, a waitingmaid came and held counsel with her as to the dress in which Roger

would like best to see her. It was the beginning of September 1816, and the weather was cold; she chose a

green grenadine trimmed with chinchilla. As soon as she was dressed, Caroline flew into the drawingroom

and opened a window, out of which she stepped on to the elegant balcony, that adorned the front of the

house; there she stood, with her arms crossed, in a charming attitude, not to show herself to the admiration of

the passersby and see them turn to gaze at her, but to be able to look out on the Boulevard at the bottom of

the Rue Taitbout. This side view, really very comparable to the peephole made by actors in the dropscene of

a theatre, enabled her to catch a glimpse of numbers of elegant carriages, and a crowd of persons, swept past

with the rapidity of Ombres Chinoises. Not knowing whether Roger would arrive in a carriage or on foot, the

needlewoman from the Rue du Tourniquet looked by turns at the foot passengers, and at the tilburieslight

Expressions of refractoriness and of love passed by turns over her youthful face when, after waiting for a

quarter of an hour, neither her keen eye nor her heart had announced the arrival of him whom she knew to be

due. What disdain, what indifference were shown in her beautiful features for all the other creatures who

were bustling like ants below her feet. Her gray eyes, sparkling with fun, now positively flamed. Given over

to her passion, she avoided admiration with as much care as the proudest devote to encouraging it when they

drive about Paris, certainly feeling no care as to whether her fair countenance leaning over the balcony, or her

little foot between the bars, and the picture of her bright eyes and delicious turnedup nose would be effaced

or no from the minds of the passersby who admired them; she saw but one face, and had but one idea. When

the spotted head of a certain bay horse happened to cross the narrow strip between the two rows of houses,

Caroline gave a little shiver and stood on tiptoe in hope of recognizing the white traces and the color of the

Roger turned the corner of the street, saw the balcony, whipped the horse, which came up at a gallop, and

stopped at the bronzegreen door that he knew as well as his master did. The door of the apartment was

opened at once by the maid, who had heard her mistress' exclamation of delight. Roger rushed up to the

drawingroom, clasped Caroline in his arms, and embraced her with the effusive feeling natural when two

beings who love each other rarely meet. He led her, or rather they went by a common impulse, their arms

about each other, into the quiet and fragrant bedroom; a settee stood ready for them to sit by the fire, and for a

moment they looked at each other in silence, expressing their happiness only by their clasped hands, and

"Yes, it is he!" she said at last. "Yes, it is you. Do you know, I have not seen you for three long days, an

"No, no, do not laugh, my darling; we cannot go to the Feydeau Theatre together this evening."

"How absurd I am! How can I think of going to the play when I see you? Is not the sight of you the only

"I am obliged to go to the AttorneyGeneral's. We have a knotty case in hand. He met me in the great hall at

the Palais; and as I am to plead, he asked me to dine with him. But, my dearest, you can go to the theatre with

"To the theatre without you!" cried she in a tone of amazement; "enjoy any pleasure you do not share! O my

Roger! you do not deserve a kiss," she added, throwing her arms round his neck with an artless and

"Caroline, I must go home and dress. The Marais is some way off, and I still have some business to finish."

"Take care what you are saying, monsieur," said she, interrupting him. "My mother says that when a man

"Hush!" said she, laying a finger on his mouth. "Don't you see that I am in jest."

They had now come back to the drawingroom, and Roger's eye fell on an object brought home that morning

by the cabinetmaker. Caroline's old rosewood embroideryframe, by which she and her mother had earned

their bread when they lived in the Rue du TourniquetSaintJean, had been refitted and polished, and a net

"Well, then, my dear, I shall do some work this evening. As I stitch, I shall fancy myself gone back to those

early days when you used to pass by me without a word, but not without a glance; the days when the

remembrance of your look kept me awake all night. Oh my dear old frame the best piece of furniture in my

room, though you did not give it me!You cannot think," said she, seating herself on Roger's knees; for he,

overcome by irresistible feelings, had dropped into a chair. "Listen.All I can earn by my work I mean to

give to the poor. You have made me rich. How I love that pretty home at Bellefeuille, less because of what it

is than because you gave it me! But tell me, Roger, I should like to call myself Caroline de Bellefeuillecan

As she saw a little affirmative grimacefor Roger hated the name of CrochardCaroline jumped for glee,

"I feel," said she, "as if I should more especially belong to you. Usually a woman gives up her own name and

takes her husband's" An idea forced itself upon her and made her blush. She took Roger's hand and led him

to the open piano."Listen," said she, "I can play my sonata now like an angel!" and her fingers were

already running over the ivory keys, when she felt herself seized round the waist.

"You insist on going? Well, go," said she, with a pretty pout, but she smiled as she looked at the clock and

"Goodbye, Mademoiselle de Bellefeuille," said he, with the gentle irony of love.

She kissed him and saw her lover to the door; when the sound of his steps had died away on the stairs she ran

out on to the balcony to see him get into the tilbury, to see him gather up the reins, to catch a parting look,

hear the crack of his whip and the sound of his wheels on the stones, watch the handsome horse, the master's

hat, the tiger's gold lace, and at last to stand gazing long after the dark corner of the street had eclipsed this

Five years after Mademoiselle Caroline de Bellefeuille had taken up her abode in the pretty house in the Rue

Taitbout, we again look in on one of those homescenes which tighten the bonds of affection between two

persons who truly love. In the middle of the blue drawingroom, in front of the window opening to the

balcony, a little boy of four was making a tremendous noise as he whipped the rockinghorse, whose two

curved supports for the legs did not move fast enough to please him; his pretty face, framed in fair curls that

fell over his white collar, smiled up like a cherub's at his mother when she said to him from the depths of an

The inquisitive boy suddenly got off his horse, and treading on tiptoe as if he were afraid of the sound of his

feet on the carpet, came up with one finger between his little teeth, and standing in one of those childish

attitudes that are so graceful because they are so perfectly natural, raised the muslin veil that hid the rosy face

"Is Eugenie asleep, then?" said he, quite astonished. "Why is she asleep when we are awake?" he added,

Caroline, now about fourandtwenty, showed the ripe beauty which had expanded under the influence of

Delighted to obey her dear Roger's every wish, she had acquired the accomplishments she had lacked; she

played the piano fairly well, and sang sweetly. Ignorant of the customs of a world that would have treated her

as an outcast, and which she would not have cared for even if it had welcomed herfor a happy woman does

not care for the world she had not caught the elegance of manner or learned the art of conversation,

abounding in words and devoid of ideas, which is current in fashionable drawingrooms; on the other hand,

she worked hard to gain the knowledge indispensable to a mother whose chief ambition is to bring up her

children well. Never to lose sight of her boy, to give him from the cradle that training of every minute which

impresses on the young a love of all that is good and beautiful, to shelter him from every evil influence and

fulfil both the painful duties of a nurse and the tender offices of a mother,these were her chief pleasures.

The coy and gentle being had from the first day so fully resigned herself never to step beyond the enchanted

sphere where she found all her happiness, that, after six years of the tenderest intimacy, she still knew her

lover only by the name of Roger. A print of the picture of the Psyche lighting her lamp to gaze on Love in

spite of his prohibition, hung in her room, and constantly reminded her of the conditions of her happiness.

Through all these six years her humble pleasures had never importuned Roger by a single indiscreet ambition,

and his heart was a treasurehouse of kindness. Never had she longed for diamonds or fine clothes, and had

again and again refused the luxury of a carriage which he had offered her. To look out from her balcony for

Roger's cab, to go with him to the play or make excursions with him, on fine days in the environs of Paris, to

long for him, to see him, and then to long again,these made up the history of her life, poor in incidents but

As she rocked the infant, now a few months old, on her knee, singing the while, she allowed herself to recall

the memories of the past. She lingered more especially on the months of September, when Roger was

accustomed to take her to Bellefeuille and spend the delightful days which seem to combine the charms of

every season. Nature is equally prodigal of flowers and fruit, the evenings are mild, the mornings bright, and

a blaze of summer often returns after a spell of autumn gloom. During the early days of their love, Caroline

had ascribed the even mind and gentle temper, of which Roger gave her so many proofs, to the rarity of their

always longedfor meetings, and to their mode of life, which did not compel them to be constantly together,

as a husband and wife must be. But now she could remember with rapture that, tortured by foolish fears, she

had watched him with trembling during their first stay on this little estate in the Gatinais. Vain suspiciousness

of love! Each of these months of happiness had passed like a dream in the midst of joys which never rang

false. She had always seen that kind creature with a tender smile on his lips, a smile that seemed to mirror her

As she called up these vivid pictures, her eyes filled with tears; she thought she could not love him enough,

and was tempted to regard her ambiguous position as a sort of tax levied by Fate on her love. Finally,

invincible curiosity led her to wonder for the thousandth time what events they could be that led so tender a

heart as Roger's to find his pleasure in clandestine and illicit happiness. She invented a thousand romances on

purpose really to avoid recognizing the true reason, which she had long suspected but tried not to believe in.

She rose, and carrying the baby in her arms, went into the dining room to superintend the preparations for

It was the 6th of May 1822, the anniversary of the excursion to the Park of SaintLeu, which had been the

turningpoint of her life; each year it had been marked by heartfelt rejoicing. Caroline chose the linen to be

used, and arranged the dessert. Having attended with joy to these details, which touched Roger, she placed

the infant in her pretty cot and went out on to the balcony, whence she presently saw the carriage which her

friend, as he grew to riper years, now used instead of the smart tilbury of his youth. After submitting to the

first fire of Caroline's embraces and the kisses of the little rogue who addressed him as papa, Roger went to

the cradle, looked at his little sleeping daughter, kissed her forehead, and then took out of his pocket a

"Caroline," said he, "here is the marriage portion of Mademoiselle Eugenie de Bellefeuille."

The mother gratefully took the paper, a deed of gift of securities in the State funds.

"Buy why," said she, "have you given Eugenie three thousand francs a year, and Charles no more than fifteen

"Charles, my love, will be a man," replied he. "Fifteen hundred francs are enough for him. With so much for

certain, a man of courage is above poverty. And if by chance your son should turn out a nonentity, I do not

wish him to be able to play the fool. If he is ambitious, this small income will give him a taste for

The father then turned to play with his boy, whose effusive affection showed the independence and freedom

in which he was brought up. No sort of shyness between the father and child interfered with the charm which

rewards a parent for his devotion; and the cheerfulness of the little family was as sweet as it was genuine. In

the evening a magic lantern displayed its illusions and mysterious pictures on a white sheet to Charles' great

surprise, and more than once the innocent child's heavenly rapture made Caroline and Roger laugh heartily.

Later, when the little boy was in bed, the baby woke and craved its limpid nourishment. By the light of a

lamp in the chimney corner, Roger enjoyed the scene of peace and comfort, and gave himself up to the

happiness of contemplating the sweet picture of the child clinging to Caroline's white bosom as she sat, as

fresh as a newly opened lily, while her hair fell in long brown curls that almost hid her neck. The lamplight

enhanced the grace of the young mother, shedding over her, her dress, and the infant, the picturesque effects

The calm and silent woman's face struck Roger as a thousand times sweeter than ever, and he gazed tenderly

at the rosy, pouting lips from which no harsh word had ever been heard. The very same thought was legible

in Caroline's eyes as she gave a sidelong look at Roger, either to enjoy the effect she was producing on him,

or to see what the end of the evening was to be. He, understanding the meaning of this cunning glance, said

with assumed regret, "I must be going. I have a serious case to be finished, and I am expected at home. Duty

Caroline looked him in the face with an expression at once sad and sweet, with the resignation which does

"Goodbye, then," said she. "Go, for if you stay an hour longer I cannot so lightly bear to set you free."

"My dearest," said he with a smile, "I have three days' holiday, and am supposed to be twenty leagues away

A few days after this anniversary of the 6th of May, Mademoiselle de Bellefeuille hurried off one morning to

the Rue SaintLouis, in the Marais, only hoping she might not arrive too late at a house where she commonly

went once a week. An express messenger had just come to inform her that her mother, Madame Crochard,

was sinking under a complication of disorders produced by constant catarrh and rheumatism.

While the hackney coachdriver was flogging up his horses at Caroline's urgent request, supported by the

promise of a handsome present, the timid old women, who had been Madame Crochard's friends during her

later years, had brought a priest into the neat and comfortable secondfloor rooms occupied by the old

widow. Madame Crochard's maid did not know that the pretty lady at whose house her mistress so often

dined was her daughter, and she was one of the first to suggest the services of a confessor, in the hope that

this priest might be at least as useful to herself as to the sick woman. Between two games of boston, or out

walking in the Jardin Turc, the old beldames with whom the widow gossiped all day had succeeded in

rousing in their friend's stony heart some scruples as to her former life, some visions of the future, some fears

of hell, and some hopes of forgiveness if she should return in sincerity to a religious life. So on this solemn

morning three ancient females had settled themselves in the drawingroom where Madame Crochard was "at

home" every Tuesday. Each in turn left her armchair to go to the poor old woman's bedside and sit with her,

At the same time, when the end was drawing near, when the physician called in the day before would no

longer answer for her life, the three dames took counsel together as to whether it would not be well to send

word to Mademoiselle de Bellefeuille. Francoise having been duly informed, it was decided that a

commissionaire should go to the Rue Taitbout to inform the young relation whose influence was so

disquieting to the four women; still, they hoped that the Auvergnat would be too late in bringing back the

person who so certainly held the first place in the widow Crochard's affections. The widow, evidently in the

enjoyment of a thousand crowns a year, would not have been so fondly cherished by this feminine trio, but

that neither of them, nor Francoise herself knew of her having any heir. The wealth enjoyed by Mademoiselle

de Bellefeuille, whom Madame Crochard, in obedience to the traditions of the older opera, never allowed

herself to speak of by the affectionate name of daughter, almost justified the four women in their scheme of

Presently the one of these three sibyls who kept guard over the sick woman came shaking her head at the

"It is time we should be sending for the Abbe Fontanon. In another two hours she will neither have the wit

Thereupon the toothless old cook went off, and returned with a man wearing a black gown. A low forehead

showed a small mind in this priest, whose features were mean; his flabby, fat cheeks and double chin

betrayed the easygoing egotist; his powdered hair gave him a pleasant look, till he raised his small, brown

eyes, prominent under a flat forehead, and not unworthy to glitter under the brows of a Tartar.

"Monsieur l'Abbe," said Francoise, "I thank you for all your advice; but believe me, I have taken the greatest

But the servant, with her dragging step and woebegone look, was silent when she saw that the door of the

apartment was open, and that the most insinuating of the three dowagers was standing on the landing to be

the first to speak with the confessor. When the priest had politely faced the honeyed and bigoted broadside of

words fired off from the widow's three friends, he went into the sickroom to sit by Madame Crochard.

Decency, and some sense of reserve, compelled the three women and old Francoise to remain in the

sittingroom, and to make such grimaces of grief as are possible in perfection only to such wrinkled faces.

"Oh, is it not illluck!" cried Francoise, heaving a sigh. "This is the fourth mistress I have buried. The first

left me a hundred francs a year, the second a sum of fifty crowns, and the third a thousand crowns down.

The woman took advantage of her freedom to come and go, to slip into a cupboard, whence she could hear

"I see with pleasure, daughter," said Fontanon, "that you have pious sentiments; you have a sacred relic round

Madame Crochard, with a feeble vagueness which seemed to show that she had not all her wits about her,

pulled out the Imperial Cross of the Legion of Honor. The priest started back at seeing the Emperor's head; he

went up to the penitent again, and she spoke to him, but in such a low tone that for some minutes Francoise

"Woe upon me!" cried the old woman suddenly. "Do not desert me. What, Monsieur l'Abbe, do you think I

The Abbe spoke too low, and the partition was too thick for Francoise to hear the reply.

"Alas!" sobbed the woman, "the wretch has left me nothing that I can bequeath. When he robbed me of my

dear Caroline, he parted us, and only allowed me three thousand francs a year, of which the capital belongs to

"Madame has a daughter, and nothing to live on but an annuity," shrieked Francoise, bursting into the

The three old crones looked at each other in dismay. One of them, whose nose and chin nearly met with an

expression that betrayed a superior type of hypocrisy and cunning, winked her eyes; and as soon as

Francoise's back was turned, she gave her friends a nod, as much as to say, "That slut is too knowing by half;

However, the Abbe presently came out, and at a word from him the witches scuttered down the stairs at his

heels, leaving Francoise alone with her mistress. Madame Crochard, whose sufferings increased in severity,

rang, but in vain, for this woman, who only called out, "Coming, comingin a minute!" The doors of

cupboards and wardrobes were slamming as though Francoise were hunting high and low for a lost lottery

Just as this crisis was at a climax, Mademoiselle de Bellefeuille came to stand by her mother's bed, lavishing

"Oh my dear mother, how criminal I have been! You are ill, and I did not know it; my heart did not warn me.

"But send for a doctor, bless me!" cried Mademoiselle de Bellefeuille. "Francoise, a doctor! How is it that

The mother made a vague sign, which Caroline's watchful eye understood, for she was silent to let her mother

"They brought a priestto hear my confession, as they said.Beware, Caroline!" cried the old woman with

The old woman died, trying to look knowingly cunning. If Mademoiselle de Bellefeuille had noted her

To enter into the interests that lay beneath this introduction to my tale, we must for a moment forget the

actors in it, and look back at certain previous incidents, of which the last was closely concerned with the

death of Madame Crochard. The two parts will then form a wholea story which, by a law peculiar to life in

Towards the close of the month of November 1805, a young barrister, aged about sixandtwenty, was going

down the stairs of the hotel where the High Chancellor of the Empire resided, at about three o'clock one

morning. Having reached the courtyard in full evening dress, under a keen frost, he could not help giving vent

to an exclamation of dismayqualified, however, by the spirit which rarely deserts a Frenchmanat seeing

no hackney coach waiting outside the gates, and hearing no noises such as arise from the wooden shoes or

harsh voices of the hackneycoachmen of Paris. The occasional pawing of the horses of the Chief Justice's

carriagethe young man having left him still playing bouillote with Cambaceresalone rang out in the

paved court, which was scarcely lighted by the carriage lamps. Suddenly the young lawyer felt a friendly

hand on his shoulder, and turning round, found himself face to face with the Judge, to whom he bowed. As

the footman let down the steps of his carriage, the old gentleman, who had served the Convention, suspected

"All cats are gray in the dark," said he goodhumoredly. "The Chief Justice cannot compromise himself by

putting a pleader in the right way! Especially," he went on, "when the pleader is the nephew of an old

colleague, one of the lights of the grand Council of State which gave France the Napoleonic Code."

At a gesture from the chief magistrate of France under the Empire, the footpassenger got into the carriage.

"Where do you live?" asked the great man, before the footman who awaited his orders had closed the door.

The horses started, and the young man found himself alone with the Minister, to whom he had vainly tried to

speak before and after the sumptuous dinner given by Cambaceres; in fact, the great man had evidently

"Nay, I am not jesting," said the Minister. "You were called two years since, and your defence in the case of

"I had supposed that my interest in those unfortunate emigres had done me no good."

"You are still very young," said the great man gravely. "But the High Chancellor," he went on, after a pause,

"was greatly pleased with you this evening. Get a judgeship in the lower courts; we want men. The nephew of

a man in whom Cambaceres and I take great interest must not remain in the background for lack of

encouragement. Your uncle helped us to tide over a very stormy season, and services of that kind are not

forgotten." The Minister sat silent for a few minutes. "Before long," he went on, "I shall have three vacancies

open in the Lower Courts and in the Imperial Court in Paris. Come to see me, and take the place you prefer.

Till then work hard, but do not be seen at my receptions. In the first place, I am overwhelmed with work; and

besides that, your rivals may suspect your purpose and do you harm with the patron. Cambaceres and I, by

not speaking a word to you this evening, have averted the accusation of favoritism."

As the great man ceased speaking, the carriage drew up on the Quai des Augustins; the young lawyer thanked

his generous patron for the two lifts he had conferred on him, and then knocked at his door pretty loudly, for

the bitter wind blew cold about his calves. At last the old lodgekeeper pulled up the latch; and as the young

man passed his window, called out in a hoarse voice, "Monsieur Granville, here is a letter for you."

The young man took the letter, and in spite of the cold, tried to identify the writing by the gleam of a dull

lamp fast dying out. "From my father!" he exclaimed, as he took his bedroom candle, which the porter at last

"Set off by the next mail; and if you can get here soon enough, your fortune is made. Mademoiselle

Angelique Bontems has lost her sister; she is now an only child; and, as we know, she does not hate you.

Madame Bontems can now leave her about forty thousand francs a year, besides whatever she may give her

"Our friends will wonder to see a family of old nobility allying itself to the Bontems; old Bontems was a red

republican of the deepest dye, owning large quantities of the nationalized land, that he bought for a mere

song. But he held nothing but convent lands, and the monks will not come back; and then, as you have

already so far derogated as to become a lawyer, I cannot see why we should shrink from a further concession

to the prevalent ideas. The girl will have three hundred thousand francs; I can give you a hundred thousand;

your mother's property must be worth fifty thousand crowns, more or less; so if you choose to take a

judgeship, my dear son, you are quite in a position to become a senator as much as any other man. My

brotherinlaw the Councillor of State will not indeed lend you a helpinghand; still, as he is not married,

his property will some day be yours, and if you are not senator by your own efforts, you will get it through

him. Then you will be perched high enough to look on at events. Farewell. Yours affectionately."

So young Granville went to bed full of schemes, each fairer than the last. Under the powerful protection of

the High Chancellor, the Chief Justice, and his mother's brotherone of the originators of the Code he

was about to make a start in a coveted position before the highest court of the Empire, and he already saw

himself a member of the bench whence Napoleon selected the chief functionaries of the realm. He could also

promise himself a fortune handsome enough to keep up his rank, for which the slender income of five

thousand francs from an estate left him by his mother would be quite insufficient.

To crown his ambitious dreams with a vision of happiness, he called up the guileless face of Mademoiselle

Angelique Bontems, the companion of his childhood. Until he came to boyhood his father and mother had

made no objection to his intimacy with their neighbor's pretty little daughter; but when, during his brief

holiday visits to Bayeux, his parents, who prided themselves on their good birth, saw what friends the young

people were, they forbade his ever thinking of her. Thus for ten years past Granville had only had occasional

glimpses of the girl, whom he still sometimes thought of as "his little wife." And in those brief moments

when they met free from the active watchfulness of their families, they had scarcely exchanged a few vague

civilities at the church door or in the street. Their happiest days had been those when, brought together by one

of those country festivities known in Normandy as Assemblees, they could steal a glance at each other from

In the course of the last vacation Granville had twice seen Angelique, and her downcast eyes and drooping

He was off by seven next morning to the coach office in the Rue Notre DamedesVictoires, and was so

It was not without deep emotion that the young lawyer saw once more the spires of the cathedral at Bayeux.

As yet no hope of his life had been cheated, and his heart swelled with the generous feelings that expand in

After the too lengthy feast of welcome prepared by his father, who awaited him with some friends, the

impatient youth was conducted to a house, long familiar to him, standing in the Rue Teinture. His heart beat

high when his fatherstill known in the town of Bayeux as the Comte de Granvilleknocked loudly at a

carriage gate off which the green paint was dropping in scales. It was about four in the afternoon. A young

maidservant, in a cotton cap, dropped a short curtsey to the two gentlemen, and said that the ladies would

The Count and his son were shown into a low room used as a drawing room, but more like a convent parlor.

Polished panels of dark walnut made it gloomy enough, and around it some oldfashioned chairs covered

with worsted work and stiff armchairs were symmetrically arranged. The stone chimneyshelf had no

ornament but a discolored mirror, and on each side of it were the twisted branches of a pair of candle

brackets, such as were made at the time of the Peace of Utrecht. Against a panel opposite, young Granville

saw an enormous crucifix of ebony and ivory surrounded by a wreath of box that had been blessed. Though

there were three windows to the room, looking out on a country town garden, laid out in formal square beds

edged with box, the room was so dark that it was difficult to discern, on the wall opposite the windows, three

pictures of sacred subjects painted by a skilled hand, and purchased, no doubt, during the Revolution by old

Bontems, who, as governor of the district, had never neglected his opportunities. From the carefully polished

floor to the green checked holland curtains everything shone with conventual cleanliness.

The young man's heart felt an involuntary chill in this silent retreat where Angelique dwelt. The habit of

frequenting the glittering Paris drawingrooms, and the constant whirl of society, had effaced from his

memory the dull and peaceful surroundings of a country life, and the contrast was so startling as to give him a

sort of internal shiver. To have just left a party at the house of Cambaceres, where life was so large, where

minds could expand, where the splendor of the Imperial Court was so vividly reflected, and to be dropped

suddenly into a sphere of squalidly narrow ideaswas it not like a leap from Italy into Greenland?"Living

here is not life!" said he to himself, as he looked round the Methodistical room. The old Count, seeing his

son's dismay, went up to him, and taking his hand, led him to a window, where there was still a gleam of

daylight, and while the maid was lighting the yellow tapers in the candle branches he tried to clear away the

"Listen, my boy," said he. "Old Bontems' widow is a frenzied bigot. 'When the devil is old' you know! I

see that the place goes against the grain. Well, this is the whole truth; the old woman is priest ridden; they

have persuaded her that it was high time to make sure of heaven, and the better to secure Saint Peter and his

keys she pays beforehand. She goes to Mass every day, attends every service, takes the communion every

Sunday God has made, and amuses herself by restoring chapels. She had given so many ornaments, and albs,

and chasubles, she has crowned the canopy with so many feathers, that on the occasion of the last Corpus

Christi procession as great a crowd came together as to see a man hanged, just to stare at the priests in their

splendid dresses and all the vessels regilt. This house too is a sort of Holy Land. It was I who hindered her

from giving those three pictures to the Churcha Domenichino, a Correggio, and an Andrea del

"If you do not marry her, Angelique is done for," said the Count. "Our holy apostles counsel her to live a

virgin martyr. I have had the utmost difficulty in stirring up her little heart, since she has been the only child,

by talking to her of you; but, as you will easily understand, as soon as she is married you will carry her off to

Paris. There, festivities, married life, the theatres, and the rush of Parisian society, will soon make her forget

confessionals, and fasting, and hair shirts, and Masses, which are the exclusive nourishment of such

"But the fifty thousand francs a year derived from Church property? Will not all that return"

"That is the point!" exclaimed the Count, with a cunning glance. "In consideration of this marriagefor

Madame Bontems' vanity is not a little flattered by the notion of grafting the Bontems on to the genealogical

tree of the Granvillesthe aforenamed mother agrees to settle her fortune absolutely on the girl, reserving

only a life interest. The priesthood, therefore, are set against the marriage; but I have had the banns

published, everything is ready, and in a week you will be out of the clutches of the mother and her Abbes.

You will have the prettiest girl in Bayeux, a good little soul who will give you no trouble, because she has

sound principles. She has been mortified, as they say in their jargon, by fasting and prayerand," he added

A modest tap at the door silenced the Count, who expected to see the two ladies appear. A little page came in,

evidently in a great hurry; but, abashed by the presence of the two gentlemen, he beckoned to a housekeeper,

who followed him. Dressed in a blue cloth jacket with short tails, and blueandwhite striped trousers, his

hair cut short all round, the boy's expression was that of a chorister, so strongly was it stamped with the

"Mademoiselle Gatienne," said he, "do you know where the books are for the offices of the Virgin? The

ladies of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart are going in procession this evening round the church."

"Let us go to look on," said the father to his son. "There will be some pretty women there, and a visit to the

"No; but I have been thinking that you have still ten thousand francs a year left of your original fortune. You

will leave them to meas long a time hence as possible, I hope. But if you are ready to give me a hundred

thousand francs to make a foolish match, you will surely allow me to ask you for only fifty thousand to save

me from such a misfortune, and enjoy as a bachelor a fortune equal to what your Mademoiselle Bontems

"No, father. These are the facts. The Chief Justice promised me yesterday that I should have a seat on the

Bench. Fifty thousand francs added to what I have, and to the pay of my appointment, will give me an income

of twelve thousand francs a year. And I then shall most certainly have a chance of marrying a fortune, better

"It is very clear," said his father, "that you were not brought up under the old regime. Does a man of our rank

"Bless me!" cried the Count, interrupting his son, "then what my old emigre friends tell me is true, I suppose.

The Revolution has left us habits devoid of pleasure, and has infected all the young men with vulgar

principles. You, like my Jacobin brotherinlaw, will harangue me, I suppose, on the Nation, Public Morals,

and Disinterestedness! Good Heavens! But for the Emperor's sisters, where should we be?"

The still hale old man, whom the peasants on the estate persisted in calling the Signeur de Granville, ended

his speech as they entered the Cathedral porch. In spite of the sanctity of the place, and even as he dipped his

fingers in the holy water, he hummed an air from the opera of Rose et Colas, and then led the way down the

side aisles, stopping by each pillar to survey the rows of heads, all in lines like ranks of soldiers on parade.

The special service of the Sacred Heart was about to begin. The ladies affiliated to that congregation were in

front near the choir, so the Count and his son made their way to that part of the nave, and stood leaning

against one of the columns where there was least light, whence they could command a view of this mass of

faces, looking like a meadow full of flowers. Suddenly, close to young Granville, a voice, sweeter than it

seemed possible to ascribe to a human being, broke into song, like the first nightingale when winter is past.

Though it mingled with the voices of a thousand other women and the notes of the organ, that voice stirred

his nerves as though they vibrated to the too full and too piercing sounds of a harmonium. The Parisian

turned round, and, seeing a young figure, though, the head being bent, her face was entirely concealed by a

large white bonnet, concluded that the voice was hers. He fancied that he recognized Angelique in spite of a

"Yes, there she is," said the Count, after looking where his son pointed, and then, by an expressive glance, he

directed his attention to the pale face of an elderly woman who had already detected the strangers, though her

false eyes, deep set in dark circles, did not seem to have strayed from the prayerbook she held.

Angelique raised her face, gazing at the altar as if to inhale the heavy scent of the incense that came wafted in

clouds over the two women. And then, in the doubtful light that the tapers shed down the nave, with that of a

central lamp and of some lights round the pillars, the young man beheld a face which shook his

determination. A white wateredsilk bonnet closely framed features of perfect regularity, the oval being

completed by the satin ribbon tie that fastened it under her dimpled chin. Over her forehead, very sweet

though low, hair of a pale gold color parted in two bands and fell over her cheeks, like the shadow of leaves

on a flower. The arches of her eyebrows were drawn with the accuracy we admire in the best Chinese

paintings. Her nose, almost aquiline in profile, was exceptionally firmly cut, and her lips were like two rose

lines lovingly traced with a delicate brush. Her eyes, of a light blue, were expressive of innocence.

Though Granville discerned a sort of rigid reserve in this girlish face, he could ascribe it to the devotion in

which Angelique was rapt. The solemn words of prayer, visible in the cold, came from between rows of

pearls, like a fragrant mist, as it were. The young man involuntarily bent over her a little to breathe this

diviner air. This movement attracted the girl's notice; her gaze, raised to the altar, was diverted to Granville,

whom she could see but dimly in the gloom; but she recognized him as the companion of her youth, and a

memory more vivid than prayer brought a supernatural glow to her face; she blushed. The young lawyer was

thrilled with joy at seeing the hopes of another life overpowered by those of love, and the glory of the

sanctuary eclipsed by earthly reminiscences; but his triumph was brief. Angelique dropped her veil, assumed

a calm demeanor, and went on singing without letting her voice betray the least emotion.

Granville was a prey to one single wish, and every thought of prudence vanished. By the time the service was

ended, his impatience was so great that he could not leave the ladies to go home alone, but came at once to

make his bow to "his little wife." They bashfully greeted each other in the Cathedral porch in the presence of

the congregation. Madame Bontems was tremulous with pride as she took the Comte de Granville's arm,

though he, forced to offer it in the presence of all the world was vexed enough with his son for his illadvised

For about a fortnight, between the official announcement of the intended marriage of the Vicomte de

Granville to Mademoiselle Bontems and the solemn day of the wedding, he came assiduously to visit his

ladylove in the dismal drawingroom, to which he became accustomed. His long calls were devoted to

watching Angelique's character; for his prudence, happily, had made itself heard again in the day after their

first meeting. He always found her seated at a little table of some West Indian wood, and engaged in marking

the linen of her trousseau. Angelique never spoke first on the subject of religion. If the young lawyer amused

himself with fingering the handsome rosary that she kept in a little green velvet bag, if he laughed as he

looked at a relic such as usually is attached to this means of grace, Angelique would gently take the rosary

out of his hands and replace it in the bag without a word, putting it away at once. When, now and then,

Granville was so bold as to make mischievous remarks as to certain religious practices, the pretty girl listened

"You must either believe nothing, or believe everything the Church teaches," she would say. "Would you

wish to have a woman without a religion as the mother of your children?No.What man may dare judge

as between disbelievers and God? And how can I then blame what the Church allows?"

Angelique appeared to be animated by such fervent charity, the young man saw her look at him with such

perfect conviction, that he sometimes felt tempted to embrace her religious views; her firm belief that she was

in the only right road aroused doubts in his mind, which she tried to turn to account.

But then Granville committed the fatal blunder of mistaking the enchantment of desire for that of love.

Angelique was so happy in reconciling the voice of her heart with that of duty, by giving way to a liking that

had grown up with her from childhood, that the deluded man could not discern which of the two spoke the

louder. Are not all young men ready to trust the promise of a pretty face and to infer beauty of soul from

beauty of feature? An indefinable impulse leads them to believe that moral perfection must coexist with

physical perfection. If Angelique had not been at liberty to give vent to her sentiments, they would soon have

dried up in her heart like a plant watered with some deadly acid. How should a lover be aware of bigotry so

This was the course of young Granville's feelings during that fortnight, devoured by him like a book of which

the end is absorbing. Angelique, carefully watched by him, seemed the gentlest of creatures, and he even

caught himself feeling grateful to Madame Bontems, who, by implanting so deeply the principles of religion,

On the day named for signing the inevitable contract, Madame Bontems made her soninlaw pledge himself

solemnly to respect her daughter's religious practices, to allow her entire liberty of conscience, to permit her

to go to communion, to church, to confession as often as she pleased, and never to control her choice of

priestly advisers. At this critical moment Angelique looked at her future husband with such pure and innocent

eyes, that Granville did not hesitate to give his word. A smile puckered the lips of the Abbe Fontanon, a pale

man, who directed the consciences of this household. Mademoiselle Bontems, by a slight nod, seemed to

promise that she would never take an unfair advantage of this freedom. As to the old Count, he gently

whistled the tune of an old song, Vatenvoir s'ils viennent ("Go and see if they are coming on!")

A few days after the wedding festivities of which so much is thought in the provinces, Granville and his wife

went to Paris, whither the young man was recalled by his appointment as public prosecutor to the Supreme

When the young couple set out to find a residence, Angelique used the influence that the honeymoon gives to

every wife in persuading her husband to take a large apartment in the groundfloor of a house at the corner of

the Vieille Rue du Temple and the Rue Nueve Saint Francois. Her chief reason for this choice was that the

house was close to the Rue d'Orleans, where there was a church, and not far from a small chapel in the Rue

Angelique pointed out to him that this part of Paris, known as the Marais, was within easy reach of the Palais

de Justice, and that the lawyers they knew lived in the neighborhood. A fairly large garden made the

apartment particularly advantageous to a young couple; the childrenif Heaven should send them

anycould play in the open air; the courtyard was spacious, and there were good stables.

The lawyer wished to live in the Chaussee d'Antin, where everything is fresh and bright, where the fashions

may be seen while still new, where a welldressed crowd throngs the Boulevards, and the distance is less to

the theatres or places of amusement; but he was obliged to give way to the coaxing ways of a young wife,

who asked this as his first favor; so, to please her, he settled in the Marais. Granville's duties required him to

work hardall the more, because they were new to himso he devoted himself in the first place to

furnishing his private study and arranging his books. He was soon established in a room crammed with

papers, and left the decoration of the house to his wife. He was all the better pleased to plunge Angelique into

the bustle of buying furniture and fittings, the source of so much pleasure and of so many associations to

most young women, because he was rather ashamed of depriving her of his company more often than the

usages of early married life require. As soon as his work was fairly under way, he gladly allowed his wife to

tempt him out of his study to consider the effect of furniture or hangings, which he had before only seen

If the old adage is true that says a woman may be judged of from her front door, her rooms must express her

mind with even greater fidelity. Madame de Granville had perhaps stamped the various things she had

ordered with the seal of her own character; the young lawyer was certainly startled by the cold, arid solemnity

that reigned in these rooms; he found nothing to charm his taste; everything was discordant, nothing gratified

the eye. The rigid mannerism that prevailed in the sittingroom at Bayeux had invaded his home; the broad

panels were hollowed in circles, and decorated with those arabesques of which the long, monotonous

mouldings are in such bad taste. Anxious to find excuses for his wife, the young husband began again,

looking first at the long and lofty anteroom through which the apartment was entered. The color of the

panels, as ordered by his wife, was too heavy, and the very dark green velvet used to cover the benches added

to the gloom of this entrancenot, to be sure, an important room, but giving a first impressionjust as we

measure a man's intelligence by his first address. An anteroom is a kind of preface which announces what is

The young husband wondered whether his wife could really have chosen the lamp of an antique pattern,

which hung in the centre of this bare hall, the pavement of black and white marble, and the paper in imitation

of blocks of stone, with green moss on them in places. A handsome, but not new, barometer hung on the

middle of one of the walls, as if to accentuate the void. At the sight of it all, he looked round at his wife; he

saw her so much pleased by the red braid binding to the cotton curtains, so satisfied with the barometer and

the strictly decent statue that ornamented a large Gothic stove, that he had not the barbarous courage to

overthrow such deep convictions. Instead of blaming his wife, Granville blamed himself, accusing himself of

having failed in his duty of guiding the first steps in Paris of a girl brought up at Bayeux.

From this specimen, what might not be expected of the other rooms? What was to be looked for from a

woman who took fright at the bare legs of a Caryatid, and who would not look at a chandelier or a

candlestick if she saw on it the nude outlines of an Egyptian bust? At this date the school of David was at

the height of its glory; all the art of France bore the stamp of his correct design and his love of antique types,

which indeed gave his pictures the character of colored sculpture. But none of these devices of Imperial

luxury found civic rights under Madame de Granville's roof. The spacious, square drawing room remained

as it had been left from the time of Louis XV., in white and tarnished gold, lavishly adorned by the architect

with checkered latticework and the hideous garlands due to the uninventive designers of the time. Still, if

harmony at least had prevailed, if the furniture of modern mahogany had but assumed the twisted forms of

which Boucher's corrupt taste first set the fashion, Angelique's room would only have suggested the fantastic

contrast of a young couple in the nineteenth century living as though they were in the eighteenth; but a

number of details were in ridiculous discord. The consoles, the clocks, the candelabra, were decorated with

the military trophies which the wars of the Empire commended to the affections of the Parisians; and the

Greek helmets, the Roman crossed daggers, and the shields so dear to military enthusiasm that they were

introduced on furniture of the most peaceful uses, had no fitness side by side with the delicate and profuse

Bigotry tends to an indescribably tiresome kind of humility which does not exclude pride. Whether from

modesty or by choice, Madame de Granville seemed to have a horror of light and cheerful colors; perhaps,

too, she imagined that brown and purple beseemed the dignity of a magistrate. How could a girl accustomed

to an austere life have admitted the luxurious divans that may suggest evil thoughts, the elegant and tempting

The poor husband was in despair. From the tone in which he approved, only seconding the praises she

bestowed on herself, Angelique understood that nothing really pleased him; and she expressed so much regret

at her want of success, that Granville, who was very much in love, regarded her disappointment as a proof of

her affection instead of resentment for an offence to her selfconceit. After all, could he expect a girl just

snatched from the humdrum of country notions, with no experience of the niceties and grace of Paris life, to

know or do any better? Rather would he believe that his wife's choice had been overruled by the tradesmen

than allow himself to own the truth. If he had been less in love, he would have understood that the dealers,

always quick to discern their customers' ideas, had blessed Heaven for sending them a tasteless little bigot,

who would take their old fashioned goods off their hands. So he comforted the pretty provincial.

"Happiness, dear Angelique, does not depend on a more or less elegant piece of furniture; it depends on the

"Why, it is my duty to love you," said Angelique mildly, "and I can have no more delightful duty to carry

Nature has implanted in the heart of woman so great a desire to please, so deep a craving for love, that, even

in a youthful bigot, the ideas of salvation and a future existence must give way to the happiness of early

married life. And, in fact, from the month of April, when they were married, till the beginning of winter, the

husband and wife lived in perfect union. Love and hard work have the grace of making a man tolerably

indifferent to external matters. Being obliged to spend half the day in court fighting for the gravest interests

of men's lives or fortunes, Granville was less alive than another might have been to certain facts in his

If, on a Friday, he found none but Lenten fare, and by chance asked for a dish of meat without getting it, his

wife, forbidden by the Gospel to tell a lie, could still, by such subterfuges as are permissible in the interests of

religion, cloak what was premeditated purpose under some pretext of her own carelessness or the scarcity in

the market. She would often exculpate herself at the expense of the cook, and even go so far as to scold him.

At that time young lawyers did not, as they do now, keep the fasts of the Church, the four rogation seasons,

and the vigils of festivals; so Granville was not at first aware of the regular recurrence of these Lenten meals,

which his wife took care should be made dainty by the addition of teal, moor hen, and fishpies, that their

amphibious meat or high seasoning might cheat his palate. Thus the young man unconsciously lived in strict

On weekdays he did not know whether his wife went to Mass or no. On Sundays, with very natural

amiability, he accompanied her to church to make up to her, as it were, for sometimes giving up vespers in

favor of his company; he could not at first fully enter into the strictness of his wife's religious views. The

theatres being impossible in summer by reason of the heat, Granville had not even the opportunity of the

great success of a piece to give rise to the serious question of play going. And, in short, at the early stage of

a union to which a man has been led by a young girl's beauty, he can hardly be exacting as to his

amusements. Youth is greedy rather than dainty, and possession has a charm in itself. How should he be keen

to note coldness, dignity, and reserve in the woman to whom he ascribes the excitement he himself feels, and

lends the glow of the fire that burns within him? He must have attained a certain conjugal calm before he

Granville, therefore, believed himself happy till a fatal event brought its influence to bear on his married life.

In the month of November 1808 the Canon of Bayeux Cathedral who had been the keeper of Madame

Bontems' conscience and her daughter's, came to Paris, spurred by the ambition to be at the head of a church

in the capitala position which he regarded perhaps as the steppingstone to a bishopric. On resuming his

former control of this wandering lamb, he was horrified to find her already so much deteriorated by the air of

Paris, and strove to reclaim her to his chilly fold. Frightened by the exhortations of this priest, a man of about

eightandthirty, who brought with him, into the circle of the enlightened and tolerant Paris clergy, the bitter

provincial catholicism and the inflexible bigotry which fetter timid souls with endless exactions, Madame de

It would be tiresome to describe minutely all the circumstances which insensibly brought disaster on this

household; it will be enough to relate the simple facts without giving them in strict order of time.

The first misunderstanding between the young couple was, however, a serious one.

When Granville took his wife into society she never declined solemn functions, such as dinners, concerts, or

parties given by the Judges superior to her husband in the legal profession; but for a long time she constantly

excused herself on the plea of a sick headache when they were invited to a ball. One day Granville, out of

patience with these assumed indispositions, destroyed a note of invitation to a ball at the house of a

Councillor of State, and gave his wife only a verbal invitation. Then, on the evening, her health being quite

"My dear," said he, on their return home, seeing her wear an offensive air of depression, "your position as a

wife, the rank you hold in society, and the fortune you enjoy, impose on you certain duties of which no divine

law can relieve you. Are you not your husband's pride? You are required to go to balls when I go, and to

"It is your manner, my dear. When a young man comes up to speak to you, you look so serious that a spiteful

person might believe you doubtful of your own virtue. You seem to fear lest a smile should undo you. You

really look as if you were asking forgiveness of God for the sins that may be committed around you. The

world, my dearest, is not a convent.But, as you mentioned your dress, I may confess to you that it is no

"Do you wish that I should display my shape like those indecent women who wear gowns so low that

"There is a difference, my dear," said her husband, interrupting her, "between uncovering your whole bust

and giving some grace to your dress. You wear three rows of net frills that cover your throat up to your chin.

You look as if you had desired your dressmaker to destroy the graceful line of your shoulders and bosom with

as much care as a coquette would devote to obtaining from hers a bodice that might emphasize her covered

form. Your bust is wrapped in so many folds that every one was laughing at your affectation of prudery. You

would be really grieved if I were to repeat the illnatured remarks made on your appearance."

"Those who admire such obscenity will not have to bear the burthen if we sin," said the lady tartly.

"If I tell you that you ought to dance!" said her husband sharply. "Yes, you ought to follow the fashions, to

wear flowers in your hair, and diamonds. Remember, my dear, that rich peopleand we are rich are

obliged to keep up luxury in the State. Is it not far better to encourage manufacturers than to distribute money

The discussion was bitter. Madame de Granville's answers, though spoken very sweetly and in a voice as

clear as a church bell, showed an obstinacy that betrayed priestly influence. When she appealed to the rights

secured to her by Granville's promise, she added that her director specially forbade her going to balls; then

her husband pointed out to her that the priest was overstepping the regulations of the Church.

This odious theological dispute was renewed with great violence and acerbity on both sides when Granville

proposed to take his wife to the play. Finally, the lawyer, whose sole aim was to defeat the pernicious

influence exerted over his wife by her old confessor, placed the question on such a footing that Madame de

Granville, in a spirit of defiance, referred it by writing to the Court of Rome, asking in so many words

whether a woman could wear low gowns and go to the play and to balls without compromising her salvation.

The reply of the venerable Pope Pius VII. came at once, strongly condemning the wife's recalcitrancy and

blaming the priest. This letter, a chapter on conjugal duties, might have been dictated by the spirit of Fenelon,

"A wife is right to go wherever her husband may take her. Even if she sins by his command, she will not be

ultimately held answerable." These two sentences of the Pope's homily only made Madame de Granville and

But before this letter had arrived, Granville had discovered the strict observance of fast days that his wife

forced upon him, and gave his servants orders to serve him with meat every day in the year. However much

annoyed his wife might be by these commands, Granville, who cared not a straw for such indulgence or

Is it not an offence to the weakest creature that can think at all to be compelled to do, by the will of another,

anything that he would otherwise have done simply of his own accord? Of all forms of tyranny, the most

odious is that which constantly robs the soul of the merit of its thoughts and deeds. It has to abdicate without

having reigned. The word we are readiest to speak, the feelings we most love to express, die when we are

Ere long the young man ceased to invite his friends, to give parties or dinners; the house might have been

shrouded in crape. A house where the mistress is a bigot has an atmosphere of its own. The servants, who are,

of course, under her immediate control, are chosen among a class who call themselves pious, and who have

an unmistakable physiognomy. Just as the jolliest fellow alive, when he joins the gendarmerie, has the

countenance of a gendarme, so those who give themselves over to the habit of lowering their eyes and

preserving a sanctimonious mien clothes them in a livery of hypocrisy which rogues can affect to perfection.

And besides, bigots constitute a sort of republic; they all know each other; the servants they recommend and

hand on from one to another are a race apart, and preserved by them, as horsebreeders will admit no animal

into their stables that has not a pedigree. The more the impiousas they are thoughtcome to understand a

household of bigots, the more they perceive that everything is stamped with an indescribable squalor; they

find there, at the same time, an appearance of avarice and mystery, as in a miser's home, and the dank scent

of cold incense which gives a chill to the stale atmosphere of a chapel. This methodical meanness, this

narrowness of thought, which is visible in every detail, can only be expressed by one wordBigotry. In

these sinister and pitiless houses Bigotry is written on the furniture, the prints, the pictures; speech is bigoted,

the silence is bigoted, the faces are those of bigots. The transformation of men and things into bigotry is an

inexplicable mystery, but the fact is evident. Everybody can see that bigots do not walk, do not sit, do not

speak, as men of the world walk, sit, and speak. Under their roof every one is ill at ease, no one laughs,

stiffness and formality infect everything, from the mistress' cap down to her pincushion; eyes are not honest,

the folks are more like shadows, and the lady of the house seems perched on a throne of ice.

One morning poor Granville discerned with grief and pain that all the symptoms of bigotry had invaded his

home. There are in the world different spheres in which the same effects are seen though produced by

dissimilar causes. Dulness hedges such miserable homes round with walls of brass, enclosing the horrors of

the desert and the infinite void. The home is not so much a tomb as that far worse thinga convent. In the

center of this icy sphere the lawyer could study his wife dispassionately. He observed, not without keen

regret, the narrowmindedness that stood confessed in the very way that her hair grew, low on the forehead,

which was slightly depressed; he discovered in the perfect regularity of her features a certain set rigidity

which before long made him hate the assumed sweetness that had bewitched him. Intuition told him that one

Madame de Granville's complexion was acquiring a dull pallor and an austere expression that were a killjoy

to all who came near her. Was this change wrought by the ascetic habits of a pharisaism which is not piety

any more than avarice is economy? It would be hard to say. Beauty without expression is perhaps an

imposture. This imperturbable set smile that the young wife always wore when she looked at Granville

seemed to be a sort of Jesuitical formula of happiness, by which she thought to satisfy all the requirements of

married life. Her charity was an offence, her soulless beauty was monstrous to those who knew her; the

mildness of her speech was an irritation: she acted, not on feeling, but on duty.

There are faults which may yield in a wife to the stern lessons of experience, or to a husband's warnings; but

nothing can counteract false ideas of religion. An eternity of happiness to be won, set in the scale against

worldly enjoyment, triumphs over everything and makes every pang endurable. Is it not the apotheosis of

egotism, of Self beyond the grave? Thus even the Pope was censured at the tribunal of the priest and the

young devotee. To be always in the right is a feeling which absorbs every other in these tyrannous souls.

For some time past a secret struggle had been going on between the ideas of the husband and wife, and the

young man was soon weary of a battle to which there could be no end. What man, what temper, can endure

the sight of a hypocritically affectionate face and categorical resistance to his slightest wishes? What is to be

done with a wife who takes advantage of his passion to protect her coldness, who seems determined on being

blandly inexorable, prepares herself ecstatically to play the martyr, and looks on her husband as a scourge

from God, a means of flagellation that may spare her the fires of purgatory? What picture can give an idea of

these women who make virtue hateful by defying the gentle precepts of that faith which Saint John

If there was a bonnet to be found in a milliner's shop that was condemned to remain in the window, or to be

packed off to the colonies, Granville was certain to see it on his wife's head; if a material of bad color or

hideous design were to be found, she would select it. These hapless bigots are heartbreaking in their notions

And so, in the homelife that needs the fullest sympathy, Granville had no true companionship. He went out

alone to parties and the theatres. Nothing in his house appealed to him. A huge Crucifix that hung between

his bed and Angelique's seemed figurative of his destiny. Does it not represent a murdered Divinity, a

ManGod, done to death in all the prime of life and beauty? The ivory of that cross was less cold than

Angelique crucifying her husband under the plea of virtue. This it was that lay at the root of their woes; the

young wife saw nothing but duty where she should have given love. Here, one Ash Wednesday, rose the pale

and spectral form of Fasting in Lent, of Total Abstinence, commanded in a severe toneand Granville did

not deem it advisable to write in his turn to the Pope and take the opinion of the Consistory on the proper way

His misfortune was too great! He could not even complain, for what could he say? He had a pretty young

wife attached to her duties, virtuousnay, a model of all the virtues. She had a child every year, nursed them

herself, and brought them up in the highest principles. Being charitable, Angelique was promoted to rank as

an angel. The old women who constituted the circle in which she movedfor at that time it was not yet "the

thing" for young women to be religious as a matter of fashionall admired Madame de Granville's piety,

and regarded her, not indeed as a virgin, but as a martyr. They blamed not the wife's scruples, but the

Granville, by insensible degrees, overdone with work, bereft of conjugal consolations, and weary of a world

in which he wandered alone, by the time he was twoandthirty had sunk into the Slough of Despond. He

hated life. Having too lofty a notion of the responsibilities imposed on him by his position to set the example

of a dissipated life, he tried to deaden feeling by hard study, and began a great book on Law.

But he was not allowed to enjoy the monastic peace he had hoped for. When the celestial Angelique saw him

desert worldly society to work at home with such regularity, she tried to convert him. It had been a real

sorrow to her to know that her husband's opinions were not strictly Christian; and she sometimes wept as she

reflected that if her husband should die it would be in a state of final impenitence, so that she could not hope

to snatch him from the eternal fires of Hell. Thus Granville was a mark for the mean ideas, the vacuous

arguments, the narrow views by which his wifefancying she had achieved the first victorytried to gain a

This was the last straw. What can be more intolerable than the blind struggle in which the obstinacy of a bigot

tries to meet the acumen of a lawyer? What more terrible to endure than the acrimonious pinpricks to which

a passionate soul prefers a daggerthrust? Granville neglected his home. Everything there was unendurable.

His children, broken by their mother's frigid despotism, dared not go with him to the play; indeed, Granville

could never give them any pleasure without bringing down punishment from their terrible mother. His loving

nature was weaned to indifference, to a selfishness worse than death. His boys, indeed, he saved from this

hell by sending them to school at an early age, and insisting on his right to train them. He rarely interfered

between his wife and her daughters; but he was resolved that they should marry as soon as they were old

Even if he had wished to take violent measures, he could have found no justification; his wife, backed by a

formidable army of dowagers, would have had him condemned by the whole world. Thus Granville had no

choice but to live in complete isolation; but, crushed under the tyranny of misery, he could not himself bear

to see how altered he was by grief and toil. And he dreaded any connection or intimacy with women of the

The improving history of this melancholy household gave rise to no events worthy of record during the

fifteen years between 1806 and 1825. Madame de Granville was exactly the same after losing her husband's

affection as she had been during the time when she called herself happy. She paid for Masses, beseeching

God and the Saints to enlighten her as to what the faults were which displeased her husband, and to show her

the way to restore the erring sheep; but the more fervent her prayers, the less was Granville to be seen at

For about five years now, having achieved a high position as a judge, Granville had occupied the entresol of

the house to avoid living with the Comtesse de Granville. Every morning a little scene took place, which, if

evil tongues are to be believed, is repeated in many households as the result of incompatibility of temper, of

moral or physical malady, or of antagonisms leading to such disaster as is recorded in this history. At about

eight in the morning a housekeeper, bearing no small resemblance to a nun, rang at the Comte de Granville's

door. Admitted to the room next to the Judge's study, she always repeated the same message to the footman,

"Madame would be glad to know whether Monsieur le Comte has had a good night, and if she is to have the

"Monsieur presents his compliments to Madame la Comtesse," the valet would say, after speaking with his

master, "and begs her to hold him excused; important business compels him to be in court this morning."

A minute later the woman reappeared and asked on madame's behalf whether she would have the pleasure of

This little dialogue by proxy became a daily ceremonial. Granville's servant, a favorite with his master, and

the cause of more than one quarrel over his irreligious and dissipated conduct, would even go into his

master's room, as a matter of form, when the Count was not there, and come back with the same formula in

The aggrieved wife was always on the watch for her husband's return, and standing on the steps so as to meet

him like an embodiment of remorse. The petty aggressiveness which lies at the root of the monastic temper

was the foundation of Madame de Granville's; she was now fiveandthirty, and looked forty. When the

count was compelled by decency to speak to his wife or to dine at home, she was only too well pleased to

inflict her company upon him, with her acidsweet remarks and the intolerable dulness of her

narrowminded circle, and she tried to put him in the wrong before the servants and her charitable friends.

When, at this time, the post of President in a provincial court was offered to the Comte de Granville, who was

in high favor, he begged to be allowed to remain in Paris. This refusal, of which the Keeper of the Seals alone

knew the reasons, gave rise to extraordinary conjectures on the part of the Countess' intimate friends and of

her director. Granville, a rich man with a hundred thousand francs a year, belonged to one of the first families

of Normandy. His appointment to be Presiding Judge would have been the steppingstone to a peer's seat;

whence this strange lack of ambition? Why had he given up his great book on Law? What was the meaning

of the dissipation which for nearly six years had made him a stranger to his home, his family, his study, to all

he ought to hold dear? The Countess' confessor, who based his hopes of a bishopric quite as much on the

families he governed as on the services he rendered to an association of which he was an ardent propagator,

was much disappointed by Granville's refusal, and tried to insinuate calumnious explanations: "If Monsieur le

Comte had such an objection to provincial life, it was perhaps because he dreaded finding himself under the

necessity of leading a regular life, compelled to set an example of moral conduct, and to live with the

Countess, from whom nothing could have alienated him but some illicit connection; for how could a woman

so pure as Madame de Granville ever tolerate the disorderly life into which her husband had drifted?" The

sanctimonious woman accepted as facts these hints, which unluckily were not merely hypothetical, and

Angelique, knowing nothing of the world, of love and its follies, was so far from conceiving of any

conditions of married life unlike those that had alienated her husband as possible, that she believed him to be

incapable of the errors which are crimes in the eyes of any wife. When the Count ceased to demand anything

of her, she imagined that the tranquillity he now seemed to enjoy was in the course of nature; and, as she had

really given to him all the love which her heart was capable of feeling for a man, while the priest's

conjectures were the utter destruction of the illusions she had hitherto cherished, she defended her husband; at

the same time, she could not eradicate the suspicion that had been so ingeniously sown in her soul.

These alarms wrought such havoc in her feeble brain that they made her ill; she was worn by low fever.

These incidents took place during Lent 1822; she would not pretermit her austerities, and fell into a decline

that put her life in danger. Granville's indifference was added torture; his care and attention were such as a

Though the Countess had given up her persistent nagging and remonstrances, and tried to receive her husband

with affectionate words, the sharpness of the bigot showed through, and one speech would often undo the

Towards the end of May, the warm breath of spring, and more nourishing diet than her Lenten fare, restored

Madame de Granville to a little strength. One morning, on coming home from Mass, she sat down on a stone

bench in the little garden, where the sun's kisses reminded her of the early days of her married life, and she

looked back across the years to see wherein she might have failed in her duty as a wife and mother. She was

broken in upon by the Abbe Fontanon in an almost indescribable state of excitement.

"Ah! I only wish," cried the Normandy priest, "that all the woes inflicted on you by the hand of God were

dealt out to me; but, my admirable friend, there are trials to which you can but bow."

"Can any worse punishments await me than those with which Providence crushes me by making my husband

"You must prepare yourself, daughter, to yet worse mischief than we and your pious friends had ever

"Then I may thank God," said the Countess, "for vouchsafing to use you as the messenger of His will, and

thus, as ever, setting the treasures of mercy by the side of the scourges of His wrath, just as in bygone days

"He measures your sufferings by the strength of your resignation and the weight of your sins."

"Speak; I am ready to hear!" As she said it she cast her eyes up to heaven. "Speak, Monsieur Fontanon."

"For seven years Monsieur Granville has lived in sin with a concubine, by whom he has two children; and on

this adulterous connection he has spent more than five hundred thousand francs, which ought to have been

"Far be it from you!" exclaimed the Abbe. "You must forgive, my daughter, and wait in patience and prayer

till God enlightens your husband; unless, indeed, you choose to adopt against him the means offered you by

The long conversation that ensued between the priest and his penitent resulted in an extraordinary change in

the Countess; she abruptly dismissed him, called her servants who were alarmed at her flushed face and crazy

energy. She ordered her carriagecountermanded it changed her mind twenty times in the hour; but at

last, at about three o'clock, as if she had come to some great determination, she went out, leaving the whole

"Is the Count coming home to dinner?" she asked of his servant, to whom she would never speak.

"Devil take you!" cried the man, as his mistress drove off after saying to the coachman:

Mademoiselle de Bellefeuille was weeping: Roger, sitting by her side, held one of her hands between his

own. He was silent, looking by turns at little Charleswho, not understanding his mother's grief, stood

speechless at the sight of her tearsat the cot where Eugenie lay sleeping, and Caroline's face, on which

"Yes, my darling," said Roger, after a long silence, "that is the great secret: I am married. But some day I

hope we may form but one family. My wife has been given over ever since last March. I do not wish her

dead; still, if it should please God to take her to Himself, I believe she will be happier in Paradise than in a

"How I hate that woman! How could she bear to make you unhappy? And yet it is to that unhappiness that I

"Caroline, let us hope," cried Roger. "Do not be frightened by anything that priest may have said to you.

Though my wife's confessor is a man to be feared for his power in the congregation, if he should try to blight

A shriek that rang out from the adjoining room made Roger start and Mademoiselle de Bellefeuille quake; but

she rushed into the drawing room, and there found Madame de Granville in a dead faint. When the Countess

recovered her senses, she sighed deeply on finding herself supported by the Count and her rival, whom she

instinctively pushed away with a gesture of contempt. Mademoiselle de Bellefeuille rose to withdraw.

The Judge took up his wife in his arms, carried her to the carriage, and got into it with her.

"Who is it that has brought you to the point of wishing me dead, of resolving to fly?" asked the Countess,

looking at her husband with grief mingled with indignation. "Was I not young? you thought me prettywhat

fault have you to find with me? Have I been false to you? Have I not been a virtuous and wellconducted

wife? My heart has cherished no image but yours, my ears have listened to no other voice. What duty have I

"Happiness, madame," said the Count severely. "You know, madame, that there are two ways of serving God.

Some Christians imagine that by going to church at fixed hours to say a Paternoster, by attending Mass

regularly and avoiding sin, they may win heavenbut they, madame, will go to hell; they have not loved

God for himself, they have not worshiped Him as He chooses to be worshiped, they have made no sacrifice.

Though mild in seeming, they are hard on their neighbors; they see the law, the letter, not the spirit.This is

how you have treated me, your earthly husband; you have sacrificed my happiness to your salvation; you

were always absorbed in prayer when I came to you in gladness of heart; you wept when you should have

cheered my toil; you have never tried to satisfy any demands I have made on you."

"And if they were wicked," cried the Countess hotly, "was I to lose my soul to please you?"

"It is a sacrifice which another, a more loving woman, has dared to make," said Granville coldly.

"Dear God!" she cried, bursting into tears, "Thou hearest! Has he been worthy of the prayers and penance I

have lived in, wearing myself out to atone for his sins and my own?Of what avail is virtue?"

"To win Heaven, my dear. A woman cannot be at the same time the wife of a man and the spouse of Christ.

That would be bigamy; she must choose between a husband and a nunnery. For the sake of future advantage

you have stripped your soul of all the love, all the devotion, which God commands that you should have for

"Love, my dear," replied Granville, with a sort of ironical surprise, "you are incapable of understanding it.

The cold sky of Normandy is not that of Spain. This difference of climate is no doubt the secret of our

disaster.To yield to our caprices, to guess them, to find pleasure in pain, to sacrifice the world's opinion,

your pride, your religion even, and still regard these offerings as mere grains of incense burnt in honor of the

"The love of balletgirls!" cried the Countess in horror. "Such flames cannot last, and must soon leave

nothing but ashes and cinders, regret or despair. A wife ought, in my opinion, to bring you true friendship,

"You speak of warmth as negroes speak of ice," retorted the Count, with a sardonic smile. "Consider that the

humblest daisy has more charms than the proudest and most gorgeous of the red hawthorns that attract us in

spring by their strong scent and brilliant color.At the same time," he went on, "I will do you justice. You

have kept so precisely in the straight path of imaginary duty prescribed by law, that only to make you

understand wherein you have failed towards me, I should be obliged to enter into details which would offend

your dignity, and instruct you in matters which would seem to you to undermine all morality."

"And you dare to speak of morality when you have but just left the house where you have dissipated your

children's fortune in debaucheries?" cried the Countess, maddened by her husband's reticence.

"There, madame, I must correct you," said the Count, coolly interrupting his wife. "Though Mademoiselle de

Bellefeuille is rich, it is at nobody's expense. My uncle was master of his fortune, and had several heirs. In his

lifetime, and out of pure friendship, regarding her as his niece, he gave her the little estate of Bellefeuille. As

"Madame, you are forgetting that your own father was one of the Jacobins whom you scorn so uncharitably,"

said the Count severely. "Citizen Bontems was signing deathwarrants at a time when my uncle was doing

Madame de Granville was silenced. But after a short pause, the remembrance of what she had just seen

reawakened in her soul the jealousy which nothing can kill in a woman's heart, and she murmured, as if to

"Bless me, madame," replied the Count, tired of this dialogue, "you yourself may some day have to answer

that question." The Countess was scared. "You perhaps will be held excused by the merciful Judge, who will

weigh our sins," he went on, "in consideration of the conviction with which you have worked out my misery.

I do not hate youI hate those who have perverted your heart and your reason. You have prayed for me, just

as Mademoiselle de Bellefeuille has given me her heart and crowned my life with love. You should have

been my mistress and the prayerful saint by turns.Do me the justice to confess that I am no reprobate, no

debauchee. My life was cleanly. Alas! after seven years of wretchedness, the craving for happiness led me by

an imperceptible descent to love another woman and make a second home. And do not imagine that I am

singular; there are in this city thousands of husbands, all led by various causes to live this twofold life."

"Great God!" cried the Countess. "How heavy is the cross Thou hast laid on me to bear! If the husband Thou

hast given me here below in Thy wrath can only be made happy through my death, take me to Thyself!"

"If you had always breathed such admirable sentiments and such devotion, we should be happy yet," said the

"Indeed," cried Angelique, melting into a flood of tears, "forgive me if I have done any wrong. Yes,

monsieur, I am ready to obey you in all things, feeling sure that you will desire nothing but what is just and

"If your purpose, madame, is to compel me to say that I no longer love you, I shall find the cruel courage to

tell you so. Can I command my heart? Can I wipe out in an instant the traces of fifteen years of suffering?I

have ceased to love.These words contain a mystery as deep as lies the words I love. Esteem, respect,

friendship may be won, lost, regained; but as to loveI might school myself for a thousand years, and it

"I hope, Monsieur le Comte, I sincerely hope, that such words may not be spoken to you some day by the

Early in December 1833, a man, whose perfectly white hair and worn features seemed to show that he was

aged by grief rather than by years, was walking at midnight along the Rue Gaillon. Having reached a house of

modest appearance, and only two stories high, he paused to look up at one of the attic windows that pierced

the roof at regular intervals. A dim light scarcely showed through the humble panes, some of which had been

repaired with paper. The man below was watching the wavering glimmer with the vague curiosity of a Paris

idler, when a young man came out of the house. As the light of the street lamp fell full on the face of the first

comer, it will not seem surprising that, in spite of the darkness, this young man went towards the passerby,

though with the hesitancy that is usual when we have any fear of making a mistake in recognizing an

"What, is it you," cried he, "Monsieur le President? Alone at this hour, and so far from the Rue SaintLazare.

Allow me to have the honor of giving you my arm.The pavement is so greasy this morning, that if we do

not hold each other up," he added, to soothe the elder man's susceptibilities, "we shall find it hard to escape a

"But, my dear sir, I am no more than fiftyfive, unfortunately for me," replied the Comte de Granville. "A

physician of your celebrity must know that at that age a man is still hale and strong."

"Then you are in waiting on a lady, I suppose," replied Horace Bianchon. "You are not, I imagine, in the habit

"Still, when I am not visiting in the evening, I commonly return from the Courts or the club on foot," replied

"And with large sums of money about you, perhaps!" cried the doctor. "It is a positive invitation to the

"But, at least, do not stand about," said the doctor, leading the Count towards the boulevard. "A little more

and I shall believe that you are bent of robbing me of your last illness, and dying by some other hand than

"You caught me playing the spy," said the Count. "Whether on foot or in a carriage, and at whatever hour of

the night I may come by, I have for some time past observed at a window on the third floor of your house the

The Count paused as if he felt some sudden pain. "And I take as great an interest in that garret," he went on,

"Tell me nothing," replied Granville, cutting the doctor short. "I would not give a centime to know whether

the shadow that moves across that shabby blind is that of a man or a woman, nor whether the inhabitant of

that attic is happy or miserable. Though I was surprised to see no one at work there this evening, and though I

stopped to look, it was solely for the pleasure of indulging in conjectures as numerous and as idiotic as those

of idlers who see a building left half finished. For nine years, my young" the Count hesitated to use a

word; then he waved his hand, exclaiming"No, I will not say friend I hate everything that savors of

sentiment.Well, for nine years past I have ceased to wonder that old men amuse themselves with growing

flowers and planting trees; the events of life have taught them disbelief in all human affection; and I grew old

within a few days. I will no longer attach myself to any creature but to unreasoning animals, or plants, or

superficial things. I think more of Taglioni's grace than of all human feeling. I abhor life and the world in

which I live alone. Nothing, nothing," he went on, in a tone that startled the younger man, "no, nothing can

"My children!" he repeated bitterly. "Yeswell, is not my eldest daughter the Comtesse de Vandenesse? The

other will, through her sister's connections, make some good match. As to my sons, have they not succeeded?

The Viscount was public prosecutor at Limoges, and is now President of the Court at Orleans; the younger is

public prosecutor in Paris.My children have their own cares, their own anxieties and business to attend to.

If of all those hearts one had been devoted to me, if one had tried by entire affection to fill up the void I have

here," and he struck his breast, "well, that one would have failed in life, have sacrificed it to me. And why

should he? Why? To bring sunshine into my few remaining yearsand would he have succeeded? Might I

not have accepted such generosity as a debt? But, doctor," and the Count smiled with deep irony, "it is not for

nothing that we teach them arithmetic and how to count. At this moment perhaps they are waiting for my

"O Monsieur le Comte, how could such an idea enter your headyou who are kind, friendly, and humane!

Indeed, if I were not myself a living proof of the benevolence you exercise so liberally and so nobly"

"To please myself," replied the Count. "I pay for a sensation, as I would tomorrow pay a pile of gold to

recover the most childish illusion that would but make my heart glow.I help my fellow creatures for my

own sake, just as I gamble; and I look for gratitude from none. I should see you die without blinking; and I

beg of you to feel the same with regard to me. I tell you, young man, the events of life have swept over my

"Those who have brought a soul as warm and as living as yours was to such a pitch of indifference are indeed

"You have a malady which you ought to allow me to treat," said Bianchon in a tone of deep emotion.

"No, Monsieur le Comte. But Nature is as far above Talma as Talma is superior to me.Listen: the garret

you are interested in is inhabited by a woman of about thirty, and in her love is carried to fanaticism. The

object of her adoration is a young man of pleasing appearance but endowed by some malignant fairy with

every conceivable vice. This fellow is a gambler, and it is hard to say which he is most addicted towine or

women; he has, to my knowledge, committed acts deserving punishment by law. Well, and to him this

unhappy woman sacrificed a life of ease, a man who worshiped her, and the father of her children. But

"She has allowed him to squander a perfect fortune; she would, I believe, give him the world if she had it; she

works night and day; and many a time she has, without a murmur, seen the wretch she adores rob her even of

the money saved to buy the clothes the children need, and their food for the morrow. Only three days ago she

sold her hair, the finest hair I ever saw; he came in, she could not hide the gold piece quickly enough, and he

asked her for it. For a smile, for a kiss, she gave up the price of a fortnight's life and peace. Is it not dreadful,

and yet sublime?But work is wearing her cheeks hollow. Her children's crying has broken her heart; she is

ill, and at this moment on her wretched bed. This evening they had nothing to eat; the children have not

Horace Bianchon stood still. Just then the Comte de Granville, in spite of himself, as it were, had put his hand

"I can guess, my young friend, how it is that she is yet alive if you attend her," said the elder man.

"O poor soul!" cried the doctor, "who could refuse to help her? I only wish I were richer, for I hope to cure

"But how can you expect me to pity a form of misery of which the joys to me would seem cheaply purchased

with my whole fortune!" exclaimed the Count, taking his hand out of his pocket empty of the notes which

Bianchon had supposed his patron to be feeling for. "That woman feels, she is alive! Would not Louis XV.

have given his kingdom to rise from the grave and have three days of youth and life! And is not that the

As he heard the name the Count shuddered, and grasped the doctor's arm with the grip of an iron vise, as it

"Her name is Caroline Crochard?" asked the President, in a voice that was evidently broken.

"And the wretch's name is Solvet.Ay, you have kept your word!" exclaimed Granville; "you have roused

my heart to the most terrible pain it can suffer till it is dust. That emotion, too, is a gift from hell, and I always

By this time the Count and the doctor had reached the corner of the Rue de la Chaussee d'Antin. One of those

nightbirds who wonder round with a basket on their back and crook in hand, and were, during the

Revolution, facetiously called the Committee of Research, was standing by the curbstone where the two men

now stopped. This scavenger had a shriveled face worthy of those immortalized by Charlet in his caricatures

"You're the man for me," cried the Count, giving the man a thousand franc note. "Take this, but, remember,

I give it to you on condition of your spending it at the wineshop, of your getting drunk, fighting, beating your

wife, blacking your friends' eyes. That will give work to the watch, the surgeon, the druggistperhaps to the

police, the public prosecutor, the judge, and the prison warders. Do not try to do anything else, or the devil

A draughtsman would need at once the pencil of Charlet and of Callot, the brush of Teniers and of

"Now I have squared accounts with hell, and had some pleasure for my money," said the Count in a deep

voice, pointing out the indescribable physiognomy of the gaping scavenger to the doctor, who stood

stupefied. "As for Caroline Crochard!she may die of hunger and thirst, hearing the heartrending shrieks of

her starving children, and convinced of the baseness of the man she loves. I will not give a sou to rescue her;

The Count left Bianchon standing like a statue, and walked as briskly as a young man to the Rue

SaintLazare, soon reaching the little house where he resided, and where, to his surprise, he found a carriage

"Monsieur, your son, the attorneygeneral, came about an hour since," said the manservant, "and is waiting

"What motive can be strong enough to require you to infringe the order I have given my children never to

come to me unless I send for them?" asked the Count of his son as he went into the room.

"Father," replied the younger man in a tremulous voice, and with great respect, "I venture to hope that you

"Your reply is proper," said the Count. "Sit down," and he pointed to a chair, "But whether I walk up and

"Father," the son went on, "this afternoon, at four o'clock, a very young man who was arrested in the house of

a friend of mine, whom he had robbed to a considerable extent, appealed to you.He says he is your son."

Granville paced the room in solemn silence, and his son took care not to break it.

"My son," he began, and the words were pronounced in a voice so mild and fatherly, that the young lawyer

started, "Charles Crochard spoke the truth.I am glad you came to me tonight, my good Eugene," he

added. "Here is a considerable sum of money"and he gave him a bundle of banknotes"you can make

any use of them you think proper in this matter. I trust you implicitly, and approve beforehand whatever

arrangements you may make, either in the present or for the future. Eugene my dear son, kiss me. We part

perhaps for the last time. I shall tomorrow crave my dismissal from the King, and I am going to Italy.

"Though a father owes no account of his life to his children, he is bound to bequeath to them the experience

Fate sells him so dearlyis it not a part of their inheritance?When you marry," the count went on, with a

little involuntary shudder, "do not undertake it lightly; that act is the most important of all which society

requires of us. Remember to study at your leisure the character of the woman who is to be your partner; but

consult me too, I will judge of her myself. A lack of union between husband and wife, from whatever cause,

leads to terrible misfortune; sooner or later we are always punished for contravening the social law.But I

will write to you on this subject from Florence. A father who has the honor of presiding over a supreme court

Bianchon, Horace Father Goriot The Atheist's Mass Cesar Birotteau The Commission in Lunacy Lost

Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris A Bachelor's Establishment The Secrets of a Princess The

Government Clerks Pierrette A Study of Woman Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Honorine The Seamy Side

of History The Magic Skin A Prince of Bohemia Letters of Two Brides The Muse of the Department The

Imaginary Mistress The Middle Classes Cousin Betty The Country Parson In addition, M. Bianchon narrated

Granville, Vicomte de (later Comte) The Gondreville Mystery Honorine Farewell (Adieu) Cesar Birotteau

Roguin, Madame Cesar Birotteau At the Sign of the Cat and Racket Pierrette A Daughter of Eve